Marc Pitman: Welcome to the Concord Leaders Podcast. I’m Marc Pitman, the CEO of the Concord Leadership Group, where we’re helping leaders keep focus and move forward through these trying times. Today, our guest is Allison Rickels. She’s the Executive Director and CEO of the FarmHouse Foundation. Allison, I am thrilled to have you here.

Allison Rickels: Thank you, Marc. I’m thrilled to be with you, virtually.

Marc Pitman: Virtually, which seems to be the way that we would be doing it. So much of our lives now. Allison and I have known each other for a long time. And Allison, you’re one of the longest — I don’t even know if it’s running or standing or tenured, you’re not tenured, but you have 12, almost 13 years as the CEO of the FarmHouse Foundation, which ironically in the fundraising field, that’s not the case. It’s usually every few months, or maybe five-year sprints. Did you go into FarmHouse knowing that you were going to try to stay there for over a decade?

Allison Rickels: No, not necessarily. If I can take just a quick second — this is actually coming up on my 19th year of being on staff. I started right out of college and really was fortunate that when I started, it was a brand-new position for our foundation. I became the second full-time person on our staff, and was just afforded incredible opportunities to grow my skills and my fundraising abilities. And my predecessor was such an amazing coach — he’d say, “I want you to get your CFRE, I want you to get involved on boards,” really pushing and encouraging me to be successful. So then when he was looking to retire, he said to me, long before that, and he announced it publicly, “I can’t promise you that the board would hire you, but I can teach you how to be the executive director if you want to learn.” And it was probably the best gift I was given as a professional. And so, almost 13 years later, I have continued to be afforded pretty incredible opportunities because of my board, because of my colleagues and peers, getting to do coaching like with you and other things that just incentivize me to stay — not just monetarily, but also professionally, and filling my bucket of what fulfills me and feeling like I’m really getting to make a difference.

Marc Pitman: That’s awesome. What do you love about leading?

Allison Rickels: Yeah, I think it’s a multitude of things. I’ve always been somebody who likes to be responsible, or maybe in charge — as a kid, kind of was that person who wants to step up and be a leader, maybe sometimes bossy, right, as the oldest, firstborn in my family. But I think at the end of the day, I really enjoy problem solving. I really enjoy doing the work, but also being a decision maker, getting to be at the table with my board. FarmHouse is a men’s international fraternity, and I lead their educational foundation. So my board members are all older men, much older than me — some are closer to my age, but a lot of them aren’t my peers. And you get to be at the table with them — many of them are CEOs of companies and leaders of industry — and learning from them is an incredible gift. So really, I enjoy leading, getting to be around people who help me be better, but also help the organization, or help them, be better.

Marc Pitman: I like that — enjoying the problem solving. How has, as you’ve been through almost 20 years at the foundation, how have the problems changed as you’ve gone from employee into management and leadership?

Allison Rickels: Sure, yeah, that’s a good question. When I started at our foundation, we were raising about $7,000 a year, and our assets were probably just about three or four million. I started in July of 2001, and shortly after was September 11th, so really early on I learned about philanthropy from a completely different lens — I was used to my volunteerism in college. So really seeing that starting point — you know, second full-time person — it was exciting and a big deal when we raised a million dollars and finished our first capital campaign a few years later. Today, we raise about $4 million a year, and our assets, depending on how the market’s doing, are about $22.5 million. So what’s changed is a $600,000-to-$4-million operation is very different than, let’s say, a $22.5 million operation, when it comes to staff and overhead expenses and expectations that year after year you should continue to be successful. And year after year, that’s harder and harder — as the adage goes, the toughest thing about success is to keep on succeeding, and to really continue to push that. It can be really tough, but also very challenging and very rewarding when you see that come to fruition. So it’s similar problems in a lot of ways, but sometimes bigger — new legal issues, new IRS rules that you have to keep pace with.

Marc Pitman: And that seems to change multiple times a year too.

Allison Rickels: Oh, absolutely — or sometimes on the daily, right now. But just trying to keep pace, and knowing who the experts are to go to. So I guess for me, I’ve really tried to focus on who are the resources, the people and the experts that I can go to for help, because I can’t do it all by myself, that’s for sure.

Marc Pitman: That is really cool. So, one of the things that I love, and I know listeners love hearing, is a time when leadership didn’t work out the way you expected. What was a time that you tried something and it failed?

Allison Rickels: Yeah, good question. You know, I can probably list off lots of different things that didn’t work that I thought would — perhaps a fundraising appeal or an event, that type of thing. But actually, what I’d love to share is a story. I had an incredible board chair at the time, who was at the time a vice president of PayPal — he’s been CEO of a different company in the last few years — an amazing mentor, and fairly young when he was our board chair. We had just raised a little over two million dollars, we’d had a successful year, we were getting ready to launch a capital campaign, and he and I were doing my board evaluation. He was reflecting back on the comments the board made, and one of the things you expect in a review — “You had such a great year, keep it up, here are the things you’re doing well” — all those things came. But at the same time, he said, “You’re not taking enough risk, Allison. You need to be more innovative.” And that’s probably one of the best pieces of advice I got, because he really challenged me to let down my guard and not be afraid to fail, and not be afraid to really challenge myself, to think outside the box, to try things, and to be okay if they don’t go exactly right. So I often think of him, and that — you need to be more innovative. What that caused us to do was to really think outside the box for our capital campaign. We created a loan program so we could help provide mortgage loans for our chapter housing, when we know there’s a number of banks that don’t want to do that, or want another guarantee at the table. We created new funds, new innovation funds, and new endowments, so that we could preserve during times like we’re in right now, and really tried to push ourselves to think differently and do some mini campaigns. The iteration is, we started with that campaign, when he and I were talking about goals, at about 7 million. And every time we kept outpacing ourselves, and really pushed to be more innovative, we ended up having a 23-and-a-half-million-dollar capital campaign. Lots of bumps along the way. Even when we took our campaign from 15 to 20 million, I made our board put in the minutes of that meeting, when we increased it, that I wouldn’t lose my job if we didn’t meet that goal. And so we exceeded it, tenfold, much higher than our expectations. But I look back, and if he wouldn’t have said that to me at the time — “You’ve done great, but take some more risks, be more innovative” — that was a real turning point for me.

Marc Pitman: But see, that’s one of the things that’s so hard, because there’s another adage I’ve often heard: “No one got fired for doing what we did last year.” So many plans become “what we did last year, maybe plus it up a little bit,” and playing it safe. So how have you been able to, when you hear that phrase, “You’re not taking enough risks” — what’s a way you’ve made it so that there’s freedom to take risks? Because often in fundraising and nonprofits in particular, it feels like there’s not very much risk tolerance. People don’t really want to go — there’s some imaginary line that if we cross, it’s going to be the end, it’ll be awful, it’ll be all of our reputations and everything, which I’ve barely seen. Maybe Bernie Madoff, I don’t know, illegal activity maybe — he doesn’t count.

Allison Rickels: No, and he wasn’t a nonprofit.

Marc Pitman: That’s true too. So are there some things you figured out — like your saying to the board, “I’m going to push myself, I’m taking a risk, my job is contingent on this” — that’s a good idea.

Allison Rickels: Yeah, it was probably a risk saying that, but they could probably see the unsureness on my face, I guess. And in the end, what was cool is the people who were around the table, when we made that statement, really stepped up to help make that campaign happen, and make those successes happen. So they weren’t just pushing me to push me, they were also alongside of me. I think that’s huge with the board, and I think that’s also why I continue to stay, because I have such champions who are partnering with me and leading our board. So I think that’s a huge difference for organizations when they are risk averse — they don’t have the right champions at the table. And certainly we’ve had board members who may not have always been the easiest, and may have challenged in ways that weren’t the best. But on the other hand, I’ve always had incredible champions to steer us through, to say it’s okay. Now, we certainly, to your point, stick with the tried and true — the direct mail, the comprehensiveness of the work we’re doing, we stick to that. There are times we deviate — like, “Hey, let’s try this new piece,” or “let’s try increasing this new giving level” — that maybe don’t feel like that big of a deal, but could have big ripple effects on what we raise, whether it’s successful or not. So I feel like if you’re not pivoting and changing, you’re not going to be successful. And there are times I’ve said to my board, very vulnerably, “We’re in a safe space, I don’t know if this is going to work, but I need your help to make sure it works.” Like, we’re doing a Day of Giving next week — this is a really challenging time, a lot of people are facing unemployment, are furloughed, and maybe don’t have the means, but there are other people who do. So we’re trying it out. And I’ve said to our board, if this doesn’t work, then we have a pulse for how the rest of the year may go, but we can’t stop fundraising. So I think that’s also making sure you’ve got the right people alongside you, and the attitude that what you did yesterday won’t get you where you need to go tomorrow.

Marc Pitman: Well, the risk — ironically, the riskiest thing for nonprofits and organizations, I think, is to do the same thing they did last year, because nothing else is staying the same, and we have to be trying and doing. My daughter got me a gift for Christmas, a book called Little Bets. And so, we have to be trying little bets, we have to be trying little things just to see, will this fly? The corpus, the main stuff, is the tried and true, because what got us there — a lot of leadership too, I guess, is going back to what brought us to the success — that’s not going to keep you there, but we’ve got to keep doing the basics, and revisiting those too.

Allison Rickels: Wow.

Marc Pitman: Well, I always love our conversations, and I’m amazed at how quickly we blew through this time. As we come to the end of this episode, is there some strategy, tip, tactic, or challenge you’d suggest listeners do before they end the day today?

Allison Rickels: Yeah, I think it probably hits home with my message overall — to use your resources, to look to those experts, whether they’re in your backyard or people like you, Marc, who are really giving advice — use it, but use it in a way that fits for you, and don’t be afraid to ask for help. I love quotes like, “If you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to go far, go together.” So I really try to arm myself with experts I know I can call on when I need. I have a board member who’s an attorney that specializes in employment law, so right now he’s been helpful when it comes to dealing with HR issues around everything that’s happening right now — fortunately, we’re not laying off or furloughing anybody, but he’s my go-to. Or I have an attorney I can call and ask about other issues, or our accountant to help me with applying for the Paycheck Protection Program. So just utilizing the people around you, and knowing that it’s okay to ask for help, and that you don’t have to be all the things to all the people. But put your head down and do your job — I think people get stuck when they don’t do that, they just prophesize and say, “Here’s what I want to do,” but at the end of the day, even if you’re the CEO, you have to do the work and model the way for your staff too.

Marc Pitman: That’s so good.

Allison Rickels: You’re welcome.

Marc Pitman: Well, thank you so much for being here.

Allison Rickels: Absolutely, happy to do it, and happy to share my perspective from my space in Kansas City.

Marc Pitman: Yeah, where can people find you if they want to find out more about your work and what you do?

Allison Rickels: Yeah, so I’m on LinkedIn, Allison Rickels. Also, farmhouse.org is our fraternity’s website, and certainly you can email me, [email protected]. I’m always happy to answer questions. I think it’s important that as fundraisers, we build each other up, that we help make each other stronger, and that we inevitably help make our organizations stronger. I think we do a real disservice when we don’t support each other and become more competitors, when at the end of the day, the joy of philanthropy is helping people become their best selves, and helping organizations do that too.

Marc Pitman: I’m all for it. I’m going to listen to this episode over and over.

Allison Rickels: I know, I’m excited to hear it too.

Marc Pitman: We’ve come to the end of another episode of the Concord Leaders Podcast. This episode and all the episodes can be found at concordleadershipgroup.com/podcasts, with an S. Until next time, remember that healthy nonprofits start with healthy leaders.