The Big Give’s Pivot to Emergency Relief
Giving & Gabbing is GiveGab’s podcast hosted by Karin from our Customer Success team and Jackie from our Relationship Management team. Tune in as we discuss online fundraising concepts such as donor engagement, community involvement, donor stewardship, and interviews with philanthropic leaders. Giving & Gabbing is meant to educate and inspire nonprofit administrators across the country – and perhaps even provide [a small morsel of] entertainment.
In episode 6 of Giving & Gabbing, we are joined by Scott McAninch, Chief Executive Officer of The Nonprofit Council. Scott and his team manage The Big Give, a long-standing Giving Day in San Antonio, TX, that has raised over $25 million for their community since its inception.
The Big Give 2020 was scheduled to take place amidst the COVID-19 shutdown. Rather than cancel their online fundraising event, The Nonprofit Council team decided to pivot their Giving Day site for emergency relief efforts. Throughout this interview, Scott shares his experience working with participating nonprofits during this shift and how he plans to prepare for their postponed Giving Day, now taking place on September 10, 2020.
In this episode of Giving and Gabbing our guest, Scott McAninch discusses:
- Their role as the philanthropic leader for the San Antonio community
- The Nonprofit Council’s decision to pivot their day to an Emergency Relief site
- How GiveGab was able to facilitate this transition through the Community Giving platform
- Their marketing and communication strategies for informing the community and nonprofits
- The support provided to nonprofits as they were onboarded to the site
- Their plans for carrying over the momentum created from the Emergency Relief site to their Giving Day in September
Check out the full interview with Scott McAninch on Pivoting Your Giving Day For Emergency Relief by listening to our Giving & Gabbing episode below or reading the transcript.
Additional episodes include topics such as nonprofit communication and marketing strategies, as well as interviews with fundraising professionals from across the nonprofit and education sectors.. Giving & Gabbing is now available on popular podcast streaming sites such as Spotify and Google Podcasts. Start listening by clicking on the link below!
Interview Transcript
Jackie: Today we’re here with Scott from the Big Give San Antonio which is a large Giving Day in the San Antonio, TX area. Is there anything you’d like to say, Scott, to our listeners to introduce yourself and let them know a little bit more about who you are?
Scott: Sure, sure, thank you, number one, for having me on your podcast, I really appreciate it. I’m the CEO of the Nonprofit Council and we are the exclusive agency in San Antonio that runs our Giving Day, and we have been doing this now since 2014 and joined you all in 2017, on the new GiveGab platform for us and it has been an incredible relationship ever since then. And, um, happy to talk about our spring event that we quickly changed to a different format. And with the help of you and your team, we feel it was pretty successful so I’m looking forward to telling that story today and sharing that out.
Jackie: Definitely, thank you so much for being here and for sharing your story about transitioning to your crisis relief site that you ended up using to help…help your local nonprofits fundraise during the crisis. Um, so how did you initially make that decision? How did you decide to pivot to a relief site?
Scott: You know, it was interesting. We hadn’t…I can say that we as a team had not really thought about it leading up to the March 26th date. Interestingly enough, the week of March 11th, somewhere in there, I was actually out in Boston, just on a vacation, a quick vacation, kind of birthday/anniversary thing, about the time that really things were starting to explode in the northeast in that area. So we quickly changed our plans, got out of Boston as quick as we could within a couple of days, and when I returned home that weekend of the 14th/15th, I received a text on Sunday the 15th from our mayor and asking if the Big Give coming up could be opened up to all nonprofits in the community as sort of a relief fundraising site. That was the first, honestly, that I had…I didn’t think about it, I just…my quick response was, you know, I think we can do this, and I think this is probably what we should do, but I need to check with my…technology platform because we were ready to launch in four days. Um, so we can get it…if we can get it turned around, we can start it on Thursday and we’ll go ahead and run it the entirety of the crisis that’s going on here, and see what happens.
So I do have to say that afternoon, or as soon as I got off the phone with him, I reached out to Charlie, y’all’s CEO, my board chair, Laryssa, our project manager, my team, and asked for a phone call that afternoon, Sunday afternoon. Everyone was able to do it, they dropped what they were doing, um, and I’ll never forget that you know, Charlie’s words to me were, we will put the entire team behind this and we will make it happen and you will be able to go live on Thursday, we promise. Um, so with that, I returned the mayor’s phone call and said done, we’ll do it, and then, you know, it was, I don’t know what you all did, your tech team on the back end, I know you all did the heavy lifting, which we always appreciate the work that GiveGab does for these Giving Days, specifically, but I know for us, having to pivot copy and get things ready was pretty stressful, especially since we immediately turned remote. We were working from home, my team was at work last week, the week that I was on vacation, and we immediately started working from home, so that was new and different, communicating, you know…via Skype and Facetime and all that, but the good news is that we actually launched the day before we intended to, thanks to the work of everyone. So that’s how it started, um…and I appreciate the mayor and his forward-thinking and look, my thing is…if we were able to do it, we should do it, because clearly, we were the only game in town that had a virtual platform ready to go. So it just made natural sense and I honestly feel like it helped increase our — the Nonprofit Council’s — place in the community as sort of that support for the nonprofit sector.
Karin: Yeah, that’s amazing that you were able to have that support and really incredible that you and the mayor just have that kind of relationship where, you know, he could get in touch with you, um, and the quickness meeting with our team and making that switch, that’s, um, that’s a pretty cool story. I mean, we do have the back-end experience of helping with the pivot but it’s a lot different hearing, you know, this story because it’s not one that we’ve heard.
Scott: Yeah, and you know, aside from the pivot, then there’s alerting sponsors, alerting nonprofits, alerting business fundraisers, who were all ready for the 26th, and then we just dropped this on everybody so, you know, my COO Mercedes took on the business fundraisers and the nonprofits and I took on sponsors and foundations who support us financially for prize money and support, so you know, there was a lot going on behind the scenes other than just pivoting the site and I’m very fortunate to have a pretty great marketing/graphics director who handled…worked with Laryssa and your team on just the site itself. And then there’s contacting the media and getting interviews and having people…so that week was…it was quite incredible.
Karin: It sounds like it! And actually…one question I had in mind was just wondering about some of the greatest challenges you encountered during that transition, sounds like that week was uh, quite intensive in terms of reaching out to people and updating your sponsors and all of that. Are there a few things that you can kind of highlight that were the greatest challenges and is there anything you might do…have done differently, looking back at that transition time?
Scott: Yeah, um, you know, one of the biggest challenges and I won’t go into extreme detail with it but it occupied a lot of my time, was behind the scenes at our local Community Foundation, um…they, with the United Way here, were apparently putting together some, you know, crisis fund for nonprofits unbeknownst to me, and I’m not sure at the time that Mer and I chatted on Sunday, it clearly was unbeknownst to him. We made our announcement pretty quickly Monday and both the Foundation and the United Way are members of the Nonprofit Council, so they received the communication because I also let our membership know. Most of our members participate in the Big Give, but some don’t, but I wanted everyone to know what we were doing and why, and what the need was in the community.
So it…you know, I think, looking back on it, I wish there would have been more coordination between the three entities, the Council, the United Way, and the Foundation, on who was doing what, um, you know, I will say on the Foundation side, they had the large donors, the donor-advised funds, the other foundations that were supporting, you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars which was so incredible. We felt our piece of this was the individual donors. You know, those people who could reach for their phone or their computer and felt that need to give $10 or $20, or whatever they felt they could afford. So, you know, I think looking back, we will have a post-meeting once this Big Give is over, and talk to those other parties and say you know, moving forward, we all just need to be more coordinated in our efforts and see whose lane is what, and I think it will the community navigate what’s going on.
Jackie: For sure, yeah, and it definitely was a quick transition for you as you said, what was the reaction like from the nonprofits when you communicated that you were actually postponing the Giving Day and converting the site?
Scott: We…that week is a blur, but honestly, I really thought there’d be more concern or pushback, um…but there was not. I mean, we had agencies…look, here’s one of the reasons why I think we didn’t. Every event that a nonprofit or any nonprofit had the rest of March, April, and who knows when, had to cancel. So there were a lot of agencies that, in the past, our date didn’t necessarily work for them, they participated in some way, but they were more focused on their luncheon or their gala or their run or something. Several of those who did very well, and I’m happy to say they’re members of mine and two of them are on my board, CEO’s, they had to cancel two huge events. I mean, one of them, Brighton Center, has a yearly event during fiesta which is our big, 14-day city-wide party and really a major fundraiser for nonprofits in the community. Brighton Center has a Taste of the Northside every year that brings in nearly half a million dollars in revenue from that and they had to cancel that. So that was a huge loss to them but what they did is they turned their sponsorships that were already there into matches, and put that through the back end of the site, and then started asking folks, you know, help us achieve this match and this sponsor match, and they just blew it out of the water. I mean, off the top of my head I can’t remember what they raised, but, I mean, it wasn’t nearly half a million, but…the Children’s Shelter is another one, they had a luncheon scheduled that week, and um, the week of the 26th, and they went ahead and turned their luncheon into a virtual event through Big Give. They raised nearly $60,000.
So, you know, it was…it was interesting and very nice to see the agencies that really kind of utilizing the platform and look, we had half of the 600 that were on there not raise anything. And we did reach out to some of those and ask why, and many of them felt they weren’t emergency relief agencies and this wasn’t their place to start asking, they wanted to wait until the Big Give in September, which is understandable.
Karin: Actually that’s funny, I do remember, um…I do remember speaking to an organization from the Big Give who wrote in, cause I am one of the Customer Success folks, but…
Scott: Oh, we love you! [Laughing]
Karin: Yeah, I’m glad! [Laughing] And they did…they said the same thing, they said, you know, I don’t think that it’s right that we, um, participate in this relief site because we want funds to go to organizations that are…that really do need the funds right now and we can wait. That was such a respectful, responsible reaction to that.
Scott: My fear was that we had a couple of agencies that requested a refund for their participation charge, you know, we charge an upfront fee to invest in the Big Give on your agency’s side. Um…you know, and…we don’t, we have a no refund policy and we stuck to it, but again, it was, I think, two or three and most people really understood the need. What’s interesting is now we’re in a much larger spike here in San Antonio than we were in March or April, um, and some nonprofits are already reaching out to say, you know, is this the time to have Big Give, and should you be doing this now and to me, my answer is, this is…this is the reason we need to make sure this happens. This will not be canceled again. It’s a virtual fundraising event, there’s no better platform and avenue for donors to give, individual donors, than through their phone and their tablet or their laptop.
Karin: Yeah.
Scott: I totally understand, we had a headquarters every year, agencies had events that were tied to Big Give, and everyone’s having to change those…their mindset. We cannot comfortably have in-person gatherings and that’s for the foreseeable future at least through the rest of 2020. So I think that’s…I’m really excited about having Big Give on September 10th and I’m very hopeful that, as Laryssa has told us, y’all’s spring days that jumped in and kept their Giving Days during their individual community crises, actually did better year to year, and most did very well, so I think…you know, I’m looking forward to the agencies really getting an opportunity to reach out to their donors, all of them.
Karin: Yeah, yeah, I will say, Jackie and I both work on the local Giving Day here for us in Ithaca, Giving is Gorges, and we had the same kind of considerations of do we postpone, what do we do? And some people were saying I don’t know if this is the right time, and…and we did keep it, and it’s uh, it was interesting to see the organizations in our community who really appreciated it and said this is actually what we needed at this time. Some people had a harder time with the capacity to take on running the Giving Day but a lot of people were really appreciative of it and seems very timely so I think that that’s…for Big Give too.
Scott: Well and I also think, you know, I participated in a webinar in April from one of our for-profit members who runs a fundraising company. Um…my message to him was, I totally understand agencies that say we’re not a relief agency, we shouldn’t be asking now, but in a crisis like this, I mean, including the Nonprofit Council, we lost an incredible amount of revenue in March and April and June, because of things that we were doing, including the Big Give. So we are all, I think, in some way, I mean, we all serve somebody or something or someone, and…yes, there are the Food Bank and the Children’s Shelter and Haven for Hope, which is a major city homeless shelter, that is really, really front line, but in the long run, if we all don’t continue to reach out to our donors and supporters during this time, we’re not going to survive. We all have operating expenses and budgets and we need to, um, you know, creatively find ways to pivot how we’ve been doing things, and Big Give…I’m just grateful that we have this in place in our community.
Karin: Another question on my mind was around resources for these agencies. I know you had to pivot as the Nonprofit Council and so did the agencies that were participating. On our end, GiveGab, we really tried to provide resources around that to help these agencies and changing their message in accordance with the challenges and needs that they were facing. I was just wondering if there were any additional resources you found agencies requesting from your team specifically if they were asking for anything…anything else in terms of support?
Scott: Interestingly enough, there was not nearly as much as I thought there would be about that, but you know, I think when we…I think one of the reasons is, we, in our communications to the agencies, letting them know why we were doing this switch, we also gave them suggestions and copy points through those email communications on, you know, change your messaging, immediately change your profile, what are your immediate needs? If funding is your immediate need, then that’s what you focus on. If it’s supplies, you know, the Children’s Shelter actually had a list of their needs and if you…if you couldn’t or chose not to give monetarily, you could do a drive-by and give diapers and formula and supplies and so I think…um, I think a lot of agencies hopefully used that and took that information as that’s kind of your page to tell your story, so use it. And, um, and many did, and some even created new videos that they put on, I think it was Brighton Center, and I come back to them because they continuously do very well every year. But yeah, so we tried to get ahead of that, so there wouldn’t be as many questions, and it was just really, this is what your immediate need is and you need to ask for help.
Karin: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
Scott: But you all had, I mean, and especially now with our Giving Day already transitioned to the giving site for September, I do like the Covid resource page that you all have built because I think, you know, whether it’s our regular Giving Day or not, I think that message still needs to be weaved into, you know, September.
Karin: Yeah, and I think too, what you said asking exactly what you…for exactly what you need, or exactly what your organization needs, it seems so…it does seem so obvious once you hear that, but it’s hard sometimes too, when you’re creating your story, just to be really real and raw and say this is what we’re going through and this is what we need. So I think that that’s a great point for every nonprofit to keep in mind.
Jackie: Yeah, absolutely, and of course you were able to provide this platform for the nonprofits via the Big Give relief site, and that was…did end up being a huge benefit to the community, um, do you still see any other specific opportunities for support or areas that still need to be addressed in your community?
Scott: Um…oh gosh, you know…I think food and security is always top of mind, and as we look to the fall, and school districts, you know, not yet decided whether they’re going to have a hybrid in person, out…you know, in class, out class, virtual trainings, um…you know, as of yesterday, our mayor announced that decision was given to the local cities and communities and counties to make…to work with their school board and their health departments to come up with that plan, so at least it’s been, at least from the state level, it’s been given to the local officials to make those decisions with their school board and the county health department, which I think is a good thing. So once that is announced in a week or two, I’m sure, you know, I think…schools go so much beyond just teaching and in classroom learning, but there’s also support for the children who don’t have breakfast or lunch available to them, that don’t have after school, so I think those are things that are going to continue to be ongoing and whether they do the virtual learning or not that they’re gonna have to figure all that out.
But in the long run, the needs for the nonprofit sector in general, and I look at the Council as sort of an advocate for the sector and a voice for the sector, I think what we all need to realize is…funding is very different now and what we all had planned out for the rest of this year, um, is…we have to figure out where those deficits are going to be and how we’re going to either make those up or trim what we’re doing or look at other options to share programming with other agencies and what that looks like moving forward.
Karin: Yeah that makes a lot of sense.
Scott: I will say that I…in looking back at doing the relief site, um…you know, I know in early years when we were with another platform provider, that could have never been done. And I would have been very frustrated to sit there with a Giving Day site that couldn’t be repurposed for what just happened. And so my…I look at it is, we can utilize this for other things that happen in the future in each of our communities. You know, we deal with hurricanes here, not as often as Florida and Louisiana and those parts, but there’s also other disasters that happen across the country that I think these platforms and especially the way you all have positioned this…kind of, you know, partnership with your communities, it makes it easy to be able to do that. And I think we will be looked at in the future for just that purpose, beyond our Giving Day, which I…I’m really proud to be able to know that that’s there to offer.
Karin: Yeah, no, I’m really glad that…I’m really glad that our platform was able to switch and provide that. And you make a great point that other disasters will happen in the future even when Covid is…is, you know, the Covid period’s over. So, you know, it’s good that we’re able to make these transitions and uh, and to be able to keep that in mind when we work with the communities. And it’s really awesome that you were able to really bring in these new agencies to be part of it, that you’re open to that. I’m wondering how much, um, involvement or support was needed on your end, for these new nonprofits that hadn’t necessarily participated in any of your Giving Days previously.
Scott: You know, we did not get anyone reaching out…I assumed, you know, they were going through the chat bubble and reaching out to you all as to how do we do this, and you know. Typically in the past, we would be handling all that and so, that was something that was not…that we didn’t have to field those questions, although, you know, we’re certainly prepared most of the time unless it’s really technical and then we’re like, use the chat bubble. But, I will say that you know, that was a concern of mine. We had, I think it was a little over 100 new agencies because we did open it up to any nonprofit in our 14 counties, um, to participate in the relief site for no charge. And then we explained to our nonprofits that did pay the fee upfront that those agencies if they wanted to come back, would pay our late fee for September. And out of those 112+, we did look at the top performers that raised like $2500 or more, and honestly, I think it was under 20, um, that did that well. So we, you know, have reached out to those to ask them if they would like to participate in the September campaign since they did use the platform and used it well, but we did have a lot of those that did not raise anything. And you know, it reminded me of the early years of our Giving Day when I think a lot of agencies weren’t…we weren’t, either…used to a Giving Day like this, and they just were there and thinking that people would just find them. And I think that could have been some of the cases for this. But I also know that there are those that did well that hopefully, we’ll see them coming back, if not this year, then next year.
Karin: Yeah, that’s great that you’re asking those questions about, you know, what they did or what they maybe didn’t do in trying to raise funds. It’s always good to try to see where the disconnect was and try to help those people.
Scott: Well, we do try and make an effort to, if not blind survey our nonprofits, we do that every year, we just want to hear feedback, good or bad, we share that with Laryssa, and she, I’m sure, shares it with your team, but we also kind of look at the nonprofits, you know, cherry-pick nonprofits, as I did, and say, you know, why are you not raising any money? It’s April and…valid point, an animal organization right now is not feeling they need to raise the necessary funds and you know, we’re coming back in September, we’re holding everybody…you know? And whatever works and whatever people think will work best for them, as long as they have a plan. That’s all I wanna know, is that you’re thinking about it and you have a plan.
Jackie: Yeah. Looking ahead a little bit, we are seeing a bit of a shift in…in donor behavior and seeing an increase in the amount of fundraising that’s taking place online. So, how…beyond that, how might fundraising strategies in your San Antonio community specifically be changing or, maybe they have changed in recent months?
Scott: I think…so I do know that through the crisis and through the relief funds that our area Foundation, United Way, and the Big Give were able to do, definitely throughout the media community highlighted the work of nonprofits, the importance of nonprofits, and the needs of the nonprofits. And so, I do know that in a typical year for the Big Give, you know, we don’t typically get that kind of coverage, um, that we got in March, April. You know, I had the billboard, Clear Channel Outdoor reach out to me and wanting to donate digital space in May and it was perfect timing because it was the last two weeks of the campaign and we really wanted to make a major push to our $1 million dollars, and, you know, they went above and beyond and one of our local TV stations did the same thing, um…you know, we would send press releases out, obviously, and we got some interviews and news coverage, but I think the general community and those people who may have never been…had to access a nonprofit’s services, they may be having to access those needs right now. And so I think…I think there’ll be a shift, if there hasn’t already been, to the necessity and the work that the nonprofits do in our community…without our sector…you know, I always say I’d love to do a video on a day without a nonprofit, um, and see what would it look like in our community if nonprofits didn’t exist? It would look very different. This whole pandemic would be totally different because there would not be that support of the community and individuals, um, helping individuals.
Jackie: Right.
Scott: So hopefully that will inspire donors, individual donors, and I love the Giving Day aspect because everybody can give. You know, $10…to whatever you can give. And that…that $10 can tie to a direct service, and nonprofits are very good at telling them how that $10 will work.
Karin: That is true, they are pretty good at that. Those donation levels, they’re like…detailed, spot on.
Scott: Yeah. I mean, if you don’t use that, you’re missing the point. You really…I mean, donors love to feel like, yes, you use this…I hope they feel, you use this donation however best suits you, but just knowing that $10 can provide, you know, X number of meals through the food bank, I…you know, I wouldn’t have known that.
Karin: Yeah, no, neither would I, and it feels so much more tangible that way. Yeah. I think that’s a great point that…more people will be accessing these nonprofits in ways that they hadn’t before, so they’re really expanding their reach and the necessity for them might be much more apparent to some people. Um…
Scott: And that ripple effect may like we say, I mean, this is not…at some point, we will get this under control. It will always be with us, I’m sure, like the flu, but I think once we get back to some sense of, you know, America 2.0, whatever that was, people will remember, this agency or these people helped me, and I now can give back. So I think the ripple effect is going to be…more long-term than even immediate.
Jackie: Yeah, and for donors who are giving right now I think they’re seeing the need and seeing that they do have the ability, even though they’re at home, they can make a contribution from their home and ah, nonprofits then are able to…there’s really this very tangible opportunity there for stewardship and for letting those donors know, um, in a very real way what their donation helped them to accomplish, right?
Scott: For sure, for sure. And there are so many agencies right now that have hundreds or thousands of volunteers that may not feel comfortable, um, being an in-person volunteer, so why not ask them during this time, you know, we understand that, but could you support us with a donation in place of your service hours? And I think if we don’t ask, we’ll never know.
Karin: Yeah, now, when you think about the Giving Day coming up on September 10th, how will you carry the momentum from the relief site and the donations that you’ve been helping to raise, um, carry that momentum over to the Giving Day, and has your plan around promoting September’s Big Give changed now that it’s in a different season than in past years, trying to alert people to that change?
Scott: Yes, very much. So one of the biggest things that, you know, we have in place is just a…a media calendar. You know, I’ve…hired a public relations and media marketing person, consultant, who I worked with back in my television days 25 years ago.
[Laughing]
But, she’s well connected still, and Leslie, who worked with us during the pivot of the Big Give, and I credit her for getting us a lot of that news coverage and exposure. So bringing her back, and we’ve already started working to craft messaging around the new date and why now more than ever a September Giving Day is important to nonprofits, and no matter what…you know, hopefully, our curve will start flattening in the next few weeks, but no matter what that looks like, that need is going to be there. So we’ve also let our nonprofits know to go in and update their profiles, which, the site flipped this week to our regular Giving Day, um, but also keep in mind that, you know, you…you need to still describe that need, it’s not…it is a regular Giving Day, but it’s a regular Giving Day in an extraordinary time. So I think there’s more opportunity to raise money than a typical Giving Day that we would have in the spring because there are multiple stories now that nonprofits can share, and we’re going to encourage our media community. I have allocated some money toward paid advertising. It wasn’t in the budget, but I feel that we really need to carve out something, especially for those outlets that helped us in May, to really kind of give us free publicity and free advertising for the close of the site to help us kind of push toward that million. We reward those that help us out. While it’s not much, it’s, you know, my board agrees, and I just feel very strongly that we need to do that. It’s a little bit different year, it’s a different time of year, and it’s…we need to get the message out, so…
Karin: Yeah, those all sound like great strategies. I love it.
Jackie: Absolutely.
Karin: Do you have any other, like, words of wisdom, maybe for our other partners that are looking to run Giving Days this fall, out of curiosity?
Scott: You know..sure, keep doing it, don’t…don’t not. I mean, you know, we have asked…I have a couple of…now look, 2021, let’s talk about 2021 later, what that’s gonna look like, and when the Giving Day’s gonna be because that’s now our dilemma is, we’re on for September, it’s happening, we’re excited about it, I think the nonprofits are gonna do well, um, our dilemma is now what for 2021, do we do another Giving Day six months and have it back in March? You know, that would be: relief site, September, March. That’s three Giving Days in a year. Um, so, you know, that’s a question…again, we’re reaching out to a few of our large, high-performing nonprofits in a regular Big Give and we’ll be asking them for their opinion, and we’ll also be looking at the Nonprofit Council budget to see how we can sustain, um, holding off until September or do we really need to just do it in March? So you know, for the immediate fall, I’d say anyone who’s already got it planned, I think your opportunity is ripe right now to go ahead and do that.
Jackie: Definitely. Yeah, we are getting close to time, but is there anything else that you want to talk about before we end the call? I’d love to open it up to you if there’s anything else that you’d like to say, anything that we didn’t cover?
Scott: No, you know, I…you know, I think that looking back on this whole experience, I’m glad we made that decision, I’m glad the mayor reached out to us, as you said, I’m glad we have that relationship with our city leader and our city council that can call on us. And they…look, the mayor knew about Big Give! Finally! Not that he hasn’t, um, but, you know, again, it’s for us, 7 years going into this, it’s like, okay, you know, we’ve…we’re at least on the map. People know about the Big Give and the Council, so that’s great, and would I do it again, yes. You know, I look back and don’t question our decision, I think it helped a lot of nonprofits, and we are committed to having a strong September and none of this could have happened, I know, without the team that you all provide all of your communities, the support that you provide. GiveGab…you know, I can never say enough about how we have been truly blessed to have you guys as a partner.
Karin: Thanks, that’s wonderful to hear, um…we really just wanna be that supportive partner for you so I’m glad that that is your experience as well, because we love working with the Big Give, and from the…being in the chat bubble perspective, I love chatting with all of your agencies and helping them. [Laughing]
Scott: We love telling them to chat with you, and I also say we love the community. We love the Giving Day community that you all have put together. Believe me, I reached out to a few cities on my own, Molly was one, from Louisville who I admire and, you know, I…I look at us as kind of sister cities, in a way, um, hopefully, she does, too. But, you know, I also talked to Leslie and, you know, a few other folks, so just having that not isolated in a bubble, um, really helps and I think everyone should kind of make those contacts and connections within our group and know that we’re all here for each other and as a resource to one another, because we’re all going through it together with the same, but yet different, so, that community that you guys have built is really important to us.
Jackie: Thank you so much Scott for joining us today, it’s been really insightful, and for the nonprofits out there that are getting ready for the Big Give, having trouble? Use the bubble!
[Laughing]
Scott: Love it, love it. Well, thank you all very much.
Karin: Thanks, Scott!
Jackie: Thank you, have a great day!
Scott: You too!
