Today we're celebrating my 100th Episode by sharing my journey, lessons learned, and words of wisdom to nonprofit leaders on how to make true impact in their communities, the nonprofit sector, and their lives.

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🔦 NONPROFIT SPOTLIGHT 🙌🏿

Project Joy Part 4

👉🏿https://www.projectjoyusa.com/

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🚀 RESOURCES TO HELP YOU RUN A SUCCESSFUL NONPROFIT 🚀

How to Demonstrate Measurable Impact

https://fusion.amberwynn.net/product/how-to-demonstrate-measurable-impact/

90 Days to a Profitable Nonprofit

https://www.amberwynn.net/profitable-nonprofit

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Learn more about my success with helping nonprofits

Visit My Website👇🏿👇🏿👇🏿

http://www.amberwynn.net

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https://www.facebook.com/amberwynnphilanthrepreneur

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Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4G9QNaVAYz8eXTmz48gagl

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Got Questions? "Ask Amber" on any of my social media platforms or email me at amber@amberwynn.net

Podcast Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):

Welcome to On Air with Amber Wynn, where nonprofit leaders learn to fuse passion and commitment with proven business strategies to create long-term funding impact and sustainability. And now here's your host and resident, Philanthrepreneur, Amber Wynn.

Speaker 2 (00:22):

Hey, fam, guess what today is. Today is my hundredth episode. Save Luck,

(00:30):

My hundredth episode. That's why the title is Keeping It 100. That is my title for today's episode, and I am going to talk to you about how to make a real impact in your community and the focus is going to be my story because a lot of times people see the end game and they think, oh, especially with social media being the way it is, just looks so easy. Let me tell you, I have been on this course for quite some time. When I started out, I started out working with nonprofit organizations as my side hustle, single mom needing some extra dollars, sharing my knowledge, but getting paid for it. So in today's episode, 100th episode, let me pause and the reason why I'm celebrating is because my engineer shared with me that I am in this small population of podcasters that actually make it to a hundred.

(01:31):

So I'm going to celebrate that. You know what I mean? And I'm going to tell you how I've been able to make it to, and I'm just going to go ahead and throw this plug in right now. It's not because I downloaded some streaming software and I do this at my house, Uhuh. It's because I have an amazing engineer. Hey Po. It is over here at Morris Media Studios in Los Angeles, and if you're interested in doing your own podcast, you better bring yourself on over here because that is one of the reasons why I have been able to make it to my hundredth episode. I'm not doing it myself. Alright, I thought I would just go ahead and throw in that little plug because that is real as real can get. Today we are talking about keeping it 100 and keeping it 100 is about how to make a real impact in your community. So when we come back, we're going to talk about Amber's journey.

Speaker 3 (02:26):

If your grants aren't getting funded, it could be because the funder can't see how your programs are making an impact in your community. Get the How to demonstrate Impact Workbook to quantify the work you're doing in your community in a way that a funder can see a potential return on your investment. Funders need proof that your organization will use their grant dollars to improve your community. That proof is called impact, and impact is quantified through measurable outcomes. Leverage my 30 years of program development experience to help increase your chance of securing

Speaker 2 (02:58):

Funding. Order your copy today. Welcome back to On Air with Amber Wynn, where today we are celebrating my 100th episode and I'm talking about how to keep it real and to make real impact in your community. So I really just wanted to share my story because right now, listen, I've got my branded polo shirt. I've got a hundred episodes in. If you go to my website, I've got testimonials. It just looks really good, right? I've got a course that I'm selling, I've got workbooks, I've got, it looks really good and it should because I worked hard for it, but sometimes we get caught up on the appearances and other people's success. I just want to start by saying to anybody out there who is struggling with their business, whether it's nonprofit or for-profit, if you're a consultant, you're an executive director. I just want to share with you some personal insights because this journey has not always been easy for me as a solopreneur.

(04:09):

I haven't grown up in a family where there were a whole bunch of business owners. My dad was a welder, so he couldn't really talk to me about nonprofit consulting. He had a trade, and so I have been trying to figure my way through this. I am a nonprofit veteran. I've got 30 years of nonprofit experience as a programs administrator so I can develop programs right as a grant writer so I can fund programs. Yes, as an executive director. So I know about overseeing programs as a board member, as a funder, so I understand the perspective of a funder in giving out and I use all of that experience to support the most amazing people on the planet, my nonprofit founders and executive directors. But when I tell you there is a difference between fundraising knowledge in running a nonprofit consultant, it's the same thing I say to you as nonprofit founders.

(05:11):

There's a difference between doing outreach and running programs and running a nonprofit organization. There are two different things and I think sometimes when we start our nonprofits, you think, oh, I'm going to make a difference in the community. I'm going to run these programs and the grants will come to me. That's not the case. That's not how it works. Well, it was the same thing with me starting my consulting firm. Well, I've got all of this knowledge about nonprofits. I'm just going to just share it with my community, but guess what? I had all of this knowledge, no real pathway on how to connect with my community. How am I going to get access to these individuals who need my content? I did a blog for a while, but because I was an English major, it was taking me way too long to write blog because I would change it and I didn't like it, and so that meant I wasn't getting it out every week, and it wasn't until I started doing podcasting that I'm like, oh, okay, well, I can just freestyle and talk and be real and have a conversation with my community.

(06:13):

So I discovered that podcasting works for me on your journey. You've got to discover what works best for you. There has been so many challenges like setting up my platforms, I have a membership site, finding the right platform for that, the right payment method, finding a technology person because as we know Amber sucks at technology, finding someone who can build all that out. Then as a solopreneur, everything falls on you and my nonprofit executive directors, I know you can relate to this because when you started your nonprofit, you had no idea you were starting a business and so now you are the grant writer and you are the bookkeeper and you are the person delivering the programs and you're out there networking and you're writing the reports. You are everything. That has been the same case for me. And so what I can tell you is having similar experiences, having gone through what you've gone through.

(07:12):

The reason why I'm here today, my hundredth episode 30 years in the game is because I've always focused on delivering quality programs. I've always focused on the most important person to me on the planet, which is you, the nonprofit founder and executive director. And I can tell you there have been plenty of nights when I'm like, I don't know if I'm supposed to be doing this or I am tired or I don't know if I want to do this anymore because the running of the business part is hard. And so what I had to do is put myself in a space where I wasn't trying to get on a webinar, learn how to do something and then do it because what I realized is that I was spinning my wheels trying to learn something and do it myself. When I can generate revenue to pay someone to do it, I pay my engineer for my podcasting because I'm not trying to learn how to work the board and I'm not trying to learn how to edit and I'm not trying to learn about the mics and the lights and the, I got time for that.

(08:22):

I want to focus on getting information out to you. Same with building out my marketing. I'm not a marketer, so I generate enough revenue to pay for a marketing person. I invest in my business and that is how I have been able to grow exponentially over the last past five years I've gotten a coach. Coaches are important because they are subject matter experts. They've done what you've done and they're here at this caliber and when you work with the coach, they bring you faster, quicker, more efficiently to your goal. Because I was an executive director and I struggled and I had challenges and I overcame those challenges and I created processes and I created products. I can help you get to your goal a whole lot faster. What I'm saying to you is people try to scrimp and scrape and get by, and as I said on a previous episode, we've got big problems, so we need big solutions.

(09:24):

I don't want you spending all of your time trying to save $10 and you end up wasting $10,000. You need to invest in you so that you can do what you started your nonprofit to do, which is to make an impact in my community. That's why I started my consulting firm. I know what it feels like to struggle. I know what it feels like to not feel seen and supported as an executive director. It is a lonely place, especially if you're a founder. And so my purpose of being here is to support you. It's to give you real information. It's to give you information that you can utilize and implement right away. It's not to do this tap dance where you're guessing. It's to give you that roadmap that is straight point A, point B, point C point D, because I know the work that you're doing is making a difference.

(10:16):

I don't want you to get burnt out before you get to point F. I want you to go the full course. I don't want you to have your nonprofit as a hobby. I want your nine to five to be your nonprofit, and the way that that's going to happen is you've got to make the same salary or more that you're making in your nine to five. So you've got to put things in place to make that happen. It's not a matter of just writing grants. I could write you a grant for a million dollars every year and that would not make your organization sustainable. You don't believe me, huh? I could literally write your grant every year for a million dollars and inevitably something would happen in your organization that would disrupt your running of a successful nonprofit. You know why? Because a nonprofit is a business and a nonprofit business is governed by entities, not just the IRS, yes, the IRS on the federal level, but you also have the Secretary of State.

(11:15):

You also have the state franchise board. You also have the attorney general's office. All of these agencies are authorized to do something with your organization, but if you don't know that you could misstep, you could misstep you not filing with the attorney general's office can get your tax exempt status revoked. You not filing bi-annually with the state Franchise Tax Board, could get your tax exempt status revoked you not filing your nine nineties every year for three years to get your tax exempt status revoked. So do you see that if I write you a grant for a million dollars and you don't know all of those behind the scenes compliance requirements, you still are going to lose your tax exempt status. So when I say you don't need grants, I'm not saying you don't need money. I'm saying that grants are not your problem. Your problem is knowledge, right?

(12:14):

You don't know what you don't know, but once you know, then yes, you get those grants and you get the other nine streams of revenue that's going to help catapult your organization into long-term sustainability. I'm not into these little quick fixes. I am into long-term sustainability, which means you are getting the salary that you need to run your organization. Why am I sharing this all with you? Is because again, there is a process and some people aren't comfortable with telling you about the bad parts, right? I wish people had told me about the bad parts. I would've made different decisions. I want your decisions to be informed primarily. I want you to understand that a nonprofit is a business. It's just a business with a philanthropic purpose, and you need the knowledge of how to run a nonprofit in order for you to be successful.

(13:06):

I had to gain the knowledge of how to run a consulting firm in order to be successful, and it ain't been easy. I've had maybe four coaches. Sima was in India and she helped me to build out my segmentation, my avatar, right? Had Danielle, she's in Atlanta, she helped me to build out my website. I've had, gosh, I've had so many dang coaches. Oh, Natalia, Natalia helped me with my automation being a solopreneur. I'm just exhausted. So I needed to automate some of my processes. So I'm sharing this with you because in order for you to get to that 100th episode, whatever that represents in your organization, maybe it's your 100th client, maybe it's your 100th thousandth dollar, whatever that is, you need to invest in your organization in order for you to get there. When you have those nights, when you can't pay those bills, when you think you're going to shut down your doors, there has to be a reason for you to keep going.

(14:09):

And it's not poverty. It's not, oh, I'm going to get somebody to donate. Your focus is making an impact in your community. That's what keeps you going, what keeps me going? But I'm here to say that that's not enough. You need to invest in your organization so that you can get to the place you want to get, not just quicker. I don't think you should spin your wheels, but there's something to say about the time because you learn new things. But to be efficient and to be effective, I don't want you to continue with your nonprofit as a hobby. And if you're working a nine to five and then doing your nonprofit, I'm going to say that your nonprofit is a hobby and we don't want that. We want you to work your nine to five generating the same salary that you would generate if you were actually just working one job, your nine to five, because that's my goal.

(15:08):

I started off, as I said at the beginning of the segment where I had a nine to five and I took up some clients on the side, and once I got stable, once I understood what I thought, I understood what it took to generate regular revenue, I let go of my nine to five, and that's what I want from you. And so you're saying, oh, Amber, that's great. What am I going to do to get there? Guess who has the answer for you? I have created a whole course just to teach you how to run a profitable nonprofit. It's going to get you from point A to point Z and beyond because as I said before, I created it because I was in your shoes. I wish I had for me what I've created for you guys, because it's going to get you to that place. Yes, it's going to teach you how to generate revenue, but not just grants 10 different streams of revenue. It's going to teach you about HR and marketing and how to be an effective leader and how to write good grants and how to build out your infrastructure. All of that is designed for you. Why? Because I want to make an impact in my community. That's what I have for you. Let's take a look at this amazing course that I've created just for you.

(16:33):

Are you struggling to fund your programs? Can't get a grant to save your life. Most consultants will share the what of how to start a nonprofit or how to fundraise. They may even share the why, but they don't share the how because that's where they make their money. Now, I'm not hating. I'm a businesswoman too, but I've been where you are trying to make the world a better place, struggling to keep the doors open up to the wee hours of the night writing grants and doing whatever needed to be done. And because I've walked in your shoes, I'm not here to make you spend your wheels, waste your time or your hard earned money. We ain't got time for that. The world needs you. I'm here to show you how to transform that pit. You keep dumping your hard earned money into a profitable nonprofit.

(17:22):

I take my 30 years of nonprofit experience as a founder, executive director, program developer, grant writer in funder, giving out over $7 million annually in grants, and I save you literally thousands of dollars in hundreds of hours. I walk you through setting up your nonprofit organization so that you can be generating enough revenue to cover your monthly expenses in just 90 days. How would that feel? Not paying bills from your personal bank account. I share my insider secrets, tips, tricks of the trade, and provide you with a step-by-step roadmap on how to turn your bootstrap organization into a profitable nonprofit. Within six months. You could be generating enough revenue to pay your salary or fully fund your programs. The choice is yours, but you have to get the blueprint, and it took me three years to develop it, but it's here and it's going to change your life.

(18:19):

Join my other successful clients who were just like you full of passion and determination, but they had no idea all that it takes to run and fund a successful nonprofit. Now they're winning grants and drawing a salary, and they know what it is that they're supposed to be doing to run a successful nonprofit. They're no longer making it up as they go. They have the roadmap and they're clear about next steps, and I want that for you too. So what do you get in this course? You'll walk away with knowledge, products, processes, and systems, not just a bunch of promises, but exactly what you need to turn your organization into a profitable nonprofit. I promise you don't need grants. What you need is a solid infrastructure, and this course is going to give you all of that and more. And what's more, it comes with the money back guarantee.

(19:13):

So go ahead, click the link below to register for this course. Welcome back to On Air with Amber, where we are celebrating y'all our 100th episode. I have to say, I didn't know that I would make it here, but I am here and I'm so excited. I'm excited to be in community with you. What I'm thinking is a hundred episodes, that's a lot of information. That's a lot of content. But here's the truth. What I'm talking about is not how to write grants. I'm not talking about how to build a collaboration. No, no. I have been talking to you over the past 100 episodes about how to run an effective and efficient nonprofit business. And I think coming from that mindset, we can all agree that there's a lot of content with running a successful business. So that's been my goal, is to share with you insights to how to run your nonprofit more effectively so that you can generate consistent outside revenue.

(20:20):

Now, it's time for Ask Amber. It's the part of the episode where you get to ask me your pressing questions. And this next question is from Hazel out of Fountain Valley, and this is what she had to say. I had a grant writer tell me I should consider changing the name of my organization. I got the name from God and don't want to change it, but what do you think the name of my organization is called? Soldiers for the Kingdom Foundation. See, y'all be trying to get me caught up. Listen to me. I don't get in between my clients and God, listen, that's one thing I don't do, but there's a couple of things that I really want you to consider, and I think this is probably the rationale behind the grant writer telling you what they told you. Let's start with this. You've heard the saying, give to Caesar, what is Caesar's?

(21:15):

You've heard that, right? What that means is there is a spiritual religious world, and then there is your everyday state practical run of the mill day, right? You've got government and businesses. You have to pay your taxes. That's a part of being in this regular world. And then you've got your spiritual world where you pray and you trust in God, and you listen to God, and God gave you that name. What your grant writer is saying is in the real world, you have to deal with funders. And funders. When they hear religion, they hear exclusivity, they don't hear inclusivity, and I have people say to me all the time, oh, we accept anybody. Anybody can come into the space. That may be the case. But when a funder is looking at two organizations that they need to determine who they're going to select in order for funding, it's a whole lot easier to say no to a religious organization if their funding isn't based on supporting religious organizations because there are some out there where that is their purpose.

(22:34):

Their purpose is to support faith-based organizations. So I'm not going to say that you can't get funding. I'm going to say that there's a smaller pot though because it's a very specialized giving area. And so if your grant writer is trying to get you more opportunities to get in front of other organizations, what they may be saying is one, when a funder views religion, they see exclusivity and not inclusivity. That could be one. The second thing is the name of your organization has foundation in it. Now, people start nonprofits all the time based off of the Wynn Foundation and the Johnson Foundation in the Nonprofit Sector. Foundation means something, it has a name. And I say this to people all the time because we don't do our research and we don't understand that the nonprofit has specific rules. Typically, a foundation is a grant making entity.

(23:35):

That's how the IRS has determined it. If you are a foundation, typically you're going to give out money. Usually they're family foundations or sometimes they're even, they're nonprofit foundations, but a foundation, generally speaking, gives out money. So she could be, he or she could be telling you, you need to change the name because people are confused When they see foundation, they're expecting you to be given out the money, but instead you're asking for the money, not having had the conversation with your particular grant writer. It could be one of those two. It could be when a funder sees that it's a religious-based organization. If they're not a funder that funds Faith-based organization, they may immediately assume that you are very exclusive. Or it could be that for the name foundation. Typically in the nonprofit sector, a foundation means that you're giving out money. So consider those two things and you can make your own decision based off of that.

(24:41):

Thank you so much for your question. Good question. If you have a question for me that you're not certain about, you'd like a little bit more clarity around, feel free to reach me on any of my socials. I'm on Instagram, I'm on Facebook. You can reach out to me on my website. Hey, you can email me at amber@amberwynn.net, but I'm here for you, so be sure to submit your questions. Next, we're moving to my most favorite part of the episode when I get to shine the light on the most amazing people on the planet. That will be you, my nonprofit founders and executive directors, because you work hard in the community. And this episode is the last part in our Part four part series, speaking with Kim Watson of Project Joy. So let's wrap it up guys. Part four of Project Joy.

Speaker 4 (25:43):

So we work with birthing families, particularly we focus on African-American or black families here in the Antelope Valley, and that's due to the high disparities that we have in maternal and infant mortality rates, which a lot of folks are aware of. So we really support the movement for birthing justice and for equity. One of the things I'm really proud to mention in that regard, and we just launched a pilot with the collaborative that we co-founded called the Black Maternal Alternative Care Alliance. So under the alliance, we have a birthing choice scholarship, and I'm super excited about it because it's empowering black families, black women, birthing women to make that choice. And so removing finance as an obstacle or as a barrier allows us to decide how and where we want to give birth, whether that's a home birth, a birthing center, a hospital, but with a doula, someone who can advocate and be there as a supporter.

(26:49):

But the key components for the Birthing Choice scholarship, like I mentioned before, we focus primarily on black birthing persons, our moms, and that's because of the high disparity rates. And so we're looking for that. Do you self-identify as black? Are you a birthing person? Are you interested in alternative care? So that alternative care, I'll break it down quite simply as three points, three bullets. Are you interested in having a home birth? Are you interested in delivering your baby in a birthing center with a midwife? Are you interested in a hospital birth? That's okay. So if you're choosing a hospital birth well, are you open to having a doula? So that would be something that we could support, helping to cover the costs or most of the costs for a doula. And then if you for some reason don't qualify, project Joy is a resource connector. A big part of what we do here outside of the programming that I mentioned to you, a big part of what we do is resource navigation, and we are a state trusted messenger, meaning we do a lot of outreach events and popups, health clinics and things of that nature. So my point is, if you don't qualify for the birthing scholarship, we probably could still connect you to a resource or to someone that can aid you.

Speaker 2 (28:29):

And we're back with On Air with Amber Wynn. We are wrapping up my 100th episode, and in celebration of my 100th episode, I am going to give you a special discount. I'm going to give you a hundred dollars off of 90 days to a profitable nonprofit. So if you click the link and to purchase this, make sure you put in the code Podcast 100 to get a hundred dollars off of the 90 days to a profitable nonprofit. Look at that. We're celebrating left and right. We got all type of goodies going on. I'm so excited to be here. umm. I'm so excited that I have been around for 100 episodes. I hope that you have found the information that I share with you. Helpful. Thank you for being a part of this process, a part of this journey, asking me your questions, sharing with me your feedback, sharing the episodes, continue to subscribe, share with other people in the community.

(29:34):

I'm so excited. And just remember, as you continue to make an impact in your community, that if your focus is on that, if your focus is on making an impact, it's going to get you through those hard times. I can tell you those times when I wanted to give up, I think about the successes that I've had with my clients, the transformation that has happened in nonprofits. I can't tell you how many nonprofits came into my space saying, well, I don't even know if we're going to continue. And then just six months later, a complete transformation. I had one organization during the pandemic educating students together. She's like, oh, my board is ready to shut down. And now she just reached her million dollar mark. And the reason why I asked her, I'm like, well, what do you want to do? Yasmin said, I want to serve my babies.

(30:29):

I want to serve my community. And it's because of her commitment to the community that she put in the work and we were able to transform her community. So I have so many of those stories, and when the times are rough and I'm not really confident about next month or the next three months, I keep my focus on you. I am here for you. This is my reason, my purpose of being. And I know that that's the same for a lot of you because you're not even getting paid. Now, let me tell you something. I'm never going to be in a position why I'm not getting paid. This is one of the reasons why I don't have a nonprofit, by the way, or should I say why my nonprofit is not active. I keep it, keep the status active, but I would say it takes three times the amount of work to get funded for a nonprofit than it does a for-profit.

(31:23):

And so I made the informed decision of being a consultant, helping improve my communities by helping to support the most amazing people out there. My nonprofit leaders. I say it all the time, I have a whole series on it alternatives to starting a nonprofit. But regardless, if you are focused on improving your community, it's going to get you through those rough times. I know you guys get me through it, so I just want to say thank you so much for riding with your girl for 100 episodes, and hopefully we've got a whole another 100 in me. Yeah, so don't forget your discount. Podcast 100, and I'll see you next week on my 101th right? All right, community. I love you, and we'll see you next week. Bye.

Speaker 1 (32:14):

Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe and leave a review on iTunes. Head over to www.amberwynn.next/podcast for the links and resources mentioned in today's podcast. See you next time.