If you are feeling helpless, help someone
At the age of 15, I worked as a Pharmacy Technician for the local mom and pop, Islip Pharmacy. A job at CVS followed, then our community hospital. I loved it, however, I knew I wasn’t going to be a Pharmacist when I got a 62 in high school chemistry. Even my failing grade had a bit of creative curving upward. It was obvious that my pharmacy career would have a ceiling and an eventual stopping point. Luckily, I was pretty good on the computer, and tech became my primary focus.
I am traveling from Austin, TX, to New York City for Stupid Cancer’s 2019 annual fundraiser, Toast. Hello from 35,000 feet.
At 15, I worked as a Pharmacy Technician for the local mom-and-pop Islip Pharmacy. A job at CVS followed, then our community hospital. I loved it. However, I knew I wouldn’t be a Pharmacist when I got a 62 in high school chemistry. Even my failing grade had a bit of creative curving upward. It was obvious that my pharmacy career would have a ceiling and an eventual stopping point. Luckily, I was pretty good at the computer, and tech became my primary focus.
In the fall of 2009, I had a chance encounter with a guest speaker, Cyndy, in my undergrad Grant Writing class. I was in my 5th year, without clear direction on what I would do the following May when I graduated. Cyndy spoke of an organization called the “I’m Too Young For This! Cancer Foundation,” aka “i[2]y.” Having been directly impacted by my father’s diagnosis in 2005, I was intrigued. I got in trouble for looking at the website during her talk. I was emailing the CEO about an internship.
Around the same time, I applied for a Community Coordinator position for the hospital system where I was working in the pharmacy. It was a marketing job to make the hospital seem more cheerful than it actually was. Despite it being a very junior position and my pending Bachelors's in Communications, I did not get the job.
On January 23rd, 2010, I started my internship at i[2]y with founder Matthew Zachary. I was able to use my paid time off at the hospital to work most Fridays at the i[2]y office in lower Manhattan. It was exciting leading my double life as a pharmacy tech and putting a foot in the door at a nonprofit startup. Around April 15th, two weeks before Matthew's twins were due, I received a full-time job offer. I quickly accepted.
I would characterize 2010-2011 as building years for the organization. We knew what we wanted to do. We had a plan to get traction. We just needed everything to click.
In mid-2011, we changed the organization's name from I’m Too Young For This! Cancer Foundation (2007-2011) to Stupid Cancer (2011-Present). Upon doing so, we immediately saw an uptick in Facebook page growth. We also deployed a creative ad that got hundreds of thousands of Facebook likes. (Read more about that here.)
All of this intent we were putting out into the universe was amplified by us taking our patient conference, the OMG! Cancer Summit for Young Adults, to Las Vegas. We solidified a partnership with Volkswagen and me, and John Sabia piled into the tiny coupe and drove west to the coast, and circled back to Las Vegas. We would do this a total of five times after for a total of 5 road trips, 35,000 ground miles, and a lot of cancer center tours. (Thank you to GM/Chevy and Michael Savoni for believing in us.)
With limited warning, the Stupid Cancer train was rolling, and we did not stop for anyone in our pursuit to deliver our mission of empowering young adults affected by cancer.
Between 2013 and my departure in mid-2016, I enjoyed a lot of personal growth in building out unrealized areas of the organization. I grew the Stupid Cancer Store from a sub $5,000/year revenue stream to over $150K in revenue. Not only were we making money, but our apparel was getting out there. Even on TV. (Thanks, Italia!)
Did you spot the @StupidCancer logo in last night’s #ChasingLife? Here’s @italiaricci modeling a #StupidCancer tee! pic.twitter.com/KVNueba9PV
— Chasing Life (@ChasingLifeTV) July 3, 2014
MZ and I also sat through hours of choppy WebEx meetings with our offshore development company and created Instapeer, a mobile app for survivors and caregivers to connect and chat about their experience with cancer. It was the first of its kind.
When I think back to just how different life was from 2010 up to my departure in 2016, there are so many watershed moments for the organization. It was an incredible ride to be on.
Tonight, I am receiving the “Stupid Cancer Recognition Award” from the current Board of Directors and staff. It’s an honor that I could not have imagined receiving when I started out in the non-profit world 10 years ago.
When I think back to my motivation for inquiring about the internship, the feeling of being a helpless caregiver prevails most. Watching dad go through surgeries and chemo. We were bound to the process. Helpless.
If you are feeling helpless, help someone.
– Aung San Suu Kyi
I love this quote.
My Supercharged Email Management Strategy
Managing multiple email inboxes has become all too real in 2019. Personal email, school email, work email, your project, your other project. For years, the Gmail app was my go-to. Flipping between inboxes seemed like the best there ever could be. The thought of a native app with multiple logged-in email accounts plus efficiency?
Managing multiple email inboxes has become all too real in 2019: personal email, school email, work email, your project, your other project. For years, the Gmail app was my go-to. Flipping between inboxes seemed like the best there ever could be. The thought of a native app with multiple logged-in email accounts plus efficiency?
No way.
2015 said “yes way,” in a big way, when Spark hit the app store and the next iteration of email management was finally here for both mobile and desktop. At long last, something intuitive that wasn’t the Apple Mail app. (Disclaimer: I’ve never used it. It gives me anxiety.)
Spark makes it easy to start, with a great onboarding experience to add your email accounts. Once complete, you’ll notice the emails you just saw in your other mail app roll in. This is when panic will set in, and you realize you should have never signed up for that daily horoscope newsletter ten years ago.
Fear not; I am about to break down Spark into a few easy, actionable steps to get going and make sense of the private email hell you’ve created for yourself.
Start by focusing on the core features
SignaturesSmart vs Classic inboxLooking at all your emails vs sorting by inboxShort and long swipes on mobileSnoozing emails
1) Signatures
Every good email author needs a really cool signature, right? Right. Once you’ve added all your accounts, go in and create the variations of your signature.
Here is what that experience looks like:
To reiterate, you can create multiple signatures for multiple accounts. When replying, Spark knows which signature to add to the bottom of which email. It enables you to roll through emails like a champ without having to mess with how you sign the email.
2) Smart vs Classic inbox
Sometimes when you are presented with more than one option in life, it can make it hard to settle on just one, right? Recently, this was a usability issue in Spark with Smart vs Classic inbox. It was less than stellar to flip between the two, then they introduced a really nice on/off toggle.
Smart inbox off – Showing all emails
Smart inbox on – Showing emails that have been seen at the top. Would normally be broken into important, notifications (aka promotions), and then seen. At the time of writing this, I don’t have any new emails.
This is a super helpful mobile experience for when you’ve just woken up, come out of a long meeting, or any other time you haven’t looked at your email and are looking to cut through the fat.
3) Looking at all your emails vs. sorting by inbox
Before you get overwhelmed thinking you’ll be bombarded by all your emails, you can look at them in their entirety (all of your emails, from all accounts) or by individual accounts. This is accomplished by using the menu on the left side. It’s a helpful mechanism to focus on whichever headspace you’re in.
4) Short and long swipes on mobile
I can dominate my email on mobile with short and long left and right swipes. Here is how I have them set.
5) Snoozing emails
This is my favorite part of Spark and my motivation to share this information with you. Snoozing emails has become the key to my success as an adult who sends emails.
Whether you’re on mobile or desktop, snoozing could not be more simple. When I am at my computer, I use my ⌘+D shortcut, which instantly pulls up a similar pop up to the one below.
When snoozing emails on my phone, I am presented with the question of when I want to see the email again.
Snoozing is perfect for situations where the ball is in someone else’s court and it requires a follow up to see if the action happened and what the outcome was.
Scenario A: If I send a request out and can wait until the next day to hear back, I immediately snooze the email for tomorrow morning.
Scenario B: If I get an email that is important but not more important than what I’m doing in a given moment, I will likely snooze it for a few hours or until 6 pm when I have completed my most important tasks, emails have slowed down, and I can think about something with a clear head.
Scenario C: If I get an email that I need to follow up on, but it’s not pressing, I will snooze it until the weekend.
Scenario D: Snoozing is also great for things that aren’t relevant for days or weeks. Those emails that start out so well-intended by saying “Just putting this on your radar…”
Sorry, radar is full.
Here is how my day unfolds
7 am – Smart inbox toggle on, swiping to quickly archive junk mail.
9:30 am – Emails prioritized by immediate action, snoozing for 2 hours later, the evening, the next day, Saturday, or next Monday. Occasionally, I set a date/time for emails to reappear in the distant future. (Helpful for those “let’s touch base in a month” emails.)
10 am – Prior day snoozed emails roll in.
Mid-day – Less important morning emails reappear and are dealt with.
6 pm – Lowest priority emails roll in.
Evening – Inbox zero!
That’s it. That is my email secret sauce which keeps me rolling fast through newsletters, promotions, and solicitations right on to the real emails.
Ready to get started with Spark and become the master of your own email destiny?
My Top Influencers of 2016
Over the past year, I've accumulated several different types of email subscriptions. From Seth Godin's daily musings to Nathan Barry's drip email about his book, I've read and enjoyed them all.
Over the past year, I've accumulated several different types of email subscriptions. From Seth Godin's daily musings to Nathan Barry's drip email about his book, I've read and enjoyed them all.
Email is a tricky medium. In recent years, I've become so accustomed to unsubscribing from newsletters, that it has become second nature to skip the content and go right to the footer. GMail has gone so far as to give you the option right from the inbox.
As social media has grown and evolved over recent years, the necessity to focus on well-crafted email has declined.
There are, however, individuals doing email and doing it well. Without further ado, here are some of my top influencers of the 2016:
Nathan Barry
Nathan is a designer turned writer turned email software aficionado. I am in awe of his mini-empire and enjoy watching him and the company he founded, ConvertKit, grow.
In Nathan's drip emails about his book, Authority, he takes you on a wild journey which ultimately sold me on signing up for his $29/mo email platform. See my last post about it.
Paul Jarvis
Paul Jarvis is intelligent as he is entertaining to follow. He is a veteran web designer who shares knowledge, insights, and has carved out a nice little corner of the Internet for himself. His emails span from direct marketing to step-by-step guides.
Jason Zook
If the Internet was a candy store, Jason would be the kid in it. I am consistently impressed with his ability to get shit done and do it in creative & innovative ways. As I pen this blog post, he is writing his next book live daily on WatchMeWrite.
* Sometimes Nathan, Paul, and Jason come together to form course-making Voltron and put out some really great stuff.
Tobias Van Schneider
I can't recall how I came to find out about TVS, but I am glad I did. Tobias has an eye for the finer things in life and shares this through his channels. His weekend emails are interesting commentary on design, technology, pop culture, work, and productivity. As a world-class designer, everything is put together rather elegantly.
Seth Godin
Seth Godin has been around almost as long as the Internet itself and needs very little introduction. Seth has been blogging every single day for many years now. His morning emails offer inspiration and prompt introspection. It's a great way to start off your day and can help you make decisions in life and business.
I would be remiss in failing to mention the evolving good stuff that Gary Vaynerchuk puts out every single day, seemingly on every platform. I have also enjoyed watching Casey Neistat chronicle his life in his daily vlogs.
Let me know if the comments who you subscribe to!
ConvertKit Makes Me a Better Non-Profit CEO
What makes a good marketing email? For years, I thought it was a combination of colors and images, font types and social icons. I remember when Mailchimp released their drag and drop editor in November 2012 and everything changed for the amazing.
What makes a good marketing email? For years, I thought it was a combination of colors and images, font types and social icons. I remember when Mailchimp released their drag and drop editor in November 2012 and everything changed for the amazing.
Four years later, I find myself running away from what I once worked on so hard on. Sending flashy emails seeking to dazzle constituents. Don’t get me wrong, I still use said editor and send branded emails, but it is my belief we’re on the verge of a new communication style in the non-profit sector that compliments the main email list.
Last year, I stumbled upon Authority & Nathan Barry and immediately went down this author, creator, entrepreneur rabbit hole. (Shout out to Nathan, Paul, Jason et al) While entrenched in Nathan’s drip email sequence about his book, I found myself looking forward to the next email from him. It was a non-annoying batch of emails that added value to my inbox every few days. What I didn’t realize was that he was actually selling me on his product, ConvertKit.
ConvertKit strips away the fancy drag and drop editor and provides you with the ability to send personalized plain-text emails, fast. Gone are the days of the bulk BCC, replaced with the ability to let my network decide on how they want to engage with me, and the organization I run.
With ConvertKit, I can tag subscribers by donation tiers, campaign affiliation, etc. What’s more, I can change up who the email comes from quickly. If I want to send the email from a fellow staff member or Board Member, it’s a two second switch before the email goes out.
What I really love about ConvertKit is that I can create links within the email that allow people to tag themselves using automations. In the past, a subscriber would have to visit a preference page to do what they can now do right from their inbox. By giving people options on what they want to hear about on the front end, I’m reducing the number of people who might go right for the unsubscribe link in the footer. If they do unsubscribe, that’s fine. "Engage or die."
Uncle Ben said “With great power comes great responsibility.” He’s right. As your ConvertKit database grows in size, you have to maintain strict segmentation of messages and resist the urge to send to everyone at once. That’s what your other list is for.
Since implementing ConvertKit, I’ve seen a ton of conversion and interest from my outbound emails. With the built in analytics, I can see who is opening my emails and interacting with them. These insights are helpful when knowing which donors to pursue, or volunteers to activate. As time progresses, I am discovering new and exciting ways to incorporate ConvertKit into my day to day. With CK starting at $29/month, I can’t help but think back to all of the Salesforce add-ons, priced astronomically, to achieve something similar.
Creating opportunity through self-service
By transforming a manual process to a self-service solution, job posting conversion rates increased dramatically.
On January 1st, I assumed the role of YNPN-NYC Board Chair. It has been a great first month, taking a 35,000-foot view of the chapter and its operations.
One of the value-adds of YNPN-NYC in the past has been a job board. Previously, anyone could post, just so long as they were a member. This was a great funnel to grow membership, engender community, and create a cycle of brand awareness and retention among employer and employee.
At the start of the year, our Board roster was a little light. Part of the “steep” learning curves of assuming my role, has been to figure out band-aids to carry the organization until we’re whole again.
As I set out to reimagine some of our tech infrastructure, including how we billed membership dues, the job board was a priority to sort out. At the very least, YNPN-NYC must continue to support the nonprofit community which we aim to serve in this capacity.
Through a bit of googling, and some luck, I stumbled upon JobBoard.io. It’s a turnkey solution that allows employers post jobs, candidates to find employers, and board operators to collect a fee for the service. For YNPN-NYC, this is found money around-the-clock.
What really sold me on the platform beyond the customer service from its CEO was that it’s inherently self-service was and we could brand it. Now, jobs.ynpn.nyc is the place to start your nonprofit career in New York City.
Sure, there are other big names out there. How cool would it be, though, to start a job interview talking about your mutual connection through YNPN-NYC and doing good in NYC.
Since the implementation of the new job board, we’ve had 36 jobs posted. Postings begin at $25 for a 30-day listing. Employers have the option of featuring the post for an additional $25. To celebrate, the launch of the board, I utilized the embedded couponing functionality. Until the end of the month, you can save 25% by using coupon code “launch” at checkout.
I’ve enjoyed watching the jobs come through during the work day. I have an integration through Zapier that posts to my Slack channel in real-time. There’s another automation that tweets new job postings to @ynpnnyc.
Thus far, postings have translated into $820 in found revenue for the organization that will be reinvested into expanding our reach and programming for members.
I’ve learned from this experience that sometimes the best way to capitalize on opportunity is to put it in the hands of the person on the other end of the transaction.
Why We Switched to Recurly at YNPN-NYC—and How It’s Already Paying Off
Learn how migrating YNPN-NYC from a static one-time membership checkout to a recurring payment provider, gamified conversion, and created a foundation for long-term, sustainable revenue.
When I stepped into the role of Board Chair at YNPN-NYC earlier this month, one of my first priorities was upgrading our recurring membership payment system. We’d been using a mix of PayPal and SquareSpace purchases, and while functional, it lacked the modern tools needed to streamline operations and improve member experience.
My familiarity with Recurly actually goes back to 2015, when I was a customer of a SaaS platform that used it to manage their subscriptions. I had a good experience—especially with the added bonus of a discount—which left a lasting impression. That experience stuck with me when I started looking for a better solution for YNPN-NYC.
The Payment Patchwork We Inherited
Historically, YNPN-NYC managed recurring dues through PayPal. Then, after a website redesign, new memberships were processed through SquareSpace and synced with Mailchimp. That approach kept the process seamless on the front end but fragmented things behind the scenes. By the end of 2015, we had members split between PayPal and SquareSpace, with no central system to manage them.
Why Recurly?
I needed a solution that was:
Low-friction for users
Self-managing on the backend
Elegant and modern
Recurly’s ecommerce-like experience won me over: members check out once, and the system handles renewals annually. Simple, clean, and scalable.
One of the biggest wins? Recurly syncs active subscriptions to Mailchimp twice a day. No more manual exports. And if someone cancels, they’re automatically removed from the list. Even if that integration didn’t exist, I could have used Zapier—but luckily, I didn’t need to.
Implementation
I approached this rollout with a “day-one” mentality—something I’d recently done with a CRM overhaul at Stupid Cancer. I knew legacy members might be affected, but new signups wouldn’t feel a thing. The setup process for Recurly took less than 30 minutes, and once everything was configured, I pulled down the old form and waited for signups to begin.
January was the perfect time to launch—right in line with New Year’s resolutions—and the response was strong from day one.
After verifying that everything worked, I uploaded legacy members into the new Mailchimp list using their name, email, and membership anniversary date. That allowed me to begin mapping the past to the present.
Migrating Legacy Members
Recurly adds two private fields to Mailchimp. Since we only offer one plan, everyone has the same data in those fields. That made it easy to identify which 2016 members were new and which ones were legacy holdovers.
With Mailchimp’s segmentation tools, I created lists of legacy members based on their anniversary date. That allowed me to identify those who were expired but hadn’t yet been imported into the new system. I haven’t finalized how many reminders these members will get before being moved to the inactive list, but the goal is clear: win them back.
We’re experimenting with coupon codes and other incentives to reactivate lapsed members. Some may not even realize their membership expired. While we know we won’t win back 100%—life moves on for many—it’s worth the effort to retain who we can.
Why Members Love It
What makes Recurly so effective is how it puts the power back in the hands of members. Seven days before their renewal, they get an email reminder. They can cancel, update their billing, or do nothing and let it renew. If a payment fails, Recurly will attempt to fix it automatically (like updating an expired card) before notifying the member. It’s hands-off but thorough.
Looking Ahead
Migrating a membership base sounds like a heavy lift, but modern tools make it manageable—and worthwhile. Retaining a member is always cheaper than acquiring a new one. But more importantly, not spending time managing things that can be automated is a win for any organization.
The Results (So Far)
In the first 18 days of launching Recurly, we had over 75 new members sign up—strong validation that this was the right move.
13 Things I Wish I Knew Upon Graduation
13 tips that could have benefitted me when I graduated college in May 2010.
My fall semester graduate friends have me feeling nostalgic. Here is a list of things I wish I knew before entering the real world.
Be self-aware The world knows everything about you. Be in control of crafting the narrative by being savvy with what you share.
Your career started 4 years ago Maybe 5 if you were like me in college.
Emotional Intelligence Google it. Practice it.
Create an about.me page Here is mine for reference. Don’t have much to say? Take a hi-res picture of yourself somewhere interesting. Fake it until you make it.
Create a vanity LinkedIn URL Don’t try to reinvent the wheel – First name, last name. If taken, use first name, middle initial, last name. Worst case scenario, add a number.
Delete all your terrible tweets This wasn’t so much of an issue for me in 2010, but I recommend running an advanced search and pruning profanity, politics, and anything that could be misinterpreted.
Delete allllllll your terrible tweets Sorry that your aspirations to be the next highly opinionated Internet celebrity didn’t work out. Use this to start from scratch without losing followers.
Claim your personal branded assets yourname@gmail.com, yourname.com, linkedin.com/in/yourname (really trying to drive this home), twitter.com/yourname, facebook.com/yourname, instagram.com/yourname. You get the picture.
Consider making all your social accounts private Or maybe don’t. For me, my personal/professional life blurred very quickly right off the bat. This led to a lot of cleanup of old, useless posts that I thought were funny but probably no one else would. There is a thin line between being authentic and being too transparent.
Stay in touch with friends and classmates, but keep moving forward Your alumni network of peers is a great thing to consider spending time on, but it will probably not help you attain success or wealth right out of school.Bonus: Keep in touch with professors and let them know of your successes. College newspapers are great PR early on in your career and your alma mater will want to brag about you.
Instead, join a professional society For example, if you’re looking to work in the non-profit field in any major city, you should join YNPN.
Don’t run right back to school A Masters degree is nice to think about, but think about how you can rise up through the ranks without one. Instead of embarking on a journey that might be costly and unnecessary, try taking a class or two at a specialized training school, like General Assembly.
Keep learning…you’re never done.
How a Rebrand and Paid Facebook Ad Yielded Over 340,000 Likes
Getting people to pay attention to you is hard on any platform. For the I’m Too Young For This! Cancer Foundation (aka i[2]y Cancer Foundation), growing the social footprint didn’t have a clear path.
In the beginning
Getting people to pay attention to you is hard on any platform. For the I’m Too Young For This! Cancer Foundation (aka i[2]y Cancer Foundation), growing the social footprint didn’t have a clear path.
Back in 2009, well before Facebook Pages rose to the level of significance they have now, i[2]y had a very modest showing. The page URL wasfacebook.com/stupidcancer and the page title was i[2]y Cancer Foundation.Obviously, this configuration was problematic from the get-go.
In April 2010, Facebook converted Fan Pages into Like Pages and brands began ramping up their efforts to engage with Facebook users.
It wouldn’t be until 18 months later that we decided to rebrand I’m Too Young For This! Cancer Foundation/i[2]y from its dual persona to a much more resonant and less syllabic “Stupid Cancer.”
This was an exciting change for us but posed a question. Should we continue on with the ~15,000 likes on the page as is or should we reboot?
With some serious luck, we were able to get in touch with someone at Facebook who changed the page name on our behalf. We felt like we had won the social media lottery.
The Catalyst
Once the name was changed, we hit the ground running. Through another instance of serendipity, Dr. Brad Love’s University of Texas Integrated Communications Campaigns class had chosen to do their class projects with Stupid Cancer as the focus. The class was fully aware that we had just rebranded and this was a blank canvas opportunity for them to come up with some really great work for us to utilize moving forward. We offered up a few verticals, including helping with our newly minted Facebook strategy, offline outreach, etc.
Honestly, we weren’t sure what to expect from the students. What they came back to us with at the end of the semester was nothing short of genius.
Like us to give cancer the bird.
Deployment
The ad was simple, yet effective. Their presentation was straight out of a Mad Men episode. As soon as they said it, we looked around and nodded our heads. The more we thought about it, the more we fell in love with it.
Being the nimble organization that we are, we put the ad into rotation right after the Skype call ended. We were thrilled when Facebook approved it. Not knowing much about advertising on Facebook, we set a $10 daily limit and watched to see what would happen.
We could have never predicted what would ensue. Not only did we have a more ‘likeable’ Facebook page, but now we had a killer ad. It was the perfect one-two punch we didn’t know we needed.
The Results
4/28/2011–11,500
5/20/12–22,000
7/8/12–30,000
9/30/12–40,000
11/11/12–50,000
1/8/13–60,000
4/6/13–70,000
6/2/13–80,000
7/8/13–90,000
8/12/13–100,000
5/14/14–160,000
7/7/14–200,000
11/7/14–250,000
10/9/15–310,748
Over the past 3.5 years, we’ve turned the ad on and off periodically. Once we began to gain traction with paid likes, the organic ones followed. We planned a ‘100,000 Like’ party for a Friday night and had to throttle it up when we stalled at 98k the day before.
To date, it’s the only real ad spend we’ve had. For the majority of the ad campaign, we’ve spent $.10 per like. This has equated to about $1,250 per quarter since Q2 2012.
We halted the ad this summer. There’s no telling if we’ll turn it back on anytime soon. We are typically motivated to do so by being close to the next 25/50/100k interval.
Nonprofiteer of the Year 2013
In June, I found out I was a finalist for the Young Non-Profit Professionals Network of New York City's Nonprofiteer of the Year 2013 award. I was stoked to be nominated for my first professional award. As soon as I found out, I had several colleagues forward me the newsletter YNPN-NYC had sent out, along with the 4 other finalists. Quite an impressive list of people:
John Hellman (@JuanEstebanNYC) Director of Advocacy, Latino Commission on AIDS
John Moreno (@JohncitoMoreno) Founder, Latino Youth for Higher Education Program
Tara Pokras (@tpokras) Program Assistant, Project Sunshine
Mon Yuck Yu Chief of Staff, Academy of Medical & Public Health Services
The event was held in at the Center for Social Innovation on June 27th. It was a nice intimate gathering of like-minded individuals. The winner was named towards the end of the event after the 5 of us offered up some career advice. I was honored to have been selected and thankful to everyone who nominated me!
Zendesk, a Non-Profit's Dream.
I’ll generalize a bit: most nonprofits just aren’t set up to experiment with their tech stack. That’s not a knock—it’s just the reality. They’re busy doing the work, and let’s face it, most aren’t super nerdy.
As I write this from a JetBlue gate at San Diego International Airport, I find myself daydreaming about... closing tickets. The kind that get triaged to my team and me through our helpdesk. It's second nature now. Any time I check my iPhone, I might see a Zendesk notification waiting for me.
Wait—what’s Zendesk?
Back in 2012, when our team doubled from two to four, I pitched Zendesk as our helpdesk solution. It's simple: an inquiry comes in, a ticket is created, we get notified, we respond, and eventually, we resolve it. It also doubles as a powerful FAQ platform—customizable and user-friendly—with the added bonus of blog-style conversations at the bottom of each article.
But can’t we just stick with a shared Gmail account?
Sure, you can. We did. In fact, we had multiple shared inboxes and aliases, all leading into a messy Gmail catchall. If that sounds familiar, you’re not doing it wrong—but you could be doing it better. Zendesk brings structure, clarity, and scalability to your inbound chaos.
And if your setup is even more duct-taped than that... well, you might already know you need help.
So, why Zendesk?
Here’s what I was hoping for when we signed up:
A single inbox to rule them all. I wanted a central place for inquiries that wasn’t my personal or work email.
Smarter routing. No more time-wasting email threads—just reassign a ticket to the right person with a click.
Better service. We run an online store and get plenty of “Where’s my order?!” messages. Zendesk helps us respond faster and with fewer dropped balls.
A real, dynamic FAQ. Finally, a place to post policies and reduce repetitive questions.
And here’s what we’ve learned:
It’s worth the investment. Zendesk isn’t free, but it pays off.
You still have to drive. It’s not a magic wand. You’ll need to create macros, set rules, and stay on top of it.
Know your users. Some people won’t love getting a ticket number. Legacy folks might be confused. Communicate the shift clearly.
Don’t overuse it. We once tried scheduling a meeting via Zendesk. Ten messages later... we switched to email. Know when to step outside the system.
Use the feedback. Zendesk can automatically send follow-up surveys after tickets are closed. Critical feedback helps us improve fast.
Crowdsource your FAQs. Don’t write them in a vacuum. What seems obvious to you might be confusing to others.
Make your FAQ pages fun. They don’t have to look like a dusty helpdesk relic.
Track performance. Zendesk gives great data—who’s crushing it, who’s not, and how fast your team responds.
Bottom line: Zendesk isn’t a silver bullet, but it’s been a game-changer for us. Like anything else in your tech stack, you get out what you put in.