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This episode will remind you that incredible people are out there putting their intelligence towards making it as simple to give to a nonprofit as it is to checkout with Apple Pay. Our time with Tina covers a lot of philosophical and practical ground, and what ties it all together is the understanding that as leaders and business professionals, especially those serving the impact economy, we will elevate each other more when our values and actions focus on meeting each other where we’re at. It’s really easy to look at things like DEI, business ownership, software development, and cryptocurrency – all topics we cover – as siloed from each other. But, the real lesson we take away from our time with Tina is that it’s the connections between these that will strengthen both our purpose and our goals.
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Change is constant and in our recent history, the changes have been grand and rapid. Like all things, Why IT Matters has also been going through a transformation, and this special edition episode goes into the recent changes with Why IT Matters, the podcast, and your awesome host Tracy.
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Humans are not technology, and our behavior governs success as much as the actual palette of tools available to us. After over a decade of trying to understand the importance of helping humans navigate change, we discuss the need for a diagnostic, our diagnostic framework, and the fit of humans to technology. Our conversation begins with the context in which digital transformation takes place, and why we can’t ignore systemic inequities, but then dives deep into helping this land for individual organizations. Tim and Tracy also talk about their weeks and what they’re on about as a way of leading into why connecting, being generative leaders, and learning how to lean on others is critical to any success.
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For nonprofits and the impact economy, technology is everything. But how we’ve come to expect it to show up as business leaders, nonprofit consumers, and philanthropic givers needs to be completely inverted. This is a conversation that picks apart from top to bottom why and how we can center our actions on humans and lead with values. Moreover, we cover why leading with values is becoming increasingly important for the next generation of nonprofit leaders, and the effects it produces when connected to marketing, transformation, and implementation. If you’re a giver, a business leader, or an application developer, this is a conversation not to miss, because, if you’re not leading with value and humanity first, you’re missing out.
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Bitcoin, crypto, blockchain, and many other terms have flooded our conversation space over the years and most recently began to get traction in the impact economy world. For nonprofits, it is no surprise that when individuals want to donate, they will do anything in their power to be able to accept those funds. But what happens when those funds are no longer good ol’ cash? Tim Lockie and Tracy Kronzak are joined by Justin Edelstein, Co-Founder at Arkus, and begin to chip away at what this new world means. This episode is meant to inspire you to get curious, understand the potential of blockchain, and most of all, take a small first step in exploring this digital world that is quickly on its way to changing how we view the nature of technology and our personal “digital” imprint in this space.
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Tim Lockie and Tracy Kronzak take on the mythology of technology as it should work for impact organizations and the realities of why it doesn’t. In their first one-on-one conversation, they explore how the mythos of technology failure is supported by wide-scale marketing to under-resourced organizations, what changed both of their perspectives on their work, and why Now IT Matters as a business is now working the way it does. This is for leaders looking for new ways of engaging with the clients they serve, and an informed take on the journey making these changes as a business engenders (spoiler: it’s a complete rebuild). Tune in for a professional “Why IT Matters,” as part of a series we hope to offer that lets you take advantage of our understanding of the ways in which the technology world is changing.
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There are moments when we wring our hands together and ask, “What can be done?” When it comes to the events of the past six weeks, much of America has been asked to understand a new reality regarding our assumptions about Eastern Europe, and Ukraine in particular. This episode is for those who want to know what to do: we cover not just Ukraine, but the culture of “giving a damn,” and where it will take us as leaders, business owners, mentors, and volunteers. We’re tapping into Alesia’s lived experience to not only discuss how to be better business people serving impact organizations, but how to be stronger mentors to each other, and translate that communal experience into times of crisis like Ukraine is experiencing. This is very much an education in Eastern Europe wrapped in a bow of how we enable others to succeed.
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We talked with Mallory Erickson, the tour-de-force behind What The Fundraising podcast and creator of the Power Partners Formula™, about the similarities between the isolated fundraiser and the isolated technologist at nonprofits. Spoiler alert: it’s all about the stigma associated with having highly-refined pieces of knowledge that create dependencies that aren’t entirely accounted for in how nonprofits operate and develop their culture and strategy. We uncover her “ah-ha” moment of breaking the silence of how nonprofit fundraisers feel about the work they’re doing, their fears and goals, and the journey it set her on that led to her business. This episode is a conversation about how we react to the work we’re doing and what it leads us to bring to the work itself: Mallory helps leaders unpick these reactions and assumptions and develop positive outcomes for their organizations. We also talked about the net effect of philanthropic and evaluative organizations that categorize nonprofit operations on how fundraisers (and technologists) approach their work and what are considered successful outcomes. Notably, how the “business as usual” we’ve been conditioned to expect is no longer serving us. Ending The Stigma is a must-listen conversation for fundraising and technology executives, organization leaders, and business partners that help the impact economy.
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Industry executives and leaders got together for a groundbreaking discussion on how the definition of CRM is changing for nonprofits, and how the current landscape of tools and strategies available to nonprofits is rising to meet new opportunities and expectations. Why IT Matters brought together a panel to reframe the common understanding of CRM as a single tool investment and challenged assumptions regarding what is possible with today’s purpose-built and highly-integrated cloud technologies, especially alongside cloud infrastructure platforms. The panel also talked about how data platforms and technologies serving nonprofits can work together better and drive shared impact and efficiency for the benefit of all organizations.
The panelists:
Gabe Cooper - VirtuousJulia Ford - HubSpotTim Sarrantonio - NeonOneTim Lockie - Why IT MattersTracy Kronzak - Why IT MattersHere’s what was covered:
What is the new definition CRM and why does it matter to nonprofits and the impact economy?In a future of non-platform solutions what does this look like for everyday nonprofit staff? What does this mean for CRM Business structures, and what does it mean for business partnerships?How is your company building toward this future, what are the strategy and technology components? What are you doing differently?What does customer success look like? What does customer failure look like? How do we identify and prevent unneeded technology implementations? What’s the impact of emerging global technology innovation? How connected is global (and corporate) innovation trends spur nonprofit innovation trends? What roles and actions should nonprofits take to own the innovation of the technology designed for them?How do we ensure ownership of nonprofit data and its portability in our work?How do we elevate POC and women-owned businesses that are emerging and looking for business partners and opportunities? -
Episode 2 is one of the most honest conversations we’ve had about creating authentic, supportive, and safe workplaces we’ve ever had. It’s one thing to say that a company is “family” and supports staff from diverse backgrounds, and it’s quite another to look through the eyes of Christine Priester at how these intentions land and the outcomes they produce on a person. Christine discusses how she “turned her pain into power,” and the tactical components of what she’s felt were most supportive by the organizations that employ her in her career. In Christine’s case, this was walking through the journey of leaving behind her experience with human trafficking, what she needed for true support in the workplace, and where businesses can learn better to support others like her – and more importantly, reframing broad brushstrokes of intention towards diversity, equity and inclusion efforts towards specific actions. Here’s the bottom line: unless individuals can see themselves in your organization and their experience, they’re not being supported. The rest of the conversation is what, from her own experience, Christine needed to be seen and supported in her career and community and the humility and approachability of others necessary to facilitate it.
Christine’s Go-Fund-Me
National Survivor Network
Polaris ProjectEpisode Shownotes
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We start the new calendar year with Makeda Keegan from Northeastern University, Chair of the Board, and Executive Director of Amplify. Amplify’s work is pivotal in creating both culture and opportunity for underrepresented voices in technology. We talk a lot about the difference between focused action that makes change for underrepresented people and performative actions that are well intended but don’t change business culture, operations, or systems to accommodate the new perspectives and experiences that these people represent. What emerges in the conversation is a better understanding of how to rest intensive recruitment efforts targeted at underrepresented communities in the context of more significant organizational transformation goals - including appropriately accounting for the length of time necessary to accomplish them truly. We also unpick how networks that serve underrepresented groups facilitate conversation, connection, and additional assessments of how every business is doing along the way, which leads us to how networks can better create accountability mechanisms by first articulating specific, desired outcomes that aren’t simply “more.” Lastly, we cover volunteering as a self-care mechanism, along with contributing back to our communities. Tracy’s dog also crashes the discussion, and we all realize that there’s a separate politics and pop-culture recording that we need to make together. Our first episode of season 2 is absolutely a conversation that sets the tone for a brilliant start to 2022!
Follow Amplify!
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/we-are-amplify
Twitter: @AmplifyNGOEpisode Shownotes
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Our final episode of Why IT Matters of 2021 is a conversation with an old friend, collaborator, and co-creator, Ryan Ozimek, Co-founder of PICnet and Soapbox Engage. As the year comes to a close, we’re reminded of our values of curiosity, community, democracy, and access, looking at the world through Ryan’s eyes, and hopefully reminded of why many of us began our Technology For Good careers in the first place. We dive deep into Ryan’s passion and purpose, Open Source, as to how technology can be better accountable, more transparent, and more accessible to a broader gamut of people, nonprofits, and global movements. One of the most important “ah-ha!” moments comes when we dive into how we can create empowerment with technology and what actual contributions via Open Source can look like. Spoiler: the economy of Open Source is an economy that values cooperation, not altruism, and therefore every transaction is a gift that returns its investment by creating a more vital outcome, not one that is less efficient or driven by a single entity. We also talk about the role of the community in driving long-term results, both for Open Source and privately-owned software solutions and platforms, especially when there are market or other inefficiencies to solve. This episode is a heartwarming conclusion to a wild 2021, and we hope you enjoy it!
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What happens when we turn the common assumptions about how nonprofits should acquire software on their head? Mitch Stein, Co-Founder of Pond talks about his journey from Goldman Sachs executive to impact economy advocate and platform developer. We cover all the assumptions made about small businesses that serve nonprofits software – both by venture funding and the nonprofit ecosystem. Pond creates an economic incentive for nonprofits to participate in software selection while sharing community and promoting transparency in software sales by making trust, authenticity, and openness marketable by software vendors. The quest that Mitch is leading is to recognize the highly reputational and relational nature of serving nonprofits and how vendors can parlay it into a strength that drives deeper accountability and better acting. We also take a hard pivot to what it means to be vulnerable leaders in the tech industry, and how we can create the conditions for this to be pervasive is also a profound part of our conversation. This episode is for the dreamers, the founders, the risk-takers, and the folks who feel like nobody gets their ideas.
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Leading a state association of nonprofits, particularly in a state like Montana, is a balancing act. Our guest Liz Moore, Executive Director of Montana Nonprofit Association, talks through these challenges and opportunities creating a vibrant and localized nonprofit community. The common assumptions of access, education, and infrastructure change when considering rural communities and how nonprofits fill critical service gaps. When a state like Montana moves through a crisis like Covid-19, Liz tells us how nonprofits have survived and where urgent needs remain. This is a case study in thinking about meeting community, funding, and professional development needs across a myriad of organizations that span a broad social and political gamut. Understanding the roles that healthy government, business vitality, and nonprofits can play together and shifting our mindset related to nonprofit infrastructure needs from “Why are nonprofits asking for more?” to “Why would we make a decision that hurts nonprofits?” is how these three entities can best work together. For listeners unaware of how nonprofit state associations partner with governments, keep nonprofits alive, preserve and help change cultures, and form national policy networks, this is a highly educational conversation.
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The farther we travel, the more we return to our roots. This conversation with longtime friend Cheryl Porro reminds us that sometimes we're given the opportunity for a hard and soft reset in our lives. Coming out of what "Why IT Matters" calls "Salesforcelandia" and into bigger worlds before and through the Pandemic and how we take care of ourselves and the world around us are the values that drive how we adapt to highly-disruptive moments in our lives, and this is especially relevant to Cheryl's current work at Curve Health. We investigate how technology can offer dignity in palliative care and how our fears hold us back. This episode is a great listen for anyone seeking a new narrative and new tools to inform their well-being and the more significant conversation around how our health informs our decision-making, leadership, and capacity to create a culture change for a more inclusive technology industry. The more we focus on what is reflexive and expected to drive preordained ideas of success, the less inclusive and less connected we become - join us for a far-ranging exploration of how we as humans can show up better and stronger.
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What happens when we wake up every day knowing that we are intentionally here and love solving problems more than anything? Tim Lockie and Tracy Kronzak are joined by guest Rakia Finley, Founding Partner at Copper & Vine Studio, Co for Why IT Matters: Find the Light. You’re probably like Rakia, a successful entrepreneur and advocate for taking on tough challenges, discussions, and circumstances head-on. The other title for this episode could be “Comfortable in Our Own Soul,” because Rakia digs deep on both her personal and professional journey and how these have enabled her to find win-win opportunities in her work. Rakia has also created a restoration and executive leadership retreat called By Grace to help entrepreneurs rest, recenter, reconnect, and (re)find their intentionality. We also talk about the lack of accountability structures that permit racism and other biases to continue to perpetuate in the corporate world and paths forward that begin with transforming anger, playing on teams, and creating actionable space for new leaders.
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In this episode, Why IT Matters is joined by guest Sam Caplan, Vice President of Social Impact at Submittable. So much of nonprofit technology is how we as an industry, philanthropy, and applications respond to it. The past 18 months and global pandemic have called forth the need to unpick power dynamics, privilege, and ownership of destiny for the impact economy. This conversation begins with trust-based philanthropy and continues to take a step back to how we can create better transparency and more robust nonprofit technology infrastructures. The way forward is through philanthropy, better cooperation between technology platforms and applications serving nonprofits, and stronger ties between nonprofits creating a unified voice that makes requests of both philanthropy and technology. Ultimately, we can facilitate community, cooperation, collaboration and center on values rooted in cooperate responsibility that can help break through perceived logjams and territorial actors.
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The other title for this episode was going to be “Love is What Gives Us Hope,” but you’ll need to listen all the way through to know why. Tune in with Cheryl Contee, both a visionary futurist and pragmatic, highly-successful business owner and entrepreneur. We dig back into the systemic forces that drive investment in technology and how they shape outcomes that have real consequences for equity of all kinds. Rather than run away from what we call “The System” and allow the people and forces who have perennially benefited from retaining their power and privilege, we walk through how to completely eradicate “meritocracy” in favor of inclusion and the corporate and cultural structures that need revision. We also talk about Chery’s book, “The Mechanical Bull,” and her successes, journey, and lessons from building businesses - this is a must-learn for underrepresented application developers and business owners.
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What does it mean when a business has something that can unlock time for good and chooses to act charitably towards nonprofits above and beyond a technology donation? Adam Rosenzweig from Okta for Good walks us through Okta’s nonprofit product and ecosystem support structure, including acting as a risk capital investor in nonprofit technology infrastructure and talks about the transparency necessary for businesses that serve nonprofits. We also talk about funding for technology infrastructure for nonprofits and the new requirements for donors, philanthropy, and companies giving to them. Adam introduces the concepts of philanthropy as a service and subscription philanthropy as new solutions. Nonprofits using technology with maximum efficiency require vulnerability, understanding the myths of what technology purports to solve, and willingness to bridge generational divides within organizations. Adam also is the only respondent to go on record in response to our Six Questions challenge for businesses serving nonprofits.
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Tim Lockie and Tracy Kronzak are joined by guest Jan Kaderly, Founder of A Line Strategy. Cowardice is Our Strength is a conversation about embracing everything we’re afraid of - from elephants in the room to Sacred Cows. Nonprofit leadership is equal parts planning for what is known and welcoming what we don’t. When we fail through weakness and fear, Jan talks about how there is an incredible opportunity to develop active evaluations of our mission and goals. Fear isn’t just the mind-killer; it holds us back from actual accomplishments when nonprofits adopt change. Jan’s methodology goes through the diagnosis, analysis, and treatment of when nonprofits get stuck in fear. She shares her wisdom of working with organizations to unlock future potential when they take on their cowardice through self-awareness and make it a strength. This episode is an excellent unpicking of organizational politics, culture, and sincere leading for change that humanizes our potential. For human resource leaders, nonprofit executives, and service businesses that work with nonprofits.
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- Se mer
