“Doing what’s right:” An interview with the Pledge 10 Grant Funders
I’ve interviewed grant winners several times for my blog, but I’ve never interviewed a grant funder. That’s why I’m so excited to share this interview with you today. It’s important we get to know the people awarding grant funding!
There was no better place for me to start than with the leaders of the Jonesboro State Bank Pledge 10 program based in Jonesboro, Louisiana. I have used Pledge 10 as an example of a great local funding program in my grant training, and I was eager to learn more about the history of the program and perspectives of its leaders.
Welcome to our conversation.
First of all, can you both introduce yourselves?
TA: I'm Thurston Allen. I am the President at Jonesboro State Bank, and I have the privilege of working with the most dedicated and amazing bankers in Louisiana.
MH: I'm Miranda Howard. I'm a Compliance Officer for Jonesboro State Bank. I also have the pleasure of working with some amazing people.
Great! Now to set context, can you tell me about Jonesboro State Bank and your Pledge 10 program?
TA: Pledge 10 is a program that we started in 2015 to acknowledge that corporate citizens should do the right thing as well as individuals. We understand the importance of giving back, and we wanted to make it foundational to who we were going forward. That's why we donate 10% of our profits back into the community. And since 2015, we've put about $3.9 million back in the community. We've averaged about $350,000 a year. And just in the last five years, the number is $1.8 million. So it's a program that is super impactful to Jackson Parish. We see the impacts all the time through programs or infrastructure. A lot of it benefits our school system here in Jackson Parish. And it's a program that just really is making a difference, and it's a joy to be a part of that.
Can you give me some examples of projects Pledge 10 has funded in the past?
MH: One that we really liked went to our local school, Jonesboro Hodge High School. It was funding for yard maintenance tools. Their agri-science department wanted to start teaching the students basic skills such as lawn mowing, weed eating, changing oil, operating any kind of yard equipment. Hoping that students would learn lessons and maybe even find something they can do as a side job.
TA: Absolutely. You know, I was lucky enough that I didn't really have a choice. My parents just said, “Hey, you're going to have a summer job,” and they brought me down to the bank. I learned a lot in the summers by being down here, being in an office environment. Having a job is important for kids, for sure. It's just part of development.
MH: Another project that was really cool was a mural that Winn Main Street led [see photo below]. They applied for a grant for the mural, and it turned out really great. The artist was fantastic.
TA: I was amazed at how nice this thing turned out. It's incredible.
MH: Another example is 5 Loaves: 2 Fish in Ruston; they're a ministry that moves throughout Lincoln Parish providing nutritious meals to those in need. They typically ask a church, for example, to borrow their reception hall to host meals. I think they do it once a week or once a month. They came to us for a grant for a concession trailer so they wouldn’t have to figure out a place to do this every time. It also will allow them to actually feed more people in more areas, especially those who may not have a way to get very far. So they'll be able to pull this concession trailer and make sure a lot of these people are actually getting meals.
TA: 5 Loaves: 2 Fish is a really good example of how we've been able to provide seed money to a project that then goes on to do bigger and better things. We didn't fund their initial startup. They had some community support from a couple of churches. But with Pledge 10 funding, they were able to do more and be more visible. And when you are more visible with your ministry, other people want to start backing you up as well. It's just contagious when people are doing the right thing. And so it's really allowed them to help with fundraising, to help with their ministry. It's a great example of leveraging Pledge 10 dollars to do more.
There are also some non-grant related programs that we help support on a recurring basis:
The Boys and Girls Club. We help fund a satellite branch in Jonesboro that serves about 80 youth per day. It's a great program. It's not associated with our grants, but it is a program that we fund through our other Pledge 10 avenues.
The Ruston Community Theatre summer musical. This one’s a lot of fun. It's not a huge commitment, about $10,000, and it’s a program that allows kids to have something to do that's a lot of fun. Whenever we first started that program with RCT, it was 2017 or 2018 with Little Mermaid, a long time ago. They really wanted to elevate the kids’ show and have costumes that were over the top and have more kids involved. You can put a lot of kids on stage as extras if you have enough costumes; it's a way to get more youth involved. But to get more youth involved and have more kids on stage, you need a lot of costumes. And so having a huge cast increases the cost of a production quickly. So the idea was, let's get more kids involved. Let's make RCT more of a community outreach program, and we're going to need funds to do it. So we partnered with them then, and it was a huge success. We loved what they did with the program, so we have funded it every year since, with the exception of a couple in COVID.
Infrastructure. There are other big ticket items that will sound boring. We do infrastructure spend, like generators at the schools and infrastructure projects to help with water infrastructure here in town. Those are just necessary items that we can help out with that aren't as flashy but still, nonetheless, they're projects that need to be done.
Awesome. Ok, our next question is why Pledge 10? What is your motivation as a “funding agency” to keep the program going?
TA: Pledge 10 seemed like a natural way to communicate charitable giving in a way that could resonate with the public because of the natural connection to tithing. The idea of doing something for someone and doing it at the level of 10% is something that's easily understood for everyone. And so it made a lot of sense to make it 10%. Also internally, for budgeting purposes, 10% is an easy sell, because in years where you're a little lean, it's not as big of a number. So it's nice for budgeting purposes, and it's also nice because it resonates well and it communicates well. People understand the concept. And I would be lying if I didn't say that it has an obvious Christian connection to the idea of doing what's right. Pledge 10 is a way of communicating our desire to be better people and better Christians in a way that is not over the top.
I always like to tell grant applicants that funders are real people. Can you share any more about that - what do you each personally like about the Pledge 10 program or about your awardees?
MH: I love being a small part of something that is just so big for the community. Just being able to see the big impacts that Pledge 10 has done is amazing. Also, being a parent, both of us work full time. We have kids; we have activities. It's hard to find the time to give back to the community to volunteer. Being here at Jonesboro State Bank, they give us that time to volunteer. Part of the Pledge 10 grant program is once we have so many volunteer hours, we are able to donate to our chosen nonprofit. So we will have a certain amount of money, once we complete our volunteer hours for the year, to donate to anything that we choose.
TA: It's easy for us to get stuck in a rut, both professionally and personally. And just do the same thing over and over again. So one of the best parts about the Pledge 10 grant cycle windows that come up twice a year is that we get a fresh look at a new idea. It's super rewarding to be able to see those new ideas come to life. Whenever a project gets funded, we're able to make an impact in a way that we previously would have never even considered because it was some idea that we didn't come up with. It's nice to see fresh ideas, because too often it's easy just to say, “hey, we're eating rotisserie chicken for dinner, and we're just going to fund this same thing because that's where we gave money to last year.” It's easy to get stuck in those ruts. This allows us the opportunity to do more in exciting ways. And that's a great part about it for me.
I love that about grants! From the applicant’s side, they get to have new ideas and do them, and that's really fulfilling. And it's neat to hear how it’s fulfilling from y'all’s side too.
Next we’ll shift to advice for applicants. What are the big things you want to see communicated in grant applications?
MH: I would say clearly define the community needs. How is this really important for the community? Who is it going to impact? Clearly tell us how this project is important.
TA: I agree, true community need. We only have so many Pledge 10 funds. When it comes to grant panelists making decisions on those grant applications, panelists do have their own identity because the panel changes every single time. But there are common threads that come through, and one of the common threads from the panelists is a desire to be efficient with the dollars that they are entrusted to distribute. And if your project addresses a community need, it's going to go a long way with the panelists versus something that's just nice to have, if that makes sense.
Another thing that is always reassuring to see come through a grant application is whenever you can read the passion in a project. It's important to put information in an application to justify what you're doing, and that comes with some of the statistics and some of the analysis. But it's also nice to see the passion come through - when someone really believes in an idea, and they believe that they're going to be able to make a difference. You can sense their passion in the way they write. That's something that's always great to see communicated in an application.
Yes, that makes sense. On the other hand, what are the pitfalls you often see in Pledge 10 applications?
MH: A big pitfall is applying for a grant without reviewing our guidelines. So always read the guidelines. Always. Every time. Even if you've received a Pledge 10 grant or applied before, read the guidelines again. Because the guidelines do help communicate how the scoring works. If you read the guidelines, you will have more opportunity to score well with panelists.
Another pitfall is not having good writing and good presentation in an application. We say it in the guidelines, but watching your spelling and basic writing makes a big difference in your grant application. You want it to be very clear for the panelists, who may not see projects like yours often.
TA: Another challenge we see is whether applicants are communicating deep community needs. With every Pledge 10 application that comes through, we can see the value in the project. Every project application does good and has value. But what we often see is that sometimes that value per dollar is not as efficient as others, or sometimes the value is not addressing as dire a need as what some others are. For example, when we were in COVID and the schools shut down and we had to make decisions on where to distribute Pledge 10 dollars, it was a lot easier to support nonprofits that were going to provide meals to these kids than it was to pay travel expenses for a speaker at a seminar. Both are valuable, but some needs are just more important and more immediate than others.
I don't want people who apply for these grants and don't get funded to think that we don't see the value in their projects because we see value in every project. But what we don't always see is the immediacy with those projects. And, and that I think may cause some to get discouraged, or it may cause some applicants to think that their project is not as valued. And that's not the case. It's just we have a limited number of dollars available, and some projects just serve more immediate needs than others.
Anything else you’d want applicants to know?
MH: I would encourage applicants who were not funded in a given cycle to reapply. We've not seen one reapply yet. Maybe they found the money in other ways; that's very possible. But don't take the denial as, “We didn't like it, and we're not going to approve it.” Ask us for feedback (we’re open to give it!), read our guidelines, look at our model application, and consider applying again.
TA: Another last thing I’d want to share is that Pledge 10 funds don't come from some mysterious box full of money. It is money that is directly invested by Jonesboro State Bank, therefore, by the shareholders of Jonesboro State Bank. And so one thing that our CFO and I do as management every year is we do our best to communicate the value that they, the shareholders, are providing in the community. That was a commitment we made whenever we asked them to authorize the program back in 2015. We told them that we would be accountable to their investment and that we would show them where every dollar went. One way that we do that is we show our shareholders the countless thank you letters, pictures, and newspaper articles showing all the ways that their money is getting spent in the community. It's powerful, and it helps us advocate for the program with shareholders, some of whom don't even live in the state of Louisiana. Because they believe in the project and they see firsthand the thank you letters and all of the support that we get, they continue year after year to invest in this program. And so one thing that I would like to say is that the thank you letters and the support and the recognition that the pledge 10 program gets, it helps us as management communicate the value in the program, which is important. So I would just like to say thank you to everyone who does support the program and share back what it has meant in the community.
I love that! I live here too, nearby in Lincoln Parish. So I see the fruit of these grants, and I have a child who sees the fruit of these grants. It is so meaningful.
Ok my last question. You recently worked with me to revamp some of your Pledge 10 processes. What was it like working with me and my business, FlowStream?
TA: It was fantastic! Right from the start, we could tell you brought real expertise from your past grant experience. You just understood the challenges we were facing. First you helped us reflect on our goals and get crystal clear on what we are trying to accomplish. Then you made sure our scoring criteria aligned with those goals. That might sound basic, but it made such a difference. We were able to remove the confusion and provide transparency to applicants on how grant projects score well.
MH: Yes! Then you completely revamped our grant guide, which has been a game-changer for communicating expectations to applicants. Beyond the strategic work, you helped us streamline how we assemble applications for our grant panelists, which has saved us so much time. The whole process is just clearer now, both for us and for the people applying.
TA: On top of all of that, you made it all feel easy. If I had to describe the experience, I’d say professional, organized, and low-stress. Even when we were working through complicated stuff, it never felt overwhelming. We’re really grateful for everything you brought to the table.