Sybil Ackerman-Munson
DoYourGood
Gabriel Flores 0:00
Hello, everyone, and welcome to the shades of entrepreneurship. This is your host, Mr. Gabriel Flores. Today I have Sybil, how are we doing?
Unknown Speaker 0:10
I'm doing great. Thank you for having me today.
Gabriel Flores 0:12
I'm excited because we were actually having this conversation before. This is, folks, this is exactly what entrepreneurship is. This is an individual who had an idea that I had. But this individual actually did something with it that makes a difference between a person with an idea and a person that becomes an entrepreneur. But before we get before we get into all that, give us a little background tell introduce the world who are you?
Unknown Speaker 0:35
Well, so I thank you for introducing me to I'm Sybil and I started a business called do your good. And the reason I did that is I worked in the nonprofit space for years. And then one of the donors who funded my work asked me to run his foundation. And I said, I would love to oh my gosh, but I had no idea what I was doing. They jumped over there. All of this is in Oregon, by the way. But I jumped over there, I started working for this foundation full time. And then I started getting other donors who found out that I was working this way asking at my advice. And I realized that there was a real demand out there. For people who are donors, people who are philanthropists, people who have some extra money to give away. They want to do it purposefully. And so then I started saying to myself, Oh, my gosh, it's a little silly for me to be full time with this one donor and one foundation when I have all these folks asking if they could maybe hire me. And so that's when I became an entrepreneur. And I actually didn't even know that's what I was. But once I went over into that world where I started my own business, and now I'm an S corp, and I created this other arm of my business, which is do your good, where now I'm creating online courses and supporting both donors and nonprofits and helping to connect them up. And it's so much fun. Because being an entrepreneur, while it's a little stressful, right? Because you're all on your own. It's so great to be creative in that space. So it was really funny. I started listening to some podcasts when people say talking about entrepreneurship. And I started realizing that these are my people. I mean, this is really what I want to do. So yeah, totally. And I'm here in Oregon. I love Oregon. I've been here since 1993. And, ya know, I look forward to the conversation, talk about what I do. But I'm happy to also talk about just what did it what does being an entrepreneur mean to me, you know,
Gabriel Flores 2:35
yeah, and, in fact, before we get to give it give the folks a little background, what exactly does do your good do?
Unknown Speaker 2:43
Okay, so it does two things, if you're somebody who wants to give money away, to deserving nonprofits and to issues you care about. But you're either you've either been doing that for a while giving donations and fit, you're feeling a little bit disillusioned, you're like, I'm not really that connected to what I'm doing. Or you've just starting out, you're like, I'm doing pretty well now in my life, and I want to give back, you know, I don't need to buy a car, I don't need to do these things. I want to give that money to good nonprofits, but I don't really know where to start, I feel overwhelmed. That's what do your good is for. It's either help reinvigorate you, in your passion forgiving, or it's to help give you a guide book, a guide, I'm a guide to help you give money to, to, to nonprofits effectively. And, you know, now by now I've given away help people give away over $45 million in donations, large and small already. And you know, I get pitched by nonprofits every day, I process almost upwards of 200 proposals a year from nonprofits. And I work with many, many, many families one on one. And so that's why I also created this arm of my business, which is like more where I have weekly podcasts, I have free resources, I have all these things because I really want more people to give. I don't want them to get disillusioned or feel overwhelmed. We really need to give to these great nonprofits doing good stuff in the world. The other part of my business is helping nonprofits themselves hone their pitch, because like I told you, I've listened to pitches every single day. And there's some people who just kick it out of the ballpark they do so well. But then there's so many who don't. And I know they're doing good work on the ground, right? But they're just not able to articulate that effectively to donors and so they keep hitting dead dead ends. And so I've created some courses and other things through my dear good business to help them and help them out.
Gabriel Flores 4:45
Oh, I almost lost you there. I think Did you lose audio? No. Oh, perfect. So I gotta ask you this because I'm looking at your qualification education. I'm you got a bachelor's in science at Scripps College. Right And then you went to forestry at Yale. And then from there, you got your JD. How'd you get into nonprofit? I'm just very, very, very interested to kind of hear that story. How did how did the nonprofit world how did you kind of finally get into nonprofit?
Unknown Speaker 5:18
Yeah, I love that question. So I'm really passionate about environmental work and conservation work. That's really where I'm passionate. And how I got passionate about that is I, when summer was an intern for the National Park Service, and it was when I was 19 years old. And I always loved animals when I was a kid, right? I wanted to be a veterinarian. But yeah, I just want to be a veterinarian. I'm so interested in that. But then I went out and I was an intern for the park service. And I was supposed to watch these little birds called the piping clovers. And they were endangered. They were about to go extinct. And I was just shocked. I was supposed to find them and then mark off where their nests were. And what happened that summer, though, is that there were so many pullovers actually on this one Beach, that the Park Service had to close it down to offer it vehicles. And they were huge, huge, huge, huge protests. And then everyone had to find a compromise. And they did they figured out okay, where should the cars go? Where should the how should we protect the birds, given the fact that there's those needs, and I was so fascinated with this discussion, and how and I was in the middle of it, I was going out going through the protests, it was really actually sort of scary. But it was also just so enlightening for me to see that there's people there's tension, and then there's a way to work through it, to find a balance. And I was hooked. I went back to college and I actually got my BA from Scripps College, Bachelor of Arts in environmental studies. So I majored in environmental studies. And I wrote my thesis on the Endangered Species Act and how to find compromise through something called a Habitat Conservation Plan. I was so obsessed. I was like, How can we really work hard on this issue? And then I went and got my law degree because I never wanted to really be a lawyer. But I wanted to understand, I went to Lewis and Clark. That's what brought me to Oregon, Lewis and Clark Law School because they do great stuff in environmental law. And I wanted to understand how do these laws get implemented? How do we do this? And so I sat and did that for a long time. And then what I did was I became an activist working for groups like Sierra Club, National Wildlife Federation, Audubon Society, and League of Oregon League of Conservation Voters all in Oregon. And I came up here during you might remember this, the spotted owl wars, in the 90s. That's when I came up here. And it was tense. So it was sort of like the piping plover incident but on steroids. So I was in the middle of all that trying to think through well, how can we find durable solutions? How can we talk to people who are of all diverse backgrounds to find durable solutions to these problems, I was just again, hooked. And so I worked. I worked in the field for over eight years. And then after that, that's when I said to myself, I actually I've been working so hard, I've been trying so hard on these things. I want to take a year and go back east to Yale, and get my Master's there and really think even more about what these problems these big, huge hairy problems mean for society? And how can I, how can I play a productive role in them. So for me, that was my journey. Then when I got back, that was when I transitioned into being a philanthropist and working full time for a donor who had funded me and all the different work that I did before. And I started them thinking about, okay, in the funding world, you can really do even more about, you know, try to make trying to make a difference. And in terms of I shouldn't say more, but you can really make a difference there. And so that's that's my issue area expertise. And so the donors that I work for a lot of them know a lot about environmental work or care about environmental work. But I also am getting more and more interested in the mega question of structurally, how do you give money away effectively no matter what cause you care about? And that's what do your goods all about? As I translate like, my I have been in so many trustee meetings now and all these different things. And I'm like, I have a responsibility now. To try to put all this down on paper and help even more people make a difference in the world so that they don't, you know, we just need we need even more givers.
Gabriel Flores 9:28
Yeah, definitely. You know, for those folks, it's a little history lesson because the spotted owl Wars is something I haven't heard, and so long. If I recall it correctly, it kind of boiled down to, you know, individuals were fighting for these albums to have their own habitat. But then the logging company, the timber company, were kind of their fight was, well, we need to cut down these trees because if we don't, then the loggers will lose their jobs. Yeah. There's a lot more to it than that, but just that was kind of the gist of it. which is really very, very pleased. I think there's actually a podcast. So please, if there is go out there and listen to it, I'm pretty sure it's great. I
Unknown Speaker 10:05
have no OPB did oh did a really interesting podcast series recently, on this exact issue.
Gabriel Flores 10:13
I'll make sure I'll hopefully put that in the newsletter, which is perfect time to remind everybody to please subscribe to the newsletter. When was do your good establish, like, when did you actually create it?
Unknown Speaker 10:24
So while I started my business, my where I was doing one on one client work back in 2012, I think. And I started to do your good in earnest, I had the idea for a long time, but in earnest during COVID. So really, in around 2020, I started the new year, good side of my business, which was the podcast, which is the podcasts, the mini courses that I've created the free resources, and these philanthropy accelerators, and all of those pieces. And I had a little extra time because I wasn't traveling as much. I did get COVID a few times, and it was very stressful time. So I also feel like do the do your good project was something that helped sort of keep balance in my life a little bit. It was a creative outlet for me. So and now it's off to the races. I'm having so much fun with it.
Gabriel Flores 11:15
Yeah. And I feel like, you know, admittedly, the podcast was similar. You know, it was my creative outlet during the pandemic. Yeah. And now it's taken a life of its own. Now, back in 2012, what was kind of your true north for do good? Why was the company created originally?
Unknown Speaker 11:33
Well, I, I really liked that question. And there's, it's a multifaceted answer. So I hope it's okay. There. I mean, the first, the first piece of it is more personal. A couple of years before that I had gotten divorced. And, in part, there was a lot of reasons that that that occurred, of course, is always always multifaceted there too. But but one of the things I really felt I needed to do was to get in charge of my life, and to define what I wanted to do, and really get in charge both in my finances my next steps, my future. And creating my business was that personal empowerment step for me. So that's the personal side. On the more like, business career side, the reason I did the jump is, I like I said, the first thing was, I realized that I wanted to have more control just over my own decisions around like, How much money do I put in retirement? What do I do with X, Y, and Z, all those little nitty gritty decisions around next steps that are linked to business, the business world and like how you're doing things, I wanted to make those decisions. I didn't want to have a company or a nonprofit, tell me what their overarching rules and regulations are. And this is what they do, and you have no choice. I wanted to create that for myself. And then I also honestly, there was a part of it, that was a little bit backing into it, too, because what I but at the same time, I was pretty strategic. So I had a lot of different folks saying Sybil, we want to just be sort of a fun time in my life. People are saying, so we want to hire you for this and this and this. But I really loved working as a philanthropist. And I loved working for the family that I was working for Lazar Foundation. They are were terrific to me, and really good to me. And so I didn't want to leave them. And so what happened was a lot of the other folks who wanted to meet and work for them, they sort of thought up this idea, too. They said well, and I did too, I want to do some contracting for you on the side is how it started. And then then that evolved into once people started finding out that I did contract work even more and more potential work. And so then what happened was I went back to my first family at Lazar. And I said, Hey, you know, I've got all these folks asking me to work for them. Can I create my own business? And then can I still work for you, but you'll be a client in my business. And so they said yes to that they still are my client. But and they still are my some they really support the work that that I've been doing through my business for a long time. So I still manage their dockets and help them figure out where they want to fund and all that kind of thing.
Gabriel Flores 14:14
Nice. Yeah. You mentioned like in the start of this, one of the things you you really wanted to do was take charge right to charge financially. Take charge, you didn't want a nonprofit or any of those things kind of telling you what to do. How did you do that? How did you create this company financially? Because did you grassroot it to kind of ensure that you have total control?
Unknown Speaker 14:36
Well, that I mean, one of the main things I had was an anchor client. So I had Lazar foundation as my anchor client. So essentially, you know, they were happy because they could pay me a little less than if I was when I was a full time employee. But I was happy because I put a price on the amount per month that they paid me that would pay for my mortgage pay for my base food, you know, so if I didn't Had anybody else signing up for my work? I knew that I could it's at least pay for my fundamentals. When I have people coming to me and ask, ask me about, you know, how did you how did you do it Sybil, and I'm there they're sort of thinking about whether they want to do it. I, I suggest to them that they try to think through proactively before they go out on their own. And take that big step of having their own business. Are there a few key anchor organizations or clients that they really enjoy and really like that they can see those those folks being with them for two to three to four years? That's like, that's such a great step. So for me, that's that was my, my step. I've seen too many times, friends and colleagues who decided they wanted to make the jump into the entrepreneurial world, and really not have that. And it's been very stressful for them. And they end up just having to run run from the next one to the client to the next client to the next client. And then it just, it's just tough. So you lose focus then and you lose passion for what you're doing. So yeah, no, I didn't actually don't I didn't grassroots it. I was super, super lucky that I had that core client that was flexible, understood. And then once I jumped, things did happen in a good way, you know, but every year I have to tell you, I don't I don't have a big ego at all. I'm like, very humble. And so every single year, I'm like, Are my clients gonna keep me? I don't know. I don't know. And I'm still running scared. I still run scared. My husband laughs I haven't I have a husband now a second husband, who I'm really in love with. And he is like, he's always laughing at me every year because he's like Sybil. Don't worry, don't worry, take a breath. You know, but still, you know, when you're an entrepreneur, you just have to stress about that stuff.
Gabriel Flores 16:42
In your entrepreneurial, probably not doing it right.
Unknown Speaker 16:44
Exactly. Exactly. And you know, the only thing I don't have vacations, really, I don't have any of that stuff. But at the same time, I always feel like I'm always working and always playing right, because I'm picking the things I want to do. That's true. And I anytime I get maybe tired or stressed, I'm like, Look, Sybil, I have to talk with myself. I'm like, I chose to do this. No one else is making to do this. Right. So
Gabriel Flores 17:08
now is do you're good. Are you? Are you for profit or a nonprofit business?
Unknown Speaker 17:12
I'm a for profit. Yeah. I'm a for profit full on business. S Corp. Yeah.
Gabriel Flores 17:17
Now, what would you say has been easy about starting your S Corp?
Unknown Speaker 17:22
The easy part of starting my S Corp is? Well first started as just a general LLC. And then
Gabriel Flores 17:29
yeah, tell us kind of why you decided to go from an LLC to an S corp.
Unknown Speaker 17:34
Yeah, so I was a general LLC. And then I decided to go the S Corp for a couple of reasons. First, you know, I definitely make sure that I get advice from folks who know more than I do about particular areas. So I really lean on my tax people with my tax person who's been wonderful. And essentially what happened was, I was just a general LLC, and then I started making more money. And when when I started making more money and getting more successful, and I don't make a ton of money, but you know, better money than before. The folks were saying, you know, civil, what you really should do with it is create an S corp. Because then you can decide how much you pay yourself. So I am an employer and an employee, right? Yep. So I can decide how much should I pay myself based on like, what a person would earn with the kind of stuff that I do? And then you I also then have even more control over like, how do I manage my retirement? It helps me really think through, you know, how I do dispersements my I also contract a lot of folks, and I'm getting debating whether I hire someone now that's the whole next step. You know, now that my business is getting a little a little better. I you know, I'm thinking about that. It's a little scary, though, because then I'm helping I'm supporting another person, you know, but um, so I really, really love that I made that decision to go to be an escort because it gives me so much more flexibility to think through, you know, what should I do with disbursements? What where do I expense P pieces of my business? I am contracting quite a few people who are helping me at all different levels in the areas of things I don't know, but I want to keep expanding on. There's just a lot of really interesting creative things you can do as an S corp that you really can't if you're just a straight up, sole proprietor LLC.
Gabriel Flores 19:27
Yeah. And what what have you know, you weren't in entrepreneur previously, you mentioned you're kind of working what has been hard about kind of going through the going from corporate world to entrepreneurship.
Unknown Speaker 19:39
Yeah, well, and I actually was always in the nonprofit sector, but that's nonprofit corporate, right? Yeah. Okay. So let me tell you, let me tell you, there's a bunch of different things. But one of the things that I was that was that I didn't know that I was getting into when I became a consultant and entrepreneur is whereas before when I'd work at it nonprofit or when I worked as the executive director at that foundation, the people who I was working for, you know, every year during my performance evaluation, there would be like, okay, so Bill, we're gonna give you a raise, how can we keep you that kind of thing? When I became a consultant, the opposite started happening. People would say, Sybil, you're doing so well, and you're so successful. So we think we should pay you less. And there would be this weird command, it was even some people who like, you know, I had maybe been employed by them before. And, you know, in general, like, it was weird, the transition, the transition, and then, and so it's sort of like that, that I didn't expect at all. So I had to learn how to actually get a little bit of an ego and be like, This is what I'm worth, and you need to pay me for that. And if you don't, I will walk away. And I needed to do it even more strongly as a consultant than when I was employed by the organization. And so that was something that was hard, and I wasn't ready for now. It's easier. It's been 10 years, you know, over 10 years now. So it's much easier for me to just say, Okay, this is what I'm worth, you have to pay me for that. And if you don't, then fine, although I have to tell you that I still struggle. So that's a hard piece. Another hard. Another hard piece is I do work a lot, right? And I, in my relationship, I have this wonderful relationship with my husband, he has a job that is a job job. It's not a he's not an entrepreneur, he's not a consultant. And he has vacation, and he has a lot of balance in his life. And for me, as an entrepreneur, I'm, I don't have that. Right as as as easily. It's not easy as you did to find, right. So I can't, I don't have paid vacation. I don't have all those pieces. And so navigating, and I don't personally care about that. Like I can figure out how to take time off but but trying to navigate that and keep a healthy, strong relationship is something that I need to be sure I'm always reminding myself about. And luckily, I have a partner who is understanding, but he definitely will push back. Hey, you know, you're working again this weekend.
Gabriel Flores 22:15
Man, always, you know, you mentioned you, this is something new. There's some difficulties, you you certainly have some concerns, right bringing on new employee, hey, can you make sure we bring them on and I gotta care for them? What what keeps you going? I mean, this is a lot of work. So what motivates you to continue
Unknown Speaker 22:33
to work keeps me going, I love what I'm doing. Oh, my gosh, I love it so much. i The My clients are wonderful, caring people who all they want to do is good in the world. This is on my one on one client side, right. So I have do your good, which is the sort of creating the mini courses. But the the one on one clients I have, they're amazing. They just want to do good in the world. And they're like Sybil, we have wealth. And we want you to help us and help and connect us with nonprofits. And then I talk to nonprofits every day, who are doing amazing, amazing work. And they're passionate, and their eyes are sparkling. And they're like, here's how we're doing this and that and they're on the ground. And they're just trying to get it done. Right. I just got back from an amazing conference that I was at, in California with a bunch of other philanthropists working on ocean issues, for example, so inspiring. I learned so much at that conference. And I can't wait to to talk to my trusty the one of my clients who, who funded me to go there. And I just constantly pinched myself. I'm like, I created this thing. I created this thing based on the stuff that I love to do, you know, and I sort of pulled it together. And it's working. And so every day, I'm doing what I want to do, you know, next week, I go to the coast and I'm meeting with I'm doing site visits with a bunch of funders and a bunch of and we're meeting a bunch of the wonderful nonprofits that we've been funding for, gosh, probably over five years. And we're gonna go out and you know, now that COVID is still it's still there, but it's we can travel again. Yep. It's the first time I've seen some of these folks in like three years in person. So this is the kind of thing that keeps me going. I just love what I do. You know, I just love it. So that makes it worthwhile.
Gabriel Flores 24:17
Now, let's flip it around. What what are you What's something that like? What is the one thing you think about pretty consistently? What is the one thing you've thinks about the most maybe it keeps you up at night? What is that one thing? Maybe there's multiple oh,
Unknown Speaker 24:28
gosh, yeah, yeah. There's multiple things. I guess. I guess the biggest thing that keeps me up at night is there's all this good in the world, but is it going to be enough? That's on the one side of it. And then the next side of it is you know, I'm getting older, not getting any younger. Am I doing enough myself? And that comes out in lots of ways in the middle of the night because As I'll be trying to think through a big problem, climate change is something that I worry about a lot. I mean, we I have my own son, and then three step kids, I love them all dearly. And, you know, What world are we leaving them? I know that might even sound a little corny, because so many people say that nowadays. But still, I worry about that. And so I guess my challenge is, and also one of the, I guess, it could be called a strength. But my challenge is, is like, I have so much passion, I want to get so much done. And there's only limited time and we have so many big problems to overcome. Yeah.
Gabriel Flores 25:38
And you know, for the folks that are listening that feel like your philanthropy dollars, don't make it. Trust me, they do. I'll give you some great examples of money and making a difference. I want you to look at breast cancer survival rates the last 10 years, go look at survival rates last 10 years. And then I want to tell you exactly why they're that way. Research and Education. Now. Now we know about screenings, we know about how to prevent it, we know how to catch it early when to detect it. With early detection, we now know how to treat it. With early treatment, we know how survive from it. Okay. Same thing with lung cancer. Same thing with skin cancer, if in fact, if we can get skin cancer, skin cancer is the only cancer you should never die from, it's only cancer, you can see with your eyes. And if you catch it early enough, nobody should ever die from skin cancer. Right. And that's, that's all about this philanthropist dollars. But even further than that, there's actually been a lot of people on this show the right that that have, you know, Fox boxes, look at what Fox box is doing for a lot of these pediatric children, making sure that they feel comfortable in these hospitals, you got fighting pretty making sure these individuals that are fighting cancer fill, fill, you know, cared for and about, there's just a lot of these different programs. And I think, you know, not only as individuals, but even even as entrepreneurs that that may be at one day get to that point where we still have an excess of money, and we are able to create some type of program, just know that these dollars do make it down to individuals in need. And it's really nice to see that, you know, we have somebody like Sybil that's really kind of helping people determine what their true north is, because that's really what do your goods trying to help you do is determine what is my true north? Where do I want to support it? And it might not. It may not be philanthropy dollars, you might want it to support your volunteer your time, you know that? donation, right?
Unknown Speaker 27:31
Yeah, yeah, totally. And I always love saying this, I'm gonna say it to you today. No matter what you're interested in, there's a do good thing connected to it, no matter what you are interested in. And that's the thing you should invest in, because that's thing you know about. And so do you name it, anything you like to run? You like you really engaged in your kids school? Anything, you can find a do good group that then you can invest in. But the question is, how do you do it so that you're not wasting your money, and you're not wasting the nonprofits time and money. And that also is similar. If you're volunteering your time to you want to be sure that you're volunteering in a way that that is really productive. And that's the kind of thing that I just happen to have a lot of expertise in. And so that's why I wanted to create my business is to really help people connect nonprofits to really great people who have wealth, and help people move forward to make the world a better place. I might be idealistic, but I see it happening. I see it happening. So it makes me very happy person
Gabriel Flores 28:34
just gonna take a village. Definitely. Yeah. So what what, what's some advice you have for some of the listeners? Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 28:40
okay. Well, there's lots of different things. But the first thing I want to talk about is, if you are somebody, let's let me talk to you if you're somebody who has wealth and wants to give it to worthy causes, and then I'll talk to you if you're working in a nonprofit, and you're interested in thinking about how to fundraise even more effectively. How about that? I do both sides. Perfect, perfect. Okay. So if you're a donor, or if you're somebody with wealth, and you want to give money away, the first thing I want to talk to you about is assuming you've figured out the issue, you want to spend your time and money on something you already figured that out, you're like, Oh, I absolutely, you know, it's it's children's health, or it's climate change. I Sybil, I totally know that. Okay, so let's say you figured that out. There's still another level of things you have to think through before you give your money away. What I've seen in my career working with donors, is that there are three types of donors. And you need to to do some work to figure out your donor type before you start giving money away. There are Sustainer donors. There's campaigner donors, and there's launcher donors. A Sustainer donor is somebody who wants to give money to a nonprofit year after year. They're really busy. You're you might be somebody who's really busy you, you know you care about the issue, but you really don't have that much time to do devote to it. But you want to support those nonprofits. So that means you're a sustainer donor. Gotcha. So you'll just give year after year, you won't meddle in the in the organization's affairs too much. And you'll just give your after your general support. But if you're somebody who is really, really worried about a major societal issue, let's say it's climate change, or house lessness, or you name it, and you feel like there's major hurdles to get to success, then that's what what you are is a campaigner kind of donor, because it means you want to move the needle on an issue, it means that you're not going to be that happy, just giving your after your general support donations, you're gonna want to fund a bunch of groups that are like ending house lessness. Or, seriously reducing greenhouse gas emissions, that's where you're going to be excited. And if you're not clear with yourself, that that's the kind of donor you are, and you just start going out into the world and start giving money, you're gonna get disillusioned really fast. So I have some tips and tricks to figure out and little quizzes to help you figure out what kind of donor you are there if you're a campaigner. Nice now a launcher donor fills a gap. Sorry about that, you were gonna say something.
Gabriel Flores 31:14
In fact, that information that you just mentioned, is this something they can find, in fact, on your website, perfect.
Unknown Speaker 31:20
Yeah, I have a little free video that you can click on, that talks a little bit about the different types. So definitely, you can, you can check it out there. And then a launcher donor, if you are somebody who likes to, you're sort of like a venture capitalist, you know, like that kind of person, you love to come in early and start new things, and fill gaps. So let's say like, for example, I'll use climate change as an example, like you care about climate change, you see a ton of people doing a lot of stuff. But what you also see is that like, all the groups are doing their own research on science or something. And they're not sharing their research and like, oh, my gosh, this is a big gap that needs to be filled. So you work with a bunch of other people and a nonprofit, and you fund like a startup of a science sharing Institute or something. And that doesn't necessarily take a ton of money on your end, because then you could partner with other folks. And it's really exciting. And you help them out for three years. And then once they're established, and they're getting Sustainer donors who are funding them year after year, you then go on to the different a different project that's filling a gap. So that's what I like, really try to hone in with you on to as you might know, what you want to fund. But let's also think about the donor type you are. Yeah, no, that's great. Yeah, yeah. And then on the nonprofit side, what I do is I talk to nonprofits a lot about, first of all, how do you as a nonprofit person talk to a donor at like their human being, and not a bank transaction, because all too often I get pitched by folks who are just like, Okay, here's our laundry list, bah, bah, bah, bah, you know, and does not work. I want to give money away, I want to support them. And it makes it really tough. And so what I try to do in my little mini courses and other things to support nonprofits, because I help them try to suss out, first of all, what kind of donor are they talking to? Are they talking to a sustainer kind of donor or a campaigner kind of donor, or a launcher kinda donor? That's good to know. Because it really matters in terms of how you do your pitch. If you're talking to a sustainer donor, you talk generally about your organization, you invite them to your cool outings, your volunteer activities, your annual, you know, fundraiser, you do all that, and they'll be really happy. And they'll want to do that as long as you're connecting to their passion in general. But if you're talking to somebody who's a campaign or donor, you are going to lose them that Hello, if you just start giving them brochures about your general information, instead, you're going to need to find out okay, what's the major societal issue you're trying to change because you might not you might be only working on that as part of your programs. And then you you pitch to them an actual project where you're trying to change the norm on whatever it is you're working on. So those are the kinds of things that I talk about for nonprofits to help them out.
Gabriel Flores 34:08
Nice, that's man, I feel like there's, it's kind of funny, you just think about the nonprofit world and you kind of just thinking about, I just give money away and good. Breaking it down into like, No, we're there's there's kind of different segments of this.
Unknown Speaker 34:23
Yeah, totally. I mean, this is a real profession, figuring out how to give money away and how to support nonprofits. It's a real profession. You know, it's it takes expertise. It takes knowledge. And what I'm hoping to do with both, I do the one on one work, so I help people with my profession and know how to do it. But then also trying to sort of crowdsource it a little bit with this do your good part where I have these online courses and other things, so that people can also, you know, on their in their own time, they can learn the general ideas, they can get themselves ready and knowledgeable. So they don't necessarily always have to hire someone like me one on one, and they can do do the job well and not leave money on the table and be passionate about their work.
Gabriel Flores 35:04
Now for folks that want to maybe find more information about this work, where do they find you? Where are you out online? World? Where can they find? Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 35:12
totally, totally. So I have a weekly podcast where I interview people, donors and nonprofits about, about their giving strategies. And so it's really fun. So you can go on any podcast site and type in do your good, or my name, Sybil Ackerman Munson, and you should be able to find me. And then on Instagram, and Facebook, I'm at the little at sign, do your good. And then you can also find me on the www.do">web@www.do, your good.com. That's where everything is like, I've got all my podcasts and all the different things in that free resources. And then the thing that I have on offer right now, two things if you're a donor, well, I always have these mini courses that you can get there on evergreen, like you can get them any time for both nonprofits and donors. But the things I'm creating now that are new, for if you're a donor, I'm doing these special three month long philanthropy accelerators, and they're I'm purposely going to have them where you, there's no more than 10 donors that are going to be in this mastermind. And the philanthropy accelerators are geared towards trying to unpack key questions that you as a donor have, and helping you figure through those. And they're geared towards busy professionals. So the first philanthropy accelerator that I'm creating is really to help people demystify a nonprofits financials, and to be able to help them in articulating to the nonprofits what they actually want to see in a financial insight and in their in the financials of the nonprofit. And I'm really excited to offer that. So I if anyone's interested, I have that up on my website, a little link so that you can get on the waitlist for that. And then on the nonprofit side, the thing I'm creating an offering, really, really soon, we're about to put the link up on my website, if you're a nonprofit person, in addition to letting my little mini courses that are already up there, I'm creating this special limited edition email sequence is a six month email sequence, where if you sign up for this, you will get in your inbox every single week, a special tip to hone your fundraising pitch. And also there'll be a special exclusive link in that email. So you can ask me special questions if you have anything that's really burning on your mind. And and I can try to answer them as well for you. So those are the two things I have on offer right now.
Gabriel Flores 37:39
Perfect. Sybil, thank you so much. That was, again, folks a lot of information I know. But however, sorry about that. A lot of great, great, great information, please subscribe to the newsletter because I will have a lot of this information on the newsletter. We'll also have information about the website. So how you can contact with Sybil, how we can actually go ahead and if you're interested in learning more, because I find this person myself, I find it quite fascinating because I work with donors quite often. So again, folks, Sybil, thank you again so much for joining me on the show today. I really really do appreciate it lots of cool information, a lot of cool what you're doing, again, an idea I thought I had and you actually put it into a business model. So I'm really excited for you folks at home please subscribe to the newsletter at the shades of e.com You can also follow me at the shades of E on all the social sites. Thank you and have a great night