In today’s episode, we’re excited to bring you insights from Sam Bressi, the President and CEO of the Lancaster Community Foundation. With over 30 years of executive experience, Sam has been a driving force behind countless initiatives that have shaped the future of Lancaster County.
In this episode, Sam shares his journey from growing up in a small coal-mining town to leading a prominent community foundation, highlighting the challenges, triumphs, and lessons learned along the way.
Sam’s story is one of resilience and leadership through adversity. From navigating the economic downturn of 2008 to fostering a culture of generosity and innovation within Lancaster, his approach to servant leadership is both inspiring and practical.
Watch the episode above or listen over at Spotify. Make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss the next great servant leader’s story!
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Episode Transcript
Nicholas Paulukow
Welcome to Servant Leader’s Library Podcast where we dive into the world of leadership, community impact, and personal growth. I’m your host, Nicholas Paulukow, the CEO of ONE 2 ONE, a Lancaster-based managed IT and security firm, and today we have a remarkable guest joining us, Sam Bressi. Since 2008, Sam has been at the helm of the Lancaster Community Foundation and is the President and CEO.
His leadership has been instrumental in shaping the strategic direction and day-to-day operations of this vital community organization. With over 30 years of executive-level experience, Sam brings a wealth of knowledge and a keen understanding of what it takes to drive positive change. But it’s not just about the spreadsheets and board meetings for Sam.
His passion for creating a brighter future for Lancaster is contagious. He envisions a community that thrives where possibilities are abound. So let’s dive into this conversation with Sam, where we explore servant leadership, community impact, and the power of collective vision.
So, Sam, welcome to Servant Leader’s Library, and thank you for joining us today. We’re so excited to have you and we’d love to just kind of get to know and tell the listeners just kind of a little bit more about yourself and your path to leading this wonderful Lancaster Community Foundation.
Sam Bressi
Thanks, Nicholas. I really appreciate the invite to chat today, and hopefully it’ll be interesting to your audience. I grew up in a little town, a coal-mining town called Shamokin, and I always tell people, you know, if you escape Alcatraz, you don’t go back for weekend holidays.
So, I love Shamokin, but it’s definitely a place where it’s not Lancaster, but when I got to Penn State, I realized there was a whole other world out there and, you know, kind of never looked back. But yeah, I’m a Penn State grad twice over. I have a Bachelor’s and a Master’s, an MBA from Penn State, and spent some time actually as a hospital administrator while I was doing my MBA. I spent a little time in Connecticut as a consultant with a company up there, came back to Pennsylvania, worked at HersheyMed as a hospital administrator while I did my MBA.
And then I kind of stumbled deeply into the nonprofit world with an organization over in York. I met Susie Burns, who was the founder of the Burns Health Education Center and a phenomenal human being. And we ended up—I ended up becoming the CEO of that organization and spent 12 years working to build that organization from basically a startup with five employees to, when I left, we had something like 30 people on the team. We had reached a million kids, and it was all really around educating people to live healthy lifestyles.
We just got done talking a little bit about healthy lifestyles earlier. So yeah, anyway, that’s when things took a turn. I decided that on my 12th anniversary that I was going to—I had formed a little advisory board of CEOs, and I decided to buy a business.
And I spent a year with that group attempting to do that. I won’t bore you with the details, but if you’re interested later on, I can share.
But the bottom line is, I failed. So, you know, one of the things I learned throughout my life and journey is, you know, everything doesn’t go your way. And so I had to kind of adjust and go to plan B and maybe plan C.
And a friend of mine who was one of my advisors said, you know, there’s an opening over in Lancaster for the CEO of the Community Foundation. And I said, “Dave,”—his name was Dave—”I just got out of the nonprofit sector. I really want to build equity.” You know, that’s not what I want to do.
He’s like, “But that would be”—I mean, so he encouraged me. And that week, I think two other really respected friends of mine had reached out about this position. And the next thing you know, I was sitting at the desk. I had gone through the interview process, and obviously, the board at the time felt like it might be a good fit.
And honestly, I felt like I sat at the desk for the first time thinking, “What did I just do? And now what am I going to do here in this community where I have some connections but very few at the time?” So that was February 25, 2008.
In addition to kind of the transition and being a CEO of a community foundation and learning that process, basically, if you remember back to that time, that was the start of, like, months later, the start of the economic collapse, the Great Recession. So the job was very different then.
And we lost a lot of asset value, obviously—the market crashed. And many community foundations that I was talking to were like, “Well, we’re going to increase fees and we’re not going to distribute.” And our board—and this was all our board’s decision—our board said, “We’re not going to increase fees and we are going to distribute, and we have reserves and we’re going to distribute reserves.
Because if we’re not there in the time of our community’s greatest need, what are we doing? Why are we doing this?” And honestly, that was the trigger point where I fell in love with the organization.
And being in Lancaster, it’s just easy to fall in love with Lancaster. That was a no-brainer. I love this town.
I love the county, particularly love the city. And so it’s been just, like, an incredible ride. I can’t—it’s been 16 years.
Nicholas Paulukow
Wow, what a journey. A couple bullet points there that I heard. Number one, my mom’s family’s from Ashland.
So we’re not as far from you. But we’re close, baby. We’re close.
Where weddings, birthdays, and funerals are served at the same place. I’m telling you what. But they had a really cool parade in Ashland every year.
That was the highlight. That’s great. That’s funny.
Sam Bressi
I find, Nicholas, I find everywhere I mention Shamokin, somebody else has a connection.
Nicholas Paulukow
A connection, yeah.
Sam Bressi
To the coal region.
Nicholas Paulukow
So it’s—yeah, my grandfathers were—my grandfather was a coal miner. So my grandmother got to this area. She was—my mom was one of seven and the youngest.
And they all left because you had said not a lot of industry there. And none of them wanted to do coal mining. And they were older.
And my grandmother got a job after her husband passed at Thaddeus Stevens as a house mother. And that’s what brought them to Lancaster County. Isn’t that crazy?
That’s crazy. That’s nuts. But that’s amazing to what you kind of said.
A lot of leaders that we talk about or people in our businesses, or, you know, talk about this path to success, right? And many of them—you used a really great word there that you’re like, hey, I failed. But that failure to you was an opportunity to kind of do something new or move you in a different path.
And I think that’s really strong because a lot of people seem to get really frustrated, like, well, if I fail, that means I did something wrong. And I think it’s really imperative to kind of hear your message. I mean, it’s about adversity, adversity, and it’s not going to be what you thought, or some say, well, I got to go to college and get it perfect.
But most of the wonderful people I’m speaking to every day are like, I can’t tell you my education was great, but that’s not where I’m at now. So they encourage everyone to just follow their path, you know?
Sam Bressi
Well, it’s—Nicholas, you mentioned college, and I’ll share. I’ve shared this freely. But, you know, I’ve learned from failure frequently.
So I won’t go back before college. But my first semester at Penn State, I got a 1.3 GPA, eight credits of F, didn’t really want to be there. And I learned in December that they didn’t want me there either.
So we mutually parted ways. Initially, my dad, you know, was ready to kill me. But I—so I had to kind of regroup, put my mind to it.
I ended up graduating after, you know, a semester late. I did a summer session. But, you know, adversity is a part of everybody’s life. And learning from it, going through it—it’s not, you know, it’s always a challenge, obviously, for everybody.
That’s why they call it adversity. But I can tell you that I learned more in the year that I spent searching for a business before I landed here. I learned more in that—it was 10 months, actually.
But I learned more in that 10 months than I did in three years of my MBA program. I learned a lot in the MBA program. But, you know, doing it, talking to people—I mean, actually doing what you’re doing on this podcast, just getting to know people’s stories.
And here, it’s so helpful to be able to apply other people’s cases, other people’s life lessons across the board. So I appreciate what you’re doing with the podcast.
Nicholas Paulukow
Yeah, I appreciate you as well. I think it’s really amazing to—one of the items that you brought up is you talked about your friends and your mentors, right? And that’s a lesson for me, right?
I mean, all of us have gone through this. I feel like every three years, I feel like, man, what have I screwed up? What do I got to reset? And that’s just my brain saying, you know, how can I improve, you know, but, you know, you’re saying that you’re using it as a positive thing to drive you.
And I think that’s really key. And I think—I think also your humbleness—a lot of the leaders that are—everyone that I’ve spoken to thus far, humbleness is key, right? That they’re humble, they’re open.
And we talk a lot about that. Or when we read a lot of books about leadership, like, humbleness is key. And I appreciate your candor.
And it’s going to help a lot of people better understand kind of maybe how to work through the adversity they’re in right now. What do they say, that we learn everything in our adversity, when things are great? You know, we don’t really learn anything, we kind of get, like, comfortable, you know, right?
Sam Bressi
Yes, it’s interesting. You know, the idea—one of the things I was thinking about before the podcast, not really knowing the questions, but, you know, on the humbleness point, it’s like, the one thing I was thinking about is, leadership is, first and foremost, it’s not about you. It’s not about the leader.
Yep. Like, if it’s about you, you’re not a leader. It’s like, leaders put everybody else in positions to be successful and think about, you know, passing the credit and taking the blame, doing the hard things, being mission-driven, mission-oriented, being community-focused, trying to think about the good of the organization and the good of the community and how those things interact.
You know, you come along as you’re kind of helping facilitate that and maybe inspiring at times and maybe making hard decisions at times. Right. But it’s not like, you know, you get the crown and they wrap you in the cloak and you sit on the, you know, on the throne.
It’s not that at all.
Nicholas Paulukow
No, you’re absolutely right. And it reminds me of a book of—it’s called “The Five Levels of Leadership,” right? And it kind of reads like, level one leadership is, you know, you’ve been appointed.
So people won’t follow you because you’ve been appointed. Right. And they say, well, until you’re comfortable with yourself, you really can’t lead.
And I think that’s really, really great what you’re saying, because you’re comfortable with yourself, you’re humble, and that allows you to then be able to lead. And I think many people that are getting into leadership, they really struggle with that. Like, they’re like, well, this affects me, or how do we—and it really shows kind of, are they willing to go through that adversity to figure out that it really isn’t about me?
Right. And it’s okay if they don’t want to go down that path. I feel really sad sometimes when I see some that say, well, I’ve been working in my industry so long, I should be a leader.
And I’m like, but it’s not—there’s a journey for everyone.
Sam Bressi
And, well, there’s—you know, the idea of adversity is, you know, is a great preparer of leadership, because leadership is adversity. If you’re making—if you’re making decisions, people will criticize your decisions. People will agree and people will disagree.
And so, being a leader is like a constant adversity. And you—you mentioned, just circling back to the idea of connecting with individuals who—who you can lean on and depend on and share, your Vistage group, the idea that you have a group of other people who—who experience similar things in different circumstances.
You know, I always—you know, when I first took a CEO role over in York, it was like, I knew I didn’t know everything, but I knew phone numbers of people who knew the stuff that I didn’t know. And so, using that and having an—having a group that’s accessible to talk to and to kind of vent to and get advice from, I think that’s really important. It’s a really important leadership tool.
Nicholas Paulukow
You’re absolutely right. I failed at that in the beginning. Because I was kind of taught as a kid, right?
Like, we’re educated, like, figure it out on your own and do—you know, I came from an immigrant family. My dad—I’m first generation in this country. My dad came here when he was five, and he’s like, just work hard, work hard, work hard.
And I’m like, well, man, I shouldn’t have to ask for help. And that was a failure on my part. I figured out as, you know, doing business for 22 years, I’m like, wow, the most impact came when I found coaching or mentorship and/or other, you know, people to talk to.
And I think that’s a really great point to make, because that’s where I kind of failed. I was like, wow, if I had humbled myself to dive into this before, I probably would have maybe been in a different position. But it really is amazing.
My mentor that I currently have said to me the one day, I said, well, man, when—when I get frustrated or upset or I just feel like I’m not worthy to be in this role, he paused, you know, right? Because they have all this wisdom, and they’ve learned really good on how to listen, right? And not to give any advice but to kind of—to kind of, you know, give you the path.
And he looked and he said, “Listen, we all feel that way. So the day you stop is the day that you probably need to get a new job.” I was like, whoa. Okay.
All right. It’s comfort in knowing that others are experiencing the same that you are. Yeah.
That is amazing. That’s amazing. Well, as we kind of go into kind of your approach, right, like your humbleness and leading, you know, what would you say your definition of, like, servant leadership is? What is that different from just leading in general?
Sam Bressi
Well, I—again, I think it goes back to it’s not about you. It’s about everyone around you. It’s about your—I mean, I think—I think it’s like that the old plane attitude, you know, put the oxygen mask on yourself.
You first have to know yourself and you have to be healthy of mind and body. You have to be centered and confident in who you are to be an effective leader. So—so there is an element of taking care of yourself, learning, growing, having a network.
And then as you apply that leadership, it’s really—it’s, again, it’s not about you. It’s about the team that you surround yourself with. You know, we’ve always talked about being a magnet for talent and, you know, creating a culture that really people just want to be around, be part of it.
And we want people who are hardworking, passionate about community, and are really exceptional, you know, and the counterintuitive thing is like, you know, what if you get the wrong person? You know, if—if there’s not a fit, it’s—it’s really important to—to—to correct those things.
Nicholas Paulukow
Correct it.
Sam Bressi
Yeah. And you’re doing individuals a favor if there’s—if you’re just kind of recognizing that and moving through that. So I think we—we demand excellence.
Every single person on this team, I think, brings their A game, and they’re expected to—I mean, that’s what we do. We do it in a fun way. We try to do it in a fun way where we’re connected, where it’s not just about work, you know, and I—it’s—it’s—it’s a challenge because you kind of—it’s a process.
You’re always—we’re always working to—to maintain and cultivate the culture, to bring the right people in. We—we found out this week that one of our superstars got a great job, a great opportunity. And—and so it’s like we—you know, we recognized years ago that we don’t only want to be a magnet for talent, but we want to be a provider of community talent as well.
So we look at it for—for her, it’s an opportunity, a great opportunity. For us, it’s—it’s—it’s a—it’s a loss in the moment, but it’s an opportunity for us to kind of like rethink what we’re doing, constantly reinvent ourselves organizationally, internally, and externally. And in my role—in my role in this community foundation role, we need to be deeply connected to Lancaster.
So this is the—this is the hour today that I’m sitting at this desk, you know. The—the bulk of the rest of today, I will be other places with people. And a lot of—a lot of that is listening and—and hearing where people disagree, and hearing where—where we’re doing well, and—and maybe where other folks would like us to do this or that. So, you know, being—being out front and being open to communication in the community, I think, is really important too for—for my role.
Nicholas Paulukow
Yeah. I love your passion too. I love—I love the energy like that.
It’s really motivating and exciting and sees that you really love that mission and—and the vision that kind of comes from that. And—and you’re absolutely right. Like I—it’s so fascinating because what you just went over is a book that I’m finishing up right now about the five levels of leadership.
And that’s like level four, right? You’re a leader creating other leaders who then creates leaders. And that is really hard to get to, right?
Like—like many people don’t get to that. So that must feel really great to—to be able to do that. And I think that’s very fascinating.
And I think it—the positivity at what you bring through it, right? Like you could have said, “Hey, we’re losing this rockstar. Oh no, it’s gonna—it’s gonna, you know, hurt the organization,” but you used it as a positive way to kind of level up, which I think is really important for those that are listening, right?
Like some could just drop into that hole and say, “Oh my goodness, we can’t continue.” And instead, we’re driving forward in a positive way. So I think that’s—that’s amazing.
Sam Bressi
I need to get that book recommendation because I’m—I’m naturally competitive. So it’s like, “Oh, I love it. What’s the—what’s level five? How do I—am I doing the right thing? One, two, three, four, five. And how do I get there?”
I want to—I want to circle back, if you don’t mind, just for a second on the word humble. And I think with respect to leadership, you know, it’s an important trait. I mean, not all leaders have it.
It’s—but—but it’s an important trait and recognize when you do. Our community—and this is going to take it in a little bit of a different direction, but the, you know, this community by nature—and people who’ve heard me speak over the last thousand years have heard me say this—but this community is a humble community by nature. I mean, people want to get stuff done.
People want to do good. And it’s like, “I’m going to do good, but I don’t need to be patted on the back. I don’t need any credit.”
Okay. A lot of anonymous giving, and we can go to generosity. And so—so that is, again, it’s an admirable trait.
However, it’s the enemy of inspired giving. It’s the enemy of inspired innovation. It’s—if you want that—like the idea that we keep it under wraps, if you—if you make a $1,000 contribution and don’t tell anybody and make it anonymous, it is worth $1,000 and it’s—and we appreciate it and we love it and it’s generous.
But if you make that same—let’s call it a $100 contribution and you talk about it with your family, you share it with your coworkers and your neighbors, and you don’t share it to boast about you, but what are your—what are your values? Why are you—why are you investing in this organization? Why are you doing that?
Or sharing innovation? You’re creating energy that builds community. And that $100 contribution may inspire $10,000 worth of contributions that you’ll never know about.
But like—so I always encourage leaders and community members to—to just talk about what they value, what—what they’re doing. I don’t have to be specific, but that’s part of Extra Give, our signature event that we started. It was part of the magic of Extra Give. It made it okay for people to talk about and share and get excited about the positive impact they were having on the community.
Nicholas Paulukow
Well, and I think you also made it easy too, right? Like you made it very easy to be, you know, I think many people want to help, but they don’t necessarily know how. And I think what’s really amazing about the Community Foundation is you made it a way for organizations that may not have the ability to be known to be known.
And it’s just a fascinating program. And I think it’s amazing. And I heard from another local leader the other day, and I said, “Well, you know, volunteering, giving your time and money.”
And they said, “Well, that’s really great.” And she goes, “I really appreciate it because we wouldn’t exist without it. But the real reality is, are we solving the root of the problem?”
Right? So giving the money is one thing, but are we getting involved enough to actually solve the root of the problem? Because money solves certain things but actually doesn’t change the minds of people if there is a problem.
And I’m hearing you kind of say, like, the more we educate—and I’m going to go a little deep here because I’m a faithful person. So when I heard you say that, I was like, wow, you know, from the standpoint of the disciples, right? Like, go out and tell others.
And so, not that I’m necessarily relating it exactly to you, but you’re basically saying be humble, and they were, but go out and tell others and spread the good news. And I never really thought about it that way, because I’m kind of one of those, like, I’d really love to help, but I don’t need the recognition. But you’re right, I’m not really actually helping.
That’s about me. That’s almost selfish that I’m not engaging other people to do the same thing. So I appreciate you sharing that.
That was an aha moment for me.
Sam Bressi
Well, that’s—and that analogy never struck me either. But it does—it does resonate. I go a little deeper in a different direction.
Because, you know, learning, volunteering, connecting, giving in the community is all important. But I find that having been in this role for 16 years, I came to a point where it’s like, we want to get to root causes, we want to solve problems, we hold ourselves accountable to that. But as a sector, the nonprofit sector, it’s—I mean, it’s a challenge.
The idea that in a community, if something’s called—dubbed a social problem, it’s taken—which is usually the most challenging, most entrenched issues that communities face—it’s kind of taken and it’s handed to this sector we call the nonprofit sector when, in fact, when in fact, the only way that we’re going to solve—to truly solve community problems and issues and challenges is if the whole community, if we bring the power of the real economy and the power of the whole community around these issues. And so what I—what I try to tell people, leaders of businesses, is that, you know, before you make a nickel contribution out of your business around, look at how your business is being run. Who are you buying from?
How are you compensating your employees? What can you do internally with your business to make sure that those people are not part of the safety net? And using safety net services?
So—and here’s the thing that I think we all should be aware of. And in this community, we should focus on and we should fix. And we’re talking to the business community here.
That there’s a United Way statistic called ALICE, asset limited, income constrained, employed. So think about that, asset limited, meaning they don’t have—they don’t have a lot. They’re not like a bank account.
Income constrained, meaning they’re not paid a lot, maybe their hours are shifting and they don’t have consistency, they can’t—but they’re employed, many of them full-time employed. There is a ridiculously high percentage of individuals in our community, our neighbors and friends, who are using safety net services who are full-time employees of our businesses. My dad had a car dealership, he worked, my mom did not work.
You know, I grew up in the 60s, 70s.
And—and it was possible that—that’s not even possible now. And why is that? Why is that?
So I think we need to look in—I think we need to look in the mirror as a community. And think about if we really want an extraordinary community, which is what, you know, our kind of mission is to embolden extraordinary community. You know, the idea of having extraordinary community—everyone has to have access, everyone has to be, you know, have full access to the services, people need to be paid fairly, people need to be taken care of, do business—good business for good first, and then be generous.
Nicholas Paulukow
If there’s, you know, around—well, if you do that, you have the ability to be generous, right? Like, that’s kind of my belief, right? You know, do—you can’t take it with you.
And so, you know, do good and others will do good to you, right? Like, it’s kind of that kind of—I think that’s amazing. You’re right.
Like, what—what hits my heart is my sister-in-law, right, is an educator. And she is a single-family contributor. Her husband died early, it was really sad. And she moved up from Florida, where she worked in public schools, but she was really called to a community or mission-driven education.
And she is in that, but she had to go to her boss and say, “Listen, like—like, I’m here, I’m a professional, but like, I’m, like, gonna go on food stamps here,” you know? And—and you would never know, right? Like, but I want to be part of this mission. And that—that really hits hard, right?
Like, that—that those people that are trying to do good and trying to kind of take care of themselves, you know, they’ll give back, but we’re—you’re saying basically that we’re not giving them the opportunity to do that. And even transportation or anything.
Sam Bressi
I think it’s good for business too. I mean, young people want to work for businesses that are authentically connected to community—goes back to kind of like being a little less humble about what—what you’re doing as a business leader in Lancaster. But this—this community is full of businesses who passionately care about this community as an outsider coming to Lancaster, right?
It was amazing to me how connected people were, how proud people were.
Yeah, and are, of this community. It just isn’t that way in—in other communities. There’s not this deep sense of connection, right, community. And it’s a real power. It’s like it’s a real strength of Lancaster, our collaboration, our care, our commitment to each other and to this community.
So, as a community foundation, you know, CEO, you know, the idea is—again, it was part of the magic of Extra Give, our signature event, right? It’s also part of the magic of the growth of the community foundation that people—I mean, we’re our community’s legacy endowment. So individuals who have lived in Lancaster, built their business, raised their family in Lancaster, individuals of all means, right?
They come to us and they say, “I want to leave a legacy. We want to leave a family legacy. We want to leave a big business legacy. We’re going to put dollars in today, we’re going to give today, and we’re going to—we’re going to prepare for tomorrow.” We happen to be celebrating our 100th anniversary.
And, you know, for many of those years, probably 80 of those years, it was bank trust officers, it was accountants and attorneys having private conversations, all behind the scenes—talk about humble nature—building this organization. And so, over the last 20 years, we’ve kind of upped the volume, you know, turned the volume up to kind of come and engage with—with people, invite people, and we’ve experienced some—some tremendous growth. But the opportunity—the opportunity in Lancaster to create—think about those people 100 years ago—they were thinking about us, they weren’t gonna ever meet us.
But they’re like, “We’re gonna—we’re gonna build a nest egg here, be able to invest.” It’s why we’re able to do it.
Nicholas Paulukow
And so I think what you’re doing in the community too, it’s a—I can relate it to like organization to kind of compare to what you’re saying. It’s kind of an aha—like, each year we do, we get everybody to rally together and say, listen, we’ll give 100% of what you donate again back in your name. So they all go out, they—they have all day of giving.
And then we say, okay, give me your receipt. And we’ll go back into the system. And we’ll donate again the same amount.
And we’re like, we have a lot of young people, you know, they’re just getting started in their life. And what’s really cool about what the Community Foundation does, everyone, is you can donate $5 or $25. You don’t have to be perceived like these huge donors that—and we appreciate them.
But what I thought was really neat about the program is it gives everyone of every means to be able to get involved. And I was dumbfounded the first year we did it. I was like, how much money did we give out?
And we’re like, thousands of dollars. And we’re like, unbelievable to see a 20-year-old give $1,000 of their money to 10 places, just blew my mind. So we had to have more conversation and say, why? What—what was—what—what impacted you so much?
And they go, I want to let you know all these nonprofits helped me. And so listening to their message was just amazing. And I think you’re right—business owners have to get involved but not assume that their people need to volunteer after work either.
Right? Like, one thing we instituted was called VTO. And people are like, what’s VTO?
And we do volunteer time off—paid. So listen, we want you to go and volunteer. And we’re going to pay you to do it.
So you don’t lose any money out of your pocket, but go do it. And then if they do their hours, we then—as their tenure, we give money to their—wherever they want to donate. And so we’re just trying to get them to be part of it.
But many people are like, well, I have a family, I have a hardship, I’m just trying to get to work. And I don’t have time after work. Okay, so like, go do it, get transportation.
I think many other business owners—it’s kind of time to act, right? Like, take the time to—to really invest in it, like you said.
Sam Bressi
Well, you’ve been supporting Extra Give, the tech side of Extra Give, for quite a while, and with volunteer support. So yeah, thank you—you and your employees. And that’s just like a little microcosm.
And yes, Extra Give is—again, it’s our signature event. We started it in 2012. I happen to be part of that team that introduced it.
As with most of our great ideas, we copied it off of Pittsburgh and Chicago and, you know, Seattle and others, so we have a whole network of community foundations we’re able to tap into. But with this, the community responded in a way that kind of blew everybody away across the country. So we’ve spoken and helped probably five different communities start Extra Give-type events, which we have trademarked Extra Give.
Here, it’s—it’s only in Lancaster, Extra Give. But since 2012—and this is kind of amazing—but since 2012, this community has donated over $100 million in 12 days, basically, since—since 2012.
The Community Foundation, because of the endowment, we’re able to pay the cost of the event—all the sponsors you see, like High Foundation, Murray Foundation, Steinman, and—and many more—you can check out the website extragive.org. All of that—all of that sponsorship dollar—all of those dollars go out to the participating organizations. So we’ve never taken a penny as the Community Foundation because we don’t have to—it’s our mission to inspire giving.
And we’re hoping that as we bring people into giving and philanthropy on Extra Give Day that they’ll learn a little bit about the endowment side, because the same—the thing that you were saying about, you know, whether you can give $10 or $1,000, or just support, you know, we’re trying to make it accessible and easy. The same thing is true on the endowment side—you can make an endowment gift now just as part of an insurance policy or your estate plan without costing you anything. Yeah.
And you make—you make provisions so that you’re giving to the community forever. That’s kind of the heart of what we do here.
Nicholas Paulukow
That’s amazing to that. So I read a lot of books, right? But one that our CEO group talks about is called “Live to Zero.”
And it says—it says you’re alive now, you have the wherewithal now, you’re alive till you have zero, right? Like, you know, where’s it going after you’re not here? So—so provide it to people who need it now.
Don’t wait till you’re dead to give it. You know what I mean?
Sam Bressi
Yeah. I was having a conversation over the weekend with a friend who shared that, you know, you don’t see any U-Hauls after the hearse. You don’t get to take it with you.
And whether you live to zero, whether you pass some of it down to your kids, right, and leave a legacy that way. But don’t forget about your community—your community’s here too.
And so that’s kind of what we’re all about. And I think that’s definitely my goal—live to zero. Again, another good book that I have to get that.
Nicholas Paulukow
Well, and what you’re also—that hit home to me is—I was—I just realized that I was taught to be—I was brought up in the mentality of it doesn’t matter what you have. Make sure that you take 10% of the money you earn, and everything will be fine. Even if you have a dollar, give 10% to help others because there’s others that are less fortunate than you.
But I realize from, like, hearing you talk, what also seems very powerful about what you do is that you’re training the people—training is not a great word, but educating and empowering those that don’t know what it means to give. And not because they don’t understand, but you were almost of a generation of like, we had an abundance. So what does it really mean to give?
Right. And I think that’s really powerful because if we don’t educate them, then how are they really going to figure out how to do it or teach the next generation to do it?
Sam Bressi
Well, and I think the other—the other thing that I think is—is just true is that giving over generations has—has felt like and been treated like an obligation, right? And we’re—that’s true.
I mean, I feel that obligation, but—but giving—there’s joy in giving. There’s a celebration of giving. And we’re kind of trying to bring that more in the center for the community, that, like, everyone should experience the joy of giving.
And so—and it doesn’t matter if it’s $5 or $500 or, you know, five hours of your time, or, you know, we talk about those who can’t give. There are people in this community who don’t have a credit card, who can’t give the $10 minimum for Extra Give, but they can go on that site and pick out organizations that they like, use their social media and their connections to—to amplify that. And they’re giving—they’re having an impact—that—that endorsement can be priceless to organizations.
Nicholas Paulukow
And I think you’re absolutely right there. That’s really key because everybody usually thinks giving is giving of money, right?
And I—and I kind of relate it to this way—wherever you’re at in your journey, right? Like, when my four kids are growing up, the means I had was maybe financial. But now that they’re starting to get older, I have more time. So now maybe it’s a combination of both. And I think that’s really neat too because you had mentioned about our team gets super excited about the Give and working with your team.
And so the people that volunteer, like, there’s not much of a lineup, right? They’re like, well, I don’t necessarily have the ability right now, but I want to go and volunteer my time.
And how excited they get. Like, they come back all jacked up of like, how neat it was just to be part of the community. And I think, you know, you mentioned that.
I think you mentioned earlier kind of, you’re talking about some level of the values, right? And, you know, for us, we realize that core values are key, and they’re not just items on the wall. It’s kind of we have to hire, fire, train, reward on values. And there’s nothing wrong with people that don’t meet the values.
But in reality, we have to move in the same direction with some level of core values. And I’ve kind of heard you saying that, especially with that team member that’s moving on, that like, that drives a bond of people that are here for the same reason.
Sam Bressi
We are really solidly a values-based organization, and it’s built over time. You know, integrity is kind of our fundamental starting point, but also relationships, equity, innovation, and courage. Those are our five core values.
We talk often about them, sometimes indirectly, sometimes directly. All of our work—we—you know, some of them we’re better at than others. You know, we have this aspiration to connect on all of them and elevate the work that we’re doing.
But we also then have what we use, and we work with a company called Work Wisdom over the years on our planning process with Kedren Crosby, who’s just a brilliant leader and brilliant facilitator and planner and coach. But we actually have what we describe as filter questions. So we have seven filter questions.
You know, is it practical? You know, so we go down the line, and so we’re able to assess in the moment what we’re doing, the programs we’re doing, the things we’re contemplating. And it actually works really well.
And our work—so we are an endowment organization, so we have people who have advised funds and we have organizations who have organizational endowment funds. Those things we tactically deliver, but we also have a pot of resources that we call them discretionary assets. People who have said, “Look, we don’t know what it’s going to be like in 100 years, 50 years, whatever, but you will, you’ll be on the ground.”
So we spend a lot of time thinking about what’s the highest, best use of our leadership and where your money goes, where your budget points is where everything ends up pointing. So we really integrate that conversation around values into those discretionary assets, and we use those almost exclusively around values-oriented programs. We have two big questions that we’re working with now, we’re about to go through.
We’re also celebrating our 100th year. So we’re doing a bunch of things with that. But the idea is, how do we elevate equity?
How do we make it a community for where everybody has access to all? And then the other thing that I think is really important, and it’s some of the books that I’ve been reading and work I’ve been doing, is around bridge building. How do we sit in a space where we know in a community we have shared values, and we have some values that—that are disparate?
And it’s okay. It’s okay.
Nicholas Paulukow
It’s okay.
Sam Bressi
Yep. How do we—how do we say, how do we acknowledge those things we have differences on, but yet find the areas that we can work together and with mutual respect, with dignity, seeing the humanity in each other. So a lot of the work I’ve been doing personally, and we’ve been doing organizationally, is wrapped around that.
Nicholas Paulukow
Oh, that’s amazing. And I think that also tells you, like, you know, right when we move up in leadership, you kind of said it earlier, like, right, it’s the two-to-one ratio—how much am I listening to how much am I speaking? Right.
And I learned so much from hearing you communicate. And if I interrupted you every five minutes, then I wouldn’t necessarily get the same impact, right? But if you compare that to kind of people in the community, it kind of goes back to that humbleness again, right? Are we willing to accept and receive information that may be different? But at the end, it seems like we all have the common ground of how we get there.
But are we willing to listen and—and—and be humble, right? Like, I think it’s amazing. I think that’s exciting, right?
You learn so much, right? Like, hearing my family background of where they came from and their history and how they operated in Poland, you know, drives different than somebody that might have come from a different culture. But at the end of the day, we have the same commonality if we’re willing to listen to each other, you know?
No doubt.
Sam Bressi
And that’s amazing. Listening—listening is—in bridge building and leading across differences and in divisive times, listening is the first—I think, again, back to the idea of know yourself, know who you are.
Nicholas Paulukow
Yeah.
Sam Bressi
And then go into every conversation with curiosity. Active listening. That’s a good word. And I’ve learned—I’ve—I’ve not done this.
Well, you know, I’m sure there might be somebody listening, it’s like, he wasn’t so curious with me, you know? And that might be true. Everybody’s learning, everybody’s growing.
And, you know, you can’t go back in time and fix things. But so, you know, we’re really working to be better at what we do.
And part of that is better listening, better connection, more curiosity. People will not hear you unless they’ve been heard.
Nicholas Paulukow
Heard, you’re absolutely right.
Sam Bressi
And bridge building isn’t about agreement. It’s about mutual respect and understanding.
Nicholas Paulukow
Yeah, I agree with you wholeheartedly. And I think that—that same journey of the book that I’m reading now—I’m not—I don’t promote it or get any money for it. But what is fascinating is to say that, like, what you’re saying is we’re all on a journey, right?
Like, the same for me. Like, the journey I was on, learning how to lead was bumpy. And those people probably are like, this guy’s nuts, right?
Or also learning who I was during that, right? As an entrepreneur, I’m different than a business owner, than I am different than another leader. And what I realized was, is I would—I was never really—I was kind of like private.
So I’m like, well, I don’t need to be boastful and explain who I am. But what I realized going through the journey of the process was, oh shoot, it’s OK to be who I am. Right.
There are other people. I’m not as nuts as I thought I was. And that creates a level of confidence—not arrogance, but confidence to be—it’s OK to be who you are.
Sam Bressi
You’re hitting on something that I think is, again, I’m glad you brought it up because being authentically who you are—authenticity, if you’re not authentic, you’re going to be in a constant state of stress, and people will see through you. You need to be who you are, and you need to be authentically who you are. And to be a good leader, I think that’s one of those critical pieces.
It’s easier said than done. I’m not sure how that—I don’t know how that happens. I think it’s good.
I think it’s listening to—having people who will be honest with you and share, and listening, learning, developing your own leadership style.
Nicholas Paulukow
Yeah, you’re absolutely right. As we kind of go into some other items, as we kind of wind down a little bit, you know, how do you—I mean, the organization, like, you serve other nonprofits too, right? And the community, like, how do you measure, like, as a leader?
My goodness. How do you measure, like, the impact? Like—like we all talk as leaders, it’s like, what’s the metric?
What’s the measurement? But, like, how do you measure the success of that or the areas of maybe improvement?
Sam Bressi
That is a really, really good and really challenging question. As a community foundation, I will—I’ll start by saying, we view our role as making life better, you know, year over year, for the people who choose to live, work, and play in this county. So they’re our ultimate end users.
Our nonprofit sector is our most valued partner. But they’re not our only—not partner. Our grants, our dollars are a really valuable resource, but they’re not our only—you know, it’s not the only thing we do.
I have found—we have learned organizationally that our leadership and our connecting ability, our convening ability, sometimes is outpaces our dollar grant investments, right? And we work in so many different areas. So it’s, you know, it’s hard to measure it all.
But I can tell you, and I have a personal philosophy in this organization, and that is, the more you can measure things, like, if we—if you’re asking me to be specific on people, how you’re impacted, I could do things like invest in feeding the hungry. And we could take all our dollars, invest, and then I could give you a one-to-one metric of, we invested this much.
And we fed this many people. Unfortunately, in 100 years, we’d still be doing the same thing. So the inverse is also true.
We view ourselves as trying to shape the community, to create a conversation, to create space and aspirational kind of space for—for our community. We look at the community and we try to find, like, the gems that if we lift them up—I mean, when we did Extra Give, it’s like, we looked around, this is such a generous community, look at all of what’s happening.
If we just put—if we put this out there, there’s a chance that people might really—and not even—we kind of blew us away the way it was responded.
So in certain instances, we’re—we’re able to measure success in the moment. But in more—more often than not, we’re kind of culture nudgers, you know, we’re kind of saying, we’re—we’re playing the long game, we’re going to be here forever.
And we’re going to serve our donors, we’re going to do the donor stewardship really well, we’re going to talk about values. So we can say, all right, we have more funds this year than we had last year, we have more fund holders than we had this year than we had last year, we, you know—so we can look at things like that. But—but we don’t—honestly, we don’t spend a lot of time there.
Because our time is—is really spent at a higher level as far as trying to work toward a strategic end, knowing that it’s a long-term process.
Nicholas Paulukow
I love that, you know, and I think that for listeners of leaders trying to work through things, right? Like, that’s so impactful. I was just thinking about some other work that I’m doing.
And, right. There’s a wonderful organization called the Samaritan Center. And when everything we base around is based around that same statement, like you’re saying, it’s about hope and, you know, hope and healing, right.
And so every time we look to do an initiative, does this affect that? And inadvertently, the funding, although it takes work, comes because we’re living out what we’re trying to do. And I think that’s really key.
And I think that’s what I’m hearing from you. Because so many business owners that are for-profit are like, profit, profit, profit—get it, we have to pay bills.
However, you’re saying live by your why, or why you exist. So like in our world, it’s about empowering through education. So if we can empower through education, then they’re more empowered to make informed decisions. And that’s great.
But—but it was an aha moment of like, shoot, you know, we get so wrapped up sometimes in, like, the numbers that are we really driving towards that. So thank you for sharing that. I—I was as an extrovert kind of working that out in my own head. So that was amazing.
Sam Bressi
I would be—I would be remiss and people would criticize me if I didn’t say, as a leader, you also have to make the numbers work. So there is time devoted to our—we have a chief operating officer and chief financial officers, we are doing the blocking and tackling—has to be done in every organization. But—but—but if you’re—if you want to be truly be a leader, and I don’t know what level it is, you have to be—have your eyes, your gaze over the horizon, you have to be looking at what’s coming next.
And so that’s—I think—I think this—that’s a huge part of the community foundation’s role in Lancaster County.
Nicholas Paulukow
Yeah, I love that. And so, Sam, would you say—what advice would you give to, like, emerging leaders who, like, want to aspire to kind of create change in their community, like you’re doing today?
Sam Bressi
Well, I—the first piece of advice I’d say is find a mentor or mentors. Actually, that might be the second piece. The first is get to know yourself, know who you are, know what you’re passionate about, know what your values are.
Every—you know, every organization, or many organizations have a mission statement and a value statement and other things. But people don’t do that enough for themselves. Understanding that first will kind of open up doors that—that—you didn’t realize.
So, again, and get mentors around that. Be flexible. Be—don’t—don’t think that you have to—if you want to make a difference, you have to be in the nonprofit sector.
That is just not true. There’s difference being made across the entirety of the economy, in the government sector, in the for-profit sector, and in the nonprofit sector. So I think there’s many ways to approach it.
And, you know, I—I think the idea of really finding your passions is—that’s really how you make a difference in your community. Find what you value. Just, you know, it takes thought, it takes—and it might take trial and error, you might try something that doesn’t work.
Learn from every experience, don’t burn any bridges, learn from every experience you can, and—and kind of grow and develop and talk to people who’ve been successful. We all have—we all have our insecurities and we’ve all failed. And we’ve, you know, so it’s not like there’s an end—there’s an end goal where you get to this Holy Grail of, now you’re a leader and everything, but your—your confidence is there.
It’s a process always.
Nicholas Paulukow
I love it. I love it. Thank you for sharing that.
That is really poignant. And I—it reminded me one last thing of—of years ago to my mentor, I said, “Man, I feel really guilty that I can generate money. Like, it’s not about the money.
It’s about the people that I help.” And the person sat there and looked at me and said, “Listen, God has given each of us a talent and a treasure, and he’s given you the ability to do that. But the question is, is that of how you use it.
And I’m hearing a lot of that from you, right? Not everybody has the ability to do that, but you have the ability to do it. But how are you going to use it?
Right. And if you’re going to use it to put it over other people’s heads or be flashy or do this, that probably is not the best method for a long life outside of here. But it’s, are you doing it to create other opportunities?”
And I was like, wow, that opened my eyes because I felt somewhat guilty, right? Like, this doesn’t seem fair. Like, how can I make it equal?
And that was an eye opening thing for me. And I think it’s important for people to hear that because they have the opportunity to serve their community through—through what you all do.
Sam Bressi
Well, I think the word equity is kind of—it’s been kind of twisted and turned, but I mean, it’s not about diminishing. It’s about—it’s about elevating and giving people the ability to be all they can be and be a full part of the community. So I think that’s kind of what you’re saying.
So that there is—there—there are people who use it and, you know, use it. And the next thing you know, there’s guilt around it. And, you know, but—but you don’t—it’s not about guilt.
It’s about the opportunity to lift people up where you can and be part of the community.
Nicholas Paulukow
I love it. And as we wrap up, so I ask this every time, you know, what books, resources, websites, podcasts, what—what are some resources that you use? Cause you’re an amazing leader.
What do you do to fill your cup up that you could share with other people?
Sam Bressi
Well, I can tell you, I do audiobooks and I do a book a month on audiobooks, and I do, you know, I read as well. And then I—I’m a music person. So I try to fit music in there because having mental health—being mentally healthy is really important, but I do listen to a lot of podcasts.
I’ll mention one podcast that pops to mind—Hidden Brain with Shankar Vedantan. Absolutely fascinating. Always.
I will. So I mentioned that the work that I’m doing and trying to do and we’re doing as a community foundation is really around leading in challenging times and trying to bridge differences. Three books that I recently read and actually got to be in Chicago on stage with one of the authors, Amanda Ripley, at a Council on Foundations conference, which was really awesome.
Her book is called High Conflict, and it’s about when conflict becomes so intense that you start to lose grip on reality and how we can deescalate. And she goes through a bunch of examples. It’s a fascinating book, and she’s a fascinating person.
David Brooks, who was also at this conference, he’s a New York Times Opinion columnist. His most recent book is How to Know a Person. And it gets to some of those leadership skills that we were talking about, about, you know, listening and all of this—all of these books.
And they all are leadership books at their core. And then one final book is I Never Thought of It That Way. It’s by Monica Guzman.
And it’s really tied into the political divides and understand—like, working to understand how people come to believe what they believe and to their perspectives and how to question and how to be curious even with people who you might—your first inclination might be, I don’t want to talk to that person. How can you sit across from somebody, you know, see their humanity? And it’s hard to hate somebody you’re sitting across from getting to know, even if you differ on many things.
Nicholas Paulukow
I love that. And you use the word that I think is really powerful—curiosity. You know, and too many times if we’re not curious, we make assumptions, and assumptions lead us down the wrong path. And I encourage everyone, you know, if you have an area of an emotion or a feeling, like, ask the question, like, hey, do you really mean that?
And I think that’s really key to getting—we can—you said it a lot—we can agree to disagree, but we can leave as friends, right? Like, you know, right. And I think you can’t do that if you’re not inherently curious, you know?
Sam Bressi
And the truth is, if—to work with somebody or engage with somebody, you have to—even in a marriage—you have to agree on everything. We would be all alone, all of us, but we will not agree. So there’s—there’s that.
And, you know, and the most curious question is, how did you come—how did you come to form that perspective? How did you get there? Because it’s a deeper question that kind of brings them to a space where it’s—it has more depth, it gives more room for a better understanding.
Nicholas Paulukow
That’s right. And I think that’s amazing. There was a group of people that I was together with in Texas when I was traveling, and we were at this restaurant and we were in this polarizing conversation that was political that I was like, “Oh God, this is going to blow up.”
And what was amazing, to your point, is everybody was passionate about their view but was willing to share it. And at the end, we left with people looking at other perspectives because they weren’t 100% informed of the details. And it was fascinating to see, like, if we did more of that every day, what a—what a world we would have, you know?
Oh, we’ve got some work to do, but we’re—we’re—we do. Well, as we—as we close today, what do you have any parting comments or feedback?
Sam Bressi
Well, just for people out there who are aspiring leaders, just continue to grow, continue to know yourself. 360 evaluations are a handy tool. Like, it’s like looking in the mirror of yourself.
And—and yeah, I just really appreciate the—I appreciate the opportunity I’ve been given. I’m the luckiest guy in Lancaster County to have kind of tripped into this role a bit and kind of found this community and this organization. So I feel really lucky and it might not have happened, you know?
So the idea of, like, just be out there, put yourself out there, take chances, and—and good things will come. You’ll find your space, and it’s a great country. It’s a great community.
It’s a great city. And it’s a—it’s a real privilege to be the CEO of Lancaster County Community Foundation.
Nicholas Paulukow
Oh man, Sam, we appreciate you so much. I mean, this has been super exciting and very motivating, and I—we appreciate you very much for everything you’ve done. I think you’re very humble, but although what you’ve done has inspired many other people to do great things.
And I think you really have a great talent for that. And—and I appreciate you sharing that with us because it’s just so invigorating because many times we hear so many things that don’t work and what your talent has to provide kind of this world is amazing. So we appreciate you very much.
Sam Bressi
Thank you. Thanks for having me, Nicholas.
Nicholas Paulukow
Absolutely. So there you have it, dear listeners, another riveting episode of the Servant Leader’s Library. I’m your host, Nicholas Paulukow, and closing out with our wonderful guest Sam.
And Sam, with your 30 years of executive wisdom, you’ve been steering the ship at the Lancaster Community Foundation like a seasoned captain. Your passion for community impact is contagious, and your commitment to a brighter Lancaster has us all dreaming big. So folks, let’s raise our virtual mugs of coffee, or tea if you’re feeling posh, and toast to Sam’s vision—a community that shines brighter than a thousand suns.
So until next time, keep leading with heart, serving with gusto. And remember, leadership is not about the corner office. It’s about the corner of your heart where kindness resides.
So signing off for the Servant Leader’s Library, I’m your host, Nicholas Paulukow, saying stay humble, stay hungry, and keep those leadership capes fluttering.
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