Intro (00:00):

Welcome to The Taylor Ten. A fast-paced, 10 minute deep dive into the minds of those shaking up the marketing world, bringing you the sharpest insights, boldest ideas and breakthrough trends driving the industry forward. So tune in, get inspired, and stay ahead.

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Jessie (00:17):

Hi, I'm Jessie Mann and welcome to The Taylor Ten. I'm here with Zoe Mauer to learn as much as I can in only 10 minutes about how nonprofit marketing compares to for-profit marketing, and who better to learn from than Zoe, who's a marketing consultant with close to 20 years of experience. In addition to serving as the current marketing chair for Madelyn's Fund, a nonprofit based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Morning Zoe. Thank you so much for being here. I'm so excited to talk to you. Tell us a little bit more about Madelyn’s Fund and what their mission is and then how you connected with it and got involved with the organization.

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Zoe (00:59):

So Madelyn’s Fund, as you mentioned, is a nonprofit based in Charlotte, North Carolina, but it serves both of the Carolinas. And their mission is to support families who have pediatric infants or patients in the NICU, as well as those who experienced the trauma of infant loss. And my connection to the cause is our oldest daughter, Izzy, who is now a thriving 10-year-old, was born premature at 28 weeks, and she was only two pounds, seven ounces at birth. This was our first baby and she spent 92 days in the nicu. And that was a life-changing experience for our family. So ever since then, I just have had such a passion for helping other families that are going through the NICU journey or rollercoaster as it's often referred to. And so when we made our way down to Fort Mill, South Carolina, a friend of mine said, Hey, I really feel like you should get involved with Madelyn’s Fund. And so I looked it up and sure enough I was like, oh yes, this is perfect for me. And I connected with Rachel Lee, who is the co-founder of Madelyn’s Fund, and I started to volunteer on the event committee. And then from there I couldn't help myself as a marketer. And so I was like, well, I could help you here with your email marketing and help you here. And then eventually I was asked to join the board as a marketing chair, and it's just been the best experience.

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Jessie (02:36):

So you've worked in both the for-profit, having an agency background space as well as nonprofit marketing. What drew you to the nonprofit space besides just your personal connection?

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Zoe (02:51):

Honestly, my whole career, I just tended to align best with clients that had some sort of cause focus. A lot of the clients that I worked with earlier in my career were education based, and so helping get their mission out for how they help different students or if it's a specialized school. And one of the agencies that I worked for was a cause marketing agency, and so just naturally I was helping different causes there. So I think it just kind of is an organic thing that is just part of my makeup.

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Jessie (03:31):

So would you say that is probably the biggest mindset shift for profit to nonprofit is actually having that connection piece?

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Zoe (03:42):

Yes, I think so. And then also for nonprofit, and I think we'll probably talk about this a little more later, but you really have to be thoughtful about what it is that you're spending your resources on, whether it is time, time and money or budget. Whereas in the for-profit space, I think there's a lot more wiggle room there and there's larger teams and larger budgets. And so I feel like your strategy almost has to be a bit tighter and more thought through because there is such a thin line as far as your margin there. So I think that that's been one of the mind shifts as well, is to be a lot more thoughtful about, okay, well what is going to make an impact for the audience we're trying to reach or the audience that we're talking to.

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Jessie (04:36):

Knowing that the resources are much more limited, how do you get creative when your budget is a fraction of what it might've been in the corporate world, for example?

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Zoe (04:48):

Sure. There are a couple of different ways that I personally go about this. Number one is never be afraid to ask. So whether it's asking if they have, say we're trying to do a listing or an ad or something like that in a local newsletter, asking if they have a nonprofit discount, asking if somebody wants to partner with you on a post, if you have similar missions or similar beliefs, I'm never afraid to ask. The worst thing they can say is no. And oftentimes more often than not, the answer is yes or thanks for thinking of us, and maybe let's chat again next year. People are definitely receptive once they understand what Madelyn’s Fund is.

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(05:32):

And so that, I think as a marketer has been one of the ways that we're beginning to take what we have and grow and evolve. I think it's really easy when you are so closely connected to your cause to just assume that everybody knows what it is that your organization does. And so it's really taking a step back and making sure that anything that you're putting out there, it's clear. So when I would go to different places and talk about Madelyn’s Fund or reach out, it was kind of a lot of information that I would need to give upfront. And we all know that people have short attention spans, don't read. Sometimes they make assumptions. Our logo has a pink bow. Oftentimes people equate pink with breast cancer awareness.

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(06:25):

So there was a lot of education needing to happen right up front. And just to try to get that into a more succinct way, one of the things that we are working on and have approved and are going to be launching next year is a tagline. So Madelyn’s Fund, of course is still the organization name, but then the tagline helps inform what it is that we do and bring people a connection much quicker than having to like, oh, let me go to the website and check it out. I mean, having strong messaging is important across both as the foundation for anything that you're doing. 

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Jessie (06:59):

What’s your most successful campaign and initiative and what do you think helped contribute to its success and made it work?

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Zoe (07:07):

One thing that I think is important, and I think it's important both in for-profit and nonprofit, is of course you have your plan, but then you need to be able to be flexible. And something wild happened earlier this year, and if you don't know this, I know you know this Jesse, but the two founders of Madelyn’s Fund, Andy Lee and Rachel Lee. So Andy is a former NFL player, and there is something called cleats for a cause. And so NFL players will have these cleats designed and it'll be for whatever cause that they're supporting. Well, Andy Lee's, of course was Madelyn’s Fund will fast forward, he's retired now, but there is another football player and I don't know anything about sports, so excuse me if I get this wrong, but Matt Prader, he plays for the Bills and he did some amazing thing at the end of the game.He did a great sports move and everybody was really happy. And apparently there's this group that's an amazing group called the Bills Mafia, and they were really happy. And so they were on social media and they were like, what is his cause? And then somebody said, well, he also supports Madelyn’s Fund. He also did cleats per cause for Madelyn’s Fund. And then all of a sudden we got all these donations for a specific amount, like a number amount, whether it was the number of yards he did, the field goal or whatever football thing it was or his number. And so when we started seeing these come in, we quickly created a post and shared it. And then that got reshared. And never have we ever seen metrics like this. It was wild. 32,000 accounts were reached and we have 3000 followers, which we're very proud of. But we're a local organization, Charlotte, we're not national. And so this was just amazing. So I guess all this to say, one of your goals is to increase awareness about your organization and what it does get the Bills Mafia to read. Yeah, hopefully

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Jessie (09:25):

Andy sent him a fruit basket or something.

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Zoe (09:28):

Yeah, something.

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Jessie (09:29):

I've just really been thrilled watching the Success Madelyn’s Fund has had. Thank you for coming on and talking about it with us today. And also kudos to you because I think you've done a fantastic job. I hope everyone will support the cause because it really, really is a special one.

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Zoe (09:48):

Thanks for having me, Jesse.

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