We talked with Shane Sams about how nonprofits can generate recurring revenue streams by replacing the old fundraising events we dread so much with a membership-based business. I think we’ll all agree that no one will miss another chicken dinner at a gala.
Shane has appeared three times on Pat Flynn’s Smart Passive Income podcast. In fact, Pat says, Shane’s episode (#122) is one of his most downloaded. Shane and his wife Jocelyn have created recurring and passive income with their own membership-based businesses and now teach others how to do the same through their business Flipped Lifestyle. In this article, we explore how small nonprofits can do the same.
Shane’s Story: No more fundraising. Let’s generate recurring revenue with membership.
In 2012, Shane and Jocelyn had a young family – their 3-year-old son Isaac and 1 ½ year old daughter Anna Jo. They were both educators in southeastern Kentucky – Shane, taught history by day and coached football at night and Jocelyn was a school librarian. Their college degrees landed them good jobs with health insurance, but they were living paycheck to paycheck.
Then, a family emergency changed everything. One morning, Isaac wouldn’t go into daycare. Shane argued as you do with kids sometimes.
Then Isaac blurted it out, “[Daycare worker] scares me.”
“Later we found out that abuse was happening in the facility when Isaac had potty training accidents. They were locking him in a dark bathroom for hours at a time. It was horrible.”
Shane still had to get to work. His 130 students were counting on him to show up. Because it was an emergency, Anna Jo’s daycare (for younger kids) agreed to keep Isaac temporarily while Shane checked in at school so long as he promised to return ASAP.
Shane’s boss was not so sympathetic. She told him that Shane needed to come to work because his son wasn’t in immediate danger. When she said he could get fired, Shane realized he had traded his family’s freedom, and something needed to change.
Then, he heard about online businesses on Pat Flynn’s Smart Passive Income Podcast and that changed his life forever.
Ditch Fundraising and Develop Membership
Through prayer and faith, Shane’s first online business took off. Jocelyn’s superpower was she knew the challenges school librarians faced so they developed a membership with lesson plans for school librarians. They delivered content to solve a problem.
“We opened and in the first month, we got 50 people to pay $50 each and made $2,500. Then the business exploded. We had 5,000 by November and by July 2013, we earned $15,000! In August, we earned $36,000 which is equal to one year’s salary as a teacher. That’s when we decided to quit our jobs.”
The membership model works and can be used by small nonprofits to fund their programs. Start a membership-based business based on your superpower and replace those fundraisers you dread so much.
Everyone is TIRED of begging for membership dues/fees and selling tickets to galas. There is a way off this hamster wheel. You can curate information on something you are an expert at – like your hometown, to name one, but there are plenty of subjects. Then, create a membership to share and teach this curated information. The potential is unlimited.
Shane and Jocelyn began teaching friends and family how to do this. After seeing their successes, they launched Flipped Lifestyle to teach thousands of people how to earn money through memberships.
Over the years, Flipped Lifestyle has mentored for-profit and nonprofit businesses like school PTOs, sports organizations, alumni clubs, and more, on how to maximize fundraising by creating an online business.
Listen to the full podcast episode 34 with Shane Sams where he tells stories about others he has helped and offers tips for how you can change your reality and boost earnings for your organization.
To join the conversation, join our community! For the full episode, go to Podcast #34 with Shane Sams.
