I end every RelishTHIS episode by asking my guest to give listeners one thing they can actually do to make a difference in the world. Diana Zhang, co-founder and CEO of NeighborShare, gave one of my favorites: “Just go do something, anything.” Five minutes. Five dollars. Dip your toe in.
That spirit runs through everything NeighborShare does. They fund pivotal needs of $400 or less – the ones that slip through the cracks – through the frontline heroes at local nonprofits who actually see the need coming. A $300 car repair before it costs someone their job. A refugee student’s first tuition bill. My favorite: a 17-year-old dad who needed $100 for a security-guard certification and $25 for bus tickets to get to the training. That’s it. That’s the whole thing standing between him and a career.
Here’s the gold nugget I walked Diana through on the show. When you report impact as a big number – “we helped 1,200 families” – nobody feels like the hero. But when you tie one specific gift to one specific turning point and hand the credit to the donor, everything changes. That’s a key Inspire-phase move: get somebody to escalate from a one-time gift to a recurring one by letting them see the exact door their money opened. You unlocked this. You did that. You rule!
Diana literally started jotting notes when we got here, thinking about her year-end report. That’s the move. Don’t average your impact into a blur. Pick the story. Name the outcome. Cast your donor as the frontline hero they actually are – because, as Diana put it, in a lot of ways they are.
The other thing I love about NeighborShare is their discipline around “failing fast.” It only works because they define what good and bad look like before they run the test. Most of us run a campaign, feel vaguely fine about it, and repeat it out of habit. Write down the pass/fail number first, and the data makes the decision for you.
Want to reframe how your organization thinks about all of this? Grab a free copy of my book, Mission Uncomfortable, at missionuncomfortablebook.com, and see where you stand with the Purpose-Driven Marketing Score at relishstudio.com/purpose-driven-marketing-scorecard. And, as always, if you need some help, give us a shout.
