From Business to Philanthropy: Russell Robinson on Leading a $300M Nonprofit

[0:00]  something I harp on a lot our world is full of followers the difference and I'm very simple about this and I I make this in a lot of speeches there is good and evil the reason evil has opportunities is cuz good leaders did not fill the vacuum not the followers the reason evil takes over sometimes and wins is because their leaders filled the vacuum and got more followers to follow their evil ways now you want to blame the followers no you want to even blame the leaders I don't even blame evil leaders I blame the good leaders who are not filling the vacuums and bringing

[0:47]  other good followers along people want to be followers the majority and you myself so many of us out there we have that opportunity to lead and that's why I talked about philanthropy and joining organizations and being part of it because people want to follow but if you're not going to take the leadership role if you're going to say you know what even the good people that want to start their own big foundation and I'll do this good work CU I don't want to be bothered with this board of directors I don't want to be bothered with negotiating with people I'm going to be honest with you I think you failed the great world of good welcome back to another episode of the

[1:42]  hard and hustle here we got Mr Russell Robinson he is a president and the CEO of or president and founder I would say are you the founder right not the founder it's started 1901 so I'm not that old oh no no no no never mind we're just the president here the president of the Jewish fun thank you so much for being here man can I always love to start this conversation like this if I meet you in New York right you're in New York correct we're in we're in New York and I meet you at a coffee shop I think you drink coffee as well right I do a lot and I and I I run into you and I say hey Mr Robinson you look pretty nice you're always kept up you always has been last conversations what what do you do man what do you do for living what does that actually sound like what is your dayto day so first off thank you for having me on uh the podcast so is a

[2:30]  CEO I I I would say the chief executive officer because I I I like to go with the the title of the professional side because um it is the one who is in charge of of the implementation of the organization's goals and objectives um it's helped in direct the goals and objectives but the implementation so my job as the CEO meaning for a cup of coffee is to be able to take uh dreams and turn them into realities to take a business format of people and how to uh bring that together to to implement those uh uh realities to take stakeholders um which is even more difficult than stockholders uh of it and take their dreams and help them through

[3:18]  their philanthropic Investments realize that they could be part of great dreams and realities of tomorrow I love Russell and you've had a remarkable Journey actually from private sector to nonprofit leadership how has this transition actually shaped your approach to leveraging um even technology maybe within your organization well I think that first off nonprofit is a a tax status not a a business philosophy and I think that's so important in the nonprofit world that we have to be aware of and we have to operate that way no matter what the nonprofit is if you're feeding in a in a in a soup kitchen uh you know there's a dollars and cents how much you going to do and how much you to cost you and and and what's your Roi on it and it's not the return on investment that you would

[4:05]  have as a personal investor but how many people are going to feed so everything about nonprofit should be run as a business and I think that I was able to and they were allowed to bring in uh business acents into a nonprofit environment which is always difficult because in a nonprofit too many times people say well the cause MH well if you believe in the cause then you also believe you're got to be in business next year or the year following and you're doing good work so run it as a business and uh uh I I have been allowed to do that I think I have the skill sets to do it coming from the business world but I've been allowed to do it and that means in technology you know today in the world this is the reality this that we're doing here is a reality and maybe in five years we're going to do it

[4:52]  virtually in somewhere on mars or something but but that's that's the changes of the world I I'm not going to fight the iPhone and the flip and the Casio and and and Samsung and whatever else there is out there I'm not going to be able to compete with uh the Instagram and the tiktock so you got to figure out how are you going to communicate in those methodologies how are you going to utilize it and how do you take technology to be your friend and not the foe I love that uh technolog is everything man we I I always like to go back to at some point we were talking about iPods being the biggest thing in the world and that was just a couple of years ago and now iPod no one talks about it anymore man the way that technology is evolving AI you know AI is one of those things that people don't

[5:39]  realize has been around for a long time right the text predictions on your phone was always AI we just weren't calling AI we weren't talking about it and now it's just a thing it's just a conversation everyone's having and that's the reality that we're in and so if you're talking about bringing people involved into your organization uh and you and then you're going to have to talk to them them at their space I always will tell people that sit around and go yeah but we but why should we only tell our messages in in 30 seconds we should tell it in 20 minutes I said well nobody's going to listen to your 20 minutes so you either figure out how to do it in 30 seconds or you won't have any customers y I say Amazon messed that up when they started to do Same Day deliveries ever since that world started everyone just wants everything quick and in a hurry right now short and sweet right that's how

[6:26]  people like to keep it by the way it's on on on on uh your website or your donor uh um acquisition listen because of quote the Amazon yeah how come I could order a refrigerator on Amazon in less than 45 seconds but I can't make a gift to your organization in less than four minutes uh you know that's that is the competition in the space of time and and so we have to learn to to adapt to it it's not easy it's not inexpensive and and it's uh it's frustrating yeah or or even people that may need um communication from such a of a nonprofit right how do they get that communication can they get it immediately 24/7 if they want to be at 3:00 in the morning trying

[7:13]  to find out something about the Jewish National Fund can they do it and that's the space like you said people are now kind of adapting to it because with so many of the AI Bots and chat Bots it's it's just happening it's in front of us for sure and and and that's again uh if you want customers you got to figure out how now in a nonprofit environment it's very difficult sometimes because you don't have the kind of money that an Amazon does on the technology and and your website's not going to be as interactive as the United Airline uh uh uh site because just dollars and cents yep so then you have to get back into what are you capable of doing and not doing that's a business acument as well sometimes you got to say well the website then cannot do this and cannot do this because this it is important to our our donor base and

[8:02]  our our people and again that's where dealing with stakeholders when you're dealing with philanthropic investors they're sitting here you have to convince them because you have to be good enough to understand this is your you know this is my occupation this is my advocation uh you can't be a helicopter uh uh leader come in and dust it up and say oh well why can't we do this and walk away we have to be able to talk with also the knowledge and sincerity and and and and uh uh the base of data information to be able to say you know we cannot do this cuz this is what we're not capable of this but this is what we are capable of doing I love it what sparked your interest in shifting towards the nonprofit work particularly at the Jewish National Fund you go from just as

[8:51]  you mentioned that for-profit world but then you dive deep into the nonprofit what kind of you to for for me it's kind of I'm going to give you a little bit of the personal journey and and the personal journey is that I grew up in a small town in in Texas uh uh being Jewish was a a minority minority were a minority but then there was a really minority and um um you know it was all about uh uh the the the tough part about being a Jew we lost 6 million people in the Holocaust and and and uh we were dealing with survival of a nation in Israel and and so I had this opportunity to get involved into an organization that I could bring instead of the O the great achievements that we were doing I

[9:37]  got involved in this organization 27 years ago because it was Ronald Lauder from SC Lauder had brought me here because he wanted to deal with the water catastrophe facing the Middle East now I have to tell you I knew zero about water then and I found out that Ronald Luder knew less than I did but we understood there was a catastrophe catastrophe facing uh Israel and the whole Middle East and in two and a half years we developed a plan people told us we weren't able to raise money on sewage water and that's what we were raising money on and $300 million later we have allowed Israel to become number one in the world of reuse water 90% of its water is reused Spain is number two at 27% to show you the differential and we

[10:26]  have been able to bring a drop of water which is a drop drop of life to an entire nation that literally is bring food onto the plates of them as well as their neighbors and provide water to Jordan today because there is a water availability in Israel and divide those uh uh provide those kind of expertise to Kenya and to places around the world that literally putting food onto their uh um populations because of a little place called Israel and a nonprofit called the Jewish National Fund and then we were able to take the desert 60% of the land of Israel and how to turn it green and how to bring populations there and how to create create a change and so when you're able to wake up every day utilize your business uh uh part of

[11:16]  your mind being able to create change for a world and then bring people along with you and that's one of the greatness about philanthropy is that we have this opportunity to fail now that sounds like a tough word because if you're coming from the business World well I I have to tell you not all businesses succeed but we're able to take a risk far in in in ahead of what businesses were willing to do to be able to take an opportunity to make a change onto the world wow that's powerful and then then the greatest thing about philanthropy and I this is a tough statement but there's some big philanthropists out there they're doing great work don't get me wrong but if they're not joining or organizations they haven't done a job for philanthropy be the head of Jewish National Fund be

[12:05]  the head of American Red Cross of anything that you want to be United Way But allow people to join you in your great Venture of making change in the world so you could be these great philanthropists that start their own foundations and do their own thing but that's not philanthropy and that's not changing the world and that's not bringing others allowing them to participate in the greatness creating a change for our world and me a Jewish tle fund I've been allowed to do that and every day I'm just thankful that that I have this great opportunity an amazing opportunity anytime that you get to make a difference in the world man we only hear but a short period of time so you know while we here why not leave our our Legacy and giving back to others that um may not have the ability to provide or

[12:54]  or do things and and never knowing right when you're pouring into somebody else what that does for the next person now that person can ort to somebody else which is why coming together and collaborating as you mentioned going to organization makes makes so much sense and you're having so much background in business how do you think that influen the Strategic decisions that you're making right now at the Jewish National Fund the willingness to take risks the willingness to to to allow people to be part of the discussion and and then to to be able to uh um uh sculpture the discussion to make sure that it's going for a uh a purpose so you know you could have process in the excuse of action or process for the opportunity to make action if you're in business you're going to bring the best and the

[13:41]  brightest around you you're going to learn and then you got to make something happen because the end of the day that's how your business is going to run and nonprofits should not be any different than that uh anywhere in the world um next is that you know if you're running a great business you're getting their team together on a professional side now this is even more difficult because you do have a stakeholders so they're giving you money and you got to bring them along with you uh but it's it's not much different than running a business it's just you know you don't get to hire and fire people but you do have board of directors and so big corporations have big board of directors and and sometimes they're looking at what is their return on investment and not the mission of the company so you have to constantly be putting in front of them because I will

[14:29]  tell you big corporations have changed and gone out of business because their board of directors only cared about the return on a stock not what their business was doing but you have to be good enough strong enough and and and and and be able to give the right data and information to tell people we want to be around for the next 5 25 and 50 years and we want to return on your philanthropic investment they'll be immediate but it may not be tomorrow I love that I love that listen you could tell you're a good leader at what you do man you could tell that just talking to you I just want to see you in a board room I just want to see you have these conversations you're just so good at this C can you describe how your leadership style has also changed or maybe evolved over your time at the Jewish National Fund we know now exactly

[15:16]  what what you brought into it but what what are you taking out of it when it comes to that leadership style that you always have to uh be willing to change um don't be scared uh I I believe that our organization in my 27 years has probably become five or six different kinds of organizations not on Mission but on operation um what worked yesterday is not going to work today and I believe in business and so you know the failure sometimes in business is that you don't make those uh um real thought you know uh conversations with yourself so we'll look at our back room operation and change it around we'll look at the administrative ways that we're doing things change it around we're looking at our fundraisers our salespeople change it around we bring people involved to utilize their their great skill sets as well don't be scared

[16:04]  of that it's a it it sometimes even in business you you get them I've evolved and realized that listen if people are giving me a lot of money they woke up in the morning and they figured out how to make it if they work figured out how to make it maybe I could suck their brains dry with information and learn a lot from it don't be scared of learning a lot and have faith in young people I Believe In My Heart the people around me the people who work with me the young people they're tomorrow they're so intelligent don't think that you know more because you're around you may have had more experiences but they have such great Brilliance and I so much have evolved into understanding that young people young people have so much to offer but so many times they're stifled and and

[16:54]  and so we tried to bring that out and and opened up every different part of this and said you know that that our young deserve a seat at that table and to be part of the decision making I love it I um and it goes back to just the space and the time of growth for them where so much technology is around and they're deep into the technology while some still may be um not on that challenge right still kind of left behind and and I see it happen a lot of times in leaders where people are still playing that I'm comfortable here game but we're in a space where now just AI technology of AI if people understand AI there's so many opportunities out there people are talking about AI taking opportunities I believe there's actually opportunities for people to actually

[17:42]  scale in businesses because they understand AI so you're talking about that youth they're kind of in that space where they they know what's happening do you feel that you your team is actually um excited about technology in the AI space Maybe for communication within the company or things like that I think we're all scared of it anyway I think that even the best are scared of it because of that unknown but will you take AI you know that you could uh draft up information and letters and programs that you you know I I literally yesterday I'm writing a a business plan for something that we're doing I spent hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours doing research putting the p and then I saw the uh you know chat piece and I said let me loaded up and

[18:29]  and all of a sudden it turned it and and took all this language that I did and put it into a i wow now I had to do a lot of the work yeah but so I'm not scared of that and I'm not even embarrassed of it but if I didn't put it in there it would have been you know 98 pages of a lot of words because I as the writer as The Thinker am overthinking and over processing and then this system was able to put it down in in a concise down from you know 84 down to 22 pages and it was much more readable and understandable and so that's one two is that you know we have data so at Jewish National Fund we got a database of 1.7 million households we have over a

[19:16]  million cell phone numbers and almost two billion email addresses and and ages of people but something else so that everybody that comes to an event I I can tell you that we had 972 people at events across this country in the past 32 30 days I can tell you what events they came to I can even look back and see did they come to the same kind of event last month last year that's a powerful information that you cannot be scared of Technology you got to farm it and utilize it and take it for your work today and your planning for tomorrow and uh um so technology is scary to each and every one of us you know I you're always scared that you're going to lose all the stuff in your phone I I don't even know where to I know that is so true you know I found out that our cloud is a big

[20:03]  building in Illinois somewhere you know and I I really did think it was a cloud for a while but technology is technology and so you got to get into it look what we're doing here um but look at what happened in covid So Co hit yeah technology at least for us allowed us to grow we were putting on an organization over we pivoted in two years we were on Zoom as if we were live we took people listen this number 50,000 people we took to Israel during covid not live they came on one week virtual trips to Israel with a live guide in Israel taking them from their living room with pictures through a tour of Israel 50,000 people technology it could be a great opportunity of course I fear it because I don't understand it

[20:51]  and we don't understand but we just have to be part of it so I I got a question just think about this one right here so what challenges do you would you if you had AI to assist you and your team in a perfect world what does that look like what challenges would you want AI to assist you with to give me um by my donors and by my Collective group of donors some of their things that I may I may know you may know one this one remember we have a lot of people that are their account managers and dealing with them they're putting the information in and AI can take that and consolidate it unlike anything that I'm going to be able to do with a query Or List give me some narratives on people and also then on that to be able

[21:40]  to give me some information that I'm missing so I'm able to find out what to do tomorrow because if we're not asking the question about where their heads at if we're not asking the question about where they're looking at how they see the world and so some of that is an information and AI can bring that to us and then uh we have to have that ability to have that conversation with people to find out about tomorrow and the I think the most powerful piece is also to find out about their family um you know we we will know that their children are going here the grandchildren are going here but again it's information in a data that doesn't give us information why is so many people going to University of Nebraska or why are so people going and and and where are they how are they traveling today and you know part of our thing is we have to take them to Israel

[22:28]  to see our work well that's not as easy as to take them down to the the research center around the block that may be their uh work so we have to see what is their patterns what are their conversations in their in their data that we're not looking at and AI is that powerful instrument that I believe is going to bring that to us I love it Russell I can hear the Curiosity I can tell that you you if there was that thing you would be more excited to um just work on it figure it out I I want to ask you what are the key growth Milestones that you've had during your leadership at the Jewish National Fund that you can correct recall I know you've been doing this for some years but anything come to mind mil yeah so my proudest thing is that our fastest growing part of our donor demographic is our 22 to 40 year olds

[23:16]  that's pretty good which it takes a lot of work it it it takes a lot of time there's a lot of frustration on their part on our part again the world's not changing we're we're a big ship you know so you know when you're due to 40 you don't understand why Amazon can deliver in 2 minutes and I can't um so you know we have to get into them we have to find out you know the whole giving by by uh QR codes is it's it's not a great tool but it is the tool so if I'm giving on QR codes and I'm giving online so easily I lost one of the most important thing about contribution which is conversation because then I could click a button $25 I'm finished $25 I'm finished finished where a conversation you may be able to have a conversation about $1,000 or even a donor advice fund for a young person

[24:06]  because they got a stock portfolio and or a multi-year gift that you never would have thought about for somebody at 40 years old or 30 years old uh because they just took the QR code and made the gift so we have to take the methodologies that are in power to us because of Technology but remember that those are the mechanisms with the greatest method ology that we have as a conversation regardless uh if you're doing it for your for children going to school you want to talk to somebody about a donation I could send you out something I can make a quick $25 contribution I have to figure out how to make that happen but my greatest thing is that growth and then looking at the uh how do we make a Continuum how do we take our we have a program that goes into schools

[24:52]  and we work with 20 to 25,000 children between 1 and 7 th grade per year but what's the Continuum of making sure that I'm not Reinventing the wheel when they're in fourth grade Reinventing the wheel in they fifth grade but keep on the Continuum which we call from birth to the boardroom so how do we follow you throughout which means that you're going to grow up in one place go to university in another probably live in three or four places until you're 30 years old and you're not having children until 30 to 35 to 40 years old which is a big uh uh change so we're looking at that but we are we're trying to tackle it every single day I love this conversation man and and the role of philanthropy in

[25:40]  today's world you kind of talked about it a little earlier we know that the role is is changing how do you see it changing in the modern world well I think that uh um listen the choices become astronomical so I if you're working in anything uh any any children education uh programming uh uh uh human resource whatever it may be uh you know I could go and I could use the word Google kind of oldfashioned I could AI it and find the 42,000 different organizations uh so we have to be able to tell have a conversation and tell a story uh the story cannot be um changing all the time we have to be willing to I always look at businesses in this nonprofits have a terrible habit of

[26:28]  changing messages all the time because somebody in marketing got tired of the message but our customer didn't and yet we don't have the money that Nordstrom has and we think we're smarter than Nordstrom because we'll keep changing with our small little budget for marketing when Nordstrom is consistent on message uh or cocacola um so learn from the big people about what we should do and and be uh uh be part of the conversation and even if it's on social media what is the conversation and then how do we have to bring people along to really have a conversation maybe it's going to be only on Zoom but how do we try to bring it to to person to person how do we try to bring people into this great adventure and that's the big thing that I think that we have to

[27:14]  always remember the greatest thing about philanthropy is that we are Superman we're Wonder Woman we're Spiderman if we're only thinking about a documentary and making a building boy did we fail people want to be part of philanthropy and change of the world because they want to be part of change in the world and the vision of tomorrow and let's don't forget that and if we only going to go down to the level of uh um transactional contribution that organization I don't believe will be around for too long I agree especially at the nonprofit level man you you really got it's all Community Driven it's all making someone feel good it's all showing as you mentioned giving that visual for people to see what their dollars are actually doing because it becomes more impactful

[28:02]  allows them to want to see more kind of that marketing space right but contining that mission that that people are always talking about I I love the nonprofit space it is a business and people don't realize that at the end of the day a for-profit nonprofit there's so many things are just the same and people don't even notice so I always I always challenge someone when they're in their for-profit space well find something that you really truly love and and and start that nonprofit and tell me if it doesn't really kind of go hand in hand in what we're doing on a day-to-day basis as a leader um and as a leader no matter where you go you're always a leader right you can never you can a good leader is a good leader in any environment and Russell you have really proven that right in any environment you you're just good that's just who you are

[28:49]  I listen I I something I harp on a lot our world is full of followers yeah the difference and I'm very simple about this and I I make this in a lot of speeches there is good and evil the reason evil has opportunities is because good leaders did not fill the vacuum not the followers the reason evil takes over sometimes and wins is because their leaders filled the vacuum and got more followers to follow their evil ways now you want to blame the followers no you want to even blame the leaders I don't even blame evil leaders I blame the good leaders who are not filling the vacuums and bringing other good

[29:38]  followers along people want to be followers the majority and you myself so many of us out there we have that opportunity to lead and that's why I talked about philanthropy and joining organizations and being part of it because people want to follow but if you're not going to take the leadership role if you're going to say you know what even the good people that want to start their own big foundation and I'll do this good work cuz I don't want to be bothered with this board of directors I don't want to be bothered with negotiating with people I'm going to be honest with you I think you failed the great world of good because if you don't allow people to follow you if you don't join organizations and bring people along they're going to follow something and it may not be good and

[30:26]  that's our fault for not leading leaders have to lead I love it I love it leaders have to lead that is exactly right and and take that role very serious because like you said people are following people are seeing help people are listening I think a lot of the times people are are yes listening but I would actually say even watching more so the things that what we're doing and the people that we around and all these different you know just a true leader I believe leads whether they're doing it for a nonprofit or they just doing it every single day at home at a grocery store you just have that within you by the way look at this business on social media what do people want to do become an influencer wow think about that what's an influencer an influencer is somebody who's bringing a

[31:14]  lot of followers Along by the way it's called followers yeah and so either be an influencer of good join a nonprofit if you see somebody doing great work in you you want to make be part join it and and work it through and be part of the system and if you're the wealthiest billionaires out there I I'm telling you I I've said it in a public forum to a group of of very uh um involved people foundations and philanthropic advisers to to billionaires and I said to them I'm not going to use the names on this one I I use two major names of people that have great foundations doing great work and I said they do a disservice to philanthropy if you really want to do a great service for philanthropy yes give your money away do great things join an

[32:03]  organization come and join and sit at a board of directors meeting and sit and bring followers with you be an influencer change the world with others so the day you are no longer around that very second that you look around it won't be what you built in edifices it won't even be the services that you provided to all those people in need you're going to look around and see all these people that are still following this cause and making it happen for the next 50 100 years this organization's been around for 125 years because somebody took the risk 125 years ago and others LED it and I have that opportunity today I love it man you're doing an amazing job I can just I can just tell by these conversation that

[32:50]  we've had the second conversation I can definitely see that you just have the passion for what you do most it's not that you want to hold the title is you have the passion for what is that you're doing and that's that leader and for the listeners who are inspired by the work that you're doing at the Jewish National Fund what are some ways that they can actually get involved or or contribute so first off if you go on our website which is always never up to date 100% because we're nonprofit is you know jnf now my web people are going to kill me uh at JN f.org jn. org uh we do everything from even if you want to do something very meaningful plant a tree in Israel uh we have over 300,000 trees that are planted and and purchased some in memory of somebody and birth of

[33:37]  somebody you can even start in that way uh you could you can call CEO at uh uh uh at uh jf.com me uh and you can write to me and we would love to have you involved from a local level which we have across the United States and and events that we have or come with us to Israel and be part of seeing a nation still under creation uh a people that is a mult a real story that you can be part of we take non-jewish college students to Israel non-jewish faculty we take uh uh we have a high school in Israel we're taking 1700 high school students mostly from um non-jewish day schools private and public schools and they go for semester broad experience

[34:24]  give us a lead Jewish or non-jewish to come to our high school spend eight or 18 weeks in Israel those young people in 16 17 they'll become great leaders we'll return them academically above or Beyond because we're in a credit American High School but they're also going to learn 4,000 years of our history of all monolithic religions not just the Jewish religion and uh uh and they're going to come back and be uh know the real story uh of of uh making a difference I love it I had so much time uh so much fun with you Russell and I know we can continue um more and more we're kind of get into the end of this and I don't know if you've seen a full episode of the hard and hustle podcast but me and Keenan love to do something fun which is always asking a leader a blind question now this blind question comes from another leader previously and at the end of it all you can also ask the next

[35:13]  guest a a blind question so we're GNA put you in the hot seat first we got a blind question for you are you ready if you could address one misconception that people often have about the nonprofit sector especially when it comes to the context of tackling Global challenges what would that actually be and why is that the nonprofit sector does not have the power yet if you look at all the change that we have ever done in this world it's always come from the nonprofit sector governments are Risk adversion by by basis they have to get reelected so they love to be there at the day after not at the day before uh businesses are risk adversion because they're not going to do things that don't have the enough return on investment on on on their investment on a personal or or business

[36:00]  level nonprofits have the opportunity and they've had the history of being the change agents of the world uh it's in education it's in poverty it's in dealing with issues of of of food uh of of everything that goes on nonprofits follow it Arts and Sciences and everything that goes on the nonprofit is the leader if you think it's going to be done by a government it won't if you think it's going to be done by business it won't a nonprofit is the change agent of the world I agree Russell I used to when I was a little younger um thought I wanted to be politic you know you're commissioner your mayor things like that and to to your point I felt that I can actually do so much more from a

[36:47]  nonprofit standpoint than I can actually do from the government because there are the restrictions when it comes to government on what you can do what you can't do things like that and and nonprofit there were some restrictions but it you so much more opportunity and I love the nonprofit space for that and every time I think about a politician I don't want to go and argue with someone I want to be able to join forces with someone and make a true difference and I think that's what a nonprofit does very very well you see nonprofits come together all the time there's no it's not uh I want to be better than a nonprofit is how can we continue to grow for that same Mission and politicians government they just can't see eye to eye so I love what you that you just see it like that because it it is it is so true um anyway that got me pumped up because no listen I I would if I can tell 30 seconds I'll tell a quick story I when I

[37:35]  was young much younger I got involved in politics and I helped the guy get elected and we were sitting in his office on the first day and I said so what are we going to work on thinking World Peace you know hunger you know uh uh whatever and he looked at me he said reelection and that's when I realized he's right by the way I didn't have to like it but he was right you know they're always working for the real C so nonprofits give us that chance we could take the we take the great risks of the world yeah yeah that is true that is true so I I put you that now I put you back in the hot seat man for the next leader that we speak to here on the hard and hustle podcast myself or Keenan we always like to use um that blind question from a leader like yourself what would that actually be for someone else how are you going to be part of bringing other people into this business how are you going to be people uh to

[38:23]  have this as a profession uh how are you going to go out and talk about about it to make it um an Envy to to be in this business that it's not something like you know we should never say nonprofit that's silent well I'm a non no I'm in the nonprofit world how are you going to be part of making that the proudest profession on the face of the earth I love it well guys if you guys are still watching it has been a pleasure to have the president CEO of the Jewish National Fund with us here today Russell Robinson make sure you guys do like follow And subscribe for more great conversations with leaders my name is ephra this is Russell we'll catch you guys on the next conversation bye