In this episode, Jenn Klein interviews Michelle Highberg, co-founder of Just Gather Wellness, a nonprofit focused on improving mental wellness through digital detox, gratitude, nature, and the arts. Michelle shares how rising screen dependency and social disconnection inspired her mission to help youth and families reconnect with themselves and others. She discusses the power of gratitude, breathwork, and emotional regulation, and emphasizes that philanthropy is not about money—but about love, presence, and serving humanity. Listeners will leave inspired to cultivate inner peace, practice daily gratitude, and become instruments of positive change in their communities.

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Guest Bio

Michelle Highberg was raised in Larchmont, New York by a teacher and social worker. Mom ushered Michelle into charitable work by volunteering in thrift shops from age 3. By age 7, Michelle’s dad taught her how to throw a successful gala at the Waldorf Astoria. In Madison, she fundraised for the Alumni Foundation. Upon graduation, Michelle decided to make fashion her career and was offered a buying role in New York City. Within 3 months, a dream job offer called her to both live and work in Laguna Beach, California.

Corporate fashion, international travel, business development, project management, sales, and design fueled her career in fashion. As a volunteer she continued to support causes.

In 2015, seeking a new challenge, Michelle took her recently acquired skills officially to the nonprofit sector to Working Wardrobes. Her title: Fearless Fundraiser & Special Event Planner.

Seeking more knowledge on best practices and ethics, Michelle obtained her CFRE in 2017. In 2020, Michelle partnered with Evelina Pentcheva to run Lido Paddle Project, a holistic wellness nonprofit serving first responders and veterans. In 2022, Michelle and Evelina co-pioneered a digital detox mental wellness nonprofit called Just Gather.

Addressing the academic and socio-emotional deficits faced by all students, Just Gather is all about community inspired wellness, inter-generational mentorship, and a much-needed sense of purpose for those feeling lost.

The arts, Nature and gratitude serve as bridges to inner peace. Based on the evidence and transformation seen through Just Gather’s gratitude curriculum, the team welcomed The School of Gratitude, Orange County as the nonprofit’s social enterprise and a mental wellness solution for all. Classes are offered in partnership with businesses.

As a founder, fundraiser, teacher, author, mom, and budding artist, Michelle works from a lens of gratitude. In life and business, her authentic relationships are stewarded with transparency, emotional intelligence and clarity. As a storyteller, Michelle appreciates the power of the word. As a CFRE, she is well versed in all fundraising modalities with strengths in major gifts, individuals, and donor affinity groups.

A lifelong learner, Michelle is currently pursuing her neuroscience coaching credential before aspiring to create a master’s in gratitude practices curriculum. She is writing books to create more unity, mental wellness, self-empowerment and safety for children of all ages. Michelle has three children and resides in Laguna Beach, California, married to Erin, a musician, composer and entertainer. She loves to hike, swim, beach, run, dance, ski, cook, play uno, scrabble, dream, pray, write silly poems, and feel gratitude, daily.

Show Notes

For more information and resources, please go to:

Website- Justgatherwellness.org

InstaGram- @justgatherwellness

LinkedIn – www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-highberg-cfre-/

Transcript

[00:00:00] Welcome to the You Are Philanthropist podcast. Today we’re talking with Michelle Berg. Michelle is a certified fundraising executive co-founder of Just Gather Wellness and principal of gratefully philanthropic Consulting.
Welcome to the You Are a Philanthropist podcast with Jen Klein, a certified fundraising executive and philanthropic entrepreneur. This show is dedicated to empowering and inspiring you to make a difference in your community and our world. Jen believes all acts of kindness matter, and this show is designed to help you take pride in your everyday actions of improving the lives of others and making a change in the world.
Now, here’s.
[00:01:00] Welcome to the show, Michelle. Thank you. Thank you, Jen, for having me. I’m so happy to be here.
I am so glad you’re here. This has been a long time coming. I had taken a break earlier this year to focus on my wellness, and now we’re back and we’re recording, and I’m so happy about that. Thank you. Tell me about yourself. Tell the listeners what we need to know about, just gather. Certainly. Um, well, my name is Michelle.
I live in Laguna Beach, California, and I am the mom of three Gen Z. And about three years ago we started a nonprofit. IT Who’s, whose mission is Positive Mindsets and Mental Wellness for youth and families. And we are, we have learned now the first digital detox nonprofit in the world, which we’re excited about, and we feel that it’s extremely necessary that we build community awareness, teach [00:02:00] neuroscience, increase brain potentials, and let people know the other ways they can reach emotional mastery.
Because we’re seeing a lot of escapism in the world right now, and we feel that our, our cause is super important and we’ve been serving the community for over three years. We’ve reached over 10,000 individuals in a, in an assortment of ways, and so happy to be here and be a part of just gather. We also just last week placed our CEO ly Burns, L-M-F-T-L-P-C-C.
Rockstar. And so I’m, I’m excited to watch our expansion with her leadership as well. And with, with that, I’ve become focused primarily on gratitude for the organization. Excellent. Tell me how you got started with creating Just Gather. Just [00:03:00] gather actually was an idea that came to me in nature. When I was witnessing what was going on with our students, the socio-emotional and academic deficits being faced by all that was due to not being able to be in the classroom, not communicating with each other.
And then the, the trouble they were having re assimilating as well. I was doing some volunteer work with Orange County Music and Dance. I was helping with some drum circles and they were doing outdoor learning. At parks, we were meeting at parks and getting together and doing music for wellness, and I was witnessing how children didn’t even know how to look at each other anymore.
And I, I realized then and there the socialization was having a, a drastic impact on them. And since then, screen use it went up pretty quickly, up 60%, just with that learning. And I think since [00:04:00] then. It’s impacted every single generation, not just our students, because the whole world changed. And so since COVID, cyber crimes, cyber bullying, all of that is up 800%.
There are a lot of things happening on social media in chat rooms, even with our littles on Minecraft, where they’re in completely dangerous situations. And quite frankly, most of the parents don’t even know. What’s going on. And so we are not giving up. We’re gonna keep moving forward, finding new partners, and we look at Just Gather kind of as, as a composer that works with all mental wellness, nonprofits, everyone relates to nature, the arts and gratitude, because those are the paths we focus on for inner peace.
And we’re, we’re excited with what we’re doing. I just love that you [00:05:00] saw something and decided I’m going to change that. I think that’s really profound and special, and it’s really what this, um, this podcast is all about. Mm-hmm. Is seeing a need, wanting to be the person who makes a difference and goes for it.
And I just say kudos to you. Thank you. Thank you. And it’s, it’s not about me at all. It’s really about a societal need. This is a need and it really is at the core of why we do philanthropy. Yeah. Philanthropy exists to compensate for what’s not going on in government and we, we are able to look back now on what happened with that pandemic as a huge public health failure and.
Look at the beauty that’s come out of it. People are coming together. There are more home schools, there are more outdoor learning [00:06:00] opportunities. There are a lot of other people beginning to realize the power of just gathering the power of loving one another and getting back to basics. Yeah. And understanding.
Understanding that we are all here to serve each other. Oh, I love that to serve each other. It’s so true now. Um, I think what is great about technology is that we connected. Mm-hmm. And I can’t wait for the day, which will be even more special when we hug and meet in person. Yes. That would be incredible.
Yeah. And mind you, I love technology. I love science. I, I am in the middle of a neuroscience class right now. I went back and got my early education credential after starting just gather ’cause I wanted to understand the exact impact that iPads were having on our zero to seven year olds. I [00:07:00] love technology.
I, I appreciate AI as a personal assistant. You know, I wanna know what corporates, uh, corporations might support a digital detox nonprofit. I can get that information in two minutes when it used to take me five hours. Yeah, it has a lot of benefits when we use it and we are the masters of it. The challenge comes when it takes us over, when our brains get hijacked or our children are shown repetitive videos and they’re screaming six, seven in class and, and brain rod is on, it’s on, and we’ve got to go the other direction and touch the ground again.
Oh, that’s beautiful. Yeah, I think, I think what I hear you saying is that there’s more than just limiting screen time. Mm-hmm. You know, whenever I go to the doctor with my young children, [00:08:00] one of their, you know, checkup questions every year is, how much screen time do you have a day? Mm-hmm. And you know, it’s higher than what I’d like it to be.
Um, but I think what we’re talking about now is not just the length of screen time, but like the quality of the screen time too. And again, it’s the fact that you have to even think about it, the screen time. I know a lot of parents who are complaining about the fact that their children just don’t read books anymore.
And the parents are being asked to go on screens to provide metrics for what the kids are doing on homework. And so it’s, it’s almost become a, a dependency and not an imposed dependency where the technology is directing everything we do. And that’s when I think we have to step away. And [00:09:00] say, I don’t, I might be on my cell phone for three hours today.
I might not be on it at all. I might do a digital detox with my family for a weekend. It’s really none of your business. Are we happy? Are we connecting? Are we having eye contact? Are we able to eat meals together without screens? These are the, the basic, the, as far as I’m concerned, you know, what, what has to happen?
A lot of children are acting out right now in the middle schools, 40% rates increases here in in Laguna Beach for our middle schoolers on suspensions, and they’re not even able to, to qualify the types of actions that are leading to this. And I know that what’s really going on is these kids are being ignored.
There are screen dependencies going on in homes all over this country. Right now there’s a child eating lunch with a parent staring at a phone. And so [00:10:00] when a child acts out for negative attention, that’s just natural. Our children are to be nurtured. Our teachers used to be mentors and they’re not getting the same love.
Yeah. This is such an important conversation and I’m so glad we’re having it, and we get to share that with a wider audience because what you’re doing with just gather and the points you’re bringing up today, just like you said, can really impact society as a whole. Mm-hmm. To bring us back to what our basic necessities are, which is each other.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Absolutely.
And who is your personal greatest source of inspiration?
I guess my mother who, who left us at the end of 2016 [00:11:00] was such a great influence on me. Still is. And I, I do believe this entire nonprofit is a continuation of the work she began. When she left, we had a wake. It was a surprise, it was an aneurysm. Um, and this very, very tall, very tall, seven foot tall, darker skinned man showed up at the wake and said, where’s the daughter?
And I’m like, I’m the daughter. And he said, I’m looking for the daughter. I came with a message. And at the time I didn’t even like connect the dots that the message might have been, you know, an inspiration from my mother. I didn’t get that. I was in shock and I think about more today and he said, you’re a mother when you went to college.
You’re a mother raised me and thousands of children and she taught us to be healthy [00:12:00] and she nurtured us and she taught us how to do art. She taught us about living healthy. She literally raised us. And now I am making murals all over Brooklyn and I’m uniting people with art. And that means your mother is still working through me.
Hmm. This is beautiful. And it, it was, you know, another seed. That was planted in me in 2016. That six years later, I believe my mother, my mother’s been one of my biggest influences. But I do also, I do mentor a lot of young women and I do usually wear a little crown, and I’ve given out for my own personal philanthropy, about 450 of these.
I always have them in my pocket. I get them on Amazon. [00:13:00] And, um, when they say, why are you wearing a crown? And I say, because I want to remember. I’m in charge of myself. I’m in charge of my body. I’m in charge of my brain. This, to me, is a body temple. And what we eat affects our brain and what we do affects our brain.
And my two biggest mentors, I tell them all, are Mary, mother of God. And Mary Poppins. Oh my gosh. Because I always have a bag, a ridiculously big tote bag with all sorts of random things in it all the time. I mean, it’s a bracelet I’m going to give them, or a frog or whatever. I’m, I’m, I constantly have bags of, of things because.
I feel we’re living in a time where it’s up to all of us, man or woman to be mothers for [00:14:00] humanity. And that when we see a child in need, whether sometimes it’s just a sticker, I hand them and what I’m really doing is saying, I see you, I hear you. I know you’re important. And um, I feel it when I feel they’re not feeling that.
And it’s a lot, it’s a lot of kids. Yeah. You’re an empath. Me too. I, um, you know, you’ve read my book. I wrote a whole chapter about I love your book. Mm-hmm. Thank you so much, Michelle. When I read your book, I, I felt like I could have written your book. I love your book. Yeah. We are totally kindred spirits. I, um.
I, I wrote, you know, I wrote a whole chapter about caregiving. Mm-hmm. And so just hearing the story of your mother and how important what she did was in the day-to-day, you [00:15:00] know, work of her life, um, and the change and the legacy she made because of those, you know, daily choices she made to mother, other children.
Mm-hmm. Um. That’s just so beautiful to think about how one woman’s legacy can have such a ripple effect. That’s what this is all about, is that ripple effect and. I actually, you probably don’t know this ’cause you’re not, you limit your social media just like I do. Um, but I recently made a reel, um, with a song, a spoonful of sugar.
Mm-hmm. Um, and pictures of, uh, my children. Mm-hmm. Um, I actually choose not to show their. Their faces, but um, the backs of their heads enjoying life because my goal is to be the Mary Poppins mom. That’s so cute. Yeah. It’s a good [00:16:00] reminder for me about, you know, Mary, mother of God as well as Mary Poppins.
That’s so funny that we hadn’t talked about that before. They’re a great combo, aren’t they? Yeah. Yeah. I love that because married mother of God to me is dignity, grace, faith. Reminding all of us that we have the same mission she does, which is to awaken that God, spark or Christ, whatever you wanna call it in each other.
Yeah. It’s everyone’s overarching mission is to awaken that love in other people. Yep. And Mary Poppins is just silly and fun. Yeah. And, uh, a little eccentric, a little iconic and all out there. Wow. And what special they’re, they’re, they’re opposites, but, but they have one thing in common and that’s love. Oh, a hundred percent.
Yep. And I think you [00:17:00] are pinpointing, like love is different things. It’s mm-hmm. Joy. It’s grace, it’s fun, it’s, you know, a melody. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. It is. And tell me about the day to day at Just gather these days. How can my listeners help you and what do they need to know about creating programs in their communities?
Um, ’cause I know you want to reach a wider audience. I’ve gotta say, just gather. So Pure, and I am a certified fundraising executive, and I do know how to fundraise well, but I haven’t really chosen to fundraise quite yet because I wanted to complete three years of serving, and we’ve reached [00:18:00] that three year point.
It is the end of the year. It is time that we start doing some asks. I mean even a $5 donation. Every penny helps us to buy more art supplies or we, you know, me, our board, we’ve been pretty much paying for everything and carrying on and it’s been a joy. However, it is time that we expand more, and I know we shall.
And so if anyone wants to help us. Even just following us on Instagram at just gather wellness that doesn’t cost a thing. Follow us like our posts make comments on our posts. It gets in other people’s feeds. That’s a huge way to help us. We want everyone to use social media for positive social impact.
Use it in a way to reach the masses. Repost things we don’t do. [00:19:00] TikTok. Specifically because we know what it does to dopamine levels, we know how addictive it is. So we do not do TikTok as popular as it can be, but we do reels and Instagram when we have time. Um, but it helps a lot because we are going to be reaching out to corporations and the more followers we have, really it makes a difference.
So that’s a huge way to help us go to our website, just gather wellness.org if they wanna make a donation or, or share it with someone who might be interested in it. We do see a plan of being all over the nation, and we do believe that a successful nonprofit is run like a business and that just gather is set up where we don’t have an office right now, but we can go to a Boys and Girls Club, we can go to a school, we can go anywhere and serve.
We have a catalog of [00:20:00] empowerment play shops. And a lot of these play shops are student led. We said, what do you wanna do? We wanna crochet. Okay. We want conscious dining. We wanna learn how to cook. We want to help every child become sustainable like we used to be. A child that knows how to sew a child that.
Knows how to vision a child that knows the power of their words to create. We want to teach our children how powerful they are because when they start seeing the results of their intentions, of their thoughts, of their minds, it’s wonderful to see what they can do. Um, a lot of what I do and a lot of our empowerment play shops are related back to gratitude.
That’s in follow up to the neuroscience class I’m [00:21:00] taking, I, I’ve written a book called Earth, our School of Gratitude, and the the tagline is, I am a simple workbook for Joyful Living. And so in that workbook I put in our six week grad School of Gratitude curriculum, and I’m guaranteeing a shift in mindset if it’s followed guaranteed.
Money, back Money, not that we’re getting money, but it’s in the workbook. Um, and in it it includes cognitive behavioral tool creation, like our little I am hearts, our wooden hearts that we color one side and we write I am statements on the other side that you can keep in your pocket and if you hit a rough moment, pull it out.
I am strong. I’m a sister, I’m a soccer player, I’m a musician. Whatever it is, remind yourself of who you are and you’ll snap right outta that head. [00:22:00] And that’s just one of many cognitive behavioral tools that, that we do create that are in the book to help people understand that they can create whatever they want.
But it’s really hard to do that when this is taking them over. So gratitude is huge. Um, so nature, the arts and gratitude are the paths we, we see to inner peace and we intertwine nature, art and gratitude into every single thing that we do at just gather as well. And, you know, I have a daily gratitude practice and, um, breath work too.
Mm-hmm. It’s so important to quiet your mind. Mm-hmm. We’ve talked about that offline before. Um, and I just love that. You’re teaching children the basics. Yes. And, but empowering them too. Mm-hmm. With [00:23:00] those tools that they need to not just be successful by society’s standards mm-hmm. But like, just have a happier, healthier life.
Absolutely. I mean, if there are two things that I feel our children need the most right now, it’s being able to do their own emotional regulation. Which breath work is the quickest way. Um, and the second thing is conflict resolution. When they’re being ignored, there’s a lot less talking going on, and they’re, they’re feeling a di division in the world or political problems or it all affects ’em.
They’re not seeing a resolution and their parents aren’t talking them through one. So if you don’t have conflict, conflict resolution on the exterior, it’s hard to have it on the inside. And then we have inner conflicts. And so the [00:24:00] more people are able to realize we are the microcosm, this is the macrocosm.
Our family is the microcosm for all of our politics and our wars. So if we could get, get straight inside. Get to that level of inner peace that’s necessary. No conflicts, harmony. It will radiate outward and this will be a happier world. It already is. I haven’t. I haven’t told you, but my word for this year was joy.
Mm-hmm. And my word for next year is peace. Mm-hmm. I feel like I’m kind of going through the fruits of the spirit, but mm-hmm. Um, you know, I’ve been, I would like more peace in my own life. Mm-hmm. But I’d also like more peace in the world. And I think about, um, I think it was, uh. A sissy who said, make me an [00:25:00] instrument of your piece.
Mm-hmm. And that’s my goal for the new year for myself, is to put more peace into the world and just, I’m excited about this conversation, about the fact that we’re recording it and we can go back to it and, well, it’s funny because the book Earth, our School of Gratitude is the workbook. But the book that’s really for the adults is called Wildfire.
Igniting Your Spark in This Battle, cry for Humanity. And in that book, I really get into just gather for a chapter, but the third book is called The Viking in the Princess. And it’s about a young man who discovers his identity. He discovers the whole armor of God. And he discovers St. Francis of Ass’s piece, that little quote, [00:26:00] and he takes that quote back to his Viking family in Sweden with his new bride, princess and Maria that he meets in Italy.
And he put, he ends the wars in Sweden. He engraves St. Francis of Ass’s entire peace prayer on the, uh, gates. And so that entire prayer is in the book. Um, and I think it’s so important that we are all instruments of peace. That’s, and that we take responsibility for that fact, that we’re choosing it every minute.
I didn’t even learn about the whole armor of God until last year, but there are shots of peace that we get to walk with shields of faith, belts of truth,
and right now, yes, the [00:27:00] truth. The truth can set a lot of people free. Amen. Mm-hmm. Yep. So for our listeners who, um, are not just inspired to give back, to just gather or to learn more or to access your books and resources, I’m wondering what you can give them today to inspire them to make a change in the world and to be that instrument of peace.
What would you say, um, they should do, uh, and where should they start? They should start before they get out of bed every morning, that first five minutes prior to being taken by any words, any screens, any thoughts or fears to control those thoughts to emotionally regulate. Start with a little breath [00:28:00] work and to own that this is a new day and you’re grateful for it.
I wiggle my toes when I’m in bed. I wiggle my toes and say, thank you for my toes. Thank you for my ankles. Thank you for my knees. Thank your whole body. Go all the way up your body. Say thank you, and say thank you for the brand new day, the new canvas that you can turn into. Anything you want, a masterpiece of a painting.
And when you take your feet outta that bed, I say. This is a holy day and I’m so grateful I can walk and it doesn’t even matter if you have, you could have no money in the world. You could have stresses beyond measure, but when you’re able to start your day in gratitude for whatever it is you do have, I guarantee it appreciates.
I say in my book, it’s the [00:29:00] only stock that appreciates gratitude. The more you express it, the more it comes to you. ’cause you’re resetting your brain to feel it. And when your brain can feel it, your body and your circumstances follow to create more. And it’s, again, it’s magical and it’s the most powerful force on earth as far as I’m concerned.
And I know it’s the reason I’m here to teach gratitude, to shift mindsets from programming. That has people feeling that they’re limited.
Um, I always ask a powerful question at the end of my, um, interviews and that I’m really looking forward to your answer. What’s your vision for a better world?
My vision, I guess my vision [00:30:00] for a better world. Is an eco-conscious society where we’re finally able to understand that we are one. There are no colors, there are no religions. There’s just love. And divine love is our greatest Taylor, and that’s what we’re made of, and all the other junk that gets in the way and tells us otherwise, and that if we’re able to come back to that feeling.
Divine. Love it. It forms a web of love, and I can see it in people’s eyes. It doesn’t matter where I go, the tiniest smile as I tell every child, you’re a philanthropist, you’re a philanthropist, you’re a philanthropist. You don’t need money. Are you kidding me? That smile and that eye contact at the same time, that’s enough to [00:31:00] change the world.
Philanthropy is love for humanity. That’s what I Oh, you gave me the goosebumps. Oh, beautiful. And um, I just, do you have anything that you wanna say that has been, just so there’s nothing left unsaid that you would want to leave with my listeners today? I just wanna give cheers to everyone out there at this time.
Who’s speaking up, who’s sharing what I’m sharing. I, I just, I am, I’m in, in awe and I’m in love with so many heroes out there who continue to mentor me. I didn’t even read AM Mel’s book called Let Them. I heard her on Bill Maher Friday night and I’m like, we, we spent the whole weekend being like, oh, let them and let them and let them, and we realized, let [00:32:00] them, is the Serenity Prayer.
That’s it. It’s the serenity prayer and that when we’re able to accept that we can just let everyone do whatever they’re gonna do and we can do our best to shine inside. That’s the greatest influence we can have. So I’m grateful for that book. I’m grateful for Joe Dispenza. I’m grateful for so many people right now speaking up for the fact that we have got to get off our devices, stop overlying on AI and technology, and per our hashtag, look up and look out and look at each other.
Understand that and stop watching the news. We are the news. That’s what um, Avelina, our co-founder and I say to the kids, we don’t watch the news. We put [00:33:00] people in front of phones ’cause we know you are the news. So brilliant. You’re the news. Tell us something. We hear you and we see it.
Michelle, thank you so much for coming today. There’s so much words of wisdom that I’m going to go back to and I hope my listeners go back to and feel inspired by today. Oh, my pleasure. I’m my pleasure to be here. There’s so much more to do. We’re all doing it. Thank you for all that you do. Truly, you inspire me.
I’m so glad we connected. You inspire me, and every quote in your book inspires me too. Aw, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, LinkedIn has been a wonderful way for me to meet friends, especially those in California who are doing such great work over there, and I’m so glad that it allowed us to connect, and I can only hope one day we connect in real life.[00:34:00]
We will. I promise. Maybe we’ll do a book tour. We’ll go, we’ll go share our books at some bookshops together. That could be fun. Oh, oh, I love that. It’s on the horizon, I promise. Awesome. Michelle, thanks for coming today. Thank you for having me. Appreciate you. Have a wonderful day.

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