EP 9: the pillars of nonprofit storytelling, with Kacey Koeppel, The Pink Agenda

Hey everyone, it's Matt, and before we begin the podcast, a quick request. It is so critical that we learn from each other. The nonprofit space can be isolating at times, and while every nonprofit is different, there is great strength in learning how others operate, particularly around subjects that aren't our expertise. That's why I've created the Nonprofit Storytelling Survey. Storytelling is not everyone's favorite subject, but it is essential to communicating, fundraising, nearly everything we do as nonprofits. How often do you post on social media? What do you find most effective? What is your greatest challenge? This survey is brief, but thorough, and with your insights, it will be beyond helpful. Please take a few minutes to fill out the survey. You can find it at pearlimpactmedia.com/survey, and please share with as many as you can in the non-profit space so that this survey can be as comprehensive as possible. Alright, on with the podcast. Hello friends, welcome to dot org, the podcast all about how nonprofits tell their stories. I'm your host Matt Pearl. I was a broadcast journalist, a TV news reporter locally and nationally for 20 years. Now I run Pearl Impact Media. I help nonprofits and purpose-driven businesses raise money, raise awareness, and distinguish themselves from the rest through meaningful, memorable, and affordable video storytelling. That's my mission, and an offshoot of that mission is this podcast. Each episode I chat with a nonprofit leader with a defined, thoughtful, and successful approach to telling their organization's story. I want to be honest about something. This interview came about because I was talking to the person that I'm about to introduce, and we were having such a good conversation, and I said to her, you know, this would be a great podcast episode. Could we just kind of pause this and continue it down the road on a podcast sometime? And she thankfully said yes. And I feel weird saying that as if it's an admission, because I think sometimes, oftentimes, the things that are most relevant or most germane for my audience and for you in the nonprofit space are the things that just come up organically as you're having a conversation with someone. And that was the case here. But it turns out that in addition to the things that we were talking about when it comes to nonprofit storytelling, the person I'm about to introduce is also a veteran in the nonprofit marketing and communication space. She is the associate director for the pink agenda. Casey Keppel, welcome to .org. So good to see you. Good to see you too. And Casey, we'll jump into the conversation in a second, but question number one, and it's always the toughest. Tell us about the pink agenda in 30 seconds or less. Okay. The pink agenda is a nonprofit dedicated to raising money and awareness for breast cancer research and care. And I'd say what sets us apart is from other breast cancer organizations is that we're powered by young professionals who want to drive meaningful change. So there's a lot of energy and passion behind what we do. Our mission is twofold. We fund innovative breast cancer research through our partnership with the breast cancer research foundation. And we support patients along the way. So we also run Juliana Ransick's Fabiwisch initiative, which grants wishes to women undergoing treatment. And that part of our mission is especially powerful because it reminds people that while science and progress are critical, so is joy, dignity, and hope in the day-to-day experience of living with breast cancer. Yeah. So the pink agenda, there's so much to dive into in terms of the way that you tell your own story because some might say, oh, well, you know, they must have it pretty easy, right? You know, this is a, you know, a topic that people just resonate with, I think, almost naturally when it comes to breast cancer. So much has been done. Obviously, the pink agenda, people think of the color pink and breast cancer is something that comes to mind almost immediately. And you have all of these built-in stories of people that you help. I would love to hear kind of the broad strokes of how you approach your own story. When you're talking about the pink agenda, when you're trying to get others to buy in to what you're doing and to support, whether it's through social media posts or financially, what you're doing, what's the broader strokes? What are the broader strokes here? Right. Great question. You know, I would say when I approach storytelling, I start with the purpose. Am I trying to get someone to buy an event ticket? Am I do I want them to make a donation? Share a post, feel inspired. You know, sometimes it's just raising awareness or celebrating a milestone. We oftentimes highlight our partners or researchers who we, who are funding, you know, showing impact. Or is it, you know, are we just building, you know, is this a community building initiative? And I think being clear on the purpose first helps me anchor the story and decide how to shape it so that it does resonate. Once I've identified the goal, I pivot to the subject itself. What's the tone? Is it something light and playful or is it more serious or maybe a little bit sentimental? You know, we come across that all the time and within our space. And since the pink agenda is largely driven by young professionals, our events and initiatives run the gamut. Last week, for example, we, our New York committee and we have committees throughout the U.S. Our New York committee hosted a burlesque bingo night at the Moxie Hotel, which was, it was incredibly fun and very powerful. One of the burlesque dancers actually is a survivor and one of the other dancers, her mom, just finished breast cancer treatment. And so like there was something very powerful about that. However, you know, promoting that event, I was able to be a little bit fun and cheeky. Whereas tomorrow we are hosting a brunch featuring a renowned breast cancer oncologist speaking about lifestyle changes in genetics. And that obviously is an entirely different tone. But regardless of the subject, I always make sure the pink agenda's mission is at the forefront. I think that's critical. So I would say, you know, keeping the brand voice consistent. You know, we're here to fund groundbreaking research and support patients. You know, that's priority number one. So even if the message is playful, I'm still weaving in the reminder why it matters and why people should care. So you know, for me, it's starting with the purpose, shaping the tone around the subject and keeping the mission front and center so the story connects and inspires. So if you're multitasking while you're listening to this, come back to us because Kasey Keppel just basically gave everyone listening a two minute masterclass in all kinds of storytelling. And it's so funny because as you are going through your list, I mean, these are literally the steps that I talk about when I give workshops to nonprofit marketing folks and the leaders about video storytelling and, you know, how to figure out your strategy. It is exactly that. First comes the why. And it's not always as straightforward as it might seem, right? Maybe it's a fundraising initiative. Maybe it's an awareness initiative. Maybe it's a broader public appeal, but you have to figure that out first. What are you trying to accomplish? And then first it's why, then it's who, right? Who are your vehicles for the story? So as you were saying that you and I didn't talk about this before the episode, as you were saying that like this is exactly right. And you don't have to be a broad national organization to be able to be able to do that. You, it's such a simple two step process of first comes why then comes who. So I love that you went there. And I also want to dive into the event part of this because I think that's such an interesting way. And part of why I thought you'd be such a great guest is because you were telling me about all the different events that the pink agenda does in various cities to really build up its fundraiser base, to build up awareness, to do all of that. And I think for nonprofits, for a lot of smaller ones, events can be a difficult subject to dive into. I think it can be something that feels intimidating because much like a lot of the concerns I hear about video, right? There's it's an investment, right? It's not free most of the time. And it can be challenging if you don't feel confident in what you're doing with it, right? So I'm curious, obviously, you guys have your events down to a T, but I would love to hear the basics on that part of it about how you structure your events, how you, how you get started when you know this is something you want to do. What are your first steps there? Right. So I would say, so I spend, I would say, while, you know, I'm leading marketing and communications at the pink agenda, I spent a large portion of my career, heading up events at other organizations, I was the head of events at the New York Stem Cell Foundation for, for a decade. And so this is, you know, this is a passionate, you know, sort of experience for me, because I do believe that events is communications, like it is a live marketing experience where you can introduce new donors to your organization for the first time in a fun and accessible way, or a meaningful and accessible way, because we also have, you know, educational programs at TPA. And, and also, you know, it, it also can serve as a fundraiser as well. So it's really just thinking about, like, you know, similar to how I approach storytelling, approaching events is the same way. It's who is your, what is your intended message? Who is your target audience? Who needs to be involved to make this successful? And I would say a large, and also, especially in the nonprofit space, how are we going to get underwriting and/or in kind partners to help us make this affordable and accessible so that it, you know, we can create impact without hurting the organization's bottom line and while, and while not taking funds away from the critical research that we're funding or the fattened wishes that we're funding. There's a time component to it, too, which I'm not sure if this is something that you face as much, but I know with smaller nonprofits, and I'm on the board of one, we confront this constantly, we do several events a year. And the question is always, you know, how do we balance the need to put these events on and the need to do all of the things that you're talking about with the time that it takes for our board and our staff to oversee them? I've heard a lot of different strategies on this. I'd love to hear your insights about this. When do you, or what do you take on on your own as a smaller nonprofit? How would you advise someone in that situation? Should they do it on their own? Should they farm it out? What do you think is the approach there? You know, we're really lucky at TPA in the sense that we have a very engaged board leadership and volunteer base. With the younger constituency, you tend to have people who want to get their hands dirty. So in that sense, we are so lucky and very thankful for all of our volunteers in our various chapter cities that allow for us to take on a heavy event load. I was looking at my calendar over the weekend and realized we're coming into our busy season. We are in our busy season, I should say. Breast Cancer Awareness Month is 11 days away. That's our sweet spot. Starting in the week after Labor Day through the week before Thanksgiving, we're doing, I think, somewhere around 15 to 17 events across the country, ranging the gamut. Three of them are galas. We just had our Chicago Pink on the River event, which is a brunch event, but it's a daytime gala. And we have our New York gala coming up and our Atlanta gala coming up. And then we have different supper club events, which are more educational in Los Angeles. We do them in Boston and Chicago and Palm Beach. So thankfully, we're able to tap into people within those cities to help us get things done. Because at TPA, we're a two-person team. We are very small. We are shoestring all the way. And so we tend to rely heavily on the people within our community. Not every organization has that luxury. There are organizations with people who want to contribute funds, as opposed to their time, because their time is limited, which is, we all respect that. So it's understanding who your bases, who your constituents are, where you're going to, where you're going to, how you're going to tap into them and best utilize those connections. So that's a really good point. And I think the concerns that most nonprofits have about event planning are probably threefold. One is, do we have the money to pull this off? One is, do we have the time to pull this off? Right? And we were speaking about that. And the third, I think, very legitimate concern and maybe even a fear is, what if we put on an event and nobody shows up? Or what if we put an event and very few people show up and those few people just have a really rough experience because so few people are there? And that can be a difficult plunge to take too, I would think. For sure. And I think, you know, I think it's, there are always ways to pivot to make it meaningful, right? Like, I mean, you want an event to be successful and you want the masses to show up. You want to sell out every time. That's not always a luxury that we have, whether it's because of event fatigue or time constraints or family responsibilities. So it's being thoughtful about, you know, how many, how many events in different, you know, areas are you putting on? And are the, is the programming compelling to the audience? You know, and I think there is a way to make, you know, an event that maybe isn't quite as well attended feel more intimate by, you know, and I think there is a way to kind of take that, you know, you don't want a space that's massively oversized for an event that may only have 25 people. So how do you, how do you take something like that and really make it feel, make the guests feel important? And maybe that's, you know, trading it like this is an exclusive experience. You were invited exclusively to this, you know, we're giving you exclusive access to breast cancer on colleges. We're giving you exclusive access to, you know, experts in the field. Very cool. She is Casey Keppel. I am Matt Pearl. This is dot org, the podcast about how nonprofits tell their stories. Let me take a quick minute to tell you about how I tell stories. I was a journalist for many years. I traveled the world, covered the Olympics three times, won national awards for video journalism, mostly for stories about the under reported issues facing our communities and the people in organizations bringing solutions. Now I get to work directly with those people and those organizations at Pearl Impact Media. I provide meaningful, memorable video storytelling for nonprofits and purpose driven businesses. Maybe you want to raise funds. Maybe you want to raise awareness. Maybe you're looking for that great video for your event that you're putting on. Maybe you want to showcase your services in ways only video can do. I am based in Atlanta, but work with clients across the country and I would love to work with you. Head to my website at pearlimpactmedia.com to schedule a free consultation. Back with Casey Keppel and Casey, we've talked a lot about the pink agenda. We've talked a lot about events specifically. I'd love to broaden out a little bit to the importance of owning your own story as a nonprofit. And this is a lot of what we were talking about on our conversation a few months ago that really got me thinking about this as a podcast episode. By the way, I do want to mention really quickly, you mentioned something earlier about how we are 11 days away from breast cancer awareness month. That's when we are recording this. But I can tell you, if you're listening to this now, when this episode has come out, we are in breast cancer awareness month. So please look out for nonprofits who work in that space, such as the pink agenda, and see what they're doing and see how you can offer your support. Casey, I want to talk about this importance of owning your own story, especially at this moment in time. I mean, it's a very challenging moment for nonprofits. Nationwide, I would love to hear just about the conversations that you're having with the pink agenda right now and how you try to get in front of the storytelling process to make sure that you're the one controlling your story. Yeah. So as you said, right now, storytelling has never been more important. New cycles are moving at a rapid pace, and the administration changes every few years. Public attention shifts constantly. And so how do we keep people's attention? For us at TPA, one thing remains consistent. And that's the need for breast cancer research and patient support, right? So I'm using breast cancer research here, obviously, because I'm living and breathing it every day. But I would say this, I take this philosophy with me. I've taken it with me throughout my career. So it's guided me, guided me in every role I've had. Consistency and messaging is what keeps a mission front and center. No matter what else is happening in the world, you have to remain consistent in your messaging and know who you are as an organization and as a brand. Consider following over my words here for a sec. Oh, it's okay. I do it all the time. Yeah. Considering statistics, right? Like breast cancer is the most common cancer among women worldwide. And cases are rising among young women globally. One in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime. And thanks to groundbreaking research, breast cancer deaths have dropped by 44% over the last three decades. These numbers, though, I can throw those numbers out, but at the end of the day, they're more than just data points. They represent mothers, sisters, friends, colleagues. I would say almost every one of us knows somebody who has experience or is experiencing breast cancer. And storytelling is what transform these statistics into something human. It helps people connect emotionally. It reminds them why this work matters every single day. And consistency in the storytelling also builds trust with your core constituents, with your audiences. And I think when people see nonprofit continuity and nonprofits sharing impacts through and through, whether it's through patient stories or research breakthroughs or initiatives like Fabuish, which we share at least once a month of Fabuish story, they understand that the organization is not only mission driven, but reliable. Yeah. I think the continuity piece is so important there. I think there is a balance, right? Because I do think that authenticity is so important. And sometimes that means acknowledging the challenges you're facing as an organization. And sometimes that means showing a vulnerability that can be tricky, especially in a marketing sense. But I think in general, the continuity point is so important that no matter what is going on around you, whatever your message is, you're the one who's getting that out there. And you're the one who maybe, you know, you might never be able to control completely your message. And once it's out there, but you can at least be understanding of what your message is, what you're trying to convey to people and make that as crystal clear as possible. I'm curious at the pink agenda and, you know, broadening it out to what you recommend for other nonprofits. I'm curious about the how, right? Are we talking about social media? Are we talking about email newsletters building up an email newsletter audience so that you can reach people directly? What are the important factors there? Sure. I think one, having a strong brand identity, both visually and, you know, visually and textually, you know, is going to help you as an organization. This past year, we actually went through a bit of a, I don't want to call it a rebrand because it wasn't a rebrand, but a little bit of a brand refresh. So, and, which included the updating of our website. So, our website was, is now very user friendly and interactive. Can I say, I noticed that, interactive, yeah. Can I say, I noticed it when I went online this morning and I was like, let me just, you know, do some last minute looking and see if there's anything new with the pink agenda that I don't already know. And I went to your website and I just was remarking to myself, wow, this is a really smooth, user friendly, it's top notch. And so, yeah, it's taking me out of here that this is something that was clearly an intentional decision on your end. Yes. And we feel very proud of that. And it also helps us as we're in, you know, we, we take a multi, you know, a multi pronged approach to our outreach. So, in addition to having now an up to date and user friendly, both via mobile device and, you know, and on your desktop, you know, in addition to that, we have, you know, we send out regular E-blast and, you know, we identify who our target audience is. Sometimes it goes to our full database. Sometimes we, we base it on, you know, geography, depending on what we're looking to promote. I also would say that we, you know, we have a pretty active or very active social, you know, social strategy. So we are posting, I would say, almost every day. And we're getting into, you know, we're now making sure, like, are the people that we're engaging with our committee members or people who are, you know, our hosts committee members for our upcoming gala, are we tagging them? Are they resharing? How, how are we going to, I think about how we're going to expand our reach beyond who already is within the TPA family? We are very lucky for breast cancer awareness month. If you go to 40, if you're in New York City and you go to 43rd Street and Broadway, we will have, we were given a heavily discounted opportunity to have a billboard in Times Square, which we are, we are very excited about and very proud of. And this is the second year in a row that we were approached and we're, we were happy to, you know, be able to take advantage of that opportunity. And, you know, how do we maximize our impact there too? Like, yes, it's, it's in the middle of Times Square and a ton of people will see it. But what, thinking about, like, what does that lead to down the road? Like, Ken, is that going to translate to donations? Is that going to translate to newsletter subscriptions? Is that going, you know, like, what does that mean for us? So we're, you know, we're figuring that out along the way. But as, so we're dabbling with a little bit of out of home in addition to our social, our email, you know, our events, again, are a big way that we communicate with people. So it's remarks. And with, with the upgrade of our website, I've also started a blog series highlighting some, you know, some of our more meaningful stories. So the most recent one I did, I'm pretty sure the most recent one is about our gala honoree, Dr. Eleanor Templinski, who is a breast cancer clinician. She also is a master communicator and breaks down the breaks down. She easily translates technical scientific terms to so that lay people can absorb them and have a better understanding of, you know, whether it's a patient or a caretaker or a family member, like really allows people to, to understand breast cancer in a very digestible way. And I've also done, you know, done ones like people who have hosted third party or independent events for us, you know, if, if they've, if it's something fun, like one of our leadership council members, he did a comedy event for us. So I, I'm posting, you know, a creative story about that. And it was, that was really he, his cousin was a member of our board who sadly passed from metastatic breast cancer. And so he is a comedy enthusiast and turned his loss into action and bringing humor to the forefront. And we just thought that it was a really important story to tell. So want to, you know, bringing those stories out into, into the universe to share those to kind of highlight not only the scientific side of, of things or the fabulous side of things, but also the very human side of breast cancer. Yeah. Wow, that's beautiful. Thank you for sharing all of that. I would love to, you mentioned quite a few touch points there. You mentioned email, like kind of a direct email newsletter, you mentioned social media, you mentioned the website, you mentioned blogging, and you mentioned billboard and Times Square. Now we'll, we'll get rid of that last one for most other nonprofits. That's probably not going to be available to them. But of those other four, interviewing that social media, email newsletter, website, and blogging, which might even kind of fall into the website category, but I'd also kind of make it a content creation, its own category of those four. Is there one that nonprofits who are trying to embrace storytelling more fully should focus on that is more reliable for, you know, kind of developing that engagement and awareness and fundraising potential? Does it really come down to where their audience is already? Or do you feel like in general one is more reliable than the other? You know, I think, I think social media and a lot of voices are best friend as non, you know, as nonprofit fundraisers and storytellers. It's essentially free in many ways. And it's a great way for you to communicate your story, your mission, your brand to the masses beyond the people who have signed up to receive your newsletter or to receive your email communications. So I would, I would say that social, especially with, especially with organizations that have a younger target audience, I think social is definitely the way to go. And what we're finding is that, you know, Instagram is probably the most widely, like, that's where we're getting our most reach as an organization. But there is, there's a growing presence, I think people are utilizing LinkedIn a lot more. You know, we are not a TikTok organization. Maybe if we had some more bandwidth, we might be, but I'm not, you know, like, I can't really speak to TikTok as much, but, you know, as far as Instagram, LinkedIn and Facebook, that's where we find, you know, the, that we're getting that we have the most growth and the most interactions. I would say too, it really does come down to what, you know, if you have to pick one, right, because everybody has been with limitations. You just mentioned yours, right? Like, I mean, you can't be everywhere. And most nonprofits are certainly facing that as well. I think, and I can speak to this from, from my perspective on the board of one, I do feel like so often it's, well, what's, you know, if we do nothing else with our storytelling, what do we need to do for my nonprofit? It was, it was very much about building a community among those we serve. So social media, particularly Facebook at that time, but now that's, you know, spread to Instagram too. That really was a natural fit. What we haven't done as much is, you know, huge wider awareness campaigns where, you know, we really might commit to social media in a way that we're not doing now. Like we do it in a way that really benefits the people who use our services before it gets to the wider masses. And you kind of have to have that clarity if you're going to be forced to choose because you can't be everywhere. And, you know, especially if you want to do it well, you really have to start small and focus on what you're really trying to accomplish first, I think. Yeah, I totally agree with that. Yeah. Casey, I've loved this conversation. I have appreciated this time with you. Before we go, I'm going to ask you that famous last question all reporters love to ask, which is, is there anything we haven't talked about that you would like to add? I guess I just like to sort of wrap things up by, you know, saying to anyone in the nonprofit space when it comes to storytelling, make sure you're starting with clarity. Again, know your purpose and be clear about, you know, the unique value that you bring to the table. Be steadfast in reminding people why your mission matters and why they should support you. Keep your, keep your messaging consistent so it builds trust over time. And most importantly, make your audience feel like they're not just bystanders and helping from the outside, but that they are truly part of your mission. When people feel like they have skin in the game, that their participation, their donation, their presence actually drives impact, they're far more likely to stay engaged and invested in your organization and your mission. I just love what you said there about the importance of being out there. Because again, just the more that you are out there, the more that you can connect and find those touchpoints with whoever you're trying to reach, the more you control that message. So beautiful stuff. Casey Keppel, associate director for the pink agenda. You can find them at the pink agenda.org. Casey, thank you so much for your time. Thanks so much, Matt. And that is episode nine of dot org. If you found this helpful and want others to hear it too, a great rating or review wherever you get your podcasts goes a long way. Please take the time if you can and check out my work at Pearl Impact Media. Video storytelling can be so beneficial for organizations. I would love to work with yours. Book a free consultation now at pearlimpactmedia.com. All right, friends, I am Matt Pearl. Thank you for listening to dot org. See you next time.