Month: April 2024

At NVIDIA, giving back is a big part of the company’s culture. Through their Inspire 365 initiative, NVIDIA empowers employees like Jason Black to turn their passion for giving back into action. Jason, a robotics content marketing lead, is a huge advocate for volunteering and a community engagement champion.

For the past three years, NVIDIA has collaborated with Common Impact to provide employees with volunteer opportunities that incorporate their professional skills. These initiatives, ranging from short-term consulting events to nonprofit board service, allow NVIDIA employees to leverage their expertise for the greater good. For Jason, it’s a chance to use his marketing and communication prowess to amplify the impact of organizations making a difference in the world.

In this volunteer spotlight, we delve into Jason’s journey as a volunteer, exploring how he’s combining his professional skills with his passion for giving back through recent skills-based volunteering with AI4ALL, a nonprofit on a mission to make AI careers more accessible to underrepresented and diverse undergrad students through its open curriculum learning, program alum network, and accelerator program AI4ALL Ignite.

While financial contributions are undoubtedly important, there’s a profound transformation when you realize you can use your skills and expertise directly to enhance the capabilities of a nonprofit organization. 

Tell us about yourself and why volunteering and giving back matters to you. 

As part of the robotics division at NVIDIA, I enjoy contributing to our team’s content marketing endeavors. Before this, I served as a communications director for a nonprofit called Community Renewal Team in Hartford, Connecticut, where I dedicated four fulfilling years of my career.

My work with that organization solidified my passion and commitment to finding ways to help others in need. While financial contributions are undoubtedly important, there’s a profound transformation when you realize you can use your skills and expertise directly to enhance the capabilities of a nonprofit organization. It’s gratifying to know that my efforts empower these organizations to amplify their impact and better serve their communities.

What is it about your role as Content Marketing Lead for Robotics at NVIDIA that lights up your passion for your work?

My job at NVIDIA gives me a front-row seat to the latest technological innovations that will truly change the world as we know it. Seeing how my coworkers develop new technologies and products, particularly in the robotics group, blows me away nearly daily. I am surrounded – virtually – by very talented and creative individuals eager to find new ways to use robotics in every possible industry and scenario, and they are doing things that even just a few years ago would have been the stuff of science fiction. I enjoy diving into real-world stories of how robotics technology is evolving to enhance safety and elevate the human experience in various fields like factories, healthcare, and retail. Crafting content around these groundbreaking innovations is exciting!

What motivated you to volunteer when you first heard about the skills-based volunteering opportunity with NVIDIA and Common Impact? What do you enjoy about the skills-based volunteering programs?

I’ve been lucky to dive into skills-based volunteering four times now! It’s a great way to spend my time in the ease of my home office. Common Impact staff matched me to projects aligned with my background and experience each time.

During my recent skills-based volunteering experience with Common Impact, I eagerly embraced the chance to take on the team lead role, especially considering AI4ALL’s marketing-related challenge. With previous volunteering engagements under my belt, I felt well-prepared to guide my team through the project with confidence. Being team lead meant I was in charge of keeping the volunteer group on track and leading the project to completion. I enjoyed that opportunity. I got to work with a great group of employees from NVIDIA, including a few people I already knew from other project work inside the company and several new people I had not worked with before. Everyone came together and put their hearts and minds into coming up with solutions for AI4ALL’s challenges. We came up with some very creative ideas for AI4ALL to consider and implement!

Recently, your volunteer team reviewed AI4ALL’s online presence and suggested ways to boost engagement on social media. Additionally, your team advised on how AI4ALL can recruit for their upcoming fall cohort.

What was AI4ALL’s business challenge? 

For the last few years, AI4ALL’s programs have relied on university partnerships for student recruitment – the university promotes the program and encourages students to apply. Through this process, AI4ALL has less control over how the program is communicated and on what timeline.

They are currently recruiting for their Spring cohort of AI4ALL Ignite and are using social media platforms such as LinkedIn and Instagram to engage their target demographic—18 to 24-year-olds primed for AI careers but experiencing strategy challenges. Looking ahead to their Fall session, AI4ALL wants a stronger recruitment strategy that leverages their digital platforms and successfully attracts more students to apply for the AI4ALL Ignite program. My volunteer team reviewed AI4ALL’s digital presence across social platforms and identified opportunities to improve traction with their target audience: Gen Z.

What solutions did your team come up with?

We put together a mini-marketing plan for AI4ALL that included recommendations to connect with more of their target audience using tactics such as social media, influencers, advertising, and outreach at colleges and universities through their career departments and student newsletters. Our team identified ways AI4ALL could connect with Gen Z audiences to recruit for their programs. We recommended meeting them where they hang out online like TikTok, Instagram, and LinkedIn. As of the time of the volunteer engagement, AI4ALL was not regularly using TikTok, yet 71% of TikTok users are Gen Z.

We also recommended that AI4ALL enhance existing channels, such as their student newsletter. Lastly, we suggested leveraging program alumni as brand ambassadors and expanding outreach to supportive individuals in academia who can advocate for the program.

What do you hope the impact will be? 

I’m optimistic that AI4ALL will embrace these recommendations and incorporate them into their future recruiting strategies for their program. They have great potential to connect with Gen Z audiences by leveraging the social media platforms where this demographic is most active.

What skills did you leverage to help AI4ALL? 

Having spent over 25 years in marketing and communications in both for-profit and nonprofit sectors, I was excited to contribute to the AI4ALL project. It felt great to share my expertise and develop ideas tailored to their needs.

While I brought my expertise, it was inspiring to see some of my teammates, who were new to volunteering and didn’t have a marketing background, learn and grow during the project. Guiding the team through this volunteering project was fulfilling, and each person brought their own unique perspective, which was invaluable to the overall project. It allowed us to tap into diverse expertise to develop a comprehensive plan that AI4ALL can begin implementing.

What was your favorite part of this event? What stuck with you after this experience?

My favorite part of this event was working in a team with different backgrounds and talents. Everyone brought a unique perspective to the project, and since only a few of us had a marketing background, we were getting many out-of-the-box ideas.

What stuck with me about the experience was how we accomplished so much in a short amount of time. We gave AI4ALL a complete list of actionable ideas they could implement immediately. Plus, it solidified my opinion that skills-based volunteering opportunities are worthwhile and practical – I look forward to signing up for another one later this year!

For more social impact content like this, follow us on LinkedIn and sign-up for our monthly newsletter. Ready to learn more about skills-based volunteering? Reach out.

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About Common Impact 

Common Impact is a national nonprofit that fosters meaningful partnerships between purpose-driven Fortune 500 companies and nonprofits worldwide to propel social good. Since 2000, Common Impact has generated over 205,000 hours of skills-based volunteering and $40 million in resources. Common Impact is dedicated to helping nonprofits expand their capacity, improve efficiency, and deliver on their mission with customized and impactful projects through corporate partnerships. Learn more about Common Impact’s services, impact, and clients.

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Media Contact

Elizabeth Cross, Obviouslee Marketing 
common-impact@obviouslee.com

Retail businesses need online sales in order to succeed in today’s competitive market. But smaller businesses, especially those owned by women and people of color, often lack the resources or technical know-how to really make a splash in e-commerce. FedEx and nonprofit Accion Opportunity Fund teamed up to help change that through the FedEx E-Commerce Learning Lab, a philanthropic program aimed at bolstering the abilities of business owners in key e-commerce areas so their businesses can grow and thrive.

The Learning Lab would not be possible without implementing partner 37 Oaks, a social enterprise founded by Terrand Smith. Terrand and her team have brought a best-in-class learning experience to more than 300 FedEx E-Commerce Learning Lab graduates so far. How does she do it? Read on to learn more.

What does 37 Oaks do to support underserved small business owners?

37 Oaks is a commerce development and learning laboratory that educates and prepares business owners for growth through e-commerce, wholesale, storefronts, and pop-up markets. Since 2016, we have guided underserved entrepreneurs into growth through our 37 Oaks University Courses, 1:1 and group coaching, content, business support services, and welcoming community around like-minded business owners.

What inspired you to start 37 Oaks?

For over a decade, I was a national buyer for some of the largest retailers in the US. In that role, I worked with national and local brands that wanted to get their products in the stores or on the e-commerce sites of those retailers. The larger brands had budgets, resources, departments, and experience to get the most out of these opportunities. The smaller brands were where the innovation started, but if they did not have the commerce, retail, and distribution acumen needed to be successful in these spaces, often this growth opportunity would do more harm to their business than help it. With all of my experience in retail, e-commerce, strategy, and operations, I knew I had a good foundation to help them take their product-based business to the next level.

What is the purpose of the FedEx E-Commerce Learning Lab collaboration between FedEx, Accion Opportunity Fund, and 37 Oaks?

This program offers a robust curriculum that strengthens the strategies and improves the operations of women and minority-owned businesses building an online presence. Business ownership can be a challenge for anyone. So, when you layer on unique challenges that disproportionately impact these communities, like access to industry-specific knowledge, resources, capital, coaches, mentors, and a community of like-minded business owners, it can make this process even more difficult. We need our small businesses to succeed, as they are the engines that power the neighborhoods where we live, work, and play. Their economic impact is profound.

Supporting small business owners toward growth is a process and requires a lot of resources. Many organizations do a lot on their own, but they can’t do it ALL by themselves. This is why the relationship between FedEx, Accion Opportunity Fund, and 37 Oaks is powerful. With the education, program infrastructure, experience, coaching, relationships, marketing support, sponsorship, capital infusion, shipping systems, (and more) that we each bring to the table, we deliver a program that adds value to hundreds of small business owners across the country.

Who is a good fit for this program?

The FedEx E-commerce Learning Lab is perfect for any owner of a product-based business that commits to growing and scaling through e-commerce. They tend to be in the early stages of growth and may not have an e-commerce site, or may have one that is considered “stale.” They feel stuck in making progress and need support in getting “unstuck.” The great thing about this program is that it has a national reach, and we have worked with businesses from California to Vermont to Florida and all in between. We also support a variety of categories such as health, beauty, food, beverages, pets, books, accessories, apparel, home decor, and more.

What topics do you cover in the FedEx E-Commerce Learning Lab?

This program’s curriculum is very robust. Between the 37 Oaks University courses, workshops, study hall sessions, and exercises, we cover topics such as understanding where you should sell online; defining your online shopper; writing effective shipping and return policies; conducting competitive analysis; writing effective product descriptions; driving site conversion; developing winning marketing strategies and campaigns, and more. If business owners need information on a topic that is not covered, our 1:1 coaching sessions fill in the gaps.

What makes this program different?

What makes this program different is its robust and holistic design to educate and prepare. We talked about all the education and coaching received, but another key part of the experience is the SOKONI e-commerce marketplace that allows participants to apply what they learned. We provide that extra layer of support to help them see what works for their business, and what doesn’t.

How does the SOKONI online marketplace help small businesses grow their business?

Small business owners in the FedEx E-commerce Learning Lab not only receive the education needed to strengthen their online strategies and grow their operations, but they also have access to a space to test the concepts and principles learned before making a longer-term investment.

By having their products on SOKONIshop.com, participants are answering some of these questions: Do my marketing tactics drive traffic? Should I be on a marketplace, should I sell on my own site, or can I manage both? Am I packing my products effectively to reduce damages? Which promotional prices attract customers and drive sales? Are my product descriptions getting attention? Am I soliciting testimonials effectively?

Education is one step of the growth process, and application is another. SOKONI provides a safe and guided space for business owners to see what works for their e-commerce business so they can make smart decisions on what time and resources to invest in program after the program concludes.

Can you tell us a success story about one of the participants in the program?

Since we have been doing this program for a few years and have served hundreds of business owners across the country, we have many great stories to share. Each business that joins the program has specific goals and reasons for participating.

One beauty business was so effective in implementing what was taught on shipping and return policies, marketing campaigns, and writing effective product descriptions that their holiday business increased 40% over the prior year. We had another business that considered closing their e-commerce business when they joined the program. However, due to the clarity, ways to prioritize, and the business roadmap they received, they decided to keep pushing forward. We look at both situations as a great success.

What does 37 Oaks do to help small businesses during the holiday season?

Our coaching services and 37 Oaks University courses are a constant resource for small business owners during this critical time of year. Whether it is planning effective marketing campaigns; helping outline the best products offered; making last-minute holiday strategy changes; or determining the most effective promotional price point, we have the support to guide them through.

We are always looking for new ways to support our small business owners. This past year, we amplified our live shopping experiences by offering an upgraded Live Holiday Shopping event for businesses on SOKONIshop.com site. This was a great opportunity for people to not only experience the products and hear the stories of the brands on the site, but also a way for business owners to get more comfortable with selling in a live shopping environment.

How can the general public support participants in the FedEx E-Commerce Learning Lab this holiday season?

Shop sokonishop.com! Not only will they find amazing and unique products made by small business owners across the country, but small business owners learn from each purchase. It is truly shopping with a purpose.

What advice would you give to a small business owner who is trying to decide whether to/when to launch an online presence?

My first question would be: Do you want a hobby, or do you want to operate a profitable, sustainable, and scalable business? Either is fine, but thinking about how you want to play in this space can have a big impact on how or if you launch an online business.

I get asked this question so often that I wrote a book to help others figure it out. “Prepare to Shift: The Workbook” outlines 14 principles that any budding entrepreneur would need to consider when shifting from an idea into a full-fledged business, especially an online business. There are considerations and realities to this process that often we don’t know. This book not only outlines them but provides exercises for each principle to help you work through the thought process.

FedEx, Accion Opportunity Fund, and 37 Oaks are all eager to continue collaborating in the spirit of empowering small business owners to excel online through the FedEx E-Commerce Learning Lab. Learn more about this innovative program and see how you can get involved at aofund.org/fedex.