E122: Leading Through Trauma, Burnout & Transformational Philanthropy with Laura Bode

Hello Podcast fam. I am thrilled to share some exciting news. My book so Grow Lead is officially live on Amazon. This book is more than just my story of starting a nonprofit and building a peanut butter factory in Malawi. So trust me, the ups and downs of that journey are worth the read. It's also packed with practical strategies to help nonprofit leaders like you tackle challenges with clarity, clarity, courage, and a whole lot of heart. If you've ever wondered how to turn your vision into reality, navigate the inevitable hurdles, and build something meaningful, whether in your organization or in your own life, this book is for you. I'd be so grateful for your support in spreading the word. Grab your copy of Sow Grow Lead in the show notes and on Amazon today. Let's keep sowing seeds of impact together. Welcome to the Lead With Heart podcast, which is dedicated to nonprofit leaders who are passionate about making a difference. I'm your host, Hailey Cooper, and I'm thrilled to have you join us on a journey of growth, inspiration and transformation. At Lead With Heart, we believe that leading with heart means embracing empathy, compassion, and authenticity in every aspect of our work. It's about putting people first, fostering genuine connections, and creating a positive impact that goes beyond numbers and metrics. In the nonprofit world, it can often feel like we're carrying the weight of the world on our shoulders. The challenges are immense and the road can be lonely. But here you're not alone. This podcast is a community where we support each other, share our stories, and learn together. Each episode, we'll dive into personal and professional development topics tailored specifically for nonprofit leaders. From innovative fundraising strategies and effective team management, self care practices and leadership insights, we're here to provide you with practical strategies that you can apply to your life and work. My goal is to empower you, elevate your leadership, and engage your heart in all that you do. I want to help you navigate the unique challenges of the nonprofit sector with confidence and resilience so you can continue to create meaningful change in the world. So whether you're driving to a meeting, taking a break, or winding down for the day, tune in and join us on this journey. Together. We'll discover what it truly means means to lead with heart. Thank you for being here. Let's dive in. Hello everyone. Welcome back to the Lead with Heart podcast. This is your host, Haley Cooper, and I am so excited for our guest today. She is someone who embodies the kind of leadership we talk about so often here on the podcast. Laura Bode is the Vice President of Philanthropy and the incoming Chief Philanthropy Officer ADA Newly, a powerhouse nonprofit serving more than 30,000 people each year through shelter, housing, domestic violence services, foster care, and so much more. But what makes Laura's story truly extraordinary isn't just the scale of her impact. It's the heart behind it. She's a survivor of trauma who found healing later in life and has since dedicated herself to helping others do the same. Laura has walked through burnout, rebuilt from a place of deep purpose, and led her organization's philanthropic growth from 300,000 to over 10 million. She leads with empathy, authenticity, and courage, modeling what it looks like to bring your whole self to the work of serving others. I can't wait to hear more of your story and the wisdom that you're going to bring to this podcast. Welcome, Laura. Thank you so much, Hailey. So, obviously in your intro, we talked about how your story is one of both survival and transformation. Can you share a bit about your personal journey? Sure. I grew up in a home with domestic violence, and no child should ever have to feel this. But constantly being afraid of what's going to happen, never knowing what's going to happen next. And there was physical violence, but mostly it was a lot about mental abuse and not knowing if you were smart, if you could make a decision, constantly being told that you couldn't, and really struggling with confidence. So it's interesting to be in a leadership role now and having learned it took a long time to build that confidence, and it took a lot of mentors in my life to show me that I do have value. So I'm super grateful to those people that not only have gotten me to the leadership role that I'm in today, but have really helped me heal from a lot of that trauma and find my strength in who I am. Wow. That's beautiful. And thank you so much for sharing. I'm just so inspired by your courage. And I can relate to having those key people. I was telling someone the other day, like, I had amazing coaches in high school that, like, really got me through hard times. They believed in me. And sometimes you just need those people to believe in you so that it can unlock the potential that's already within you. Right. But you need someone else sometimes to believe in you so you can believe in yourself. And I think that's wonderful that you had that support system. That's what I would tell people that have experienced something like that is just look for those people and latch onto them and learn from them. You can learn from people in a lot of different ways, quietly just observing them and seeing how they Are leaders how people respond to them and just trying to emulate that. If you didn't have that role model when you were growing up. And I didn't looked, just always looked for that throughout my life. And it is what led me to social work, which is where I started. And I really wanted to be a social worker. There was no judgment of where people are. It was so easy to judge somebody who is homeless, who's in a domestic violence situation, who's struggling with addiction, behavioral health issues. It's really easy to judge those people if you don't have any clue of what their background story is. Maybe they did grow up in a really abusive home and to the point of they don't have any self confidence, they didn't know anything else. So I really wanted to go into social work and help other people. When I finished my degree, I had really young children at home and started looking for that social work job. And everything was evenings and weekends and long hours and drive all over the state and did the thing that I didn't want to do. I went into the administrative side of nonprofit and was sure I would be bored to death. And I was. Throughout of my career here at the New Leaf, there's been a lot of opportunity for me that. Yeah, not boring anymore, that's for sure. Yeah. Fundraising definitely keeps you on your toes. So can you share a little bit more of what led you into the world of philanthropy and how your own healing has shaped the way that you lead today? I've never met a single person that said I wanted to be a fundraiser when I grew up, and I can say the same. But I started off working with government grants and contracts and it was pretty dry. And this was a time when a New Leaf got their start as a human service provider in the Phoenix metro area 54 years ago, had been for many years almost entirely government funded. So 95% government funded. But when I first came on board 13 years ago was when they're starting to see a shift a little bit. That gap growing of what government funding could support and what the services really cost to provide. In addition to that, just the guidelines, the parameters that government funding kept you under didn't always allow you to provide the services in a way that you knew people needed to receive them. So our board and leadership decided we need to invest more in philanthropy. Now, that had a very slow start. And it really started with me all on my own, developing relationships with corporations and foundations which hadn't been done before. It was like cold applications. That's it. But it was about thinking about our funders as partners and bringing them into really our organization and making them really feel like they were part of the impact that we were having. And it was really successful just with corporations and foundations alone. We took our funding from 300,000 to 3 million. And from there we just continued to grow the philanthropy team, which back when I started was about three people. Now we're about 20 people. Wow. And we have also grown as an organization. We're about a 50 million doll organization now. We serve about 25,000 people a year. So, of course, with that comes additional need for support too. Yeah. So you obviously helped grow A New Leaf's philanthropic revenue from 300,000 to over 10 million, which is obviously an incredible achievement. And on top of that, you helped make it both individual and private foundations, 50, 50 with grants, which is like a whole accomplishment in and of itself. So what were the key mindset shifts or strategic changes that made that growth possible Now? I mean, culture of philanthropy is, you know, the buzz term, right. Of, you know, you got to instill that throughout your organization. That's a lot harder than it sounds, especially for an organization, like I said, that was so heavily government funded, has a long time board members, long serving board members, long serving leadership team. So it really has to be embraced throughout the organization, from board members to CEO to your admin staff to your program staff. And it is definitely a shift in how you operate, how you think about your donors and that they are partners, that they are investors, and the relationships that you need to have with them, the kind of engagement that you need to have with them. Our programs need to have open doors to invite people in and to meet with our. Meet our clients and engage with our staff. And that is not something that they were Anybody was used to doing with government funding. They never had to always keep your head down and do your work kind of thing. So it's been a huge shift and it's been slow and we're not there yet, but it's getting there. And I think now it's just become federal funding challenges that all organizations are experiencing. Oh, everybody's a little bit more desperate for that. Those private dollars. Some organizations are getting started a little late in the game there. I can see a lot of organizations are hiring up now for their philanthropy departments and probably not knowing that it takes years to build that. Yeah, definitely. It's not like a. I always like to say, I have a magic wand in my back pocket to make things happen. Right. Okay. I want to ask you about first, the board, because a lot of organizations that I talk to that are ready to make this shift, they're ready to start building out their individual donors. They're like, oh, well, our board doesn't fundraise. They don't have the capacity to fundraise. Maybe they don't have the network, but they're friends or they served a purpose to be on the board. But now, as they're looking to grow and expand, maybe some of those people. There were no board terms. Like you said, people can sit on for ever. And while they are good philanthropic people, they don't have the knowledge or the capacity to lead the organization in the way that it's going. So how did you navigate that with your board in terms of becoming more sophisticated around building out that culture of philanthropy? So I have, since my introduction, you introduced me as VP of Philanthropy and moving into the role chief LAN Officer. I have since moved into that role. And having a chief Philanthropy officer says a lot. To have a chief at the table at those board meetings that represents our donors and that community engagement is really critical. If you have a development director that's sitting in their office and isn't ever at the table for those board meetings, you're not having that kind of interaction. So with me at the table in all of those board meetings, at our strategic planning meetings, I'm making sure that in our strategic plan, there is objectives and goals related to philanthropy and the board's role in that. In fact, we're having a board retreat tomorrow and putting it back on the board. Hey, you guys set this goal for yourself in terms of how you engage your networks, how we're building a board for tomorrow that does have that philanthropy goal in mind. So having those things in your strategic plan is really critical. I'd also say we have lots of committees, so all of our board members are required to serve on a committee as well. But also with committees, you don't have to be a board member. So I kind of retooled our philanthropy committee recently, and really with the goal of engaging people that wouldn't be interested in being a board member, they don't want to sit through monthly board meetings at 7:30am but they're community philanthropists. They're the socialites. They're out there networking, and they do want to come to maybe four meetings a year where it's fun networking opportunity, where they've got very specific goals about, hey, we're having this event. Can you invite 30 people from your network? And you just make it fun and Easy for them to engage. And that way you're tapping into a whole different network of people that, again, they're not your operational banker board members. Yeah. And I think that's such a good way to look at it. I know people have started giving circles and advisory councils specifically for giving. And I sit on the board. I'm the past board chair of a local organization called the Orange County Nonprofit Professionals Network. And we structure it where people can join the committee, and that's getting their toe in the water. They can understand more about the organization, what we do, and then they can decide if they want to step into a board role. But at least we've seen them active and emotion and committed to the organization rather than just someone's friend or someone the side of the street. Right. Like, these people have shown their dedication, and then maybe they're ready to take it to that next level and take it to becoming a board member. Yeah. It's a great pipeline. Committees are a great pipeline for your board to engage some of those younger, up and coming professionals that are really going to be influential in their careers, but they're not sure if they're ready or if they have the time to serve on the board. So you get them engaged in the committee, you get them to fall in love with your mission. Pretty soon you'll have them on your board. Yeah. And train them to become your best ambassadors. Right. So they can come out into the community. You've spoken a lot about, or I guess before this, about leading with empathy after personal trauma. How do you balance compassion with accountability both for yourself and your team when navigating what is emotionally heavy work. Yeah. With the nature of the services that our organization provides, especially, I think, domestic violence, Having to talk about some really hard stories and the need, the immense need that we can't always fulfill. It takes a toll, and you see it in our program staff. And I think that's actually what fuels a lot of us on our philanthropy team, is seeing how dedicated and how hard our program staff work. And we. We want to support them. We want to give them every tool that we can so that they can be successful in helping the people that they're working with in their programs. A lot of them don't do it for a lot of money, and that's really inspiring for us. And, you know, it takes emotional toll on my philanthropy team, too. When we feel like we can't do enough, we just want to do more. Or we see federal funding cuts and we have to scale back our programs. It just makes Us want to do more, but it also can make you feel a little defeated at the same time. You gotta take care of each other and keep that end goal in mind and not get hung up on the small losses along the way. Because almost always, if you can get through this week, there's going to be something good next week, and you got to just really support each other and you got to count everybody's wins as a team. We've had years where our grants, our corporation foundation grants have been lower, disappointing and not what we had hoped they'd be. But can we, can we build more in another philanthropy area? You know, is that. But have that ownership across the board for your team so that everybody feels like it's a win. Even if we didn't, we missed a goal somewhere else. Lots of burnout in philanthropy, for sure. You see a lot of people moving around and you need just get. You get frustrated. It's hard to hear no's a lot. It's hard to hear disappointment from board and leadership if you don't make your goals. So. And I feel like that's my role, too, is to make sure that that board and leadership understand the challenges that we're facing. And again, you can have the best rock star philanthropy team on the planet, but if you don't have the board support and the leadership support and the investment that it takes to be successful, then that Rockstar team isn't going to go anywhere. Yeah, I definitely agree. And I also think it's also like the effort put into raising that amount of money. Right. Like, you could still be having the donor calls, having the donor meetings, submitting the grants. Right. But maybe the times have changed. Like a lot of foundations I reached out to recently, like, we've, we're in a strategic planning area and we're only funding organizations that we've given it to in the past. And you can't really anticipate that. Right. And so I think that's important. And I love what you said. You're really humanizing the work behind philanthropy. Like, you're gonna hear no. And that sucks. Right? No one likes to be rejected. Understanding that is a part of the job. And then being able to take a pause in between to really check yourself what's coming up for you, what are your thoughts around that. Right. Because that impacts how you show up in the workplace. That impacts your next interaction with either a donor, a funder, or even your team. Right. And so I think that is such an important piece to take care of yourself and take care of Your team, because that helps people feel seen, they feel like they belong and maybe they just won't turn over as fast. Yeah. It's so hard to not take no personally because most of us feel so passionate about the work we're doing. We're so proud of it. Why wouldn't everybody else feel passionate and proud about it too? And sometimes I have great relationships with some of our funders that have really. It's really hard for them to say no sometimes. They hate saying no. And it's not personal. They have, if you, if they can be honest, they have so many more requests for support than they can, than they could possibly fund. It's very hard for them to choose. And it's interesting, especially I think for really for foundations and individual donors, that this concept of, well, I don't want to fund an organization year over year. I don't want them to be dependent on my money. I don't want their programs to close if I can't fund them next year. Like, sad truth is, is when we do depend on them year over year and we do need them, and we hope that you just have enough diversity in your funders that debtors can take a break from you that won't ruin you, that won't break any of your programs. Yeah. And I think that's the whole point of diversifying fundraising. Right. Like in every application they ask, like, how are you going to sustain this program? Are we the only funders? They want to see that you are building out that network of philanthropy within the community that can help sustain the program. So I definitely think that is important. And you also touched out on burnout and that is a lot of what we're talking about on the Lead with Heart podcast. I'm also hosting a summit next year in April on the Lead with Heart summit. And we're talking about burnout and mental health and well being for nonprofit professionals. And so you in your intro mentioned that you experienced burnout. And I think a lot of people are either in the midst of it or have experienced it in the past. What did your own process of rebuilding look like? And now how do you set boundaries for yourself? For sure, I have experienced burnout. And in fact I left a new leaf twice to try something different. And I came back because I am so passionate about what this organization does. I'm so determined to, to help. But you gotta have your people that you can go to, to talk to. For me, it's, it's my past supervisor tired. He really gets it. Obviously he lived it and so you just need somebody to the sounding board, like vomit out all of the bad things. And then when you can hear, when you hear yourself talk about it, sometimes you're your own best counselor. You're like, okay, I can do this, I can get through it. And like I said, it's like you can have a really bad week and then the next week can be amazing. The next week you get the call from the donor that says, you know, we want to, we want to make a big gift. You gotta just look to the future, not try to take things personally. And you got to have some stuff that you do that helps you recenter yourself. For me, I do stained glass. I made stained glass and I got in my garage by myself with binge watching some show at the same time. And I'm creating something. It's very hands on, but it doesn't take a lot of thought. So it just helps me get out of my head and create something beautiful. So I feel like for me I've got to have something else that I do that I look forward to doing besides work all the time. Yeah, I think that's so important because our work, like you mentioned, is hard, it's heavy. We're dealing with the biggest issues that anyone can face and that no one should face. Right. Or have to experience. And I think it is helpful because sometimes when you do something creative or you slow down your mind, that's when your actual most creativity comes. Those ideas, those thoughts. Maybe you were stuck and you just felt exhausted after a day. And sometimes getting into whatever fuels you helps you be able to unlock whatever was stuck inside of you. Yeah. I used to always tell my kids, especially when they're teenagers and one thing can seem like the end of the world, right? Like just go to sleep, you're going to feel better in the morning. And I always feel like for me it's that way too. Sometimes I just feel like something is so heavy, I'm so stressed out about it or it was such a hard experience, but you wake up the next morning, it's a new day. I can tackle this. And you gotta rely on your team too. I really look to my team to carry things forward, to have visions of their own and empower them and try new things and really be in this journey with me. I don't dictate how we're going to achieve our goals. We all need to know what the goal is and we all want to feel passionate about getting it there, but how we get there. I'm open to ideas and let's have fun doing it. And maybe we'll fail at some things, but some things we're really going to succeed at. And that makes it a little bit fun and brings a lot of good energy into it and it makes us feel like good camaraderie. So we do really feel like we're in it together and we do get to celebrate some successes and we lament over the things that we didn't achieve, but we do it together. Yeah, I think that's so important too. Like, I've been in organizations where I've been presented a fundraising plan and like, I've had no buy in on it. And so I think the way that you go about involving your team allows them to want to participate and collaborate and innovate and take risks together because they feel like they have that buy in, they have that say in the process. Yeah, get some excited about it, and then they feel really proud when they accomplish it because it was their idea or they really chose that path. Yeah, definitely. So obviously you've already stepped into the role of chief philanthropy officer. Congratulations. Thanks. Mira, what's your vision for the future of fundraising? Well, I mean, vision is really to take a new leaf from, like I said that past 95% government funded. Now we're like 75%. I do want to take us to 50%. I think we would look like a very different organization. And I say that not just because the funding structure, but because of how the community would know us. A lot of what I've learned in fundraising is marketing. When I talk to other people that are just getting started in that space, it's invest in marketing. It's hard to ask anybody to get behind your mission if they don't know who you are. In our community, if you see something about homelessness, if you see something about domestic violence, I want them to think of a new leaf. Maybe a couple other organizations that really leaders in those space, but really investing in marketing and thinking about how knowing who your donor is, it's the same concept as marketing. Who's your target audience? Who's your donor? Get to know them. What are they passionate about? How do I talk to them about what I do? So I think the future for a new leaf, I think with more emphasis on philanthropy, really looks very different in the community. I'm very excited about that. You know, about people rallying behind the work that we do and wanting to be a part of it. We do a lot of our donor engagement through volunteer support. So that's the most organic way that you can engage somebody is bring them in on a volunteer project. Whether it's painting a shelter unit or putting together hygiene kits or whatever it is, they're doing something hands on, they're falling in love with your mission, and then you can turn them into a donor. So I want people, the community, to feel like they're a part of our organization. Not just with the financial contributions that they made, but the fact that they've been in our programs, they've seen, they've met our program staff, they've helped our program staff deliver those services. Yeah, I think that's so important. And I saw a beautiful example of that last weekend. I was at a gala for somewhere that I used to work, and there was a volunteer sitting next to me and she was a Vol. Well, I started there during COVID in 2020, so there weren't really volunteers coming on campus. But she retired and she raised her paddle for $5,000. And I don't think she had ever given that much in a year, if I can recall. So it was just a powerful way she was there. She was serving. She is so passionate about the organization and she wanted to give more. She felt inspired in that moment. And I think it's a missed opportunity to not engage and invite people in a deeper way when they are so passionate about your organization. Think about the pride that she probably felt because she knows the impact of that contribution that she just made. She knows the need because she can see it firsthand. Whereas if you're just a donor kind of sitting on the outside and you never even get to go to a program, you don't feel that same pride, the contribution that you just made. And she most likely is going to be a repeat donor because she has that connection to the agency. It takes an investment in volunteer engagement. It takes a lot of coordination. I actually have three people on my team that just do volunteer engagement. And sometimes this is also about culture, philanthropy, about program staff are. Sometimes it's more work like can't do another event. I don't need these volunteers to come in and do this. Yes, but you do need their funding. So we got to make them feel like part of the family and get them engaged so that we can turn that into something else. So that's a big part of culture change too. But you got to be strategic about volunteer engagement because there's really no end to what we can say yes to for volunteers. And especially with corporations where they're looking for opportunities to engage their employees and. And ways to bring their teams together. But you Gotta be strategic about it. Look at those opportunities as. Is there some other potential to build this relationship here? Because you come to a point where you can't say yes to it all because it just is too much. Yeah. And on that point, most of my career I've worked with. In shelters with people experiencing homelessness and hunger and children. And it can be hard to bring volunteers in because it's such a vulnerable population. And we want to maintain their confidentiality so that if they are survivors of domestic violence, their abusers don't find them, or sometimes the kids don't want to be noticed in school, that they're part of this program. And so we want to maintain that respect and dignity. So how do you find that balance between. Because you obviously serve survivors of domestic violence, like, how do you establish those boundaries or invite people into your organization in the meaningful way that you were talking about? You're so right. That is a huge challenge. And sometimes volunteers can be disappointed if they don't get that interaction with clients. So a lot of it is having staff that are really passionate that can talk about the programs, about the services, about who we serve, and share a client's story in a really personal way. Sometimes you have a client video. But it's not education, too. Not everybody understands that initially, like, well, why can't I engage with people to domestic violence shelter? If we really unpack that for people and explain what led somebody there, the trauma that they're experiencing, the danger that they're in, most people will get it. And actually it makes them feel something more, makes them want to do something more. So you just really. It's a. It's a constant education process. For instance, we have a family shelter that we do feed the families three meals a day. Their schedules are all over the place, so they don't always come together at the same time to eat. And we have volunteers that have been disappointed that you can't serve meals to everybody in the shelter and have that engagement. But just again, just constant education of, we've got moms, single moms that are working two jobs that are trying to get their kids to and from school, that maybe there was a domestic violence situation too. Maybe they're not comfortable around people. Maybe there's shame and embarrassment. Maybe their kids have mental health issues that they're scared of bringing them in there because they don't know what their kids are going to do. You know, there's so many reasons, but if you just explain all those things, most people, like you said, will understand. Yeah. And I Feel like it's relatable too, right? Like I'm a mom of three young kids and sometimes I eat in the kitchen. Well, like I'm just like eating so that I can get something in my mouth. Well, then I have to go take my kids to the park. Right. It is very relatable. And it's humans that are being affected just like us. And I think that's an important distinction to educate people on. And I love that you said that because I think in my role as fundraising, that was definitely part of my role was educating our donors on what homelessness actually looks like for families. If people want to find you in the work that you do, where can they go? Our website is a great resource. Turnanuleaf.org we have information about all of our programs, our services. We just launched something new called our Resource Hub that really provides a lot of information for people to understand what is homelessness, what is domestic violence, what leads people into these kinds of situations, what are their needs and what kind of services we provide, especially around domestic violence. People don't always know, you know, how to help. They know somebody that might be experiencing domestic violence. And sometimes you can do more harm than good by trying to help somebody if you don't know how to help them. So it's a great resource for people who are seeking services, who are trying to help somebody, or who want to get involved with an organization that is doing the work. We have events that we do. We actually have one next week with one voice. That's Domestic Violence Awareness month this month and we do a fundraiser and awareness event every month. And then we have our big gala in in March and this is a big year for us. Our CEO of 50 years will be retiring, so. Oh wow. Pretty monumental. So I'll be celebrating his legacy and really a newly future. But lots of different ways to get engaged. As I mentioned, volunteer support in kind support. So donations of hygiene items, toiletries, linens, clothing, all those kind of things are huge need for the people that we serve. Especially as the cost of living is getting higher and higher. We can help try to offset any of those costs with donations of things. That's very helpful. And offset our own program costs, needs. If we can get donations of toilet paper, then we don't have to buy toilet paper. Yeah, I love that. And we'll definitely link to all of that in the show notes. Thank you so much for being on this podcast. I've learned more about your approach. I really appreciate you sharing more of your story. I am so inspired by you and just thank you for being here. Thank you so much for the opportunity, Haley. It's been great. Foreign hey, before you go, want to watch? Yes. Watch the best moments from the Lead with Heart episodes. We're sharing the most powerful highlights and takeaways over on our brand new YouTube channel. Yes, we are on YouTube. Just search for the savvy fundraiser on YouTube and hit subscribe so you never miss a moment of insight and inspire inspiration. The link is in the show notes as well. Thanks for listening and as always, keep leading with Heart.