Podcast Description:
This week on the ACB Advocacy Update, Clark Rachfal, Claire Stanley, and Eric Bridges speak to a very exciting guest - the one and only Tony Stephens! Tony will be returning to ACB as our new Director of Development. Join them as they talk about his new position and what he will be bringing to ACB.
Podcast Transcript:
Intro: You're listening to the ACB Advocacy Update.
Claire Stanley: Hey everybody. Welcome back to another episode of ACB Advocacy Update. This is Claire, the Advocacy and Outreach Specialist here at the American Council of the Blind. Sitting to my left is...
Clark Rachfal: Clark Rachfal, Director of Advocacy and Governmental Affairs for the American Council of the Blind. Thanks to everyone listening over ACB Radio and those downloading and streaming via their favorite podcast player. And we are coming to you all on the heels of the 2020 ACB DC Leadership Meeting.
Claire Stanley: You say people download it from their favorite, maybe they don't download it from their favorite.
Clark Rachfal: Yeah, you got me.
Claire Stanley: Just an observation. Anyway, who is sitting to your left Clark?
Clark Rachfal: Well, Claire, today we have two guests on this podcast and the first one that we shall introduce is the distinguished gentlemen from the great state of Iowa, ACB Executive Director, Mr. Eric Bridges!
Claire Stanley: Woohoo!
Eric Bridges: Hey good morning guys.
Clark Rachfal: So Eric what was your favorite part about the DC leadership meetings?
Eric Bridges: I loved it all.
Clark Rachfal: Yeah, that's good. Folks, We're recording this before the meetings actually occur. So just a little curve ball.
Eric Bridges: Everything is going to go perfectly.
Claire Stanley: We're clairvoyant.
Clark Rachfal: Yes. No one will be kicked out of any of the office buildings on Capitol Hill.
Claire Stanley: That would actually be really cool cause that would mean we were like really intense, awesome advocates.
Eric Bridges: Would that give us street cred?
Claire Stanley: I think so, ACB street cred.
Eric Bridges: We're hard. [Laughter]
Clark Rachfal: So the DC leadership meetings are one way that ACB is furthering our mission. Folks have seen recent announcements, whether that's online or through the listservs about other ways that ACB is growing and furthering our mission. And Eric, one of those is the hiring of a Development Director.
Eric Bridges: That's correct. So over the last few years, ACB has done, you know, I would consider a really nice job of figuring out our, our finances and being able to, to sustain the organization through various revenue streams, that's allowed us go out and hire frankly, folks like Claire. We did not have a position previous to the Advocacy and Outreach Specialist and were able to hire Claire as well as Cindy Van Winkle last summer to be our Membership Services Coordinator, two really key roles. And in order for the organization to really grow and meet the vision of the next five years we've needed to go and hire somebody that can focus really most, if not all of their time on fundraising and bringing money into the organizations, developing relationships with, with foundations and corporate America and individual donors to, to not just help sustain ACB, but to help us grow so that we can do more for our members. And I'm really pleased to announce that the individual that we've hired is on this podcast and you all may recognize him from previous podcasts. He was the original "OG" of this podcast with Claire, Tony Stephens.
Claire Stanley: Wooooo!
Tony Stephens: Hello, hi everybody!
Eric Bridges: There you go. It's great to have you back. Congratulations. And where have you been?
Tony Stephens: I have been busy the past year up in Baltimore. Hi everybody. It is, it's nice to be back in the fold as it were. So I have been, I left ACB for an opportunity.
Tony Stephens: Primarily just because my kids that are in a very formative time in their lives. We moved to Baltimore several years ago from Washington DC, which as a commuter, it's a sort of the DC metropolitan area. Baltimore falls within it, it's only 25 miles north of the district, but it is you know a place where my family and I wanted to move to we, we love row home living. So rooted in Baltimore, and then an opportunity came that would allow me sort of a part time gig to be with my kids for a year just to be able to really focus in on their education, and helping get the family as it were sort of really set up and with school and everything. I got a 10 year old and a seven year old now. And so I took a job running a small nonprofit here in Baltimore that was a family focused advocacy, nonprofit. So I bid adieu to ACB. It was a very tough choice as Eric knows when I made that choice. But I spent a year, and after that you know, Eric was talking to me about this opportunity and I was looking to, you know, I got the nonprofit in a place where I thought it was a good place to be and, and bid them adieu as well to transition and what you know, this opportunity opened itself up to be. So I'm back. I don't know if I should be like Bryan Cranston from the, Superbowl commercials where he was sort of playing the part of Johnny from "The Shining". You know, "I'm baaaack" kind of thing. But here I am.
Eric Bridges: Mountain Dew zero right? Or whatever that was.
Tony Stephens: It was mountain Dew. You're right. Yes.
Clark Rachfal: We're going to have to have our editor or bleep that out. They are not a sponsor of the podcast. [Laughter].
Tony Stephens: Well, maybe they could send some free Mountain Dew to the office. I mean, maybe we could...
Eric Bridges: They're part of Pepsi right?
Tony Stephens: Yes, Pepsi-Co. As you guys know I always have a diet Pepsi in my hands as the development director now. I'm happy to solicit the Pepsi PepsiCo. Taco Tuesdays, I think they have taco bell also in their portfolio.
Clark Rachfal: Tony, how has your, your year away as it were, but your time working with that family nonprofit in Baltimore, how has that prepared you to take on this new role within ACB?
Tony Stephens: Well, you know, if anything it was, it was sort of a PhD in one year compressed on, on fundraising. I mean, when you're executive director for a small nonprofit, we were very small in the sense that I bore, you wear a lot of hats, right? It was smaller by staff-wise than ACB, mainly relying on volunteers, but it's in a sense as a, it's sort of that crash course on all things. When I took over the nonprofit it was in a tough financial position to say it nicely and..
Clark Rachfal: You want to, your audio did a funky thing there.
Tony Stephens: Okay. I'll pause and then go back.
Clark Rachfal: Yeah, just start over with, it was the nonprofit was in a tough financial position.
Tony Stephens: When I took over the nonprofit, it was, to say it nicely in a tough financial position. And in a lot of ways was rebuilding the relationships with some, with some funders and donors and really focusing about 60% of my time was spent on fundraising in that position because we did not have a director of development. So a significant amount of that time was spent on really development, but also too, you know, it was interesting that the board had undergone a strategic plan the prior year. And so it was executing that and working within that context of you know, just capacity building, finding the revenue to try to sustain the organization, not just for, you know, a year, but over time sort of in the longterm. And you know, that ties in some sense to the way that the ACB has undergone its own strategic plan in recent years. You know, over the past five years, and has really been doing an excellent job with Eric and the board. It's sort of executing that. So, you know, in some ways it was, it was an excellent opportunity for me to spend a year with my children. I'm not going to say, okay, I'm sick of my children now. I've had that year time to move on. You know, but they're, they're growing up and the age and a couple of months, where they could stay on their own legally, which is a weird sense of parenting when your kids start growing up like that, you don't need to be the shadow over them. But in that sense of just you know of, of what the past year provided for me, it was really sort of this really diving in and Eric knows as an executive director, obviously, with a much larger plate than I had, but on all things the ED does. But from the fundraising perspective, it was, it was really, it was really a fascinating year of really just sort of diving in and, and, you know, my whole career has been spent in communications to some degree in the nonprofit sector. I'm on 31 years now, working in nonprofits. I'm much older professionally than I'd like to think I am physically and mentally. But to that end it's, you know, it's always centered around communications to some degree. And that's really what development is, is anchored, in fundraising, is anchored in. And you know, what's our value proposition? It's part marketing, it's building relationships which is interpersonal communications. It's marketing on the larger branding sense. So on the macro communication side as well.
Eric Bridges: Yeah. And just for the record, I do want our listeners to know that we did have a competitive application process for this and there were some other really good candidates. So it was it was a good thing, a good exercise for me to go through given that we've not had a full time development director working for ACB in a very long time, if ever maybe. And I would like to also recognize the really good work that Tom Tobin has done over the last eight years as our contractor that's been leading our development efforts. Tom is a long time ACB member and is going to be working with Tony to transition Tony over the next couple months and we thank Tom for his dedication, his passion, but also his professionalism through this process. It's, it's been great learning from Tom and you know, he's indicated that he's very much interested in helping even after his, his time is technically finished as a contractor with ACB. So thank you very much to him.
Clark Rachfal: Eric, will you talk a little bit more about the, I guess the work that Tom has done to get ACB to this point? And the areas that you see for growth with a development director?
Eric Bridges: Sure, so, you know, I think one of the things that Tom has done, he's taken the bull by the horns in terms of the individual donors that we, that we have and cultivating them saying, thank you. It is amazing. How many organizations sort of lag behind or don't do that? The phone call, the email, the quick note in the mail to say thank you is a really big thing. And he's, he's sort of ingrained that into me through the process. When we went through the, the strategic plan, we focused on five key areas of the business of ACB. A lot of folks don't think of ACB as a business, but we very much are. And one of those five focus areas was development. And one of the key achievements that he helped to lead us into, you know, achievement was the development and ultimately the standing up of a legacy endowment fund, which is really there to help support the organization over time to allow for us to reach out to potential donors or existing donors to share you know, the fact that we have this we have this fund where money can go and it will, it will stay and it will be there to help us into the future. You know, allowing us at a point in the future to take a certain percentage, not of the principle, but you know, the interest to put in as a budget line item so that we can take advantage of the, of the goodness of folks to do more for our members and the broader community.
Clark Rachfal: And Claire, you worked with Tony when you first signed on with ACB, right?
Claire Stanley: I did. Yeah.
Clark Rachfal: And there's going to be a lot of partnership as well as overlap between the work that you and I will do in advocacy and governmental affairs and the work that Tony's doing as well.
Claire Stanley: Yeah, for sure. I'm really excited that Tony's back and we'll let him do job as director of development, but I'm sure we'll you know, pull him in for some ideas on what we're doing. I know I had a great time working with Tony and I'm really excited to have him back to, you know, lend his expertise in many different areas just to help us at ACB. So I'm really excited, Tony, that you're back and you couldn't get away! We're going to pull you back in.
Eric Bridges: And Tony, did you want to jump in? I felt like when I was done, you wanted to say something?
Tony Stephens: No, no. I think definitely thanks to Tom to echo that, you know, development and fundraising is one of the unsung, you know, the people that do that are in a sense the people that you don't realize working behind the scenes. You know, effective fundraising is done when it's usually the person that is leading it isn't the one always in your face, you know, and sort of in that sense you know, a lot of what Tom did was behind the scenes stuff that keeps the machine running. It's not the glamorous, it's not the glamorous, you know, sort of a platform that you might get as, as an advocate or as an executive director or as a senior board member that has that sort of physical presence. But it's, it's extremely critical in all things. I myself enjoy that kind of work. I mean, I'm a bass player on the side. I've always loved music and played music. Before I went to study journalism communications, I had that real strong sense when I went off to college. I could either do music, I had a full ride for music or a full ride for journalism. And I chose the journalism because the voice of my father was in the back of my head. You know, but you know, as a bass player you kind of stand in the back and keep the band holding together. You're the glue. Right? And so in a lot of ways, you know, this is the kind of stuff I love the behind the scenes stuff. I mean I've, I've been very fortunate over the years as a communicator to have that platform in there providing a platform. Most of the jobs I've had where you get to stand out in front of people, there's really something exciting about, you know, sort of creating systems and processes that really help, you know, in a sense you're, you're building the motor for something and priding the fuel and you want to make sure the motor is, is clean and well designed. So that what fuel you can put into it. You get the cleanest running engine. You can, you don't get a lot of you know, smoke coming out as you were.
Claire Stanley: Music analogy is to car analogies. I love it.
Tony Stephens: Music analogies, to cars. Yeah. I just went to the car show the other day, so maybe my head is all fixed around, you know, cars in a sense. But yeah, it's, you know, so thanks to Tom, like Eric said, because it is a lot of, a lot of that hard work that often times people don't realize, it takes to keep the lights on in any nonprofit.
Eric Bridges: Yeah. It's, you know, this is a business, but one of the things that I firmly believe is going to help Tony and all of us because development isn't just going to be with Tony. It'll be with me. It will be with all of us, including the board. It's the work that we do, the impact that we have in the community and, you know, being able to go out and talk about that to potential donors, whether they're foundations, individual donors, corporate America, which we've done a really effective job at working with corporate America. You know, this job would be all the more difficult if we didn't have real tangible achievements to talk to, to speak to, to show folks you know, we're a leader in the community and we do, we tend to do some things a little different than some of our brothers and sisters in the disability community as, as it pertains to accessibility and advocacy. So there's, there's some uniqueness and I think a good niche for us to be able to approach various parties in the future.
Clark Rachfal: Yeah. And in my experience over the past year with ACB we are a, a strong organization because we have an affirmed foundation of loyal and supportive members. We have a strong base of generous donors and that really enables the work that Claire and I and our affiliates do in the advocacy in governmental affairs space. But in doing that work and having tangible results from those efforts, that really opens doors to partnerships and innovative collaborations and folks wanting to work with us because they see the results that are occurring and that's going to feed into the work that Tony will now be doing with ACB as well.
Claire Stanley: Definitely. So, Tony, not to give away any company secrets or anything like that, but can you just highlight a couple of points of things you're hoping to do when you come in, kind of your first hundred days, so to speak here at ACB, any new ideas you want to share with us?
Tony Stephens: I think, I mean the first thing for any new director of development in any, any role or any critical relationship building role is doing what they call sort of an environmental scan. You know, we will be undergoing sort of analysis and looking at all, all things, relationship and communications and branding messaging and what is the value of ACB, what value do we bring to people. But in the same sense to what is, what is ACB's existing relationships. Because as Eric mentioned, you know, one of the things Tom did that was great is, you know, reminding the value of saying thank you. And stewardship is a very critical part of the development and fundraising sort of a platform or you know, sort of body as it were. The Corpus of the fundraising revenue building side of a nonprofit is that stewardship. It's, it's making sure that relationships, existing relationships are strong and solid, that people feel empowered themselves and buy into the mission of an organization. Because that helps sustain continued growth. So, you know, a lot of the work I'll be doing is going to be really right out of the gate. You know, working to fall within those, those individuals and donors that we have been generous to have as our benefactors over the years. You know, sort of self introductions. There is a sense of, you know, it's nice that I'm not necessarily the new person that I, you know, I'm very fortunate that I know a lot of our partners already, particularly on the corporate side. ACB is unique in that you know, we, we have worked to establish a model of advocacy that that finds, is sort of coalition building that, that finds people of likeminded missions or visions and, and brings them into the fold as it were. And so, you know, to be reestablishing in this new role with a lot of those corporate partners. It will be as well looking into foundations, family foundations, large corporate foundations. You know, what opportunities exist where the mission of ACB can receive support from some of the more traditional giving arms and the philanthropic community around the country. Because we are a national organization. The great thing about Washington DC is that there is so much philanthropy at play in Washington DC obviously as it being, being an international city and a focus for so many NGOs, but at the same time that has a lot of competition, you know, so it's, it's identifying what value does ACB have that stands out amongst the other million and a half nonprofits in the country, many of whom have some sort of national presence here in Washington DC or in some of the major cities on the Eastern seaboard. So it's really working to sort of get a lay of the land within those sort of footprints.
Claire Stanley: Well, I feel like we've talked about all the great, exciting things that you're going to bring to the table and that were going on here at ACB. So thank you so much. I know I've learned a lot just in this time. So before we close out, I think we should ask a couple of fun questions. So can you tell us one random fact about yourself, Tony?
Tony Stephens: Random fact, wow. Well, I let the cat out of the bag that I'm a bass player. That's true. So let's see, random. Folks don't know part of fundraising and successful, you know, development is listening. It's in communications. We call it feedback. I spent seven years in monastic life studying to become a Catholic priest. A lot of folks don't know that little tidbit about me, but that, that was an immersion in listening cause especially when I was taking vows of silence for, you know, month, year, things like that, you know you know, and just really listening. So and I went off to, you know, in some sense that was great cause it gave me an opportunity and a whole different type of fundraising. And, and religious organizations are excellent at fundraising. You know in a lot of ways. But but it also gave me a lot of opportunities to do some fun, you know, going around the world. There's a Paul Simon song called "Me and Julio Down By the Schoolyard" where they say the radical priests come to get me released and we're on the cover of Newsweek. That was kind of the life I lived for a few years, which was exciting. I lived in Mexico and spent some time in the middle East, but yeah, so that was, that was an odd when I sort of tell people, yeah, I did this for a few years and then obviously you can't get married though. So I left. I wish there were more fun facts. Now I just, I'm just a dad. Just kind of a middle aged, boring home life.
Clark Rachfal: Eric's like, whoa, whoa, whoa!
Eric Bridges: I have a question...
Tony Stephens: Eric has two kids that are much younger than my kids.
Eric Bridges: So Tony, how many times have you been hit by a moving vehicle?
Tony Stephens: You had to bring that up didn't you. [Laughter].
Clark Rachfal: And do we need more accessible pedestrian signals?
Tony Stephens: Well, of course on that, yes. I've been hit five times.
Claire Stanley: Oh my God!
Eric Bridges: Holy cow. I thought it was three.
Tony Stephens: Well, four and a half...
Claire Stanley: A half?
Tony Stephens: One was where they sort of backed into me that just wasn't paying attention. And then it was more of like, it was kind of like maybe if you've been to the zoo or you pet an elephant and they kind of bump up against you.
Eric Bridges: Like a love tap.
Tony Stephens: Yea a love tap. It was, was a forceful love tap. So for yeah, the last one was actually quite scary, so you know, but luckily I am still here. Well that's, you know, we know what it's like to be, you know, stubbornly independent.
Clark Rachfal: And Tony, when will be your first day?
Tony Stephens: My first day will be March 2nd. Yeah. That'll be my, my big day. '.
Clark Rachfal: So the Monday after this podcast.
Tony Stephens: Yea, a few days from now. Yeah.
Claire Stanley: And I'm sure folks know where to find you. Your inbox is probably still collecting messages if Nancy hasn't shut it down.
Tony Stephens: If they don't, the fun part of my job is they'll be hearing from me.
Eric Bridges: So it will be [email protected], with a PH.
Tony Stephens: Yes with a PH. The old english way as I was telling my children the other day.
Claire Stanley: Well, thank you so much Tony. I know it's been fun for me just to hear your voice again!
Tony Stephens: It's nice to be back, Claire, and to hear your voice as well.
Clark Rachfal: Yeah. And I look forward to finally working with you for a change as opposed to in your wake and following you at National Industries for the Blind. And now at ACB.
Tony Stephens: It'll be exciting to be down the hall and hearing all the exciting podcasts where the ACB Advocacy Update being echoed through my wall. Getting into hear what's what's going to be next on the plate.
Eric Bridges: Well, it's going to be great to have you back Tony, and I'm looking forward to it. And for those that aren't aware, even after Tony left, he continued to help us by editing many of these podcasts. So thank you for doing that.
Claire Stanley: Yes, thanks.
Tony Stephens: My pleasure. Helps keep me awake at night, when I can't go to sleep, something to do.
Claire Stanley: Thank you again. And as always, if people have any topics in the advocacy realm they would like to reach out and talk about we would be happy to talk with you. You can always email us at [email protected], that's [email protected]. We definitely want to help in any way we can.
Clark Rachfal: And please reach out to the either the ACB national office or [email protected] to welcome Tony back to our little family here at ACB.
Claire Stanley: [Singing] "We are family..." Okay, I'll stop.
Clark Rachfal: That'll be in my head all day.
Claire Stanley: You're welcome. And Clark, what do we always say?
Clark Rachfal: Well, let me say thanks to Eric and Tony for joining us on this podcast and everyone...
Everyone: Keep advocating!
Tony Stephens: Semper advocaten as we would say in Latin.
Claire Stanley: Ooh, muy bien!
Tony Stephens: Sorry that's the old monk days coming back. [Laughter]
Outro: Thanks for listening to the ACB advocacy update. You can reach us by emailing [email protected] The ACB Advocacy Update is a production of the American of the Blind in Alexandria, Virginia. To learn more about ACB, visit us online at www.acb.org.