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Podcast: Creative Thank You’s For Year-End Giving

One Justice Thank You 2

Your year-end giving plan is well under way. I’ve got simple and cheap–yet thoughtful–ways to say “thanks” so your stewardship gets off on the right foot when gifts come in.

Actually, I hosted Fundraising Fundamentals, my monthly podcast for The Chronicle of PhilanthropyMy guests had the savvy thank-you ideas.

They were
Claire Axelrad, the fundraising consultant behind clairification.com, and
Julia Wilson, executive director of OneJustice

Get ready to take notes. Their ideas ranged from cookies to videos. We talked about at least a dozen ideas in the 12-minute interview. That’s incredible ROI!

Listen here.

Want to check the archive? Or subscribe and get new shows each month? Check out Fundraising Fundamentals on iTunes.

I’m always interested in what you think after you listen. Drop a comment here or get me on Twitter.

Nonprofit Radio for November 15, 2013: The Ethics of Asking

Big Nonprofit Ideas for the Other 95%

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Listen live or archive:

My Guest:

Deni Elliott: The Ethics of Asking

Deni Elliott head shotProfessor Deni Elliott from the University of South Florida edited the book “The Ethics of Asking.” When have you got an ethical issue in fundraising and how do you resolve it? How helpful are the ethics professional codes?

We’ll talk about examples from the book and answer your questions. Use the #NonprofitRadio hashtag on Twitter, the Facebook page or this blog post to leave a question.

 

 

 


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Hello, it’s. Tony martignetti non-profit radio big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent i’m your aptly named host. Oh feels good, very good to be back in the studio after three weeks hiatus from the studio. Oh, i hope that you were with me last week. I’d go into ischemia if i learned that you had missed getting to the next level. Lawrence paige nani is the author of the non-profit fund-raising solution based on his work as an executive director and fund-raising consultant, he had proven strategies to get you to the next level of fund-raising revenue this week, it’s the ethics of asking professor denny elliot from the university of south florida edited the book the ethics of asking when have you got an ethical issue in fund-raising and how do you resolve it? How helpful or the professional ethics codes? We’ll talk about examples from her book and take your questions. If you’re listening live, you can join the conversation on twitter using hashtag non-profit radio on tony’s take two five reasons to promote the ira roll over now i’m very pleased to welcome to the show durney elliott she is a director and professor. In the department of journalism and media studies at the university of south florida st petersburg, she holds the point there. Jamison chair in media ethics and press policy and is the campus on buds. She’s written more than one hundred and ninety articles and book chapters. That’s a hell of a lot hyre my bio, this the number of words i’ve written, this is very impressive. She has authored co authored, edited and co edited books, including ethical challenges, building an ethics tool kit, ethics in the first person and the kindness of strangers, philanthropy and higher education. Her writing and her thinking brings her to the show. Professor durney elliot, welcome. Well, thank you. Are you in florida? At the moment? I am yes. Enjoying the winter weather of southern florida. We’ve got the winter weather of southern florida appear in new york practically. Oh, that looks to warm up here. You do a lot of thinking about ethics and and fund-raising, um what? How can we distinguish ethics from long? I’m sorry. How going to sing? Which ethics from law? Law? Legal. Oh, from law. Yeah. You know, that’s an interesting thing. And i decided that i just do a lot of thinking about ethics in my position as department head i’m involved in fund-raising and one way or another to bring some sort of needed resource is into the department, and as i ran too, ethics centers it when a dartmouth and one of the university of montana, sometimes i once felt like a combination of smoke and mirrors. I’m pretty familiar with the day to day in down and dirty part of fund-raising too, so it’s not just a matter of thinking about it, but it’s a matter of thinking about what what one is doing in practice and how it differs from the law is that in philantech p and fund-raising blank with most of the other areas in our lives latto develop law defines a minimal standard that, you know, if you drop below that minimal standard, that you could be held accountable by by statute, generally for your actions. But ethics asked you to think beyond that ethics, asi to think about what’s the right thing to do in a hole. Fear of what ethically permitted actions the law is much narrower, as as you’re saying, there are lots of things that are legal, but wood transgress ah, standard system of ethics, i think yes, sir, my my favorite example is, is just a really straight for everyday example for all of us and that’s it. Now, if you think about about truth telling and lying, you can count pretty much on one hand the situations in which the law prohibits you from lying. You know, you can’t lie on your on your income tax forms and you can’t lie when you’re i know a witness on stay on the stand in court, but but for the most part, we’re pretty honest people. If somebody stopped me on the street and asked me, you know what time it no, it says, according to my my smart phone, i’m going to tell them the truth about the time is i know it’s a baby, i’m going to be truthful with my students and with my friends and colleagues and that’s all in the realm of ethics that no, that goes way beyond what the law requires me to do. Where does morality fit into this? Well, you know that that’s kind of a conversation, probably for maybe even a different kind of radio. Show in that er for more than two thousand years of western moral philosophy, we’ve been thinking systematically about the nature of how it is that people should and should not treat one another. Uh, the word ethics comes from the greek jessica, um, meaning custom or convention, or how we expect people to treat us and the word moral comes from mores again, the latin word for custom or convention and how we expect people to act. And so, you know, i guess what i’m saying is fundamentally there’s really not a difference between least between how i will be using today ethics and the word ethics and the word morals. But that was some people say, oh, well, morals has to do with religion or sex and ethics is what you do in the workplace. I spend a lot of my time trying to integrate our lives and make sure that that i can help people think about how to be the same good person, regardless of what role they happen to have on the moment. And so i tend not to make an arbitrary distinction between morals, morals and ethics. Some professors have over or some philosophers have over the past two thousand years and some haven’t okay, well, when we have those people on there were still living than they can make that distinction, but okay, thank you. And you’re and the topic of the book, the ethics of asking that we’re talking about is, is, uh, your concerns about how fundraisers persuade people to give, right? Yeah, i think that that that when we talk about fund-raising or actually let’s even talk just about the act of giving of donating one’s extra resource is note to create public good as that person sees it, that act is super auditory act it’s ah, it goes beyond what somebody is minimally required to do. And so i think that that when we are working with people who are doing acts that are above and beyond what is minimally respected, explore other assembly expected of folks in private and public life, that there are special considerations on dh special obligations that folks have toward the givers toward the folks who are donating. Okay, um, and we’ll talk about some of those special obligations. How does a person who is a fund-raising professional i know that they are facing something that is an ethical issue. Well, first of all, i think it was the following. Okay, well, first of all of us, everyday face and we generally don’t think about it because we don’t have to, i don’t have to think about it, he’s my example of the stranger asking for time or directions, i don’t have to think about, oh, do i want the light of this person or not? Of course, i’m just going to tell him the truth. And so i think that that’s the only time that ethical issues sort of come to our consciousness or awareness, is when we’re feel like we’re caught between loyalties or caught between expectations are caught between doing something that seems best for our personal self versus doing something that seems better for another, okay, and in those conflicts of loyalties, that could be us as individuals, as you said, or could be, our institutions also conflict, right, right institutions and what may be best for a donor, right? Fundraisers have an interesting complexity of obligations. Ah, fundraisers when my fund-raising role as department chair, for example, i have obligations to the department and to the university as a whole. But at the same time, when i put myself in a position of of trying to extract ueno rie sources from people who don’t, who aren’t required to give them to me or to the university, to the department, i i take on new and special obligations to them as well. All right, we’re going to talk about some of these obligations, et cetera. We take our first break, and when we come back, durney elliot and i will continue talking about the ethics of asking hang in there. 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 are 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 checkout on the 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 action. Join me, larry. Shock a neo-sage tuesday nights nine to eleven easter for the isaac 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 wants a go 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 sharp, your 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 every tower is 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 dahna welcome back to big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent. You should know that we are sponsored by two companies, responded by rally bound, which is peer-to-peer fund-raising for runs, walks and rides and also welcoming new sponsor t brc cost recovery. Getting your money back from phone bill errors and omissions and i have a little more to say about both of them toward the end. Um, denny, you don’t mind if i call you danny wright is not to be professor elliot does it? No, denny is fine. Tony. Thank you. That you edited this book. How how does that work with you? Everybody else does all the rating, and then you just say we need some commas and paragraph breaks. How does that work when you’re oh, i wish i think it would look like actually, after editing some books and writing some books on co authoring some books, i i’ve decided that that actually being sole author of a book is probably the easiest route out of all of those. How does this work? Yeah, well, with editing a book, basically. Ah, the editor, you know, is in charge of the overall theme and the big idea of the book, as you know, an ethics of asking. There are a variety of chapters on different aspects of fund-raising, including plan giving and prospect research and and, uh, friendraising, i think, is what i call it, but the right and so as editor, i was sort of in charge of the overall idea finding the right people, teo, to write or collaborate with me on specific chapters and ah, and then actually, the tough part is getting them to get things done on deadline, and then no writing the writing, rewriting and revising chapters so that there was, you know, kind of a flow to the book so that it feels like the chapters go together even though they were written by different people with different backgrounds and different ideas. Okay, i did get that feeling alright. So that’s your responsibility as the editor, i thought, thea, i thought the company that i thought the book publisher would do that for, you know, that’s you no book publishers don’t do too much these days except actually get them out and with any luck to a little marketing. Okay, um, we’re this fund-raising that we’re talking. About fund-raising is essentially building relationships, so your concerns they’re around how or some of your concerns around how professional fundraisers are going about that. Yeah, you know, and that that happens in so many different levels. I’m thinking, all right, for example, was planned giving that no, i most fundraisers would really like to tap into, uh, into funders who have an opportunity to buckley’s states or, you know, some of substantial, uh, capital or or property, and that is usually brokered by by an external third party. You know, an investor, an attorney, somebody who is both represents the interests of the giving client as well as works with split with potential sites for the gift. And so, you know, hell of what the relationship is between the organization that serves to benefit and the the middleman, the third party there is often a point of conflict prospects. Research can can be a an ethical issue in that i know from, uh, from my days not just at this institution, but other institutions of higher education that i never met with a potential donor without having a whole dossier on that on that donor andi on what are development office had decided the person was capable of giving on much personal information regarding that person, and and i always felt a little uneasy in that it was not clear to me. I mean, it was clear to me that that that as an agent on behalf of the organization, i certainly shouldn’t say mr so and so, you know, i don’t know if you are aware that i’m aware of, you know, of your three divorces, et cetera, et cetera, you know, i mean, i knew better than to do that, but at the same time, i thought, you know, what would he think if he knew that i had all of this information on him and was just not telling him that i had it? So that’s the prospect research level, and then there is the relationship level? Aziz aziz, you know, people give to people, and so the idea of building a relationship with potential givers is an important piece of it. But i think it’s really easy for for potential givers to misunderstand the intentions of a fundraiser, i think it’s easy for fundraisers to move into what i would call a seduction phase and that may or may not be true sexual seduction, but but the but the move from fund-raising where the giver potential giver and the development person are both working with common interests for the organization is a different matter, i think, ethically speaking, than a situation in which the fundraiser is trying to woo the potential. Geever wow, there’s so much there that you just laid out planned giving is the consulting that i do and have done for sixteen years, prospect research way have a regular contributor on the show. We talked about prospect research once a month, maria simple and the relationships you know, that is hitting home because i’ve been a fundraiser for sixteen years and buy-in planned giving you no, you deal with people who are often in their seventies eighties and often we don’t or widowers, um and, you know, sometimes it’s, it’s, it’s hard, i mean, i’ve been, i guess let’s talk about the last of the three things that you just laid out that’s, the one that hits the home it’s almost poignantly for me. Bonem you know, i’ve been in in lunch situations i don’t like to i don’t like to meet prospects over dinner and andi, i know that we’re going to talk about language, and that term prospect is a little off putting to you, and we’ll get to that. So i’ll say so. I’ll adopt your language on dh say i don’t like to meet donorsearch prospect, potential donors over dinner. It’s just something you know, that evening hour just feels like it’s over there over the line from a sow, but i do like to intimate yeah, that’s right? Dinner is more intimate can be and you wantto eliminate any possibilities of that. So always lunch. But i do like doing over meals. I do like meeting latto potential donors over meals and clients over me like that because there’s a shared were sharing, we’re sharing a space were sharing a meal we might depending on the person we might actually be sharing an appetizer sometimes that’s not too often, but sometimes so there’s that sharing of the physical space and the and the activity around at the other physical space also it’s a flow that we all know, we all know that the server is going to bring water and then i’m going, i’m going to always ask for water with no ice because that’s my, you know, so, but once we get that over, then the server is going to leave us with the menus, and we’re gonna have a few minutes and then we know the servers going to come back, and then the stuff is going to bring the starters, and then the servers going toe clear those and bring the entree and we’ll, you know, we’ll have about five minutes or seven minutes or so between the starters and the entree starters ending in the entree. So there’s a there’s a a common understanding of the flow, as well as the sharing of the space and sharing of the meal, right? And what? And actually one of the things that i’m hearing you say in this and if you don’t mind sort of picking this a part of it, but the but there are a couple of things that’s going on that are going on there, that when you’re in a situation in which you’re, you’re asking some buddy to do something that they don’t have to do, which would be a potential donor, that that one of the things that that you’re that you’re doing is setting up a scene that has a comfortable and known flow in ritual, and so the idea is that is that is that you don’t have neither you nor the potential donor have to think about the context, and so it creates comfort and and i’ll say it shared intimacy in the fact that you’re both comfortable with that. Now, if you’re meeting somebody over a meal who is coming at at this from from a different culture where it may be that that the rituals are not quite the same or a little at odds, um, it would be fun and exciting, but it’s going to be a different feel than something where you know, where you’re meeting with somebody from your same culture and where you know that the ritual is is well known. The other thing about meeting over a meal is that there is something no metaphorical and symbolic about the idea of eating, of nourishing one another. If you’re picking up the check, you are certainly nourishing, you know, you’re feeding that that person and that that is, um it is a highly symbolic act of, of nurturing and caretaking and so what you’re what you’re doing is showing the potential donor that that you’re going to take good care of her, you know, in the process of this transaction, you’re also making a very strong point that this is not it’s, not a business meeting. I mean, if i need to sit down with somebody and i know that there’s something difficult to talk about a meal is really not the place to do that well, okay, now, something difficult that requires privacy, right? Although i would say in new york, i know some restaurants that have quiet spots but still might still the potential donor or the donor, but i might even be thanking someone, so it might not be asking someone to consider gift, but i might actually be thanking someone on behalf of the client, but but, yeah, there are situations where i wouldn’t but yeah, and if it’s, if i know it’s gonna be a difficult conversation, then i wouldn’t do it in any public place restaurant otherwise, but i think you can do business. You said it’s, not a business contacts, but i think you can do business over a meal. You don’t think so. Handed business over a meal, but it’s a different but it, but it creates a different kind of of interaction and different kind of relationship. I’m just as an example, if i have a graduate assistant to or a graduate student who is obsessing over her thesis at the moment and this in a tough spot, i’m very likely to take her for a cup of coffee and we’ll sit and have a cup of coffee and talk about the situation, but just the fact that i’ve gotten her, you know, in a company in a comfortable place, i’m nourishing her, giving her, you know, getting her a cup of coffee, and we’re sharing that that sustenance together is going to create kind of an openness and a readiness that is different than if i’m meeting with a student about a problematic grade in my office, you know, there’s that i’m creating a different context, and so when i want a student to sort of relax and the opens and, uh, you know, i have be more ready to listen to what i have to offer. I’m going to feed them something? Yeah, okay, that’s what i’m suggesting you’re doing. With potential donors, yeah, you’re suggesting that i’m duplicitous that i’m no, no, okay, i know it sounds like i’m a little like i’m a little devious, this is no, okay, i mean, i do think that fund-raising get get friendraising gets devious, and i really would like to talk about that specifically, but don’t take it since i’m not a marine, and i know i’ve been called that for some devious, no, but but it sounds like you’re suggesting that some people do it for a different reason than the reasons i’m suggesting i do it. Actually, i’m suggesting that you’ve got all the right instinct. What i’m saying is that this is some of your behavior, so wait say that again, i’m sorry. What say it again? I don’t know what i’m saying is you have all the right instincts, the fundraiser that you want to get the potential donors someplace where the person feels relaxed and comfortable sharing something with you and is getting something from you, which which which automatically that creates a response of giving back? Yeah, that’s the part that i don’t think of the that i’m giving to them really with the organisation’s. Dollars? I’m not the one personally picking up the check, but that’s the part i’m not thinking of that i’m giving to them so they should be giving back. I think this, you know, does this come down to character? Some people might some fundraisers might take people out for meals with that intention with that thought that i’m giving to them, they need to give back so it doesn’t just come down to personal character. How s it? No, i excited. I don’t think so, because and i think and i think that what you’re saying is is that you do it just because you’re a naturally good guy, which i certainly believe you are and that and that that’s a matter of character. Where is people who do this intentionally to manipulate the donor? You know, get the donor glass wine letter, you know, feel, relax and, you know, and so on that maybe there’s something that shows less character in that i would say that every phone great fundraiser has the responsibility to think about how every professional act is perceived and or is likely to be understood by the potential giver that’s very helpful, i think. We have we have just a couple minutes before, before we take another break, i would. We solicited questions from listeners, and we got a bunch. I’m goingto i’m going to throw one at you from that we got from facebook. This is kelly on facebook. You’re in the middle of a capital campaign, and the organization’s plans change. Your executive director thinks the changes are no big deal. Do you notify donors who committed funds to the original plan or follow the executive director’s lead, which would be keep it quiet. Well, first of all, i think that i would wonder about an organization that that changes something significant in a kapin radcampaign midstream that no one hopes that a campaign doesn’t get announced until about fifty percent of the money is raised or pledged, and that no, that that pretty much every every detail has been tested out. Ah, in-kind on a variety of audiences first, but but okay, but so you find yourself in that situation, i think that that that any donor that has made a contribution that if the, uh, thean tense abila donation can’t be met, that there is unethical and probably in most places, a legal obligation to make it clear to the donor how things have changed and obviously moving forward, you need to be honest about where things are now and where they’re going. We’re going to take a break when we come back. Tony’s take two got some live listener love and more conversation about the ethics of asking with durney eliot, stay with us e-giving didn’t think dick tooting good ending things, you’re listening to the talking alternative network e-giving get in good. 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 too? He’ll call us now at to one to seven to one eight one eight three that’s two one two seven to one eight one eight, three or find us on the web at www dot double diamond wellness dot com way look forward to serving you! Hi, i’m ostomel role and i’m sloan wainwright, where the host of the new thursday morning show the music power hour eleven a m we’re gonna have on shine the light on all aspects of music and its limitless healing possibilities. We’re going invite artists to share their songs and play live will be listening and talking about great music from yesterday to today, so you’re invited to share in our musical conversation. Your ears will be delighted with the sound of music and our voices. Join austin and sloan live thursdays at eleven a m on talking alternative dot com you’re listening to the talking alternative network. Durney hi, this is claire meyerhoff from the plan giving agency. If you have big dreams but a small budget, you have a home at tony martignetti non-profit radio. So glad to be back in the studio because i can send live listener love new york, new york, new bern, north carolina rest in virginia, houston, texas live listener love out to u k beck is checking in we got montreal and palma role maybe i pronounced that very badly, but you’re in quebec if your income back and you’re not in montreal. Yeah, that’s the name that’s the year that yours is the town that i’m trying to pronounce. Welcome, of course we’ve got listeners in china chung ching shanghai ni hao, seoul, korea always checking in always appreciative of korea annual haserot and there’s more live listener love coming tony’s take to my block this week is five reasons to promote the ira roll over now for your donors and potential donors who are seventy and a half years or older. This ira gift opportunity ends on december thirty first. It’s been extended a couple of times, but i wouldn’t bet on congress for any purpose, including charitable giving being extended, so i’m not too optimistic that this would be extended again. So let’s assume i’m assuming with all my clients that it’s going to end on december thirty first. It’s. A very easy way for donors who are the right age to make their year end gift to you. It’s. Very easy to promote, and i’ve got promotion ideas on the block. It’s also easy for donors to execute. They just fill out a simple form that there are a custodian, has. All they need is your organization name, address and tax i d number and that’s, part of what makes it so easy for you to promote. Not a lot of explanation. If you have potential donors who are the right age, i suggest you work the ira e-giving opportunity into your year end fund-raising plan and there’s a lot more detail on that. On my blogged at tony martignetti dot com, that is tony’s. Take two for friday, fifteenth of november, the forty fifth show of this year. Denny, do you mind if we take another listener question? Of course not. This came from booster advisor on twitter. What are your thoughts on hosting fund-raising event for people you don’t know who experienced a tragedy booster advisor, the person maybe thinking about maybe people in the philippines or something like that, any issues around raising money for people who you don’t know who you know of suffered i, uh, you know, and i’m not exactly sure what’s behind the question, so that may take a couple of different stabs at it, i think it’s fine to raise raise funds for people who have experienced trauma, traumatic events, wherever they are in the world, and i i think that that there are often questions about how those funds are being managed both in country as well as in the process of getting them from donors here. So i mean, so assuming that that the management details are worked out, i don’t see a problem with doing that. Uh, so i guess i’m kind of searching for what other? What, what other ethical issues there might be? Okay? You don’t you don’t really see this as that much of ethical. Issues, i mean, that the way the medal i see that the management problem management and legal in terms of management of funds that are intended for charitable purposes, the law has a fair amount to say about that, okay, right, right and well, and i know i’ve done not very popular work on breast cancer charities and how how money money is, well, how it doesn’t support services that are being implied, although maybe not, and not specifically said, and how, uh, breast cancer charity websites make it very easy donate and very difficult to find services. So the, you know, i think that that that one can raise money legitimately for any number of things. But i think that the process of fund-raising encourage an obligation to the potential donors that that money is going to be managed appropriately as the donor’s intended, and that the donors are very clear on what percentage of the money is actually going towards the charity as compared to take administrative cost. Talk about this use of the term prospect which, as i mentioned you, you have you have a chapter in the book devoted to language. What is it about that? Term that turns you often, and you prefer a potential donor. Well, it sounds like mining on, and i think that that when we, when we separate people by a label, whether we call them human subjects, i also do a lot of writing on research ethics and when we refer to people as human subjects that we’re putting them in a class that’s different from, um, no, those of us who are doing the research, those people who are actually doing the work and when we talk about potential people who are potential donors as prospects that that again, we’re setting them off it’s been in the class that that makes it easier to do things to them that we wouldn’t do to our appears for our family members are so sort of objectifies them exactly there no longer people were going that farm, and wei will know that there’s still people on? Yeah, i mean, like i was thinking of your human human subjects, we’re not referring to them as people were medical researchers going them human subjects, but in fund-raising i don’t know, i think, were warmer people over here on the fund-raising side than the medical. Well, you know, and be really honest, a lot of the work that i’ve done on on problems with charities and nonprofits and social service agencies start with the premise, but when people think that that they’re doing good things because they’ve got a really good and that they’re working towards that is raising money for an important cause that that that’s when the warning bell should begin to go off because we knew organizations traditionally don’t take a careful look at charities or fund-raising because, you know, it all sounds like it should be warm and fuzzy and the thing and it’s good people doing good stuff for the good of society. I mean, how many goods can you get in one sentence? Now, i believe that that people who do development work and i believe that people who work in non-profit tend to be pretty good people because they’re not in it for the money, so i didn’t appreciate that, but, you know, but it’s, the whole path to hell is paved with good intentions. That gets to be a problem that when folks think that they’ve got a really important end that are really important, you know? Cause that they’re trying to support sometimes they then the rules just because they know how, how good and important the causes that they’re working for. It’s it’s kind of an ends justify the means argument there’s a line in the movie the big chill that rationalizations are more important than sex try to get through the week without a good rationalization. You’re s o yeah, stretching the rules for a very good cause. When we’re talking, maybe about you mentioned breast cancer or hunger, we owe our working with disabled it’s it’s it seems pretty easy to do right well and and let me know you had said something before break about about whether i was at saying that you’re a devious, which i wasn’t in that case, but but let’s talk about deception for a minute, just because this is one of those areas where in my work over the years with with development folks and, well, fundraisers from from various sectors, not just higher education that excuse me, start that, that this is one of those areas where people think, okay, they’ve got a potential donor, and i’ll just bring an example that that just comes to mind from a capital campaign is a matter of fact. Some some years ago, so there was a ah a ah, a donor potential donor providing a whole lot of money for for a university to have a building built that would carry her her husband’s name, her dead husband’s name. And you know, and that was great. That was all. Everyone agreed completely with that. But this woman also really, really wanted a family fountain in a particular spot on campus. Well, they, uh the that the fundraiser working with the that actually they were more than one fun, but the development people who were working with this potential duitz donor i knew that in the no long term scale of things, that that where this woman one of the fountain was not going to be was not going to last more than about ten years, because if you look down the line, you know, there were other buildings that were going to go up on campus and this pristine spot that she loved and her husband had loved. I was not going to be that christine spot anymore due to the age of the donor the folks at the university this decided that that this particular donor would most probably be long gone by the time you know, the campus changed in a way that would make her unhappy. And so they decided that it was safe just to let this this potential donor believe what she wanted to believe. I find that unethical because, again, this woman is it was doing something that a super aga, torrey it’s something that is that is ethically ideal to use different language, she’s doing something that she doesn’t need to do. And i think that there’s a special obligation of the organization that would take her money, um, to make sure that she knows and really understands everything that she would find relevant to the giving of her gift. Damn, i think i would i don’t know that one that one really shakes me. I i would like to think i would quit over that if i was on that development team, and we were told not to reveal that the fountain isn’t going to last more than ten. Well, but why? I mean, she’ll never know the difference. It’s just wrong you she why tryto be more a little more articulate, that’s just wrong because she’s making a gift under under a set of assumptions and conditions that that the other side knows are false. That’s why it’s it’s almost. I don’t know if it rises to the level of legal fraud in the definition of fraud on statutes, but i know it gets pretty close to me if it does. If it doesn’t exceed that it doesn’t cross that line, i think that’s ah touching on fraudulent well, actually, and the the and the way that it was laid out in this particular situation. I mean, thie the building was going up with the husband’s name on it, and it was going to be a lovely building. And i know a lovely and permanent mark on campus for sure the fountain was by far, you know, a smaller, you know, seemingly incidental, not very important gift, at least from the university’s point of view, and they know they were going to put the fountain in. They just knew that the that the woman thought that the fountain would live on forever. You know what? Where they’re understood it wouldn’t yeah, they know something that the woman doesn’t that’s. That’s that’s ah, meaning in contract terms to me that’s a material term that the organization is omitting now i’m taking it out of the ethical and putting it in the legal. But to me that’s a material term that they’re omitting like to me, that would be the same as you’re renting an apartment and there’s is there’s lead paint on the walls and you don’t reveal that that’s that’s. Okay, gideon, this scenario because it’s the same kind of issue that comes up but it but it’s a very different set of facts. So we have another donor and the the ah ah, the donor, you know, wants to give money for the university, and it understands to be kind of old school and, uh, really doesn’t believe in co ed dormitories. Now, for any number of reasons, the university knows that no, that before long, even though there’s no specific thing on the books right now. But before long, all the all the dorms on the university will be co ed. And so no again does that is that information that has to be given to the the potential donor, you know, it’s it’s a change that that every university is making and some folks, in fact, some people at the particular university i’m thinking of. I said, well, you know, we can’t deal with all of the prejudices of all of our donors. And we can decide what’s relevant for the donor to know and what’s not. We got to go away for a couple of minutes more. Danielle. It stays with us, and i hope that you do, too. You’re listening to the talking alternative network. 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 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. Dahna podcast pleasantries going out to everybody who is listening to the podcast, wherever that might be from whether it’s, itunes or or elsewhere. There’s podcast dot d lots of people listening to the podcast in germany wherever you might be listening to the podcast pleasantries out to you more live listener love pompano beach, florida tustin, california welcome, andrx, les france i hope i did that well, bonsoir we’ve got germany listening live you’ve got kuwait listening live you got the netherlands listening live and i did come back yes live listener love to all our live listeners podcast pleasantries wherever and whenever you might be listening to the time shifted show denny, i’ve got some more, some more this inner questions that came in i got one from this’s from rory asking about corporate branding. How much of a charity’s brand is it ethical to sell? She puts selling quotes to accompany we might be comfortable with logos and branding at fund-raising events. But to corporate logos have a place in, say, university classrooms. Yeah, i think that’s ah, that’s. A really good question. And i would come down to me particularly are now just at ticket from hyre. Education, although i think we’re going extrapolated from that. But i think that the core mission of an organization and i know that’s what sound naive, but i think that that should remain pure in a certain way. That is that one should be able to conductor the mission of the university without having corporate brands on everything associated with the mission. But that is okay, teo, to brand things that air external here’s an example at my university in my department next year, we are starting a new graduate certificate program and food writing and photography. Now we are not selling the sponsorship of that program, but at but we do have an annual food conference of no culinary of communication conference that’s associated with that program that’s open to the community every year, a half day seminar and that we definitely are seeking sponsors for and so if there is, i think, a sense of ancillary sponsorship, but now, but it gets complicated because if we look at breast cancer charities no, it again, a zone area of where i’ve done some particular research that we have situations in which which some breast cancer charities exists because of their, you know, their corporate sponsorships and the relationship between the charity and the corporate sponsor becomes so tight that individual donors are often left out in terms of not understanding the importance of people, giving in a true philanthropic way that is now just to promote the common good. And that sometimes folks in need of service is that air being touted by the charity get left out as well. Have a related question about taking donations from organizations that are not not in direct contradiction to your mission but still have or may be perceived to have negative impact on society, the person asks says there are some cases that are obvious, like cancer charities not taking money from tobacco companies. But what about navigating gray areas on dh like arms manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies? She also suggests oil, oil pipeline companies are there right ones issues around us. Yeah, i think that that again gets problematic and the mawr complicated or society gets the more problematic it is. I do appreciate cancer charities that that no won’t take tobacco money, for example, but at the same time if they take pharmaceutical money from certain pharmaceutical companies, pharmaceutical companies are owned by chemical companies, which released carcinogens into the air. And so the question is of like, well, how far back are you willing to go? And i think that really what it comes down to for many organizations, is that it’s a matter of public perception, that if there’s no, if we can’t cancel charity doesn’t want to take money directly from eddie ah, now an organization that’s known to be cancer causing. But if you take it back one or two generations in terms of of no corporate ownership that nobody knows, i think that that’s not okay, um, i think that, um, that there should be limits in terms of of, um, of no donations that people take, but i think that that needs to be stated, because when we come to individual donors in my experience, uh, fundraisers and charities are quite willing to take money from folks, whether they, you know, just want to give out of the goodness of their heart or whether they’re giving for the tax break or whether they’re giving to, you know, re pay back some private since so so if an organization is going to refuse money on the basis of, uh, of how that money was made. I think that that needs to be stated clearly and transparently. We have to leave it there. Durney eliot, director and professor in the department of journalism in media studies at the university of south florida st petersburg durney thank you so much for me. Yeah. Funnel by your lunch. It’s been a real pleasure. No, no, no, i’m not i’m not putting myself in a compromising situation. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next week, karen wooster is executive director of wreaths across america. They have grown their volunteer support enormously by being hands off and supportive. We’re gonna talk about you’re building that volunteer base. Maria simple is back. 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 disc. Personally, i’d like to be all for those. So i wonder if i can manipulate the assessment. Our sponsors rally bound is a sponsor. They make simple, reliable peer-to-peer fund-raising software friends asking friends to give to your cause. You get a discount as a non-profit radio listener you can find them at rally bound dot com or just call and talk to joe mcgee he’s the person who will answer your questions and give you advice on setting up your campaign. And i’ve met their ceo. I’ve told you before shmuley pinson, you can reach them as i said, rally bound dot com or triple eight seven six seven nine zero, seven six welcome to t brc cost recovery our newest sponsor, youself rabinowitz, is ceo there, so we have ah, sponsors yourself wuebben with smelly pinson. Sam labbate liebowitz on the board muzzle toph, i love this. Yo steph! What he does is we’ll go over your past phone bills looking for mistakes, and when he finds those mistakes and he does over ninety percent of the time, then he fights the phone company to get your money back, talking about errors, services you didn’t order and what all you also finds is well above market pricing and gets you the money back and you only pay him if he actually succeeds. If he actually gets cash back, otherwise you don’t pay him. I’ve known yourself for close to ten years and i have many times referred. Friends and clients to him, and i’m very comfortable referring him to you, it’s, tb, r si dot com or two one, two, six, double four, nine, triple xero, which could also be six, four, four, nine thousand, but i like two one two, six, double four, nine triple xero. Our creative producer is claire meyerhoff. Sam liebowitz is our line producer shows social media is by deborah askanase of community organizer two point oh, and the remote producer of tony martignetti non-profit radio is john federico of the new rules. This outstanding music you’re hearing is by scott stein. I hope you’re gonna be with me next friday, once, two p m eastern at talking alternative dot com. E-giving denting, tooting, getting dink, dink, dink, dink. You’re listening to the talking alternative network. Get in. Cubine are you a female entrepreneur? Ready to break through? Join us at sexy body sassy sol, where women are empowered to ask one received what they truly want in love, life and business. Tune in thursday said. Known eastern time to learn timpson. Juicy secrets from inspiring women and men who, there to define their success, get inspired, stay motivated and defying your version of giant success with sexy body sake. Sold every thursday ad men in new york times on talking alternative that calms. 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 way. Look forward to serving you. You’re listening to talking alternative network at www dot talking alternative dot com, now broadcasting twenty four hours a day. Dahna i’m the aptly named host of tony martignetti non-profit radio. Big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent fund-raising board relations, social media, my guests and i cover everything that small and midsize shops struggle with. If you have big dreams and a small budget, you have a home at tony martignetti non-profit radio friday’s wanto to eastern talking alternative dot com. Are you concerned about the future of your business for career? Would you like it all to just be better? Well, the way to do that is to better communication, and the best way to do that is training from the team at improving communications. This is larry sharp, host of the ivory tower radio program and director at improving communications. Does your office need better leadership, customer service sales, or maybe better writing, are speaking skills? Could they be better at dealing with confrontation conflicts, touchy subjects all are covered here at improving communications. If you’re in the new york city area, stop by one of our public classes, or get your human resource is in touch with us. The website is improving communications, dot com, that’s, improving communications, dot com, improve your professional environment, be more effective, be happier, and make more money improving communications. That’s. The answer. Dahna hyre

5 Reasons To Promote The IRA Rollover NOW

Image courtesy of 'smil, Creative Commons license
Image courtesy of 'smil, Creative Commons license

The charitable IRA rollover from the Taxpayer Relief Act is one of the rare gifts in Planned Giving that gives your charity immediate cash. For most planned gifts you have to wait until the death of the donor. Not so with the IRA rollover.*

Here’s why I suggest you promote it immediately:
1. Perfect for end-of-year giving. This is an easy way for your donors to make their annual gift and earn considerable tax advantages. More here.

2. Expires on December 31. It might be extended, as it has been twice before, but do you want to roll the dice on any prediction of what Congress will do? Use the 12/31 deadline to create a sense of urgency through your marketing channels.

3. Limited audience. This is only for those age 70 1/2 or over. I blogged more IRA detail back in January.

4. Easy to promote. Share your tax ID number, address and legal name. Have donors contact their IRA administrator for instructions to make a “qualified charitable distribution” to you.

You can do a few sentences on your blog; in an email blast; on Twitter and Facebook (recurring once a week); drop a slip in a mailing you’ve already planned; and drop a mention into meetings and events.

5. Easy for donors to pull the trigger. The companies that hold IRAs have got this down to a simple process. In most cases, donors fill out a short form using the info you’ve provided. The check comes directly to your office (which is one of the requirements; the links above have more detail).

My clients are having great success with IRA gifts this year! You can too if you get the word out.

Do it now because IRA giving may not last much longer.

*It’s actually a distribution (to charity), not a rollover. I’m using what’s popular because that’s how people search.

Nonprofit Radio for November 8, 2013: Getting To The Next Level

Big Nonprofit Ideas for the Other 95%

Sponsored by RallyBound peer-to-peer fundraising for runs, walks and rides.

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My Guest:

Laurence Pagnoni: Getting To The Next Level

Laurence Pagnoni largeLaurence Pagnoni is author of “The Nonprofit Fundraising Solution.” Based on his work as an executive director and fundraising consultant, he has proven strategies to get you to the next level of fundraising revenue.

 

 

 

 

 

 


Top Trends. Sound Advice. Lively Conversation.

You’re on the air and on target as I delve into the big issues facing your nonprofit—and your career.

If you have big dreams but an average budget, tune in to Tony Martignetti Nonprofit Radio.

I interview the best in the business on every topic from board relations, fundraising, social media and compliance, to technology, accounting, volunteer management, finance, marketing and beyond. Always with you in mind.

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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. Oh, you know, i hope you were with me last week. I’d suffer falik yah leitess. If it came to my attention that you had missed priscilla rosenwald, author of when leaders leave, she talked us through her smart tips to plan and execute smooth leadership transitions this week, getting to the next level. Lawrence paige nani is author of the fund-raising the non-profit fund-raising solution based on his work as an executive director and fund-raising consultant, he has proven strategies to get you to the next level of fund-raising revenue halfway through the show on tony’s take two i have a charity registration reminder for you. I’m wagging my finger. We’re sponsored by rally bound, simple, reliable peer-to-peer fund-raising software rally bound dot com i’m very pleased that lawrence paige no knees book and his work bring him to the studio. He has spent twenty five years in the nonprofit sector and was an executive director of three non-profits he’s been a faculty member at the gnu heimans center for philanthropy and fund-raising we’ve had guests from there. And the coach is a group of executive directors with the rutgers business schools institute for ethical leadership. His book is the non-profit fund-raising solution. Powerful revenue strategies to take you to the next level. Lorts back. Tony, welcome to the studio. Thank you so much. I’m glad to be here. It’s. A real pleasure to have, you know, i love having live in studio guest. It just makes it that much more special. Congratulations on the book, it’s. Just it’s out this month, right? Yes, just a few weeks ago. And and delighted it. Dafs has robust sales so far. Excellent. Very good for you. I have to ask you this. I’ve wondered about this since i first saw your name, which is years. Why isn’t it panjwani wipe agnone? How did you i’m not martignetti why did you? Somewhere along the lineage, you went to pack no knee. Well, had that happened? It’s, my grand. My grandmother would like your question. It’s, lorenzo, antonio peggy oni that’s your your it’s, like a little birdie operate you’re you’re ah, expression of it is accurate. And but, you know, in american vernacular gets paige no knee. I hate that. I hate that your grandmother would love the pan uni i was a beautiful name. It is operatic. Um, the non-profit fund-raising solution. What is the problem? Well, under capitalization of the sector plagues more than seventy seven percent of non-profits they have a vision, but they don’t have the money to implement it. And many organizations spend years on a plateau under two hundred fifty thousand dollars trying to execute their vision for some small non-profits ah, humble budget is more than adequate and they’re doing good services and they are meeting their vision so don’t mean to imply that you need money too do your work and they’re amazing volunteer organizations. But for those organizations that that need money, i wrote the book in that spirit of trying to help them tio, to go to the next level which is such a ubiquitous question. I mean, i get that a lot on dh. I work only really in the planned e-giving and the charity registration niches. But even i am asked a lot, you know? How do we get to the next level? Can you help us get to the next level? So there are a lot of organizations that do want to go to increased fund-raising revenue it’s the number one question i get when i give seminars or oppcoll public trainings, and somebody inevitably will wander up to that micah’s i say in the introduction, and and ask me, how do you get to the next level? And on the one hand it’s a poetic question, but on the other hand, it’s for my sensibilities, it’s a business question with mathematical methods behind it, and the book tries to explain, um, that if you get your leadership understanding the vision for what the next level looks like if the board supports that vision, if you think about hyre level strategies and you work on changing the culture of your organization so that the organisational development matches that vision that’s the foundation there’s four aspects are the foundation for going to the next level, and then the rest is tactical most fund-raising is tactical. The strategy comes from the organization, and we’re gonna have time to talk about the organisational development as well as the strategies and tactics were because i love that we have the full hour together, so the symptoms of this problem are mean. Ah, event to event fund-raising or maybe sole source revenue streams? Yeah, most foundation grants have ah, three year limit. There are some exceptions to that, of course, places like the robin hood foundation, which see themselves as long term partners. Um, but event to event without any cash reserves. Um, and some organizations just go year two year like that and and and make do and with a little bit of luck and and providence, they they squeak by, but it’s hard to plan having an impact on your mission and on the sector, the the field of service, if you will, that you’ve chosen if you really want to help at risk kids, i have a better chance at getting into college or getting the right on the right employment that’s a great example, because it’s exactly it’s for you you do have to plan for years that’s a life cycle of a child. And if you’re you know, as you say, just getting by year to year, how can you plan for that child’s future? You can’t. You can’t plan for your own that’s, right? Um, do you think that since we see such a reliance on events i have a theory i don’t, but you khun you’re free to disagree that the reliance on events is so that people can avoid what they fear, which is having to sit across the table from someone and looked him in the eye and ask them for a gift. Well, it’s, funny as best as i understand it, and i’m always learning events were buy-in the history of them goes back to having an opportunity to thank your individual donors, they weren’t actually fundraisers unto themselves, and then they course morphed into that when in fund-raising when the event ah, is linked to individual giving and get in to get the individual giving program, they always raise more money, because the point is that the twenty percent of your individual donor base who gives eighty percent generally on your revenue since the recession, we see it’s maybe seventy, thirty um they need to be talked to individually and thoughtfully, and having tough conversations with donors is part of that territory, and i think a lot of people are, um, are shy about that. Money, of course, is one of the great taboos of life and so it’s fraught with ah, emotional issues. Um, you allude to cem cem research done by stanford about the dominant revenue source? We’ll flush that after us. Sure. Well, you often hear people say that they need a diversified revenue base. Yes, and i’ve heard that for years as a fundraiser, and as in the former executive director, i used to worry about how much time and energy that talkto have more than one or two revenue streams. So a few years ago, stanford university ah did research on one hundred and forty hundred forty one non-profits that that had gotten over the fifty million dollar, more annual budget, what they discovered was a surprise that those organizations generally had a dominant source of revenue and possibly a secondary source of revenue and wasn’t as diversified as smaller non-profits but they also said that smaller non-profits still needed to diversify until they got to that plateau ah, when or they got to that level, when they could break through for a dominant source of revenue. And the reason this is interesting is that those non-profits that got over fifty million, they knew everything there was to know about that dominant source of revenue if it was individual giving, say, for example, habitat for humanity. Their dominant source of revenue is individual giving, followed by in-kind donations, followed by foundations. They knew everything there was from about individual giving from ah, there, first acquisition, to plan giving and the whole continuum within those two ends. Yes, um, we are going, tio, take a break, and we’ll of course, continue with lawrence, and we’ll talk a little more about the the inflexibility that we’re talking about now and that sort of tradition of of dominant source giving. But then we’re gonna move on, and we’re going to talk about what it takes for the organization, too. Develop within before he can get to the next level. So hang in there. 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 culture and consultant services are 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. Join me. Larry shot 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 go 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. Very sharp. Your 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 oppcoll welcome back to big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent. Lawrence paige nani is with me. He is the author of the non-profit fund-raising solution. So before the break, we were talking a little about thiss dominant source so they knew their dominant source and maybe a secondary source very well. So it’s so it’s not so bad. Teo teo, be focused that way. No. Ah, it turns out that that that there are different levels in every revenue source of from an average level two quite skilled level. What they had a have, of course, in their dominant source of revenue was they had to have deep and abiding expertise. Ah lo, staff turnover amongst the fund-raising staff was very important for those organizations because the institutional memory of with their donors had to be preserved. It’s called development for a reason it’s a developmental process. So if you’re walking the walk with a donor through their lifetime of giving, if they get comfortable with a fundraiser, the chances of that fundraiser being able to raise more money are much higher now. Of course, that’s that’s ah juxtaposed to the chronicle philanthropies article this past year, which showed that the turn of the dissatisfaction amongst fundraisers with their organizations was extremely high. Yes, and i we talked about that on the show. Did you? Yeah, i was distraught to hear that. And because fund-raising is a noble profession, and when it’s not respected, the process is not respected than people expect returns too fast. Or they expect the fundraiser toe come in with donor’s ready to g o without having to cultivate them for your mission. And these are very irrational ideas dominate the conversations around fund-raising but it’s called development for a reason, and those non-profits that god above fifty million that had a dominant source were they had a patients to their culture, and they respected the cultivation process and they closed, you know, on on major gifts much more frequently than those that didn’t have that culture. What was the first organization that you were executive director of? Oh my, it was a soup kitchen for the homeless in richmond, virginia. And i’m guessing there are a lot of lessons you learned there. Oh, my goodness. I i on the in the book, i tell the story of how i forgot about the board. No, i didn’t. I didn’t technically forget about board. I attended board meetings. I prepared my reports. I i had the board book ready and met with the committee’s when they needed me, but in my soul they were superfluous, and what was really important was getting the programme metrics right and getting the fundraising going. But i came to see how the board ah, in my second executive directorship, here in new york, at harlem united, i came to see how the board khun give the organization a gift that the ceo cannot, which is the gift of longevity and survivability, and that great word that we use in the sector sustainability. So in your experience in west virginia, richmond in virginia, at the soup kitchen, were you sort of dragging the board along as you as you worked on the metrics that were important to you or you would just take kicking them was more my style. Okay, so clicking from behind? Well, there was the italian radio, the italian, more likable bull in a china shop. But ah, the urgency was, of course, that homelessness was extremely bad. The single room occupancy hotels in richmond, virginia, were closing. Ah, at a rapid rate, and the homeless shelters were were increasing. So we had a profound sense of urgency, and then right in the middle that the aids epidemic was becoming clearer to us. And so there was this sense of urgency, and we in fact founded three different organizations. Ah, as spin offs to to our non-profit but i came to see the value of board leadership and bored endorsement and and to recruit people that did add value. Not everybody is meant to be a boardmember and i had made the mistake of just recruiting volunteers that had a passion for the board without necessarily having the business talents. And skills that i needed to fulfill the mission that we were we were aimed at over ten to twenty years, and we’re going to talk later on about one of the opportunities that you’ve identified leadership counsels for maybe the type of people that you’re talking about not suitable for the board but have interest and passion. And so there may be another role for them. Yes, so let’s talk about the board now the board has to metoo it’s essential at the board be developed before the organization is going to get to the next level? Oh, yes, ah, a lot of ceos inherited inherit aboard when they take a job that isn’t necessarily up for the task, and they wait on the sidelines for something magical to happen with that board, and they don’t necessarily see themselves as an intervening variable to bring the board to the next level themselves. But i recommend in my book that they do see themselves as part of the change process for the board by meeting personally with board members by recruiting people who have the skills and talents that they be delighted to have in leaders and that’s not all. They’re not always easy processes. They take time, but you’re trying to develop a shared vision on the board, exact between the executive leadership and the the ceo executive director and the and the volunteer leadership that’s. Right? This could take a long time to align a vision. It can, but there are plenty of examples where it happens rather fast. I mean, the board share one. The board in richmond, virginia. The board of harlem united here in new york. They were united around the being thought leaders in the field of of ah, innovative health care for people who fell outside the health care system, the homeless and indigents. And they they i saw their revenue streams from the government, both federal and state, as needing to be reformed so that they could get the funds that were needed. For example, in nineteen ninety one there were no article, twenty eight healthcare, primary care, organised clinics. For people living with aids, they were only the peruse of mental health. So what the board did with the executive staff leadership is they formed a statewide organization called the adult they healthcare coalition. And they changed the way the revenue. Stream was structure so that article twenty eights could include primary care for people living with aids. Article twenty eight is a federal state of new york state state health. S o that you could receive third party medicare reimburse oka okay, it’s. An amazing revenue stream, extremely stable. And it helped people keep people out of hospital emergency rooms so you can provide care at a much lower rate. So sometimes revenue streams have that level of complexity to them. And you need a board that could understand the thinking behind them. And sometimes revenue streams are easier to understand. I mean, i think that’s why people often gravitate to foundation grants. They can look at a foundation’s website. They could understand the application process, and they throw there their hat in the ring to see if there are going to be, you know, lucky. Let zoho focus on again the achieving this shared vision across the board. So it certainly takes place in inboard recruitment board meetings and month after month. I mean what’s the what’s, the executive director’s role in trying tow align the board with this with a common vision. Well, one of my great teachers carl matthiasson, who was expert in board development hey used to say that a board will talk about anything and then he’d pause and he’d say, if you let them sound the point, the point was that the executive director, um, in in private dialogue with the board chair or the executive committee had to understand how to create an agenda that was consistent with where they were headed so that the organization didn’t waste a lot of time often times, you know, can you imagine tony in an average year, how many board meetings i sit in and listen? And so much of what boards talk about is not is in concert sequential to their their deepest desires and goals, paperclips and on dh office supplies a cz one example, you know, thinking ok and no on the worst, and the executive director doesn’t want to be micromanaged, you know, you hear that language a lot. Of course. On the other hand, the executive director is under macro managing, you know, and the the opposite, of course, of micro management is macro management and macro management is about the strategic alliance of the vision and here’s where you see a lot of executive director’s check out the and it leaves them vulnerable to being micromanaged, so i encourage in the book for the culture of a board to be robust and that the ceo see him or herself as part of a shaper or leader in that now lot of non-profit see, youse will read that and they would go well dahna you know, i’ve been doing of course i’ve been doing that for years, but when you look across the sector that’s not necessarily the habit off many ceos, they they often see themselves as just employees of the board and they and they abdicate that board leadership responsibility, yes, even though they’re not the named chair of the board, but you’re advocating that they still have a strong role in board leadership that’s, right? And some ceos who were former program directors and then that he became the ceo, they’re not by their character change agents. So what i’m describing is a character of a ceo that’s really a change agent because i’m interested in high performing non-profits that that solve the social problem that they set out to solve, whether it be reducing teen pregnancies or having more kids get through the school system successfully or or adult employment, for example. Um, so those ceos of those kinds of organizations generally are change agents and it’s not to say there’s something bad about the ceos are not it’s, just that i think that they have to think about a different place in the sector that might be better suited for their skills and talents. Okay, let’s, talk briefly about the gift of significance that you recommend from, um, from board members and you in the book, you have a calculation for what that ought to be boardmember boardmember and we don’t really have a chance to go through that calculation. But what? What? Why not a significant gift? Why? Why is it a gift of significance? Well, that’s a significant point. Most boards think about board trustee e-giving as giver. Get, um, and then there’s a third part of that is unsaid, which is give, get or get off. Get off! So i never liked that. And i taught at the united way here in new york city for many years i taught their board seminar and and did the given get policies and there’s wisdom? To that, and i’m not opposed to give and get policies, but i think there’s a ah much more thoughtful way to engage the process, which is to have a conversation about a gift of significance. What for you when you look at your philanthropic giving in the past few years, given your current income, what is a significant gift that stands out amongst all your, um, you’re you’re giving and the reason that this is a particularly good approach for trustee is that a trustee is stepping up in a leadership capacity toe inspire other donors to give by their giving, and they have to see the connection between how they think about their giving and what they want. The donors of the organization i do because the development director or the vice president, institutional advancement or the ceo needs to say my trustees have stepped up, they’ve made leadership gifts one hundred percent a hundred percent they khun cumulatively give um, you know, twenty six thousand seven hundred fifty three dollars, i’m that precise when i calculate the cumulative giving of aboard and reported back to two donors and the donor’s often laugh, but i’d rather give them. The real numbers to know that this is a real process if you’re if their boat donors of your trustees on your board, that can’t give a gift of significance. That’s not true, everybody can give a gift or significance. I mean, i’ve had its what’s significant to that exactly. I’ve had consumers of services that that social work, term consumers or program members on the boards that i’ve worked at, and and i’ve used the same principle with them, it could be five dollars could be fifty dollars, but for them, it’s a significant gift and it’s in phrasing it that way is a gift of significance. It captures the energy that we’re looking for around thinking about being ah fund-raising leader and, of course, ideally, too, from time to time, you want to ask the board to stretch beyond their normal giving, which is when you’re in a campaign or ah, special drive or there’s an anniversary, things like that. So continuing with some of the strategies that you recommend, um, you like like parlor gatherings over what’s a parlor gathering could be in an office conference room could be in your living room. Ah, parties with a purpose is, that is the general frays, and the purpose is the benevolence that the party ah it’s, not a party for a party sake it’s a party for a purpose. And the purpose is to sponsor and endorse and give money to the charity that it is. Ah, is the primary focus? They’re ninety minute gatherings. I describe the actual methods and rollout and is very user friendly chapter but ah lot of organizations keep waiting for that moment when they’re going to go to the next level and fund-raising, of course, is a practitioners art so here in the parties where the purpose you see avery practical method that you could roll out in two to three months, sixty to ninety days in fact, one of the smaller non-profits that listens to your radio program read the book their whole development committee. They’re all volunteers. Well, i love them because they’re listening. Yes, i don’t care what they do fund-raising wise. Frankly, lawrence, i don’t care if they bought your book or not. They’re there listening to the show that you could stop there. I love them, whoever you are, we love you. You know who you are. We love you, i’m sorry, i know it’s true and they they are going to do a party that when they called, i said, i’ll give you a free as i do anybody, i give anybody of free ah forty minute phone conversation about questions they have about the book, or i also come into organizations to meet with the development team or aboard team anyway, so i gave them a free consultation and they wanted to do a party with a purpose in the future, and i said, oh no, we’re going to have it before the year and we’re doing it now, and they’re going to be doing it right after between christmas and new year’s. Excellent. We gotta take a break when we come back tony’s take too. I’m wagging my finger about charity registration, and of course, laurence and i are going to keep talking about party gatherings and leadership. Council’s, hang in there with us. You couldn’t do anything to getting dink dink dink, you’re listening to the talking alternative network duitz e-giving e-giving good. 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, too? He’ll call us now at to one to seven to one eight, one eight, three that’s two one two, seven to one eight, one eight, three or find us on the web at www dot double diamond wellness dot com way. Look forward to serving you. Hi, i’m ostomel role, and i’m sloan wainwright, where the host of the new thursday morning show the music power hour. Eleven a m. We’re gonna have fun. Shine the light on all aspects of music and its limitless healing possibilities. We’re gonna invite artists to share their songs and play live will be listening and talking about great music from yesterday to today, so you’re invited to share in our musical conversation. Your ears will be delighted with the sound of music and our voices. Join austin and sloan live thursdays at eleven a. M on talking alternative dot com. You’re listening to the talking alternative network. Kayman hi, i’m bill mcginley, president, ceo of the association for healthcare philanthropy. And you’re listening to tony martignetti non-profit radio. Big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent. We’re not live today, so i can’t send literal live listener love, but i bet i can guess who the live listeners are. New york, new york, california, oregon, texas, massachusetts has been checking in lately live listener love to everybody from those states and everyone else who is listening live and of course, going abroad are very regular listeners from japan, china and korea live listener love to you as well. Podcast pleasantries to the nine thousand of you listening through itunes stitcher player fm podcast dot d in germany, we have a lot of listeners in germany podcast pleasantries to everybody listening to the podcast tony’s take two. Are you properly registered in each state where you’re soliciting donations? I asked that question often you should be think of a massachusetts charity that sends email to connecticut and u s mail into new york to solicit donations that charity needs to be registered in massachusetts and connecticut and new york. Do you have a donate now button? Are you accepting gifts online in about half the states? It’s kind of a fuzzy area, but about half the states when that donate now button goes live you’re deemed to be soliciting and it doesn’t matter whether anybody ever clicks on it. It’s it’s the solicitation going out through the live donate now button that is what triggers the charity registration laws in a lot of states. I’m building an online solution that is going to automate the charity registration process. I’m going to be talking about it, maura going to blogging it. Mohr partners and i are in development on the site right now. Technical partners included, we plan to go live in early twenty fourteen and it is going to make the charity registration process easier, much cheaper and quicker and explain the details to you all all online. So it’s going toe really streamlined the process. There is no completely web based solution to this, and we’re building it. If you want to know more about that, you can sign up for some insider alerts. I’ll send occasional emails to insiders who want to know more. You can reach me through the contact page on my blogged let me know that you’d like to be part of that list and my blog’s is tony martignetti dot com that is tony’s take two for friday, the eighth of november forty fourth show of the year let’s talk more about parlor gatherings lawrence, you do is a very, very askew, said user friendly chapter you have a lot of very robust advice, and i’ve always liked the idea of a small, intimate gathering, so we’re goingto focus on my prejudice for these types of events, not to the exclusion well here on the show, and we don’t have a chance to talk about everything all the strategies that you have in the book, but the book is full of lots of fund-raising strategies i happen to like the i never heard them called parlor gatherings, but i like, i like that idea. Um, who should host these thes parlor gatherings? Generally? There’s one one host who has a good network of friends, were colleagues, family members and in turn out twenty five to thirty people. I’ve been it parties where the purpose parlor gatherings that have as much money as seventy five that’s a big parlour. Yeah, but they have, you know, they’re people with big names and they have big networks and s o mostly, the host is responsible for inviting the guests mostly the host now in some organizations where our host doesn’t feel that they could deliver twenty five to thirty, people, maybe they have a co host or i’ve done three hosts and each of them commit delivering, you know, ten people and and that’s worked very well, especially because they’ve had the support in partnership of two other people that they like, and they’re going to do it together, and they see it as a ah fun thing to do. I love the fact that most of the the expense budgets on parlor gatherings are a couple hundred dollars. We don’t put out a lot of fancy food. We use cheap wine or no wine at all, depending on the organization that always has to be thought through. Um, and we don’t spend money on trinkets or literature. Um, if the if the host once, um, paper invitations as opposed to just using ah elektronik invitation service like ping ah, the host then has to pay for the cost of that, not the organization. And um and as i said, they are usually planned in sixty to ninety days, okay? And you want you want nobody to talk for more than five minutes, that’s right, who you should talk. Well, it has to be somebody. Ah, that that people can emotionally connect with generally a client or consumer who is prepared to deliver and it’s comfortable talking to a group of those could be very tender, intimate moments when it’s, when it’s someone who’s benefiting from the services of the organization. That’s right, it’s seen i’ve seen tears in in colleges, scholarship recipients. But the cause is something causes you mentioned run much more deeply even than education. Yeah, i people who have healed from years of recovery, people who have been supported in their process of coming out of jails and prisons, people who i have ah been through adoption processes. I mean, their stories are extremely powerful, and telling a story is what you need to help them work on and prepare for, so that they have some flare on some theatrics to it where the the audience makes eye contact with them, and that that they have good hand gestures and that they’re articulate. And everybody, of course, has their own style. I’ve been where some client i’ve been to some parties with a purpose where the clients are very stove. Oj and they have a quiet manner, but nonetheless your grandmother would appreciate it slipping little italian, italian and there you are, italian listeners. Ah, they’re they’re quieter in their presentation, but nonetheless still powerful because they prepared still very moving, very moving video is often good at larger events, but in smaller events ah, the intimacy of the smaller room gives gives good stage two to two personal witness who else should be talking? Ah, well, the the some official from the organization of boardmember or volunteer or staff member ceo doesn’t have to be to say, you know, no, the ceo is more than happy more than welcome to think of him or herself, but again in a high functioning fund-raising culture, everybody should be empowered to talk about the money, and teo, talk about the money in a way that that other people get it and doesn’t have to be the ceo there. There’s a one of the stories i tell in the book is a first party with a purpose for a small agency in brooklyn substance abuse recovery agency. They never did any private fund-raising they’d always relied on government grants and their first time. Out, they raised twenty six, twenty seven thousand dollars. They had two clients tell their story and ah, boardmember, who never saw herself as a fundraiser, stood up and was crying after listening to the that the two consumers tell their story and she burst out with a five thousand dollar pledge and somebody else in the room matched it, and none of that was prepared. But it was prepared conceptually, because we do have a bias in who we invite, that we try to invite people that we know something about, that they have some means now we’re not. We’re not strict about that, but we do ask the question. Ahn do seek people who have that some level of affluence now, a lot of smaller non-profits say right off the bat. I don’t know anybody, you know, with the that level of affluence, and i say, okay, well, let’s work with what we have and but amazingly, they always find somebody who writes that eighty percent of the rooms check on dh rehearsing you like tio, you’d like to rehearse. These rehearsing is very important, you know, the penultimate example of steve jobs that before he passed away at at apple, his his launches of new products were legendary, right? That he practiced those for weeks six, seven weeks every single day of running the whole team through rehearsals and himself. And anything worth go doing is worth practising foreign preparing well for so don’t think you could just, like, call the client up the night before and say, would you speak tomorrow at our you know, party with a purpose? That’s not the way to do it? And what about the important follow-up to your parlor gatherings? Well, part of the second speaker or the third speakers role is to ask for funds and and, ah, pledge form has handed out, and some people fill it out right there and it’s collected as people leave and for those that don’t hand the pledge, forman follow-up is necessary first of all, follow-up is necessary for everybody to say thank you, wei have a rule of sending out our thank you notes and forty eight hours business hours which a lot of non-profits find, you know really? Ah, hi rule to meet but we think it’s important that people get both paper and email thank you’s and they get a cumulative understanding of what happened at the party because a lot of donors are going to leave and they’re not going to know the cumulative results that they participated in the twenty six or twenty seven thousand or five thousand or twenty five hundred was raised when i share that impact, you want to share that impact, and you want to let people feel the good vibes of that they participated in, that they made it happen. And so the thank you notes need to go out the the results need to be go out by both female and paper. And then, of course, the e-giving history needs to be recorded in your database and there’s no excuse for a non-profit whether they’re volunteer with no budget, not having a database, as i say in the book, you can go to e base dot or get a free database that was developed by the rockefeller family foundation at my website for the book the non-profit fund-raising solution dot com there’s links to free databases, or you could just use a good excel spreadsheet and stay organized or an access that a base that’s comes with your you know, your computer there’s no, excuse thes days for you don’t have toe spend, you know, ten thousand a month with razors, edge or something. Thank you for sharing those resources to. Leadership councils we alluded to these earlier what’s the role of a leadership council. Well, a non-profit has a board that that worries about its governance. Generally we say that the executive staff is supposed to be worried about one, two, three years of management, and the board should be thinking about five to ten years. The pentagon, of course, has a seventy five year strategic plan, so they know where they’re going to be. I would like our sector to know a lot more about where it’s going to be, but no pat, no matter how powerful your board is, you still need mork community endorsement for your organization and the leadership council gives you that it’s a non governance structure. Some people call it honorary councils or advisory councils. I like the term leadership council because it’s, what we’re looking for, we’re looking for them to be leaders and sometimes those leaders khun step up and say things that your board can’t say, or your executive staff can’t say about your cause. And as we saw this pit last year or two years ago with planned parenthood, there were many people on its leadership council who spoke up. In their defense, where they’re bored, needed to keep, ah, quieter, acquired or voice. So leadership councils are very important. And sometimes you put people on leadership councils who don’t want to do the heavy lifting of governance. And sometimes you put them on because you have good feelings about how they love your organization, and you want to maintain that relationship, but they’re not appropriate for the board. So it’s a it’s, a mix of characters. We’ll take a break for a couple minutes. Keep talking about leadership councils. Dafs you’re listening to the talking alternative network. 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. What is our leadership council going to do? Lead endorse for legitimacy, credibility? They’re there to say we like these guys what they’re doing, we endorse and it there’s power by that association with their name, and they don’t even have to do anything just to have that happen. We do want people to do things on the leadership council. They’re generally a couple things. We want them to come to an annual gathering of the leadership council so that they could get their own personal update about the organization. Secondly, we want them to to meet with us individually, us being the development ofthis war, the executive office. We want to meet with them individually to talk about their own gift to the organization, plus their network of possibly doing guess what? Ah, party with a purpose for their network. So there’s a lot of in few inches integration of the tactics in part two of the book, while part one is all about the way you think about fund-raising part two is all about the the intermarriage of various tactics. For example, in a leadership council, i think i mentioned this in the plan giving chapter you could have a leadership council just for the people who are part of it playing give me that. There is a chapter devoted to plan giving. There is the only reason lawrence’s here. We’re not talking about that chapter it’s. The only thing that drew me to the book. I read it from backward. I read, i read that chapter first. The plan giving is, ah, well, many times non-profits overlook having a plan giving society for their donors that that give through their bequests or their wills or insurance policies or whatever the mechanism and having a leadership council of your plan giving group is very important. Um ah, there was a small client i worked with here in east haven, connecticut, the shoreline trolley museum. They’re in the in the midst of closing on a two million dollar campaign so that they could have proper buildings for their antique trolleys. They have one hundred antique trolleys, which tell the story of the trolleys from the eighteen hundreds. Amazing place. My kids love it and the ah, they never had paid attention to their legacy there. They’re playing e-giving ah, donors and we started to talk to them or and organized that group. And they have a leadership council now off their plan giving donor and twenty, twenty one people joined the first year. And i think four five have joined the second year, and they were unsung people who had thought about e-giving for the future where i think you would know better than i, but something like a low seven percent of people think about a plan gift. Whereas in there course of their life, like eighty five or ninety percent of people think about giving but upon their death, they generally just leave their money to their to their family. Yeah, there’s. Some small percentage of people that have, ah, charitable bequest in there will yes, when the leadership council is advocating and endorsing, who were they advocating in endorsing, too? Ah, to the press to other thought leaders conferences during the height of the aids epidemic, the leadership council that i put together at harlem united many of those leaders would would mention in their addresses about aids and howto compassionately. Respond. They would mention that they were on the honorary council of harlem united. It meant it meant legitimacy for them and for us that they would mention that it worked both ways you had ah, leadership council you site in the book that had fifty five members. Oh, yes, what that sounds huge. Yes. And i had the same response to the ceo, and he turned around and said, but look at my mission. I’m i have to represent, you know, thiss whole county and there were, i don’t know twenty four five smaller towns in this as county. And he represented three sectors, not just the nonprofit sector, but government and business and real estate was a big factor of that. So he needed a large counsel, and he saw the wisdom of that. And he i actually had a staff member hired to manage that leadership council, and it brought him it was a wise move. Um, it brought him a lot of impact because he he didn’t neglect his leadership council. A lot of times leadership, council’s air started. I see i go in and, um, auditing and organization. And i look at their letterhead and i see. I say, oh, you have an advisory council says here? Well, yeah, but not really learns i said, what do you mean? Well, we really don’t you know, that was a couple years ago, and it was so and so’s idea and and it’s just fallen by the wayside. You see there’s an example where the culture of the organization didn’t embrace the tactic tactics don’t raise money. Yeah, excellent on their own, they need a culture to nest in and if they’re if they’re if the tactic is in an organization where the where it’s loved and cared for it, then produces results, so then they get the crazy idea that oh, well, the leadership council never really did raise much money for us, totally disassociating themselves from ah lack of developing it and creating a plan for it. At harlem united, our leadership council was reviewed every year, and the plan was updated and revised and evaluated, and that was brought to the boardmember that the board? I’m sorry at a board meeting we we always had cochairs for the leadership council, male and female, pretty consistent about that for capital campaigns, male and female leaders of the campaign cabinet and those two leaders i would invite to come in and give a state of of the union of the our leadership council to the board, and it was and the board members would go to the annual gathering of the leadership council. The board members were asked to do that, and so there was nice synergy and harmony there no competition, we have just about a minute and a half before to wrap up, and so i want to spend that time asking what it is that you love about the work that you do well fund-raising is a noble profession and it’s a bridge builder between the idea that you have that will make the world a better place and the money you need to actualize the program. And so the methods of fund-raising are build that bridge, and and you love building bridges, and absolutely one of my old teachers used to say, if you build bridges, don’t don’t be surprised when people walk on them or walk over you, but nonetheless fund-raising is that bridge between the non-profits idea and the reality of making it happen? There are lots of very good. Ideas in the book it is the non-profit fund-raising solution. Powerful revenue strategy is to take you to the next level. Lawrence paige nani lawrence’s l a u r e n c e panjwani perfect. Thank you so much for being guests. Been a pleasure. I’ve been delighted to be here. And i wanna shout out just quickly to all by blogged readers. About forty, five hundred of them raise your block non-profit fund-raising solution dot com and you can sign up there to be on the block. Outstanding. Thank you again. Thank you. Next week, author denny elliot discusses her book the ethics of asking lots of fund-raising situations raise ethical questions and we are going to talk about them. Rally bound is a sponsor. They make simple, reliable peer-to-peer fund-raising software friends asking friends to give to your cause. There is support for you and for all the people who are asking their friends to give to your campaign. You can claim a discount as a non-profit radio listener go to rally bound dot com or just call them up and ask for joe mcgee. This is this is the type of organization there are they want to. Talk to you personally, ask for joe. I’ve talked to joe, i’ve met the ceo, shmuley, very good guys, call them up, talk to joe mcgee. He will help you get your campaign started. They are at triple eight seven six, seven, ninety seventy six. Our creative producer is claire meyerhoff. Sam lever, which is our line producer, shows social media is by deborah askanase of community organizer two point. Oh, the remote producer of tony martignetti non-profit radio is john federico of the new rules, and our music is by scott stein. I do hope you’re going to be with me next friday, one o’clock eastern. I’m talking alternative road casting at talking alternative dot com. E-giving didn’t think dick tooting the good ending, depending. You’re listening to the talking, alternate network, waiting to get in. Are you a female entrepreneur? Ready to break through? Join us at sixty body sassy sol, where women are empowered to ask one received what they truly want in love, life and business. Tune in thursday, said noon eastern time to learn tips and juicy secrets from inspiring women and men who, there to define their success, get inspired, stay motivated and defying your version of giant success with sexy body sake. Soul. Every thursday ad, men in new york times on talking alternative dot coms. 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. You’re listening to talking alternative network at www dot talking alternative dot com, now broadcasting twenty four hours a day. 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 fridays one to two eastern on talking alternative broadcasting are you concerned about the future of your business for career? Would you like it all to just be better? Well, the way to do that is to better communication. And the best way to do that is training from the team at improving communications. This is larry sharp, host of the ivory tower radio program and director at improving communications. Does your office need better leadership? Customer service sales or maybe better writing are speaking skills? Could they be better at dealing with confrontation conflicts, touchy subjects all are covered here at improving communications. If you’re in the new york city area, stop by one of our public classes or get your human resource is in touch with us. The website is improving communications, dot com that’s improving communications, dot com improve your professional environment. Be more effective, be happier. And make more money. Improving communications. That’s the told you.

Thank You’s For Year-End Giving

Vine Diabetes UK video

Last week for The Chronicle of Philanthropy I co-hosted a Google+ Hangout on Air on creative thank you’s–and the legal requirements that accompany them–for your year-end giving campaign.

With me were:
Claire Axelrad, fundraising consultant at Clairification.com
Gene Takagi, Esq., principal of the Nonprofit & Exempt Organizations law group (NEO) and contributor to Tony Martignetti Nonprofit Radio
Cody Switzer, my co-host and web editor at The Chronicle

It was Halloween fun, valuable info and over 200 hung out with us!

I’ve got takeaways:
— if you’re a small, local nonprofit, use it to your advantage: visit your donors with small thank you gifts
— Claire bakes, so she brings cookies or brownies to donors’ homes to say thanks—that’s incredible!
— handwritten notes are very rare, so they’re special; use them for an informal thanks within 48 hours of the gift
— there are lots of inexpensive ways to give a sincere thanks—watch the vid, below
— if you use video and kids are included, get a simple release from parents (Gene had more on video, so watch below)
— all formal acknowledgements have to include name of nonprofit, date of gift and amount
— for gifts of $250 or more, add a description if it’s not cash and a statement whether your donor received something in exchange

Here’s the video. (It ends abruptly because the host computer rebooted and kicked us all off. Well, not all. Claire, Gene and I kept the show going, hoping that the recording hadn’t ended, but it had.)

Thank you Claire, Gene and Cody! And Margie Fleming Glennon at The Chronicle for organizing us!

p.s. Here’s Gene’s blog on our Hangout.