What if changing the world started right outside your front door? In this episode of You Are A Philanthropist, Jenn Klein talks with community builder, neighboring advocate, and historian David Burton about the power of becoming an engaged neighbor. David shares how realizing he knew only two neighbors after 18 years in the same home sparked a personal—and eventually professional—mission to strengthen neighborhoods through relationships, kindness, and connection. Together, Jenn and David explore how simple actions like learning a neighbor’s name, lending a helping hand, gathering people together, or simply noticing someone can create belonging, combat loneliness, and build stronger communities. David also shares how his Christian faith inspired his journey and reminds listeners that philanthropy doesn’t have to come from your wallet—it can come from your calendar, your toolbox, your front porch, and your willingness to show up for the people around you.

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Host Bio

Jenn Klein is a health and wellness coach who empowers everyday philanthropists to improve their well-being through generosity, storytelling, and holistic practices. She is a Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE) and Certified Health Coach. She is the founder and CEO of You Are A Philanthropist, a merchandise and podcast company promoting the love of giving back. Jenn is on a mission to share the benefits of generosity, not just for others but for yourself and our world. For nearly 20 years, Jenn has helped nonprofits grow through best fundraising practices and strategies. Jenn also coaches individuals to make healthy lifestyle choices, which, at their core, include giving to charity. After traveling the world with her fundraising career, she learned through early motherhood, the value of giving to those closest to you is the best way to start to make the world a better place. She lives outside of Boston, MA with her husband and two sons.

Guest Bio

David Burton has served as a Community Development Specialist with the University of Missouri Extension since 2001, where he leads innovative educational programs focused on leadership, rural heritage, and neighborhood and community level engagement. Based in Springfield, Missouri, David has dedicated his career to fostering stronger, more connected communities through neighborly engagement.

In 2021, David founded Missouri Good Neighbor Week, a statewide initiative that was officially signed into law by the Governor in 2022. The program gained national acclaim in 2023, when Neighborhoods USA named it America’s “Neighboring Program of the Year.” In 2024, his Engaged Neighbor Program was also honored as the Program of the Year by the University of Missouri Extension, further cementing his impact on community development.

Missouri Good Neighbor Week has a clear mission: “Inspire and equip Missourians to build connection, belonging, and trust through intentional acts of neighboring and then to celebrate those successes.” The theme of the week is: “A year of neighboring activity and a week to celebrate it.”

Burton’s Engaged Neighbor Program is a statewide initiative through MU Extension that helps residents get better at the simple, but powerful, practice of neighboring. His leadership has driven statewide initiatives like “Neighboring 101,” “Show Me Neighborhood Art Month,” “Out and About,” and the continued growth of Missouri Good Neighbor Week. Each of these programs are designed to raise awareness about the power of engaged neighbors and their role in building healthier, more resilient communities.

In his career with MU Extension, David has twice been named outstanding teacher of the year, four of his programs have been named the outstanding program of the year for MU Extension, and he was also named the outstanding county program director.

His “State of Neighboring in Missouri 2022-2024” study, published by the University of Missouri, examines evolving social dynamics, community trust, and actionable strategies to strengthen neighborhoods. He has several other peer-reviewed research guides published by MU Extension: “Creating Third Places for Connection & Belonging,” “To the Rescue: Benefits of Neighboring for Emergency Management and Disaster Response,” “Belonging in Rural Missouri: Three Strategies to Build Connection and Strengthen Social Infrastructure,” and “Neighboring as Volunteerism: Strengthening Civic Muscle Through Action.”

He has had the opportunity to give his neighboring presentation ”From Good to Engaged” at state and national conferences in El Paso, Texas; Mackinac Island, Michigan; Colorado Springs, Colorado; Jacksonville, Florida; Little Rock, Arkansas; New Orleans, Louisiana; Memphis, Tennessee; Branson, Missouri; and numerous other cities via Zoom; along with 75 different cities and towns in Missouri.
Beyond his work in community engagement, David is passionate about Missouri’s rural heritage. He has authored two books on one-room schoolhouses and founded the endowed Missouri Historic School Alliance, which aims to restore historic schools as rural centers of community.

Since 2017, David has also been a cohort leader for the annual Neighborhood Leadership Academy. Graduates of the Ozarks Cohort have gone on to run for city councils, take on leadership roles in their neighborhoods and execute various community projects valued in excess of $100,000.

A prolific writer, David has contributed to over 500 newspapers nationwide throughout his career. Since 1989, he has penned the weekly “Live and Learn” column for the Greene County Commonwealth, and in 2022 he began writing a monthly column on neighboring issues for the Springfield Daily Citizen. From 2000 to 2022 he wrote “Ag in the Ozarks” for the Springfield News-Leader. Six other Missouri newspapers now carry his weekly column.

In 2026, he had two books published and both are available on Amazon: “”The Neighboring Playbook: Becoming America’s Most Neighborly State” and “Neighborhood Mission Trips for Everyday Christians.” He has two other books pending publication in 2027: “Mining for Gold in Your Neighborhood: Five Steps to Becoming an Engaged Neighbor” and “Every Thing I Need to Know to Become an Engaged Neighbor I Learned in my College Dorm.” He also has also written two books about historic one-room schools in Missouri that are available on Amazon plus a collection of short stories.

During his professional career, David has also been the managing editor of a weekly newspaper, a development officer for Missouri State University, and a public relations director for Associated Electric Cooperative Inc.

Over a number of years, David has also been a leader in his church. He taught a small group for 20 years, served in youth ministry, chaired two pastor search teams and served as the chairman of deacons. He and his family now attend Fellowship Bible Church near Rogersville.

David holds degrees in political science, journalism, and integrated marketing and communication from Drury University. A proud Ozarks native, he was born in Ash Grove, Missouri but he and his wife, Stacey, now reside in Republic, Missouri, with their dog Otis. Their family includes their two grown children, Lauren and Matthew, and daughter-in-law Megan (and grandson Brant).

Through his work, writing, and advocacy, David Burton is on a mission to make being a kind, active, and engaged neighbor a celebrated and essential part of American life.

Show Notes

For more information and resources, please go to:

Website – http://engagedneighbor.com

David’s Books available on Amazon: The Neighboring Playbook: Becoming America’s Most Neighborly State and Neighborhood Mission Trips for Everyday Christians

Find David on LinkedIn

David’s recommended books available on Amazon: The Art of Neighboring: Building Genuine Relationships Right Outside Your Door and The Village Effect: How Face-to-Face Contact Can Make Us Healthier, Happier, and Smarter

Please consider a donation to the Missouri Good Neighbor Week Endowment here.

David also recommended another charity, Rotary International, which believes in “Service Above Self.”

Transcript

Jenn (00:00.908)
Welcome to the You Are a Philanthropist podcast. Today I’m talking with David Burton. David is a community builder, neighboring advocate, and historian. Welcome to the show, David.

David Burton (00:14.872)
Hey, it’s great to be here. Thank you for the invitation.

Jenn (00:18.326)
I’m so excited you’re here. I love what you’re doing with connecting neighbors. Can you tell my listeners what you do?

David Burton (00:29.084)
That’s a great question. You you should ask my wife and kids that. They’ll they’ll say, we have no idea. it’s it’s changed a lot in my 25-year career with University of Missouri Extension, but certainly in the last six years I’ve been very focused on issues related to neighbors and neighborhoods. social capital, developing social connections, third places, developing neighborhoods.

Jenn (00:35.266)
Ha ha ha.

David Burton (00:57.866)
leaders and neighborhood structures. And what I talk about a lot is just being more of an engaged neighbor and building those connections with those around you. So that sometimes is a sometimes that’s a speech or a workshop, sometimes it’s a publication or some other materials we have. it’s a r it’s a variety of different types of things, but I always go wherever there’s the opportunity to

Talk about those topics and try and get people excited about connecting with their neighbors.

Jenn (01:33.006)
That’s great. I myself am so blessed with the neighborhood I live in. In fact my neighbor said the very same thing to my husband this past weekend that we’re so lucky to live in the neighborhood that I live in. I’d love to hear about how you got started in neighboring.

David Burton (01:51.651)
Sure. and I love that segue that you give there. There was a study in Purdue University looking at what criteria people use to kind of determine whether or not they have a nice neighborhood. And safe, clean, and friendly. Those are the top three aspects of a good neighborhood. So that must be what you’re describing. Safe, clean, and friendly where you live. That’s awesome. well, I I mean I kind of got involved in this topic first from a personal perspective.

Jenn (02:12.743)
Absolutely.

David Burton (02:21.026)
perspective when we realized that we’d had lived in this house for 18 years and some neighbors had moved out and we didn’t even bother to get to know the new ones when they moved in. And so we only knew the names of two neighbors after 18 years and decided that was not the way things should be and that we should be making an effort to do more to make connections. So it really began as a personal sort of

action where we we literally did take a plate of cookies to neighbors and ring doorbells and learn names and run back to the house and write down names on our refrigerator, a little tic-tac-toe sort of chart that we had put up so we could see the names and be able to use the names. So it certainly began very much as a personal passion project to do more and connect with our neighbors. Cause even then, if you’d have asked me if I

Love my neighbor, I would have said yes because I certainly didn’t hate any of them. But the truth is I didn’t know any of them. And the truth is the opposite of love is not hate, it’s apathy. And we were demonstrating apathy and decided that that was not the best way to be living. So it began as a personal passion, a personal interest, and quickly evolved into the community development work that I’m doing.

Jenn (03:51.32)
Thank you for sharing your story. Yeah, I think it’s important to remember that, you know, we can all fail in some ways n with the neighboring. and y I think you brought up a good point that you know, love i is a action. So when we like you said, are apathetic, we’re not putting our, you know, words where our our mouth is in a way.

David Burton (04:08.141)
Yeah.

Jenn (04:16.757)
to be able to think about what our neighbors need and building that community.

David Burton (04:23.096)
Absolutely. And within my work, you know, w I was working with cities and communities and doing programs to help build nonprofit boards and leadership training and things like that. But I just suddenly had this epiphany that the the what if what if stronger communities don’t begin with just another program? What if they begin with relationships first? And that’s really the essence of social capital as well.

And we ha can develop that social capital, the the it’s sort of like the grease that lubricates the wheels of the community and the economy. A lot of good things happen as a result. And that really comes down to relationships. What can we do to foster those and keep those? So that that was kind of how I initially made the connection between the personal passion project and community development.

Jenn (05:19.475)
Yeah, and yeah, this brings to mind one of my old podcast guests, Paul Ott, who has been an example to me actually. I know him personally. He’s one of my father’s friends. And he mows his neighbors lawns. I think I think for a period of time he did that for free. maybe now does it for a reduced discount. but he’s in his seventies and he’s doing that. And

David Burton (05:38.933)
Yeah.

Jenn (05:49.451)
He once saved one of his neighbors’ lives, I w which he told in the podcast episode about. And it’s just remarkable how some people are intentional about how they neighbor and how it’s important to, you know, their own lives and building community.

David Burton (06:08.78)
You you know, d as part of Missouri Good Neighbor Week, we ask people to nominate individuals that should be recognized as one of Missouri’s most engaged neighbors. And everyone who gets nominated gets a letter saying, Hey, you were nominated, and we give a memento, but then we also pick the top twenty across the state. And the vast majority of those nominations, there are a few exceptions that are like super neighbor, right? But

The vast majority of those are nominated because they took the time to notice someone. They took the time to notice a need, like mowing the yard of someone who need help with that, replacing batteries and smoke detectors, the widow. Remember one from last year that all the neighbors up and down his street said he he walks after the trash truck comes through and he pushes everybody’s tra carts back up to their garage door. That’s not a bad

big action. You don’t have to have superhuman strength for that or anything. But he was consistent and over time people started saying, Golly, I I really appreciate that. You know, look what he’s doing. Or I think of a neighbor that ja always just sat in his front yard and waved at all the cars that were going past on school mornings when school was in session. And people really appreciate that. And again, those are small actions, small gestures. I

I have sometimes shared this story from my own experience of an older couple that moved into our neighborhood. And I went down to introduce myself and the wife mentioned that this was their final move. They’d moved 17 times in her husband’s career. And this was the last one. And she also mentioned that her husband was having knee surgery the next week. So the the next week when we had a little snowstorm, I’m here in southwest Missouri, which means our snowstorm was

Two or three inches. And I went down to shovel the driveway and the sidewalk, a very short sidewalk, a very short driveway. And when I finished, I turned around and she was on the porch with this steaming cup of hot chocolate. And she said, I just want to tell you that all the places we’ve ever lived, you’re the best neighbor we’ve ever had. Well, in that moment, you know, yeah, I just about burst the zipper on my car heart. So I was so proud of myself, you know, thinking, wow, look what I’ve

David Burton (08:39.5)
And then on the way home, it dawned on me. I’m like, that’s the only time I’ve ever done anything for her. And only the second time I’d ever talked to her. And I have seen that type of scenario play out over and over and over in my own experience and the experience of others. The bar is set so low that just these small steps of kindness, these small acts of generosity, can have a big impact in your neighborhood and with your neighbors.

Jenn (08:58.678)
Mm.

Jenn (09:10.633)
I have a great neighbor. she’s older now. We’ve been neighbors for fifteen years and we shovel her steps in the winter and

my husband recently cut down some trees on her property, or some branches I should say. And she’s so sweet. She looks after us too. She you know, gets the boy my sons are young and she gets them Halloween candy and she lets us know when the trash is coming for pickup if we have extra trash we need to put out. And and it’s quite remarkable how these like you said, these little things

build community and kindness and are what our world needs more of.

David Burton (10:00.99)
Absolutely. I often say the an act of kindness is the doorway. Re relationship is the destination, but these act of kindness are the the doorway to that relationship. And it really helps create a greater sense of belonging, both for the person doing the actions and the recipient, both. It helps create that sense of belonging which people desire so much and are looking for. And there’s all sorts of

benefits for the individual and the community when people have a sense of belonging where they can say that you know I’m I’m known here, I’m I’m seen here, I I’m I have something to contribute here and I am part of this community. When you can reach that point, it really opens great opportunities for the community and the individuals.

Jenn (10:54.111)
Yeah. I I’m curious, was there individuals when you were young that modeled good neighboring or how did you kind of fall into it? Was just Epiphany one day? Tell us.

David Burton (11:05.748)
it was a bit of an epiphany for me after I had fallen away from it. I grew up in the small town of Ashgrove, Missouri, population 1200. population twelve hundred then and I think population twelve hundred now still. and certainly we knew all of our neighbors growing up. In fact, I I mowed all of my neighbors’ lawns. That was probably mine of my f first.

you know, big moments where I was thinking about neighbors. I had twelve lawns and I mowed and, you know, neighbors were my business contact, you know, and so certainly n neighbors were who I played with, you know, and went to school with me. And certainly I grew up with that. And I saw in my grandfather, who lived just a few houses down the street, strong connection to the community. He, you know, found ways to serve in the community and do things and help

make the community better, taught me the value of hard work for sure. he had an eighth grade education. He was the youngest of fifteen children. so he certainly demonstrated that you didn’t have to be educated or wealthy to be able to be a important or involved community member and I saw that in his example and that’s certainly the example I grew up with in the household.

And my wife and I, when we got when we got married and charted our own course, I would say certainly by time we had kids, life just got busier and we gradually became more and more insulary, more and more isolated in our interactions with others. I think now people do a lot of things that choose intentional isolation, shopping online, doing all your movie watching online.

staying in the house where the air conditioning’s on, not being outside, just a lot of intentional choices we make that isolate us. but this was certainly the case for my wife and I as we became more and more isolated until I did kind of have that epiphany, really, when you know, we’ve been here eighteen years. We don’t we only know two of our neighbors’ names. We should be doing better than that. And so we set out to do that. We we certainly saw

David Burton (13:33.657)
benefits in doing that in our neighborhood. Turned out most of our neighbors didn’t know the names of their neighbors either. So getting people together was a benefit to all of our neighbors and building that social capital. We we saw it play out time and time again our own lives. When my wife was diagnosed with cancer, a couple of her main support persons were two of our neighbors who were cancer survivors.

And honestly, just a few months before, we didn’t even know their name, much less their story. But they became her, you know, strong supporters, a strong network, especially because of proximity being so so close. So in some ways it was that epiphany, but we saw the benefits of it pretty immediately in our own lives and in the life of our community as well.

Jenn (14:31.287)
I also think about I live in a small town and

I have a wonderful neighborhood, like I said, but I also have just a wonderful community where we’re I’m at a stage in my life where parents are carpooling with each other to different sporting activities and different, you know days together. I had a a neighbor and a friend who took the my sons to the pool for and over to her house for literally it must have been five hours. Both of them. And it

it was I was really touched that sh her kids and our my kids got along so well and had a good time and that she was she had no problem with it. I said, Thank you so much. I I got a lot done around the house And her response was no, thank you. I was able to read a an audiobook for a couple hours un unbothered by my own children because your kids entertained mine. so yeah it it’s quite remarkable.

David Burton (15:32.116)
Yeah.

Mutual benefits.

Jenn (15:37.164)
Yeah. It it’s it’s quite remarkable when people pitch in and help each other, isn’t it?

David Burton (15:42.837)
It is, it is. And there’s I think just like with remembering the names of our neighbors when we introduced ourselves and writing them down. there’s a big because we were trying to practice a little more front yard living and just be a little more visible and stuff too, and we saw immediately there’s a big difference between being outside and seeing a neighbor and saying, Hey you versus being able to say, Hey Matt, you know, how are you?

And we saw how important that was to us and to them as well. people need to be seen, people want to be known. And sometimes one of the greatest gifts we can give another human being is simply letting them know, I see you, you matter, I’m glad you’re here. That

Jenn (16:18.53)
Yeah.

Jenn (16:32.711)
such a good important you know, well said.

David Burton (16:39.062)
That’s that’s still what I think inspires me and motivates me. I try to we we talk about around our house having a plus one day. means every day we want to have one positive contact with a neighbor, someone on our street. We talk about them at dinner and if we’ve gone all day and we’ve not had a contact with anybody, then we try to text or make a phone call or head out on a walk and and try and have a

interaction with someone. It’s not you know, you don’t you don’t went over your neighborhood and change things overnight. It’s a it’s a gradual process. So sometimes say neighboring is a crock pot, not a microwave. It’s a slow cook. It’s consistency. And lots of times I get my plus one on my mile and a half morning walk with my dog. you know, while neighbors, whether they’re heading to work or

Out walking, those are my plus ones. I you know, I take my little headphones out and to signal, hey, I’m available. I’m happy to talk, you know, and stop and visit. But there are those days that my wife and I need to remind each other, hey, have you who have you talked with today? So kind of making every day a plus one day, I think is a strategy that’s relatively easy to follow.

Jenn (17:58.593)
You know, I actually this reminds me of I created a journal called the Giving and Gratitude Journal. And it you can list what you’re grateful for, you can list your your affirmations of the day, and there’s a giving action. And so it challenges you to think about what you want to do that day to help someone. And I I honestly don’t think too often of my neighbors. I think about coworkers or my own family members.

or friends. So this is a good challenge for me.

David Burton (18:33.068)
Yeah, I actually really like that, Jen, the gratitude journal. I think you get you get more of what you celebrate or you get more of what you focus on. It’s that adage we sh see sometimes in our own lives. If you ever go buy a new car and you think, this is so unique and by the time you drive it off the lot and get home, you’ve seen four other cars just like it, right? ‘Cause that’s where your focus is. That’s what you’re paying attention to. And when you’re doing a gratitude journal and you’re

reflecting on that gratitude, I think you often end up seeing more of it. You take notice of it around you. And that’s a worthwhile thing. I saw a a story online one time from Sixty Minutes and then I end up reading the guy’s book called Three hundred and sixty five Thank You Notes and he he wrote a thank you note every day to someone that was just in his normal course of life, the barista.

waitress at his regular spot. You know, he just made a practice to write one new thank you note every day. And as he did that, he said that his level of thankfulness and gratitude and just awareness of what people were doing around him really increased and it changed changed his heart as a result.

Jenn (19:50.881)
Wow. I f it reminds me of one of my prior podcast guests, Eric Goodman, who’s a philanthropist out in California. He he gets McDonald’s gift cards.

and hands them out to folks who, you know, are on the street looking like they need some food. And he does this because he is an advocate for the Ronald McDonald Foundation.

And he he posted on LinkedIn recently that this was a way he enjoys giving back. And it was also another thing that got me thinking. And I think people need to share these stories more like we’re doing right now and and remind people that there is goodness in the world and we can be contributing to that.

David Burton (20:44.074)
Absolutely. And just, you know, even these pay it forward movements or act of kindness movements that I see from time to time. Those are all great things. You don’t have to don’t do it for the applause or do it for the news story or anything like that. I think my my grandfather taught me that, I can tell you, growing up on a he had a farm so outside of town, that we worked on a lot and

He was pretty clear in what he was trying to communicate with to me while we were picking up rocks off the land. We weren’t picking up rocks for the applause, we were picking up rocks because it needed to be done. And that’s the case with a lot of these other things. Don’t do it for the applause, we do it because it’s worthwhile work and it makes a difference in your life and the lives of other people.

Jenn (21:39.189)
Yeah. One of my favorite quotes, that you reminded me of is by mother Teresa, if you can’t change a hundred lives, if y excuse me, if you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one. and it’s really about just helping that one person you can you can help.

David Burton (21:55.436)
Yeah, absolutely.

Jenn (22:00.587)
Where I I’ve heard Jay Foss on my podcast mention he knew this story of the starfish. Have you heard the story of the starfish? Yes. So a guy was Yeah, a guy was walking on the beach and saw a whole bunch of starfish and the someone asked him, you know, what are you doing? And he was throwing the starfish back in the ocean and he said, You can’t possibly help all these starfish and he said, I can help this one. Yep, just like you said.

David Burton (22:09.44)
Yes. Yes. Yeah. Save save that one.

David Burton (22:30.456)
Yeah, I think that’s a g that’s a great perspective. And you know, you s hear people say it, you know, be the change you want to see. That’s certainly a true statement. And I’d say that oftentimes begins right in your neighborhood where you’re living. Increasingly I’m convinced that some of America’s biggest problems have neighborhood sized solutions.

Jenn (22:30.511)
Thank you.

David Burton (23:01.142)
Beginning with the social capital and connections that can happen right in our own neighborhoods. So I may, I may feel like there’s nothing I can do that changes Washington, D.C. or nothing I can do that changes my state capital. But I can make a decision and a choice every single day that impacts my neighbors in my neighborhood. How do I show up in my neighborhood? Do I greet people? do I spend a little time outside? Am I visible?

Do I lend a helping hand when I’m able to, or when someone needs it? Those are all steps we can take that positively impact our neighborhood and make it a place where people want to live. And I I know I’ve there’s been times I didn’t really appreciate how important an action was to someone else, how impactful it was. a neighbor of mine runs a property management team and

He hit me up last fall and said, Hey, I’ve got a bunch of extra batteries. do you think some of the widows on our street would want to have their batteries changed or smoke detectors? I said, Well, probably so. You know, let’s contact him. Well, not only they all said yes. in fact, one of the houses we went into, her smoke detectors were twenty years old. You know, they they stopped they stopped being effective after 10. They stopped registering. They should be replaced every 10 years.

Jenn (24:23.53)
David Burton (24:30.572)
That’s my PSA for you. so, you know, we went and replaced smoke detectors for her. But either even the other ones were like, I didn’t know who I would get to do that this year. Or I I weren’t I worry about that because it’s not that something I can do anymore. And and they thanked us. We appreciate we knew that. Then maybe six months later, a widow moved in down the street. I met her when I was out walking, and her first question to me was, hey,

Do you know anything about the men in this neighborhood that change batteries and smoke detectors? I was told there’s some guys that do that. So obviously it meant enough to some of the other ladies that they were talking about it, that they were telling this new neighbor, you know, somebody will do this for you. And that was that was just a reminder to me that that was you know, maybe more impactful to them than I than I realized in the moment, right?

Jenn (25:05.245)
Mm.

Jenn (25:29.707)
Yeah, sure. W what a great thought. I certainly had not thought about that. How about how important that is. and it’s just a small action we can be doing.

I’m just feeling really blessed by this conversation right now to be remembering how, you know, I I have been a good neighbor, but also where I’ve failed to be a good neighbor and I’m just so glad we’re talking today. It’s giving me ideas. I actually this Saturday I’m doing one of my favorite things that I’ve been doing for the last probably twelve years, which is I recruited my neighbors twelve years ago to help me bring

canned goods to the local food pantry. It’s an organization over here in Massachusetts called the Neighborhood Food Project. And they organize green bags that people leave on their porch every other month. And they have a coordinator who picks up the bags, communicates with those donors that pick up is this Saturday at 10 a.m. And I’m the coordinator. I go around to these 12 houses.

David Burton (26:17.751)
Hmm.

Jenn (26:43.727)
And I then drop it off at the food pantry. it’s one of my favorite things to do because it it is helping people. and I always like to tell the story about how what touches me is I thank the donors, but the donors thank me. And then I get to the food pantry, and the folks at the poop food pantry thank me for helping them. It’s just this great gratitude chain.

David Burton (27:12.226)
Yeah. Well there’s certainly the there’s those types of opportunities to help organizations, right? and there’s opportunities around you to help individuals as well. If you if you know your immediate eight, obviously your your neighbors start with those immediate eight. It could be it could be more, but should never be less than those immediate eight. And don’t ask don’t

Don’t underestimate what you already have. sometimes the thing your community needs isn’t necessarily in your wallet. Sometimes it’s in your calendar. They need your time or your toolbox or your kitchen or your front porch or just your willingness to knock on a door and get other people involved. Those are all important ways to give back and to contribute in your neighborhood. Or

Jenn (28:03.117)
Sure.

David Burton (28:10.452)
Rallying your neighbors to participate in a bi-monthly food drive. I think that’s a great example.

Jenn (28:15.915)
Yeah. Yeah. Yep.

David Burton (28:18.946)
Being the spark to get that done.

Jenn (28:21.429)
Yeah, I like that word spark.

David Burton (28:23.768)
Well it takes a spark.

Jenn (28:26.377)
Yeah. Can you tell me what’s some of the takeaways that you the biggest takeaways you could say over the last twenty five years of being intentional about neighboring that you could share with my listeners?

David Burton (28:42.112)
Well I it’s been a process, I think different things resonate with me kind of at different times over the course of the work that I’ve been doing and especially when we got the legislature to approve Missouri Good Neighbor Week and that’s coming up here in September, September twenty-eighth, October fourth. and all the sort of momentum that comes

creates around the state of people getting to know their neighbors and getting connected and

it it ties back to even this idea of small acts of kindness. The the better world I’m hoping for is actually pretty ordinary. It it’s a world where where more people know the names of the people that are living right around them. It’s a world where we notice when somebody needs help and we help. And it’s a world where people feel that they belong. And I think that’s

Jenn (29:30.261)
Mm.

David Burton (29:50.179)
Can sound pretty ordinary, but the impact of that on our neighborhoods and our nation could be extraordinary. And that’s really what I aspire to. How whatever we can do to motivate people to take those actions, whether it’s part of our Missouri Good Neighbor Week or some of the other programs we we do, or there’s all sorts of organizations across the nation now that are leaning in on neighborhood.

Jenn (29:59.842)
Yeah.

David Burton (30:19.444)
specific types of programming and connections. there’s those are all good. And I always say when when anyone’s talking about neighboring, we all benefit. So any of these organizations lean in on that. I want to celebrate those. And so like for your listeners, I’d really invite them just to do one thing today. learn the name of a neighbor that you don’t already know. Don’t don’t wait for

Good Neighbor Day on the twenty eighth of September or something. start today. Learn the name of a neighbor, find ways to use the names of your neighbor, and then throw some easy get-togethers. Maybe it’s just on your driveway or your porch or in the lobby of your apartment complex. And maybe it’s just ice cream sandwiches. That’s okay too. don’t stress yourself out over trying to entertain everybody.

It’s not about the entertainment, it’s about the connection. And so take those steps today. Learn learn the name of a neighbor, find ways to use the name of a neighbor, and do some get-togethers. That’s where it all starts and help make neighboring ordinary and expected again.

Jenn (31:37.473)
I love this so much. what is your where does your inspiration come from? Did do you have a higher power or?

David Burton (31:50.583)
Well certainly I I am I am a Christian, I am a believer, and the as for full transparency, back in twenty eighteen our church add the word neighbor to its mission statement. And I sat through a neighbor a sermon about neighbors and I left thinking, that doesn’t really apply to me. I’m already a great neighbor.

And we left the next day to go on a vacation to Colorado, where my sister-in-law works for a church out there. And so the following Sunday we went to church with her and they were kicking off their new theme for the year, and you’re probably already ahead of me. Their new theme for their year was Love Thy Neighbor. So I sat through a second sermon about loving your neighbor, and I was still saying, I I think I’m already a great neighbor. I mean, I

I don’t throw loud parties, the police have never come to my house. I I mow my lawn, I take my Christmas lights down before January 1st. I pick up after my dog on walks, and I don’t bother anybody. So I’m already a great neighbor. And then one of her co-workers gave me this book to read called The Art of Neighboring by Dave Runyon. And it is a faith-based book. And I wasn’t even done with the first chapter, and I was saying

Jenn (32:56.509)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

David Burton (33:18.038)
I’m a horrible neighbor. And that that’s really what led to my wife and I discussing. You know, we’ve lived here 18 years. We only know the names of two neighbors. What are we doing? That’s not right. So certainly my my faith was the motivator in that, is what tied all that together for me personally. And then we certainly saw the impacts in the community. And then with my work with Extension, you’re we’re always encouraged to do.

research projects. And so in twenty twenty two and twenty twenty-four, I did a statewide study across Missouri called the state of neighboring. And there’s a lot of different elements to that, but my favorite takeaway question was we asked people what makes someone a good neighbor? And we gave them 30 traits to pick from and they could give us an open-ended answer as well. And what we saw across Missouri was that

Now in modern culture, a good neighbor is someone who’s quiet and respects my privacy. Whereas I say, quiet and leaves me alone. And that’s what I had fallen into. I I had fallen into the cultural narrative of what makes someone a good neighbor. I was quiet, left people alone. And not only was was my faith teaching me that apathy was the opposite of love, that that

Jenn (34:37.505)
Yeah.

David Burton (34:44.49)
I couldn’t have it both ways. I was also seeing what a dramatic change this was from our past history. When you look at some of the studies in the fifties and the sixties, when people talked about socializing with their neighbors. forty-eight percent of Americans said they socialized with an immediate neighbor once a week. They had dinner parties, they had they played cards, they watched each other’s kids. And a lot has changed since that. And this shift

To being quiet and leaving people alone kind of coincides with this elevated loneliness epidemic and increased isolation that people say they’re experiencing. It it’s kind of all on the same path in the same timeline. So so it certainly had my personal motive motivation, my faith that dro drove some of that, and then this research that I was able to do that said, okay, we

If a good neighbor someone is quiet and leaves everybody alone, we don’t need more good neighbors. We need more engaged neighbors. And that’s what we call the program at the University of Missouri the Engaged Neighbor Program, because we want people to to know those names, to find ways to engage in their community and to engage with their neighbors most importantly, and to have the benefit of doing that.

Jenn (36:06.615)
Thank you for sharing your story of your faith journey and being vulnerable and talking about how a couple of sermons really impacted this path you’ve been on. And

David Burton (36:18.376)
Well I mean honestly, I kind of ignored the sermons. Let’s just be honest. I I I’ve I thought that, you know, again, I thought I was quiet and I left everybody alone. That made me a great neighbor. So I didn’t really hear that. But certainly Dave Runyon’s book impacted me. And I’ve I’ve written a couple of books myself, and I will say Dave Runyan’s been a very kind mentor. I’ve gone out to Colorado and visited with him more than once by

Jenn (36:23.243)
Ha ha ha.

David Burton (36:48.406)
sister in law lives out there and he talks by phone. He’s great with giving advice and I think his book’s about twelve years old now, so he’s been talking about this type of thing in faith circles especially for a long time and trying to get people to pay attention and make make some changes.

Jenn (37:10.635)
Well, I’m gonna make sure those books are in my show notes, the the links to those books, because I wanna read them and and I want my listeners to read them too. I I really feel like this we can really, you know, transform our neighborhoods, our communities, our worlds by those small acts of kindness, starting where we are and just spreading out beyond to have a ribb ripple effect, like you said.

And so I have a couple questions that I always like to ask my listeners. For people who are listening who don’t know where to start, what would you say is a good way to get started in helping other people?

David Burton (37:56.387)
Well, certainly in regards to neighboring, learn the names of your neighbors, find ways to use the names of your neighbors, and throw a throw a party. Those are all good places to get started. There are a number of good books focused on the impact of neighboring. well Dave Runyon’s The Art of Neighboring is one of those. Susan Pinkler wrote a book called The Village Effect, which is kind of about the health benefits of

neighboring. I have a list of references on my blog that can that list them out too. But there’s been a real kind of explosion, I think, in the last five years of books looking at social capital, the importance of neighborhood connections. so maybe you know, read a good book about it. I think books can often inspire and motivate you as well.

And then just remember that you you don’t have to be wealthy or powerful to have a big platform to make the world a better place. your platform can begin right there in your neighborhood and it can grow from there. But e even if it doesn’t grow, that is still impactful because of the ripple effect of the lives that you’re touching and then the lives that they will touch.

as well. So just get get started. Get if might kind of break through the uncomfortable if you have to. If you’re not an extrovert and you don’t want to ring a doorbell and hand over a plate of cookies, then plan a small event for National Good Neighbor Day and get your neighbors together and let them know that’s the reason you’re doing it.

Jenn (39:46.657)
That’s a great idea. Thank you for reminding me about how to be a good neighbor today. And I have a question that I always ask my listeners, what is your vision for a better world?

David Burton (40:02.806)
David Burton (40:08.374)
Well certainly more

more connected neighbors to help end and reduce this epidemic of loneliness and connection and isolation that we have. So many people that feel overlooked or unloved or that they don’t belong. That seems like a tall order, but I really do think the answer for that can start right in your own neighborhood.

and I I guess I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about a a grand vision for the world. I I do try to focus my attention on my areas of influence, my neighborhood being one of those. This is a place where I can have an impact and cho choose to have it there. I I would say one

Jenn (41:04.343)
Yeah.

David Burton (41:09.056)
One of my visions the last couple of years has been getting myself off of social media. not only is it a a time sink and waste, but interactions on social media are not the same as face-to-face interactions with other humans. We were we were created for connection and doing that through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok.

is not the same thing. And I will have to say my mental health and stress level have both greatly improved since I stopped spending my time on social media.

Jenn (41:50.477)
I was so happy to hear that. in part because you know, I wrote a book called Giving is Selfish and it’s about how the help have you heard about the helpers high, this the scientific term for how helping others actually benefits ourselves as well. Yeah.

David Burton (42:08.66)
okay. All right. A l a little adrenaline rush from that or endorphins?

Jenn (42:15.327)
Yes. It’s it actually has proven to lower your blood pressure, you live longer. so it’s it yeah, it’s something I learned over time. and i Denzel Washington was the one who said that out of all the fame and fortune that he’s had, the most selfish thing he’s ever done is help somebody else. Because it just the goodness comes back to him.

David Burton (42:20.237)
Jenn (42:45.005)
And I like to see boomerangs back. so I loved how you added that it feels good to be off social media, to be helping other people, and it’s really what the world needs more of.

David Burton (42:57.212)
absolutely. my my time is more valuable than doom scrolling and s and living vicariously through other people’s life highlights, which is what you always get. And I I see people that

Jenn (43:20.588)
Yeah.

David Burton (43:23.424)
Talking about curating their life and everything to do is about whether they can get a good picture and post something on social media. And that is not a better way to live. It’s a very stressful way to live for starters. but there are a lot of negative impacts of that as well. So I I think we’d all be better off if we backed off from that and went back to some of the old tried and true methods, and that’s a lot of what we

talk about in neighborhoods and making those face to face neighbor connections.

Jenn (44:00.563)
Yeah. David, it was a pleasure to have you today. Is there any words of wisdom you’d like to leave our listeners? We had a great conversation today. It I can’t tell if this conversation is for me or for my listeners. It was such a great conversation. Thank you so much for inspiring me.

David Burton (44:08.555)
Yeah.

David Burton (44:15.352)
Well, that’s kind of you to say. Well, thank you. I appreciate the opportunity and like I said, don’t don’t don’t underestimate what you have to contribute back to your neighborhood and your community. like I said, doesn’t doesn’t doesn’t have to come out of your wallet, right? It can be your time, your calendar, your your driveway as a space or the ping pong table in your garage or your toolbox, your

Jenn (44:32.052)
don’t underestimate.

David Burton (44:45.686)
your time or just being willing to knock on a few door doors, those are all very, very valuable and important to our neighborhoods and our communities. So you are a th philanthropist if you engage in that way.

Jenn (44:54.796)
Yeah.

That’s right. Awesome. David, do you have any favorite charities you want to mention today?

David Burton (45:05.932)
Well, our Missouri Good Neighbor Week, we did set up a an endowment this past year to continue that work. One of these days, one of these years, I am gonna retire and I wanna see see that program continue on beyond me. And so there is a endowment set up for Missouri Good Neighbor Week through the community foundation of the Ozarks and you know, hope Ryan’s from

some grants trying to generate some revenue to really help fund that program long into the future. So that’s a important charity to me and

Although I do love helping in my community, I started a rotary club in Republic a year ago, char chartered a rotary club, and got about 25 members, and so we’re always looking for activities each month to be of service in our community and be able to do that together in camaraderie with each other. And as the rotary say saying or theme is service above self, and so really

Jenn (45:52.439)
Yeah.

Jenn (46:08.119)
Yeah.

David Burton (46:16.162)
providing service to the community as well. So that’s kind of a favorite charity, so to speak, as well.

Jenn (46:23.201)
This has been such a great conversation. I’m gonna make sure that those links are in my are in my show notes and people can read more and about you on my my show notes on my website, you are philanthropist dot com. Thank you so much for your time today, David, and sharing your story.

David Burton (46:41.272)
Absolutely. Yeah, I’m glad to be here. Thank you so much.

Jenn (46:46.305)
Have a great day.

David Burton (46:47.491)
Thank you.

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