Episode notes:

• Follow Stacy on LinkedIn

• Learn more about SixDegrees.org 

• Hear Kevin Bacon talk about The Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game

• Look back on SixDegrees’ Convener Campaign from 2020

• Learn more about the Degree Shift program 

• Check out how SixDegrees.org celebrated Footloose turning 40

• Learn more about Rock to the Future 

• See the inspiration for Ruth’s Room

• Check out the Purpose, Produced campaign 

• Listen to the Six Degrees with Kevin Bacon podcast

Transcript:

This transcript was automatically generated.

Just like small business is is the heartbeat of this country. These small nonprofits are, and they're really filling the gap more more now than ever before in terms of all the funding that we're seeing pulled back. I mean, these organizations are really going to have to step in in a major way if they can find the funding and if they can find the eyeballs. You know, and they're they're competing with the same, you know, branding efforts as Coca Cola.

The Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon is the original meme. It's a precursor to the internet culture that would eventually take over the discourse.

If you haven't heard of it, The Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon is a game in which you try to connect any actor to Kevin Bacon within six steps.

It's a party trick three guys came up with in the mid-90s after watching a couple of Kevin Bacon movies. Like any great spontaneous actor pop culture, this one can teach us a lot about ourselves. Because at the heart of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon is the idea that we are all more interconnected than it seems at first glance.

Whether he wanted to or not, Kevin has become a symbol for that interconnectedness.

And I think a big part of the reason the game has had such staying power is because, as a society, we need an easy way to digest these big, unwieldy ideas about humanity.

We need it to be familiar and a little bit playful.

Though Kevin himself was ambivalent about the game at first, he's come to embrace it. In fact, he's built his nonprofit, six Degrees dot org, around this very idea.

Six Degrees is an organization focused on storytelling and strengthening nonprofits.

They understand the necessity and power of connection to make things happen, and they're intentional about how they use their story to amplify others.

Welcome to Impact Audio. I'm your host, Sam Caplan, vice president of social impact at Submittable.

Today, I sit down with Stacy Houston, executive director of Six Degrees. She shares how the organization builds partnerships and supports nonprofits while centering the community's voice. She also gives us a behind the scenes look at how storytelling powers some of the most impactful Six Degrees programs.

So, Stacy, welcome to the podcast. Super excited, stoked to have you onboard today.

Oh, absolutely. Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited as well.

Cool. So let's start off with just a little bit of an introduction, Stacy. So tell us a little bit about who you are and the work you do and, what Six Degrees is all about.

Yeah. I'm Stacy Houston. I'm the executive director here at Six Degrees. I've been leading the organization for about nine years, and our organization is really based around this phenomenon of the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon theory, this idea that he was connected to every other Hollywood actor at Six Degrees or less. And he got to a certain point in his life where he wanted to get back and do a little bit more. He'd found a lot of great success and thought, well, what do I have that, you know, makes me unique? And lo and behold, it was this this idea that he couldn't shake from pop culture and decided to take it and turn it on its head a little bit and build it into this really a social experiment is how it started.

But really at our core, we believe in human connection that people don't just want connection. They actually need it to survive and thrive and lead meaningful lives. So the work that we really do is at the intersection of storytelling, you know, grassroots support and community building. And so, my experience, in this role, previously, I should say, is that, you know, I I spent a whole career in business and sales, marketing, and never thought that the nonprofit life was for me, until I also kind of had that that pivot moment in my life where I was doing a lot of really great things, but it was leaving me a little bit empty.

And so I had been volunteering and sitting on boards, and I decided to take all of, you know, the the passion that I had for making the world a little bit better and, had this opportunity present itself to me, and and I jumped and, have been here ever since. So we have a lot of fun through media campaigns, building a lot of creative collaborations. Six Degrees is really a nonprofit for other nonprofits. So we're focused on those nonprofits that are under resourced, which is, you know, the vast majority of them.

And how do we amplify them? How do we get their their voices and their work to a wider audience so that they can increase their impact? And we do that through a variety of ways.

Stacy and her team focus on projects that leverage 6Degree's ability to craft a story and their powerful network, which helps them spread their message. Their most successful programs tap into both of these strengths.

I would say, one of the projects I'm most proud of is a commuter campaign that we put together in twenty twenty, and that was really at the the height of COVID. It just kind of kicked off and everyone was kind of freaking out and we didn't know what to do. And there was this call for all of us, you know, around the world to stay home.

And so, we created the hashtag I stay home for campaign.

Kevin launched it, kind of tagged a few celebrity friends to share.

Why are you staying home and really putting the focus on, it's not for you, it's for someone else. Right?

If you're healthy and well, you're not staying home for you. You're staying home for that loved one that might be immunocompromised or elderly or have some other risk factors.

And that campaign, took off like something we obviously couldn't even believe, and it went global, very fast. It ended up being the most used hashtag of all of twenty twenty.

Something, over two billion impressions, one point two million posts.

We won a a Webby award and a Telly award, and it was it was incredible, and it was a lot of recognition. But it got us starting to think about these convener campaigns, how we can pull together not just individuals, but organizations in a shared umbrella to amplify the shared work that they're doing together. Because we actually are very, very big believers that you can't solve any issue, with just one organization or one philanthropist that's writing a check. It takes a collective effort. And so that really, you know, helped us to create this program we call Degree Shift, which is our communeor campaign.

And we're in one right now in the month of May.

It's called Hashtag I Get It. And we brought together fourteen different nonprofits around the country focusing on mental health awareness, and they are sharing posts. And individuals are sharing posts and stars are sharing posts about what they do to reset and recharge. And then they're tagging nonprofits or other resources in the mental health space that, they really want to help amplify.

And the goal is to just flood the feed with resources because often when you're struggling with anything that has to do with mental health, you may not be looking for it. You may not know where to go. So we're saying instead of doom scrolling, let's have it come to you. Let's, you know, have it be found right there.

And then the other campaign that we're really, really proud of, which is the building kids campaign that we launched, alongside Footloose turning forty. So we like to find these fun kind of milestone moments. And Footloose was a big milestone, one that Kevin probably wanted to, like, hide from. I joke that I also turned forty the same year as Footloose.

That's great. I'm sure Kevin appreciated that.

Oh, yeah. He really appreciated it.

And so we said, let's full let's build forty thousand essential resource kits. Sounded like a like a good, you know, number to hit. It was a massive undertaking, because essentially we were creating a direct service program, but we were doing it by partnering with nonprofits on the ground in these communities around the country. And so we would travel around and get corporate partners and brand partners to to donate or to give product.

And we would build these, resource kits that a lot of time had hygiene items with other items of care and just meaning to these different communities. And every kit looked different because we would find the nonprofits, and we would say, well, what do you need? What's the thing that we can help you with? Which I'm telling you, sounds a little that's hard.

Right? That's kind of why you see a lot of waste with, you know, people just giving things without really asking because it's hard to say, what do you need? And then supply exactly what that person says. Yeah.

But we ended up hitting all fifty states. We finished in March. The last state was South Dakota, and we were able to partner with our friends in North Dakota that we had done a campaign with earlier in the year.

And they said we have some we know some friends there we can we can get those resources on the ground. And so yeah, we ended up getting these forty thousand kits and massive effort. But a lot of stories came out of that. You know, it was what was happening when we were building the kids side by side and communities were coming together and we were what we were learning about each other. And, yeah, that's really where the magic happens in these events, like getting people in person, eye to eye, sharing stories, sharing themselves, and just getting back into community.

Yeah. And there's something so gratifying about building something or creating something or doing something that you know is having this real world impact on another human being. Right? So, you know, lots of people can write a check or, you know, make a large grant to an organization, and that's super important and it matters. But when you actually, like, construct something with your own hands or a volunteer or get involved and you do something that's actually helping, you know, someone in your community, like, there's just something so, like, emotionally gratifying and, and really important about that sort of activity.

Yeah. I think it it takes it from an abstract data point to the real life. You said it right. Like, the empathy factor that is really necessary in getting to move the dial.

One of the things that we included in every single kit was a handwritten note.

And so we would talk about prior to starting to build any kits. We would have the nonprofits that we were serving there, and they would get to share a few words. And they would and they would share, like, this isn't just a comb that you're putting in this kit. This is dignity. Like, this isn't just a toothbrush and toothpaste. Like, this is confidence for me to show up on Monday morning and and maybe get that job.

And I mean, I still get goosebumps kind of thinking about how some of these organizations really brought these products to life for the people that were building them. And we would see the notes took the longest, and that was really the hardest part because I was like, Oh, we have to write these notes quicker. But people would be like, I really want this person that gets this kit to see that they are loved and they're cared for and there's someone on the other side that's thinking of them.

And so we really try to find those ways to create that deeper connection point with all of our activations So we find that's when it really sticks with someone.

Yeah. I I love this conversation. I think it's just so important.

You know, oftentimes when we talk about, like, philanthropy and social impact, like, the actual, like, connection between people tends to get lost or abstracted a little bit because we talk so much about dollars and number of hours volunteered and and sort of, like, all those great big metrics. But at the end of the day, it really is about, like, individuals connecting together. Like, that's how the world gets made a better place is when you, like, start with one individual person. So I so super love that, you know, this is the focus of six Degrees, in terms of all of that connection.

I'd also love to hear you talk a little bit about the nonprofits that you work with. Like, in our prior conversation, you had mentioned that a lot of the nonprofits are really pretty small, like an annual budget of two to three million dollars or so. And that sounds like a big number, but when it comes to running a nonprofit organization, like, three million dollars isn't a lot of money. And so and I think that you're helping a lot of smaller organizations. Like, can you talk a little bit about, like, who it is that you're working directly with and, you know, maybe, like, some of the impact that, that Six Degrees is generating with those organizations?

Yeah. Absolutely. So, you're absolutely right. It might sound big. Right? Two to three million dollars.

A lot of them are have a much smaller budget. But what you're talking about is we have an organization that we've worked with several times. There's an example. It's called Rock to the Future, and it's in Philadelphia.

And they serve after school programs to keep kids in safe environments in a city that's really riddled with a lot of gun violence and, and crime. And it's hard. And they teach them music. And I mean, like the fun music, you know, they put them into rock bands, they make them feel like the next rock star. And these young people, I mean, they like, they just, we, we basically recorded conversations with these young people and, and what we heard from them were, it's not just about the music. Like they asked me about my family, they asked me about my homework.

Like, I feel like this is this is home. And this organization was operating at, when we first started working with about eight hundred thousand, and they had ten employees.

And, I mean, you're talking about ten employees, eight hundred thousand plus all the overhead they're operating in all of these schools.

We started working with them. We did a music video. We invited six of their students to participate in it alongside the Bacon Brothers, which is Kevin's band with his brother, Michael.

Six Degrees produced it. We then produced a behind the scenes of the whole day. That's when we interviewed the executive director of that organization and some of the other employees. We used local music studio that is, you know, mom and pop shop in Philadelphia. We we hired all local teams. All of that is really important to us when we're doing storytelling is really trying to get as local as possible.

And we told this story. And from there, they ended up getting a grant from Taylor Swift. They were invited on the Kelly Clarkson show.

They have expanded.

And then just a couple months ago, we opened up our very first initiative called Roost's Room alongside them in the Philadelphia Juvenile Justice Center.

And so that's a an example of how we've taken kind of one entry point in working with an organization. And because of our flexibility, we've said, how else can we help? Like, how else can we integrate with the work that you're doing, amplify it, leverage our connections or a platform to get someone to, amplify you as well, support you financially.

The roost room is a space that is, is serving some two hundred, young people that are spending time in the juvenile service center there in Philadelphia.

Really connecting with them. And what the beautiful thing is that once they are released, they are able to go into school programs with the same adult. So there's a continuum of care that's happening there. So we, we've seen kind of this organization grow and flourish. And so that's that's our hope is that we start working with these organizations that maybe they're they're half a million dollars. Right?

But that we can help them with these different storytelling components, help them with different reach and expanding so that they can get over that three million dollar budget mark and continue to grow and and be able to afford some of the marketing pieces that I think are really necessary.

So the thing with with storytelling is, like, that's essentially what it is. It's it's marketing. But, you know, little nonprofits are like, we can't afford money on a communications person or a marketing person or someone help us with media. Like, we're head down, like, we're in the work.

You know, we're working with organizations that are like, you know, helping to support LGBTQ youth that are unhoused. Right? Like this is something that's like super high risk and and they're either minors and they're trying to figure out these mechanisms. They don't fall through the cracks and and we're like, hey, you know, you should do this social media campaign.

They're like, we have no time for that, you know? So we like to come in as a way to say, listen, we're going to create these frameworks for you. We're going to make it a pretty easy lift. Right?

There are some things that you're gonna have to do because this is your your voice and we want to make sure you're centered and you're it's collaborative and we're not the experts in this work. You're the experts in this work.

But, you know, we think it's really important to highlight these smaller organizations because that's the heartbeat. Just like small business is the heartbeat of this country, these small nonprofits are, and they're really filling the gap more now than ever before in terms of all the funding that we're seeing pulled back. I mean, these organizations are really going to have to step in in a major way if they can find the funding and if they can find the eyeballs.

And they're competing with the same branding efforts as Coca Cola.

You're right? You know, it's like it's it's the same it's the same amount of attention, but but they don't have those resources. So being creative and finding ways that we can build these collaborative opportunities, I think, are are really critical.

Stacy calls out a really important thing here. Nonprofits are competing in the attention economy in a similar way that big brands are. And they don't have nearly the same resources to create and deliver content that cuts through the noise.

This is one spot six degrees is stepping up to help. Their current campaign with Advertising Week is meant to close this gap a bit by giving nonprofits the opportunity to work with well known ad agencies.

We are so, so excited, for this campaign mainly because what we've been talking about a lot even today, Sam, is that nonprofits have some of the most impactful stories.

But if no one sees it, then no one's gonna feel it. Then how are they gonna get people to support it? Right? So this partnership with Advertising Week, came out of this vision I had to say, listen, All of the ad agencies, you know, transcend upon, New York, one time a year, and they are there all week long, some of the the brightest and most creative minds in advertising.

And they have a lot of tools at their, you know, disposal. And then there's these nonprofits that are doing critical work, and they have no way of accessing this. Right? And so we said, what if we create a campaign where we found six of your top tier advertising agencies that, are making, you know, things for all these major brands, right, billion dollar brands. And we brought that to the doorstep of six community local nonprofits around the country and gave them a chance to have a real kind of national campaign effort, you know, full PSA, some print and other types of marketing collaterals and tools to really get their story out to wider audiences.

Advertising Week was really excited about it. They said, you know, this is what we care about. How else can we show up? What creative ways can we leverage our community and our networks? And so we, launched it at the end of April. We're gonna be, selecting the nonprofits. It's open application, and then we'll be pairing them the very beginning of June with six of these advertising agencies, and they'll work with them over a three month period until they finalize the project right before advertising week in in October.

And then these videos will be released and, pushed out both in the in the digital world, but also, you know, you'll see things in billboards and, on buses and and other places as well. So we're just we're really, really excited about this because it's just something that doesn't happen.

And it's really gonna help humanize the work that these organizations are doing, bring them to the masses and and really drive, I'm hoping, another conversation, which is if you're a business, what what core skill do you have that can help support some local nonprofits in your own community? Right? And I think that oftentimes corporate are looking you know, nonprofits go to corporate for sponsorships for events, and that's all well and good and those sorts of things. But, like, if this is an accounting firm, like, can they help them in this way? If they're a graphic design firm, can you sponsor us and and do our website and help us with some of our collateral and and the things that we have? This is I I hope it opens up a bigger conversation about how we really can leverage these tools and work more in in unison. Because if our communities are healthy, you know, companies are gonna thrive as well.These are competing priorities. They really are very much interlinked.Yeah. Like, you know, in employee in the world of employee engagement, we talk about skills based volunteering a lot, which is a very similar concept of, like, how do I take my unique skills and work with a nonprofit organization to to take advantage of that? How can I make the greatest personal impact, you know, with my own volunteering or my own work? And so I'm super excited to hear that, you know, these, like, incredible advertising agencies. Can you imagine if you're a small nonprofit organization and you suddenly have the opportunity to, like, have one of these, you know, world class advertising agencies help build a campaign for your organization, like, I mean, that's gonna be, like, a once in a lifetime opportunity for some of these nonprofits.A hundred percent. You know, creativity has really shaped culture. And so now we're gonna be including these change makers in who are reshaping lives. And I think that's a really powerful marriage.So we're hoping that it's just the first of many opportunities that we can bring these kind of creative strategies to mainstream and and see what we can do around creating more of this purpose driven campaign work.Campaigns like the one with Advertising Week don't happen without strong partnerships.Stacy has helped build relationships with nonprofits and corporate partners. I was curious what she saw as the key to making those partnerships work well.So, Stacy, you have talked about how you work with corporations and you help to connect them to these nonprofit organizations. Like, how does all of this come to come to be? So, you know, if you're a nonprofit and you're you're looking to, to find these corporate partners or you're wanting to work with an organization, like six Degrees to help amplify your story? Like, how does that all how does that all work?Yeah. Absolutely. So, because I said I come from a business development sales background, I approach things a lot differently than I think traditional maybe fundraisers do.And I really implore people at the nonprofit space to start thinking about themselves as a strategic partner.I think often we come to corporate partners and it's like, if you give us this gift, you will be able to increase this impact for our population in this type of way, which is all well and good. And if you are talking to the right person, it could really move the heart strings. Absolutely.But there's this real thing that's happening where you also need to think about the business and what's in it for them. And is there advertising, marketing? Like, how is it going to help tell their story and connect with consumers about the things that they care about?And so I say, instead of sitting across the table, move to the other side next to them and be a strategic partner. Okay. If this is your goal to increase employee engagement or satisfaction or, you know, increase retention and those sorts of things, then how can we as an organization partner with you on that in a way that makes sense for us and feels really good for us and it helps with the goals that we have, but it also helps you?So I always say, you know, you don't wanna just chase logos.You really want to find, organizations that have, like, a shared mission and and value around what you are doing. And when you have that, then it's gonna be easier to figure out what the mechanism is for that partnership.But they're I think now more than ever, organizations are kind of looking for storytelling. They're looking for how they can support, these kind of out of the box kind of concepts and and tell a story of how they're showing up in their community and helping these organizations because the dollar signs show that people are willing to spend more money on products and services from organizations that they feel share their values.And so I think as we continue to see that theme, it's a good way to come in as a partner to say, Hey, I think I can help you solve this issue and do something that deepens your employee satisfaction and your consumer support. And also, you're gonna do this amazing thing over here and help us.And and it's a win win all the way around.I've got a kid in college right now, and getting an inside glimpse into how Gen z thinks about social impact has taught me a lot about how corporations, in particular, can court this up and coming generation.Six Degrees is positioned well to be a strategic partner for businesses that want to evolve CSR to be more compelling for young people while still offering everyone a way to engage.Okay. So my kid, who is twenty one years old, if he were working at a corporation that was getting involved with with six degrees and, you know, there was, like, a celebrity aspect to it and an influencer aspect to it. Like, that would be a much more engaging thing for this Gen Z er, you know, than than a lot of other types of traditional CSR based work. Like, it just feels like there's something there that, you know, done correctly, like corporations and celebrities and organizations like yours can all come together and and create this really positive situation that benefits, you know, corporations and nonprofit organizations, you know, and everybody in between, like, in a way that hasn't been done before.Absolutely.You're I mean, you're really nailing it. And, you know, people buy from people. They don't just buy a product. Right? They In the same way, like, employees respond to, like, the human aspects of the work that they do, right? The impact. And I do think Gen Zers at a much grander scale are thinking about, like, these sorts of things, humanity and the impact on the environment or in society.And to be able to say, like, there is a tieback to some of their work, even occasionally quarterly once a year, then where they can really be proud that they were part of something and there is a little bit of razzle dazzle, then I I think it does go a long way.It's just about making sure you're in that kind of right partnership and and knowing that, you know, it should go both ways. It should be a strategic partnership. It shouldn't be just, we'll give you this check and that's it. Wipe our hands up it. Then you're really missing a a key opportunity to inspire your teams and get them involved in a greater way and to really stand out. So, yeah, I think that there's still a lot of great opportunity out there that's untapped.I think that six Degrees is laying out an example other organizations can emulate. I'd love to see more funders put their focus into building true partnerships and filling the resource gaps beyond just writing checks. Plus, in this moment, we can use all the reminders we can get about how interconnected we all are. So thanks to Kevin Bacon and the Six Degrees team for continuing to champion that particular message.If you want to hear more from them, be sure to check out their podcast, Six Degrees with Kevin Bacon. They talk about big issues with big name guests like Laverne Cox and Eli Manning.That's all for me today. Thanks for tuning in to Impact Audio, produced by your friends at Submittable. Until next time.Return to playhead