What if the most generous thing a funder can do is stop giving a little to everyone?

In this episode of Fuel for Female Founders, Andrea interviews Kate Groat, Director of Corporate Philanthropy at Live Oak Bank, the Wilmington, North Carolina lender ranked first in the country for SBA 7(a) lending by dollar volume. Kate is a teacher by trade who spent a few years as what she calls a “pretend banker” before being handed the bank's giving with no playbook. She built it by listening to everyone who would talk to her and found that nonprofits wanted two things: money and data. She went on to help found Cape Fear Collective, a nonprofit that puts data behind the region's hardest problems.

Kate and Andrea trace the thinking behind her work. Kate wants to cure the problem, not just stop the bleeding, even though root causes take longer and cost more. She makes the case for funding nonprofits like the businesses they are, with follow-up and real outcomes, and explains why philanthropy and government money will never be enough on their own. That idea led to The Forward Fund, which she and Meaghan Dennison dreamed up: zero percent loans for short, high-demand training tracks like electrical line work, repaid by graduates so the money moves to the next learner. She also explains why Live Oak supports a shared substitute pool for early childhood centers, because no one can take a better job if their children are not safe and learning.

This conversation goes well beyond grant making. Kate talks about how Live Oak builds giving into its culture, about being the on-call parent in a full-time job, and about the question working mothers still get asked. Her closing advice is to know your yes. Live Oak went from small checks for nearly a hundred organizations to larger grants for fewer than 30, and Kate says the no's got easier once the bank knew what it was for.

This episode is for the woman who wants her time and money to change something that lasts, who is tired of sitting on the sidelines and is ready to act on the cause that is hers.

In This Episode, Listeners Will Hear

• What separates stopping the bleeding from fixing the root cause
• Why nonprofits deserve to be funded like the businesses they are
• How The Forward Fund uses zero percent loans to move people into better jobs
• Why workforce development starts with safe, reliable child care
• Why knowing your yes makes every no easier

Timestamps

(0:00) Intro

(0:38) Meet Kate Groat of Live Oak Bank

(2:30) Treating root causes, not just symptoms

(3:42) Funding nonprofits like the businesses they are

(6:21) Why this is the moment to give

(8:52) How The Forward Fund was born

(13:10) Early childhood care and a shared sub pool

(17:31) Inside Live Oak Bank's mission

(19:24) Working motherhood and the full-time question

(22:23) Know your yes

Resources and Connections

• Kate Groat on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kate-groat-0766b31a
• Guest Website / Resource: https://www.liveoak.bank/
• Live Oak Bank on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/live-oak-bank
• The Forward Fund: https://theforward.fund/
• Cape Fear Collective: https://capefearcollective.org/
• Fuel for Female Founders: https://www.fuelforfemalefounders.com/
• Andrea L. Johnston on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrealjohnston
• Fuel for Female Founders on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fuel-for-female-founders
• Kate Groat, Women I Want You to Know feature: https://www.fuelforfemalefounders.com/featured-women/kate-groat/

Produced by: UNFLTR

What does it take to win the most competitive seat in your state, and then decide the bigger job is filling the seats around you?

In this episode of Fuel for Female Founders, Andrea interviews Mary Wills Bode, former North Carolina State Senator for District 18 and co-founder of Electing Women North Carolina. Mary was practicing law on Wall Street when the 2016 election pulled her into fundraising and phone banking, then home to North Carolina to run a bipartisan nonprofit working on extreme partisan gerrymandering. Her parents met on a political campaign, and her mother's rule has stayed the same: do not sit on the sidelines and watch other people do it, get in the game.

Mary and Andrea trace the run itself. A redrawn district opened in Granville County, a third Republican, a third Democrat and a third unaffiliated, and the most competitive seat of that cycle. She was told a Democrat probably could not win it, ran anyway and won. Inside, she found a superminority with no real check on power, a salary of a little over $13,000 a year that favors retired and independently wealthy members, and a legislature majoring in minor things while healthcare, education and infrastructure waited.

This conversation goes well beyond one term in office. Mary explains why she chose to leave public service to help first-time candidates get their feet under them, why she says women in North Carolina give only about 30% of political donations, and why one woman at the table cannot move policy on her own. She talks about lived experience you cannot fill in with assumptions, about what pregnancy has sharpened for her, and about the county commissions that run the budgets people feel most. Her closing ask is simple: vote, get educated on what you can, and do it for the women who could not.

This episode is for the woman who is done watching policy get written without her, who is tired of staying passive and is ready to give, run or back someone who will.

In This Episode, Listeners Will Hear

• Why the 2016 election moved Mary from watching politics to organizing.
• Why she ran for a seat she was told a Democrat could not win.
• How a $13,000 legislative salary decides who can afford to serve.
• Why she stepped away from the legislature to build a bench of first-time candidates.
• Why one woman at the table cannot move policy on her own.

Timestamps

(0:00) Intro

(1:21) From Wall Street law to political organizing

(2:43) Taking on extreme partisan gerrymandering

(6:32) Winning the seat, then choosing not to run again

(8:03) A $13,000 salary and who can serve

(11:28) Electing Women NC and the giving gap

(13:25) Why one woman at the table is not enough

(15:38) Fighting for breast cancer screening coverage

(17:01) How to show up for this ballot

(21:26) Races to watch and what county commissions do

Resources and Connections

• Guest Website / Resource: https://electingwomenalliance.org/
• Electing Women Alliance, Get Involved: https://electingwomenalliance.org/get-involved/

• Fuel for Female Founders: https://www.fuelforfemalefounders.com/
• Andrea L. Johnston on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrealjohnston
• Fuel for Female Founders on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fuel-for-female-founders
• Women I Want You to Know, the former LinkedIn feature series: https://www.fuelforfemalefounders.com/linkedin/

What happens when the women you interview start holding up a mirror?

In this episode of Fuel for Female Founders, Andrea goes solo for a mid-season check-in. She looks back at the first guests of Season 2. Laura Meyer built Envision Horizons with clear roles alongside her husband. Allyse Cirillo walked away from a brand she had scaled for someone else to build SAINT Jo around what is good for her. Heather Turner and Katherine Stueland, two CEOs, both told her the same thing: you are more ready than you think. Andrea then names where those conversations meet. Building takes daily, unglamorous work and a willingness to be wrong. Community is load bearing. And the leap comes before the readiness.

Then she makes it personal. Andrea goes back to founding Pure Communications, to the moment her husband joined the business, and to the work of being clear about who owns what when you build with a spouse. She talks about co-parenting as support that runs both ways, and she admits that some of the discipline she built early on slipped over time. Her conclusion is that habits are muscles, and that conviction and confidence need maintenance at every stage. She closes with why the show exists: the gap between what these women have built and how visible they are. Then she previews the movement arc and the exit arc still to come.

This episode is for the woman who is building something real, who is tired of sitting on the sidelines and is ready to move before she feels ready.

In This Episode, Listeners Will Hear

• What Laura Meyer's clarity of roles shows about building with a spouse
• Why Allyse Cirillo walked away from a brand that looked successful on paper
• What Heather Turner and Katherine Stueland mean by "more ready than you think"
• Why the willingness to be wrong separates builders from dreamers
• Why community is load bearing and not a nice-to-have
• How the leap comes before the readiness
• What co-parenting looks like when support runs both ways
• Why habits are muscles that need maintenance at every stage
• What is ahead in the movement arc and the exit arc

Timestamps

(0:00) Intro

(1:16) The first guests of Season 2

(3:27) Three lessons these conversations share

(5:05) Building with a spouse and co-parenting

(7:07) Habits are muscles that need maintenance

(8:16) Why these builders deserve to be seen

(9:49) The movement arc and exit arc ahead

Resources and Connections

• Connect with Laura Meyer on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauracatherinemeyer
• Connect with Allyse Cirillo on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allyse-cirillo
• Heather Turner on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heather-turner-759146b
• Katherine Stueland on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katherine-stueland-4830512

• Fuel for Female Founders: https://www.fuelforfemalefounders.com/
• Andrea L. Johnston on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrealjohnston
• Fuel for Female Founders on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fuel-for-female-founders
• Women I Want You to Know, the former LinkedIn feature series: https://www.fuelforfemalefounders.com/linkedin/