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Meet Lisa McAlister of With Good Cause in Boulder

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Lisa McAlister.

Lisa, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I started my career as a lifestyle journalist and editor working primarily in magazines and some art and architecture book editing. I ran a successful publication for tourists and expats in Munich, Germany where I lived for eight years. It was an amazing time in my life, traveling and learning a ton about publishing. I had a focus on food and wine writing for a while, which is an incredible way to experience Europe for sure! When I moved there, Munich was home to more publishing houses than even New York or London so I had no problem finding work in a foreign land, which made it an easy transition. I learned the language quickly and there’s no better place to hone business negotiation skills than with Germans, so it’s where I got my feet wet and learned to be brave all at once.

I moved to Boulder in 2003 in the midst of a very painful divorce. I didn’t know a soul and felt like Boulder had chosen me versus me choosing it. I started a custom publishing company and dove into my community head first. It was an uncertain time for me and I had been raised to turn to service and community in times of struggle so that’s exactly what I did. I loved learning the stories behind businesses and understanding people’s purpose, being a part of the Boulder community in that way really lifted me. I spent those first years building friendships and volunteering a lot. I discovered that I had a knack for fundraising and loved connecting businesses to nonprofits that aligned with their mission. I absolutely loved the work of helping people spend their money from a place of love vs. fear. A turning point for me was when I was volunteering on the organizing committee for a charity golf tournament for the “I Have A Dream” Foundation of Boulder County. It was the day before the event and I was running some last minute errands. I was driving down Broadway, thinking about the next day and how excited I was to see the businesses I had brought on board interacting with other donors and learning about the mission of the foundation. I had the biggest smile on my face and I thought this is the smile you get when you first fall in love. You know, the one where someone catches you thinking about someone and asks, “what are you smiling about?” I had fallen in love with this magic that happens when values are aligned and people work together to impact social change and make their community better. I decided in that moment that I wanted to feel that way every day and that I wanted that to be my work. I think that was around 2007 and that is when the first seeds of my agency, With Good Cause, were planted in my heart. I envisioned an agency where I could help both nonprofits and for-profit companies to make an impact through better communications and community engagement and my company today looks very much like that first vision.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
My transition from publishing took a few years while I figured out exactly how to build my agency and what services would be most valuable to clients. The idea of corporate social responsibility was still a new concept to most businesses. They understood it to mean going green. They were leaving the people factor out of the people, planet, profit concept. So those early days, I felt like I was spending a lot of time educating clients about the benefits of community engagement and why they needed to do it well, be authentic.

I officially opened my agency doors in 2010 and that same year my Dad fell ill and passed of cancer. I remember feeling like I couldn’t give the business the attention it needed and thought about taking a “real job”. I had a few very loyal and compassionate clients who gave me a lot of grace while I navigated my personal life and the loss.

Then, in May of 2012, just as I was starting to feel like I was gaining traction, my Mom died suddenly and I was shattered. Everything I knew about community, about making an impact, about creating change and standing up for what matters I learned from my Mom. When I was first in Boulder, she was visiting when I was presenting a workshop for the Boulder Chamber’s Women’s Leadership Group, so she attended with me. After my presentation, an attendee and fellow Boulder businesswoman came up to me and said, “I met your mother, now I know why you have this light for our community.” I was so proud to be her daughter. Some dark times followed her death. When you’re a business owner, I think it is very difficult to draw lines between business and personal life. When one is not in balance the other suffers equally. My whole heart is in my work with clients and so if my heart hurts, it is difficult to stay in sync with my intuition and the work. And if work is off balance, then I find it hard to be happy in my personal life and my relationships suffer. For me, it is something I have to work on consistently. In the last few years, I have regained my ability to align with my intuition and so the projects and clients that I choose are truly in line with the impact I want to make and the people I want to surround myself with. I’m more resilient than ever. My ability to help clients through COVID and shift my own business has proven that to me. I don’t take it for granted though. I am grateful beyond words and ask myself each morning, “how do I want to serve today?”

With Good Cause – what should we know? What do you do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
With Good Cause is a full-service communications and PR agency. That means we do a lot of media relations, communications strategy and community engagement planning for nonprofits, for profit companies that are guided by a social mission and for people of influence.

In 2015, I began working with Denver Bronco Von Miller to manage PR and communications for his foundation Von’s Vision. I have always been a sports fan and recognize the power of the influence that professional athletes have to do good work in our communities. My work with Von led me to become certified in Sports Philanthropy and I now serve as an advisor for the sports philanthropy program at The George Washington University in Washington D.C., where I get to work with colleagues from teams across the country. Very few agencies specialize in sports philanthropy from the communications, PR and engagement perspective and I love working behind the scenes in that arena to help athletes and teams leverage their influence for good. I think that expertise sets us apart as well as the fact that we work with social mission driven clients. If you want to change the world for good, then we can help you do that in a strategic, connected, authentic way.

I’m most proud that focusing on mission and social impact also gives me the opportunity to continually engage deeper in my community. I am incredibly passionate about working with young people and have served on several boards and as a mentor for youth-focused nonprofits. I know there is a lot of rhetoric out there about entitlement of the younger generation, but I have experienced some of the most compassionate, brave, smart and hard-working people between the ages of 15 and 25. Over the years, I’ve been a mentor with the “I Have A Dream” Foundation, The Public Interest Internship Experience at CU Boulder and currently The Watson Institute. The innovation, open minds and positive attitudes that these young people bring to the work they are doing is an energy that I want more of in my life. Despite wanting a great big family, I never had kids of my own. By simply putting myself out there and offering support, I have accumulated a tribe of young people that continually remind me that I can always do better and that if I live from a place of love, it will come back to me ten-fold. I see clearly now that this was always the way I was meant to serve. I think as With Good Cause evolves, working with young people will become an even bigger part of my life.

What is “success” or “successful” for you?
First, by the quality of my relationships. Without the ability to connect to my clients and my community on a genuine level, I would have nothing. This has never been more true than during COVID. Supporting my friends and colleagues and knowing that I have a network of people to call on for just about anything (and I certainly have) is what doing business is about. This has been one of the most challenging times, but I have also done some of the most exhilarating work of my career and I’ve done it with compassion.

Second, by impact. I have to be moving the needle or I’ll get bored and move on. Few things frustrate me more than stagnant projects or indecisive people. When you are working with people who are trying to solve some of the most urgent problems of our time – hunger, healthcare, poverty, education – the sense of urgency can be palpable, and it requires taking risks and failing sometimes. Bold action is required to move forward. The most impactful advice I ever heard was that we have two choices in every situation – love or fear. I choose love as often as possible.

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