Craig Swistun: Bridging Finance and Purpose for the Nonprofit Sector

Tasha: [00:00:00] Good morning.

Tasha: Can you please introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your nonprofit origin story?

Craig: Sure. thank you for having me here, Tasha. My name is Craig Swiston and I’m a portfolio manager and I run my own boutique investment management practice called Lexicon Financial Group, and we operate under the umbrella of Raymond James Investment Council.

Craig: And with that out of the way, let me talk a little bit about why I’ve intentionally decided to position my business around working almost exclusively with nonprofits and charities. And, , it really goes back into my past when, , the early part of my professional career, the first 20 years of my career, I was working in sort of design, advertising, marketing, communications, and branding.

Craig: And we were very fortunate at that time, I’m thinking 15 years ago, that we counted a lot of nonprofit clients, as people we were working with. We were working on the communication strategies, their brand, their images, and it’s. Since then, it’s always a sector that I’ve paid attention to. It’s always a sector that I’ve been [00:01:00] involved with.

Craig: I’ve been on, volunteer boards. I’ve talked to a lot of people in the nonprofit sector, and it just seemed like it was the right thing to do that now that I’m in the money management business, that I married those two things together because what I find is that the conversations around.

Craig: Maybe we’re drifting a little more towards the charitable side, the conversations around, how do charity sustain and support their mission? Often comes back to a conversation around money and donors and philanthropy. And so working in the money management business, we’re working in that area where those two things collide.

Tasha: Absolutely. I love that. I love that. And you stuck out for me when you first joined because it is such a. Niche, specialized piece of work that you’re doing in the nonprofit space?

Craig: Yeah. Look, the reason I joined the Hive in initially was, , as soon as I heard about it, , it was obvious to me.

Craig: I think you, you built something that I had been thinking about for a long time, which is how do you create a sense of community? How do you create an environment where people [00:02:00] from the nonprofit community. From across the world could come together, meet each other, that’s great, but also learn and share best practices with each other because I guarantee you that a problem a nonprofit leader has in Chillowak BC may have been solved by somebody in, , in the uk.

Craig: Yeah. And , finding that way to put those two people together, without pressure, without the structure of having to attend a global conference. And just letting those relationships develop and those that sharing emerge, I thought that’s fantastic, and, maybe it takes a little bit longer, but the relationships that you build means those best practices, and those stories are gonna stick far more than they will, if you heard it from a main, a presenter on the main stage at a conference.

Tasha: Absolutely. I couldn’t agree more, for sure. And what’s your favorite part about being a part of, the nonprofit world?

Craig: I can answer that differently. My, my favorite part about being, involved, with the hive. And maybe this just speaks to who I am and what makes me excited is I love the randomness to it.

Craig: I love, I know [00:03:00] there’s an algorithm that’s putting people together that are, marching in similar directions. But I love just meeting different people and hearing their stories. What I love about the nonprofit sector in general is that the nonprofits, if you take a look at as an individual, if you take a look at your, the arc of your entire life, there are so many nonprofits and charitable organizations that touch us in ways that we forget about as we’re older and you wonder how boring your life would be.

Craig: Even if you’ve lived a pri privileged life, how boring it would be if there weren’t a bunch of awesome people doing amazing things. Everything from the local Business Improvement Association to the folks that put on the fireworks at Canada today. These are all nonprofits. These are people who are doing it not to make money, but because they want to build community and.

Craig: Those are the kind of people that I just, I love to learn what they do and why they do it and what motivates them. I love the fact that our lives are made better because of the work of people in the nonprofit and the charitable sector.

Tasha: Now that’s just like the [00:04:00] quote right there. I won’t even have to go searching for it.

Tasha: That’s fantastic. And very similar for myself, right? I feel so. There’s a bit of selfishness in this startup that I’ve created because I get to meet all these people, right? I didn’t know, I didn’t know people on the other side of the world and couldn’t count them as like close contacts and even friends.

Tasha: 18 months ago. I just didn’t have that. And so that’s brought so much into my life. I love it. Now you’re coming from an interesting angle for nonprofits and social impact organizations. What do you see as some of the biggest challenges that might be unique, to the work you do as well?

Craig: That’s a good question. I, there are definitely challenges to the way that. I choose to work, but I think you’re asking me what do I see as big, the biggest problems with the nonprofits and the charities, if that’s,

Craig: if I’m

Craig: reading that correct. Yeah, I think that’s an interesting one because the problems are [00:05:00] many and the solutions are varied because I think that what’s a problem for somebody, somebody else has already overcome, and so they don’t have that problem.

Craig: Which means that the problem is really the lack of community to a certain extent, and the lack of a proper sharing of information. And it doesn’t mean that just because you share information with somebody that all of a sudden they’ve given you the playbook that’s gonna answer all the questions.

Craig: But, I think what I’m hearing is that there’s a definitely a community that is looking to explore new ideas, to try and find new solutions to old problems. Let’s face it, there is, a lot of nonprofits and charities are underfunded. There’s a resourcing challenge and it becomes more and more difficult to innovate your way out if you are wearing three different hats and just trying to keep the lights on in an organization.

Craig: So I think everybody would agree that resourcing is one of the biggest challenges, and I think the lack of resources, can f force you to be more innovative. You have to innovate your way outta a problem. Yeah. , but it also can become a barrier because there are just so [00:06:00] many things that need to be done that you don’t have time to really sit back, think about your strategy and try and come up with new solutions.

Craig: So I, I think resourcing is always the number one problem. And, that’s partly why we started leaning in this sector was because if you talk about, as, Canada helps us describe, the giving gap that exists in this country. One of the ways to close it is to teach people how to become better at donating.

Craig: Donating,

Tasha: yeah.

Craig: Use the tax system to their advantage, which reduces the overall cost of their donation, which is great, but it al also allows ’em to perhaps donate even more. And the education pieces become very important to me in trying to say, how can we help those under-resourced or underfunded organizations?

Craig: Let’s just teach people how to become better donors. How do we then. Work with individuals to try and help them figure out what causes they wanna support. And this is, again, more on the charitable side. And that means sometimes , doing a little bit of homework and doing a little bit of digging, that focuses on what are the causes that motivate.

Craig: But, resourcing for sure is the short [00:07:00] answer to your question.

Tasha: No, I think , I actually love the long answer to the question because there’s a lot of nuances that you pointed out there that. Yeah, we need to find ways to lean in and to talk about how much people are giving less.

Tasha: And there’s, this idea that there’s less money to go around, but I don’t think that’s right. That’s maybe not correct and I. Nonprofits. So often the word innovation doesn’t get associated with nonprofits because innovation feels big and , it needs to be, sick kids putting together this enormous campaign where they’re doing X, y, and Z.

Tasha: Yeah. But innovation can be really small. And. Innovation can also be, Hey, this is net new to our nonprofit. But when we’ve looked out there and done some research, it’s working for other groups. And that’s been one of the cool things I’ve seen come out of the Hive conversations By A, having consultants like yourself involved, but B, putting people from different parts of the world together.

Tasha: Some other group might be doing something like, in [00:08:00] Australia that the Canadians are just. It’s out of our scope, right? It feels like it. Or there’s just not enough time to go and see, hey, would this work for my animal welfare nonprofit the same way it is working in Australia? And sometimes the answer is yes.

Tasha: Sometimes it’s no. But I think that exposure to new ideas, it does take time and energy. , and time is a resource too, right? To give to nonprofits to actually get the time to learn about new ways of. Of innovating, even if it doesn’t feel like super flashy or tech heavy or all of those things.

Craig: Yeah, and I think, as I said, you’ve, you’re filling an amazing gap with the hive, which is, , people coming together with this sense of curiosity and in a very short period of time getting to meet somebody. And then if there’s a logical follow up because you wanna learn more about each other or the work that you’re doing, you can take that step.

Craig: We’ve taken a different approach in the work that we’re doing, which is a little more structured, a little more formal interview format like this where we’re actually interviewing. Nonprofit leaders who are sharing their stories and it’s storytelling. I don’t [00:09:00] think anybody’s looking for prescriptive advice on how to solve their problem.

Craig: Maybe they are, but, people are saying, here was the challenge we had and here’s what we did to overcome it. Here were the roadblocks along the way. And if people can be inspired by those stories, that’s the change that we want to try and facilitate in, in community. And it’s people can have access to this information and learn on their own time, but.

Craig: Watching a YouTube video has become one of the ways that people are consuming this information because it can be done very easily in the quiet of your own home, or you put on the audio version of a podcast while you’re going for a walk or you’re driving in the car. Yeah. And all of a sudden now these, you can get into a, a different state where ideas can be generated and you never know what you’re gonna take back to your organization.

Craig: Yeah, based on what you’ve heard, a story from someone else, so ,very similar. I think directionally similar to what we’re doing,

Tasha: I think the sector is very generous, , with each other. When we ask, almost similar to where you’re like, you have to ask the donors, right?, if you think people are just gonna stumble their away.

Tasha: In, I think we’re all [00:10:00] super busy. Life is busy. There’s a ton of hustle culture everywhere. But I do think nonprofit leaders can be very generous to share with each other, with people who are maybe getting started. , I think there’s real opportunities, but it’s that barrier of reaching out sometimes just feels like enough.

Tasha: And of course they’re gonna be too busy for this. So we get caught up in the, in that moment of the ask.

Craig: Yeah.

Tasha: Even if you have to wait two months, that’s okay, to have the conversation. That’s okay. It’s still, I think, sometimes worth it to try,

Craig: I think. But I think asking is a challenge, and I’m gonna agree with you a hundred percent what you said, but I think asking has become a real challenge.

Craig: And it’s not a generational thing, but it, we’re certainly seeing it among younger generations who feel that maybe they don’t have, who would this person be to respond to? Little old me, right? Yeah. And the answer is. , who cares? Just ask. Yeah. You have amazing tools like LinkedIn and other tools, or just drop somebody an email saying, Hey, I’m, this is who I am, this is what I do.

Craig: I [00:11:00] do, you have 15 minutes of my time, and I be, I think you’re right. People generally are generous and will give you that time. Don’t waste that time, right? If somebody gives you 15 minutes, take 14. But be respectful. But, I think that from the people I talk to that are getting farther, faster. It comes from that place where they check their ego at the door and they just say, Hey, I need help.

Craig: Yeah, I can give, but I also need to be in a position to receive. And so you don’t receive unless you ask. So I think asking for help is something that I would encourage everybody to do, asking for, maybe it’s input or, Hey, tell me a story about how you built your organization, or how did you scale from this to this?

Craig: You’re right. Yeah. People I think generally will respond positively.

Tasha: I love this. This kind of leads right into my next question, which is around peer support. So how is peer support factored into your work? How do you see peer support being really important in nonprofit? And we started to talk and touch on this already.

Craig: I think peer support is critical. Support of any kind is critical [00:12:00] and I think that one of the cha challenges that it doesn’t matter if you’re in a for-profit business or a nonprofit business or somebody like you, Tasha, that’s in the middle of building a startup is there are times, and there are days when you look at the blank screen or the blank piece of paper and you wonder which direction you’re going and having the ability to turn to a network and say, Hey, I need some help, or I need some ideas, or I need some motivation, or I need some accountability.

Tasha: Yeah,

Craig: it can be difficult on your own. And so I think that having a group of people around you that kind of come together and support that, whether that’s a professional coach, a consultant, a friend, a neighbor, that’s important. But I think the more that you can have, I’m not a very good structured guy, but the more you can put some structure to that where it’s, every Monday this is what we’re doing, we’re having an hour conversation and we’re going over this, I think is.

Craig: It adds to your ability to get stuff done. And support from accountability standpoint, I think is critical.

Tasha: I love that. I love that. And , I think too, [00:13:00] the p the peer support piece that. I think can also be really important and I’ve noticed it over time in these hive chats, is there’s people coming in with a subject matter expertise like yourself, and there’s fundraisers and there’s marketers, and I, love marketing.

Tasha: I talk about marketing all day. That sounds, that’s my favorite thing to discuss with someone. But I think sometimes in nonprofit, that many hat syndrome, or if you’re in a small startup, you start to feel. Like you’re not that great at anything ’cause you’re doing all the things and you don’t feel like you’re doing anything all that well.

Tasha: And so we’ve had the comment come from a lot of our Hive members that they get to remind themselves that they actually often have like a zone of genius, something they’re really good at, something that they’re sharing. But if you don’t get to talk to others who are in kind of the work, the same work that you’re doing, you don’t get to.

Tasha: I guess share that or you almost forget, right? Like you’re just off the cuff doing it head down, going in the work, and it’s that moment when you take, get up and breathe and like dive into community that you go, oh. [00:14:00] This is great. I learned something and I had something to give back

Craig: as well. I’ll, let me share a quick story with you.

Craig: I was at a, an in-person event and we’re getting back to in-person events, aren’t we? And at the end of the event, somebody was introduced to me and they said, this is a person. They’ve, they’re running their own nonprofit. I thought it would be a good introduction for you.

Craig: And I started speaking with her and she described to me some of her challenges and I could see the stress she was wearing, the stress on her. On her body language and on her face. And I just said, look, you know you’re not alone.

Tasha: Yeah.

Craig: And I, and even that, you could see the big sigh of relief because everything was bottled up and it’s oh, I’m not alone.

Craig: Who else is out there that’s struggling with these things? And I was able to make some introductions for and say, you’re not alone. Everybody goes through this. You are finding, you’re at that founder stage where, I’ve put so much into this. I really believe in this and I really want this to succeed.

Craig: But. And I said, yeah, you just, you need more community. You need people around you that have not been there, that are gonna teach you how to get over the wall, [00:15:00] but just tell you that you can get over the wall. Yeah. And that relief that comes. So community can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people.

Craig: Like I said, it’s not so that somebody can give you the playbook and the prescriptive advice that’s gonna get you the next stage. Somebody that’s there to encourage you, that you can do it. You’re the one who had this idea. You’re the one with the vision, or you’re the one that’s leading this organization.

Craig: Yeah, the next steps are yours to take and you can do it. So I think community can be good just for grounding everybody who maybe we all struggle in different moments, right? Yeah. So that peer support is critical. Yeah. I love that.

Tasha: I had pulled up here that you’ve done. 39 hive chats since you joined in December of 2023.

Tasha: So you were not only one of our, in the first couple months that we were even a thing, you were part of it, but you’ve also taken, almost. A year’s worth of conversations, which is incredible and just, so thankful for that. And, appreciate all of the discussions. I know I can put you in with anybody for any talk, and people always have [00:16:00] lovely things to say about you, but what have you gotten out of being a member of the nonprofit?

Tasha: Hive

Craig: Again, it’s the sense of community, I think because I work in kind of that cold, hard cash world, right? In the money management field, you’re. We tend to surround ourselves by the things that are important. With what’s going on in the world now, there’s obviously a lot of analysis that needs to be done on the impact and the changing e economy when it comes to investor portfolios, but also the portfolios and the assets we manage for nonprofits and charities.

Craig: But. You can get very, , distant from the fact that the, there are people we’re working with Yeah. Who have hope streams and aspirations, but there are organizations that we’re working with that also have hope streams and aspirations. And you forget about those unless you talk to the people that are actually working in the mission and being connected directly to the people that are working in the cause or around it, as you said with the folks in marketing.

Craig: It just, it reminds you that why this sector is so important. Yeah, and what’s beautiful about the Hive is it reminds you about why [00:17:00] the sector is so important to us as Canadians, but to everybody around the world. And the Hive has been able to open doors connecting me with people , in Ghana and Kenya and the UK and the United States.

Craig: And so it’s truly an international audience. And what I found somewhat surprising, problems are all the same, right? The challenges are different. The how you solve that problem may be different depending on. What’s going on in your local ecosystem. But, problems are usually the same, and community is the easiest way to start to solve those problems.

Tasha: I love that. I think that’s fantastic. And yeah, I think international community, especially right now in these, in these challenge, challenging and polarizing times, nonprofit can often be the bridge in between, worlds and. Countries because we don’t have, we don’t follow exactly the same business rules entirely.

Tasha: Or we can decide to make different ways of moving forward. So I love that. Now, want to, give you an opportunity here quickly, [00:18:00] can you tell people how to find you? What’s the best way to get in touch, quick overview again, of your services.

Craig: So from a service standpoint, we provide investment management services to nonprofits and charities who are fortunate enough to have some assets that they need to manage, whether that’s some cashflow issues or whether that’s more, more like an endowment.

Craig: I think the best way to check in on us and figure out what we do and how we work is through the video and podcast series that we’ve launched called Grow for Change. There is a podcast on Spotify called Grow for Change. We have a YouTube channel. Which is a youtube.com/at lexicon fg, or on our Lexicon Financial Group website.

Craig: And for folks in the nonprofit community, that’s where you are going to be able to watch an interview with, a nonprofit leader who has overcome a significant challenge in their own organization and maybe learn from that. We try to bring in some other folks along the way that, maybe it would be more, service oriented.

Craig: So if you need help with your marketing communications, here’s what might be going wrong. And then we have conversations with folks [00:19:00] that you may be able to have, , that may be able to help you. But beyond that, I think that our overarching goal when it comes to working with nonprofits and charities is recognizing that as a financial fiduciary, which we are, and as a portfolio manager.

Craig: When we look at how are we going to manage assets because of the work we’ve done in the nonprofit sector and the time 39 chats in, hi, as an example, we have a very good understanding of the challenges faced by nonprofits, and we know that some of the solutions may be related to financial management, but usually they’re not.

Craig: It’s usually related to donor education, donor motivation, brand board, governance. These are all the types of things that we recognize and. Because of the network we’ve built. And again, credit to people like you for creating nonprofit hive. If we see somebody who has a specific challenge, we can point them in the right direction.

Craig: And say, Hey, you need to resolve your brand issues or you need to fix your communication strategies. Or you’ve now been talking for two years about updating your website, but you’ve done nothing about it. Why don’t we make a couple of introductions for you? So [00:20:00] it’s really about community and if we can help people grow community, whether they’re clients or not, I’d love to chat with anybody who just wants to say, Hey, Craig, what do you think?

Tasha: Yeah, that’s great. And I will also quickly shout out, and I’ll put some links in the, in the article and everything after the fact. But shout out for the fact that on Fridays you spotlight nonprofit organizations. So anybody who’s not already following Craig on LinkedIn, go and find him because, that’s one of my favorite things that you do out in the world because nonprofit needs cheerleaders, right?

Tasha: They need the supports and they need all of those different skill sets they may not have in-house. But they also just need cheerleaders who believe in them. It makes a difference. Yeah.

Craig: We, and now just to thank you for that and if, yeah, people are interested. I do post every Friday about a nonprofit or charity that I’ve encountered that means something to me.

Craig: And, they tend to be the smaller organizations because I think the smaller organizations do get lost. But it does highlight, again, from a person living in this planet that there are a lot of organizations [00:21:00] that influence us. And quite honestly, excuse me, quite honestly. As we grow and as we age, sometimes we forget about them.

Craig: So it’s nice to reflect back and say, Hey, you know what? That organization played a role in my development when I was eight years old. I wouldn’t be where I am today without, if it weren’t for those people, that group or that organization. It’s fun for me to do. I like highlighting it, but I also encourage everybody just to think back through your own life and what are those nonprofit causes and those charitable causes that.

Craig: Made you who you are today because I guarantee you, once you do that kind of reflection, you’ll come up with a few that you’ve forgotten about.

Tasha: 100%. And I think anyone who tells me they’ve never dealt with a nonprofit before, I’m like, but you probably have. They’re just everywhere.

Tasha: And it’s sometimes like that glos shattering moment to realize how deeply they’re embedded into society at large and how quickly many people just gloss over, the work that nonprofits doing. But thank you so much for doing this with me, Craig. And thank you for just being such a long time supporter of the work we’re doing.

Craig: [00:22:00] My pleasure. And I’m gonna continue to support you as long as you continue to. Bringing awesome people together.