Non-Profit vs For-Profit really not all that different

I have always thought that non-profits and for-profits are so vastly different. In talking with this amazing guest not only did I learn that I was wrong, I learned that there is not much difference when it comes to hiring with a couple of key exceptions. Nancy Major an expert in all things non-profit brings so much valuable insight to this great episode about hiring and understanding non-profit organizations, with 30 years in the non-profit sector and experience managing teams up to 200 at times she is a wealth of knowledge. Nancy is an Author, a Speaker, Certified Coach and so much more, this is a conversation you will want to tune into!

 

Leighann Lovely  00:20

HR professionals, business owners and operations at all levels are struggling to figure out what needs to change. Our system has been shocked practices have been questioned, and conversations are finally happening. We all know there has been a huge shift in what people want. inclusion and diversity are common phrases. But often misunderstood generations are coming together more than ever on what's important. Mental health has been brought to the forefront of everyone's mind. Let's humanize these conversations. Let's talk about what's important for employees to be successful in life and at their job and how companies can create an environment to allow them to do both because successful people will make up a successful workforce. I'm Leighann Lovely. Let's get this conversation started.  Today I am joined by an amazing a guest with a beautiful background and experience. Nancy Major, a best selling Christian author, speaker certified coach, Nancy specializes in helping women overcome sexual shame and trauma. Nancy is also an award winning nonprofit leader and consultant with more than 30 years of experience. Nancy, thank you so much for joining me today. I'm really excited to talk with you and to learn what is going on in your world today.

 

Nancy Major  01:44

Hey, Leighann, it is so great to be on your show. I've been looking forward to this for a long time. So glad that we could finally make it happen.

 

Leighann Lovely  01:51

Yeah. So why don't you start off by telling me a little bit about yourself, and you know what's going on?

 

Nancy Major  01:58

Well, I actually have about 30 years of experience working in the nonprofit and business sectors. I am an award winning business leader. And I have managed teams that were upward into 200. Staff members, as well as some really small teams. So it's kind of been all over the map. I've worked in very large nonprofits, and in very small nonprofits, and I've owned my own businesses and work for private companies as well.

 

Leighann Lovely  02:29

That is a wow, that's amazing. That is a very broad, you know, Knowledge Base experience based, which is why I was so thrilled that you accepted my invitation to come on and talk with me today. So nonprofit space, is something that I've yet to be able to, you know, kind of dive into with somebody. So I'm excited that you've joined me. Tell me a little bit. Well, first, you're an author. Yes. So tell me about you. Tell me about that. Tell me about your book.

 

Nancy Major  03:04

So I wrote a memoir, it's called A Wretch Like Me, a Modern Day, Mary Magdalene Saved By Grace. And it is my personal story. And part of my journey of healing and recovery from a period of time in my life that was really a deep secret. And it was something that I kept hidden for many, many years. And I feel by the grace of God, I was saved from that. And given an opportunity to actually be able to write a book to be a roadmap of help and healing for others who maybe are hiding in silence and feeling in bondage to shame or past trauma. And I kind of have a firsthand account of that myself. And so this was really a way to help people in a in a different arena.

 

Leighann Lovely  04:02

And that's awesome. We need more people who are willing to share and talk about things that are, I guess, hard in order to help others come forward and heal, and to move past those traumas in their life. It's amazing. The community and understanding and empathy of others is one of the greatest tools that we have as humans, which is why I love what's happening in today's world with more and more people sharing. Because it is I in my personal opinion, the greatest and the quickest path to to healing.

 

Nancy Major  04:45

I have 100% I couldn't agree with you more. I think that coming up alongside each other, we lift each other higher, and we have a greater chance of actually recovering from some One of the most traumatic things that could ever happen to us. And without one another, I don't know how we recover. Yeah.

 

Leighann Lovely  05:10

Couldn't have said that better. So, so I commend you, I thank you for, you know, sharing those things. And that's, you know, part of the rise is and the reason that I started this podcast was because of my own personal journey, and it is now obviously turned into so much more and because my personal journey was also part of the human resource side of being discriminated against, and people not understanding me because I wanted to be professional and, and, well, when you suffer from bipolar disorder, it's sometimes difficult to present all the time. And so anyways, getting back to where we were. So this is now tied into your story of what you're doing now. You, right, you recently went out on your own. So tell me a little bit about about that, and what you're doing what your journey looks like now.

 

Nancy Major  06:06

I'm so excited, because it kind of touches on what we were just saying about community about mentoring and about helping to come up alongside someone else, who is maybe walking through a difficult journey and a difficult path. So what I did is my book kind of launched into a business called miracles manifested, because I truly believe that that is my life experience is that it's been one miracle after another, that has become manifest in my own life. And so I wanted to be able to use that as a way to help others. So my practice is really specializing in helping women overcome sexual shame and trauma, because it is probably some of the more taboo darker side that a lot of people who don't want to talk about, it's really in this, you know, darkness. And I think that shame lives and exists, because it stays in darkness. And when we bring it into the light, we can actually heal it. And for me, that was really important about this business. So I coach women and work with them through a Christian practice of mentorship and coaching and help them really develop tools, practical, tangible tools, things I've learned through my own journey of recovery. And I have a special certification in this particular kind of work. And I'm really excited to be able to offer that I'm also a professional speaker. And I work with different groups, different organizations that maybe have a women's group or a Bible study or domestic violence, shelter, or even a prison ministry, wherever people are hurting. And it's a dark place. And you know this a lot as well, Leanne, it is so easy to get hopeless and feel. So despaired. And that is really what I wanted to make a difference in.

 

Leighann Lovely  08:08

That's amazing. And you coming up in a non and not for profit space where you've worked in, in a not for profit, where it was very similar. You've done some work with organizations that have similar values, similar backgrounds, that really just kind of, I feel like it's kind of serendipitous, and it actually kind of just created this beautiful path for you to eventually find yourself here. Yeah,

 

Nancy Major  08:37

I kind of feel like the same thing. I feel like God gave me this really wonderful opportunity to sort of practice right. So really, for 30 years, I've had a lot of different experiences for causes that were near and dear to my heart. And he really gave me just tremendous opportunities to learn different skills and different abilities to really hone in on some of the gifts and talents I would need in this new work. And so my nonprofit experience has really parlayed beautifully into what I'm doing today, and I am still a nonprofit consultant. So I do work with a lot of small and medium sized nonprofits. When they're working through strategic planning, board development, staffing, wink wink, because we both know that that is an ongoing when you're dealing with human beings, right? So you're dealing with people and whether it's in a for profit space or nonprofit space, a cause you really care about a cause you could care less about a product regardless of which space it's in. It's still about the people, right? So at the bottom, at the bottom of it all it's all about the people and that's a big part of my experience with the nonprofit space.

 

Leighann Lovely  09:55

So let's hone in on that. Obviously you know that this season and And this season is about, you know, really the focusing on the hiring, the retention, the training. And there's a lot of staffing companies out there that will not touch non for nonprofit organizations, just because, you know, when when I think especially, you know, when I think of nonprofit and for profit businesses, I think, Wow, there's so drastically different. Right. I mean, that's just the first thing that you would think, right. It's a natural thing that I think and, and I've had, I've been approached by other, you know, other nonprofits. I know many people in that space. And I've always said it, I'm not sure that I can help. But you and I, you know, we, prior to hitting the record button, we talked a little bit about this. So let's start off with the, you know, a simple question, how drastically different is it when it comes to the, I don't know, the the, the inner core of a nonprofit versus a for profit, the day to day business?

 

Nancy Major  11:04

Yeah, that's a really great question I get asked this a lot. There are a lot of people who believe it's vastly different. And really, there's one central difference in a for profit, all of the profits made from that business can be used, however, the owner or shareholders of that company, see fit, whichever way that they want to spend the money, it's up to them to do that, in a nonprofit space, all proceeds that are generated, because believe it or not, nonprofits need to be profitable, otherwise, they are not sustainable. And they can't actually hire good people retain good people invest in their people, invest in trainings, provide better services, etc. It just means that all of the profits made within a nonprofit, have to go in, into back into the organization's mission. So that is mission delivery, Mission knowledge, Mission expansion. So let's think of it in this way, if you're a humane society, and you start out and you are serving, you maybe are able to handle 50 animals in the course of your business. But the need is for 1000. And you're currently only serving 50. And you want to grow into that 1000 Number, the nonprofit space just is that everything that's made within that business is going to grow to serve more animals in a case of like a humane society. That's that's really the only difference. It's it's that is the core differentiator between a for profit and nonprofit.

 

Leighann Lovely  12:47

Interesting. And you would think as me being a, an intelligent person, I you know, I say this, I believe that I am an intelligent person, maybe I'm not. But you would think that I would have a better understanding of that. And now I do I now I truly do have a better, you know, because I think oh, people who work at nonprofits must be, you know, this is a horrible thing. They must be so poor, you know, they don't make any money, which is not true, which is not true. Right? Not at all. Because it has, it has nothing to do with what they make, it just has to do with how the how the business itself operates and what they're allowed to do with their money.

 

Nancy Major  13:32

Correct. And whether it's taxable or not, right. So it has a tax exempt status, that for profit businesses don't. But all the other elements of running a nonprofit, really are very similar. Except I would say the the other big difference is usually it is in support of a cause or a mission, that is to better society, it's to better a community to better a population of people. So it just depends on what their causes. But, you know, I think most companies if you really boil that down, all companies should strive anyway to make a difference more than make a buck. Right? And and if you're a decent company, that's really why you're in business is you want to make a difference in whatever way shape or form that takes. And in the nonprofit field, it's supposed to be right 100% That way that it is operating, it was founded, to make a difference in the lives of those that live work and play in any specific community.

 

Leighann Lovely  14:36

Interesting. So when it comes to, you know, hiring and training and retention, it shouldn't operate too much different than because we're not talking about you know, at a for profit versus a nonprofit, offering people $5 Difference itself salaries, we're talking about scope, we're talking about still being able to hire people at the market value, fair value. And we're talking about still being able to have adequate training, because it's still running as a business.

 

Nancy Major  15:16

Right? That is the ideal, the ideal scenario is that you are hiring people and gaining talent, because talent is what will make make your mission successful will make it grow. It's the same as any other business in that sense, right. So it's all about the people. The difference in some of the smaller nonprofits that I've seen is that hitting that market value rate is very painful is very difficult, because it is all based on money. So that's really true. The same in a for profit, though, if you're a small, independent or smaller business, you may not be able to pay somebody, you know, six figures for a position that a larger company easily could pay with Goldstar benefits. So many of the nonprofits that I've worked with, didn't offer benefits, for example, any kind of health insurance, retirement plans, any sort of benefits at all, they were lucky if they were able to offer vacation time. So paid vacation time. And that's changed, I would say the market, you know, the marketplace has driven some changes that are beneficial and are making it more clear that this is really hard work, it's it's not an easy thing to make a difference in the lives of the most vulnerable populations that exist in our communities. Nonprofits often are serving a gap where no one else is doing the work. We don't have the government programs doing it or capable of doing it or being able to expend the dollars to do it, but the needs still is there. So take, for example, child abuse prevention. Let's just take that as a topic, right. So we know that child protective services is so overworked at the government level, how many times you read about or see the newspaper reports that are just tragic that these caseworkers have triple and quadruple the numbers of cases that what any one person should be able to handle. So we know then that there's an overflow of the problem? Well, who's going to step in, who's going to stand in the gap, these children require services, it's critical to us as community members that children are being served, someone has to stand in the gap. So thus, a nonprofit gets formed to be a stand in the gapper, right, we're going to take on this cause and serve, let's say x percent of that overflow, we can't serve all the need, but you're going to step in to try and take some of that overflow. And that's how a lot of the nonprofit's I'm familiar with anyway, that's how many of them got formed is because they are standing in the gap where other services aren't able to keep up. And so we also in the nonprofit space, have the advantage of being able to raise donations and do fund freezing, which is other people who then care about said cause can donate dollars that often are tax write offs, so to speak, or at least you know, I'm not a tax attorneys. So don't ask me. But that's the way it was anyway, that they were deductible, you could make a donation to set organization because you care about that cause. And that is a way that nonprofits very often are able to function a little bit more nimble, and flexible and fluid because the donations they receive allow them to turn the corner sharper, right? If they need to go left, they go left if they need to go right they go right. And they can do that on a dime, versus a government entity, let's say or school system or a hospital system or some other huge corporation where you have layers and layers of bureaucracy and red tape. In a smaller nonprofit, you have the ability to be much more agile and flexible and fluid and you can change and evolve rapidly, which is so needed in Human Services, organizations that are serving, like I said, the most vulnerable of different populations.

 

Leighann Lovely  19:38

Interesting. So with the fundraising function, the those dollars that those organizations raise, those are not tax if I'm understanding this right, that is those are non taxable dollars to that organization that they turn around and reinvest directly by back into their business to continue to push their mission forward.

 

Nancy Major  20:04

Exactly, exactly, exactly, you hit it right on the head. Awesome. That's how it works.

 

Leighann Lovely  20:10

And then, and then then organization in, you know, would hopefully continue to grow and serve whatever population or whatever mission they write are serving,

 

Nancy Major  20:22

Right. And they either provide services, let's say on a wider so so they have basically two goals, right? Much like most companies, they either want to expand their footprint where they're reaching out to more people, they're able to provide their service to more people, or they're going deeper, where the services themselves become more and more and more deeper in into specific topic. Like if it's child abuse prevention, let's say you really want to train schools, or churches or hospital settings or companies for how to be aware of child abuse, how to prevent it, how do you make sure that you have safety protocols and policies in place that are instrumental? Well, if a nonprofit doesn't go deeper into that into those subject matters, right, it can't really provide the breadth and depth of services that are actually needed. So it just depends. I mean, it depends on the goals of that particular nonprofit. But that's typically it's one of two goals or both that they want to go wide, or they want to go deeper. They want to, they want to devote

 

Leighann Lovely  21:30

Interesting. So you've you've managed and you've run and you you have a very specific area of expertise. Yes, you you're exceptional at helping nonprofits really hone in on their mission and grow from conception in that first kind of year to years, correct?

 

Nancy Major  22:01

Correct. I would say that's true. So really getting specific about their mission, really understanding the story around the cause. And it has a lot to do with that. Because there are so many different opinions that can enter into a conversation. Different people can have different opinions about the mission, but what's the real story? And when you really think about marketing a business, this goes back to the similarities, right? In any kind of business, you really have to hone in on what value proposition do you bring to the market? Well, the same thing is true in a nonprofit language. What value proposition do you bring to the market? What's your story? What's your deal? What is your mission doing to better this community or this region? Or this country? Or blah, blah, blah, whatever it is? What is it specifically, that's going to touch the hearts and minds of people to move their hand to write a check or give you money? Right, right. So this story moves the hand. Right? Right. It's the story. So if I tell you, Oh, this causes to combat this chromosomal gene malformation in, you know, an infant in this range of age, and this particular sex, you know, and this, whatever, you know what I'm saying, right, it gets really, really complicated. Versus, hey, we have babies that are dying by these numbers. And here's, here's what we're trying to do. To stop that or prevent that you see what I mean? I'm just cutting right to the chase, you're getting right in there with this is what it's about. So it's simplifying the message, boiling it down. So anyone anywhere can understand what it is that this nonprofit is trying to achieve. And that's really my specialty is really understanding, taking a complicated story, and boiling it down into the most basic template for anyone to understand. And then really training staff really going in hard on really trying to help the team understand that message so that we're all saying the same thing. So that this mission is clear, no matter who's hearing it, and no matter who's saying it. It's repeatable. It's memorable, and people want to give to it.

 

Leighann Lovely  24:30

So what do you think is the most difficult aspects of doing that? I mean, is it training the team? Is it getting the message is it hiring that team? What I mean, yeah, all made that sound like it was oh, yeah, yeah, I can do that in my sleep. Like you just like yep, that's what I do. That's, um, I can do it in my sleep.

 

Nancy Major  24:57

It's probably a lot like you. Yeah, I'm like It's just familiarity, right? So the more and more you do something, the better and better you get at it, the more you can recognize different things, you recognize red flags, you sort of get better at your gut instinct about people's personalities, what their passion is. And so you lead with passion. To me, Passion is everything passionate about the mission, especially when you're hiring nonprofit staff. If the person that you're hiring could care less about the mission of the organization, what are the chances that no matter what job you give them, that they're actually really going to be there for the right reason. And we need people to be there for the right reason, specifically in nonprofit work, I would say this hands down, passion Trumps anything, right? Anything all day long, because Lian, if you care about, name it, whatever that is you care about, it's so much that it moves you to tears, it moves you to write a check, it moves you to go to an organization's Gala, you want to go and pack bags for this, you want to pack a backpack, whatever it is, right? Whatever your deal is that you really care about. That's the kind of person that any nonprofit, we could take a person who has a completely different background in skills and talent, and we can teach them what we need them to know that we can't teach them passion for the mission. So first hire for the passion about the mission. And when you go into an interview, this is one of the things I've done a lot is telling me, tell me about our mission, I want to hear it from them, right, I need to hear it as the interviewer, I need to hear it from them, I've got to be able to pick up on why they care about this mission. And so much so that they want to work at this cause. So I think that's really important. I think that's true in in any line of work. But I think it's especially true when you're trying to make a huge difference in vulnerable populations of whether it's children, animals, people, you know, whatever that particular cause is, right? So you're hiring for passion, and then really, it's the investment, it's the investment from whether you're a business owner, or you're the leader of a nonprofit, or you're the leader of this department, or division, or whatever it may be in a nonprofit, this is same exact truth. It's the investment in the training, it's the investment in the person you hire. Because if you just bring them in, they're super passionate, they're gone home, they're all excited, yay, I started my new job, I'm so excited, I can't wait to get started. And then you just dump them out there on the street, go at it, figure it out, we're so busy, we don't have any time to tell you what, what we actually need you to do, or how to do it, or what the what the tools are that we have or how to use the tools, or we need you to research find out what tools we actually need for you to do the job that we've hired you to do. Maybe that's as simple as this. But sometimes I think people just hire really great people, and then they just leave them on their own. And they don't reinvest in them. And so

 

Leighann Lovely  28:15

I'm gonna, I'm gonna interrupt you here for a second. So as you're speaking, I'm hearing the similarities in hiring for a for profit versus a non for profit. But I'm also hearing the differences. I can hire a salesperson who is not necessarily wildly passionate about selling. You know, whatever the staffing services, for instance, and I can, I can find something in them, that drives them. Typically, in the for profit space, if somebody is really driven by money, I can figure out a way to trigger that person to do a really great job, through the idea of here's what you're capable of making, if you sell XYZ, if you do it this way. And if they're a really highly money driven person, at the end of the day, I could figure out how to pull that passion out of them, so that it translates to what they're selling. In the for profit space. Sure. And there's there's different ways that you can tweak that. And eventually they can become passionate about their project or their their product and they can and they can figure out how to sell it well and they can figure out how to talk. The thing that you do have to no matter what in any sales role is you have to you have to be passionate about people you have to like people you have to like to build relationships. And the thing that that irks me every time I talk to salespeople is when they say yeah, I hate I hate I hate people and I look at him and I go wait a second you're in the business of, of people you sell to people like so. And I'm always I'm always, that's the one thing, you have to have a passion and a love for sale. The difference that I'm finding in an in a nonprofit setting is that you really do have to have a passion for your cause, that you need to wake up and be truly passionate about the cause that you're representing. It's not something you can fake.

 

Nancy Major  30:26

Right? It's not, you can't just hire a robot to do it. That's true.

 

Leighann Lovely  30:31

Right? It's, it's not something that you can fake. And that is, the one true difference that I'm, that I'm, that I'm hearing here is that. And that is definitely a, I'm gonna guess the reason that finding amazing people in the nonprofit space is much more difficult than finding just a simple salesperson, or person to go out and raise capital for, or raise awareness for that cause. Because the language is going to be wildly different than me calling up and saying, Hey, I see that you have a job opening. And I'd really love to talk to you about how I can assist you, it's going to be wildly different than calling up and saying, Hey, I'm representing this cause. And, you know, we would love to see if you're interested in investing some dollars in that, because at the end of the day, there's, there's no, they're not buying. They're not getting anything. They're just giving money.

 

Nancy Major  31:47

They're contributing to something bigger than themselves, they get to be the hero in the story. And that's how that pitch is different. Yes, then a for profit. And I would say to you, I would challenge you on this a little bit, LeAnn that it is somewhat similar, because your best salespeople actually really care about helping a client a prospect, a prospective client through solving a problem, right, they've got a problem. And this company over here provides x service or x product that is supposedly going to solve this problem. That's the thing, right, and if you have passionate salespeople, they really care about helping this client over here solve their problem, if they're really good at what they do in sales, they care, right? They care about providing the solution, and they they love that idea of being able to help people. I think if people are just 100%, money motivated all the way around, whether it's nonprofit, or for profit, I think that's you're gonna find people like that. But I think that's like a hamster wheel. You're just chasing around a wheel. And the carrot is is only going to be you know, you can do that for only so long. And then money isn't enough. In my in my aspiration is not enough. I think you need more in life to be a whole unhappy person. Something they that gets you out of bed out of bed in the morning is probably a little bit bigger than money in my mind, and

 

Leighann Lovely  33:26

I just, I was just like, yeah, they're like, I wasn't saying that. You know, the only thing that they're passionate about is money. But I know a lot of salespeople pull out your passion. Correct? Yep. Right. And after you figure it out, because again, when I started in sales, my motivator was, I want to make a lot of money. And it's through figuring out that Yep. Okay, this is a this is an industry I can do that. I figured out wow, I have so many loves for like, I really figured out that I love you know, the HR Well, I knew that I loved that, but I but I do enjoy I love being the consultants, and and finding solutions and helping and on so many fronts, but I love sales. Like I love everything about sales. I love helping others understand sales I love and I'm intrigued by how there are similarities and yet that's different. There are some differences. Right? And it's, again, you know, I'm on a tangent here, but so I just I you know, I have this podcast because I get to talk to awesome people, and they teach me things.

 

Nancy Major  34:48

Right. It's fascinating. You're different. Yeah,

 

Leighann Lovely  34:52

yeah. So okay. Where were we before I rudely interrupted

 

Nancy Major  34:57

Oh, retention? Yeah, it's talking about retention. And so you have to invest in the people that you hire, and you've got to really make sure that they have the right tools to that's really important. What resources do they need to do the job? What are the tools that you have. So if you want somebody to design, for example, some really kick butt marketing materials for this cause, but you have absolutely zero tools for them to do the designing. Or to come up with that, or to put something together, that's probably going to be a little bit of a mess you're going to have to find, and then this is the cool part. In nonprofits, there are so many different opportunities through college campuses, and internships, and young people like that are in high school, where the parents of these teens, sometimes they all might, you know, my son, or my daughter is really awesome at building websites, let's say they're really wanting to go into that in school. And they may be able to help your nonprofit by bringing in someone who's got a gift in that area. And does that make sense? Where maybe you might be a little more intimidated by doing that in a for profit, or you wouldn't even think to do that, right. But the nonprofit field is, they're just well, well known for being extraordinarily scrappy. I mean, extraordinarily scrappy. They'll use just about anything to get it done.

 

Leighann Lovely  36:24

Right, when it makes sense. And, but not only does it make sense, it also is giving opportunity in a way that others wouldn't have, like I'm a college student who I can now use that as a, as a, on my, on my portfolio when I'm going and looking for a job. And that is that's amazing for that individual to be able to say, Well, when I was in college, I built this website, and then I'll maintain and or I've helped you marketing material for them. And that's, I wish more companies would do that. Yes. Yeah, I wish.

 

Nancy Major  37:05

I'm with you on that. Because I think videography, you think about all these the social media platforms and managing social media, which is super time consuming and tricky for a lot of people to be able to get their arms around. And we have a younger generation. And we have students out there that are super excited about that. You have so many opportunities in the nonprofit realm to really hone in on and and allow others that we may be winning, think of to give them different opportunities. I even had some Boy Scouts and Girl Scout troops that were competing for different levels of awards. And they built some of the most incredibly creative things that were super necessary at these nonprofits that I was at. And they got to, you know, wear the badge of honor, because they won the award, they got the experience, they got the number of volunteer hours, they needed, whatever that might be. And the nonprofit was able to get what they needed. So there's so many synergies, you know, with these different organizations, like if you think of the Boys and Girls Club, and you mix them with the Humane Society, right. So the collaborative opportunities, right, that is also, I would say, gives us a little bit of a difference between for profit and competition.

 

Leighann Lovely  38:30

Right. Right. And, and I'm gonna guess that that for profit organizations wouldn't even consider or think of that, because they're not in that space. And I'm also going to say that maybe, maybe for profits would have to get a special permission. I don't know. I don't know. I guess it would seem, I don't know. But it's, it's awesome. Right, like if a for profit company were to come out and say, Hey, we have a great app. Well, no, I don't. We have a great opportunity. Yeah, they have internships. Right. But, but a lot of a lot of people will say if you don't for a for profit, if they don't pay the internships, a lot of those companies will be like, Well, come on, just pay them a little bit of money because they are for profit. When it's a nonprofit, you don't think like, well, how dare you not pay? Because there's a there's a true cause? Yeah. Or is it? You know, they're, I mean, you're because you're, you're working, you're all working in synergy towards something greater than you. Right? So I guess there's I guess, when that would be the, that's the difference. Yeah. That is the difference. And that just dawned on me. Because when it is a for profit, you kind of go come on if you're going to ask for free help.

 

Nancy Major  39:49

Yeah, but when it's the profit

 

Leighann Lovely  39:53

when you're gonna pocket. Exactly. Yeah. And that I think that we I think we just solved that. Add is why. That's why there's a difference. Because, however with like the website thing, yeah, why not reach out to a college students say, hey, help us out with this, and we'll we'll throw you.

 

Nancy Major  40:13

Like, whatever the price is, you know, whatever this amount comes out to be.

 

Leighann Lovely  40:19

Correct well, but we'll give you a little extra. And and here's the thing, it doesn't have to be perfect, you can, you can always have an internal person, do a little bit of tweaking to it, you can always have it updated. And instead of getting a $5,000 bill from a professional, you've now got that $5,000 bill down to $1,000. And you can take to college student, you know, $1,000. And now you're, you're still better off than you were. And yeah, I mean, yeah,

 

Nancy Major  40:47

There's so many ways to do service projects and ways to think about collaborations. And I think that there is an abundance mindset. In a nonprofit, like you have to you have to have an abundance mindset. You can't have a scarcity mindset, right? So we all boats rise, right? And instead of this, I'm going to eat you for lunch. Right? Like you can't, you just can't survive in the nonprofit space with that mentality. I think that, you know, it's it is fiercely competitive when it comes to the dollars you're trying to raise, of course, because there's a bazillion causes. Right? Just think about it. I mean, think about that. Put churches in the mix. Right? They're nonprofits, right? Then you think about some of the hospitals. There are many hospitals that are nonprofit. Yep. Now you've got them. You've got schools, let's add schools in the mix. So you've got churches, schools, hospitals that are considered nonprofits, those that are and you add them into the organizational, the community organizations that you know of that exist, to think about competition is pretty fierce,

 

Leighann Lovely  42:05

Which is weird, just because I don't think of schools as being non profit yet. unwritten. Here's a funny story. So my school, my daughter's school, they're like, hey, buy a t shirt, you know, spirit wear, and I was like, Oh, I gotta buy her a t shirt. And they have a Venmo account where you can just send the money that way. And I was like, well, I'll just, I'll just buy it. And I'll Venmo the money. But I didn't put what the money was for. So then when the t shirt never came, I'm like, Why did I never get the t shirt? Well, because Mommy, mommy brain and doing a million things. Never know, I never actually ordered the ticket. So there, you know, there's my, and what are you going to do? It's a nonprofit, you're not going to call them and be like, Hey, can you tracked on the $20 that I sent via Venmo that I never marked was for the t shirt that I was supposed to get for my daughter? I'm like, Oh, my God. I mean, it is. You forget, so every time I go there, and they have some type of fundraiser going on or whatever, you know, I, yeah, I kick them. Don't even think about it, I just kick them 40 bucks and for whatever, you know, flight by, you know, tickets for this, you know, fundraiser, put your you know, and I go in, and I like half the time. I'm like, I don't even feel like putting these tickets and I'll just buy $40. Right. And you don't you don't even think about the fact that yeah, this is a fundraiser to get all of the supplies that they need for the school.

 

Nancy Major  43:33

Right. And that was the only probably get X amount of funding. And this is above and beyond what this funding allows. Many nonprofits operate the same.

 

Leighann Lovely  43:41

Right? Right. And it goes to the you know, the school district for them specifically so they can buy, you know, and then I regularly get like notification of, hey, we're, we need more supplies for this, you know, donate and then last specifically for the supplies. And I was like, Okay, well, I'll go and drop off that a lot of times it's for like this. They do cooking classes on on Wednesdays and you go out just drop off cooking supplies stuff. And it's I don't even think about the fact that they're doing that because they're non profit. And they rely on the on the parents. Right? Because because you don't pay for her to go to school. I'm not paying for her to go to school.

 

Nancy Major  44:25

Well you do through your tax. Right. So much dollars, you know, like it's in and a lot of nonprofits do receive federal funding for state or county funding up to a certain dollar amount, but it's so limited. So let's say let's say a homeless shelter is providing homeless housing for the homeless and they get a state stipend up to $1 amount for that spot. Right for that human being they get X amount of dollars per day, whatever that might be. Right. But let's say it cost them four times that actual reimbursement. You see what I mean? So that they can receive this funding. But it doesn't mean it's going to cover all their expenses. In fact, like 99.9% of the time, it does not cover what it actually costs. Right? She's a drop in the bucket. And that's true in almost all all things. Yeah. So that, but it is a highly competitive market. And so when you think about fundraising, that's why you go back to the right kind of staff, the passion for the cause the investment in training.

 

Leighann Lovely  45:38

So Nancy, we are coming to time. So I have the question of the season. It's relevant to some people, others it's not, but what would you change about your job or the practice that people have in your job? Or your role? If you could?

 

Nancy Major  45:57

I think that I would help board members understand that the person that they hired to do the job, they hired for a reason, and they have expertise and skills and abilities, and that maybe a little bit more trust going in, going into that. I think both ways. I think that goes a long ways.

 

Leighann Lovely  46:21

Awesome. Now, if somebody wanted to reach out, contact you, how would they go about doing that? What's the best way?

 

Nancy Major  46:29

Sure. So I have a website and it is miraclesmanifested.com or Nancy major.net. Whichever one you want to use Nancy major dotnet might be it's the same they all kind of connect together. So Nancy at Nancymajor.net or just through my website is fine to Nancy major dotnet.

 

Leighann Lovely  46:49

And can they find your book there?

 

Nancy Major  46:52

Yes, they can, A Wretch Like Me A Modern Day, Mary Magdalene Saved By Grace, it's available on Amazon as well.

 

Leighann Lovely  46:58

Excellent. Nancy, this has been such an amazing conversation. I really appreciate your time. I've learned so much from you just in the short period of time. So like I said, I really appreciate it.

 

Nancy Major  47:10

It's been awesome. Thank you so much, man for having me on as a guest today. Yeah, I appreciate it. Look forward to keep it in touch.

 

Leighann Lovely  47:17

Thank you again for listening to Let's Talk HR. I appreciate your time and support. Without you the audience this would not be possible. So don't forget that if you enjoyed this episode, to follow us, like us or share us. Have a wonderful day.

 

Contact Nancy

 

Website - https://nancymajor.net/ or miraclesmanifested.com

 

Book by Nancy Major – A Wretch Like Me – available on Amazon  

 

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/cruen/family-time License code: 2330NZD3BLNDKPY

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

nonprofit, people, profit, business, mission, nancy, money, companies, organization, difference, services, hiring, person, helping, dollars, serving, passion, true, find, tools

 

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