 So welcome. So glad you're here for the nonprofit show. You know, I like to say welcome back because I like to make the assumption that all of you have been here before. But if you haven't, that's okay. We are so glad that you are here today. Our guest has brought an amazing conversation. He's going to share with us about empowering authentic leadership and Frank Velezquez, Jr. is our amazing guest today, founder of Ford hood and he is going to share with us about his organization and how he serves nonprofits across the nation. So Frank, thank you for joining us and we'll ask you in just a moment to tell us a little bit more about yourself. But before we do that, we want to remind all of our viewers and listeners who we are if we haven't had the pleasure of meeting you yet. So Julia, hello to you Julia Patrick. She's the CEO of the American Nonprofit Academy. I'm Jarrett Ransom. I get to play alongside day in and day out as co-host here of the nonprofit show also known as Nonprofit Nerd and CEO of the Raven Group. But truly together, we are so honored to have the ongoing support as we look at wrapping up this year, moving into next year. So thank you to our sponsors that allow us these opportunities that we're about to have with Frank. So shout out of gratitude to our friends over at Bloomerang, American Nonprofit Academy, fundraising academy at National University, nonprofit thought leader, your part-time controller, staffing boutique, nonprofit nerd, as well as nonprofit tech talk. Most of these companies truly have been with us from the very, very beginning. And as we just shared earlier, you know, almost a thousand episodes. And if you missed any of our previous episodes, which I can imagine you did because who else besides Julia and I and our executive producer have seen and watched every single episode. But you can find them on our streaming platforms, which include broadcast, podcast, and the latest is you can download the app. So just pull out your QR or your smartphone, scan your QR code, and you will get that uploaded to your phone. Amazing about that is you'll receive a notification today that today's conversation has been uploaded and wove it on to, you know, truly all of these platforms. So feel free to do that at any time. But what I also like to remind everyone is we are a 24 seven availability and no cost. So feel free to jump on at any time. But Frank, we are thrilled as we've shared already. But as we officially announced, you know, our excitement to have you on as a guest, Frank Velezquez, Jr. has joined us today as founder of four to hood. Welcome. Thank you. Thanks for having me, Jared and Julia. Yeah, go ahead, Julia. No, tell us about your work and how you start. You're the founder of this organization. Yes. What do you what is it that you do and talk about why you were moved to take such a bold action? Yeah, so so a lot of it is based on personal experiences. I led a nonprofit for three years between 2017 and 2020. Before that, I worked at our local community college and then post leaving that nonprofit. I got to work with some really great organizations doing some contract work. And the thread I would say between all of those organizations was around racial equity was really trying to find spaces where everybody had the same opportunity and have the access to educational and employment opportunities. So that was really kind of what birth did I think what happened after I left that nonprofit and was doing that contract work. I was doing it under my own name. And I was starting to kind of create spaces of being asked to speak at conferences. And I thought I needed to legit legitimize the work and add the credibility. And for the hood, honestly, I, I didn't want to name it after myself. And there's a number of reasons I just I was envisioning something larger than me. And so I came up with for the hood and my original tagline, I think I had people from the hood doing work for the hood, something like that. And, and yeah, and so I've just continued to grow that and what's actually, which is going to be today's conversation. What grew out of it was not part of the original plan. So the original plan was really to do storytelling. I don't call it grant writing per say, I like writing writing an organizational, an organization's story using story arc, which is a really clever way of getting people really interested and connected to the organization. I did it at that nonprofit that I led. And then I was going to do some one-on-one coaching. And then I was going to do, I call it like DEIA implementation. I call it like phase two, you know, phase one would be like, Oh, organization, let bring DEIA to us. Like that's fine and dandy. But to me, that's, I don't want to say it's perfunctory, but it can be. And so I call myself phase two. If you're really committed to this, all right, then I'm phase two and phase two, let's look at your policies. Let's look at your procedures. Let's look at all of those pieces so that we can, we can embed equitable practices into them. That was the original idea. Wow. I love this because this is a conversation that, you know, we haven't had really before in such a public and meaningful and strident way really until less than five, you know, the past five years. And so Jared and I have been fascinated by this conversation as we, we navigate through what this means and how it dovetails to leadership. So let's get into it because one of the first things that you say, which might be surprising to some of us is creating a space where people of color can heal. Talk to us about that. Yeah, a lot. So I'd be remiss to not tell everybody here where I got this inspiration. There's a, there's an, I call it an essay. I'm sure it's an article, but Kelsey Blackwell, she has this article, she wrote this article. I believe it was titled, why people of color need their own spaces without white people. And the way she writes it is like almost from like, like she says, exhaling, like I'm just breathing because she already knows the pushback she may get from her white friends. And so when I say creating a space where people of color can heal, I'm taking that from her. And it's really, we, historically in the US, when I say we people of color, we have not had our own spaces. It's always been dominated by Eurocentric, white model, et cetera, systems created. We never have had our own spaces. And when we do have our own spaces, the vibe and the feeling is completely different than being in a white dominant space. And the healing component comes is because we've never had access to our own spaces. When we do, a lot of it is talking about some of the trials, tribulations, microaggressions, any of those pieces that we've experienced and not feel like somebody else is going to say, Oh, maybe that was just your imagination. No, this is our space. And we can look at each other in the eye and recognize immediately the pain, the hurt, the feelings and not feel dismissed. And it really then becomes a place to heal. It's not to sit in that pain, but to at least acknowledge the pain to move forward. Frank, thank you for sharing that. And I'm really curious, you know, when we talk about creating the space, and I feel like spaces and places can look differently, right? Can you share with us like what you know of, because I'm sure we have viewers and listeners that are saying, Yes, I'm looking for that place. I'm looking for that space, right? Is this in community and person? Is it virtual virtual? Is it a forum? Like what are some of these spaces that you're aware of that exist for people that are saying, Yes, I need that. Great question. You know, there's not a lot of, I would say, intentional spaces. We try to find our own spaces and it could be like backyard, you could be like just, you know, having a getting and get together with people of color. It really does become a different vibe. Like I said, there's that feeling where I can be myself. The title of this session where I can be authentic. I don't feel like I'm hiding any piece of myself. So I think in regards to leadership spaces, I'm going to answer it that way, Jared, that I don't think there's a lot of spaces, you know, that I created the space for, for the hood. It's called the Ascending Leaders in Color Program. And it's 10 people. I keep it intimate because it gives everyone an opportunity to kind of share and feel that they can share what they're feeling. And what I mean by that is sometimes you have some introverts, but if you've got like 30, 40 people in a group, even if it's an affinity group, even if it's a group of all of the same folks, I want to make sure that everybody has an opportunity to share what they're feeling and what and how, how they've been impacted in the spaces that they are. And I got to say thus far, I did, I've done, I've launched two, two pilot groups. We started in May, it's a nine month program. And I think we're going to be entering our eighth month. And it's been exactly as I expected, it's giving everybody just the space to vent, share and get connected. I think that's the other piece. I want to make sure that they're connected with one another because, and I should have said this earlier, but I didn't have this space when I entered that nonprofit, the nonprofit world in 2017. And I was at that nonprofit even though there was a lot of times of success. I also felt there was many more times of inauthenticity. I didn't feel, because I didn't want to mess up. It was my first role as a CEO, first role in the nonprofit world. And I had to go find my people and who understood because they looked like me, if I said, Hey, did you feel that I, that I wasn't going to get dismissed, that they were going to say, yeah, yeah, that's a real thing, Frank. And so, so that was the impetus to start this group. And honestly, like I said, Jared, I don't feel that there's a lot of spaces in the leadership world. It could be nonprofit, corporate, etc. In fact, any space that, because pretty much everywhere we look, it's going to be a white dominant space, there is not enough spaces for us to have these conversations and to support one another. So that that's what I aim for. Well, tell me again, for our viewers and listeners, right, like you have this group, are you looking to add more individuals? I know you said you like to keep it intimate, but as we move into 2024, right, what does that look like for availability? Oh, absolutely. So, so the initial thought, and I'm glad I've expanded it because obviously people are really connected to it. And I would say it in two ways. So the original thought was I wanted it all to be in person. I'm like, and I was really looking at it from a community standpoint. So I was in Southern Arizona and Tucson. And so I was really looking at it from that standpoint of how can I connect Tucson leaders to one another and in an effective way and through a shared experience of going through the Ascending Leaders in Color program seemed appropriate. It's like you grow 10, you know, because each group is 10, so 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, you're building it out and everybody's connected. But I'm also speaking at national conferences, Jared. And so like, and I can't provide that same type of vision in regards to a community. However, I can provide the same type of support that these leaders need. And I could do it by region. So I have started and will be launching virtual groups beginning in January of 2024, because the demand is there. And I know that they want it, they need it. So I have to create it. It will look a little bit different, but I do believe the support system will be the same. And then it would be really interesting to kind of see how it grows in each of their communities. Because the in person, you can't beat that, you know, like I can really manage it as a facilitator, looking at every person and seeing a light bulb go off or a light bulb, like maybe just dim a little and I can ask a question. It's it's not quite the same being in a virtual setting. However, that shouldn't be the reason to not do it. So I want to make sure that I, I'm trying to build out a way that a system as I create these that I have a really good pulse on looking at people's body language as we're going through these conversations. Yeah, that's important. It's super important. And I think it's it kind of moves us to our next thing because you talk about being engaged in these environments, leadership, and it could be from volunteer leadership, corporate leadership, nonprofit leadership. Talk to us about the white ally, the guilt and the shame factor that leads into things. I'm fascinated by this. I mean, being a very white looking woman. You know, I often think, am I playing into this? Am I a part of this? What don't I know? Because you said something fascinating is that when you get together and it's in a safe space or an environment that's not maybe what you're used to things and conversations come forward. And so what, how does somebody like me or our viewers that might look like me understand this and operate within this framework? Yeah, yeah. Thank you, Julia. And I should have said this, but this is actually a perfect segue. So as I created these people of color spaces, I started to recognize once each of our meetups is complete, they have to go back into the white spaces. And I thought why I need to create a space an affinity group. So for white allies to do the work as well, because I because we need each other. And I know that's going to be in our next slide. But I just feel like the work can go so much faster if I'm providing some type of training, some type of program for our white allies. And so that is also happening beginning in January as well. I want to create virtual groups for our white allies, which would be led by a white facilitator for a number of reasons. But to your question, though, I would say that the spaces are different for a reason. As I said, people of color, a lot of it is around healing, because we don't have access to our own spaces. What I've come to learn with our white ally groups is there's a lot of trepidation, especially with white allies, because they may have guilt, they may have shame, whether it's through themselves or through their ancestors, parents, grandparents. And they have to work through that, you know, and sometimes they have to work through that without a person of color in the space. And so that's why we're really intentional of not having a facilitator who is of color for two reasons. One, I think for our people of color, it does, I mean, I'm sorry, for our white folks, it gives them an opportunity to speak freely and not feel that, oh, did I say something wrong? If they're with with their group, even if they say something that might be problematic, they're within their own, with their white allies, who can help move them through whatever that thought process is. For a person of color to lead that, it can be very heavy. And that's, that's the thing is that, you know, I've been with my white, my white folks, white friends, and by the third or fourth person who asked me a question, it becomes heavy. And then I feel like, am I the token, you know, spokesperson, spokesperson for brown people. So, so having a space for our white folks to kind of work through those emotions that they're going through, it's not exactly the same. But those feelings that come out can be, you know, and then I think with it's framed as we have certain feelings as being oppressed. And then we have certain feelings of being the oppressor. And even if we're not the oppressor, and that's where the guilt and the shame comes into play, our family lineage, it can be very difficult and problematic. I just came back from a conference where I had literally had this conversation. And I had three white folks in a row that I can't remember the question I asked, but each of them led their conversation, led their response with, I'm about to be vulnerable here. And then they shared something about their family. And then the next person I'm also about to be vulnerable. So just knowing that, that it is real, like white folks, white allies, I should say, really are still dealing with a lot of the stuff that that's blind that they don't see right up front. That even if they do, they kind of want to push it away, you know, and it's a real thing. So again, providing them a space to work through that together with other white allies is really exciting. It's an exciting concept. And like I said, we tried to launch a group in November, had some struggles getting it, getting it full, but we're going to, we're going to try again in January to get a full group of white allies. Frank, I love this so much. I realize I'm sitting here quiet. I'm just taking it all in. And I absolutely, I really, really love it so very much. You know, when I think of this and you just share it, and I know you're doing a lot of speaking, and I can't wait to get you on even more, you know, stages to speak more. And as you mentioned, you know, people will start off by saying, I'm about to be vulnerable here, you know, this could and does, as you mentioned, the word heavy kind of, you know, on all people, not just the facilitator or the participants, you know, but there's a lot of work to be done. I love your phase two approach. You know, this really goes back to Julia, what you and I have talked about before, you know, with the murder of George Floyd and everything, you know, that took place. There was a huge uproar and I feel like people took action and now it's quieted down, right? And so now this is the phase two. It's like, where are we? What are we doing? What's our continued process and progress in this? Can you share with us, you know, even more as we look at nonprofits, because I myself, predominantly hired by all white boards, right? I consider myself an ally yet I know there's still so much work to be to be done, right? Because as, as one of our amazing leaders, you know, when you know better, you do better. That's just what you continuously do. So I'm curious, like, what does this look like? And thank you, Julia. You know, racial equity requires truly for people of color, as well as our white allies, myself included, to come together. Like, how can we best do that knowing there's still so much work to be done? Yeah. Again, great question. I can answer it this way. And mind you, this is Frank's perspective. I know there might have a different perspective. The whole reason why I have this vision of white allies doing their work amongst themselves and then people of color, healing and doing our work, there's still the endpoint is still the endpoint. And so I call it learning separately to lead collectively. So we do our learning in separate spaces, but we're always going to be needing to come back together because we have to. And that's where we can lead collectively. It's I think from the white allies standpoint, they have a much better understanding of the issues that people of color go through. And I think from obviously the people of color, the fact that we are now emboldened and empowered and realize, oh my gosh, I'm not alone in this space. I'm already seeing it with these pilot groups. That gives us more lack of a better word, ammunition to move forward and feel more confident in those spaces. And so to me, and this is where I say it's Frank's perspective, racial moving racial equity forward requires both of us. We can do it alone. But this is a and I talk about the US specifically. It is a system that was designed to to keep down people of color. It is a system that is designed to do that. We've made some great movement. So so we can do things as as a group, when I say we people of color, but we need our white allies to help us along those paths. And a lot of it now in my mind is is like super focused on this is around policy changes. So so I, you know, I do some work with our local chamber of commerce and around workforce. And that that is where I feel like the most movement can happen is when we're starting to move make changes in policy. So again, our local government are is working on on on, I think they call it the prosperity initiative. We have local organizations, women's foundation, community foundation for Southern Arizona and social venture partners, all three of them are working around providing making policy changes, which is incredible. That is incredible. It seems to me like the start is the conversation is just vocalizing what some of these issues are and how to work through them. Because I think there's so much fear in speaking up and voicing an opinion because it's, you know, like you said, three people that all started a comment with, I'm going to be vulnerable here, that to me indicates an amount of fear, right. And it's such a fascinating thing on all sides to be speaking or expressing yourself with that lens of fear first. And I'm wondering if you see that as a new thing, I think something we're moving through as we finish up, what, how do you see this? Because that's a pretty head, that's a pervasive situation. I think two things I want to acknowledge the polarizing society we have right now, again, yet I don't feel, and if we just had, I don't know what the answer is, but I feel, I don't feel it should be polarizing. You know, this is all about equity. This is all about pieces. The difficult part is getting those who feel like it's polarizing in the sense of like, like, I don't see, I don't see issues with race. I don't see this. You just got to pull up your bootstraps. You know, it's how do you help them understand, and it's a dual effort, understand where maybe what they've learned or what they're listening to, and then share your side as well. I think if we can get to that point of really listening to one another and really pointing out like, look, this is a system that is hurt and harmed. I feel really, I feel really encouraged with that. And so that's what I try to do. I don't know if it's because I'm a Libra. I don't know if it's because I'm a mental child, maybe a combination of both. But I feel like I can present information that people can take in from both sides. And if we have more people along that path, that can really just say, look, it's not to discount your family or discount the work that you've done, but it's more so like the harm that's been put on people of color in our community, in our nation. I think that's, if we can get to that point where they can understand that, that's where you can start just chipping away. And that's what I do. I always say, like, people come to me, I work, as I said, I do in conferences. And we haven't even talked about this, Jared. So I feel like it'll be a future discussion. But like donor centric versus community centric fundraising, everybody comes to me and says, well, I just went to a session that was more donor centric. And I'm like, well, and I said, you chip away. I said, you know, your donors, you chip away at the ones that you know that are ready. You have the conversation immediately for those who you know who are ready. And then you chip away at those who aren't quite ready, but you chip away. So I think similarly with this, it's, we got to chip away. If we're not doing anything, we're not, it's going to stay the same. So chip away, chip away. Well, hey, I want to ask you to chip away at that with us next year, because I would love to have that community centered donor centered conversation. But before we wrap up today, Frank, I'm going to ask you because I know you have this crystal ball. Go ahead and pull it out. And Julia, we, you know, we used to bring this up all the time, but I'm really curious as we, as we wrap up today's conversation, you know, around empowering authentic leadership, what are you forecasting for 2024? Like how will authenticity show up in leadership next year? You know, it's a really good question. And Jared, and I will frame it this way, you know, because when I heard your session and I was like, I loved it, you know, what I heard on your session. And I thought, I did feel that it's slightly easier for white folks, you know, so authenticity is so to ask a person of color to be authentic in spaces that are primarily white, that's a heavy ask. And so I forecast in 2024 that we chip away at that, you know, I'm creating these spaces for people of color and I will end this with two really cool examples. Last meetup that I had with my ascending leaders and one of my ascending leader in colored groups, one person said they advocated for themselves around, they serve on a board and they advocated for themselves in regards to being part of a chairing committee, they felt that they were being, oh, you don't want to do that. Other board members were like, you don't want to do that. She was really hurt and she felt that it was because of her race. The other person advocated for herself for a promotional opportunity within the organization she was at. The story she kept telling in her head was, well, I don't have a college degree, am I going to get it? She said that the program ascending leaders in color helped her get past that. So that's my goal is that now we have these little 10 person pods and they're empowering one another to have those tough conversations that we maybe didn't feel comfortable having before. So I envision 2024 as more taking many, many, many, many more steps to being empowered and emboldened to be authentic, just as you said. And I say it strictly from a person of color standpoint that I want to provide as many opportunities for us to do that that we didn't have before or that we didn't feel we had before. Right. Right. Just even the framework of discussion is huge. Yeah. It's huge. I mean, for everybody to be thinking about this. Wow. You have been really a wonderful addition to my day. Thank you. We started after breakfast, you know, as she witnessed to you, Frank, she's not a morning person. I, on the other hand, half my day is done by the time I joined the show. But yeah, it's truly amazing. I love the ripple effect you're creating, Frank, truly, like having these pods of 10 growing by another 10 and 10 and 10 and what that creates. So I want everyone to check out Frank Velazquez, Jr. Founder of Ford to hood and you can find his email or sorry, the web address for that's just the number for dahood.com. Check out more. I also, you know, want to just champion the cause for everyone to take a look at these groups that he's he's created for all individuals. If that speaks to you, or it might speak to someone on your team, Frank, I'm going to reach out and get you on for 2024 to talk about that donor centered, community centered conversation. And I cannot wait to see you on more stages, my friend. Oh, I thank you. Thank you, Jared. And thank you, Julia, so much for the for the opportunity to share what I do. I'm thrilled and we need more people like you. We need to have this discussion more and more. There's so many different layers to it. And as the demographics in our nation change and our needs to work with different population changes, if we don't do this heavy lifting now, we're not going to get the results that we all can agree that we need, right? If it's from culture to human services, everything in between, we need to start having these foundational discussions. And so, Frank, this has really been magical. I so appreciate it. Again, if we haven't met or you don't know who we are, who are these two crazy white women talking about all this? I'm Julia Patrick, CEO of the American Nonprofit Academy. Been joined today by Jared Ransom, the nonprofit nerd, CEO of the Raven Group. Again, we are here because of the largesse of some amazing sponsors. They include Bloomerang American Nonprofit Academy, Your Part-Time Controller, Nonprofit Thought Leader, Fundraising Academy at National University, Staffing Boutique, Nonprofit Nerd and Nonprofit Tech Talk. They're the ones that join us day in and day out, pushing now towards a thousand episodes. So, it's been an amazing journey. And again, we have amazing support so that we can have these conversations like we've had today with Frank. As we end every episode of the Nonprofit Show, we want to remind ourselves, our viewers, our listeners and our guests to stay well so you can do well. Thank you, everyone. Have a great day. We'll see you back here tomorrow.