We Are For Good Podcast - The Podcast for Nonprofits

529. Reimagining Nonprofit Missions for Today's World - Dorri McWhorter, YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago

• We Are For Good • Season 9

Share episode

Meet Dorri. When it comes to reimagining the nonprofit sector, she not only talks the talk but also walks the walk. She’s the President and CEO of the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago, previously serving as CEO of the YWCA Metropolitan Chicago. Under her leadership, the YWCA operating budget grew from $10.5 million to $38 million🤯👏She also led the effort in developing NYSE: WOMN, an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that supports women's empowerment, teaming up with Impact Shares - the first nonprofit investment advisor to create an ETF product. You might also recognize her from the UnCharitable film 🤩 Don’t miss this conversation. We're sure you'll leave this episode as inspired and motivated as we did!

💡Learn

  • Using business principles to drive social impact
  • Case Study: Transforming a 140-year-old social service agency to a 21st-century social enterprise
  • Activation around increasing impact and organizational sustainability

Today’s Guest
President and CEO, YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago

For more information + episode details visit: weareforgood.com/episode/529.

Givebutter Plus brings together the platform’s free fundraising, marketing, and CRM—all of the tools nonprofits know and love, plus advanced workflows, deeper donor insights, and eye-popping engagement features to help your nonprofit get ahead—and stay there.

Start a free 30-day trial—no credit card required, at Givebutter.com/plus 



Move At the Speed of AI with Cadenza

Meet Cadenza. An intelligent, AI-backed hub for your organization’s knowledge, storytelling + impact. Cadenza helps you work smarter + with more ease.

Schedule a free demo by visiting getcadenza.com 🥳 Tell them We Are For Good sent you!

Support the show

Become a Member and Get All-Access to Everything We Are For Good!
Experience the Impact Uprising Membership by We Are For Good: an ecosystem to learn, connect + grow in the power of a value-aligned community. Members gather monthly with Jon + Becky at exclusive members-only meetups + get video access to all new podcast episodes in an ad-free experience + so much more! Learn more + join us at weareforgood.com.

Say hi👇
LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook / YouTube / Twitter

Speaker 1:

Hey, I'm John.

Speaker 2:

And I'm Becky.

Speaker 1:

And this is the we Are For Good podcast.

Speaker 2:

Nonprofits are faced with more challenges to accomplish their missions and the growing pressure to do more, raise more and be more for the causes that improve our world.

Speaker 1:

We're here to learn with you from some of the best in the industry, bringing the most innovative ideas, inspirational stories, all to create an impact uprising.

Speaker 2:

So welcome to the good community. We're nonprofit professionals, philanthropists, world changers and rabid fans who are striving to bring a little more goodness into the world.

Speaker 1:

So let's get started. Hey Becky, what's happening?

Speaker 2:

Dory's here. I'm so excited that Dory is here. Friends, get ready. Dory is the friend you never knew you wanted and is like the hero of the nonprofit lane right now, and you may recognize her.

Speaker 1:

Yeah and Dory, I mean you're just going to feel the optimism that shines through when she speaks, the brilliance of just how she sees the world and how she's threaded that into massive impact. It is a huge honor to introduce you to Dori McWhorter. She is the president and chief executive officer at the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago. Hello, so many Chicago friends that are listening today and she's got. Can I just go ahead and stop the intro and say you've got the best LinkedIn tagline I've ever read in my life.

Speaker 1:

She is an accomplished optimist, a socially conscious business leader dedicated to improving our world. See, we're just optimists but we're not as accomplished. So I love that you're actually channeling that into your work. And Dory has this really cool career. Before she served as the CEO of YMCA, she was the CEO of YWCA Metropolitan Chicago for over eight years, where she embarked on a journey to transform that 140-year-old social service agency into a 21st century social enterprise.

Speaker 1:

And we got to hear that story, my friend, and so we first met you, without knowing it, by watching you in Uncharitable the movie. So you may recognize her voice. And she's just such a staunch, fierce advocate for our sector and for us to innovate. The way that we show up and this film if you haven't seen it helps really the general public. Unthink everything we know about change. But I also want to talk about her leadership focus of increasing impact and organizational sustainability, while at the YWCA, her operating budget grew from get this y'all 10.5 million in 2013 to 38 million in FY 2022. So that is another story. We have so much to unpack. Dori, I could talk about all of your accolades, but I just also want to get you in this house and get you talking instead of me. It is a huge honor to have you on the we Are For Good podcast. Welcome, my friend.

Speaker 3:

Thank you First of all. I need you and Becky with me wherever I go because you all are just so kind in your opening remarks and I just really appreciate it. Actually, when you said the accomplished optimist, someone called me that in an article and I was like you know what I like, that I'm going to keep that. I think you do it by getting older. No, no no, no, you're like still an optimist. Effectively, you're accomplished.

Speaker 1:

I love that so much and I'm going to grab the domain for you if it's still availablecom.

Speaker 3:

We'll see if the domain for you, if it's still availablecom.

Speaker 1:

But, dory, I mean we want to welcome you to the show by just saying take us back to your story. We wanted to get to know little Dory growing up and like what you know connected. What are these kinds of connected moments of your life that led you to this incredible work we see today?

Speaker 3:

Well, it's so interesting. So when there's sort of a documented record of what little Dory thought about, as my parents still saved a letter from Santa that I wrote or I think they, I don't know that they saved it I think he must've given it back to them, because this letter to Santa that I wrote that asks Santa for three things, and at the time the one thing, the first thing, was to make everyone alive today, okay. And the second one was for me to be their accountant Actually, no. The second one was for me to get a picture to prove that he was real, and the third one was for me to be my parents' accountant. So I bring that up because, you know, people often ask me, because I moved from the for-profit space to the nonprofit space, what sort of aha moment I had. I was like, yeah, I was always like this. It's just that it just came time to reprioritize what I was focusing on so little. Dory was focusing on wanting the world to be okay.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and I want you to know we feel this the first time we ever met you. There's something about your warmth and your optimism and your joy and the possibilities that I feel like you see in the world. And these, I mean starry-eyed optimists are our kind of people, because there's too much divisiveness and dissension and hate in the world. It's like we've got to try things differently. We've got to connect differently, we've got to elevate differently. We've got to try things differently. We've got to connect differently, we've got to elevate differently. And so we're definitely going to go into the work, the wonderful work that you're doing at the YMCA, and you have done some absolutely groundbreaking things that we also want to talk about. But I mean, you were in Uncharitable. Can we just do a hard stop right there? We've had Dan Pallotta on the podcast a couple times, sure, and we had this conversation. We're just so honored to have with you going into it.

Speaker 2:

And if you have not seen Uncharitable, I don't want to tell you to just watch it. I want to tell you to take a friend to go watch it, to set it up in your board meeting to have a watch party, because the only ways that we're going to become unstuck in the way that we live and work in this world is by socializing what the problems are and talking to the change makers who are making the difference. Dori, you are one of them, so we want to give you the floor. Talk about your experience of just being in this film into some of the trickle-down effects of these systemic changes that are holding you, your team, the organization back from the thrive and the vibrancy we know are so within your grasp.

Speaker 3:

Well, I appreciate that.

Speaker 3:

I was so happy to be a part of the film Uncharitable, mostly because when I came into the sector back in 2013, when I left public accounting and became, at that time, the CEO of the YWCA, I actually was using Dan Pallotta's TED Talk to orient my board so we would use it in our new board member orientation and for me, it was finally something that described what I believed to be true about the sector and the approach that I knew we needed to take, given that I was a CPA and coming from an accounting background and management consulting background.

Speaker 3:

For me, it was all about how we continue to understand the business of impact. And so when the film Uncharitable, when the folks had reached out to me, I was like, yeah, duh, yeah, I get it, and of course, they had a couple of proof points like starting the exchange traded fund and just other pieces that they saw from the work that we had done at the YWCA. That was really aligned with what Dan was discussing as the principles of the movie as well. So it was really nice alignment there and I was really happy to be able to continue to beat that drum of we need to really understand what are the drivers, like any other business, that make these things successful. It's just that our work is absolutely focused on creating greater impact, and those drivers and levers wouldn't be any different, and so for me, it was just, you know, such a good opportunity to continue to say, yes, these are the things we need to do, and really happy to have been a part of it.

Speaker 1:

I mean, okay, you mentioned this and I have to go back to your bio and lift your exchange traded fund piece because, dory, y'all led the effort to develop this exchange traded fund for women's empowerment. It's on the New York stock exchange, tickered WOMN, in partnership with impact shares, which is the first nonprofit investment advisor to develop an ETF product. So, dori, you were in the hall of fame over this. Give us a second just like a soundbite of like what this means and what it looks like today.

Speaker 3:

Sure. Well, first of all, the fund is doing incredible and I'm not giving investment advice, I'm just saying go look at the check.

Speaker 2:

We'll speed up your voice Because she's an accountant Right.

Speaker 3:

Facts are facts. And the fact that the fund is, at the time, went public and had a very successful IPO, and I was sitting on the sidelines like, wow, they get to raise all the money. They're great companies, true, but why do they get to raise money or have access to capital that we don't have? And so, literally that year, I did a little mock up of we could go raise capital on the exchange and what it would mean and what it would do. And then, lo and behold, a few years later, we had the opportunity to partner with Impact Shares. That was really looking to leverage the knowledge that we had about change and what corporations could do to advance women, so that we could partner with them and create an exchange-traded fund that looked at those criteria as well, as then allowed us to have different conversations with corporations to talk about their role.

Speaker 3:

And to me, that's what this is all about is that every single opportunity we have to make impact and advance society, everything is a lever for that. It's a matter of how we put those things together, and so the ETF was such a strong representation that you can even do it with an exchange traded fund. So what excuses do we have to make change. We can do it with anything, and so that, for me, was just another example of demonstrating that we can have so many levers for change, if only we choose to do so I'm so stinking proud of you.

Speaker 2:

What you have done. You're just so bold. You're bold in what you do and how you approach it and I just wonder when you bring this idea to your board and they're like, okay, let's totally try it, because you have the trust, you have the background, you have the numbers and I love that you guys just went for it. John, it reminds me so much. We just talked to Alice Lynn Pomponio over at ACS's, who's talking about how they built this incredible venture capital arm for directing philanthropic donations. And Alice is from Big Pharma and I love it when I hear people that have skill sets in other areas of the world bringing it into the impact space and turning these levers on in really unique ways.

Speaker 2:

So I got to ask about your mindset in this, because we're big into mindsets on this podcast and we love talking especially with, like really innovative leaders like yourself. Talk to us about your mindset, like in this work. When you think about this EFT, which I'm just so proud that I can just tell you what the acronym is I can basically not tell you anything else about it as a recovering gift officer, but I just want to talk about how do you approach your work. What kind of mindsets would you employ at YMCA Metro Chicago, of whatever you're going to be, Maybe it was at YWCA.

Speaker 3:

Sure Well, for me.

Speaker 3:

I think that underlying philosophy that I do believe that everything could be a force for good, right, so that underlying mindset is that we have every tool available to us to create greater impact and greater societal impact, and so, from a mindset perspective, it really is understanding that to me, everyone and everything has value, and so how do we make sure that that gets expressed and is connected in ways to just continue to better society? Because I always say impact and value are two sides of the same coin. And so we often try to separate those things and say, oh, we can create impact or value or money, and I'm like, yeah, actually. No, that's not true. You are always creating impact and if you're doing that, then there's some value that's being derived from that.

Speaker 3:

But we sometimes don't acknowledge it or claim it or even think about it. And so in my space, in my world, in my mind, I'm always thinking about how do we do both at the same time? How do we do both at the same time? And so it just for me and this is one of the when we first got connected, when we were doing some of the discussion we had around Uncharitable and this question around if it only is impact, only important, if it creates value, and I say, well, they're the same thing.

Speaker 2:

So for me it's hard to separate the two, right?

Speaker 3:

Yes, I want to live in a world that's, you know. Yes, good things happen because they should happen. But the fact is is that, while that is true, and we want the best things to happen, at the same time we do live in a capitalistic society, and at least in America. Right? And so, to the degree that we demonstrate that the better we do, the better the world is, or the better, the more value we can create, the more economic stability we can create for folks, all of those things absolutely matter.

Speaker 1:

Gosh, I like you so much.

Speaker 2:

I know right.

Speaker 1:

I just think like there's something to it, like we cannot lose that fire and that hope that I think you bring to the table, because to us you're preaching our values back to us we start with. Everyone matters Like I'm with you. Everybody has somebody, something that they can contribute, which is why we can't just talk about money. We're talking about a lot of things bigger than money, and that involves everybody.

Speaker 1:

So, okay, I have to kind of throw you. You know this may be a softball, because this is in your past, something you've already done. That's really epic. I want to get the playbook on this. I mean, we're talking about the role that you're in. Before you came to your current position with the YWCA, which is 140-year-old social service agency, you transformed it into this 21st century social enterprise. Tell us the story. What are the highlights, what are some of the challenges that came along the way, and what can we glean from this?

Speaker 3:

Sure. So at the highest level, the work at the YWCA, with the mission, was to eliminate, or still is actually is to eliminate racism and empower women. But what I observed when I came into the organization is that, you know, we of course, based on the nature of the work, we had a lot of government grants. And, becky, you were saying you're a recovery and development officer. So what I observed is that every time a government grant went away, they would shut down the program, furlough the people, just sort of this sort of rinse and repeat cycle. That just kept happening and so as I was coming on which is why I was coming in the organization continued to decline and so once I got there and I was just like, how is this possible? The work that we do here is amazing, the people are amazing, the connections in the community are amazing. There's so many assets here. We're just not recognizing that those assets actually bring value to the world. Therefore, we could look at how we can connect to other resources, can connect to other resources. So, for example, you know I always talk about, you know, there's one case I should say I use it as a case study to some degree that part of the work that we were doing with. We educate childcare providers, and we were in a room of full of childcare providers and there was a raffle and there was a collective sigh when the people when one person won and the rest, of course, course didn't win that it was for gardening curriculum. And I was like, really, people really want to get this gardening curriculum. I was like, okay. So in my mind, which is just, I'm a capitalist, I was like, okay, that means there's an unmet need, right, when you have a collective sigh, that people lost the raffle for the gardening curriculum. And so, fast forward.

Speaker 3:

The next year they ran the same training and they brought in a speaker and typically the training had been free for the providers, which is fine, but then, of course, when something's free, you get a bit of an attrition. You know a drop off rate, and so they charged something de minimis, like 35 bucks, but they charged so that you know, because they had to pay for the speaker to come in. But the speaker was great because he was teaching them. Again, they wanted something that they could do with their kiddos and so he was teaching them how to do STEM projects at home. So they would, you know, he would do all these little fancy little things to show, like how air compresses in a bottle, all these things with household items, right, and it was really cool.

Speaker 3:

Long story short to say that we charge for them to come. So that means now, instead of having our free event. It was, you know, 100 participants show, so that was $3,500 just from people coming to that. And then what we also saw is that they were intrigued about how can they do all these sort of exercises at home with their kids, and so our team, because we had been talking about how much value we create with the work we do, the impact we have, that they created these little STEM toolkits and then they sold them to all the folks and we only had 10 on site that day. So at $100 each, that was $1,000. Then Underwriters Laboratory, which most folks know UL listed.

Speaker 1:

They test consumer electronics and many things that they do.

Speaker 3:

So they made these incredible videos with Disney effectively teaching electricity safety, and so they were like, oh my goodness, you all have these child care providers. We'd love to have the videos there. We will sponsor the event for $5,000. So this event turned into a $10,000 event. That used to be a free event, and so it was about us thinking through every time. We said that there was a value creation opportunity there and taking advantage of it, that what we were doing this on steroids across the organization enterprise, because we really understood the value that we were creating, the impact that we were having and how that can drive the resources to do the work. So we were no longer just beholden to one type of funding source. That, yes, funding sources evolve. That's what funders do, I mean. It happens, but what we were better in tune to is how do we then understand where we're creating value and who cares about the impact and the value we're creating, that they'd be willing to tap into it differently, and so so, $38 million later, we found a lot of value in the association and we just empowered.

Speaker 3:

What was so great for me is that we empowered so many of the workforce, so many people within the workforce there, like we did this program that we were providing free childcare services to veterans. It was paid through for Illinois scratch off tickets that was Illinois lottery scratch off that were specifically designated for veteran services. But again, we had to bring the services to say this is what we can do. And it was so, so huge. And yet we were able to provide a good, a different resource for people and create that impact and, at the same time, understand what additional revenue sources we could use to pay for that. So we were so fortunate that we had the whole team thinking like that, and so that's how we grew.

Speaker 3:

It wasn't just me sitting on high saying, hmm, what is it that we need in the world and how can I go get it. It was really the team saying you know, we have people that call here. They can't get child care subsidies if they have health appointments. They can only get child care subsidies when they have employment opportunities. And so we partner with the Veterans Association, veterans Hospital, veterans Administration Hospital, and they were the ones that helped us access their veterans so that we can then provide child care services to them so that they can attend their healthcare appointments. So it's about like again, how do we create win-win-wins and then in every opportunity we have to do that, there's value there. We just have to connect the dots.

Speaker 2:

Okay, dori, like there's so much to unpack here. One we call this not asking a better question, but asking a bigger question. You asked a bigger question and I keep seeing this coin as this visual sort of beacon for you all that impact and value are interchangeable. They are the same thing, and when you look at it from a much different lens than the one-dimensional lens we've all been thinking about, which is the dollar amount, when you can think about value and donation and impact in different ways.

Speaker 2:

And PS, bravo to you for giving so much agency to your team on the front lines. Of course they're going to know this, they're in this every single day. They're talking to the people on the front lines of this, and so I mean it's just a really cool case study. It reminds me John of. We had Maya Ajmera on from Society of Science talking about how they reiterated their over 100-year-old organization to be a social enterprise. I think Amy Freitag over at the Community Trust of New York City is reimagining their 100-plus-year-old organization. I just think that these examples are wonderful testimonies and case studies to point back to of people who are asking bigger questions, expanding the way that we look at community interaction and value, and I just have to like ask you, dori, like, what are the hallmarks? What did you notice? What lifted to the top about what a modern social enterprise can be and how that can be a focus for some of the nonprofit missions that are listening right now?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, part of it for me is that one, because I do have, yes, I have an MBA and yes, I have an accounting degree and background.

Speaker 1:

And what for me.

Speaker 3:

I recognize that people really just don't understand that what they do also brings value. So we say so. When I joined the YMCA, for example, we would say that our memberships, which were focused on our fitness services, were our cash cow. And then we do our mission work and I was like, okay.

Speaker 3:

First of all, all of it's impactful, like all of it is, first of all. Second of all, all of it also has value. So, yes, you, you have a structure here that feels, because it's consumer based, that it feels like it's our cash cow, but I don't. I would argue that because our mission work is also I can't even say the word mission work, it bothers me Mission work also has value, also has value, and what our goal is to make sure that we're identifying the right sources to, you know, of course, be able to provide those services to the community, even if they are for free, right, and so for me, it really is recognizing that we are operating in a marketplace where value is exchanged every single day.

Speaker 3:

But we get the great fortune, in organizations that have a nonprofit tax status, that we're able to effectively do our work, which is provide greater impact in advanced society, in a very tax efficient way. So that's how I think about it that we're part of the same marketplace. You know we have, of course, have to hire great people, which, of course, the movie Uncharitable touches around, you know, making sure we're compensating people, making sure we're marketing, looking at the same sort of tools that we have in business. But I think about those things all the time and I'm always thinking about how it applies to the work we're trying to accomplish.

Speaker 1:

I mean I'm so glad our CPA friend Dory came over to this world. I mean it's just so good to have this brain pouring into this conversation. But I want to talk about activation, because we get questions in our community all the time about capacity building and creating this organizational stability, and I'd say that's one side of the coin. But we also are like we want to lean into innovation. We just had a conversation a couple episodes back with Seth Godin about our role is to innovate. We don't know the answers to the societal's biggest problems. We changing the norms, and so how do you marry those two ideas? How do you create capacity and stability while also leaning on innovation to go to the next level? And I just feel like that's a perfect question for you, dori.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. So you know, becky, when you had said something earlier, it is always the quality of the question. I always say the quality of the question gets you the right solution, right. And so then you do need to ask bigger and better questions, because I think there is a thing as a such thing as a better question, right? Because to me, that's how we begin to unpack.

Speaker 3:

The innovation is that if we're asking questions, sometimes the questions are as simple as why, why and I used to tell my team this all the time, like it is our job if we are trying to create the greatest impact possible and address some of the most, some of the most challenging situations people have, we have to ask the questions why are we in this situation and what can we do to get out of it?

Speaker 3:

And the what can we do gives us, to me, gives us permission to truly lean into that. And this is where, to me, it also becomes to your point, john, with the capacity. The difference between lots of businesses and nonprofits is that many nonprofits say and this is where, to me, it also becomes to your point, john, with the capacity the difference between lots of businesses and nonprofits is that many nonprofits say this is the budget and then I'll do the work within this budget. Businesses say this is what I want to accomplish, and then so how can I go get the resources to accomplish that? And I think that that's what we need to do more of. And so capacity to me should always be a short-term issue, because we are often we have to solve for capacity while we solve the issues at hand. To me, they go hand in hand.

Speaker 3:

And so you, you, you can't be limited by the resources you have, and this is why we never solve the problems, because we actually say, oh, we have, you know, just for example, we have a million bucks or a thousand bucks, whatever that is, what can we do with the net? Million bucks, I'm like, but the problem takes 2 million. So I'm going to ask you to go find the 2 million and let's figure that out, cause you can't downsize the solution.

Speaker 1:

Don't downsize those dreams. You just can't do that.

Speaker 3:

It doesn't work. Clearly it doesn't work.

Speaker 2:

And what donor wants to be part of a watered down solution. Like I don't, as a funder, I can get you like a solution for 9.95. It's a million dollar problem, it's a million dollar problem. This is not a BK broiler.

Speaker 3:

This is an unhoused crisis, this is the food scarcity. This is too big the resources to be on the level of the challenges and so you can't. I just I can't even think like that. Like I don't know how you scale down the solution to be within a certain dollar amount, like I don't even know how that works. That actually hurts my brain to try to think about that.

Speaker 2:

So and people in business are not thinking that way. I mean, they're thinking the opposite.

Speaker 3:

Absolutely. They're thinking about. This is what we need to go do and this is how. This is how we should go. Try to find the resources to do it, and then you may have to scale your solution, but you at least go look for the resources. But we tend not to do that. We say, well, we have this and so we need to live within our budget.

Speaker 3:

I'm like yeah, perhaps but perhaps we just need to go find more money, and I'm open to all of those ways. Right, we just need to look at things differently, right?

Speaker 2:

I think that's the benefit and the hallmark of what you're bringing to your organization and what you're bringing into this space right now is that you don't look at the world and your work the way that the playbook implies that we should, because the playbook is dusty. Let's talk about this and the playbook needs to be modernized, and I think one of the reasons I would guess that you have found such success and I don't mean that just in what you funded, though 10 million to 38 million should be celebrated, hello but also success in your team and the way you're diversifying your revenue and the way that you talk. Dory has no scarcity in it at all. It is such abundant big vision thinking I want to be a part of it.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, no, I appreciate that the world isn't scarce, and so the world continues and the economy, too, continues to expand. Right, yeah, we slow down sometimes, and sometimes there may be a recession, but you know and that was part of my issue too when I joined the YWCA, you know, the rest of the business community had been coming out of the recession since, you know, from 2008 is they're coming out, and we and it was 2013 and we were still in I was like how is this possible? And I was like, oh, because we haven't really claimed the value that we've been creating by ensuring that everybody else is okay, and so we really had to take a hard look of where we were participating in the market and truly, we're not capturing the value that we were absolutely creating. I had an opportunity to go out. United Way was funding us, and so we went out to one of their corporate partners and I was telling how the work that the work that the United Way did in terms of their corporate campaign supported our work, and part of our work was sexual violence support services, and we provided counseling and therapy services for survivors of assault. And one of that corporation's employees met me in the parking lot and said, because of the YWCA at the time, you helped me get my life together and I was like, oh, that's so wonderful, I'm so happy to hear that. And then I've seen everything in myself and you were able to go back to work and become a productive part of this particular employer's environment. And let's say they made money from that. Right, but did the why appear in any of that? No, and so we actually use that as a way to start talking to corporations around how we can be a part of their employee assistance programs, as well as connecting the work that we did and I brought this up on the call or the meeting we had with or the conversation we had with Stephen Gyllenhaal as well that we were able to demonstrate that when you address the trauma from violence and abuse, it actually reduces the workers' comp.

Speaker 3:

Third-party administration cost yes, and so again, it's not about that that person's suffering was valuable. It wasn't that. It was that we were participating in the productivity of that company and we were nowhere to be found in sort of that value exchange or the, or even taking credit for our role in making that, helping that employee become, you know, more of a productive employee for that employer. But then we started having those conversations right, because there is a true cost to that and it shows up in our healthcare costs, because a third of our healthcare costs are actually tied to violence and abuse. But those are the type of conversations we need to have with corporations to help people understand that you should care that your employee comes to see us, you should care about that and, by the way, you should also provide resources so we can do more of that. And so that's why I say how I think about is how do we continue to make sure that we're plugging ourselves in where we really are participating in creating greater value for the whole?

Speaker 2:

And like the boldness of which you speak and how I want to say you talk about it as if we have to do it and there's no apology in the way that you talk, which I feel like is a little bit of something that's held our sector back. And I thank you for it because, dori, you're literally doing what your Santa letter said, that woman just proved you are literally making sure that everyone around you is okay and, whether you see them or not, it's happening because of the systems you've put in place and because of the outputs of your. I mean, what you've put out there with your dreams is coming back to you. And I just have to ask you just this final question, before we get into our anchor questions, about this innovative lens that you just put on to your work over at the YMCA Metro Chicago, like what are you guys working on right now? What do you? What are you guys seeing? We would love to peek behind the curtain.

Speaker 3:

There's so much opportunity here, it's like I literally have to sort of put on my shades. I could stop seeing opportunity. There's so much here, don't put it on. Yeah, and you know, for us it really starts with again.

Speaker 3:

The YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago has been here for 166 years, has done amazing work. When you look at the legacy, there's so much of original creation that or just amazing things that came out of the YMCA, whether it's colleges, university Roosevelt University came from the YMCA. Black history month was founded at the YMCA metropolitan Chicago. Yes, right on Wabash street here in Chicago, on the south side of Chicago, the bank of marathon, chicago marathon, was founded at a YMCA. So what I came here was really bringing building off that legacy of innovation. That I felt was, you know, extremely just, such a great opportunity to be surrounded by that energy.

Speaker 3:

And so some of the things that we're working on is we're really looking at how do we modernize the work that we do?

Speaker 3:

Many folks know us for our health and wellbeing services, our fitness services, so, or should I say the swim and gym models that people are familiar with at YMCA.

Speaker 3:

But we're taking that to what I would consider a whole nother level, where we did a great pilot with Peloton because of course, they have the world-class virtual content and so they will become a partner of ours as well as we roll out this on a larger scale basis across all of our footprints. So that's really exciting. We also are looking at how we go back into communities that over time, the Y has left for numbers of different reasons, but we think that there's a great opportunity to serve more and really understand how we can go back into those communities. But if we're going to go back into those communities, we're going to do it in a more green way. So we're looking at not only how do we offer what we want to provide in these communities or what the communities want from us, but, for example, we're looking at a downtown community hub that's going to be a mixed income, net, zero carbon emissions apartment complex.

Speaker 3:

So just really thinking about how we use the WISE platform to do more, and so there's a lot happening, a lot happening, but those are just a couple of highlights, because we're really trying to do more, do more. My, my colleagues, they often one of my colleagues in particular. She talks about. She loves the quote that you know, if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. And I was like, yeah, we need to go further, faster though. So let's do it all.

Speaker 2:

Dory's going to sprint the Chicago marathon we have a lot to do.

Speaker 3:

People like let's run in daylight here, so let's go, let's go, so yeah.

Speaker 1:

I mean, what an amazing time to be with you in that mission. But I think any day of the week would be a good day in Dory's world. I just feel like you when you look through the opportunity, through creating value, that everyone has something to offer, like it's booing, like we are needed in this moment more than ever whatever mission you're plugging, into today, you know.

Speaker 1:

So I mean we got to ask you. I can't wait to ask Dory about a story, but we ask all of our guests to take us back to a moment of philanthropy that's really stuck with them and it can be a really small moment of kindness or generosity. But what would you share with us today?

Speaker 3:

Oh, my goodness, I feel like you know it's so. It's so interesting because, of course, I thought about this question but there's, I feel like there's not ever one moment. I just feel like there's many moments that I'm so fortunate to have experienced, so partially the reason I am an accomplished optimist, because I just feel like there's so much goodness and kindness in the world and I am so fortunate to be either a witness or a recipient of it every single day, and it's so hard for me, like literally, I was racking my brain thinking like, is there one thing? And I was just like, you know, I just love everybody and I just believe that about your brand.

Speaker 3:

It really is so hard to just think about, just because, of course, you know the philanthropy being the at its core, the love for humanity, and I just feel like we have such an opportunity to experience that every single moment of the day, and it really is up to us because there's so many people that aren't experiencing that, and so how we choose to lean into that both both give and receive, that like the love you all give is just so amazing. Like I'm like y'all got me hyped for another not at least another 48 hours around here.

Speaker 3:

We're your hype team for life. Come back whenever you need us it's so positive, but I so. For me it really is. I don't know that there's, and I really don't. I cannot think of one moment. I just felt like I'm just so fortunate to have just amazing humans in my aura that continue to to fuel me every single day. Every single day, dori she gave it back.

Speaker 2:

She couldn't pick her favorite child. She gave it back to humanity. And you're right. I think we get so busy in this work sometimes that we don't stop and look around at the gratitude and at the way that we are changed by the work, by the interactions, by the things we see and experience. And there's got to be some pause in our work to do that, because that is what's going to refuel us. And, dory, we end all of our conversations with asking our guests about a one good thing. It could be a mantra, a quote, a piece of advice what would you leave with the community?

Speaker 1:

A Dism.

Speaker 3:

Adorism oh, I got so many adorisms. My team would be like, no, no, don't ask me that.

Speaker 2:

Sounds like my kids when I try to do slang. Yeah, I get it.

Speaker 3:

Yes, so I will share one of my favorite quotes. This is another point of connection for Dan and Palana and I, because we're both fans of Bucky Fuller. But my favorite Bucky Fuller quote is that you never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete. And for me, when you mentioned innovation earlier too, john, that's what gives us permission to innovate, because I always presumed that people did the best they could with what they knew at the time, but now we know differently. So I think, by asking different questions, by leaning into different knowledge points and data points, that we can do better. And so that's what I'll say, that I'm all for just advancing things and advancing society in ways that are extremely relevant for us today.

Speaker 1:

I'm just here for your ethos, my friend.

Speaker 2:

I mean.

Speaker 1:

The way you radiate the way we feel cared for and the way that clearly you care for your community in such an empowering way is just beautiful to watch. So, so grateful for this time. People listening are gonna wanna connect with you. I know you're on LinkedIn. We're big fans and followers there. Where else can people find you and connect with your work at the YMCA at Church Chicago?

Speaker 3:

Sure, Well, you can follow us across all the channels at YMCA Chicago. We're that on Instagram, on Facebook, on X. But definitely continue to connect with us. And just again, it's just such an honor to be with you all today as well.

Speaker 2:

I just think your heart, your expertise, your vision we need more of that and you give us so much hope. We're so proud of you. Thank you for walking through life with your generosity and your kindness. We are going to be rooting and watching YMCA and I got a shout out to your 100 plus year old, 140 year old YWCA.

Speaker 3:

I just think oh yeah, the pledges are still, we're still, they're still out, heck yeah you're making change and ripples happen everywhere.

Speaker 2:

Thank you for coming into this space and just giving us the buoy we needed today, my friend.

Speaker 3:

Thank you, thank you both. Such an honor.

Speaker 1:

Thanks so much for being here. Friends, and you probably hear it in our voices, but we love connecting you with the most innovative people to help you achieve more for your mission than ever before.

Speaker 2:

We'd love for you to come join our good community. It's free and you can think of it as the after party to each podcast episode. Sign up today at weareforgoodcom. Backslash hello.

Speaker 1:

And one more thing If you love what you heard today, would you mind leaving us a podcast rating interview? It means the world to us and your support helps more people find this community. Thanks so much, friends. Can't wait to our next conversation.