Hi, I'm Kezia. I am am stroke survivor and a member of BIND.
And hi, I'm Carrie, a stroke survivor, and a member of bind as well. And today we are happy to welcome back Tara um, to join us on this episode. As we mentioned in one of our previous episodes, Tara is our direct development director here at BIND. And so we just kind of wanted to dig in a little bit deeper with her experience within our brain injury network and just the nonprofit world in general and how the things kind of go together. So. Thanks for coming back, Tara.
I'm happy to be back.
So we just, again, just in case someone missed out on the previous episode or it's been a little while, just a little brief about you.
Well, I am the development director for Brain Injury Network. I actually came to, this is a good continuation of our last episode, because I actually came to work for bind after being with Alzheimer's association for about five years. So I still have a passion for cognitive science. I actually volunteered here. I came as a volunteer, Junior League of Collin County came because we did a 40 projects to celebrate 40 years kind of thing.
And I chose Brain Injury Network of Dallas, the BIND Clubhouse because I'd never heard of it and it was tied to cognitive science, so it had me at that. I came. I helped paint walls. I met our founder, Valerie Gotcher. I met several of our members that are still here and stayed in touch through the newsletter and was getting the newsletter and seeing our founder out in the community.
And at one point we had a conversation about having a development director position at BIND and I said, oh, I think that's a great idea. If I can help, let me know. I'd love to do that and then here we are. And I started officially as development director for BIND, the first Development Director for BIND, three weeks before the pandemic hit.
Oh yeah. I was just remembering that as you were saying it. Yes, so I love that you brought up development director. Not only has it been hard for me and Carrie to say out loud as some of our listeners may already know. But um, can you explain to that, what is it a development director does um, like, what, what is it?
What do I do?
What did we do?
What do we do all day? At the high level. What a development director does in this position, and it's a little bit different with every organization, mostly nonprofit organizations and some um, education institutions also had development directors. So our role is to connect the community and every facet that that exists, whether it's individuals, it's a group, it's a corporation.
Um, whatever that looks like to the work of, and the mission of uh, in our case, BIND Brain Injury Network, in whatever way works best for that organization. So if it's an organization or a municipality or the state has grants then what I do is facilitate how we can work with them to receive funding. But also build awareness and resources for the members that we serve. Same thing with corporations. Corporations are not big entities to themselves.
They're made up of a lot of individuals that make decisions about what the company is going to do or not do. And so my role is to interface with them. Find opportunities for us so that they can invest in our work and mission, not only financially, but also with volunteers. Also with in kind donations. Also for showing up at Synapse Laps and helping us carry jugs of water. So it's each person and each entity separately.
I put together an overall plan and work with our Executive Director and the Board of Directors on how we're going to achieve our budget and fundraising goals for the year and then we work that plan. So I help lead that work but also recruit others to help make that happen. So that looks like individual giving and major gifts, which means gifts that are uh, from sort of in our range, it's more like $5,000, $10,000 and up gifts. Companies corporate sponsors, grants those things.
So hearing all those words.
And we know from you last time, how you got into the cognitive aspect of it, but how did you get involved into the fundraising in the nonprofit world? I mean, that's totally different kind of world than you know in corporate America. So how did you get that involved? For that way. Does that make sense?
I did not expect to do that. So as we talked a little bit offline earlier, my intention was to get my psych degree and I have a degree in literature to uh, to get a clinical PhD in cognitive science. And I decided to take a year off and go into the social work world. I got a job working for The Family Place as Volunteer Coordinator in a domestic violence organization. And so I was building and running all of their volunteer program.
And also all of their databases, which is another thing I do here is help manage and structure the way that we approach data, because that's what supports our work going forward. And I was one of those people that had too many good ideas. Our development department would be doing something and I'd say "Hey, how about doing that?
Or what'd you guys think about this?" And so they lifted my department and put me under development and said, we want her over here and then my next position was development director for another nonprofit domestic womans organization and I've been a development director or an executive director or a strategic director or whatever that is since at this point 1995.
Oh, wow.
Awesome. since 1995 that's pretty cool. I think right now we were also just wondering, like how, what does it take to be like a person like you? Like, what is it? What are the skills that we need to develop and we need to get better at and we need to have to be like a development director and I think right now you've been talking about it really well, like writing, uh, researching and reaching out to people but also like talking to really important.
It is Yeah. I would say um, number one is be goal oriented because even though what we do is kind of touchy feely and We're out, we're doing events and we're talking to people. Ultimately we have a budget to meet and exceed, and if we are not successful, then the lights go off and the doors close and we're very aware of that.
Usually there's a lot of other people involved in that, and there are in our organization too, but it's being directly focused on, we have to do this, but then it's taking it step. back from that intense focus and stress uh, sometimes and realizing it's one person by one person by one person, one company, one grant, putting everything you have into it and meeting every person or every company where they are so our role is it to. Just say, this is BIND, this is what we do.
and I want to tell you about it. It's sitting down with somebody and saying, tell me about you. Tell me why you care? What is your company do? What does your company care about? What is your organization care about? And then being able to make the connection between what we do and what they do but I can't help do that if I didn't know about them.
So it's learning about them and then it being very organized to be able to keep us on track with making sure all of those that our projects are moving forward. Writing and communications is a huge part of what I do. Somebody asked me a couple of weeks ago, what do you do the most of? And I said, I write about a third of the day. Whether it's grant reports, grant applications, marketing communications letters, emails to people, nice notes. That's that's a huge part of it.
Wow.
I know we've already heard about like how you got involved with BIND and I kinda remember, I think you and your husband maybe helped paint our serenity room.
We did.
I specifically remember that. I don't know why, but I do, but, so what really drew you to us that you were like, I want to go work for them. I'm going to make sure I stay in touch.
So I'll get, I'll be personal on this. All right. You guys, I am getting personal. So I loved, I love working for Alzheimer's association. I had very different roles there and my last role was director of corporate engagement for all of basically North Northeast Texas and the Dallas area of function of the Alzheimer's association but companies were working remote so I didn't get the one-on-one.
I didn't get to be out in the community talking to caregivers anymore, talking to people that were living with the disease, talking to the community about how to get involved.
I was I ironically isolated working from home without ever leaving and that was not a good place for me to be because that's not a core part of who I am and I got y'all's newsletter and it was the newsletter following the Synapse Laps I have actually have a copy of it and it was March of 2017 and the mini ponies were there but it was just what was going on in the clubhouse and every time I read it, I thought, oh, I want to do that and the next time I saw Valerie out in the community, I said, I
love what you guys do. I love what you guys do. And that's why I said, if you ever need help with development or just need, you know, to run stuff by somebody, I love what you guys do and I'd love to help be a part of that and eventually I was,
yeah.
we're happy for that.
Yeah, we are really happy. Um, I actually was going to ask you, what is the best thing that you like about working at bind and working with us and for us here too and I was going to be like, is it the pony?
It's not that. It's the, it's the people, not the ponies. I need a t-shirt that says that. Wait, we, we make t shirts, we can do that.
we can do that.
It's that any, this is very creative work, whether it's writing or it's coming up with events or it's, you know, doing everything that we do and to do that in isolation is very difficult and almost impossible and even to do it with a small team, is almost impossible when you have your development staff. So being able to come into the clubhouse and work with the members and the staff and the volunteers and the board members. It's everything I do is because of what I get from you guys.
When you, we see a campaign or we do an event or we do something different that's in fundraising. There is a piece of every member that's ever interacted with me for that project in that project and it's always about we, and it's not about me and I love having the opportunity to be in that creative environment. You guys are amazing.
Well thank you I'm going to take a quick little break and remind our listeners to go ahead and click that like button and that share button and keep listening. And i'm turn back to you. It's kind of the same and along the same role. Um, you mentioned a little bit your the role here, at BIND is a little different than some of your other roles in the nonprofit world.
Speaking about how all of the members get involved in as much as everything as they can um, how is that different to other, I guess Alzheimer's. You know, I guess. The patients in Alzheimer's probably can't contribute the way our members can contribute to help you in the fundraising world or with campaigns, that you're talking about. I mean, how is it different?
How is it different? So Alzheimer's association, like some of the other organizations I've worked for United way, I've worked Girl Scouts, Holocaust museum, a lot of, a lot of the sort of bigger organizations where you're not really working directly with those you're serving you're fundraising. And then those funds are going to other entities that are serving those people.
What's interesting about Alzheimer's association and one of the reasons I loved it is because we actually did have um, on our board of directors and with it an advisory council, those who were newly diagnosed and early in the disease process and living with the disease. So. A little bit similar to clubhouse.
I didn't get to see them all the time, but they influenced and informed every decision that we made and we're involved in that and then the families and those who were living with the disease. For walk for longest day for events, for community campaigns, they were out there. Those are that's the 10,000 people walking in Dallas. It's not the staff. It's it's those that are living with it.
Sure.
Oh, yeah, that's awesome. And I think like right now you were mentioning how it's just different that they were being partaking in all the big decisions. It was really cool to hear that because that's kind of how we do it here. Right. We're over here running the world and like, honestly, like working with you and learning so much from with. With you from you so many times. So that's awesome.
What is one of the biggest challenges though, like working within the nonprofit organizations, especially like here with BIND, what are some challenges that you face like frequently?
I would say one of the hardest things to. Uh, we're called a small shop. So we're a small nonprofit, and I'm the only development staff, even though the executive director also does development. The board does development and honestly, all of the staff and all of us together, the way we do it here is we all come together to do the projects. But we are at the mercy of those who make decisions about funding.
So for example, when I started on February 28th, 2020, and three weeks later, we shut down our funding. Corporate. Most of it went away. Even the funding from our largest grants went away. That was unprecedented in history. A lot of nonprofits didn't make it. They went under. And we made it, which is huge. We made it with the support of our amazing team and the community and our clubhouse members and their families. But it's the unpredictability of those funders.
And so the greatest challenge is to make sure that we are balanced in all areas as much as we can be. So if we were to lose funding and one because of somebody's decision or a company goes under or whatever that a pandemic please. Not again. Um, that we're able to stay afloat and we're able to keep moving.
Yeah. So like what also. I think it's also really cool that you were just saying that because it was very difficult for everyone. And I mean, I remember we just met you with like one day and the next day we didn't see you ever again. But you really do work with us and we hear about you and like always take you into. Your ideas also kind of like match with our ideas and we've worked together. So that's also really cool. But I also was learning like, wondering what have you learned from us?
Because I feel like we learn from you all the time, but what do you learn from um, brain injury survivors that you would like to share with our listeners?
I learned from each of you every time I'm here. Yeah. So certainly there's the overall understanding deepening and understanding of brain injury, acquired brain injury. The effects are different with every survivor. The impact is different with every survivor.
It's one thing to study neuro-plasticity and take tests on it and understand that concept but to see it in reality is absolutely amazing and I am humbled every time I come in the clubhouse to see the work that you guys are doing and I'm so proud of every member that we have. I think one of the one of the pivotal moments is we were in a board meeting and we have a member that we have members that serve on the board. And we were thinking about a campaign that was goal-oriented.
And I asked the question of a member what do you remember being your goal when you first had your injury and what is your goal now? And he said. My first goal was to be able to remember yesterday and now my goal is to recruit as many board members as I possibly can and that actually made me go home and cry because I was like that. That's how you impact me.
You teach me the reality of living with it overcoming it and impacting others and that's something that no textbook or clinical course can teach and it's a person by person by person.
So talking about the pandemic and getting back and we're budgets are pretty good right now. I think I'm gonna say it is anyway. What are some of the accomplishments that you've been able to help bind with since you've been here that you're super proud of.
One of the things that's behind the scenes is structural and I don't think a lot of people are aware of this and because it just moves forward. So my background coming into non-profit was at IBM and data. So I have that data, computer science pieces carried through with me my entire career and so I come in and I look at data. How are we structured as an organization? And as a nonprofit, we look at why are we here? What are we doing? Why are we doing it? How are we tracking it?
Are we being successful? And how do we report that? Because if we can't, it's called a logic model. If we can't report that then we may not, we may be muddy on what are we doing and is it effective? And one of the things that we've done since I've been here is partner with center for nonprofit management and go through a Sienna? Impact program.
Funded by Alliance data to take a look at every single aspect of BIND and take a look at each of those pieces and those measures and to work with the staff and to work with the board, to define those and redefine those so that we do know exactly why we're here. Why we do it? Is it effective? How are we measuring it? And how are we reporting it?
Honestly, if we didn't have the pandemic, I don't know that we would have been able to take a step back and look at operations in such a deep way and make the structural changes that we had to make. But we did it and that's why we're here now and that puts us in a much stronger position for funding and just even explain what we do and why we do it. Sure. That makes sense.
Yeah. So as we're kind of talking about that, I know and it helps to move like that data and like, If X many members live in XYZ city we have better data, like you said, to go to X, Y, Z city and say, These people are in your city, in your community and are giving back and this is how you can give back. Right. That's the big picture.
Kind of thing along with the grant and other things that you write, but in general, for our listeners, if they wanted, they work for a big company and they wanted to get involved at a corporate sponsorship level or just an individual level, What are options out there for just the average person or listeners or subscribers that may want to get involved? Not just giving money is always most important, but it's not always only thing needed. Correct. Absolutely.
We look at in development world in a nonprofit world, we look at time, treasure and talent, and that looks great on a t-shirt, but it's not, it's actually real. So some people can, are able to give their time. And for us, we have volunteers give 3000 plus hours of their time to do the work that we do in the clubhouse. Every year we could not function without that we could not function without the time given to us by the board of directors and other volunteers.
The treasure is financial support and we do need that and appreciate that and need that to go forward. But the other thing that we need is talent and that's something that our program team and our program directors are always looking for. Even with this podcast, we are looking for people that have technical support capabilities that know about podcasts to just help train us and help provide a little bit of maybe a couple of hours a month or maybe a couple hours once or twice a year.
So the talent is not just, you're donating your time as a you know as a baker to bake cookies for us. It's also, what are the skillsets that you have as an individual that you can can give to us and work with us on, and it's again, it's an individual basis. What, what do you have to offer and how might that fit with what we need?
Okay thank you so much. I hope all our listeners had listened to you this last little bit and become supporters of BIND, the nonprofit organization that we are all working on for right now here, listening and actually doing the podcast. So thank you so much for coming, Tara. Thank you so much and thank you all for all of our listeners for listening.
Yes and remember if you'd like to contact us, you can email us at bindwaves@thebind.org or check us out on our website thebind.org/bind waves. And one, I don't think we've mentioned before we do have a Facebook page, brain injury network so go check that out and like, and follow us on there as well.
Yes and all the information to becoming sponsors and being active with BIND will be shared on the description of this episode. So make sure to check that out and obviously don't forget to like share subscribe to all of your favorite platforms and especially YouTube, make sure to check out YouTube follow us, click that button and listen to us every Thursday.
So until next time
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