• Scaling Impact

  • By: NxtStep
  • Podcast
Scaling Impact By cover art

Scaling Impact

By: NxtStep
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  • Summary

  • On Scaling Impact we’ll interview leaders in strategy and impact at mission driven organizations that have dramatically increased the level of impact at their organizations.
    @ 2022 NxtStep Consulting, LLC
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Episodes
  • Strategies for Building Sustainable Partnerships: A Discussion with DreamSpring

    Strategies for Building Sustainable Partnerships: A Discussion with DreamSpring
    Jul 18 2023
    In this episode, Community Engagement Officers from DreamSpring, Shaundra, and Meghan, share insights on the importance and impact of community engagement in small business growth. They discuss strategies for effective outreach, trust-building, and partner stewardship. The hosts also highlight the benefits of partnerships and the significance of investing in relationships for long-lasting success. Additionally, they touch on measuring impact and taking care of oneself and their ecosystem while growing a business.Join Shaundra Jacobs and Meghan Rauker on this episode as they share their remarkable career journeys. Shaundra's experience spans roles at AT&T, Lyft, and BakerRipley, leading to her current position as a Community Engagement Officer at DreamSpring, where she fosters relationships to support entrepreneurs. Meghan's expertise lies in strategic communications, program management, and business development, showcased through her roles at PeopleFund and as a Business Development Lead at TÁPI Story. Together, they offer invaluable insights into community engagement, nonprofit organizations, and business growth strategies. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Scaling Impact:Community engagement is about long-term and sustainable outcomes, building relationships, and meeting the needs of priority populations such as minority entrepreneurs, women entrepreneurs, and veterans.Engaging effectively with communities involves asking why and offering services of value, being location-based, and using technology effectively. Consistency and genuineness are also essential.Building sustainable partnerships involves asking directly, “What do you need?”Regular touchpoints and checking in with partners can pay off down the line.Partnerships can help solve similar challenges and complement each other's roles.Community engagement is a vital part of small business growth.The company is rapidly expanding and offers a monthly entrepreneurial resource newsletter called Springboard.Resources:DreamSpringDreamSpring NewsSpring Board NewslettersBusiness Resource BlogNxtStepPodcast ChefConnecting with Shaundra Jacobs and Meghan Rauker: Shaundra JacobsMeghan RaukerConnecting with Sean Boyce:LinkedInEmailQuotables:03:33 - “Money is not always the answer. It is more to educate and empower people to be able to start a small business, be entrepreneurs and sustain themselves and their family, create generational wealth. That is our goal with this engagement role.”17:36 - “I just love to see it in a chart form and say, oh look at all these people I've connected with and let me see exactly where my, you know, how I've interacted and engaged with people. So that's how HubSpot does help us. That's our little way. And then we do have other things like Domo that'll show exactly the impact, and it pulls it into charting and shows you how many people you've impacted and all of that.”08:28 - “That's the other trick I'd also add to organizations, if you can find other people who have titles like community engagement or community manager in their role, they're much more likely to respond to you. And it's also really great to have like a peer in that space if that's your job. And you're just kind of starting to navigate that space.”24:12 - “So kindness goes a really long way in connecting with people even after they've left the organization. Especially if you get along, and you're passionate about the same things goes a super long way. Again, it's a long game, a super, super long game, it's a marathon for sure. You have to make sure you take care of yourself and the people in your ecosystem while you're doing it.”24:36 - “You want to invest in these relationships and the more you invest in them, the more likely you're to get out of it as well too. As such, the community benefits as well. So I love the partnership angle for a whole bunch of reasons. Just great to be able to kind of grow together, find folks who are trying to solve also similar challenges, and maybe they play a complimentary role to what it is that you may be doing as such. You can grow together, right? Rising tide raises all ships kind of thing” If you'd like to learn how to scale impact at your nonprofit organization by more than double in less than half the time, I'd encourage you to sign up for my free 5 day email course at https://nxtstep.io/impact/.
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    29 mins
  • Driving Lasting Economic and Social Change: DreamSpring's Mission

    Driving Lasting Economic and Social Change: DreamSpring's Mission
    Jul 12 2023
    In this episode of Scaling Impact, Sean Boyce hosts Anne Haynes and Marisa Barrera from DreamSpring to discuss their mission of supporting entrepreneurs and driving economic and social change. They explore the meaning of impact and the importance of equitable access to capital. Additionally, they delve into the role of nonprofit boards in fundraising, building a partnership with CEOs, and maximizing positive change. Marisa Barrera is the Chief Impact Officer at DreamSpring, bringing over 27 years of experience to her role. With a background in public and international affairs, Marisa is dedicated to driving economic equity and inclusion through her work. Anne Haines, the CEO and President of DreamSpring, is a recognized leader known for her commitment to ethics and excellence. Under her guidance, DreamSpring has become one of the top-performing nonprofit microfinance institutions in the United States, providing funding and support to small businesses across 27 states. Anne's vision and impact have earned her numerous awards and accolades, making her a respected figure in the industry. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Scaling Impact:Equitable access to capital is essential in empowering entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds.Regular communication, exposure to the organization's work, and in-person meetings keep the board engaged.Dream Springing transitioned from a larger board of directors to a smaller one to enhance governance and leadership excellence.The composition of the board is carefully developed to best support the organization's short term and long term strategic goals.Technology expertise has been brought onto the board to support the development of Dream Springing's in-house software.The board's role is to align its membership with the organization's strategic goals and ensure impactful outcomes.The episode provides valuable advice and insights for other organizations looking to achieve similar success.Resources:DreamSpringNxtStepPodcast ChefConnecting with Marisa Barrera:LinkedInConnecting with Anne Haines:DreamSpringConnecting with Sean Boyce:LinkedInEmailQuotables:05:08 - “So as a nonprofit community development organization, we're very committed to putting capital into the hands of underserved entrepreneurs and historically underserved communities. For us to make the broadest space economic and social impact, we believe that combining passion and heart and technology to support the scaling of impact are all critical inputs into some of the desired outcomes.”13:52 - “Nonprofit boards are also responsible for being advocates for the organization for ensuring sufficient financial resources for an organization, which means nonprofit board of directors mostly do need to get involved in fundraising. I think there are very few nonprofit boards where there isn't, you know, some kind of fundraising responsibility that is actually a core part of a nonprofit board role.”25:57 - “And so we do find that it is important to cultivate through the board's nominating and governance process, really mindful identification of board members who bring the experience, the networks, the background that are needed for a nonprofit's mission fulfillment.”06:32 - “And when we are working with small businesses, it's so important that every entrepreneur around the country, no matter what their background is, men, women, entrepreneurs of color, individuals with a disability, whoever that person is, if they're dreaming of starting a business and have the tenacity and grit to launch it, we wanna make sure that they're championed and have access to capital to start that business or to grow the business.”16:19 Sean: “So how do you keep the board engaged in the work that's ongoing so that they can also maximize their impact and track progress?” .. Anne: “Certainly it begins before somebody becomes a board member with a series of really thoughtful conversations. There should be a committee of the board of directors or if it's a very small board to start with, it could be the full board that evaluate who might be potential candidates that would be great for the organization, where the organization would be great for who they are and the passion they have.” If you'd like to learn how to scale impact at your nonprofit organization by more than double in less than half the time, I'd encourage you to sign up for my free 5 day email course at https://nxtstep.io/impact/.
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    33 mins
  • Adapting to Pandemic: Self-Paced Options for Donor Engagement

    Adapting to Pandemic: Self-Paced Options for Donor Engagement
    Jun 27 2023
    In this episode, Amber Kani, Head of Stakeholder Engagement at Dream Springing, talks about their approach to using technology to overcome challenges in scaling impact for underrepresented communities. She emphasizes the importance of analyzing donor journeys and addressing pain points through technology while staying open to changes. Dream Springing also adapts to pandemic challenges by providing self-paced options for donor engagement.Amber Kani is an experienced professional in the field of stakeholder engagement and philanthropy. She currently serves as the Head of Stakeholder Engagement at DreamSpring, where she has successfully implemented comprehensive business development and stewardship strategies to advance the organization's mission. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Scaling Impact:Dream Springing is a nonprofit that provides small business owners and entrepreneurs underrepresented in traditional banking access to capital, education, and resources.Technology is key to scaling impact by reducing friction points for clients and donors alike, enabling Dream Springing to capture data to improve outreach for clients and fundraise more effectively beyond traditional networks.Map out the existing workflows to identify challenges and select appropriate technologyUnstick stakeholders by adding a touchpoint into the process and identifying needs to hire appropriate staffKnow your process and deploy your team intentionally.Crafting innovative solutions using the resources available.Technology enables stakeholder engagement to be more impactful.Resources:DreamSpringNxtStepPodcast ChefConnecting with Amber Kani:LinkedInEmailConnecting with Sean Boyce:LinkedInEmailQuotables:09:12 - “And by leveraging technology we're able to take our digital assets, client features, videos, things that tell our story better than I ever could face-to-face or in a letter and get them in front of people that go beyond the networks of anyone on your fundraising staff. You know, capacity is always a challenge for nonprofits, and leveraging technology can let your fundraisers and your partnership builders and your executive teams do what they do best. And it also enables your clients to have a voice in the process.”11:24 - “I mean, the great thing about technology is you're constantly getting data on what is working and what isn't, and it enables you to pivot and change as you need. And it would take a long time to figure that out with face-to-face and meetings, certainly at the scale that we're trying to do it.”11:45 - “Because in terms of cost-effectiveness, I've seen a lot unfortunately of nonprofit organizations that have developed amazing local programs but then they kind of collapse, or they stall under the weight of the growth that they want to try to achieve as they're trying to scale because they haven't taken into account just how expensive time-consuming, how much effort is going to be involved and what it's going to be like trying to manage that at scale.”19:36 - “Because you're expecting the process that worked yesterday to work for the process of tomorrow's world. That's unlikely to be the case, even if it does, it's going to be significantly less effective. So you're going to need processes to improve those as well too. It isn't like they're going to have to adapt, they're going to have to evolve, and your tools should evolve with you as well too.” 13:27 - “Sean: You'd alluded too as well to the data that you've used to kind of better understand where to apply technology, software, any of these other tools that can help you with scaling more efficiently. What does that look like? What is DreamSprings' process for that? Like how do you know where to apply it next that would also be good for, you know, other nonprofit leaders to learn from in terms of what you've done successfully?Amber: Yeah, I think the first thing is you need to put your head down before you can put your head out. And you know, we really looked internally at who are our donors and partners, and aspirationally who are we trying to attract? Because like you said, the folks who are supporting you in your backyard and your community are absolutely essential.” If you'd like to learn how to scale impact at your nonprofit organization by more than double in less than half the time, I'd encourage you to sign up for my free 5 day email course at https://nxtstep.io/impact/.
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    28 mins
Leadership Management Economics
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