303. Disrupting Fundraising + Building Community for Veterans + Families - Anne Marie Dougherty

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Overview

Meet Anne Marie. She's also a marketer disguised as a fundraiser leveraging unmatched moxie and grit as CEO of the Bob Woodruff Foundation, supporting the nation’s veterans and their families. She’s disrupting traditional fundraising models via a unique use of metrics, relationships, and results to maximize the foundation’s $80 million investment impact. It’s an entrepreneurial approach that’s permeating the entire organization - and growing. She’s got your 6!

💡Learn

What BWF is doing to support veterans with fertility support
Unique partnership approach to the NFL & USA Wheelchair
Football League
The story of its $15M MacKenzie Scott gift
Bob Woodruff Foundation mission overview

Today’s Guest

Anne Marie Dougherty, CEO, Bob Woodruff Foundation

“We created Got Your Six as a network to express to every veteran and military family in the United States of America, that we’ve got your back, we have got your six.”

— Anne Marie Dougherty, CEO, Bob Woodruff Foundation

Episode Transcript

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Episode Highlights

Anne Marie’s story and journey to where she is today (4:00)
Overview of the Bob Woodruff Foundation (9:00)
Partnerships 2.0: NFL Partnership (13:00)
How they’re giving grants to service member families (20:00)
The Got Your 6 Method (26:00)
Mackenzie Scott Gift (43:00)
A powerful moment of philanthropy in Anne Marie’s life (51:00)
Anne Marie’s One Good Thing: Look over the horizon. (52:00)
How people can connect with the Bob Woodruff Foundation (56:00)

Powerful quotes

“It will never get old, hearing the stories of good people leaning in to their lived experience to make life better for others.” -Becky

“Bob was the advocate for the service members who are combat wounded. I mean, he he had that same lived experience…[Lee] said, for every service member who's in a wheelchair, I'm going to remember the spouse or the caregiver that's pushing that wheelchair. That authentic lived experience is it's the heartbeat of the foundation.” -Anne Marie

“They care so much about the standards and actually having an impact. Setting those standards so high for us as an organization has been really important for the decision making of how we build the organization.” -Anne Marie

“As we matured as an organization, we realized that the biggest impact we could have given what's different and special about us, which is Bob and Lee's experience, is to raise awareness and to raise money.” -Anne Marie

"Partnering with the NFL started with a vision board. You gotta put it out there. You gotta say I want to partner with one of the biggest brands in the world. Let's do it.” -Anne Marie

“If you can just put the altruism aside, the partnerships that are the stickiest are the ones where you're actually solving a problem for them.” -Anne Marie

“Bob Woodruff Foundation is open for partnership. We are building a coalition.” -Anne Marie

“We find, fund, and shape.” -Anne Marie

“We created Got Your Six as a network to express to every veteran and military family in the United States of America, that we've got your back, we have got your six.” -Anne Marie

“Keep looking at what is over the horizon. As the leader of the organization, come back up and look out and you can’t go wrong with that.” -Anne Marie