#13 - This Nonprofit's Unusual Storytelling Strategy Will Make You Rethink The Value Your College Puts On Print
In this episode we sit down with Alex Poppe and Kelley Coe of the nonprofit Preemptive Love.
Preemptive Love is an organization I came across near the beginning of COVID who hooked me with their content marketing and has kept me engaged for the last couple years. Their storytelling is remarkable, their mission is remarkable, and the uncommon focus on print is what really got me excited to have them on the podcast.
Links:
Middle East Earthquakes - Information and giving site for all of Preemptive Love's current work in Syria following the earthquake.
Print Journals - Volume 8 available online, and if you'd like a physical copy, you can have the latest journal sent to you at no cost through their Shop.
Shop - This is a great way to support refugees and their craft and/or spread the message of Love Anyway through their apparel.
Video Storytelling Subscription Pricing - Pricing and info about UNVEILD’s subscription offering.
Transcript from episode (made by a robot so only about 80% accurate):
00:00:00:07 - 00:00:23:05
Speaker 1
This episode is one I'm excited about because I think it's easy to get stuck in the higher ed bubble and only consider what's working and what's not working in the higher ed space and so I wanted to bring on some guests from a nonprofit whose content strategy and storytelling abilities are super strong. Like, I pay attention to this stuff and I've come across a lot of nonprofits and for profits whose marketing and content I take notice of.
00:00:23:06 - 00:01:00:22
Speaker 1
However, nobody has embedded themselves in my mind as deeply as the folks at Preemptive Love and impressed me more through their content efforts and donor engagement efforts. Preemptive Love is an international peacebuilding organization, and they address peacemaking in three ways Relief jobs and building community, which you'll hear a lot more about. I'm not a fan of long intros or a whole lot of me interjecting myself into episodes where we have guests on, but being that our listeners are in higher ed, I feel like I need to set up preemptive love for you a bit so that you can actually absorb the context of our conversation and consider the implications of what we talk about on
00:01:00:22 - 00:01:17:11
Speaker 1
your content strategy and storytelling at your college or university. So stick with me and get ready to be introduced to one of, if not the best examples that I've seen of an organization, really harnessing the power of storytelling in their marketing and fundraising strategy.
00:01:20:21 - 00:01:43:00
Speaker 1
Hey, welcome to the Higher Ed Storytelling University Podcast, a podcast dedicated to helping higher ed marketers tell better stories, create better content and enroll more students. My name is John Azoni. I'm the founder at UNVEILD, a video production company working specifically with college marketing teams on automating their video storytelling content through a subscription approach. Learn more at UNVEILD.TV.
00:01:43:11 - 00:02:00:17
Speaker 1
If you're listening to this podcast for the first time, go ahead and subscribe. And if you've been listening for a while now and have enough to review, I'd love for you to do that. My guests today are Alex Poppe and Kelley Coe of Preemptive Love. Alex is the content manager on the Marcom team and Kelley is a major gifts officer on the development team.
00:02:00:22 - 00:02:22:01
Speaker 1
I came across preemptive love randomly at the beginning of COVID. I was scrolling through my Facebook feed pretty mindlessly and I got served an ad. It was about the Syrian refugee crisis and how kids that were displaced into refugee camps were struggling to get access to food. And I don't remember the details, but I remember how it made me feel, which reminds me of Maya Angelou quote, People will forget what you said.
00:02:22:07 - 00:02:44:01
Speaker 1
People will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. So I donated $50. Figured that was that did my part. Kept scrolling, could easily forgot about them. But then I started getting mail from them. And not just any mail. It was a beautiful print journal on really nice matte paper. And I'm an artist, I'm a painter, and so I really appreciate a fine art approach to marketing.
00:02:44:01 - 00:03:02:13
Speaker 1
Maybe I'm alone in that, but it was a piece of art in itself, the way it was put together, beautiful illustrations and really touching stories, but not just the stories we're touching. The way they were written, just made me so excited as a storyteller myself, and I remember thinking how cool that they would stay in touch this way with such a measly donation.
00:03:02:13 - 00:03:22:22
Speaker 1
When I've donated larger amounts of money to other organizations and never heard a word from them and just their overall philosophy of how charity is done best really resonated with me and at the beginning of one of their previous journals that I have, a new one's come out since the one I have was written. But the founder of the organization gives a very beautifully articulated explanation of what they do and why they do it that way.
00:03:22:22 - 00:03:48:17
Speaker 1
And I'm going to read it for you, and this is going to be my foray into being an audiobook voiceover artist. Here we go, Set some music here, set the mood. One of their founders, Jessica Courtney, says, We call this journal a field guide to end war. That's because it's not a marketing piece. It's more like an instructional manual, an educational resource, a programmatic investment into your imagination as you seek to grow as a peacemaker.
00:03:48:23 - 00:04:06:06
Speaker 1
Its job is to tell stories of hope, to open perspectives, and to show the possibilities all around us, waiting for us to step into them. But how do we actually get to the end of war? Is it even possible? We believe it is possible, but it's going to take a new kind of charity, a new kind of aid and development and a new kind of community.
00:04:06:11 - 00:04:32:05
Speaker 1
People have been trying for decades to get this right. Soft diplomacy in the form of schools and hospitals, preemptive military strikes from powerful nations to force security on others, even emergency aid money to fund science innovations and all of these things have worked and carried unintended consequences. But we still haven't found the key that unlocks safety, security and flourishing for every man, woman and child such that no one has to fight for their most basic human rights.
00:04:32:21 - 00:05:01:06
Speaker 1
If you've been around preemptive love for very long, you may have noticed that we strive to do things differently where others may track how many individuals they serve and then work to grow that number. Each year we make a commitment to communities. In fact, we're working hard to be a community, a community of peacemakers that spans the globe, some of us wealthy, others of us poor, some giving money as donors and shoppers, others offering labor as volunteers and staff, some with special access to hard to reach places, others stuck behind borders.
00:05:01:23 - 00:05:22:12
Speaker 1
But each of us has agency and works to care for those we can reach directly and those we can reach through the chain of our fellow members here across the preemptive love community. We can only stop the spread of violence if we live and work in mutuality with one another, where everyone receives an everyone gifts. This is how we create a world where everyone rises.
00:05:22:20 - 00:05:46:08
Speaker 1
I hope that as you read this issue, you will be reminded of your role in this community, that you'll see how what you give and what you received from your fellow peacemakers here ties you to something important, powerful and lasting. Most of all, I hope that what you read leaves you with a deep understanding of how you and I and all the rest of us are standing hand-in-hand, shoulder to shoulder, leading one another into a world where violence doesn't get the last word.
00:05:46:11 - 00:06:01:06
Speaker 1
We do. So hopefully that sets you up with a good understanding what preemptive love is about. Without further ado, here is my conversation with Alex and Kelley. So we've got two of you today. You're from preemptive love. Introduce yourselves individually. Tell me what you guys do.
00:06:01:23 - 00:06:16:10
Speaker 2
Sure. My name is Kelley Coe. I am the Major Gifts Officer team lead of our development team at Preemptive Love. So I work with our West Coast major donors, and I manage a team of three other gift officers. Yeah, I think that's it.
00:06:16:10 - 00:06:18:06
Speaker 1
Perfect. Alex, what about you?
00:06:18:19 - 00:06:37:16
Speaker 3
I'm Alex, Poppy, and I'm the content manager for preemptive love, so I'm working with them. Our comes team creating a lot of the content that you see pitching ideas coming up with strategies. We are a very small and nimble team, so we're all we pitch in where we need to and we work very closely with them both on content and strategy.
00:06:37:21 - 00:06:39:13
Speaker 3
So it's like all hands on deck.
00:06:40:03 - 00:06:42:17
Speaker 1
Yeah. How many people work for preemptive love?
00:06:42:19 - 00:07:02:10
Speaker 3
The entire staff is quite large when you think about all the people we have in the many countries within where we work, I think it's over 90, but a lot of them are in the field and with our work teams and our jobs promote creating teams and coaching teams so there is not as many US based staff.
00:07:02:14 - 00:07:13:22
Speaker 1
Great. So Alex, let's start with you. And since this is the Higher Ed podcast, I would love to hear about your journey through higher ed in whatever or whatever form that makes sense. I know the thing you taught in Higher Ed as well.
00:07:14:02 - 00:07:39:23
Speaker 3
Let's see, I have my bachelor's Marquette and my master's in University of Glasgow, and I have a teaching certificate and I have an acting certificate. So within all those careers, hands has been the core of storytelling. So while I was teaching in Iraq at the American University of Southern Iraq, I came across preemptive love and was a donor first and then decided to join the team.
00:07:39:23 - 00:07:51:05
Speaker 3
When I wanted to transition out of higher ed and into more storytelling. So I started as a staff writer and then wanted staff writer, content marketer and now content manager.
00:07:51:11 - 00:07:55:08
Speaker 1
Too. Tell me about your Higher Ed experience journey.
00:07:55:11 - 00:08:15:11
Speaker 2
Sure. So I got my bachelors at the University of California, Santa Barbara, which is actually where I met my current boss at Preemptive Love. She is the chief Development officer. So that's how I really learned about preemptive love and got connected to the West Coast Major Gifts officer position here because she knew that I was still in fundraising.
00:08:15:21 - 00:08:33:13
Speaker 2
And my other kind of higher ed connection is working at Stanford Medical Center development for three years before preemptive love, really focusing on the cardiovascular units and neurology units and fundraising through grateful patients pipelines. So very different from where I am right now, but really good looking experience.
00:08:33:13 - 00:08:43:21
Speaker 1
Tell me about preemptive love. I will have given a little intro, but just tell me in your words, what is preemptive love? Why did it inspire you guys and pull you from different industries to come to work here?
00:08:43:22 - 00:09:08:13
Speaker 2
Sure. So we are an international peacebuilding organization and we really view our work in three different buckets. One is relief, one is jobs, and the third is community. So with relief, we really do emergency responses like you have seen in Syria with the earthquakes. Last week we provided blankets and food and it's a huge part of our work responding to emergencies and responding to calls for help.
00:09:08:13 - 00:09:35:15
Speaker 2
And then our second bucket of jobs is really focused on long term solutions, which I think really sets us apart from different aid organizations looking at business development for refugees and migrants, farming and agriculture, 1 to 1 job coaching and tech training, which Alex mentioned, our work program, we have particularly geared towards young adults who are identify as refugees and migrants and really teaching them how to take their jobs online and to have an online presence.
00:09:35:15 - 00:09:59:12
Speaker 2
And then lastly, our community that's really focused on our national programs where we have gatherings and workshops for people to really be able to learn how to listen to each other, reach across the aisle in a particularly divided time. So yeah, I think the three buckets that we have categorically set us apart from just an emergency relief side of things, and that's what I really love about us and what has really drawn me to the work.
00:10:00:01 - 00:10:22:12
Speaker 1
Cool. That's that's what I love love about it. As I read the content that you guys put out and stuff like that, just how much you involve the community, not just in donating or doing something, but like in just the entire act of peacemaking and and relief and just I mean, I love this focus on sustainability too, and I've been really impressed by I'm a video producer.
00:10:22:12 - 00:10:49:18
Speaker 1
And so a lot of this podcast kind of touches on video, but I really want to have you guys out here because you have such a strong print strategy that is so effective. And I feel like it just accesses like another part of the brain where it's I want. So. So we're recording video, I have some, some flags on this thing, but so this is the this is the journal that I write and it's been sitting on my desk for months and months and I read it a little bit here and there, but it's so pretty.
00:10:49:20 - 00:11:16:16
Speaker 1
It's just so well-made and it's the pictures are good, the stories are great, the storytelling is fabulous. And there's a lot of little moments of art in here. And I think that's just a really unique way of engaging even a donor that donated just $50. And for me to get this in the mail and I'm just like so much more connected to the mission, and I actually and I know it's marketing, but I actually want to sit down and read this.
00:11:16:16 - 00:11:21:05
Speaker 1
So tell me about that. How tell me about the print journal and all that stuff.
00:11:21:07 - 00:11:46:23
Speaker 3
It's good to know it's working. I think what you're responding to is, is really how we work, which is very deep in relation ship. So we won't go into a place until we're invited and we don't go in with our own ideas. We listen and we work a long time to create relationships with people and we listen to what they need and then we help provide it.
00:11:46:23 - 00:12:09:19
Speaker 3
And what we're trying to do is through relationships and through living, our values create a community so that even if you say you only gave what is a small amount, that for us it's not about the amount, it's about the engagement and that you're interested in us and you keep listening and keep reading and you keep engaging. And so maybe you give it to us this month.
00:12:10:00 - 00:12:29:21
Speaker 3
You might give to someone else for next month. We're all we all have the same goal of building a more peaceful world. So for us, it's a two pronged approach serving the people that we want to serve, but also creating the next generation and our current community of peace makers and peace builders that will come along with us on the journey.
00:12:29:21 - 00:12:52:17
Speaker 3
And so we think the way to do that is through storytelling that humanizes the people that we serve and that stays true to our core values, which are deeply based in relationships and listening and upholding dignity. Generally, we see ourselves as conduits because always from the very beginning, the people that we served, we wanted their stories to be heard.
00:12:53:04 - 00:13:23:01
Speaker 3
And we see this today with the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria. People want their stories out there and they want the world to know what's happening in places that are hard to access. And we want to tell those stories because we want to dignify the people that we serve. And also the stories go to the heart. And we have we are embracing heart and humanity and hope in our peacebuilding journey and our ability to create community around it.
00:13:23:11 - 00:13:44:16
Speaker 3
So all of that is the fuel and the content. If the heart connection isn't there, the content's probably going to fall flat, and sometimes it does. But that's where it's great to work with the development team and it's definitely a conversation before things are pushed out at market level or things go into the print journal to make sure that her connection is there.
00:13:44:16 - 00:13:50:03
Speaker 3
So when people read the content, they feel something and then they want to act and get involved.
00:13:50:03 - 00:14:09:09
Speaker 1
I want to pause here and read you one of these stories from their most recent print journal so you can absorb the storytelling we're talking about. Here we go. I remember holding a small candle in my tiny hands one winter night during a religious event. It's a soft yellow flame illuminating my fingers. I remember covering the flame with care from threads of wind.
00:14:09:20 - 00:14:30:07
Speaker 1
I did not want the light to die. I also remember the brightening sky over an orange shelter on the humid Mexico Guatemala border. Preemptive love helped equipped this room with colorful hammocks, a bathroom and a kitchen with a big stove. I remember the shining smile of a brown friend in his early twenties, standing proudly by the doves he has painted on one wall.
00:14:30:15 - 00:14:53:00
Speaker 1
I made them. I'm a painter. I've also painted more things. Come. He takes me to the kitchen where I can see these painted abbreviations of Latin American countries Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala. Zamora later tells me that he wants each friend arriving at the shelter to feel at home. Another friend quietly observes from the door of the shelter. Kevin has also helped paint the walls.
00:14:53:00 - 00:15:16:00
Speaker 1
He 19, and Zo Hamar, 22, traveled together from Honduras to Mexico, heading for the U.S. after sitting together under cacao tree and eating a plate full of porpoises cornbread from Honduras and El Salvador. I talked more with Zo Mama and Kevin. They've lived in the shelter since the beginning of February and will stay until March. What do you like about this place?
00:15:16:00 - 00:15:39:02
Speaker 1
I ask. Zo Hamar mentions how everyone treats him. They all look at us the same, he says, with a tear reaching his cheek. I come from a place where I wasn't treated as others, Kevin chimes in, mentioning hospitality, kindness and generosity. When the host says, We're a family, Kevin and Zo. Mama believe it. The shelter's hosts have always loved and respected us, Kevin adds.
00:15:39:09 - 00:16:01:11
Speaker 1
We've always felt supported. About 20 years ago, the family who runs the shelter could no longer ignore the regular flow of hungry migrants past their door. Deep in the volcanic sheer panic and region of Mexico's southern border. As these migrants entered Mexico and continued their journey north, they searched for somewhere safe to stop, to rest, and to nurse the long, deep cuts on their feet.
00:16:01:19 - 00:16:26:03
Speaker 1
This family did not have much, but they began sharing both water and food. When Mexican authorities increased persecutions against the migrants, these desperate travelers hid in the family's garden private property where the owners can welcome guests. But officials cannot trespass. Dozens of new friends start arriving daily to rest for a few hours. Soon, they were even sleeping on the floor and waiting long hours to use the kitchen or the toilet.
00:16:26:03 - 00:16:47:09
Speaker 1
That's when preemptive love decided to help improve the facilities with hammocks for sleeping and a better bathroom and kitchen as we speak. I watched Zohar, Myers and Kevin's brown and luminous eyes. I noticed how their arms calm. Things are bad in my country in Honduras, Omar says, his voice breaking. Many gangs want to recruit young people, force you in.
00:16:47:09 - 00:17:08:02
Speaker 1
Either you join us or we attack your family, they say, I didn't want to get involved in anything. Where's Omar was raised. He felt the care of his uncle, but the rejection of his aunt. Then seven months ago, his uncle died after cancer spread through his body. So Zohar Omar decided to leave because my uncle died. I promised to myself to go to the U.S., where he was one day.
00:17:08:10 - 00:17:32:10
Speaker 1
Kevin's father had died in a car accident while trying to get extra money for his humble family. Kevin was only nine. I had to be as set in Honduras, the little man of the house. Even at a young age to support his family, Kevin started jumping alone onto busses and selling homemade cupcakes and cakes to passengers He especially felt responsible for his younger brother, who from birth needed regular, expensive Botox injections for a medical condition.
00:17:32:13 - 00:17:56:00
Speaker 1
Then one day, Kevin explains, the doctors confused the diagnosis and intubated him. When he was a baby, they caused hydrocephalus. Now one part of his body works, the other doesn't. Eventually, Kevin chose to leave for the U.S., hoping to find more work there so he can better support his family after deciding to leave Kevin. And so Omar faced multiple difficulties just to reach the Mexico Guatemala border.
00:17:56:15 - 00:18:17:21
Speaker 1
In Guatemala, Kevin says people stole from them and nobody wanted to give them a ride without any money. The young men slept in the streets and for three days eat nothing but mangoes they found on the road. At that point, Kevin says, my legs couldn't handle me anymore. Still, they continued, We'd not eaten for 12 hours when we arrived here to this shelter, Omar says.
00:18:18:06 - 00:18:39:03
Speaker 1
We'd spent 12 hours walking and running without stopping and being afraid. Kevin adds, We arrived at the shelter and begged for water and a place to sleep. We feared that Immigration or the National Guard would come for us. Everyone was afraid. I wanted to cry. The initial greeting from the shelter's hosts still resonates with them. Come in, sleep, rest.
00:18:39:04 - 00:19:01:04
Speaker 1
Do you have any illness? Are you bruised? Do you have any injuries? People here have given us food, a place to sleep, hammocks. Kevin says it may be little, but it's a blessing. Thus, while as Omar asked his uncle and I asked my father in heaven not to abandon us, we were not abandoned. Just before I depart, Zo, Omar and Kevin reiterate to me their dream to reach the US.
00:19:01:17 - 00:19:19:17
Speaker 1
Zamora wants to continue his studies. Kevin longs to support his mom and young brother and build a house for them. They choose to wait one more month to continue their journey, a journey that they know holds the risk of more persecution, crime and hunger. Until that day, they will help the family that has supported them and will finish painting the shelter walls.
00:19:19:21 - 00:19:41:06
Speaker 1
Zamora and Kevin are full of life and hope. I felt their light. For now, preemptive love has provided them a place to help take care of their light as they in turn share it with others on the same journey. Okay, so that's that. And that's one of 12 or 13 stories that are in volume eight of this print journal, which you can actually read online.
00:19:41:07 - 00:19:57:22
Speaker 1
I'm going to put the link in the show notes, but I just love how artfully written that story is. And all the other stories are like that, too. So anyway, back to my conversation with Alex and Kelley. The fact that it's a nonprofit and you guys work in an emotional kind of industry and the stories are usually right there on the surface.
00:19:58:15 - 00:20:16:10
Speaker 1
And what I think you guys do such a good job of it is helping me to see what it's like in a completely other part of the world that I have nothing to do with. I live in Oakland County, Michigan, which is one of the richest counties in the country, and I'm not part of that. I just live in a little house.
00:20:16:13 - 00:20:36:02
Speaker 1
Just happen to grow up here. Just that's where I was born myself and people around me. And it doesn't have to be in like an affluent area, but just in America in general have no concept of civil war. What it's like for people to grow up around that have bombs going off around them, farming problems, all of these things that come into play.
00:20:36:07 - 00:20:42:19
Speaker 1
Yeah. So tell me about that. Like how much of it is just educating your donors and your audience on what it's like to be there?
00:20:42:23 - 00:21:07:20
Speaker 2
It's a huge part of it for us. When I started here almost two years ago, what I was really floored by was that I had donors telling me that we were a trusted source of information for them, and they looked forward to the blog post and they looked forward to our newsletters to be able to see what was happening on the ground compared to what maybe the larger media was telling them and what they were seeing on their TVs and on their phones.
00:21:07:21 - 00:21:28:21
Speaker 2
A huge part of our staff and our volunteers being on the ground is to be able to tell those stories and to be able to see have pictures and stories of families going through what we're hearing about. But we have the actual source of information as a part of our organization. Education has been huge and we really don't see it as just educating our donor base.
00:21:29:06 - 00:21:44:22
Speaker 2
We really see it as the community at large that we're trying to reach you being able to scroll through Facebook and then see an ad and then maybe read a blog post. That's a huge win for us because now we know that we're that we exist and that we also have all of these different connections on the ground.
00:21:45:04 - 00:22:04:11
Speaker 2
So education has been a really big piece for us, and I think we've taken it a lot more seriously over the years to be able to hear from donors and community members that, Hey, we really look to you guys to be able to know what's happening in real time. And so that is something that we've really tried to shift focus on and be sure that we're taking super seriously.
00:22:04:11 - 00:22:35:12
Speaker 2
And as you said, your small gift of $50, like we really treat our donors across the board on a very equal level playing field, which I think is quite different from other organizations that I've worked from and worked in. And I think that's also a big piece and inviting everyone in and making sure that everyone feels like they are peacemakers and they identify as that and that they can come into a space and have tools to be able to speak to someone that maybe they've never spoken to.
00:22:35:12 - 00:22:47:02
Speaker 2
And it just all trickles down from the global to the local. And we want to be sure to touch all of those spaces in those places, which I think is much needed right now. And I think a lot of people can agree with that for sure.
00:22:47:07 - 00:23:01:19
Speaker 1
What is Kelley, your work look like in so you're you're working with major gifts to major donors. How do you reach those people? What kind of conversations are you having? How does content play into that, engaging those people and keeping them engaged? Tell me a little bit about your job there.
00:23:01:21 - 00:23:26:19
Speaker 2
Yeah, totally. So what's fascinating about this place in particular is that we receive donors from a bunch of different avenues that we have. Our shop, which I'm wearing my sweater. We have people who go through our ads and marketing. We have people who come through our community programs, which are national programs that I talked about. So there's so many different avenues that we receive gifts from and we are able to receive community members from.
00:23:27:02 - 00:23:55:04
Speaker 2
So major gifts for us is definitely not major gifts for a place like Stanford. We have many of our donors who give the $5 a month are as much of a part of it as the person who gives $50,000 a year. But our major gift pipeline a focus, is to really try to make sure that the folks who are able to give at that level do feel like they have the information that they want and that they're ready for.
00:23:55:04 - 00:24:21:04
Speaker 2
And so a big part of the major gift strategy is the 1 to 1 meetings and being able to connect with people in person. So traveling, of course, used to be a big part of it. pre-COVID. And we're starting to start up again with this. But there's nothing like being able to sit down for a cup of coffee or tea or lunch with a donor and try it and showing the journal, like you said, and showing videos that we are able to share from our program team members and making sure that they know that their dollars are very much in good use.
00:24:21:06 - 00:24:35:00
Speaker 2
Yeah, I think the strategy around that is really trying to make a connection with our major gift donors and ensuring that they know that they have a connection through their gift officer and again, a conduit kind of to what's on the ground.
00:24:35:03 - 00:24:48:23
Speaker 1
Cool. Are there any indiscretions for either of you? Are there any specific stories that stand out or are there certain stories that you share? Maybe you share with donors a lot because they're really effective. Just tell me a story.
00:24:49:07 - 00:25:20:17
Speaker 3
I do. There's one story that I always go back to. It was before I started working for him to grow and I was taking to the Makerspace, which is near the Iraq camp in northern Iraq, and the entire area is full of jasmine. It's unusual there because, you know, if you look past the camp and makerspace, all the terrain is like ground and the makers aren't where a lot of them were Syrian refugee women and then they miss the smell of home.
00:25:21:16 - 00:25:43:12
Speaker 3
And so their love plant is jasmine. And that to me told me everything I needed to know about preemptive love as an organization. And that's what made me take this job and thought, Wow, who has the empathy to even ask what you miss? And then that and then the empathy to activate it. And that told me everything I needed to know about the organization.
00:25:43:23 - 00:26:09:10
Speaker 1
That's awesome. I love that. And I reminds me of I used to work my first job out of college, was working with the homeless in Detroit for a nonprofit, and my buddy and I had been doing this just for free, just kind of meeting people where they're at, giving them food and things like that, and building relationships. And then when you get into a more corporate setting of doing that, it's completely different.
00:26:09:10 - 00:26:33:22
Speaker 1
And it's now it becomes about outcomes and funders and stuff. And I love that. Just that tangible like the, the, the planting of Jasmine might not be the thing that saves everybody's lives, but it it creates a sense of comfort in them that may not it may not even be measurable or you know but but it's so, so important.
00:26:34:10 - 00:26:35:08
Speaker 1
Yeah, I love that.
00:26:35:14 - 00:27:00:02
Speaker 2
If I could just share one small story related to just my favorite story that I share with donors, I was really lucky enough to go to Lebanon in April last April, and we have a ton of amazing programs there and we started to serve there after the Beirut blast in 2020. So an example of us not being there and then being there the next day because we had people on the ground that lived really close and the need was so great.
00:27:00:02 - 00:27:26:09
Speaker 2
But we have a couple of programs there that I really love, but the one I'll share is called Plea for Peace. And when we see kids in Tripoli, which is one of the poorest parts of Lebanon and also one of the most violent parts of Lebanon, the center of this very divided neighborhood, where literally there's gunshots everywhere in the buildings, because there are two different political parties that are facing each other and one's blue and one's red.
00:27:26:19 - 00:28:07:11
Speaker 2
And it's just historically extremely violent in that neighborhood. But it's gotten a little bit better with just different communities interchanging a little bit. But in the center of that neighborhood is a soccer field. And that soccer field is one of our partners, soccer fields that we're able to support and actually created a program for kids, a lot of them who actually fell out of schooling once COVID hit because they didn't have access to Internet and they didn't have access to computers, were able to join the Play for Peace program, receive jerseys, receive shoes that they actually were mainly their only pair of shoes that ended up they ended up wearing everywhere, but they were able
00:28:07:11 - 00:28:40:11
Speaker 2
to play soccer together, play soccer with neighbors that they've never interacted with because of the tension on teams. Have a coach that really cared about them and cared about their well-being, and through that, if they were participating in the program, they also got monthly food boxes for their family. So these kids who our main thing was we just want these kids to have fun to be able to let loose for an hour a day and play soccer and do the things that they love to do, which is a big piece of the dignity and of seeing kids of where they're at and not being able to have the whole world on their shoulders just for
00:28:40:11 - 00:29:01:16
Speaker 2
a couple of hours. But also, they're the heroes of their family. They're bringing food every month to their family just by being a part of this program and showing up. So those kinds of approaches, I think, make us just so much more kind of robust to the sense of even a child can be the hero of their family and say, hey, mom and dad, I'm joining this program I heard about and here's a monthly food box that they're providing.
00:29:01:16 - 00:29:11:05
Speaker 2
So I'll keep going. And it's fun for me, too. So it's a bit of a win win. But I love that program because it really shows the creativity that our partners and our program's team have.
00:29:11:10 - 00:29:26:02
Speaker 1
That's so cool. That's so cool. That's and so it sounds like you guys have a lot of different sort of channels that you reach people through. And you mentioned the store. So tell me, maybe tell me about the store and then tell me about some other sort of channels that people interact with. You guys at.
00:29:26:05 - 00:29:57:13
Speaker 3
The store is an e-commerce store, and it would go into part of our digital channels, which include like our email marketing, all our social media content, AIG, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google ads, the blog. But in the e-commerce store, we offer refugee made artisanal products that people can buy and gift and then refugees who are living in a vulnerable situation can have a bit of an income so they can support their families.
00:29:57:13 - 00:30:23:23
Speaker 3
We just had a great story shared with us. We had a refugee meet, so that's me and our makerspace, which is in northern Iraq, which is filled with displaced Syrians and displaced Iraqis. They made this soap and we put it in hygiene kits and gave it out in Mexico A few days ago. We were giving out hygiene kits to people who ride the roofs of the train and the woman at the shelter we were working with, she couldn't believe it.
00:30:23:23 - 00:30:46:10
Speaker 3
So she took it out of the bag and she was like refugees helping refugees and she was so excited. So that's a great benefit of the shop. So it's giving people an income and a livelihood who've been displaced. And also we have our artisan makers who are staying and able to stay in their communities because they now have a livelihood.
00:30:46:10 - 00:30:59:23
Speaker 3
So it's working on the problem of people in mobility on both angles. We're helping them build up livelihood so they don't have to leave. And if they have had to leave, we're helping them find a way to have a livelihood to support their families.
00:31:00:17 - 00:31:02:22
Speaker 1
Do you guys sell the soap on the store as well?
00:31:03:00 - 00:31:06:02
Speaker 3
Yeah, there's tons of great product products.
00:31:06:02 - 00:31:06:16
Speaker 2
Lots of stuff.
00:31:06:17 - 00:31:26:14
Speaker 1
All right. My wife is all about soap that you can get just sometimes new soaps just up here in our house or at the. We'll have to invest there. Quick break. Here to mention that if you're interested in telling more compelling stories at your college or university, we have a process that makes that really easy with our video storytelling subscriptions.
00:31:27:01 - 00:31:48:06
Speaker 1
Each month you'll receive a new student or alumni story that we've shot, along with a bunch of other supporting, polished video content that you can repurpose in different ways. We can get this done virtually anywhere in the world for you without you paying additional travel costs to fly our crew out to you. Unless you're colleges like the College of the North Pole or something, we might have to get a little creative.
00:31:48:11 - 00:32:01:19
Speaker 1
We do this all for a flat monthly fee and you get to keep all of the interview and B-roll footage that we film to add to what will eventually be a pretty massive footage library over the course of the year that you can utilize for all different kinds of projects. And then hopefully we do it again the next year.
00:32:01:22 - 00:32:18:08
Speaker 1
If you had a pricing that UNVEILD that TV, you can download our pricing guide that has everything you need to know. They're UNVEILD this belt UNVEILD in this next section of the episode. We talk about a fictional story that's in volume seven, the previous version of the print journal that I have a copy of. It's really worth a read.
00:32:18:08 - 00:32:36:23
Speaker 1
I'm going to retire my voice acting career here and just let you go read this by yourself here and to listen to me talk more. A link to the digital version of Volume seven in the show notes that you can read it, but basically it's a story about a young boy who becomes a child soldier and joins the militia, along with many other young men his age, where that's virtually their only way of making a living.
00:32:37:06 - 00:32:54:09
Speaker 1
And then you read about how that story ends. But by the end of the story, you get a much deeper level of empathy for what life is like in this part of the world. And from a marketing perspective, it becomes the way in to telling us information about how preemptive love works in those situations to reduce the spread of violence.
00:32:54:18 - 00:33:12:14
Speaker 1
It's a very different approach than saying This is where your money goes, it goes to here, here, here, and this is what we're doing. Instead, it's very literally leading with story and in this case, fictional story, which I think is really cool. And it's really interesting when it's done through fiction writing for me, it just it just accesses like a different part of my brain or something.
00:33:12:17 - 00:33:45:05
Speaker 1
So definitely worth the quick read. And now you'll hear more about that from Alex, who is the author of the story. I wanted to talk to Alex about one thing that you don't see a lot. I think in just the general context of marketing, it's fictional stories and I think this was this one in this in this print journal that I have was so cool about Allie and, you know, just becoming a child soldier and and all of that stuff.
00:33:45:05 - 00:33:55:00
Speaker 1
But is that something that you that you maybe from your background brought to the organization or was that already a strategy to in terms of like fictional stories?
00:33:55:06 - 00:34:24:15
Speaker 3
I was told when I was hired. That's why I was hired because I'm a fiction writer and I write a lot of social justice issues. I'm not sure if preemptive love did those kinds of fictional stories before I came. I haven't seen them since then, but it's a way. So reading literary fiction is a way to build empathy, because there's parts of our brain that when we read fiction, affect our sensorial components of our brain the same way as if we're physically having an experience.
00:34:24:16 - 00:34:51:11
Speaker 3
It's such a big part of theory of mind and bringing empathy to people who don't have a physical experience of someone else's reality. So working from that, it's always been one of the reasons I write fiction, literary fiction on social justice issues. And so it was another way in to connect to the reader and make them feel part of a community was to give them a piece of story that is based on research.
00:34:51:11 - 00:35:18:22
Speaker 3
So whenever I write pieces like that, they're heavily researched, comes back to my own heart connection to the material. And if it's not there, I can't write something that's worth reading. So I have to find that connection or else it's garbage. You want anything and you want the reader to be engaged in, to feel and have those aspects of their brain stimulated so they feel like they have an experiential understanding of what's happening in these parts of the world that some of us will never see firsthand.
00:35:19:20 - 00:35:43:05
Speaker 3
So that's where that came about. As long as the story upholds, dignity, stays true to our values and is based on research, It takes an end to our mission. I would never bring a piece of fiction that had nothing to do with the humanitarian aid space into preemptive love. I have written other types of fiction that are inappropriate because.
00:35:43:05 - 00:35:57:19
Speaker 3
They don't match with our values and content that comes under the preemptive love brand has to be aligned to our mission and our mission statement. He's building upholding dignity, working relationally, working holistically and listening.
00:35:57:23 - 00:36:23:09
Speaker 1
I love that. And that's I talked a lot about that earlier episodes of this podcast talked a lot about more like the science of storytelling and that same thing of it's like the further you can transport somebody in their mind into a story where they're visualizing the story taking place and they're feeling the feelings that the character's feeling and things like that is, is to the degree that you can influence them, like they come back from that significantly changed.
00:36:23:09 - 00:36:44:19
Speaker 1
And that's totally experience that with this with this this story, the child soldier story in this print journal. And I think it's that idea that some of the best marketing is doesn't look like marketing at all. And that's like and that's used in marketing. I wouldn't say that's like a marketing piece, but it's serving the function of getting someone to empathize with the need.
00:36:44:19 - 00:37:00:23
Speaker 1
And marketing is all about creating those emotions of empathy that allow them to say, Oh, this organization is the answer or is an answer to this need. So yeah, I just I love that. Kelley Is that does the fiction come in to your side as well in your talks with donors.
00:37:01:10 - 00:37:24:08
Speaker 2
Not so much, but we do. I personally have so many donors who do love our journals and tell me that they've given it to friends and they'll earmark something. That's the biggest thing we can ask for. I always say if you're not if you're done with this, if you want an extra one, let me know so you can share with your friends because the connection of a friend saying, This is amazing.
00:37:24:08 - 00:37:43:05
Speaker 2
I love this organization. There's nothing more powerful than that to create another donor and to create some attention. I want to say necessarily that fiction plays a piece of the development part because everyone's very much so metric heavy and storytelling heavy and on what we're happening in the ground, but definitely adds to add some color to our journal.
00:37:43:05 - 00:37:50:04
Speaker 2
And I remember messaging Alex after I read it, I don't know what it came out. That was months ago, but I was like, I've never seen this in one of our journals and I loved that touch to it.
00:37:50:17 - 00:38:11:13
Speaker 1
Cool. I love it. This is a kind of question, and if you don't have an answer to this or you don't want to talk about what was edited out, but because of the what's going on in Turkey with the earthquake and stuff like that, how is that being a current event right now? How is preemptive love involved in that or involves what's your involvement in situations that.
00:38:12:05 - 00:38:35:02
Speaker 2
Sure. So luckily, we Syria has been a country that we've been working in for a long time. One of our largest campaigns that have happened in recent years was 2016, 2017 in Aleppo and really trying to show up for our friends there who were fleeing from the civil war violence. So we have program members that live there who have livelihoods, there have families there.
00:38:35:10 - 00:38:57:11
Speaker 2
So when we woke up Monday morning last Monday, particularly one of my friends and coworkers who I spent time with in Lebanon, he felt it very strongly. His house was a little bit damaged, but thank God his family was okay. But we were getting real time updates from our coworkers in Syria about what was happening, and he truly went to work right away.
00:38:57:23 - 00:39:21:12
Speaker 2
A problem that we face and a lot of international aid organizations can probably relate to this is getting money into these countries, and I think that's something that I have to share with donors often, is the logistics portion of our programs team is massive. We have to think about how to get the money into the country safely and then how to buy the product.
00:39:21:12 - 00:39:47:02
Speaker 2
So we often our main thing is really to promote the local economy as much as we can for our food box programs, buying from local bakeries, buying from local stores, ensuring that we're supporting local economies. And in this case with Syria. Luckily our coworker already has these connections since we work there, but without that it would take us a lot longer to be able to show support and to be able to make a game plan.
00:39:47:02 - 00:40:10:23
Speaker 2
So what we focused on really to do is to hear from the people who have been affected and whose homes have been destroyed and realizing, oh, the temperature is plummeting at night, it is going to 20 degrees, 24 degrees Fahrenheit. And so the next course of action that our coworker really honed in on was we need blankets. Exactly as people need blankets outside.
00:40:10:23 - 00:40:38:05
Speaker 2
They're burning everything that they own, anything that they can find on the street. So yesterday we delivered blankets to families and one per family and trying to distribute as many as possible. But the thing that will have to keep thinking about is how to get more blankets, how to get more food, because unfortunately, it's on and with supply that we can just pull from, We need to really think about the relationships and the economy and how we're going to get these materials into the hands of people that need it.
00:40:38:06 - 00:40:43:04
Speaker 2
So I hope that answered absolutely. But luckily we were there is what I'm trying to say at the end of the day.
00:40:43:07 - 00:41:04:09
Speaker 1
No, that's great. And piggybacking off that and one of the things that we talk about in this podcast or we've been talking about lately with various guests is like this idea of consistency and focus in in marketing and content creation and you guys being all over the map. I think in terms of when I'm reading these stories, it's here's one from this part of the world, here's one from this part of the world.
00:41:04:09 - 00:41:24:02
Speaker 1
And I imagine that there's so many different ways that you can talk about that, different online channels, offline channels, print and in-person and all this stuff, like how do you take in focus the strategy so that communications are fitting into pillars or whatever it is?
00:41:24:03 - 00:42:01:09
Speaker 3
There are times when we're working in many different places of conflict or need at the same time, and it's challenging to figure out the priority and which content you're going to push out. It's a constant balancing act and sometimes we see and sometimes we have a learning opportunity. But what we've learned, I think, which resonates best and might be a good takeaway for the audience is for us, as long as we're promoting content that aligns with our values peacebuilding, working relationally, listening, upholding dignity, then we're going to be fine.
00:42:01:13 - 00:42:35:07
Speaker 3
Sometimes we might experiment with different channels. For example, Twitter isn't necessarily the same conduit as it once was, and we've decided that test and shift and change. We're not as active on Twitter anymore, so the conduit isn't as important to us as staying aligned for our values. And so that's what we do. So during this last eight, ten days, our content calendar got shift our own right because no one was anticipating this earthquake.
00:42:36:04 - 00:43:02:13
Speaker 3
So we're in different time zones, which in this instance was really helpful because our Middle East team, I happen to be working in Europe right now. We were in different time zones to get started, share Doc, start putting content together. People who are at Central Standard Time in the US, East Coast Time, Civics and Pacific Time, then they can finish up and so it's a constant collaboration and dialog through, through Google Docs basically in a lot of slack.
00:43:02:16 - 00:43:26:19
Speaker 3
So we created email content, ID content and blog content, which then was repurposed for LinkedIn, some of it the LinkedIn audience, the tone is a bit more formal, whereas the IG captions tend to be a bit more conversational and the email marketing is a bit more heart. So it's again aligned to the North Star, but shifts in tone for our audience.
00:43:27:10 - 00:43:50:10
Speaker 3
And we've just been working a lot that way. The content we had scheduled is pushed and got great stories about our education projects in Afghanistan, our makerspace in Iraq and other hygiene kid delivery in Mexico. We have a beautiful education and food project in Venezuela and all the content just gets shifted so we're nimble enough to work like that.
00:43:50:10 - 00:44:00:02
Speaker 3
And because the time zones and the localities actually can be a better fit for us sometimes, especially when emergencies happen in places of the world that are not in the United States.
00:44:01:06 - 00:44:10:13
Speaker 1
Yeah, well, that's good. How far out do you plan content? Like on a practical level with your team content marketing, What is what does that planning process look like?
00:44:10:16 - 00:44:35:13
Speaker 3
We're working quarterly. So we had we had actually had a campaign. We were going to roll out in February, but the earthquake took precedence. We have our impact report that was going to be a punctuation on that campaign, but it is now going to be pushed back a little bit. We have some content planned to recognize the year anniversary, which is not the right word for Russia's invasion of Ukraine, even though we're not working there.
00:44:35:13 - 00:44:59:20
Speaker 3
We did fundraise on behalf of other organizations last year and it's important to tell those stories. We have people on the ground that we're close to and work relationally with, and they were able to give us footage and visuals last year and tell the story as it was happening. So we're to check in with them. We have a spring campaign that we have launched, so we're right now working quarterly.
00:45:01:11 - 00:45:18:06
Speaker 3
But it's it's also very involved because if something happens like an earthquake or, God forbid, something of violence, we will obviously shift and pivot and cover stories that are connected to the work that we do on the line with our values of peacebuilding.
00:45:18:17 - 00:45:41:01
Speaker 1
Great. Thank you for sharing that. So I think my last question, bringing us back around to higher education, what can colleges do to engage in peacemaking? A lot of the schools I come across have this element of of mission and really building up people who will go change the world, not necessarily building people into careers. So I don't know.
00:45:41:01 - 00:45:51:18
Speaker 1
It's a very broad question, but how can colleges engage maybe with preemptive love or engage in the peacemaking work that you're doing within their maybe their curriculum or their communities at college?
00:45:52:10 - 00:46:16:10
Speaker 2
Yeah. So I think the way we approach it is looking at the students and trying to think of the next generation of peacemakers who can really put that those values forward and be a part of the movement that we're trying to create and creating the most diverse body of peacemakers in the world. An example that our community team has been really active in was just before the pandemic.
00:46:16:12 - 00:46:42:21
Speaker 2
Our community team started to go into college campuses and start love anyway. Clubs. So love, anyway, is our tagline. You'll see in all our shirts, you'll see it on a lot of our merchandise and online. But it is really at the core of what we believe in, that even if you have different beliefs with someone or different backgrounds, if you love any way and listen, then you'll always find common ground and you'll find humanity in that person.
00:46:43:09 - 00:47:12:19
Speaker 2
So we have had some success in going and creating, finding really motivated people who believe in our mission and may or may not know about us, but want to start a club around love anyway and around peace building and having a presence on those college campuses, being able to have a relationship with a community member who can visit, who can do workshops with them, who also teach them about how to fundraise for something like this and to be a bit more active if they have the time to do so.
00:47:12:19 - 00:47:22:09
Speaker 2
The love any way peace of trying to bring that to student. The student body has been our approach with colleges. I don't know if you want to talk more about that.
00:47:22:11 - 00:47:54:06
Speaker 3
We have another part of our community team is Generation Peace, and we'll have representatives go on to campuses that are educating and promoting and empowering Picnickers sneakers. They're really looking to give people on campuses the tools for peacebuilding. So we'll teach them maybe how they want to start a chapter of generation use or how to fundraise for a social justice cause that they're interested in attending workshops where we're promoting the skills that you need to, like, listened intently and to love anyway.
00:47:55:17 - 00:48:20:02
Speaker 3
But I think at the core again, of what Generation Peace tries to do is to go into the community environment of a campus and connect people, students with the stories that we're telling from the people we serve in the field so that they can realize that they have so much more in common. We all have the same dreams and priorities.
00:48:20:02 - 00:49:00:23
Speaker 3
So even though someone who's on a college campus may not have an interest in a conflict zone of the world, they understand what it's like to want to go to a place that they've built a career and have agency and make something for themselves. And we'd love for them to join us in our peacebuilding initiatives. But it's a win if they become peacemakers for their own interests and their own causes, because at the end of the day, there's so much space in the humanitarian aid world, there's so much need, there's room for all of us.
00:49:01:01 - 00:49:22:02
Speaker 3
And if we can get people to start thinking about peacebuilding and whatever that means to them for the issues that they're passionate about, we're happy to help them and go with them along the way. I'm reminded of that same of talk where he was helping a homeless woman solicit money on the street and he changed her sign and it said, If you can't give it to me today, it's okay.
00:49:22:03 - 00:49:40:23
Speaker 3
I'll be here tomorrow. And for me, that's pretty much the need in the world. There's there's a room for everybody. There's enough needs. So we're happy to share what we know. So people who want to peace build along with us and whatever objectives and causes that they're most passionate about, we're really happy to share our knowledge with them.
00:49:41:10 - 00:49:53:01
Speaker 1
Awesome. I think that's a great place to stop. And so you guys tell me what's going on right now that our listeners can respond to, institutions can respond to that. That's important to preemptive love.
00:49:53:17 - 00:50:25:22
Speaker 2
Right now, our most urgent need is in response to the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria. We are very focused right now on Syria and particularly in Aleppo, where we have a presence. We know that emergency wise we're still responding but will also be there long term as it's a country that we have been in pre earthquake. So everything from food and water to blankets and then long term thinking about medical effects that are going to affect the community.
00:50:26:06 - 00:50:43:00
Speaker 2
Luckily, we are a partner with a medical unit there, but we can imagine that the resources that are to be get there are going to be massive as well as the actual structural rebuilding of homes that our friends have lost. So that would really be our biggest effort right now. And we have seen a great response so far.
00:50:43:16 - 00:50:49:08
Speaker 2
But truly, it is going to be a long time, a long journey for us over there. So anything would help.
00:50:49:15 - 00:51:12:08
Speaker 3
On our website, you'll see a button at the top of the page that said donate. Now directly links to our campaign for Turkey and Syria. And if you have been sporadically listening to the news, you can scroll down and see, you know, day by day what had been happening in our response to it. So it's a it's just a good resource to educate oneself and if you want to share.
00:51:12:12 - 00:51:32:05
Speaker 1
All right. Well, it's so great to you guys on the show. I feel like you're in my world. You're celebrities to me. I guess I just I just love the I just I just love the stuff that I get from from preemptive love. And I'm just it's just an honor to have you guys on the podcast and kind of unpacking that for us.
00:51:32:09 - 00:51:34:09
Speaker 3
Thank you so much, Rachel.
00:51:34:18 - 00:51:35:08
Speaker 2
This is great.
00:51:35:08 - 00:51:36:23
Speaker 3
We really appreciate being on the show.
00:51:37:02 - 00:51:56:06
Speaker 1
Thank you so much for listening. This episode was a little bit of a sidestep from the higher ed bubble, but I really wanted to introduce you to an organization whose storytelling and marketing in general is really on point. Take from that what you will head over to preemptive love, dawg, to connect with them. And I strongly suggest you check out their print journals and I'll put some links in the show notes.
00:51:56:16 - 00:52:17:02
Speaker 1
They're really unique and I think you'll get some good ideas from them. As mentioned earlier, if you're interested in more info on our storytelling subscriptions for colleges and universities, go to pricing dot UNVEILD dot TV, or just go on our website and hit the pricing menu button. All right. Thanks. See you on the next episode of the Higher Ed Storytelling University podcast.
