We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Taylor Germain a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Taylor, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

My professional background is in teaching and working within the special needs community so behavioral health has always been a passion of mine. When I moved to Columbus in 2013, I began my professional relationship with Nationwide Children’s Hospital working in their Autism Center. Since then, I have left the hospital to stay home with my 3 children and in 2019 I felt encouraged to seek out ways I could give back to the hospital and support the mental and behavioral health needs of the children being treated at this incredible facility. At that time, the Big Lots Behavioral Health Pavilion was under construction and I connected with another member of my community, Brad Sheely, to explore ways we could form a group dedicated to raising money for mental health programming through NCH. Brad and I formed The Beehive Alliance in hopes of creating a community of people who felt as passionately as we do about supporting our children’s mental health as well as raising up a hospital organization we feel so blessed to have access to should our children ever need it. In addition to fundraising, our goals for raising awareness and reducing the stigma around seeking help for mental health issues stems from the amazing work of the On Our Sleeves movement. We have had to shift our focus over the past 3 years as the global pandemic has made it challenging to plan in-person fundraising and recruitment events. The Covid-19 pandemic has also highlighted an increased need for funds dedicated to the treatment of mental health issues in children. I have witnessed the importance of prioritizing mental health in my own household as we navigated the past 2 years with such major shifts in our day to day living. Now, more than ever, we feel the need to make an impact in our community by working to reduce that stigma felt by so many to seek treatment as well as encourage families to prioritize their child’s mental health as much as they would their physical health.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

The Beehive Alliance is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that is dedicated to creating a buzz around pediatric mental and behavioral health issues. We are based in Columbus, Ohio and are committed to providing the resources necessary to families in our local community burdened by these issues, so that no child is denied access to treatments that can change their lives. Specifically, we raise money to support Nationwide Children’s Hospital’s behavioral health programs and the On Our Sleeves movement. On Our Sleeves is a national movement to break stigmas around children’s mental health while providing free resources to families and educators to support our children’s mental wellness. The Big Lots Behavioral Health Pavilion is America’s largest center dedicated exclusively to child and adolescent behavioral and mental health on a pediatric medical campus. Featuring inpatient services, intensive outpatient services, a Psychiatric Crisis Department and research all under one roof, this integrated pediatric behavioral health approach serves as a model for other health care systems across the nation.

The Beehive Alliance hosts 3 annual fundraising events and various other community events such as a mental wellness fair aimed at catching kids before they head back to school and equipping them with a “mental health toolbox” to support them as they return to school. Our 3 events are designed to encourage whole-family participating in fundraising and increasing awareness around pediatric mental health.
First, we organize a community-wide lemonade stand run by children and families in our surrounding communities to raise funds for NCH and awareness for pediatric mental health. Families are encouraged to sign up, receive a lemonade stand kit from The Beehive Alliance, and participate in the lemonade stand on a designated Sunday in May!

“Party in the Patch” is a family friendly fundraising event where a ticket will get you an afternoon of food, entertainment, outdoor games, s’mores, and more at a local pumpkin patch here in Columbus, Ohio.

Finally, “A Night in the Hive” is an adults-only fundraiser that includes food, drinks, live music, a speaker from Nationwide Children’s Hospital and a silent auction. For more information about our events, please visit our website www.thebeehivealliance.com.

I think something that sets The Beehive Alliance apart from other organizations is that we are a group of volunteers who share a similar passion for pediatric mental health. We all recognize the importance of making mental health as important as physical health and feel a strong call to collectively work towards our fundraising goals to support these mental health programs at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. One of our major fundraising goals is to be able to make larger donations to fund research. One of the best ways to attract pediatric psychiatrists to NCH is to have a robust research program and major funding is needed in that area to continue to make NCH and the BHP an attractive place to work. Every dollar we raise gets us closer to that goal. That being said, I am immensely proud of the large donations we have already been able to give in the short amount of time we have been an established organization, especially with the negative impact of the pandemic on our fundraising efforts. Another aspect that sets us apart, in my opinion, is that we encourage the whole family to participate in fundraising. Watching children set up and run lemonade stands to support pediatric mental health is not only inspiring but gives families an opportunity to talk with their children about the important of mental health and also supporting others in the community that need it the most.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

The Beehive Alliance was created in 2019 and as my co-founder as I were working to recruit members dedicated to reducing stigmas around mental health and passionate about fundraising, the pandemic hit. In-person recruiting and fundraising events were totally out of the question. It felt like an uphill battle trying to get our message out and create a community without the social aspect of meeting and seeing other community members in person. We had to shift not only our outreach strategy but find creative ways to raise money without planning large- or small-scale in-person fundraisers. We recruited a friend to start our social media channels and work on outreach through Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. It took time, but we eventually gained enough members of the hive through social media and our own social networks, On the fundraising front, we found creative ways to raise money that first year like creating a education-based “busy-book” for children in the hopes it would serve as something constructive to help parents out during those tricky pandemic times when many were stuck at home tasked with juggling childcare on top of daily duties. Community members hosted smaller fundraisers and we organized a holiday drive for the patients at the Behavioral Health Pavilion at Nationwide Children’s Hospital.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

For us, a local non-profit organization with a specific purpose, the most effective strategy for growing our community has been word of mouth and social media. Our main “clientele” would be two-fold…donors and those who want to join our organization. Both membership and event sponsors/individual donors have grown twofold since the introduction of our social media channels. I have to credit our amazing social media team, Meg Hall and Alex Fliotsos, for staying on top of the most important pediatric mental health topics to share with our followers.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.thebeehivealliance.com/
• Instagram: @beehivealliance
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/beehivealliance

Image Credits
Riley Elizabeth (ANITH photo)