Customer story
I run a nonprofit three days a week. On August 28th I hired a whole team. By five o'clock that afternoon, I was done with everything.
Chapter one
I'm Maralea Norden, CEO and Executive Director of the Home Economy Project.
I get three days a week for the nonprofit. The rest of my team is three part-time volunteers. Every single thing that had to get done landed on my desk, and there was nobody to hand it to.
Before
4 AM
until
7 PM
Fifteen, sixteen hour days. I was frustrated. I was exhausted.
And I wasn't having dinner with my family on a regular basis.
Chapter two
He said it gave him a team of people backing him up. I used to be in real estate, so I went and looked. First thing I thought: this is really affordable.
Second thing I thought was less generous. I've been onboarded for everything in my life. As a realtor it always took two solid days to be completely onboarded.
I downloaded this thing, and bada bing. It was done. The whole team showed up.
How long it actually took
2 minutes
Eva was first. She asked me to onboard her, so I clicked. Three questions, maybe two minutes, and she understood what I do and how she could help.
30 minutes
In half an hour I had onboarded every single one I knew I needed. It was quick. It was easy. Nobody had to teach me anything.
2 hours
And then they were all working. Doing things for me. In less than two hours from the moment I downloaded it.
Chapter three
And this is day one. I wasn't on social media at all. I didn't go looking for anybody.
Social media
Five posts written, designed, scheduled
We don't use photographic imagery — we can't use the faces of the people we're trying to help, we don't have those permissions. So he made cartoon-style imagery inside our branding instead. Five posts ready to go was unbelievable.
Lead generation
Running in the background on LinkedIn
Searching for potential board members, prospective volunteers and potential donors. Introducing us to people who could help us out, while I did something else.
SEO & blog
Three blog posts, written and posted
I gave her the ideas and the imagery. She wrote the posts around them. All I had to do was read them, edit what needed editing, and approve.
One honest note: our website was already built, so publishing the blogs took a couple of workarounds — Penny told me what they were. If you haven't built your site yet, let Walter do it, and the blog just runs.
Four AM was just my regular start. That part I kept. The seven-in-the-evening part I didn't.
Chapter four
Linda isn't a lawyer, and she doesn't give legal advice — she'll tell you that herself. What she does is write the documents a four-person nonprofit can never afford to have written.
Participant agreements, so the people in our programs know exactly what they're receiving and what their responsibilities are. Volunteer agreements and waiver forms, so our volunteers know what they can and can't take part in.
And partnership agreements. In nonprofit we call it an MOU, a Memorandum of Understanding. Partnerships are always a series of negotiations, but once we're through them, she writes it up so every partner knows their piece. That's been fantastic.
Which loosens up my time to do what I'm actually supposed to be doing: finding funds. Looking at grants. Writing proposals. Connecting with partners. Having the meetings, making the calls.
It doesn't mean I work fewer hours. Sometimes I do, which has been great. It means I have more hours for the things I actually need to be focused on.
Chapter five
My day job is urban farming. I put the second team on social media, to drive more humans in my community to my farmer's market booth and to my inbox.
People are answering me on Messenger now, asking what produce we have this week. That never happened before. Never.
I now have a real team backing me up and freeing up my time.
Capacity. That's the big word for me right now. I needed more support, and more time in my day. This gave it to me.
Maralea Norden
CEO & Executive Director, The Home Economy Project
Maralea's results are her own — a three-day work week at a four-person nonprofit. Your team, your numbers.