Podcast 1249: Becoming a Causie: Champion Your Cause through Nonprofit Board Leadership By Rob Acton

In today’s world, more and more professionals are looking for ways to create meaning beyond their careers. For some, the answer lies in nonprofit board leadership—a place where passion, skills, and purpose converge. On a recent episode of Inside Personal Growth (E1249), host Greg Voisen sat down with Rob Acton, CEO of Core Strategy Partners and author of Becoming a Causie: Champion Your Cause through Nonprofit Board Leadership.

With nearly three decades of experience leading social good organizations, Rob has helped thousands of professionals discover their cause and transform their passion into powerful advocacy. His book offers a roadmap for busy professionals who want to give back in a way that’s both impactful and sustainable.


What Does It Mean to Be a “Causie”?

Rob coined the term “Causie” to describe someone who makes a lifelong, intentional commitment to a cause that truly matters to them. Unlike simply donating money, becoming a Causie involves investing your time, talent, and treasure to create meaningful change.

“It’s about giving the very best of who you are to something bigger than yourself,” Rob explained.


Why Professionals Should Serve on Nonprofit Boards

Many assume nonprofit board service is reserved for retirees or philanthropists. Rob challenges that belief. His firm has already placed 3,500 professionals on more than 1,500 boards across the U.S. and U.K., equipping them with the skills and training to succeed from day one.

Board service isn’t just about writing a check. Members play four critical roles:

  1. Shaping strategy – defining mission, vision, and long-term direction.

  2. Driving resources – fundraising, advocacy, and leveraging networks.

  3. Ensuring accountability – providing fiduciary oversight.

  4. Applying expertise – bringing professional skills (HR, legal, tech, marketing, etc.) to strengthen organizational governance.

This holistic approach helps professionals find purpose while nonprofits gain leaders who are engaged, skilled, and ready to serve.


Heart Passion vs. Head Passion

One of the most compelling insights from the conversation was Rob’s distinction between heart passion and head passion.

  • Heart passion is the emotional pull we feel toward causes that move us—like helping children, fighting poverty, or supporting cancer research.

  • Head passion comes from recognizing a smart, innovative idea that creates real change, even if it doesn’t tug at your emotions.

Rob shared the story of Atlanta Tool Bank, an organization that lends tools to nonprofits for community projects. At first glance, it didn’t seem emotionally compelling—but it turned out to be the most requested nonprofit for board placement in its city.

The lesson? A fulfilling cause doesn’t always have to be heartwarming; sometimes it can simply be brilliant.


Discovering Your Cause Style

In Becoming a Causie, Rob outlines four cause styles that help individuals align with the right nonprofit:

  • Helping Hand – drawn to immediate, tangible impact.

  • People Developer – committed to long-term human growth and mentoring.

  • Reformer – focused on changing systems and structures for lasting change.

  • Disruptor – driven to shake up broken systems quickly and boldly.

You can identify your own style by taking Rob’s free Cause Finder Quiz at becomingacausie.com.


The 3 T’s of Board Commitment

Every nonprofit board relies on what Rob calls the 3 T’s:

  • Time – roughly 4–6 hours per month for meetings, committees, and events.

  • Talent – applying your professional skills strategically (without micromanaging).

  • Treasure – making a personal financial contribution and helping fundraise.

Rob emphasizes that clarity around expectations—especially financial contributions—is essential before joining a board. Transparency ensures both the individual and the nonprofit benefit from the partnership.


A New Definition of Professional Success

At its core, Rob’s vision goes beyond boards and nonprofits. He hopes to redefine what it means to be a successful professional:

“It’s not enough to climb the career ladder or earn a bigger title. True success means giving the best of yourself to a cause that matters—to your community, your country, and the world.”

Through his book and his work with Core Strategy Partners, Rob is helping professionals of every generation turn that vision into reality.


Final Takeaway

Whether you’re an executive, an emerging professional, or someone simply looking for ways to serve, Becoming a Causie offers a clear, practical roadmap. Board service isn’t just about money—it’s about purpose, impact, and legacy.

If you’ve ever asked yourself, “How can I give back in a meaningful way?”—this is the conversation (and book) you need.

📖 Grab a copy of Becoming a Causie: Amazon link

You may also refer to the transcripts below for the full transcription (not edited) of the interview.

00;00;01;05 - 00;00;25;11
Well, welcome back to Inside Personal Growth. Joining me from New York. And he says it's pretty hot today is, Rob Acton. And he is the CEO of Core's Strategy Partners. Hey, Rob. Good day to you. How are you doing? Doing well. Greg, it's, pleasure to be here and looking forward to this conversation. Well, it's a pleasure to have you on.

00;00;25;11 - 00;00;51;11
And, this is, Rob's first book, and it's really also all about what he is 100% invested in and doing. And I'm going to let the listeners know just a tad bit about you, and then we'll get more on it later. But Rob is the founder and CEO of Core's Strategy Partners, as I said, and the author of this book called Become in Becoming a Crazy.

00;00;51;13 - 00;01;26;08
And here it is. And the, book was published by Forbes book. He's a nationally recognized expert in nonprofit and nonprofit governance whose has revolutionized how busy professionals engage with causes, that they care about. Through his signature board lead program, he's placed 3000 professionals on nonprofit boards across the US and UK while training tens of thousands more in high impact board service.

00;01;26;10 - 00;01;54;02
With nearly three decades of experience leading social good organizations and a track record in the top 100 impact. Rob provides a definitive roadmap for transforming passion into powerful advocacy. So we're going to explore his book and explore his website. And as I mentioned, you can learn more about Rob. And we're going to have it in the show notes themselves.

00;01;54;04 - 00;02;18;10
So, look for that because that's a great place for you to just click below, to learn more about him and the book, and you actually can go there and get a free copy. I should say a free download, a free first, chapter of the book at least. And there's a great video there as well.

00;02;18;12 - 00;02;39;21
So look in the show notes here for all the links that you'll need. They'll all be in the show notes on the YouTube video, for you to do that. So, Rob, you know, cause he's a great little word. You've created this fascinating term. I'm sure our listeners are like, so what the heck? The crazy.

00;02;39;23 - 00;03;13;02
You know, they've heard all kinds of term. What does it mean? And really, what inspired you to kind of write this book after all these years of doing this service work, between helping people find the right, charities to be on? Yep. Well, a cozy, I hope is your listener. And it's really somebody who makes a sort of, personal and professional commitment to find their cause and invest the very best of who they are in creating change around that purpose.

00;03;13;02 - 00;03;34;28
That somebody who makes sort of a lifelong, intentional commitment to transform a cause that matters to them. Becoming a causey is B has been one of the, you know, great fulfillments of my life. Greg, I know you're a very, cause driven individual. My guess is serving your causes has been one of the most important aspects of your life as well.

00;03;35;00 - 00;04;02;09
And so I really wrote the book to provide a roadmap to help a very busy professional or somebody who has a full plate with their career, their home, their family, their outside pursuits, but yet still can find that purpose by invest setting, their life part of their life in creating the change that that that that is created when you really give the give, give who you are to in support of, of serving a cause.

00;04;02;09 - 00;04;24;17
And so, it's a roadmap for a busy professional to do just that. Well, and, and the thing about today is especially you look at the generations in the workplace. The younger generations are really about purpose, you know, purpose in the workplace. And many of them have done quite well themselves and would like to be on boards, and they're very smart and so on.

00;04;24;20 - 00;04;48;23
How do you work on these whole cross generational situations when you come in here and you find people like this? Because there is certainly more of a focus by Gen Z-Ers on finding their purpose and doing good for the world than there might be in the baby boomers. Not that the baby boomers aren't, but certainly the Gen Zers are really, interested in that.

00;04;49;00 - 00;05;18;22
Do you do you try and identify the people and what generations they are and what's driving them? Yeah. Well, the work that we do, because strategy partners, which is really kind of a tech powered solution to helping busy professionals find a board, board opportunity. We focus our work on really every at every generation. I'd say, for the earliest career professionals, oftentimes, a board of directors role is probably not the right fit.

00;05;18;22 - 00;05;58;16
And we we place them on and junior boards or young professional boards, lots of organizations are, are creating these entities, which gives earlier career professionals a chance to serve that cause, not as a fiduciary board member, but as somebody who becomes a champion of the organization. Shoulder to shoulder with like minded young professionals learning about the organization, learning what it is to kind of be in the boardroom and and really developing the skill sets around giving and fundraising and advocacy, kind of championing the cause, those that are sort of in their 30s and 40s, they're really oftentimes being placed on a board for the first time.

00;05;58;23 - 00;06;21;28
And so the work that we do at, through board lead, where we've placed 30, as you mentioned, 3500 professionals on about 1500 boards across the US. In the UK, we're giving them that opportunity to, for the first time, identify their cause, find a nonprofit, training them up so they'll really be impactful from day one. And, you know, and getting them in, in those roles.

00;06;22;01 - 00;06;42;21
But then we're also working with more senior leaders, even all the way up into the C-suite of some of the top countries or top, companies in the world through our concierge board placement service. And we're helping them find a really ideal fit. These are high capacity individuals who will drive immense impact on the nonprofits that they serve.

00;06;42;27 - 00;07;22;24
And so we're really thoughtful in taking the time to kind of identify that, that leading nonprofit organization that's driving oftentimes incredible impact in the world and making that connection. So all that to say, there is literally an opportunity for everyone, wherever you are in your career, to begin this process of becoming a causey, and when these, you know, Gen Gen Zers, as you mentioned, who are really looking for purpose, come to us, we're thrilled to have the opportunity to sort of capture that interest in serving by getting them informally involved in an organization that hopefully they may serve for ten years or more for ten years or more.

00;07;22;26 - 00;07;51;01
But at the same time, they're identifying cause, a cause that they eye dearly will serve over their lifetime. Well, I think it's good because, you know, when I say that with the generations, hopefully there's like this mentorship because when you look at the senior people. Yeah. There pardon me, the term, but their CRM or Rolodex is full and they have lots of contacts to be able to get a lot of things done, whereas maybe the junior don't, but it'd be good to see mentoring in that.

00;07;51;03 - 00;08;27;28
And you mentioned in our pre-interview that your mission is to inspire the world's professionals to serve their cause. You said again, with 3000 professionals place in 1500 nonprofit boards, you've clearly struck a nerve somewhere like, you know, I'm not saying that this didn't exist, but you've really kind of taken it to a new level. What gap were you seeing kind of in the market place that really kind of caused the, inspiration to kind of move this to the next level?

00;08;28;00 - 00;08;58;26
Great question, Greg. So for somebody who is says, yeah, I'd love to serve my cause, I'd love to be on a board. I just don't know how to do. So. We really wanted to fill the gap of providing an on ramp to a nonprofit board opportunity at the center of one's passion. Mostly, people who serve on nonprofit boards have kind of waited around until a friend or somebody in their network tapped them on the shoulder and said, hey, you know, Greg, I'm serving on the board of Broadway Inspirational Voices here in New York.

00;08;58;29 - 00;09;32;08
Maybe you love Broadway. Maybe you care about the work we do. Would you consider serving on our board? It's a very non-strategic way to identify an opportunity to serve a cause. Serving organization that will ask a lot out of you when you're on that board. And so I wanted to reverse, engineer that process and provide an opportunity for individual to not wait for somebody to tap them on the, on their shoulder about one organization, but instead to dive into the 1500 nonprofits that are a part of our network that we've carefully vetted.

00;09;32;08 - 00;10;03;13
We know their governance practices. We know the impact they're having in the world. And to from that group of 1500 nonprofits, look for that 1 or 2 or that three organizations that most resonates with their interests and their values and then introduce them to the organization, support them in that introduction process and get them elected in 6 or 9 months, instead of maybe waiting 6 or 9 years for an opportunity for one organization that maybe isn't really is central to their values as we'd want.

00;10;03;13 - 00;10;26;04
So that was the candidate side and announced, you know, your situation here, I'm reflecting as you're speaking. We have something here in San Diego called the San Diego Foundation. And when people do their estate planning, they go to the foundation to actually find the charities or where they want to give the money. So instead they gave it to the foundation, and the foundation helps align that.

00;10;26;06 - 00;10;55;10
In one sense, there's a lot of similarity between what a foundation does like that to help a donor actually give away their estate, as you do to get people on a board really? Well, that. Yes, certainly. And, you know, the it all revolves around legacy. In many ways. This serving board is part of creating your life's legacy. And so finding an organization that really is at the center of your personal passions is so critical.

00;10;55;13 - 00;11;18;14
And the other thing we wanted to do, frankly, was for the nonprofit sector in that, nonprofits have boards every Nam every five, and C3, which is kind of the tax code, description of a nonprofit, has a board of directors. It's required by law. So nonprofits are always about looking for individuals who will serve as governors or fiduciaries of that board.

00;11;18;16 - 00;11;48;05
But it's not easy to for a CEO or a board chair to, to get into the community and identify those leaders who are really ready, willing and able to serve. And so we wanted to become a partner with nonprofits since we work with, you know, hundreds and hundreds of terrific leaders at companies each year, we wanted to make it easy for our nonprofit partners to find candidates who are ready to serve, trained up and also really passionate about their mission.

00;11;48;07 - 00;12;09;11
And so that was a problem we were trying to solve for the nonprofit is just get outside of your existing network, the friends of those who serve on your board, and let us introduce you to high capacity candidates who are excited about your mission and will be trained up and ready to serve. And then for companies, we wanted to help companies, provide purpose.

00;12;09;11 - 00;12;41;16
Exactly as you mentioned, Greg, at the beginning of this call, because that is increasingly an expectation of the employee stakeholder group. Yes. I want to work here. Yes, I want to make a salary. Yes, I want to grow in my career, but I also want to find purpose while doing so. And so the work we do for for fortune 500 companies across the globe is really about helping them connect their executives and employees to purpose filled opportunities through, as sort of a, as, as an add on to the core work that they do in their day to day job.

00;12;41;16 - 00;13;16;15
And and we're getting great, qualitative and quantitative feedback around how that connection point through one's company creates a lasting commitment to a company at greater levels of retention, greater levels of of employee satisfaction that is connected to this purpose filled, aspect of the work that they offer, service that they offer to their employees. Yeah. And I in the book used, you use the analogy of your services being swipe right, swipe left, almost like the dating service right for causes.

00;13;16;17 - 00;13;40;02
But you emphasize it's much more sophisticated than that, which it is. What's wrong with how most successful, professionals currently approach giving back in your estimation? In other words, we'll get into the time talent treasure side of things here in a little bit. But, a lot of times it's just money. It's just. Okay, let me give away.

00;13;40;04 - 00;13;58;15
I'm going to make a donation. Right. And they're a professional. I don't have time to do this. There's no time for me to sit on a board. I've heard all the excuses because I have a nonprofit, and I know what it's like. Yeah, well, so much to say about that. So let me let me try to break out three headlines.

00;13;58;18 - 00;14;18;21
Headline one is serving on a nonprofit board is not just about giving money. That's a good starting point. And we certainly hope that, board members will be very generous in the way that they write a check or make a contribution each year. But it's so much more than that. There's sort of kind of four key roles that a nonprofit board member plays.

00;14;18;21 - 00;14;49;29
So the first is they, along with the rest of the board, are setting the strategic direction of the organization. They're really engaged and visioning and mission statement and then building a strategy to move us closer to that vision in that work that we that purpose that we aspire to do as an organization. Secondly, board members drive resources, so they give, but they also fundraise and they advocate and they make connections from their network into the organization to create more resources to help that organization fulfill its mission.

00;14;50;02 - 00;15;19;13
The third thing board members do is provide fiduciary oversight, and that really requires presence. It requires time. You show up at meetings, you're engaged in the committee structure, you're paying attention. You're reading the reports because ultimately you serve as a fiduciary, a fiduciary of that organization, ensuring it's sustainable long term success in a number of ways. And then the fourth thing you do as a board member is leverage your expertise or professional skills.

00;15;19;16 - 00;15;44;03
You know, Greg, you are a master communicator. So I would imagine when you serve on nonprofit boards, you can really be helpful to that organization in crafting its message and building a strategy around how you'll get the message out about this organization into the broader world. I train people on nonprofit boards for a living, so I'm able to leverage my expertise, maybe in the governance committee and building optimal governance structure.

00;15;44;06 - 00;16;11;05
So this board is operating at full time, full capacity. Others have HR skills or, technology skills or legal skills. There's always a way for you to leverage your core skill set in governance doesn't mean you're doing the work, but you're a thought partner with the CEO and with the board, and you're a kind of a champion of functional area excellence, that thing you know best in the world, helping that function at the nonprofit, be optimal as well.

00;16;11;05 - 00;16;44;22
So, that's what board service looks like. We are not interested in finding, board candidates who want to get their name on the website, their name on the letterhead, never to be heard from again. Right. Board services, a real set of responsibilities. That takes some time. It takes some real commitment of of of engagement. And and frankly, it if, if that's not if somebody is not able to carve out the time, the talent and treasure commitments to get that work done, nonprofit board services are right for them.

00;16;44;24 - 00;17;12;18
Right. Well, it, it it I think frequently for many of my listeners, when they go out there and they think about serving on nonprofit board or they think about it, it's, you know, it's kind of sometimes the way the people from the charities approach them. It's like they want to tap my resources, right? Meaning whether it's hey, in my network of people because we'd like you to go out and ask them for money to raise that.

00;17;12;20 - 00;17;42;00
But I think when you look at it, if it's fulfilling your what you said, the head passion versus the heart passion, if you really have a heart passion for the charity meaning whether it's working with the homeless and building, housing for them, like Jimmy Carter did or it's anything else, it's cancer, American Cancer Society, leukemia society doesn't matter which one it is.

00;17;42;02 - 00;18;06;22
If you've got your heart and it's there. So can you explain this distinction? And if you would share this story about Atlanta Tool Bank, that illustrates how we can both be equally powerful. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I, I tell this story in my book Becoming a Causey. In identifying the right organization for you, we want you to be passionate about that mission.

00;18;06;22 - 00;18;26;23
But I want to remind people that there's there's head passion and there's heart passion in the nonprofit sector. We're very familiar with heart passion, read nonprofits do a lot of meaningful work that's emotive in nature. You know, I've been to countless nonprofit galas where they show a five minute video, you know, that kind of summarizes their work.

00;18;26;23 - 00;18;49;10
And you're seeing the kids of the clients and the impact that they're having in the world. And, you know, sometimes I even, you know, tear up. I'm kind of an emotional guy. I'll tear up over the impact. It's very, very powerful. I call that heart passion. And it's a great reason to join a nonprofit board. But I also want candidates to not forget about what I call head passion, that these organizations are doing work.

00;18;49;10 - 00;19;17;10
That may not be a motive, but it's just a really, really good idea. So I gave the example in the book around, the time I interviewed the CEO and board chair of an organization called, Atlanta Tool Bank, and they, essentially are a big warehouse of hundreds if not thousands of tools and nonprofits can borrow those tools when they need projects done at their nonprofit.

00;19;17;12 - 00;19;38;25
I remember thinking in the interview that we will never find candidates for this organization. I mean, it's a warehouse full of tools, smart idea, but not very exciting. Boy, was I wrong. It was the number one, requested organization by the candidates we were working with in Atlanta that year. The people looked at it and said, now that is smart.

00;19;38;25 - 00;19;55;29
That's something I can get on board with. And of course, some people also just really love that. So to work two of them, I live in New York City. Not a lot of opportunity. These tools here. But others, they have a lot of opportunities to, to sort of get their hands dirty and get the work done around their house or their property.

00;19;56;02 - 00;20;19;06
So it proved to be a really, really popular organization to serve. It was, lessons to me, that passion is about heart, but it's also about head. And so as you think about what the right organization is for you, explore with sort of both of those concepts in mind. That's really a great example because, you know, what you thought was it going to work worked great.

00;20;19;06 - 00;20;42;14
And I could I can imagine, you know, this tool bank, I'm going to actually look it up because I haven't, there's so many cities that could use that, where the charity is earning money, I presume where they earning money by people coming in and actually taking the tools out and borrowing them? Or were these being used on nonprofit, ventures?

00;20;42;14 - 00;21;05;03
How did it actually work? Did you people bank raise money by going in and getting tools? And then the money went to serve the community? Yeah. Well, you can look at look it up on it's the Atlanta community tool bank Atlanta tool bank.org. I believe there may be a minimal fee to rent the tools for a period of time nonprofits may pay.

00;21;05;03 - 00;21;24;15
I'm not certain about that. But because it's such a good idea, they can raise funds from foundations or corporate sponsorships or board members who say, hey, you know, this is an area that's of interest to you. You're kind of a, a tool guy, a maintenance guy, a project guy where men are women. Why don't you, contribute to the organization?

00;21;24;15 - 00;21;45;21
So they're raising their money in order to offer these services to nonprofits at probably virtually no cost or very low cost. I think it's a word it doesn't seem. Or they should just have Tim the Tool Man on their. So but, you know, lent it to a bank, dawg. I'm definitely going to do that when we hang up.

00;21;45;21 - 00;22;15;25
Now you've identified four causes files helping hand people developer, reformer and disruptor. And this is in the book for my listeners. And, by the way, go to becoming a cause e.com B.Com I ING aca us sitcom. There you can learn more. Can you briefly describe these and help our listeners understand why, knowing their style, matters?

00;22;15;25 - 00;22;38;00
I actually think, don't you have a, a quiz for this or something? That's right. And and you can go to my cause finder. Well, go to becoming a causey, and we have a my cause, my course finder. Yeah. Tool. Right. It's a free tool, a series of 25 or so questions that after you answer it, gives you a sense of your causes, style.

00;22;38;03 - 00;23;01;26
The reason I want to do to do that, again, everyone is different. And we really want you to find the organization that's right for you. So, for example, one of the causes styles is helping hand could also be called the Good Samaritan. But we used Helping Hand. This is a causey who should be working with an organization that's serving people directly and addressing immediate needs.

00;23;01;29 - 00;23;25;07
When I had my mom take the quiz, she is an extreme helping end. It would not be exciting for her to do work that somebody who is a reformer does. Reformer is working on macro level issues. They're trying to change societal and societal structures in order to create lasting change. That's not my mom. My mom wants to work in an organization where she can see it.

00;23;25;07 - 00;23;46;17
She can feel it. She can see the change happening in people's lives. But for a reformer, that won't be interesting at all, it's too small. It's too temporal. I want to do something that's going to change society and structures long term. So you can see there those are both ends of the spectrum. IELTS right? Yeah. A people developer or somebody say, no, I want to I want it to be about humans.

00;23;46;25 - 00;24;21;07
But again, that immediate short term fix isn't the answer for me. The answer is really making a long term investment in people, so it changes their lives and generations for, for the long term. So we think of people. Developers, for example, might be great at a workforce development organization where they're doing, you know, five year commitment of helping hard to employee individuals, maybe folks coming out of the criminal or out of prison or folks who have, you know, have been affected by homelessness and are just trying to get back in the workforce.

00;24;21;07 - 00;24;48;11
Right. That's not an immediate fix. That's a development issue. The fourth cause area that we identify, and you can, after taking the quiz, may find out you are this is is is somebody who is is a disruptor that that this idea of reform and long term and changing systems not fast enough. It's somebody who wants to get in and change things at a systemic level, but quickly and passionately.

00;24;48;17 - 00;25;20;01
And so you can kind of take this quiz, figure out what what what, cozy profile fits you best. And that shapes your search. Then for the organization. That's right. For, you know, the organization will say, oh, we're a people developer, but they may but probably won't say we're a people developer or organization or a helping hand organization, but you'll understand it because once you know your profile, as you familiarize yourself with organizations, they will describe themselves with the language that's consistent with your profile.

00;25;20;04 - 00;25;49;13
Yeah, it's it's it's brilliant because, you know, people need to kind of know where they fit. And what style it is. I recently took, this purpose factor profile, which is it defines your purpose, but what it tells you also, which I thought was brilliant, is, you know, what is what's driving that behind you. And what I found out about me is that one of the things that drives me is justice, right?

00;25;49;13 - 00;26;17;22
In other words, I'm somebody who wants to help get things equal. I want there to be justice. Right? Right. And so that light my fire right in the in the profile was 100 plus questions. And it takes about an hour to actually do. But the, the 48 page profile that it spits out is just amazing. I mean, I'm going to tell people do yours, but also do the other one and they layer on perfectly.

00;26;17;22 - 00;26;49;29
So if you're about justice, right. And there's a couple of ways you can, manifest impact. Once you know your causes style, if you're also a helping hand, then a legal aid organization might be right for you. An organization that's addressing the immediate legal need of people living in poverty who are about to lose their home, or about to lose their kids, or about to, face a criminal, conviction that a criminal charge that maybe they, are innocent and should be, and need to be defended.

00;26;50;01 - 00;27;16;29
That's immediate. It's a helping hand, justice oriented cause. But if you're a reformer, you can live out your justice, cause perhaps in a policy organization that's working on, creating fairness and equality and equity in society at a long, in a long term way, at a macro level, at a societal level. So both are justice oriented causes, but they're playing themselves out in very different types of organizations.

00;27;16;29 - 00;27;40;06
Yeah. So true. Now let's talk about the three T's a aboard commitment, time, talent and treasure. We said we'd get to this. Yeah. Every board person or I should say nonprofit you talk to. The pitch is always, well, we either need your time, talent and or treasure, or we need all three of them. For a busy executive making multiple six figures.

00;27;40;08 - 00;28;05;23
What does realistic engagement actually look like? Because I know I've been on so many boards. Some of them I spent for years, others I'm off of. I have my own nonprofit, and it does take a commitment of all three of those. Yep. Yeah. Well, if you're thinking about joining a board, it's really important that you understand what this commitment looks like.

00;28;05;23 - 00;28;42;11
I spend quite a bit of time in the book becoming a causey, writing about what you're committing to around your time. What are you committing to around get money, frankly. And what are you committing to around leveraging your, your skills? And what's your sort of a your resources are available to you. So in terms of time, essentially to serve on a nonprofit board, I think about it as 4 to 6 hours a month that you'll be dedicating to that organization on average, some months more, some months less, depending on, you know, when the gala is or when the activities of the board take place.

00;28;42;11 - 00;29;01;08
But in general, that's a good metric to to think about if you're going to into an officer role. Certainly if you're the board chair many more hours a month. But that's kind of the standard way to think about how you leverage your time. And we spent a lot of time in the book talking about specifically, what is that time commitment?

00;29;01;08 - 00;29;23;13
How is that time invested? From a, a treasurer perspective? This is, an area of real, passion for me because I've seen too many board members step onto a board and for the first time, learn that they are asked to give a certain amount of money or they're asked to fundraise, are and or give a certain amount of money and they say, I didn't know about that.

00;29;23;15 - 00;29;45;14
So I would say, when you go on a first date, you would never talk about money. You know, like, so what's your focus score? When you didn't do that on the first date, you absolute talk about money on your first date with a nonprofit, when you're an executive director and a board candidate sitting down for the first time at some point, if the executive director hasn't brought it up, the candidate said, what are the expectations around giving?

00;29;45;21 - 00;30;07;13
What are the expectations around fundraising? We find that about two thirds of nonprofits do have what we call a give get expectation, which is a minimum amount of money that the each board member is expected to bring into the organization each year through their giving in their fundraising. So maybe it's $5,000 between what you give and what you help us generate.

00;30;07;14 - 00;30;33;27
We want that to be at least $5,000. And if you go well beyond that, we'll be thrilled. So if that expectation exists, you should know about it. And you should be thoughtful around can I meet that expectation? Am I prepared to to do so? About a third of organizations don't have a stated give, but they have more of a standard well, where they will either say, we want you to make a personally meaningful contribution for the CEO of a large company.

00;30;33;27 - 00;30;57;21
A personally meaningful contribution is very different than probably the one you and I can make, Greg, but we can still make a personally meaningful contribution based on our ability to do so. And we ask every board member to participate in the fundraising effort. That sounds scary for many. Remember that, every nonprofit board member is a little bit terrified of fundraising.

00;30;57;27 - 00;31;19;18
And so organizations build an infrastructure that really board members plug into the annual giving campaign, the five K run, the gala, the silent auction. So you kind of participate and do your best. That's all we're asking. So that's how a lot of organizations handle the the fundraising and giving aspect. And then the final thing is talent. How do you leverage your talent?

00;31;19;20 - 00;31;36;27
Spent a lot of time in the book talking about this, because you can manage this as a board member if you get in the weeds, if you start micromanaging, you know, if you say, well, I am a marketing expert and this branding is awful and I'm going to fix it for you, that's really not the role of a board member.

00;31;36;27 - 00;32;00;13
We hover at a higher altitude, right. But there's a lot of ways where you can support and champion the development of the function that you know best. So it's a it's a careful line. Always that board members walk around. How do I contribute and make a meaningful impact without going too far and crossing into management territory? So we spend quite a bit of time in becoming a cause.

00;32;00;13 - 00;32;22;12
We talking about that issue garden. Yeah. There used to be a guy by the name of Mark Victor Hanson. He's still out there and he always used to say ask, ask, ask, ask is guest guest guest guest guest guest. So when you get on a board, chances are you're going to be asking a lot of people, especially during an annual campaign, well, what are two for money?

00;32;22;12 - 00;32;39;20
But if you don't want to do it, you should make certain that you can write the check. That's going to be pretty close to the amount that you might be asking all other people. I just want to demystify that a little bit, because I don't want to scare people from joining a board on this. I get constantly going to be asking people for money.

00;32;39;22 - 00;32;56;14
In my experience, it's not that usually. And I write about this in chapter seven, I think it's my favorite chapter because I really put on the hat of a board member whose starting point is the last thing in the world I ever want to do is ask people in my network for money. And that's pretty much all of our starting points.

00;32;56;17 - 00;33;22;08
And I try to demystify the role and sort of walk an individual through. What does it look like to become a fundraiser for an organization in most organizations? In my view, most organizations are not saying ask, ask, ask, ask, ask, ask, ask. They're usually saying, who are 3 to 5 people in your network who you know would resonate with the values and mission of this organization?

00;33;22;10 - 00;33;43;27
Who, if they learned about us and met us and got to know us and built a relationship with us, might want to become a really meaningful supporter of this work, and then you start opening the doors to those individuals, strategically inviting them into opportunities to get to know the leadership and get to know them. Organization. And ultimately, we hope, turning them into donors.

00;33;44;04 - 00;34;08;06
To me, that's a much more doable approach to fundraising that most people can say, yeah, I can think of 3 or 5 people. I can open the doors. I can get the remember that you're inviting to somebody in your network to experience the joy that you get as a board member out of serving that organization. I don't disagree with you, but I'll say I've been on Y boards and I've been on I've been on all kinds of boards.

00;34;08;06 - 00;34;28;05
And so in the end, if it's a capital campaign, it's one thing. If it's a if it's a current campaign for resources versus a capital campaign. Yeah. In a capital campaign, you're going to ask those 3 or 4 other people because we're going to be using the money to build a building, or we're going to do whatever they're in.

00;34;28;05 - 00;34;50;14
A current support campaign. You know, when I was at the Y for I was on a Y board for 23 years, it was all about how many contacts you could make, no matter how big the donation was. So it could be $50, $20, whatever. And I was the one who always got hit up to be the head of those campaigns.

00;34;50;16 - 00;35;10;00
Right? So I, I knew how much work it took. They'd actually have like phone things where they go back. Now, these were people that knew the Y. They'd been there. They'd been through the doors, they had a big list. It wasn't like they weren't bringing their kids to the Y, and they didn't know what it was, but they were asking for, you know, a $50 donation or a $100 donation or whatever.

00;35;10;03 - 00;35;32;10
And I do get that. That turns a lot of people off. But at the reality where the pedal hits the metal, I'll bet you even today they're still doing things kind of pretty similar, when it comes to current support. But the reality is you don't have to sign up for that. That's the key. That is what you have to do.

00;35;32;13 - 00;35;52;19
You have to take your talent and match it where it belongs within the organization. And if you don't believe it belongs there, that's fine. So look, we got a lot of listeners out there right now that have listened to us for the last 40 minutes, and they're feeling like they're pulled towards something, let's say, meaningful, but they don't know where to start.

00;35;52;21 - 00;36;14;29
What's the first step they should take after listening to our interview? If, if, if you are a busy professional who has something to offer and doesn't know how to get there, how does it know how to find an organization and get on a board and succeed once you land on that board? That's exactly why I wrote the book Becoming a Closet.

00;36;14;29 - 00;36;46;15
I'm not here to sell books, but I am here to share that. That's the roadmap that we have. Place 3500 very busy executives on boards across the US and UK, and they are driving significant impact. They give around $5 million a year and they raise around $15 million a year for these causes. Where we've placed them, they are, stepping into leadership roles that 50% of our candidates are nominated to a chair role or elected to an officer role within the first year.

00;36;46;22 - 00;37;09;14
So it's our roadmap. We we figured out how to help a busy professional identify their cause, find an organization that the organization show up with game day readiness. And then once they're elected to the board, drive, drive. Incredible impact from day one, we put it in the book. So I would honestly say the best thing you could do is visit becoming a Cars.com.

00;37;09;18 - 00;37;35;29
Well, I come we go get the book and or go to Amazon and buy the book. Even better, there's a reason for that is you can do this in the privacy of your home. Read this book and then determine what it is that you think is driving you. Go take this, my cause finder, the little A thing and find out where you fit, and then you interview boards if you're not going to go through Rob.

00;37;36;02 - 00;38;03;06
But if you are, contact Rob and see what you know he's got available. But the reality is, there's a lot of charities out there that need your help, no matter who's listening to this right now. So you've built this. It's pretty remarkable. Rob. This, cause strategy partners, what's your vision for the future? And how do you want to see this movement of causes kind of evolved?

00;38;03;08 - 00;38;26;07
Where where do you think this is going? Because you're the only one that I know is actually doing this. This way. We, without question, are placing the most number of board members each year on nonprofits across the US. And, my vision, our mission statement, which you started. I appreciated, Greg, during the introduction, you mentioned our mission to inspire the world's professionals to serve their cause.

00;38;26;10 - 00;38;50;25
It's our mission. The world's professionals is a very big call. There's a lot of billions of millions and tens and hundreds of millions of people out there who qualify as the world's professionals. We're not going to reach them all. But what we're trying to do is reach as many as we can to. We wrote this book so those who we won't work with directly will have the roadmap to find their cause and serve them effectively.

00;38;51;01 - 00;39;18;18
And ultimately, the big hairy audacious goal to borrow from Jim Collins and good to great, the big hairy audacious goal is to transform what governance looks like in the nonprofit sector. So that talented people are showing up, fully committed, trained up and ready to serve, and in doing so, that that will transform what boardroom service looks like. And in doing that, that organizations will will blossom as we serve their causes.

00;39;18;24 - 00;39;38;23
The other big hairy audacious goal, frankly, is we're trying to change the definition of what it means to be a successful professional, that it's not enough, not enough to get that job and to be promoted and be promoted and be promoted and make more money and get a better title. That is not all and not enough to be a professional.

00;39;38;23 - 00;39;58;19
To be a professional means that at the same time, you are giving back to a cause that matters to you and your community, in your country and your world, and you're giving the very best of yourself to that cause. In the same way that you bring the very best of yourself to that job each and every day, that's the definition of a professional.

00;39;58;22 - 00;40;23;11
That's very well the definition of a causey grade and a definition of because it very well said. Rob and it's and again, I think that, for all my listeners, go get a copy of the book, please. You can get it at Amazon. Put a link, go to the website. Becoming a closet. Com definitely when you go there, I think the first thing you should do is if you're out hunting, hit the My Cause finder.

00;40;23;14 - 00;40;42;14
Take the little test, find out where you fit. And then go from there because that's the best way. And listen to the the video, which is on the front page, because that kind of explains it all. Rob and Greg, let me just also say if for audible subscribers, becoming a causey is on audible as well.

00;40;42;14 - 00;41;02;04
So that's an option if you want to hunt and listen instead of read. Okay. Good. Good point. So with that said, thank you so much for being on the show and on the state. Thanks to you and thanks to all the people that support you on the backside of you, your assistance and people that are helping keeping all this go.

00;41;02;06 - 00;41;28;14
And, I appreciate the fact that we've had time to let people learn about the book while at the same time learning a little bit more. And actually, I think we were able to day to remove some of the fear and trepidation that some people may have. And thinking about that, I love the point you made about if you're going to be a professional, it doesn't mean just working and earning money and supporting your family.

00;41;28;14 - 00;41;53;05
It means finding a cause. And I would strictly say it, if you go to this, this my course finder, the most important thing is find your purpose. What is your passion? Where do you really want to put some of your time and effort? And I think that's where this goes. When people start to question, that's going say, hey, well, it's one thing to just earn a living and spend the money on myself, but what about all the other people that could use your help?

00;41;53;05 - 00;42;18;03
I think that's when you've expanded, as you said, your heart or your head, but your both your heart and your head. Rob, thanks for being on the inside, personal growth and sharing, your message with our listeners. Thank you. Greg, thanks for this platform and all the great work you're doing in the world. Not only creating courses, but creating people who are really, ready to tackle the world and tackle their lives.

00;42;18;03 - 00;42;25;16
This inside perfect personal growth is a terrific podcast, and it's a real honor to be here today. Thanks so much. Have a great rest of your afternoon.

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