EP 7 Founding a Giving Circle with guest Jennie Elser
===
[00:00:00] Welcome to Impact Unleashed, the nonprofit edition, where we dive deep into the untapped potential of nonprofits and their remarkable ability to create a lasting impact. I'm your host, Sara Mayer. Let's dive in.
Sara Mayer: Hi, everyone. I'm very excited about this episode because I get to talk about an organization that I founded with one of my, several of my friends, but one of my friends is on today and we're going to talk about our journey of founding the joy ride society. So let me introduce you to my friend and one of our co founders, Jenny Elser.
Sara Mayer: She is an Arizona born and raised marketing professional who is dedicated to making a difference. She thrives in the dynamic world of marketing and advertising with a particular passion for search engine marketing. And she's also made an impact on the community with a [00:01:00] strong history of service and leadership.
Sara Mayer: She served as president of the junior league of Phoenix. Co founded a nonprofit called the Joyride Society and served as gala chair for the Children's Museum in Phoenix. She also dedicated her time as a Girl Scouts leader and. Fundraising for the leukemia and lymphoma society. Jenny works as a digital marketing specialist at revolution parts in e commerce software startup in the automotive space.
Sara Mayer: She is also a dedicated wife and mother of three. Jenny. I'm so excited to have you on the show. I don't think we've ever talked in like this formal type setting with a recording before. Not that I can really think of, but
Jennie Elser: most of our interactions have been less formal.
Sara Mayer: And actually, Jenny, I was thinking about this as I was reading your bio.
Sara Mayer: You've actually been a co founder of two [00:02:00] nonprofits now.
Jennie Elser: Oh, that's true. You're right. I'm a little behind on that. Yeah. Yeah. I
Sara Mayer: was thinking about how we've co founded two nonprofits, but today we're here to talk about the joy ride society. And for many of you listening, you Have had a dream of founding a nonprofit or making a real big impact on the community.
Sara Mayer: And one of the ways that our friend group. Found a way to do that was through creating a giving circle, which we call the joy ride society. Jenny is one of the founders. I am one of the founders. We also have a friend, Annette Tenori, who she's, I think, been on the show before she was one of the co founders as well as Sarah Westfall, who has been on the show.
Sara Mayer: Sarah talked all about balancing life and motherhood and Also our dear friend, Brandy Hunt, and unfortunately [00:03:00] for many of you who are listening, who know about Be Positive, Brandy lost her battle to blood cancer. Was it 2018, Jenny? Yeah. Yeah. Crazy. And so this actually started, I looked it up before the show, Jenny.
Sara Mayer: So we're going to walk through a little history and it actually started our first meeting and was, it was in 2015.
Jennie Elser: Oh wow. Do you believe that? No, I, it really, it did take a little while to get going, but that does make sense. But it seems forever ago.
Sara Mayer: Yeah, it was 2015 actually right before Brandy was diagnosed with blood cancer.
Sara Mayer: I don't think she even knew it at our first couple of meetings. I don't think so either. Yeah. Now we went through that
Jennie Elser: whole journey, with her and we're doing, we were doing this at the same time. So
Sara Mayer: Yeah. Paralleled that. Yeah. So how joy ride started. So the story goes all of us [00:04:00] were, have done a lot in the Phoenix community.
Sara Mayer: We were volunteering at events. We're channeling, chairing galas. We were doing all the things and really making a big difference through giving our time. Mostly, of course we're giving money at these events. But we went out one night for drinks and I think we might've had a few, too many, but somebody said, wouldn't it be great to be the person at the gala when they call for 50, 000 to actually be able to raise our paddle and give 50, 000.
Sara Mayer: And yeah,
Jennie Elser: we, that's a dream, but. The reality is none of us were in a position to do
Sara Mayer: that, but it sounded fun. Yeah. It sounded fun. And it really was about the impact for us. So when we really, we might've had another drink at that point. And when we realized we didn't have the money to do that, but it was really about the impact [00:05:00] because we had been involved in nonprofits that.
Sara Mayer: Wanted to make a big impact and something would happen and then it would take forever, like lots of red tape in order to actually do something with that, the money to help the organization. And in reality, nonprofits love that we volunteer and do all these things, but it's really the money that, that determines.
Jennie Elser: Yeah, they need money. To operate and do all these great things. And we all recognize that, how are we going to do that with what we have, individually. Yeah, that just led to this whole giving circle and everything we've been able to accomplish with that.
Sara Mayer: Yeah. Yeah. And we have, we have a eclectic friend group, I guess I would say very different skill sets, personalities and we're actually really diverse when you look at us.
Sara Mayer: And one of the, I don't remember if it was Brandy or Annette, but one of the more numerical or very data driven people at the table [00:06:00] said. Collectively, I know what you just gave and you just gave and you just gave, we do have 50, 000 and we are giving it. We're just not giving it in that big, one big swoop.
Sara Mayer: Yeah. Yeah. And then it sounds
Jennie Elser: like either of those two might've. Yeah.
Sara Mayer: Yeah. Jenny was probably like Jenny.
Sara Mayer: And that's really where it started. We were talking about, what nonprofits and what our community needed at the time. And if I remember correctly, I think there was like a like a big nonprofit that had just gone bankrupt. And they had all these kids that were living there in like a group situation and they were displaced and they just really needed another nonprofit emergency
Jennie Elser: funding.
Jennie Elser: Yeah.
Sara Mayer: They wanted emergency funding and we were like, wouldn't it be great just to be able to write a check for 50 grand. And yeah, so it was a really cool, engaging conversation. And then [00:07:00] You know, somebody said what if we pulled our money? We didn't even know about giving circles at that point.
Jennie Elser: I've never heard of
Sara Mayer: one before.
Jennie Elser: It just sounded like a good idea.
Sara Mayer: Yeah. And somebody
Jennie Elser: was like, we just opened a checking account. How do we do this? Yeah. That's what took all the time. I think, getting all the, everything in place to do it the right way. But just the general concept was simple.
Jennie Elser: Pull the money together. And gave it away to the people who need it.
Sara Mayer: Yeah. And what was really cool is one of our members, it was actually Sarah did a lot of research, the other Sarah , she did a lot of research and found giving circles. And brought to us several structures and showed us different ways that we might actually just be able to pool our money and give it away.
Sara Mayer: And so we started on that journey in 2015 and. Wow. Long time. Yeah. Long time. 10 years. It'll be 10 years next year.
Jennie Elser: That's crazy. Yeah.
Sara Mayer: Yeah. Time went [00:08:00] fast
Jennie Elser: though.
Sara Mayer: Yeah. And we sat on a giving circle and then of course we had to become a nonprofit in order for people, but first we needed a name. Oh yeah. Talk about the name, Jenny.
Sara Mayer: You're
Jennie Elser: the marketing person. Yeah. What are we going to name this? And, uh, the place that we were having this conversation was called Joyride Tacos. I don't remember exactly who suggested it, but it was just like, okay, this is, we're going on this joyride, we want to spread joy.
Jennie Elser: That kind of became our theme give, vote, spread joy. Then it just became simple. It's going to be the Joyride Society, and that was born.
Sara Mayer: Yeah.
Jennie Elser: And I think it works perfectly for, spreading joy. That's our thing and that's what we want to do. And we talk about it a lot and we have joy funds and different, aspects of the nonprofit are named after, the idea of spreading joy.
Sara Mayer: Yeah. And I loved that we had a lot of very intentional conversations at the beginning. So we knew that we were going to be a membership organization of givers, which is what we call our members. [00:09:00] We knew that we wanted to be very lighthearted. So Jenny brought up joy. We also knew that we didn't want to have another.
Sara Mayer: Like full time job, basically running a nonprofit or expect a lot of our members. We wanted it
Jennie Elser: to be easy and simple to join and be a part of this and not have to attend things if you don't want to, and have meetings and things like that. So being simple, I'd say was like our, one of our top priorities.
Sara Mayer: Yeah.
Jennie Elser: It started.
Sara Mayer: Yeah. And I remember we met in our office at the time Jenny and I both worked at the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and we met there in the conference room and we talked about, we actually talked a lot about what we didn't want, like we didn't want to have a whole bunch of meetings.
Sara Mayer: We didn't want to have a lot of requirements for our members. Yeah. Yeah. And so what we ended up coming up with was we have one meeting a year, the funding meeting, [00:10:00] and we have a party. I guess it's a meeting, but it feels like a party. It's a party. Yeah. It's a giving party. I think is actually impact party.
Sara Mayer: I think it's officially official title. Yeah. So we have one meeting a year and then our board is very tight and small and we, we meet once or twice a year as required and put on one, one event. And what's really cool that Jenny mentioned is that we did come up with three pots. So do you want to talk about that?
Sara Mayer: Yeah.
Jennie Elser: Yeah.
Sara Mayer: So
Jennie Elser: we decided, we wanted to be able to give out a big amount, but we wanted to do it over time, be able to really build a large pot that we could give out and make a big impact for for a nonprofit. So we decided we would have three pots. So every year when you make your donation, it's divvied up so that a percentage goes to Our annual gift, our joy fund, which we do, we decide at that voting party every year.
Jennie Elser: Then we set aside some, what are they called? The [00:11:00] emergency funding sunshine funds. So those are, if anyone, a person or an organization, it is just Finds themselves in a situation where they need a little bit of funding and we can quickly vote on that and get it out to them right away.
Jennie Elser: Maybe someone's leaving an abusive relationship and they need to get a vehicle or they need to get a new phone, anything like that. Or a nonprofit that just faces an unexpected need. We loved that cause it's just easy to get that smaller amounts out quickly to those in need. And then I'm going to stop you before you go into
Sara Mayer: the last one.
Sara Mayer: Yeah. And when Jenny says quickly, like someone can nominate today and by tomorrow the voting poll will be in the email box and the check will could possibly be in the person's hand by tomorrow evening. Yeah, it's a really done it that quickly. We have
Jennie Elser: done it that quickly. And that's what's great about it.
Jennie Elser: Cause it's just it's an easy organization to deal with. We make quick decisions and we're just people that want to get things done. So yeah, I [00:12:00] do love that aspect of it. Yeah. And then the third pot is our dream fund and we have been putting aside money for that every year for the past. Seven years.
Jennie Elser: And yeah, we just recently decided in our, I think in our bylaws, it says after it reaches 25, 000, we can decide if we want to give it out or if we want to keep, waiting and saving. So we did our big announcement was that we did vote to give that out this year, which was very exciting 25, 000 to Pencils of Promise.
Jennie Elser: It was amazing for me to see that. That dream of doing a dream fund actually very exciting. But yeah, that's how we've organized it and it works great. Like we just thought of it, thought of the names for it and everything's worked out the way we'd hoped. So yeah, the structure and how we do things.
Sara Mayer: Yeah. We spent a lot of time in on it in the beginning and now to see it, we technically be 10 years since it started, but we had to go through the process of [00:13:00] getting everything in order and getting the IRS approval and then recruiting members. So we've really been an organization for eight years and then we've been funding for seven.
Sara Mayer: And Jenny mentioned that we had to get the dream fund to 25, 000, which is super cool. But it's reserved for capital projects. So that's really the difference between our annual gift and our emergency funds. And we are like this shy. We might actually be at it right now. If I were you to go look in that though, that amount of time, eight years, we have had a hundred thousand dollars worth of memberships come in and we've given out over a hundred ninety four thousand dollars.
Jennie Elser: And that's amazing. We don't have any operational costs, really. We have a few small things, but we're able to just get the money out where it needs to go. And I love that.
Sara Mayer: Yeah. And how [00:14:00] cool is that? I don't know about you, but I can't write a 94, 000 check, but yeah. Yeah.
Jennie Elser: We did what we set out to do.
Jennie Elser: We pulled together and we gave out 94, 000.
Sara Mayer: Yeah. Amazing. And what's really cool is the organizations that we've been able to fund and individuals. Let's talk about organizations first. So one of the, I don't know if we knew this at the beginning. Maybe we did, but we didn't, but I wasn't thinking about this part.
Sara Mayer: The fact that we are members nominate organizations, and then we get to learn about all these cool things. Like I didn't even, that's like an added bonus. I didn't even anticipate it.
Jennie Elser: Yeah. I love learning, even if we aren't able to fund them, just learning about different organizations out there and what they're doing and the help that, what they do need is awesome.
Jennie Elser: And I think everyone appreciates that. In the organizations do too. They, they love that we're [00:15:00] sharing about them to a group of people and educating them. So it's a win.
Sara Mayer: And you may be wondering if you're listening like, Oh, is this only for Phoenix organizations? No, we've actually funded, wasn't Tina's pads in Africa or something?
Sara Mayer: Africa. I think we had,
Jennie Elser: Like New York area, right? We, when you talk about diversity, I think are in the organizations. are very diverse that we've given to. So that's what's cool. It's not just the same kind of things over and over again. It's very different. We've, everything's very different.
Jennie Elser: And different work that they're doing.
Sara Mayer: Yeah. Like girls mentorship is an organization that we funded. We actually have funded them, I believe twice. That's the only one we funded twice natural restorations. I know many of our members went and cleaned up the desert with that group, but we also funded them.
Sara Mayer: Like one
Jennie Elser: personal for me would be project roots. Helping get food out to the community through a [00:16:00] It's just very different. But yeah, it was glancing over some of our organizations we've given to. And I, I can't remember them all off head. So I won't look at them.
Jennie Elser: It was, I just, I love reminiscing about all the different organizations that we've been able to support.
Sara Mayer: Yeah. They have a acronym. It's the neurologic music therapy services of Arizona and I actually toured
Jennie Elser: that. Oh, you did? Yeah. And it's amazing. The work that they're doing to help people of all ages through music therapy is amazing.
Jennie Elser: It's awesome. So that's another thing we often get to if they are local we can tour. And when we give the check to them, we get to see firsthand what they're doing. I just recently went to Maggie's place, which is our newest joy fund recipient where they're helping homeless expectant mothers have a place to live for a period of time until they leave until their children are about one or so, they're [00:17:00] helping them through the pregnancy.
Jennie Elser: And then, early motherhood to get a stable situation for themselves. And. We went to give them the check and got to tour their headquarters and learn a little bit more about that. So that's another kind of bonus for me is if they are local to get out and yeah, we can, or like you said, going to clean up the trash like that.
Sara Mayer: And then Tina's Pads was the one in Africa. . We awarded them $7,125 and I believe they, I know they had a GoFundMe account and we put them way over their goal and they sent us like this video and they were so thrilled. They did. They were like, how did you even find out about us? And one of our members just found out about them on Facebook.
Sara Mayer: Yeah, exactly.
Jennie Elser: It's we can learn about these organizations through so many different ways. And we have a variety of members. So yeah, they're going to be bringing different types [00:18:00] to to us, to vote on. So it's fun. Like you said, to learn about all this.
Sara Mayer: Yeah. And those are some of the highlights from our joy fund, but I think some of the best.
Sara Mayer: The most feel good stories and the biggest impact that we've made is from our sunshine funds, which Jenny and I talked about. We can literally turn a check around in one day. And in fact, one, one lady was about to be evicted from her place. And she said, if I hadn't received that check the next day, I was going to be evicted.
Jennie Elser: Heartbreaking. But I'm glad, it makes us feel like, okay, I'm glad we could learn about her and get her what she needed.
Sara Mayer: Yeah. And we don't, we don't ask a lot of questions. Like when we don't ask anything of a nonprofit. In fact many nonprofits are like, wait, what? I don't have to fill out a lengthy document.
Sara Mayer: As somebody who's filled out those things,
Jennie Elser: We both have, it's a lot of work. It's. hours. It's a very [00:19:00] easy process. We just need a couple of pictures, a little bit information about what you're going to use this for and what you do.
Sara Mayer: Yeah. And the board does the due diligence, like we're not just out there no writing checks, although, but it's just not the process that most nonprofits
Jennie Elser: are.
Sara Mayer: Yeah. Yeah. And we do document everything and it's very highly documented, but It's easy, an easy lift on the nonprofits and also the individuals, our members can come across a family who needs something or a nonprofit that needs something and they can, easily nominate them and then the money is Sent to wherever you know that
Jennie Elser: you that you can help somebody that needs it.
Jennie Elser: Yeah. Yeah. And it's not just coming out of your pocket. Like we all want to help everybody. We even see about, this is just a, an easy way to do it.
Sara Mayer: Yeah. And we would be, we survived through the pandemic. We had. [00:20:00] We had our giving party impact party. I would be remiss if we did not talk.
Sara Mayer: Yeah, we had online, we did a virtual zoom party, but we need to talk about the fact that one of our sunshine funds actually was to Crystal who basically. Made face max, like out of a 3d printed face.
Jennie Elser: That's true. Yeah. I,
Jennie Elser: I almost forgot about that. Yeah. So during a time when everybody was trying to help we were able to fund somebody.
Jennie Elser: It was, making those first really intense masks that, people needed. So for first responders, I think they were the ones, yeah, we need a 3d printer and all that. Yeah, That was great to be able to do during that time.
Sara Mayer: Yeah. And then we also provided a food service worker who lost her job due to COVID because people weren't doing events in person and I think she was the one who was almost about to get evicted actually.
Sara Mayer: Makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. And then a massage therapist at the same time too. [00:21:00] Yeah. So just some really cool organizations and mem and people that we've been able to help through our gifts. And Jenny did allude to our dream fund. So we are giving 20 And we might, I guess that was a spoiler alert.
Sara Mayer: I, I, yeah, I I think Christine probably already sent the check, but we are, we gave pencils of promise 25, 000. And one of the things about the dream fund is we did have several times throughout our history where we really asked members what was important to them. But I'll go back to our founding. When we first were founded, we, I gifted everybody on the board.
Sara Mayer: I'd read this book, half the sky, and it was talking about how women should be holding up half the sky. Cause a little bit more, if there's more women than men, but we don't because in a lot of places, education is a barrier. [00:22:00] There's a lot of barriers for women. And one of the biggest. Barriers is education.
Sara Mayer: And so we read this book, it was inspiring. And so there was always this little, Hey, what if we could build a school because education is what they need. But I think with anything like that, it always seems impossible. Exactly.
Jennie Elser: Yeah. I think it was the same thing. Oprah can build a school.
Jennie Elser: We want to build a school, like that kind of thing. idea where
Sara Mayer: Okay, we'll do that. Yeah. Yeah. But then what actually happened is throughout all this research, we're able to find organizations and we stumbled upon pencils of promise really early in our journey. This was in our zoom session during 2020.
Sara Mayer: Yeah. And it came up and then there were a couple others and I actually nominated them because I stayed in touch with them. But one of the coolest things is when [00:23:00] I called. And said, Hey, I want to nominate you. This is how it works. And they figured out about how much money we had. I ended up on the phone with, one of their higher major gift officers.
Sara Mayer: And he was like, okay, I'm blocking out my next two weeks. What do you need? And I was like, a logo would be great. Give me a photo. Yeah. Yeah. Can you give me an image and fill in a couple of details here? How would this work? And so then I nominated them as a member. That's what we do. And then we go to the impact meeting and we do a presentation.
Sara Mayer: It's not scary. We do a little presentation and then easy presentation.
Jennie Elser: Like it, like everything in joy, it's very simple.
Sara Mayer: Yes. Unless that one member is there who asks all the questions. It keeps you on your toes, but it's usually easy. It's super fun. And there's wine and drink and food. Yeah. [00:24:00] And so we give a presentation and then as Jenny mentioned, we give, so that's our membership dues.
Sara Mayer: We vote, and so we give the presentation, they vote, and then we spread joy. And so the members voted to fund Pencils of Promise. And what was really cool that Brad, who's our contact there, was able to put together is he made Joyride a part of International Women's Day. Day and the whole organization Pencils for Promise, every email that went out, we were mentioned about, we were their matching gift to encourage other people to donate.
Sara Mayer: And we just had a bigger impact than I think we ever thought we would. And I'm really excited to tell them what
Jennie Elser: they're going to do with that 25, 000?
Sara Mayer: Yeah, so Pencils for Promise actually goes into developing countries and they build schools and they started building schools and then they had to pipe water into the schools for [00:25:00] bathrooms, restrooms, and sinks, and they realized that Many times that's the only source of water for a community.
Sara Mayer: So they build that into their infrastructure and then they train and educate teachers to support those communities and in their new running water facility. And yeah, so they, they do that in three different countries, Ghana, Laos, and I don't remember the third one. Yeah. So we funded a school build and so what will happen is we will get to pick, they'll present us with some projects and we will fund the infrastructure and then they have the matching donors will fund the programming for the teachers.
Sara Mayer: But what's super cool about that organization is every school they've built, there's over 600. Every one of them is still running and successful today. Yeah. So we're doing it. Yeah. [00:26:00] Yeah. So you were a founder before we wrap up, you were a founder. If you, if somebody is listening and they're like, I really want to make a bigger impact.
Sara Mayer: I'm not sure if I can found a nonprofit while this is really cool, you guys must be special unicorns or something like what advice would you give somebody who has this on their heart to make a bigger impact in their community?
Jennie Elser: I guess surround yourself with some like minded people that can help you, but that's what we did.
Jennie Elser: And that's what worked for us. And we all brought different areas of expertise to put it together. So don't do it alone. I would say Get a group together and do it together and it'll be fun and easy, but just do it.
Sara Mayer: Yeah. And I don't think we had it all figured out. No, I
Jennie Elser: mean, we had no
Sara Mayer: idea. We still don't
Jennie Elser: have it
Sara Mayer: all figured
Jennie Elser: out.
Jennie Elser: We still have to figure things out, but we had a general idea and that's all you need. And then you research, you figure it out, you talk to the right people. You know [00:27:00] how to fill out the paperwork and all that. That's just, that comes along as you do it. So don't. Don't overthink it, but give yourself time.
Jennie Elser: Look, it took us a long time. We got everything, all of our ducks in a row first, and that's what worked for us. And we,
Sara Mayer: we honestly probably could have done it quicker.
Jennie Elser: Yes. But we had a lot, with going on, but yes, but I liked the pacing of it. It wasn't, it was easy, not stressful. It didn't overtake our lives.
Jennie Elser: It was just something we never let die. We kept it going and we kept working on it a little bit at a time, getting together, getting, Getting the bank everything we needed to do. We just plugged away at it and then yeah, and now we are where we are.
Sara Mayer: And I will also say the journey wasn't, smooth.
Sara Mayer: It wasn't a joy ride the entire time. Obviously we lost Brandy, our founder. That was super sad. I can, Brandy was actually one of our first Sunshine [00:28:00] Funds. That's true. Yes, you're right. I
Jennie Elser: recall that at our first voting meeting. Yeah, we also gave her some sunshine. Yeah. Yeah. I know that she would be incredibly proud of what we've done, especially our most, this year giving the pencils of promise away.
Jennie Elser: So very proud to have partnered with her and done this in her, in, some intimate, in her honor. Yeah. As well. Doing it for ourselves.
Sara Mayer: Yeah. Yeah. It's been a really great journey. I was thinking about that the other day, how Brandy was, Brandy actually traveled to Africa and built schools.
Sara Mayer: Like how cool it would be to be doing this with her right now. Yeah. Yeah. We all wish that. Yeah. She's there with us. Yes. Yes. All right, Jenny. Thank you. Thank you for being on the show. It's always great to see you. If you were having me, this was, yeah, if you were out there listening and you want to make a bigger [00:29:00] impact on the community, but you can't write 94, 000 checks either, you might consider starting a giving circle and it's easier than you may think.
Sara Mayer: So get to it. All right. Do it.
Sara Mayer: My thing just went away. All right. There you
go.
Thank you for tuning into this episode of Impact Unleashed, the nonprofit edition. I'm so excited you were here on this journey. If you haven't signed up for our newsletters and wonderful resources, please visit nonprofit impact unleashed. co again, that's nonprofit impact unleashed. co I look forward to seeing you on our next episode.
Of Impact Unleashed.