 So for those of you that joined us in the chitty chat chat, you heard us nerding out a bit already with Alicia Taylor. Alicia comes to us from Licking County Humane Society. For names familiar, that's because she was on with us. It's been just about a year, but she's back because we wanna hear what they're up to, what they might be keeping that worked so well, and we'll just hear more about that. So today's episode topic is really about the recovery and opening back up to the public. But before we dive in, we wanna thank all of our presenting sponsors. Without them, we would not be here having these really rich conversations. We were saying in the chitty chat chat, we were a little afraid that we might run out of content, but really there is no content that we can't continue to cover as everything continues to evolve. So again, thank you, thank you, thank you to our presenting sponsors for allowing us to cover the ever-changing landscape that we're all facing. Good morning or afternoon to you, Julia. Julie's the CEO of the American Nonprofit Academy. I'm the lucky one that gets to play with her every week. As her co-host, I'm Jarrett Ransom, the non-profit nerd and CEO of the Raven Group. I almost forgot my company name, but non-profit nerd is what you need to know. So again, Alicia Taylor, thank you for joining us again today. As you said, it's been just about a year since you're first and I think last appearance here on the show. And we're just really excited to hear more from you about how the Humane Society is doing in your community and what you're focused on. Thank you so much for having me again. And I'm sure that you hear this from plenty of people, but boy, what a year it has been, right? Since we last spoke. But the Licking County Humane Society, we've really weathered the storm well, you know? We initially did have to close the shelter as many businesses did, but we really only had to do that for the first month or so. And we were then back at it with our community programming, our Spay and Neuter program, our wellness clinics for our community. And then shortly after that, brainstormed ways to start our adoptions back up and we started doing those by appointment. And really, folks are wanting to find their new best friends and new family members. And so we were able to continue to adopt out, continue to rescue animals to improve lives, which is our mission. And we have been really blessed in that way this year that we were able to continue to do that. Wow. When we first met with you, and again, it's been a year, you had something that Jared and I have drawn back to so many times without you knowing it. I think you're the one that told us that your CEO turned on when everything had to close down, she turned on her iPhone, walked to the distance of the shelter and just started filming what was going on. Very rogue, very immediate. And you told the story to us about how it was wildly successful because it connected people. And before you would have been like, oh, we've got to have the set, people, we got to have the lights, we got to have the right cameras. And it was just such a fascinating thing to see how quickly you shifted. We sure did. And in ways that we didn't expect, like you said, after that initial just, hey, we've closed our doors, but we still want you in here video. We did more and more of that. So even our traditionally largest fundraiser, which we call the Fur Ball, we had to cancel it, right? But what we did is we did a Facebook Live event, which in a very similar way, we still got dressed up, we still thought it would be fun to do that. But we did it in the shelter as a Facebook Live event that we called the Foe Ball, right? Oh my gosh, the Foe Ball. It was perfect. So good. Yeah, and we had people tune in, we had people bid on items online during this Live event. And really more than that, it was just a, we're here, we're still caring for animals, we're still doing our best to meet the community needs where they are and we still need the support. And so this was a neat way to do that, but it wasn't perfect. We didn't have a big camera studio. I was literally there with my cell phone, recording the Facebook Live as we did it. And it was a great success. I love that because that tells me so much, Alicia, about the organization, the leadership, the willingness to be adaptable because as you know, you're one of our raving fans as well. You typically join in to listen or watch the show. So many, too many leaders hit the pause button, right? Or they just said, I'm gonna sit on the sidelines, wait for this to kind of pass and blow over. Well, it didn't, it's not, it's still not. We're here navigating today. And to know that even with the least amount of technology, the least amount of investment, you found no reason not to carry on. And I just love that and applaud you and your team and the leadership to say, absolutely, let's do this. Because it doesn't always mean that it's a high ticket price or a high investment to do something. To me, the point is the doing, just do it. I think that's branded on some big slogans somewhere, but really like, really just do it. Please go ahead, Julia. You know, I'm curious about, you know, all the things that you did when you had to navigate this, the shutdown, you know, postponement of things, reimagining things. As we started understanding that there would be an end in sight and there would be a recovery, a rebounding, whatever word you want to use, what did you all do to kind of create a strategy? Because you couldn't just say like, okay, it's over. I mean, you've had and you're, I'm assuming you're still in the middle of this, right? Give us some ideas as to how you've navigated this. Yeah, sure. And I think, you know, part of it was kind of having this fearless. We still have a story to tell. We still need to save these animals lives. So let's, let's trench through and figure out what's going to work best. And so we started, as I had mentioned, we started doing online application processes. In the beginning, it was literally just like a form on the website that I had created that people were filling out, but we actually partnered with a really great program called Adopets and this program allowed us to continue to process applications online while having really consistent communication with the adopters, because that was what was missing. So at each point in the process, what we found was needed even before everything that happened with COVID is folks wanted to know, is their application being processed? Where are they in the scheme of things? And even if they didn't match with the animal, that they didn't match with the animal. And here's recommendations on others that you might like. And that system was really the starting point of how we could make our way through this pandemic, but then how we can better work with our community, those who are wanting to adopt, how we can best match folks with the pets that we have, even after we reopen to the public. And that's been the great thing is now we're having these online applications. Just yesterday, we opened our doors to allow visitors literally just yesterday. So this is a perfect time to talk about it. Perfect, absolutely. Wow, wow, that's amazing. Well, it's kind of an interesting thing because part of one of the things that Jared and I were so intrigued with in the very beginning was that you had been an organization that had always really interfaced strongly with volunteers. And then you saw that just stopped so immediately. And yet the stewardship of your animals couldn't stop. So talk to me about how you managed with those volunteers and how you're gonna be bringing them back. That's a great question. And something that I think a lot of nonprofits are struggling with, I would assume, because it's been a year and a half without folks consistently coming into the shelter. But we did some fun things just to let them know that we're still here. So we had a volunteer trivia night where, and it was done online. So we did it through Skype and we had, not Skype through Zoom, we had folks log in and we had trivia questions and whoever one got to pick an animal that we then took their camera over and interacted with so they could see that animal, see us petting and loving on them. And so beyond the traditional emails, beyond the traditional calls out saying, we miss you, we tried to find unique ways like that to just say, we really do miss you and we care about you and we want you to feel like you're still part of our community. And so that was one thing that we did, that was just so fun. And hopefully, people felt like they were able to then, more seamlessly come back because they had been involved in some of those opportunities with us while we were shut down to volunteers. But it's still a struggle. It's still a struggle to get folks to come back and fall for us and commit to the consistent volunteering because the world is a different place. I'm just curious, one of the things that I kind of preached throughout the pandemic was find opportunities to continue engagement with your volunteers, even if it's a virtual space, even if it's a remote space, did you have any opportunities that were available to volunteers, maybe from home? One of the things I was working with a hygiene related organization and we packed shoeboxes filled with personal hygiene. Well, we weren't receiving boxes, we weren't receiving hygiene and we said, hey, all of you are looking for something to do with your family. This is something in activity you can do at home in your home and we will figure out kind of the transportation. Was there any possibilities for you and your organization to engage your volunteers like that? Yeah, absolutely. Because that was part of it too, right? We wanted them to still feel like they were giving to the shelter in the same way. In a part, yes. Yeah, 100%. And so all of our monthly sponsors who gave, folks who give monthly to us, we send out personalized letters to or cards to just to let those donors know that we care about them. We'll tell a story of an animal that's currently in our shelter. But those cards needed to be packed together and written on and signed. And so that was a great way to get the volunteers to continue to work. We could give them everything that they needed to create those letters and cards to go out and they were able to send those out. And in a similar way, make phone calls. We had a number of our board members and stewardship committee members just make those phone calls to our donors saying, how are you? How has this year been for you? We know that you care about Licking County Humane Society and I care about Licking County Humane Society as a volunteer. So we just wanted to have that common touch point and see how you're doing. And so that not only had folks volunteering for us but then continued to have them stay invested in our mission and what we were doing. So absolutely that was really important for us beyond the fun Zoom trivia nights to have them continue to volunteer because that's what they wanted to do so bad. That's why they were there for us. Now we have a really interesting topic. I want to kind of spend the rest of our show with you on. And this is the concept of a thrift store. You're opening a thrift store. I want to hear all about it. I also want to start with the question, where was this as a part of your master plan and what happened with the pandemic? Is this something that you came up with or during the pandemic, give us some background on this. Great, yeah. So this has been probably around three years in the making. So it's not a pandemic. This is in by any means. No, no, which putting it out there, this is quite the undertaking. This should not be a pandemic decision type of thing. But not like the nonprofit show. That should be a pandemic decision, which I'm so glad that it is. So our thrift store, which is named Sophie's thrift, which is named after our shelter dog who recently passed away from cancer. But so we have Sophie's thrift store, which benefits the Licking County Humane Society that is opening up here at the end of the summer. But the process has been something else to kind of do this. We've been looking really within the last five years or so. We've been looking for additional revenue streams because we have been expanding so much and we really do, our tagline is more than a shelter. We want to be more than a shelter to our community offering spay and neuter, offering wellness clinics, but that costs money. And so we were looking for different revenue streams and we started to work with a consultant that particularly focuses on thrift stores for nonprofit benefit. And so it has been about three years working with the consultant to find the perfect space. And even just to do the research to see whether or not would work here where we are. Feasibility, absolutely. Exactly, yeah, because if you're surrounded by a bunch of different thrift stores, it might not be the best pick, but it all panned out for us. And today we are taking our box truck that we just got and moving our first load of shipments into the thrift store that hopefully will become an additional revenue stream. So we can continue that mission of trying to save as many animal lives as possible. And it helps our community, right? And so not only are we helping animals and helping our communities, animals in the process, but we're providing another space for lower cost, clothes, home goods, furniture for our community that truly desperately needs that additional retail space. And we're doing it through using reusable items. So we're underlining our environmental commitment too. So it was kind of a no-brainer once we got all that research together and figured out that this is actually feasible. I love the diversion to the landfill initiative as well. I know it's not ever really the number one priority, but that is a secondary benefit that speaks volumes. It's been really nice. I live in a community where there's a couple of streets that if I were to drive down, it's kind of like McDonald's or Starbucks, you go about a mile and there's just thrift stores everywhere. Most of them, of course, benefiting, having that social impact back into the organization. I'm curious with this one in particular, is it attached to your location? Is it out into another area? And what is kind of the size? And I don't know, tell us a little bit about what you're looking to do with it. Yeah, absolutely. So we looked at a bunch of different options. Do we build a barn and call it Sophie's Thrift right next to our shelter? You know, we really had this open view of what it could possibly be. But then literally this space kind of dropped in our laps where it's removed from the shelter, but only about five minutes away. It's part of a retail shopping center. And actually it was a big lots location that separated out into a couple of different places. So right, it's perfect for retail. And we have about, I don't know, maybe, you know, two thirds of a traditional big lots area. So it's, That's large, that's big. Rift store, yeah. But that's what our community needed. We are so blessed to have, you know, our community to support us, that we were able to do this too within our price point because we had to be judicious of what place we were going the least to be able to actually make this happen and truly meet our mission to raise money for the shelter. But that's what it's going to look like. So we are opening up a big honkin' thrift store here at the end of the summer. And it's been a labor of love, but it's been a labor. It's been a lot. It's hard to open up a little bit. You know that? Yeah, we know that. I'm curious, sorry, Julia. Is there any programming that will also be done at this thrift store? I'm thinking of another organization that, you know, they do training in their gift shop. It's not, they have a charity, but it's not, you know, and I wonder if there will be any programming done in the store. Well, that's a great thing about having your own store is you can do whatever, you know, you'd really like in the limits of the shopping centers, you know, concerns, but yes, we hope to have adoption events there, you know, every weekend. So that would be the ideal thing. And particularly, you know, it gives us other space in order to do different partnerships with our community too. You know, so perhaps we have a featured item or featured section or something along those lines. We also have one of those really cool, like old school display windows, like you would see back in the day in those big department stores. We have one of those cool display windows. So that gives us limitless, you know, option of, even, you know, putting a kitten or two in there for, you know, a couple of hours and having folks see those adoptable animals. That's the first thing that kind of came to mind, but I think there really are so many options that we could use this space for. Now, how are you going to navigate the aspect of volunteers? I mean, there's so much sorting in a retail environment, not only, you know, the bringing in items, but merchandising them, managing it, dealing with shortage, all of those things. I'm assuming just off the top of my head, it's about a six to 8,000 square foot space. It's pretty large, yeah, yeah. And so we're going to need to have a lot of. You need a lot. Yes, yeah. So how's that working for you? The really interesting thing is we approach this by reaching out to people, reaching out to our community and even our current volunteers saying, you know, we know that working with animals is very fun, but it can be tough for a lot of people and it can particularly be tough with, you know, allergies or what have you. So this is a great opportunity for those folks who love what we're doing for the pets for our community, but and want to support us some way, they can then volunteer at the thrift store. We also have a number of volunteers that are younger in age, that are looking for these kind of, you know, retail, business focused experiences. Yeah. And so that's been a neat way. So I think that's been our approach is kind of saying, well, what type of folks would want to volunteer at this location that might be a little bit different as the reasons to why they would want to volunteer at the shelter. And we've tried to market in that way to those folks in our community. Brilliant. Wow, interesting. So how many, what are the hours? Like how many hours a week are you going to be open? Do you know? We're a retail store. Which is surprising. Not a lot of, you know, humane society or even nonprofit theme thrift stores are open every day. We're going to be open every day. Monday through Saturday, it's going to be from 10 to eight, I think it is. And then Sunday from noon to six. That is a commitment. Wow, those are lots of hours. It's a commitment. But, you know, we have such a space. We have such a large space. And we have received so much feedback from our community of folks who want to support us through donations that if we have the goods, we're going to stay open so people can get those at an affordable price. So we'll cross our fingers, but that's what we're starting off with. We're jumping in. I'm so proud of you. Are you thinking that this is going to be a primary source of revenue for you? Or what are you looking at in terms of the percent to total of what you're going to be looking at? Because this is not without costs, I mean. 100%, right? I mean, we'll likely be able to find here within, I think it's starting year two, we'll be able to start to see some increase in our, you know, shelter revenue, you know, thanks to the thrift store. But in the long run, we're hoping that it will be about half of what we are bringing in through grants and sponsorships and donations now. I mean, that's our, that's our dream, right? We'll see how that goes. You're really leaning into this. I mean, you're really seeing that this is going to be your primary cultivation within your community then. Yeah, because it really does allow us to stay local in that way, if that makes sense, right? So we're able to find additional revenue by also being such an integral part of our community, which of course we love our grantors and we're going to continue to ask for that because we still have that story to tell that we need those certain like medical needs costs and so on. But this is with such an undertaking and with what a, you know, hopeful like pillar it's really going to be in our community. We want to reap those, reap those benefits as much as we possibly can because when it all comes back to it, it's Sophie's thrift. It's, you know, our shelter dogs thrift store who we cared for, you know, for her entire time here with all of her medical concerns and we need a thrift store so we can continue to do that for as many animals as possible. For other Sophie's, absolutely. For other Sophie's. And that diversification of revenue is so critical but also I see it as the diversification of awareness and outreach to the community over the course of this episode. And I have a feeling we went back and watched your other one that's been almost a year ago now. You have really reiterated what the community needs. And so it is so proven in what you're sharing that, you know, this wasn't a pandemic decision. This has been a long haul, a heavy lift, a lot of energy and resources have gone in into the viability of this diverse revenue stream. And I love hearing that. There's so many opportunities. I've had the privilege of working with other organizations that have a thrift store or something similar. And the opportunities are just unbridled when it looks, you know, when you look at that kind of opportunity, I'm using that word again, but, you know, there's ways to share your vision and your mission along the walls and then branding and signage on the receipt, your point of sale. Hopefully, you know, there's a roundup opportunity that, you know, if it's whatever it is, you can add the rest to round it up to a dollar that will go towards medical expenses. So all of this ties back to, you know, to the organization. And that's what I've been geeking out about, you know, as a communication professor. Absolutely. And especially one who's very visual. Oh my gosh, I've loved to do this. I've loved developing that signage that's going to go around. It will be so clear that the purchases that they're making today are feeding shelter animals. The purchases they're making today are providing shelter for homeless pets in our community. So that mission will not go unnoticed there. That is perfect. I can't wait to continue this path with you, see the journey continue to unfold. You know, you shared with us in the chitty chat chat and those of you probably didn't hear this. Maybe you did. Alicia was on a debate team. So she promised us that we would be able to get through the entire episode today. And we have done just that. Thank you so much for coming on, sharing with us about the Licking County Humane Society, where you were, where you are, where you're going, all of that matters. And we are just so honored and privileged to have you back with us today to share that journey with us. The honor and privilege is mine truly. Thank you so much for letting me share our story. That's why I'm here. That's the point of it all. Well, it's been really, really wonderful to have spoken with you so early on and then now as we're still in this but we're seeing things change. Again, I'm Julia Patrick, CEO of the American Nonprofit Academy. I've been joined today by Jared Ransom, CEO of the Raven Group, also known as the non-profit nerd. My non-profit nerd, your non-profit nerd. Alicia, I need to get you some glasses and let's turn you from a geek to a nerd. I would love that. That's right. Thank you. Thank you. We do need that. We also wanna thank all of our sponsors without you. We would not be here having this conversation and it's just been remarkable. We wanna let everyone know we have Launch Fund Raising Events TV. It's on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It's really fun. Our co-host with that is Jason Champion and he's been on before. And I think Jared, every time he's been on, I've called him Jason Ransom. I know you have to stop doing that or he's not gonna show up one Tuesday and Thursday. Yeah, that's just the worst. But anyway, hey, one great story. We need to have you back on down the road so that we can kind of hear more about the journey of the thrift shop. But it's just such a big issue for so many nonprofits. Thrift shops are such a mainstay now of American retail in many ways. And so really cool. I can't wait to hear more and more about this. Amazing episode, Jared, don't you think? Absolutely. I'm just thrilled to have you back and to hear more about all of what you've done and continue to do you and the entire team there. So thank you again for joining us. We will certainly be back in touch and get you on the schedule for a future date. And to all of you that continue to show up and watch us, whether it's live or the recording, you can still find us, Roku TV, Fire TV, Fire TV, Amazon TV, Amazon Fire TV. Yeah, you got it. All the places, YouTube, Vimeo, websites. And we are just so grateful to have our presenting sponsors that allow us to continue these conversations. Join us back here tomorrow. We have another spectacular guest. And until then, stay well, see you can do well. We'll see you soon.