Growing By Giving

Fountain 48

This week, we wanted to get into the holiday spirit and talk about how giving can be both beneficial and a creative business decision. It can strengthen relationships, open unexpected doors and, when done authentically, help your brand stand out during a season when everyone is competing for attention.

Giving has the power to build trust in a way traditional marketing cannot. It shows intention. It shows care. It shows that you see the person behind the title. And for founders and operators, that simple shift can be the difference between being forgotten and being remembered.

Today’s newsletter is about how to use giving, in all its forms, to build deeper relationships in business and in life. Woven in are some great entrepreneurship stories and a special interview from the expert herself: Shannon Christensen Founder of Mamas for Mamas a charity near and dear to our hearts.

⏳️ Estimated Read Time: 6 minutes

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Business Development

Giving / gifting can be a great marketing and networking tool. There are larger campaigns that build gravity around your brand, creating differentiation during a holiday season that is crowded, noisy, and full of competition.

People are emotional during the holidays. Their attention is scattered. Their inboxes are overflowing. In that kind of environment, the initiatives that break through are rarely the most polished campaigns. They are the ones that feel human and generous. A thoughtful gift. A story that sparks emotion. A small act that surprises someone.

Gifting on an individual level is one of the most underrated networking and marketing tools a business can use.

A thoughtful gift, a hand written card, cuts through the noise because it shows intention, attention, and effort in a way mass outreach never can.

When you send something that feels personal, it lands differently. People remember it. This could be to suppliers, prospects, existing customers, mentors, someone you want to connect with. Don’t expect anything in return, just be thoughtful and see what happens.

It opens doors, starts conversations, and creates a warm touchpoint that feels human in a world full of automated emails.

Whether it is a small token that speaks to someone’s interests or a useful item that ties back to your brand, individual gifting signals that you value the relationship, not just the transaction. And in business, that level of genuine connection is often what leads to long-term partnerships, referrals, and opportunities you cannot manufacture any other way.

Some of the best ideas online come from creators who make giving their entire content ecosystem.

MD Motivator. (Cry warning) Jimmy Darts. Ryan traveled to 52 different states and raised money for St. Jude’s through daily videos.

MD Motivator asks struggling people for a small act of kindness, then shocks them with a blessing they never expect. These creators prove that you can transform simple acts of giving into powerful community moments.

What makes their approach so effective is not the scale. It is the creativity. A fifty dollar budget and an iPhone is enough to film something inspiring. Giving becomes a story. Stories get shared. That sharing builds trust and reach.

They use giving to earn money to give more. Take Mr.Beast and Beast philanthrophy.

We’re not saying you need to film every time you give. We are saying that you can take inspiration on how these creators are giving if you’re in the giving spirit!

Giving is not always financial.

Volunteering carries as much weight, especially during the holidays. Time is scarce for everyone. When you choose to give it away, people notice and appreciate it.

There are countless options. Food banks. Gift drives. Salvation Army kettlebells. Meal prep for shelters. You can also bring your kids or your team. These experiences build culture and connection. They show your children what service looks like. They remind your team that their impact extends beyond the office.

If you want to see our full list of how to volunteer check out our Canadian Thanksgiving newsletter here.

Although this type of giving isn’t necessarily business-related, injecting you and your team in the community can go a long way.

Here are simple ideas that blend generosity with thoughtful brand building:

• Match donations up to an amount your business can handle
• Highlight a non profit doing great work in your industry
• Donate surplus inventory to local organizations
• Bring your family or team to volunteer
• Create a micro grant or small scholarship
• Run a holiday nomination program for someone who deserves help

These ideas have one thing in common. They strengthen relationships. They tell a story. They build trust. And they remind people what matters.

This newsletter is meant to give you tools. It is meant to help you think about how generosity can strengthen your relationships, your team, your community, and your business.

Giving creates ripple effects you might not see immediately, but they always return in surprising ways. This is the season to give with intention, creativity, and heart. If you do, you will feel the effects long after the holidays pass.

Be a Fountain this Holiday Season :)

An Interview with Mamas For Mamas

Growing by Giving: What We Learned from the CEO of Mamas for Mamas

This week we sat down with Shannon Christensen, CEO and founder of Mamas for Mamas, a national charity that started as a small Facebook group and accidentally grew into a movement that now supports hundreds of thousands of families across Canada.

Her story is one of the clearest examples we have ever seen of what it means to grow by giving, have an entrepreneurial spirit, and be an incredible badass human.

A quick intro on Mamas

Shannon never intended to start a charity. She was 23, a new mom, and grieving the loss of her father who left a large sum of money. She had postpartum depression. She had no village around her.

What she did have was a lesson from her grandmother

She chose the table.

She gave away her own baby gear for free. A thousand dollar stroller. A five hundred dollar crib. High quality items that most people resold to afford the next stage of parenting.

Shannon wanted to break that cycle and prove that kindness could be a currency. Moms responded immediately. Items turned into food swaps. Food swaps turned into emotional support.

Emotional support became mental health programs and case workers and crisis navigation.

What started as one mom trying to build community became a national network with 70 branches, 285,000 moms, and millions of dollars in annual support.

By 2023, Mamas for Mamas had grown from a $40,000 annual budget to $6.3 million. Growth that fast sounds like a dream, but Shannon calls it what it really was: overwhelming, unsustainable, and fuelled by constant yeses during periods of crisis.

During the Kelowna wildfires, emergency services were stalled. Shannon used mattresses from her warehouse, convinced a local car dealership to open its doors, and built a shelter in an hour.

She fed firefighters. She coordinated food donations from restaurants so nothing spoiled. She rallied volunteers while her own family was evacuating.

It pushed the organization to its limits. It also reshaped it. After that year, Shannon and her team rebuilt their operating model so Mamas could survive without crisis level adrenaline. They cut staff from 64 to 40. They focused on repeatable funding.

They are building long term reserves, even opening a brokerage account to accept stock donations and warrants. Wanting to survive on interest revenue and subscription revenue so it’s more sustainable.

The result is an organization that still leads with heart but is structurally stronger, more disciplined, and built to last beyond one founder.

The Business Lesson: Solve Problems Like a Mother, Run the Organization Like a Business

Shannon’s mentality is incredibly entrepreneurial.

Solve the immediate problem with the least amount of money possible. Run the operation with the same discipline as a for profit business.

Focus on long term revenue instead of one time windfalls.

She talked about learning financial statements from scratch, managing HR, navigating CRA rules, and building her team into people who can challenge her ideas. She is the first to say she is better at working on the company than working in it. That clarity has allowed Mamas to grow without losing its soul.

The Future: Movement Over Charity

Growing by Giving in Action

We asked Shannon how she feels about this week’s theme: growing by giving. She lit up.

She told us about her new work with The Megaphone Project, where leaders use their platforms to rally others to give.

She told us how ambassadors like Jillian Harris sprang into action for Mamas during COVID. She told us about selling a jar of pickles for $5,500 at a gala because she shared the real story behind them. No polish. No script. Just authenticity.

She shared a lesson on how her philosophy on marketing has evolved:

Be real. Tell the truth. Show the work. People respond to humanity more than perfection. She shared that every time she went to consultants the messaging got more traditional and worse.

And most importantly:

Use whatever platform you have, whether it is three followers or three million, to make someone’s life easier. Giving creates gravity. Gravity creates community. And community creates growth.

Video from their website: