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Hyre welcome to tony martignetti non-profit radio big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent, i’m your aptly named host. Tony martignetti what a coincidence that i found this show, i hope you recall last week it was ethics our with professor doug white dogs, the author of the non-profit challenge, and we talked about ethics and the role of non-profits in our culture this week, save your office from a sexism seen policies you need in place to protect your non-profit hr consultant karen bradunas comes back to the show and explains what you need now to protect later your organization, you’re bored and you employees in case of a sexism or sexual harassment situation and punch up your planned giving newsletter from savvy story style to picking perfect pictures. Claire meyerhoff comes back to the show she’s, the editorial director of the plant e-giving company, and she shares her secrets to getyour planned giving newsletters read by donors and prospects this week on tony’s take two at thirty two minutes after the hour. I’ll talk about my tv and other radio appearances in florida this week and give you a little glimpse of what is coming up. That’s all this week, this show, tony martignetti non-profit radio we now take a two minute break. You, khun, stand by for that. Stay with me. They didn’t think the tooting getting ding, ding, ding, ding, you’re listening to the talking alternate network duitz get in. Nothing. You could. Is your marriage in trouble? Are you considering divorce? Hello, i’m lawrence bloom, a family law attorney in new york and new jersey. No one is happier than the day their divorce is final. My firm can help you. We take the nasty out of the divorce process and make people happy. Police call a set to one, two, nine six four three five zero two for a free consultation. That’s lawrence h bloom two, one two, nine, six, four, three five zero two. We make people happy. Are you suffering from aches and pains? Has traditional medicine let you down? Are you tired of taking toxic medications, then come to the double diamond wellness center and learn how our natural methods can help you to hell? Call us now at to one to seven to one eight, one eight three that’s to one to seven to one eight one eight three or find us on the web at www dot double diamond wellness dot com. We look forward to serving you. 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 welcome back to tony martignetti non-profit radio i’m joined now by karen bradunas, and we’re going to be talking about saving your office from a sexism scene. The policies you need in place to protect your non-profit and your employees. Karen is a human resources consultant working with startup organizations to protect and grow their business. Her consulting business is karen m bradunas human resource is consulting. She has over twenty years experience in human resource is before consulting, she held officer position’s at gulf insurance and bankers trust with which is now deutsche bank. And she holds the designation nufer senior professional in human resource is s p h r or sierra papa hotel romeo. If you’re in the military sierra papa hotel romeo, that is a senior professional human resources, and i’m very glad that her expertise brings her back to the show. Welcome back, karen. Good to be here. Thanks very much. Glad to have you. I have a big interest in sexism lately and sex harassment issues because of a block post that i did originally in november and then just a few weeks ago, sort of confirming what i asked in november does workplace sexism exist and i got resounding yes comments, mostly from women. So i was a little embarrassed that i even bothered to ask the question initially, what are the risks? Too small and midsize non-profits around sexism and sexual harassment, the risk is huge, there’s different kinds of harassment. There is targeted harassment, which is where it is. An individual or a group of individuals has a specific person that they’re not treating equally. Tough guy targeted. If someone sues your organization for targeted harassment, it can shut down your business. And how is that? Well, there’s damage is that that you will end up paying if they can prove it and they’re good, they go through lawsuit. I don’t know the limits, but it’s significant, this is under federal law is where the lawsuit would come from or state law. Well, both both. But harassment has looked at pretty stringently. It’s a part of title seven, which is, you know, ingrained in our culture in title seven. Just tell listeners what that is. We have jargon, jail, remember so okay. Title seven. It was started for race discrimination, but all kinds of discrimination is included in title seven and most recently, gina, which is genetic information. So all of this harassment really stems from title seven, which has been around a while, okay. And gina, what is jenna? Stand for genetic information. Think it’s notification act which president bush signed, signed in enacted and now something’s air taking place where you can’t discriminate, especially for insurance companies based on genetic information. Okay, so if you have a predisposition for certain illness, you can’t be discriminated against, etcetera. So this is title seven of what? The employment law. Internal revenue code. The internal revenue code. Okay. All right. So the sewol but let’s, take it a step further is just makes good business sense. If if you have a mission that’s important. Can you really say that on ly? A certain sector of the population can help you with your mission. It doesn’t make sense to exclude any kind of person based on race, genetic information, sexual orientation, any of that or including sex or gender. Exactly. And so if there are risks, who where does the risk lies it with board members? Is it with the corporation? The non-profit? Where is the risk it’s been broadened? Buy-in especially the serbians. Actually, it rests with even the management level if i’m a manager at an organization and ice and employee comes to me and says so, and so when it could be a vendor, could be this just isn’t employees harassment can involve vendors consultant’s also, and they come to a manager and reported that manager is obligated to either go to someone who can investigate it or investigated themselves if they’re trained to do so. All right, now you mentioned sarbanes actually does. Does that apply to non-profits, though? Or we strictly talking about title seven for non-profit i think there are some aspects of sarbanes oxley that applied all businesses. Okay, including, you think the discrimination? Yeah, i don’t know if it goes as deepest discrimination testing, but there is the idea of accountability and and the underlying responsibility and needing toe audit. And the idea of harassment in the workplace is considered a significant piece of auditing. Okay, and at the very least, title seven still applies. So so your point is the manager has a potential liability. Absolutely. Who else within the organization, including maybe the organization itself, the organization it’s, our board members boardmember sze management. Hr clearly, and you typically can’t even get employment practices liability insurance, which organizations should have unless you have a policy manual with how to report it listed in detail. Okay, we’re going to get into what those things are that we should have in place. And you just mentioned to insurance and employment practices manual ah, so in terms of these these liabilities, can they be individual? So in other words, what i mean is, can an administrator or a boardmember be liable as an individual? I have, and i don’t know the court precedent on this that have to do for an attorney, but i my understanding, is as hr. I can have personal liability. I’ve had two in the past. Fire a client because of some issues around this has put my business in jeopardy. Okay, well, i would think that if if the hr administrator manager has individual liability than most likely other other managers in the company and again, you know, i keep hitting the board members, but we often forget about boardmember. But they are absolutely fiduciaries to the to the organization, and they have a legal duty to make sure that office is in the organization generally is operating legally within title seven and possibly star beings. Actually, okay, we’re going to take a break. And then after that break, we will continue with karen. And we’ll start to talk about some of the details of what your organization needs. Tto have in place, and we’ll also talk about what the role of human resource is. Office is. After this break, stay with me. Talking alternative radio twenty four hours a day. Are you feeling overwhelmed in the current chaos of our changing times? A deeper understanding of authentic astrology can uncover solutions in every area of life. After all, metaphysics is just quantum physics politically expressed. I am montgomery taylor, and i offer lectures, seminars and private consultations. For more information, contact me at monte m o nt y at r l j media. Dot com 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. I really need to take better care of myself if only i had someone to help me with my lifestyle. I feel like giving up hyre is this you mind over matter, health and fitness can help. If you’re expecting an epiphany, chances are it’s not happening. Mind over matter, health and fitness could help you get back on track or start a new life and fitness. Join Joshua margolis, fitness expert at 2 one two eight six five nine two nine. Zero or visit w w w died. Mind over matter. Y si dot com. Yeah, you’re listening to the talking alternative network. Duitz durney welcome back. My guest is karen bradunas, and we’re talking about saving your office from sexism scene. Karen. What is the role of human resource is if there is ah ah, complaint. Human resource is is responsible to investigate the complaint. Human resource is may not be the only avenue in depending on the size of the organization. You may not have a formal hr department many dahna right? It doesn’t make sense to have one into your certain size, but that function needs an individual doing that really needs to understand that there is really a huge risk, especially when a complaint comes in if you choose to ignore it not only from the sense of a lawsuit, but just in the sense of productivity, because that really sends a strong message to staff that complaints go unheard. Yeah, that they’re not working in a safe workplace is not a safe environment it’s harmful on when i write policy manuals for organizations, i really stress that you need to have in the policy manual detailed information off what the process is like and to whom the individual should go, too, and i suggest that you have two avenues either their manager or h r if there is no hr that they can go directly to the board or the executive director, but there needs to be two avenues. If i’m uncomfortable going to my manager to discuss this, i need another place to go. Okay, so let’s, get that, then this is the first obligation that a non-profit has tohave unemploy eee practices manual in place. And what else should it should that manual talk about in terms of sexual harassment? Sexism in the workplace? Depending on the organization, you can go into detail of what sexual harassment means actually define in the mind and touching. And you, khun yeah, you can go into e-giving examples others just state what the law is and then say, if you feel you’ve been a victim of harassment, thes air the steps to take. I also encourage organizations to including there that if you don’t notify us of the harassment, there’s, nothing we can do. And i understand that because there are times that something may be going on, that people don’t know the detail of what it is. Yeah, what if what if it’s just rumors? You know, there are a lot of people talking at the water coolers about ah, woman who’s suffering something at the hands of maybe another woman or or a man or a vendor, but or event right you mentioned didn’t mention it before, too. And but suppose there isn’t a formal complaint that just there’s just rumors around. Everybody hears it, but nobody the woman who’s suffering this has not come forward formally. What happens then? I encourage who’s ever doing the hr function. Whoever has a relationship with that that individual it’s a it’s a woman that they approached her one because you want to make sure that you’re sending a message. Hey, we care if something’s going on we want you to be aware that this is being said. You don’t really want it work environment where rumors the running around about people it’s not a safe environment, it’s not safe and it’s not productive. Exactly. And so, just with a little detail, how would someone do that? Suppose it is an executive director that there is no hr there’s no hr manager, right? How would an executive director approach that person about whom the rumors are swirling and she may very well know that the rumors just being talked about but irrespective of that, how does how do you make that approach? And had that meeting i would apart someone by saying, you know, i’d like to meet with you. Go off somewhere. Not in front of everyone behind closed doors and say, look, i’m hearing scuttlebutt about a situation and this is what i’m hearing i want to make you aware of it one to find out if it’s true toe let you know if it is true, this is serious stuff. This is not behavior we approve of here, and i want to get your take on this. Is this really going on? If the individual doesn’t want to share it, i ous an h r professional would wantto sort of see what’s going on in the office, and i might if the scuttlebutt is affecting. A lot of staff members call people and say, why are you saying that? So you’re actually doing the investigation, even if the person says i don’t want to talk about if it’s affecting productivity? Yeah, if it’s going to, you know, give people a bad name, you know, if it’s going to be, you know, a slander, i want to address it and i’m you know, depending on how much the scuttlebutt is if it’s one individual and you talk to the woman in this case who is being named as thie victim sometimes if she’s sharing with one individual that will stop it if he doesn’t want any to go further. But if it’s already spread throughout the office, it’s not a safe environment if it’s if it’s a false claim, then you have an issue with an employee being bad. Muffed you don’t want that either, right? All right. Yeah. That’s. That’s. Very possible to it, you know. Well, we’re talking about rumors on in our hypothetical the woman who’s. Supposedly the victim doesn’t want teo make a formal claim. Maybe there isn’t anything going on. Maybe that’s. Why she doesn’t want to. But your point, then somebody’s being talked about badly a za potential, the perpetrator. Now, what you just mentioned is what if it’s not happening? If it’s not happening in someone is starting this rumor or making a false claim, i recommend to two employers to start to terminate the employee that’s making these false claims. Because, again, it’s a nun safe environment where someone can falsely accuse someone else of doing something. Okay? And you think termination is appropriate? Yeah, yeah. I mean, if you’ve got an office where someone’s being spoken against and you, you start an investigation that individuals going to know it, no matter how, especially a smaller office, no matter how discreet you are. It’s uncomfortable? Do you really want? Do you really want someone who lies to be in your office? You know, i mean that’s the bottom line right now, it’s someone you don’t drop, and if you go through this and you let them stay or don’t discipline them, at least in some fashion, you’re essentially saying it’s, okay and it’s not right, you are, and this is all this all goes back to protecting the organization, so even even if the again and our hypothetical the woman is a victim, even if she doesn’t want to make a claim, you still the executive director. However, has this hr function roll still has an obligation to protect the organization and whether or not they make the claim. If something happens, the organization is going to suffer even if it’s just bad publicity employees who leave because they don’t like the work environment, talk about the organization to other people, so word on the street is going to get out. Anyways, i’m with karen bradunas hr consultant, and we’re talking about protecting your office from a sexism seen potential sexual harassment claims or or or sexism in the office. So karen, besides thea employee manual and if we have time, maybe we’ll come back to some of the details that should be in emmanuelle, but we’ve touched on them somewhat. What else doesn’t organization need to have in place? There’s some insurance that they should have? What kind of insurance is for some organizations, directors in officers at which may or may not apply here, but employment practices, liability insurance they should have, and that is protects an organization from things such as this, and you can talk to a broker about it. They’re specialized brokers in this area that’s that specialized in it and there’s certain, you know, claims it’s very specialized insurance. You cannot typically get it without having an employee manual in place. Yeah, just cassette. You mentioned that earlier because they won’t underwrite it is because without emmanuel, they don’t know what you’re doing. So how do you want to underwrite something where we don’t know what your employment practices are? You can’t even assess the risks that can assess a premium, and so they can do right now would insurance company of that type that has that employment practices, liability insurance typically help the organization constructed non-profit i mean construct the employee manual, or would they have a template, or would you not expect that? I have not seen them have it. There may be some out there that do. You can get boilerplate manuals from some accountants, have them. I don’t know if they’re they’re the most current, and certainly attorneys have them. I work with organizations who want to customize it and the ones you get from attorneys are oftentimes legalese, and often organizations say that doesn’t really feel like our organization, so we’ll customize it because it is part of the orientation process. Emmanuel sort of gets an employee to get a sense of what the organization is like, and in some cases i will write managers manuals based on the employee manual. Well, that’s interesting. So that’s that’s something else that should be in place? Well, it doesn’t have to be in place. And but if you haven’t organization where you want to ensure that there’s consistency for all managers, you’d like a document for them to refer to so that they know they have the policy manual. They know what the policy is, but how do they enforce it? You know, do they have forms they have to use for corrective disciplinary action? Is there a template? We are these forms. How do you do this? You know where things do? Sort of a guidebook for managers i create that it cuts down on training time, and it also ensures some consistency across the organization. Okay, so sort of. Does it also, that manager’s manual includes sort of interpretation. Of the policy and as well as you’re describing the process for carrying out the policies in the employee manual, so it’ll typically say, here’s, the policy, you know, way, expect you to be on time, i’ll give, you know, we expect you to be on time, so it will say in the manager’s manual employees, you know, if an employee’s consistently late, fifteen minutes or more for x number of days, they really should have a verbal warning or a written warning, and it goes through that steps just to make sure that, you know, you don’t have one man, and you’re putting someone on written warning for one, you know, one minute after the hour and another, you know, never yeah, okay, consistency, fairness and of course, that would relate to claims of sexual harassment is, well, exactly and the more consistent in the more you follow your policy manual and and understand when someone is claiming harassment suit, they’re going into court with that manual it’s a legal document. Oh, talk a little about that thie employee manual is the manual that goes to court that talks about how you do what you do with your organization. So if an employee is suing you because you’re not, you’re not treating them the same as everyone else that’s what they’re going to court with, not what you said, although that that is part of it, but what the legal document is. You know when when an employee says, i got fired for poor performance and they say, but here all my performance reviews the all salmon excellent employee there’s, a disconnect so saying between the practice and the manual, the mexican so i mean, i sent an email that i was being harassed by this person, i here’s the manual that says that they will investigate it, and i’ll get back to me. Nobody got back to me, it was never investigated. I also have a friend who complained about the same individual. I mean, it could become then a class action. Okay, so should these manuals. So we’re talking about the employment practices manual and maybe the manager’s manual. Those should be approved by the board, then a lot of boards do look at them, yeah. When i’m working with organizations, i typically work with executive director level and maybe the top manager level and then it’s given to the board for approval. Okay? Because as you said, it could end up as evidence in court. All right, um, all right. So the manuals, the employment practices, liability insurance, um, what about training around these? Is that is that an element of, yeah, you have to get included. You have to do sexual harassment, avoidance, training, not sexual harassment training, like most people say. And that should be done at least annually, and that is for all employees, all employees, and you need them to sign a document that they went. And what are the elements of that training is to talk about what sexual harassment is is to talk about if you are, if you feel you’re a victim of sexual harassment, what to do in the process so that everyone knows and everyone has a heightened awareness of it. Now, some people call it diversity training as well, you know, and they’ll encompass in in diversity training, depending on the organization, how they feel about using the term sexual harassment avoidance, but it does need to happen. I’ve heard some anecdotal stories of organisations that have had their hr person give the training, and typically the person who was making fun during the meaning is the perpetrator. What that shouldn’t even be tolerated. I mean, if we’re in a meeting to talk about sexual arrested avoidance and people are making off color jokes. It’s difficult when it’s executive director, though ditigal director making the jokes? I mean, yeah, you’ve seen that i’ve heard it secondhand, i wasn’t there because if i was there wouldn’t have been what would you do in that? Okay, so if you were the hr consultant, i’m gonna put you on spot. You’re the hr consultant in an organization. You’re doing sexual harassment, training your annual training. And the executive director of the organization is making some kind of off color jokes about women. What would you do in that case? I would first state. Look, this is really serious. And do you understand the implications to this organization? You’re doing this? I’m sorry. In the meeting, right in the meandering in a public. Okay, you’re stopping the meeting. Okay, go ahead. And because if if it’s important teo to really set the tone that hey hr takes this seriously, people need to know they can come to work and be safe, and so i will address it that way. And if that doesn’t, that doesn’t stop all has the person to come out. And if that person i know of is suspected of doing things, i may directly talk to them about it and say you’re you may be an offender of this. This is a big deal, you know? Yeah, that includes we’re talking about the executive director. Anybody, anybody, because the because the risk runs to the organization right now, your job is to protect the organization, the person who has the hr role, their job is to protect the organization, right, not the executive director, right? And that means if you’re not going to talk to me about it, i’m going to have to fire you as a client and notify the chairman of the board. I understand, okay, we have just we have just a minute left, first serious stuff. Dahna what about what about orientation for new employees? Can you say something about that in just a minute or so? The policy manual is in a really important part of orientation, because you’re telling everyone these are the rules we play by as an organization and that’s. Why you want your manual to really reflect who you are and what you’re doing, and to be written in a way that reflects your culture. They need to feel that it’s a it’s, a tool that they can use to go to. I suggest that people, when they give orientations, that they also have time to meet with various departments, we have to leave it there. Karen. Very good advice. Karen m bradunas human resource is consulting is her company. Her name is karen bradunas, and she is in hr consultant, and the subject has been sexism and sexual harassment in the workplace. Karen, thank you very much for coming back to studio. Thank you, it’s ah, thirty minutes after, and we’re going to take about a two minute break, and when we return, it’s tony’s, take two, and then my guest, claire meyerhoff, talking about punching up your plan giving newsletter after this break. You’re listening to the talking alternative network. This is tony martignetti aptly named host of tony martignetti non-profit radio big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent technology fund-raising compliance social media, small and medium non-profits have needs in all these areas. My guests are expert in all these areas and mohr. Tony martignetti non-profit radio friday’s one to two eastern on talking alternative broadcasting do you want to enhance your company’s web presence with an eye catching and unique website design? Would you like to incorporate professional video marketing mobile marketing into your organization’s marketing campaign? Mission one on one media offers a unique marketing experience that will set you apart from your competitors, magnify your brand exposure and in cancer current marketing efforts. Their services include video production and editing, web design, graphic design photography, social media management and now introducing mobile marketing. Their motto is we do whatever it takes to make our clients happy contact them today. Admission one one media dot com 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 no. Durney durney welcome back to tony martignetti non-profit radio it’s thirty two minutes after the hour, which means it’s time for tony’s take two. I do a lot of speaking in training, and i can speak at your conference or train your office fundraisers on either planned giving or charity registration compliance. This week alone, i was at the association of fund-raising professionals in western massachusetts talking about demystifying planned, demystifying charity registration for them. Then i talked about planned giving on the michael chapman e-giving show, which is a radio show down in south beach, miami, florida, and then i did more planned e-giving talking on ah tv show in naples, florida wall street wrap up this coming week are the in the coming weeks, i’m going to be a women in development at mercer in mercer county, new jersey, that’s on january twenty six he mystifying planned giving for them. And then on february third, i’m keynote dinner speaker at a meeting on staten island in new york, so i’ve been busy and keeping busy, and if you’d like me to talk about joining your meeting or conference, then you can email me from my blogged, which is mpg. A dv dot com and that is tony’s take do for friday, january twenty first. Sam, do we have claire meyerhoff on the phone? We do. Ok, i’m joined now. Bye, claire meyerhoff. We’re going to be talking about punching up your plans. E-giving newsletter from savvy story style to picking perfect pictures. Claire is the editorial director of the plant e-giving company and she’s here to share secrets to get your plan giving newsletters red as i said she’s, editorial director for the plan giving company that company produces magazine style newsletters for major nonprofit organizations. So there’s there’s our ah there’s, our mission big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent. She’s also the creative producer for this show. And i’m very glad that her expertise brings her back to the show. Welcome back, claire. Hey, tony. Thanks for having me. It’s. A pleasure. What’s the what’s. The problem with planned giving newsletters. How come a lot of them go on red? Well, there are some problems with plan giving news letters, but there’s some good news that i just heard about planned giving newsletters. And this was an anecdotal bit of information i was recently talking. To a colleague. And he said that he had gone to visit a perspective. Donorsearch had known for a long time, and, uh, donor. Information in there his his own financial information. But he also had the last ten or so letters from his institution. That’s great that he had saved. And he had them all neatly in that folder. And i just heard that about a month ago and that it’s really kind of changed the way that i think about plan giving news letters in a way. And what it makes me think is that we need to give people something that they’re willing to save. Yeah, i think that’s a big win that that story is a home run. If people will save those for when they go to their estate planning attorney to revise their will or prepare their will. And they have a stack of these that’s that’s a home run, i think for the organization because that person has there has the organization in mind when they go to revise or prepare prepare their first will that’s true and so often we like to just, you know, do stories or write little nice things and that’s what we’re so focused on, but at the end of the day, it really is the planned e-giving content that the person that’s the reason that they saved the newsletter so i think that the key is really combining really cool, neat stuff donor xero nasty things, but also keep in mind that you need to provide some of that really content like a little, you know, give annuity rate chart and definitely your request language and those kind of things, okay? And we’re going to get into your tips just though who’s, the who’s, the audience for planned giving newsletters who are we writing for? Well, you have to think about your audience so that’s different whichever organization your four and you have to know your donors it’s just like anything else. So if you’re the plan getting person or the development person or even the executive director or communications director of your organization, you have to be thinking about who was getting this newsletter at my organization. So you know who that person is, who you’re sending it to? You might want to do a targeted plan giving news letter maybe your donors that are a little bit older, you’re adjust your boiled donors, people that e-giving consistently for ten or fifteen years at the plant giving company sam caldwell. Who’s been, you know, with the company, he started the company a long time ago, and he says that it’s, your loyal donors that are your best plan e-giving prospects, not necessarily your high end donors, it’s your people that have been given consistently, even fifty dollars, a year for more than twelve or fifteen years, that it’s those people that are most likely to do plan about those people in that audience that writing i’m always stressing that in seminars that the best plan giving prospects of those who are consistent long term donors and exactly as you said, ignoring the size of those gif ts but if somebody’s been giving for, say, eighteen of the past twenty years on and some of the non-profits that i work with have been around for much longer than that, so maybe twenty seven or twenty, twenty five or twenty seven of the past thirty years, even if it’s just ten or fifteen dollars a year, they’re always planning for you, and that makes him a terrific plan. Give prospect, right? It shows a couple of things. It shows one that they love your organization and they continue to care about your mission. But to that there is a certain kind of a person that they’re organized. They do, they do the same things every single year there were probably more organized people, which means they’re more likely tohave a will or teo be really interested in there, you know, financial planning. And they’re so organized that every time a plane giving newsletter comes, they put it in their file, right? So let’s, let’s think that that’s our typical persons were writing for all right? So let’s talk about some of your tips for punching up plan giving newsletters whatyou want start with. Well, i’d like to start with the stories. So it’s something i call the savvy story style instead of doing your typical donor profile where you you know, you know what we call gushing gushing flattery where you just say, oh, they’re on the board of this and there’s ahead of this, and they love this, and they’re so wonderful in the community. Forget all that we assumed that that’s who this person is find that riel nugget of information, the real reason that they give to the organization and that might just be a little, you know, funny. Little story. And then what? Something that you could do is instead of doing the paragraph format, try something else. Think about the magazines that you read and how you see interviews with people. The ones you read and say a celebrity magazine where it’s, like, you know, five questions for nicole kidman? Yes, a lot of the mark q and a format, right? Yeah, q and a format and that’s more fun to do. It’s easy to do and think about this it’s. Easier for the donor you don’t have to, like, take up all of the donors time like getting all this information you just get, you know, a few questions and get the answer to that. And it could be more fun and it’s so much more readable for your audience. Okay, okay. What else do you have for us? Well, the key to the the question style is in that last questions. Say your first questions were like, how did you get involved in the organization and what’s your favorite thing about the organization and what’s? The best thing that we do or something like that? Your last question should always b what would you hope? To see the future for our organization. How do you hope? What do you hope to see habitat for humanity doing in the future? And that gives the person the chance to say what they dream about the future for your organization. And then you tie it into the plan. All right? You can say that leads naturally to the the planned gift, which is almost always cash to the organization in the future. Right? So the answer might be. I’d love to see us double the number of houses we build and that’s. One reason i decided to put habitat for humanity in my will. And then after that that’s, where you you anchor your interview, the interviews, you know, on the top and it looks nice it’s all laid out well. And then you skip a couple of spaces and you anchor it with that. You know that hard information that you want people tohave the call to action. If you would like to put us in your will, here’s, how you do it, it’s really easy, here’s our request language. And then you also want to encourage the person to get in touch with you. The development. Director of the plan e-giving director. Because what’s. So important. So you give them a reason to call. So you give them the outright bequest language in the article, and then you encourage them to call or email for alternative language, like a fraction of the estates, residual or any other reason you can think of to actually call or email you now, let’s, define a few of these. Now, you know we have jargon jail on tony martignetti non-profit radio. So let’s, just go in a little detail now. The outright request. What do you mean by that? Well and outright. Seaquest is i be quick to the university. A gift of ten thousand dollars. Okay. And you mentioned you contrast that with the residual bequest. A residual request is you could. You could, after you have made provision for everyone in your family and your friends and your, you know, dogs there. Then you can leave the residual a percentage of the residuals. So you could say i leave ten percent of the residual of my estate. Or you could leave the entire residual of yours, right? And the residual is what’s left after the after taxes and the death expenses and all the outright requests have been paid. Okay? Expert tony. Well, you’re on probation from jargon jail. Careful, careful. And walking a fine line. Um ok. What about what about pictures? You have some advice about making those pictures? Mohr interesting, yet the photos they’re definitely the sticking point. When you’re putting together a plan giving news letter often it’s an afterthought, you have this great story. You have it in there and at the end you only knew the future of the donor. And then you might call the donor and they send you some really lame snapshot that’s not high resolution. And when you do things in print, you should really have his high resolution photographs possible. So to stay out of jargon jail high resolution is the number of pixels and that’s pretty much the image that comes straight out of your digital camera onto your computer before you compress it stayed to put on the webber sent to your friend in an email. So it’s more of that original big photograph for your work with that’s. Important is to get a nice, clear photo. So if you don’t have that great photo your best case scenario would be that when someone went on a habitat for build a habitat for humanity, build their nephew who’s, an art student came along and took pictures for his portfolio and he has some. Then you can use that in your newsletter. Give him a credit that that’s your slam dunk that’s. The best thing possible is casual and the daughter has no great photograph. This is a good opportunity to actually spend some face time with that wonderful person that left you. It left your organisation in their will, so use this opportunity. Hey, you know i need to take a picture of feature. You would love to have a great photograph. Can i come over? Can i come over with our young staff member who’s a great photographer and spend a little time with them? So that’s that’s something to really think about that that’s an opportunity as opposed to something that’s. A problem that’s like, oh, we don’t have a photograph. What a pain in the neck and what i find a lot with people and organizations is things like photography writing for the web. People treat these things like a chore because it’s not what they do and they think it’s complicated, so i would advise people to really get those skills. If you’re not a great photographer, take a little class. Ask a friend who’s, the photographer, you know by a little bit better camera if your organization doesn’t have one and make that effort because you could do so much with photograph, you can with photographs, you can take a picture and and and send it as a thank you note to someone. Take that photo printed out. Put it in a card, write a thank you note so you could do a lot with photograph, but for your organization for this newsletter, you really want that good photographs have a couple of tips about taking photographs if you get to the donor’s house and one of them is, you know, get us close as you can to the subject don’t stand way, way back it get closer up, have them actually do something. So if your habitat for humanity have the person stand there with a hammer there just holding the hammer. That’s a cool photo it’s not fake because you know they’re they’re standing in their front yard. With a hammer haven’t have some have some sort of a proper doing something. And then, like i said, get close up and make sure the light is right on them. The light should be right on their face and their eyes that’s the main thing, if you get that right, you’re in good shape, and then my last tip is shoot from above. So if if you’re shorter than your subject, hold your camera up hyre and tilt down a little bit and you can see it in the viewfinder and that is a much more flattering way to take a photo. Just trust me on this it’s really most flattering way to take a photograph of someone okay? Or that the little short version of the you know how to take a picture, okay? And even if if you’re shorter, you stand up on a little stepladder or chair or something. Exactly stand about a little a little stepladder or something like that. Ok, we have just a minute before a break. Claire, can you get another tip in the next minute? I can nappy nasty headlines. Very important. That’s, that’s a really waste of newsletter. Really? State are dull headlines like donor-centric we have to be careful about our criminal code here can’t expand the criminal code the way the way some some people might like. Teo, i’m not sure that that qualifies, but tell us tell us what the trouble is with dahna profile. All right, all right, parole probably don’t profile it’s generic it’s like sitting down to watch the television show thirty rock and an announcer comes on and says, comedy television show that’s inside jargon that we use, we’ll say, hey, tony, what we’re going to her donor profile this month, that shorthand it’s, not it’s, not a headline. Find something about the interview and put that in the headline. Okay, we’re going to take a three minute break. My guest is clear, meyerhoff and we’re talking about punching up your plan giving newsletter three minute break. You can sit through a three minute break, come on at the end of that it’s clear meyerhoff. Of course, you can sit through it, stay with us, talking alternative radio twenty four hours a day. 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. Dahna i really need to take better care of myself. If only i had someone to help me with my lifestyle. I feel like giving up. Is this you mind over matter, health and fitness can help. If you’re expecting an epiphany, chances are it’s not happening. Mind over matter, health and fitness could help you get back on track or start a new life and fitness. Join Joshua margolis, fitness expert at 2 one two eight six five nine to nine xero. Or visit w w w died. Mind over matter. Y si dot com. Do you want to enhance your company’s web presence with an eye catching and unique website design? Would you like to incorporate professional video marketing mobile marketing into your organization’s marketing campaign? Mission one on one media offers a unique marketing experience that will set you apart from your competitors, magnify your brand exposure and enhance your current marketing effort. Their services include video production and editing, web design, graphic design photography, social media management and now introducing mobile marketing. Their motto is. We do whatever it takes to make our clients happy. Contact them today. Admission one one media dot com. Talking calm. Welcome back. I’m with claire meyerhoff as i promised. I told you she’d come back clear. You’re still there. Right? Okay, what else do you have for us? Punching up our plan giving newsletters? We want donors to actually read these things. How do we do it? Well, we make it more like the things that they’re used to reading instead of things that look like a church newsletter fifties so that a key point is that what our people reading these days, what air they used to looking at more and more people are online, even your older donors, they’re online, they’re reading, you know, punching nifty things online so they’re used to reading huffington post or use a today online? Uh, there used to more punchy writing, punchy layout. Just let just a different look than this old fashioned sort of newsletter looks really think about your style of your newsletter. Try to get more white space in their remaining believe more space around things you don’t have to crowded with content and that’s usually a challenge because we do have a lot of great things to tell people, right? We want to get it all in there. So try as best you can to leave more white today so much more attention to your layout when you’re flipping through a magazine. Your favorite, you know, magazine that you’d like to read on your off time, and you see a layout that looks good, rip it out and think, well, why do i like that? And then try to duplicate that in your plan e-giving newsletter is not hard to think about that a little bit more wood. One element of that bee keeping this short stories the articles to a certain length yeah, i think there’s no specific the word count. Okay, article more about how it looks and what you’re trying trying to get across but definitely keep your articles to, you know, a couple of hundred words or less. You can say a lot in fifty words, believe it or not photos tell a great story. What for? The idea that you’re trying to get across plant giving is very, very simple, really. It’s it’s just about leaving a legacy, leaving this this gift for the organization it’s something that comes from the heart. It’s not complicated, it’s not about, you know, doing anything it’s really complicated it, it’s a simple, simple thing when you think about it, anybody, anybody can do that. And so you just want to get to the heart of the matter why people want to be a gift. So use those little donorsearch stories and use a little examples of things. So if you are one organization that recent recently had a a real estate gift, someone left you a farm. Explain that to your donor’s that’s really interesting that’s inside information to them and and cool. So write about that about how that works that you’ve got this farm and and it was valuable to you for this reason, and you sold it and used the money to put up a new community center or whatever, tell people the nitty gritty details of that cool gift. So if you’ve had interesting plant gift and you would like more of them, talk about that, we have just about two minutes left. Claire, you mentioned something. You said this is all, you know, at its roots, it’s. All very simple. But plan giving does have a technical side. I mean, so should we spend newsletter landscape explaining the details of the charitable remainder unit trust with makeup provisions. Well, i think that you should spend a little time with the technical part for the things that you would like your donors to dio. So if you do have a say, a gift annuity that you have to offer and you would like people to do that, then talk about it a little bit and you could do that in a simple way. Just talk about the benefits of the gift, so you could say, check out our charitable gift annuity and check a few things off your to do list and then under, you know, to do like it’s a list increase my retirement income, decreased my taxes now and give back to habitat for humanity. And that sort of tells people in a nutshell what it does and then just, you know, put a little rate chart down there that you get from the person that provides you the rate chart. So a sample rape charge for a ten thousand dollar gift annuity for someone this age sixty, and then you want a little disclaimer language under there. So you briefly explain how it works, but you don’t have to. Get into a lot of details because they’re not going to not fill out something below that and send it in and do it it’s not that kind of a gift, so you don’t have to tell them every single thing. Just tell them the benefits tell them who’s eligible and how they would go about doing it. And given that information, claire, in just a thirty seconds, we have left it sounds like, you know, going back to your original advice, you’re not writing a newsletter for cps and estate planning attorneys does not need to be a technical explanation. No, you’re writing for your loyal donors and keep in mind that you want them to hang on to this. You want them tow to read it and think about it and go well that’s interesting and maybe tuck it away somewhere instead of throwing it out. Because that’s, how plan, gift get made over the years. People think about it, it’s in the back of their mind that something happens in their life, a change where they think, oh, i need to really get on this. I need to really work on my they plant and do these kinds of things and then they’ll have you in mind you’ve already offered them solutions, and hopefully they’ll give you a call and act on it clear, thank you very much. My my guest has been clear, meyerhoff she’s, editorial director of the plant e-giving company, and we’re grateful for her advice about punching up your plan giving newsletter also want to thank my first guest was karen bradunas hr consultant talking about sexism and protecting your non-profit from those kinds of claims next week, our i’m looking siri’s continues, we’re going to check in with our job seeker leonora and recruiter paula marks we’ve been checking in with them once a month. We’re going to see how leonora his job search is going on. I’m looking and also will be joined by scott keg lor, the show’s tech contributor, and he’ll have the latest software reviews that’s next week, you can keep up with what’s coming up. Sign up for our insider email alerts on the facebook page and while you’re there, click the like button, become a fan of the show, of course that’s on facebook dot com tony martignetti non-profit radio, the creative producer of our show is claire meyerhoff. Line producer is sam liebowitz. He’s, also the owner of talking alternative broadcasting and our social media, is by regina walton of organic social media. This is tony martignetti non-profit radio, always having in mind. Big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent. Join me next friday, right here on talking alternative broadcasting at talking alternative dot com, one p m next friday. Dahna e-giving you’re listening to the talking alternative network, waiting to get into thinking. E-giving you could are you suffering from aches and pains? Has traditional medicine let you down? Are you tired of taking toxic medications, then come to the double diamond wellness center and learn how our natural methods can help you to hell? Call us now at to one to seven to one eight, one eight three that’s to one to seven to one eight one eight three or find us on the web at www dot double diamond wellness dot com. We look forward to serving you. 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I really need to take better care of myself. If only i had someone to help me with my lifestyle. I feel like giving up. Is this you mind over matter, health and fitness can help. If you’re expecting an epiphany, chances are it’s not happening. Mind over matter, health and fitness could help you get back on track or start a new life and fitness. Join Joshua margolis, fitness expert at 2 one two eight six five nine two nine. Zero or visit w w w died. Mind over matter. Y si dot com. Durney buy-in talking. Yeah.