Year of the Pig Nonprofits
While 2019 is the Chinese Year of the Pig — for our team at SmallBox, we’ve decided it’s the year that we actively lean into helping our favorite clients: social impact organizations (aka nonprofits).
Why? Call us lofty, but we’d like to make the world a better place
I learned a lot about SmallBox as a business, and myself, as the new CEO, in 2018 (that’s a blog for another day). As it pertains to learning about clients, every quarter we had at least one team discussion that led to a conversation about our ideal clients. We approached these discussions from the different perspectives each time: from the delight level of the clients we’ve worked with, to the work we most want to do, to relationships with the clients’ team, to what aligned with our organizational values the most and what simply felt like great work. 100% of the time, those discussions led us back to the work that we’ve done with nonprofit organizations throughout Indiana. No matter how we categorize the industries (healthcare, higher education, social services, arts & culture, or foundations) each of our favorite projects were done in conjunction with an organization that exists to have a positive influence on society.
Unrecognized Heroes
In 2018, I met with dozens of agency owners and told them the kinds of organizations we work with best. On more than one occasion I heard, “good for you, those businesses certainly aren’t as sexy as chasing tech businesses or lifestyle brands.” This is absolutely true and that’s the kind of company SmallBox has always been. We have the clarity to know that the organizations
who see the biggest benefit from working with us have challenges around obtaining or communicating funding, meeting donor versus beneficiary needs, connecting with their various stakeholders, and ultimately having a goal of improving and saving lives. Prior to the Thanksgiving holiday, we hand-packed and delivered over 60 thank you boxes to such social impact organizations. The level of surprise and appreciation that these leaders and team members showed was an indicator that they do not get thanked enough for the hard work they do to make our communities a better place.
In 2019 and beyond we hope to be the agency that truly connects with and effectively serves the nonprofit heroes in our communities.
This year, we’ll be diving even deeper into the nonprofit community in hopes of learning even more about the struggles and pain points, and how we can help organizations overcome obstacles and achieve goals. We’ll expand our team knowing we want to bring on nonprofit experience to push us even further and make us better. We’ll attend industry events, listen more, and create content specific for this audience. Have something in mind? Drop us note and tell us what your interested in! We’re here to serve those who serve others.
Cheers to the year of the pig and cheers to another year of reaching new goals!