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Nonprofit Radio for June 21, 2021: Movement Messaging & Farewell, Maria Semple

My Guests:

Hannah Thomas & Morgan Fletcher: Movement Messaging

Expanding on the partnership theme two weeks ago, consider building a movement with orgs outside your direct mission. You’ll want cohesive, effective messaging and that’s where Hannah Thomas and Morgan Fletcher can help. Hannah is with Big Duck and Morgan is at Girls for Gender Equity. This is part of our 21NTC coverage.

 

 

 

 

 

Maria Semple: Farewell, Maria Semple

Maria Semple

Her first Nonprofit Radio was February 11, 2011. Soon after she became our prospect research contributor. Maria’s practice has evolved and this is her last show. Quoting somebody, nobody can identify: “Don’t cry because it’s over; smile because it happened.”

 

 

 

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[00:00:11.24] spk_4:
Hello and welcome to tony-martignetti non profit radio big

[00:00:15.74] spk_2:
non profit ideas for

[00:01:51.04] spk_6:
The other 95%. I’m your aptly named host of your favorite abdominal podcast. Oh, I’m glad you’re with me. I’d be hit with hyper nutri mia if you shared the salty idea that you missed this week’s show movement messaging, expanding on the partnership theme two weeks ago, consider building a movement with org’s outside your direct mission. You’ll want cohesive effective messaging and that’s where Hannah thomas and morgan fletcher can help Hannah is with big duck and morgan is at girls for gender equity. This is part of our 21 NTC coverage and farewell Maria Semple Her first nonprofit radio was February 11, Soon after she became our prospect research contributor, Maria’s practice has evolved and this is her last show quoting somebody nobody can identify, don’t cry because it’s over smile because it happened. tony state too podcast pleasantries were sponsored by turn to communications. Pr and content for nonprofits. Your story is their mission turn hyphen two dot c o and by sending blue the only all in one digital marketing platform empowering non profits to grow. tony-dot-M.A.-slash-Pursuant in blue. Let’s get started. Shall we hear is movement

[00:01:54.62] spk_2:
messaging.

[00:02:11.74] spk_5:
Welcome to tony-martignetti non profit radio coverage of 21 MTC. The 2021 nonprofit technology conference. We’re sponsored at 21. NTC by turn to communications turn hyphen two dot c O. My guests

[00:02:12.42] spk_2:
now are Hannah, thomas

[00:02:23.64] spk_5:
senior strategist at big duck and morgan fletcher, Director of marketing and storytelling at girls for gender equity. Hello morgan welcome.

[00:02:26.44] spk_3:
Hey, tony excited to be here,

[00:02:28.51] spk_1:
I. tony Thank

[00:02:33.64] spk_5:
you. Pleasure to have you on nonprofit radio and our coverage of the 21 MTC uh your

[00:02:36.68] spk_2:
session topic

[00:02:41.24] spk_5:
is me versus we. Well, we versus me. We versus me.

[00:02:42.60] spk_2:
Maybe it makes a difference.

[00:02:55.04] spk_5:
We’ll find out if it makes a difference, but we’ll get it correct. We versus me Building messaging for a movement. Hannah, would you get us started with with some basics? What is this movement messaging that we are talking about?

[00:02:58.54] spk_3:
Yeah, I’d love to start us off with that. Um, so to set some context in the nonprofit landscape over the

[00:03:05.49] spk_1:
last few years, there’s

[00:03:38.34] spk_3:
been a lot of efforts made by nonprofits to band together in coalition to work in partnership um in in service of movements that exist beyond even just the organization’s mission. Um, so those are causes that are benefiting the collective sector, benefiting the larger world. Um and they really require a different take on messaging. A lot of times, nonprofits are very focused on clearly articulating themselves in their mission and making sure their audiences are really motivated to support them. But movement messaging in order to be effective, has to be used by multiple voices, multiple entities, um and move a bunch of different audiences to take action in support of a larger cause. Um So where when we’re talking about movement messaging, we’re talking about sort of a reframing um from me to we so that that sort of explains the title there.

[00:04:16.24] spk_5:
Okay, So we we versus me is Okay or Me versus we is okay, but we’re going to go from me to we Exactly not. We to me, that’s the opposite of what we’re trying to do. All right. That would be taking a great cause and distilling it down to uh were the center of the universe, and we’re the only ones who can do this work. So the rest of you are out exactly

[00:04:19.01] spk_3:
opposite.

[00:04:48.54] spk_5:
That’s exactly what we’re not doing, right? That’s antithetical to what we’re talking about. Okay. All right, um, morgan. Let’s bring you in. Let’s help us understand what the value is of working outside our mission. Because I I want to I’m thinking of our listeners. You know, they they’re they’re tied up in their work and I want them to help or I want to help you to help them see the benefit of seeing outside your own individual mission to a broader cause. So what what what was the experience that girls for gender equity?

[00:06:34.84] spk_1:
Yeah, for sure. So it goes for gender equity and we call ourselves G for short, just as context for who we are. An intergenerational organization based in Brooklyn. Um, that’s centering black cis gender and transgender girls and gender non conforming non binary youth of color in the fight for gender and racial justice. So with the mission statement like that obviously actually is quite broad, which allows us a lot of opportunity to partner and collaborate with organizations who are able to meet us at the intersections of the lived experiences of the young people that were working with. So, for example, Environmental justice, economic justice, all these other issues are also racial justice issues. And so we have a lot of entry points to our work, particularly for this session with Hannah. We I was speaking about a national agenda for black girls, which is G. S. First national campaign that we launched in alignment with the presidential election. Keeping in mind that we were always trying to center young people of diverse backgrounds but of color To help us shift policy priorities and have them actually be informed by people who need the change in their lives. So there are plenty of organizations that we partnered with in this work. We had about 60 endorsing organizations. And the campaign itself is spearheaded by a steering committee of 80 young people from across the country and they each represent their own organizations that are local. So we’re able to work collaboratively with these organizations that may be may fall under the umbrella of what we’re talking about, right, these intersectional areas of young people’s experiences, but they may not be, you know, exactly cookie cutter like girls for gender equity, but the issues that we’re talking about are in alignment with theirs. And so we’re able to develop strong messaging that all of the organizations collaborating with us can uplift and use and take action on

[00:07:01.14] spk_5:
any. Was there any consternation at G about working in broader coalitions and and excuse me, maybe, you know, diluting some of our own work, you know, were there any? Was there any pushback like in the organization? May be among the board? Just you know, I’m trying to help people see what what obstacles might be might be out there for them to do this

[00:08:36.54] spk_1:
work? Absolutely, yeah. Did you have any of that? We were very fortunate. I will say that um we had a really good base of organizations that we were used to collaborating with in this way who were aligned with our values? Already newer organizations of course came in and um, you know, did a gut check with us and had we had internal conversations and we hold we hold regular meetings for those folks as well as we kind of catch them up on where our messaging is coming from to continue to check that we are still in alignment and with our priorities and framing. But I would say that actually the place where we experience the most challenge and growth as an organization and as a campaign running team was in the messaging around identity. You know, you heard me list a couple of different gender presentations and identity that one might claim moving through this world and for us, especially as we’re co collaborate and co designing this campaign with the young people in the steering committee. We had a lot of conversations around like, well honestly, who’s a black girl? Why are we framing it this way? Do we, you know, how expensive is this terminology? And does it accurately represent? Do people who are on this campaign feel accurately represented by this language? So I would say that a lot not a lot of but most of the pushback that we were receiving was extremely useful because it was coming from young people themselves who were saying, you know, I’m not binary, I don’t love that, this is framed this way. And I’m like, as you know, as a person who’s in charge of the frame and like great, keep giving me that feedback, right? Let’s create a campaign that actually represents you and how you’re moving through this world. That’s the point. So I would say a lot of constantly having that dialogue so we can continue to make sure that the campaign is serving the people, it’s intending to serve.

[00:08:50.34] spk_5:
I have to broaden my mind because when I got if I if I were getting that kind of feedback that you gotta be like, this is so annoying, why can’t you just agree with what we all we all the rest of us agreed on. Why can’t you just jump on board what you have to cause

[00:08:58.25] spk_2:
trouble? So

[00:08:59.49] spk_1:
it makes it a really time consuming

[00:09:22.44] spk_5:
process. It’s frustrating, but you always frustration usually leads to a better place. I mean if it’s channeled right, you know it’s unproductive than then it’s destructive but you know in creativity I found that frustration usually leads to a better a better outcome. Alright let’s go back to you now. So take a little broader Hannah help us identify like what, how does Big Duck think of a movement? What’s a what’s a movement?

[00:09:56.44] spk_3:
Yeah. I think um actually really related to what you’re just talking about, the language, the definitions, all of this stuff is you know always evolving and all we were always adapting what we think about as a movement and the role that messaging can play in that. Um But generally a big duck. We’re thinking about a movement as the commitment of many to work together and create transformative change based on a shared purpose or goal. And we see movement

[00:09:57.55] spk_5:
any. I’m distilling that down to uh many, working on a shared purpose or goal.

[00:10:04.27] spk_3:
That’s right towards transformative change.

[00:10:26.54] spk_5:
Okay, Okay. And how about um the messaging? How do you conceive of the messaging? And then we’re gonna we’re gonna have to dive in and explain how we how we all work together to ally around a common message, but help us understand. I mean, are we just talking about the simple it’s just a simple communications. The what each of us produce.

[00:10:41.34] spk_3:
Yeah, we are talking about, you know, all of the different ways that you can communicate something to an audience and try and prompt them or motivate them to take action with you. And so that can be, you know, in a tweet, that can be all different sorts of ways that you can communicate out. That can be in the stories that you tell, the narratives that you’re trying to disrupt or push forward. Um there’s a lot of different ways that you can that can be at a rally when somebody is giving a speech, what’s being said there in that context. Um so we’re really thinking big big about what what messaging can look like and trying not to have a narrower prescriptive view.

[00:11:34.74] spk_5:
Okay, so yeah, whatever channels, whatever channels you have, and then does does each well, before we get to approval, like getting messaging approved? So, I don’t know, we’ll talk about that process if it’s even necessary. But how do you how do you start to bring folks together, around around a common message with, you know, inclusivity? And uh you just just convene a meeting and then you start somebody produce a document that everybody comments on it.

[00:11:38.16] spk_2:
How does this process work?

[00:11:41.54] spk_1:
Yeah, I would

[00:12:56.94] spk_3:
say that there’s probably a lot of different processes that work. Um but we found that helpful like in um to to align yourself with other organizations, other people, individuals who are would be aligned around a common cause is too start the conversation around shared values. Um and the opportunity agenda is obviously a great resource, doing a lot of work around storytelling using values and all that, but shared values are really an effective in for folks who wouldn’t otherwise get the nitty gritty of of what you’re trying to achieve, to understand their role in your cause and understand how it relates to their own. Um So we we talked about in our session all of the different ways that you can like sort of frame frame this cause in ways that use those deep shared values and also you know, fill in the context around that. Um So you know, we all believe in love. Um, so or we all believe in opportunity. Um, so maybe that’s an effective in for somebody, an organization who back in the day was advocating for a gay marriage, right? There was a lot of that was a great example at the time, actually, of the way that shared values were a really efficient, effective way for people to move hearts and minds, um, and to gather, you know, some momentum around this cause that on the surface, on the policy level folks weren’t really jelling with.

[00:13:11.64] spk_5:
That’s a great example. Yeah. Love who’s gonna disagree with that?

[00:13:15.74] spk_1:
Exactly,

[00:13:16.39] spk_3:
literally no one

[00:13:17.43] spk_5:
I’m the I’m the anti Love, I’m the anti Love

[00:13:21.16] spk_1:
candidate, tough to make

[00:13:24.26] spk_5:
not in favor of that.

[00:13:25.21] spk_2:
Yeah, that’s my platform

[00:13:26.50] spk_6:
is uh is hate, right?

[00:13:57.74] spk_5:
Well, there are people who have that, but they don’t call it that. Um even they would say that we I agree with Love. We agree with Love. Alright. So cool. All right. All right. Um And then it’s starting to frame these messages like you said, I’m kind of in the details, like So then All right. So, we have these shared values morgan. How do we start to build messaging? We just want to share documents that uh people start contributing to.

[00:14:00.23] spk_2:
How did that work?

[00:14:54.74] spk_1:
Yes, the process. Well, for us, honestly, it’s it really is that fundamental basic, just kind of like, look, let’s just start putting some things down. Of course, there’s all sorts of like jazzy processes you could design and do all sorts of like discovery conversations and, you know, you can call it by those names and that is what it is. But I think ultimately we really did just sit down as a team internal and lay out our vision as it aligned with, of course, the larger goals of the organization, because this was specific to a campaign, but this applies to all of our work. We sit down as a team, we pull out a document, um, and this was developed in the time where we could be in person at our office, so we were able to sit down together in a white board, technically, and put everything down, and then we started to introduce that to people that we thought would be great allies in the work. And so we had our entry points at each organization, based on people we knew through our connections personally. Um, and also just kind of put out a general call to action into these organizing spaces that we knew had similar values alignment or values alignment, and similar ideas about a progressive future for black girls. So we could run with that. So it really wasn’t. It really was a lot of google documents. Honestly.

[00:15:22.54] spk_5:
All right. So, so morgan did you have a formal organization that that you all created or this just like this? You didn’t make a legal organization out of all these entities? Right. You just you just all contributed to a campaign,

[00:15:50.34] spk_1:
correct? So we remained Girls for gender equity. And we launched a national agenda as an initiative of Girls for gender equity. Within that. We do have a steering committee, as I mentioned, that young people and then we also have the partner organizations who are represented by those young people and some who are not who are partners in the work at large. And so those things, those groups all have names, but we did not go about formalizing legally a new entity.

[00:16:05.74] spk_5:
Okay, Okay. Not necessary. Um, and so while this is going on, uh well, this larger campaign is going on, you’re still doing your own, your own messaging, Right, Aggie. You know, that’s not like that suspended or anything.

[00:16:12.21] spk_1:
No, definitely still definitely juggling both. Right. All right.

[00:16:17.84] spk_5:
And and how does how is fundraising impacted? Was was part of the campaign for fundraising for the for the entities or it was it was a different a different call to action?

[00:17:33.74] spk_1:
Yeah, fundraising is certainly call to action for national agenda specifically because it has its own funding. And so, you know, we’re fundraising for G were fundraising for a national agenda. And of course we are talking about G. I mean, we do narrative shift work, we do direct service work. We also do organizing policy campaigns work. So there are several different buckets of work that were fundraising for at any time. Um, I think what our process has been to keeping that streamlined for and under comprehensive and clear for our audiences is just naming, but in very clear, consistent terms, all of what we’re holding as best we can and acknowledging that it’s a lot and that allows us to lean into this the, you know, what, what Hannah and I were talking about before around intersectionality and the holistic nous of the work and the holistic nous of the movement work. Right? So we can say we’ve been very explicit about a national agenda is focusing on these national priorities. However, at a city and state level in new york where we’re based, this is what else we’re holding and how it is interlaced with these other priorities. And so we’re able to flesh out where all these things are meeting and also naming, you know, there you can choose to support any of these, but ultimately supporting us will support all of them.

[00:18:01.14] spk_5:
Hannah, help us understand some more around the the complexities of messaging and consistent messaging or maybe maybe have some big some best practices that Big Duck or something. Help us flush out the details of getting consistent messaging across all your, all the entities contributing to well, in morgan’s cases with the national agenda, but you know, whatever, whatever cause we might be working toward.

[00:18:46.14] spk_3:
Yeah, I think it’s really interesting because at Big Duck primarily were preaching, you need to have one voice, a very consistent voice, a very aligned voice. Everybody should be a brand ambassador who understands deeply what you’re positioning is, what your personality is, should be able to speak. You know, all you know, sounding the same with movements. I think it’s actually very different. I think you have to necessarily make space for people to communicate. The message is in their own way using their own personalities. Um the movement can’t it’s really in my view like an exercise in relinquishing control in a lot of ways and making sure that it’s it’s something that others can own as well and feel like it’s theirs to speak about in their own voice.

[00:19:01.14] spk_5:
It’s interesting like nobody owns it, but everybody, everybody owns it, but nobody owns it.

[00:19:53.94] spk_3:
Exactly. And that’s why you can see a lot of um successful movements. One that I think is really cool is the land back movement and campaign. So there are website is very simple and it has a manifesto with about 10 lines of text on it about all the different meanings that land back has in terms of a literal, you know, meaning of we want to get this land back. But also the narrative, this means about our relation to our relationship to the environment, our relationship to racial justice, all of these different things. So it sort of sets up a basic something to work with. But if you look at the hashtag land back on instagram or something like that, there are so many folks, so many individuals who are able to um build meaning from that from that manifesto and take it in new directions and give it new life all sort of aligned generally around that manifesto, but really expanding um expanding the meaning.

[00:20:12.04] spk_5:
Anything either of you want to want to say about this sort of this consistent shared messaging

[00:20:15.14] spk_2:
Before we uh

[00:20:16.47] spk_5:
before we move on, morgan you’re shaking your head. You want to add some more.

[00:20:39.84] spk_1:
Yeah, I just wanted to underscore I think how important it is for there to be a muscle for constant vulnerability, openness to feedback and collaboration. Um you know, campaigns as Hannah was saying, you know, folks are able to step into the campaign work individuals and organizations and make it their own in a way and that is so special and unique and you also want to be sure that that does not spiral into another direction of course. And so you want to also provide structure and infrastructure for folks to feel supported as they’re moving with this campaign. Right?

[00:20:54.54] spk_5:
Like what? Like what kind of structure and infrastructure?

[00:20:56.94] spk_1:
Yeah, So I would say, you know, developing really basic tools that people can use, like messaging, kids digital tool kits to provide folks with key talking points graphics, if you want there to be visual cohesion to your campaign and folks don’t always use that stuff, you know, of course they’re like, that doesn’t match individuals might be like, doesn’t match my aesthetic organizations might be like, you know, we want to frame it a little differently. So the intersection with our work is more cohesive and clear to our audiences, but you want to give folks a starting point so they can say, you know, I like looking at land, land backs manifesto, they can refer to some tools and documents and say, okay, I know where this is rooted. And I’m going to pull these pieces from it for my, my specific messaging or my organization specific messaging and then having consistent checking with folks, you know, updating that regularly, letting folks know it’s being updated, these real basic communications that get lost because you’re holding so much.

[00:22:09.24] spk_5:
Do you feel like giving Tuesday is an example of what we’re talking about, or like spun large, you know, billions of dollars now? Or is that really something, something different because it’s so decentralized? I mean we’re talking about something decentralized here, like I said everybody owns it but nobody owns it, but I don’t know do you feel like giving Tuesday is an example of could be an example large of what we’re talking about or or no, that’s really something different.

[00:22:46.74] spk_1:
I think so, especially to disagree with me and say something. No, I was thinking about it, you know, I think um I mean we’re talking specifically about very progressive movements. I certainly am, but I’m thinking about how they, you know, they really provide, we are obviously participating giving Tuesday um and they always provide such incredible materials. So you you feel so clear through the process. Okay, I’ve got 44 months, six months out. How do I build this campaign around this moment? Right. And I always feel so prepared for giving Tuesday because they’re able to roll out such robust materials to build that infrastructure for us as organizations.

[00:23:08.04] spk_5:
Alright, well, there’s at least lessons to take from giving Tuesday in terms of the support you mentioned, support infrastructure. Um one of the things that you mentioned in your session description Hannah is that you want folks to reconsider some best practices that may be hindering their cause. What does that mean?

[00:23:09.14] spk_1:
Yeah,

[00:24:37.94] spk_3:
we, we hit on some of it earlier when we’re talking about intersectionality and making space for, you know, other causes or things that are not directly in your lane, but maybe in the next lane over. Um I wanted to include say this Audrey Lorde quote. There’s no such thing as a single issue struggle because we do not live single issue lives. So if you are an environmental organization, but you don’t see how that could connect to racial justice or to voting rights or to whatever else may be out there. You’re missing some great opportunities to expose, you know, that there’s critical connections between all that we’re doing and it can be really hard. That’s the me versus we inaction is like I need these dollars, I need these donors, I need the spotlight all of that versus a different mindset, which which we think of as a scarcity versus abundance mindset. Um, so what I was just explaining is an example of some scarcity thinking versus we want to spotlight this whole ecosystem of change we’ve got going on of which we are a piece. Um, there’s room to show how we’re connected to what our peers are doing. There’s enough dollars and donors to go around. It doesn’t have to be us who gets all 50 of those donors dollars. Maybe they give us five, and they give everybody else five to um and again, a de emphasis maybe on dollars, right? Folks have currency that goes outside of, you know, money. And how are you showing value for that? So, a lot of ways of like kind of de centering your organization in a healthy and healthy and productive way. So that’s one example of disrupting sort of best practices that we think about

[00:24:56.44] spk_5:
it. And that’s related to what you had said earlier about surrendering control. The point that nobody owns

[00:24:58.78] spk_2:
this.

[00:25:07.54] spk_5:
You have another one. That’s that’s very good de centering. Right? What else? Another another sort of mind shift that you want to encourage?

[00:25:38.44] spk_3:
Yeah, we had a whole section where we were talking about disrupting um dominant narratives, which I think morgan can speak to a little bit more. But dominant narratives are these sort of pervasive, like, the way we say things are the way we tell things, and the things that we assume that we are are all really sharing um movements are a great opportunity to really disrupt that and and form new narratives um that are healthier and that are um more progressive and are gonna frankly help us transform the world in the way we want to, I don’t know, morgan if you wanted to chime in.

[00:27:14.74] spk_1:
Yeah, I would just add as, like, a specific example, um you know, for us, when we’re talking about when G is talking about are the constituents in our programs and young people who are in our campaigns, You know, a lot of the work that we do is around shifting the narrative around the your audience cannot see this or cannot hear this or see it, but I’m using air quotes when I talk about the monolithic black girl, right? Like this and no community is monolithic, this is it. This means nothing, right? So what are you know, for us to break down that absurd premise? Um it requires us to really give opportunity to young people in our programs um to tell their unique story as they want to tell it. And so for us, our narrative shifting work looks like passing the mic. It’s not about me, the director of marketing storytelling, going to a rally and giving a really great speech. You know, it’s about young people going to that rally and them giving great speeches or speak in front of city council in new york, which we do quite frequently or talking to legislators across the country. You know, other types of campaigns that we’re building out right now. Video and social media storytelling campaigns that really allow us to present a breath of experiences and all those people are saying I fall somewhere on this black girlhood spectrum, This identity spectrum and my story may not look like this young person or that person or that person, but it is still important, it is still affected by the legislation that’s happening in this country and therefore it’s still relevant. Okay, I have

[00:27:16.64] spk_5:
a little uh, we’re going on in the background. I don’t know if you can hear that buzz, so yes, you can.

[00:27:24.44] spk_2:
Okay, sorry. Um All right, um

[00:27:30.64] spk_5:
let’s let’s leave it there. But Hannah, why don’t you just take us out with some last minute motivation? I I can see ego has to be, you know, checked at the door. You know, we’ve been talking about decentralization, de centering yourself and and your organization. Um so yeah, Hannah leave us with some last last, second last minute motivation.

[00:28:31.14] spk_3:
I have the perfect way to close this out and this is what we close our our presentation with was how important the role of a radical imagination is in helping develop movement messaging and helping you create that story that you want to tell and move folks towards action. I think it has taken a paraphrasing Adrian Marie Brown, who um wrote an emergent strategy, how it took somebody else’s imagination for this world that we have right now to come to fruition right for all of these structures and all of everything going on to happen. And we need to use our imagination if we want to create something different. And I think that if nowhere else that really radical imagination that proud, you know, proclamation of a future that we’re going to get to really belongs in movement messaging. Um so it’s more of an abstract ending note, but really important to use your imagination and be sharing, sharing your vision for the future. Unapologetically,

[00:28:51.74] spk_5:
that’s Hannah thomas, senior strategist at Big Duck also was morgan fletcher director of marketing and storytelling. A. G girls for gender equity, Hannah morgan, thank you both very much. Thanks so much.

[00:29:01.66] spk_3:
Thank you. Thanks tony

[00:29:13.64] spk_5:
Glad to have you and thank you for being with tony-martignetti non profit radio coverage of 21. Ntc we’re sponsored by turn to communications turn hyphen two

[00:29:15.01] spk_2:
dot C o.

[00:30:36.54] spk_6:
It’s time for a break. Turn to communications, you remember them, The Chronicle of philanthropy, the new york times, The Wall Street Journal, Usa today stanford Social Innovation review Oh, the Washington Post the Hill Cranes, nonprofit quarterly Forbes Market Watch. That’s where turn to clients have gotten exposure. You want that kind of press turn hyphen two dot c o. Your story is their mission. It’s time for Tony to take to the pleasantries, the podcast pleasantries have to come out. They haven’t been for some time. They’ve been dormant. They’ve been on hiatus for several weeks, but they’re back pleasantries to our podcast audience. U 13,000 plus listeners throughout the world. We’ve got listeners, yeah, we’ve got listeners in Germany um, where else besides north America? Certainly north America, we’ve got Canada and Mexico covered. Uh, so those go without saying not, not that we take the, not that we take the northern and southern neighbor listeners for granted. No, no, no, but they’re, they’re, it’s, it’s just kind of understood, you know, it’s, it’s tony-martignetti non profit radio

[00:30:40.45] spk_2:
You just know that

[00:30:56.64] spk_6:
all the north american countries are going to be represented. It’s, it’s just, it’s subsumed in the name. That’s that’s, that’s what it is. That that that’s what I mean to say. It’s subsumed. So we’ve got North America covered that. Subsumed going

[00:30:56.94] spk_2:
abroad. Oh,

[00:30:58.03] spk_5:
Germany.

[00:30:59.56] spk_2:
Um often checking

[00:32:42.74] spk_6:
in uh, italy France UK, certainly o u k. Those are the ones that come to mind and if you’re out there in other countries beyond those just named, let me know. I’d love to shut you out. Love to the pleasantries. The pleasantries. I’m grateful. I am grateful that you listen two nonprofit radio week after week. I’m glad the show brings you value. I hope it gives you actionable steps or things you can start thinking about to lead to action. That that’s what this is about. Right? So the pleasantries to you, our many, many podcast listeners, I’m grateful. That is Tony’s take two send in blue. It’s an all in one digital marketing platform with tools to build end to end digital campaigns that look professional are affordable and keep you organized. They do digital campaign marketing, that’s what we’re talking about. Most marketing software is designed for big companies and has enterprise level price tags. No, no, not here, sending blue’s price for nonprofits, it’s an easy to use marketing platform. They walk you through the steps of building a campaign. You want to try them out and get a free month, send him blue. Hit the listener landing page at tony dot M A slash send in blue. We’ve got boo koo but loads more time for nonprofit radio Here is a farewell Maria Semple.

[00:32:46.74] spk_5:
It always has been my pleasure to welcome Maria simple to the show. Of course,

[00:32:52.15] spk_2:
month after month, year after

[00:32:53.54] spk_5:
year, many years.

[00:32:55.24] spk_6:
Uh, today it’s

[00:32:58.54] spk_5:
uh bittersweet to welcome Maria sample back to nonprofit

[00:33:04.74] spk_2:
radio for a farewell. You know her, she is the prospect

[00:33:06.98] spk_5:
finder, a trainer and speaker on prospect research.

[00:33:10.36] spk_2:
Her latest book is

[00:33:11.28] spk_5:
magnify your business tips tools and strategies

[00:33:17.84] spk_2:
for growing your business or your non profit she’s are dyin of dirt cheap and free.

[00:33:28.24] spk_5:
She has been for many years, she’s at the prospect finder dot com and at Maria Semple, I always used to

[00:33:29.06] spk_2:
say Maria, it’s a pleasure to welcome you back. It’s a little like I said bittersweet this time though,

[00:33:33.71] spk_5:
hello, hello and well you’re still welcome. You’re still very welcome. It’s just not so much of a pleasure that’s

[00:33:57.34] spk_0:
all. Uh, well thank you for having me back for a little bit of a farewell and you’re right, Tony. It is bitter sweet. Um, you know you and I have been talking in one way or another and having it recorded before the time of internet radio, we were doing some tele recordings, right? We would do recorded calls and that’s right. We had those phone

[00:34:01.68] spk_2:
calls. Tell us we did a few tele calls together about planned giving and prospect research. Yes,

[00:34:07.31] spk_0:
yeah. Yeah. Back back in the day when it was tele classes. Right.

[00:34:11.52] spk_6:
Right.

[00:34:12.44] spk_2:
Yeah.

[00:34:13.29] spk_5:
Yes. And then we

[00:34:14.47] spk_2:
did some, some conferences together.

[00:34:16.88] spk_5:
That’s right.

[00:34:17.70] spk_2:
Prospect

[00:34:29.34] spk_5:
research and planned giving. Um, and then it’s been many years on, on nonprofit radio you, it’s been like eight years or so. You’ve been with the show.

[00:34:30.32] spk_0:
Absolutely prospect

[00:34:31.99] spk_2:
research contributor.

[00:34:33.05] spk_5:
What’s

[00:34:33.91] spk_2:
going on? What’s going on in your professional life?

[00:36:18.53] spk_0:
Well, you know, my business, you know, in the last couple of years has expanded and, and uh, focused a little bit more, you know, like the title of my book Magnify Your Business. It’s really kind of focused a little more on online marketing, strategy, social media, email marketing linkedin and really um you know, expanding to beyond nonprofits as well. So I work with a lot of small businesses and financial advisors. Um and and I’ve been, you know, I pulled back a little bit, I’ve been, you know, having moved to uh beautiful crystal coast of north Carolina. I’ve been working more part time than full time as I was back in New Jersey. Um and I’m doing a ton of volunteering for a number of different organizations and capacities. And one of the most recent projects that I’m really excited about is expanding broadband. And you know, that’s a big topic right now, coincidentally, so last year I was invited to serve on a committee here in carter County to expand broadband opportunity um in underserved and not served at all regions believe it or not, there are pockets down east and so forth. They just don’t have any internet. Um, and so we saw in the last year how important it was to be able to stay connected. Um, and so through the carter at County Economic Development Foundation, um, I’m continue to serve on a committee that’s going to now be implementing some of the deficiencies in areas that were identified in the digital digital inclusion report, um, that that came out. So that’s one of the big projects.

[00:36:40.43] spk_5:
So you’re working more part time and that means you’re not going to be contributing prospect research wisdom as our deutschland of dirt, cheap and free on nonprofit radio So your, your focus is shifted

[00:36:46.61] spk_2:
a little more,

[00:37:02.03] spk_5:
little more business oriented, only part time, a lot of volunteer work, which I love because we only live 12 miles apart about so uh, helping you’re helping my community to, uh, we’re in the same county. Um All right. I

[00:37:02.74] spk_2:
understand that,

[00:37:04.34] spk_5:
so happy to hear it, but I understand

[00:37:07.83] spk_0:
and I’m serving as my H. O. A. Board president. Uh

[00:37:12.82] spk_5:
I hate H. O. S. Oh my God when I moved here uh Homeowners

[00:37:18.39] spk_2:
associations.

[00:37:22.83] spk_5:
Yeah. So your uh your those people who say you can’t you can’t put this color on your door and you can’t hang this on your windows at christmas time. Is that you?

[00:37:30.13] spk_0:
Unfortunately. Unfortunately I I didn’t I unfortunately. Yes, there are there are rules when you live in an H. O. A. Community, so either you live in one or you don’t.

[00:37:43.53] spk_2:
Alright, alright. I don’t mean you’re the president,

[00:37:47.73] spk_5:
you’re going to be the scrooge time, your lights are too bright or whatever. You

[00:37:52.75] spk_0:
know, we don’t get into lighting because it’s all common area lighting. It’s a condo complex. It’s not single family homes.

[00:38:00.42] spk_5:
Right. Right. Well, people can outline their windows with christmas lights or something. We

[00:38:04.94] spk_0:
allow that. That’s fine.

[00:38:06.72] spk_5:
Okay.

[00:38:08.26] spk_0:
We’ll have christmas lights. Oh,

[00:38:10.63] spk_2:
all right. I’m getting a sense of why I know I

[00:38:14.97] spk_0:
paint your door any color you want to paint your door? There’s a specific color. You have to paint your door

[00:38:19.73] spk_6:
specific color for

[00:38:20.89] spk_0:
everybody. All right.

[00:38:22.82] spk_5:
All right, madam, President? Yeah, I’m not uh

[00:38:25.92] spk_2:
personally I’m not too keen on the

[00:38:37.62] spk_5:
U. S. But I I understand you you bought knowing that you were part of an H. O. A. So I guess you might as well be active in it so you can insert some degree of reasonableness. I hope. Yes,

[00:38:41.87] spk_0:
I hope. Well, I’m also the chair of the social committee. So I’m all about the fun.

[00:38:46.82] spk_5:
Okay, well, but if you harass people too badly on their door color, you may not, you may have zero people at your social events. So activity may offset the other. We’ll see. We’ll see how those two things are playing in

[00:39:26.02] spk_0:
the nonprofit space. Also tony You know, I think I’ve mentioned to you before, there’s something called the Crystal Coast nonprofit network that exists. And uh, we’ve, I’ve been facilitating the meetings through zoom um, for the, over the last year. Uh, and so it’s starting in september, we’re going to start meeting again in person. So you should really come out and get to know some of those nonprofits here in carter county. Be fun to have you attend?

[00:39:31.02] spk_2:
I’d love to, I, yeah, you

[00:39:31.44] spk_5:
mentioned that before. I think

[00:39:32.37] spk_2:
I followed up and then

[00:39:34.22] spk_5:
I didn’t, I’m

[00:39:35.61] spk_2:
not sure what happened after

[00:39:57.22] spk_0:
that. Well anyway, september. We’re taking a break, not meeting in uh, july and august, we just met this week not meeting july and august meeting again. September. And uh, so that’s a nice, nice network of non profits and I launched a website for them, created a site and launched it for them so that they had a space online. Um, so yeah, I’ll send you the link.

[00:39:59.17] spk_2:
Okay. Crystal

[00:39:59.81] spk_5:
Coast. Alright. Crystal Coast

[00:40:01.31] spk_2:
nonprofits. All right.

[00:40:02.71] spk_5:
Yeah.

[00:40:03.20] spk_2:
Alright, Maria, Well, you know, I’m grateful for all the hours we spent together over eight

[00:40:09.17] spk_5:
years.

[00:40:15.71] spk_2:
You helping nonprofits understand prospect research, how important it is. It’s, it’s, it’s so much richer than a lot of people realize it goes way beyond google search way way and

[00:40:21.39] spk_5:
people have been following,

[00:40:23.61] spk_2:
you know that? Yeah. So I guess I can just say thank you for everything you contributed for, for

[00:40:28.37] spk_5:
all our listeners

[00:40:29.26] spk_2:
over so many years. Thank you very much. You’re

[00:40:31.49] spk_0:
very welcome and thanks so much for having me. It’s been great, great fun.

[00:40:35.53] spk_5:
It’s always been a pleasure. Today is

[00:40:37.18] spk_2:
a little tough, but

[00:40:42.51] spk_5:
up until today it’s always been a pleasure. Alright, alright. She’s Maria Semple, she’s still the prospect find her, but just part time and more business oriented.

[00:40:48.11] spk_2:
Her sight, the

[00:40:49.60] spk_5:
prospect finder dot com and at Maria

[00:40:53.61] spk_2:
Semple. Thank you Maria and so long,

[00:40:55.51] spk_0:
so long now take care

[00:41:40.31] spk_6:
next week let’s try to get amY sample ward or Gene Takagi back. I’m working on that. If not, they’ll be up soon and next week will be more from 21. Ntc if you missed any part of this week’s show, I beseech you find it at tony-martignetti dot com. We’re sponsored by turn to communications. You remember them? You’ve heard of them a couple times. Pr and content for nonprofits. Your story is their mission turn hyphen two dot c o. And by sending Blue the only, all in one digital marketing platform empowering non profits to grow. tony-dot-M.A.-slash-Pursuant in Blue. Creative Producer is Claire

[00:41:52.71] spk_4:
Meyerhoff shows social media is by Susan Chavez. Mark Silverman is our Web guy and this music is by scott Stein. Thank you for that. Affirmation scotty. You’re with me next week for nonprofit radio big non profit ideas for the other 90

[00:41:58.99] spk_6:
5%

[00:42:05.41] spk_4:
Go out and be great.

Nonprofit Radio for July 10, 2015: Reach The Rural And Marginalized & Discovery Visits

Big Nonprofit Ideas for the Other 95%

Our Sponsor:

Opportunity Collaboration: This working meeting on poverty reduction is unlike any other event you have attended. No plenary speeches, no panels, no PowerPoints. I was there last year and I’m going this year. It will ruin you for every other conference! October 11-16, Ixtapa, Mexico.

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Listen Live or Archive:

 

My Guests:

Osvaldo GomezReach The Rural And Marginalized

Osvaldo Gomez reveals lessons learned as he used online, mobile & cloud technology to improve health care outcomes in hard to reach communities. He’s technology director at Upleaf. We talked at NTC, the Nonprofit Technology Conference, hosted by Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN).

 

 

Maria SempleDiscovery Visits

Maria Semple

These one-on-one meetings are critical to your prospect research. Maria Semple, our prospect research contributor and The Prospect Finder, makes sure you’re getting the most out of them. She also shares her recommendations for summer conferences throughout the U.S. that will help your research.

 

 


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Oppcoll hello and welcome to tony martignetti non-profit radio big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent. I’m your aptly named host. Oh, i am very glad you’re with me. I’d bear the pain of mass toid itis if i had to hear you say tony, i missed today’s show reach the rural and marginalized osvaldo gomez reveals lessons learned as he used online mobile and cloud technology to improve healthcare outcomes in hard to reach communities. He’s, technology director at upleaf we talked at ntcdinosaur non-profit technology conference hosted by the non-profit technology network and ten and discovery visits thes one on one meetings are critical to your prospect research maria simple, our prospect, research contributor and the prospect finder make sure you’re getting the most out of them. She also shares her recommendations for summer conferences throughout the us that will help your prospect research on tony’s take two important legal stuff responsive by opportunity collaboration that working meeting that unconference on poverty reduction that will ruin you for every other conference. Here is osvaldo gomez from auntie si. Welcome to tony martignetti non-profit radio coverage of the non-profit technology conference it’s day two were hosted by intend the non-profit technology network and we’re in austin at the convention center. My guest is as valdo gomez he’s, technology director for upleaf. Welcome, osvaldo, thank you for having me, it’s. A pleasure. Your topic is using technology and online communication to reach rural or marginalized populations. Excellent that’s, a riel niche topic before we before we get into it, and we have plenty of time to do that let’s, define the rural and marginalized. How do you consider those? So i think that the most important thing is to understand that. There are lots of populations that could be considered rule. Remember, analyzed the most. The most obvious one is hispanics. There’s, obviously a language barrier. There’s ah, you know, on documentary me grant. So are other circumstances that by default, you assume that it’s a somewhat marginalized population, then when you add up hispanics that live in rural areas, then they kind of have the double warming. Okay? We’re very hard people who are very, very hard to reach exactly online. Kind of off the grid. You all right? Do they have? And this is really dangerous. Got nowhere generalizing about lots of different populations. Exactly. But we’re talking about the hispanic population because the work was with the hispanic access foundation. Yes, correct. Okay. All right. So how can we with with recognizing that were generalizing? Yes. They didn’t have mobile devices largely. So that was very interesting for us to learn. When we started working with the project, we realised that the the word three things that could help us first is online communication. Because because you are it’s, a nationwide effort, it’s really hard to get to everyone in person. And there was a grassroots component to it also yes, there were. I don’t want to take you off your way have plenty of time don’t want and so they it was hard to get to everyone in person and they was also expensive to get to everyone through attritional media. If you do tv it’s very expensive. So the obvious choice was to go online. Okay, online number one. Exactly. Then the next one is mobile devices and mobile devices helped us. No, no, not just in the front and just, you know, because people like you are saying there’s a high incidence of smartphone use there is there’s there’s good penetration? Yes, even among the marginalized in rural. There is this ok and then but it didn’t also didn’t on ly helped us there. But it also helped us in the back in for us to actually run the operation. So when we were doing aggress receive into then it made sense to have the staff that was running the event using in their case it was ipods and using a mobile device because it allowed them to do data entry on this part. Okay, so for the back end also there was that there. Was online. And then is there a third of that is yes. Oh no eso so we said online communication and we say mobile devices, the third big part of this was clouds services, okay? And that is kind of the perfect pair for mobile devices, because then you have this holy infrastructure of this whole team on a national level connected and connected are low cost, which was really important because obviously it’s a non-profit it’s, not unlimited funds. And so those three things were the ones who allowed us to really reach this population. And what we proved with this project was that using online communication, mobile devices and cloud services, you can effectively reach rural or marginalized populations at a national level with a very small core team on a low budget. Alright, very exciting. I love i really i love the niche so let’s dive into it. What were the first steps? So what we did was essentially use a whole host ofthe tools to get to do to do this. We didn’t discard mass media. Well, let me ask you first, what about assessment? Determining where the people are, what they’re levels of connectedness are well, that was easy. There’s there’s a lot of information about distribution of hispanics and in our presentation, there’s a very cool map that shows you the share of the population for county that is hispanic. Ok, so there’s this’s and this is all in the us exactly, and and that the census is of the first go to place, and then it’s very easy to flag where to go, but in their case what they did, because obviously this has to be funded, so they had to prove the concept. And so they started in houston with one community, and when it went really well there, then they expanded to five communities and then more and more, and then four years later, they’re reaching eighteen states in the united states. Obviously, the goal is to get toe all state offgrid taken incremental with a community and then a bunch of states which is that’s a big leap on praveen eighteen states exactly and it’s very important to prove to the donors that the money’s will spend that you’re doing a good job, and so they’ve been doing that very effectively, and i think that the those eighteen states have bean chosen based on you know where you’re going to have the biggest impact. Of course states like texas, california winning first, how were they able to measure? And we can go? We can come back to this later on just you’re just sort of overview. How were they able to measure outcomes or definitely had an impact? The biggest tool that they used was a sales force system on this system was what the field team used. We’re on their ipods on the field, and it was what the people in washington had also available in this system runs the entire operation. And so everything that happened if you attended an event that data was entered, if there was ah, say that ran on your show that was logged, and ultimately once you put once you do all that data entry and in a decentralized way so that every user does their part, then because you have an integrated system, it all comes together, and then you can report on it more effective. Okay, so so the outcomes were points of contact. That was one part of it. The other thing was, first of all, we would do we still do post event surveys, so we collect data from people, and we collect data from the speaker about how the event went, how what you learned, and we kind of tried to gauge whether they actually learn the talking points of the okay. All right, so it was more than just a contact. But what was learned exit from the contact of the event, exactly. The other thing that we did make love sense they’ll think what it was a huge population study to evaluate whether not only they learned because there’s through three stages for for behavior to change, you have to have knowledge about, you have to know that there’s a problem, you have to be motivated to change, and then you have to have access to the resources you need to change. And we’ve been addressing all three but to be able to prove that the last one, the access and the action took place and we need it to we needed to do a study. So we did, and we proved that when you were able to educate people through a grassroots event with a community leader that they trust and kind of build that knowledge and create the position of risk. For example, we did a one big part of what we did was cancer, breast cancer and colon cancer prevention. Yeah, i was going to ask you about what some of the messages were, but go ahead, we’ll get to that. Yeah. And so for that you have to actually make sure people got tested screened exactly. Eso this study allowed us to prove what the success rate wass and, you know, out of all the people that attended this event that received the information, the motivation and was made available resource is for them to go get tested. How many actually did get this all right? And the results were very good on dso we’ve bean just building on that and improving over the years to make sure that that we reach us many hispanics as we can. Okay, really cool. And of course, you mentioned sales force. You’re doing this on a low budget sales force, of course, donated except for non-profits i think it’s up to ten licenses, i believe. Yes, that right salesforce’s free for non-profits. Well, the first and licenses are donated, and then you get a huge discount for the one after that, okay, it’s huge on for these organization in particular. So far, they’ve received three hundred three, six thousand dollars worth of donations part of that or most of it from sales force. But a lot of that also from google through the google non-profit program they run google ats donated by ghoul okay, one hundred percent 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 so let’s, talk about some of the tools that were used, so we’re we’ve we’ve touched on sales force. Yes, dribble used ripple. Yes. That’s that’s a quaint listeners, maybe more, probably more familiar with word preston droop a lso. Explain what dribble is drew police, a condom management system platform and it’s being used very widely. The white house website is built on drew people really and so it’s, very popular and very robust and it’s amazing the nuggets you can learn on non-profit radio. The white house platform is not is not word press or even customized. It’s ah, droop a little bass. Yeah, all right. And so there was non-profit radio. I’ve been telling you for years. Listen to me. Listen to osvaldo. And so the main thing is, whenever we chose the technology was is it open source? Or is it donated or discounted? Because no, the savings are remarkable and so do people was what we used for the front end sales force for the back end. But then they also because this is a distributed team throughout the country. They needed to be able to claret. And so again with a google for non-profit. Program, they were able to get google maps for free and so their e mail their calendar, they can do hangouts and collaborate and and also have a share, dr using google drive and so using all of these tools, they’re able to stay in touch, to stay connected on to coordinate. And this goes not just to do the core team in washington, but they also gave ipods to the field team to the community and faith based leaders in the community so that they could stay connected with this network. So they expanded their teams through volunteers essentially very, very effectively, through the use off the mobile of isis on the clock services and, of course, online communication to distribute the information. All right was was was more of the communication mobile based than than online because because there’s a greater penetration of mobile devices than there is desktop and laptop computers. So what we try to do is i mean, i guess i mean mobile native or was it was a more online and then mobile mobile optimized exactly that’s the that’s the the key because of cost it’s very for non-profits it tends to be prohibited. To have a nap for every platform. Especially when you have to. Do you know it’s andre for so many different devices. And so web apps or web solution’s make more sense. Okay, okay. Let’s, turn to the grassroots component of this. Because that was important. A huge yeah. Very important was not just online with, i guess local community organizations that are trusted in the low in the local place. Exactly. And trust that he’s a key word. Because, you know, an undocumented immigrant is probably not going to trust on outsider to come and tell them. Let’s. Let’s, gather you all in this room right now and talk to you. And so being able to reach them through the church that they attend, or through the community center in their community that they already trust. And the people eating there that they already trust andi, instead of having an outside and talk to them, have the leaders that they already know talk to them about the specific topic was very, very, very important. So the organization try to engaged these leaders on dh. Right now, the network is two thousand people strong throughout the united states about more. Than two thousand leaders throughout the united states are connected to this organization engaged by this organization and participate and lead these events that are happening as we speak that’s, the hispanic access foundation. Yes, we’re all the messages about rest in colon cancer. Well, that was part of it. The address they have for areas there’s, education, there’s, health, of course, and the kid. The cancer project, is an example of that. There’s also finance on dh. There is the environment, and the reason why these four are important is because in the case of finance, what, what they realized this. You have to help people improve their lives throughout, if, if there’s, no money, there’s, no health, and so being able to. And the main thing for for immigrants is. Being in the numbers being in the statistics and so submitting your taxes, even if you’re undocumented is huge because if at any point in time, in future there’s immigration reform, you have to have that history that you’ve bean reciting innis they file your taxes compliant for years exactly all right, all right, and that’s a huge thing because there is no tradition in america of doing that. So educating people that in the united states you do have to file tarsus taxes regularly is a big deal. What were the outcomes you were measuring in thie environment, part messages. So the thing about the environment is that when you pull hispanics, they’re all very aware of it. They were aware that you have to preserve the environment, that climate change is important, but many times, even though they want to a lot of hispanics living or been city in urban areas, and they don’t really get out much besides a lot of doing a lot of work and so being able to create a world, especially among the youth, that all these national parks are available to you that you have to take care of them if you go to a national park you take care of. It was very important because he created this more well rounded. How did you measure citizen? How did you measure the impact of those national parks announcements? So the idea is beyond announcements we actually organized tours and took people there. And so the post, sir, the post even survey was very important to gauge how how many people numbers attended the tours and what they’re what they learn and how they felt. Definitely excellent. Excellent. And what about on the education side? Were the messages there? There was a lot about making sure that the people can, first of all, with those very interesting price about distributing books two, two hispanics and creating their habit of off reading of learning. So so that was a big part of it. But i think that the most important take away is that it is possible that a non-profit with a low budget, a small team can really use thes three tools online communication, mobile devices and cloud services to reach very hard to reach populations effectively. Yeah, excellent. All right, now we still have a good amount of time left. So tell us were there any other tools besides the a dribble sales force and and the google maps that were that were important? Yes, so they’ve used a whole whole host of things. So one one, because this is all valuable, i mean, even if you’re not trying to reach rural and marginalized pompel definitely in terms of low cost, valuable, you know, really helpful tools for for non-profits we’ll definitely yes, whatever whatever work you’re engaged so well, what else was valuable? So they important thing i think we think sales force the top exchange what the application store that they have is very important because there’s a lot of free it’s, a sales force petition store, the ap exchange, okay, okay, and they having these aps available for free was huge because it allowed us to expand the infrastructure and do more things than what the course ellsworth system can do at a very low cost. The most important one for them was project management, and you can imagine running in national operation with a bunch of volunteers spread throughout the country, how hard it could be if you don’t have the system in place to manage every little to do and organize things and so there’s a free up in the ap exchange called milestones, pm milestones milestones piela all right, there’s, a free program management tool that you can just installing your in yourself was application and having it in one system was huge. There are others that are there’s. A lot of you know is outstanding to me because first of all, sales force is free. First ten first, ten licenses so let’s do. Our audience is small and midsize non-profits excesses him. They probably don’t need more than ten licenses, but anyway, but then there’s a deep discount beyond that. But then the then the everything in the ap exchanges free. Well, not everything but a lot of it, but just wanted this project management, which is again called milestones being ostomel p m free, so free sales force and then free add on and obviously valuable because it’s, managing a project of two thousand volunteers across eighteen states, exactly really outstanding. What what other tools can you share? So the other thing that we did was looking for whatever was donated, open source or discounted and so in terms of email marketing, very good. Response has a at that point, when we started, i think they’ve changed a little bit recently, but they had this donation program that you would get the first ten thousand emails for free and so for them it made sense to start without because it gave them a in an instant saving, even if they had to pay for the extra write emails he gives them gave them just like socials gives you this instant push, and so but the beauty of it is that it integrate two cells were so they could go toe one place and do everything they needed to do so. Vertical response there’s an app in the exchange from vertical response that allows you to integrate it into cells. Whores it’s remarkable that’s outstanding these air this a great great resource is really alright. I’m adding vertical responsible list now that’s that’s um that’s! Excellent! What else could please more? What else should we use? Share don’t don’t hold back with tools are there so i think that they being able to when you, when you combine all the key tool that i think it’s very important to understand that they would didn’t exist. A few years ago is this mobile devices in the case, in their case, the ipod and they they had ei paso were connected to a cell network so they could be moving around and doing that entry. But even if, even though it’s not donated or free having a tool for a relatively low budget that you can distribute two people, you know, remote for them to work remotely is huge and being able to use all of the other tools sales for his google labs and all this stuff through this device really empowers people on what we saw was, you know, a pastor that’s, sixty years old and had never had access to a device like this, getting training and having so much enthusiasm for learning to use this tool and then realizing that it really helped them, even if it was a little scary at the beginning, it really helped him do what he wanted to do, which is help people. All these people, they’re not any for the money, obviously. So they really want to help people. And when you give him a tool that allows them to help more people, they just love it. Love that of the story of the pastor let’s spend a little time our last couple minutes on lessons learned on the the and the grassroots level, so we talked a lot about the digital onda technology side let’s talk about the the personal side, the people side of the grassroots work, some lessons learned there, yes, so the key thing for us was don’t go it alone, partner, and the profits are very good at doing that partnering, but in this particular case, it’s key because you can’t go into a community that is already a little off the grid and pretend to be an outsider and be heard and access people, and so being able to to go to get to these community through people they trust was very, very, very important. Now, these people also need to be able to trust you as an organization. And so a lot of the work that the spending explanation did was reaching out to these pastors, getting them into a room on dh, showing them everything that was in the works. Everything that we’re doing, this is our this is even how we’re handling data. This is how we’re handling privacy if we collect data from an undocumented immigrant, we’re not sharing that with anyone and creating that trust between the organization and the leader was important because if the leader trusts you, then the committee trusts you and i think that’s the biggest takeaway from this there there vouching for the larger organization exactly local leaders are vouching for exactly they’re putting their name on the line. And so they want to know that you are really for real trust critical both between the organization and the leader and the leader and and the people. And then you’ll get the third you get the third leg of the triangle between the people and the organization, exactly, little by little. And then okay, well, then i would say, and then the messages will be trusted except by little. Sounds like there’s something there? Yeah, so? So even so, we’ve been at it for a few years on dh. What we’ve seen is that you go in the first time pastor or the priest, in some cases, partners with youand brings people in and educates people the first time the attendance might not be. You might not feel the room the next time you do, on the following time, then they they asked for, and i think that there’s a real need for information people just don’t really they don’t feel comfortable asking for it. Yeah, all right, but but they they open up? Yes. Okay, we have another like minute and a half or so. What else? On the personal? The grassroots organizing side. Other other lessons there? Well, the other thing is don’t be afraid to use technology. This story about the pastor that was kind of scared of the beginning. It was very easy for everyone at that point to say, well, let’s, just not do that let’s go to back to paper latto pencil on paper, but that has a huge cost over the long term, especially for you to actually measure impact and don’t and so don’t don’t not being afraid off putting people out of their comfort zone and telling them let’s, do this let’s do it together and it’s okay is important. And i think that that was a big lesson for for me, because a technology guy, i thought, everybody, we’re going to say, just say, yeah, sure, that’s it, andi, wasn’t it? Took some convincing but beeper system because ultimately, once they get used to it, then it becomes something that they can’t work without. Oswaldo gomez, technology director for upleaf very inspiring story that’s outstanding. Thank you very much for sharing. Well, thank you for having me at my pleasure. This is tony martignetti non-profit radio coverage of the non-profit technology conference and t c twenty fifteen. Thank you so much for being with us love the story that he shared lots of valuable information, even if you’re not trying to reach the rural and marginalized, but just about free and very low cost resource is excellent. One let’s do live listener love and let’s start abroad. Seoul, south korea always with us gratefully. I’m very, very grateful. Anya haserot soul guangzhou, china ni hao, we’ve got jakarta, indonesia very glad you’re with us live listener love to jakarta and tokyo, japan also very frequent listeners. Konnichi wa in bangladesh, we’ve got listener in dhaka i’ve been there. I spent a day in old dhaka but spent several days in ah in the capital generally welcome dhaka and also in brazil. Camp in ious live listener love how about domestic ridgefield? New jersey. My dad used to teach in richfield ta ta ta ta ta ta. Instrumental music in the elementary schools in richfield, new york, new york. Thank you very much for being with us. Cranford, new jersey, hubert, north carolina and oxford, maine. And i believe oxford main maybe. Read stockman. He was tweeting that he is listening in maine that maybe read live listener love main north carolina, new jersey, new york. Thank you very much for being with us. Tony stayed too. And the open movement coming up. Uh, pardon me. The discovery visits air coming up. See, i need an intern so i could blame someone when i make a mistake like this. Tony’s take two and discovery visits coming up. Where’s the intern to blame. But first i got to talk about opportunity. Collaboration. It’s ninety three percent sold now. It’s, thea unconference in x top of mexico for non-profits around the world grantmaker zoho social impact investors, venture capitalists, academics and companies. If you’re working to reduce suffering anywhere in the world, you need to be at o c. There are no plenary speakers. There’s no power points. Every session is in a circle. Obviously collaborative three hundred fifty people and there’s lots of time. Deliberately set aside for meeting each other. I was there last year. I’ll be there in october. I did get my reservation in opportunity. Collaboration dot net. The video this week is a new entry in the non-profit radio knowledge base. Important legal stuff. Jean takagi. You know who he is? Our legal contributor and the longest running contributor to non-profit radio uh, four years. He’s been with me four years. He’s, the principal at the non-profit and exempt organizations law group in san francisco. That’s his, you know, that’s, part time gig. But most of the time he spends with non-profit radio he’s been with the show. As i said four years and i chose the best stuff from his four years. And i added it to our knowledge base. And the video is at tony martignetti dot com that’s tony’s take two for friday tenth of july twenty seventh show of the year. You also know maria simple she’s, the prospect finder, a trainer and speaker on prospect research. Her website is the prospect finder dot com. Her book is panning for gold. Find your best donor. Prospects now, she’s. A diet of dirt, cheap and free. You can follow her on twitter at maria simple. Welcome back, maria. Maria so i give this screen here. How are you? Where you been? What’s going on there? What do you think? That’s? Too much that’s. Too much. I had myself on mute while you were doing on minute announcements there. Sorry about that. Um, i’m glad you’re with me. Welcome back. Absolutely. Thank you. Pleasure. We’re talking about discovery visits today. These, uh, he’s let’s, define the discovery visit. And then once you explain why you think they’re so critical, the prospect research well, you know, as prospect, researchers, unfortunately, we don’t have access to every little piece of information that would be useful for you. As you’re thinking about cultivating or soliciting someone so actually sitting down face to face with a donor is going to yield so much insight about what motivates them, why they love your organization and potentially yield larger gifts for you down the road. I blogged this a while ago, and it may be one of the first times that you and i met online because you commented on it. But i don’t think you were on the show at this point. But i blogged the value of face-to-face meetings and i was not. Diminishing prospect research online and all through all the resource is that you and i have talked about from chambers of commerce and libraries toe online resource is wasn’t diminishing those, but yeah, the value that you get from having lunch with someone i happen to like doing it over meals, but whether it’s over meals or a meeting in their office or a site visit to your place, those could be great buy-in you just pick up so much just by talking to somebody for for an hour? Yeah, yeah, and and definitely even in the body language alone. So you start steering that conversation in a certain direction, and you see people getting uncomfortable or fidgety or ah, in the opposite way, if maybe they start leaning in and leaning forward and looking like they’re really engaged with with what you’re talking about, perhaps a new program that you’re looking toe launch and get funded, all of that can yield so much great information for you. Sometimes it could be a little awkward. You hear things that you, you’re not sure how to document, and we’ll talk about the importance of doing that, like, you know they don’t really like the ceo or your boss? You know, are there glad that you’re at the lunch with them and not this other gift officer? Yeah, and you do have to be careful about that. How you document that? Because, you know, a donor does have the ability to walk into your organisation at any time and say, let me see what donorsearch crowds you have on me. So you think you would want to document it in as a subject in an objective manner i should say objectively think of yourself as a a nen vested gate of reporter, right? When you’re trying to write down what the comments were so you might, you know, just right, you know, they did not seem particularly interested in the new x y z program and period end of story. Now we’re talking about the documentation it’s critical to save this in your hopefully have a cr m database, right? A donor database, cr m someplace this has tio this information you know, it’s what we call, i guess institutional memory, right? And you’re not going to put me in jargon jail for that? Are, you know, that’s a pretty straightforward one. Okay, i don’t join you for a while if you as a development officer or is an executive director, sit down and have a conversation with someone, and then you decide to leave the organization a year later. Ah, and then the new person takes over and goes in and has a visit with this long time donor sort of starts asking that same set of questions that donor’s going to kind of look at him like, don’t you already know this? Because i’ve already talked to your predecessor about what my interests were, etcetera. So you really do need to make sure that you are taking, you know, the time and it’s time well worth, you know, spent just documenting what happened during the conversation. What were the critical point? What were the things that need to be followed up on? You know, maybe it’s a timing issue, maybe they say, well, you know what? This is a really bad time for my family right now, but in two years we feel that our finances will be in a different situation, you’ve got to get that documented and that’s an ideal example of one of the many, many things that you’ll find out from talking to somebody that you’ll never find online or any other resource is it’s talking, you gotta you gotta drop people out and and they love your work, otherwise they wouldn’t be meeting with you, so they’re happy to talk about what it is they love how, how their situation can impact your organization. I mean, positively or negatively, you know, like you’re saying, this is not a good time for us, you know, we just had a downturn in my business or from death in the family or, you know, whatever i mean, stuff you’re not going to find out anywhere else than talking to people, you’re absolutely right. And, you know, one of the interesting things, too, is you sometimes when i’m having conversations with with a non-profit maybe it a networking event or at a conference or something, and i’ll last generally how is your fund-raising going and then steer the conversation towards you know, well, you know, when was the last time you had a chance to meet with who you would consider to be your top ten donors? And they kind of look at you like, uh, am i supposed? To be regularly meeting with donors. Oh, boy. Yeah. That’s ah, that’s yeah, that’s where the person in charge of development needs to be stewarding and managing up the, you know, the sea level people and that maybe that’s only one person may be the ceo is executive director is all there is but that, you know, yeah, yeah, you’ve got to be managing up and making sure that these relationships are nurtured with your your most important donors, your most important volunteers as well. Yeah, and if you don’t have the time to do it as a staff member, get your board involved. This is a perfect role for a board to get involved in. Even your board members who say, i hate to ask for money. I’ll do anything for this organization. Just don’t make me ask for money and it’s so simple for them to just go in and have it it’s really a conversation, you know, you can provide them with, you know, prompt them with a list of questions that they might consider asking this individual. But it really is a conversation all about discovering what is this donor-centric about why are they giving any? Money to you at all when you know when did they start and, you know, where do they see themselves going with your organization? As a consultant? I do hardly. And, you know, i don’t i don’t meet with donors and potential donors alone ever and very few of the visits that i am on our discovery visits, you know, where we don’t know the person all that well, but when i was a director of planned giving at a couple of colleges, i should do these all the time, and i remember my head’s spinning with oh, i don’t remember that, but i’m trying to stay in the conversation, too, but you can’t take notes while you’re having lunch, but i remember my head swimming over my gosh, i can’t remember that and that. Oh, and this news about his sister and that relationship, you know? Oh, you know, but there’s so much too, and you get back to the office and you just have to spill it all out, and i agree with you, i usedto have ah, client who said never write anything about someone with potential donor or donor at anybody boardmember that you wouldn’t want them to read basically the same standard you had when you said someone could come in the office any time and ask what you have on them. That’s fine, you know, today with with technology having advanced right, i’m hoping that people who were in those positions that you were holding at that time in the plan giving departments and so forth are using their smartphones and the recording feature not to record the conversation, but afterward, one the meeting has ended, and you’re getting back into your car or getting to a quiet place, you know, in, you know, a different space or something like that. Just data dump it right in by voice because you can speak a lot faster. Most people can speak much faster than they can write or type, so why not just get it in that way? And then if if you needed to, you know, use a transcription service of some sort to then get it into a print format and then edited from there, i think you know, that could be a particularly great way to use technology. Yeah, great. Cool tip. I like that. You’re right. You can dump into a voice memo excellent. I also like your idea of using board members for this purpose idea we’ve we’ve talked about it, but good many times, but good to mention that also, this is ideal for board members for organizations that have a prospect research person, do you think that these contact i’m going to call them contact report? Because as we used to call him at the colleges, right? Should they flow through the prospect researcher? Or should they go right into the c r, m database and then it’s a prospect researchers job follow-up and read them? How does? Because the prospect researcher is the the focal point of a lot of this, the prospect activity? How should this info get to the to that person? Well, you know, it really again depends on the size of the department and the type of cr m that you’re using and who has access to it because some will allow you no board members to have access and others won’t. So then clearly, if it’s your boardmember that needs to be providing the information in many cases, they’re not going to have access two, uh, to that database, so don’t need to get it to that prospect, researcher some other way. If it is ah development officer who does have access to the database. And i do recommend that they inserted directly themselves. If it’s a small organization, if it’s a larger organization with multi level, then, you know, you would want to make sure that there are certain procedures in place for me. No, but certainly the prospect researcher in some way, shape or form should be alerted that there’s been an update to that record in case there’s, you know any additional updated information that they need to provide? Yeah, right. It could be a simple is ah, niu new email address or you are. Whatever a new relationship. Um, i know in the in the colleges where i worked which bigger organizations that the prospect researcher was the like. I said the focal point, and they would pull out something from a prospect research report that would say, oh, you know, i should. This is consistent with this other contact report that i read for this other person done by a different gift officer. And these two need to be talking to each other for whatever reason that was always that was always the done through. The prospect researcher i don’t know is that it makes sense to you. Yeah, yeah. Does absolutely. And i can tell you that, you know, having attended various conferences in the past that are, you know, attended by prospect researchers. They would love to be on every one of these donordigital covering visits, making sure that the right questions get asked and so forth. Okay, so this should be from training there, maybe maybe training the gift officers by the prospect researcher. When again, when it’s an organization that has prospect research. I understand a lot of listeners. Organizations. Problem. May not. But if you do, should there be some training that the prospect researcher was doing for the gift officers? Yeah, absolutely. There should be some sort of training. And in terms of not only what they confined online, if they needed to find some information quickly. What are some of the go to resource is when they’re out on the road, etcetera. But also you know what? Air the typical questions you should be sitting down and asking of every single donor and prospect and, you know ah, good development. Officer, this should really be intuitive and second nature for them. But if there’s somebody fairly new in the role, or if it’s an executive director who is, you know, that that’s, it that’s the only person there is no development officer. Oh, and perhaps they’ve been so very used to running an organization, and on the day to day management of the organization that they really haven’t gone down the road of, of getting trained on, you know, how to ask the right questions to elicit the responses we need to move this prospect forward. We’re gonna go out for a break. Marie and i will keep talking about this a little bit. And then she also has, um, unconference dates coming up this summer. That would be valuable for your prospects, research or stay with us. 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 levine from new york universities heimans center on philantech 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 guests directly. To sign up, visit the facebook page for tony martignetti dot com. I’m dana ostomel, ceo of deposit, a gift. And you’re listening to tony martignetti non-profit radio. Big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent. Got more live listeners in san francisco, california live love going out to there now podcast listeners and affiliate listeners. Did you think i forgot? How how could you live? Listener love always is accompanied by podcast pleasantries and affiliate affections very grateful to all the podcast listeners wherever, whatever device, whatever you’re doing love having you with us and all those affiliate listeners in the many stations across the country affections out to r am and fm affiliate listeners perish the thought that i would forget podcast pleasantries and affiliate affections. Maria, any last thoughts you want, leave us with on discovery visits and before we move teo unconference ideas. Well, you know, really, just to figure out what what is a donor’s? Why, right? That that’s, what you’re looking to get to understanding there? Why, um, to the heart of why they’re investing in your organization and, you know, try and use that language when you’re speaking with them, you know, why are you investing in us? What? What motivates you to continue supporting us? What do you like best about our non-profit? And you know what? Can we actually improve? So try and really elicit some good conversation from them and, you know, you’ve probably heard that old adage tony asked them for money and they’ll they’ll offer you advice and asked him for advice, and they’ll offer you some money. So, you know, it’s a great way to get people engaged in your organization, so don’t be afraid to start those conversations, even if somebody proposes something or says something a little bit on the negative side, take it as constructive criticism and look for areas of improvement. Yeah, you’ve got to hear the negative and a lot of what you’re what you’re suggesting comes out organically, you know? I mean, the person knows that you’re there to talk about the organization, you know, they talk about politics or hopefully you keep politics off the table. I always think that’s a bad idea for these kinds of visits, but yeah, they’re talking about the organization that’s, what the two of you have in common, so, you know, a lot of that stuff just gets elicited. I love this program, or i didn’t understand this or i didn’t know you’re doing this thing, but i just read about it in the newsletter and you know that stuff. Uh, i mean, you’re right ask if it’s not coming out, but a lot of times, it just happens organically because right that’s what you have in common. That’s what? You share, right? Right. All right. So, uh, you gots unconference ideas for us? Prospect researchers like to meet during the summer. Yeah, absolutely. So the biggie for prospect researchers is the international conference that happens every summer for apra, which is the association of professional researchers for advancement. And this year, the conference takes place in new orleans. Metoo and it’s going to be july twenty second to the twenty fifth, and they actually also have a new researchers symposium as part of that uh, they have a full day symposium just for new researchers. So this is a great way to get i think, you know, a full day in ah dedicated to a newbie. And, you know, if you’re just getting your feet wet in this whole thing about prospect research, that might be something well worth while attending. Are you going to the international conference? I will not be going this year. I’m actually attending other conferences, but you know, this one is definitely if you’re thinking about prospect researchers this truly is the one to consider. You know there are fall conferences that you know, we just missed a few conferences that are more regional. So, like in new england, there’s, an organization called nedra, the new england development research association, they they had a conference in april was not researchers look okay, let’s not look backwards, let’s go forwards, but but the good thing about it is that some of those organizations will still put the presentation’s in power point on the website so still perhaps worth just checking into even if you book market for next year. If you’re in those regions, certainly something to think about seeing what what have they shared from the past conference cause you might be able to just do a little, you know, your own online learning are these all apra chapters that we’re talking about? Yeah, yeah, they really are there. They’re more regionalized chapters of research association years ago, i spoke a couple of apra chapters, i think in new york and new jersey years ago, back when i know i’m not even sure i was consulting at the time, maybe more than twelve years. Ago, but glad they’re still around. Okay, what else? What else you got besides the international? Also coming up in arizona? There’s going to be a false symposium on the topic of campaigns and that’s going to be held november fifth through the sixth in tempe, arizona, so that might be one to consider and also in california, they have several events going on. The california advancement researchers association has several things on their website, so i’d be glad to share some of these links on your facebook page, if you like and then people can check them out and if they’re in those regions and see if they want to attend. I love it. Why did you do that? As a comment to the takeaways that’ll be posted around four o’clock eastern today? Sure. Okay, that’s outstanding. We still have another minute or so left. What’s ah what’s going on in? Oh, i’m sorry. Are there other conferences or that you got it? That’s covers it. You know, i think because several have already passed. Those were the ones that i really found that i thought, you know, were sprinkled throughout in different places that you might consider going. Tio okay, sounds good. Tell me, uh, yeah, now we just have about a minute or so, right, sam? So what what’s going on in your world, what you’re seeing among your clients in our last minute, you know, well, i’m definitely seeing a tick up in activity, capital campaigns and so forth. So, you know, it’s great to see that that good news came out with e-giving yusa numbers, and i think that that generally just kind of buoys people a little bit and their spirits. So i am seeing more activity and more research request because of these larger campaigns and the need to research some of these high net worth individuals before visiting them. So in general, i think it’s it’s all good news, okay, i’m glad you’re optimistic looks. You’re so upbeat. Andi, you’re going to be back with me in two shows on july twenty fourth for the two hundred fiftieth show. Yes, you’re going to here in the studio. Cool. I will. All right, looking forward to it would be nice to have you institute a sze yu were not made a cz we would say in latin i’m fluent in latin is a worthless skill, but thank you very much. Good to see you. Good to talk to you. Thank you. You’ll find her at the prospect finder dot com and on twitter at maria simple. Next week, two interviews from the non-profit technology conference walked to work, walking as part of your work day as an integral part of your work day, not a break from it with beth cantor and re to sharma. Also keep current after launch. Farrah trompeter and kira marchenese help you keep your sight current after a redesign in two weeks as i was just talking about july twenty fourth, two hundred fifty of show five years of non-profit radio, we’ve got giveaways, music with scott stein comedy a new sponsor i’m going to introduce and much more going on two weeks, july twenty fourth, two hundred fiftieth show be with us if you missed any part of today’s show, find it on tony martignetti dot com opportunity collaboration with world convenes for poverty alleviation, an outstanding unconference that will ruin you for every other conference opportunity collaboration dot net, our creative producer is claire miree off sound. Liebowitz is the line producer shows social media is by susan chavez. Susan chavez dot com on our music is by scott stein yeah, thank you, scotty, for that information with me next week for non-profit radio. Big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent. Go out and be great. Buy-in 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 am 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 gotta make it fun and applicable to these young people. Otherwise a fifteen and sixteen year old they have better things to dio they have xbox, they have tv, they have their cell phones me dar is the founder of idealised took two or three years for foundation staff to sort of dane toe, add an email address card it was like it was phone. This email thing is right and 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 on dh and no two exchanges of brownies and visits and physical gifts. Mark echo is the founder and ceo of eco enterprises. You may be wearing his hoodies and shirts. Tony talked 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. You put money in a situation and invested and expected to grow and savvy advice for success from eric sacristan. What separates those who achieve from those who do not is in direct proportion to one’s ability to ask others for help. The smartest experts and leading thinkers air on tony martignetti non-profit radio big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent.

Nonprofit Radio for May 22, 2015: Linkage, Ability And Interest & Crowdfunding Legal Tips

Big Nonprofit Ideas for the Other 95%

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Opportunity Collaboration: This working meeting on poverty reduction is unlike any other event you have attended. No plenary speeches, no panels, no PowerPoints. I was there last year and I’m going this year. It will ruin you for every other conference! October 11-16, Ixtapa, Mexico.

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Marie SempleLinkage, Ability And Interests

Maria Semple

Introducing the LAI principle for rating potential donors. Maria Semple walks you through it. She’s our prospect research contributor and The Prospect Finder.

 

 

 

Gene Takagi: Crowdfunding Legal Tips

Gene TakagiGene Takagi is our legal contributor and principal of NEO, the Nonprofit & Exempt Organizations law group. He raises your consciousness about legal issues around the popular crowdfunding sites.

 

 


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Hello and welcome to tony martignetti non-profit radio big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent. I’m your aptly named host. We have a new affiliate to welcome k y r s eighty eight point one and ninety two point three fm in medical lake spokane, washington i’m looking forward to helping your non-profits welcome kyi rs thank you so, so much for being with non-profit radio and being our newest affiliate, k y our s oh, i’m glad you’re with me. I’d be stricken with ngom nail blast iq limb, fadden apathy. If you gave me the bad news that you missed today’s show linkage ability and interest introducing the high principle for reading potential donors re a simple walks us through it she’s, our prospect research contributor and the prospect finder and crowdfunding legal tips jean takagi is our legal contributor and principle of neo the non-profit and exempt organizations law group he raises your consciousness about legal issues around the popular crowd funding sites and he walks us through those on tony’s take two non-profit radio on the road and third sector responsive by opportunity collaboration, the working meeting on poverty alleviation that will ruin you for every other conference, i’m very glad that maria samples back with me she’s, the prospect finder, a trainer and speaker on prospect research. Her website is the prospect finder dot com, and her book is panning for gold. Find your best donor prospects now exclamation mark she’s our diet of dirt cheap and free ideas you can follow her on twitter at maria simple. Welcome back, maria! Hey there, tony, how are you? I’m doing terrific, lee. Well, how are you today? Just find a little bit of allergies going on, but other than that, you know, i think everybody suffering, though, right? Well, i suppose i see you have a lot of allergens in new jersey. You know this here seems to be particularly bad. I have not been bad in past years, but ah, i don’t know. What’s going on this here against the it must have all exploded at once. Okay? I’m allergic to some people in new jersey. Ilsen listen, my family that’s what you know or not you mostly my family. Um all right, my mom and dad don’t listen, so they wouldn’t know that i just said that there, but they’re big fans. Of the show, but they don’t they don’t. Listen, um, this l a i linkage ability and interest. We’re using this for tracking and rating are potential donors. Is that right? Yeah. That’s, right. You know, i thought it would be an interesting topic today. I was i was recently asked to speak about this on another person’s webinar. And i was thinking that it was something you and i had not covered in the past, um and it’s certainly something that is freon dirt cheap, right? Because it’s being done by dafs board volunteers and, you know, khun really involve a lot of different people in this process and it’s probably, you know, a pretty important part of the overall fund-raising process when you think about it because, you know, we only have so many hours in a day in a week, in a month in a year, um, so we really need to be able to focus on where allocate our time and our resource is right. So human resource is funding, etcetera? Um, so, you know, we’re trying to really get down to is answering that most basic question and fund-raising is really how to qualify people. Right? So hopefully, you know, at the end of the next few minutes together we’ll we’ll come up with a process for your listeners that people can start to implement. Okay? All right. So, uh, what’s think our first part linkage? What is it? What i mean by linkage? Linkage to what? Right? So linkage to the organization. So how how is this person linked to your organization? Who is that? Ah, that individual that might stand between you and that prospect. So, you know, it could be that you have a boardmember who has access to this individual, maybe maybe it’s a staff member or ah, some other volunteer with the organization, so they’re really kind of like, in lincoln terminology, they’re really just two degrees separated from you. Um, and and in some cases, somebody might be more than two degrees separated on dh, then that’s going to really kind of affect how well linked they are to your organization already and how much they they already know about you, right? I have to i have to quibble with you about something now linked in did not create that two degrees of separation. That correct that comes from kevin bacon that’s, right? I don’t i don’t want the social networks taking over our r ah, story traditions, that is a kevin bacon, you know, story, whatever you’re called that is not attributed to linked in dot com, alright, right know it’s? Not absolutely, but of course, lincoln can help you in this process when you’re trying to determine linkage, right? So if you’re just trying to figure out you have a known individual, maybe they’ve come teo ah gala or something, and you’re trying to figure out, well, who can really help us, you know, cultivate and potentially solicit this individual? We want to engage them a little further in in our cause? Um, and so, you know, certainly lincoln is one of the tools that you might be able to use, i think, you know, why not use that technology that’s there to help determine how many degrees they’re separated from you? I’m not objecting, teo, speaking to that in terms of linkage and proximity to the organization. So geography, i think, in my opinion, could potentially play a knopper tune ity here into linkage. So if you really a small non-profit and you serve a very small geographic area um, you know, is this prospect living in that geographic area, or do they live somewhere else in your state? But maybe they have an interest in funding your type of cause. So, you know, i do think that that geography can play a role in this as well. Okay, okay. Um also the e-giving history, right? In terms of our their their closeness to the organization, another way of measuring that is how often and at what level have they been giving and how regularly, absolutely and, you know, we’ve all heard of the stories in the press, right of people who passed away, they leave a lot of money to an organisation, they were on ly donors that say very modest levels, but they were consistent, right? So they zsystems long time donors and and, you know, i’m preaching to the choir was talking to you about this, tony, but, you know, certainly passed e-giving history is even if even if the gift amounts have not been very high, i really do think you have to take into account that longevity how long they’ve been with you? Yes, on dh that’s particularly true looking for potential donors in planned e-giving but yeah, that that committed person who’s been giving and, you know, maybe you’ve heard me, you probably have because we’ve we’ve done seven hours together say that, you know, even if it’s ten dollars, a year or ten dollars, a couple of times a year, but they’ve been doing it for for a long, long time, like eight out of the past ten years or twelve or fifteen out of the past twenty years i mean, that’s ah, that’s a lot that’s a that’s, a really committed person, even at low, low level. So you want to consider them as potential? Maybe not for what you might consider a major gift, but certainly for potential volunteering planned gift or maybe moving them up the the e-giving in the giving ladder, you know, that consistency is really important, irrespective of the size of the gift. Yeah, alright, thanks, maria. So you know, i would agree with you, right? You’re you’re on safe ground. Yeah. Course. Plus, i i feel bad. I feel bad about my rant about the kevin bacon phenomenon, so i don’t want it. But you know me well enough that you know there’s no harm done. No, i’m intended no harm intended. Maybe harm done, but i didn’t intend any, but i don’t think so. What’s ah, what’s ability all about after linkage. So the a for ability. So really it’s it’s, really? The ability rating is it’s based on their ability of what they can give and not what we think they will give. And so that could be two completely different numbers, right? You might be talking to your board members and your board will say, you know, well, andre, go in either direction. Right? So the conversation might be something like, um, you know, where we really think that this person that we, the board, think this person is certainly capable of contributing to our annual campaign or our capital campaign at a level of, you know, five thousand dollars and, you know, maybe your research reveals that this person, you know, has never given anywhere near that amount. Maybe all of the donations use i’ve ever been able to find out what they give to other organizations in your community. Maybe two hundred dollars, and below. So certainly, you know, you wanted to raid it in that you know appropriately in terms of their ratings for the ability, but it could also be in the other direction so the conversation could be g we think this person capable of donating five thousand dollars and your research reveals that in fact there, you know, they made in the past in the recent past a twenty five thousand dollars, um, commitment to another organization. So knowing that you’re potentially leaving money on the table by not asking for a higher amount. Yes. Okay. Okay. Let’s, uh, let’s go out for our break a little early and if there’s more to say about ability, of course we will. And then we’ll we’ll cover interest, and then we got to put this all together. What the heck do we do with all this info that we’ve got? 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. The small midsize shops that’s who were always about i got live listener love, cartersville, georgia. Marquette, michigan, san francisco, california, duncanville, texas cool and carmel, indiana special belated birthday wishes out the carmel, indiana live listener loved to each of you there’s others out there don’t fret if you’re still listening, there’s others out there and more live listener love coming. And of course, we’ve got our podcast pleasantries for everybody listening some other time on some other device unknown to may be many of us, but pleasantries to the ten thousand podcast listeners, and we got more. We got more love coming out, so don’t worry about that affiliate affections. All right, maria, um, anything more that we want to say about ability, that the person’s ability to make a gift, how much we think they can they’re capable of giving now, i think i’ll stay a little bit more about it in the next few minutes after we cover interest, because i want to go over some general levels of ability, so we’ll get into that when we get into the rating, okay, be little mysterious on me. Okay, that’s. All right. Okay, then. Let’s, let’s go to our interest. What is this about? So, really, you know, here we’re trying to understand, you know, if they could really be engaged in the organization, how interested are they? Do they have a specific area of interest, you know, are they connected to you because of a particular passion that they have or maybe there’s something that actually connects them to your program? You know, maybe you serve people with disabilities, and they have ah, family member, a close family member who is, you know, has disabilities and may or may not be using your services currently, you know, so what happens here is that, you know, way understand their interest so that we can fulfill a need that they have to make the world a better place. Um, and then, you know, they’re really going to be only too happy to invest in your mission or your services or your building campaign or, you know, whatever other major campaign you’re doing, perhaps an endowment campaign or a legacy planned gift campaign. So, you know, you’re really looking to fulfill a need that they have understand what they’re interested in and helping them fulfill their mission. So, you know, having a general idea of what they’re interested in is certainly going to come into play in your overall research right now, someone could be, you know, very closely connected under linkage and have very high ability, but maybe maybe they’re not connected. Maybe maybe they’re not well now, if they’re not, if they’re connected, there wouldn’t be uninterested. Let’s see, i guess around my point is someone could be very high in one or two of these, but quite low in another one that’s, right? Like maybe interest, maybe interest is very high ability is very high, but linkage, nobody knows them, they’re not connected to us at all, exactly. And then and then what do we do there? We’ve really got to find a path to that individual because, you know, if they have ah, hi ability than it’s pretty darn likely that you’re not the only person knocking on their door trying to get a gift. And now this can also apply for foundations and corporations to right. This is not just individual ratings or what you know, i want to apply this more. For individual ratings. But, you know, i suppose it could certainly apply for for foundations and corporations as well. So much of what i focus is on is individuals, but i think you could probably apply this very same formula to your foundation, corporations and corporations. I’m thinking, especially local businesses, local corporations. I mean, i guess it could apply for bigger ones too. But, you know, if your if your campaign is around cultivating local local business people, and then i think these things would apply equally. Yeah. Okay. All right. So we got are lei i laid out. Now what the heck we could do with this. Okay, so well, let’s talk about a typical rating system and how you would potentially callie up some points because what we’re trying to do here ultimately is trying to figure out who are our best prospects. Where should we be focusing our time? So this is a very general number that you might suffer in this rating process is going involved. Mathematics? Yes, very simple math, because, look, i’m not a math person either. All right, you’re probably more of a math person than maybe implant giving. You have to. Do division. No, i think i really think it’s just straight up addition. Alright. Additions. Okay. All right. Okay. All right. Especially as long. There’s. No log. Arrhythmic found formulas or no, no, nothing like that. Okay, the total number of points that you can get is fifteen. Okay, your absolute best prospect is going to be raided. A fifteen. And this is how it breaks out. By the way, i got this off of a document that i found on a peace website. So if you just google les i principal it’s probably one of the first three hit that you’ll get on google lay our principal. Okay, but can we also get you? Teo posted as a comment on the on the facebook page. Takeaway here it’ll be up by three thirty or forty no around four o’clock eastern today. Could you do that? Sure. Thank you. Alright, so go ahead. So fifteen so linkage. So you’re going to go from a score of zero through four xero would be if there’s absolutely no record of giving and no contact with that donor that they’re rated xero for linkage. Okay, alright. So there’s? Yeah. There’s what i was talking about before somebody could be very low in something, okay, you’re xero now you said, xero four, can you do one to five? Um, well, for purposes of the download that i got from a p, it went from zero to four, so one would be if they made a pledge, but no gift, or maybe a one time or a memorial gift. Your organization. I’m just making trouble. All right? Xero will still xero before i prefer one to five, but we’ll go with yours. Okay, good. Um, two would be if they relapsed, or just an occasional donor. Your organization three would be if there are frequent donor let’s, say annually, but number four would be if there are frequent or current major gift donor-centric. The best would be five since i since i said at the outset, we have a maximum of fifteen points. We’d have to kind of stick with xero through four rating system for the purposes of this discussion anyway. Oh, so they’re not all going to be zero to four then, okay? Because correct, because that would only be twelve c i can multi actually multiplied, actually. Just multiplied three times for so you know, so give me a break. All right? All right. So go ahead. Now. Ability. We have different now. How many? How many do they break out to ability xero what? Seven. Okay. Let’s. Just seven. Okay. Ah, let’s. Just let’s. Just sample them a little bit let’s, not read all seven categories. Okay, so there will be if they’ve given you from one to twenty four hundred dollars, a four would be somewhere between fifty and nine. Ninety nine thousand dollars on day seven would be five hundred thousand and above all right. But of course you would. You would scale that to your organization if your largest if the largest gift you’ve ever gotten is one hundred fifty thousand dollars, no point in having half a million dollars on your scale. Right. So you scale, you scale your scale appropriately scale the scale. All right. I hope you haven’t from with this, because i am. I don’t know if i can’t tell if you are, but maybe it’s, maybe it’s tze pretty new to me, so i’m enjoying it. Okay, what do we do? S o that’s xero to seven for ability. You’re recommend, right? So we got four and seven. Eleven. So the next one must only go xero toe four. Yes, exactly. Xero for instruction at that time, i did subtraction. All right, go ahead. Interested xero no interest, no knowledge or very minimal knowledge. Okay. In your organization, on at the other end of the scale of four would mean that they’re actively involved in your organization. They volunteer. Or perhaps they’re aboard, or even a past boardmember right? Or maybe think about even a past honoree. So so for many organizations where an annual gala within an honoree is is somebody you know, if you haven’t honoree like that, certainly they would have had some more in depth connection to your organization. Hopefully, yes. Okay. There’s a good ones. Especially. Honoree that’s that’s one people might not have thought of, but all right, it’s it’s cool. All right, so we have totals in each of our three categories. I’m guessing we’re going to add these up, right? So then you would add them up. And as i said, you have a maximum of fifteen. So now you have some decisions to make, right? Like, what is that minimum score that your organization is going to need to have in place before you put that person into a a pipeline for one on one cultivation and solicitation? Right? Because you’re only gonna have, you know, so much staff and or so many board members committed to helping you reach out to do some of these major gift solicitation efforts. You know, you have to figure out how many prospects can we end up with that’s going to be manageable? Because if you give somebody an unmanageable number than people get overwhelmed and what’s gonna happen, they’re probably not going to do an awful lot. No, you know what i look? You know what i love about this is for small and midsize shops. This replaces what could be a very expensive wealth screening process and, you know, the compay cos teo to do that for you, and then they’ll stratify you’re prospects on dh. Then you’ll you’ll proceed from there, but this is for for smaller shops, you know, there’s time involved in doing the research here, but but if you could do that, um, it’s a way of stratify ing your prospects and then you got your you got your what was the top score again? Fifteen. You got your you got your fifteen toe, you know, maybe you’re fifteen to thirteen is your top prospects and then twelve to ten. Obviously, second tier, you know, but you stratify and then you apply resource is appropriately. Does that sound that’s unreasonable? Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, you mentioned well screening. And even if you had or are planning to have a wealth screening done that’s really going to help answer that that a part of ability helpyou, stratify where they could potentially be giving to you. So, you know, maybe you know about linkage to your organization. Maybe you know, about interest and maybe a wealth screening. Is what’s going to help you really flesh out what their ability is? Without, you know, doing major in depth research like i would normally dio i mean, you know, if you’ve got access to a wealth screening product, definitely see what the what the screening rating is going to be, even on that process through the product that you’re using. Okay? All right, so you’re now you were saying that i guess there’s a threshold may be below which you would not apply resource is, you know, maybe it’s i don’t know, i think it would depend organization by organization, but like, maybe it’s five or seven or something below a scorer now that my reaction to tony was maybe a five or seven for a small organization where, you know, you really have very limited manpower, both on staff and volunteer side. Um, yeah, you don’t want to discount anybody have again, you have to apply resource is smartly, exactly every potential, you know, every potential donorsearch can’t be can’t be pursued, but you know what else this does? It helps you see where you might have weaknesses with prospect, who would otherwise be strong. So in our example, you know, if ability and interests are high but linkages low and that puts the person below whatever you’re cut off is let’s say, it’s seven there i did division again, i was taking half the score. I’m like my mathematics game if there’s seven or below, but that’s, because they’re linkage is really low, but ability and interest are are doing well, then, you know, maybe now you’ve identified somebody who you want to try to get close to the organization and maybe that doesn’t take so much to do, you know, you know what i mean? Yeah, exactly. And it could be just, you know, a matter of sitting around and and having a very concentrated development committee meeting where you’re able to then try and figure out. Okay, look, these are our prospects that rated pretty highly for ability and interest if we could only determine what the linkage piece is, you know, so and that’s that would be a really good exercise to engage your board members in the fund-raising process because it’s still part of the process, right? It’s it’s just that there may be not involved in the direct ask because, sure, there are certainly a lot of board members who say i’ll do anything for you in the development process just don’t make me do the ad, so this is a a terrific way to engage them in the fund-raising process, and maybe they would get excited about, you know, getting out, doing some of those ass also interest mean ability, we’ve gotta face it ability is not much organization could do around ability, but interest, like if linkage is high ah, an ability is high, but the person just hasn’t shown a lot of interest. Maybe now maybe they’re not interested so that, you know, i have to consider that possibility. They just may not be interested, but if you’re not convinced that that’s the case, you know, maybe there’s some program or something that you can use as a connection and use your linkage, their relationship to try to get that person more interested in your work because they they rated low in that in that part, right, that that would be a great use of a cultivation event, for example, san, is that pool of people i’m seeing this as a way not to just stratify people, but also identify where weaknesses are with with potential donors and where you might apply. Some resource is to get them rated hyre in your l a i system? Absolutely. All right, we got another minute or so. Is that right, sam got? Yeah, just another minute or so, maria, you wantto leave us with something around l a i well, you know, good research is really what enables matching the prospects with e-giving opportunities, right again, as i said, so you’re fulfilling a need that they have to make the world a better place. So e i think if you just sort of keep that at the forefront of everything that you’re doing using the lazy eye principle, um, and always making sure that everything that you’re doing in terms of your communications, any engagement that you have with people, make it his donor-centric a possible it’s, not about you the organization. Okay, ultimately, yes, it is. But when you’re talking with people it’s, it’s trying to find that point of engagement that’s really going to get them excited and motivated and really want them to make an investment in your cause. Maria simple, the prospect finder dot com and at marie a simple thank you very much. Maria semple. Great. Thanks a lot. Always a pleasure to have you. Thank you. Hope you don’t mind that i had some fun with the l a i i don’t think so. You don’t take that stuff personal. Tony, take two and crowdfunding legal tips coming up first opportunity collaboration it’s a week long unconference in x top of mexico in october, around poverty alleviation, it’s structured but it’s, unstructured it’s structured with lots of unstructured time. So you, khun may connections and get to know the people who can help you with your work. There’s over three hundred people there you meet over meals. Drink. You mean in the ocean i had i had meetings with two women who became guests of the show we met in the ocean. It was nina chanpreet core and lena srivastava. They were on after i met them in the ocean. Well, we met on land, but then we planned our meeting for in the ocean. Um it’s ah, no power points, no keynotes. Every session is in a circle very collaborative. And i think you’re getting a sense of how it’s, not like other conference, is much better. I loved it last year and i’m going again this year in october opportunity collaboration, dot net non-profit radio is going west. We headed to phoenix actually leave tomorrow. Phoenix, l a san francisco, and in portland if you’re in any of those areas or between l a and san francisco, because i’ll be driving, then ah let’s, try to meet up my itinerary and video are at tony martignetti dot com third sector today. That’s ah, site run by amy davina. She has lots of contributors, including marie, a sample i was going to ask maria simple about that i’m going to see if she’s defecting the third certain sector today i doubt it, but she was on. Was it contributed to third sector today? Um, they have tips, strategy’s, good ideas for non-profits they are at third sector today dot com and they are at third sector today on twitter, but the third is the number three, of course that’s thea arabic number three not the roman numeral three don’t do ii rd do at arabic number three rd sector today on twitter use the arabic number that’s tony’s take two for friday, twenty second of may twenty first show of this year and now i’m very glad. That gene takagi is with me he’s, the managing editor of neo the non-profit and exempt organizations law group in san francisco, he edits the popular non-profit lob log, dot com and on g tack on twitter. He is gi tak, which is much easier than third sector because there’s no arabic numbers to explain whether used the arabic or the roman. Aggie tak, welcome back durney great to be back. Thank you, and i’m looking forward to seeing you on my west coast trip in ten days or so. Absolutely, yeah, we’re going to sit down that’ll be a pleasure. Um, you’re concerned about our brand in our name and there’s, a legal issues you want people to be aware of around the very popular crowd funding sites, right? And i’m actually picking up off your conversation with aimee semple ward of and ten last week last night. Yes, you are. Ah, and you know amy and you discuss sort of the differences between an individual raising funds for a charitable purpose, like for the victims of of the earthquakes in nepal and a charity actually raising funds, and amy was pointing out how individuals through go fund me had actually raised almost double. What a big charity half for that. And so i just wanted to work off that a little bit about about saying, well, when people give a contribution to an individual, even if it’s for charitable purposes, there is no charitable deduction for that gift. Where if they make the donation to a charity, that’s using a crowd funding site named this’s done properly, they can get a deduction for the gift of doom, or little little intricacies involved. But that’s a huge difference. Okay, wait now, if we give to an individual’s crowd funding campaign. But as amy and i were talking about there’s, there’s, there’s pretty simple ways of getting the money directly to the charity so that the individual doesn’t doesn’t have to pass it on and and then so if we so if the person has that set up, and then we get an acknowledgement from the charity, can’t we get a can we get a charitable income tax deduction that way? Yeah, that would be where an individual is authorised by the charity to represent the charity and set up the crowd funding site. But much of crowdfunding is done by individuals who are just doing it for charitable purposes, and amy mentioned example of somebody saying, well, you know, i have friends who are on the site in the paul, and if we get them the money, they can help victims immediately, directly themselves, and it doesn’t have to go through any bureaucracy, all right? Okay, well, that’s not using a charity and they’re not going to get a receipt from a charity for that type of donation. There was a fire in san francisco. I believe it was last month and a ninja vigil wanted to raise funds. Really? Charitably inclined, well intended on. And what he did was he raised one hundred fifty thousand, which he had no idea he was going to raise that much. I think he was planning to raise a few thousand to help some of the victims of that fire. He raised one hundred fifty thousand dollars. And, of course, if you give it to an individual, that the individual has no power to say that you gave it to a five, twenty three organization, and therefore you get no deduction. Okay, okay, i see. I see the distinction. Yes, all right. We also need to be aware of who is raising money under our name. Yeah, absolutely. So if charities are involved in an individual says to you, well, i’d like to raise money for your project, and i want to use a crowd funding site. The game has got that problem about, well, whether the charity is actually the named recipient on the crowdfunding site for the donations or where the individual is, and the individual’s own account is collecting the money, and then the individual man transferred that money to the charity again, you have the problem of the donor getting no receipt from the charity because the donation the check wasn’t actually to the charity was, too the crowdfunding site sort of processor that’s going to the individual and not to the charity it all unless that set up separately so that that the charity is the recipient and the individuals is basically just the agent, whether an employee or a volunteer that set it up for the charity that the donor has got to really beware of that, and of course, donors have to be where if they ever give two individuals because maybe doesn’t go to the victims of the earthquake in nepal are the victims of the fire in san francisco. Maybe itjust goes into somebody’s pocket, and you don’t really know how, because that may never get reported that’s true and and on the charity side, it seems like it would be its worth is investigating to see whether your name is being used by people that you haven’t authorized. Yeah, but how can we do that? That’s a great point, i think the easiest way to do it is just to google the charity’s name once a while, and you might even google it with the term crowdfunding just to check to see if anybody is started. A crowdfunding campaign with the name of your charity, but you’re actually not seeing any of those funds, and sometimes when they have checks, go out to the acronym of your charity. It’s very easy to set up before profit business with the same acronym and have all the funds go into that account. So fraud is a possibility, like when when you’re giving crowdfunding sites. So you want a cz a donor again? You want to be really careful about making sure that any donation that you make through a crowd funding site is actually going to the chair. I never thought of that setting up. See, i’m not a savvy thinker like these criminals are, and frankly, i never thought of incorporating a business that has the same initials as ah, as a charity as a big time charity and then and then collecting checks. Yeah, it’s actually a good tip for internal controls of the own organization because any volunteer or employee that handles cheques could also do the same thing with acronyms. So be very careful about that in your internal control you mentioned doing searches, but, you know, even severe way is and i i think every organization should do this is have alerts set for your name, whether it’s google alerts now, some time ago, maria and i talked about how google alerts were not really being not very sophisticated, and we weren’t even sure they were still supported. But there are other alert it’s companies that are free, they’ll give you a free like mention dot net is one that i use for my name and also for the hashtag non-profit radio and they give you a couple for free. Then. After that, you have to pay. But i think it’s, very smart. And then i have other alerts for my company and the show name and everything. I think it’s very smart to have alerts set for your organization name so that you you find out when it pops up real, you know, real time or near real time buy-in blog’s or on sites or, you know, wherever i think that’s fantastic advice in the press. Yeah, probably somebody might write about you in the press. Yeah, so all right, but from a risk management perspective, too. All right, gene pool. Uh, and, you know, beyond even the deductibility donation issue, if somebody’s using your name out there and harming it in any way your, you know, the loss of the value of your brand and the trust of the community is far more can be far more important than any loss of deduction by don’t. Yes, for sure, we’ve talked about that reputation. Um, what if we’re thinking about a cz, an organization engaging on a crowd funding site? We’re thinking about having a campaign, maybe it’s around an event, maybe it’s around a program or a building whatever it is. What? What? What tips? You have fur going about this dahna great question. And there there are so many crowdfunding sites out there. There are few that people are are well aware of who you are. Many people are well aware of, like kickstarter and indeed go go, go fund me or just a few of those, but there are literally thousands of crowd funding sites out there now, and you want to make sure that you’re connected. If you do connect with a crowd funding site that you’re connected with a very good one with very strong reputation with the clear understanding of what the terms are of the agreement and what type of seas they may be collecting, they also may be regulated if they’re providing fund-raising solicitation service gettinto, you’re getting into the whole morass now with the charity registrations, charity solicitation, registration morass yeah, which you’re an expert at, you know, if you know if there’s soliciting for you, if they’re controlling or receiving any money on behalf of your charity, and not just threw a payment processor like paypal, but they’re actually controlling it in one of their account or even if they’re advising you as to what to put in the content of your fund-raising solicitations, then they may be regulated as a commercial or professional fundraiser, or is fund-raising council basically anybody that’s soliciting or providing advice to the charity on solicitations and that’s, a regulated, regulated area that they’re gonna have to think about registering not only in the state in which they might be located, but in any state in which they’re engaging in felicitations without spending that could be all states so that’s something to be very careful now that okay, let’s, let’s, be careful now. That would be a burden if they were considered. And of course, the laws vary state by state. This is why it’s such a huge morass. I was going to use an expletive, but we’re on too many terrestrial affiliates. I can’t do that but it’s a morass. Okay, so because the different state laws but if a crowd funding site operator was considered a commercial now i lost it a fund-raising fund-raising counsel or you are a professional solicitor. Then you’re saying that that site would have to register, right? Yeah. That’s like would have to register. And the charity actually has some responsibility as well to make sure that they’re not engaging in a contract with a commercial fund-raising professional fundraiser fund-raising solicitor fund-raising counsel that is not registered, right? Well, then there’s disclose yes, the organization has the obligation in a lot of states to disclose those relationships and also teo disclose the start of any solicitation campaign using one of those individuals or companies, right? Right, whether it’s, crowdfunding or not, but let’s try to stick with crowdfunding, alright, i don’t wanna lose anybody here, okay, that for that morass, i think that’s as deep as we can go, but you have a but let’s give you a shout out. You have an article on this not that we’re wrapping up or anything, but on this solicitation and solicitation registration issue and on the issue that that the crowdfunding site operators could be considered fund-raising council, et cetera. Right? You have some blood post on that right at non-profit law block dot com? Yeah, definitely. If you just do a search on the block sight on crowdfunding, you’ll see a number of articles. Okay, some of them discussed that issue. Okay. Excellent. Right. But let’s weigh. Just have a minute and a half, by the way, before our break. Let’s, let’s, look at some other tips. I mean, if you’re if you’re going out to a crowd funding, you’re evaluating crowd funding sites. What what other things should you be looking about? Well, i think you want to look at how the system works, though some crowd funding sites are actually set up, his donor advised funds and that’s where their charities themselves and if they are charity themselves, what they’re going to do is they’re going to take the donation, which is going to be made in their name, and they’re going to take the advice of the donor to re grant it to your charity, but they actually don’t have the legal obligation to re granted to your charity. In that case, the only time when that’s really at risk if your charity happens to be in trouble, basically with the irs and spider onesie, tree status is in dispute or the attorney general is thing you’re doing something unlawful, then the crowdfunding site that’s a donor buy-in fund may decide that it’s not going to re granted to your charity and still re granted toe another organization with the same charitable purpose. So that’s. One thing to think about is what type of entity, whether the charitable entity or for-profit, ended the year crowdfunding site. Alright, let’s, we’ve got to go out for our break. We got some more tips that gene will share and got you some more live listener love, so stay with us. 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 philantech 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 are 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 guests directly. To sign up, visit the facebook page for tony martignetti dot com. I’m peter shankman, author of zombie loyalists, and you’re listening to tony martignetti non-profit radio. Big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent. Time to send affiliate affections to all our affiliates around the country, especially jet out for k y our s. But all the affiliates love the am fm stations that are part of the non-profit radio. I don’t know, empire is that? Is that overstating it is ah, network. Maybe network is more appropriate. Empire maybe empire in june. By then it’ll be an empire. Let’s uh, let’s do more live listen love new bern, north carolina and tuscaloosa, alabama live listener love out to you and let’s go abroad. We have ah couple in japan, okazaki. And also super imahara, japan. Konnichiwa, brahma, sweden is with us. Welcome brahma, sweden. I don’t i don’t know how to say in your language, what’s the closest i can get our union. Yes, germany. Guten dog. But i know you don’t speak german in sweden and cerini i i know that but that’s that’s about the closest i can come. But i do know that seoul, south korea, multiple, as always on io haserot italy is with us, but i can’t see the city. Italy. I don’t know what you’re always masked. I don’t know you, roma. Vanessa. Uh, not really, gioia. Tauro, one of the chinchilla terra cities manure ola real majority i’ve been to all of them i wish i knew where you were, but live listen love to italy and also moving up north to ontario, canada sudbury live listen, love there also sorry jean had too little world tour. I hope you don’t mind that i love hearing where all the listeners in-kind that’s cool, is it? Yes around world. Unbelievable. Brahma, sweden i love that. Um, okay, more tips for evaluating on dh comparing potential crowd funding sites that we might use? Sure, i mean, one of the things that you have to look at is whether the crowdfunding site has rules about making a charitable contributions through their sight or not. So kickstarter doesn’t allow for general unsupportive solicitation and sorry, i’m restricted solicitations you have to solicit for a particular project starter, okay, so if you solicit for particular project now, you’re raising just restricted funds and not unrestricted funds. So you’ve got to make sure that you’re counting systems and that your your infrastructure is is ready to support that. You also have to figure out whether you’re issuing the proper type of receipt. To donors. So in kickstarter, again, if you’re raising for a particular project and tip what is very typical for kick starters, you raise funds and you give something to the donor or the or the contributor to the campaign in return for that a right, too, the first production of a book or were some some benefit there? So now you’ve got a quid pro quo contribution potentially if it’s not just the low cost of minimus item and you’ve got an issue, a proper receipt to that donor that says, well, here’s, your gift of one hundred dollars, but you received something of value of twenty five dollars, in return. Therefore, duck double portion of that payment is seventy five dollars. Something like that has got to be given to the donor, and if the crowdfunding site isn’t able to facilitate the charity to be ableto offer those proper quid pro quo disclosure statements, then you’ve got a problem. You just gotta make sure that your crowd funding sites are where the charity laws well, okay, there’s also a potential fees the side to make money sometimes off the off the money that’s raised so there’s feet potential and then also donors in formacion some of the sights will not share the donor information with you, ray, which is, which is a problem in fees. Yes, you do want to compare fees to make sure that they’re not exorbitant in relation to the type of campaign that you want to conduct. And it also may indicate whether the crowdfunding site operators operating with in-kind of the ethical parameters that charity’s think that they operate. And so for example, if a crowd funding site and i don’t believe any of the major ones do this. But if a crowd funding site is saying, we want to take a portion a percentage of your donations that let’s say exceeds ten percent or twenty percent, that that may really be a problem, and you may actually run into other regulated areas if you start to take a exorbitant fees where you’re actually sharing donations with a for-profit entity oh my yeah, i could see trouble there. Ok, ok, go ahead. Sorry, but typical a credit card processing fees three and a half percent on goff often there’s kind of ah, crowdfunding site c to provide that platform for you and then the credit card processing the to taking those donations. So, you know, anywhere, uh, you know, three to four to five percent for each of those things are a total of up to ten percent. It’s probably pretty common amongst the big crowd funding site operators. Okay, okay, privacy issues, right? There’s the issue we just mentioned are they sharing the donor information with you but privacy information? What are they doing with the data? People’s people’s data? Yeah, absolutely. And that’s another issue about whether they’re regulated, professional or not. So without diving into that too deep, if they’re really just providing the platform for you, they have to disclose your donors. And if they’re not willing to disclose your donors, you have a problem because that that information you’re entitled to and in many cases, you may have to report that if it’s a large contribution to the i r s as well so that’s that’s just ah, something that you need. I think when a charity uses a crowd funding site in terms of protecting the privacy of the donors, you do absolutely want to take a look at the crowd funding site operators privacy policy tto find out whether the donors that are contributing there are are going to be now subject to a bunch of others similar campaigns and have their emails splendid with solicitation or whether they’re going to give up other, you know, information that might create both legal or just a donor relation problems for your charity. We just have about a minute and a half left one minute actually left. Just today in the chronicle of philanthropy, i saw the minnesota attorney general suing a company called savers, and they’re they’re a brick and mortar store, and they give part of their part of the revenue or from items they sell goes to charity. But the charity’s aren’t being sued, but they’re being named and he was, like disabled american veterans, absolute epilepsy foundation, lupus foundation. So, you know, this is all related to your point that reputation could be out there even if you’re not doing something wrong. Yeah, and why you talked about monitoring how your organization is being used? Because sometimes and they don’t know about this particular case, but sometimes a commercial code venture, which is a little bit of a jargon the term but any for-profit that uses the charity’s name to say, well, if you buy from us will give a portion of the proceeds to this charity may be done without your knowing it as a charity, not knowing that they’re using your name and they should obviously be be letting you know that that’s happening. But you you do have a responsibility as a charity to make sure that, you know, when somebody’s conducting a campaign like that, we have two reportedly on your behalf. Jane, we have to leave it there. I thank you very much. I look forward to seeing you in ten days or so. Jean takagi at g tack on twitter and the non-profit lob log dot com thank you very much, gene. Thanks, tony. See, you bet next week to ntcdinosaur views emerging tech trends and now get buy-in if you missed any part of today’s show, find it on tony martignetti dot com where else would you go? Opportunity collaboration with world convenes for poverty alleviation. It’s outstanding and it’ll ruin you for every other conference opportunity collaboration dot net. Our creative producer is claire meyerhoff sound. Liebowitz is on the board as the line producer shows. Social media is by susan chavez, susan chavez, dot com and our music is by scott stein. I love when he affirms what i just said. 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 yeah 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 am 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 gotta make it fun and applicable to these young people look so otherwise a fifteen and sixteen year old they have better things to dio they have xbox, they have tv, they have their cell phones me dar is the founder of idealised 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 right and 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 on dno, 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 talked 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. You put money in a situation and invested and expected to grow and savvy advice for success from eric sabiston. What separates those who achieve from those who do not is in direct proportion to one’s ability to ask others for help. The smartest experts and leading thinkers air on tony martignetti non-profit radio big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent.

Nonprofit Radio for November 22, 2013: Empower Your Volunteers & What’s Their Style?

Big Nonprofit Ideas for the Other 95%

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Dahna hello and welcome to tony martignetti non-profit radio big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent. I’m your aptly named host it’s friday, november twenty second twenty thirteen what’s on my mind actually is the fiftieth anniversary of the kennedy assassination were not about politics here or anything about so we don’t talk about conspiracy theories or one shooter, but it’s certainly on the nation’s mind today, i hope you were with me last week, i’d be thrown into ventricular tachycardia if i learned that you had missed professor denny elliot from the university of south florida, she edited the book, the ethics of asking. We talked about when you’ve got an ethical issue and fund-raising and how to resolve it this week empower your volunteers. Karen wooster is executive director of wreaths across america. They have grown their volunteer support enormously by being hands off and supportive. That was reported at bebe khan, twenty thirteen, and what’s their style maria simple returns she’s, the prospect finder and our prospect research contributor. We’ll talk about the disk assessment tool to figure out whether your potential donors are dominant, influencing steady or cautious, plus maria’s sixty seconds style stop between the shows. I have some thoughts on creative sorry between the guests there’s only one show you’re listening to one show, but between the guests on the show ah, creative. Thank you’s for your year end giving let’s do a little live listen love quickly before we go to that. The interview with karen wister, bridgewater, new jersey, sewell, new jersey and winston salem, north carolina all checking in live listener love to you i’m wondering if winston salem might be our friends at blackbaud the hosts of that bb con conference here is karen wooster. Empower your volunteers. Welcome to tony martignetti non-profit radio coverage of b become twenty thirteen. We’re outside washington d c at the gaylord convention center and my guest is karen wooster. She was the opening day keynote. She is ceo of wreaths across america. We’re going to talk about what that organization does. Why it’s been so successful and while you were ah fitting keynote karen brewster. Welcome to the show. Thank you. Thanks for having me, tony. Actually, i’m the executive director. Exactly. Director okay, he’s across america. Reason america is a five one c three. Our mission is to remember the fallen. On of those that serve and most importantly, to teach our children the value of freedom and i was so honored to be asked to come, we recently have begun working partnership with blackbaud just because we’ve had such good growth, and we want to make sure that we maintain a good personal connection with our supporters and the tools that blackbaud is is sharing with us will enable us to do that. You have had terrific success. Thie organization was founded in two thousand six is that right? Two thousand seven way came into being a five a one c three a little differently than most organizations we actually we’re a family project that began in nineteen ninety two the worcester family is a well known name and the christmas wreath business, and in nineteen ninety two we actually overbought product christmas trees and my husband, you know, it was late in the year to be put them on the retail market, and my husband recalled a trip that he had one toe allentown is a paperboy when he’s only twelve years old, and he thought it would be nice to be able to say thank you, because we live in a land of the free, and that enables us to do whatever we do, whether it’s it’s on the retail market or whatever, you know, have ah fund-raising group are just give back yourself. You couldn’t do that if you lived anywhere but the united states, so now he was headed to allentown, pennsylvania. No, i’ll international and he actually he wanted he wanted trip. There is a paperboy to allinson down in d c and he remembered that so he wanted to give those res too be placed on the graves there as a thank you for our freedom. You have to forgive me because i come from new york, so i have the new york accent and i have i have no access to do it. You’re right. I always said i’d say that two way needed translated, tony think new yorkers speak the most pure english in the country, but well, they’re very direct. I’ll see probably don’t agree. All right, so he was headed tow. I’m sorry. Go ahead. So he recalled. Well, actually recalled that trip that he wants. Valentine is a paperboy when he was only twelve. Okay. Wanted to see those? Res a za thank you to the fallen soldiers. And and he got permission to do that. He took a couple of kids with him and went down. It took them all day to place the reason the graves and it made a huge impact on him. And when he came home, this is a nineteen. Nineteen he he said, you know, we’re always going to do this. So from then on, it was kind of an accidental gift. And then from that point on, it became something that my family was dedicated to do just as a gesture of thank you for our freedom. Now did he have enough wreaths for all the graves? No, no, he only took five thousand well over there are well over two hundred thousand headstones. Okay, but what happened from that point we are family would make the journey every you know, holiday season. They would take time out. We made the re special from that point on and the family would go down on me with a few volunteers. And it was just a way that our family at the end of the year would say thank you for our freedom in two thousand five pentagon photographer was there at the cemetery when the reason relaid and he took a picture and put it on the pentagon news channel online, and it went viral. And so, by two thousand six of january two thousand six, my husband is funny because he’s never opened an e mail his life and all of a sudden, you know, i’d be checking his e mail and he all of a sudden had about six thousand emails coming off ones and long story shot the people wanted so badly to be involved in in the same show of gratitude that we were doing by placing grease we the ones to reef company started receiving and people working with non-profits will love this. We receive thousands and thousands like ten thousand dollars at once in the mail, and we had to hire somebody to send it back because we were for-profit company people in our listeners not only gonna love it, they’re going to be envious. Well, it was difficult to deal with because we actually did have to send you no send it back and but we did come up as a family with a program where every cemetery in every group that wanted to participate, what we did was we would send them seven reasons. One for each branch of the military and one for pow in my eyes and bye christmas holiday season of two thousand six, we had over two, well, roughly two hundred locations that received those res and at the same time that a family placed reason alinta nw, they place these result of the country. In addition, people wanted to join in just making the trip. So when we left to goto islands in that year instead of it being my husband and two sons and a volunteer truck, it was a whole convoy of patriot god, writers and veterans. And the trip took a week and we stopped at veterans homes and schools and were able to give the message to remember and be grateful. No, no matter what, what your religion, no matter what you celebrate too, just celebrate the veterans that make it so that we can celebrate and have the freedoms tell me, just tell me about the wreaths. What what types of reason? Or they were they made. Oh, well, let me let me just finish. I don’t want to wait, we actually became a five one c three in two thousand seven, just out of demand of people wanted to get involved and so we are operated. It’s totally separate from wooster wreath now was to wreath it’s still one of the largest donors every than in-kind donations but we are run by a board of directors that includes veterans and doctors and gold star moms and all that and so it’s very different and we have seen immense growth. We grow at about forty five percent a year in exit was crazy and it’s just because people want to participate. Alright, so before we get into that rapid growth and what you think, the reasons for that successor what i’m interested in the reeds are they are they live? Breathe there fresh. They’re made from chips, the the tips are picked that don’t have the trees. It’s funny that the gold star families, the goldstein family is a family that’s lost a son, a daughter killed in action, killed in combat, the service of the country. They have a real connection with the fact that it comes from lives stands of forest, the tips they’re made in, you know, buy handmade into the reason they’re adorned with just a simple red ball, which it’s just a gesture of gratitude. But it means so much to somebody who’s place their loved one, you know, buried their loved one in a cold, you know, hyde place to say that burst of life, that little and a gift from somebody, they don’t even know that each one of these reasons now we have reason sponsored, we continue to give the the ceremonial reason, but for individual graves they can be sponsored, and that meaning of life to them is so special it really is. And and so many of the families now journey up to maine and just spend time in the woods where the tips come from that we have a program, that it didn’t start out to be a program, but some of the moms came up and they loved to be in in the woods so much that my husband actually had some dog tags made for them with their loved ones, names on them, and they took him out in the woods, and they put him up in the branches of the tree. And that each every third year those reasons those chips are harvested from those trees made into res that go on another veteran’s grave and it’s such a just a connection to a life of living tribute that it means so much so yeah, they’re they’re all freshly made there. It’s, it’s, wonderful it’s a wonderful program. How do you place the reason? Trying to imagine our they laid on the on the ground or they’re placed it in most places that placed against the stones in some places. And if you go to greece across america daughter organ, you look at the pictures, the picture files, depending on where you are and by the way, this year we will have over nine hundred locations stateside and over twenty five abroad that will participate in reese across america program, we have about six hundred thousand volunteers and remarkable in seven years. I mean, six years, yeah, it’s crazy. Well, let’s talk about that. That rapid growth now, just that number of years you have annual revenue, i think is four and a half million dollars. There’ll be about six and and i’m looking at old stats i don’t i’m looking at the front looking but not looking at the future. One half alright, this year will be all right. So last year was four and a half, i guess. Yeah, and not a very big staff way have about five full time. Um, what do you attribute that kind of rapid growth, too? Well, i think everything that we’ve done way didn’t set out to start a five a one c three to begin with. So it’s very boots on the ground driven. We’re very attentive to the people that add the boots on the ground at volunteers were always amazed because every one of those over nine hundred locations somebody in that community has to say, hey, i want to bring res across america here where nonpolitical we’re nondenominational where all inclusive, we have very few rules so they can have it be very much in tune to the local community. And i think that helps that people in the community participate and every community has veterans. Every community has lost people in service has blue staff, families and gold star families so it’s easy for them to relate to the talking alternative radio twenty four hours a day. Do you need a business plan that can guide your company’s growth? Seven and seven will help bring the changes you need. Wear small business consultants and we pay attention to the details. You may miss our coaching and consultant services a guaranteed to lead toe. Right, groat. For your business, call us at nine. One seven eight three, three, four, eight six zero foreign, no obligation free consultation. Check out our website of ww dot covenant seven dot com are you fed up with talking points? Rhetoric everywhere you turn left or right? Spin ideology no reality, in fact, its ideology over in tow. No more it’s, time for the truth. Join me, larry shop a neo-sage tuesday nights nine to eleven easter for the ivory tower radio in the ivory tower will discuss what’s important to you society, politics, business and family. It’s provocative talk for the realist and the skeptic who want to know what’s. Really going on? What does it mean? What can be done about it? So gain special access to the ivory tower. Listen to me, larry. Sure you’re neo-sage tuesday nights nine to eleven new york time go to ivory tower radio dot. Com. For details. That’s. Ivory tower, radio, dot com e every time i was a great place to visit for both entertainment and education. Listening. Tuesday nights nine to eleven. It will make you smarter. Hey, all you crazy listeners looking to boost your business? Why not advertise on talking alternative with very reasonable rates? Interested simply email at info at talking alternative dot com now, on twenty martignetti non-profit radio, we have jog in jail and even though blue star families, a punctuation, simple words you have to find for us, okay? Bluestar family, a blue staff family is a family that has active duty service member go and gold sta is when when the service members lost lost. Oh, and by the way, i do want to say a lot of people don’t know that this last past weekend was actually go the american gold star mothers weekend national weekend. And so it was an honor for me. I was able to speak at that dinner and, you know, we all all of us that are involved in very much driven by the passion of those moms and, you know, all they wanted to do is remember, you know, they’ve lost their loved ones in service to country so that we can live freely, and i i’ll just tell you a little story of emotional story that happened to me in two thousand seven is this thing began to grow and take on a different rather than just a family saying thank you. We began listening to what the veterans and the moms wanted us to make our message when i was a talent, a national cemetery in section sixty. And for those that don’t know, section sixty is an area in the cemetery where a lot of the men and women who were dying in this current conflict of buried so it’s very it’s, tragically beautiful, because the family’s heir there, you know they’ll be, you go down there, and they’re these rows of tombstones. And there are little kids playing among the tombstones in the and the tombstones air adorned with of a beer can or, you know, somebody’s had or chain are it’s very it’s, almost alive still. So i was asked by a gold star mother who was going to be here first holiday without her son. And she asked me to meet her there. And i was happy to do so when we walk down to the section she had left your teenage daughter there to make sure that nobody else placed a wreath and we sat down together, you know, that downey’s and she put that wreath and she fixed it so tenderly, you know, she just it just meant so much. That was a gift to her son, you know? But when we stood up together, i’ll never forget she put her hands right on my shoulders and she looked me right in the face and she said, karen, i don’t want you to remember my dead son. I want you to remember his life because that’s what he sacrificed and it hit me like a ton of bricks, that no mother’s child should become a digit in a statistic. What she wants us to know is because we have freedom because she’ll never have a grandchild because he’ll never play football again because he’ll never see the dog that she was taken care of for him again and it’s, so important that people aren’t complacent about that. And that is what that kind of passion and that kind of commitment to those families is what makes our organization grow because anything else that we are in this country, we couldn’t be any organization that’s represented here. Bb con that raises money for good causes. The reason in this country that we can do humanitarian things is because we can go to bed safe at night and if we’re in a third world, country or country. This besieged by what we couldn’t do that, and we can’t do that, not because of the politicians in washington, but because of those families who put before that god before anything else, they put our safety and that’s a pretty done important mission and that’s why people can relate to what we’re doing. You’re fortunate to have so many hundreds of thousands of volunteers that’s really remarkable. How do you manage that many of? Well, so it’s amazingly easy, they do so much of the work themselves, they put the ceremonies together, you know, we have very simple rules, we’re not we’re not trying to tell people how to think we’re just telling people how to that it’s important that they dio and that they do remember, and so it’s not really that difficult to manage. We’ve got a crackerjack staff, we asked certainly get a little more high tech at what we’re doing, but i do want to say that one of the things when we decided to put this program together and we came at it from a unique perspective because we did some of the found his head of business background, and we realized that it was going to be very competitive going after those dollars, especially during the holiday season. So we came up with a program that we could work with other five on one c three organization. So we do what we do very much do that we work with the f w’s, american legion civilian patrols and in what ways because are already is old non-profit so maybe they could learn well, and i hope they give me a call because that holiday season is coming up and was so much going on so many natural disasters, a lot of the dollars that we depended on have been used up. What program is with no investment? They can go out and get wreath sponsorships for their local community offer al international cemetery, and a sponsorship is fifteen dollars, that will place a wreath, and i’ll tell you, people given to a non-profit want to see a tangible, you know, they continue to give two causes or for exploratory things and to improve medicines, but they don’t see riel results, you know, there, there on the loop, on seeing results. Those are also important to dio what people like about that program is they give fifteen dollars and a brief gets placed a gift goes to ah loved one. So when an organization signs up with us that res across america daughter, they can go out and do the sponsorships, and their organization retains a full five dollars, of the fifteen dollars, and with no investment, and the other thing is, is such a a way for people to get involved, you know, it’s something that they could do together, that sometimes when you’re so headlong into a mission, that something else that you could dio to still keep you together is a group, but just kind of give you breath and know that you’re making a difference because you can get consumed. And i think that one of the things that i’ve learned from being so involved in this five twenty three it’s not just that you remember, honor and teach but it’s, what you take with what you learnt, how you internalize it and how you put it back on your life. So you have to be a beacon for what you’re learning, and this is a great outlet for people who have gotten so emerged that they’re losing, they can’t. See the forest for the trees, so to speak. Good advice. How would you say you’ve? You’ve managed your growth in such a short number of years, just six years since you b kayman five oh one c three how have you managed that rapid growth? I think in one way we’re really fortunate because what we do is so focus and, like it’s, so easy, fifteen dollars comes in and everything goes out it’s really simple, and then the people had to do a place in the reason it’s, a local community that’s arranging the ceremonies and doing all that. The other thing a big part of what we do is getting those rays delivered, you know, you get the rees made and you know that they’re all going to go here, here, here and here to give you an idea of how fast paced it gets at the end, about ninety percent of what we do will come in in the month of november, over and have to be turned around, turned into res and then delivered and, you know, shout out to the professional truck drivers out there in the country because every single reef it’s delivered. Goes in the back of a volunteer truck that is phenomenal, and this year will be seeing over two hundred professional truck drivers hit the road to take those res from maine to california, you know, and that’s dedication to the american hero and that’s, everybody doing what they can do, and i think that’s so important, you know, one of the reasons that we’re able to manage you ask people to give what they have, you know? So we have volunteers, staff that will come in and help answer phones and do things like that, but, you know, make people comfortable in what they could dio like, i won’t ask the truck driver to handle the computer or vice versa, and so i think that’s, how we manage it is just the good will of people and, you know, the other thing that that we really we’ve had phenomenal growth. Social social media has been incredible for us, and one of the reasons is that were so open to sharing what other organizations are doing. If the u s always doing a fundraiser will put it on our pages and people would say, why would you do that when? You’re competing for dollars, and we’re very true to the mission of support in the military, and the thing is that every person that serves in the military, they’re not excluded from life. You know, i met a burgundy general last year who who lived his life and been in combat, he went through vietnam, you know, he went through the desert storm and he’s to come to cancer, so we’re not afraid to be in this together, so we’re very much about working with the other five onesie threes. We know that we all do well as we go forward together. So you know, if there is anybody out there that’s interested, they can just contact us it reese across america, do it all again. I really think we can help them. We can help each other put some dollars together for a bunch of good causes going into the holiday season. I see lots of partnerships you with your volunteers in basically just empowering them, but giving them a lot of flexibility, right? You with other they know better than may, i would never presume, you know, and i think that’s my dad would say, don’t get above the roots of your raise and i’m a reef make his wife remain, you know, i don’t presume to know, i don’t presume to know what a gold star mother who’s buried your son knows i need to listen to her, i’m not the one that set it up location, you know, somewhere in texas and has to deal with the needs of the local community. So i think that, you know, it’s always important to listen it’s always important to have people not not just make people feel like they’re a part of it, but actually have them be a part of it. And i think it’s those attentions to detail and you know, and i totally understand is that we’re not in the medical field where, you know, there are people that have to have that expertise. What we do is very simple. We need to just stay very aware that we have the best country in the whole wide world. It was paid for, so we need to take care of that memory. We need to teach that pay it forward to at kids and build the character of americans on duitz what we we strive to. Dio what’s the future i know much higher revenue for two thousand thirteen what’s coming what’s coming in the future of what else? I think where certainly at focus is becoming very much on teaching a cz we listen to the world war two veterans, they have so much knowledge, histories. Importance isn’t just to tell people what happened in the past. You know, the people that lived through world war two, when they saw the freedoms eroded and they saw things think you’re so different than but during world what teo, everybody in the country was involved. Every single family had somebody serving in the military, you know, it was a it was a different way for people to come to come together. Everybody was in it together fast forward to today, when only about one percent of the families are involved in the military, and that, you know, it’s all technology where that fewer people are able to keep us safe. But but the big fear is that the rest of the country will lose track of that and lose track of the value of freedom. So the importance of history is not just to tell what happened. Is to incorporate the lessons we learned so that the people making decisions for the future at destined to make the same mistake. So education, how are you going to be doing that? Education were taken. You know, we’re listening to the people that know you. Listen to the veterans. You listen to the people that lived through it, there’s a lot of wisdom and get into the twin and out to the kids. We have online curriculum. We have suggestions all the time. We have a group called the red hatters. Any time that kids get involved and go out and do the research themselves, we encourage them to go into a local cemetery and read the names from the stones of those who have fallen in their own community and then go research it and connect up with a personal story. You know, a good example. We have. Ah, world war two veteran on aboard. He was actually captured christmas eve nineteen forty four during the battle of the bulge. And he’s, a character president, watched survivor. You know, he’s been through it, and when we go on a trip, he’ll often speak to the school kids and we’ll put him up in front of a group of high school kids and that’s a tough crowd, and you’ll see those kids fidgeting and i’m not listening, and then he’ll start to talk and he just talks so plain and i remember one day he was saying that one day what’s his name, sir stanley would too sick, and he actually is he’s been knighted twice by luxembourg and belgium, and he gotta get up in front of the kids, and they were fidgeting away, and he actually that his unit had to surrender and they weren’t happy about that, but when they asked them to surrender and turn in their guns, it was they actually told them he used a different word, but they were told to urinate in the gun barrels, and when he said the other word for urinate, those kids all set up and started looking. He went on to say why, so it would rust the guns out so that even though they were turning those guns over to the enemy, they were, they were rendered useless. He went on to tell about he and another friend then escaped and how they survived for a few days, and he told about coming on enemy soldiers, and they will, they were sitting there. But they had to kill those soldiers to survive. And he was graphic and the kids just went deeper. And the story became so personal that by the time he gets done speaking, we would be trying to leave to go to a next stop. And here would be this eighty four year old man with teenagers, you know, eight deep all around him with questions road that’s teaching that’s connection because they have to understand the reality. You see that’s what the history should be taught about war, not what happened to what date, but what form the character, how what kind of a character is a person that goes through that that’s, the character of america. Can’t we just have about a minute left? In-kind i want you to say, just explicitly, it’s really wrapped up and everything you’ve been saying. But what is it you love about the work that you’re doing with these across america? It’s very emotional for me, it’s no longer it’s it’s a responsibility for me. Now i have six children. I live in a free country where we can i have a business and it came at a cost that is just so extreme that for me i love and i’m very, very close to those that serve in the military. And i’m very it’s very important that we preserve every to most people my age or today the closest we ever come to feeling that threatened was nine eleven. We’ll just close your eyes and get that sick feeling in your stomach again and don’t ever want you kids to have to go through that. So we need to be mindful of those that keep us safe, remember, honor and teach. Thank you, karen. Thank you very much for sharing. Thank you. Karen wister is executive director. Wreaths across america that leads across america. Dot or ge has been a real pleasure to have you as a guest. Thank you very much. Thank you. Stoney martignetti non-profit radio coverage of bb khan. Twenty thirteen. Thanks very much for listening. I was very glad teo, bring that interview today. The fiftieth. Anniversary of the kennedy assassination of course, the president’s grave is in arlington, and we have a live listener. Lots of live listener love going to arlington, virginia there’s a listener there, i wonder if that’s a wreath maker live listener love to you. I thought this was all fitting for this this anniversary live listener level, so to rockville, maryland, atlanta, georgia, montgomery, illinois, san jose, california live listen love to each of you and podcast pleasantries to those listening time shifted to the podcast. We’ve got lots of asian listeners and another north american listener, toronto checking in live listen love, too you’ve got lots of asian listeners and i will send live listen love shortly want to share some thoughts that i have? Ah, as we approach the end of the year about you’re thank you’s for end of the year. Gif ts i host a another podcast fund-raising fundamentals for the carnival of philanthropy and that’s a monthly and this month’s is about creative thank you’s for your year end e-giving there is a link to listen to that on my blog’s at tony martignetti dot com the guests for that were claire axle red she’s. Fund-raising consultant and also the executive director of one justice, julia wilson. If you’d like to get some ideas on creative, thank you’s for your year end e-giving listen to that podcast again. Link is on my block, and that is also at the chronicle of philanthropy website. We are sponsored by two very thoughtful companies. You’ve heard their names before rally bound. They make simple, reliable, peer-to-peer fund-raising software friends, asking friends to give to your cause. As a non-profit radio listener, you will get a discount from rally bound. You can speak to joe mcgee there. I’ve worked with him, and i’ve also gotten to know the ceo of rally bound family pinson two very good guys. Those are the two who i know from the company. Um, they are at rally bound dot com or triple eight seven six seven, nine zero, seven six i recommend them. If you’re looking at software for runs, walks or rides, is that peer-to-peer fund-raising also tea, brc cost recovery supporting the show. Yussef rabinowitz runs t brc. He will go over your past phone bills looking for mistakes when he finds them, which he does over ninety percent of the time. He picks up the phone and fights with the phone company to get you your money back. We’re talking about errors, services that you didn’t order and well above market pricing yourself recently recovered. He was telling me almost twelve thousand dollars for a small non-profit after finding a mistake that went back on their bill three years, so each month they were for three years, they were billed and he can get them. He got them almost twelve thousand dollars back. You only pay trc if youssef actually gets you money back if he doesn’t succeed, you don’t pay him. And that s so it really doesn’t matter how much time he spends reviewing your bills. I have known yourself for close to ten years. I’ve referred him many times and i think he’s worth talking to if you have phone service their a t brc dot com or two. One, two, six, double four nine triple xero xero sefer benowitz, trc cost recovery my pleasure. Now to welcome maria simple you know who maria simple is she’s the prospect finder? Of course she’s a trainer and speaker on prospect research. Her website is the prospect finder dot com her book is panning for gold. Find your best donor prospects now she’s our doi n of dirt, cheap and free and in true indeed, she’s going to stay true that this week you can follow maria on twitter at maria simple. Hi maria simple caldnear tony, how are you today? I’m doing terrific, lee. Thank you very much. We’re talking about thie the disk assessment tool. What is this thing? Disc. So i don’t know. Have you ever had a chance to take any of these sort of behaviour? Or personality assessment tools for yourself. The last one i took was from asking matters when andrea kill stead, cofounder of asking matters was on, and that was about the personality of the person you are asking for a gift and the askar is the solicitors personality. Okay, great. So you know this this particular tool? I of course heard of it for a long time. I know that a lot of career coaches use it, and people in sales and human resource is used it and so forth. And i had an opportunity to take the test myself for the assessment myself at the recent conference on philanthropy that was held here in new jersey, and a woman by the name of carol wiseman spoke and delivered the tool to us and talked about how to use not only how you identify yourself and and where you kind of fall into the tool and personality wise, but again, similar to the test you took to try and figure out. Well, what is the style or the personality of the person i’m talking to? So as a prospect researcher, i kind of found it all fascinating because i’m dealing with more of, you know, looking for those hard facts data, you know, that i can find on the internet and so this kind of weeds in a whole other aspect, interesting that their website doesn’t talk about prospect research. I love that you’re out in the world thinking about the world, you know, sort of from your perspective because the company doesn’t promote this as for non-profits at all, i didn’t see no and, you know, that’s? Why? I thought it was really interesting that that the conference actually set aside, you know, an entire afternoon to being able to really delve into this and understanding not only your own style, but how you might then position on ask to somebody depending on where they fall into the d i s c profile assessment, right? We’ll get to that, i’ll i’ll let you reveal it again. Ah, yeah. The company suggests this as a way of identifying talent within your organization and who to develop a za way of also is ah, way of hiring the right people for the right kinds of jobs that’s, the way they seem to position it right and that’s. Why? I think it is. You so highly by people in human resource is and more of a sales function because they are looking to get people into an environment and of understanding, you know? Well, how can they best, you know, sell on our behalf? And when you’re a fundraiser, isn’t that what you’re doing after all? Absolutely, yeah, i think there are people who don’t like that sales metaphor on i don’t like to take it too far, but i don’t weigh don’t mean sales in a pejorative sense, but you are your i absolutely believe you are selling the organization to people who already know it. You’re selling it for them to deepen their relationship or two potential donors who don’t know it at all, right? And you know this this really ramps it up, if you can imagine in a major gift scenario where maybe you’ve had a couple of conversations with someone, and now you’re at the point of getting that appointment on the calendar to make that ask, right? So you’ve done your donor research, you know, some numbers, you know, their capacity, you know, where they’ve given and at what other levels, and you even have a number. In mind that you plan on asking them for but how do you now couch that? Ask in such a way and deliver that? Ask so that it’s going to play into the way they best process information or the way they’re going to best respond to your ask. You know how? What? What are the things that you need to make sure you touch upon? Depending on what? What type of person you’re speaking to, what are the different types of personalities? All right, so disc stands for d i s c and the d means your dominant. You have? Ah, high sense of personal worth. You’re motivated by directness. And you really linked to a larger vision and a longer term, grander scale so that that is sort of a real general goaded me is okay, go ahead. Keep going. An eye is somebody who’s more people oriented, motivated by social recognition. And they’re really much more focused about connections and people. So how are people? You know who else is involved in the project? And how is this project going to impact people? Eyes for influencer. Influencer, right. S for steady. Uh, so that would be somebody. Who’s really much more of a pragmatic team player? They’re much more motivated by established practices, and they really want to make sure that there’s long term stability of the programming, right? So if you’re talking to a potential donor about something brand new launching or a change in programming, they want to see that that stability taking place going forward, ok, and then sees cautious or conscientious and so they’re much more task oriented quality control. They’re motivated by much more to it here instead, standards, and they can definitely relate to numbers. So when you’re talking to somebody who’s, see, you want to make sure that you’ve got all your numbers in line you’re able to quote, you know, percentage of people affected by your programming. Now the additional percentage is that will be affected. You need to be able to really talk about outcome measurements, things of that nature. These all sound good to me. I would like to be all for these. I wonder where you would fall into this. Can you guess where i might have fallen into the oh, you already got your results. I was going to say i took the assessment, but you have to wait for them to give you the results. They contact you back. You don’t get there. We took the test right on the spot today. Our unconference you had the benefit of that. I took it online and you have to wait for them. Tio, get back to you so i don’t know which i am. I did try to cheat as much as possible so that i could because i want in the quadrant. I’m sure they come out with little quadrant and at least i’m guessing i’m not sure i’m guessing they come out with a little quadrant c i already know how it works. Even though i’ve only spent fifteen, i guess he’s well, quadrant there’s a dot in the quarter. But i wanted i wanted dot in all four quadrants pretty close to the middle so that i could be among all four of these things. So i tried to game, which is possible. Yeah, and in fact, i don’t. There are all four of those in all of us except there’s, one where you’re going to be more predominant and the way carol explained it to us and couched the whole exercise. I thought was great, she said, this is more, like, really measuring your blood pressure, right? So it’s, not so much looking at your height, which, you know, for the most part, doesn’t change over time, but much more so over, you know, if i had taken this test twenty years ago, i might score differently than i did by taking the test just last week. I’m going to guess i’m going to hedge a little bit and guess that you are one of two either s for steady or c for conscientious, interesting i came out a very strong i really influencer i really i think that’s wrong, i think you took i think you answered the questions wrong, you’re not. So i know enough about this that you need to go back and do the assessment again. Trust me, you’re either a steady or conscientious you did a wrong in-kind results. Tony, i know you did it wrong. You need to go back and become either study or country interest because i can’t stand being correct. Well, you know, interestingly enough, i do have a lot of s and see in may, so you’re you’re right in that. All right, you’re being generous now. Okay, well, thank you for that. All right, so so we’re not only interested in what our prospects are or actually, if i’m going to follow the the language of last week’s guest, i would say potential donors and you and i might touch on that a little bit, but we’ll get to that not only the potential donors, but also what i am, right, and then how those two are going to relate to each other. Is that right? Exactly. So you want to figure out well, if now knowing that i’m an eye right, i might be much more inclined to go in and talk to a prospect and get a little bit more chatty than maybe say a dominant person might like to have me sitting there being chatty about other things so they might be much more, you know? Look, i only have fifteen minutes. Get to the point. You know what? What? How can i help? You have it’s going to effect to the overall long term vision of the organization. Whereas i might come in and start talking about who the other people are involved in the project. And you know what role they can play in the project? And i might be my style knowing my style and knowing that everybody doesn’t share that style. I need to adjust my conversation to match what what they’re they want to get out of the conversation because you’re about connections and people and the dominant person might not have time for that. But now, how are we going to assess what the personality type is of the of the potential donor? Well, you know, it’s funny that you ask that because i raised my hand and i asked carol wise in the exact same question last week, alright, look, carol, you know, i’m a prospect researcher, you know, and especially as a hired freelance researcher, if you will, i’m not on staff, i’ve never seen or met with most of the people in researching, how does this play in? And, you know, of course, by the time you’re ready to sit down and have a nasco you’re pretty well able to determine where this person is. And she said that there are even actually some things that you could pick up from somebody’s linked in profile, for example, that could help point you to something, so if you see, um, they’re linked in profile, for example, talks about accomplishments in terms of i raised revenue by x percent if they use, like a lot of numbers in their summary of their profile and describing themselves, she said that that might be a person that’s really more about the sea, you know, relating to the all about the numbers, you know, that when you’re going in to talk to them that you’ve gotta have all that data with you, we have just about another minute before break you got any other any other linked in clues that miss wiseman suggested, um, i think just in terms of also what types of associations or groups that they might belong, teo on lengthen also, if you see that they are more heavily skewed toward their field, being more in the sciences again, there they might be more of an ass or assi, if you see on their profile that they’ve been holding a lot of sea level positions. Ceo seo, you know that those people are probably a hi dee because they’re looking at longer term strategies and visions for their company. Okay, excellent, you know, these are going to be important because a sze yu said, no way, ask the same question. Okay, well, we’re going to keep talking about what’s, their style, and by the way, do they call these personalities or something else? I think they call them behavior styles looks for the tool here while we’re on the brake, and i’ll just double check what they call them, exactly. Okay, we’re going to go away for a couple minutes. Marie and i will keep talking about behavior styles, personally, styles, whichever it is, and then she has her, uh, her sixty second style stop also. So we got lotsa style. Stay with us. You’re listening to the talking alternative network. Oppcoll durney are you stuck in your business or career trying to take your business to the next level, and it keeps hitting a wall? This is sam liebowitz, the conscious consultant. I will help you get to the root cause of your abundance issues and help move you forward in your life. Call me now and let’s. Create the future you dream of. Two, one, two, seven, two, one, eight, one, eight, three, that’s to one to seven to one, eight one eight three. The conscious consultant helping conscious people. Be better business people. Have you ever considered consulting a road map when you feel you need help getting to your destination when the normal path seems blocked? A little help can come in handy when choosing an alternate route. Your natal chart is a map of your potentials. It addresses relationships, finance, business, health and, above all, creativity. Current planetary cycles can either support or challenge your objectives. I’m montgomery taylor. If you would like to explore the help of a private astrological reading, please contact me at monte at monty taylor dot. Com let’s monte m o nt y at monty taylor dot com. Talking alternative radio twenty four hours a day. Lively conversation. Top trends and sound advice. That’s. Tony martignetti non-profit radio. And i’m lawrence paige, no knee author off the non-profit fund-raising solution. Maria simple, the prospect finder we’re talking about what’s their style on what type of style is it? Is it behavior or something else? So it’s it’s quantified here is interpreting normal observable behaviour and it’s either adapted behavior or natural behaviour. So it’s really very much of a behavioral. Okay? And where were people going to find this? We haven’t given them the girl to take the assessment. Well, you know, i think there’s a number of places that people can take this online if you google disc assessment there’s a number of places, the site that i think it’s linked to the particular tool that i took is titi i success in sight dot com and i can share that link on your facebook page if you like, that would be ideal that’s a very good idea. Altum let’s see the right. So how mohr we going to deal with our style versus the potential donors style? Okay, so let’s, take each one of the styles, right? So a d if you’re soliciting them, you want to make sure that you’re very direct in some situations to make sure you’re letting them win and and dominate the conversation. And you’re not looking to really build a friendship with that person, and you have to use the time very efficiently. Um, if you’re soliciting and i, no matter what personality style your you’re soliciting and i you want to make sure that you’re more personal friendly, take time to joke around, have some fun ah, provide recognition and really, you want to focus on talking about people and have a more casual style when you’re talking to an ai now, knowing that you and i and i like how you described that have fun talk about people, you make that one sound that you make that one sound the best, don’t you? Well, don’t you want to be an eye? Because bias coming out now i wantto i like them all i want all okay, so it’s hard for me to make it going. Yes, of course i do. I don’t say a gn s okay. S is looking for security. So you you really need to slow down your presentation and build trust. Give them the facts that they need. Make sure you bring written material and refer to it during a presentation. You know, if you came. To me, and brought me a ton of written material, i would probably just gloss over. I would just want to hear all about the programming. Who else is involved, and the impact on people. Bring me a bunch of stats and reports. I just stickley’s right over, but i want that, okay, let me ask you about the steady before we go on. If, since they’re interested in long term stability, would a brand new project maybe not be the right thing to be soliciting them for supporting? I think if you’re talking about it and couching it in the way of continuing the long term sustainability of the organization overall on making sure that you are really showing sincerity and listening carefully to what they’re asking for and again sharing the benefits that minimize risk, they’re not risk takers. So if they find out a new programme is going to be too risky to the overall stability of the organization, then yeah, that could that could be an issue that could be something that you need to be prepared an objection you be need to be prepared to overcome. Excellent. Very good advice. Right. Okay, what we got for the cautious country interests? Okay, so for this he’s, they’re all about the data, right? So they do want the reports. They do want the numbers. Um, if you can use any kind of flyers with data if you have outcome measurements say it’s an extension of a program that’s that’s already taken place. They do want to hear about all of that type of data. You’re not talking to them on a real personal level, you know, they’re much more business focused, pragmatic on dh. Ah, you want to provide options for them as well, you know, so you need to be prepared to provide options, especially, you know, with the numbers. Okay, excellent. Anything else you wanna tell us about this disc assessment? You know, really? Just, you know, they’re just understand what types of questions maybe to draw out, um, you know what their style would be so trying to, you know, figure out where they might fall. So before you get that, ask as you’re having some additional conversations with them, either over the phone or in person, you know, asked them questions to try and determine. Well, it’s this person going to be somebody that i really need to make sure i’ve got all my facts and figures, or is there someone that’s really going to be much more interested in? Who else is a major donor and at what levels air they donating? And, you know, i want to be in at that level two, just another tool in the arsenal as you prepare teo to meet with potential donors. Absolutely. Um, let’s. See hyre just a couple of minutes left last week. My guest was denny elliot and she’s. A professor. Of ethics and journalism at the university of south florida and one of the ports that one of things we talked about was part something from her book the ethics of asking she has a chapter about language around fund-raising and we she and i talked about this. Her concern is the word prospect sort of objectifies people dehumanizes them and makes it easier for fundraisers, too, treat them in ways that might not be ethical and so that’s, you know, so her preferred frays is a potential donor. So i was wondering if you, if you have ever encountered that any objection to using mean prospect research is what you do and that’s a very widely known phrase, have you ever run into this before? Yeah, you know, and in fact, tony, when i’m doing live presentations on the topic of donor of prospect research, i will very often interchange saying donorsearch research on dh, what was the phrase that she preferred to use potential donor was her potential donor? Um, so when when i’m going through my training’s with other fundraisers, air with boards, i’ll talk about the person as a potential donor, actually the language i’d like. Even better than potential donor is investor okay, so i think that when you’re talking at that level and you’re talking about major gifts, these people are making an investment in the organization, so i will usually counsel my clients and their boards. Tio start incorporating the language of investment. I’ve got to ask you for your sixty second style. Stop what’s your advice on what what’s your style suggestion. Okay, so my style suggestion eyes all about shopping local we’re coming up on a big shopping holiday season on american express actually has a pretty neat initiative, so if you happen to be an american express card holder, there’s something called small business saturday, right, and so it’s the day after ah black friday on dh so this year, it’s on november thirtieth and so there if your card holder, if you go to american express’s web site that they have set up for a small business saturday and you register your card, and then if you spend at least ten dollars or more at one of these participating business small business location, they’ll actually give you a ten dollars one time credit on your statement, so encouragement to shop small shop, local that’s my my style tip for, uh, for this holiday season. Everything’s getting names way of thanksgiving that we have black friday your small business saturday, nobody’s claimed sunday there’s technology tech monday and now there’s ah e-giving e-giving tuesday, which we’ve had a short e-giving you don’t know how long? How much longer is this going going tio into general? Maybe you know what? Maybe we need to come up with something fun for sunday. I don’t know non-profit radio sunday we got to sell it, we got it and they’re simple sunday simple sunday maria sample sunday. Maria semple is the prospect finder. Her sight is the prospect finder dot com. And on twitter she’s at marie a simple thank you very much, maria. Happy thanksgiving and to you too. Thank you. Thank you very much next week there’s no show happy thanksgiving from everybody at non-profit radio. But on december sixth, brandraise to fundraise. 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Beware The Self-Serving “Objective” Report

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These things are in every profession, not at all unique to nonprofit fundraising. The seemingly objective research or report or white paper that advocates a course of action. You’ve got to ask who wrote it and what they have to gain if you adopt their suggestions.

The most recent that I’ve seen is from WealthEngine, which makes money when nonprofits (and companies) hire them to do prospect screenings. In simple terms, that’s a comparison of your constituents with a company’s proprietary database that measures wealth and income. You use the result to determine who your best fundraising prospects are for different types and amounts of gifts.

Prospect screening is part of prospect research, work that I very much respect and have written about.

WealthEngine emailed me a press release announcing their report on best practices in arts and culture fundraising. It suggests those institutions should devote at least 25% of staff time to prospect research. Here’s a quote from the press release:

Unlike hospitals’ grateful patient programs and universities’ alumni and parent screening processes, many arts organizations seem to overlook the value of systematic prospect research, relying instead upon less consistent means to fundraising like tapping board members or others closely associated with their mission. In fact, two-thirds of the survey respondents indicated that less than 25% of staff time is spent on prospect research.

That 25% figure really bothers me. These are the hardest hit nonprofits in the recession, and the most struggling even in good times. To suggest they should be spending 25% of their staff time on prospect research is to dangle a carrot they cannot reach. The biggest institutions like major dance and opera companies and world-class museums? Frankly, it’s a stretch for them, too. But they’re outliers in the arts and culture space. In the arts, the vast majority are small companies struggling to keep the lights on, get the next show up, meet salary and keep the theater rent paid.

It’s cruel to prompt a resource allocation that’s grossly unattainable to most of the sector.

I see its purpose as selling their wealth screening service. The more time a charity devotes to prospect research, the more likely it is to buy a wealth screening. Both are valuable enterprises. And there are precious few nonprofits of any size that can devote “25% of staff time” to these activities. There’s a good reason that two-thirds of the survey respondents spend less than that on prospect research. That’s all they can afford and that’s all these worthwhile allocations deserve.

I have not read the report. The press release was sufficiently annoying. I tried to get a copy, but I object to the demand for far too much information. To download a report like this, I think the publisher is entitled to name and email. WealthEngine wants address, phone number and annual contribution level. All are required fields on a non-secure site. But that’s an aside.

Know who writes these advocacy research reports and think about why.