The Business of Giving

Speaker 1 0:00
You're listening to locally produced programming created in pay you envy studios on public radio K you envy 91.5 You're

Kevin Krall 0:11
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 of the Nevada System of Higher Education.

Unknown Speaker 0:37
World Maamar people live in like

Speaker 2 0:41
the whole world addicted to the drama. Hello, everyone. And welcome to the business of giving podcast. My name is Guy Dawson and I am the Executive Director of the cause marketing Chamber of Commerce. And we are an organization that brings businesses and nonprofit organizations together to create synergistic relationships that benefit the community. And our focus of our organization is highlighting of the successes. And every aspect of running a traditional business and a nonprofit organization and our, our chamber How is super excited to continue to broadcast here at K U N. V. 91.5. With the business of giving a show we've had many, many interesting guests over the I guess it's already seven months that we have been hosting our show over here, Time really flies when you're having fun. And we just appreciate the opportunity to continue to do the good work that we're doing in the community. And I have a friend who I have known for many years, who has stopped by to be a part of the show today, her name is Sydney not and she is a part of an organization called Horses for Heroes. And it's been a long time since I interviewed you Sidney it has

Speaker 3 1:52
been and we're still going great. And it's great to see you. And thanks for having us here today. We

Speaker 2 1:57
appreciate you continuing to provide valuable services for the community through your nonprofit organization. Will you tell everyone about what Horses for Heroes does?

Speaker 3 2:08
Thank you Horses for Heroes is a Las Vegas based nonprofit. And our mission is pretty simple. We want to introduce horseback riding programs to those in our community whose call of duty is to protect, serve, teach and heal. Basically, we want to say thank you for your service. And the best way that we know how to do it is by bringing you out to the ranch and letting you enjoy time with our horses.

Speaker 2 2:31
Yes, you would enjoy your experience. I have been at that ranch before and yes, being around horses is it's exciting. It's

Speaker 3 2:40
very exciting. And unless you own them, I should say but no, it's very exciting. And it's pleasure because we are here in the wild, wild west. And none of us would be here we're not for the Pony Express and wagon trains and stagecoaches that brought all of our forefathers here to the Western. We need to introduce the rural heritage and keep the kids and understanding about our western lifestyle. Why

Speaker 2 3:03
did you choose the path of starting a nonprofit organization?

Speaker 3 3:06
Well, I'm like you I've been in the public relations industry most of my career, and I'm always looking for ways to as we say build a better mousetrap. As a child growing up in California, I always loved horses and horses are very expensive, certainly wasn't something that my family could afford. And we wanted to find a way to make horses affordable for families who do nothing less than put a uniform on and basically serve community and country. And we felt this was something that our family could do. We had a couple of horses, and we love to share our love of horses with those in our community.

Speaker 2 3:42
And the heroes part of it. Will you explain what that represents? Well,

Speaker 3 3:46
you know, in this day and age guy who isn't a hero, you know, the caregiver, the parent, the people just trying to get by. But for our organization, we specifically served active duty service members, police officers, firefighters, we've added teachers and health care professionals post COVID. And we also serve veterans. So heroes to us is a broad term. It can also be the caregivers it can also be just families that are trying to get by,

Speaker 2 4:13
and what is the connection between the horses and the heroes? Well,

Speaker 3 4:18
the connection is that we are providing our services with horses to these people who are who are doing so much for our community and country. The reason why horses and not and not other activities is because spending time with horses will make you feel less stressed. It will make you feel less depressed. It will make you feel empowered, you will come away with a sense of self confidence and a boost of self esteem. And most people come away with this feeling of that they accomplished something they never thought they could do whether it's leading a horse or brushing a horse or riding. You're going to come away with that with that wonderful feeling that I did something I didn't think I could do this.

Speaker 2 5:00
And there's a lot of people out there Sydney who don't know about the therapeutic value of being around horses, I knew nothing about it until I started hanging out with you and some other people who are a part of equine therapy, maybe you could share a bit about what equine therapy is.

Speaker 3 5:16
So for us, at our at our facility at the Horses for Heroes family Equestrian Center, we practice Equine Assisted Learning, so it's going to be mostly ground work with the horses. The important thing about a horse, especially in this day and age is they demand that you are in that you're focused on the present. You're not worrying about the past, you're not thinking about the future, you're not thinking about where you have to be this afternoon, or what you're making for dinner, you have to be focused on the present. I think too often today, we're living in an instant gratification world, we've got so many things on our minds, doesn't really matter who you are, what you do. All of this information overload that's coming in on you is causing a lot of sleepless nights a lot of stress and anxiety. So when you come out to the ranch, for however long you're there, you're going to be you're going to be looking on the present focused on the president and focusing on mindfulness. And

Speaker 2 6:15
I know from my own experience, having been at the ranch, how calming and soothing it is, when you get around the horses, it's like you've stepped into another dimension or something. It's what is it? What is it about horses that is so calming, and so therapeutic for people?

Speaker 3 6:34
Well, I think it comes down to, to this horses are their prey animals, they're herd animals. And so how you measure up to a horse, I'm always telling folks that come out, it is not your job is your job to make the horses feel safe with you, it is not their job to make you feel safe. So by by focusing on your heart rate, your breathing, they are so sensitive being prey animals, they can feel your heart rate from four feet away. So if you're nervous, or you're scared, or you're anxious, they're going to feel that energy, the more that you breathe deeply and relax and trust the people around you, they will start to relax and trust you it doesn't matter how old the horses or how domesticated the horses they are at their very core prey animals. And we to them are predators. So how we communicate how we react, how we our body language, and that's something that you can take away to any business. You can you walk into a room, you walk into a mixer, and how you size up the crowd and decide I'm going to walk across the room and say hello to this person. You know, you make eye contact, you push you make you walk right over there. That kind of body language and how you communicate yourself is very, very important. And people need to, you know, learn that they can influence the actions of others, by the way that they're conducting themselves.

Speaker 2 8:04
Another point that you touched on a second ago about horsemanship and the value that it brings to anyone the confidence, the self discipline that you get when you can manage horses. Could you elaborate more on that? Well, I

Speaker 3 8:20
think it's like any sport guy. I think anything that you do, whether it's golf, or tennis or soccer, anything, there's a beginning, a middle and an end. And you have to learn the fundamentals, to in order to progress. And so when you come out with a horse, a lot of people are watching Yellowstone and heartland and all these shows and, and they think it's easy. They think, oh, I can just get on a horse and just go ride ride ride. And so they find out that it is very, very difficult. And you have to master the fundamentals. In order to progress in every step. Just like in any sport or activity. There's a progression that you have to go through. And as you achieve each of those levels, there's that aha moment, that wonderful feeling of accomplishment that you get, but also because there's such large, impressive and intimidating animals. Doing anything successfully with a horse is going to make you feel very, very, very good that you've accomplished something very confident. With

Speaker 2 9:15
his podcast every month, we feature generally at least one nonprofit organization and we talk about what they do, how they got started. This particular month, I want to have a bit of a different focus along with of course we're showcasing what Horses for Heroes is all about but at the same time I want to talk more about the business of running a nonprofit organization. And we have William Cunningham, your husband who is the director of operations for Horses for Heroes, who's also in the studio. Welcome William.

Unknown Speaker 9:46
Thank you very much. I feel like Dr Frasier Crane from from the show Frasier I appreciate your having me here. i My folk as is with the barnyard animals who I have take great care with, we have two that I would like to talk about. One is Zeus, who is a llama, who is nine years old. And of course everyone thinks llamas spit. Well, we don't know what Disney Channel they've been lucky to have. But Zeus, as we know are, as we tell his never spit in his life, and he's nine years old. And next to Zeus is Willie, who has an 800 pound miniature steer. He is the scariest looking dude we have, but he is the sweetest animal we have. People go in and Pat Willie, and he just shows his sheer pride. When you tickle them underneath his neck, he just goes off, this is so wonderful. So it's, it's a lot of satisfaction when we have kids that come out who have never experienced anything like this before. And they leave. And they all they can do is talk about the excitement they've had with our animals.

Speaker 2 11:13
And there's always the feel good aspect when it comes to nonprofit organizations. I think that a person has to have definitely a heart for whatever it is that they get involved in. Wouldn't you agree, William, that that's a big element of definitely starting? And that's usually not missing with people who start nonprofits. Oh, yes,

Speaker 3 11:34
very true. Speaking on the as he's talking about the barnyard speaking about the business side. So all businesses have expenses, and you try to budget for, you know, the future and your have your five year plan and where you want to go. But for organizations like ours, it's pretty much day to day, we have costs that are like the care of the barnyard animals, the vet bills, the feed bills. And so those costs really drive our business plan, because our first thing we have to do every day is making sure that we're having some way to cover those costs. And for our organization, unlike other nonprofits is the way that we were able to cover those expenses is by generating having revenue generating programs and activities. So we offer camps, lessons, birthday parties, field trips, special events, corporate team building, we have partnerships with other nonprofits that come out to the ranch, we have contracts with other agencies that send their clients to us. And it would be great to have, you know, five year plans and being to plan for the future. But most of what we do is pretty much day to day, we just have to wake up every day and say, What do I need to do today, to generate the money today to feed the animals and to care for them and pay the rent and insurance. So it's it's overwhelming to start a nonprofit, really any business is overwhelming. And there it takes longevity, as you've seen, you know, you can't just start something and it's a great success. You have to be able to sustain it has to be sustainable. And it has to be something that is going to generate the support from you know, the other community and businesses. It's really, really difficult. I challenge anybody who thinks it's easy. It's very, very difficult. Also,

Unknown Speaker 13:21
I'd like to add weather plays a big factor into what we are able to do.

Speaker 3 13:26
Because we're outdoors. Yeah, so you have a couple of days of bad weather, which isn't always it can be rare in Las Vegas to have snow and rain. But if you're counting on having activities that day that you now have to cancel. You just took a match to what you were going to make that day. Yeah,

Speaker 2 13:46
these are the things that I think a lot of people miss, and don't understand about running a nonprofit organization. You talked about the day to day. That's kind of the way that a person approaches running their business. I know you've been in business for with this nonprofit organization for 17 years. And that's why again, the title of the show is the business of giving because you have to have that mindset of I am running a business. I am a big giver, the cause marketing Chamber of Commerce was created because we're all a bunch of big givers who really want to help people. However, we are running a business a Chamber of Commerce is a business Horses for Heroes is a nonprofit organization. But if it doesn't function as a business, you aren't able to deliver the on the mission that you want to deliver

Speaker 3 14:35
on. And I think that's interesting too, because a lot of people have said to me, but you're a nonprofit, you shouldn't be generating income. I think there's a real misunderstanding of what a nonprofit is. YMCA is a nonprofit Salvation Army is a nonprofit. The PRCA is a nonprofit. So there's massive organizations that are nonprofits that generate money Just because you're a nonprofit doesn't mean you don't, you don't pay your bills and you don't make money. Right.

Speaker 2 15:05
And that's part of the education that we want to do is with this organization is really getting a different frame of mind in the way that people look at nonprofit organizations, and that there's something that I saw and I've been working with nonprofit organizations through public relations since 2008, even before we got this organization started. And one of the things that I just have consistently seen in people is this sort of the community thinks she ought to be poor, right? Because you're running a nonprofit organization. And so when there's any chance for you to get ahead financially, there's almost a guilt that nonprofits have, that there shouldn't be abundance, that you shouldn't have some money in the bank, that you shouldn't grow as an organization and be abundant. And it hurts, it really hurts your pursuit of your mission, and also the people who are being deprived by the fact that you think that you shouldn't make any money, because you're a nonprofit organization,

Speaker 3 16:09
when that's what we talked about earlier. There's the there's what I call the class A nonprofits, and then there's all the rest of us. But you know, nobody, nobody says that to the Red Cross. Nobody says that to these other massive agencies that are paying their staff, you know, what I would call more than a livable wage, which is the challenge, we all need to pay our people and everybody needs to work, you know, yes, you might work. You know, we I think Bill and I work about 60 to 70 hours a week. But in you can't ask everybody to do that. But there's lots of very successful long standing nonprofits that have huge operations we visited one a couple of weeks ago, and they have 19 full time employees. So it's it is a business without a doubt. It's just it's just that what it's just the IRS classifies it as a business that doesn't have to pay pay taxes. That's really the big difference. So

Speaker 2 17:03
William, what do you think has been the key for your particular nonprofit organization having this longevity 17 years of running an organization is a long time?

Unknown Speaker 17:13
Yes, it is. But you know, it's the people that you have working for working with you. And Sydney, is probably the factor that has kept his whole business together. I've only been doing it for four years. But she is an amazing individual, and she generates good people that come to work for us.

Speaker 3 17:40
And you have to have a good mission, you really have to and I said before, you know we're serving the right people for the right reasons at the right time. But you have to have a good, clear, concise mission, you have to have good people that believe in your mission. And it's hard. I mean, it's it's a miracle that we're still here after 17 years, the leadership

Speaker 2 18:01
aspect I think is so underrated Sidney and running this type of an organization because you're doing it with a narrow staff. For the most part, most organizations have very few people on their staff. And then you're also working with volunteers, which is a whole nother aspect of leadership, knowing how to actually work with volunteers to get the mission done. How do you keep yourself in good leadership shape, because I discovered that with with the Chamber is, I really have to keep my mind in the right place as a leader a lot of times just to continue to promote the mission. I

Speaker 3 18:40
was going to add to that about the staff and the volunteers, you have to also for our organization factor in our team, which has four legs. So we have 14 team members that are the horses plus the barn animals. So they are very much a factor of our team as well. Try managing them if you think volunteers are hard, because they are every day is a new day. But a lot of it is your board. I have to I have to say your your board, your board of advisors, you put together your board with people that are smart, that have been there done that that have been through the nonprofit cycles that have been CEOs of their own companies that have been lawyers. I mean, we have a fabulous board of advisors. And they are the ones that prop you up. They're the ones that advise you and kind of kind of direct you and keep you going but a strong board and a strong leader is absolutely crucial. You really have to have the staff, the volunteers and the strong board to really keep a nonprofit going.

Speaker 2 19:37
Yeah, I agree with you. The board that surrounds you as the leader of the organization, is what keeps you going because they're they're committed people who who understand what your vision is, and who are committed to it that are willing to donate their time there. It's not even always their tire. Sometimes it's just a shoulder

Speaker 3 20:01
And you have to listen to them if you're going to have these people there that have this expertise, and you're going to ask them, you have to listen to them and listen and, and kind of factor in that know your decision making, because they are very, very smart people that can really help you.

Speaker 2 20:15
Yeah. So at what point were you, you really understood that this was going to work for you, as far as running Horses for Heroes.

Speaker 3 20:27
I think, you know, we were in, we started out in my backyard. And then we relocated to Floyd Lampard for five years. And then we moved to where we are now, which is off of in the Northwest on a two and a half acre ranch. That in of itself is very difficult in the cycle of a nonprofit to pick up and move to different locations. So we moved to this new location, we weren't sure if our regular customers were going to follow us. And if we were going to succeed in this, you know, smaller residential kind of rural property, that first summer 2019, when our summer camp was sold out, I knew we were going to be good, because again, it goes back to what we're doing the services that we're providing, at the price point we're providing them, there is definitely a market for the services that were providing. And all of our customers stayed with us, the people we had contracts with, for the EAL program stayed with us. And I think that's when I knew we were going to make it we were going to go the distance. Also

Unknown Speaker 21:23
to add to that, what we're able to help people families during COVID. With their children, we had a distance learning. And it was very successful, because these people still had to go to work, and what are they going to do with their kids who couldn't go to school. And we ran a distance learning we had a woman there who had been a 3030 year teacher, and she took the program and did a wonderful, wonderful job. And people thank us for it every day,

Speaker 3 21:55
I think the pandemic for a lot of nonprofits was kind of a like a milestone, or I think if you if you're able to get through that, and survive, you can survive anything. That was a very difficult time, a lot of nonprofits are still here. But the leadership has changed. And so we're struggling to reassess those those contacts with people that we used to have. But I think that was really kind of a defining moment. For a lot of organizations and businesses.

Speaker 2 22:21
We lost a lot of nonprofits, if you've ever I'm sure, Sydney, you've seen the giving guy, which when I look at the addition for 2017 2018, how thick it was, it is a directory of all the nonprofit organizations in Southern Nevada. And I have years and years of copies of it. And when you compare that to to 2120 2220 2220 23, it's like half the size of what it was. And that's because we lost many, many nonprofits during COVID. Absolutely. On our way over here, Sydney, we were talking about something that I think is significant. And it's about collaboration amongst nonprofit organizations. And so something that I discovered, especially as we started to really build this Chamber of Commerce, is that it's something that nonprofits don't always play in the sandbox well together, what is your perspective on that? And how can we change that?

Speaker 3 23:20
It's absolutely, absolutely critical that all of us collaborate and work together, and none of us will be able to continue. And as I told you, I believe that the donors have to drive that when the donors demand collaboration, when we apply for grants and and and sponsorships, that donors can say, we will only sponsor collaborations between nonprofits. So I think it starts there with the corporate donors that are giving these people money, they need to force the collaboration issue. We go out of our way to make context there are so many nonprofits where we're all sort of touching on the same thing. We're working with youth, we're working with family, we're working with recovery, we're working with trafficking, we're working with survivors of domestic abuse, we're all sort of touching on these spaces. Together, we could do so much more. And I think when the donors force the collaboration, or when a nonprofit sees the benefits to themselves, that they got more money or more grants, because of the collaboration, that sort of that test that testimonial will help others to see the need to collaborate. But until something happens, I don't see anything changing

Speaker 2 24:35
and the business networking community. I know that we are all about collaboration because that's how we create business for one another as we we refer to each other I mean, that one of the things that we want to do with this chamber is to instill or at least start to get the nonprofit organizations to be more aware of how tapping into other organization Since resources can be very valuable to them, and Yeah, unfortunately, you don't see it a lot. And I know you're one, a huge supporter of that. And I just I really appreciate that

Speaker 3 25:11
well, and I also would would when we can talk about, you know, because of what we have coming up summer camp, these things we serve, what I would call an income qualified audience. So we serve men and women who put a uniform on and serve our community. So if you have a business that you would like to drop your business card, or a piece of swag or something in our in our bag, we want to promote your business, whether it's a nonprofit, or a business that supports nonprofits, if you have a T Shirt Company, or you're a printer or you're really doing anything, we want to be that driver that sends our customers to your place of business. And we can do that. You

Unknown Speaker 25:51
have some events coming up. Do you want to share with us some updates about of happenings at Horses for Heroes? Absolutely.

Speaker 3 25:58
Well, parents, you're all as shocked as I am. That spring break is really early this year, spring break for local students is March 13, through the 17th. And we are running a spring break camp. So if you did not know what you're going to do with your kids, for that week, we do still have openings. And you can register on our website at horses for heroes.org. And of course, we have eight weeks of summer camp coming up. And you can always visit the ranch on a Friday or Saturday, we have weekly open houses, which is just a chance to come out, ride a horse, see the animals and learn more about our programs that we offer.

Speaker 2 26:33
Yes, this was really an excellent deep dish, talk about the nonprofit world that we had with you, Sidney and with you, William today. And yeah, we just greatly appreciate you stopping by and being a part of the business of giving, showing wish you continued success with your organization. I know you're helping a lot of people, they are also members of the cause marketing Chamber of Commerce, and we've got some things in the works to put on some events out at the ranch and really looking forward to, to make in the nonprofit world better through the work that we do with one another. Thank

Speaker 3 27:08
you for your efforts, what you're doing is very, very important, and we will all support you. All

Speaker 2 27:13
right. And for those of you who want to learn more about what the cause marketing Chamber of Commerce does, you can visit our website cause marketing chamber.com. There's lots of information about the programs that we offer the events that we host, you can also become a member right there on the website, there's a big button that says Join now at cause marketing chamber.com You can instantly become a member, we've got some great deals for people who want to join the chamber, now we're our first 100 members get a deep deep discount. So please go to the website, cause marketing chamber.com For more information about how to be a member or become a volunteer volunteerism is a big aspect as well, of what we do here at the chamber. It's showing providing an opportunity for people to be volunteers to go out to a ranch such as that Horses for Heroes has and all these other nonprofit organizations are constantly looking for volunteers. So again, more information at the website, cause marketing chamber.com. You can also follow us on our social media platforms. We have pages on actually we just started the business of giving YouTube page and we're going to be having recordings of all these podcasts, as well as our video podcasts that we do. We You can also follow us at Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. And we've also got a meetup page. So there are lots of ways that you can connect with our organization and we again appreciate the opportunity to continue to bring the business of giving show here at K u and v nine to 1.5 FM. And as I leave this show for this month, I want to encourage you to go out there and do business for good see you soon.

Unknown Speaker 29:18
The weight of the world on my shoulder. As I'm getting older your people gets older. Most of us only care about money.

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