Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Quick Takes Tim Stinovic on Bloomberg Radio. Our next guest
Speaker 1: works for a nonprofit, actually leads the nonprofit. It's called
Speaker 1: Delivering Good, which has been bringing together retailers, manufacturers, foundations,
Speaker 1: and individuals to help out people affected by poverty and more.
Speaker 1: The nonprofit has been doing it for thirty five years
Speaker 1: in counting, and since then, over two billion dollars worth
Speaker 1: of donated products have been distributed through their network up partners.
Speaker 1: So let's find out a little bit more on what
Speaker 1: they were doing and how the pandemic impacted their organization
Speaker 1: and the folks that they are trying to help out.
Speaker 1: Lisa grew Rich is President CEO of Delivering Good. She
Speaker 1: joins us on the phone in New York City. Lisa,
Speaker 1: nice to have you here on Bloomberg. How are you.
Speaker 1: How are you? I'm doing okay? Uh, certainly nice to
Speaker 1: see kind of our world reopening and getting a little
Speaker 1: bit closer to normal, if you will, But we know
Speaker 1: the world is still struggling. We're still not over the
Speaker 1: pandemics as well. Tell me about the last year and
Speaker 1: what it's been like for you all at delivering good Okay,
Speaker 1: I feel like we're emerging too, but we have to
Speaker 1: acknowledge that the last year has been really tough for
Speaker 1: a lot of people. People lost loved ones, people lost jobs,
Speaker 1: They had business challenges. We've heard a lot about the
Speaker 1: mental health challenges, especially for young people, and we're certainly
Speaker 1: all very aware of the continuing racial inequality in this
Speaker 1: in our society. So a lot of challenges. But at
Speaker 1: the same time, UM, we were able to provide a
Speaker 1: record amount of new product donations to people we need.
Speaker 1: So these numbers are going to sound pretty incredible. Over
Speaker 1: three hundred million dollars worth of new products. That's about
Speaker 1: seventy million items. Wow. So tell me how. First of all,
Speaker 1: it's a sign of that people needed it and they
Speaker 1: needed the help. So that's the rough side of it.
Speaker 1: But pretty remarkable considering it was not an easy year,
Speaker 1: at least until we kind of found our footing too,
Speaker 1: you know, work within supply chains and get things to
Speaker 1: where they needed to be. So tell us how you
Speaker 1: did it. Well, It was not easy for anyone. Um.
Speaker 1: We have a team. We are a small but mighty
Speaker 1: team of about sixteen people and they worked literally around
Speaker 1: the clock for days and weeks and months in order
Speaker 1: to get these needed products from where they were to
Speaker 1: the people that they could help. But we don't do
Speaker 1: it alone. We do it in partnership with incredible businesses
Speaker 1: in the retail subdern manufacturers, UM and people all along
Speaker 1: the lines of those organizations. Sometimes it's the CEOs who
Speaker 1: are aware of us and who makes a connection. Sometimes
Speaker 1: it's the folks in the warehouses who are aware of
Speaker 1: some excess inventory that can be used for good. And
Speaker 1: so we are grateful to everybody who has played a
Speaker 1: world Well, that's what I wanted to ask you, just,
Speaker 1: you know, dig a little bit deeper, if you will,
Speaker 1: and unpack it a little bit in terms of it
Speaker 1: is not you know, you probably had a lot of
Speaker 1: partners who were just dealing with their own crises of
Speaker 1: their businesses or supply chains, or keeping their team and
Speaker 1: their workers safe amid the pandemic. How were How did
Speaker 1: that all kind of work out and come together? Was
Speaker 1: it a little bit tough the first couple of months
Speaker 1: in terms of you know, you being able to do
Speaker 1: what you needed to do because those that you work
Speaker 1: with for having a tough time because it's interesting. We
Speaker 1: have a lot of conversations with CEOs who basically say, yeah,
Speaker 1: back in March, we thought our business was done, and
Speaker 1: then we started to figure out how to pivot and
Speaker 1: how to do things within a pandemic world where we were,
Speaker 1: you know, basically working from home and figuring it out.
Speaker 1: So everything that you just mentioned is absolutely true. The retailers,
Speaker 1: as y'all know, had to close many locations and some
Speaker 1: are still in the process of doing that. It was
Speaker 1: very difficult. It was traumatic, so those who were left
Speaker 1: to work in those who they had to say goodbye to,
Speaker 1: so it was hard for everybody. In addition, there's another
Speaker 1: set of partners that we really need to acknowledge. Um
Speaker 1: with sixteen people, you can imagine that we can't give
Speaker 1: away seventy million items. And also to affect local communities,
Speaker 1: so we have about two thousands local community partners in
Speaker 1: every state in the United States, in Canada and in
Speaker 1: other places around the world. They were struggling as well.
Speaker 1: They were struggling to keep their employees and volunteers safe.
Speaker 1: Many people who volunteer in the organizations that we work
Speaker 1: with weren't able to go. They may be older, they
Speaker 1: may have health risks, so they were not able to volunteer,
Speaker 1: so there were challenges in every direction, and of course
Speaker 1: charitable funding was not always available for everybody who needed it.
Speaker 1: So Lisa tell us about this Women of Inspiration roundtable
Speaker 1: series that you guys are hosting. Tell us a bit
Speaker 1: about it. Happy to do that, Carol, and I'm also
Speaker 1: pleased and appreciative to say that Bloomberg Anthropies is one
Speaker 1: of our sponsors. So thanks to UM BAM and other
Speaker 1: genuine sponsors UM, we're able to do something that we
Speaker 1: can't normally do. Usually in June we invite people to
Speaker 1: come to a luncheon. It's a fund raising luncheon, but
Speaker 1: it's really about celebrating women's leadership. This year, we're still
Speaker 1: not ready for luncheons, so instead, I'd like to invite
Speaker 1: your listeners to send three of their lunchtimes in June,
Speaker 1: the first three wednesdays of June, so that is June
Speaker 1: second to ninth. In June sixteen, UM with us for
Speaker 1: an hour and fifteen amazing speakers to be inspired. Coming
Speaker 1: out of COVID, I think a lot of people are
Speaker 1: reassessing how they spend their time, how they use their
Speaker 1: resources with their views and goals are and these speakers
Speaker 1: will help share their their has to leadership, their visions
Speaker 1: for the future. And they come from over Why are
Speaker 1: they have different industries certainly some three fashions, but sports
Speaker 1: and the Miller terry and philanthropy and politics in academia. Um,
Speaker 1: and they're there to inspire all of us. I have
Speaker 1: to say some of the people of the lineup, among
Speaker 1: my favorite Cynthia Marshall, the CEY of Dallas Mavericks. I've
Speaker 1: talked with her. Uh, She's pretty phenomenal and came into
Speaker 1: the Mavericks at a time that was tough, you know,
Speaker 1: but really has uh reinvigorated uh that association. Uh, the
Speaker 1: CEO of Abercamie and Fish. I mean, it's really an
Speaker 1: interesting lineup. Tell us what the goal is of of
Speaker 1: hosting this this luncheon in this series. Our goal is
Speaker 1: really to provide three master cosses on women's leadership and
Speaker 1: on everyone charting their course for the future. M We
Speaker 1: know that many of the business leaders who are listening
Speaker 1: to this show are very focused on achieving environmental and
Speaker 1: social and government goals for their companies. Many employers and
Speaker 1: businesses are focused on diversity and equity and inclusion. So
Speaker 1: we'll incorporate all of those themes, but we'll also hopefully
Speaker 1: share some insights that everyone can benefit from as we
Speaker 1: um as we think about the future. Yeah, no, listen,
Speaker 1: there's I feel like it's safe to say we've done
Speaker 1: a fair amount of a vets here at Blueberg that
Speaker 1: we're talking about what happens in the workforce, how work
Speaker 1: is shifting, the impact on employees, but thinking about you know,
Speaker 1: the dual crises of the last twelve thirteen months. Of course,
Speaker 1: the hardship impacted by the pandemic, the inequities that were
Speaker 1: revealed once again because of it, George Floyd, and the
Speaker 1: inequalities within the work floor workplace. So it is interesting
Speaker 1: to kind of have a deep dive into it and
Speaker 1: the situations, the problems, the stresses that are facing people
Speaker 1: at this point, women in particular, and how they find
Speaker 1: their way forward. Absolutely, I think that we in turn
Speaker 1: to cover all of those topics and also to do
Speaker 1: that in the context of what we do. We talked
Speaker 1: about big numbers in our last segments, and it's hard
Speaker 1: to imagine seventy million of anything, but I don't think
Speaker 1: it hard to think about being part of instilling dignity
Speaker 1: and hope and self esteem to children, to families, to
Speaker 1: individuals who are in need. And so that's the context
Speaker 1: with which we do our work. In our vision is
Speaker 1: of a more effitable world and which everyone has the
Speaker 1: things that they need to have a fresh start and
Speaker 1: to overcome adversity. Well, one of the things I did
Speaker 1: want to ask you is, you know, what's the impact
Speaker 1: that you've seen as a result of the work that
Speaker 1: you're doing at delivering good. We see the impact every
Speaker 1: single day. It's certainly tremendous that we are able to
Speaker 1: be effective and an efficient business solution for excess inventory,
Speaker 1: and we're very proud of doing that and having a
Speaker 1: thirty six year history of doing that. But we are
Speaker 1: also focused on the individual. So just in the last
Speaker 1: few days, we met by zoom with people who have
Speaker 1: received things like new coats during this winter and especially
Speaker 1: we've been focusing on homeless and disadvantaged youth. And every
Speaker 1: one of these young people has a dream, but they
Speaker 1: may not have had family and other supports around them
Speaker 1: to enable them to read this dream. And just having
Speaker 1: a coat so that they can get on the school
Speaker 1: bus to return to school after a year, or to
Speaker 1: keep the things in their backpack dry when it's raining.
Speaker 1: And these are among people who we met who told
Speaker 1: us that it is a vote of conscience. It enabled
Speaker 1: them to feel like somebody cares. And these were new
Speaker 1: coats with tags, not something that was a castaway as
Speaker 1: a discarded item um, and we are about giving them
Speaker 1: hope so that they can fulfill their dreams. Well, it's
Speaker 1: interesting too, and maybe the last year has also kind
Speaker 1: of reminded all of us that it doesn't take much
Speaker 1: for many Americans who are just living on the edge
Speaker 1: financially and just kind of getting by that there isn't
Speaker 1: you know, a rainy day fund so that when things
Speaker 1: go bad or something goes really bad like I did
Speaker 1: this past year, that they can easily tap. And it
Speaker 1: reminds us that many people, as I said, on the edge,
Speaker 1: and it doesn't take much for people to just all
Speaker 1: of a sudden tipped down into poverty. It is very true.
Speaker 1: We work with many shelters and we have met many
Speaker 1: individuals who have been living in those shelters and they
Speaker 1: will tell us one health crisis of a number of
Speaker 1: their family. They may have been formally employed they're no
Speaker 1: longer able to hold their jobs and take care of
Speaker 1: their family, and there's there's so many different circumstances. We
Speaker 1: work with many organizations who work with children in the
Speaker 1: foster system, and their lives may be abruptly disturbed when
Speaker 1: they are removed from the family situation and they don't
Speaker 1: have anything to take use them. So you're right that
Speaker 1: these can be catastrophic events that happen overnight and every
Speaker 1: day of the year, there's something that we do do
Speaker 1: about it. Sometimes people wait until the end of the
Speaker 1: year in the holidays, and that's great. You see tremendous generosity.
Speaker 1: But believe it or not, today our team was planning
Speaker 1: back to school. Kids are going back to school, which
Speaker 1: is fabulous. There's gonna need to wear them out. They
Speaker 1: didn't stop growing during COVID, so we're in the midst
Speaker 1: of a campaign right now to make sure that kids
Speaker 1: have what they need to go back to school. Well,
Speaker 1: it's an impressive work that you guys are doing and
Speaker 1: certainly important work and really appreciate getting an update update
Speaker 1: on what you're doing, so Lisa, thank you so much.
Speaker 1: Lisa grow Rich, she's president and chief executive officer of
Speaker 1: Delivering Good. As we mentioned, they do have an upcoming
Speaker 1: Women of Inspiration roundtable series supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies, which
Speaker 1: is of course the philanthropic philanthropic arm of Bloomberg LP,
Speaker 1: the parent company of Bloomberg Radio. You can find out
Speaker 1: more at Delivering slash Good Delivering hyphen I should say
Speaker 1: good dot org so you can find out more information.
Speaker 1: And just a reminder of how we wrapped up this
Speaker 1: trading day. It was an interesting day, chock full of news,
Speaker 1: retail news, JP Morgan news, a lot going on, and
Speaker 1: yet markets just finishing off. The lows down about eight
Speaker 1: tens of a percent, about the SMP and the down
Speaker 1: NAZAC down almost six tenths of a percent. DAL off
Speaker 1: two sixty seven points though, and we had the NASTAC
Speaker 1: off about seventy five points.