The Business of Giving

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You're listening to locally produced programming created in KU NV studios on public radio K, u and v 91.5.

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You're listening to special programming sponsored by the cars marketing Chamber of Commerce. The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 Jazz and more the University of Nevada Las Vegas or the Board of Regents, the Nevada System of Higher Education.

Unknown Speaker 0:37
People live in the whole world. Hello, everyone. Welcome to the business of giving podcast. My name is Guy Dawson and I am the founder and executive director of the cause marketing Chamber of Commerce. And we are a 501 C six organization that brings businesses and nonprofit organizations together to create synergistic relationships that benefit the community. The business of giving podcast highlights the successes of two pillars of the community. And those pillars are nonprofit organizations and for profit businesses. If you'd like to learn more about what we do at the cause marketing Chamber of Commerce, cause marketing chamber.com. This valuable show is made possible through the generosity of our series sponsor solar up an energy solution and conservation company specializing in solar and battery storage systems, including solar panels to learn more about them, Seoul up.com. During last week's show, I had mentioned that Steve Amelie from Seoul up would be back. And he's got to always got a nonprofit with him when he comes to the studio. Welcome back to the business of giving podcast, Steve,

Unknown Speaker 1:52
thank you so much. Thank you guy.

Unknown Speaker 1:54
And we always enjoy the insight that you bring, you're so passionate about the work that you do with nonprofit organizations, and you've got a lot of friends in the sector, how does it feel to have so many friends who are totally in in synergy with the thing that you're interested in? Well,

Unknown Speaker 2:13
you know, it's amazing to see the response that you get when you you get involved in I think it's I don't want to call it a secret society. But it's one of those areas that no, it's so much fun to see the appreciation that everyone has for it doesn't matter the level of contribution. And this is why I'm so encouraged and encourage others to get involved in any even fundamental level that they can. But you're right, these, these were the relationships that we forge, through, you know, through giving back to the community, our relationships that are grounded in in extremely strong ethos, and you don't find those everywhere. So not only is it accepting and in this in, you know, building relationships that are new for you. They're long lasting relationships that have meaning.

Unknown Speaker 2:56
One of the things that was so important to us, Steve, as we were developing the cause marketing Chamber of Commerce in its early stages was going out and finding the entrepreneurs like you who can really serve as mentors for a lot of people because of your passion for both business and the nonprofit sector. Setting those types of examples for others out there, that the way of cause marketing can be something that can be incredibly beneficial for your traditional business. And of course, the enormous benefits that come when we support these, these wonderful nonprofit organizations such as hope link, which is going to be our nonprofit that we're going to feature today. But that mentoring aspect, that's a lot of the feedback that we've been getting about the presentations that you've been doing with your nonprofit partners is really you sharing your passion and showing people why you are so passionate about contributing to your community through these partnerships with worthy nonprofits, as well as actually providing services tied to your business that makes the relationships I would imagine even stronger.

Unknown Speaker 4:07
Absolutely in part of what I emphasize on each show, is the denomination really isn't a critical factor. It's the involvement that you can be involved in so many different ways you can use your resources in mind and human capital. You can use the types of products and services within your business. And then there's always the financial assistance, but there's no way that every business cannot have some contribution into our nonprofit environment.

Unknown Speaker 4:32
And as I had mentioned, Steve has brought along a nonprofit friend today and his name is Aaron sheets. He is the CEO of Hope link. It is one of the great success stories here in Southern Nevada in terms of the growth of a nonprofit organization. Welcome to the business of giving podcast. Aaron, thank you for having us. And we were talking off air I know several people who are very prominent in his organization, a very good friend of mine named Steve Goldstein, wonderful guy. We've been been friends for many years. And he's done extensive work with hope link. So I had somewhat of a background about what your organization does prior to working with Steve on this, knowing that he's also doing a lot of things with you. Maybe you could give a short overview about how hope link benefits the community. Well,

Unknown Speaker 5:19
we're a nonprofit, we're based in Henderson, we're actually a family resource center out there. And we have about 60 staff doing all kinds of different services for the community, largely based in homelessness prevention, which is keeping people from falling off that cliff and into experiencing homelessness. So we do everything we can to keep them from doing that. We've been around since 1991. And yeah, we we've grown over 1,000% in the last five years, if you can believe that, start off with COVID. And it just so happened, that the services that we provide are something that our community really, really needed. rapidly. We housing folks providing emergency shelter for families, and of course, homelessness prevention, which is rental utility and mortgage assistance. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 6:10
So as you mentioned, of course, the world has had some very challenging circumstances over about the last four years, and being an organization that provides a lot of services that help move people to a better space than that the space that they're in, what's that been like coming together as an organization to make that happen with you having considerably more clients, which is really what you're all about, or I mean, any nonprofit organization wants to serve more people. But I can imagine the shock of that, especially with something as dramatic as COVID. How has that been for your organization in terms of continuing to provide the great value that I know you want to provide to people?

Unknown Speaker 6:54
Yeah, well, we've grown in in every way imaginable. Like I said, we when, five years ago, we had a staff of 1110, or 11. And now we're at 60. We have very strong jurisdictional relationships. That's with Clark county, city of North Las Vegas, the City of Henderson. All of those are funders for us, they provide large amounts of money to get into the public as quickly as we can for people that qualify for these services. So yes, we need more resources. Interesting fact, we fund in this city of Las Vegas, we fund about 20% of what other like cities fund, as far as nonprofits spend from the city budget. So it's a conversation we want to have at the legislative level as well, pushing our our communities to make different decisions that actually can provide services to those that need the most in our community.

Unknown Speaker 7:54
Another thing that we talked about quite a bit off air, Aaron is the fact that the people who you are working with are dealing with some of the most difficult situations that they could possibly encounter in their lives, specifically, being homeless or possibly being homeless, maybe you could share with the audience about the psychology behind that, as an organization working with people who are just going through extremely tough times, and, and sort of building them up to move them to a different space than that. Sure.

Unknown Speaker 8:29
There is a different mindset to people that are in crisis, of course, all they want to do is solve that immediate crisis, they don't necessarily want to work on the fundamental things that would actually keep them from being in that crisis. It's attention that all of us in the nonprofit community have to work with, because we have a limited amount of time and a limited amount of resources that we can put towards each person, we're trying to give them everything that we can. But when your house is on fire, all you're really wanting to do is get that get that fire out, you're not necessarily looking at what was the electrical problem that caused that fire. And so we see that with our, with our clients that come in, we're always working to have them take the next step and take a budgeting class with us and let us help you with your money. Let us help you with your taxes, we actually provide that service as well. So it's it's a different, different mindset that we try to get them in. And it's a difficult task A lot of times,

Unknown Speaker 9:27
Steve, I was wondering what was it about hope link that attracted you to want to do this partnership that you've been doing for quite a while with them.

Unknown Speaker 9:38
It was really their passion. You know, I see them at every community event and I saw them in legislation and you know, last year's legislature, really intimately involved, but their focus and their leadership board is just tremendous. In in when I got when I initially got involved in you know, again, you're Always trying to vet the organization, I had some very good feelings upfront. But when I sat with the board, Scott Rutledge is who has the board of directors, and I'll tell you what a phenomenal leader he is, in that space. He was also I think we discussed in the prior podcast, he was also the director of the Nevada Conservation League, prior to that executive decision, very, very heavily involved, keeps his pulse on the on his his board members, runs a very concise meeting, but but when I set my first time on the board, I really saw the involvement in depth that they had in furthering the in furthering their agenda, when I went to the Affordable Housing Coalition, and, you know, saw Aaron there and his presentation, and just the involvement and the absolute support that the community has for this organization and the utmost respect, it just fortified our you know, our decision, and it really made me feel very good about it. They were also very receptive to allow us to, to provide the free solar and we can go on that a little bit later. But they allowed us to get involved in, in, in giving like services rather than cash, but coming in and doing what we do best in trying to provide some type of economic solutions for their, for their housing, for their housing facilities.

Unknown Speaker 11:15
Yeah, there was a good point that you brought up there, Steve, about when you are in business, or if you're someone who wants to potentially volunteer with a nonprofit organization, that vetting process. And I think getting as good and understanding as you can about the organization, what their mission is the way that they function. It's that's a key point when you're going to create these types of partnerships. And I would imagine as well, on the nonprofit side, maybe you could speak to this, Aaron is understanding the businesses that you're working with. I mean, that's what this show is all about is these types of relationships, as sold up in and hopefully have created. Could you speak to that? Yeah. So what it was about sold up that attracted you? Well,

Unknown Speaker 11:59
it was meeting Steve, actually. And just seeing what his mindset was missionally, he is very consistent with what we are missionally, which is really just to provide additional services to the community that needs him so much. We looked into solo up, and we looked at this a little bit and just says he did his homework on us. We did it on him, and we align in our values and our mission. And that was the big thing. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 12:30
that synergy. We're constantly talking about that on this show is making sure that you relationally with the for profit of the nonprofit business that you're, you're on the same page is so important, and I'm just hearing you guys feel like we're the resource right for the nonprofit and for profit communities because we bring the two together. And so we're sort of the matchmakers we do that within the scope of what we offer at the cause marketing Chamber of Commerce. But you can see that this works outside of the chamber as well really making sure that you are in complete alignment when you're going to put one of these kinds of partnerships together. Just wanted to let everyone know that you are listening to the business of giving podcast at 91.5k u n v jazz and more. I have two excellent guests in the studio today. Steve Amelie with Sol up. They are the title sponsor of the business of giving podcast and a frequent participant. And I also have Aaron sheets. He is the CEO of Hope link, a very prominent nonprofit organization here in Southern Nevada. That is truly a success story. We'll talk more about that in a second. Aaron, I just wanted to let you know that solar up in its channel partners are providing complimentary solar to local charities supporting for Hope link transitional housing properties, feeding pets of Volunteers of America and opportunity village. Their founder who is Steve Emily in the studio today sits on the board of Nevada Conservation League. We've also been making these announcements about the first annual cause and business cruise, and it's going to happen October 19. Through the 26th and 2024. We're going to cruise through the Hawaiian Islands, it's a great opportunity for you to network with giving professionals by the way proceeds from the cabin that you purchase for the cruise will benefit nonprofit organizations that were really excited about for the first time getting together and cruising through the Hawaiian Islands. Just a great collaboration of business people, nonprofit organizations. We're also planning on doing some community service. We're going to be docked in Maui for about a day and a half. And we're going to use some of that time to help. Obviously, Maui is a place that was devastated in 2023. And we want to do some community service. We always find ways to give back to the community when we host events but if you're interested in cruising with the cosmos Marketing Chamber of Commerce, October 19. Through the 26th, we can be reached at cause marketing chamber.com. Also, you can email me info at cause marketing chamber.com. You've both been talking about the synergistic relationships that you've created a nonprofit organization that's very prominent in the community as well as a, a business that is prominent. You've got some specific things that you're working on right now, though, Aaron, of projects that can benefit people, you talked about preventing homelessness, one of the things that you're doing is new rental assistant funds that are available for people in Henderson and North Las Vegas, would you like to talk about that? Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 15:45
we just recently received funding a good amount, so we can help a whole lot of people. So if you are living in Henderson, or in the city of North Las Vegas, and you need rental or utility assistance, and you've had some situation that was beyond your control, a increase in expenses, or a decrease in income or a medical issue or something like that, feel free to call our office 702-566-0576. We're open Monday through Thursday, and those calls start at 8am. So call early, the list gets full. We only take as many calls as we can actually serve us in an expedient time. So call starting. Tomorrow, we can take your calls.

Unknown Speaker 16:35
Yeah. And rental assistance, again, the helping people to prevent the possibility of being homeless with that being really an epidemic across the country as a result. I mean, there were always been problems with people being homeless. But it seems like the level of homelessness has increased a lot. If that's something that you've experienced at Hope link, would you like to share about

Unknown Speaker 16:57
that? Yeah, we have seen that. Everybody understands inflation, everybody understands that, our mind doesn't go as far as it used to. And, and what we're seeing is the cost of living has right raised so much more than the than incomes have. And so there's just a large gap there. So we're seeing people that were never on that poverty Cliff before on that edge of falling into experiencing homelessness, we're seeing a lot more of those these days, especially our senior community, people that are on fixed incomes, they don't have the ability to get a second or a third job to increase their income, they are stuck with where they're at. But their rents are going up and up and up and up. It's causing lots of instability in our in our community. So we went to Clark County, with another nonprofit partner help us Southern Nevada, and Legal Aid of Southern Nevada. And we're able to come up with this program where we can get several million dollars into the community over the next year and a half. That will help hopefully many, many people, it's just another resource for our community. It's not the only one. And it's not the one that's going to solve everything. But it's another one another tool that we need. We also have another program I want to talk about, it's called hope for seniors. So that is specifically for those 62 and over that have had and that are on a fixed income that have an rental increase as well. Those three things in play, you can call our office again, 702-566-0576. And we have assistance specifically for our senior population. And that's for all of Clark County.

Unknown Speaker 18:47
Yeah, really outstanding unnecessary services that hopefully provides the community. And Steve, in my promo, I talked about some of the things that you specifically do as a company with soul up to help and partner with hope link will you share about that the specific services that you provide for them?

Unknown Speaker 19:09
Sure, it's not only the specifics, specific services that we provide, but it's also the services they provide back. And that's what I really want to go into as well with a lot of these organizations. It's not only what you give directly, but you and they can benefit from what they provide, for example, hope plank has a job, basically a job board and they they take their their their their partners, and put them through training and then have a job listing and job board. We didn't know that. And once we found that now now we have any job openings that we have go directly to their facility as well as to other nonprofits that have an educational program to get people back on their feet. So we can accomplish things in two different ways. As we discussed very many times before, I've been a very strong homeless advocate since 1982. And in California, I look at homelessness and where we get to this point is being Seeing a symptom, right? And it's actually the result, it's the result of, unfortunately, an underlying cause. Everyone needs to be involved in any way they can to keep people employed. Right. And what I like about hope link is they give that transitional hopefully they're getting a hold of someone. And to Aaron's point, everyone's looking to fight the fire, and they're not puking much further down from putting a little bit of food on the table, and getting through the next month. And how can we create these programs as community leaders and business people to help keep those people away from away from that ultimate, you know, ultimate homeless environment. So by using the different resources that they have in place for employment, I think that's phenomenal. We're using that currently. On the other side, we're providing what we can as a company, so we're a full home energy solution company, when those doors HVAC and solar. So we found that the solar bill or the power bill, in many households, is the number one power and number one cost, especially in summer, we've seen in our rates increasing dramatically with our, with our local utility. So we started off with four of their projects. And they have four homes that are in the Henderson area, we aligned with with the current commissioners, and this is where hopefully has been very strong and getting, you know, getting the the local politicians and the Chamber of Commerce. And what we're doing is we're trying to make this kind of a super bill, besides providing this this, besides providing the actual solar systems, and reducing the cost to the the, the tenants, were trying to go out to the community and say you can do this to whatever it may be. If you're a car dealership, and you have, you know, used old, infected air, and maybe you bring that up I know someone had had donated a vehicle that made a big difference to some of the community. I remember that and the last board meeting, but what we're looking for how can we as a as a, as a business leader, and a community partner, what what resources do we have the can give back. And for us, it ends up to be solar and eliminating that power bill.

Unknown Speaker 22:00
And this is I do this moniker at the end of the show about giving and doing business for good. And that's just such a great example of the good that business can do for communities. And people have a lot of perceptions about businesses, how they function and what they do. But there are so many great businesses out there that are all about contributing to their community. And so love is just an excellent example, from both fronts. And I love what you talked about Steve about the mutual benefits, the the nonprofit organizations, the way that they enrich your business. And that's the these are the types of things that we want people in business to understand is the enrichment definitely both works both ways. It's a, it's really an equal partnership. And if you can approach it from that perspective, and if you listen to great people like Steve Amelie mentors, people that have been in this a long time and really understand the nonprofit world, that's how you're able to truly be of service to your fellow man in your community has just listened to people who've done it. And that's one of the things we've really enjoyed having you as a part of this. Steve, you've got some other things going on new territories that you're doing business in? Would you like to speak to that?

Unknown Speaker 23:17
Absolutely. So we, you know, as everyone knows, we are in Nevada born and bred since 2009. And this is the greatest test Mark always say we are desert tested, right. So as we expand it to other areas that are that don't have quite the weather conditions and such, we can say that we are we are clearly a Battle Born built company. But we are now in the California market. We opened up there about four months ago, from San Diego all the way up into Los Angeles, we have now opened into the Idaho market. And they expanded their dramatically and about to be licensed in North Carolina, I'm sorry, South Carolina, Georgia, and Louisiana, in some areas that we find also to have not only the need for solar, but they too have issues with regards to homeless environment and disadvantaged communities. We've aligned ourselves quite a bit. So then the Nevada Clean Energy Fund. We are on their Beta Test Program, currently now for disadvantaged and low income communities to provide financing resources for solar and renewable energy that they otherwise wouldn't have, they otherwise wouldn't have access to. And that's been a wonderful program. We've taken some individuals that have been turned down on every form of financing on conventional financing. And we have three we have three households approved for this NC e f financing, which is just something that is just tremendous. They're about to receive also a $250 million grant that was provided by the US government regards to the inflation reduction act as well. And there'll be deploying those funds in the state of Nevada for disadvantaged communities. So that's just something we're we're extremely excited about what we've done. Also, not everyone qualifies and it's something we're going to be publishing And you know, Aaron, perhaps we can put this out in your community as well. But we're going to be providing two full solar systems to individual or to households that have been turned down in every economic stratum, and every type of financing model. And we're going to, we want to take, you know, we want to get their letters, we want to vet these individuals, but we want to find the most needing household and families with a story to tell. And we would like to provide them complimentary solar as well. So on another hand, and we have our other expansion is we've just provided we just picked up a line of appliances called Blue Star. So blue star is the we found out from them are the most used appliances by Michelin star chefs in the world. And this is kind of the heavier look or new at the top and you have Viking and, and Wolf, I don't want to say in the low in the middle, or the and this really comes toward the higher end. But what they've what they're what they're launching is their induction range, their induction range line. So that's using electric power to cook but it's not like your conventional cooktop, where things happen pretty slowly, you turn that knob and you wait for that coil to heat up. And you really don't know what's happening. induction cooking is as instantaneous as gas. But what this also allows us to do is size a solar system, remove their remove their carbon footprint and reduce reduce their dependence on fossil fuels, while creating a great cooking environment in the home. So we're doing this also in another kind of the entree of that is we're creating solar showrooms. And within our solar showroom is a kind of the coding e store, renewable and sustainable energy store, where we'll be selling e bikes, new battery technology, showcasing, showcasing the solar carports. Anyway, there's just a lot but we're going to be creating two unique showrooms. You can come in even just to buy a battery that that is a renewable renewable battery, and learn about solar and learn about different resources that

Unknown Speaker 27:02
are available. Yeah, a lot of big things going on. It's so open again, and there's so much

Unknown Speaker 27:06
more but it's just fun. Right? A lot of this is just we're having a lot of fun and and I'll continue on with the other new and fun things we're doing in the next pocket.

Unknown Speaker 27:14
Right? There's always a lot to talk about. Steve, you bring so much to these broadcasts, and we greatly appreciate our partnership. Steve Amelie, he is the CEO of solar, a fantastic company that cares about its community. Aaron, would you like to give us a little bit more information one more time? How can people get in contact with you or the folks over at Hope link to learn more about the services that you are providing that are greatly greatly helping the community?

Unknown Speaker 27:42
Well, we always start with our website. It's li n k the number two hope.org That's l i n k the number two hope.org and our phone number 702-566-0576. We start answering that at 8am.

Unknown Speaker 27:59
Yeah, we thank you so much for stopping by I always want to remind you that you can listen to the business of giving podcast on Spotify, Apple podcast and Amazon music. Again, we once a week we air this show you can listen to it at 91.5k You envy jazz and more at 7:30am On Sunday, the business of giving podcast was brought to you by sole UPS underwriting of our series. We hope you are having a wonderful day we look forward to seeing you in one week. And always remember to give and do business for good. See you soon.

Unknown Speaker 28:53
Feel the weight of the world on my shoulder. As I'm getting older your people get sold. Most of us only care about money

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