Episode 49: Diana Zhang
Join Lori and her guest, Diana Zhang, as they discuss the impact of having all kinds of help when needed. Diana is the co-founder and CEO of NeighborShare, a platform that directly connects nonprofits to families with needs. She talks about how helping these emergencies prevented them from spiraling into crisis. Stay tuned!
Here are the things to expect in this episode:
Starting a nonprofit when the pandemic began.
Having a mission that sends direct help to people who need it the most.
Partnering with communities in various fields to support their mission.
Who are the frontline heroes?
And many more!
Connect with Diana!
Website: https://nbshare.org/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/neighborshare/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NeighborShareOrg
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/neighborshare/
Email: diana@nbshare.org
Connect with Lori Kranczer!
Episode Transcript
00:10
You're listening to the positive impact philanthropy podcast where we share the journeys of everyday philanthropists as they incorporate philanthropy into their lives. Philanthropy is a personal journey and through the stories we share here, we hope they'll spark something in you and how you can make your own philanthropic impact in the world. I'm your host, Lori Kranczer attorney, philanthropic advisor and legacy getting strategist. together. We're going to explore what it looks like to be an everyday philanthropist and make a positive impact in the world. Before we get started, make sure to subscribe to the podcast so you never miss a new episode. So today, I'm really excited that we have Diana Zeng. She's the co founder and CEO of Neighborshare. Welcome, Diana.
00:50
Thanks, Lori. Thank you so much for having me. I'm really really excited to be here.
00:54
I'm excited too and I want everyone to hear more of about Neighborshare. I've done my digging. And now I want you to basically tell us more about you what you do.
01:07
Perfect. Yeah, let me start off with introduction of me first and then I'd love to tell you all about Neighbor share. In terms of me, you know, first and foremost I always like to describe myself as a mom, I have two little ones at home so shout out to my five-year-old Billy and my two year old Teddy. In my normal day job as I like to describe it. I'm actually a 15-year executive at a hedge fund out here in Connecticut called Bridgewater Associates. And, you know, I've been with them for years and years helping to build and rebuild various parts of our organization. But the interesting thing I guess, in my story is that I'm talking to you today, as you pointed out, the co-founder and CEO of Neighborshare, which is a nonprofit, and I've actually been on an unpaid sabbatical over the past year plus on this journey of really building out a startup nonprofit, and figuring out how to be a first time founder for some CEO and someone who's deeply, deeply just invested in the social impact space. And so it's been a unexpected leap of faith that I took, um, you know, a bit over a year ago and it's been an amazing journey. That I wouldn't, I wouldn't, you know, change for the world. Okay, so
02:09
there's a lot that I want to go back into here before we even talk about Neighborshare. Okay. So what made you like, what was the inspiration, that you receive to go from what you were doing to take a sabbatical to start a nonprofit?
02:23
Yeah. So, you know, like, the journey really started in the beginning of the pandemic, right. So think back to spring of 2020. This was right when you know, companies were starting to shut down, send their employees to work from home. We were still saying things like “Lori, I’ll see you in June at the latest” right? Like there's no way this whole pandemic things in the last that long. And then at the same time, I remember thinking back to those days, just like very viscerally sitting there at home was sort of like a building sense of frustration. As I saw the headlines starting to flow through at like really like a truly sort of like scary speed right where it was almost like within just like a week or two of you know towns going into shut down and kind of go into lockdown. Just a number of folks in our communities were suddenly unable to make their rent, suddenly unable to pay their next bill. It's sort of like, you know, I feel like COVID almost overnight, completely exposed the fragility that was always in our communities like across the country, right. And at around that same time that that frustration was building, I was like, oh, like, what do I do? What can I do to sort of like, make some impact during this time? A good friend of mine and also my co founder of Neighborshare literally gave me a call on a random Wednesday night and was like Diana, are you feeling what I'm feeling and basically shared some similar emotions like almost like emotions, right? And, you know, basically share this sort of like inkling of an idea that he'd had from his sort of like 20 years of exposure in the social impact space, and basically made this you know, 15 minute unsolicited pitch on a Wednesday night to be like, hey, no, we're really busy with like jobs and family and all that stuff. But do you want to start something on the side because I think this could be something that's really impactful, and I feel like we have no excuse anymore not to do anything, like the world is falling apart around us. And then me being me. I was like, Heck, yeah. And within seven weeks of that fateful call, you know, we'd already pulled together our initial team of volunteers. We convinced this design agency in Brooklyn to like you know, build a promo website for us and then haven't looked back since you know, and basically, from there kept on, you know, driving and building neighbor share on a nights and weekends passion project type of way. And then as things started picking up steam over the past of over the course of that year, was an I finally got to that sort of, you know, once again, very unexpected fork in the road where I was like, you know, what, like, this thing is really picking up steam. We see real value in in the concept and the more I dug into it, the more I was like this thing also deserves a full time leader. Right? Like let's let's really build something out. And so through a lot of soul searching, talking to friends and family tears, you know, ultimately decided to sort of like take the leap and really focus on building out neighborshare full time to really give this concept, a real a real chance at expansion and growth and impact and so that's what I've been doing.
05:06
This is a perfect example of many of the women that I work with and want to do something or have a successful career, professional life, whether they're in corporate or their own business and want to do something that has significance, what's the next step? And many people sit on that and don't take action, but you took action. Do what do you think helped you take action with any particular resources or people that were involved? Your co founder that really prompted you to do something? Yeah, I
05:34
think there were a few different pieces. I think the first step was like, for once I didn't overthink it. Right. So like the first piece was like, we just jumped into action. Right? Sort of, are we talking like a spark of idea just sort of doing stuff? Right? So I didn't start this with this grand vision of it's going to be this national thing or like, I'm gonna become full time like, I didn't start that whole thing out be like, well, this is my step toward you know, nonprofit executive leadership. Like it wasn't that it was like, much more than like seizing and actually finally reacting to the energy of like, hey, I want to do something and help my community and sort of like my courage, my encouragement for folks would be respond to that instinct and do something like dip your toe in, right? Because like, by the way, there's like lots of paths to get to impact without necessarily saying like, pivot from your entire career, etc. You don't need to make such gigantic leads but do something. As you know, I bet your audience all have like just so much to offer, right? Whether it's starting something or joining an existing nonprofit, there's value to be added. And so I think that's the first piece which is like I finally got out of my own head and just did something right and then from there, I started building and whatever else and then for me, you know, in terms of the ultimately why I decided to take this time and really focus on it. There was like a combination of like, one like, I don't know, it certainly felt, you know, I've always loved my job and my career like sort of like, you know, love what I do. But I do have to say like, it's different, right, like getting to work on something that sort of, like purely social impact oriented is so mission driven, and it's very direct way. Right. So where the question I get to ask myself at the end of the night is how many people's lives that I get to impact and change today? And it's addictive. Like it's like real, you know, it's like it's real it's like meaningful to a level and drives like an energy and passion to me that like I just don't think I felt before right even though I once again I've done all sorts of things that I'd love to etc. So like, that part was just very real and I think once I did that toe and I got the taste of that and and that's what kept on building and then, you know, the second part I and this was like a bit more almost like a selfish reflection. But like, I personally also have loved sort of even from like a professional development experience, or like what this experience has created for me, right? Because it's once again, like things through, you know, first time CEO, first time founder got to go through this entire entrepreneurial startup journey, and learned a ton on the way. Right and so I would say that and I wouldn't be coming out of this journey, like a completely sort of like stepchange executive like I became that much stronger professionally as well. And so it became sort of almost like a double whammy of like, yeah, like, why wouldn't I like lean into this opportunity and give back while also strengthening myself and the impact I can make to the world in the future as well.
08:06
I couldn't have said it better myself. And this is exactly what we go through on this podcast and through all the work that we do with individual clients. So thank you for that. So, yes, first of all, if I I always tell people if you have an inkling, ask questions, take action as questions, anyone in the nonprofit space or anything within philanthropy, I should say because it's such a you know, a wide range. Everyone is happy to talk about what they do, and want to share that knowledge and share because it is contagious and as I mean as someone who left the practice of law 22 years ago to be in the nonprofit sector, I can absolutely say there is something about working in this work, that once it you know becomes part of what you do. It's really hard to leave because you could see how it affects people. So with that being said, I want to know more about Neighborshare.
09:02
Yeah, absolutely. So, so neighbor shares a nonprofit and you know, our whole mission is really centered around getting direct help to the people who need it the most when they need it. Right. Like that was literally the problem statement that we started with, you know, back back in the beginning days and COVID and the way our model works is that we do that we achieve that mission by empowering what we call our communities’ frontline heroes. So think you know, the case managers and social workers at your local nonprofit visit teachers at the schools are basically like we wanted to build a model that can empower the folks who intimately already have the pulse in our communities. These are the people who already walk within them, have that really intimate understanding of need when it's happening. And then most importantly, also understand what the needs are being met, or when they're slipping through the cracks. Right. And so what we do basically is we partner with these frontline heroes in the nonprofit organizations that we work with and they basically there are boots on the ground, right? They work to identify these pivotal moments of need a four hundred dollars or less that would otherwise go on net and then work with us to get resources directly to those identified families. And more to give you a sense of the types of needs that we help with, you know, they they tend to fall into one of two buckets, right, there's sort of like the types of $40 or less needs that you know, sort of sort of like an emergency, but kind of can quickly spiral into a crisis if not stopped in time, right. So the classic example that I come up with all the time because it literally just shows up on our platform over and over again, is things like that unexpected $300 car repair, right, that hits a family that's sort of in a you know, maybe a stable situation, but a very fragile one, right? They're already making it kind of paycheck to paycheck, they're just barely making their rent, etc. You get hit with something like that. Right? And that thing literally puts them at risk of the entire thing spiraling out of control, right? Because what happens is you get this car repair bill that you cannot afford. All of a sudden you lost your main mode of transportation, all of a sudden you found yourself, you know, not being able to make it to work on time. And if you have a job, that's three strikes, you're out, you can't be late. All of a sudden you spiral into Wait a minute, I'm like, have a good job. I'm making my rent two, three weeks down the road. I literally might be at risk of losing my job not making my rent, not able to buy food, etc. And all because of this car repair. That really you know, and then it's like for the folks who are working with our local nonprofits, etc. Guess what most of these nonprofits don't have a thing called a car repair fund. Where do they go? Right? So that's sort of like one bucket of needs that we're here to help with. And then the other buckets sort of like think of those as your to help remove those last mile blockers that are preventing someone from making sort of like a meaningful step change improvement in their lives right now and I'll share another example and this one was from a few weeks ago, but it just stuck with me because it was like such like a relatively small amount of money. Right? Where is this 17 year old teenage father, who was working with one of our partners that sort of like a local news program type of program to really figure out sort of like, like a like a in a beginning career step or job for himself so they can start just earning a bit of a steady paycheck. To support his new family. And the local nonprofit did their job they found in this opportunity to become like a security guard at a local business. And where they got stuck is this this young man, basically a kid right was now in a lot of responsibility. All of a sudden, he needed $125. He needed $100 to get the security guard training certification. And he needed $25 to get buffed tickets back and forth, to get to that training. And that's where he got stuck, right? Because he didn't have that money and the nonprofit didn't need or they were able to get the connections and get the help and get the opportunity but they didn't have money for training was that in their program budget, right. So those are the types of moments where like, neighbor shares like think about like, we want to be the Batphone for that case managers was like, Ah, I'm stuck. Like, I'm literally stuck. I've done everything I can we've, you know, gotten like looked at our central funding. We've looked at government agencies, we've looked at other things, etc. But I'm stuck. I'm about to turn this client away, even though I know exactly what they need and how we can help and we're like great, pick up the pick up the conceptual phone, it's more like you know, so that your need to sort of pick up the bat phone call Neighborshare. We're here to help you. Right. So that's really what Neighborshare is all about and what we're striving to build across the country. So I love this. I
13:06
think this is an amazing concept and it's growing very quickly. And so can you talk a little bit about the initial startup phase and how it's in like going to a growth phase?
13:19
Yeah, absolutely. So I would still say that, you know, we're still in early stages, right? Where like, you know, I would still call us in different versions and different iterations of proof of concept as we work to figure out our longer term sustainable sort of like business model, right. But even our proof of concept to your point, I'm really proud of the progress we've made where we currently have around 60 active partner organizations across 25 different states supplying us with these needs, right? These like validated people need from the ground. And then you know, we're working with our donors and in community to make sure we're filling those needs within a reasonable period of time, right. And then I think the vision for Neighborshare through time is to be able to take on more and more partner organizations and then also figure out the long term sustainable model to be able to raise more and more money so that we can fill these needs and either in even faster turnaround times, right? So that you really get these moments as they're happening. And once again, helping those emergencies, you know, avoid spiraling into crisis.
14:13
So, you know, let me get a little bit like transactional about this. So for those that are thinking of doing something, not the same thing, but something are you creating something on their own? Can you talk a little about like the steps that went into finding those partnerships over, you know, 25 states, and also developing your fundraising plan? What did that look like for you? Yeah, so
14:36
on the first question, in terms of developing this partner network, I mean, it was a lot of scrappy, entrepreneurial effort, right? Like literally what we did. And just imagine I was right back a year ago, you had no track record. We had the first iteration of a website, which like looks kind of good, but like kind of looks like the first iteration of a website. And then at that point, we were just beginning we didn't even have our 501 C three status yet, right? So you're literally building from scratch. You're building from nothing. And so what we did was, you know, we had recruited a fantastic team of volunteers, and we, you know, purchase a GuideStar license, and we literally just started reaching out to folks. We're looking for any sort of small to medium sized direct service organizations, right. The direct service part was important to us because once again, they're looking for folks to actually work directly with the people in their communities. And we just reached out and probably for every 10 reach outs, there was like one person like one org that was willing to come back and be like, Hey, you guys don't interesting. I'm willing to spend 30 minutes to talk. And then once we got them on the phone, that's where we became stronger, right? Because we're like, look, real person, not a scam, like here to help. We're not going to charge you anything. And that's how we kept on building right. And then through that, you know, we went through months of building and learning, right, sort of like, you know, we got all sorts of pushback and resistance and feedback, etc. So, but through lots of rounds of learning, where, you know, we're able to develop a deeper empathy for the population that we're truly actually trying to build a product for you think of right and so that's where like how we kind of got going, but even with that, right, sort of like you know, we of course started with research and talking to others, etc. But I didn't get to the key insights that helped us crack it until you just get on the field and do it. And it took a lot of doing and trying and coming down to like well, I thought that sounded good, but why didn't they actually use it but like, it's really a lot of rounds like that right to figure out what were the friction points? And what were the things that we need to streamline and even to this day, right? There's still tons of friction in the system. So much more so many things that I want to implement to improve etc, right, because we're still early in our journey, but that's sort of like this iterative looping that we'll continue to do. And then to your second question on fundraising strategy, you know, like, what we've done so far, we'll probably have to continue doing this for the next year or two as well, is sort of like the fundraising. Our fundraising strategy has really mainly focused on individual donors, right, especially when it comes to trying to land some of the bigger donations to really invest in neighbor shares an organization right, like our technology or product, like all of that stuff. And you know, that strategy really came from, you know, triangulating with a bunch of other fundraisers at the consulting firm all that stuff to your point folks are very, I found that folks in this industry is very willing to share right best practices and best and they've a way that's just very generous. Right? It's sort of I get and this consists of the values of like, who you imagined the folks would be in this space right? But it's been really wonderful in that way. And we went that route because basically people were like, look like you're just too new. Right sort of like you know, foundations, except they're gonna be looking for two to three years of track record. You don't have that yet. corporate sponsors except your a bit too small to get their attention. So like, you know, the best way you're the best sort of like chances you're gonna get are just shaking the trees in your personal network, right. And so, from that, you know, we really invested in building out sort of like the best board we possibly can. So and then via that build out like a great network of donors, etc, to get us going and then now we'll go into the second phase of that, where, you know, as we're looking into our fundraising strategy this year, like Surprise, surprise, it's more of that right, like, let's like expand our board by the next tranche to like bring in more network and then now things through the series of events and campaigns and things like that to continue to raising the money and once again, the target right now is individuals, and they'll probably over time start getting into more than just a corpus and eventually foundations.
18:03
I think it's great. Well, you know, because just from listening to where you're going and the trust factor of direct responses, right, direct support, that working with individual supporters is better than going to government or foundation grants, where, you know, you potentially are following another person's agenda. So I think, to be fiscally independent through individual donors is the way to go and I think you're doing the right way. So that sounds great. Yeah, absolutely. So you know, we're getting close to our time. This is so fantastic. I'm really enjoying this conversation. We will continue it another time. But now, can you just share what you think your legacy will be? Yeah,
18:48
I feel like I feel like I have like two levels to that answer, right. Because like, I think at one level there's sort of like the legacy I'd love to build via Neighborshare itself right where it sort of like I think, if we can do our jobs right, you know, I'd love to see Neighborshare as once again that like, as like an additional resource for our existing awesome nonprofits all over the country out there. In a way that's reaching all 50 court all quarters of all 50 states right so like there's no reason why our model will the, you know, with the benefit of all the great technology out there, etc, like can't expand and scale in that way. So that's sort of like one level of legacy. I'd love to see happen and come to life right, which is like we've successfully the Neighborshare, built this almost like new extra layer of safety net for each other right? In our communities. And then I think at the second level, you know, from like a personal sort of, like, quote unquote, Legacy perspective, like, I'd love it if you know via sort of like, what I've done or via you sharing my journey on this podcast, whatever it is, I'd love it if I can even just sort of like inspire even if it's just one other person, right to sort of like take a leap and sort of like take the skill sets that they save, developed in their professional lives and bring it into the social impact space. And once again, doesn't need to be as big a jump as like I've quit my entire job and change careers, etc. It's like no it's like, if you can even take on a nights and weekends project or a passion project, like go help volunteer at a strategic level at the local nonprofit that can clearly need your help or whatever. Like that would be something that's just like extremely satisfying for me because I feel like we all have so much to give back and so much to pay forward. Especially with the skill sets that we've developed so certainly, I'd love to inspire folks to do that.
20:27
Wonderful. Well, I love that and you're welcome back anytime. So with that, where can people find out more information about you Diana and also need me to share
20:41
no fantastic so folks and find out more about Neighborshare at NB share.org. We also have an Instagram account that's literally just at Neighborshare, and also the same handle for our Facebook and LinkedIn accounts. And then for folks who might be interested in learning more about me or just connecting please just email me you know, I'm at Diana, DIANA at NB share.org. And I'm pretty on top of my emails you will hear back from me I
21:05
guarantee it.
Wonderful. Thank you so much for joining us and thank you everyone for listening. We hope that we provided some insights and inspiration that you can use for your own philanthropic journey, all the information that Diana had mentioned, it will be in the show notes so you can easily click on there. We'll see you next time. Take care. Thanks, Lori. Thank you for joining us. I hope we provided some insights and inspiration that you can use for your own philanthropic journey. You can tune in every week on Wednesdays when new episodes are dropped. We'd love to hear your feedback. So leave comment and a rating about what you like and what you'd like to hear more about. And if you liked the episode today, make sure to share it to raise awareness about the story to inspire other women to take action. I'm Lori Kranczer And until next time, you can make a positive impact through philanthropy every day. Thanks for listening
