WEBVTT NOTE This file was generated by Descript 00:00:11.723 --> 00:00:17.783 Welcome to Transformative Principal, where I help you stop putting out fires and start leading. 00:00:18.293 --> 00:00:19.793 I'm your host, Jethro Jones. 00:00:19.793 --> 00:00:22.493 You can follow me on Twitter at Jethro Jones. 00:00:22.493 --> 00:00:22.553 Okay. 00:00:35.270 --> 00:00:37.310 Welcome to Transformative Principal. 00:00:37.310 --> 00:00:38.630 I'm your host, Jethro Jones. 00:00:38.630 --> 00:00:41.420 You can find me on all the socials at Jethro Jones. 00:00:41.450 --> 00:00:57.950 I am excited today to talk about something that is near and dear to all of our hearts, which is parent teacher groups, sometimes called PTA, sometimes called PTG, sometimes called just a group of parents, and sometimes these group parents can. 00:00:58.265 --> 00:00:59.075 Be a headache. 00:00:59.195 --> 00:01:03.785 Sometimes they can be a hassle, sometimes they can be the best thing that ever happened to your school. 00:01:03.785 --> 00:01:15.785 So I have with me today Ben Downey, who is the founder and creator of Big Nest, and it is a tool for parent teacher groups to be able to manage everything that they do. 00:01:16.115 --> 00:01:18.935 And so, uh, Ben, welcome to Transformative Principle. 00:01:18.935 --> 00:01:19.595 Great to have you. 00:01:19.730 --> 00:01:20.420 Yeah, thanks very much. 00:01:20.540 --> 00:01:21.005 Happy to be here. 00:01:21.545 --> 00:01:21.905 Yeah. 00:01:21.965 --> 00:01:26.825 Uh, so we're gonna chat about this, but first tell me why you started, uh. 00:01:27.500 --> 00:01:29.390 Big nest and what the purpose. 00:01:29.420 --> 00:01:42.080 Well, before we get there, let me just say, I got an email from my parent-teacher group that I'm a member of for my daughter, and it came from a different email than what it usually comes from, and I was like, wait a minute. 00:01:42.260 --> 00:01:52.250 They've gotten organized and they, they have a system in place because this is not just, uh, Shelly's mom@gmail.com. 00:01:52.250 --> 00:01:53.060 This is like. 00:01:53.705 --> 00:01:57.965 Peppers Act ptg at bigness or community dot big nest.com. 00:01:57.965 --> 00:02:03.965 So I was like, okay, something happened here and I went and looked at the website and saw some of the great things you're doing. 00:02:03.965 --> 00:02:05.255 So why did you start it? 00:02:05.255 --> 00:02:06.245 What's your story with it? 00:02:06.545 --> 00:02:14.465 Oh, by accident, like I did not mean to, like my wife volunteered for a fun run like years and years ago, and like things have just snowballed. 00:02:14.585 --> 00:02:20.945 So I didn't mean to do any of this, but, you know, uh, I was doing tech for my local parent group. 00:02:21.275 --> 00:02:21.755 Uh. 00:02:22.805 --> 00:02:24.455 And just managing their website. 00:02:24.455 --> 00:02:28.115 They had this WordPress website, which is, you know, kind of an easy thing to set up. 00:02:28.115 --> 00:02:33.755 But it's one of those things where if you already know how to do WordPress, you find it really easy. 00:02:33.815 --> 00:02:36.845 And if you're an everyday human being, you find it very frustrating. 00:02:36.845 --> 00:02:42.275 There's a lot of idiosyncrasies with managing those sites, so unsurprisingly, they put me in charge of that. 00:02:43.115 --> 00:02:48.935 and then kind of during the pandemic, things changed a lot, uh, at our local parent group. 00:02:49.265 --> 00:02:55.145 A lot of the families that had been sort of powerhouse families, they left their kids aged out. 00:02:55.385 --> 00:02:56.315 Some of 'em moved. 00:02:56.315 --> 00:03:03.185 We had one family that did a lot of PDG stuff that ended up in Ghana at like, I can't just invite these people out for coffee to ask 'em how they do the optical arts program. 00:03:03.515 --> 00:03:05.045 They're like nine time zones away now. 00:03:05.075 --> 00:03:05.465 Right. 00:03:06.950 --> 00:03:14.750 So just kind of trying to rebuild our parent group after the pandemic me thinking about, well, how can we do it better? 00:03:14.810 --> 00:03:26.390 Because with any organization you have to have a combination of long-term strategic thinking and then short-term putting fires out type activities. 00:03:26.660 --> 00:03:29.900 And I've noticed that parent groups really. 00:03:30.290 --> 00:03:34.160 Fall into the trap of only addressing the fires, which has consequences. 00:03:34.160 --> 00:03:36.740 Like you should not be this far of the 20th century. 00:03:36.770 --> 00:03:41.960 And you have a paper-driven PTG, where people are signing up for school activities by filling out a form. 00:03:41.990 --> 00:03:43.520 'cause then you've gotta read all those forms, right? 00:03:43.520 --> 00:03:43.730 And 00:03:43.900 --> 00:03:44.190 Yeah. 00:03:44.330 --> 00:03:46.310 these hieroglyphics that people think are very clear, 00:03:46.310 --> 00:03:50.450 Yes, they're bad handwriting and bad, uh, understanding of time and all that kind of stuff. 00:03:50.570 --> 00:03:50.900 right? 00:03:50.930 --> 00:03:53.995 And if some parent is gonna donate their time to manage that afterschool program. 00:03:55.700 --> 00:03:57.200 You know, you want them in front of the kids. 00:03:57.200 --> 00:04:00.230 You don't want 'em in front of paper trying to figure out what, who said what. 00:04:00.230 --> 00:04:05.630 So, uh, that's kind of the genesis of Big Nest was like, okay, I'm a good developer. 00:04:05.660 --> 00:04:08.150 I can put a lot of the stuff online and make it easy. 00:04:09.230 --> 00:04:13.220 And then, uh, after that kind, the fundraising piece fell into place pretty quickly. 00:04:13.220 --> 00:04:16.820 Uh, I did some research to figure out like, how do we do fundraising? 00:04:16.940 --> 00:04:17.990 Especially during the pandemic. 00:04:17.990 --> 00:04:21.320 You really don't want kids walking door to door asking for donations, right. 00:04:21.410 --> 00:04:22.070 No, you don't. 00:04:22.640 --> 00:04:23.300 That is horrific. 00:04:23.330 --> 00:04:26.600 So had to say, okay, well we gotta modernize. 00:04:26.840 --> 00:04:28.340 Let's get something a little more organized. 00:04:28.400 --> 00:04:31.730 There's a lot of online tools for accepting donations. 00:04:31.730 --> 00:04:36.950 You know, you have PayPal, you have, uh, stripe, you have, um, give butter. 00:04:36.950 --> 00:04:41.990 There's phy, there's so many opportunities to do, do nonprofit fundraising online. 00:04:42.425 --> 00:04:45.335 Um, but they were all kind of terrible. 00:04:45.335 --> 00:04:56.285 Like, I think my experience with, uh, the website that our parent group ran just kind of put a, a, a sour taste in my mouth because it's very clear that parent groups are different. 00:04:56.285 --> 00:05:02.440 They're just different from the ground up, the way they interact, uh, you know, buying stuff, selling stuff, it's just different. 00:05:02.525 --> 00:05:06.905 Like if you buy a t-shirt, fine, jump on Amazon, grab it, you get it right? 00:05:06.905 --> 00:05:09.665 But a lot of times if you're buying, let's say a yearbook for your kid. 00:05:10.340 --> 00:05:19.100 It's very important to know what kid is getting that yearbook, what class that kid is in, so that, especially with yearbooks, often we deliver them to the classroom, right? 00:05:19.100 --> 00:05:27.020 So you kinda have to have information and a lot of the out of the box stuff for selling, selling stuff through nonprofits just was terrible. 00:05:27.080 --> 00:05:33.920 So I really wanted to figure out ways to create this little triangle information that has like the, the person paying the money. 00:05:34.730 --> 00:05:38.750 And the kid who's getting it and then whatever classroom is actually, uh, in there. 00:05:38.810 --> 00:05:44.960 So kind of snowballed into me just writing my own, uh, fundraising platform. 00:05:45.020 --> 00:05:50.330 Uh, that's just the idea is you really just need to know those three pieces of information. 00:05:50.330 --> 00:05:51.800 That goes a long way because. 00:05:52.640 --> 00:05:54.350 Everything out there is kind of, I don't know. 00:05:54.440 --> 00:05:59.660 I don't wanna talk smack, but the reality is they're just, they're so focused on getting a bunch of metrics and finding 00:05:59.705 --> 00:06:00.185 Yep. 00:06:00.290 --> 00:06:03.860 We optimize your nonprofit and, oh, I could care less. 00:06:03.860 --> 00:06:05.600 Like I just want money for the fun run. 00:06:05.600 --> 00:06:05.960 Right. 00:06:06.200 --> 00:06:17.180 And, and here's the other thing, like a nonprofit that is for a school, PTA is much different than a nonprofit that is for just about anything else, right? 00:06:17.180 --> 00:06:24.980 And so we are only interested in this very small geographic area of people and making sure that it's easy for them. 00:06:25.385 --> 00:06:29.645 To contribute and be part of our PTA in whatever way they choose to be. 00:06:29.645 --> 00:06:35.045 Whether that's donating time, donating money, or donating resources and supplies. 00:06:35.225 --> 00:06:38.765 We just wanna make it easy for them to be organized and get things done. 00:06:38.765 --> 00:06:45.785 Because one of the things that you say all the time is that, um, uh, A PTA is inherently chaotic and it is. 00:06:47.795 --> 00:06:50.225 Yeah, I mean, you, you can't kind of get away from it. 00:06:50.225 --> 00:06:55.865 A lot of us volunteer not because we just want to, because we have some sort of surplus of time on our hands. 00:06:55.925 --> 00:06:57.485 We're doing it for the community, right? 00:06:57.485 --> 00:07:00.065 Like know this is good for people. 00:07:00.095 --> 00:07:04.085 Uh, and a lot of ways parent groups are these sort of unsung heroes. 00:07:04.085 --> 00:07:06.485 We do so much for the communities that we're in. 00:07:06.815 --> 00:07:11.375 We have decades of empirical evidence showing that when kids. 00:07:12.590 --> 00:07:17.600 Are in environments where they're getting more parental attention when they're getting involved with the parents. 00:07:17.810 --> 00:07:18.980 That goes far, right? 00:07:19.010 --> 00:07:22.340 Like kids' brains like that nourishes their souls. 00:07:22.340 --> 00:07:22.460 They 00:07:22.685 --> 00:07:23.105 Mm-hmm. 00:07:23.330 --> 00:07:24.680 parents that are involved. 00:07:25.100 --> 00:07:27.500 And the best part is, it doesn't have to be specifically parents. 00:07:27.500 --> 00:07:30.890 It can be parental figures, role models, other adults in the community. 00:07:31.640 --> 00:07:34.310 the whole point of a community is just get people together, right? 00:07:34.310 --> 00:07:35.930 And parent groups do that. 00:07:36.150 --> 00:07:47.820 What you have, what you see when you can actually do that successfully is that you get kids that have higher self-esteem, they have better grades, they're less likely to engage in high risk behavior like drugs and alcohol. 00:07:48.360 --> 00:07:55.350 So parent groups, I think they get a lot of flack, but no one really understands how foundational they are to a healthy community. 00:07:55.590 --> 00:07:55.770 They're 00:07:55.980 --> 00:07:56.300 Yeah. 00:07:56.600 --> 00:07:56.840 Yeah. 00:07:56.840 --> 00:07:58.700 Well, and two things on that. 00:07:58.700 --> 00:08:02.420 Number one, um, you, uh, in. 00:08:03.740 --> 00:08:05.555 Regardless of what schools may think. 00:08:06.275 --> 00:08:13.115 The, the main educator of a child is their parents, so we have to accept that and recognize that. 00:08:13.355 --> 00:08:26.285 And too often we as educators think, no, we are the educators and they're just the parents, and that's not the right thing because it doesn't matter how hard you work at a school, you're not going to overcome. 00:08:26.610 --> 00:08:28.650 The culture that is there at home. 00:08:29.010 --> 00:08:30.600 And that's not a knock on parents. 00:08:30.600 --> 00:08:31.830 That is just the reality. 00:08:31.830 --> 00:08:32.850 That's how it works. 00:08:32.850 --> 00:08:40.230 So, and I don't want the school's culture to overcome my culture at home because I'm intentionally creating that culture at home. 00:08:40.500 --> 00:08:47.520 And even if you're not intentionally creating that culture at home, it still is the dominant thing that the kids are really going to learn from. 00:08:47.520 --> 00:08:48.120 And so. 00:08:48.725 --> 00:08:56.315 Schools need to, uh, partner with parents in what they're trying to do rather than get parents to partner with them in what they're trying to do. 00:08:56.675 --> 00:09:02.345 Because really it's the, the school's responsibility to support the parents in educating and raising their children. 00:09:02.795 --> 00:09:05.195 And, and that is so important. 00:09:05.195 --> 00:09:13.365 And when you have a parent group that is organized and works well together and there's communication between the school and the. 00:09:14.000 --> 00:09:17.030 And the parents, there's a lot of power in that. 00:09:17.090 --> 00:09:20.450 That is way more than just, let's raise some money 00:09:20.530 --> 00:09:20.820 Yeah, 00:09:21.170 --> 00:09:24.440 of all those other things that you mentioned, and it's incredibly powerful. 00:09:24.615 --> 00:09:24.975 yeah. 00:09:24.975 --> 00:09:27.465 And oftentimes it's invisible, but I mean. 00:09:27.545 --> 00:09:35.675 Uh, the there you have to really focus on the interplay between what is on legally on paper are two different entities, right? 00:09:35.675 --> 00:09:42.545 You have a school that represents a school district and you have this nonprofit entity, but the reality is like they are very much intermeshed. 00:09:43.355 --> 00:09:53.765 it is so helpful to have if you, a lot of presidents at parent groups, like they didn't really do, they didn't wanna be president, they really don't, but they see a need, they're gonna fill it 'cause they don't wanna let their community down. 00:09:53.915 --> 00:09:57.065 So it is very helpful for them to have a principal that can say, Hey. 00:09:57.935 --> 00:09:59.165 I've been here for the last decade. 00:09:59.285 --> 00:10:03.035 I know how you guys usually do, I'll help you keep you on track for this kind of stuff. 00:10:03.035 --> 00:10:03.395 Right? 00:10:03.845 --> 00:10:04.595 And vice versa. 00:10:04.595 --> 00:10:12.095 A lot of times there is principal turnover every few years and it is very helpful to have someone who can say, okay, you're the new principal here. 00:10:12.725 --> 00:10:14.195 We're gonna help you out to the extent we can. 00:10:14.195 --> 00:10:23.880 We, I can tell you we, what are some of the intangible things that this community really values so that you can hit the ground running and make sure that you are making friends the entire way through the school year. 00:10:25.620 --> 00:10:30.240 And the thing that's so important about that is that having institutional knowledge. 00:10:30.815 --> 00:10:32.375 Is incredibly valuable. 00:10:32.375 --> 00:10:43.985 And when you have a actual system in place that is not just some random mom or dad's email that they can't even find anything in it, it goes a long way. 00:10:44.165 --> 00:10:51.965 Uh, we, in my schools, we have often used Basecamp as a tool for, uh, organizing and keeping things, keeping track of things. 00:10:52.795 --> 00:11:10.015 Not because it is the only tool that works for it, but it's because it's something that we can say that's where everything is and we don't have to go looking around for it and try to get access to somebody else's, uh, you know, their own personal Gmail account and try to get that doc that they created and shared. 00:11:10.345 --> 00:11:18.955 Um, and so the other thing that I would often do is create, uh, an email address for the PTA president that said PTA president. 00:11:20.045 --> 00:11:25.775 My school name@gmail.com so that there was at least this thing that they could pass on to somebody else. 00:11:25.775 --> 00:11:32.945 So you could keep track of things, because when somebody new comes in, there's often like, well, we have no idea what happened before. 00:11:33.005 --> 00:11:35.435 And there's no record keeping and there's no way to know. 00:11:35.435 --> 00:11:41.105 And maybe if it, they were organized, they have a 5 0 1 C3 number, but that's not always the case. 00:11:41.285 --> 00:11:46.145 And a lot of times it used to be, you know, we just raise money and somebody just collects it and then we just. 00:11:46.805 --> 00:11:53.975 Give it to the school and, and really now it's a lot more complex because they are actual 5 0 1 C3 organizations. 00:11:54.760 --> 00:11:55.120 Oh yeah. 00:11:55.330 --> 00:11:59.320 Which makes it so much more important that you have some method, some system in place. 00:12:00.370 --> 00:12:02.650 I mean, yeah, you're just, you're hitting the nail on the head for sure. 00:12:02.650 --> 00:12:03.880 There's no doubt about it. 00:12:03.880 --> 00:12:07.360 These things, these used to be really easy organizations to run and they're not anymore. 00:12:07.360 --> 00:12:16.060 There's a, there are a lot of work and two things that I like what you said is just getting a dedicated email for the parent group because it's so much easier to hand off that account to the next person. 00:12:16.595 --> 00:12:16.925 Yeah. 00:12:17.115 --> 00:12:24.405 as you are PTG President, you're gonna get emails from different but also from different vendors, different people that wanna talk to you. 00:12:24.405 --> 00:12:27.555 People have knowledge about stuff, so you gotta get a, a shared one. 00:12:28.215 --> 00:12:30.765 lot of people don't know, but Google will actually give you a free one. 00:12:30.765 --> 00:12:33.765 If you are a 5 0 1 C3, like a true nonprofit. 00:12:34.185 --> 00:12:39.615 Google will give you a, not just one email, but I think it's up to 10 or a hundred so you can get whatever your school's name is like. 00:12:40.805 --> 00:12:48.995 Oh, the Washington ptg.com, and then you can become president@washingtonptg.com and you can have one for your treasurer, one for your secretary. 00:12:48.995 --> 00:12:58.115 And the idea is to have some repository so that some of that institutional knowledge isn't just in someone's brain, it's actually in emails somewhere. 00:12:59.981 --> 00:13:11.051 so the other thing is you talked about raising money and the tools that are out there are designed for other nonprofits, and this is something that Damon Hargraves and I have talked about on the podcast. 00:13:11.051 --> 00:13:17.651 There's a link to that podcast in the show notes about how, how software is designed or not designed. 00:13:17.981 --> 00:13:21.941 For schools and school-based entities like Par parent teacher groups. 00:13:22.271 --> 00:13:32.111 And so there's really a, a big challenge to the, the technology exists to go sign up for something else and just make it work. 00:13:32.471 --> 00:13:41.171 But what you've done is you've made it very easy for schools to, to use the PTG to raise funds in a way that's systematic. 00:13:41.171 --> 00:13:43.926 And I think you even have something where they can round up their. 00:13:44.666 --> 00:13:47.186 Purchases to, to donate extra money. 00:13:47.186 --> 00:13:48.521 Tell me about that and how that works. 00:13:48.981 --> 00:13:49.611 Yes. 00:13:49.611 --> 00:14:00.861 So the idea is to like, just to kind of respect my own frustrations, it is very common for parent groups to just kind of Frankenstein a bunch of stuff together and make it kind of work. 00:14:00.861 --> 00:14:01.281 But then. 00:14:02.291 --> 00:14:03.641 always end up paying for that. 00:14:03.641 --> 00:14:05.051 It's when you pay with your time. 00:14:05.051 --> 00:14:08.531 So I built, uh, something that is just dead easy to use. 00:14:08.531 --> 00:14:10.511 So my background is in e-commerce. 00:14:10.571 --> 00:14:16.721 So just took a lot of the strategies that have been used in e-commerce for the last 20 years and applied them to. 00:14:18.206 --> 00:14:18.926 A fundraiser. 00:14:19.136 --> 00:14:23.576 So it's just, I, I know how to remove friction and just remove obstacles and just make it easy. 00:14:23.576 --> 00:14:31.376 So, know, some platforms you wanna donate to this kid and you have to say, okay, well you have to have the child's teacher. 00:14:31.436 --> 00:14:34.736 And it's like, grandma, grandpa don't know this kid's teacher say they're in Florida, right? 00:14:34.736 --> 00:14:35.126 There's no way. 00:14:35.126 --> 00:14:36.386 Or I have to have a special URL. 00:14:36.386 --> 00:14:37.466 Like, are you kidding me? 00:14:37.526 --> 00:14:40.586 Everyone gets their own special URL for 500 kids at a school get out. 00:14:40.586 --> 00:14:41.996 It just makes it so much more complicated. 00:14:41.996 --> 00:14:44.936 So, you know, for Big Nest it's like. 00:14:46.226 --> 00:14:47.311 Enter the amount you wanna donate. 00:14:48.116 --> 00:14:50.246 Add a kid's name behind the scenes. 00:14:50.396 --> 00:14:51.686 We ma we do all the matching. 00:14:51.686 --> 00:14:58.256 So I just, there's a very robust matching engine that figures out, okay, they Jo, they donated to John Smith. 00:14:58.316 --> 00:15:07.316 We know that John Smith is in Mrs. Bowman's class, therefore we know how much to attribute to that class in case they're doing, you know, classroom competitions and stuff like that. 00:15:07.316 --> 00:15:09.866 So basically we want a lot of the metrics. 00:15:09.866 --> 00:15:12.161 We wanna know who's doing well, we wanna make sure that we reward. 00:15:13.246 --> 00:15:16.036 in classes that are really, uh, going above and beyond. 00:15:16.036 --> 00:15:19.186 But we don't want to put the onus on those donors. 00:15:19.186 --> 00:15:24.406 Like the whole idea is if you are even thinking that you might donate, we wanna capture that donation. 00:15:24.406 --> 00:15:24.766 Right. 00:15:25.366 --> 00:15:28.576 Uh, and then the other part we do that, uh, you mentioned rounding up. 00:15:28.576 --> 00:15:34.456 So the idea is that you are process like A PTG is processing payments online and. 00:15:35.831 --> 00:15:40.301 You, it's, there are a few free ones, but it's generally dicey. 00:15:40.366 --> 00:15:42.431 I wouldn't, I always, I'd rather go with the paying one. 00:15:42.431 --> 00:15:51.581 So the idea is that, uh, bigness works with Stripe, which is a, probably one of the biggest payment processors, but I like 'em 'cause they have a phenomenal customer service. 00:15:51.581 --> 00:15:53.951 But B, they give a discount for nonprofits. 00:15:54.131 --> 00:15:57.161 So donations are already coming in at a discount. 00:15:57.161 --> 00:16:02.441 But then when you check out, we encourage donors to add a few extra bucks and. 00:16:03.146 --> 00:16:04.316 It can happen one of two ways. 00:16:04.316 --> 00:16:08.546 You can just do a flat fee like 2, 4, 6, or you can do a percentage based. 00:16:08.546 --> 00:16:10.496 It's really up to the parent teacher organization. 00:16:10.496 --> 00:16:21.146 I can tell you what I have found out, which is interesting, that like it kind of doesn't matter if you're doing flat fee or percentage based so far as people always gravitate towards the two extremes. 00:16:21.176 --> 00:16:23.156 They will never click the middle button for some reason. 00:16:23.156 --> 00:16:24.686 Like it may as well not exist. 00:16:25.051 --> 00:16:25.361 Yeah, 00:16:25.616 --> 00:16:26.756 and the other thing is percentage 00:16:26.861 --> 00:16:31.931 it also, it has to exist because otherwise they'll be like, nevermind. 00:16:32.366 --> 00:16:32.606 Yeah. 00:16:32.771 --> 00:16:33.251 Yeah. 00:16:33.521 --> 00:16:36.341 And the other thing I would tell parent groups is like, go for the percentage based. 00:16:36.341 --> 00:16:41.231 I personally, my intuition was, was that like adding a specific number, like two bucks. 00:16:41.276 --> 00:16:46.946 It would be completely satisfying to people and they wouldn't have to worry about calculating percentages and they'd want to do that. 00:16:46.946 --> 00:16:48.866 And was completely erroneous. 00:16:48.896 --> 00:16:52.616 People much people give so much more if they're given percentage based stuff. 00:16:52.856 --> 00:16:55.196 So, uh, that happens every single time. 00:16:55.196 --> 00:17:04.016 So the idea with, um, big Nest and that you can be doing a donation or it could be a parent setting up for physical activity or buying a spirit, wear, whatever it is. 00:17:04.706 --> 00:17:05.666 idea is that. 00:17:06.086 --> 00:17:20.936 In the grand scheme of things, through the course of that or spirit wear sale, these micro donations add up to enough money to counteract any money you're losing during the, when you have to pay for the processing fees. 00:17:20.996 --> 00:17:22.586 So that's golden. 00:17:22.676 --> 00:17:34.166 That's, I mean, the idea that like you can run a, a fundraiser that in one sense earned you $10,000, but in another sense actually earned you $1,200, like. 00:17:35.111 --> 00:17:35.441 awesome. 00:17:35.441 --> 00:17:36.101 That's amazing. 00:17:36.101 --> 00:17:43.781 So, um, that's, I, I, I really love that there's a lot of other programs that encourage micro donations, but those donations that just go away, it's like they go 00:17:43.826 --> 00:17:44.306 Yeah. 00:17:44.351 --> 00:17:48.731 running the show and it's like, no, I like, I'm the one busting my hump at the PTO. 00:17:48.791 --> 00:17:54.641 I would like those donations headed off to my school so I can get it towards my kids so that we can do cool stuff this year. 00:17:55.166 --> 00:17:55.586 Yeah. 00:17:55.886 --> 00:18:11.826 Well, and when you have it connected to something like Stripe, which a lot of people may not even realize that they're using, but a lot of times they have their information saved in there and they already know the, they already, like, they put in their email address and it sends 'em a code to their phone and then. 00:18:12.416 --> 00:18:17.396 Says, here's your saved information, and it makes it really easy to pay for stuff like that kind of stuff. 00:18:17.606 --> 00:18:23.906 Anything to remove the friction from, from signing in and you, you gloss past this, uh. 00:18:24.251 --> 00:18:40.391 This matching engine that you have, which I think is really amazing because if I understand correctly, if somebody puts in a different name, like they put in Tommy Jones, then it matches to Thomas Jones and can figure out who's who. 00:18:40.751 --> 00:18:45.371 And uh, and I'm sure there's a way that if the match is wrong, then it'll do it. 00:18:45.371 --> 00:18:51.101 But, um, but like having that kind of stuff where it's easy, you know, I, I may have. 00:18:51.521 --> 00:18:54.431 A, like my daughter's name is, is Katya. 00:18:54.431 --> 00:18:55.781 She's the only one with a nickname. 00:18:55.991 --> 00:19:00.731 Her full name is Eina, but her, her short name is Katya and that's what, what everybody calls her. 00:19:01.091 --> 00:19:05.951 And so my parents would not put in Eina, they would put in Katya. 00:19:06.281 --> 00:19:11.921 And so being able to have that match and say, okay, it's still working, um, is, is really valuable. 00:19:11.921 --> 00:19:14.891 And I think that that's one of the little things that you mentioned that you. 00:19:15.116 --> 00:19:24.161 It just briefly blew past, but it was really good for ease of use of reducing the friction for people to actually donate to the fundraisers that that kids are doing. 00:19:24.596 --> 00:19:24.956 Right. 00:19:24.986 --> 00:19:33.416 No, it is, and it's like, and it just remembers that, hey, this is the, this is an alias of this child, so that, you know, maybe next year it doesn't, it knows, okay, I get this, I know where this belongs. 00:19:33.416 --> 00:19:33.656 Right? 00:19:33.656 --> 00:19:35.156 So, and the idea is just making it. 00:19:35.346 --> 00:19:36.156 Easier for both sides. 00:19:36.216 --> 00:19:39.546 People running the fundraiser, don't wanna spend any more time hunching down who gave money. 00:19:40.326 --> 00:19:43.536 but yeah, I mean, bigness is packed with a lot of those sort of Easter eggs. 00:19:43.566 --> 00:19:59.016 Uh, one of the favorite ones that a lot of people have is, um, when you're going, there's a storefront functionality where a PTO or PTG can sell cakes or clothing or whatever it is. 00:19:59.136 --> 00:20:03.966 But the idea is go through, you order your yearbook. 00:20:04.721 --> 00:20:12.011 Right before you hit the payment button, this little popup comes up on screen and we just verify that this is a new order. 00:20:12.671 --> 00:20:14.231 like that sounds kind of goofy, right? 00:20:14.231 --> 00:20:26.561 But the idea is like parents are really, really busy and if your sale lasts for a full month and they bought a yearbook on week one they just got a text reminder saying the yearbook is, CLO sale is closing soon. 00:20:26.996 --> 00:20:29.096 They forgot what they did a month ago because like 00:20:29.136 --> 00:20:29.796 Yes. 00:20:30.206 --> 00:20:33.986 there are like an almost infinite amount of events that have happened between when they ordered that so 00:20:34.026 --> 00:20:34.446 Yeah. 00:20:34.916 --> 00:20:38.696 and the current situation now, and all they have is a text on their phone saying order a yearbook. 00:20:38.696 --> 00:20:41.696 So we just double check, Hey, this is new order for you. 00:20:41.696 --> 00:20:42.326 Okay, that's fine. 00:20:42.386 --> 00:20:43.556 Let's proceed to payment. 00:20:43.556 --> 00:20:45.566 Or you sure you wanna do this? 00:20:45.596 --> 00:20:46.916 We already have this order in hand. 00:20:46.916 --> 00:20:49.466 If you, if you are doing multiple, great, but if not, don't 00:20:49.621 --> 00:20:49.961 Yeah. 00:20:50.231 --> 00:20:50.531 Yep. 00:20:50.861 --> 00:20:54.701 That, yeah, that is a cool little feature that, uh, that is super helpful. 00:20:54.701 --> 00:21:01.541 And, um, what else is nice is that we're always trying to figure out how to raise more money and. 00:21:02.616 --> 00:21:15.726 Schools really want this to be simple from our perspective, uh, because we don't want to answer questions about the parent, the parent group's, uh, fundraiser because we really have nothing to do with it. 00:21:15.726 --> 00:21:18.966 So we just promote it and it needs to be easy for us to promote. 00:21:19.356 --> 00:21:30.006 And, uh, our school did one earlier this year and the principal just sent out, uh, emails and did phone calls and said, it's time for the fundraiser and here's the link everybody. 00:21:30.341 --> 00:21:31.061 Go do it. 00:21:31.121 --> 00:21:34.691 And, and then they raised a bunch of money, which was, which was great. 00:21:34.691 --> 00:21:40.451 And it made it very simple because, um, nobody wants to go take their kids knock on doors. 00:21:40.541 --> 00:21:42.521 Uh, nobody wants to do that anyway. 00:21:42.521 --> 00:21:48.881 And, uh, and schools want it to just be really easy and know that we can just turn it over and, and that's all it takes. 00:21:48.881 --> 00:21:55.811 So, um, for people who are listening, they, they want to share this with their, uh, ptg. 00:21:55.811 --> 00:21:59.081 So tell 'em how to get connected with you and sign up for this. 00:21:59.246 --> 00:22:00.146 Certainly, yeah. 00:22:00.206 --> 00:22:04.556 So, uh, just head to the website, which is big nest.com. 00:22:05.876 --> 00:22:11.276 Uh, that's the easiest way you can learn a little bit more about Big Nest, see some example sites, all that kind of fun stuff. 00:22:12.776 --> 00:22:15.806 And there's a link to that in the show notes at Transformative principle.org. 00:22:15.806 --> 00:22:17.276 So if you're listening, just scroll down. 00:22:17.606 --> 00:22:19.076 There's, there's Big Nest right there. 00:22:19.376 --> 00:22:26.906 Um, I thank you for taking the time to chat with me because, uh, when I saw this as a parent, I was like, this is great, and. 00:22:27.296 --> 00:22:29.816 And we need to get it out there so people can hear about it. 00:22:29.846 --> 00:22:38.426 'cause uh, looking around at my own PTG site, I was like, this is way better than anything we've had, uh, in any of the schools I've been in. 00:22:38.826 --> 00:22:40.506 A lot of it comes down to visibility. 00:22:40.566 --> 00:22:40.746 You 00:22:40.946 --> 00:22:41.336 Yeah. 00:22:41.496 --> 00:22:48.336 the, the sort of the curse of most parent teacher groups is that the result of the work is often very visible. 00:22:48.396 --> 00:22:51.036 Like it's a fundraiser, it's a spaghetti night. 00:22:51.536 --> 00:23:07.646 It's, uh, ice cream, social, but the work that goes into making those things happen that is invisible and a lot of families will progress through years of going at a school without realizing how much work the parent teacher group is really doing to make this possible, which is that's not what you want. 00:23:07.646 --> 00:23:17.246 Like I come across a lot of situations where I've got this parent group that is like two or three moms and they are supporting a school that has 400 kids in it, right? 00:23:17.456 --> 00:23:19.976 So they're constantly putting out fires and trying to keep this. 00:23:20.296 --> 00:23:27.616 Essentially keep the, the, um, boat afloat so we can get to the shore so they can finish out the school year and make sure that they do everything. 00:23:27.616 --> 00:23:28.216 They usually do. 00:23:28.216 --> 00:23:29.806 But it's so exhausting, right? 00:23:29.806 --> 00:23:34.036 You really need something that promotes the visibility of what you're doing. 00:23:34.036 --> 00:23:36.616 Like a lot of places say, oh, I don't need a website, we're good. 00:23:36.616 --> 00:23:47.356 And it's like you say that, but the people that are doing all the grunt work desperately need other people to know how much, and there's so much just how much these parent teacher groups are doing. 00:23:48.131 --> 00:23:48.521 Yeah. 00:23:48.611 --> 00:23:54.281 And, and in my specific case, I did not even think about the eighth grade promotion for my middle schooler. 00:23:54.401 --> 00:23:59.531 And when I went to the PTG page, I was like, oh, that's something I need to be paying attention to. 00:23:59.681 --> 00:24:01.691 And like it just blew my mind. 00:24:01.691 --> 00:24:02.081 So. 00:24:02.351 --> 00:24:03.551 Alright, very good stuff. 00:24:03.551 --> 00:24:06.371 Go check out, uh, big hyen nest.com. 00:24:06.461 --> 00:24:09.521 And Ben, thanks so much for being part of Transformative principle today. 00:24:09.908 --> 00:24:10.598 It's been a pleasure. 00:24:10.598 --> 00:24:10.988 Thanks so much. 00:24:10.988 --> 00:24:11.048 Et.