By Alex S Non-Profit Marketing Strategies to Increase Donations
- Tower After Hours
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Hello content kings and queens, welcome back to another episode of Tower After Hours. We’re officially over halfway through season 1, and we’ve interviewed some pretty incredible guests so far.
Today’s guest is no different as we welcome Sandy Gambone, the Senior Business Ambassador for Water Street Mission. With over 30 years of experience in the marketing industry, we were super excited to sit down with her.
Getting to Know Sandy Gambone
{1:10} Sandy started in a very traditional marketing role, and we wanted to start at the root to get an understanding of how she got to where she is today. She started in direct mail marketing and publishing, then moved to video production, then went on to help produce a TV show, and finally landed at a digital agency here in Lancaster County.
As you can already tell, Sandy has incredible experience in the marketing field, and when she was at the Lancaster agency, she really felt connected to the non-profit sector that she worked with. This led her to work at Water Street Mission.
Although it wasn’t exactly where she thought she’d end up, Sandy has thrived as a Business Ambassador because of her diverse background, experiences, and personable nature.
How Sandy Empowers Women Around Her
{9:00} Unsurprisingly, Sandy was one of the nominees this year for Lancaster Chamber’s ATHENA award, which recognizes individuals who support women in realizing their full leadership potential. They are someone who devotes time and energy to their community in a meaningful way and strives towards the highest level of professionalism.
Four women made it to the interview phase, and though she didn’t win, she felt honored to be in the room with previous winners and others who have been nominated.
Sandy has recognized that her passion is to empower young women in both the business world and the guests of Water Street Mission. Women are put into a lot of different situations, and the way we handle them highlights our professionalism, calmness, and maturity.
{14:00} She quotes Michelle Obama saying, “They go low, we go high” and that’s a mentality she has embraced and passed to young women professionals. To come off as a “winner” she emphasizes the importance of showing respect to those that don’t respect you.
Mentoring Through the Lancaster Chamber
{15:38} Although Sandy has only been a mentor for two years, she’s really enjoying the opportunity to mentor young women. The motivation behind her becoming a mentor is being able to empower women to talk about the uncomfortable and hard work conversations.
She says that she didn’t get the confidence she has now until a certain age and she wants to take what she knows and support women in finding their own confidence.
{19:44} A truly great mentorship pair is one where both the mentee and the mentor learn something. So some of Sandy’s favorite programs are when she learns just as much from her peers as they learn from her.
What we took away from this conversation was that you never know when these connections will become a bigger part of your story. Sandy talks about her connections helping her find new careers and supporting her throughout her life.
Surprise SECOND Guest: Lauren Radcliff
Surprise! We were so excited to also welcome Lauren Radcliff to Tower After Hours. She works with Sandy as a Business Ambassador.
{25:41} These two clicked instantly when Lauren started 3 months ago at Water Street Mission. And they’ve both already learned so much from each other as the Business Ambassador team grew from just Sandy to both Sandy and Lauren.
Lauren has become the networking queen, as she’s not only new to Water Street Mission but also Lancaster County. She also has taken time to make the Business Ambassador team more efficient and has been able to fulfill a need before Sandy even recognizes the need exists.
As a new Lancaster local, Lauren realizes she has to put herself out of her comfort zone in order to make these connections, both professionally and personally. And it’s very normal to be anxious and scared but at the end of the day, we’re all humans just trying to build relationships and support each other.
Not Every Move Has To Be a “Money Move”
{35:00} Something we found really interesting about Lauren’s LinkedIn profile was the description on one of her jobs said “While this job may seem pretty random, and might not seem to be a big career move…” and we wanted to learn more about her perspective on taking these unexpected paths and coming out better than before.
Soft skills like communicating well, time management, and growing your self-confidence are essential skills to have, even if they don’t provide you with a huge pay bump or promotion.
Relational versus Transactional
{40:52} At the bones of their work, Water Street Mission is looking for fundraising or donations to help their guests and overall mission. But throughout this entire episode, we learned that making those sales is all about creating a relationship with another human being.
So, at the core of non-profit marketing strategies, they’re looking to grow a relationship with the community around them and ultimately raise awareness for Water Street Mission.
Check out the full episode: How Relationships Can Nurture Your Marketing
Lily