Amy Neumann
Disclaimer: This interview was conducted before the coronavirus pandemic.
Name: Amy Neumann
Current Job: Executive Director, Free Tech for Nonprofits (a 501(c)3 nonprofit) and CEO, Good Plus Tech (a social enterprise consultancy)
Favorite restaurant in town? TownHall in Ohio City. Amazing vegetarian options! It’s also an ideal meeting place in a fun area of town.
Favorite thing about Cleveland? The energy and grit of the people who live here…and also, all the beautiful parks and nature.
Q: Amy, you started your career in sales. What were some of the early lessons you learned that helped shape your career? “Sales” to some has negative connotations, but no business or nonprofit succeeds without sales (or in nonprofit speak, development/fundraising). Consulting is term more people prefer, but to me it’s all the same, if you’re a professional in the space. It’s an ability to keenly listen to people talk about a challenge, digging deeper to get to the root of the issue, and then to provide a welcome answer to a problem that achieves an end goal and provides benefits the client values. Executives often say that they love great salespeople, because they bring insightful, timely knowledge as well as solutions to what seem like intractable problems; no one likes bad salespeople (or consultants) who are only trying to “make a sale,” in a one-sided manner. So, I learned that if you want to be a lifetime professional salesperson or consultant, every situation has to be win-win, providing more value than expected. That’s what creates long-term, happy clients who refer others to you to help.
Q: After almost 20 years in sales, you moved back to Cleveland started a non-profit called Free Tech for Non-Profits, what does that entail? My whole career has been a combination of technology, sales/consulting, marketing, and nonprofit work - first as a volunteer or committee member. Creating lasting, positive social impact in the world is in my DNA and my parents instilled a love for it since I was little. With a fascination and borderline obsession about how technology can speed up – or create entirely new – change, my curiosity naturally led to an unusual depth and breadth of learning just because it was interesting. Since I found myself being asked over and over to share this knowledge and speak about it, it seemed like a smart next step to formalize it in a way that was scalable and easy to find globally online. So Free Tech for Nonprofits is a collection of tools that nonprofits can use to help free up human time, that I curated over many years.
Missions are met through people helping people. There are many things only humans can do. Since there are also many things technology can do to save human time, why not utilize those technology tools where possible? Then we have more time to fully capitalize on human empathy, creativity, compassion, listening, persuasion, and understanding.
Q: In addition to your non-profit work, you also are a prolific writer and for various periods of time written for organizations like Forbes? How did you become a contributing writer for organizations like Forbes and what tips do you have for budding writers?
If you have a purpose, or a passion for something, it’s pretty easy to write a lot. My love of social media, social impact, the people I meet through social media and in person, and interviews of world-changers allowed me to write for HuffPost, Forbes, and numerous other sites. When I discovered someone interesting that had valuable wisdom to share, I felt compelled to share it. Ditto for technology. It originally started small with my own website and social media channels, consistently sharing ideas from people and about technology that could help others. And over time, as I wrote for larger publications about social impact, other passionate people started to reach out and connect with me more. In fact, it was incredibly exciting when Simon & Schuster contacted me in 2018 to write “Simple Acts to Change the World: 500 Ways to Make a Difference” based on the natural progression and network that was created by following the path of researching and telling stories about interesting people and technology that was changing the world.
I believe everyone has a book in them, or some great stories or articles. Try simply writing about something you care a lot about for a while, maybe through LinkedIn articles for business ideas, Facebook posts for personal interests, or a free blog site. The key is: be interested, and you’ll likely also be interesting!
Q: Part of your work involves doing a lot of research on non-profits and technology. What are some of the trends you are seeing? Although I love, love, love, technology, I always stop and remind myself that technology is only a newer way to solve consistent human problems that have been around since the dawn of time. The internet allowed people to connect and share information instantly, all around the world; social media enabled connecting with people globally with common interests; smartphones let us to do anything online faster and easier; and emerging technology also addresses human challenges. For example, blockchain allows things of value (money, credentials, assets, etc.) to move from one entity to the next globally, almost instantly; and/or for everyone to be able to view or verify time-stamped records of ownership, all in a virtually unhackable manner. Artificial intelligence, although not “new,” is now coming into full bloom with impressive predictive capabilities, automating mundane daily tasks, allowing for autonomous vehicles, and countless social impact solutions.
The main trend I would call out is that status quo is even more dangerous now than it has been in the past. If something has been the same for a long time - or if anyone in your organization utters the words, “that’s just how we do things,” - that is strong sign to immediately take advantage of an opportunity to dive into that process. See if technology might offer additional benefits like saving time, saving money, reducing burnout for employees, better storytelling, better measurement of impact, or other critically important things. What the technology might be is less important than uncovering the true problem that needs to be solved in a more effective way. Sometimes, a problem wasn’t really solvable before new technology, but now it could be.
Q: You are heavily involved with efforts in inclusion, equity, and diversity in the technology space. Why is this important to you? As a mom of a daughter heading to college who also wants to change the world, it’s important to me that every board of directors, project team, nonprofit committee, and group of founders in technology considers how crucial including many types of lived experiences is when making strategic decisions or creating things. The more inclusive and diverse decision-making groups are through every step of the process, the more likely it is that outcomes will be positive for more people. Especially underrepresented groups of people. Lack of inclusion creates dangerous blind spots; asking many types of people to participate throughout the process creates wisdom, and solutions that more people want to buy, use, or participate in.
Every one of us can change the world simply by considering one more viewpoint!
And if you want another simple act to change the world…smile at a stranger! It will make two people happy.