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Does St. Louis need over 22,000 nonprofits? In the latest Nine PBS Reports story, Producer Leah Gullet explores how nonprofits contribute to the entire region’s economic ecosystem. You can watch the entire report below.
For the sake of transparency, below are the full transcripts from the three interviews that informed this report.
Nine PBS Producer Leah Gullet
Leah Gullet: Could you say your name? First and last. Say it into your title if you want to make sure.
William Rodgers: William. Rodgers III. And I am, vice president of research here at the Saint Louis Fed.
Gullet: For anybody who doesn't know much about the Federal Reserve, what is the Federal Reserve Bank of Saint Louis? What is it?
Rodgers: Federal Reserve Bank of Saint Louis. We have five key areas that we focus on, that are by mandate or by law.
Rodgers: And the first one, which is, got me a lot of attention right now is, monetary policy. But the goal of Max, what we call the dual maximizing, employment and also, helping to working to achieve, stable price. And this is called dual mandate. I specifically work in, what's called community development, which was again, was confined by the law that the St. Louis Fed plus the other 11 regional banks.
Rodgers III: We are required to, to perform community development. And here at Saint Louis. What that means is, helping the Saint Louis area, but also more broadly, the district, which is comprised of seven states. Now they are perfectly aligned and that's a great history. Lesson one can have, but, but we work within the district in these seven states to help, help to help.
Rodgers III: The flow and flow of capital. In particular, one of the things that we focus on in community development is we've identified a variety of vulnerable populations. So these can be young, young, non-college-educated individuals to people with a disability. But our work, our research, that we that we conduct is all about helping these these groups and all individuals in the district, be able to maximize how much they contribute or contribute.
Rodgers III: To the economy. And so, you make sure I understand. So in your line of work, it's kind of tied to nonprofit work where, you're making sure money is going back into the community or out. Right? Yeah. Well, one of the things that we do is I said, is the research very applied.
Rodgers III: We tend to publish our, research in blogs, but we also tend to tour the, tour the district and meet with, organizations. And then we also have, have have an outreach group that, has it that lives in these in these areas or in these communities and, and actually talks with like, largely business people, non and nonprofits.
Rodgers III: We are doing some work. We're wanting to do more conversations with folks who actually live on Main Street. But those two come together to what we create was call for community development here in Saint Louis. So you have a research component, and then you also have this outreach component. And one of the things that we're doing right now actually is, shifting or modifying how we communicate, our dialog with, with people in the community.
Rodgers III: So we're really excited about that, because we will be adding in, the voice, going from the private sector nonprofit, but also to actual, residents. But in terms of our focus, our work on nonprofits, you know, we spend a lot of time, on nonprofits. Our research here is divided up into three areas. What?
Rodgers III: That we focus on, worker resilience, financial well-being, and also world prosperity. So in all three of those areas, we have a lot of dialog with, individuals from those various organizations. One example of that is we've just, had the unfortunately the tornado from last summer. And, one of the unique features of the fed is we present ourselves as a neutral third party convener.
Rodgers III: Several months ago, we hosted a conversation about what can we, as a community be doing to help folks, particularly those in North City, who are devastated by the tornado and that brought together private sector individuals. But it also brought together a whole host of nonprofit individuals. And what's why it's so important to have them there?
Rodgers III: Many of these nonprofits, whether it be hospitals or the United Way and agencies that they fund, these are—these organizations are helping people in times of stress, in times of distress, in times of natural disaster, in times of a job loss. And so, it’s very important that we have them at the table and give them a voice. There has been a lot to give them, or allow them to have, their voice.
Gullet: Yes, I can right this next question. So, one of the biggest ones I want to speak with you. It's because I want your insight, your view on the economic impact of the nonprofit sector. I want you to know that you guys are that third party. Someone outside of everything to give us their opinion. On what's going on here. And so, what is the importance of the nonprofits, the Saint Louis nonprofit sector to this entire region?
Rodgers III: One of the points I make is, they're not they're not just filling in the gaps are major economic players. Can you speak to that? Sure. The Saint Louis metro area has over approximately 23,000 nonprofits. The employment in these nonprofits is roughly about half a million. And what these nonprofits do is, yes, they're in many cases, they're providing services, to our residents, such as, if you need to go to the E.R. But you also have other organizations that are providing social services support. So what is really great about these nonprofits is that they're, as I said, providing support and helping, individuals, families, and neighborhoods become as economically connected as much as they can. It and what that translates into is productivity that you know, whether you're in Washington University or a Saint Louis University.
You were educated. These young people right to grow their productivity such that economic growth in the region, but also nationally, will be even, greater. They are because of their consumers, right? They live in our community. They're going to their brothers. They're going to school because they're going to Trader Joe's or they're or shopping at their corner bodega. But they're consumers. So they're putting their contributing to the economic growth and the vitality, of the area. And then these organizations are also employers. So, they serve a variety of uses or in terms of helping to grow the economy. And what that does is you think of a school, a three-legged stool, you have the private sector, you have the public sector, and then you have the nonprofit sector. And they're and they make up that third, that third leg of the stool that provides, some support. And then the other thing, that's why it's so important. Why they're so important, is that nonprofits you can think of as organizations, as I said, helped to grow and grow the economy. How do they do it? Well, there are some organizations that help to improve the attachment to the labor force, and that attachment occurs in a variety of ways.
Rodgers III: One just in the labor force? Am I looking for a job, or am I employed and then conditional on being employed? You know, how many am I working full time. Right? And then also finally, what's my productivity? All these nonprofits also work to help ensure that there is as small a gap as possible between people's productivity and the wages that they get.
Rodgers III: This is a very important institution that the really the hat touches a whole set of businesses in terms of trying to create, opportunity for, for individuals and for their families and for their neighborhoods.
Gullet: So I wanted to get some numbers from you about how much money is actually flowing through this region. Saint Louis is a very philanthropic region that we have nonprofits. I think about over 22,000, just to meet the needs of the people, to help hold up the community. Can you tell me how much money, close to Saint Louis in the past year or so? And, why is there so much money being invested in this?
Rodgers III: Yeah. One of the challenges in working at the local level is that there can be a paucity of data. But the best data that we have access to that seems to us to be credit in 2023, and again, there's always there's a lag with some of this data. But in 2023, around $11 billion, flowed through the area with regards to nonprofits. And what's, what's also amazing about that $11 million is, you know, if you, if you use, let's say, return on investment, estimate. And that is basically the idea if you spend a dollar, you know, how much additional gain will that have in the community?
Rodgers III: Or you could think of a pond where you throw a stone out and it hits, and then you see a big splash. Well, that's the initial part of okay. These employed people who are employees. They've gone to the grocery store and they're and bought their food by within the folks with the grocery store. They end up getting paid and they buy their groceries.
And so you get this ripple effect that that again, does Peter out, but the idea though is that with nonprofits, particularly when you spend about a dollar and these are national estimates. And so we're assuming, you know that Saint Louis is similar to the nation. But et's say it's the multiplier
about five and so on. And so $11 billion of, expenditure. And by various groups, that translates into roughly a $55 billion, sort of economic impact, if you will. Now some people say, well, how big is that? Well, this is the area's GDP, that gross domestic product in 2023, the same year was about $185 billion. So 55 billion over 185 billion is not 30%. And, you know, that's a pretty good return on investment. And, there is some variation where, let's say, like in the health area, nonprofit expenditures. It's actually can the estimates can be into $10, $12. And so this is the $5. This is just a rough ballpark estimate. But that's a, a a sampling.
Rodgers III: And then as I said, shared earlier or that, if you look at the number of employees, it's about a half a million people are in this or in this, in the sector. And then again, they're acting as if they're working as employees or they're working as consumers in our economy. But then, most importantly, many of them are working in organizations where we're investing in the next generation. Right? So not only are we growing productivity now by investing in non-profits, we're also making an investment on our future.
Gullet: I want to talk about something that, came up in a few of our community leaders commitments where we're talking to, people from all profits on nonprofits. One thing that came up, as a pros and cons to all the nonprofits in this region is it's nice that we have all these nonprofits, all this money coming in. But there were some organizations that complained about duplicative work. Some welcome, you know, like we talked to, Operation Food Search and Saint Louis Area Food Bank, where they address hunger and issues like that. They're like, the more the merrier, right? We love all the hands. We thank you. You know, but there are some that say that, you know, that takes away money from organizations that are existing and the people starting up, you know, similar things. Do you think that, duplicative work helps, helps or hurts us financially as a region?
Rodgers III: Yeah, there are benefits and costs to having over 20 something thousand, organizations or nonprofits. Now, not all of them are working in the same area. And that's partly number one is, you know, this is the work that we're that we're doing and the work that, does not by the organization is doing is complex. It's rooted in history. Right? It's rooted in gender. It's about union, you know, race. And so there's a whole set of reasons why we have that happen, that there is this, you want people would call it duplicate duplicity. But it also is a way to address the heterogeneity of the challenges.
Rodgers III: So the needs that are in the community, in our communities. And so on. One hand, you have organizations like MacArthur Foundation where they created a grant program where, part of your application was showing who you were connecting with in other parts of the community. And then you have the United Way. There's a former US board member, for United Way and also worked at the local levels.
Rodgers III: And these were questions that we would ask if I could. But when I was just starting out on a funding panel, and people would ask, who else is doing this in the community? So, yes, on one hand, we need to be concerned about, okay, are we being effective? Are we being efficient? And that gets into this conversation of, overhead right where overhead is.
Rodgers III: Right. The amount of revenue that's being put in that goes to actual programs, and there's been some great work by a variety of researchers who have shown that just because you have low overhead doesn't necessarily ensure that you're effective. Right? Because it could be that since you're trying to address something that's been around historically, something that's been around for decades, something that’s been around for generations, that it's going to cost a great deal.
Rodgers III: So we have to be cognizant that just because it has low overhead doesn't mean it's effective or efficient. On the other hand, it is important to do the things that the MacArthur Foundation has done, to do the things that the United Way worldwide has done, to where I'm comfortable with.
Rodgers III: You are starting to say, well, we need to consolidate more because that will give us more ability to leverage, right? That will allow us to have more resources to be able to address, the challenges that families in our city have been facing not only for the last, year, but also for for decades. Right, that these are complex, but they're also right, rooted in history, rooted in power.
Rodgers III: So we have to find a balance of finding out. Okay. Yes. We need to celebrate and allow for the heterogeneity of experiences. But then, also, when it makes sense, we do need to consider how we can bring organizations together to help them better work with one another and be coordinated with one another.
Rodgers III: So that's how I think about that conversation. I have a plan for Audio Creek. Okay. You got that, I heard. So I had to do that call for power. Still. Yeah. Well, I got that from you on the fourth or fifth, and I know that the call is still there, but I want to help people out. So we are back up and running. Can you do that?
Gullet: Who is in charge of regulating nonprofits? That's what I had a clarification question. Is it a kind that we have so many nonprofits? And is it a struggle for people in certain area?
Rodgers III: Let me give you an example of like, an area, maybe Human Services, I work for in your city. Is there like too many to where, you know, we may run out of funding or something. Is that a problem that there's more than one organization that does the same thing? Is it that big of a deal?
Rodgers III: Economically? Yeah. Yeah. It is having the numbers that we have there probably is. Some work can be done to consolidate, and the United Way and some other organizations that I’ve been involved with that do, that we would work, or what I was with and we would work, and you would spend on the allocations process. You first made out, made sure that the organization that was applying for those funds has a mission, has a clear set of strategies, right.
Rodgers III: And also, their application has a good budget that's associated with it. So that's where, you know, folks who are listening. If you're looking to get involved, many of these organizations need new board members to serve on them. And that's one way to provide a check. And a check in terms of making sure that the resources that are under management are being utilized in the most effective and efficient ways.
Gullet: Who is in charge of regulating charitable organizations that work in this region? And if there's an owner in charge, who do you think should be in charge?
Rodgers III: Well, the second part of your question, I'm going to have to go public, but I would have, but still I sort of shift the conversation in a different way to a different point. Number one, I think the traditional way that a lot of organizations have been run is the use of their board. Right? That makes that you have a healthy board? Do you have folks who are from finance backgrounds? So, accounting, do you have folks who are CEOs or have leadership positions in other organizations?
Rodgers III: You have attorneys that are also, playing a role, in what's happened over my career. Because of the importance of data analysis and narrative telling. We've have seen, I've seen people like myself with similar backgrounds as economists who have been brought into, these, these boards and, and also to do some of the places that are, that are they have, volunteer spots for boards, but then they also have allocation panels.
Rodgers III: When organizations apply, they submit their applications, and you end up having the people from the community serve as evaluators. So, that's number one: the board governance is really an important piece. The other thing that can happen is, you know, a number of universities have created groups that, or researchers did that study nonprofits, and may not even serve it outwardly as they're trying to regulate, but they're trying to do so in a more positive way.
Rodgers III: They're trying to build the capacity. That's a very key phrase here. How do we build capacity in nonprofits, nonprofit management? So the board is, is the first place to start, and then being aware and community members, then a number of years ago, when the federal government started to require nonprofits to file their 1990s, and these are basically a kind of accounting statement on, this can show the health of the, health law or lack of health, of, of the organization.
Gullet: I have a couple of questions about some challenges that nonprofits face financially. So if nonprofits were forced to scale back due to funding cuts, as we've seen a lot this year, or workforce shortages, what ripple effect would it have on? Well, it would unravel the economic growth that nonprofits helped to create, as this was it would, yeah.
Rodgers III: Try not to refer back to just editing. But, simply put, it would create a drag on economic growth this year that, like in 2023, $11 billion of dollars flowed into the economy. It's about 30% of the area's GDP. So you would see a drop in GDP, or economic growth for the community
Rodgers III: And that drop may not necessarily be just for today, because many of the organizations that are working in our community are investing in young people and investing in and helping people have good retirements, right? That you would also see a potential decline in economic growth in the future. So, you would be weakening one of those three legs of that three-legged stool that helps to prop up the economy, prop up people.
Rodgers III: The United Way created a concept a number of years ago called Alice, where Alice stands for asset-limited, income-constrained employee. That is basically the share of households in your community that can't make ends meet. United Way of Saint Louis has a similar calculation, but it does generate the same number as the Alice number. And here in Saint Louis, 42% of our households can't make ends meet.
Rodgers III: Let’s step back to your question. If we were to see cuts or continue to see cuts, Alice would have greater challenges. Alice would not have the ability to provide health care as good as she could for our family. Alice may not be able to live in a community that her people are. Children could go to good schools and be safe.
Rodgers III: So, that's the big concern that you have. But if we start to pull back, and once that pullback occurs, then it can turn into sort of a cycle where you can slow down and ultimately go and go into a recession. Now, one of the analogies that I use, and there's an innovation behind the story, is that all the nonprofits working together create a safety net.
Gullet: Following the question I asked for at the start, nd what happens with the safety?
Rodgers III: You know, and thank you for bringing that up, because as a part of the conversation on these organizations, their employers, their consumers, and they're also addressing what I would call, but I described the structural challenges. So the effects, the contemporary effects of white lining, right, or the structural challenges of a community, a neighborhood gets hit by a tornado.
Rodgers III: And the damage is more devastating there because there's been a lack of investment in that community. But the other thing that you point out is, yes, these that many of these organizations serve as, what you're calling, safety nets, and these safety nets, basically are there to, to, to offset the adverse effects of the vicissitudes of life that President Roosevelt talked about, years ago.
Rodgers III: And, so, these safety nets are important because there's risk and there's some risk out there that families and communities can't fully, can't fully insure themselves on. And so that creates a public problem that if you have a neighborhood, if one individual gets hurt, you have medical care, right? Health care.
Rodgers III: But if a whole neighborhood gets hurt, we then need to have other types of programs or initiatives, excuse me, that exist to absorb that risk that has hit that community. So one of the final questions is what happens when healthier, more sustainable, nonprofit ecosystems look like economically? It's like it's a good example of another region. I’d be careful in terms of by comparisons, but my sketch of what health would look like one, it would look like a community where instead of saying what we can't afford, that. You start a conversation with what's our budget need? How do we want? People don't live, right?
Rodgers III: How do we want them to interact and be a part of the economy, and then figure out how you can pay for it? That's number one. Number two is a community with our safety, with our nonprofits, and the private sector, that are investing in good causes, structural challenges. So investing in the root causes, redlining.
Rodgers III: And we can. There's been a great deal of research showing that redlining continues to have its effects today, even though it was 40, 50, 60 years ago. So, invest in structural issues. What does that also mean? Well, you can take a community, and you can look within that community. Okay, here's what the job openings are in the community.
Rodgers III: And then you look at the unemployment rate for a particular group. Groups take moms right. And then you look at those women who don't have children or, you know, men. And all the time, what you'll end up seeing is that the unemployment rate for moms will be lower than it is for women without children or for men without children.
Rodgers III: What that difference represents, in economic jargon, is what we call structural inefficiencies, that there are these that's the way that the game is rigged, the way the game is run. The rules of the game are such that certain individuals have difficulty finding a job. Searching for a job. Why? Because they can't get childcare. That's structural inefficiency. And so having our nonprofits is so important because not only do they address money, social safety nets, but they're also there.
Rodgers III: It can be used and is being used to address structural inefficiencies that may exist across groups, across and across, town. And that's another thing, is that, yeah, we have to think about, you know, thinking to use Alice as our example, we need to think about how, you know, the challenges of Alice, who's sitting right.
Rodgers III: Even though I may, I live in the area. They're my neighbors still, they're my neighbors. And so if Alice is hurting, we're all hurting and we're all hurting. And that we need our nonprofits, who are there, to be able to provide access to good childcare. So because does that because not having access to childcare obviously not only hurts Alice, but it also hurts our community.
Rodgers III: It makes it harder for her to work and contribute to our economy. Right. It puts greater stress on transportation needs. So and then finally, it's, you know, Senator said it earlier, but it can't hurt repeating. And that is structural, helping to, helping families, helping the community remove structural barriers to economic consideration. And if we do that, we're in a better situation.
Rodgers III: You're riding in something Sascha and John said in response to, you know, people have something to say. But her focus. Let's see. And I think something she say it was the housing came forward is more suitable for business, for business. So, the last thing to wrap up, if you know anything, you say, what is what is the public care?
Gullet: Why should they care about the economic impact of nonprofits and charitable work? What happens to the same fashion? Yeah, well, there's a number of reasons why we should care. One, we should care because these nonprofits are a major economic cylinder. In our in our, communities, in, engine, that the individuals who work for nonprofits, they are employees, they earn a wage.
Rodgers III: Hence there are consumers, many of whom live in our communities. And so they're adding directly to the economic growth. Most important, these individuals or these organizations, they are helping individuals increase their labor force participation, increase their hours work, increase their wages, which not only impacts economic growth today, but also into the future. And that's a nice way.
Leah Gullet: You’re Brandon Williams, President & CEO of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Saint Louis. I think it's about profits. And I really wanted to highlight organizations like you. All right. Serving you. And so I just want to start off by saying, why are profits necessarily, especially because I was or areas that are just.
Williams: So why are they important? Well, I think they’re important because having mentors, having access to resources, and being exposed to different experiences that you may not get just with your family or with people you may know is extremely important. Having access to different educational experiences continuously broadens a young person’s mind so they can believe that they can do almost anything — that anything is possible.
Williams: And I think that’s always important, because we live in a time right now where you’re being told who you are. If you start to fall into that—if you believe that—you start to follow the wrong people. You can go down a pathway that you didn’t necessarily have to go through if you were connected to a club, if you were connected to an organization. They’re really important, like a team that speaks to you. They tell you you’re good, you’re great, you’re awesome.
Williams: Keep your mind right, keep being smart. And those are the things we want to instill in children and influence them with. Once they start to take hold of that, organizations like this can see young people flourish. You see them grow, and then they start asking for more and more, because we have so many things to offer to young people.
Gullet: How long has the Boys and Girls Club been serving? Sizes ranging. And is this a national organization or is it?
Williams: Well, that's a great question because we get that a lot. Right? So we are a federated model and the Boys and Girls Club as an organization. Right. And what that means is you just think of the United States, we have a federal government within each state is its own entity.
Williams: And that’s how each Club is. Each Club is its own entity. You have your own directors, your own governing body. But our Boys & Girls Clubs of America is the federal—let’s just call them the federal governing body—that we actually pay to be a part of the network. And the ROI on what we pay into is tremendous.
Williams: They bring so many resources to the local areas that often go unspoken. People don’t realize that, but it’s extremely important to understand that with an organization like ours, yes, it’s a local organization—but when you partner with us or work with us, some of the programming we offer comes from our national organization as well.
Williams: But a lot of the resources, grants, and national partnerships that we have come from the work our national office does. And so I think it’s always important to make that distinction, because a lot of people get thrown off—they think, “Oh no, this is just a national organization trying to tell us what to do.”
Williams: We’re just trying to pour into St. Louis. But, to answer your question, we’ve been around for over 16 years in the St. Louis community and in this region, and we have continued to grow over that time. We’ve easily served—over the years—tens of thousands of kids. And, you know, in 60 years, right? So it’s really good… I’m going to present one of our Clubs…
Williams: And so I take a lot of pride in showing up in a certain way and being able to talk to young people and tell them, again, that anything is possible. It’s funny to say this, but they’ll be doctors, lawyers, entertainers, business owners. They come back and talk to the young people. But you don’t always get a CEO—someone who actually runs the organization you’re directly benefiting from—to say, “I was once like you. I walked these halls and worked around these buildings.” Right?
Williams: Even playing games and having fun. Right. So that's always a possibility.
Gullet: I want to come back to the history and your own story that you do share on Listen St. Louis with Carol Daniels. I think that was last year. But, to bring it locally. There are things that we're facing as a patient and like inflation, you know, that there's a common tactic of affordability.
Williams: Yeah. That, you know, things that we do face, unemployment. And so that's why I was thinking up to and so specifically in the Saint Louis region, we face outside meeting, we also have the violence. We, you know, still battling across problem here. Yeah. So tell me why, the Boys and Girls Club specifically, you know, Herbert Hoover location.
Williams: Matthew-Dickey, let me tell you about why and how you guys are supporting.
Williams: The ARC… why are you guys—? I know, that’s a good question. We have six locations in the region, right? Our first location is our Alton, Illinois site. Then we have Hazelwood Elementary in Hazelwood, which is a site‑based location in the school. And then we have Mathews‑Dickey. We have Herbert Hoover on Grand.
Williams: We have our Adams Park location in the Grove, and then we have our Teen Center of Excellence in Ferguson. For us, we know that recent research tells us most young people get into trouble between the hours of 3 to 7. When you get out of school, an idle mind—if you don’t play sports, or you’re not in the band, or doing something after school—means you’re just out in the streets.
Williams: You just want. And hanging up. And even if you're sitting in the confines of your home and you're on video games or you're on the internet, the danger is just doing that as well. And so we know that when we provide a safe, healthy, structured environment where young people can come connect with their peers, because it's a different interaction when you're at school versus when you come to the club.
Williams: Right? If you show a young person that there is a future—there is a vision you have for your life—and we can help you get there by building this greater future, that is something they can hold on to. You know, when you’ve been around young people, you can tell which ones in the group are excited about life. But you can also see that young person in whom you see so much talent, but who is slightly suppressed.
Williams: Right? They want to say something, but they just don’t see it—and you identify it in them in person. Then there’s the young person you can connect with and say, “Hey, you have a voice. You’ve got something. There’s something different about you. Why don’t you talk about this or talk about that?” And so I think building that trust and building those relationships—by providing after‑school care as that first step—is extremely important.
Gullet: I want to go back to the history of the Boys and Girls Club. So, you said it started about 60 years ago. What was the need there when this first started? Based on some of the things that I've read and just connected with some of the legacy founders of these organizations, a lot of it just came from young boys, really.
Williams: It used to be a boys club, right? It wasn't boys and girls. We grew into this boys and girls model. It used to be just boys. So, it went back to what I talked about around after school. Boys were just like they had nothing to do. And a lot of times you have two pair homes. But in the 60s, early 60s, late 60s, the fathers were working in factories and doing very, tough labor.
Williams: So, they were working 12, 16 hour days. They weren't coming home trying to play catch with you. They weren't going out and coming near the baseball team. And being your dad and your coach. It just didn't exist. And so you had a younger me. When I tell you, younger man, 18 to 22, who realized that after high school and they were in college, they wanted to get back, they seen the gap.
Williams: And you said, well, we are going to connect with these young, these young men in the community and give their father his ability to see them play sports. It was mostly focused around sports and in particular baseball. Baseball was the thing in the 60s out. So, you had the World Series. So, here in Saint Louis, that was a cool thing to do.
Williams: And so a lot of it spawned from Little League baseball. And you had young guys. I'm talking these guys were in their early 20s who started these organizations because they wanted to give back. While we're on the subject of sports, you are a former NFL player.
Gullet: Yes. I want to hear more of your own story.How do you? We're proud of the Boys and Girls Club, but also why you came back. So, when you left the NFL, what made you want to come back? It's a nonprofit.
Williams: Yeah. No, I started off in Mexico City when I was six years old, play football. I was 13 and obviously went off to go to school in high school, etcetera.
Williams: But I had true mentorship when I was at the club. I had coaches, staff members that truly poured into me. My family, I had younger siblings. They ended up coming through the club as well. It became a family, right? And we did road trips together. We went and played sports tournaments out of town, and so you start to build that familial bond.
Williams: And for me, when I got the opportunity to come back and potentially work at the club in this position, I asked my peers in this market, like, what does this actual role mean now? What does it mean for me, and what does it mean? And each one of them essentially said, this is the most important and impactful role in this region for young people.
Williams: And I said, well, I'm gonna go after that, but do my best, put my best foot forward to try to, become the president CEO. Right. And following the legacy of the board, met views about the legacy of the Founding fathers of this world who are legends in our community for youth development and helping young people be great.
Williams: So many people. Right. So just understanding that I was following in those footsteps, it puts a different, shall I say, fire on what you don't realize the passion and the purpose, obviously is there. And so once you walk into a role like this, and have an opportunity, it is not every day that you get the opportunity to become a CEO of a position.
Williams: And a lot of people have this misnomer that nonprofit means we don't make money. This is a business entity, and I am running a business organization that has been doing business since the 60s. So it's a legacy organization, hundreds of employees. Right? We raise money. We have expenses. We have multiple buildings. And so it's a true business operation.
Williams: And I think sometimes that gets lost in the work, because that part of the work and actually mentoring young people in the programming are really two separate things. But if we don’t get… and we say this in the nonprofit space — you may have heard this — no one can innovate if we want to raise money, if we want to be fiscally responsible in how we’re managing our funds, and if we want to make sure that this building — this 40,000 square foot building — is operating. There won’t be a program. There won’t .
Williams: There won’t be a Brian Williams who is coming up to the Club, because the Club will be shut down. He goes into space. And our last—well, I kind of have two. Okay. I want to go back to you telling a story. I was inside a little carrel, at a table, talking about when the Facebook group…
Williams: The Rams came to Saint Louis as an expansion team, and I want to say 94, 97. That's right. I was, a participant at the club at the time. I was around 10 or 11 years old. And so what people may not realize is that the Saint Louis Rams practice, and Matthews did a practice where I practiced, where I played.
Williams: As a young person, being able to walk out on the field and have NFL players walk onto the field, put on the same helmet, cleats, shoulder pads, and run the same sprints on the field that I was on was amazing. And so one day I was, we was transitioning from our practices over and we were they would transition to practice and we got to meet some of these players.
Williams: I seen, Toby. Right. So Toby, right, went to Nebraska. He was a safety. He was very he was a hard hitting dude. We did not want to get hit by Toby. Right. And so I seen him and he seen me and he walked up to me and said, hey, man, I like the number that you have.
Williams: Because I wore number 32. He was number 32 in the NFL. And so he asked me to what position do you play? And I said, I played running back. And he said, man, I want to be like you. And I was like, wait, the NFL players say he wanted to be like me because he wanted to be a running back.
Williams: He wanted to run the ball right. And so I don't think at that moment I said, oh, I want to be a NFL player. But there was a seed that was intrinsically planted at that time that was like, it's possible. It's possible to get played. And so because guess what? You know, for a player like me. And so that story stuck.
Williams: That story stuck with me for a long time. And I was fortunate enough that the person I actually talked to told me all the time that we could make it. I brought him back to St. Louis, and he had never heard that story. I told this story to a group of people, and he just happened to be standing there because he was in the back of the room. I told the story, and he just started crying.
Williams: He just started crying. He could not believe that his life had impacted someone like that, and he had never thought about it. And so, to me, that just shows the impact not only an athlete, but any person of influence can have on someone you don’t even really know well. So anytime you get a chance to be in front of me, in person, in front of youth, you want to put your best foot forward, but you don’t want to be…
Williams: Just be in blazing fear around what you say and how you carry yourself and what you talking about. Even when they listen or not, they are listening. They are paying attention. So you should be aware at all times. You know, youth organizations, schools, anybody that works with people for the sake of like the lasting impact isn't just you.
Williams: Yeah, you are helping to develop the next generation that will be ready for you. Yes. And I used to say this all the time. I do a lot of speaking, and when I was younger and speaking to college students and young people, I would tell them exactly what you just said. I would say, “Look, I’m being selfish right now by talking to you, because one day my children will be your peers, or you will be their mentor.”
Williams: And I want to make sure that I'm positive something in you so that when you actually when they become influenced by you. Because one day we always will visit a mom and dad for too long, right? What do we do? 1314 is like a lawyer. We know try to talk to, you know, or you don't know what you're talking about.
Willaims: So we listened to the 17, 18, the 20 year olds and really listened to them. And so that's what I tell people when a young people, when I was to go talk to them and say, “hey, I'm being selfish because I want you to be great, because one day you're going to be a mentor to my children.”
Gullet: My last question, you kind of said this already, but how is every dollar invested into this organization translate to long term benefit or cost savings?
Williams: That's a good question because I am. I'm busy this year, probably about six six months now, but I'm excited to see it again because number one, our organization is different. So there's there's there's not a lot of organizations in nonprofit. They can say that they're debt free. Meaning every dollar that comes to our organization is really going towards folks programing operations and making sure that we are putting our best foot forward and not having to go back and paying debt that we've accumulated over the years.
Williams: Right. That's a good accomplishment. That is being fiscally responsible. So that's number one. Number two, there was a study done by BTC because you see a very good that talked about how every dollar it brings a $10 socio economic return one day down to boys and girls clubs. No matter where you're at in those states it brings that type of return.
Williams: When you sit down with funders, with donors, with potential corporate partners, they know for a fact that the dollars that's coming into this organization not only are going to afford care after care, summer camp, Stem, steam, workforce development, career readiness, technology, digital literacy to to really affect change in those areas. And we have the data.
Williams: We have the data to back it up. Right. So it's not just and we talking 15 to 18,000 youth that we serve every single year. But here's the here's the kicker with it. That's only that's still less than 10% of the youth in this region. There's over 8000 youth in this region. And we still are not affecting those other 262,000 people, young people in this region. So it's a lot of work still that needs to be done.
Gullet: Well, that's a good way to end. I do want to open it up to if there's anything else you want to share about BGC.
Brandon Williams: Okay. You know, Leah, for us, it's really always, impactful when we can get people to come and partner with us. Whether it's volunteers, whether there's a mentors, whether that's going to our website, SEO or, and just donating. Right now we have a toy and tech drive that we have that's really, really important in our community.
Leah Gullet: Is this innovative way to do it toy drive with the Amazon Wishlist. Or you can click on it and you can essentially donate something to a kid without even having to walk out to board. It's $25 a year to be a member to this club, and I put that in perspective. It does not cost $25 to actually do the work, but for $25 a year, I think you get access to all of the things that we have to offer.
Brandon Williams: Just imagine donating $100. You just helped four kids, right? So when you put it into perspective like that, going to our website, click the donate button. Volunteer. Be a mentor. Whether there's once a one hour a week or one hour one, it all kind of adds up. So you do need just maybe think of something. So this is official, okay.
Brandon Williams: Name just a few that are really proud to partner with a lot of just a few organizations or nonprofits that agency has partnered with. Yeah. So, we like to we so we have partnered with others of the United Way. Well, United Way partnered we partnered with the Urban League. The Capital Health Resources was another part of the fliers.
Brandon Williams: Arts is a big time funder. Did a great work in this community, as well. So, you know, this is what we really. Right? Unless we need it.
Leah Gullet: Kristen, can you say and spell your first and last name Kristen Wild. Kristen. Wild. Okay. And you are the CEO of operation.
Kristen Wild: Yes. President and CEO of Operations Research.
Leah Gullet: Okay. So can you tell me, what operation? Food searches. How long you guys have been here?
Kristen Wild: Operation Food Search is a hunger relief organization. We were founded in 1981. We work to both meet the immediate need for food assistance, but also work on long term solutions to the problem of food insecurity.
Gullet: And so tell me how a nonprofit like New York Times area food bank. How does it work to address hunger? Where does the food come from? Where does the money come?
Wild: We get food and financial support from a variety of sources. The majority of our food is donated to us retail stores like sugar stirrers and strobes, as well as food manufacturers, local foods, U.S. foods. We work with farms just to glean that their organizations or volunteers will go out and pick produce that might otherwise not get sold. We also receive funding from stadiums like Busch Stadium and the Saint Louis City Soccer Stadium.
Wild: Really? All in effort to rescue food that might otherwise get thrown away. And we put it to good use for the folks who need help with food assistance. We distribute about $30 million worth of donated food and another couple million dollars worth of purchased food that we purchase specifically for our child nutrition programs and our programs that are specifically designed to be food as medicine.
Gullet: Between you and I, think that was Lisa I talked to, you guys have been working very hard to address hunger. And she said even this year before there were cuts or any changes to any kind of benefits. But especially, like you said, you were pretty slammed in the last two months. With quick changes to Snap insurance.
Gullet: So how has the impact of inflation and all of this stuff impacted, you know, gas operations?
Wild: There's been about a 30% increase in grocery prices in the past five years. So people were already struggling. But each year, as food prices increase and other costs, utilities, housing, medical care, as all of those have increased, it's made it harder for families to stretch their budgets and put the food on the table that their family needs.
Wild: You know, we going into this year, food insecurity was, nationwide, about 13.5%. It's about 15% in Missouri or ten in Illinois. And we are prior to the tornado, we were already dealing with high levels of food insecurity. But then the impact of the tornado really devastated for so many families, their ability to make ends meet.
Wild: Followed by the Snap shutdown in the month of November. It has made it an incredibly challenging time for so many families in our region. Can you tell me how you work together with other nonprofits, whether it's, you know, the other, what is it, a sales area food bank that addresses hunger just like you all, or even nonprofits like, the Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri.
Gullet: Tell me how you partner with nonprofits to address the needs of the region.
Wild: Partnership with other nonprofits is critical to our function. We work with about 170 agencies that are food pantries and shelters and community sites. We work with over 350 schools. All of these are helpful to us to distribute the food that we purchase or have donated to us.
Wild: We also partner with organizations like the Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri. They have an annual drive in April called April Showers, where they collect personal care items. Most of those products come to Operation Food Search, and then we distribute to our network of pantries and shelters and community sites. We also partner with organizations like Saint Louis County Library, which not only conducts food drives for Operation Food Search, but they are a place that distributes our child nutrition meals, our summer meals in the summer, our after school meals during the school year as well as we do sometimes produce distribution.
Wild: We'll distribute our operation backpack food. So we're very, very reliant. You know, our facility brings food in and moves it out, but it's our partner organizations that really are the front line distributors of the food that we are able to get into the community.
Gullet: So one thing that I've heard a lot of, you know, the convening that you attended, and when we listen to other nonprofits around the area is that there's a lot of Duplication.
Gullet: Yes. Duplicative work. And so, some people talk about it as a con and some people talk as benefit of it. And I hear you saying the benefit of it. Is there any issues with how many nonprofits are in our region? Because we have a lot there are over 20,000 nonprofits in Saint Louis.
Wild: I view that as a huge win for Saint Louis. We are one of the most philanthropic areas in the country, and we together, the nonprofits, make up an incredible safety net program. We all collaborate. We are able to benefit from each other and be stronger because of each other. So I'm very, very grateful for what the safety net here, made up of so many nonprofits can do for our neighbors.