The Business of Giving

Unknown Speaker 0:00
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Unknown Speaker 0:29
what's wrong with the world? Maamar people live in live Thank god. Oh Mom. I think the whole world's addicted to the drama. Hello everyone and 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. We are a 501 C six nonprofit organization that brings businesses and nonprofit organizations together to create synergistic relationships that benefit the community. The business of giving podcast is all about highlighting what we do at the chamber we bring on leaders in the for profit nonprofit world and we talk about a variety of topics related to cause marketing. However, if you'd like to learn more specifically about 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. Being in the cars and business space, gives me a lot of opportunities to meet interesting people with big hearts who are very committed to making the community and the world a better place. And I've got a woman that I'm going to be speaking with today named Linda Smith, who has been extremely prominent in this space for many, many years. She's going to come on and talk about some of her background as a philanthropist and the hard work that she's done in the nonprofit space. Many of you out there, especially if you've been engaged in the nonprofit space here in Las Vegas are probably familiar with this woman. Her name is Linda Smith, and she has been prominently involved with some high profile nonprofit organizations and done a lot in the sector for many years. Welcome to the business of giving show, Linda.

Unknown Speaker 2:32
So happy to be here.

Unknown Speaker 2:33
And as I had mentioned before, you are someone who has been engaging in a lot of work in the nonprofit sector for a for a long time. Would you like to give the audience some background and some of the things that you've done in this space?

Unknown Speaker 2:49
Well, you know, I I fell into the world of nonprofit I, you know, my background was in Canada, I was a dancer, model actress, and had my firstborn, Christopher, who was born with Down syndrome. And that kind of his birth made me aware of, you know, the cause of disability number one, but but also how, you know, folks with disabilities are so very much neglected, I guess is a is the word I want to say when my Chris Orme and misunderstood and underserved. And again, when my Christopher was born, it was almost like an accident that he was born in Canada, because my home was in Las Vegas. And I was went into labor on a plane into Canada. And Chris was born in Toronto. And that basically, my first thing that I found out at was the laws that exist, that prohibits certain individuals from immigrating into another country, particularly the United States. So Christopher was born a cute little Down Syndrome guy, but he was born with a label of being an undesirable alien in the United States. And, you know, I became one of those crazy moms in which so many, I'm sure guy that you found in your journey. So many nonprofits are founded by a family member who has, you know, become aware of the lack of services and the lack of funding for their particular issue when their kiddo was born. So Chris was born. It actually took me 17 years to get him legal in the United States, which was our home here in Las Vegas and you know, I smuggled them across the border. I Vice President Hubert Humphrey became Christopher's sponsor. I was Very lucky finally, when he was 18 months old to get a vice president as a sponsor, because, you know, I was married to a pretty prominent entertainer at the time. And, you know, we were calling everyone we knew. But then when, seven years later, when Humphrey died, we could no longer we were told to get Chris out of the country. And that's when I began to harbor an illegal alien in my home, who was my son? And at that early stage, I had found opportunity village, and cut me off if I'm talking too much guy.

Unknown Speaker 5:38
Oh, no, no, the story is so important in all of this conversation that we're going to have today. Okay,

Unknown Speaker 5:45
well, you know, I was a former dancer, and I don't know what I expected of my life in Las Vegas, certainly, it was not going to be a disability advocate or, you know, or fundraiser, what did I know about that. And then, Chris was born and someone introduced me to opportunity village, which was a small struggling organization at the time. And I just, you know, saw these sweet, amazing, wonderful people who have been handed a, you know, a bad hand in life. And it was, you know, the stark shock, to walk into this little place and see people with very profound intellectual disabilities in an old dark warehouse that was not designed for their use. And I, you know, they were, you know, kids that were 18, on up. My Chris was a little guy. And I just started to think about, you know, what was his future going to be? And it seemed to me that opportunity village was the answer to when Christopher Watts would, you know, mature, but then I needed it to look a lot more a lot different than it looks at that time. So there you have it, I, I volunteered at opportunity village for about seven years. And then I was hired as their first fundraiser. And I'm a pretty old gal now. But I was their very first fundraiser, and stayed there for 40 years.

Unknown Speaker 7:29
Really? And well, yes, I know, this is a nonprofit organization, opportunity village, of course, it gets a lot of notoriety in Southern Nevada. It's very interesting to hear about the origins of it, though, Linda, you know, we look at a nonprofit that's really booming and prominent now. And for those of you out there who might be starting one from the ground, as Linda had mentioned, a lot of times people start a nonprofit, they see a space, they see some aspect of society that needs to be nurtured or addressed or helped. And that's the basis of the way that they develop the nonprofit. And it's can be very challenging at its beginnings. Right, Linda, as you talked about? So tell us more about the evolution of opportunity village, and your role is as a leader as a part of that evolution. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 8:25
And, you know, a lot of people give me credit for opportunity village that they, you know, they think kind of founder Well, well, I'm not there were seven wonderful families who got together many years before I arrived on the scene. And that was a time when kids with intellectual disabilities were considered unethical and unemployable. And they they formed what became opportunity village and brought in a teacher. And because their kids, you know, the school system wouldn't allow them. And that was 20 years before me. So I always want to make sure to let people know I am not the founder, some amazing people started it. But I know that when I arrived on the scene, I was just not a person that would take no for an answer. And it just was not. Not appropriate that that people were in an old damp warehouse. And so I just somehow seat of the pants, I had no idea what cause marketing was I had no idea what public announcements were. I just was a crazy mom who wanted to make life better for her son and for the people that I was meeting. And I formed a board where I remember going to the first meeting of the board and it was made up comprised of mostly parents, you know, family members, which will A lot of times that's the case. And as I sat through a meeting in this place where the roof was falling in, literally it was propped up. And you know, there's this dank, horrible place. The parents were all talking about whether you serve cookies or carrots, it's a Friday night den, thinking but wait a minute, the roof is falling in. And so I rolled up my sleeves. My I was married at the time to an entertainer, popular entertainer, Wayne Newton also was the godfather of my second boy, Jason. And we reached out to him, and we started doing these annual concerts of love. So, I think Wayne did seven or eight of them, Tom Jones and Margaret, Chicago, I mean, all kinds of wonderful people stepped in. And we were able to reach out to them because my ex and I were both entertainers. And I think that that is really what started to put opportunity village on the map. I did those concerts for about 25 years, the very last one was Celine Dion. In her first year of coming to Vegas, she did the very last concert of love. And, you know, just I think having an entertainer background helps me think of out of the box ideas like, like the magical forest, it was just an idea. I'll string some lights on a few trees. And maybe people will come and boy did they come. And 35 years later, it was an event that the first year raised $3,003,000 to this last couple of years raising $2.5 million. So it became an important fundraiser. And then if I didn't have enough on my hands at Christmas time, I decided that we should do a walk and call it the great Santa run. And, and then make it a World Challenge. And so I reached out to the world. And we shortly had 10,000 people dressed in Santa, you know, marching down Fremont Street. So, you know, those kinds of events really helped reach the masses, and put opportunity village and the folks that we serve there on the map. And and also reaching out to corporations to let them know that you know you had a great partner in opportunity Village and in people with disabilities because I always remember my, my husband now he was he ran the Budweiser distributorship Nevada beverage company. And I used to go to him for donations of beer for my events. And I got a husband out of it because I got more than the beer for my event. But I remember going to him and understanding the business of selling beer. And I remember him saying Miller Lite was the number two selling beer in the country at the time. And so I said, Well, why not give opportunity village five cents a case of Bud Light. And then you'll have us out there just talking about how wonderful the beverage company is. And lo and behold, that five cents a case was about $250,000 a year and continued on. More recently, when the our hockey team came to town. I reached out to the owner and suggested you know what most fundraisers went to guy they would go to a very important group or you know, an ask for a ton of money at hello. And you've got to first build that relationship. And so when I went to meet, you know, the the bigwigs with the and this was before they will call the Golden Knights by the way this was at the very beginning. Instead of asking them for a major donation, I and they were trying to become a franchise at the time so they had a need to and this of course is is what cause marketing is all about they had a need to promote hockey was coming to the desert. And I toured them through opportunity village, they saw the enthusiastic individuals that we served in our beautiful new campuses. And they got it right away and said well what do you want? And I you know, I would have been nice to ask for a million dollars or 100,000 dollars or $50,000. But instead I'd done my homework. And I asked for five for I asked for $1 a seat for all the home games. And that equated at that point to a $750,000 donation, if 75% of the seats were full. So that kind of approach to philanthropy, it takes it's a lot of work and incrementally, you're picking up dollars. But it gets your name out there to the whole community when you see 10,000 stances. And you know that a whole bunch of them represent corporations in town. And do you understand and you know, you've done the, you understand your charity, and in my case, one in every 10 families has an individual with an intellectual disability. So you know that you're reaching lots and lots of people. So anyway, I mean, my story goes on and on. And on. Over my years there, I raised a half a billion dollars per opportunity Village. And in my tenure, of almost four years, I left to become I was being asked by people around the country to help them and at this late stage in my my career, I have now a fundraising consultant, or a nonprofit consultant. So I'm traveling around the world. And particularly in the United States, I actually have a client in Liverpool, England, but I'm travelling around the country helping organizations think big, and understand that they deserve you know, to be supported, and also help them to understand that every dollar counts, and it's to reach out to the community and and the corporations in the community for help.

Unknown Speaker 17:01
What a fantastic case study in cars marketing that you just shared there, Linda, by the way, for those of you who are just tuning in, you're listening to the business of giving podcast that 91.5k You envy jazz and more and I am speaking with Linda Smith. She is a woman who was very prominent in the development of opportunity village, one of the largest nonprofit organizations in Southern Nevada, Sol up and 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 sits on the board of the Nevada Conservation League. By the way, we have a new nonprofit organization who recently joined the cause marketing chamber. It is called stem achievers. STEM achievers offers virtual tutoring sessions designed for elementary, middle and high school students. They are dedicated educators in the field of science and mathematics with over 80 years of experience. They make learning math and science enjoyable for students of all ages. To learn more about STEM achievers, the stem achievers.com. And each week, I keep updating you all about the first annual cause and business cruise, it's going to happen October the 19th through the 26th 2024. We're going to cruise through the Hawaiian Islands as an organization. It'll give you a great opportunity. If you come and participate with us to network with giving professionals we're going to do lots of things together as an organization, we're even going to do some volunteer work, one of the islands that we'll be doing a layover in while we're in Hawaii is Maui. And of course many of us we know the devastation that happened to that island through fires a few months ago, we're going to go and be of service in Maui, we're going to have a lots of fun activities related to the cause and business sectors. And now of course, we're going to enjoy ourselves being in Hawaii with all the sights and sounds of paradise on earth as what I like to call Hawaii. And we'd love to have you come and be a part of the cause and business crews proceeds from cabins. By the way, we'll also go to nonprofit organizations. If you'd like to learn more about what we're going to be doing with the cause and business crews info at cause marketing chamber.com or you can reach out to us cause marketing chamber.com to learn more. And as I had mentioned, I've been speaking with Linda Smith, she is a philanthropist at a very high level and Linda, you started talking about fundraising in the work that we do in this sector, as you know, because you've been involved in fundraising for a long time, especially with the newer nonprofit organizations. One of the things that I find I find is that a person's got a big heart, they've got a great idea about something that they want to contribute to society to make the world a better place, as I had mentioned before, but when they are confronted with the economic realities of running a nonprofit that can be very challenging, especially at the beginning, before they understand fundraising, as a consultant, what are some of the steps that you would take with a smaller nonprofit? To help them to get the mindset of fundraising? Because all nonprofit work to an extent is driven through fundraising?

Unknown Speaker 20:39
Well, yeah, I think the the first very important step is to understand that you are not a beggar. You, you know, nonprofits solve the societal ills of the world. And a lot of times you have someone that, you know, starting out, and even seasoned people, I hear people say, because I do board training, and I talked to staff and I, you know, they feel like a beggar and I go, and you're not a beggar, you are giving, you're giving your community and you are giving people an opportunity to do something important in the world. And I think we all know, when we give, it feels good to give. So you know, that that would be a very first thing is to understand that little piece, that no of valuing what you have, and you are a gift, you're a gift to the community, you are a gift to donors. I think understanding also the business of philanthropy, in that there are right now, we're going to the largest wealth transfer in human history. So you have people that have enormous wealth, and they're sitting here trying to figure out what to do with their money as they age. And, you know, what gives me pause as a fund raiser, is that I worry about the next generations, do they understand philanthropy? Do they understand that it's a responsibility to your community? Do they, you know, these next generations several removed, maybe they don't care as much about people, maybe they want to save the whales, which is not a bad thing. But we, it's important that we all understand this, this window of opportunity right now over the next probably 2025 years. Whereas the people that have the money, are the people that are gonna give it away. And so, if you're sitting behind your computer, or your phone, texting a donor, or you know, emailing a donor, you're not doing it right, you have to get out and meet people where they are, and understand that they are not a thing, a donor is not a donor is a warm, like human being who wants to be treated as such. They are people who have all the same needs that we have. And so, you know, where this instant, get out there and ask for money. If you get a quick yes, you didn't ask enough, as far as I'm concerned. And, and and I, I have a story about that with with a major donor was that I went to, and it was at the time, it was the biggest gift I had asked for and it was $5 million dollars. I got a yes so quickly, that I was depressed, that I had left money on the table. Well, I didn't do that again. It's better to ask Hi, and come down. My last significant gift when I was at opportunity village was $35 million. Ask, and why not the organizers, they had the capacity, they had the interest. There are wonderful people, we'd stewarded them along the way. And what's the worst that can happen is you may not get the 35 million that may come down to 25 or 10 or five. But that's not so bad. In this case. I got 35 So I was glad I asked. Hi. But I mean that's that's that's a lot of information. There. I do have a couple of books I wrote the story of how I got involved in in the nonprofit world and it's called unwanted by Linda Smith and it's a story of my son Christopher and, and then you know building opportunity village and when I completed that book, so that's unwanted. And then when I you can find that, by the way on Linda's life on Amazon. But if when I completed that I had a lot of people saying well, Linda, you didn't give enough detail about events you know on how to put on an event. So my second book is called Confessions of a Sin City fundraiser. And that's available on Amazon find that dismiss. We can never stop learning by still, I went to an event in Texas on Saturday, every single time, as long as I've been in this game ever, I could see the things that they needed to improve. But more than anything, I could see that they were doing so many wonderful things. And and I learned from them. So never feel like we know it all. There's always something to be learned.

Unknown Speaker 25:36
Yes, and I have some of those a couple of things that you touched on, I think that were really significant. And that is never ask, ask double probably have of what you feel you deserve. Right. And that's a huge confidence builder, I think for maybe people who aren't used to fundraising is you have to keep your mind on the value of what you're bringing to the community. And I That's an excellent point that you made about that, Linda, and I know we've got additional interviews, because we're really just scratching the surface. But I, I definitely want to have you back to talk more about fundraising and other aspects. I mean, again, someone with your long history, cause marketing consulting, can you share some information with them? Well,

Unknown Speaker 26:25
if you go to Amazon, both books are on Amazon. And again, it's unwanted by Linda Smith and Confessions of a Sin City fundraiser by Linda Smith. But also you go to my web website is Linda's life, Li F E. And you can see my my blogs and my newsletters and my pointers. But also, there's a link there to two otter order the books. So there's many fundraisers out there to learn from you could go to ASP the Association of Fundraising Professionals and look at their library to find to find books on not just fundraising, but on marketing. But you know, the main thing is to get out from behind your desk, and meet with people. The number one reason people give is because they were asked, and because they were asked face to face, or phone to phone if you cannot meet face to face. But that's, you know, a lesson that needs to be continually revisited. Because what makes me that worries me about the people young people or young people of today is they do not know how to communicate. And and that's a broad statement. I don't mean to paint that brush over everybody. But you know, everybody's communicating on the phone. And that's not where the donors are. They don't like that. So take people out to dinner to lunch, meet them in their office, talk to them face to face, and you'll you'll be much more successful.

Unknown Speaker 28:00
Thank you so much again, for Linda for being a part of the business of giving podcast. We just want to remind you all that you can listen to our show on Spotify, Apple podcast, Amazon music and other platforms to listen to us on other platforms the business of giving transistor dot F M We also invite you to follow cause marketing Chamber of Commerce is social sites. And we welcome you to tune into the business of giving podcast every Sunday at 7:30am at K u and v 91.5. FM. The business of giving podcast was brought to you by sole UPS underwriting of our series. Thank you so much for tuning in again. And always remember to give and do business for good. Take care of yourselves and see you soon.

Unknown Speaker 29:08
The weight of the world on my shoulder. As I'm getting older your people get older. Most of us only care about money.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai