Increasing Awareness for Veteran Rehabilitation with Ryan Sawtelle, Executive Director of the White Heart Foundation
There’s one thing we can all agree on; our veterans need to be taken care of.
Welcome to the special sixth episode of Nonprofit Connect, hosted by me, Matt Barnes, and brought to you by Rogue Creatives!
In this episode, I’m joined by Ryan Sawtelle, Executive Director of the White Heart Foundation, a nonprofit organization committed to serving the needs of our post-9/11 injured warriors by providing them with life-enhancing equipment and services. He is also the Executive Director of the Butch Walker Foundation and has also been an actor for the last twenty years. Ryan’s awards and honors include 2017 Citizen of the Year, issued by the Malibu Times, and being named in Pepperdine University’s ’40 under 40 Alumni’ in 2016.
The Incomparable Experience of a Veteran
Usually at the beginning of these blogs, I might ask you to imagine you’re in a certain situation; to put yourself in the shoes of some character I’ve made up and guide you through the story so that you can feel like you’re there. But given the nature of this episode, there’s no real way I can ask you to imagine you are a veteran because I myself have no idea what it’s like.
All I can ask of you is to imagine what it’s like to feel isolated, used, and tossed to the side. We’ve all been injured both mentally and physically, and we’ve no doubt felt the sting of neglect.
Take that feeling and imagine that it’s been emphasized and inflamed to over a hundred times what it used to be. That’s what it’s like to be a veteran. They’ve risked their lives, seen things that you couldn’t possibly imagine, and some have been terribly injured, only for them to return home to their country and be swept to the side like litter on the road.
“It seems like this issue is a bipartisan thing,” says Ryan. “Both the left and the right, and whoever else, they all believe that if we’re going to send our military personnel into battle, we should take care of them either when they get home or retire. I think everyone would be for that. The only thing I can think of is, once they agree to fund that and once they get the funding that they need, they can no longer be a political football for any kind of bills and funding.”
Our Veterans Are Not Political Footballs
The White Heart Foundation is Ryan Sawtelle’s baby. It’s something he’s incredibly passionate about, and yet barely anyone knows about it. They’re doing incredible work to better veterans’ mental and physical health, sending them to ecotherapy retreats and taking care of their healthcare expenses; it’s all work that needs to be celebrated and should be done by the government, not them!
So, why is that? Why aren’t they recognized as much as they should be? Well, as is the case with most nonprofits, the answer lies within the marketing side of things.
A lot of people forget that charities need funding not just directly for the cause, but indirectly for marketing and paying people. It’s often a challenge to convince donors of this; how do you convince them that it would be a long-term investment? Change takes a while, but donors, understandably, want to see that change right away. Ultimately, the money that goes into marketing will conjure up more donations, support, and awareness about the charity.
“I have sent out emails to some of our bigger donors, [and] I was on a podcast a few years ago, but they’d never even heard of us,” admits Ryan. “This was the first time they’d heard of us. I said, ‘This is the problem, we’ve been around for so many years, and you still haven’t heard of us,” and it’s because we don’t have marketing dollars. I am doing what the donors are asking us to do. If no one’s giving towards marketing, we’re not spending it on marketing.”
Listen to the Whole Episode!
And once again, there you have it, one of the best things you’ll ever read in your entire gosh darn life.
If you want to support the White Heart Foundation, head on over to their website.
Listen to the full episode of Nonprofit Connect! Or better yet, connect with Rogue Creatives directly to see how we can improve your nonprofit’s story to raise more revenue.