Find the Creative, Not Always Traditional, Path Forward
Authored by Rebecca Twitchell, half full, llc Founder/President
A beautifully assembled package was waiting in my mailbox the other day from Hope & Main, Rhode Island’s premier culinary incubator (and among the top 10 in the country!)
As part of its most recent fundraising sponsorship campaign, “Gather & Grow,” Hope & Main made an intentional and thoughtful Ask when it came to sponsorship.
Across an entire year, support the Hope & Main’s Makers Market, which is designed to showcase the dozens of small food businesses — both new and iconic — launched through Hope & Main’s innovative culinary incubator. Donate to support what Hope & Main refers to as the “local Foodieconomy,” and have your company name, logo, and value proposition front and center in the market all summer, throughout the market season.
No Ask to sponsor another fundraising event, purchase a ticket to a once-a-year event, participate in a silent auction, or attend the annual gala. But, rather, a creative, thoughtful, and unique way for individuals to show they have the back of Hope & Main. What’s more, an ability to give back through an approach that goes far beyond a singular moment in time.
Touched and inspired, I immediately drafted a note to Hope & Main’s President & Founder, Lisa Raiola, and shared with her, “I wanted to reach out to you to tell you how much I love your fundraising sponsorship campaign Gather & Grow. It is so creative, unique and mission-driven. I am such a fan of your approach.”
I was curious what prompted such creativity in this approach so I asked her! She shared…
“We wanted to design a fundraising strategy that reflected the very values our members live by: consistency, creativity, and community. 'Gather & Grow' is about cultivating relationships that endure—not just moments of support, but a shared commitment to building a thriving local food economy. Moving beyond the transactional sponsorship, this approach is an invitation to belong, to root for the dreamers, and to help build durable community solutions that nourish resilience, ownership, and opportunity in places too often overlooked.”
Entrepreneurs and Hope & Main member businesses are set up and working at the summer Makers Market. From left to right, Sharon working at her daughter's stand, Kristi's Krafttails, Ava Assad of Naked Fig and Miguel Allis of Hawt Chocolate
Hope & Main’s fundraising Ask illuminates the importance of accepting a few a realities that have emerged in business, particularly over the last few months:
Embrace the notion of the pivot
Ensure you have a Plan A, B, C
Elevate creative strategic planning
Hope & Main’s approach is an example of all of the above, in that they’re committed to going against the grain, thinking expansively, and elevating the power of diversification.
So how can we all borrow a lesson from Hope & Main when it comes to leading our businesses and teams through challenging times? Here are three questions to consider asking yourself to land on new pathways forward:
What’s Working Well?
While it sounds simple in concept, taking the time to pause, get your team together, and ask simply, “what’s working well?” can open up the door to bravery, openness, and a willingness to share. Perhaps more importantly, it can shed light on how connected leadership is to what their people believe is or isn’t working well.
Let’s stay in the zone of fundraising for a moment. Leadership might be bullish on continuing to invest thousands of dollars into the annual gala — a cost that quickly balloons when you consider the amount of time, talent, resources, and dollars that are aimed towards the once-a-year gala that has to net enough sponsorships and ticket sales to even come close to break-even (let alone making money).
But what if this is the event that also silently kills culture? The event that causes your team to burn out, while needing at least a week to mildly recover? What if you could achieve the same fundraising goals (without the cultural impact) by simply re-imagining what could work better?
Just because something is or has been, doesn’t mean it’s the avenue that still works today.
What Are We NOT Doing That’s Obvious?
Often the fastest pathway to success (and the obvious one!) is not the road traveled. Instead, we choose to stay with what we’ve always done, or the way it’s always been… convinced that the new road might be more challenging.
When we facilitate strategic and succession planning sessions at half full, llc, we ask this question regularly. Setting the stage for courageous conversations and raw vulnerability to enter the space. Almost always, the teams we work with know the “obvious” but they haven’t suggested it simply because there wasn’t a forum to do so. By asking the question, ideas flood the room such as:
Launch that new product or service, and prepare teammates for a year of innovation
Revisit core values, adjust as needed, and re-align team actions and behaviors accordingly
Formalize a succession plan so that leadership can properly invest in future leaders
Pick up a phone and ask for donations, versus defaulting to the annual gala
Reimagine customer experience through the lens of values to stave off churn
Sometimes we take it a step forward and hold a “what would it look like if?" session where we invite folks in the room to blow up everything that they know and start brainstorming new, outlandish, and dare I say frightening (!) concepts to explore. It’s amazing how many more ideas enter the space through that prompt.
Did You Know, Our ROX: Return on Experience Program Re-imagines Customer Experience. Reach Out to Learn More!
How Can You Better Aim Team Strengths
When we think about future-proofing businesses and being more prepared to weather trying times, it’s increasingly important to have a handle on our team’s superpowers and strengths. When we know what our teams are exceptional at, we can view the pathways forward through an expansive lens.
At half full, llc, we are strengths based. Since our inception, we’ve long believed that there is an “i’ in team, with the ‘i” being about the individual and that person’s unique talents and skill sets. When we know what our people are naturally gifted at, we can tap them in for specific roles and responsibilities. Not only does that help us gain precision and productivity as a team, but it also makes that person feel celebrated and seen for being able to help in an area that comes natural to them.
In the last few years, our commitment to strengths has been augmented through the launch of Gallup’s CliftonStrengths, which provides a short assessment for people to receive their ‘aha’ moment as you experience new ways to understand what makes you so unique,” according to Gallup. Our team at half full, llc, is CliftonStrengths-based certified and we love working with teams on what makes them stronger and better together.
Gallup’s strengths philosophy is rooted around the notion that we need each other. And when it comes to working together to help our teams move forward, this has never been truer!
Each of us has a Hope & Main purposeful, intentional fundraising strategy in our hip pocket. It just requires us to make time to pause, have open conversations, and commit to the creative — versus customary — path forward. So, what do you think your Hope & Main play is?
Need support when it comes to rethinking your strategic plan and pathways forward? Reach out to us; we’d love to share more about how we work with teams on overcoming obstacles that prevent them from moving forward.