Watch our President & CEO, Elizabeth Voudouris and BVU’s Board Chair, Kathy Golovan from Westfield Insurance, sit down with Mark Oppeneheim from the Nonprofit Report, who highlights the work of nonprofit organizations. Transcript is below!
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Mark: Welcome to the Nonprofit Report, your update on nonprofit organizations, issues, and leaders. I’m your host Mark Oppenheim and today I have the distinct pleasure to have the management team and the Board Chair for Business Volunteers Unlimited. Biz Voudouris, President and CEO and Kathy Golovan, the Board Chair and also Chief Administrative Officer and Corporate Secretary at Westfield Insurance. Thank you both for being with us, I’m so excited. The idea of volunteerism is as American as apple pie, isn’t it Biz?
Biz: Yes, it is, I mean from the very beginning it’s been part of what Americans have always done, and I think we’ve got a real unique culture of giving back and supporting our communities – so absolutely.
Mark: Well, coming together also Kathy, to not only make home where you work but make home where you live and make home where other people live and provide that kind of support. Taking professional competencies and placing them in service to the community – isn’t that part of what creates a great city, a great municipality, a great region?
Kathy: Absolutely, and it really, BVU was founded by business leaders in Northeast Ohio who decided that there has to be an easier and better way to connect the business talent with the not-for-profit sector for the benefit of the greater community. And so, based on that foundation, BVU has continued to serve a whole bunch of constituencies, the nonprofit universe, the business universe, and the community as a whole.
Mark: And this wasn’t that long ago; this was in 1993 – TRW, BP, KeyBank, Jones Day, Eaton, the Cleveland Foundation, the George Gund Foundation, United Way of Greater Cleveland, and probably a few others, came together. So, these were business leaders, these were community leaders, they were civil society leaders who said okay, we’ve got some resources on the sidelines, let’s get them into the pool and let’s start to deploy those resources. Biz, could you just talk a little bit about how that actually happens on a day-to-day basis?
Biz: Absolutely. You know, just as you said from the very beginning, the businesses said we have so many fabulous people at our business beyond the CEO, let’s get them involved. And so today, if you jump forward 33 years, we’re a bridge between businesses and the nonprofit sector. And on the business side, we work with them to engage their employees – either help them find the right nonprofit board where we match them and we train them to serve on a board that meets their passions and their interests and needs their skills, or we connect them as pro bono volunteers for shorter term high impact projects. Or we get them involved as direct service volunteers, you know, big teams doing cleanups or sorting donations, just powerful projects that make it a lot easier for nonprofits to get something done. On the nonprofit side, they have access to all those volunteers: board, pro bono, and direct service. They also have access to consulting services, because once we train these folks for boards, they can call us and say, ‘I love the mission here, but they’re not doing what you said they were supposed to be doing during the training.’ So, we’ve developed some consulting services to strengthen boards and help them with strategy and succession, and we also do a lot of education. So, we’re one stop shopping for businesses and nonprofits – we really sit at the intersection in our community, it’s an incredible place to sit.
Mark: The thing that I think is so interesting about that story and how you unpack it is that you’re exchanging information and you’re educating each other, right? So, part of the issue that somebody who might want to volunteer has is that they don’t know how to be used, or that their counterparts don’t know how to leverage them. And so often a volunteer will come in and have a frustrating experience and then exit the experience saying, ‘Ugh, they were all messed up.’ It’s not that they’re all messed up; it’s just that there’s no education that’s going on. And so that’s what you’re doing; you’re basically helping to educate the nonprofit and using these experts, but you’re also educating the experts in how nonprofits function. That’s really important for sustainability of the sector, isn’t it Kathy?
Kathy: It absolutely is, and I think that’s what is so unique about BVU; that really is the mass translator. And between the businesses and how they see the universe and how nonprofits see the universe and take the best of both worlds and cross train people. And I’ve been so lucky. I was a client of BVU at one point in time, and now I’ve used BVU’s services as a development tool for people on my teams. And so, to see it through the whole life cycle has been a really unique position for me to find myself in.
Mark: I’d like to talk a little about American civil society, because I really think we have a problem in this country in this idea of me, me, me, it’s all me, me, me, that really is very corrosive. And you seem to be the antidote to me, me, me, right? There’s a lot of respect that goes on when you come into someone else’s environment with an open mind to learn and to listen, and then to accept somebody from outside of your environment, where you’re also going to learn and listen. You’re basically creating a sense of unity in community that is built on shared objectives. How do you foster that kind of cultural attribute that then embeds within businesses, so businesses are thinking more like nonprofits in terms of general society and not just quarterly profits at the end of every three months? But they’re also thinking about a sustainable place within the community where the business itself and all the employees are seen as really embedded. If I’m going to do business, I’m going to do business with that person because that person has actually served my purpose. Biz, you want to give a cut at that?
Biz: I think in terms of a lot of the businesses we work with, we have worked with hundreds of businesses. One of their core values is often ‘we want to support the community where our employees work and live and where we want to do business. Now some of the businesses that we work with don’t do any business in North America, but they still want to support the community where their employees work and live. I think that sometimes what people don’t think of is that most of us are using nonprofit organizations every day; it’s not just for very unique issues. We’re using the arts, we’re using the education, the environmental, the health and human services. They’re really filling the critical gaps in our society, not only for the real dire social issues but again for some of these issues that impact all of us. So, to get folks involved, I think it helps people find purpose when they can use their skills or just their time and energy outside the workplace and know that they’re giving back and doing something good that’s for people. There are studies that said that volunteerism is good for team building, it’s good for leadership development, it’s good for developing empathy, it’s good for mental health, it’s good for people’s long-term health. And if you think of the loneliness, I know you talked more about the empathy and connection to society. But there’s so much about loneliness and just getting out and volunteering with other people – that’s also another way to combat loneliness. I remember years ago, a professor from Harvard, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, talked about from the business perspective, she said that volunteerism can almost be like crisis glue, because when you’re seen as a good neighbor in the community, that’s going to give you some credibility when things aren’t necessarily going right. There’s a lot to it.
Mark: I love that point, that we’re unconscious about the ubiquity of nonprofits. You know, if you’re running a business, Kathy, your business probably belongs to professional associations, or at least your employees do. There are experts who are lobbying for particular legislation, right? If you’re in the food business, then it’s possible that a food bank is taking a product that doesn’t look pretty for the shelves and making sure that people gain access to it. If you’re manufacturing clothing, then it’s probable that there is a nonprofit that is taking your excess manufactured goods and making sure those get distributed, right? So, if you have a child who’s being educated, if you have an elder who’s being cared for, if you have a relative who has certain challenges, right? I mean it’s all over the place. We are businesses saying like, we don’t think about this, but it’s really there for us when we need it. If we get sick, if we get hit, if there’s a fire and first responders need support, right. If there are police who are injured in the line of duty, who supports them?
Biz: Who supports the arts and culture and beauty of our society? I mean, it’s all of those things.
Kathy: That’s the beauty of this is, I think you said it well Mark, it’s opening the eyes to the business community – and a lot of businesses don’t need their eyes opened, but to the benefit of being good corporate citizens. Number one, there are whole generations of employees now that want to have bigger meaning in their life and want to work for organizations that believe in a greater good. And so, to be able to be a connector for that is great. Biz said it, that volunteer activities are huge development opportunities for teams, and so this is an opportunity for businesses to do talent development in a space outside of the four walls of their building. And finally, they’re making communities where people want to live, and they’re making better places for their employees to go home at night by supporting these organizations. Even if they had zero philanthropic bones in their body as an organization, there are so many self-serving ways that businesses can get value out of being involved in an organization like BVU supporting the community and supporting these not-for-profits because there’s so much value to go around. And it’s not just the not-for-profits that are getting value out of the relationships.
Mark: Let’s talk about that value. We’re going to put a little bit of context on this and Biz, if you could correct these stats. 4,300 professionals matched to nonprofit board opportunities, is that about, right?
Biz: It’s close; I think it just continues to grow.
Mark: 500+ nonprofits advised on governance, succession, strategic planning, and so on.
Biz: So consulting, yeah.
Mark: 4,000 neighbors helped at the Homeless Stand Down, which I want to come back to. $250 million plus in community value generated by civic leaders, pro bono consultants, and business volunteers, that’s huge. $250 million?
Biz: Yeah, and I think that’s in a window of our time frame it’s not the whole time; it’s bigger than that. There are volunteers generating – again, if we do a huge cleanup at a nonprofit, they would have paid people to do that. Now instead, these people can be delivering food and not worrying about the cleanup, right? So, the value is there.
Kathy: And the value is the hard labor of working in a food bank, which is one of my favorite volunteer activities, but it’s also IT professionals coming and helping a small not-for-profit with their systems that they don’t have to pay a computer consultant, because they can do that, or attorneys doing pro bono work for not-for-profit, so they don’t have to go and engage law firms and they can use every dollar on core mission. And so, the money adds up pretty quickly when you talk about the big scale volunteering events and then matching really technical experts with the needs of not-for-profits.
Biz: I love that you said that Kathy, I was on the phone with somebody today talking about joining a board, and she said, “I know why boards need attorneys and CPAs, but why would they need me? I’m in sales.” And the nonprofit CEO was there, and he said, “Are you kidding me? Your skills, you can help us think about development and fundraising. You can also help us recruit board members and volunteers.” And I think people don’t realize that all of our skills can be used in some way by a nonprofit. People think ‘I have nothing to give.’ Yes, you do! I mean we all have something to give.
Mark: That’s absolutely correct. A friend of mine is a plumber, and he helped a fairgrounds locally do all their plumbing, right, and he did that on a pro bono basis. Another friend is an electrician, same kind of thing. If you’re an IT professional, if you have manual labor in your body that you can contribute, if you can provide sales or marketing expertise, these are really important skills. Security, right? If you understand cybersecurity or physical security, how many organizations require that kind of support, particularly these days, where you have cybercriminals aided by AI constantly attacking us all? I’d like to come to some of your events, because you have governance and leadership events, nonprofit capacity building events, and I want to in particular talk a little bit about, and listen to you talk about, the Homeless Stand Down. Because these are issues that are near and dear to my heart. That’s where a lot of issues of unsheltered individuals, families, veteran services, they’re all sorts of different intersectional issues. Could you talk a little bit about this Homeless Stand Down program that you have?
Biz: Yeah, it’s something that we actually inherited. It’s been in the community for 35 years. They were started across the country by veterans’ organizations, and it’s involved here in this market. At this point, we own it. Once a year, we have a day that offers our guests who are experiencing homelessness with access to resources, and things you might need like coats, shoes, toiletry kits, and those types of things. Also, we have several medical providers there providing all types of services, from mammograms to cancer screenings to vaccines – any of the medical services that can be provided. And then we have about 80 other partners that just provide services to people in the community, and they all come in one place. So, in one day, somebody can come, instead of having to take a bus here one day and bus here another day. In one day, they’ve got access to legal expungement services, and looking at home repair services, any of the different services they might need access to, they can access in one day. Last year, we served about 600 folks; we had 500 volunteers there. It’s a very powerful volunteer event, and folks come in, and they get a guide who’s their partner for the day who takes them through all the resources, helps them access the medical services they need and additional services. And everyone gets a meal, there’s music, it’s happy, people are singing and dancing, and it’s a four-hour event, folks leave with a bag full of stuff that they need, information that they needed, or resources that they needed, and some of the medical care that they needed, so we are really proud of the event. And Kathy has been a volunteer with us.
Kathy: And having gone through some poverty simulations, where you live a day in the life of somebody experiencing poverty and homelessness, I realized how valuable just being able to make all those connections in one space, you wouldn’t think about it, but not even knowing where to go, but to have all the safety net services in one place. So, it is great that we do shoes and coats and everything else, but we help people navigate something that is really, really hard to navigate. And I think there’s a sense of dignity as well. I love the fact that people get their haircuts there, and we have family portraits there this year, and so there’s a little bit of everything in one spot to help the people that are struggling with homelessness.
Mark: And we’re also providing educational services to people who have lived a life that is distant from that kind of need, and don’t really appreciate how close we all are to being in that circumstance.
Biz: We open it, it’s full, 500 volunteers. Because people really value the opportunity to feel like they, and it’s very much, when you greet somebody when you’re there, it’s ‘Hi, I’m Elizabeth, what’s your name?’ And you talk, you have a conversation, human to human. It’s really a beautiful event.
Mark: If you were to drive home one message, and raise awareness about one program going forward, Kathy, why don’t we start with you? What message would you drive home to viewers of this program on how they should think about your work and how they should think about their own investment of time?
Kathy: I would use my own use of our board matching services. Over 25 years ago, BVU matched me with my first not-for-profit board with a small not-for-profit that was struggling and actually helped homeless and jobless families to get back on their feet. So, they provided them housing and clothing, helped them navigate the system and learn how to apply for a job, help them get dressed for success and do all of those things. I would have never made that connection for that first opportunity. I was too young to know that I didn’t know anything to be able to be in that opportunity, and I was trained to do that role well. Fast forward now, board matching, my organization actually has upped the number of matching we use BVU for because it’s part of our talent development. So, if we have up and coming talent, we want to place them on boards and we want them to be part of the boards because not only are we giving back to the community by sharing our talent, we support them financially for whatever board they serve on. We also get much better employees back who have an experience to do some leadership things that they might not during their 9-5 job. So having seen it both as employee and boss, I think it’s a fabulous program that really impacts the not-for-profit world but really impacts the leaders in the corporate world as well.
Mark: Somebody, a couple I really truly admired, and they were mentors of mine, used to say that those who are served shall educate. How do you then, the recipient of education and advantage from people who are less fortunate than you?
Kathy: I was very lucky to have role models in my life. My grandfather always said, ‘to those who much is given, much is expected,’ and this is living it. To know that I have been fortunate, sort of born fortunate, and I could very easily find myself in situations had I not been born fortunate, that many of the people that I have served find themselves at. Understanding how we are all interconnected, and sometimes it’s luck and nothing else, and so to be able to live the mantra ‘to those who much is given, much is expected,’ has been personally most fulfilling. And I will tell anybody that board service and volunteering has given me a lot more than I’ve ever given any organization. The personal growth satisfaction and meeting some incredible people, there’s nothing like it
Mark: So, your admonition is we should all volunteer?
Kathy: We should all volunteer.
Mark: All volunteer.
Biz: Ditto.
Mark: Biz, what would you take us out on, as a thought, in terms of your work and the needs out there?
Biz: Absolutely what Kathy said. From my perspective, in a little bit narrower perspective, getting the governance right has never been more important to a nonprofit organization than it is today. We are dealing with the most complex, gritty, you know, it’s the financial strains, the workforce strains, the technology, the AI, just running the organizations, the increasing demands of all of our clients and needs that you want to help. Many don’t have strategic plans; many say they don’t have strong boards. So, I think it’s critical that folks realize that most of us would be an excellent board member for a nonprofit organization, and if you can find an organization where you’re passionate about the mission and learn about what it means to be a board member and really understand the board’s role, you can really help organizations make a difference and further their missions.
Mark: Well, it’s just been a real pleasure learning from you Biz Voudouris, President & CEO and Kathy Golovan, Board Chair of Business Volunteers Unlimited. Unlimited, indeed. Thank you so much for sharing your work with us. Thank your staff. Please thank your volunteers. Please thank those you serve who are helping us all to make the world a better place. And please, please, please, thank your funders and your donors, and the companies that support your activities Biz and Kathy. Thank you so much for your insights.
Kathy: Thank you, Mark.
Biz: Thank you, Mark.