Oxfam: Laté Lawson-Lartego - Embracing Failure

09/12/23 • 29 min

“You also want to avoid this culture of ‘innovation is this shiny magic bullet’. No. That's also a culture that we want to demystify. Innovation is ways of thinking, ways of doing, and of course ways of achieving concrete, tangible results (and) outcomes –impact at scale.”

Adaptation is essential to innovation. Growing up in Togo, West Africa, Laté Lawson-Lartego worked a summer job as a community volunteer, exposing him early on to the disparities happening in his backyard. As more of the industry opened up to him, he began to realize the systematic problems stifling the field’s progress. Inspired to expand his knowledge, Laté continued to travel and grow his educational portfolio, but rising political unrest in Togo unexpectedly forced him to flee his home country.

The sudden departure caused Laté to develop a new, invaluable skill: the ability to adapt and progress amid risk and uncertainty. From there, hard work, combined with his wealth of knowledge, led him to his position as Chief Innovation Officer at Oxfam, where he develops leadership strategies to best build and support innovation within the organization.

In this episode, Laté tells us more about how his work and personal experiences allowed him to find the balance between taking leaps of faith and being overly strategic in order to cultivate and grow innovation.

Contents

1 - Discovering divides

2 - Laté’s first innovations

3 - Building Room For Innovation at large organizations

4 - Embracing failure

5 - Balancing controlled failure and pushing the boundaries

Links

Mentioned in this episode:

Presented by Classy

Are you a nonprofit feeling the pressure of constant change and evolving supporter expectations? Are you searching for new ways to engage your community in this new era of fundraising? At Future Nonprofit we seek out the top technology helping propel our sector forward, which is why Classy by GoFundMe is a trusted partner of ours. Classy's online fundraising platform empowers organizations to connect, engage, and grow. With Classy's latest innovation, Classy Studio, you can create personalized fundraising experiences that truly resonate. Build connections, unleash creativity, and raise more... faster! And now, with new features like Intelligent Ask Amounts, which provide personalized donation amounts for each supporter who lands on your page, and improved embedded donation forms, which lead a donor through an optimized checkout flow without leaving your website, Classy's full suite of tools is further engineered for conversion while also allowing you to create lasting relationships. The only question left is... what will YOU build? The future of fundraising is now with Classy. For more information, visit classy.org.

Contents

1 - Discovering divides

2 - Laté’s first innovations

3 - Building Room For Innovation at large organizations

4 - Embracing failure

5 - Balancing controlled failure and pushing the boundaries

Links

Mentioned in this episode:

Presented by Classy

Previous Episode

Liquid Death: Lance Blair - Authentic Culture and Brand

Liquid Death is more than just a beverage company. As CEO Mike Cessario puts it, their product is entertainment just as much as it is drinks. And while they are a for-profit company, their passionate commitment to the cause of “killing” plastic pollution has been vital to their success. Building a likable brand with an authentic charitable message isn't easy, but Liquid Death has mastered the art of being genuinely impactful while maintaining its cool factor. It's not just about flashy graphics and catchy ads; it starts from within and their work with others. That’s where Lance Blair comes in.

Lance is Liquid Death’s Head of Nonprofit Partnerships. In this episode, we'll discover how this incredibly successful and trendy water brand achieves their philanthropic goals, their strategy for captivating and inspiring communications, and how nonprofits can leverage the growing trend of companies giving back to make a positive impact on our world.

Contents

1 - Lance meets Liquid Death (3:16)

2 - More than just drink products (5:59)

3 - Sincerity in the cause (10:12)

4 - Maintaining a culture of passion (17:12)

5 - The future of for-profit charitable goals (22:43)

Links

Mentioned in this episode:

Presented by Classy

Next Episode

Dollar For: Jared Walker - The Solutions Right In Front of Us

"I looked into it and couldn't believe it, like I felt like a freaking chump because I had been paying medical bills for all of these people that would've been eligible for free or reduced care if I would've known about these programs." - Jared Walker

So many organizations get caught with their heads down, hyper-focused on what they’re doing, that they don’t realize there is often a better way. Sometimes being innovative just means taking a step back and putting yourself in spaces to find the answers that already exist. That’s exactly how Jared Walker took Dollar For from small community fundraising to a national medical debt-killing organization.

Jared’s journey relied on educating himself, actively engaging in learning environments, and, most importantly, placing trust in others. These strategies led to multiple crucial and pivotal decisions that radically changed the company, and in one instance, catapulted the organization from a local to national scale literally overnight.

In this episode, Jared will recount the pivotal moment in his life that ignited his passion for the cause. He will also share how he embraced education and sought assistance from those around him, resulting in an exponential increase in Dollar For's reach. We'll also explore how embracing learning experiences and expertise from others is vital in setting organizations up on a path to success via adaptation and trust.

Contents

1 - Starting an educational journey (1:38)

2 - Dollar For 1.0: Crowdfunding (3:37)

3 - Discovering Charity Care (9:31)

4 - The TikTok video (11:17)

5 - Scaling up and trusting others (15:19)

6 - Community and the future of Dollar For (24:34)

Links

Mentioned in this episode:

Presented by Classy