Nonprofits We Love, pt. 1: Phi Beta Psi

This month at Harden Digital and Design, we're highlighting the selfless work of nonprofits that hold a special place in our hearts. Riley and Kaylee get personal, peeling back the layers on their partnerships with these life-changing organizations. It's a journey of passion meeting purpose, where we've committed our expertise at gracious rates to elevate their missions—starting with the remarkable Phi Beta Psi, a non-academic sorority funding cancer research that resonates deeply with its members.

Navigating the ebbs and flows of sorority involvement, we dissect the tactics that keep the spirit of camaraderie alive amidst an ever-shifting landscape. Discussing the poignant interweaving of legacy and kinship, we confront the conundrum of engaging a new generation in age-old traditions. As Kaylee recounts her steps to bolster their digital footprint, including a website overhaul with Kelly from the Virginia chapter, we reveal the nitty-gritty of enhancing public engagement and untangling the web of maintaining a unified brand identity.

Wrapping up, we don't just stop at web presence; we examine the myriad ways in which fundraising and marketing can shape the future of philanthropy. From the sell-out success of Bags and Bingo to the intricacies of planning community fairs, we're pulling back the curtain on the endeavors and challenges of nonprofit events. Stay tuned for our next heart-to-heart, where we'll share stories that are more than just close to our hearts—they're part of our soul here at Harden Digital & Design.

Phi Beta Psi - Theta Delta Chapter Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PhiBetaPsiTipton

Phi Beta Psi - Theta Delta Chapter Website: https://www.phibetapsitipton.org/

Phi Beta Psi National Website: https://www.phibetapsi.org/

Transcript

Riley: 0:23

Welcome back to another episode of the Digital Wrap Up. My name is Riley and I'm the host and I'm the CEO of Harden Digital and Design, excited to be into the new month. It's officially my birthday month, so that's always fun. But we have an exciting overall topic or theme for this month that we're focusing on here at Harden Digital and Design, and I have Kaylee on this week to talk about the overall theme and then also break it down and go into a specific topic based on that theme. So welcome, kaylee, thank you, happy to have you back on the show.

Riley: 1:02

Let's go ahead and get in and start talking about the theme for this month, which is nonprofits that we love. Nonprofits hold a special place in our history, I guess, as a business. It was one of the things that, when it was just myself starting out as Harden Digital, I put an emphasis on working with a couple of nonprofits and, happy to say, the one that was one of our first two clients ever still doing work with them today. And then we've also done a bunch of stuff with other nonprofits since then, but it's always been something that I've wanted to give back in a way. We offer a lot of times our services at a discounted price for the nonprofits, and it's just something that I've felt compelled to do since the very beginning of the business.

Kaylee: 2:01

And a lot of times those are the people that need our work the most.

Riley: 2:06

They don't have full-time staff, so whatever we can do to help, yeah, it's been something, I think, since I was a kid and growing up in the church and doing other things with family. We used to help families move when we were little kids. Our dad was involved with that at the church and so and obviously doing other things with Good Samaritan Network and Nancy Chan's over the years growing up. So that kind of is what gave me the idea. But, yeah, they definitely need to help more than most organizations. So, yeah, they don't have the budget but we make it work.

Riley: 2:46

So for this month we are going to talk about four well, three specific ones, and then the fourth week is going to be kind of a collective of everything that we're doing in Tipton County. The ones that I started with and the two of the more longstanding ones that we actually get paid for doing work for are in Hamilton County. But then since we've opened up in Tipton, we've done a lot of work with some nonprofits here, so that last week of February is going to be all things Tipton County and then the first three weeks are going to be focusing on a specific nonprofit that we're involved with and I will say like we do work for these nonprofits, but we're involved usually more than just the work that we do with them.

Kaylee: 3:38

Right, we do the work because we're involved.

Riley: 3:41

Yeah, pretty much. So, without further ado. That's kind of a general overview. You know, we're going to talk about all these different nonprofits, what they mean to us, what these nonprofits do, right, it's going to kind of be a platform for those nonprofits in itself to get the word out about what they do in their communities, but then also why we got involved, how we got involved, what we're doing with them, and go beyond just saying, hey, this is the Good Samaritan Network, this is what they do. All right, thanks for listening. So there's kind of a personal story to each one, and that's what we're going to focus on this month as well. So first up for February is one that's near and dear to Kaylee and one that she's been involved with for a couple of years now, I believe.

Kaylee: 4:34

Well, I think I'm going on my sixth year as a member. Yes, it's five or six, I don't know. I should probably look that up. I should probably know she has other stats, just not the stats of how long she's been involved.

Riley: 4:47

So, anyways, you want to introduce Phi Beta, psi to our listeners and kind of just give a high level overview of the national chapter, of what it is a sorority but it's not a sorority it's non-academic sorority.

Kaylee: 5:05

So a lot of times when I talk about sorority people are like oh well, I wasn't in a sorority in school and this has nothing to do with school. This is basically a philanthropic organization. It's nationwide, we have chapters in 10 states, but our main focus is to raise money for cancer research. So we do a lot of different things locally, but as the general overview it's all cancer research related. So most of the people who are involved either have cancer, a family member had cancer or they're somehow connected to it. I mean, obviously you don't really join an organization that you don't care about. So it's got a lot of personal stories for the people who are involved.

Riley: 5:54

Which I think is more engaging than just joining the ELKS or something, because it's a social thing.

Kaylee: 6:02

Right. I mean it is a social thing, but it's got a higher purpose. Most of the people they'll tell you their personal story. I've learned a lot of different. A lot of people are survivors that are still in sorority. I think people care about it a lot more when it's something that has affected them.

Riley: 6:24

Yeah, that makes sense. So is there a specific cancer that they highlight, or is it kind of just across the board?

Kaylee: 6:34

Across the board.

Riley: 6:35

And open to whatever the chapters want to do All of the above.

Kaylee: 6:41

There is no, it's not like specifically a breast cancer organization. It's more about finding a cure or helping find a cure. What our national project does is actually give grant money to people who are researching either new treatments, new potential cures for certain cancers or, like this year, one of the grant recipients was doing something called cascade testing, where it's all about trying to figure out the family pattern and being able to test people whose families, generations above them, have had cancer and if that could potentially help a treatment for someone else down the line or help prevent which I thought was cool based on our family history. So that one was super relevant to me. But a lot of it is like someone is researching some particular area of pancreatic cancer and so we give out grants to these doctors.

Kaylee: 7:49

That's what the national project is, so every year, like each chapter gives a certain amount of their fundraising money to the national and then at the convention we vote. I don't think anyone's ever voted no. There's a whole medical board and all of this that goes through the grant applications. It's like way over my head most of it, but it's really cool the amount of money that we can give to hopefully find out more information about how to cure cancer. Not saying we're going to be able to, but it's very cool to see what we've done.

Riley: 8:26

Yeah, I think it's a good switch up from some of the larger organizations that are nonprofit but you see, their CEOs or presidents are making millions of dollars a year. This is completely different from that. It really focuses on the root cause and everything goes to that specific cause and not necessarily paying advisors and board members millions of dollars.

Kaylee: 8:55

And all of our national office is all volunteer, so they spend a lot of time on this because they do care. I think that's cool. It's kind of hard sometimes, I would say, to spend that much time on it. So the dedication that they have every year to making our organization bigger and being able to raise more money is amazing.

Riley: 9:21

So, at a local level, what does your chapter do? I mean, is there a specific cause or a specific cancer that you focus on at a local level? Is there anything in addition to what the national chapter is doing or prioritizing that you guys are doing locally?

Kaylee: 9:40

Yes, everything. I mean. There's a national project which is just cancer research in general. The Indiana State Project gives away scholarship money to people who are going into fields that are studying or will be studying cancer research. So it's all these different lab technologists and radio technology and all these basically not necessarily going to be a doctor but going to do the research. So it's a lot of technology stuff. But we give away scholarships in the state of Indiana and then our local chapter, theta delta. A lot of the money that we raise just goes to other local organizations like the school and the boys and girls club and the 4h fair. But we also have something called operation smile where if there are people in the community who do have cancer and have to travel for treatment or doctors appointments, we give them gas cards for their travel. So it's not maybe the biggest we're not paying for anybody's cancer treatment or anything like that but something it's supposed to be like. Oh hey, they were thinking of me.

Riley: 10:52

Yeah, but I mean like, so we're in Tipton, which is a small town, yeah, and if you have cancer treatment, you're likely not just traveling in Tipton. You're probably at least going 30 minutes away.

Kaylee: 11:07

People go to Indie, people go to Cincinnati, philadelphia. Like you have to travel.

Riley: 11:13

So even you know, even though you're not paying thousands and thousands of dollars, a couple hundred bucks and gas money, yeah, that's still really relevant for people, and it's because it's usually people we know like that 's.

Kaylee: 11:28

I think what's kind of cool about it is we're not just giving money to a hospital, which is cool, like a lot of the chapters that are in bigger cities they have, like, cancer centers.

Riley: 11:42

Yeah.

Kaylee: 11:42

So they do a lot of stuff. Each chapter can choose to do with their fundraising money what they want, and ours just chooses to do Operation Smile, because that's what is relevant to us in Tipton.

Riley: 11:55

Yeah, cool. So how did you first become involved?

Kaylee: 12:05

It really. I probably knew zero about Phi, beta, psi when I started. My friend Carly asked me to join, mostly because I was new to Tipton and I didn't know a lot of people and it was a way to meet different ladies in Tipton. It happens to be that it was the cause that I cared about, but that honestly wasn't even the first reason. I just wanted to be able to get out and meet people and have something to do, yeah, and then it's turned into something that I am more excited about, and now I've met people in other chapters and I've gone to different conventions and I'm trying to be more involved. So it worked out well. A lot of the ladies in my chapter have been in, you know, 25 years. We have got some 50 year members, got lifetime members, so it's really cool to see how that has carried on. A lot of them, like the mom and the grandma, were in it, so it's I don't know, it's kind of like a big family thing.

Riley: 13:16

Yeah, and this is not just Tipton specifically, but you would say overall, it is an older demographic and sorority.

Kaylee: 13:27

Yeah, a lot of it. I think now there's so much more for people to be doing. A couple of ladies like maybe when they joined 40 years ago there weren't 16,000 organizations you could be spending your time with. Yeah, so yeah, it is. That's one thing we do struggle with across the board for all chapters is getting new members, because even in Tipton, with the amount of activities for children going on, that's a lot of it is. People don't necessarily have the time. So you, the people who do commit, are the ones you know they care about it because they want to be part of it.

Riley: 14:09

Yeah, and I think it's just hard to get the word out there too of what you do. But I think if it's communicated properly then there's probably a lot more people to tap into that Do care about cancer, that answers touch them in one way or the other. It's just a matter of reaching those people.

Kaylee: 14:32

You got to get the right conversation going, I guess. Yeah, it's not something that I mean. I post about it when we have fundraisers and people know about our fundraisers.

Riley: 14:44

Yeah.

Kaylee: 14:45

But do they necessarily know what our organization does? Could they even tell you the name of Phi Beta Psi? Probably not, but they know we do. Per Spingo, yeah, they know our holiday boutique is every year in November. So that's kind of where we struggle. Also in other chapters have said the same thing, like we have meetings about it at different conventions of like we know we're passionate about it. How do we share that? Yeah, and part of it is just what area you're in. Some of the chapters, even in like Southern Indiana, they've got 60 to 70 members, like we have 19. So it just depends where you're at, how many people are available, how well you market it. We also don't do a fundraiser every month, because with 19 people, that's hard to do Without buying from everybody all the time.

Kaylee: 15:41

Right, yeah, and there's only so many people like we don't like to ask for sponsorships from the same businesses for both of our fundraisers because there's only so many businesses and tipped in, yeah, so.

Riley: 15:54

But are there other chapters around tipped in?

Kaylee: 15:58

Yes, Okay, I think it's, I think it's called like a mother chapter. Our mother chapter is in Arcadia. So they are Delta, we are theta Delta, we're like their baby. And there's also one in Sheridan, there's one in Noblesville, there's one in Fairmount. They just hosted our state convention. So there's quite a few in our little I think. I want to say the one in Sheridan is the mother chapter of the Arcadia one. Somehow we're all like a little family, I don't quite understand it.

Riley: 16:36

It's like a big family tree yeah. I was just thinking. You don't want to ask the same businesses, but is there untapped potential in surrounding areas where there's communities without a chapter that like Kokomo, for instance? Kokomo is bigger, has a lot more businesses, has a lot more people, but I think they're out there thinking about it as like the money that we give back to the community stays in Tipton.

Kaylee: 17:00

I don't know if those people are going to necessarily want to put their money into an organization that doesn't necessarily benefit. If you find the people who have had a family member die of cancer and they want to give. They would probably do it, yeah.

Riley: 17:19

I think it's just a matter of getting your name out there more.

Kaylee: 17:22

Yeah, and some of our ladies in my chapter are from Noblesville or from other areas, so it's not like we can't expand and get outside help, it's just making that happen.

Riley: 17:38

So You've been involved now for five or six years. What have you done specifically? You started out as just going and being a member. What have you done specifically in the past five or six years now to help? Then I guess even more specifically now that the marketing side of things. How have you helped out on in general and then also on the marketing side?

Kaylee: 18:12

Well, since I joined, a lot of it has just been for the fundraiser, specifically promoting the fundraisers. So, excuse me, I got to make different posters every year. I get to make the tickets that we print out for bingo. I get to make social media graphics and the event pages for Facebook and basically what we would do for a client. I've done for our local chapter just trying to get the word out A lot of it when it's specific fundraisers related, carly posts on Facebook because she knows what's going on. But graphics wise, that's kind of been me.

Kaylee: 18:54

And then a couple years back I built our chapter website because up until then, actually, most chapters in the entire sorority don't have a website. So there's information out there, like if we want to go to some business about sponsoring us, and then they go to look us up. There was nothing. So not only is it for legitimacy, but also, like now I can put the state scholarship application on there so kids from the high school can go straight to our website and find the scholarship info or it tells about the sorority. So that was what I did first. And then the next year I was at the convention. I think it was in Cincinnati. It's irrelevant to the story.

Kaylee: 19:45

But I was at the National Convention and they brought in a lady to talk about our online presence as a sorority, because the national website was a little bit outdated, not helpful I don't know how to say that nicely. They probably created it, you know, 10, 15 years ago and left it alone. So the national website was not helpful. That's why we created our chapter website and then this lady was talking about it at convention so I went up and said, hey, you guys are serious about this. Here's my card. And then another lady named Kelly she's from the Virginia chapter she did the same thing. So then they put us together and we worked with the national board and recreated and redesigned the entire national website as well.

Kaylee: 20:35

So that was a big, big undertaking, a lot of oversight and a lot of making sure we did it right. Like if we're going to do it, let's do it. Well. But Kelly's specialty and that was like maybe cutting down some of the full pages of text about the entire history of the sorority to like this is the stuff that people need to know, and it was more about how to get donations and how to grow versus just like information for members. Like we kind of flipped, flopped it for like basic info for members to like hey, this is for the public, because some of the people applying for the grants those big national grants they had nowhere to do that. Like that list that wasn't even listed on the website.

Kaylee: 21:27

Yeah, so it needed updated, so probably was like a six month, six month undertaking, I don't know.

Riley: 21:35

Yeah.

Kaylee: 21:36

It seemed like it took forever, but we wanted to make it more inviting and then we launched it right before the next convention and hopefully it's doing its job. Yeah, I don't get any statistics from that or anything. Which it's not. I mean, I'm not on the board, Right.

Riley: 21:56

Yeah, you have access to it.

Kaylee: 21:58

Yeah, but I'm I mean it was like a design and then handoff I don't update it. There's a guy named Daniel, I think he's the one who updates it now, so they'll send him anything like new stats for the year, new board members, new the grant recipients Right.

Riley: 22:19

Yeah, I think there's some native analytics in Squarespace that you might be able to pick it.

Kaylee: 22:27

I'm sure that's that's I mean. For my knowledge, I could look it up.

Riley: 22:31

Yes, Um, so that's great. The going beyond that, I guess tying it back to our business specifically, is you also offered to build out websites. Basically take a clone of your local chapters website and make it for other local chapters Right.

Kaylee: 22:51

Which I don't know if everybody's necessarily ready for that.

Riley: 22:55

Yeah.

Kaylee: 22:55

A lot of these chapters don't even necessarily have a Facebook page Like and, as you said earlier, the demographic of members is a little bit older and even them like. Creating a Facebook page to be able to post about events is a lot.

Riley: 23:11

Yeah.

Kaylee: 23:12

So maybe some of them don't necessarily need a whole website, but some of the people that do have Facebook are super active, so it just like it depends who wants to be in charge of it. Some of the chapters are posting like weekly, and one of the chapters that's in Virginia they have a chapter website that they built and they're fantastic at getting donations. I don't know what their trick is, but I would love to learn. But their website looks fantastic too, and they just built it on their own, like we did, and just like hey, this is something we need and we feel like would benefit us. So, as a branding person, the sorority as a whole could use a little bit of help. But I think that's a little bit down the road.

Riley: 24:05

But again, it's one, it's all.

Kaylee: 24:07

volunteer, it's all volunteer and also the people change positions every two years, so it's not really treated as a business. It's treated as a volunteer organization where, like some of the marketing and branding and all of that, I feel like could be a full time, like a position, not a. I don't know how to explain it very, very well. But something that should just yeah, something that should stay consistent To where every chapter's Facebook page has the same info.

Riley: 24:45

Yeah, like the one of the boards that I serve on for any pickleball club. I'm like the webmaster, right that's, I'm technically on the board but it's not an elected position, because we don't want just some random person coming in and taking control of the website and every two years, and all that especially because our payment system is through the website or membership system, so like that could create a whole lot of messes. And I think the continuity of that position is important, which I think would be also important for your organization.

Kaylee: 25:18

It's still a big enough organization that I feel like that could be helpful.

Riley: 25:22

Yeah, oh yeah, definitely big enough.

Kaylee: 25:25

I think a lot of the people like this is no hate at all.

Riley: 25:30

I promise.

Kaylee: 25:31

But a lot of people like their chapter they do really well as their chapter, but then it's kind of separate.

Riley: 25:38

Yeah.

Kaylee: 25:39

Like. It doesn't necessarily all match. Even I know it's so small, but to me it's so irritating If one chapter Facebook page is called Phi Beta Psi Theta Delta but the other one is called Theta Delta chapter of Phi Beta Psi Like. Yes, technically those are both correct information. Yeah it's not consistent. And then some people have it as a personal Facebook page, some people have it as a business, so that's even just on Facebook.

Riley: 26:11

Yeah, I mean it's hard to coordinate and quote unquote, require all that stuff when it's not coming from the top down Right.

Kaylee: 26:18

There is no rule. There's no rulebook.

Riley: 26:21

Yeah.

Kaylee: 26:22

So that to me, when we were creating our stuff, even the website, like some of that I wrote, or the ladies in my chapter, we wrote this copy for the website because it didn't exist, yeah, where some of the wording would be nice if that was standardized for everybody.

Riley: 26:42

And I mean I keep saying it, but that's the whole difficulty of it being a volunteer position.

Kaylee: 26:49

Right, and that's not necessarily a priority.

Riley: 26:51

Yeah.

Kaylee: 26:53

Like the people in their positions on the board, they have their duty.

Riley: 26:57

Yeah.

Kaylee: 26:58

But as far as web and marketing and social media, there is no person who's in charge of that, so it's either throw that into someone else's job.

Riley: 27:07

Which, as a side note, never ends well. Because if it's not stacking more stuff onto them, yeah, and social media and marketing is always the first thing that falls behind, because if you add it on to somebody else's duties, well, it's not their regular duties, and if you're not getting paid to do it or it's not your standalone stuff, then it falls behind. And there is bookkeeping and fundraising and all the other vital stuff, I guess.

Kaylee: 27:36

And for the. There is a lady named Heather that this year she kind of wanted to volunteer to undertake social media and we did zoom meetings once a month or so, like right after convention. Everybody was all gone home. But it's still just talking about what you can do, not necessarily making it happen. What do you mean? Like this is what your chapter could be doing on Facebook, but it still wasn't. It's not like someone is creating the graphics, sending them to every chapter and saying here's something you can post for this day. Like this coming week, when this podcast comes out, is our Founders Day celebration for my chapter. Everybody does Founders Day, not necessarily on one day, but in this month, and there's no email being sent out to every chapter saying hey, post this on your social media. Like, which is something that I think, if it was a bigger organization, I'm assuming for, like your fraternity, there's somebody out there that sends that stuff out right, yeah, but it's a paid position.

Riley: 28:48

I think that's the big impact where you have to weigh the pros of not paying somebody's. Obviously you have more money to devote it to the cause. The con is the lack of organization and lack of continuity and standardization across the board. So you have to weigh which one is the pros and cons of that, and it's been one way for so long.

Kaylee: 29:12

It's hard to start. It's like a whole overhaul.

Riley: 29:16

I know you have really strict bylaws and everything which is why it's never going to be a paid position. Yeah, because.

Kaylee: 29:24

I've asked.

Riley: 29:24

other people have asked because that's a lot of time to put in for a volunteer position, especially people aren't even going to work for minimum wage right now, let alone do that much work for free. And as the generations shift from the older demographics to eventually I'm sure it's going to have to be younger people stepping up more and more. That's going to kind of just start falling behind even more. Yeah.

Kaylee: 29:58

So in our bylaws it says 100% of money donated goes to the national project. Yeah, and they were very strict about that even when we were creating the donation area on the website. We're not deviating. So to take any money that's given and to pay someone to do this job is never going to be an option.

Riley: 30:16

Yeah, I mean, I remember it's so strict. You were talking about the donation platform, yeah, they couldn't take a fee, yeah.

Kaylee: 30:26

They had to find a platform that didn't charge a credit card fee.

Riley: 30:29

Almost impossible, almost impossible.

Kaylee: 30:33

Or we had to charge where it specifically told the person that they had to pay extra for the fee.

Riley: 30:40

Yeah, so if it was $100, you're donating $100.

Kaylee: 30:44

But you're paying 103% of the 3%.

Riley: 30:47

Yeah, which there are people, there are regular companies that do that too, sometimes for the credit card fees.

Kaylee: 30:54

But but there's nothing saying that we can't do that. But they were very specific on they don't want to be spending money that people donated in the name of cancer research to 5805 on other stuff.

Riley: 31:08

But you also can't just take checks from like. I mean, you obviously you can take checks, but I'm saying that can't be the only option, because you never make any money. Yeah, people don't carry checkbooks around like they used to. Yeah, so you mentioned the fundraisers that your chapter does. Can you talk about those and kind of how you raise awareness for those, the success of those fundraisers over the past few years since you've been involved?

Kaylee: 31:36

Sure and our well. According to the ladies in my chapter, we used to do all kinds of different fundraisers. The last, I think, four years we've been doing bingo in the summertime and then the holiday boutique. I want to say this was the 12th year, 12 or 13th year maybe, but before that they did. We've tried many different things. We've stuck with these because they seem to be doing well and for the least amount of stress.

Kaylee: 32:11

Yeah, so bags and bingo started. A lot of the other chapters do like one does this big kitchen bingo, or a lot of chapters do bingo Apparently. People in tipton like these designer purses. So we've been doing that and it's sold out. I think every year, even the first year, we do pre sale tickets and then if you don't get your ticket, then you're out of luck. But it raises quite a bit of money. I don't know the exact numbers. I didn't write those down on my statistics. I wrote down all these other numbers, but bags and bingo is our biggest fundraiser. We've been asked to do it multiple times a year and it's just not feasible.

Riley: 32:59

Yeah.

Kaylee: 33:00

I mean we could, but I don't think it would sell out if we offered it multiple times.

Riley: 33:05

Yeah, the exclusivity of it is a good thing.

Kaylee: 33:08

Right. So we've done that. And then the holiday boutique. It's just like a vendor fair. We provide the space, they pay a booth fee, they come and they sell whatever they want to sell. That one requires a lot more advanced work so it's a lot more time and unfortunately for Carly, she's been the one who has to keep track of all the people in the vendors. When you've got 60 vendors who all have specific needs and want specific placement and it's turned into kind of a disaster. But if you have multiple people on it then stuff gets lost. So we're still working on that, but I think a lot of people like it.

Kaylee: 33:57

It's right before Thanksgiving. So you're trying to do your pre-Black Friday shopping, to shop local, to shop handmade. A lot of times people love it. We've had five to 600 people shop the last few years. So it's I mean it's pretty big, it's at the 4-H building and it's a big event. It's just a lot of work for us ahead of time. We did smaller little fundraisers this year. There's a Tenderloin company in Swayze that has a little mobile Tenderloin truck that they go, park it and come by frozen Tenderloins and they give you part of the proceeds. Jim Dandy and, tipped in here, anna Knobbles, they always let you host fundraiser nights. So we've done these smaller ones, we've tried them just to see how it went and those are fine, but we're not making the thousands and thousands of dollars that the bigger events do.

Riley: 34:58

Yeah, I mean any little bit helps, especially for the minimal amount of planning and work.

Kaylee: 35:04

Right, like we didn't have to do anything for the Tenderloins. They just came and everyone loves their Tenderloins, so that worked out great for us. But some of these chapters that have the bigger chapters in the bigger cities, there's a big one called soup and sips I think you just eat and I think you have wine, and it's a fundraiser and they have auctions. But they probably make like $20,000 in one day. We aren't on that level. I don't know if it's we're in a smaller community, so yeah it's tough.

Kaylee: 35:40

It's tough. I mean that's good for them. We're doing what we can do with the amount of members that we have. If we had 60 members, I'm sure we could.

Riley: 35:50

So is your goal to grow the membership Always yes.

Kaylee: 35:56

More membership would be fantastic we can host more things that way but also just awareness of what we are and what we do. Like I said, people in town have no idea. It's not like we have a building or an office or a space, we just meet at the church and I don't know how else. I talk about it all the time on my Facebook whenever we're having events, but have any of my friends joined?

Riley: 36:29

No no.

Kaylee: 36:31

Shout out to everyone who's denied me.

Riley: 36:32

Yeah, I mean, how often is your local chapter posting on Facebook?

Kaylee: 36:40

Right now probably not a lot. Yeah, Because we're not doing anything right now.

Riley: 36:45

So that'd be where having some extra content, the more general info content, would be beneficial.

Kaylee: 36:53

We post pictures when we go to conventions or if we host events, Like when we have Founder's Day. This week we're doing a game night. I'll post pictures of that.

Riley: 37:04

To the chapter page.

Kaylee: 37:05

Yeah, but there's not even a national Facebook page. I thought there was. Nope, there is a Facebook group for members, but there's not a public Facebook page.

Riley: 37:22

Because somebody would have to manage it.

Kaylee: 37:23

Somebody would have to be in charge of it. Yes, I think that's insane because that's the first place people are going to look us up.

Riley: 37:31

Yeah.

Kaylee: 37:32

So when you look up 5-i, either you're going to get a bunch of chapter pages that pop up, which is great.

Riley: 37:38

But it's also very confusing.

Kaylee: 37:39

It's very confusing and there's no just one central.

Riley: 37:45

Wow, that's shocking.

Kaylee: 37:48

Yeah, with how much money we raise. The fact that there's not even a Facebook page is just mind-boggling. Like we're doing big things, yeah, and I don't know if people locally just are like, oh, it's just, these random ladies are doing their little fundraiser, like last year for the whole sorority we raised $462,000. That's a trunk, that's what. Half a million dollars almost In one year. That's insane.

Riley: 38:17

Yeah.

Kaylee: 38:18

So it's not like we're just this little co-dunk, little sorority. It's a big organization, it's just not marketed like a big organization.

Riley: 38:31

Yeah, it's one of those areas where you kind of have to think of the adage of you have to spend money to make money right, because even if it's not money, money but time and money. And without not saying like your national officers don't put in a ton of time, because I'm sure they do.

Riley: 38:53

They spend a ton of time To get other people on board to commit that amount of time or to do the marketing side of things you kind of have to at some point. I feel like you're going to have to reevaluate the bylaws because it's not going to grow, or you really limit yourself, or does that need to be like right now?

Kaylee: 39:16

there's six national officers. Does there need to be a seventh position for marketing?

Riley: 39:24

100%.

Kaylee: 39:26

Even if it is volunteer.

Riley: 39:28

if it's somebody's actual position, it's at least going to be thought about more often, where it's probably not thought about very often right now, Obviously because there's no Facebook page and there was no website.

Kaylee: 39:40

Well, there was a website but it was like a homepage that had a link to a brochure. But the Facebook or the group Facebook page or Facebook group for members is pretty active and the members login area of the website I'm sure was active, like the members are using it. But as far as to the public there isn't a big push and I know there's enough information out there just about like each month I'm sure has a different cancer Right, like I'm sure there's like leukemia month or leukemia week or whatever.

Kaylee: 40:23

October is breast cancer Right so there's so much that you could be posting just about cancer information they could be highlighting. Like whenever the grants went out last year, on our local chapter page we posted who the grant money went to, like little profiles about those doctors and what they were researching. But was there? I wasn't like widespread.

Riley: 40:47

Yeah.

Kaylee: 40:48

So, like I created them, I guess I could have sent them, but who do I even send Like? There's no person in each chapter to even send that to.

Riley: 40:59

Yeah, I don't know that's tough and I know like we have all these ideas, and you've even talked to them about some of this stuff too, but just like, it's a big change. It's a yeah.

Kaylee: 41:11

It's not just like a hey, I'm gonna start doing this. Like you gotta have votes and approval and yeah, I could make these graphics for my local page and no one's gonna question me. But should there be someone who questions you, I'm sure for academic fraternities and sororities, like there's a person who checks all the chapter Facebook pages.

Riley: 41:35

Oh yeah.

Kaylee: 41:36

And is like no, you can't post that.

Riley: 41:38

Yep.

Kaylee: 41:39

Or like hey, you used the logo wrong. Like, take that down or you must use these approved images.

Riley: 41:49

Yeah. I mean, there's a lot that can be said and done, but I don't want to just sit here and like degrade it.

Kaylee: 41:58

I'm not trying to, I'm saying like we could grow so much.

Riley: 42:02

Yeah, there's tons of potential there and it's just a matter of getting the right people who have a say in it to understand that.

Kaylee: 42:11

Which is like I'm passionate about it. I care about it because our family has a history of cancer.

Riley: 42:19

But everybody is passionate too.

Kaylee: 42:21

Right, at least the sorority, everybody, yeah, yeah.

Riley: 42:26

It's just changing of the guard per se. It's gonna. It takes time, I mean we deal with it with some businesses too. It's hard for them to move on, even though even some of them that realize they need it. It's still a big change for them and they they're hesitant to do it.

Kaylee: 42:43

Or like the companies where the grandpa started it and the dad took over and now the son is taking over but doesn't want to make any changes because the grandpa might be mad, or it's kind of the same idea of like this is how it's been forever. But imagine if you had twice as many active members, how much more money you could raise, or just the awareness that I just there's so much opportunity to grow. I don't know. I think that'd be cool.

Riley: 43:20

Yeah, I mean, maybe people will listen to this podcast and get inspired.

Kaylee: 43:26

I'm gonna have to like, disclaim, be like. I'm not trying to hate, I swear. I'm trying to help. I want it to grow.

Riley: 43:32

If people listen to the full conversation, yeah. If you guys just listen to the last three or four minutes, then yeah, I'll understand. So where can people learn more?

Kaylee: 43:46

Well, if you want to learn more about our Tipton chapter, it is Phi Beta Psi Tiptonorg. The national website is just Phi Beta Psiorg.

Riley: 43:57

Hey, at least they have that down.

Kaylee: 43:59

Yes, that's what it was always named. I didn't change any of that. But it's got the whole history. It's got statistics about how much money, how many active chapters, how many states you're in. If you want to find a chapter, if you want to start a new chapter, there's all the info on there. Now We've had people that have moved and then found a chapter closer to where they've lived in Florida for the winter.

Riley: 44:30

Yeah.

Kaylee: 44:33

It's definitely like a giant sisterhood.

Kaylee: 44:37

They've had people from different chapters who have gone to conventions together for 50 years and now they're like best friends. The current president and first vice president, I think, are not even from the same chapter in the same state, but they've known each other for years and when one decided to run for president, the other one like their best friends, so they did it together and they met through sorority. I have ladies in southern Indiana that I'm friends with on Facebook now that I talk to. I have ladies in Florida that always want to drink together when we go to conventions.

Riley: 45:17

Yeah, that's good to have.

Kaylee: 45:21

Anyways, 5a to sideorg is the website you can check out any of the chapters on Facebook if you can find them.

Riley: 45:31

The thing is if this is something you have a passion for or not necessarily a passion for getting involved, but just if you've been impacted by cancer might be something you at least just intend reach out and attend the meeting.

Kaylee: 45:46

Anybody can come as a guest to a meeting. I think some of the most impactful stuff that I've heard is when you do get to go to a convention, they bring in speakers. One lady her daughter had some form of childhood cancer and she told us about it and how then she started a foundation and how cancer affected her and now she has made a difference after that. Some of that stuff is super cool Hearing people speak about it who have done something. They took a tragedy and turned it into something else. That's what we're trying to do is maybe it's affected your family in a not so great way and you've known somebody who's passed. This is what we're trying to do to potentially make it better for other people's families. I don't know. Yeah, come to a meeting.

Riley: 46:40

Yeah, exciting stuff. To wrap things up, that's kind of what we're going to be talking about each week here. I think Kaylee's was a good one because she's been involved for a long time and obviously very passionate about it. Thank you for sitting in and talking and sharing the word about what Phi Beta Psi does to everybody who might want to get involved. That'll do it for this week's episode of the digital wrap up. If you get made it this far and you weren't watching on YouTube, I normally do a YouTube plug at the beginning, but check us out on YouTube. Subscribe on YouTube it's youtubecom slash at art and digital. You have to have the at sign in there because YouTube is weird and makes no sense for URL, makes sense for a social profile, but not in URL.

Riley: 47:33

But youtubecom slash at art and digital. We will also link the websites to both the nationally and the tipped in chapter in the description for this episode. If you want to check them out, get involved. Next week we're going to be talking about another nonprofit that's near and dear to our heart. We will see you next week on the digital wrap up.