On this episode of the RKD Group: Thinkers Podcast, we're thrilled to welcome Tasha Van Vlack, founder of The Nonprofit Hive and a passionate advocate for community-building within the nonprofit sector. Tasha’s journey, which spans an unconventional path from studying biology and teaching ESL to becoming a pivotal voice for nonprofits, offers inspiring insights into creating meaningful connections and support systems for nonprofit professionals. She founded The Nonprofit Hive during the pandemic as a response to the increasing need for shared experiences, support and peer-to-peer learning among nonprofits.
In this engaging conversation, Tasha shares her unique journey into impactful work in the nonprofit sector. She discusses the challenges faced during the pandemic, the birth of The Nonprofit Hive, and the importance of community-building within the nonprofit space. Tasha emphasizes the need for connection, support and shared experiences among nonprofit professionals, highlighting the value of peer-to-peer learning and collaboration.
She shares:
Justin McCord
Okay, Tasha, has anyone else started calling you TVF yet? Or is it still just me?
Tasha Van Vlack
No, that is just you. But what's great is I know exactly what's happening as soon as I see TVV in a message. I don't even have to open up my phone to know who it's from in an email or LinkedIn. Yeah, I know who it is. So, I know who it's from. No, I love that. You know, it's a calling card. This is where we're at. This is good.
Justin McCord
It's a very limited calling card because it's only me using it.
Tasha Van Vlack
Well, you never know, this might come out, and now the nonprofit world might start calling me that.
Justin McCord
That’s it, yes, I think so. I think that this is, this is where TVV takes off.
OK, so here's where I want to start. Biology and ESL. Like, unpack that. You don't have to tie it to today. Just unpack, like, unpack younger Tasha, where you were, your interest in biology and how, like, what were you planning on doing with, with that combo?
Tasha Van Vlack
Yeah, I mean, this is a great conversation. We were talking about kids earlier and our children. And I mean, my poor kids are going to get an earful when it comes to secondary education because I very much was a generalist always. I did very well in everything. And I had a high school teacher kind of be like, well, your biology marks are incredible. And that's the most applicable thing you could go to university for based on what you … when you get nineties and everything, I don't know, what do you go to school for? And you know, I knew people who were going through for English. I knew I didn't want to be a writer. There are other things, like I had great marks in geography. I didn't even know what you did with that. So I think biology to me was I could be a doctor or I could, you know, be a geneticist. I could go down that garden path.
The only thing that they failed to recognize―and a Myers-Briggs would have really been useful here, Justin, because they would have been like, you are way too extroverted for anything that biologists do―And so I very quickly, you know, in university was taking psych classes and, you know, genetics, and environmental sciences and really just kind of throwing my hat into the ring of all the biologies and going …
Justin McCord
Totally helped at the time.
Tasha Van Vlack
… my goodness, like, this is just not for me at all. There's no people. I'm doing a lot of solo projects. And so the thing I loved about university was the clubs I got into and the volunteering I did. And I worked at the local library and helped other people find books. And that was like my, you know, I was the social person. So I truly feel like I got led down a garden. It's like, you know … and you've got that sunk cost. I got to finish this because I started it and was used to completing things. And I'm not sure what I would advise younger Tasha now … to go like, what the heck? How did you end up, you know, in this field? But yeah, so very random biology degree. It's the most expensive thing I've paid for except for my house. Yeah, it's crazy.
Justin McCord
Yeah.
Ronnie Richard
So how does ESL play into that where English has a second language?
Tasha Van Vlack
My goodness, yeah. So I think, you know, like many of us who go into something who―and you're not sure what you're going to do with it―you're scrambling to make sense of a degree you now have. And so, I actually was living in Ottawa, so the capital here in Canada. I was there for a year and took a full year graduate program in teaching English as a second language because I thought maybe I would travel. Maybe we―you know, my partner and I have been together since we were in high school. He was doing a master's in … he's a quantum physicist. And so, he was doing more schooling, and it just felt like I needed to figure out a next step. I loved people. I loved meeting new people even back then. So this kind of, maybe The Hive was already starting and community-building was already starting, but I really liked feeling like I could contribute, and being newcomers to Canada was just a sweet spot where I was like, this is amazing. And yeah, I just felt like every day was new and the impact was high. So I kind of moved into ESL for a period of time.
Justin McCord
Did you just say that your partner’s a quantum physicist?
Tasha Van Vlack
That is his background, like, theoretical physics, you know? Just, yes, he has quite the wild career journey. And, you know, he's in startup land, but in physics startups.
Justin McCord
When y'all sit down, and now since you're both in startup land, when you sit down at the dinner table―or if it's post-dinner and you're cleaning up―and you're kind of trading some level of war stories from the day, who's are wilder between your startup space and that sort of space?
Tasha Van Vlack
Yeah. Yeah, very different. I mean, so much of the stuff is programming related. I mean, oftentimes we just trade people's stories because I think at the core, regardless of what your industry is, it's the wild stories of messages from people that you get on the side and, you know, the hilariously lack of resources, conversations, strategic planning, all of that is what we tend to talk about because, regardless of industry, it feels like leadership. You know, we have a lot of like leadership-based discussions, and it doesn't matter what industry you're in, I think there's a lot of struggles with leaders.
Justin McCord
That is eerily similar to Joanna and I. She's a principal at an elementary school. And all of our conversations are people-based conversations, you know, and the hijinks through the day. Recently, it was funny, she fielded an email, which sounds like a lot of what a lot of our time is spent doing, right? Just as professionals, but an email from a parent that was trying to express something that was kind of a complicated perspective. Ronnie, you'll feel akin to this as you and I have walked through different, like, as a parent, how do you communicate a certain thing to an education professional, principal, teacher, etc? And it was very evident, as you were reading it, that it was from Chat GPT. Like, it was like you could just tell from the tone or lack of humanity in the message. But then when you got to the end in the email that the person had sent, there were some brackets that said, “Insert your student’s name here,” “Insert your name here,” like, at the bottom, like they just copy and paste it, and it's like how precious, how precious.
OK, so ...
Ronnie Richard
And they left it in.
Justin McCord
… I do wonder, based off of what you just said, if The Hive was already starting in your mind, as you mentioned, even the idea of being a sommelier for books―you'd like to help curate people's book experiences and those sorts of things. But you have a journey in between there to get to The Hive. Talk us through some of the points of getting from retail into marketing and the role that that played in how you think about where you'd like to spend your time, where you want to spend your time.
Tasha Van Vlack
Absolutely. And just for, ‘cause you'll find this entertaining―it's not on my LinkedIn because it's too long ago―but my first full-time job when I was no longer in school at all was for an online dating call center. And the nine months I spent working there, let me tell you, if you want stories for the rest of your life, that was the wild west. And it was like, what year would that be? That would have been like, 2007 that I worked there. Wild. Yeah, free app. Just online. You'd spend half a day approving or disapproving―as you might imagine what kind of photos get uploaded. So you'd spend hours in the thousands of queues going, I can't post that. I can't post that. It was wild. But in terms of teaching me how to deal with people of all sorts, all conversations, you know. I was the person that they'd be like, Tasha doesn't get flustered, regardless of how people speak to her. You know, here you go. Here's all the difficult calls. We gave my calling card, which is why I only stayed for nine months because I was like, this is too hard.
But in between that, you know, especially on the journey to Tend, I've always loved sales. Mostly because of the people. I just like talking to people, about what do they need, and do I have a solution? Like, that was always just kind of that matching of going, hey, you've got something, and I've got something, and is this the right fit? So sales has always been something I've really enjoyed, you know? I worked in, like you noted, retail. I used to be that person as a bartender who'd be like, you know, I'd see Ronnie come in, and I'd go, you know, your Bud Light on the counter at the bar before you even sit down because I know exactly, and I remember you, and I remember all the questions.
So I think that's been a skill that everyone should work in a service-facing industry at some point; it teaches you so much. So, my career has always been very service-focused and Tend was my first jump into truly the nonprofit world. We were servicing hospitals and social services. And I once went to a conference that was like, the largest conference posted on sexual assault and crisis workers in the U.S. And what a wild experience. But this is people's roles, and this is how hard the work is. They … you know, compassion fatigue was an already recognized topic. But the woman I was working for―incredibly talented speaker who swore like a sailor, and it cut through everybody's bullshit that they had where it was just like right into it, and she caught hearts and attention and really brought, like, tough conversations to the forefront. So it was an incredible position, really enjoyed it a lot and just made, started to make, some really deep nonprofit connections then that I still have contacts with now.
So that was kind of the start of going, man, this is a tough industry, and that's very social-service focused nonprofits. Obviously, there's a wide range, but it just, the lack of support, the lack of communications between organizations was evident even then. Everyone felt like they had a unique, that this was somehow very unique to them, and that other people were doing it better. As you know, often frontline communications, sales potentially, came in as like, inquiries came in. The most powerful thing I usually said to somebody was, “I just talked to somebody the other day who said the exact same thing as you, you're not alone.” And that was like, even if I could do nothing else for them … but you know, maybe they didn't have budget. Maybe they couldn't actually bring us in. Maybe they were never going to get buy-in from their leadership, but those conversations, to go, you're not alone. Here's some cool resources. You should talk to this person. I started to introduce people to each other when I could. It, you know, I ... it was wild to me how isolated and siloed everyone was within the sector, especially if you couldn't attend. You know, Justin, you and I've been at AFP ICON. The majority of nonprofit professionals and fundraisers cannot go to ICON. It's really expensive. So what do they do to meet other industry peers? And I don't know that there's that many solutions out there right now.
Justin McCord
Right. Yeah. I love that you're giving people the power of that phrase. You're giving people like, the opportunity to be okay in wherever they're struggling. Like, that idea that you're not alone empowers someone, and it kind of takes a weight off just in and of itself of feeling like, okay, all right, someone's tackled this before me. You know, that you may not be able to help, but just knowing that someone else has walked through this, that's powerful. That's really powerful.
Tasha Van Vlack
Yeah, it is powerful. And I don't know if you've seen this trend in the sector, but I definitely hear about it a lot in private conversations and DMs; it’s I think people are, you know, they're not against having experts, but hearing from their peers, what is and isn't working, is powerful. And I don't know that we're focusing in on that enough as, you know, industry leaders. I even want to say, like, I don't know that they're focusing in enough on like, the everyday person. You know, I always think of AI, and it's, I've heard some really innovative stuff from some of our Hive members in Africa who are doing crazy things. They're never getting a platform to talk about how they've solved a pretty cool problem that they're educating others on when they get in conversation, but they're never going to be the person who probably stands up at a big conference and talks about it. But, man, they sure have some pretty cool things to say. So, I love being able to kind of give some voice share to people who feel often like no one's listening.
Justin McCord
Ronnie, that hits home, I think, for me and you because we curate a lot of events for our clients. And one of the things that we have had to reckon with is the feedback of, we want more time together. Sometimes when you're curating the event, you tend to want to say, OK, but we want to talk about this to you. We want to share this with you, and, and there is so much good to be had from them.
Ronnie Richard
Yeah, they, they get so excited, more than anything else, about getting to talk to each other. And what are you, what are you doing? What, what challenges are you facing? Tell me about this, and just doing that, sharing that, that community sharing that they have. Yeah, it's, it's actually really cool to see. It's like you said, as much as we want to guide the experience to one thing or another, letting that happen organically is really cool. Tasha, I wanted to move forward a little bit to the next step. So you're at Tend. You leave 10 March of 2020. We all know a little thing happened in March of 2020.
Tasha Van Vlack
Yeah. Yep. I was gonna say, can you guess what happened?
Justin McCord
Feels, it feels familiar, I don't know.
Ronnie Richard
So you then start working with refugees, helping them settle into the area and guiding them through whatever needs they have. You also, about the same time, started working with nonprofits, helping them with their tech knowledge and experience. Was there something specific about the pandemic that sparked a change, or how did you go into those two areas?
Tasha Van Vlack
Yeah. Yeah. I'm, you know, things speak back to my connecting roots a little bit again. You know, March, 2020, we had, you know, over a million dollars’ worth of live training books through Tend that disappeared instantly because it was live training and just, you know, all over the world, conferences, books, gone, right? In an instant. I, at the same time, we talked, I have three kiddos; the youngest at the time had just turned four. They all of a sudden were home 24/7, and I had never worked remotely in my life. And so it took some time, it took six months. I initially thought I'd be off for like, six weeks. That clearly didn't happen. And so, when it came time to start looking for a new role, I literally posted on my LinkedIn “Open to work,” which at the time I barely use LinkedIn. I think I had like, 200 connections on LinkedIn at that time, and I posted “Open to work,” and the wonderful team at CloudStack services, who had done our Salesforce implementation at Tend, and I was their point person. The next day they said, “Hey, we want you to come and work for us and do what you did for them.” And so, that kind of happened.
I'd already committed to helping some refugee families, which as you noted, pandemic, they arrived during the pandemic, and the family I was assigned to was from Somalia―five small kids, now, new city. They came in the winter in Canada. It's horrible. I don't know why we organize things that way, but that's what happened. And so, I was their point person, and it was a wild ride. Only one family member out of all of them spoke any English at all, learning how to use Google translate and hand your phone back and forth. And it was a wild experience.
But CloudStack really, that connection to them from my previous role, they just immediately were like, you know how to talk to people who are trying to understand what the offering is. You were able to communicate. I was not a techie. And I think that was initially something they were concerned about. I had to learn Salesforce. And let me tell you, my sympathy level for people who were also trying to learn Salesforce, incredibly high. That was a, I was gonna say, Salesforce.
Justin McCord
Good product placement, by the way. Solid product placement.
Tasha Van Vlack
You know, can it work for nonprofit teams? Absolutely. I just was the person who very bluntly―and this is how I became friends with Tim Lockie, Justin, is I was on a Salesforce team, and I was that person going, why, let's not lie to them. Let's be honest that this is going to be a really sucky four months. And then they’re, then everyone's prepared for the crappy four months. And on the other side, it's sunshine and rainbows and ever the sky opens, and it's gonna be incredible, but I refused to lie about it. I was like, no, we're gonna be honest. We're gonna tell you how hard it is, and I'm gonna be here, and I'm gonna hold your hand because I know exactly what you're going through because I am learning it with you at the same time.
And so I started building out a Salesforce training for nonprofits the way I wanted to be taught versus, you know, as I was going through Trailhead, I was going, why did they say it like this? And, you know, pulling out what was really needed. And so, kind of synthesizing information for the average non-techie, nonprofit here.
So, yeah, kind of a wild journey. I'm sure there's some video somewhere, me talking about introduction to Salesforce on YouTube. Don't go looking for it, but it's probably out there somewhere. And I just loved that. And that was really the start of some deep relationships with technical people in the nonprofit sector, like Tim Lockie. And yeah, it really opened my eyes to the LinkedIn community at that time and how much it was growing.
Justin McCord
We actually have the video. Why don't you play the video, Ronnie, go ahead and ... yeah, joking. That would be awesome. That would be so great. It's just on the heels of that, that there are ... you're kind of hinting at throughout this conversation, some of the thrusts that move towards the formation of The Hive.
Ronnie Richard
It’s up right now.
Tasha Van Vlack
Thank you.
Justin McCord
Was there a specific triggering event that was like, okay, now it's time.
Tasha Van Vlack
Yes, yeah, yeah. And yes, but I will caveat by saying I swore I would never get involved in a startup, even to work for one. I was like, no, startups are not my jam. I have like, I've always worked with small companies, but I was very much anti-startup because my husband had done a startup when our kids were little, and I was going, hell no, these things are way too hard; not doing this ever. And AFP ICON 2023―Justin was probably there. Ronnie, I don't know if you were there, but lots of us in my little LinkedIn family that I'd started to build by that point were experiencing huge FOMO from our computers as we watched the pictures come up on AFP ICON. And there was a bunch of us in a background chat going, wish we were there. Like, look at that. Look at how, like, look at the community in action happening there.
And this was even a group of us consultants, who weren't in a position to afford to go. I was in New Orleans or something like that, on top of it. And my first thought was being bummed out. I couldn't afford to go. And then I was like, yeah, but what about all the people in nonprofit who really, really should be there, and they can't even, that is, they're not even having the wish that they could go because it's so out of reach.
And so, that was April 2023. I probably mulled it around in my head for a week, going, you're not gonna do this; don't be ridiculous, before I reached out to my technical co-founder, who's not with The Hive now, Dave Norris, and I already had like, an idea between Lunchclub, which is a great platform―not sure if you guys ever use lunch club. There was the, like, Luge Club, which does something similar, but it's so broad. You can't, you know, I've talked to people from all over the world, but in insurance and teachers. And I was like, where's the spot for people in nonprofit, and I did some research. And I could not find anything that was doing curated, one-to-one conversations within just the nonprofit sector. And so I just said to him, like, I think we can use a lot of models that already exist out there. It doesn't have to be anything different, but it needs to be only for people in this sector.
So that was April 2023. yeah, that ICON, I should probably send them a little note being, like, all our FOMO started this. Yeah, it was, it was amazing. It just, yeah, just, the idea kind of took off from there. And I guess we launched our MVP a year ago last Saturday. So it's just been over a year.
Justin McCord
Yeah. What does it mean? What … hold, before it, before I get to that question, just the idea that you are resistant to joining startups and you actually started up a startup is funny. That's like, we can't not acknowledge the, the irony in that. What does it mean for you …
Tasha - Van Vlack
I know. It's, yes it is.
Justin McCord
… to be a hiver like that, because you use that phrase quite a bit. Like, what does that, unpack the value, not the value proposition of the platform, but like, the community orientation. What does that mean for you?
Tasha - The Nonprofit Hive
Yeah, it was first of all, one of our members coined the phrase. And I can't even remember who it was because it caught on so fast that I wasn't really, you know, … we started using it. But one of our members was initially the person behind it. And I'll have to look back because now I'm going to be wondering who that was.
And to me, you know, when I look at the people who are joining this community, it's a lot of forward-thinking people in the sector who are ready to shake some shit up. And so to me, I think, when I use the term ‘Hiver,’ I'm wanting it to be inclusive for people who are at varying stages of their careers. We have members who are on their way out, and that's why they've joined because their plan is to give back and mentor as they leave the sector. And then we have brand new people who ...know a whole lot of nothing. We started to have people join who are just interested in working at a nonprofit, and they want to pick people's brains before they make that leap. And they're asking me first before they join, and I'm going, hey, as long as you're coming, you know, and you're not purposely trying to get hired somewhere―because we have a non-solicitation; you come, enjoy the conversations, bring your questions, like, lots of people would like to share about their work. So it's really, to me, a hiver is one of the, you know, someone in nonprofit who is kind of thinking to the future and going, I don't think it has to continue to be exactly like this. So what are we going to do about it? And it's, these are people who are willing to put action behind the words as well, not just, you know, they're willing to put their, their necks out there, a lot of them, to say some, some big things. So ...
Ronnie Richard
What did the early days of the nonprofit Hive kind of look like as you're starting this up? Trying to get the word out to people. How did, how did you start building that community?
Tasha Van Vlack
So, I'm a very cautious individual, even if it doesn't appear very cautious. I'm conservative in quirky areas. And one of them was I was at a full-time job when this idea came about at an organization called Yubu Digital. I was pretty new to the role. So, it was a bigger job at that point, trying to get their marketing program launched.
My big thing was, if we can't get people on a wait list, we're not doing anything. And that's the conservative marketer in me going, I think this is a cool idea. I workshopped the idea around with people I admired in the sector, like Evan Wildstein and, and, you know, his initial response was, well, we need this, but I don't know if nonprofits here, like, I don't think people in nonprofit will do it. That was, he―I have a video of him saying that to me because he's like, I admire the heck out of you. I think this is brilliant it's people in nonprofits, so they're not gonna do it, right?
Justin McCord
God, I really want you to use that as an endorsement in a marketing campaign for The Hive itself. People need this, but I don't know if they're going to do it.
Tasha Van Vlack
Yeah. It’s, Evan's just like, I'm gonna be honest. And he was one of my sounding board people to just, every time I had, you know, a thought, he was so generous with his time to just go, have you met people in nonprofit? And I was like, yeah, I have, but I think they need this, right? And so he was a great sounding board for me. And the wait list grew pretty quickly. We hit 200 people, and that's when we decided to start building. So it was kind of conservative.
Justin McCord
So funny.
Tasha Van Vlack
And the first week we launched, I think we had 45 participants the first week that we actually launched, last October. A lot of them are still taking chats to this day. We have a couple of people who have taken like, 49, 50―this might be week 50 for two people, and with this past Thursday, out of a possible 52 weeks. So some people are like, in, and they just jumped in with both feet right from the beginning.
And it was the early days, I think none of us knew exactly what it was going to be, but I very much relied on people who joined to tell me what was missing. And so, we went really lean on the MVP. It was like, what, what all do we need? We don't really need that much because it's people in nonprofit. And I joke that we don't have a login because everyone's told me that if I force a login, they will, they will immediately unsubscribe. So many people were like, I will unsubscribe if you force a login, I'm out. So, you know, just even dealing with that is its own knowing the sector well enough to know that people are strapped and timed out.
And instead, it's great. It's just an email to your inbox on Friday going, Hey, do you want to participate next Thursday? If you don't, that's totally fine. You'll get invited next week, right? And so, I think the flexibility has been key, knowing how nonprofit professionals function and work.
Justin McCord
You know, we've had members of our team at various stages for progressions in their career join as well. And I think that what we see is that if you can make the head space for a once-a-week conversation, that there is immediate return. There … it’s immediately beneficial to meet someone new, spend just a little bit of time talking about something of mutual interest, sharing a challenge, getting outside counsel, or just growing your network. Like, it is this ultimate opportunity to get out of your space and, you know, find someone else who's trying to get out of their space for just a moment, once a week. And it's fascinating how close to like, therapeutic activity it is, while also fostering both professional development and building community. Like, it's all of those things in one, which is a very small needle hole to thread.
Tasha Van Vlack
Yeah. Yeah. And I, I've had so many conversations about community-building recently with others and why does this seem to be working? And one … we have about 500 testimonials―because I've been using a tool to collect them afterwards. It's been amazing, but you know … so a portion of people respond. And one of the phrases that happens again and again is, “I feel seen.” And because how often do you get to have a one-to-one conversation in some way with someone who's been curated to some degree, you know? I'm putting animal, people who work in animal welfare together. I'm putting technical people together in the sector. I can't … just because it's almost―I'm sure you guys would appreciate this―just because I say I'm a marketer doesn't mean that I'm gonna have something to talk about in the same way with someone who works at Nike's marketing department as other nonprofit marketers. It is different. You can't, you know, you can talk maybe about the technical and some of the psychology piece, but nonprofit is different. And I think we all know it and acknowledge it. And we're also trying to ignore it sometimes because we're trying to be sustainable, like a for-profit business.
So I think finding those unique spots to celebrate what it is to work in this sector. And I thought I was creating a place for people to complain about nonprofit, and that still happens, but they're also like, lifting each other up and going, my goodness, I barely ever get to talk about what I do. This was so exciting to share my ‘why’ for the work, right? So yeah, it just kind of naturally flows during the time frame, the 30 minutes.
Ronnie Richard
Even going back to your time with Tend where you were saying it was sometimes people just like, hearing that there's someone else going through something. You could say the same here, like, just matching up with somebody and hearing, wow, we're facing the same challenges, but we're also so committed to what we're doing. There's power in that, I think. And this is going to sound a little bit like a job interview question, but where do you see yourself in five years? Like, where do you see The Hive? Like, what is, what is your vision for the future? Like, where does, where does it go from here?
Tasha Van Vlack
Thank you. My goodness, that's a really good question and one that a lot of people ask, and I frequently go, I couldn't have pictured this in a year. I would have never imagined that within six months I would leave my full-time role because this was becoming this big. I'd never anticipated that. So I'm still kind of working on what I think is going to happen in the next five years, but I am excited to see the community grow, you know? It's kind of reaching some exponential takeoff here, which is really exciting.
And we're white labeling the tool that we basically built so that it can be used in other membership-based organizations and associations because we're seeing it as an add-on to tools like Slack communities, Mighty Networks, Circle, a lot of those groups are great, but it's still, people want that one-to-one, and I think that's really hard to in those communities unless you have a full-time community manager, maybe?
Yeah, community. So, we're looking at expanding it outwards. We have a couple of beta testers trying it out right now for us. We really want to continue to build out resources that are by practitioners for practitioners. So, our blog has really taken off. We’ve got people with like, eight articles in the queue all written by people within the sector about their experiences. So it's become a really powerful spot that I hadn't anticipated it growing that way. I never imagined people would just go, hey, can I write something? Okay, great, that sounds amazing, right?
And we've done a series of LinkedIn Lives recently. Just, one about being in for-profit, moving to non-profit. What does that transition look like? We've got one coming up next week about, you know, our expectations of fundraisers is just completely bananas. The short answer is, they absolutely are. But we could probably use that in every role, you know? Expectations of marketers in nonprofit. Yeah, that's, you know, I'm sure we could do that one too.
So I'm really looking at it as, I would like to build out a place where there's more equal voice share through the one-to-one community connections, and lifting up some voices that are just not being heard in the sector, and focusing less on the expert and more on the practitioner, I think, just to ... yeah, I want everyone else to be teaching me.
I feel like I'm able to speak about trends just because I have this like, huge community behind me telling me slowly and bringing together what the trend is, which is very, very cool. And they're just an engaged group. They're ready to push on some big changes. So I think there's an advocacy component that I'm still trying to figure out how to harness.
Justin McCord
After all this time, TVV, you're still helping people find their book. You're still doing that in a way. It is, it is still helping people find their safe space, their part of the library, and their friends that are looking to challenge the same ideas or come together. We'll be sure and drop a link to the nonprofithive.com in the …
Tasha Van Vlack
Thanks. Love it. Yeah.
Justin McCord
… the show notes and strongly endorse and encourage people to be active and involved and just really appreciate the way that you have used that triggering moment to help create a space for people to be authentic and to meet one another in a super unique way. I think it's the success of it speaks for itself, but it's sorely needed in this sector. So thank you for leading that charge.
Tasha Van Vlack
Thank you, guys. This was a super fun conversation. You guys are both lovely.
Justin McCord
Well, we're on our best behavior, you know. Awesome.
Tasha Van Vlack
Yeah, it's great. This is super fun. I really appreciate it.
Justin McCord
Very cool. Okay, we'll catch up with you again soon then, right?
Tasha Van Vlack
Okay, sounds awesome. Well, you guys are gonna have to join in, bring your knowledge to The Hive.
Justin McCord
Let's do it. Do I need to wear a bee costume?
Tasha Van Vlack
It is optional, but you can, absolutely.
Justin McCord
Is there a benefit to wearing a bee costume?
Ronnie Richard
It's on the table.
Tasha Van Vlack
If you wanted to get somebody to take a selfie during their chat with you, I think the bee costume would probably guarantee that they'd be willing to do that.
Justin McCord
Okay, all right.
Ronnie Richard
Future marketing material.
Tasha Van Vlack
Exactly, exactly.
Group Thinkers is a production of RKD Group. For more information, including how you can partner with RKD to accelerate growth for your fundraising and nonprofit marketing needs, visit rkdgroup.com.