In this short video, Generosity Genius co-founders Daniel Wise and Geoff Horowitz share more about how they came to get involved in the nonprofit space, why they started Generosity Genius, the impact their clients have had on them personally, and what they envision for the future.
Full Video Transcript
Chelsea Curtis: All right, welcome! We've got Geoff and Dan, the co-founders of Generosity Genius. Welcome guys. We are doing this little introduction video just to get to know you and the business a little bit more. So to start I would love to ask you a little bit more about your background and how you got into the nonprofit space.
Daniel Wise: Yeah, great question. Thank you for hosting, Chelsea, great to be here. So Geoff and I grew up in the midwest. I grew up in Ohio, Geoff in Michigan and despite Geoff growing up in a state with an inferior football program, we both had very similar upbringings in the nonprofit world, in the Jewish community and we've been deeply involved in various nonprofits throughout our lives. We actually met when we both came down to Emory University in Atlanta. Geoff had lived here for a while and I've been here on and off basically since college and even since then we've volunteered with a number of non-profit organizations throughout Atlanta and throughout our other communities where we've grown up so it's really been something that's been deeply ingrained with us since our youth.
Chelsea Curtis: Awesome, super nice. So it sounds like you guys have always had this kind of passion for helping and the nonprofit space. What was the inspiration directly behind creating Generosity Genius?
Geoff Horowitz: Yeah, so as you've mentioned, nonprofits have always been really important to us. We've been involved in them for a long time, both on the volunteer side and helping nonprofits throughout our careers. That said, both Dan and I spent a few years outside of the nonprofit world, and we found the work lacking mission, lacking that drive that we have to really give back to our communities and help our communities. We were looking for a way to impact our communities more deeply and that really started the seeds of Generosity Genius.
We spent a lot of time talking to nonprofits that we volunteered with to understand the biggest problems that they're facing in the areas, and we were shocked by the time that early stage nonprofit CEOs and development directors spent searching for grants, writing grants, managing their grant programs, when they really need to be focusing on their mission and building those relationships that help support their mission. They're the face of their organization, right? They want to be focusing on that program.
So given our backgrounds - that spanned project management, budgeting, nonprofit, professional writing - we knew this was really an opportunity that we could help address, giving nonprofits time back in their day to further their own mission. So that was really kind of the inspiration behind Generosity Genius and what brought us to where we are today.
Chelsea Curtis: That's so cool. I love that you guys actually spent the time talking to people you were working with in the nonprofit space. And now, having been in this space professionally for a while and with Generosity Genius for a while, what's your favorite part about the work that you're doing?
Geoff Horowitz: I have to say my favorite part is certainly our clients. I love meeting with all of these nonprofits who are changing the world. It's so motivating to us to see what they're doing and for us to help support them on their missions. This is really reinforced by the feedback we get - our clients are constantly telling us how we are helping them, how we're freeing up their time, how we're helping to open up new doors and new opportunities to help support their work. So I think that's something that just really excites me, motivates me and something I really enjoy.
Chelsea Curtis: Yeah, so it sounds like you guys went from that pre-Generosity Genius lacking the mission in the corporate world, and now that's the best part is you're working with all these people and organizations that are built around their mission, and that infuses into the work you help them do. I love that.
Daniel Wise: That's right.
Geoff Horowitz: You hit it on the head.
Chelsea Curtis: So I'm curious. I would love to hear about one project for each of you that's had the most significant impact on you personally.
Daniel Wise: Great question, very personal question, but for me, it's been working with the Jewish Fertility Foundation...really impactful for both me and my wife. So we're both in our mid- to late thirties, and we're looking to build our family soon, but we're considered relatively high risk for our age and have predisposition to complications during pregnancy. So helping to grow an organization that provides those valuable resources to my wife and I through the educational programming and the support of programming is something I'm personally really grateful for.
Chelsea Curtis: Geoff, do you want to respond too?
Geoff Horowitz: Yeah, yeah, so I mean, I think that we...my wife was a school teacher for many years. And I'm very attuned to lots of these kind of security incidents that are going on in schools now - shootings in schools, I mean even when it comes to things like mental health crises. So one of our clients we were helping with getting security funding through a government program that's available to schools, religious organizations, some medical facilities out there - and at this time of, at least what we see is a lot of threats, it felt really impactful to work toward creating that security. We were working toward nearly half a million dollars of security funding for this client.
And through this process we were working with them to identify their security requirements, to identify some needed improvements, and then of course the area that we really excel in is creating that compelling case for support from the federal and state agencies was really significant to me.
Chelsea Curtis: Those are awesome stories. I'm sure we could spend a lot of time talking even deeper about those types of things. Switching gears a little bit, I have a question that's a little bit more for fun - which is, if you had unlimited funds to start your own nonprofit, what would it be?
Daniel Wise: Geoff I'll let you jump on this first.
Geoff Horowitz: So I just mentioned that my wife was an elementary school teacher for many years, both in Detroit and in Chicago. And I think one of the things that struck me so much was that many of us, we're really lucky right? We've grown up with supportive parents, supportive communities that have really enabled us to get the education that we've had. And what I've seen is that that's not really the case for everybody, even amongst parents who want their kids to succeed and excel.
There's often financial considerations, there's time considerations - right, sitting down helping your kids with their homework - even in some communities when parents don't have the same education, they want to help their kids, but in some cases they're actually not able to. And all of these go into long-term helping kids succeed and grow in their lives.
And so I think one thing that kind of would be really impactful and important to me is to create a community center that tries to address these issues specifically. I would love to create a free community center that helps kids with after school programs, homework accelerators, but also open to parents - creating community, doing after school classes for parents. I mean, I think that addressing all of these communal issues and some of the underlying concerns that kids, especially in less affluent neighborhoods, have would be really kind of impactful and important and something that I love to see happen.
Daniel Wise: Yeah, I'll chime in quickly here. So both of our dream nonprofits are rooted in actually our spouses. So for me, my wife is a huge cat person - she grew up in a country where cats are very common publicly and she's turned me into a bit of a cat person as well. Unfortunately, I'm deathly allergic to cats. So it's unlikely we'll ever have one of our own, but I do have a particular soft spot for senior cats and those with illnesses and disabilities. So if I were to have unlimited funds to start something it would be some type of program or facility for caring for senior cats and those with terminal illnesses at the end stages of their lives.
Chelsea Curtis: Wow, that's so cool. I love how much thought you both have put into this before. I'm like, I can't wait to see these things emerge at some point. Thank you guys for sharing. Ok, last question. Why should nonprofit leaders work with you and Generosity Genius?
Daniel Wise: That's a great question, Chelsea. So we found nonprofit leaders just spend so much of their limited time identifying grant opportunities, writing the grants, managing their grant programs, and it really takes valuable time away from serving their core mission, and frankly, they may even be leaving money on the table.
So we at Generosity Genius help take over the grant writing, research, and management activities. By partnering with us, our clients increase their chances of securing that essential funding, diversifying their revenue streams, and they get more time back in their day to serve their mission.
Working with us is pretty easy and flexible - just schedule an initial 30 minute consultation where we take the time to learn about your organization and the funding challenges you face, and we'll come up with a plan together to help you raise more money and position your nonprofit for more success.
You can reach out to us at generositygenius.org or email Jeff for myself directly: Dan@generositygenius.org and Geoff@generositygenius.org
Chelsea Curtis: Thank you both so much for the time. Thanks for sharing a little bit more about yourselves and the work that you're doing and we'll continue to see everyone who's watching this, I'm sure on calls and email and on our website and on the blog. Thank you.
Geoff Horowitz: Chelsea thank you so much for having us. Appreciate it.
Daniel Wise: Thank you, Chelsea.