 Welcome everybody to another episode of the non-profit show. We are really excited today to have a super interesting guest Delaney Mileneaux Coming into us from non-profit head She's executive director and she's going to really help us understand how nonprofits can get help and kind of some other options That we might need to look for in terms of getting support And we all know Delaney. It's hard to ask isn't it? It's hard to ask for help and for assistance Yeah, so I can't wait to hear what Delaney has to say With us and how to share her knowledge with our viewers again if we haven't met I'm Julia Patrick CEO of the American Non-profit Academy Jared Ransom the non-profit nerd herself and my wonderful co-host is traveling today She'll be joining us back here on the non-profit show tomorrow Every day as we march towards our 750th episode We have these amazing partners with us many of whom started with us three years ago And so we want to give a huge shout out to our friends at Bloomerang American Non-profit Academy your part-time controller Non-profit thought leader fundraising Academy at National University Staffing boutique and the non-profit nerd as I mentioned We have this like crazy number of shows people from all over the world We've interviewed and chatted with and if you want to get back to some of those episodes You can find us on several channels including our channels on Roku YouTube Vimeo even Amazon fire TV but like we Like to say but wait, there's more you can find us For this last year all of our episodes you can download them on podcast. So wherever you like to queue up your content You can get the non-profit show right into your ears and we would love to have you be a listener Okay, Delaney Mullen X Where are you coming to us from again today? Hello, I am in West Michigan I live just outside of downtown Grand Rapids Amazing we'll talk to us about your journey to the non-profit hub as the executive director We're gonna ask you in just a second like what it is you do But how did you find yourself in this leadership position? Yes, I'm glad you asked because the topic for today is so Timely, I think just for my my career my professional development is where do you find help because Very candidly and transparently I have been an executive director for all of four months So I have been seeking a lot of help And I don't know if this is if it's familiar to a lot of you guys listening There are a lot of self-taught executive directors accidental fundraisers There's a lot of self-learning going on in the nonprofit sector And I am no exception So I do I do have a lot of experience asking for help and finding help But the road to where I'm at now is a little bit unique too. I I always I grew up in West Michigan born and raised. I went to school at Grand Valley State University, which is a local Very well-established reputable university book at both my degrees there one in social work One in nonprofit management. That was my master's program so throughout my throughout my trajectory when I was First going to college. I wanted to be in business and marketing and then I through succeed into social work because I went to a liberal studies University and growing up in West Michigan. It's called the Bible Belt pretty conservative You don't really open your mind to a lot of things unless your family kind of puts you into a more like well-traveled environment And then so I when I went to Grand Valley and I was in the liberal studies program I was like wow, like I don't think I can dedicate my skillset to The private sector. I think I need to to do something different So at the time what made sense to me was going into social work Then there's I have no regrets about that. I learned amazing things in that program loved all my professors amazing people big hearts and in hard topics to learn about as well, so then Getting out of that degree. I started working in residential care as a social worker in a sex trafficking unit for victims of sex trafficking and I realized that Although I loved the job. I am a business woman And so that was not my skill set that was not where I was strongly suited And so I went back to school and I got my master's in nonprofit management. So Come full circle. I started in partnerships at nonprofit hub and Got to help build Relationships with organizations that are specializing in serving nonprofit organizations and helping to create educational Content and as the nonprofit hub is a is a media platform educational media platform Really also honing in on the skills of marketing that I had developed Throughout my career like putting myself through grad school and my undergrad was always marketing So it's an awesome collective. I think of my experiences You know, I love that you had the boots on the ground Opportunity to really understand the other side of the desk as they say I think that that probably has enabled you to have empathy and really Understand that some of the underlying issues that we face in the nonprofit sector because we are bleeding off as you know So many people they get burned out. They get stressed out. They're underpaid I mean I could go on and on with the sob story But before we before I do that I Love your background and I love your journey, but let's then navigate to your organization and explain to people What the nonprofit hub does and if you will what your mission is Yeah, of course. So nonprofit hub is an educational collective Striving for nonprofit excellence by creating a connected ecosystem of people resources and learning Non-profit has existed for over 15 years So the archive of educational content that exists on our website is is massive and it's it has a really beautiful story from originally focusing on marketing so serving nonprofits in the area of marketing through like a Pro bono method of doing that To now kind of encompassing any nonprofit pain point So anything like we used to say helping your nonprofit grow and lately I've been getting I have this feeling that you know Even donors don't give to your nonprofit to help you grow They give for you to achieve your vision Rowing may or may not happen, right? Right. I love that you said that because I think that is really a masterful comment because growth is not always Putting us on the direct trajectory of solution, right? Yeah, and you might not need to grow You might just need to get better at what you're doing. Yeah, exactly Which is like a growth mindset in some way, but just to grow and to get bigger. I kind of feel like that's also an American Tradition, yeah, no and in a war be better With less. Yes with less right, right, you know, it's punitive if we kind of Say yeah, we need more and yeah, it's really an interesting thing And you know, maybe If you join us in the green room chatter, we were kind of talking about issues of the pandemic and perspective Maybe that's one of the things that the pandemic has has taught us or thrown us into You know, how do we how do we do things differently? Not necessarily with less but with just Just differently, you know Yeah No, I I mean that was a big thing in my first four months in leadership was We actually changed our mission our vision statement So we changed the the concept of good to growth to achieving nonprofit excellence Because that's kind of be different for everybody. Yeah, I love that and you know, I think that that that's a To me Delaney, that's a better value for What we're going to talk about next and that is how nonprofits can get involved and What are the costs and what does? Your membership platform kind of look like and I mean, how do you how do people come to the nonprofit hub and Achieve that excellence Yeah, so this is an exciting question and I'm glad that you asked nonprofit hub is a 501 C3 nonprofit corporation So we're a nonprofit ourselves in our mission a part of a large part of our mission is to Provide what I had said before which is an educational collective But free of expectation so 90% of what we offer as a nonprofit is completely free Like open to any nonprofit across the world across the country Regardless of the position that you held regardless of the position or the cause or vertical of your organization Anyone can access the resources that are on our website. So again 90% is 100 totally free and Then we if you want to get more involved we have an amazing Conference a national conference called cause camp. We're actually celebrating 22 years in 2023 it was actually founded by the AMA back in 2010 So it was known first as the marketing 101 conference and then it became What was it marketing boot camp and then it became cause camp and a little bit later on so super exciting for us to be kind of keeping that legacy going of cause camp And it is a very very accessible conference in terms of location, but also affordability So a ticket for cause camp is 499 for two full days of conference Including meals and in social experiences and events and things like that So and I know for a fact as a conference goer myself that is Half as much as a lot of the conferences that I'm seeing these days But we do have a membership platform, it's called cause network So that's the entire archives of everything that nonprofit hub has ever produced for the last 15 years as well as Non-accredited certificate courses and we do member meetups, which are member directed So a lot of it is just being able to vent and then learn from the wisdom in the room. I think so In terms of where you're Working is it could you say that you're geographically targeted or maybe sector specific or targeted or are you dealing everything from You know causes the deal with social services to culture to you know I mean, what is the what does that landscape look like of who you're talking with and helping? Yeah, so we are I wouldn't so We definitely don't specialize in providing Resources to a specific cause or vertical not at all. I would say what what Aligns our audience and what connects them all together is that We're in positions where we need to learn and we need to learn in an easily digestible format so It's so we're working with small to mid-sized nonprofit organizations or organizations that okay We're gonna have to use the word growing. They're going through growing pains. They're hiring staff or turnover They're trying to grow their programming. They're trying to increase their revenue. Whatever it is build their board of directors Anyone who's in a phase of like flux or growth You're needing to learn and find your resources So organizations with ten or under employees because if you have ten or under employees, you are definitely wearing more than one hat. Oh, yeah So people who are wearing more than one hat I would say organizations that are making our primary demographic is 10 million or less in revenue And I mean and that's the majority of the sector. Yeah Way more than a majority of the sector. It's like 77% or more of the sector is in that is in that those specific two numbers that I just shared So I'd love to like I'd love for nonprofit to be this the striving factor that moves That percentage down a little bit, right? Like I want more nonprofits to be bigger a little bit bigger Yeah being able to understand um the more capitalized they are and not just financially but Through knowledge and staffing and marketing and outreach and yeah, it's it's really a huge thing. Well Let me ask you this question because you get to see So many nonprofits and so many different people involved in the process of If you will nonprofit service nonprofit management, what are you seeing as the greatest and I'm going to say needs plural It's not just one thing But what does this look like given that we're coming out of these this amazing historic pandemic Pandemics if you add in social injustice economic, you know issues Democratic democratic civil unrest issues A lot of things have been boiling What are you seeing as this this new world that that we're engaged in Um, so to be honest, I think my answer to this question is I don't know what the right word is but maybe more of a long term Need that has maybe always existed. Well, it's most definitely always existed but um I think nonprofits need I need I think someone a thought leader out there if you're listening Needs to come up with a nonprofit business model Um, because there are so many for-profit business models. Um, for instance the entrepreneurial operating system Um, there's also I don't know what another one is called like the lean Operating system. I don't know. There's so many out there that for-profit businesses use And I feel like when a nonprofit starts up They basically consider can we raise more money than we're spending in programming? Right? Um But that isn't a business structure. It's like a very small part of a business structure. So even The entrepreneurial operating system we have as an organization like picked Picked out parts of that operating system that work for us as a nonprofit So this spans I mean you need so having a vision Having indicators that show you're meeting that vision so that you this is called like vision traction optimizing So you're making traction towards that vision and how do you optimize that so it's it's your meeting format It's who you're hiring It's how they're performing in their different seats. It's your accountability structure And all of these things I don't think are ever talked about In a nonprofit organization, especially not in the beginning. Yeah, I I agree with you. I think it's um You know, we tend to engage from a philanthropic Um social structure and then we get let's get the money and let's do the work Yeah, where is the like where is this where is it in between like? Yeah, yeah It's it's all based on empathy. Yeah, you know, we have an empathetic approach Which is wonderful and amazing But as we're learning each and every day, it's not sustainable. Yeah, it's really frightening Um and and I I love your journey from social work, you know into nonprofit management Seeing that and understanding it is super Super powerful. Um, you know along that line Talk to me about higher education and what you're seeing Um about nonprofit management. It seems like we don't have enough of Enough opportunities for our sector to attain these higher degrees And we've been talking more and more about that on the nonprofit show Um, but what are you seeing across the landscape? Are you seeing people saying I want to study this? I'm going in as a freshman and by gosh, I'm going to pursue this or is it more Kind of like post grad I've worked and now I want to refine Oh, that's an interesting question I don't I certainly don't regret my master's degree in any way shape or form It opened my world to a network that I needed to find a career. Um But I do think that if people are going into nonprofit management degrees, um They either want to be an executive director. They want to start a nonprofit which That's a whole new conversation about Whether or not that's the best thing for the world. Um and to They or they want to work for a foundation Or be in a grant making position Not working On the ground in a nonprofit organization Um, and so I think that's a problem and I was a little bit Another reason that nonprofit exists and like the passion behind it was that When I my I myself and my previous the previous executive director of nonprofit hub We have to google something every day We both have master's degrees in nonprofit management And I can't necessarily tell you that I've ever pulled something I've learned From that degree and actually used it in my daily tasks as an executive director Yeah, um Well, that's honest and I I appreciate you saying that because You know, you're It's a new course load Yeah, and I mean think about who's who the adjunct professors are Or centered leaders are of not a lot of of higher ed institutions Yeah It's few and far between and they don't all have the cv of Running nonprofits Right. Yeah, that's my take on it And so it does that's why I said I was so enchanted by Your direct work in the field And no shame in saying wow This isn't what you know, I want to be doing Yeah You know, yeah Yeah, and I think that's the difference between you know There's like all this conversation about is higher education going to be a thing in the past because people want tactical education they want to be trained to do something um But I mean I still am an advocate for higher ed. I like Loved my course content. It's something that really does open your mind more than The nitty gritty like training like hands-on training stuff, but um But yeah, and and I think that you know to just to to your point about just saying this isn't for me um You have to volunteer No matter what you're learning yeah especially if you're trying to get into a nonprofit because They even though like the nonprofit sector might be struggling with talent They're still not going to hire you if you don't have experience Yeah, yeah, um, and so you need to show that you understand what working in a nonprofit is like So I've I've been an avid volunteer since I was in elementary school doing volunteering and reading for children in elementary or Going to be a tutor or being being on miscellaneous boards student council like you name it in high school um, and then obviously more serious positions like work being a board member or Being on a fundraising and events committee that all gave me knowledge Especially to the problems that exist with nonprofit organizations Absolutely, and I agree with you you you have to know how the sausage is being made and you have to know What um the challenges are To even get to the point where you can provide service. Yeah, I think there's I think that's a lot of times where we we face disconnect Hey, you know, we don't have a lot of time left and you mentioned something Um at the beginning of the show and I want to make sure we can Drill down a little bit more before we let you go and that is cause camp again You said you've been doing it for more than 20 years. Yeah, so 22 years. We're celebrating this year Amazing amazing. So this next conference September 14th and 15th. Where is it held and can you access it in a digital component? Yes, great question. So um cause camp 23 will be held in Huron, Ohio Um, it's in the greater sand dusky region, which is right on the shores of lake eerie, which is one of the amazing great lakes obviously my michigan baby, so Spend a lot of time in those But it's eight minutes from cedar point amusement park, which is one of the country's best amusement parks If you haven't been it's also an opportunity to check out That which is a thrill in and of itself Um, but nonetheless, we've also themed our conference based on cedar point so the theme is lessons in momentum and the utility of cause camp is to Give you the tools and resources and education you need to navigate all the twists and turns of nonprofit life All the ups and downs all the highs and lows whether any multimillion within your staffing with whatever Part of the life cycle you are in as a nonprofit organization Um, that is the mission of cause camp. Um And so again here in Ohio it is in person And I highly encourage you to check out the in person element, but we are offering a Really fun watch party a month after the conference takes place So if you are unable to attend the in person conference, we will put watch party tickets on sale a little bit closer to september Um, and what's cool is that as an in person attendee you also get access to that watch party So you can have and there will be live q&a with the every presenter At that watch party. So if you wanted to rewatch something if you missed a session Um, if you wanted to refresh your memory if you wanted to ask more questions You're also invited to come in into that watch party Um and network with folks who weren't able to attend as well I love it. I think that's a great idea and I I think you know I mean you go somewhere and you ruminate about what you've heard and then all of a sudden you're like, wait a minute How does you know, how does this work or what's the follow-up or this got my juices going and we're what am I thinking here? How can I navigate this? So or you bring it back to your team and your team is like, well wait What about this like can you ask about that? How would we do that? Yeah? Yeah How many folks are you expecting or what what does it look like? I know this is a changing time We haven't had a lot of in-person events to this degree Um, what is what is that attendance going to look like? Yeah, so we're hoping for about 370 in person in Ohio in september Um, we'll have about 35 exhibitors. Um, we call it camper village that will be um In the in the cause camp lineup as well Um, but about through 70 in person and then hopefully Um pushing well above that for the watch party. Um, we have you know, our audience is super engaged. We have Almost 500 during even just our weekly webinars Um, I'm excited to see how how we do at the watch party. Good. Good. That'll be really fun And how can our viewers and listeners? Um, learn more about cause camp 2023 Yeah, so cause dot camp is the website. It can't get any more Easy than that. Um, yeah www.cause.camp Is where you can find the lineup. You can see the agenda All of the options to register there's individual passes as well as team passes that provide a discount if you want to bring four People to cause camp. There's really fun add-on. So we're going to have a little Pre-conference party reception on wednesday evening before and then um, so we're going to do a top thrill trivia night on thursday Um, and then again consider even bringing your families make it a team building event go to cedar point on saturday You get um a highly discounted ticket to cedar point by booking through the hotel in the convention center that we're working with so It's Working up to be a really fun weekend and week overall I love it. Well, I love the idea and I think that Now is the time people are getting ready to say, yeah, let's get back out there. Um, let's get away from our current ecosystem to read Yeah, kind of revive and read Get some new ideas going. So this is a perfect timing. Uh for folks to yeah and right before it gets super busy for your ungiving I know that so Yeah, it's a nice little way to have some fun and get energized and motivated for that too. Yeah, I love it I really really do. Well good for you. I think it's going to be a lot of fun and and we can't wait to hear how it's going Again, we've had delay knee millenie on oh mullin X. Sorry No offense taken mullin X executive director of nonprofit hub for those of you joining us. Um Early before we went live while we were live but in the green room chatter We were joking about names and pronunciations. Yeah, it's not a fancy Yeah, delay knee mullin X From the upper midwest which has been really exciting executive director of nonprofit hub Check out nonprofit hub.org and learn more about the amazing ways that nonprofits can get help and can engage in community So that they can uh really build a better more efficient nonprofit, which I love I love that mission and I've been so excited to be able to talk to you and hear more about what's been going on Again, I'm julia patrick CEO of the american nonprofit academy Jared ransom the nonprofit nerd and my trusted sidekick and co-host will be back with us tomorrow And again, we want to make sure that we spend time in honoring the amazing partners that we have our friends over at bloom rang American nonprofit academy your part time controller nonprofit thought leader fundraising academy at national university staffing boutique and the nonprofit nerd These are the folks that are with us day in and day out And they really have afforded afford us the opportunity to have these amazing conversations Delaney, this is great. Um, your website is beautiful I really love all the things that you've got going on and I think you're a great Resource for our sector. So I am delighted that you are out in front championing our sector. Thank you so much Thank you julia. It's been a lot of fun. Hey everybody as we like to remind everyone as we end another episode of the nonprofit show To stay well So you can do well. We'll see you back here tomorrow. Thanks Delaney