May of 2019 was a time in my life where many lessons were learned. As highlighted in my previous article, Jenson’s Song, I was a first time board member of a non-profit that seemed to be heading for closure. To give some more direct perspective, I remember during the spring and summer of 2019 thinking there was a very good chance we would not make it past Christmas that year, and there were multiple discussions internally on how we would gracefully close our doors if we were not able to resuscitate the organization by the end of those summer months.
Looking back through my calendar and emails during this time, there were many coffees and meetings with friends and contacts in the community asking for advice and help with the situation. To be honest, there were quite a few places where I thought more help and support would come, but the phone never rang and the offers never came in. This was very discouraging, as from my perspective I saw finances dwindling and the last lights of hope starting to burn out. I took these losses a bit personally and felt I just wasn’t effectively communicating the severity of our situation and what that meant for the community if our organization went under.
In somewhat of a last ditch effort, A Very Worried Jenson went to the Tacoma News Tribune and told our story as best I could. That meeting with TNT occurred on Thursday, May 9th of 2019 and the story was printed on the following day, May 10th. I consider the publishing date of that article the low point for our organization.
Two days later, I received the below email. I consider this the moment that we started the upward trend to where we sit today from that macro low and the possibility of shuttering our doors:
You can imagine my excitement when this email came through. I was juggling family life and my busy day job the best I could while trying to make meetings for the food bank and drum up support before it was too late. Derek and I traded some emails and decided that we would meet the following week on Thursday. After we confirmed our meeting I received this response from him:
Even with the recent visibility from the TNT article, my business senses told me we still were not making up enough ground, and we needed to find ways to drive sustainable funding streams within our community if we were going to make it. Derek saw this need before I ever had to ask and crafted a matching program with his team that is still in place today. The program they created has made a measurable impact in the trajectory of our organization over these last few years.
Derek and I met with a member of his team over coffee and then he came over to check out the situation firsthand. Aside from offering support in terms of the match program, they helped with additional visibility to our cause via their social media platform along with volunteer and food donations.
The team at John L. Scott heard the call and did something and at a time we needed it the most. They didn’t judge our situation or make any assumptions on how we got there; they just found a way to help using their resources and gifts, and it made a real difference in this organization during our darkest hours.
The most touching examples of partnership are those like we have with Derek and his team at John L Scott. They have gone above and beyond time and time again since coming into the fold. We highlight them here to say thanks, and to give an example of the meaningful impact community partnerships like this can have as we work together on the common good. We have shown some other examples of these kinds of partnerships here with Murrey’s, McLeod Fire Protection and BECU and will be continuing to share the stories of amazing partners that have come to The Table with us.
Even though we are in a much different place than we were just a few years ago, having these reliable revenue streams is honestly more important now than ever as the scale of our organization has grown along with the scope of customers who visit The Market regularly. This is why you see us talking so much about Team28.
We would love to invite other individuals and organizations to The Table for partnership. Feel free to email me directly, just like Derek. Let’s grab a coffee and chat about how we can partner.
Jenson Isham
Board President
jenson@bonneylakefoodbank.org