Beyond Donations: How Giving Back Transforms Lives and Communities

In this insightful episode, Rich Bennett hosts a roundtable discussion with Wendy Beck, Michelle Hayes, and Alicia Hamilton, exploring the many ways people give back to their communities. The guests share personal stories of compassion, from small acts of kindness to managing nonprofits that transform lives. Alicia recounts her son’s selfless act of helping a stranded elderly couple, while Wendy reflects on the importance of instilling generosity in future generations. Michelle’s emotional story of her father’s legacy of giving will resonate deeply with listeners. The episode emphasizes that giving back isn't just about money—it’s about empathy, service, and creating lasting impacts in everyday life.

This episode is proudly sponsored by Tar Heel Construction Group, your trusted partner for quality roofing and exterior remodeling services in Maryland, committed to giving back to the community they serve.

Support for Addiction Recovery | Rage Against Addiction

Home | Fresh Start Furnishings (freshstartmd.org)

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This episode of Conversations with Rich Bennett is brought to you by Tar Heel Construction Group, the leading roofing and exterior remodeling company in Maryland. With over 20 years of experience, Tar Heel Construction has earned a reputation for exceptional craftsmanship, customer satisfaction, and giving back to the community. Whether you need a roof replacement, siding, gutters, or solar services, Tar Heel Co

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Transcript

Rich Bennett 0:00
I'm sitting here with three young ladies and I wanted to do a roundtable discussion about giving back 

because I think everybody should give back somehow or another. And whether it's donating money, whether it's donating time, whether it's donating furniture, clothes, whatever. There's so many different ways to give back. So I would go around the table starting my life to have everybody introduce themselves. 

Wendy Beck 0:29
Hi, I'm Wendy from Rage Against Addiction. 

Michelle Hayes 0:32
Hi, I'm Michelle with Clever Marketing. 

Alicia Hamilton 0:35
Hi. I'm Alisha with Fresh Start Furnishings. 

Rich Bennett 0:38
Why do you talk so loud? 

Wendy Beck 0:42
Do we? 

Rich Bennett 0:43
I think so. 

Wendy Beck 0:44
Sorry. 

Rich Bennett 0:45
All right, step it up. Amanda. Hi. 

Alicia Hamilton 0:48
Well. 

Rich Bennett 0:48
I guess I got it. I was going to say cause you're loud when you yell at me. 

I know you. 

Alicia Hamilton 0:56
Just have a loud voice. 

Rich Bennett 0:57
And that comes out all right? So I'm going to go around and start to the right with you, Alisha. What's your definition of giving back? 

Alicia Hamilton 1:09
I would say you didn't send a list of questions prior to. Right? So. 

Rich Bennett 1:14
Yeah, right. Yeah. 

Michelle Hayes 1:15
I mean. 

Rich Bennett 1:17
Now I want I can edit. 

Alicia Hamilton 1:18
Yeah, no, we're fine. 

Rich Bennett 1:20
We're not going to do that. 

Alicia Hamilton 1:25
I would say just being present to the needs of others. 

Rich Bennett 1:30
Mm hmm. 

Alicia Hamilton 1:31
And that can look like something as extravagant as raising a bunch of money. It can be handing a bag of groceries to somebody who's on the street. It could be noticing the old person that's about to put the cart back and you save them a trip. Mm hmm. To me, I think it's. It's just. Yeah, it's. It's being present to the people around you 

and the needs and taking an extra second of your life to make somebody else's a little bit. A little bit easier. 

Rich Bennett 2:06
I think you defined it all. 

Michelle Hayes 2:08
I was going to say I can't follow. 

Rich Bennett 2:12
Especially, I would say. I mean, just being kind. Mm hmm. Because it's hard to give back if you're me. No, you're not me. You're right. Yeah. Yeah. Because I don't feel. 

Wendy Beck 2:25
Like I want to take on that. Is that to me? Giving back is looking outside of yourself. There's a lot of people who are really selfish. They don't think of others. But when you like you said, putting that grocery card back or something like that is giving back to the community or an individual in some way. 

Rich Bennett 2:40
Right. Well, it's all about the community because one of the biggest if side and you'll see it on social media all the time people complain about trash on the road or or, you know, weeds or whatever, but they will not go the extra step to pick it up themselves. And to me, that's another way of giving back as you're giving back to the community. For example, with our Lions Club, we had that purple Jay in the meeting in front of the high school. So my complain because some of the bricks are in the way and in need. We well, it was our Leos that always took care of that which we were rebuilding layers and a lot of our Lions members are too old or can't get out there. So I complain and it's gone. Hmm. The county took it away. Yeah. Oh, you did. You didn't. 

Alicia Hamilton 3:34
They complained to the county. They didn't even. 

Rich Bennett 3:36
They did. And the. 

Alicia Hamilton 3:38
Keepers. 

Rich Bennett 3:39
They didn't call the school because some of the some of the people at the high school, when they saw it going, they were upset. Yeah. All they would have taken was one minute to stop and pull the weeds or whatever. Mm hmm. And now, granted, there's bricks out because I would stop and realign the bricks. You can come back in the next day or so. I don't know. It was kids moving all cars hitting them or what. But yeah, I mean, that's just people are I hate to say it, too many people are quick to complain about something but not lift the finger and make a difference. And those are the people that need to learn how to give back. I know all of us here give back in one way or another. Yes. When you do, you know. Yeah. But on the other note, on the the flipside of that, especially if you. Wendy and you, Alisha, because both of you run in nonprofits. What's the struggles you guys run into where you're not getting enough people to give back to? I mean, whether it's volunteering, donating what you know? 

Wendy Beck 4:52
Well, something that I recognized is with running a nonprofit and everybody has the things that they like to support. So not everybody can support everything. So not every mission of my mission is not everyone else's. So I feel like, you know, finding your community is important, but you also have to be careful not to deplete those resources. And so that's where I find the struggle, because, you know, people who are struggling with addiction and they get to the recovery side don't necessarily have the means to to give back in a monetary way. But they might be a sponsor to someone or they might give donate clothes or that type of thing. So I guess it all depends on and this is how I feel. Also, are we conditioning our kids to give? Are we conditioning them to think about others in a way like I'm going to be honest, like growing up, like we didn't have like a family charity that we supported. You know, we we just did it because my parents didn't have, like, those types of means to do it. So maybe I didn't instill that in my daughter. And now being part of a community where we are constantly giving, I'm kind of changing the tide for her to realize that people do need help in other things. Right. Just your time or volunteering, You know, it doesn't have to be money. It could be your time. It could be volunteering in an event or donating clothes or whatever. So I feel like are we being tight. 

Rich Bennett 6:31
With that part about especially the kids being taught? And I seen this when I was in a lot of advisory board meetings. People would complain that there's nothing for the kids to do. I don't know if a lot of people know this or not, but scouts are still around. Yeah. Scouts teach you to give back. We have our leaders in camps that teaches people to give back the churches. Churches have organizations for the kids ministries and all that. So there are there are things where, you know, kids can join to learn how to give back. It is hard a lot for because both parents are usually working and so involved in stuff, so they can't get their kids into all these things. But even a lot of your rec canceled things like whether it be football, soccer, whatever. Even with that, a lot of the kids are still giving back. Don't volunteer and help out with other things. 

Michelle Hayes 7:29
And even if they're not actively volunteering themselves, they can volunteer with you. And in a lot of situations where my son, who is only 13 right now, but even when he was eight, nine, ten, would volunteer right next to me. I would be the one volunteering and just showing him what I'm doing and talking to him. And he just loves people. He loves to love on people and for his personality. He just loved to be there and he just wanted to be there with me. 

Rich Bennett 7:58
Why hasn't he come and helped set up with for the boys before? 

Michelle Hayes 8:03
I think so, yeah. 

Rich Bennett 8:04
Mm hmm. 

Michelle Hayes 8:05
So just this morning, we have a neighbor who she's beaten cancer. She is on disability right now. She loved her job, but she hasn't been able to work because of cancer and all these other medical issues. And he went and got coffee with her this morning, and it's pumpkin spice day. And she was like, Hey, Ryan, do you want to go get pumpkin spice at me? And so he just texted me a little while ago and said, I got my first pumpkin spice. And she was so happy to have her little buddy go get pumpkin spice with her. And I mean, that's a form of giving back. Yeah, it made her morning. 

Alicia Hamilton 8:39
I think that's a really good point. There's there's the volunteering side where you're intentionally going out to volunteer to meet some of these needs and whatever. But I think you're right. So Wendy, in that what are what's the environment at home? Because there's plenty of homes where either people are living in survival and it's very hard to have that expanded circle. And then there's homes where, you know, maybe there's there's more financial means, there could be more of a potential. But because those parents didn't grow up with that or that, it's just a continual not knowing what you don't know. 

Rich Bennett 9:15
Yeah. 

Alicia Hamilton 9:15
Kind of thing or, you know, just replicating what you may have grown up in childhood without incorporating this. But it comes back to if it's not intentional volunteering, you can still teach kids to be kind and to notice others or to pick up the trash because it's going to, you know, like you're just on a walk and you see a cup and you pick it up and put it in the thing, you know. My I got to brag on my my son just for a second. He's 23 years old and he just came home from Salisbury a couple days ago. And he was telling me that he was on his way out with his buddies one of his last nights in Ocean City. And there was this old couple that broke down on the side of the road, and he stopped to just check on them and they had a they had a leak in their tire or something. And he said, well, you can just call your, you know, triple A and. Right. They didn't have phones. 

Rich Bennett 10:08
No phones. Oh, wow. 

Alicia Hamilton 10:09
So my child went to the store, got a patch for them, and patched this tire for this older couple before they went out. And his friends were like annoyed, like, come on, Brendon. But all he could think about was, you know, one time. 

Rich Bennett 10:23
Stranded. 

Alicia Hamilton 10:24
And he spent some time taking care of of our grandma when she had dementia and just thought about like, I can. And, you know, I just talk about a proud moment but he notices he notices the needs of others. He doesn't actively go out and volunteer, but that to me was so important. And I'm like, yeah, that's that's what it's about. 

Rich Bennett 10:44
Who with Fresh Start Furnishings, What's one of the biggest problems you guys are running into as far as people donating, volunteering or anything? Where are you? Well. 

Alicia Hamilton 10:54
So we definitely need more volunteers right now because so many more donors and clients are reaching out. And we have a unique moving furniture. As in think about what your your first reaction when somebody is like, Hey, will you help me move this weekend? It's not usually a jump, you know, So it's just challenging in that regard. Not everybody can do it. We do need able bodied people. 

But I would say there's kind of two sides. I would say my volunteers, at least the Chevron ones, the people that interact with the people that we're serving sometimes they can be rude or dismissive to volunteer or like kind of have an entitlement attitude or so it's just not the most fulfilling experience for the person serving them. Yeah, few and far between, but it's still, you know, we process the negative way more than we do the positive. It takes a lot more to offset. So that that's a struggle and I don't that disturbs me but there's not a lot of can it just kind of comes with the territory. The other side of it is people, donors getting upset with us when we can't like get to them quickly to pick up their furnishings. And I have to explain, hey, like we're all volunteers, everybody. You know, we have there's one paid staff member right now. We're grassroots. Some organizations have 30 paid staff members. It's gonna make a difference. You know, you, you finding a way to get the furniture that you have to us is a form of volunteering. Even if you only do it one time, you know? So it's just kind of bringing that awareness of like, hey, just because we're a nonprofit doesn't mean we're, you know, like have all these resources to employ all these transportation people. Did you want to donate, you know? 

Rich Bennett 12:38
Yeah, You know, and. 

Alicia Hamilton 12:39
It's not I mean it, but it's just it's yeah. So so I struggle when people are have high expectations and are hard on our volunteers because they don't have to be here. Right. You know. Um, so yeah, I feel, I tend to feel a little protective over that. 

Rich Bennett 12:57
As far as I'm sure you may. Cause you're a new company. Yeah, but you've worked for other companies. Do you know if there is other companies? Keep that. And what I mean by that, I wish he was here. Like with Joe with Tar Heel. Every year never fails. His company gives back, and his 

group, his group, the people that work there are always out doing it, whether it's replacing a roof for a nonprofit, helping out at an event. 

Alicia Hamilton 13:30
He offered to help move some furniture. I'm like you. We get that guys ever have downtime and you want to keep them busy or, you know, whatever. 

Rich Bennett 13:36
Yeah. Which I think is something that more businesses need to do. You don't see all businesses doing it, but if you worked with companies that have actually done that. 

Michelle Hayes 13:48
I had 

way back when I did work for Under Armour. Oh, so they give back in numerous ways all across the country. Yeah, they give back to their people a lot. So they really focus on their actual employees and giving back that way. Right? And they do have numerous charities that they go and you can volunteer their armor day. The whole morning is giving back. It's making teddy bears or, you know, stuffing shoes into boxes for children and things like that. Yeah, 

Honestly, after that, I couldn't tell you. I can tell you that my current company, I work at marketing our first contract was a nonprofit that we delivered, and that was the best feeling in the world. Yeah, that our first on our website thing we could put on there that, hey, we did this was a nonprofit like that was that was amazing. 

Rich Bennett 14:47
I did the nonprofit work. 

Michelle Hayes 14:49
That was free spirit gathering and they just had their gathering a couple of weeks ago. 

Rich Bennett 14:55
Was free. I don't know. 

Michelle Hayes 14:56
It is at Camp Bramble Way, so. 

Rich Bennett 14:59
Oh, okay. 

Michelle Hayes 15:00
Yes, it is a gathering of everyone of every mindset is kind of accepted. They have vendors. It's Why do I say that we're vendors? 

Rich Bennett 15:13
Because it's d0rs. 

Michelle Hayes 15:15
So and I usually have my Invisalign in right over here. Now they're outside the list, so it's from like Tuesday, I think, to Sunday. And we did their entire program for them. They have so many presenters, they have so many things. They have a whole team program the whole week they have fire circles. If you are a practicing pagan, they have all kinds of activities for that. They have drum circles as just. 

Rich Bennett 15:43
A one something for everybody. Yes. Yeah. I want you. 

Michelle Hayes 15:46
To just take that mask off that you wear the rest of the year and just go be in the woods. And personally, I did go I was able to go for one evening. I took a friend of mine and it just it was awesome. Yeah. It was so cool to be there and be so accepted by a community that I had been invited before the festival existed. 

Rich Bennett 16:10
Right. 

Michelle Hayes 16:11
But I hadn't experienced it. And to finally go and really feel that acceptance was really cool. And for a nonprofit to have that, I'm sure you ladies created that in your nonprofit as well. Just it was so cool to be able to go and experience that. Yeah, so we are definitely talking to them and we will be hopefully volunteering with them next year as well. But that's how we give back and we anticipate to be doing more of that in the future. We also make sure that our nonprofits that we are speaking to have really good rates. 

Rich Bennett 16:48
Good rates, good for services. Oh, okay. Gotcha. 

Michelle Hayes 16:52
We we want them to be able to give back to their people as they can. Unfortunately, we have to, you know, pay for advertising to pay for our services. But beyond that, we try to give them the best rate we can right. Just so that they can do as much as they can. 

Rich Bennett 17:12
And with businesses giving back, Alisha and Wendy, for the events that you guys do, have you ever used coals? 

Wendy Beck 17:20
No, I have not. I have not. We tend to have a lot of people in the recovery community that we. 

Rich Bennett 17:26
Injured. 

Wendy Beck 17:26
Here, but I wanted to to add something to to some of that. The point the point that you made, I noticed that people are willing to give back when they have a similar experience that the organization has with their mission. So, you know, if we have people that we have served in some way or another that have lost a loved one, they're willing to give back and donate to show up and volunteer. But their lives change. And whatever our mission is or the other person's mission, you know, with what you do, you might have a family that's really struggling and you furnish their home and they want to give back. But as time goes by, they heal and they get to a place where they might not be, you know, thinking about, you know, addiction before the loss of their loved one, as in the forefront of their mind. So I feel like there's multiple ways to give back. It's to instill that as we grow up and or because we have experienced some kind of trauma or, you know, the mission relates to us in some way that we can, you know, identify with you and so there's there's multiple ways to look at it, and they're all important, honestly. 

Rich Bennett 18:43
Yeah, that's true. And the reason I a bit but with the coast because I know the Coast program in our Lions Club is used in the past I think. And when my sister ran Open Doors Career Center, she used them for some of our events. Those send out people to help, but I think they also I've heard of them. I think they also do need money for like each individual do. And I think there's one more have a similar program. Now I'm. 

Michelle Hayes 19:16
Not sure okay with. 

Rich Bennett 19:18
With the we use schools. 

Michelle Hayes 19:20
Yep. For the worst we use schools. 

Rich Bennett 19:24
Because I mean I do a lot of. 

Alicia Hamilton 19:28
I'm thinking of different my brain is very much bent on recruiting more transport team volunteers and different you know avenues to. 

Rich Bennett 19:35
Yeah. 

Alicia Hamilton 19:35
To do that. 

Rich Bennett 19:36
I know. 

Wendy Beck 19:36
That county employees will do like a give back. Yes. Go to nonprofits and they'll say, hey, what can we do for you? Do you need a room painted? Do you need a garden? Do you need leaves raked or whatever? And that's something that I've seen in the past. We haven't utilized it, but also we don't know. We don't you know, we're not seeking that like, oh, who can help us and volunteer today? So a lot of times you throw this, you know, hey, you know, if you want to volunteer, reach out to us. And I've noticed that a lot of people will help, will reach out because they want to volunteer and then when you tell them what you have for them to do, they don't want to do it, 

which is fine too. But yeah, like I've had people call me and be like, I really want to help. What can I do? And I'll be like, Well, you know, needs. 

Rich Bennett 20:21
Just going to our. 

Wendy Beck 20:22
Ladies need rides. You know, if you have a reliable group and you're interested in giving rides, you know, of course there's going to be parameters and like not it's going to be in the work day and certain hours in certain approved places. And then they're like, Oh, okay. And then you never hear from again. 

Rich Bennett 20:39
Yeah. 

Wendy Beck 20:40
Not only the rides I know is a liability issue when you're having a stranger in your car and that kind of stuff. 

Rich Bennett 20:45
But but that's what we need. But the thing is, it's not just your organization. There are other organizations out there where transportation is a problem. It is definitely about, Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, whether it's like you move the furniture. 

Alicia Hamilton 21:01
Yeah. 

Wendy Beck 21:02
Or getting people to appointments. 

Rich Bennett 21:05
Yeah, I mean, that's a huge, huge problem. And we talked about this. I think it was real life prosthetics I had when we were talking about that, because a lot of the patients can't get there and they're, you know, they're trying to find. Right. So. 

Alicia Hamilton 21:21
I mean, there is there's medical cabs for medical appointments. 

Rich Bennett 21:25
Within half camp. Yeah, but not a lot. Real life prosthetic addictions. You got somebody coming from Baltimore City, Baltimore County, it. 

Alicia Hamilton 21:32
It's not. 

Wendy Beck 21:33
Medicaid. We'll have transportation as well for, you know, their members. But it's not always you know, it's. 

Rich Bennett 21:42
Not as easy. 

Wendy Beck 21:43
To to navigate to get that to happen. 

Rich Bennett 21:46
So, yeah. And I guess I maybe the reasons at least I don't know the nonprofits out there where they'll transport people it maybe it's because of the liability insurance. 

Wendy Beck 21:57
Well you need a vehicle you know we. 

Rich Bennett 21:58
We. 

Wendy Beck 21:59
Actually applied for grants for vehicles and didn't get it but you know, just try to have a vehicle that we can staff and take people to and from things as well. So what we'll do is we'll hire somebody is like a 1099 employee that, you know, can can do it, and then they'll pay us. We'll pay them monthly for, you know, their services for approved locations, rides and stuff like that. But, you know, it's not easy. It's not easy, especially for. 

Rich Bennett 22:28
That. I clean next movement. What's one, we'll start with you, because, you know, Wendy craves the most. 

What's one of the 

what's something that you can remember where you gave back that actually brought tears to your eyes or to the person that you helped? 

Alicia Hamilton 22:49
Oh, boy. Um, 

I was actually stormy. I was the first first person that I thought of. So I used to prior to the nonprofit and, you know, fresh start stuff and that I worked at Area of Child and Family Ministries. 

Rich Bennett 23:13
I mean, I did. 

Alicia Hamilton 23:13
Yeah, I did. I was a residential counselor there. I was an adult student at Towson University. Family and Human Services got an internship there. And then I was employed there. And I love that population. There's a group home on 543 for Foster youth. 13 to 29 people drive by it all the time, and nobody knows that it's that it's there, that these girls are there. And there's 18 total. There's 12 that live in this. Oh, there's homes in Foster and bigger than the dorm, the two level building that they live in. And you've got 12 girls on one level and they all have trauma. They've all been removed from their homes. They've all got their their mental health stuff or whatever. And they're like, I mean, the hallway is like this big, you know, across from. So it's just it's an interesting environment. But I love that population of people. And I just wanted to help these teenage girls may not make some of the mistakes I did. Well, there's this one Stormy Girl name Stormy, and she got 18 years old. She's like, I'm out of here. And she was very headstrong and whatever and just really reminded me of myself and saw a lot of potential in her. And she got an apartment and an independent living program through foster care, and it took her back out to Frederick. Well, she sent me pictures of her, her place. She was out. You know, I probably should had my cell number. But it it you know, you create these relationships and Miss Alisha, I got my place. I'm so excited. And she sent me these. 

Michelle Hayes 24:50
Pictures. 

Alicia Hamilton 24:52
Of her apartment, and she had a twin mattress on the bed or on the floor. No sheets, no anything, nothing in any of the other rooms except her closet like that had. 

Rich Bennett 25:05
Yeah. 

Alicia Hamilton 25:06
You know, And I'm like, how are you going to get your things and, you know, all the stuff that you need? And she said, well, they gave me a $300 gift card to Wal-Mart. And I'm like, this girl still, you know, in high school trying to finish up school. I just left. The foster care program, doesn't have any real life support. And I'm like, oh, my gosh. So? So I reach out to my CrossFit community at the time and I was just like, you know, I really wanna help this girl. Do you guys have anything? A week and a half later, I ended up taking a truckload of stuff. 

Rich Bennett 25:38
Out to her a while. 

Alicia Hamilton 25:39
And helped her get all you know, set up and things well, you know, dropped off and went out like, I guess maybe two months later for her high school graduation, she invited me to come out for that. And when I went to see her place after that, it was just she she she was in her gown and she was like, sit down. And I just. 

Rich Bennett 26:02
Yeah. 

Alicia Hamilton 26:03
I mean, it changed. It was it was a life changing moment for me because from that, you know, fresh furniture. 

Rich Bennett 26:09
Is. 

Alicia Hamilton 26:10
So it just showed me how. 

Rich Bennett 26:13
Much. 

Alicia Hamilton 26:14
Impact these these items that we don't pay attention. 

Rich Bennett 26:17
To at all ever has to make a big difference. 

Alicia Hamilton 26:21
Yeah, Yeah. Until you've been in a space and you're like, oh my God, it's empty. So I just kind. 

Rich Bennett 26:27
Of took all this stuff for it. Doesn't feel like I do. 

Wendy Beck 26:29
Yeah, like our stuff is is what makes it home. Yeah. You know, I mean, of course your people that you live with in your family and stuff like that, but you know, just in a in a same situation when you live with someone else for a while and you're not in your own environment where you're not nesting, right. And then you get the opportunity to nest, it's like, Oh, this is my place, this is my space. 

Alicia Hamilton 26:50
Yeah, it's so much more than just like, stuff. It's, it's physical wellbeing, it's mental well-being. It's, it's social wellbeing. It's, you know, it's, it's really, it's really a lot if you take it, if you take that sense of home away from people in the form of stuff, it, it really impacts their ability to how you feel about yourself, you know, moving forward. Like that's going to be a primary goal, you know, working, you know, maybe your transportation back and forth, certain things. And also I need to furnish my house because I can't just. 

Rich Bennett 27:18
When I come. 

Wendy Beck 27:19
Home, I want to feel like I'm in a space that I Yeah, yeah, I. Sanctuary. 

Alicia Hamilton 27:23
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 27:24
Michelle, do you have one? 

Yeah, Yeah, yeah. 

Michelle Hayes 27:30
No, it's going to make me cry. 

Rich Bennett 27:32
That's okay. 

Michelle Hayes 27:33
Okay. 

Rich Bennett 27:33
So 

people are allowed to cry on the podcast. 

Michelle Hayes 27:39
But I know my mom's going to listen to it and she's going to cry. 

Rich Bennett 27:42
Okay. 

Michelle Hayes 27:43
Okay. So I was lucky enough to have my biological father in my life and my step dad that my mom found when I was 33. I think his mom married him. 

Rich Bennett 27:53
We're in hell. 

Michelle Hayes 27:54
I think I was three. 

Rich Bennett 27:55
Oh, I thought you said 33. Okay, three. Now I think those are two or three off. 

Michelle Hayes 28:02
Yeah, No, I was a little one. Okay. And unfortunately, 12 years ago, I believe it is now, 12 years ago he died. He had battled cancer 

and he had gone through kidney failure, liver failure with cancer. He had actually flown out to Louisville, Kentucky, because I was in Bible Bowl, which is really odd to talk about it as an adult. But basically, you had one person that asked these teams of children questions about the Bible and if you got it right, you got a point. And the one with the most points at the end of the round wins. 

Wendy Beck 28:43
Like Geoffrey kind of. 

Rich Bennett 28:45
Guy. 

Michelle Hayes 28:46
But it was on the flash cards and it was really weird. But he was £98. We went out to Louisville when I was about nine because my sister was little. So 

he before he died, he really liked to give back. He took me. I started to, I think, but he took me to a soup kitchen and every Tuesday at lunchtime we went to a soup kitchen and we would serve the homeless at the church. And every time we drive past that church and have a grace and every time we drove past that church. Now I think my dad 

and I have wonderful memories of my biological father. He's been in my life since forever. But giving back makes me think of Brad. 

Rich Bennett 29:32
Yeah. 

Michelle Hayes 29:33
And then my second memory and is the one that's going to make me cry when he died because of the liver failure, kidney failure, ulcerative colitis and cancer 

is all of his organs started failing. But the one thing that they could harvest from him was his corneas. So because my dad died, someone else got to see. 

Rich Bennett 29:56
Wow. 

Michelle Hayes 29:58
And so I feel like that's the the ultimate like give back. 

Rich Bennett 30:02
Mm. Yeah. 

Michelle Hayes 30:04
Is even when he was gone, even when he couldn't, he couldn't use me, he knew that. 

And so his is thing was always be a servant leader and so that was like the ultimate servant thing to do. 

Rich Bennett 30:19
Yeah. 

Michelle Hayes 30:19
Give back what you came. Wow. So his last thing was to give back what he could, which was his eyes. Hey, you're pretty good at time. 

Rich Bennett 30:29
Why are you looking at me like that? When I'm not? I'm that. Yeah. 

Alicia Hamilton 30:33
Really? I'm an organ donor. 

Michelle Hayes 30:35
That is my. 

Wendy Beck 30:35
Dad. My dad was an organ donor, and he gave its organs as well. So that's. 

Michelle Hayes 30:40
Yeah, that's the only time I've actually, like in my head, the only time I've actually periodically like, wanted to punch people is when they're like, why would I be an organ donor? I'm like, Because you you should be an organ donor, but you're not using it. And he died number one on the donation list, which just gets under my skin. Because if you had donated like, who knows? 

Rich Bennett 31:04
Yeah. 

Michelle Hayes 31:05
And one more person had donated, he died number one on the national donate list for kidneys and liver. So who knows what could have happened but didn't. 

Rich Bennett 31:15
And there's a difference between being an organ donor and donating your body to say yes, okay. 

Michelle Hayes 31:20
Organ donor means that you're going to donate your organs to someone who is living, who can donate your body to science means it's going to be used by medical students or scientists to learn about the human body. And it could create new drugs to help cancer. You might teach, you know, the next brain surgeon. You never know what that's going to be used for, which is, again, great. Yeah. And like, please teach the next round of doctors and, you know, all the medical professionals, they need that too. But organ donation and donating it to science can happen. They can both happen, right? 

Rich Bennett 32:01
Same time. 

Michelle Hayes 32:02
Right? They can harvest your organs and then they can dissect what could be harvested. Right. Because there's a very small time frame. 

Alicia Hamilton 32:08
That word just doesn't help their cause. 

Rich Bennett 32:10
Yeah. 

Wendy Beck 32:11
What is the ultimate? Give me an like you you're you're you're kind of giving yourself for a greater good. 

Michelle Hayes 32:19
And I mean the thought of just my organs decaying in a box or being set on fire to be cremated just weirds me out. Like it just weirds me out. Like I could save a life. I could save multiple lives. Yeah. With my healthy organs. I mean, I'm in my thirties. I drink, I enjoy a cigar every now and then in remembrance of my dad because he liked a margarita in a cigar on the 4th of July. Every year, no matter what was going on medically. That is what he enjoyed with my grandmother every year. 

Rich Bennett 32:46
And Cigar and Margarita together. Da and. 

Michelle Hayes 32:49
Margarita. So those two together, I have once a year on 4th of July, like that's just my little thing with him. It's great. 

Rich Bennett 32:56
All right. Okay. I was going to say, I have to ask, how is that? But apparently it works. Okay. Really good. Tequila. Okay. Because I'm going bourbon. I've done but never. 

Michelle Hayes 33:08
Or white whiskey works in the margarita. 

Rich Bennett 33:13
I've done whiskey. Oh, yeah. What is white whiskey? 

Michelle Hayes 33:16
What? It sounds like it's clear whiskey. 

Rich Bennett 33:20
Not Everclear. 

Michelle Hayes 33:21
Not moonshine or white rum. 

Rich Bennett 33:23
White rock. Oh, what your. Okay, Don't mess with my head like that. Sorry. What? Drunk 

I will throw me away with. Is that corn whiskey? What is in that moonshine? 

Michelle Hayes 33:38
I don't know. 

Rich Bennett 33:39
I don't know. Will. Yeah. 

Michelle Hayes 33:42
But it's just. Yeah, no, just Johnny, you're not using it. They're not going to try. A lot of people think if you're in a car accident and they say you're an organ donor, they're not going to try to save your life. If anything, they're going to try harder to save your life. 

Wendy Beck 33:56
Right? There's a very small window of opportunity when it happens. So, you know, it's not going to be everyone that even if you are an organ donor, it doesn't mean that it necessarily works. 

Michelle Hayes 34:08
Right. And they're going to try harder to keep your body going to the harvest. The. 

Rich Bennett 34:12
Mm. There you go to. Yes. I don't have to lie to you. 

Wendy Beck 34:20
I don't have a story for myself personally about giving back that I but I think one of the most generous donations that range ever received and it was shocking to me, we had a resident that left and, you know, she it's time for her to move out and she moved out and she contacted me and she said that I do I have a donation for you. And I said, okay, great. So she she came to where it was at one of the houses, and she gave me an envelope and I was like, Thank you. And I like I peeked in it and I think it was just like spur of the moment. I looked in and I was like all thank you so much. And I it didn't even register with me like how much it was. And I gave her a hug and said, Thank you so much and did it it and I laughed. And like something like, like 

kind of like said, wait a minute, you need to look at that again. So here I am. I'm like driving down the road like, she was probably like, just like, okay. So I opened the envelope and I looked at it and she donated $10,000. 

Rich Bennett 35:29
Wow. To FedEx. 

Wendy Beck 35:32
And I was like, and I like literally, like, I like, called her immediately. And I was like, Oh my God. I said, I'm sorry. I like, I just those zeros did not register like. And she's like, That's okay. She said, I inherited some money from my mom, and I prayed on it. I wanted to give this back. And because you guys, you know, the program really helped and saved me in so many ways. And I was just like, wow. That to me was like a defining moment about how much a nonprofit, like you said, like with with your your, your girl's story. Yeah. Like, you know, she will probably take that and use it in some way to help other people one day. And that's that's what I saw. I was like, wow. Personally, for me, like starting a nonprofit at the time, I was working full time as a paralegal. I have career for 23 years as a bankruptcy paralegal, you know, And when I had a loved one that was struggling, I needed to figure out how could I give back? And so I went through that, went that route to create that organization that could do that. And we're ten years old now. But for the first, I've only been, what, three years with Rage as an employee. So seven years of my life I was working two full time jobs to make it happen. 

Alicia Hamilton 36:58
And so now I equate the amount of time. But yeah, like, you know. 

Wendy Beck 37:01
And then finally I even talked to Rich and I was like, I need to trans transitioned over. I'm I'm either going to like, burn out or we're just not going to get any farther. So he was a really big encourager. He's like, just do it. Just do it. You'll you'll make it happen. And I was like, Oh. 

Rich Bennett 37:17
But now I want to go figure out to work that because otherwise I'd be getting yelled at. 

Wendy Beck 37:25
It's to support myself. You know, I. 

Rich Bennett 37:27
Have. 

Wendy Beck 37:27
A career of 23 years and you decide to just like say, okay, I'm going to go, I'm going to go for it. That That's a lot. 

Rich Bennett 37:36
When you meet somebody. I told you the say thing. When you meet somebody, or at least when I meet somebody, a lot of times I can sense that they have a strong will to do something and I know they can succeed at it. And when I met Wendy, I knew that I had tried, you know, I had no problem saying, you need leave. 

Wendy Beck 37:54
I'm terrified every day. Are you do you wake up and say, oh, how am I doing this? 

Rich Bennett 37:59
I mean. 

Alicia Hamilton 37:59
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 38:00
Yeah, you should. Yeah. 

Alicia Hamilton 38:02
Well, and so an interesting thing that's a personal experience that I've had is that I came from, you know, a working class family and middle class family. My grandmother was a nurse, gave her life to people, but there wasn't I didn't grow up with the sense of like, giving back sort of thing. I think 

I anyway, I've never lived in an environment where giving back there was a lot of financial give back at all. 

Rich Bennett 38:34
Yeah. 

Alicia Hamilton 38:34
And, and we just didn't have the means for that. And I've never kind of had that in my life. So from a because we're talking about a lot of time and talent give back sort of thing, but when it comes to finances and financial donors, it's for me I find it very challenging. I didn't I started the nonprofit with heart. I didn't start it, you know, with a bunch of resources and network and knowledge and all of those sorts of things. And because I've never been able to write a ten grand check to somebody or to whatever, it's not that I wouldn't like to do that. I've just never had the capacity. I find it hard to connect with and be a development person. And when you start a nonprofit, you have to be you have to do the development stuff. And I'm like, I don't know how to communicate with this language. I don't know. It's just an area where I personally struggle. 

Rich Bennett 39:29
What do you mean? They ask you for things, but there's. 

Wendy Beck 39:31
A large there's a large responsibility of networking involved. Is that what you're talking about? 

Rich Bennett 39:37
Yeah, like I'm. 

Alicia Hamilton 39:37
Good with relationships, but I'm not. I don't. 

Rich Bennett 39:40
Ask. 

Alicia Hamilton 39:41
Yeah, and some people just are so naturally. Well, why wouldn't they want to give back to do this and this and this and this? I'm like, I get what you're saying, but I'm just so I. 

Rich Bennett 39:49
Know. 

Alicia Hamilton 39:49
I am the operational part. It's not. 

Rich Bennett 39:52
I understand. 

Alicia Hamilton 39:53
I feel like I have great skills. We're a great. 

Rich Bennett 39:55
Person. 

Alicia Hamilton 39:56
To be honest. I started a lot. 

Rich Bennett 39:58
Of people a lot of people are afraid. I'm going to say a lot of people are afraid to ask for the big money. I say, Right. And I go through this with the Lions Club, which events we do. You know, they're like, No, you can't. $50 is too. 

Wendy Beck 40:16
I tell me about. 

Rich Bennett 40:17
It. Right. And it's. 

Wendy Beck 40:18
Like I just went through. 

Rich Bennett 40:19
That. 

Wendy Beck 40:20
With the baseball tickets. Someone donated front row baseball tickets, right? 

Rich Bennett 40:25
Mhm. 

Wendy Beck 40:26
And I had this little powwow with my, you know, board of directors and like I was like, all right, a ticket for tickets with a free parking pass to an Orioles game front. And I mean it was the best seats you could possibly have and I'm like $100 a ticket should be, you know what? And then like I sold five that's literally sold five. And then I get like this pushback afterwards. Well, I was talking to people and they just think that that was too much. And I was like, I guess it all depends on your audience. You know, when you have somebody who's like, Yeah, that would be a real I would love to donate, first of all. Right. And then I'm going to get this because I really see the value in it. That's where you do. They want to donate and do they see value in what you're doing? MM And that's the hard part because what I give for baseball tickets, $100 now. But if I was going to like get like a big giant basket of cooking stuff, I'd be like, Yeah, yeah. You know, And it all depends on your, your interest level. 

Rich Bennett 41:26
But even in selling those tickets at the price you did, you still made money. 

Wendy Beck 41:30
We did. 

Rich Bennett 41:31
See. Yeah. I mean that's. 

Wendy Beck 41:31
Exactly. 

Rich Bennett 41:32
That's the thing. And I mean 

like I said we, I fought tooth and nail about this because you know, why me? These are like, Oh, no, that's too much. It's too much. No, it ain't. And I learned that with Harper Canning Living, even though Harper County living is not non profit. If of course you got to build value and give them what you know. So was value to them. But I think it's it's if you don't ask you don't know. 

Wendy Beck 42:04
What's the quote you miss 100% of the goals you don't shoot. 

Rich Bennett 42:08
For. Yeah yeah anything is if you're doing an event 

I think you and I may have talked about is this different sponsorship levels for events have that $25,000 it's. 

Wendy Beck 42:22
Intimidating you know you're like no one's ever going to give us that. 

Alicia Hamilton 42:26
But yeah, but, but that's the thing. Like that's a false thing to, to, to think or to believe because people do it and people do it all the time, right? That's where I think my own lived experience kind of gets in the way because now we're like, I'm like, I can't relate to I. 

Rich Bennett 42:40
Don't even know. 

Alicia Hamilton 42:41
How to kind of like, conversate with you about that. And I've had one of our supporters say, you know, I can have these more candid conversations that are like, you were giving them an opportunity to give back like you're that that's what you're doing. And it's it's so it's the frame and I know that but I get I it's just it's learning a different language to me. So I'll just you know, if you are somebody that's listening that does have the financial means, I know it's nice to be asked, but just recognize some of the the ground workers and the what it's, you know. 

Wendy Beck 43:18
Hard to ask or you might not know. 

Rich Bennett 43:19
Yet when they do ask. 

Alicia Hamilton 43:20
Yeah. Or we might be coming from a different you know, lived experience to even know what that feels like you to understand what what the value is that we're really giving to you. 

Rich Bennett 43:32
So just feel free to write the check. And I think I think what a lot of organizations are missing the boat on this. And I don't think you to do it, but if you. 

Alicia Hamilton 43:46
Do, I it's not. 

Rich Bennett 43:47
Yeah but if you get those if you give those or get through sponsors you know, that are donating all this money, 

you in turn should be giving back to them as well, using their business, recommending their business and so forth. Because if you do that, they're going to be loyal and they're going to keep coming back. And I think a lot of organizations miss out on that. If 

I'm going to use Joe again, your Tar Heel, they sponsor a lot of events. People go back in, they use them. If you don't need a roof, you can still recommend them. You know, and I think that's another way you give back. So giving back works both ways. 

Alicia Hamilton 44:30
Well, that's just related to businesses, though. Like, you know, there there are there are plenty of donors 

who do well, people that have that have financial means that aren't businesses that don't want any sort of acknowledgment like that at all. 

Rich Bennett 44:45
Right. 

Alicia Hamilton 44:46
You know, wouldn't you wouldn't know him from Adam walking down the street. But they really care about an issue or something and want to make an impact and are happy to you know Right. It there's just a different sort. 

Rich Bennett 45:00
Of would you give would you recommend all the time and boojum. Yeah I guess he helps you guys any time. 

Michelle Hayes 45:06
Yeah yeah. One I remember when you said you do a fundraiser and you send out t shirts, right? And that, that little acknowledgement that is little to anyone but that small token of acknowledgement of that gift. Yes, definitely makes a difference. 

Wendy Beck 45:23
Yeah. A sticker or, you know, what is the even like the Audubon Society, You know, you get the stickers that that the birds or that the trees or the. 

Rich Bennett 45:33
Oh I know got. 

Wendy Beck 45:34
Here. 

Rich Bennett 45:35
I know it's coming in the mail. I know like almost like the world. 

Wendy Beck 45:40
With the calendar and stuff. And then you're kind of like, Oh, I got a calendar. I'm going to send a five bucks or ten or whatever. 

Rich Bennett 45:46
We put in. 

Alicia Hamilton 45:46
That's the same. 

Rich Bennett 45:48
Thing. 

Alicia Hamilton 45:48
It's got a it's got a prayer list on the front, our guiding verse and on the back, a prayer for our families. So you can put your list of people and, you know, but it's just a bookmark. 

Michelle Hayes 45:58
Little Yeah, but it's. 

Rich Bennett 45:59
Not a give back. It's. 

Michelle Hayes 46:01
It's like something tangible that they gave you gave them something back. It doesn't always have to be that give back loop. Sometimes that loop looks like something they can hold or a sticker they can put on their. Stanley Right. Or like the Ramble Festival or it's something they can put in their purse like a chapstick. I saw a chapstick once and it was like my favorite thing ever. 

Wendy Beck 46:23
We did that one time. It was. 

Michelle Hayes 46:25
Yeah, the dentist did it all right. Just for being a client. They just gave him chapstick because, you know, you're let's get well. 

Wendy Beck 46:32
Michelle, you know, that's marketing. Yeah. I mean, if we don't if we don't do stuff like that, then people are not. 

Rich Bennett 46:38
Going to use your name and. 

Alicia Hamilton 46:39
Bring it full circle. Oh, we don't want our donor dollars going to things like that. We want it to go to directly to the people you're serving. 

Wendy Beck 46:47
But I look, I'm going to I'm going to give you a little run for your money on. 

Rich Bennett 46:52
This one. 

Wendy Beck 46:53
Because 

it all goes to the people. If we can't do what we're doing, if we can't do what we're doing. So if we can't buy stamps and ink for the printers and paper and. 

Rich Bennett 47:08
All of those things. 

Wendy Beck 47:09
We can't we can't do this. We have to walk away, you know, go back to a 23 year career or or find a new career path. So I think people are misguided when they say that, oh, well, where does the money go? I'm like, okay, well, how do you know? How does your business run? Like if you're not working for free? So how can you expect a nonprofit to do the same? Nonprofit. 

Rich Bennett 47:31
Nonprofit is a business. 

Wendy Beck 47:33
It is a business. And it's a tough business because, you know, people we're competing for grants and they're just not out there right now. There's donations that are needed to make everything run and people don't have the funds to do it. So, you know, we're like on a shoestring budget to try to make things happen. And when someone comes and says, oh, well, where does this money go? You're like, Really? What? So my shoes one day and you can see what, you know, the time. I mean, you're rich, you you're, you're on the same page. And in your business, we're like texting each other or Facebook messaging at like 6:00 in the morning. His little lights on when I'm like, I'm Facebook. You know what I mean? Because we're dedicated in wakes me up. 

Rich Bennett 48:22
I was hearing I was like, go off. 

Wendy Beck 48:24
Well, there you go. 

Rich Bennett 48:26
It was. 

Michelle Hayes 48:26
Always me. 

Wendy Beck 48:27
But it's like, you know, you put your heart and soul like you said it was. It was your heart that made it happen. And we don't have widgets to sell. We're not like, oh, we sell 13 boxes of widgets. We're going to get, you know, X amount of dollars. We've got people coming in that basically they have the clothes that they're wearing. They don't have any money for food. You know, we're we're relying on other organizations to fund them. And that funding has has taken a backseat. We're worried about, you know, trying to get certified from the state in order to get state funding. But guess what? We're at one their time limit or whether or not they're going to respond. And did we fill out something wrong like it's a lot. 

Alicia Hamilton 49:08
Well, yeah. When are you going to nag the nonprofit advisory group? 

Wendy Beck 49:12
No, I didn't know about it. 

Alicia Hamilton 49:14
So. Oh, I'm trying to help you do that. 

Rich Bennett 49:17
Because they market. Okay. You know. 

Wendy Beck 49:20
I never heard of a. 

Alicia Hamilton 49:22
Nonprofit advisory group. Yeah, okay. But we're so I'm going to panel with Monica Warrell, Megan Reader and Brian. I'm with accountant basically financial panel and to talk about basically I get to sort of say all the things I didn't know about profit accounting. Let me just like, you know, on the, on the front end people write a check and get back on the back. And non profit accounting is horrendous. Like you just have to have a budget that's that's broken down in so many different ways and are so many different buckets And oh, the state versus the charity campaign wants you to be running 25% overhead and 75% program. MM So overhead is salaries, by the way. It's like it just, you know it and rent and those sorts of things and, and I, I understand it but it is not if you were to try to take that model and put it in a in a for profit, they wouldn't want to know right now. And so yeah, it can be it can be challenging with when some is like is it going directly to the clients. Well it also has to go to the overhead. The cover that I have over the mattresses, if you. 

Rich Bennett 50:38
Want to go to the client. 

Alicia Hamilton 50:39
You know, I mean. Yes. And we need to turn the lights on and, you know. Yeah. 

Wendy Beck 50:44
And program expenses can come in a lot of different ways. Yeah. Program expense. Well, you have to play like this. Yeah. Like which phone go. I put this in. Yeah I got it. I totally get it and it's hard. 

Rich Bennett 50:55
Do you feel like a lot of organizations get too comfortable from receiving grants a lot and then stop asking the public for donations? 

Wendy Beck 51:06
I mean, I don't know. But I know recently that there has been other nonprofits within our own community that were running on grants, and then those grants have gone away and the organization is no longer able to provide their services and their programs. And that is going to result in people losing jobs. And I mean, it's a very relevant thing that has happened. You know, someone has mentioned to me within this past 24 hours and, you know, what do you need? Donations. But donations alone are not going to cut it. No. I mean, Ridge was very lucky because when we started up ten years ago, the opioid epidemic was like all over the place. There were signs in front of the sheriff's office. It was like, you know, there was the 

opioid, you know, state of Maryland Council or whatever you want to call it. And everybody was paying attention. Everybody was paying attention. And all of a sudden, slowly the signs started coming down and people aren't thinking about it anymore. And the people that were involved at that time, you know, like I said before, their lives have changed, even though they had lost someone. Now that they, you know, they have grandchildren and they have a new career path or they moved away. And so the donation bucket is thinning out. And also they don't know that this is still a problem and people are dying still and they're dying at 200 and some a day versus 190 or 150 ten years ago. So it's not going away, but it's not in their face. So they don't know. Right. And so, you know, and with us, you know, there's the stigma. Why should we help them? You know, like, you know, they want to help kitty cats and the Humane Society and like, oh, do you have any kids programs? Because we want to donate to kids. You know, there's been specific people that have given us donations and they they want to dictate what it goes to. And I'm like, okay, well, it all goes to the programs in some way, shape or form, right? And I and I don't know if you can really. 

Alicia Hamilton 53:09
Well with the with the grants, again, we I think grants are helpful to get nonprofits off the ground, but it is necessary to 

cultivate that that donor base and and there's individual donors but the we actually have a twofold mission. The second part of our mission is to be sustainable, become a sustainable nonprofit through social enterprise. I've from day one, it's been like I do not want to rely solely and that's been another. You still have to have and utilize the traditional fundraising model, which I'm just not. It's not my skill set. So I don't. 

Wendy Beck 53:47
I get. 

Alicia Hamilton 53:47
It. I'm like, what businesses can we start that make us earn money, you know? Or how can I mean, they're certain there's you got to understand there's certain nonprofits like YMCA perfect example they have memberships. The memberships pay for a lot of the overhead, you know, Habitat for Humanity restore that is a that is a store that is selling items and bringing in a profit to go to the nonprofit. You know, it's there's models out there I have. 

Wendy Beck 54:17
Services was a little bit harder. 

Rich Bennett 54:19
That's for the Lions Club service we are Lions clubs are not nonprofits. Okay Now Lions Club International is okay and we are a service organization. We run into problems because it's it's not volunteers. You have pay to be a member. Technically, you're supposed and you can't ask to join. You have to be asked to join. But I think the problem is now it's people. People have no problem volunteering, but people don't want to pay to be a member of a service organization. And one of the things, because where we struggle is 

anything that goes into the club, that money has to come from the membership, which is your membership. Any money that comes in from the community donations, it all has to go back out to the community. So that's and there is, you know, we have no staff. International does what we do. And it is hard. I mean we because our year's fiscal year starts July 1st, our dues are annually and we had to raise our dues because international district did 

it. When I let other members know that we went I think from 20 members, we're down to nine members now. I worry about it. I mean, when I took over as president, 

oh God, seven years ago. Yes, that can be never, ever long ago. It was a lot of the older people in the club got mad because they didn't like the direction I was going. So they left and we were down to four members and I built it back up to 20. But you know, Lions Clubs are like that. It goes up and down. Worst. Our biggest problem we're having right now is our youth clubs, our little clubs, our kids from the ages of 12 to 18 and we had several clubs in the district, which is Baltimore County, Harford County, and we've Carol County, we're down to one club and that's our IT down and we're trying to rebuild that. It's just I blame the schools on that because kids need a certain amount of community service hours to graduate. I think it's only 75 that's required and they can do it in school. 

Alicia Hamilton 56:52
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 56:53
And so they're not getting that help in the public. 

Wendy Beck 56:56
I have had people reach out to me from, you know, students and they showed up at the wrong and stuff like that. So that was. 

Rich Bennett 57:04
Oh, we did, yeah. You know, not Girl Scouts will help us with our Luminaire project a lot. Yeah. 

Wendy Beck 57:12
So how do we get people how do we get people to recognize that giving back is essential not only for nonprofits but for the community as well? 

Rich Bennett 57:22
It's 

advertised. Advertised, advertised. Now, when I say that, like with social, I got it made. Our club is not good at that. But when you do it, you guys do. You do it When you do something, put it on social media, 

get it like here, get our own podcast, talk about it. It doesn't have to be a local package. You can go everywhere. The thing is spreading the word because a lot of these people that don't want to help you out, they're going to need something. And then when the time comes, a lot of times they feel like, Oh, they ask for my help and I didn't help them. I can't go to them, you know? But I think the main thing is just getting the word out there. A lot of people feel like they'll never find it. Like with addiction, you know, a lot of people say, well. 

Wendy Beck 58:23
Hey, I don't know anybody. 

Rich Bennett 58:24
I don't know anybody. I guarantee you everybody knows somebody. 

Wendy Beck 58:27
They do. 

Michelle Hayes 58:28
Statistically, they have. 

Rich Bennett 58:29
Yeah. 

Michelle Hayes 58:30
I mean, they do. You look at your family, the person who is probably least likely and least has the personality for it is probably the one you should worry about. Mm. I mean when you, you are around everyone and I'm sure the people you serve, some of them said it, it would never be me, it would not be the ones that didn't get worried about and those are the ones we need to worry about. Everyone. 

Rich Bennett 58:56
Yeah. Yeah. 

Alicia Hamilton 58:58
I know. I think that's making a good point. It is a an awareness in general. It's easier said than done, but awareness in general. I know in Harford County I can only speak to their stats here, but there's 90,000 people that are living paycheck to paycheck. Our population is around 260,000. So that's a third. That's an entire third of our county that is struggling. And when I like, I wondered what day, what the total dollar amount is that goes into human and social services in the county. Like the actual that like if you add up the county dollars, all the foundation dollars, all the donor dollars, that is a ginormous budget. 

Rich Bennett 59:45
It's just so much money. 

Alicia Hamilton 59:47
I don't even I don't have a number. I know it's a lot. What would you do? You have to get like. 

Rich Bennett 59:53
I don't know. 

Alicia Hamilton 59:54
I it's close to billion. I have no idea. Like, it's maybe not that much. 

Rich Bennett 59:59
It's a lot, but a hundred. 

Alicia Hamilton 1:00:01
Million. 

Rich Bennett 1:00:02
I would like you said, where the hard part, getting the donations, getting people to help out. There's one over 700, I think nonprofits in Harford County alone, you know, So they're all trying to get that money. A lot of them. 

Alicia Hamilton 1:00:16
Are Churches don't know it's. 

Rich Bennett 1:00:17
True. Yeah, but but or ministries within the churches and all that. So but just from the other thing, too, those of you listening, this is very important. 

Before you donate to a nonprofit, do your research, because I've seen magazines feature a nonprofit and that nonprofit has never been registered. Okay. 

Wendy Beck 1:00:44
I see. Like a maryland charity or something. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 1:00:46
I yeah, Charity Navigator and Maryland State charity thing. 

And it's it doesn't take I mean took you and me How long did it take you to become a 523. 

Wendy Beck 1:01:00
Well I applied for it in 2014. Right. So like what do you mean by. 

Rich Bennett 1:01:05
How, how long before you actually became an official. 523. From the day you filled out paperwork. 

Wendy Beck 1:01:10
In back ten years ago? It didn't take. 

Michelle Hayes 1:01:13
Me very long. 

Rich Bennett 1:01:14
I know it was. 

Alicia Hamilton 1:01:15
It takes a long time to get the paperwork. If you're not taking it to an attorney. 

Rich Bennett 1:01:18
Like we had of it. 

Wendy Beck 1:01:19
Did I work around for quite a bit, you know, And at the time I would like I said, I was a paralegal, so I would take it to each of the attorneys in my office and be like, answer this question. And then they would tell me and then I would, you know, like, go. 

Rich Bennett 1:01:32
To the next. 

Wendy Beck 1:01:33
One for the next question. Yeah, it didn't take that long. I mean. 

Rich Bennett 1:01:37
It sure didn't take over a year. 

Wendy Beck 1:01:38
No, no, no, no, no. It took me it took me time to to prepare the document. But that was just because I needed to do my research and make sure that it was done once I submitted it. I don't think it was longer than a month at that time. 

Rich Bennett 1:01:51
And the reason I bring that point up is because, you know, Half Canada, I featured nonprofit of the week and there is one I wanted to feature, but it wasn't showing up on Maryland State yet. It was still under action. I don't think this is pending yet. I don't figure was on there. And I contacted the person and they said, Well, yeah, we submitted our paperwork. They said it could take up to a year or a year or more. 

Wendy Beck 1:02:18
I do know people that have tried for their nonprofit status and they kept getting it like kickback and stuff like that. And I don't really know the ins and outs of why, but yeah, I mean, it can be a complicated process, but it also doesn't have to be that. 

Rich Bennett 1:02:33
But the other thing is to your until the state approves it, you're not allowed to accept their nations. This person said, well. 

Alicia Hamilton 1:02:42
You can you can you can accept money, but it has to be under the like. This is not a tax write off for you. Do not give you a receipt. You can you can give me money. 

Rich Bennett 1:02:53
Yeah, you can. You. 

Alicia Hamilton 1:02:53
But I can't give you a receipt. Maybe not. 

Rich Bennett 1:02:56
But if you're donating to 

a501c3. 

Alicia Hamilton 1:02:59
Mm. 

Rich Bennett 1:03:00
That is, that's full of advertisement. 

Wendy Beck 1:03:02
If they don't have their five. 

Rich Bennett 1:03:04
Exactly. That was my point because they've give me money. 

Alicia Hamilton 1:03:08
That's what seed money usually. Yeah. It's the money to get that right. You know. 

Rich Bennett 1:03:13
But I mean definitely do your research because I've seen too many people get burnt. Speaking of which, 

Michelle, I want you to talk about this. So a lot of people will do the fundraisers through Facebook. Which Facebook is was affiliated with network for Good. That change or is changing? It did change. It did change. Explain everybody why they don't want to do that anymore. 

Michelle Hayes 1:03:46
So just just kind of the facts, because I do not want to get hit with defamation. 

The problem right now is Facebook has gone to the People Giving fund. If you have noticed, if you do any type of fundraising on Facebook, if you're a nonprofit, you are prompted to register with PayPal, getting fined. If you did not do that, it's bad. 

Rich Bennett 1:04:14
If you. 

Wendy Beck 1:04:14
Did it. If you didn't do that, then you no longer get fun. 

Michelle Hayes 1:04:17
Then you put through a fundraiser. 

Wendy Beck 1:04:19
Yeah. So you were kind of forced to do it. 

Michelle Hayes 1:04:20
Yeah, exactly. If you are running a fundraiser through Facebook, it had to go through the PayPal Giving fund. 

Basically what their donation delivery policy state is. They have the power, meaning PayPal giving fund because it is its own 501c3 which a lot of people don't know is it's a its own nonprofit in and of itself. 

Rich Bennett 1:04:48
So I know that's a. 

Alicia Hamilton 1:04:50
That's a lovely tax write off for, isn't it. It used to use our software and our our equipment, but just use it under our nonprofit umbrella so we can write it off. 

Michelle Hayes 1:04:59
So you as like say, I wanted to donate to you. I would put in PayPal or put in Facebook. I want to do like my birthday fundraiser. I wanted to donate to you for that. Mean, my friends, we will donate through Facebook. Cool. The fine print says we're donating to PayPal giving fund to be distributed to you. 

Then 

PayPal Giving Fund has the right to ultimately award the funds to the nonprofit of your choice or not. 

Which is blows my mind. It really blows my mind. And Wendy and I were talking about this yesterday because it's just we've had a couple calls about it because I found this out and I was just like, oh, my God, you need to know. 

Wendy Beck 1:05:49
They're granting. 

Michelle Hayes 1:05:50
The granting the money. 

Rich Bennett 1:05:52
But it can go to. So if you're doing that fundraiser for your foundation for and I mean, don't they have a legal. 

Alicia Hamilton 1:05:59
Obligation to donate the donors. 

Rich Bennett 1:06:02
During the fight. 

Michelle Hayes 1:06:02
So they have to donate it but they don't have to donate to you. They could donate it to Wendy. 

Alicia Hamilton 1:06:09
Yeah, but the donors are donating it under the premise that they're. 

Rich Bennett 1:06:15
In, that. 

Wendy Beck 1:06:16
They're picking their charity. Yeah, they're picking you. 

Alicia Hamilton 1:06:18
Yes. 

Wendy Beck 1:06:19
And so then when people giving fund me theoretically and this is just based on what Michelle's research and I have talked about. 

Rich Bennett 1:06:26
A couple of different articles that I. 

Wendy Beck 1:06:28
Have, they don't necessarily have to give you dollar for dollar for what has been. 

Rich Bennett 1:06:32
Going on for. 

Wendy Beck 1:06:34
You. They will grant you money and they may or may not give you that money. Dollar for dollar is my my take on it. And again, like I said, I don't I don't I haven't done a deep dive personally. 

Rich Bennett 1:06:44
But here it's like aren't. 

Alicia Hamilton 1:06:46
We like if somebody gives me money, I'd already donate $1,000. And she said, buy, buy mattresses for because we had kids on the waitlist, buy mattresses. I was under the impression and I go, and I won't change it regardless that that money I have to spend that money on mattresses. She gave me that money for mattresses. That's it. Isn't that a legal obligation that we have as the receiving that we have to honor the givers wishes? 

Rich Bennett 1:07:17
Again, I would imagine now with. 

Michelle Hayes 1:07:19
The way it's worded on the People Giving Fund, because the donor is giving to the people giving fund with the suggestion it goes to the nonprofit. 

Alicia Hamilton 1:07:28
I would said that's how they weren't it's I think just fine. 

Michelle Hayes 1:07:32
Print the way it's worded and it's confusing. 

Rich Bennett 1:07:35
That's why the best I. 

Wendy Beck 1:07:36
Had no. 

Rich Bennett 1:07:37
Idea. 

Michelle Hayes 1:07:37
So the best example that I found. 

Alicia Hamilton 1:07:40
Was I need to go viral like screenshots of policy. Oh, there's. 

Rich Bennett 1:07:44
Got there's law that how do. 

Wendy Beck 1:07:46
We join the lawsuit. 

Michelle Hayes 1:07:48
Since 2013 I think was the earliest lawsuit I've found about this type of rule with giving fun because it's been an issue for a while. The case example I found was someone named Terry Castro needed $3,000 to 13 with people giving fund in 2016. Later, she discovered that ten of the charities did not receive the funds because they weren't registered with people like you had to do when Facebook moved over. So three charities got money from her that was intended for 13 and the rest of that money, she doesn't know where it went. It had to be dropped. 

Wendy Beck 1:08:30
But you just said they weren't registered as a charity. They were. So that would be on them. So if they're not. 

Alicia Hamilton 1:08:36
Volunteering with people giving not registered. 

Rich Bennett 1:08:40
Oh, okay. No, they weren't. 

Wendy Beck 1:08:41
They were registered. 

Alicia Hamilton 1:08:42
Which how easy is it. I can that would probably look, I mean I think we're registered and I've received people giving fund money, so we should be okay. But how easy would that be. I would be so easy to just see a PayPal subject line, whatever, and just be like spam, whatever, or just not even with the amount of the emails that come through. 

Michelle Hayes 1:09:01
And it's not. 

Rich Bennett 1:09:03
Like you'd be easy to. 

Michelle Hayes 1:09:04
Out viral. It's not something everyone knows about and it's not it's not publicized, it's not talked about, and it's something that's really impacting the nonprofit community in ways that tens of thousands of dollars are just aren't getting donated. 

Wendy Beck 1:09:19
To the right. 

Michelle Hayes 1:09:21
Donor. 

Alicia Hamilton 1:09:21
One of them, you know, it's going to PayPal's foundation. 

Rich Bennett 1:09:24
It's going. 

Wendy Beck 1:09:25
Anywhere. It might just be sitting there. 

Michelle Hayes 1:09:27
And sometimes nine times out of ten, they're saying in the articles that I read, well, probably eight times I've done it's going to the charities nine, it's going to the Bible. The three is fine. However, it's those two times that they're not getting large sums of money being a. 

Alicia Hamilton 1:09:45
Real interesting thing. I feel like that that they could even head that off on the front. They could solve that if they wanted to. You can't. You simply can't pick a charity that isn't you know, the charity is not signed up for the PayPal Giving fund. Either notify them or you have to pick another charity, right. 

Rich Bennett 1:10:01
Like that. But yeah, but the other thing is to right, when you create a fundraiser on Facebook, it'll tell you if if that nonprofit is listed. 

Alicia Hamilton 1:10:12
Oh, okay. So it's just tell you Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 1:10:15
And always how. 

Michelle Hayes 1:10:16
Easy. 

Rich Bennett 1:10:17
It always is. So I found the easiest way, the easy or easy way around that. Of course, with the birthday fundraisers you can't control. 

Michelle Hayes 1:10:28
They're going to happen. 

Rich Bennett 1:10:29
It's going to happen. 

Michelle Hayes 1:10:30
But I mean, it is a low chance that's going to happen. But the people it's happening to and the final ones either use and the nonprofits, it's happening to you. It's a really big deal. 

Rich Bennett 1:10:41
Yeah. 

Michelle Hayes 1:10:41
And if this is the type of thing the it's, you know, not going to bother you, then that's a that's something for you to deal with. It bothers me. 

Rich Bennett 1:10:50
Really. And the funny thing is because when you brought to my attention, it, it cleared something up for me because of our Lions Club foundation, because we have a51c3 at the club, we were getting checks for a network for good. And we're like, that was a huge come from. Yeah, because we didn't do a fundraiser. We didn't see anybody doing a birthday fundraiser. So they were just coming in and now the blue. Now we know. I think the easiest workaround is if you, if you as a nonprofit are doing the fundraiser on Facebook, don't do create the fundraiser part instead, create your regular event or whatever and then have a link going back to your website with the pay 10,000. Yeah, because hey pal sever from the organization. Yeah. So that we used to get money. 

Michelle Hayes 1:11:39
Or we did do some research. Clever it for two different ones. We love to give butter. 

Rich Bennett 1:11:47
Give butter give. 

Michelle Hayes 1:11:48
Butter Which first of all butter. Right. Sorry, but I'm a baker at heart. It just made me happy. 

Alicia Hamilton 1:11:54
I was like almost day. 

Rich Bennett 1:11:56
I really love it. 

Michelle Hayes 1:11:59
My mom and I would eat that when I was a kid. I really. Yeah. And she's definitely going to be listening, so she'll. 

Rich Bennett 1:12:05
Figure my said. 

Alicia Hamilton 1:12:07
Now I eat it on to Peter Crackers because I'm trying to make than eat. So actual crackers they're just too with a little slice of butter. 

Michelle Hayes 1:12:15
We should get together and snack. That sounds. 

Rich Bennett 1:12:17
Okay. Or hummus. I'm with you. You guys are making me hungry. 

Michelle Hayes 1:12:26
The only issue with butter is they do have processing fees. There's an option to have the donor cover those, but there are processing fees that can be involved. We also found Duffy. 

Rich Bennett 1:12:38
Um, I just. 

Alicia Hamilton 1:12:39
Recently heard about that. 

Michelle Hayes 1:12:40
Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. That fee is really cool. They don't have processing or platform but all of their memberships, if you go on their website, are 000. 

Rich Bennett 1:12:49
They don't charge you and super tidy. 

Alicia Hamilton 1:12:53
They make their money. Or is that a good question. 

Michelle Hayes 1:12:58
I haven't looked that deep. And how the. 

Rich Bennett 1:13:01
Heck do you. 

Wendy Beck 1:13:02
Make money just off the interests of old. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 1:13:05
Yeah, I think is fine. 

Michelle Hayes 1:13:08
You can donate I think. I don't remember. Oh they can Donors have the option to contribute. So it's like do you want to contribute or not. They're, they don't mind if you don't. 

Rich Bennett 1:13:21
Or maybe it's maybe under a larger company too. 

Michelle Hayes 1:13:24
Yeah. Yeah. I haven't had time to like still have Dave and my husband did all of. 

Wendy Beck 1:13:30
The research Profit INS and Outs podcast. 

Rich Bennett 1:13:33
Okay, great. 

Michelle Hayes 1:13:35
My husband and my co-founder, he is definitely the accountant Money mind and he did the deep dive for me on both of these, but that fee was definitely the one. He put his seal on it. He was really, really, really loving and he gave me an overview. I just had my third cup of coffee yet today, so my brain's kind of off. 

But yeah, there are ways to get around it and just taking that on your website is like the best. 

Alicia Hamilton 1:14:07
Yeah. 

Michelle Hayes 1:14:08
Just get it away from that. People giving. 

Rich Bennett 1:14:09
All right, I want to wrap up with this final thing. Well. 

Alicia Hamilton 1:14:12
One thing we know something about how to how to get more people involved in giving back or just awareness. We were talking about that 

macro level because I'm actually really kind of curious, 

how do you get people to actually take a look at the macro of their county? Because it's usually county, you know, and actually care about what's going Well, you know, there's a I can only speak for Harford County, but I know this is in counties across the country. You know, there's there's going to be parts of the county that are probably struggling more than others, typically financially, you know, 

resources, that sort of stuff. How how do you get the people that aren't as much in that space to actually give a shit at the sorry, at a macro level. 

Rich Bennett 1:15:06
Again thing is and it's hard you're not going to get everybody to 

the main thing is talking about it and it's 

you have to talk about it so much. MARGARET It's so much that people start caring, even if you hear it all the time. I'm prime example schools, okay? In the county, you hear about the 40 corridor, all the schools. There are bad crime, there is bad. You would never want to move there. Well, it seems like crime is even higher in Bel Air than now, so you really can't compare. That would be you can say with 

a certain area of the county is struggling more. You just got to put the word out there and get it. And I wish he was on this episode right now. And that's Danny McGee is good at that. He is very good at, you know, raising funds and awareness for all these different areas, whether it be the city, whether it be Haiti or whatever. It's just a matter of 

getting the word out there. I think the easiest way to do it is and I've said this to Wendy, too, is your brand put your face to the brand because you are the voice. If people can recognize your face, they're going to learn to trust you. And we they build you build that trust up with people. And you say, Lord, now you may live here in Japantown, but these people up here in Edgewood are very are really struggling. They need there's people can end up being your neighbor. You never know. 

Alicia Hamilton 1:16:59
Yeah. And that's kind of the thing that that I see is that there's we may always have, you know, 10% the population that just kind of there's a ceiling there and we have the capacity to to go too far. But you know the rest of the people especially are the people that are that are working. They're paying their bills day to day, but they can't save any money. They don't have financial literacy. But there's so much like potential and they're so much there's so much within them. And I'm just like, I'll get this vision of just wanting to, like, take a comb and try to, you know, get those people. There's people that can move actually moving forward to ultimately not just to I mean, yes, it's going to contribute to a better economy, a better county as a whole and more affluent, you know, but it's it's people it's getting people to a place where they're not just in survival mode so that they can actually attempt to have a life that is fulfilling to them, whether that's giving back, you know, because that is such a fulfilling thing. Yeah. Or making their art or just pursuing a passion and not just I'm working to pay my bills to keep the roof over my head because that's, you know, and I can't really do much more than that. I'm just kind of spinning it again. 

Rich Bennett 1:18:16
It's getting the word out. And one of the things with the recovery field, there's a lot of negative words. One of the things I hate and when do you it's I hate that term halfway house. To me, it's sounds negative. I like the term recovery. It makes more sense 

getting a Wendy's very good at this getting the people that are in recovery on the podcast because when people hear their story, that's when they tend to give a shit. Yeah and that's, that's the thing people we need, we need we don't need a mic. We need to teach the people to give a shit. And once you can do that, then it's critical. 

Wendy Beck 1:18:59
Well, you have to you have to show them that the effort is getting results. So this is what we're doing. This is the stigma that was behind it. You know, no one wants to support, you know, addicts because, you know, that's who robbed my neighbor's house. That's like, you know, I'm taking care of my grandchild now because my daughter can't get it together. And there's this very and I love all the people that we serve, you know, whether they're in active addiction or in recovery or an alumni or whatever. So I'm not talking negatively about them. I'm saying like the stigma is still there. So for us, you know, like I said earlier, people, they want to donate to kids, they want to donate to cats, they want to donate to, you know, a tree and all of this stuff. But when they think about, you know, I remember and we can end this on this or not, but I remember when my daughter was struggling, a friend of hers was who was also struggling. I let her stay in my house. And so I had and I was talking to the girl's aunt and I was like, can't she come and live with you because she can't go back home because she and she's this is what she said. She said, no, my husband doesn't want to pollute our well water. And I was just like, whoa, what does that even mean? So people don't you know, they're not you. 

Alicia Hamilton 1:20:20
I don't even really know what that means. I'm like, I think. 

Wendy Beck 1:20:22
What they thought was derogatory. If she comes into their room, maybe something would get stolen. Maybe they can't deal with the day to day or whatever, whatever that looks like. And so here we go. The nonprofit is serving people like my daughter or her friend at the time, and they're taking the responsibilities away from the family so they can have quality of life. So you giving to a nonprofit that serves somebody who you just can't help on your own, you are benefiting from it, right? Does that make sense? Yeah. Like, okay, so like because that will never go away from I can never unhear that. And I was like, I kind of understand because, you know, when you have people struggling in your life, it is a show, it is a storm and it's hard and it's heartbreaking. But if they don't have anywhere safe to go, how are we going to make a change? Yeah. 

Alicia Hamilton 1:21:20
I dug into that with them. Fresh start a little bit. It's a different thing. But I'm like, we really are providing an important service. Like there is a need not just to the to the people that we're serving, that's it. But to donors that have stuff to get rid of, like somebody has got to be in the middle. And in keeping this stuff out of the landfills as much as we possibly can and as many people as are willing to like, let's find a different home for it. And better yet, let's find a home that's actually going to benefit somebody else but like to be the intermediaries and to be the actual hands on the ground, moving the stuff. Everybody has stuff that needs to be moved at some point and we can't, you know, like, what's the answer? Just nobody does what we're doing. And then people keep living on the floor and stuff keeps going to the landfill. 

Wendy Beck 1:22:04
And we live in a throwaway culture. Yeah. And so I'm sure that you get some really awesome stuff. 

Rich Bennett 1:22:10
Oh, my gosh. Oh, so. 

Wendy Beck 1:22:12
You know, and yeah, like, why not share the wealth? Yeah, there are people who just decide to and they get rid of everything that they have or they have a loved one pass away. And there's an entire home full of furniture. 

Alicia Hamilton 1:22:24
That's been a realtor. That's, that's, that's a very fulfilling experience. On our end for us is, you know when somebody finds a sense.