AP&G Difference Makers: Another Round Another Rally

Difference Makers is our ongoing series spotlighting the people and organizations across the Valley who are quietly changing lives through their work. This installment turns the spotlight on Amanda Gunderson and Travis Nass, the co-founders behind Another Round Another Rally, a Phoenix-based nonprofit built to support hospitality workers who too often get overlooked. Since launching in 2018, the pair have grown the organization into a lifeline for the industry, distributing more than $3 million in emergency aid, scholarships, and grants to bartenders, servers, and other hospitality professionals facing hardship.

Amanda Gunderson and Travis Nass. Photo Credit: Food & Wine

Take us back to 2018. What was the moment that made you decide the hospitality industry needed an organization like Another Round Another Rally?

Another Round Another Rally really came from our own experiences working in hospitality and seeing how much this industry relies on its people, while those same people often don’t have access to the resources or support they need to build sustainable careers. Hospitality is full of incredibly talented, hardworking people, but there have historically been gaps when it comes to things like education, mentorship, financial support and opportunities for advancement.

We wanted to create something that could help fill those gaps and invest directly in hospitality workers, not just when they were in crisis, but throughout their careers. The idea was always about taking care of the people who spend their careers taking care of everyone else.

You were about to publicly launch in March 2020 when the pandemic hit. How did that forced pivot shape the organization you run today?

We had spent years thinking about what Another Round Another Rally could become, and then almost overnight, the needs of the industry completely changed. Instead of launching the organization the way we had planned, we were suddenly looking at an industry where millions of people were losing work and needed immediate help.

It forced us to move quickly and listen closely to what hospitality workers actually needed at that moment. That has stayed at the center of how we operate today. We can have ideas about what support should look like, but ultimately our job is to listen to the people doing the work and respond to where the need actually exists. The pandemic accelerated our mission, but it also taught us the importance of being flexible, accessible and willing to evolve alongside the industry.

What inequities did you see firsthand in your own hospitality careers that you’re still working to fix?

There is so much talent in hospitality, but access to opportunity has never been equal. Who gets mentorship, who gets sent to an educational program, who can afford to attend a conference and who has the connections to get into certain rooms can have a huge impact on someone’s career.

We’ve always believed that talent exists everywhere, but opportunity doesn’t. A big part of our work is trying to close that gap. Whether that means scholarships, mentorship, education, emergency assistance or simply connecting someone with a resource they didn’t know existed, we want more hospitality workers to have the ability to build careers they’re proud of and see a future for themselves in this industry.

Who or what inspires you day to day, whether that’s a person, a moment with someone you’ve helped, or something else entirely?

The people in this industry inspire us constantly. Hospitality workers are incredibly resilient, creative and generous, and so many of them spend their careers taking care of other people.

Some of the most meaningful moments are seeing what happens after someone receives an opportunity. Watching someone attend an educational program, find a mentor, gain confidence in their abilities and then turn around and create opportunities for someone else is incredibly powerful. That ripple effect reminds us that investing in one person can ultimately impact an entire community.

You’ve now distributed more than $3 million in emergency aid, scholarships, and grants. Is there a story from that work that has stuck with you?

We actually just surpassed $4 million in aid, which is an incredible number to think about, but it is also very humbling because every dollar represents a person or family who needed support.

It’s difficult to choose one story because there have been so many, from helping hospitality workers through the pandemic to responding when natural disasters have devastated communities. What stays with us are the messages from people who tell us the support came at exactly the moment they needed it. Sometimes assistance isn’t just about the dollar amount. It’s knowing that your industry sees you and that there is a community willing to show up for you when something happens that is completely outside of your control.

How do you decide who gets access to Another Round Another Rally’s aid, mentorship, and scholarship programs?

Accessibility is incredibly important to us. We try to remove as many barriers as possible and make sure opportunities are reaching people throughout the hospitality industry, including people who historically may not have had access to mentorship, education or professional development.

Different programs have different eligibility requirements depending on the funding, partnership or purpose of the program, but our goal is always to create clear and equitable pathways to access. We also continue listening to the community and looking at where resources are needed most because we don’t want to assume we know what hospitality workers need without hearing directly from them.

Winning the Best U.S. Bar Mentor award at this year’s Spirited Awards is a big honor. What does that recognition mean for the organization and for the industry you represent?

It was incredibly meaningful, especially because mentorship has always been at the heart of what we believe in. Awards are wonderful, but what means the most is what the recognition represents: that investing in people, sharing knowledge and creating opportunities for others is valuable work in this industry.

Hospitality careers are so often built because someone took the time to teach you, advocate for you, introduce you to someone or give you an opportunity before you necessarily knew you were ready for it. We’ve benefited from people doing that for us throughout our careers, and Another Round Another Rally gives us the opportunity to help create more of those moments for others.

We also see the award as recognition of the larger community around this organization. None of this work happens because of two people. It happens because an entire industry continues to show up for one another.

Where do you want Another Round Another Rally to be five years from now, and what would it take to get there?

Five years from now, we want Another Round Another Rally to be an even stronger resource for hospitality workers at every stage of their careers, from someone experiencing an unexpected crisis to someone looking for the education, mentorship or opportunity that could change the trajectory of their career.

We want to continue expanding access to education and professional development, deepen our ability to respond when hospitality communities face emergencies, and create more pathways for people to build long, sustainable careers in this industry.

Getting there will take continued partnership. One of the things we’ve learned is that meaningful change in hospitality doesn’t happen in isolation. It takes workers, operators, brands, educators, donors and communities investing in the same idea: when we invest in the people who make hospitality possible, the entire industry becomes stronger.