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Nonprofit Radio for February 19, 2016: Innovation in Mississippi & Successful Giving Days

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Aisha Nyandoro & Cassandra Overton-Welchlin: Innovation in Mississippi

There are lots of stereotypes about social change in the deep South. We look at what’s really going on in one state. What are the challenges? What are the opportunities? Who’s doing the work? Aisha Nyandoro is executive director of Springboard to Opportunities and Cassandra Overton-Welchlin is a director at Mississippi Low-Income Child Care Initiative.

Aisha Nyandoro
Aisha Nyandoro
Cassandra Overton-Welchlin
Cassandra Overton-Welchlin

Caryn Stein: Successful Giving Days

Caryn Stein

What is key to make your giving day successful? How do you activate your community to make them super fundraisers? Which technologies are critical? Caryn Stein is vice president of communications and content at Network For Good. (Recorded at the 2015 Nonprofit Technology Conference, hosted by NTEN, the Nonprofit Technology Network.)

 


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Hello and welcome to tony martignetti non-profit radio big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent on your aptly named host we’ve got to listeners of the week first beth and lock in vancouver, british columbia, she’s at a fundraiser, beth and she tweeted, i quote, getting ready for work and listening to the-whiny-donor and tony martignetti i just love her exclamation excuse me, i gave the-whiny-donor life. Yeah, if it wasn’t for me, she’d be like a collection of one dimensional characters on your screen. I breathe life into her and gave her one dimensional audio. S o you know, can i get something? You know, besides listening to tony martignetti death? Thank you very much. Okay, lets try the next one. Professor brian mittendorf he teaches accounting at our hyre state university. He listens in his car and he tweeted a picture of my name on his audios screen on the car. And i just love knowing that he’s driving around ohio with my name on his screen. I just something very comforting about that. But then included in the picture was the avatar for the show and it’s a guy who’s in his seventies and wearing a bow tie and i don’t know what you think of my looks, but i have never worn a bow tie. So, brian, your toyota bluetooth is screwed up worse than the airbags, so drive carefully and you’re going around with the wrong picture on your car and that professor brian mittendorf is at counting charity. I don’t know too lacklustre listeners of the week i know who picks these people nonetheless, i’m glad you’re with me. I’d suffer the embarrassment of keratosis polaris if you rubbed against me with the notion that you missed today’s show innovation in mississippi, there are lots of stereotypes about social change in the deep south. We look at what’s really going on in one state what the challenge is one of the opportunities who’s doing the work monisha nyandoro is executive director of springboard to opportunities and cassandra overton welchlin is director of mississippi women’s economic security initiative, a project of mississippi low income child care initiative and successful giving days. What is key to make your e-giving day successful? How do you activate your community to make them super fundraisers? Which technologies are critical? Karen stein is vice president of communications and content at network for good and that was recorded at the twenty fifteen non-profit technology conference hosted by our friends and ten non-profit technology network on tony’s take two charity registration we’re sponsored by pursuant full service fund-raising data driven and technology enabled, you’ll raise more money pursuant dot com also by crowdster online and mobile fund-raising software for non-profits now with apple pay mobile donation feature crowdster dot com my pleasure to welcome first aisha nyandoro she’s, executive director of springboard to opportunities providing strategic direct support to residents of affordable housing. She’s been an academic evaluator philanthropist now and non-profit executive she’s been a fellow of the w k koala kellogg foundation community leadership network and ascend at the aspen institute springboard is springboard to dot or ge that’s t o and she is at nyandoro s t o r you sure? Welcome to the show. Hi, tony. Thank you so much for having me. Pleasure. Welcome. Also cassandra overton welchlin she’s, a licensed social worker. In addition to being director of the mississippi women’s economic security initiative, she worked with organizations from local to national to address the social, political, economic and ecological injustices in low wealth. Communities of color that grow out of racial inequities in public policy and she’s at sea welchlin cassandra welcome. Thank you for having me, it’s. A pleasure, ladies. Welcome from mississippi. Um, cassandra, why don’t you start by just saying a little more about the work that you’re doing at the mississippi women’s economic security initiative? What’s that work about cassandra we still have our kind of grew out of, um, a need to really hear more from women about what it is. They need to be able to take care of their families, and for so long, our organization has been working around getting low income working women access to child care so they can go toe work. We know that long come working, women don’t make a whole lot of money, and this child has subsidy really does add to that income so that they’ll be able to pay for that child care subsidy program our child care so that they’ll be able to go to work. Child care can be as expensive as college tuition, but if a woman has a child cast subsidy, then she’s able to, um, use less of her income for child care, more to go towards other things. And so we heard from women about what is that they needed, and so we wanted to put together, and jenna that responded to that. And so we developed the mississippi women’s economic security agenda to really try to put together a policy agenda that would improve the economic well being a women looking at child care, access to health care, access to equal pay and higher wages. And so ah women’s economic security agenda is there to promote those kinds of policies and put women’s voices front and center into the policy debate. And we’re the only ones in the south that’s doing this women’s economic security agenda and so it’s very important and that’s some of the work that we’re doing okay now did i have it as women’s economic security initiative? Is there a difference between an initiative and an agenda? It’s not the agenda is the policy piece. Okay, so the agendas policy. Okay, so what’s the initiative. So the initiative, um, it’s really kind of our overall work where we are doing coalition building. We are working to build, um, consensus among women legislators across the state. And so there’s several steps to that. And we’re doing movement building work within the state of mississippi inside of communities. And so the initiative fans across coalition building policy making and and really doing the civic engagement. Okay, cool policy level work. Excellent. Let’s bring ah, aisha and i should tell us about springboard to opportunities we just have about a minute and a half or so before break. Ok, great, well springbox opportunity works directly with families that live in a setting of affordable rental housing. We know that affordable housing is a critical step towards breaking the cycle of poverty, but in and of itself, it’s not enough on his own residents living in federally subsidized housing also needed part of services social capital, if you say so, to have overcome some of the challenges that they need to achieve and secure a more hopeful feature. This is where springboards opportunities comes in. We are built on the premise that affordable housing combined which strategic resident engaged services can provide a platform for low income families to advance themselves in life schooling work. We do this bite-sized serving is the connector between residents in the bradrick committee using strategic community partners, system programming to address the unique needs of our families were unique because we are one hundred percent resident driven, which means that we’ve listened. We’d listen, listen and made we act and we engage where the only entity in the mississippi doing the work on the ground, specifically with families that live in federally subsidized frontal housing. So, it’s, all things innovative in mississippi? Yeah, no coal, no kidding. Got two organizations that are unique in the south, right? Right, yeah, i know exactly where you, you know, unique in the fact that it’s a lot of overlay and there’s, a lot of overlap in the work that our two organizations are able to do to really help move not only mississippi ford, but the south. Florida’s well, okay, we’re going to go out for a break and when we come back buy-in cassandra, we’re going to keep talking about the work in mississippi, the challenges, the opportunity, the challenges, the opportunities stay with us. You’re tuned to non-profit radio tony martignetti also hosts a podcast for the chronicle of philanthropy fund-raising fundamentals is a quick ten minute burst of fund-raising insights published once a month. Tony’s guests are expert in crowdfunding mobile giving event fund-raising direct mail and donor cultivation. Really all the fund-raising issues that make you wonder am i doing this right? Is there a better way there is? Find the fund-raising fundamentals archive it. Tony martignetti dot com that’s marketmesuite n e t t i remember there’s a g before the end thousands of listeners have subscribed on itunes. You can also learn maura, the chronicle website. Philanthropy dot com fund-raising fundamentals the better way. Welcome back to big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent that other ninety five percent small and midsize non-profits that’s who we’re about it’s time for live listen, love, where are we? We got listeners chapel hill, north carolina and new bern, north carolina. Do you know each other? New bern in chapel hill? I’m going to be spending quite a bit more time there very shortly st louis, missouri, philadelphia, pennsylvania and there’s others, but let’s go abroad. Jakarta, indonesia is with us, seoul, south korea. Always so so consistent soul, thank you very much. Annual haserot mexico city, mexico when a star days, jakarta, indonesia i said jakarta and federal argentina we have argentina’s well, that’s a new one can’t do live listener love without doing a podcast pleasantries over ten thousand listeners, whatever you’re doing, whether you’re driving in the car with the the wrong picture of a wrong man on your screen, on that ah, wherever you are going to work over ten thousand listeners, thank you so much. Podcast listeners on whatever device you’re on whenever you listen and affiliate affections are am and fm listeners throughout the country, on those am and fm stations affections to our affiliate listeners and worry about toe. I think in the next few weeks we will be announcing a fume or new ah am and fm station affiliates. Okay, ladies, isha what’s the you know, we want to talk about the culture in mississippi, but i think we i feel like we can’t understand if we don’t know like the history of you know what? What’s what’s some of the history there that you feel impacts the current and impact your work, you know? Definitely. Well, you know, mississippi has a really unique in british history. I’m from mississippi, a comics of home grown goodness. So i love all things mississippi. But, you know, we do have a history of segregation, discrimination, jim crow. All of those things are really president part of our current reality, you know, unfortunately, we have one of the largest poverty rate in this country, and it’s also know blends over into childhood poverty one in three mrs to be children live in poverty. That’s, you know, sixty four, sixty four percent of these households are headed that single women. And so when you have that narrative shaping a community currently that believes and so what’s available if they released a future opportunities, and so that both of the realities that were working in but even though those are our realities of the people in this state love this state. We live here were working here that choice both could sandra and myself. You are from this area and we both chose tto go away to school and come back home to do the work and be grounded in the work. Because we understand the history of the space. We understand the uniqueness of the space. But we also understand the beautiful opportunities that are in this space. This well, we are a community rich in a loudly cultural in history. And by knowing that his three, we were able to move forward and write a brighter script in a new tomorrow. Okay, um, cool. Cassandra, do you wantto amplify anything or add to it, you know, just about about the history and what it creates for the for the present for your work? Yes. So i i’ll just agree with everything i usually says. And it makes the work. And as she says, she called herself, you know? Home what? Do you call yourself home home grounded in this? And i call myself the daughter of the south, a daughter of the south and it’s so important that we did come back home too, engaged in the work and try to improve our communities, poverty harms the life and the well being of our women and our children, and it also slams the opportunity. I mean, the doors of opportunity shut for them, no, and also diminishes the economic health of the entire state and saying that when mississippi annex policies and make, um, legislation that harms are disproportionately impacts community of color here it also impact the entire state not just that population in an impact, all of us, and so, as a result of that, um, we do have these deep, deep pockets of poverty that exists here, but yet we also have this resiliency that exists in our community. I mean, we are rooted in the civil rights struggle on the civil rights movement, and so a lot of that richness still exists here, where people continue to move forward and push through the heart hard walls, that, um, that have continually been built. But we continue. To push that down so that we can get hr families, make our families more economically secure and prosper, and so that our children can have these sustainable communities for generations to come. Cassandra is rich history and culture that is negative, but also we build upon that to move our community’s forward so that we can get more opportunities to our communities. And so so it’s it’s, good work, you know that being that’s being done, but yet there are some challenges that exist. Cassandra, why did you return to mississippi? I didn’t want to at first me just be clear about that. I didn’t want to because of what i’ve seen growing up in my own way in my own family, but there is a commitment to that family and commitment to my communities and one thing about me as a leader it’s important that i surround myself with other people who can hold me accountable to the values that were instilled inside of me. And so those communities came the other that people those people came together and say, cassandra, we need you back here because we need what you have to invest in those communities and so i came back and i came back, and i’m glad i did, because what i have is what my community needs and i didn’t want to be. And this is me personally be this trader where i’m going in other places e-giving and, um and and not giving back to the communities that invested in me, and so there’s this real value their of wanting to put back into my community what was given unto me, and so that’s a real value there. And i say, all the time when god made me, he really gave me a triple dose of from justice and what better place the ground that is here in this fifty? And so i wanted to return, and my family story is rooted in this place of, um, of grace of service on and also a poverty, and i wanted to be a voice for my family in that. Are you sure your work would be so much easier in some other part of the country? What brought you back to mississippi? You know, i don’t know it’s, not work, will be so much easier in other parts of the country, you know? I don’t know if my work would be is needed and other parts of the country, you know, you know. So even though doing its work in this is to be it’s difficult, i think the work of social change and community building it’s difficult in any context, does something cubine mississippi where this work it’s really hard. I think we as the country sometimes did not want teo deal with the injustices that exists that keep people paralyzed in the systems that keep people paralyzed and that’s just not unique to mississippi that’s the narrative, you know, throughout our country, in some places that so much to me. I really think my work would be much more difficult because i would not be ableto be the immediate menace stations of the work in action, and i would not i feel it, so i were living my purpose out loud and so the work will be difficult because i won’t be as committed. I want being grounded in it. The work that i am doing as the leader of springboard opportunities is particularly the work that i was called to do. I was built to do this. I was built to move. These community for teo implement this innovation that on lee as a model here in mississippi, but a model of how do you engage families in affordable housing system that can be, you know, replicated throughout the country for the work, i wouldn’t be any easier, it will be different. It would not be fulfilling, but, you know, it wouldn’t be me being in mississippi being here, it makes me ground it and in being ground it’s the only way that you can do this work because it is difficult, we are on the ground trying to change the narrative, changed lives in power, people. And that is not something that happens overnight. Andi the reason i said would be easier, i guess maybe i made it sound too pollyannish, but easier elsewhere. I was i was thinking of the i mean, i’m thinking of the challenges like around education being no solo funded and and recently, just within the past, like month or so, there was there were headlines about the failures of the child welfare system. You know, there’s just especially, you know, working in a population with with children, asia that’s argast thing i mean, you there’s. Just a lot of theirs just seems like there’s more challenges in mississippi now that you know that it’s not that is true. There are a lot of policies in mississippi that are unfortunately ineffective, but that’s why we have the innovation of programming and policy coming together on the ground. So cassandra the ram that she works in it’s really policy around that i work in this really grasses organizing in programming, and we’re able to bring the two together to really move the needle and change the narrative. So you’re right. The work would probably be easier in some places that were a little more liberal because we would have educational poverty policies worked for policies, childcare policies, transportation, all of the things that we all of the challenges that our families deal with. Those may not be as heavy a mountain to move, but yeah. Okay. Cassandra, let sze shift over to some of the opportunities. What do you see as being advantageous there? I mean, what do you what can you grasp onto toe advance the agenda. So ben jealous did an excellent report that was published by the center for american progress called truth south. And a couple of things he brought out in that and that we see manifested quite a lot. And i work is there’s some unique opportunities that we have right now. One of things that he brought up is this changing demographics that that’s happening but twenty forty three way will be a majority people of color state our country, and so as a result of that and that and even in mississippi and twenty, anna senses that show that, you know, white children were a minority here in mississippi. So we have some interesting opportunities where, you know, more people of color will be, um, a majority in our in our country saying that that has unique opportunities to do a couple of things. We know that people of color vote more progressively in their voting patterns, they vote for more progressive leaders, and they also, um, they and we also know that they get out and vote, so that creates a unique opportunity as we began to talk about how do we change the landscape and the leadership in our country, in our state houses at the local level as well, even at the national level. And so we have these unique opportunities, i think another thing is building because in the south, particularly in the south, we’ve had thes very conservative and x dreams leaders who post policies around on an attack on women’s rights, and as a result of that, they isolated white women. And so we found that if we can hold and bring along these white women as a part of a new voting block, then we can really shift an example. In four years ago, mississippi had an amid a ballot initiative, proposition twenty six, the personhood amendment where we’re going to completely limit how women were completed limit women’s rights around abortion and what happened, wass christian white women joined together with interface women of color to say i am pro life, but i’m also port port pro choice. My body is my body, so that presents some unique opportunities. The other thing is that the vote of the youth with black lives matter taking the country by storm it’s happening in every pocket of our community where young, bold young people are saying, you know, enough is enough my black skin is gold my black skin on my brown skin is important. And i’m not gonna let you do do this. And so you have these movements arising, but we can trace them back here in mississippi to the civil rights, civil rights, right, free family. Right. So these are some things that we could begin to build a bond too. Build these unusual alliances, alliances and these multi racial and interject generational voter coalitions so that we can transform the political power here in mississippi, but also in the deep south. Alicia are incredible opportunities that we have here to really move the things that we issue and i care about around our women and around, aren’t you? Yeah, i want to turn toe aisha aisha opportunities that you see in your work with with the the families, you know, you know everything next sandra has said, but i also see a lot of opportunities and the work is that there’s a changing tide. So you actually now have a a lot of individuals moving back home. So you have a lot of progressives and a lot of, you know, people going out to get educated but then doing like, the sand you and i have done, which are really moving back to mrs, being really growing, where you, you know, growing where your planet and getting e-giving back to your community and being more and still than involved within your community. So there’s a lot of opportunity there, but then also there’s a lot of philanthropy here in mississippi and in the deep south that we really don’t talk about there’s a lot of there was a lot of homegrown philanthropy was far individuals. E-giving but there’s also a lot of big philantech ity and individuals are really beginning to look at what we need in the region to change the narrative and really began to be the author of our own narrative and not letting the north or the east there other places really defined what this region is because we know what it is that we are beginning to work in conjunction more with the lance therapy toe really elevate the true story of mississippi? Okay, okay, are you sure? What about the special challenges of being a black woman doing this social change work in mississippi? So that’s, interesting question. I don’t see any challenges being a black woman doing this work, i think being a actually, i see no challenges with c it is nothing but opportunity. I am a black woman and eleven mississippi, and but with that, i understand what that narrative, maybe others other strike right to say what that perception, maybe two other than my perception of my reality in my abilities, but by that being the perception of others have made me a really hard worker. I work harder than most people that i know, but i work hard and i’m grounded, and i give all that i have to give. So being a woman of color doing this work in mississippi, it’s a beautiful thing, because because i’m grounded in community, i’m grounded in my history and branded in my narrative, i’m grounded in the elders, and itjust presents tremendous opportunity for me to lift up the challenges that i know you know, our present within my community and working on behalf of my community. Cool, cool. Cassandra wants the same question doing that doing that work as a black woman in mississippi. What was it like? Some of the things that i found on doing the work is so i ran for elected office. Oh, yeah, three years. Ago, i ran for state senate and one of things that i’ve found and it’s not just me, but other black women who have run for office and and this is really across the country is that you have, again, these gender inequities that exist, and it was hard for me to get the money to do what i wanted to do. It was very difficult to do that most people will. R r it is more eager to give money to i mean, to do this work more eager to give to me and to run for office to start a business we found, i found that also found that right? But so as a result of that, we’re having to build the strong coalitions and relationships among each other to reach across like i should say, we have these individuals that are engaging and more of this philanthropic community, and so we’re having to pull together some of these folks, some of our friends that have access to those resource is so we haven’t to think smarter about how do we get more of our blackbaud folks and black women into these elected positions? The other thing is that i use dahna doing our work, we also found i have found that it’s hard to elevate the voices of the people whom we care about. L’m the national platform, particularly in the media, it’s been very difficult to do that and to try to do it in a way that will change. As aisha says, the narrative of our communities and so being able to form these relationships with the feeling about the community and other people who may have access to resource is has been sochi. It goes back to this building, you know, these unusual alliances so that we can segway are in segway, away and through those platt forms so that we can elevate the voices of the communities that we care about. So i found that black women’s voices aren’t at the national level, the way it needs to be, and the communities in which we care about there’s a, um, they’re cassandra, but we’re moving towards that. And so, you know, those are some of the things that i found it, okay, we have just about thirty seconds left or so, and now you show i’m going to leave it with you, there’s. A saying that as the south goes, the nation goes, um what do you think that what you think the future of the nation is? I think the future of the nation looks bright, you know, the south is full of passionate, committed, innovative individuals who are connected to the space that were called to work in we understand working across sectors, we understand the importance of collaboration, but we also understand the importance of i’m making sure that all individuals just not the haves but all individuals, though that we proceeded to have nuts as well have a seat at the table, so we understand unusual alliances and create a partnership, and we understand the need of policy and effective programming, and we’re good stewards of our resources and were innovative, beautiful people, you know, the blues came from mississippi catfish colorings, all those beautiful things that you think about in the south, so i think the nation good, we have our challenges, but we recognize those challenges and despite that we’re moving for were being committed, and we’re going to do the good work. That’s asian nyandoro you’ll find her on twitter at nyandoro s teo and also cassandra overton welchlin at sea welchlin ladies, thank you so much. Thanks for sharing. Thank you. Real pleasure, right? Successful giving days with karen stein at the networks for good is coming up first pursuant and crowdster i’ve talked to their ceos, both of them. I know that these companies can help you in small and midsize non-profits they understand your challenge is they understand what your needs are, and they both have companies and products that have ah, that are designed to meet those needs. That’s ah, it’s trent recur at pursuant and crowdster that’s ah it’s, joe ferraro, their sponsors of the show because their products can help you raise more money. They both have terrific backgrounds in non-profit duitz and in corporate work, so they’re playing corporate solutions to the challenges that they understand that that you’ve gotten in joe ferraro att crowdster actually runs a non-profit so that’s pursuing dot com and crowdster dot com now tony’s, take two. Are you properly registered in each state where you solicit donations? If that question makes you cringe, then we should talk. And if you have no idea what i’m talking about, we should talk, you’re non-profit needs. To be in compliance with the state laws in each state where you solicit and that includes paper, mail and email, text text to donate if you have a donate now button on your website. That button is a solicitation when it goes live doesn’t really doesn’t matter if anybody ever clicks on it in any individual state or anywhere but when it goes live, that’s the solicitation and that triggers registration in at least half the states i can help on dh getyou into compliance. If we need to talk, you can get me at tony at tony martignetti dot com or the contact page at tony martignetti dot com and that’s tony’s take two here is karen stein from the march twenty seven twenty fifteen show and originally recorded at and t c twenty fifteen welcome to tony martignetti non-profit radio coverage of the non-profit technology conference twenty fifteen our hosts are intend the non-profit technology network. We’re in austin, texas, at the convention center, i guess now is karen stein. Karen is vice president for communications and content at network for good, and her workshop topic is the secret formula for successful giving days. Karen stein, welcome to the show. Thanks so much, tony it’s. Great to be here. It’s. A pleasure. Thank you very much. Thanks for taking time on a busy conference day. Yeah. It’s definitely exciting to be here at at the anti cia and see lots of old friends and make lots of new way. And so it’s it’s, always in one of our favorite events. Excellent. This is my second year here doing interviews on dh believe this is your second my second year here. And, of course, network for good has been here for many, many years. So since around two thousand seven, i think right for yeah, i believe so. First, long before amy sample ward was ceo. Definitely definitely. And i think it’s it’s growing into i think one of the premier non-profit events teo, be at i think so. I mean, that’s always what? You know, there are many conferences to go, teo. If for both attendees and exhibitors. But this is when we definitely make a point to always, always be out there. All right, so i’ll see you again next year. Definitely looks like a date. All right, all right. We’ll set you up with an interview for twenty sixteen um, successful giving days. So now i think the biggest probably most popular, is giving tuesday what are some examples of other ones? Yeah, so different types of giving days, they could be based around the time of year they khun b based around a region or an affinity group. So there are things like giving tuesday, of course, which is really the kickoff now for urine giving, and then you have things like give local america, which is focused more on regional giving in other community foundation states have their own giving days. We actually helped maryland due e-giving day for their state, and it wasn’t a maryland, yes, for their non profit organizations to the maryland non-profit association did e-giving day on and then you have ah, non-profits who want to come together and do giving days around affinity groups so things like give out day, which was really kind of focused around issues affecting gay, lesbian, transgendered folks and have those organizations come together not just to raise funds but also to think about how to raise awareness and use those social networks as a zit means to get their message out, i had henry teams as a guest about a month ago or so roughly talking about the success of e-giving tuesday generally and how what a huge spike there was for twenty fourteen he certainly emphasizes the decentralisation of it and all the sharing tools that are available is that common across the successful e-giving days definitely, i think that the reason why e-giving days have become so popular is because online fund-raising has become so popular, and it really has decentralized and and decouple the idea of fund-raising an advocacy from just not just the organizations, but it’s really something that everyone khun d’oh, and to think about how you can couple that technology with the idea that we have these large social networks, it’s really allowed that to take off in a very viral way, and we often talk about things going viral. This definitely has for sure, and i think it’s great on dh. So what are some other, you know, common traits, important components of a successful e-giving yeah, well, the thing is that that makes giving dae so unique, and i guess so effective is that it’s really using that sense of urgency? And we know that a sense of urgency, especially in fund-raising campaigns can really motivate people to act when they otherwise would not. And so having that limited window of time really gets people excited and it’s very focused, you have a lot of energy, kind of compressed in tow one day, twenty four hours, and it really gets people excited. And so i think, that’s one piece of it, right? I think it’s that urgency and to take that and then really empower people with a message and some fun sharing tools. So i think you hit the nail on the head there were thinking about how do you not just use social media as a promotion promotional tool, but to use it in creative ways with images, with videos with, you know, some kind of contests that could really encourage that excitement, right? Because that’s one thing that you definitely need forgiving day, you need something had to be fun, and you needed to be interesting, and you needed to be exciting because that’s, really what is going to get people to pay attention to you and be motivated to share that with their friends and their family? And so we think that that’s really one of the things that’s, that’s really important? So it’s, that sense of urgency, the idea that you’re having fun but it’s also this idea of specificity, how do you become very specific about what you’re going to be raising funds for in that day? And we find that the most successful e-giving dave gold gold, if you can’t really just be about general giving, it needs to have something else to it. It needs to have something specific, so maybe that’s a specific program that you’re working on, maybe that’s ah specific goal that you’re working tour, but it needs to be something, you know, maybe you’re trying to open a new soup kitchen and that’s the particular thing that you’re built, you’re raising funds for its not just about your your cause it’s about that one particular thing, because having that tangible thing again helps you be more creative and be very specific, and i think it gives people something to really grab onto and share and understand exactly where their money is going. Okay, interesting the specificity. So do you find that organizations that are just more general say on giving tuesday, you help us out today, it’s giving tuesday, they’re not being a successful is the other right? I think that there is if you’re not specific, you’re not going to be as successful. And i think that it’s not enough to say it’s giving tuesday, so give it’s the same thing as if you were saying now, it’s time for our annual campaign so you should give to us that’s not compelling for a donor, and so i think that, you know, if you can get very specific about the cause that you’re raising funds for maybe it’s a special, specific project, we see that that’s really makes a big difference because it also helps the non-profit get really clear about what their marketing materials are and what that message is, and it could help you stand out, especially on e-giving day we’re in so many people are actually putting out those fund-raising appeals having something unique can help you stand out above the rest. And so it’s really important for you to be specific about that ask because we know that that’s what donors are looking for, and that really does play into that idea of a e-giving day of really coming together to fund one particular thing that people care about. What should you be thinking about if you’re trying to decide whether e-giving day makes sense for your affinity group, not let’s let’s put aside participating in something national, like give local o r or giving tuesday if you try to think about it for your own, like university, for instance, you know, how would you what do you need to think through? Yeah, i think that what you really need to think about a couple different things. I think you need this the internal staff to be able to do it. It doesn’t have to be a large debt, but you do have to have someone dedicated to being the champion of that giving day for your organization. Because it’s really just like any other campaign, you need to have a plan you need to have. Ah, you know, one who’s going to man those marketing channels. So you need to have somebody dedicated to that. You need to really be able teo leverage social media. I mean, you could do e-giving day without social media, but i think it’s a lot more difficult. So you need to have we’re already started thinking about how do you build that up for your organization to use that as a lever? So you need to have some type of social media presence and you need tohave ah, fairly decent following, and that could mean different things for different organizations. A larger organization is going have probably many more followers. A smaller organization may not have as many, but the followers they do have maybe just his passionate so you need those people to amplify your message, and then you need a really easy way for people to activate, right? You’re sending out those messages through social media? How do you actually get those people to take action and make it very easy for them to do so in terms of donating all mine? Or if you’re called to action could be signing a petition? Most giving days are about giving funds and making a donation, but some organ it doesn’t have to be, but it doesn’t have to be at a lot of people use that as an opportunity to raise funds, but also to get people on their email lists he really expand their social network so some of those different asks that you could give to your supporters are yes, we would love for you to support the mission with a monetary gift, but you can also support the mission by sharing this this message with your followers and help us expand that network, and that could be really powerful, especially as we see millennials take hold that’s one way where they really i feel like they can make a big difference is being an advocate for that cause and that in some cases, especially for smaller organizations, can be a big win because they don’t necessarily have that built in base to communicate. Tio way assumed that most people know what e-giving tuesday is but give local america when i wanted to explain what that one is about because i don’t, i don’t think a cz widely known but it’s still very, very interesting. Yeah, it is, and i think it taps into this idea where so give local america is actually done through a lot of the local community foundations and it’s really all about giving local to your own local charity. So if you are living in austin and i think the us who actually, austin is having an event this week called amplify austin and it’s all about giving back teo to those charities and those organizations in the austin community. So it’s really focused on making sure that your charitable donations are staying within the community. I’m really getting people excited about what good is happening in their own backyard. So that’s really the premise of give local america’s toe leverage the networks and the non-profits through the local community foundations and created giving dae that way. So it is a national day devoted to giving, but it’s, the action is actually happening at the local level. We talk some about the technologies that you should be employing in your you’re now that you’ve decided to to embark on a given day, definitely so the great thing is that technology is really democratizing fund-raising and it allows that to happen at many different levels by really anyone, and so what we would would recommend is that you have a really strong online giving presents it should also allow your donors to make a donation online very quickly, but it’s also about mobile because we know that a great majority of people are now, reading messages on mobile email messages as well as the primary use of many social network it’s actually coming through mobile, and so that experience needs to be very mobile friendly so people could quickly take action, get that done and feel good about giving that gift rather than it being a long drawn out process. So that’s really critical. The other thing that you need to think about with your online giving platform is, is there an option for people to raise funds on your behalf? So is there an option for someone to come in and not just make a donation but actually amplify your fund-raising by becoming a fundraiser for you, so appear fund-raising functionality is also very important for that and then having some integrated social sharing tools. So we talked a lot about this idea of social media and leveraging networks has really allowed these giving days to take off so that’s one things that non-profits really need to think about is how are they going to then enable and empower those donors and those fundraisers to share their message with tools right on that page, right on their their facebook page on their web site just making sure that they’re making it as easy as possible to find those ways to share that message. And so i think those were really the things that are critically important. There are many other things that you could do. I mean, having a great email marketing tool, of course, is one and all these things are typically what you would find for any successful campaign, but particularly the mobile in the social and the pier fund-raising are extremely critical, forgiving days because you need to be able to activate as many people as possible within a very limited amount of time. I imagine there’s there’s lead time to this and, well, there’s, obviously lead time. That’s silly, but terms of getting some early adopters, maybe, you know, you got some key people lined up way in advance so e-giving day, what about some of the ground working s o u need t be planning ahead, so we would say if you’re if you’re thinking about giving tuesday and now it’s only march, but you need to be thinking about that now we would say that ideally, you would have about three to six months lead time. If you are thinking of of give local america, which is just in may, so that’s not too far away, you still have time to plan that. But those far ahead as you can get you, is going to be more. You’re gonna have more success oppcoll campaign and one of the things that you need to be thinking about when you’re planning that is being able to identify who are your most passionate supporters, whether those air people within your staff or your volunteer group, or maybe donorsearch one outside your organization, you need to be able to get those people on board are early, get their input, make sure they’re aware of what’s happening, and then equipped them with the right messages in the right tools to be able to really amplify that message for you. So that’s, really important to think about. Like what you’re hearing a non-profit radio tony’s got more on youtube, you’ll find clips from stand up comedy tv spots and exclusive interviews catch guests like seth gordon. Craig newmark, the founder of craigslist marquis of eco enterprises, charles best from donors choose dot org’s aria finger do something that worked. And naomi levine from new york universities heimans center on philanthropy tony tweets to he finds the best content from the most knowledgeable, interesting people in and around non-profits to share on his stream. If you have valuable info, he wants to re tweet you during the show. You can join the conversation on twitter using hashtag non-profit radio twitter is an easy way to reach tony he’s at tony martignetti narasimhan t i g e n e t t i remember there’s a g before the end he hosts a podcast for the chronicle of philanthropy fund-raising fundamentals is a short monthly show devoted to getting over your fund-raising hartals just like non-profit radio, toni talks to leading thinkers, experts and cool people with great ideas. As one fan said, tony picks their brains and i don’t have to leave my office fund-raising fundamentals was recently dubbed the most helpful non-profit podcast you have ever heard. You can also join the conversation on facebook, where you can ask questions before or after the show. The guests were there, too. Get insider show alerts by email, tony tells you who’s on each week and always includes link so that you can contact guess directly. To sign up, visit the facebook page for tony martignetti dot com. Duitz if you have big dreams in a small budget tune into tony martignetti non-profit radio, i d’oh. I’m adam braun, founder of pencils of promise. What more are we looking for? We’re in these people that we’re going to recruit early on long before the early the early adopter. Yeah, i think what you need to think about our, you know, our what is their story? Why do they support you? And i think that’s a really compelling question to start asking those people because that story you can use yourself, tio really inspire other donors, but you need to understand what motivates them. Why do they give to the organization? Why do they care about your cause? I really understand that i think what you’re also looking for frankly, are people that have large networks, you know, and influence yeah, i think i think he want at least two to three people on your, you know, group of supporters that can reach out to the media, maybe they have connections, you know, your board members are actually great people to get involved in this process because they are typically people that do have influence in your community or have connections, and that could be a great way to use them t get involved, get excited about what you’re doing and really, you know, kind. Of make give them something to feel proud about when they’re reaching out to their friends, family and colleagues about why your cause is so important. So those are some groups that you could look to you. But i think volunteers, board members, people that are recurring givers, you know, we’re really talking a lot about recurring giving it that network for good, because we know that those people are the most loyal in the most passionate people. They’re committed to your organization, and often times they will want to do more for your organization. So that’s, another group that you can look teo, you have excellent way of explaining this very concisely. Thank you, really. Oh, it’s, zvilli, oppcoll. Let’s think about trying to make the case in our organization if we believe it’s, right? And we’ve got the tools in place and we have staff that can support it and wear confident we’ve got some people in our networks who will take it on right? But, uh, maybe the board is reluctant or the orjust my immediate boss is reluctant with ceo, how do we start to make they bring these people? Yeah, i think there’s a couple of things that you can do, i think you can point to the larger success of these giving days there’s a ton of examples out they’re both from the hyre ed space, but also from from non-profits in general, that are raising a lot of money this way, and so i think you can use that as a springboard for having this conversation at your organization. I think you have to be realistic. You have to think about what is the investment that you’re making in this giving day because you do need to two planning to have some marketing dollars to put behind it. What we would typically say is that you should plan to spend about ten percent of what you hope to raise. And so i think, it’s important to be really clear on what that goal is for your organization, but it could be a way for you to expand your audience and raise more funds. And so i think it’s ah, this investment that’s well spent. I think the other thing to think about is a network for good. We’ve seen that this type of fund-raising so far has been additive for organizations. A lot of people are concerned. Well, zishe is cannibalizing other giving it actually is very additive, and it could be another way to not only grow your day donations, but it could be a way to grow that donor base, which is a critically important for so many non-profits especially those small to midsize folks that are really looking to build their lists. And so i think, that’s another way, it’s a it’s an opportunity, really, for those people to meet several goals at once and i think that’s a great investment of dollars. How do you assuage the people who do say it’s just going to cannibalize our annual giving? We’re just going to shift shift time of year that they give? Yeah. I mean, what we’ve seen in the data is that that’s not actually the case. And so, you know, we we do a lot of analys snusz on on your in giving. And what we typically find is that we see about ten percent of our animal volume for the entire year. Come in at the last three days of the year and that’s been pretty constant. And so this year we really interested to see what? How did this really big giving tuesday, if influence that. And so we saw that on giving tuesday. I think we are. Volume was about one hundred and forty eight percent. An increase over twenty thirteen on giving tuesday. I was like, okay, that’s that’s nice. But what happened later? Right? Because that’s really where more people are giving what we actually saw is that this past year in twenty fourteen, those last three days accounted for twelve percent of our annual bowling, and that volume actually went up those days got larger. So it’s really interesting. Now i can’t necessarily attribute that cause, but it was just interesting for us to see that happen because there was, you know, we were thinking like, well, maybe that is shifting, i think what it is is starting to just accelerate the way that people are giving at the end of the year, but what we saw is that people are giving both in both cases, right? They may not big be giving large amounts on giving tuesday as they will on december thirty first, but what we do see is that the largest average donation comes in on december thirty first and the second largest comes in on giving tuesday. And so it is and and that’s a bigger gift than what happened at any other time of the year outside of december first. All right, can we still have a few minutes left together? What? What more do you want share that that i haven’t asked you about? Wow, that’s a great question. Well, i think that the thing that we would really encourage people to think about is just start thinking about it, i think it’s a great way for you to think about how to message organization in a new way if you haven’t tried it yet. It’s a great way to activate younger supporters if you’re kind of looking for a way to get new people in the door get younger donors involved it’s a good way to activate them, right? Because they really take to this because it incorporates a lot of the behaviours and the technology that there’s so comfortable with using. And so i think, that’s another thing to think about if you’re looking to tap into a new demographic, i think that giving days are way to do that, and there are so many great examples out there that you can kind of look, teo, to see how people are doing this and it’s really, you know about being creative and about, you know, thinking about maybe a new way to spend your cause to people that haven’t heard about it before. Are there other national ones besides e-giving tuesday give local america others that we could participating before we start thinking about creating our own? Yeah, i mean, i think that the big too, you mentioned i think i believe there are there are other giving days don’t haven’t for some reason, i’m drawn, drawing a blank on that, but i think you know, the interesting thing is that we would really recommend that you participate in one that has maybe a bigger following. First, because a lot of those organizations, especially the folks, that giving tuesday, have a set of resource, is for you to take advantage of. And that could be really powerful for folks that are just getting started. And not quite sure now. Or forget also provides a toolkit for folks that outlines exactly what you need to do and when. And so, i think, it’s really important if you’re just starting out to try to go in on e-giving day, that’s already in existence, like one of these national days, or even a regional event before you think about maybe creating your own event, because i think you’ll learn a lot by doing that. Yeah, they’re sharing tools, a critical on dh there already set up. Exactly, you know. Want to reinvent the wheel your first time out. You wanna leave us with one one tip that you haven’t mentioned yet he’s going to think of something that just in the last minute, but yeah, definitely i wouldn’t say that on giving days, you know, just like any other day of the year, any other campaign it’s all about being very compelling and drawing in that emotion from the donor, so don’t leave that behind like we said, it’s, not just about the giving day it’s, about what you’re empowering that donor to make possible. So you really need to be able to think about tapping into emotion when you’re thinking about that fundraiser and thinking about that appeal letter or that social media post that you’re doing really leverage the powerful work that you’re doing and, you know, send that message out and draw all those emotions because that’s, what really is going to get people in the door? Thank you very much. Thank you so much, tony. My pleasure. Karen stein, vice president for communications and content at network for good, and you’re with tony martignetti non-profit radio coverage of the non-profit technology conference twenty fifteen thanks so much for being with us, i’m going to be an ntc twenty sixteen march twenty third, twenty fourth and twenty fifth in san jose, california. I hope you can go check it out. Info was at in ten dot or ge next week. Communicate with your communicators with kivi, larue miller and your event pipeline. If you missed any part of today’s show, i urge you find it on tony martignetti dot com. Where in the world else would you go? I’m still not sure about that. We got some last minute live listener love jin on china ni hao, new york, new york hey what’s up buenos aires, argentina bueno star days responsive by pursuant online tools for small and midsize non-profits data driven and technology enabled pursuant dot com and by crowdster online and mobile fund-raising software for non-profits now with apple pay mobile donation crowdster dot com our creative producer is clad meyerhoff sam liebowitz is the line producer gavin dollars are am and fm outreach director, and the show’s social media is by dina russell. This music is by scott stein be with me next week for non-profit radio big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent go out and be great what’s not to love about non-profit radio tony gets the best guests check this out from seth godin this’s the first revolution since tv nineteen fifty and henry ford nineteen twenty it’s the revolution of our lifetime here’s a smart, simple idea from craigslist founder craig newmark insights orn presentation or anything? People don’t really need the fancy stuff they need something which is simple and fast. When’s the best time to post on facebook facebook’s andrew noise nose at traffic is at an all time hyre on nine a, m or eight pm so that’s, when you should be posting your most meaningful post here’s aria finger ceo of do something dot or ge young people are not going to be involved in social change if it’s boring and they don’t see the impact of what they’re doing. So you got to make it fun and applicable to these young people look so otherwise a fifteen and sixteen year old they have better things to do if they have xbox, they have tv, they have their cell phones me dar is the founder of idealist took two or three years for foundation staff to sort of dane toe add an email address their card it was like it was phone. This email thing is fired-up that’s why should i give it away? Charles best founded donors choose dot or ge somehow they’ve gotten in touch kind of off line as it were and and no two exchanges of brownies and visits and physical gift. Mark echo is the founder and ceo of eco enterprises. You may be wearing his hoodies and shirts. Tony, talk to him. Yeah, you know, i just i’m a big believer that’s not what you make in life. It sze, you know, tell you make people feel this is public radio host majora carter. Innovation is in the power of understanding that you don’t just do it. You put money on a situation expected to hell. 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