- This month on The SPARK, our theme is "Building Momentum with Technology and Care."

We'll learn more about an organization building the momentum for the nonprofit sector to create equitable, measurable, and lasting change.

An area chamber dedicated to creating a vibrant business environment and helping our community grow.

And a company meeting the technology needs of Memphis area businesses with a cares initiative to give back.

We'll also share a special moment from our Spark Awards 2020.

- Lipscomb & Pitts   Insurances honored to serve   the Memphis community   for over 60 years.

We've always focused on   supporting our community   and believe in   promoting the positives,   encouraging engagement   and leading by example.

Lipscomb & Pitts Insurance is proud to be a presenting sponsor of The SPARK.

- (male announcer) Additional funding for The SPARK is provided by, Meritan, United Way of the Mid-South, My Town Movers, My Town Roofing, My Town Miracles, and by SRVS.

[gentle upbeat music]   - Ever been excited   by a new idea?

Inspired by watching   someone lead by example?

When we talk about creating   change, we start by sharing   the stories of everyday heroes   who are making a difference   in their own way, so we   can learn and do the same.

I'm Jeremy Park and   this is The SPARK.

[gentle upbeat music] They are an organization building the momentum for the nonprofit sector here with the CEO of Momentum Nonprofit Partners, Kevin Dean.

And let's start out, give us a little bit of a history lesson for Momentum Nonprofit Partners.

- Great, yeah, yes.

So we're a, about a 27 year old organization.

We were built to be the nonprofit resource center for other nonprofits.

So we're a nonprofit that serves other nonprofits.

And that sounds counterintuitive.

It sounds like, but nonprofits often don't have the resources they need.

They need a collective voice to really advocate for the sector because we're often left out and not invited to the table by government and for-profits incorporation.

So we're the ones who are making sure we're at the table and giving them the resources they need.

Running a nonprofit is not easy.

There's a lot of nuance.

And so we're the folks in town who are helping to professionally develop nonprofit employees as well as advocating for them.

- So it's advocacy, professional development.

It's a lot of mentoring and coaching and guiding, walk us through the program so to speak.

- Yeah, so, I think we're most known for our training.

So we do comprehensive training for nonprofits.

We have something called Nonprofit Academy.

That's a three-day sort of intensive where you learn about 67 best practices from ranging from legal compliance   to fundraising best practices.

It runs the gamut, just   things that people need,   we're providing grant writing,   executive director bootcamp   is something that we do.

And then we do some, a really   intense multi-day trainings   that go sometimes for months.

And so in addition to that, we   also do a lot of convenings.

So we bring people together   to talk about issues.

Right now the vaccine rollout is something that's really important to a lot of nonprofits, both for their own staff and for their clients.

So we've gotten people together for that.

We had a town hall with a representative from the state of Tennessee to talk about the vaccine distribution, and what that was gonna look like.

And then we have the advocacy piece and the public policy piece that we're, that's been our biggest win over the past year working statewide and locally and part of a national network as well to really make sure that nonprofits have a seat at the table.

And that's resulted in, we helped, we helped nonprofits in Memphis get about $36 million in PPP loans that they otherwise wouldn't have been able to access.

And then nonprofits in general weren't invited to participate in the economic recovery group or the reopening process.

And so we got about a couple of thousand nonprofits to speak up.

And because of that, we got the nonprofit subcommittee for that economic recovery group.

One of our recommendations   was to give additional   CARES Act money to nonprofits.

'Cause there was inevitably   going to be leftover money.

And we got $150 million to   nonprofits last year in 2020   from CARES Act money.

So, you know, $186 million is nothing to balk at.

So that's a lot of money, but yeah so that's what we do.

- Talk about the pandemic and how you've been able to still keep the mission moving forward keep the momentum going forward and especially using virtual events.

- Yeah, so a lot of our stuff happens in our office on Cooper or it did before this.

And we sort of saw this coming and we we pivoted about a week before everybody else did.

We already had set up a Zoom account and really just moved everything virtually.

And it has been a breeze.

We kind of had to figure out how to really engage people on this kind of platform.

It's a lot different than in person, but we've employed all sorts of different, we gamified things.

We have things where they can get on their phones and type things and word clouds come on the screen.

So all of our trainings have continued.

One thing that we know, nonprofits are struggling right now with money, Everybody's struggling.

And so most of our stuff has been free.

For about six months there everything was free for local nonprofits.

We saved them about $150,000 in fees that we would have otherwise charged.

I still, the stuff that offering right now is heavily reduced price for nonprofits.

So we're making sure that we're getting as many people in as possible 'cause right now it's, some organizations are shifting and moving around and there's time for folks to learn and grow.

And it's been great.

- Nonprofits across the board are really struggling.

So what advice would you give us to be intentional about getting involved with nonprofits in general along with obviously Momentum Nonprofit Partners?

- Well, I think we learned, I was involved in Hurricane Katrina recovery, and there were a lot of lessons learned there that I think we forgot 15 years later, and that is to have a plan in place to be adaptive to whatever might come your way.

So having that plan in place beforehand I've seen the organizations that had a plan in place for, if something happens like this that they can quickly shift and adjust.

Those organizations are doing much better than the ones that didn't.

And they were way behind, those organizations were way behind and getting up and running.

And so after all of this is over, I don't think we're going back to the same world we were in but we're going back to some sort of normal at some point, we have to think about the next time something like this happens.

And Momentum we're certainly gonna provide a lot of risk management trainings and all sorts of stuff to resiliency trainings coming up to make sure that our nonprofit organizations are equipped for whatever craziness comes next.

As far as getting involved with Momentum, you can go to our website, check momentumnonprofitpartners.org and we have a calendar of events.

We have a consultant directory.

If you're looking for a nonprofit consultant we have a job board if you're looking for a job.

So there's a lot to check out there.

We also have a lot of advocacy and research information.

We do a lot of sector wide research that's really helpful for corporations and foundations to review.

- So you've already mentioned the website.

So you make that part easy but congratulations on your recent doctorate.

So Dr. Dean, but thank you for all you and your team do greatly appreciate it.

Thank you for coming on the show.

- Thanks for having me.

[gentle upbeat music] - They're an area chamber helping businesses and our community grow.

We're here with Janie Day.

She is the President and CEO of the Germantown Area Chamber of Commerce.

And let's start Janie give us a little bit of a history lesson for the Germantown Area Chamber of Commerce.

- Okay, thanks for having me, Jeremy.

This is a great opportunity.

The chamber started in 1973, so we're almost 50 years old.

We had a 40th anniversary in 2013.

So in a couple of years, we'll have a 50th party.

And then in that 50 years, normal things happened, we got computers and so forth but the last year has really changed our mission.

And we've always been   about partnerships   and community and growth,   but we got a little bit more   on the community and   the partnership in 2020.

So in the past we   have had events,   golf tournaments, Taste of   the Town, things like that   to where it's provided   money for the chamber.

Because even though   we're a nonprofit   I still have to pay the   four people who work here.

So fortunately we had started in 2019 with a Germantown magazine.

That is a partnership of the city and the chamber.

And we get income from that by selling the ads and so forth.

So our requirement for income was really helpful because we didn't need to have these events.

We still want to have them, but we needed to find out what can we do to help these restaurants and retailers and every business, small business out there that is really getting ready this time last year, this time last year to have some problems.

So we came up with doing some videos.

And first we had a video production company professionally to do about 47 videos of the owners of the restaurants.

They would say,   we're doing pickup   we're doing takeout,   whatever they were doing.

And we would highlight that   on all of our social media,   Instagram, social   media and it really   was getting all out there.

It was spreading,   people were sharing it.

So it wasn't just going to chamber members but it was going to downtown people too all around.

And we just have continued that.

So that was the one thing we couldn't have ribbon cuttings.

We couldn't have any of   our normal activities,   but once we started   highlighting them,   it really helped the   businesses from retailers.

And now we do about   three or four a day   and that has continued on.

So we will not stop that.

Even though we will begin to have our events again we're not going to stop the highlighting of all of our chamber members at all.

- Give us the mission and the purpose because everything you're alluding to, it's helping the businesses.

It's helping the community.

It's spotlighting the nonprofits.

But you mentioned before, you're able to pull in businesses in terms of the support from the area.

So it's not just necessarily Germantown.

So talk about the mission and purpose.

- Yes, we have chamber members from downtown to Bartlett through to Collierville and so forth.

And really our mission is for two reasons, we want to get more chamber members, not for us, but for each other to do business with each other.

That's the mission statement now, is to enhance everybody doing business with each other because one company helps another company.

And so we have sponsors and that has been a big help because for example Taste of the Town, asking the restaurants who have been through COVID and all the trials and tribulations that went along with that to ask them to donate food and drink and so forth for an event.

We have sponsors who are gonna sponsor them to do that.

So the whole mission of Taste of the Town again was to highlight the chamber and so forth.

Now it's to highlight risk sponsorships.

I don't, you don't need, I'm not gonna take anything from you.

I'm actually going to sponsor you and give you, pay you the money to actually come to this event and share that with the 250 people that attend.

So it's really going to be a totally different and that mission has just tweaked itself a little bit to where it's all about the chamber members and doing business with each other.

And our ambassadors help us with that too.

- Give us some ways that we can help.

I know you have a golf scramble.

What are some other ways that we can help obviously becoming a member, but what are the ways we can help?

- We have, we couldn't have it last year but we have a golf classic and it's at Windyke and we always need volunteers to come help.

It's gonna be June the 10th at Windyke, won't be too hot, I don't think.

So we try to have it in June rather than August.

And we could always use volunteers.

And again, this is business that actually does happen on the golf course.

So now it's fun.

You don't even have to be a member to play.

We'd love to have players.

We have sponsors that are taking care of everything.

So it's a lunch.

And then we play golf.

It's like from 11 to probably 4 or 5 PM in the afternoon.

And then there's a celebration in the after that.

So it's just a mix of men and women.

We have a lot of golf women, it is at Windyke and we could use some volunteers if anybody's interested.

And it is June the 10th at Windyke.

And just give the chamber a call 755-1200, and we love to have somebody get involved.

- We'll wrap up with you mentioned the phone number obviously but where do we go website?

Where else do we go to learn more about Germantown Area Chamber of Commerce?

- Oh sure.

Okay, it's germantownchamber.com and you can join the chamber on there.

We'd love to have new members and volunteers at any time.

- Well, Janie Day, greatly appreciate you and your team and all you do for our area, not just Germantown.

So thank you very much for coming on the show.

- Sure, thank you very much.

[gentle upbeat music] - The SPARK Awards annually recognize and celebrate individuals and organizations that have made outstanding contributions to the community.

The 2020 recipient of the   Individual Collegiate Award   is Nuanqiu Hou of   Rhodes Collage.

[soft music]   - I'm a senior neuroscience   major at Rhodes,   the pre-medicine track.

I think for me being able to be there for other people is very special.

I see medicine as a combination of social justice and science, and that's where my passion lies.

So I try to be active in volunteering   around this community.

I really appreciate   the opportunity to work with hospice.

I consider it a privilege to be able to accompany patients through their last journey   in this life and to   form the relationship   not only with the patient,   but also with their families.

I consider that   to be a privilege.

And I really appreciate that.

And I also really   enjoy volunteering   with the crisis center,   being able to talk to people kind of filling the gaps in between services for people.

It makes me feel really good.

My grandma passed   away when I was seven   from cancer and she was   such an inspiration for me.

She took care of me   when I was little.

She went through so much in her life but always with grace and with resilience.

So I promised her to be someone useful for the society before she passed away.

And that's kind of my motivations through everything but also just you get a lot or you hear for yourself also.

It's been hard.

I haven't been home   in three years.

I only saw   my mom once a year.

I haven't seen my dad   since the start of college   but I have friends here.

Some of my friends   took me in.

I went to thanksgiving   with them,   I know their dogs, I   know their grandparents.

So I have a family   here in Memphis as well.

Actually just got   into med school.

So that's exciting.

I eventually hope to combine emergency medicine   and psychiatry.

That's kind of the dream.

I haven't really figured   out how to do it yet   but I've always   wanted to be a doctor that not only be there for people's illness but also be there for their holistic care.

I'm really   interested in serving   with Doctors Without Borders.

And I'm also the eventual   goal will be to have   a clinic off my own but provide absolutely free service and provide social physical, legal, mental health services for free.

- They're helping Memphis area businesses with their technology needs and they have a cares initiative to give back.

We're here with the president and CEO of ProTech Services Group, Dan Weddle, and Dan let's start give us a little bit of a history lesson for ProTech Services Group.

- All right, Jeremy.

So ProTech strives to help companies with their technology by improving their profitability and growth and security.

And we've been around for almost 30 years since 1992.

We've created a combination of services and solutions to help our customers achieve their technology goals and initiatives.

And over the years, we have strived real hard to become a technology partner, not just a vendor.

We think that's very important that we're a partner not just seen as a vendor to provide things.

- Go ahead and dive into your world.

It's managed services on the IT side, but it's cybersecurity, it's a lot.

So walk us through your different offerings.

- It is a lot.

We don't strive to offer everything there is from a technology perspective but we do an awful lot of different services.

Thus the name of the company, ProTech Services Group.

We're a group of services.

So we start with our talent acquisition and our staffing division.

And here we provide highly skilled personnel   on both contract and permanent   basis for companies in HR,   IT, any corporate support   related type role.

And that's where we really   started the business   back in 1992.

We've continued that business,   but we've evolved now   into IT services over the   last 15, 20-plus years.

And then we move into our   hardware resale division   where we're one of   the largest companies   in the Memphis area that   resells technology equipment   such as Cisco, Checkpoint,   Microsoft, big names like that.

And then our managed   services division.

This is where we   help our clients   from hardware cloud, moving   things out of data centers   to the cloud.

And we set up monthly   recurring models where   we provide services   to these customers   in an IT support   environment where we provide the same systems that they might normally have employees for and support on a monthly basis for all sorts of companies from small to large.

And we do things like internet security network all sorts of different managed type programs.

We also do telecommunication services which includes maintaining local and national bandwidth requirements for phone services.

A lot of it is with the move to the cloud.

Obviously in order to utilize cloud technology you've got to have a very good telecommunications internet backbone in order to do that.

Our security division is one of our most well-known groups.

It's one of the most important things nowadays with so much technology and companies is the security of that.

With so many of us working remotely it's absolutely critical to secure our clients.

We offer everything from endpoint security to manage firewalls, phishing attacks.

And we also do pen testing, which is where we can make sure that someone can't get into your network and we test to see if it how vulnerable you are and then work to close up those vulnerabilities.

And then our last division I would really like to highlight is our support desk.

This is a full service offering where we are providing support to our clients and users.

And it's 24 hours a day, 7 days a week three sixty-five days a year for level one, level two and level three endpoint infrastructure and application support.

So where a company normally would have a help desk staff to have the turnover.

We're able to provide those services to a customer.

Plus we can build upon the best practices from multiple different companies and take those initiatives across our employees and provide a better service from that perspective.

- So talk about this cares initiative, ProTech Cares.

- You know, it's part of our company.

It's really ingrained in the company.

We believe that being the city's largest technology provider in Memphis, that we need to give back to the community.

And it's been something that we've been for 20-plus years involved in giving back.

We believe in being a good corporate citizen.

So we put together our own ProTech cares, which is an internal organization within ProTech that helps nonprofit organizations, helps schools.

It helps all sorts of different organizations such as the Boys and Girls Clubs, Streets Ministries different things like that.

And we do all sorts of things for organizations that our employees bring up that they say they wanna support   as well as some companies that   we've just been involved in   for many many years, whether   we might might've done their technology like we did with the Boys and Girls Clubs or like we've done with Streets Ministries where we've given back provided wireless systems, phone systems and do some of their support and for free or at a very reduced fee.

But we also get behind client initiatives.

If the client comes to us and says, we're supporting a particular nonprofit organization, and that's why us joining cityCURRENT is such a perfect part of, you know our culture is that we give back and, you know in cityCURRENT such all about the mission of giving back and making the community better.

And so it was just a perfect marriage between the two of us to get involved.

And one of the things that I'm very proud of is last year I put in place a new policy for every employee.

In addition to the things that we do as a company whether it would be get behind a walk like the Susan G. Komen, or we get behind a race involving St. Jude or other types of things, our employees can have two days per policy of time off to, if they wanna volunteer at their church, or if they wanna volunteer anywhere.

All they have to do is just submit that to their supervisor and they can have two days off per year to do something for the community.

And that's in addition to the things that we already do which we don't charge any kind of time off or anything for.

- Well, wrap up with contact information where do we go to learn more about ProTech Services Group?

- All right, you can call us at 901-257-3310 but probably the best place to start would be at www.psgi.net.

That stands for ProTech Services Group Inc dot net.

- Okay well, Dan, thank you for all you and your amazing team do greatly appreciate it.

Thank you for coming on the show.

- We're excited to be part of cityCURRENT.

Thank you so much.

[gentle upbeat music] - Hard to believe, but this is episode 100 of The SPARK.

We're into our ninth year, and we're still working just as hard as day one to power the good and to continue building momentum because it takes continued focus and effort to keep moving forward.

As we saw in this episode, we're fortunate to have individuals and organizations that pour into our community each and every day, so that we continue to build momentum to benefit our community.

Organizations like Momentum Nonprofit Partners and the Germantown Area Chamber of Commerce are using technology and care to foster collaboration, share valuable information and connect people to needed resources.

Companies like ProTech Services Group are both providing their services to help meet the technology needs of local businesses, but also leveraging their expertise to help nonprofits through their ProTech Cares initiative which has benefited Streets Ministries, Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Memphis, the National Civil Rights Museum, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, and so many more.

One of the best to start building momentum to benefit our community is to care.

So thank you for caring, for your support over these many years, and for watching The SPARK.

To learn more about each of the guests, to watch past episodes and to share your stories of others leading by example, visit wkno.org and click on the link for The SPARK.

We look forward to seeing you next month, and we hope you'll continue joining with us to create a spark for the Mid-South.

- Lipscomb & Pitts   Insurance is honored   to serve the Memphis   community for over 60 years.

We've always focused   on supporting   our community and believe   in promoting the positives,   encouraging engagement   and leading by example.

Lipscomb & Pitts Insurance is proud to be a presenting sponsor of the The SPARK.

[gentle upbeat music] [acoustic guitar chords]