Hello everyone and welcome to the within range coaching podcast.
I'm Ranger, certified holistic success coach, and in this podcast, I'm breaking down the
journey that entrepreneurs face as they start their organization, find solutions to the
problems in their way, and create an impact that lasts.
So if you're an entrepreneur, nonprofit leader, or purpose driven community member that wants
to learn how to grow your impact and develop yourself as the person behind the mission,
then this is the podcast for you.
I know you're just as eager as I am to get started, so let's jump right in.
Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening everyone, and welcome to today's episode.
Today we get to really dive in to see how we as individuals, communities, and organizations
can truly turn our passion into purpose.
This is a part of my Walk Across America series where I'm hanging out with and highlighting
the people that are helping me make the walk happen.
As I've been saying, I'm walking alone, but I couldn't do this without the support of
my community.
And I think that really ties in with what today's speaker and organization bring to
the table.
Today I'm joined by Courtney from the Wander Project.
Again, I could ramble on and on about the Wander Project myself and list all the cool
things about Courtney, but today that's her job.
So Courtney, thank you for hanging out with us today.
Thanks for inviting me, Ranger.
I'm super pumped to be here.
They get to talk about Wander Project, and hopefully maybe later hear a little bit more
about your walk.
I know we've chatted about it, but it's just such a perfect tie-in to talk about Wander
Project and how one person, even on a walk alone, supports and is impacted by a community.
So yes, I am the Director of Community Engagement at Wander Project.
My background is in startups and nonprofits.
So Wander Project was sort of the perfect fit for me in that we've only been around
for just five years now.
So sort of both that cross between nonprofit and startup when I joined two years ago.
And what initially drew me in was the ability to inspire folks to do something that they
love as a means to impact a cause that they care about.
So primarily, right, we're talking about charity bids, and I'm sure you'll have some questions
about that.
You've done that program.
But yeah, I love the fact that every day my job is to wake up and talk to folks and help
them figure out how to do some good in the world one step at a time.
Yeah, no, I love that.
I think it's, and that's really the message that for me, at least, I'm trying to get across
in the podcast is one person can make a difference, not necessarily completely by themselves,
but it's about them being able to inspire action to communicate their message and bring
people kind of into that fold of this is what we're trying to do.
This is the mission.
People like us can do things like this.
And I think that's really great.
And just to kind of be able to highlight you and bring it back to this, what would you
say is your intention for today's episode?
An excellent question.
I love intention setting.
For me today, I will feel good at the end of this podcast if we together, Ranger, have
inspired someone to go out and take a step.
And it doesn't even have to be a step with Wander Project.
But just to dive into something that they're passionate about to be inspired to take that
first step to doing something meaningful, something that they care about.
That's a sound bite right there.
I will feel good if we've inspired someone to take a step.
And when you say that, what comes up for me is it can be as small as that.
It's just about moving in a direction of impact.
Because I feel like a lot of times people when they think of making an impact or making
a difference, it's these life changing, world changing years and years.
But it sounds like what you're really trying to get across is you can take action today
to make an impact tomorrow.
Absolutely.
You know, it doesn't have to be some big grandiose thing.
It can be if that's your jam, if that's where you're ready to dive in.
Absolutely.
But it could just be volunteering one afternoon once a month at your local food pantry.
It could just be taking a trash bag with you on your next hike and packing out some trash
that you see.
It's collectively right when we all do these small steps that we're making those bigger
shifts towards the world that we want to see.
Yeah.
And in the spirit of that, in terms of taking that step towards being the change you want
to see and making that impact, I do kind of want to go back a little bit to your story.
You said that you worked in Starbucks and what else?
Oh, sorry, startups.
Startups.
OK.
I was like, OK, OK.
Non-profits.
Yeah.
Startups and non-profits.
I'm a little congested.
The weather has been bananas here and I'm just a little stuffed up myself.
Yeah, don't worry.
Startups, non-profits.
OK, there we go.
I was going to say, like, how did that kind of happen?
But what was that experience like?
Because I know a lot of people that are going to be listening to the podcast are going to
be either entrepreneurs, early entrepreneurs, just starting in their business game journey.
So what was that experience like, working for so many startups and non-profits?
Yeah.
So I had worked for non-profits for about a decade, both local ones.
I'm in northern Michigan, so environmentally focused, as well as some regional and even
national non-profits.
I was on a board for a mountain bike organization.
And this woman said, you know, I'm at this software testing company.
And I know you know nothing about that, but you seem to know a lot about people and organizations
and doing a lot with a little, right?
Kind of the hallmark of a non-profit.
And she said, I think you would just be wonderful at this startup.
Like, let me know if you're interested.
And I was at that point in time looking for my next opportunity for personal growth and
using my skills for good.
So I took a dive.
It wasn't even a tiptoe.
It was just a dive into the software testing startup.
I was employee number five.
And over two years, grew it to a team of 20.
You know, I wore every hat, marketing, finance, I wore everything in between there as I helped
them grow.
I felt really proud of the time that I was there in the people side of things, which
was an area that I really loved in non-profits, of course, all the good work.
But it's not a lot of crossover, right?
Non-profits and startups are at the heart, kind of the same, right?
In the beginning, you're trying to do a lot of good important work that you believe in
with maybe not as many resources as you would like to have.
Yeah, hey, I got to call H.R. real quick and you just kind of turn around and look in the
mirror.
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah.
And that's interesting because one of the guests that I interviewed yesterday for the
podcast, Rachel Arnold from the Hospice Promise Foundation and Grace Hospice, she did the
same thing when she jumped into the medical field.
She didn't have experience there.
It wasn't her deal, but she was great with people.
She had great management experience.
And it sounds like what I'm hearing from you is just because you're going into a field
doesn't mean you need to have experience in that specific field.
There's a lot of other skills that kind of transfer over.
So my question for you there is what was that experience like for you of having so many
different hats?
How did you manage the hat rack of working in a startup?
You know, I think I just wore them all at the same time.
I don't know if there was a rack and like I was constantly like changing them out.
I think they were just maybe stacked.
I am a person who appreciates a challenge or at least have grown into appreciating that
challenge of kind of having a few different things on the on the stovetop, so to speak,
at one point in time.
My younger self definitely appreciated, you know, more structure and would not have thrived
in a startup.
But as I have grown, I've come to really appreciate kind of the excitement of like, okay, this
morning, you know, we're going to figure out how to balance the budget and this afternoon,
yep, we're going to lean into figuring out our employee handbook 2.0 revision.
And then later on this evening, we're going to figure out, you know, our new process for
what onboarding clients looks like.
I really enjoyed kind of doing multiple puzzles maybe at one time is a better comparison,
right?
It wasn't even just working on one puzzle.
It was kind of managing like three or four all at one time.
Yeah, kind of the puzzle master wearing all the hats, the balancing act.
That's interesting that it's it's really about how you're envisioning all of those different
roles.
And it sounds like you can just took them in all at once.
So and I'm sure other people might be thinking this too.
Like when you're starting a business, I mean, I'm in that same spectrum right now of I'm
doing everything, trying to figure out taxes and marketing and you know, all these different
rules that I have to follow.
What would be your suggestion to someone that's getting into the game and they're seeing that
they have to wear all these hats and they're just so overwhelmed with all the different
fashions and and outfits?
What would you recommend to them?
Yeah, I've actually given this advice before.
I still consult for nonprofits on the side and when folks are starting out when you can
hire, I always encourage like hire for the things that you don't want to do or don't
know how to do.
You know, you can wear a lot of hats.
You can't wear all of them, right?
Eventually, you're going to have to hire someone or outsource something.
And that was one of the reasons that I did choose to jump into that startup.
The CEO and the COO both knew what they were really well or really good at doing rather
and knew kind of the areas that like they have no interest in or no experience in.
And so, you know, they brought me in because that was my background and my interest.
And so I was really able to thrive because I was just doing the pieces that I was interested
and excited to do and had some business acumen in.
It would have been a different situation, I think, if they're like, oh, yeah, come in
and do this thing that you don't really enjoy doing.
Right.
Or if they had been like, we know exactly how we want it.
Just come in and do it.
That's a different feeling or situation.
And for me, coming in and supporting that team in the areas that were strengths for
me allowed us all to run fast together really fast.
Yeah.
And it sounds like a lot of that kind of ties into knowing yourself and being honest with
your capabilities, what you're good at, what you enjoy doing.
And it to kind of stick with this multiple hat mentality.
When that hat with one of those hats starts getting a little bit too heavy or too big
to the words just unreasonable, find a Courtney, find someone that can take it, look great
in it and keep going forward.
And you guys can go further faster together.
I think the natural next question for that is, when do you think this is very tactical,
of course, but when do you think someone will know they're ready to hire someone to help
out with the business or the nonprofit or startup?
Yeah, that's a good question.
Putting on my CFO hat, which I haven't worn in a while, but was one of the hats that I
had on at that startup, you know, it has to make financial sense for you.
It might be a little bit of a risk, right?
You might be dipping into your safety net for a half a month or a month, you know, to
get to that next level.
That's something, you know, as a business owner, you're always going to have to be comfortable
with.
There's a certain amount of risk in owning a business.
And I'm not certainly saying, you know, go out and risk it all the higher the next person.
But you'll know, you know, you can set some financial markers for yourself, like, okay,
it'll feel less uncomfortable, less risky, still a little bit of risk.
But at this point, you know, I can hire someone part time, I can hop on fiber and get an hourly
person to just help with this one thing.
Or you could even I know, when I was at the software testing company, sometimes we are
ready for a position, but not ready for it full time.
So we would hire part time, you know, someone maybe who's still in college and just getting
into whatever it was.
And I think it was like marketing, with the intent that it could grow into a full time
role.
And that seems to be a great fit because they also, you know, yeah, I'll be looking for
full time when I graduate, but not right now.
So I think we got creative with our hiring to be just in time, just the right fit for
both us and the person we were hiring.
A big part of the software testing company that I really valued was that it was human
centered leadership.
Certainly we cared about profits and our clients and those things.
But at the end of the day, one of our values was doing right by the people in our company.
And we had a checkbox on almost every decision we made.
And if it wasn't going to be good for our team, it didn't matter that it was good for
the client and going to make us a bunch of money.
If it wasn't good for our team, it didn't pass the test.
And you know, that was one of the reasons I ended up at Wander Project too, throughout
the interview process and looking at the company.
They don't just care about doing good in the world and budgets and things like that.
They care about the team behind the scenes making it all happen.
Yeah.
And I think that's another good point.
Now, that was a great segue into talking more about Wander Project.
But to just kind of highlight what you just said there, when that hat gets too heavy,
you don't need someone necessarily to take it full time.
You can do a part time person.
You can do an independent contractor.
It's just being open to the possibilities and being resourceful because there's so many
resources out there now.
It's just about finding what works best for you and your organization.
So I think that's a really great point to highlight and kind of moving into Wander Project
and where you're at now.
Could you go ahead and just kind of describe what it is that Wander Project does, the impact
that you guys make and what that looks like?
Yeah.
So you and I have both said it at this point about turning passion into purpose.
Wander Project originally started as an initiative in-house by a running company that we're still
partnered with today.
And the CEO basically wanted to find a way to give back, especially to the areas that
these running events were being held in, sort of to offset the fact that a couple of thousand
people were going to be there for a few days.
And after two years of that, realized it shouldn't just be limited to this one company.
It should be an opportunity for anyone who's doing sort of an outdoor endeavor.
And so at that point in time, Wander Project became its own 501c3 charity and has grown
and added more event partners, primarily running events.
So someone can sign up for a run that they were probably already planning on doing as
a charity bib.
In exchange for committing to a charity bib, we waive their registration fees.
Essentially we cover the cost of their entry.
And then they say, this is the charity I want to raise money for.
And we support them from registration to what we call fundraising finish line and making
sure that come race day, they're getting to raise and donate out money to a cause that's
close to their heart.
Yeah, no, that's great.
The way that I describe Wander Project is you're a nonprofit that empowers other nonprofits.
And kind of what I'm hearing you say there is that it was born out of that passion for
running, but also being, again, honest and acknowledging this is great.
We're all out here.
We're all healthy.
We're all fit.
Great.
But there's a ton of people out here.
There's an impact that happens that might not be the greatest.
And that reminds me again of another episode we recorded with Cold-Blooded Caffeine Company.
And that's what their purpose is.
They're a coffee company that gives back to coffee producing countries for conservation
purposes.
And I think that's a really good lesson is that when you're passionate about something,
you can be honest about the problems that arise from that activity and you can do something
about it.
Yeah.
I mean, Ranger, I used to work for Leave No Trace, the Center for Outdoor Ethics.
So I completely understand essentially when we go out in the outdoors, right?
We always used to, when I worked there, we always talked about loving the outdoors to
death, right?
The outdoors is such a place of healing and I want everybody to go outside, whether it's
a run, a hike, a backpack, a very long walk, whatever it is, right?
But there's always some impact, whether you're walking, whether you're riding an ATV, whatever
it is, there's always a give and a take.
And so again, that was one of the reasons that drew me to Wander Project was the fact
that the, so when someone runs a charity, but they have two options, they can choose
from one of our official partners.
And those charity partners again, are the ones kind of in and around the areas that
we're running so that we can directly support and help offset some of that impact.
But starting last year, based on feedback we were hearing, some folks said, you know,
that's great.
I love the environment.
Of course they do.
I'm out running, but you know, maybe they just lost someone to breast cancer or they're
really passionate about getting kids out and running, or a music program or arts.
You know, there are so many causes that other folks were asking us to support that we created
the Your Choice option.
So folks could tell us who they care about, right?
There's that Jack Cousteau quote that's, oh, paraphrasing, right?
Like, people protect what they love.
So who are we to tell people like, yeah, you have to love one of these organizations and
go out and raise money for them.
At the end of the day, we want people to run for the cause that they care about or hike
fast or walk or however they're getting to that finish line.
Yeah.
And it sounds like just, again, that's being open to the possibility of bringing more people
into the fold by letting them kind of have that customization, being open to them, connecting
that run and that fundraising to what's important to them.
Yeah.
So I think about the ripple effect that creates, right?
Kind of going back to our mission of like inspiring people to take that first step.
You know, and last year, because of the Your Choice program, rather than supporting projects
at I think like a dozen nonprofits, we supported projects at 93 nonprofits across the United
States.
And I think we had folks run from 39 different states.
And you think about that ripple effect and how that ripples outward, a person doing one
run in Joshua Tree, who's maybe, you know, from Michigan raised for an organization they
care about in Tennessee that, you know, put school supplies and backpacks in the hands
of 300 kids.
You know, it's just it's awesome.
Yeah.
And I think that's the thing that's so unique about.
And I think this kind of does also go back to what we were talking about earlier with
your experience in the startup world with the tech industry, that it's not just about
being directly involved with that specific organization or having that experience prior.
You can make an impact with your skills, which in this case would be running, walking, hiking,
whatever physical activity.
But you're still making an impact across state lines, across all these different boundaries.
So it's really about just being open to your passion, your experiences and your skills
and how that can transfer to helping someone else.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
And you never know.
It's almost hard to plan, right?
Sure.
If you raise money, it's going to support a project and you know that that's going to
have an impact.
But, you know, and we're talking about those small steps, just go out and do something
in your community this week.
You truly like you never know the impact that it's actually going to have.
And it's hard to plan for.
And sometimes you only see the results truly much later on.
And I think that can be a hard thing for some people maybe who are result oriented to wrap
their mind around.
But it happens.
And just because you don't see it doesn't mean it's still not a good thing.
And I always remind folks of that.
You know, I at a running event last year, we took some folks on sort of a field trip
to a nonprofit that someone else was running a charity before.
So someone was like, I'm going to raise money for this awesome animal sanctuary.
And I thought, oh, what a cool thing by this race.
Let's take people there and just, you know, go on a tour of this event.
I found out like a week later after running that event, which was a cool thing.
A family emailed and said, hey, we went on that field trip with you.
And I just want to let you know, our family adopted our very first pet.
We went back the next day and adopted, you know, that three legged kitten, you know,
that everybody got to see.
And our family just fell in love with it.
And, you know, she's on her own with us right now.
So you really never know what will come out of just doing that one good thing.
And that's such an interesting externality of that race.
You know, it's this race, physical, mental health, all that great stuff for the individual
Wander Project comes in, brings all these purpose driven individuals, connects them
to the shelter or this animal sanctuary.
And now a critter has a forever home.
It's I think that's such an interesting thing because you would never like you were saying,
you would never be able to plan for that.
Nobody's going to write that in the business plan or the goals for 2024.
But like these great things happen when you create that possibility.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
And I'm a numbers guy.
I love the little numbers and there's a few posts that you guys made on social media at
the end of last year.
You said that Wander Project has been around for about five years.
I think we officially I think since 2018, but I don't think that was when we had our
official 501 C3 status.
I don't know the timeline entirely by heart.
Like we started doing that work then.
But I think it was 2019 that we officially got our 501 C3 status.
OK, so four or five, six, whatever years.
OK, they're a handful of years.
Yeah.
And I mean, just reading straight off of the social the Instagram post, it looks like after
just four or five, six, whatever years of being an organization, just in 2023 alone,
you guys helped raise four hundred thousand dollars.
Yeah.
And I mean, yes, we were helping people figure out how to peer to peer fundraise.
It's my job is helping folks figure out how to craft and make their first ask and tell
their story.
Right.
But at the end of the day, it was all of those folks going out and making the ask and raising
awareness for the cause they care about.
It was all of those charity participants who raised that four hundred thousand dollars.
I was going to say I was a charity bid runner last year at the Yosemite race, the half marathon,
and I raised, I think, just shy of twelve hundred fourteen hundred, which feels like
a drop in the bucket compared to that four hundred thousand.
But if it wasn't for people like me that are out there doing the work fundraising, it really
adds that drop in the bucket that fills it up by the end of the year.
Yeah, absolutely.
We had a couple of outliers, our top overall fundraiser.
She raised, I think, something like she individually raised over forty thousand dollars.
She had two other people with her.
I think between the three of them, they raised something like forty eight thousand dollars
for their charity.
And certainly we have a handful of individuals like that every year.
But it's much more often, I would say, you know, probably well over a hundred of the
folks out of all the charity bids are raising in that thousand dollar range and range.
I'm going to push back a little.
That is not just a drop in the bucket.
A thousand dollars is a lot of money.
OK, maybe some of your listeners out there have much bigger bank accounts than I do.
Right.
But at the end of the day, a thousand dollars is a lot of money.
Yes.
Thank you for the check on that.
I think it's so easy to compare.
And you know, one versus four hundred, you know, it's just such an easy thing to compare.
But you know, you're right that it's not it's not a small feat.
It's it's a part of that bigger whole.
And that is still a significant amount.
And I know that you do a lot of work with the peer to peer fundraising aspect for folks
that are in the nonprofit world that are listening right now.
What would you say are like a couple of tips that you lean on the most when it comes to
peer to peer fundraising or sponsors or what kind of value do you think you can kind of
provide for fundraising?
Yeah, I'm going to answer that question maybe in two ways.
As you pointed out, you know, what advice would I give to a nonprofit, which is maybe
different than the advice that I would give to an individual who's fundraising as a nonprofit.
A lot of nonprofits are sort of in a traditional fundraising model where they have donors and
a couple of times a year they make an ask, support the good work that we're doing.
And they might write a few grants.
And that's typically their revenue stream.
Donors themselves can engage in having folks peer to peer fundraise for them.
That's what we do with the nonprofits we engage with.
They can join at a certain level and we'll help them figure out how to recruit folks
to run for them.
Right.
So then instead of just directly asking people for money, they're asking people essentially
then for time and energy.
Could you run, walk or hike for us?
And then that person, right, then turns and goes out to their community to share the awareness
of that organization and fundraise for them rather than the organization having to do
the fundraising themselves.
So it's a nice way if you've got some folks who are really passionate about your organization,
it's a good way to engage them, especially if they're not in a position currently to
write you a check for a thousand dollars or five thousand dollars.
Maybe they can't do that, but they're already planning on going for a run.
They could encourage and engage with their community to raise that money on your behalf.
The other side of that, right, is if someone is thinking about fundraising for a cause
that they care about, figure out your audience or just like just like you're making a business
pitch, know your audience and engage with them in the way that feels meaningful.
The way I ask my grandma for support for a fundraiser is way different than how I ask
my running club or people at the gym or my coworkers to figure out your audience and
segment your asks based on those pools.
Yeah, and I think that's interesting because again, it's about it goes back to resourcefulness
and from all the business content that I see and TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube,
affiliates are something that a lot of businesses use to sell their products.
Kind of like, hey, we'll sponsor you if you promote us and you get a cut, whatever, whatever.
And it sounds like this is kind of that taking that mentality and applying it to nonprofits
rather than your team or your members going out there making the asks.
It's hey, can you come and support us?
Can you help us raise these funds?
You probably won't get a cut of whatever you raise, but it's you get something else valuable
in return in terms of helping us achieve our mission that you also care about.
So it's again, leaning on that community.
Hey, do what you're passionate about.
You can help us at the same time.
It's like a multiplier of scratching the brain centers of that person.
Exactly.
I mean, that's exactly it.
Yeah, that's such a great comparison because at the end of the day, that's what it is.
And while that person, while that fundraiser might not get a cut in the way that an affiliate
would, it's maybe a little bit more altruistic.
They're in it because they believe in the cause, not that necessarily an affiliate wouldn't
believe in the business.
But, you know, I think about some of our folks last year, you know, we had a father son duo
who fundraised together.
The father had just recently beat, I think it was either a double or triple cancer diagnosis.
And he was fundraising for a organization that helped support him as the breadwinner
of his family with their bills while he was going through treatment.
Because then he turned around once he was healthy and fundraised for them to be able
to provide support for three families who were going through what he just recently went
through.
So, you know, he's not getting a cut of that, but he's certainly, you know, paying the Karma
Bank back in triplicate.
That's amazing.
What I feel like a lot of people have a lot more of an intrinsic value towards money and
the dollar sign.
Right.
But it's really about finding value in impact.
And kind of like during this conversation, it's like you don't get a cut of the profits,
but you get a cut of that impact.
He gets a look and say, look at what I helped make happen.
I was a part of that.
They wouldn't have, sure, they may be somebody else could have stepped in.
But now somebody else stepping in, it's just going to help more people.
Yeah, absolutely.
And you know, that's, yeah, again, another reason why we ultimately expanded to the your
choice model.
You know, it's ranger.
There are so many things in the world that need our attention is overwhelming when we
try to do them all.
Right.
But if you just focus on one area that you really care about or you're really passionate
about and you just take that one step, right, it's then everybody in tandem is all just
focused on their one thing that they care about and taking a step that we really start
to see that forward momentum.
You know, those three families that now are having their bills paid while they're going
through this terrible situation, you know, when they get to the other side of that, they're
going to remember the support and the help that they had along the way.
You know, if environment is your jam and you help support trail building, you know, and
then you see the photo of kids going for their first hike on that trail that you helped build,
right, that that motivates you to continue to do the work.
And also all the people who get to hike that trail and hear the story of how it came to
be.
I think the storytelling is a big piece of it.
And that is something that I want to project we're leaning into.
Folks don't like to toot their own horn.
But when you're doing good work, it's important.
That inspiration is a good catalyst to keep others, especially when you don't see those
immediate results.
Yeah.
And I think that's we could talk all day.
There's so many routes I can kind of see this going on or trails in our case.
But it sounds like on the nonprofit side, it's recruit ambassadors, get people that
are passionate about something else, see how they kind of find that cross intersection
and get a cut on that impact.
And on the individual side, if you're raising money for an organization, it really does
sound like a crash course in marketing.
How do you tell a story?
How do you get people involved in that impact and mission?
And if people want to get involved with in this specific case, running and making impact,
what tools do you provide to those runners and how can people get in contact with you
if that's something they want to do?
Yeah, that's a great question.
We provide a whole toolkit of resources.
It starts with a six step checklist that's kind of staged out like you're running a race,
a start line to finish line, and sort of the aid stations along the way.
And each one of those sections has some video tutorials, some templates, some additional
resources.
So really from like setting up your fundraiser, figuring out how to make your first ask all
the way through thanking your donors, we kind of cover all of the bases in addition to providing
virtual office hours.
So at any point along the journey, if someone's like, oh, I need to practice saying this out
loud or I need a copywriter, someone to proofread this.
That's me.
I'm there to help to brainstorm ideas, whatever it takes to get to that fundraising finish
line.
Folks can always reach me at info at wanderproject.org and they can certainly learn more on wanderproject.org.
By clicking charity, they'll see I think we still have 29 events.
Well, we have two this weekend, 29 events after that this year that they could sign
up for to get involved in Race for a Cause they care about.
Yeah.
I think that's so interesting.
I love the imagery that's just constant throughout everything, the starting line, the aid stations,
the finish line.
And just to throw my own little tip, if you are a nonprofit leader or you're fundraising,
send thank you letters.
When I get them, it's just so nice, nobody sends letters anymore.
It's always junk mail or bills.
So having a handwritten note is just so neat and people appreciate it.
And that's my little tip I'm throwing in there at the very end.
And I'm going to add to that, especially if you're a nonprofit, the receipt, right?
That tax deductible, that thing that says you made a donation.
That's great, but that's not a thank you letter.
Make sure they get that right.
That's the receipt, their proof that they gave you money, but they should still get
a letter from you.
That's like, wow.
Like, thank you for this gift, for believing in us, for choosing to support the work that
we're doing.
And if you can personalize it, it's obviously not feasible for every donation, but set that
threshold.
You get a donation over $200 or $500 or whatever it is, make sure that you are thanking those
folks in a really personal way.
They're our peer to peer fundraisers.
I tell folks, thank them in the way that you connected with them.
If you called them to ask them for money, call them to thank them for their donation
and tell them how your race went.
If you sent them an email, great.
Send them an email.
If you walked over to your neighbor, walk over after that race or hobble over, depending
on where you are in the recovery process, tell them how it went and thank them for their
support.
Yes.
Thank you.
Always say thank you.
And in the spirit of saying thank you, Courtney, thank you so much for your time today, for
sending some of your what Friday morning with us.
Happy March 1st.
I'm not sure when this is going to go out, but if you are interested in signing up for
a race with Wander Project, it sounds like there's what 29, 27 ish by the time this comes
out races that are available.
So if somebody wants to learn more about Wander Project, what would be the best route for
them to go to?
Yeah.
So having on our website, wanderproject.org is where you're going to of course find all
the information.
We always encourage folks to take a look at our FAQ page as a great chart, a little more
information about a charity bib or you can click directly on charity bib and see all
of our upcoming events and register right there.
Certainly if folks have questions or want to know more before they commit, we totally
get it.
They can reach out to me at info at wanderproject.org.
Perfect.
Awesome, Courtney.
I'll go and throw all that in the show notes and on on my Instagram and my social media,
I'm going to be posting about you guys a whole heck of a lot during the walk and beyond.
So thank you again for your time.
There's a lot of value there in terms of if you're a nonprofit leader, if you're a community
member that wants to get involved, there's there's so much that you can do and it's really
about finding those possibilities.
So thank you for sharing what those have looked like for you and what you've seen in the industry.
Awesome.
Thanks so much for having me, Ranger.
I really appreciated it and I hope everyone gets out there and does some good this week.
Thank you everyone for investing your time with us today.
If you'd like to continue on your journey of building an impact driven life, there's
a couple freebies down in the description and the show notes that are going to help
you in that mission.
If you'd like to learn more about Wander Project, go ahead and check them out on Instagram.
All that information will be in the show notes and until next week, remember to have fun,
stay safe and be yourself.
Bye.