- [Narrator] Funding for this edition of One-On-One with Steve Adubato has been provided by Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.

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- This is One-On-One.

- I'm an equal American just like you are.

- The way we change Presidents in this country is by voting.

- A quartet is already a jawn, it's just The New Jawn.

- January 6th was not some sort of violent, crazy outlier.

- I don't care how good you are or how good you think you are, there is always something to learn.

- I mean what other country sends comedians over to embedded military to make them feel better.

- People call me 'cause they feel nobody's paying attention.

It's not all about memorizing and getting information, it's what you do with that information.

- (slowly) Start talking right now.

- That's a good question, high five.

(upbeat music) - Hi everyone, Steve Adubato.

We kick off the program with With Linda Czipo, who is the President, and CEO, New Jersey Center for Nonprofits, we'll put their website up.

Linda, great to have you with us again.

- Thank you.

Nice to be here.

- Linda, what would you say the top two, three challenges are for not-for-profits in 2024.

- One is not new, and that is that there is a big disconnect between the rising demand for the services that nonprofits are providing in our communities and the funding and the resources needed that are not keeping pace.

That has been the case for quite some time, it was exacerbated by the pandemic and other factors.

So that's certainly challenge number one.

Another one is the workforce shortage.

Nonprofits are experiencing, this is nationwide, but certainly very acute in New Jersey, a severe shortage of vacancy, high vacancy rates and trouble filling those vacancies.

And that's also due to a number of different factors.

To what degree do you find that not-for-profits, and I think about this a lot because as a not-for-profit, we partner with a lot of other not-for-profits.

We're partners with public broadcasting, we partner and together we can do more than we can do alone.

Question here, as all of us as nonprofits leaders, work, no money, no mission, you know what I'm talking about, to raise money, half of my time, 60% is involved in raising money.

Here's the question, how the heck are we supposed to collaborate and partner with other nonprofits who we often compete with for grants from corporations and foundations?

But we know we can't do it alone.

Help us understand that difficult balancing act.

- I guess the first thing I would say is that there is, I think, a little bit of a misperception that nonprofits don't collaborate or don't collaborate as much as they do because, certainly from where I sit, I see a lot of really good and impactful partnerships that go on all the time.

I think one of the challenges and the opportunities is, we have to get past this scarcity mindset.

The always idea that we have to do more with less, that that has to be the MO for every single nonprofit, and it's not sustainable.

And that's part of the reason why we're in this situation where it looks, it's pretty stark right now for the nonprofit community.

- Go ahead, describe that.

- Well again, get back to the idea of demand for nonprofit services keeps going up.

- Yeah.

- The resources needed aren't keeping pace, and we've nurtured for too long, this misperception that if a nonprofit invests in itself, if it pays its people adequately so that you're not constantly having to recruit for people who then have to leave.

If you're investing in technology and research and development, all the kinds of things that nobody blinks when the for-profit community does these things, it's good practice.

We somehow have gotten into this mindset where we question it when it comes to the nonprofit community.

And it's taken quite a bit of time to get into those assumptions, but it's also gonna take a lot of time to get out of them.

But we have to do it.

- We do have to do it, and actually, we are constantly Beyond competitive salaries, what else do you think most professionals in a not-for-profit community are looking for?

- I think one thing that that nonprofit community has going for it, of course, is the values and the mission-based nature of what we do.

And that's something that is very attractive to emerging professionals.

We have to live those values every day.

And that means investing in our people and making sure that we are practicing, emulating good practice in terms of work-life balance, making sure that we are not burning our people out.

That when it comes time to, the sad truth is, for too many organizations, when the budget isn't there, you've got wonderful, talented, enthusiastic people who come into the field, but they can't afford to stay if you can't afford to pay them fairly.

So it's compensation, it's benefits, it's living your values, it's making sure that you have infused in top to bottom and left and right, throughout the organization, a culture of belonging and making sure that you are not only recruiting great people, but you're also training them well and onboarding them well and respecting their wisdom and making sure that there are opportunities for growth.

And that's certainly not unique to nonprofits, but we need to live those values every day.

- How about this?

When we're doing this remotely, not all of our productions are remote, but the vast majority of them are.

And you and I were having this conversation right before you got on the air, when we were in studio and you are based where you are, it was about a three hour back and forth plus in the studio waiting and all that, and we're doing this remotely.

It is better to do interviews in-person, let's not kid ourselves.

But it's more efficient to do it this way.

Question as it relates to nonprofits, what have you seen in the not-for-profit community in terms of in-person, remote, hybrid, and people adapting to that?

- It is a mix for sure.

I mean, one of the things that happened, of course, during the pandemic is, this technology was available.

I mean, prior crises, 10, 20 years ago, that certainly wasn't even an option.

So the fact that you could pivot, to use that word, to zoom or other kinds of things was really, really helpful because in a number of industries, that would allow the work to continue.

Board attendance, if you've got a board that's situated throughout the state - They're all over the place.

- Participation is gonna be a lot higher.

- All over the country.

- Absolutely, absolutely.

So those things were really, really helpful.

Now, the downside, of course is, for a lot of nonprofits, of course, they had to cancel their events or change things from in-person to Zoom.

That's not always the same as being in-person.

And then back to the employment situation, first of all, we all know that not every nonprofit can do their work remotely.

Even if some employees can be remote in a lot of different nonprofit fields, they can't all be remote.

So that's one thing.

- Yeah.

- I mean, it does provide opportunities in terms of recruiting and some employees, or some would-be employees who don't want to come into the office all the time, again, it's got a labor shortage, so we have to adapt.

But it does create challenges in terms of making sure that people stay connected and making sure that everybody is kind of rowing in the same direction.

I can't thank you enough for joining us, Linda, thanks so much.

- Thanks so much, appreciate it.

- Stay with us.

We'll be right back.

- [Narrator] To watch more One on One with Steve Adubato find us online and follow us on Social media.

- Hi everyone, Steve Adubato.

You're about to see an interview I did with my colleague, Mary Gamba, on our sister program "Lessons and Leadership with Michael Schmidt," who is the Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey.

Take a look at this interview as we talk with Michael about antisemitism, the challenge of antisemitism, the impact mental, excuse me, that antisemitism is having on the mental health, particularly in the Jewish community, with younger people, the dearth, the shortage, if you will, of mental health professionals.

The role of a foundation like the Healthcare Foundation in funding and supporting not-for-profits, and a whole range of challenges that the not-for-profit community faces right now in 2024.

This is an interview that I did with Mary Gamba, along with Michael Schmidt from the Healthcare Foundation.

Let's check it out.

Steve Adubato, with my colleague, Mary Gamba.

Mary, why don't we introduce our very special guest who's talking about leadership in the nonprofit world and a whole range of other issues, please, Mary.

- Yeah, happy to do so.

Michael Schmidt, Executive Director and CEO of the Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey.

Michael, so glad to have you back with us once again to talk all things leadership.

- Yeah, and also.

- Thank you, Mary, - Sorry for interrupting, Michael, that's the difference studio versus remote.

Michael, all things leadership, but related to leadership as well, and to disclose The Healthcare Foundation is a major underwriter of ours in our healthcare programming.

But one of the things Michael, I wanna talk to you about is leadership and antisemitism.

More specifically, the initiative at the Healthcare Foundation, dealing with the extraordinary, painful, difficult challenges that folks are facing as it relates to antisemitism, as it relates to mental health, and the initiative of the Healthcare Foundation to address that directly, please, talk about it.

- Thank you Steve, and thank you Mary.

It's great to be back on broadcast with you.

As you know, Steve and Mary, there's been a rise in antisemitism around the world, and specifically here in the United States.

Statistics say that anti-hate crimes against Jews are number one.

There was just a report in today's newspaper saying that within schools, that antisemitism has risen against the LGBT community, Jews and Blacks.

So recognizing that our youth are faced with increasing isolation, depression, anxiety, and other kinds of mental health challenges that have emerged not just from the rise in antisemitism, and the events that have happened since October 7th, but also as a result of the pandemic and tremendous amount of isolation that they incurred.

We recently issued an RFP in the community to address the mental health of youth and teens, and particularly we were asking community partner members in the greater Essex area to collaborate with one another and to come up with new and innovative techniques or techniques that have been found to be successful in other parts of the country, that can be replicated here in New Jersey to address this level of anxiety within the Jewish community.

- Along those lines, before Mary jumps back in, from my perspective, and again, I'm not here to editorialize, but it seems like every obstacle, challenge, barrier, terrible situation like this, and to those who are negatively affected in the Palestinian community, there's just as much concern and we'll do focused programming in that regard as well.

But the issue of rising antisemitism, a serious problem, which also presents, dare I say, an opportunity, Michael, to respond in the appropriate way, is that not the essence of leadership to take every challenge and see it as an opportunity to do better, please.

- Steve, you know, I just wanna contextualize that antisemitism is not a problem just for the Jewish community.

It's a problem for everybody.

I think everybody who is a decent and a caring human being wants to know that they can be able to live in a society where one individual or one group of individuals is not singled out, is not addressed, is not taunted, not bullied, and not meant to felt as a secondary kind of citizen.

And that's true for everybody, whether you're Muslim, whether you're Jewish, whether you're Catholic, or whatever you may be.

And I know that all of my friends, partners in the Muslim community have also suffered tremendous amounts of bullying.

But I think what is unique within the Jewish community is that this has reared, unfortunately, its ugly head much more in the last year when people thought that we had been making progress.

And to your question, leadership is exactly about that.

It's about speaking out for everyone and taking stands to make sure that everyone feels protected, safe, and able to participate in society to the best of his or her ability.

- Yeah, along those lines, Mary, I don't know why I even framed it that way.

That was not only inappropriate but wrong.

Say, we'll focus on Palestinians who have been victimized in this, because it's not one or the other.

An attack on one an attack on all.

Along those lines.

Mary, please jump in.

- Yeah, definitely.

Michael, I would like to talk a little bit really along this same vein of the shortage in healthcare workers, in particular mental healthcare workers.

What more of an impact, how much more strain is that putting?

Because if I'm hearing you correctly, and, you know, you can't turn on the news without hearing the impact, especially on our young adults, on their mental health, their behavioral health, and just overall issues of depression, suicide, what more needs to happen to make sure that we have the professionals available and accessible to our most vulnerable citizens?

- So, Mary, it's an excellent point that you're raising, there is a dearth of qualified professionals, particularly clinicians.

And when you speak to anyone who is looking and searching for a qualified clinician, the wait list is often six months or longer.

And so this is a longer-term issue with an immediate crisis.

We speak to our community partners, whether they be in the Jewish Family Services, or whether they be in other kinds of clinical settings that are trying to provide assistance.

And we know that, number one, it's hard for them to find qualified people.

Much of the money that had been available during the pandemic through the PPE and other kinds is now dissipating.

And so some of the ability of organizations, and nonprofits in particular, to try and use that money to leverage and bring in good qualified clinicians, even on a part-time basis, I know you've had partners that we fund on this show who are in that field, will acknowledge that this is increasingly a challenge.

And New Jersey has recognized this by recently changing some of the rules around social workers in particular, and clinicians and social workers, and expanding the ability of people to reach across certain state lines in order to provide clinical service.

- One other leadership gap, and Michael, you and I have talked offline about this a little bit, but is the succession planning, that is really tied to baby boomers retiring, whether we're talking about leaders of nonprofits.

Steve and I have seen it now.

We're 24 years in working together.

We have tons of people around us that are retiring.

What can and should be happening from a leadership standpoint to make sure that there are people adequately ready to lead, to step up, and to fill those roles?

- Thanks for raising that very, very important issue, Mary.

You know, I think from the first day that a CEO starts, the question needs to be, who is going to be my successor?

Who is going to be trained, who is going to be cultivated, who is going to have the skillsets to be able to step in?

We're seeing a lot of millennials, wanting to take on more responsibility.

We're seeing a lot of baby boomers stepping down and retiring, and we need to fill those positions.

And most organizations don't spend enough time thinking about the succession planning, and what are the skill sets that you need for somebody to be able to step into the role of executive director, whether it's board development, whether it's fundraising, whether it's operations, each of those need appropriate cultivation, learning, and skill development, and it takes time.

And so I hope that many of the organizations that are looking towards the next five and 10 years where there's going to be a dearth of leaders will be thinking about that today.

- Michael Schmidt is the Executive Director, CEO, and CEO of the Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey.

Michael, we greatly appreciate your time.

Thanks.

- Thank you, Steve.

Thank you, Mary.

Pleasure to be with you.

- You got it.

Stay with us, we'll be right back.

- [Narrator] To watch more One on One with Steve Adubato find us online and follow us on Social media.

- We're now joined by our media colleague, Tom Hughes, who's CEO, Publisher, ROI-NJ, we'll put up the website so people can find out more about ROI-NJ, good to see you, Tom!

- Hey, good to see you, Steve, thanks so much, and thanks to Mary too, and the Lessons in Leadership crew for having me today!

- Yeah, Mary Gamba, my colleague, we're also gonna be airing this with our sister series One-on-One.

And here's what I wanna talk about.

First, describe what ROI is, and then I'm gonna ask you about media leadership in 2024, please.

- Yeah, yes, sure.

So, ROI is an acronym for Return on Information New Jersey.

Right?

So, quite simply, we're a media company that informs and connects businesses in New Jersey through digital and print platforms, as well as live and virtual events.

Seven years here, you hit the ground running, and we're enjoying covering the garden state business.

- Along those lines, Tom, and all seriousness about media leadership, I'm obsessed by what leadership really is, what it's not, how to get better at it, the mistakes we make as leaders.

But media leadership in 2024, how much of it is about constantly trying to find ways to be relevant to your audience outside of what we may have thought, I don't wanna answer my own question, even two or three years ago?

- Yeah.

So, leadership and innovation pretty much, right?

Well, look, you know what, it's always the responsibility of leadership to champion innovative systems, platforms, technologies, right?

To stay ahead of the competition, beat the competition, or just in line with the competition.

And also, better the quality of the final product for its readers, right?

So, I do this by recognizing applications of new technology simply.

What systems do we have?

How can we improve them?

And then, working through how those changes might play out in both implementation and the aftermath.

So, at the end of the day, we sort of look at and say, "Okay, we have our internal customers, right?

How has what we've done impacted our internal customers, our staff members, right?

Are those changes better, different?

How has that worked?"

And then, we also look at our external users.

Readers, advertisers, and the impact it has had on our audience.

Are the advertisers enjoying the new ad space, right?

That's on the new website.

Are our readers more engaging?

Are they spending more time on pages?

So, I mean, the innovation is always ongoing, but for us, we try to be very systematic on how we're doing that.

- Along those lines, Tom, in terms of information that people consume, and people consume information in so many different ways, our colleague, Neal Shapiro, the President and CEO of the WNET, the 13 Group, WNET Group, we talk about this all the time, that people are consuming information in a bifurcated fashion, meaning it's all over the place.

That being said, is print, from your point of view, is print dead?

- It's interesting that you say that, right?

Because we are print and digital, - That's why I'm asking- - Newsletters, right.

So, we still have a robust print distribution.

We are seeing that we have a growing audience on the digital end.

But the combination seems to work well for us.

Would I say that it's challenged?

Yes.

Because the way that our audience is receiving the news is different too.

They're looking more online, right?

- And the audience is changing.

Is it getting younger and is younger equal more digital?

- Well, it's interesting, right?

So, you bring up a very, very valid point, right?

The younger audience is a more digital audience, right?

And we're skewing, so our audience rested in the 45 to 58-year-old category.

The last two years we have taken a different approach with our digital platform.

And we're pulling in a 35-year-old audience.

So, within about 18 months, or post-COVID, we've made some changes.

So, the audience, our audience is our next generation that we actively go after.

And yes, actually, there's been some changes, a younger demographic coming in.

- Curious about this.

We have a series that, the graphic will come up right now, it's called "Democracy in Danger."

And it's looking at, it's not even political, to be really candid with you, Tom.

And we talked with your colleague, Tom Bergeron about this as well- - Yeah.

Yeah, and I've gotta tell you, everybody wants to talk to the guys on the editorial side.

Nobody wants to talk to the business guys, right?

And that's what it is!

- Hey!

Ready for this, Tom?

Some of us are on the editorial side and on the business side!

- I know, I see that.

So, you're that sought-after hybrid.

- Yeah, (Tom chuckling) well, the hybrid isn't so neat and clean because I gotta tell you, the separation of church and state, the editorial and the business, sometimes it's like, how do we keep the underwriter sponsors who think sometimes, hey, no content's not yours!

Your branding is up, (Tom's voice drowns) content not yours.

Do you just- - Absolutely.

- It's interesting, 'cause I was gonna go one place, you brought up something way more interesting than that.

How do you separate, when I say church and state, it's a longstanding way of describing the difference between the business side of a media organization, advertising, et cetera, sponsorship, and the editorial, which is pristine and purely journalistic.

Is there a cement wall in your view, Tom, between church and state?

- Well, it's interesting, in my view there is, but I do see that wall blurring.

So, we always said, everybody wants to talk to the editorial folks, right?

No one wants to talk to the business folks, because editorial folks are receiving information, and that information's going to be put on a digital page or a print page.

What I'm doing on the business side and my team, we're looking to put our hand in somebody's pocket to get the sponsorship, so we can continue doing the editorial piece.

- No money, no money?

No mission.

- Exactly!

There you go!

So, I do see some of the blurring, because we have our sponsors who want sponsored content, right?

So, we label that as sponsored content.

- By the way, PS, full disclosure, if you go on, we are sponsored content at ROI.

(Tom mumbling) It says sponsored content.

- Right.

- And explain to folks why that's different than straight editorial content.

- Well, because sure, editorial content is achieved through a editor's story from a contributing partner.

Sponsored content is written, could be in conjunction with the sponsor, the individual, and it is not freeform, free flowing from the editorial side.

So, we like to create that separation from regular edit to sponsored content, or we call it two partner content as well.

- But think about what Tom's saying.

Our biggest and most significant partners are in public broadcasting.

Our largest audience by far is in public broadcasting.

Again, to our friends at WNET, NJPBS, and to the south, WHYY, to a lesser extent, but we're still there as well.

But here's why I'm saying, I'm mentioning this.

There are folks who may not find us on public broadcasting, but may be consumers of ROI who see us there, and that's why my point here is a long-wind way of getting to, we don't have the luxury of saying "Only this platform, only that platform."

We have to be on multiple platforms to have the most number of people consuming what we do, please, Tom.

- Yes, sure!

So, and that brings up a good point, because we say ROI is New Jersey's business source, right?

Well, the reality of it is, yes, it's New Jersey, but we are in every state, and several countries in the world now, because our platform is yes- - Digital.

- It's print, right, but it's digital.

So, when you look at the statistics on that and the analytics, it's just amazes me where and who we are reaching, and where they are.

- Complex stuff and media leadership, media in 2024.

And again, the next time, we'll actually talk to your colleague, Tom Bergeron on the editorial side about our series "Democracy in Danger."

And I wanna thank our longtime media partner, Tom Hughes, CEO, and Publisher of ROI-NJ, their website has been up to find out more about them.

Tom, all the best.

Take care, my friend- - Thank you.

Thanks guys.

- [Narrator] One-On-One with Steve Adubato is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Celebrating 30 years in public broadcasting.

Funding has been provided by Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.

NJM Insurance Group.

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The Russell Berrie Foundation.

Valley Bank.

Veolia, New Jersey Sharing Network.

The North Ward Center.

And by And by Kean University.

Promotional support provided by The New Jersey Business & Industry Association.

And by Northjersey.com and Local IQ.

NJM Insurance Group has been serving New Jersey businesses for over a century.

As part of the Garden State, we help companies keep their vehicles on the road, employees on the job and projects on track, working to protect employees from illness and injury, to keep goods and services moving across the state.

We're proud to be part of New Jersey.

NJM, we've got New Jersey covered.