How To Build Super Fans with Jon McCoy and Becky Endicott

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This episode is presented by Givebutter and MemoryFox.

Givebutter is the #1 rated fundraising platform on G2, powering millions in donations for thousands of nonprofits worldwide. Nonprofits use Givebutter to replace multiple tools so they can launch fundraising campaigns, events, and auctions, communicate with their donors through email and free text blasts, update their websites’ donate buttons and collection forms, and access a built-in CRM—all in one place. P.S. They just launched a free game-changing auction platform you’ll want to check out! Create your FREE account here!

MemoryFox makes it easy to collect Community Generated Content through a secure, guided and custom-branded platform. You’ll be able to share authentic and relatable content, reach more people, and grow your impact. Set up a demo with one of their storytelling experts at memoryfox.io/dana, plus get 10% off!

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If you’re not an avid listener of the We Are for Good Podcast, you will be today after this episode! I have been so fortunate to become close friends with Jon McCoy and Becky Endicott over the past two years. 

With 35 combined years of experience in nonprofit development and marketing, they launched the We Are for Good brand and podcast in 2020. Ever since, their community has taken off like wildfire and they have quickly scaled to a top 1% “bingeable” podcast with more than 300 episodes and 300,000 downloads! 

Jon, Becky, and I talk about the power of community (including the magic of one-on-one interactions), the importance of cultural moments and using them as an invitation to spark conversation with your advocates and donors, and how they use their podcast as a springboard to fuel more content.

The power of community

It’s incredible to see how Jon and Becky have cultivated a community around their brand, way beyond just their podcast. Jon ties it back to the magic of one-on-one interactions. It’s easy to get caught up in the idea of scale and thinking about how they can grow to millions of listeners, but what about just focusing on building a rabid fan base?

Opening up their calendars to hop on Zoom calls with their listeners isn’t exactly a scalable task, but it can snowball into the most meaningful kind of work, compounding over time. In these calls, Jon and Becky don’t shy away from digging into the details. What is this person working through? What are their dogs’ names? Do they have kids? It’s getting to this level of specificity that binds them together.

LinkedIn, Instagram DMs, and voice memos are their go-to digital platforms that have helped them scale the most. These are the spaces that have planted seeds. It wasn’t like there was a strategic agenda behind sharing content there – they were simply trying to find and connect with their people.

But the beauty is that their podcast serves as that front door for conversation, and all of these conversations and ideas can be fueled further inside of their community.

Considering cultural moments in your communications

Let’s face it – this is a dark time for a lot of people in the nonprofit space, between burnout, and lack of psychological safety – all of it is converging in this post-pandemic world.

Pause and think about what’s happening in the news. What are people naturally talking about? And how is your organization going to provide resources, information, or support, or maybe even take a stand? 

It’s also equally important to set aside time on your calendar to have these conversations internally with your team, and understand everyone’s viewpoint. If there are topics weighing on your team’s mind, it’s probably also a conversation worth having with your donors, supporters, and your volunteers and advocates. 

Becky shares that ESPECIALLY in a hybrid work environment or a remote work environment, to just ask somebody on Zoom, “are you okay?” And they say, “I’m fine”, but they may not actually be okay. 

And when your people are more vibrant, the product that they put out is more vibrant.

Inside We Are for Good’s team

Jon and Becky have created something magical. They are each other’s yin and yang. Becky can write. Jon can design. They have a special language and have poured into their own capabilities.

After bootstrapping for a while and realizing that the podcast was going to be the centerpiece of their brand, they realized they couldn’t do it alone, between client calls, recording episodes, and trying to make everything work. They hired a podcast producer, and have recently onboarded a virtual assistant and a Chief of Staff.

Jon shares, “we took big risks, we made big moves. We do have a path to how we get this to a million people. And we have the ideas and the camaraderie to do it. And it doesn’t make it easier to make scary steps, but it gives you momentum that kind of pushes you and you feel surrounded by support in that, too.”

When they first started, Jon wanted to release 5 episodes per week! If you show up at ANY pace above the norm though, you have the power to disrupt. 

Together, Jon and Becky have created content that is completely bingeable and fun, while serving their community. It has been such a joy to have them on the podcast.

Jon and Becky’s Ask

Becky’s ask is that you visit the We Are for Good website and type in a topic that you’re passionate about in the search bar. Tune in and download an episode!

Jon invites us all to join the We Are for Good community on Mighty Networks. It’s a beautiful space to discuss, collaborate, and innovate with like minded humans. You can also find helpful freebies, exclusives from the podcast, and worksheets, guides, and toolkits to help you do more for your mission.

Notable Quotes from Jon and Becky

“We have such big dreams and we are ridiculous idealists. Our goal is impact uprising. We want to impact a million people by 2025. With our teaching, with our training, with these mindsets. There’s got to be a mindset shift to the sector and an awakening that we have to do things differently. We have to embrace our business differently. We have to think about it like a business. We have to care about people deeply in our business and not just our top donors. We have to care about people from the bottom to the top and the top down to the bottom and we have to shift power dynamics.”

“For anybody that’s looking to build something organic, you cannot think so linearly. The podcast is not just a podcast, social media is not just a place to hang out. You take something like a podcast (which is like long form content on the audio side) – you have to syndicate that. And that’s really the secret sauce for us – is how do we split apart all of that conversation? How do we take quotes and use that to fuel another conversation? How do we find something that’s really disruptive that’s working really well? How do we put a framework together, so other nonprofits or even B Corps or whoever it is, can adopt that and accelerate much faster.”

Resources & Links

If you want to make this Giving Tuesday even butter than last year, catch the replay of my free webinar with Floyd Jones, How To Set Up Your GivingTuesday Campaign in 1 Hour Without Pulling Your Hair Out! Go to positiveequation.com/givebutter to watch it and find out how your organization can qualify for $50,000!

Set up a demo with one of MemoryFox’s Set storytelling experts at memoryfox.io/dana, plus get 10% off!

Connect with Jon and Becky on LinkedIn or via email: jon@weareforgood.com and becky@weareforgood.com. 

Tune in to the We Are for Good Podcast and learn more about Jon and Becky’s incredible vision that serves the social impact sector. To continue the important conversations they’re having, join their free community on Mighty Networks.

Becky’s favorite episode of their podcast is Episode 33, The Story of Gaining Ground Literacy with Lisa Shotts and Kirby Mackenzie. Jon’s favorite is Episode 261, Solving the Leadership Crisis + The Mission of Global Citizen Year with Abby Falik.

Becky recommends we all check out Dr. Bertrhude Albert on TikTok, who has figured out a cure for overcoming poverty in Haiti.

Want to make Missions to Movements even better? Take a screenshot of this episode and share it on Instagram. Be sure to tag @positivequation so I can connect with you.

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