Giving Back in Atlanta – going beyond Altruism

During the 2023 edition of Hands On Atlanta Week, I had the honor of kicking off 48in48’s Global Event for a room full of coders. Their early October weekend plan? Building 48 websites for 48 nonprofits in just 48 hours!

Funny enough, for someone who leads one of the largest volunteer hubs in the country, I can be pretty picky about where I spend my time. I like my volunteer efforts to check a few boxes. Networking? Quality time with my kids? Maybe even a brief respite from them? The more boxes ticked, the better. And turns out, data from Hands On Atlanta’s 35-year journey agrees – people with a clear “why” are more committed and come back to serve more often inevitably to do more good.

But why my emphasis on the ‘why’? Typically, my talks involve sharing the challenges in the community and encouraging audiences to volunteer. Yet, with this group, that would have been preaching to the choir. So I pivoted to a topic I’ve actually never addressed during my tenure as Hands On Atlanta’s CEO – the myth that giving back has to be an act of pure altruism.

Volunteering isn’t just about giving; you get a lot out of it too. It’s a two-way street that can keep you coming back. Here are the five big things volunteers gain from their service:

1. Community

   Service fosters a feeling of belonging. Working together creates strong, lasting connections, akin to what you might find at church, synagogue, or a local pickleball league.

2. Talent

   Volunteering is an avenue for skill-building. It challenges you to step beyond your comfort zone, enabling growth. Whether you’re mastering something new or gathering tales for the next social gathering, it’s a win.

3. Well-Being

   In today’s age, where loneliness, anxiety and depression are rampant, volunteering stands as a remedy. A dedicated volunteer once shared with me how a day of service transformed their headspace. They started the day feeling down and trapped, and ended it on a high note, feeling connected and useful. Such stories aren’t rare.  

4. Creative Recharge

   Service projects are a great place to find inspiration, or if nothing else, a new problem to solve – maybe even one you didn’t know existed. Stepping out of your daily routine can birth fresh perspectives.

5. Civic Pride

   Engaging directly with community challenges instills a deep sense of pride and ownership. To see a community flourish and know you played a part – there’s no better feeling.

Last year, Hands On Atlanta successfully mobilized more than 40,000 people to serve. But here is the rub – 50,000 volunteer spots went unfilled. That translates to meals not served, kids without tutors, and needs unmet. For Atlanta (or any community) to flourish, we need to see volunteering not just as an event, but as a way of life. Volunteering is the way we connect with each other, grow, recharge and engage. Only then can we truly bridge the gap between giving and receiving.

So, tell me: Why do you volunteer? What’s the win/win for you?

3 Lessons Learned from Nonprofit Fails

“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”

There’s nothing quite like a healthy dose of reality every now and again. Just weeks after Hands On Atlanta received the biggest gift in our 30 history, I was quickly dealt a KO punch that still stings to this day.

All was good. And honestly, I was riding that high of an all-time win, so I decided to double down by scheduling a meeting with one of the most influential foundations in Atlanta. I walked into the pitch overconfident and admittedly, ill-prepared. After a pretty brutal conversation, I walked out with a “No” for the record books and big dent in my ego. They were blunt, honest and to the point…“We don’t believe in your strategy and aren’t interested in funding your work.” Not to humblebrag or anything, but this was my biggest fail as CEO of Hands On Atlanta to date. Go me.

So, why am I telling you about my big fail? As a nonprofit and community leader, I’m not supposed to admit when I fail. It’s my job to share stories of success, so that you become inspired by our work and continue to support our efforts, right? But let’s be honest.  The truth is, nonprofit leaders (I more than most) fail all the time.  Grant requests are denied; evaluation reports show poor results; team diversity doesn’t reflect the community we serve; meetings go sideways.  And, that’s just the start.

We don’t ever talk about failure. But I think we should.

I’m a firm believer that failure is our best teacher. That’s why I founded FuckUp Nights Atlanta, an event where we ask leaders from all sectors to do the bold and brave thing, and talk about their biggest failure. If we’re going to move the needle on some of Atlanta’s most intractable problems, we have to share our failures. More importantly, we have to learn from them.

My experience coaching leaders through their FuckUp Nights talk, and as CEO of a lean nonprofit has taught me 3 things about failure: 

First, things are often more complex than they appear - Be wary of leaders who throw stones. I have learned the hard way that leading is… well, it’s hard. Start at a place of humility.

Second, be careful of hidden assumptions.  Most failures happen because we bring bias and assumptions into our work, which often undermine our best intentions.

Third, trust and communication are paramount.  My favorite quote is from Mike Tyson (yes…that Mike Tyson) who said it best, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” The question isn’t “if” things will go sideways, it is just a matter of “when”.  And when they do, your ability to pivot and preserver has everything to do with trust and communication. 

I could go on to share stories and examples about volunteer projects that have gone off the rails, fundraising events that didn’t raise any money, or fails (large and small) in just about every aspect of our work to make Atlanta the most civically engaged and equitable community in the world. The truth is, I’d love to learn from your fails. So, take a deep breath and get ready. Add your biggest failure and what you learned from it in the comments below. 

Oh, and before I forget, if you’re in Atlanta and want to hear more stories of failure, join the next F*ckUp Nights Atlanta event on March 19th. You’ll hear from an entrepreneur turned community leader, a CEO with a side hustle as a UGA adjunct professor, an Airforce veteran running a consulting firm, and a chief marketer with a passion for people.

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This post was inspired by a talk I gave at Emory University for a Philanthropy Labs course led by  Brian Goebel and Wes Longhofer.  Students in their class are given the opportunity to invest $50K in the Atlanta community over the course of a semester. 

Embrace Your Underdog

Confession time. I’ve been feeling overwhelmed lately by the size and entrenched nature of the social challenges facing Atlanta. From food insecurity to mass incarceration, it feels like we are fighting a losing battle. And every new fact I learn simply adds gasoline to the fire:

• Atlanta has the highest income inequality in the nation

• The average age of a homeless person in Atlanta is 9-years old

• In in 4 kids live in food insecure households

• 1 in 3 are functionally illiterate

• And more…

If these facts aren't sobering enough, I’ve also been conducting a listening tour among our nonprofit partners. The focus of our conversation has been about their volunteer needs, but I’ve also asked one simple question: “Do you see things getting better or worse?”  Disappointingly (but not surprisingly), the answer has been “worse”. 

How can we live in the richest country on the planet; the 10th largest city in the country; and be fighting the same problems we were fighting 29-years ago when Hands On Atlanta was founded? There I go again, feeling defeated and overwhelmed. 

Perhaps I just need to flip my thinking and embrace my inner underdog!

If you are like me, you often find yourself rooting for the underdog. They are scrappy, likable, and fun to cheer for. They are movie’s most enjoyable characters. From Ralph Macchio in Karate Kid to Sylvester Stallone in Rocky, I love to see the underdog go up against all odds, stumble, only to come back stronger to win in the end. These characters represent the reality of being human while simultaneously reminding us that the impossible can come true. 

One of my favorite underdog stories of all time is Star Wars. The intergalactic battle between light and dark, between a misfit group of rebels and the goliath force of the Empire. My kids, Noah (12) and Eli (8) are excited to see the next installment – Solo, a Star Wars Story, when it comes out this weekend. 

It reminded me of something important. I love the underdog. It is in my DNA. Good always has to work harder, fail repeatedly, before they are able to find victory…and then, often times it is bittersweet and a fleeting victory. The hero is always on their way to the next battle.

Somehow, thinking about this today, has made me feel stronger. More like the hero and less like Charlie Brown falling for Lucy’s football gag time and time again. If I were casting myself in a movie, I would clearly be the Emilio Estevez in The Mighty Ducks (because Denzel in Remember the Titans would be too on-the nose, right?).

So, if like me, you are feeling overwhelmed by the challenges of the day, I challenge you to embrace your underdog. 

I’d love to hear your ideas. How do you maintain your energy and optimism when you are up against big challenges? Tell us on Facebook or Twitter.

Turning Good Intentions Into Action

As CEO of Hands On Atlanta, I spend my days thinking about the future of volunteering and community service. A few months ago I had chance to share some of those thoughts with a group of enthusiastic business undergrads, as part of Georgia Tech’s Impact Series.

February 15, 2017 Appointed as CEO of Hands On Atlanta in the summer of 2016, Cranman was selected because of his background with other large nonprofit corporations, including serving as Vice President of Venture Development of Points of Light Foundation, and his continued dedication to civil entrepreneurship.

My talk was centered around a core belief -- that the most overlooked and underutilized resource in the world today, is that of people's good intentions. I see several trends which have the potential to completely disrupt the volunteering landscape, and in doing so, turn those good intentions into meaningful action: 

1. Nonprofits no longer hold a monopoly on doing good: Over the next 5-10 years, there will continue to be a convergence of for-profit and nonprofit organizations. It is already difficult to tell them apart, and this trend will continue as legal structure loses its status as a competitive differentiator.  Nonprofits are going to find themselves competing directly with for-profit organizations for the social license to "do good". Image the good that will be unlocked when companies start using their billion-dollar marketing budgets to directly engage people in their sustainability or corporate social responsibility efforts. 

2. Volunteering goes virtual: When you imagine someone volunteering…do you picture them in front of a laptop or doing it on their mobile phone while in line at Starbucks? There are currently an endless number of ways to give money today using a tweet or SMS. And there are an infinite number of ways for someone to do good if they are willing to invest a few hours or a few days. But in the middle, there is a huge, green space…a blue ocean for innovators and entrepreneurs to dive into. I believe innovations in this space will be made possible by technology. Much like Amazon is disrupting big-box retailers, online volunteer platforms will disrupt big-box nonprofits. Over the next 10 years, I predict that the number of hours volunteered online will surpass traditional volunteering. This will further reduce the friction associated with volunteering today, and allow it to become more integrated into our daily lives.  
3. Investing is the new philanthropy: People are revisiting the relationship they want their capital to have with the world. They are seeking a role for capital to play beyond just maximizing profits, and thinking about the social and environmental issues that can be addressed through investment. And it isn’t just wealthy individuals. It is also ordinary citizens who are asking their 401K and pension fund managers to respond to local and global issues. There is roughly $375 Billion donated to charity in the US every year. But we are dealing with Trillion-dollar problems. Basic math shows us that we must find a way to unlock new sources of capital if we are truly going to move the needle on poverty, homelessness and hunger. The World Economic Forum has predicted that the impact investing market will grow to $500 Billion over the next 5 years. As new models emerge, we are going to see a tremendous increase in the amount of money that is being invested in "doing good".
4. What it means to "volunteer" is evolving: Volunteering itself is evolving to keep pace with changing business models. New engagement models will come from collaborative consumption, the sharing economy, crowdfunding, virtual reality and other innovations. And in doing so, we will need to change our language and the definition of volunteering to keep pace. The word “volunteer” will either need to evolve, or it will be supplanted by terms like “activist” and “change maker”.

I believe we will see these trends show up in our daily lives more and more and I hope that by highlighting them, you will be able to recognize and leverage them when they do.

What trends do you see and how might they change how people currently give back to their community?