Beyond Charity: How Nonprofits Can Drive Real, Measurable Impact

[0:00]  I think anytime you go through change change isn't easy and I think uh U when you go through change you're going to have people get on and off the bus as the saying goes um but the team here uh we did lose some people that weren't ready to get uh on the new bus that still wanted to do the work that just kind of maintain people that fed people but didn't change their lives um so it took a little while to transition but mostly it's a benefit because for two reasons the staff we have are very talented and professionally trained but they want to have an impact and a better impact they don't want to work at a place where all we're doing is maintaining people where they're at they also know that we're Innovative and we're willing to try new things and sometimes historically in a nonprofit world uh we keep kind of kept doing the same thing over and over again expecting

[0:48]  different results um so because of when we serve participants we have to be smarter today than we were yesterday because we want to have a greater impact on their lives all right guys welcome back to a brand new episode of the heart and hustle podcast today I am joined by another amazing leader who's going to talk about what impact truly means now if you're a leader who participates in the nonprofit space you know how challenging it can be to truly quantify what the impact is that you're having on your community Scott Walker is the CEO of LifeWise St

[1:36]  Louis and guess what he has an understanding for what impact means Scott welcome to the show man well thank you thank you for having me so Scott my question for you as we kind of get started here is what do we need to do to re-evaluate what impact truly means in the nonprofit sector what do you think about that well I think we need to understand the definition of Impact versus outcomes and and uh so much historically in a nonprofit world uh we talked about outcomes and for so long in the nonprofit world the outcome was I served 11,000 people and that's really an output not an outcome um and certainly not impactful and and standing alone by itself so here's my question for you now when you were in fifth grade I'm sure your teachers asked you what do you want

[2:23]  to be when you grow up Scott you might have said a firefighter or a baseball player often you don't say I'm going be the CEO of a nonprofit organization so how did you kind of get to where we're at here today well you know what I did uh spend a lot of time 21 years in the corporate world um but uh during that time and volunteering and being engaged with nonprofits uh really developed a passion uh for that and also really out of knowing what I had growing up what my kids were having growing up and realizing that so many other kids and and adults didn't have that opportunity uh really drove my passion towards work in a nonprofit and what were some of the experiences that you think you had in your previous life in the corporate world that you've been able to bring over into this space well I think the fact that uh I also had the opportunity

[3:11]  in the corporate world to travel throughout the United States because I supervised at any given time the whole United States for a retail division uh but to able to see different cultures different areas of cities uh good and bad um and then also just to be engaged in your own City here in St Louis um you get to see quite a few things different when you see things here at LifeWise I can see the arch from my uh office and we have kids in our neighborhood that have never been to the arch really you know and when you have and there are examples like that day in and day out of what a small world uh so many of our families and kids have lived in and not had the exposure and how does that make you kind of feel knowing that you've been able to

[3:57]  see so much of the world do you think that there are limitations that people kind of put on themselves who haven't been able to see the arch who live so close to it or what are some of the factors that kind of contribute to them not being able to explore how they should you know I think a lot of it is uh knowledge that they can uh obviously Financial is a big piece of it um and having a life um scheduled out in a controlled way that you're not in a crisis mode um too too much of the time uh to create opportunities for good things to happen you know creating opportunities is something I'm very passionate about we talk a lot about the framework of challenges versus opportunities when you came to the organization I know that you were involved in the board before you took the role as CEO right you were president of the board correct then they called

[4:43]  you in to you know make the changes that were necessary you had when you got into the organization what were some of the opportunities of change that you saw as low hanging fruit that maybe somebody else would kind of pose as a challenge well I think the the thing of realiz that um let's just talk about it the most basic needs of things you know food that um nonprofits have a a pantry of donated food um but the reality of it is is if I need food today I'm probably going to need food tomorrow and the next day and the next day so how do you get and create opportunities so they aren't dependent on your food pantry for a day a week a year a lifetime um because otherwise

[5:30]  you're never going to put yourself out of business and while we never will in the nonprofit world we should have that as a goal in mind theoretically I was uh speaking to an amazing leader um of a Behavioral Health Organization in Cincinnati last year and he said that exact phrase to me he said Kean I have a little bit of a contrarian view on how we run our business everybody wants to say how are we going to grow my biggest objective is saying how am I going to put us out of business because if we do what we need to in our community there shouldn't be a need for us or are we going to come across a reality where that's something that we can actually lean into probably not but I come through embracing my team and supporting them so we can go out of business and it's really refreshing to hear you say that too well it is and because the the reality of it is is we won't be ever out of business because not everybody is going to have the skill

[6:17]  set or the desire put the time in to getting their life where they want it to be but is what we need to do is those that want to put in that time that have the drive that have the passion that just may not have the knowledge or the expertise or the exposure we need to give every one of those individuals the opportunity to reach their potential is there a a little bit of a misconception working in the nonprofit space specifically with the demographics who you guys support I feel like in society's view there's often a idea if you will that a lot of people just don't want to be the provider for their home you know they want to continue to lean on subsidized services on welfare on food banks on Community Services because that's just what they want to do is that always true not at all I think uh there are people like that partially because they don't know any different they've

[7:04]  been in multi-generational situations that that's all they've ever seen but I think by and large the majority of folks want to be the provider for their family want a better life do not want to live on government assistance um it's not a Glamorous Life to Live and uh they want to grow and see opportunities and want something better for their own kids part of it is is that so many of our families have never seen seen success modeled or exposed to it in a large scale way and what do you mean by that well if I'm um if I live in a housing complex let's say and nobody ever graduates high school then why would graduating high school be a goal for me but if I live in the neighborhood my kids grew up in uh where everybody was expected to graduate from

[7:52]  high school and for the most part almost everybody did then those are lifechanging differences in where I live and what I'm exposed to um they're going to affect me for the rest of my life you know one of my favorite sayings is you lead others by letting them know what you expect of them which often may exceed what they expect for themselves give people a reputation they can live up to I'm hearing a little bit of the magic is in the stretch right in that statement yes yes it's to create it it's partnering uh getting yourself out of poverty is a tremendous amount of hard work um but everybody that is successful had a team behind them or had Parents behind them or a teacher behind them or somebody that when they screwed up let them get back up and kept them marching forward so many of our families don't

[8:40]  have that uh and in many cases the nonprofit sector fills that role and we certainly try to fill that role at LifeWise by letting our families and our Scholars get back up if a mistake is made or if they stumbled and uh keep them marching forward and not make that one mistake a lifetime uh penalty you know there was something that you said in our previous conversation and at the beginning of today which was you know thinking about impact and saying 11,000 people served right is an output not an outcome but there were some outcome stats that you shared with us last time which was absolutely amazing in 2023 the measurable impact that light fo St Louis had was nine home purchases six car purchases two new business started and four home repairs completed why are those numbers so important

[9:28]  compared to the 11,000 people served well and that that happens to be just one of our programs but it's important because that is mobility that are people accomplishing the goals in their life uh that are going to change not only their life but change the generations ahead in their life uh and that's the key there's changes you can make that kind of stabilize you where you're at but there are changes that are made that can move you forward for generational a house is an example when we often think of folks in poverty that we need to do financial literacy but if they're not buying a house they aren't also creating equity and generational wealth and that's how you move families forward multi-generational through generational wealth and all of us take that for

[10:15]  granted that have it whether it's through uh savings or home equity or insurance policies those are all things that most of our participants don't have an opportunity historically for you know I'm really interested to think about you know all of your experience in the corporate world and how it's impacted the nonprofit business that you run today so one of the things that we talked about in our previous conversation which was you know it's often that we have helping people we have amazing giving individuals who work inside of a nonprofit but they're not used to having their business run like an actual business so how and what type of changes did you make to kind of run LifeWise like a business and not so much like a nonprofit well well I'd say two ways it's started out with our staff um in

[11:03]  the nonprofit World anybody that's working in there has amazing passion to help but in the reality of it is uh they really is what we need a nonprofit world at least leading and and key positions is professionally trained staff with a passion and that's a way a business operates you get a p you get a person that's an expertise in accounting you get an expertise in graphic work you get an expertise in any every aspect of a business but in the nonprofit world that wasn't really the case historically so we went from having two social workers on staff to 18 who are professionally trained most all Master's level social workers who can work with our participants and are professionally trained and have understanding in the tool box to help them move forward but there was something else

[11:50]  that you guys did as well because you guys implemented a social work tracking software as well right that kind of transformed the way you guys looked at data within your organization too absolutely so um historically like we started out uh um our outcome was we served 11,000 people but the reality of it is is that's not an outcome it's an output but we did we brought in a social work software um we weren't the first but on the early on on that move um where we can set up and track every program and our participants and how they're what their success is and how they're moving forward um so that we can document that not only to learn from but to use towards getting additional funding um to do even more good work was it an easy transition when you came in and started suggesting I would say you

[12:39]  know private sector tools like software to help us be able to better visualize our data and things like that was the organization supportive or was there any resistance that you had to overcome any lessons you could share with us in making such a big transition well I think anytime you go through change change isn't easy and I think uh um when you go through change you're going to have people get on and off the bus as the same goes um but the team here uh we did lose some people that weren't ready to get uh on the new bus that still wanted to do the work that just kind of maintain people that fed people but didn't change their lives um so it took a little while to transition but mostly it's a benefit because for two reasons the staff we have are very talented and professionally trained but they want to have an impact and a better impact they

[13:26]  don't want to work at a place where all we're doing is maintaining people where they're at they also know that we're Innovative and we're willing to try new things and sometimes historically in the nonprofit world uh we kind of kept doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results um so because of when we serve participants we have to be smarter today than we were yesterday because we want to have a greater impact on their lives so having that kind of environment also is create some benefits uh with staff as well but there's nothing better than seeing somebody who's worked real hard achieve their goals and buy a house or buy a car um so our team finds that type of work very very rewarding whether it's that work or working with our seniors or in our therapeutic work or working with our youth development teams uh or early

[14:15]  child Center when you see people prosper and Achieve things in a good life it's very very rewarding in that way I mean we're talking about sustainability right just parachuting in and parachuting out doesn't give us the sustain results that we're looking for but you also used a word incredibly intentionally there as well Scott you said participants why did you choose to label the individuals you guys serve as participants well because our participants are highly active and very hardworking and if you call them in my opinion clients then you're putting yourself above them where participants they are equal and we are walking together uh and working together on whatever their goals are uh the other piece of it is is like I said hardworking when our old transactional programming we may see uh a participant

[15:05]  in the building three times a year on average to a coaching session or to a class today our participants are averaged 49 times a year in the building in a coaching or a classroom environment so uh they are participating heavily and uh are the major drivers of their success and we're just walking with them and supporting them and helping Supply the tools for them to reach those goals Scott how do you get such incredible I would say um raises in trajectory of participation and stickiness right from 3: to 49 something in the middle had to happen well I think it's the relationship and uh our our staff have very deep relationships with our participants it's like not like I said it's not a transaction it's not go pay for my uh groceries and I'm out the door

[15:55]  and I don't know the cashier our participants develop deep relationships with our participants and they know that they're in their corner and supporting them and and cheering them on per se uh because that's what creates success and for all of us well you know one of the things I'd like to talk about is some of the differences maybe that you recognize in the nonprofit sector compared to the corporate world one of which is CEOs have to wear a ton of hats now you have to be not only the vision Caster but you also have to be the Gap filler the fundraiser and everything else that comes along with that so how have you been able to kind of settle into this role as CEO of LifeWise with all the additional responsibility and the creativeness that you need to fulfilling the mission well it's a uh obviously a CH challenge juggling a lot of different balls I mean uh you know today I've done

[16:45]  facility work I've done fundraising work I've done collaborative work and that's just until I get to uh my desk um and I often say in the morning I uh plan my day and when I go home at night I realize I probably only got to 20% of what I planned because so many interruptions came in but at the same time that makes the uh job interesting uh but also for me it's important that I make sure my staff are not bogged down with details and backed up drains and things like that so that they can focus on the work they're doing which is direct Frontline work with our participants um so at some level it gives a lot of variety but it also some level keeps you challenged and moving at all times I think that's it's an amazing point for me to kind of ask you about the new generation of team members who you have to attract and retain within

[17:34]  the organization is much different from where we were 15 10 20 years ago a new generation of people want to be connected to Mission they want to be seen they want to be heard they want to be validated one of my favorite books is a a book by a guy named Gary vaynerchuk he goes by Gary ve on social media came out with a book in 2022 called 12 and a half and the entire book was about the soft skills empathy compassion tenacity curiosity and why those skill sets were going to be so important for leaders of the future Generations because touching on those soft skills is so important how do you kind of think about the necessity for those soft skills when you're leading the organization with a different generation of people well it's it's the difference between your success and not success um we're a changing world we have every generation has

[18:22]  different priorities and different uh needs uh and you better be adaptable uh to man multiple Generations at a time in that way uh because for those individuals they're all valid needs and valid wants um and in a way that's good because it also keeps us more creative we get out of boxes um we learn from each other we learn to be more adaptable um and those are all important traits to have you know I think if we're going to be able to meet the needs of the communities that we serve we have to be steadfast on where we're going but flexible on how we get there and so one of the things I love bringing into these conversations is I was listening to a podcast one time no I'm sorry a keynote speech by uh Jeff Bezos and he was talking about the difference between decisions and experimentation he said

[19:11]  you know often when we are a part of an organization and we make decisions together those decisions feel final and if we have to backtrack it can feel like a failure but if you run experiments in the organization our mindset changes and he said let me tell you about one of the biggest experiments we've run at Amazon it was was a $690 million experiment and it failed we tried to create the fir phone to compete with the Apple phone and the Google pixel it failed we had to shut it down but we did get Alexa and we also got the Kindle out of that experiment what do you think about the necessity to create a culture of experimentation to do things differently and to create that culture of I would say experimentation but also flexibility and how you guys get to where you guys are going I think it's key to success quite honestly of any organization

[20:00]  whether it's a business or a nonprofit and I think one of the things as a leader my job is to say yes 99% of the time um so that the team can go out and try new things and and um try and have a greater impact um and if you treat it as something that you try and it fails then it's a learning curve and it'll make us better in the long run and it'll make us better in our next step out of the box but um um I really do think that uh we have to be creative we have to be think that uh we're smarter today than we were yesterday and have learned from yesterday um so we should be growing and trying new things and experimenting uh for greater impact because that's what it's all about we want to touch more lives in a more impactful way have you

[20:47]  always had that mindset in business and your corporate career or is this something you kind of came into with an understanding as you became more seasoned you know I think uh the higher up you go the easier it is to do because you have of a broader area um when I was younger and uh at lower level management positions and I think a work ethic and high expectations and setting higher standards plays a good foundational role but the higher up you go and the more uh leadership people you are over then you have to be more creative because everybody's different everybody's buttons need to be pushed differently and react and respond to things differently so you better be uh multi-dimensional there's a a CEO who I was listening to the other day his name is Jason freed he uh is the CEO and founder of a company

[21:35]  called 37 signals they created a platform called base camp which is kind of like a slack if you will a lot of people use and he said you know one of the things that I've realized as I've gotten more mature in my entrepreneurship and business journey is I realized the role of the CEO is often to inject risk into the organization and now when I heard that I was like wait risk what do you mean he was like everybody who is on the front lines you're upper level managers and even your executive team often they are not thinking about how they can inject risk into the work that they do every day by experimenting and trying different things so you have to create that safe place to challenge people to stretch a little bit because that's where the Magic's at and that's the first time I ever heard that from a CEO he is absolutely correct because the workers are afraid to make mistake

[22:22]  because they're afraid of of getting in trouble because that's a culture that we've developed historically um you get punished if something doesn't go right or if something fails uh the reality of it is it should be the opposite um you're never going to grow and continue to grow and continue to have greater success unless you get out of the box you're in today and try new things and experiment with new things uh because again if we're not smarter today than we were yesterday then there's a problem you know I I'm really interested um because you were saying that you know your job as CEO to say yes 99% of the time how are you kind of thinking about this ever changing and evolving world of technology coming in to have an impact in spaces like yours artificial intelligence right has been all over the

[23:09]  news over the last couple years but recently because of some Innovation that came out of China with deep seek and things like that large language models AI people are thinking about them as being digital team members of the future how are you guys kind of thinking about that Tech to help you you know capitalize and serve your community well we're very open to Tech uh take makes is more efficient uh and and has better results um in the nonprofit world you're usually uh two or three steps behind that um when I came into this organization to lead it in 2011 we were still using Windows 97 uh because there's a there's a and every computer we had in the building was something that was passed down from a corporation that was 10 years old um so that's a different another tweak that you have to do as a nonprofit leader you

[23:58]  you have to supply your team with the tools they need and uh you don't need to operate as you as you live in poverty if you run a nonprofit um if nothing else you need the opposite our staff needs because we don't have a deep bench we don't have extra players on the field they need the tools to make their jobs as efficient as possible as they can so anything new that makes job easier that gives us better information that would have a greater impact on our participants achieving a better life we need and we don't need to be the last ones to get it now with one of the things I've had the privilege of is I'm 34 years old now and as I get a little bit older I've had the privilege of seeing patterns right I saw the internet come up I saw the internet crash I saw AI come I saw the internet all these

[24:45]  type of things are you recognizing any type of patterns in your career when it comes to technology like artificial intelligence and all the other Innovation that comes out here does it remind you of any other periods in time you know not off the top of my head it doesn't I think the um I think probably for the biggest piece is you get back to the phone you know uh in my generation at my age you know you went from a a landline to a uh a big old box in your car to the the little thing that fits in your pocket so uh that's probably the biggest transitional piece from that you see and if you can relate that to other Ai and other technology going forward at a higher rate at a faster speed even uh it's going to be amazing uh because the efficiencies and the impact it'll

[25:32]  have on life in general not only convenience but expertise and doing the things the right way yeah it's really interesting I think we have to really hone As Leaders right the skill set of curiosity we have to look at these tools through a lens of curiosity and not say yes or no but say maybe and then try and go through the work and the time that it's going to take to fit these things into our organization right and bring people in that are more adaptable than you are to technology M very true so here's a question for you as we think about scaling impact right in the community what does 2025 look like for you guys what are some of the key initiatives you guys are hoping to accomplish things that you're hoping are going to be that Domino that creates that windfall for you guys what are you guys hoping for well our goal and strategically is uh not to open up more

[26:19]  buildings in St Louis to do more work our our goal is to hire more staff and put them in other nonprofit spaces uh to to team up with another organization to have greater impact um and that way you don't have the cost and management of buildings um and your dollars really go to Frontline impact with the participants so that's our goal um we have a goal you mentioned earlier our economic Wellness uh program and the impact it has uh we have a goal of doubling the number of those Ida accounts that allow people to save towards the cars the houses the repairs and about 10 categories of savings overall um to double the number of people that start that program um So within a two-year period um we'll have so many more people buying cars and

[27:08]  houses and changing lives than than even that result of 2023 man this is so cool to be able to sit across this table with you Scott I have a one of my final questions before we kind of land the plane here is if you were able to go back in time 20 years and you were able to have a conversation with yourself about what you needed to do to capitalize on the future things you should get prepared for and give yourself 5 minutes of advice what would you say to that younger version of Scott as he was going to navigate the future to come meet me here today I would say take more risk and take him sooner and faster um not be uh afraid to fail um I think uh Society is a little bit more forgiving a failure today and bounces back from it than say 20 years ago but I

[27:56]  don't think we're going to get to where we need to be as a country and Nation uh or as individuals unless we take more risk and get out of our comfort zones and our and our little boxes well you know Scott we have a tradition here on the podcast as we kind of land the plane and the question that we always love to pose is a blind question that came from our previous guest now our previous guest on the podcast wanted to ask you if you could do anything different in your career and had to choose a different segment of work to go into and invest your time in what would it be and what would you do in that space well good question considering I've been in uh both the corporate world and the business world and the nonprofit world so that narrows things down a little bit um but I would uh I would say probably

[28:43]  teach um because I think uh the impact you have on lives uh as teachers is huge um and is a life-changing work that you're affecting so many and and I think today are teachers don't get enough credit they don't get enough pay uh and they have an even tougher job to do so um I would like to probably teach but then hopefully help reev revolutionize that industry as well in some way because uh for us here LifeWise education we think is the ticket out of poverty and can have create the most impact on the future of individuals is the LI not only formal education but life skill job skill and on so Scott you know I want to give you an opportunity

[29:29]  to run the last couple seconds here the podcast as a little promotion or a commercial how can people get involved with LifeWise how can they find out more about what you guys do and how they can they support the mission well just the first thing we do is jump on our website uh at LifeWise s.org and see the different programs we have because we really serve uh babies to seniors um and have a breath of programming um and not real narrow you know it's uh we serve the whole with of of life um and see what we're doing because there's something there that everybody can relate to or had an experience we have wonderful volunteer opportunities to get engaged in support I often say uh nonprofit uh if we were a for-profit business we'd have a third more staff because we're nonprofit We have a pretty

[30:16]  lean Beach but there's volunteers can help and do a lot to support that um second thing obviously is every nonprofit needs financial support uh but the big thing is is learn and educate about some of issues we are working on and advocate for them um right Senators right your Congress people uh your local city people to make changes uh to make this a better place and a better world uh because if we're all more equal and closer the better the world's going to be well Scott I it's easy to understand why you're on the show here today because you are the definition of heart and hustle with all the people who you're serving in your community the advocacy the change is the Innovation the Curiosity it's so cool to be able to share your story man I can't thank you for everybody else who's tuning in

[31:03]  watching and listening today Scott Walker thanks for joining the show man well thank you and I don't do it alone we got a great team here so thank you for having us all right guys we'll catch you in the next one