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Nonprofit Radio, February 3, 2012: Entrepreneurs On Board & Starting The Planned Giving Conversation

Big Nonprofit Ideas for the Other 95%

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Geri Stengel
Geri Stengel: Entrepreneurs On Board

Entrepreneurs are underutilized on boards and Geri Stengel, founder of Ventureneer, will help you make the fix. Who are they? How do you find them? And how do you approach them to get their special talents on your board?

Please take a moment to take the survey for this week’s segment with Geri! You’ll find it here at the end of the guest and segment descriptions. Thank you!

 

Lorri Greif
Lorri Greif: Starting The Planned Giving Conversation

Lorri Greif, president of Breakthrough Philanthropy, encourages you to start the planned giving conversation with your committed prospects and donors. (Pre-recorded at National Philanthropy Day, AFP Westchester County chapter.)

 


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Here is the link to the podcast: 077: Entrepreneurs On Board & Starting The Planned Giving Conversation

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Welcome to the show, this is tony martignetti non-profit radio big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent of your aptly named host on february third, two thousand twelve. I hope you were with me last week. I sincerely hope so because then you would have heard looking at giving two thousand eleven and two thousand twelve. Rob mitchell, ceo of atlas of giving, was with me last week to talk about two thousand eleven’s giving by sector source and state. We also looked ahead to predictions for this year, and it was breaking the mold in traditional endowment design from the national conference on philanthropic planning last week, katherine miree, consultant and attorney attorney barry looked at alternatives to endowment design that are rooted in lawsuits, law changes and difficulties implementing donor for pus is that have arisen with the way endowments are traditionally set up this week, entrepreneurs onboard and starting the plan giving conversation first up, entrepreneurs are under utilized on boards and jerry stengel, founder of venture near we’ll help you make the fix. Who are they? How do you find them? And how do you approach them to get their special talents on your board and starting the plan e-giving conversation. Laurie greiff, president of breakthrough philanthropy, encourages you to start the plan giving conversation with your committed prospects and donors, and this was pre recorded at last year’s national philanthropy day, hosted by westchester county chapter of afb association of fund-raising professionals between the guests has always tony’s take two on my block this week, my next-gen charity, two thousand eleven interviews, part for innovation, the journey and motivation in three different videos. We’re live tweeting the show this week. Use the hashtag non-profit radio to join the conversation with us on twitter. The show is supported by g grace corporate real estate services. I’m grateful for their support. I really am right now. We take a break and when we returned entrepreneurs onboard, so stay with me. You’re listening to the talking alternative network. 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. Is your marriage in trouble? Are you considering divorce? Hello, i’m lawrence bloom, a family law attorney in new york and new jersey. No one is happier than the day their divorce is final. My firm can help you. We take the nasty out of the divorce process and make people happy. Police call a set to one, two, nine six four three five zero two for a free consultation. That’s lawrence h bloom two, one two, nine, six, four, three five zero two. We make people happy. Hyre hey, all you crazy listeners looking to boost your business? Why not advertise on talking alternative with very reasonable rates? Interested simply email at info at talking alternative dot com. Welcome back to big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent on tony martignetti non-profit radio, i guess now is jerry stengel. We’re going to talk about entrepreneurs on board. Jerry is the founder of venture near offering social enterprises non-profits and small businesses. Advice from a professional advisors and piers with real world experience. I’m very pleased that her work and her thoughts about entrepreneurs on board boards brings her back to the show. Jerry, welcome, welcome. I’m glad to be here. It’s a pleasure in the studio this time. First time was we did a panel at the you were you were talking about linked in at the national philanthropy day at the f b westchester? Absolutely. And i’m going to touch on lincoln again today. Okay? Ah ah. Now i know why. So let’s talk about entrepreneurs on dh. Maybe that’ll have something to do with how to find them. But what are we talking about? Who are we? What is the universe? Who? Let’s define entrepreneurs. So in this particular case, i’m just talking about small business owners. So they made have ah, company that has a hundred employees or a handful of employees, but they’re running the operation and managing a business and growing it. And what do these people have that special offer? Two boards? Well, they have a lot in common with the non-profit ceo and one is that they have a fire in their belly. So justus, the non-profit ceo, is passionate about the mission of their non-profit the entrepreneur is very, very passionate about their business, they are creative problem solvers, so they seen up obstacle, they go around it under it, and sometimes even through it, they are also resourceful. So justus, the non-profit ceo, does mohr for less, so doesn’t entrepreneur. So this instance, somebody that’s going toe, you know, say, spend a gazillion dollars on marketing, and they also have a lot of technical expertise, so you’re non-profit may need somebody who’s good at finance, somebody who’s good at logistics air operations, you might turn to somebody from the manufacturing industry or perhaps your non-profit has a lot of customer service people, and you need to do a lot of training. You might need somebody from the service industry, so you’re going to turn to non-profit not non-profits two entrepreneurs for a variety of reasons, these people are running businesses though small, medium or large? Aren’t they too busy to contribute to a board? So they absolutely are very, very busy, and one of the things that i think is critical when you are talking. Teo are trying to recruit an entrepreneur, and really, this would be for anybody is to spell out how much time what is the time commitment? So how many board meetings do you have? What is thie attendants expectation? Do you have to be on committees? How many times does the committee meet? How long are those meetings? Do you throw a lot of special events and expect your board members to be there? Okay, so we’ll and we’ll get into the setting the expectations, which is sort of what you’re what you’re scratching it, but so you’re confident that even though these air busy people, they’ll if they believe in your work, they’ll carve out time for you? Absolutely, they actually think that giving back it is important to their own success and it’s the right thing to dio so fidelity gift funded a survey last year, and they found that entrepreneurs, um, believe a majority of them that their success is tied to doing good work, but they’re underutilized on boards you feel non-profits don’t recruit them sufficiently don’t pay enough attention, right? So i think that non-profits need more board members and need board members that have business expertise and technical expertise, and they can seek out entrepreneurs as one type of person that would be appropriate for their board. But so why do you suppose they’re there under under? I don’t know if underappreciated is right, but underutilized in in, in looking at who should be boardmember czar non-profits no reluctant to approach them because then we feel they’re so busy, or is there something else going on? How come we’re not paying enough attention to them? So i think that there are in large corporations, some large corporations actually do training teo, help up and coming managers get onto boards and it’s a way of training them as a cz leaders. So i think lord xu corporation’s think mohr about making sure that there people are giving back in this particular way, so they’re pro actively looking for places to put there up and coming managers s oh, it’s a pse much of the corporation reaching out. To the non-profit to the non-profit is the non-profit thinking about it, they also will make sure that they’re people are listed in the resource is that are available. Teo find ah, perspective board members so there’s there’s more outreach on the corporate side, entrepreneurs there not really thinking about doing this, but you’re confident that if if we come to them, if the non-profit comes to them with the idea that they’ll be receptive? Absolutely and there’s one organization that actually is proactively trying to get entrepreneurs on two boards and that’s a palindrome, they’re based in silicon valley, and they are trying to get hi tech buy-in entrepreneurs onto non-profit boards, and they work with them on setting expectations and even talking about what the roles and responsibilities will bake. And just very briefly before break what’s that website pal drone advisors and that’s a good question palindrome advisers dot org’s i’m going to say, pal a drone p a l d i and a p a l d i n r o m a advise talent palindrome palindrome, same like otto is a palindrome, same backwards and forwards. Okay, this is auto martignetti we’re going to take a break. And when we returned, of course, jerry strangle stays with me, and i hope you do, too. Co-branding think dick tooting getting ding, ding, ding ding. You’re listening to the talking alternate network, itching to get anything. Duitz cubine 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. Oppcoll hi, this is psychic medium. Betsy cohen, host of the show. The power of intuition. Join me at talking alternative that calm mondays at eleven a. M call in for a free psychic reading. Learn how to tune into your intuition to feel better and to create your optimum life. I’m here to guide you and to assist you in creating life that you deserve. Listen every monday at eleven a, m on talking alternative dot com. Are you feeling overwhelmed and the current chaos of our changing times? A deeper understanding of authentic astrology can uncover solutions in every area of life. After all, metaphysics is just quantum physics, politically expressed, i and montgomery taylor and i offer lectures, seminars and private consultations. For more information, contact me at monte m o nt y at r l j media. Dot com talking alternative radio twenty four hours a day. Hi, i’m kate piela, executive director of dance, new amsterdam. And you’re listening to tony martignetti non-profit radio. Big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent. Welcome back to the show. Always big non-profit ideas. Well, you just heard that. Okay, big non-profit ages for the other ninety five percent. Thank you, kate paler for doing that dropped for us, jerry. I surveyed the listeners before the show and won. The questions was, do you have any entrepreneurs on your board and only one third do and two thirds don’t and one of the other questions wass if not so for the for the two thirds that don’t have you ever tried to recruit on entrepreneur, dear board? And yes, to two thirds of those had indeed, so people have largely trying, but on ly a third of the listeners who answered the pole actually have entrepreneurs on board on their board, but you’re saying, you know, fire in the belly and these people are resourceful and and problem solvers, but that could sound like they might be a little troublemaker like they’re goingto they’re gonna push to fast. They’re going to move things too quickly. Entrepreneurs maybe push things fast on that’s a good thing for non-profits so sometimes non-profits khun move a little bit slowly and the impatience of small business owner can get them off the dime so i don’t see that i don’t see the downside in that way. We could use him. We could use some stirring up. Yeah. Okay. How about just in terms of their ah, they’re giving aren’t entrepreneurs have they rank generosity, life? So this is really, really fascinating. Entrepreneurs will give personally, and they’ll also give through their company when they give through their company. The rate at which they give is twice as much the rate of a large corporations giving oh, twice as much twice as much per cent to twice okay. And this is when they’re on a board or we don’t know whether this is on a board or not. I don’t know whether it’s on a board or not. So this is again that survey that i was talking about that was done by fidelity gift fund was anything else interesting in that in that survey about entrepreneurs before we go further about getting them on, i’m going to say that it really is the belief from the entrepreneur that it’s part of them it’s part of their success. It’s the reason they’re goingto do well is giving back okay, but it’s also interesting, then too correlate that with what you said earlier about them not really reaching out as much to non-profits as employees in corporations, or as as corporations do for their employees. So the entrepreneurs feel this, but maybe they don’t know how to get started. They may not know how to get started and the non-profit may not know howto reach them, so i think it’s a two way street here. So it’s both you know, if i were talking to a group of entrepreneurs, i would be talking about the benefits of being on a board to an entrepreneur. So as an entrepreneur, i know that i don’t have a lot of role models to say when i’ve been on a board i’ve seen first hand my board members in action, they become my role models, i get to learn leadership from my fellow boardmember soak if the my audience were entrepreneurs, that’s what i would be plugging and again before we get to the non-profit breaking down that wall on dh starting approach entrepreneurs don’t you say a little more about your own experience on aboard? What board you’re on? How that’s been, so i’ve been on a variety of boards. I was on the new york city chapter and the national association of women business owners for eight years for i don’t know for six years i was the vice chair of governance matters, which is non-profit advocacy group for better governance, so the better you govern the mohr good you’re going to be doing, and i’m now on a homeless organization practices board, praxis housing and i was recruited, you know, maybe not because i am an entrepreneur, but they know me because i was actually doing work with them. What do they have you doing? What expertise air you providing? So this is really interesting and what i love about being on the boards, it’s, that i like to step into a role that i don’t do within my company. So i am a marketing expert. I’ve never taken on marketing the marketing committee, i do not have fund-raising experience and that’s the committee that i decided to chair. Oh, okay, but they would have recruited you in part for your expertise. No, but they’re not tapping that marketing expertise. So in this particular case, they recruited me partially because i’m a consensus builder on yes, i do have marketing expertise, and i will obviously bring that in and help them in particular social media expertise, but it was not on that committee in the morning. I may bring it in because i’m a blogger, so i may be blogging about my experience as helping diversify this particular non-profits revenue streams, okay, so but in your case, it was mme or your skill as a consensus builder. Yeah, that because you mentioned that one of the things that entrepreneurs bring is some some ex, some expertise, and in your case, it was largely the consensus building. So this particular non-profit had just come through a rough pat patch, and many people would have been oh, my god, no, i can’t go on the board, you know, bad things that just happened to them. The ceo, you know? Ah, ah, you know, left the organization entrepreneurs are unafraid of that kind of stuff. They don’t mind messy things, and i’ve been in messy things. I’ve persevered and figured it out. As you know, it’s, a czar mentioned entrepreneurs are creative problem solvers and one way that i happen to do it is through people skills other people may use other skills, but in my case, it’s people skills so important to recognize that the entrepreneur is multidemensional and not just the sum of what’s written on a resume in terms of their own business experience. Absolutely. And as i said, they deliberately recruited may because they wanted sort of my personality. Okay, well, you’re a lovely person. I can see that. Thank you. S so let’s, get back to the non-profit generally starting to approach this s o this two way street, we know entrepreneurs are not reaching out as much as we might like to non-profits to seek boardmember ship, what can non-profits due to start tio approach entrepreneurs so i would first look in my own backyard. So what i mean by that is look to your donors and to your volunteers, so they are already passionate about your non-profit because they’re working with you’re giving money with to you, you’re seeing them in action. So you know what you like about them and you’re seeing whether there would be an additional fit in sort of upping their commitment, which would be to get on the board. Are we looking on? Lee at major donors, when we’re looking at our donors, i would say that you might first look at the low hanging fruit, which is major donors, but as you’re moving your donors up the pipeline your minor league donors to you were always trying to cultivate them and become bigger donors. You may see a diamond in the rough, and you may decide that that diamond would be best cultivated through board experience rather than, you know, upping the dollar commitment and people might be showing their commitment through smaller gif ts but very consistent, maybe many years they’ve been giving, but not at a level that you write call a major gift, right? And there’s also mohr tio the things that an entrepreneur can do for you, it’s not just about money, it could be the expertise that’s really critical as we as we talked about, okay, we’re live tweeting. The show has always used hashtag non-profit radio to join the conversation on twitter with jerry stengel she’s founder of venture near, which is spelled venture, and then n e r, which you’ll find it venture near dot com we’re talking about entrepreneurs on your board, all right? So aside from looking in your internal database, how can we start to identify entrepreneurs? So there are some online resource is that you can use borden it yusa is one of them. You may go to your local umbrella organization. Okay, let me stop you there. What is what is bored net us a do? So borden it yusa is data bus and it’s about a non-profit being able teo, utilize the database to find the expertise that they need on their board. So i guess the first step for the non-profit would be to do an assessment, what skills do they need? And then they can actually, you know, screen by financial expertise, legal expertise, marketing expertise to find people in their geographic area. Okay, how do we after we’ve mined our own data? So we’ve found major donors or maybe consistent, smaller donors, but and how do we find out who’s an entrepreneur? We’ve got this group of committed donors, but how do we know who among them are the entrepreneurs that we want to start to target? So if you have a good database, i hope you know that in your database, so you’re not you’re not, you know, some are some do not have that don’t have business. They just know that they get a check every year, but they don’t have the business background of the person. So all right, so absent that come on, jerry strangle, you know, you know, so i’m going down for the for the small shit can you can’t drill down. One of the ways that you can drill down is put that name in tow linked in. Okay, so one of my favorite ways of finding ah, perspective boardmember is that’s actually the use linkedin? Because you can search by you can use linkedin it’s an amazing database of professional managerial people, and you can screen people by geographic area by whether they’re in entrepreneur by the size of company, by the industry on dh find even people that are passionate about your cause because they now have a section in which you can tell people, you know what? The cause that you care about, okay? All right, so we’ve got the names we have linked in. Is this an advanced search that you’re talking about in lincoln or a standard search? How do we actually do the search to run these names from our own database to find out who the entrepreneurs are it is an advanced search, but they’re advanced search is very using user friendly. So you’re just filling out a form. So it was just a checklist of things. Okay, how do you get it? First of all, advanced search is available in the free linked in service, right? Absolutely part of free. Okay. And how do you get into advanced search where’s? That so i think in the upper right hand corner there’s the box that says search and right underneath that they’ll be ah, hi protects link, teo advanced search click on that and then the form pops up and you’re literally just completing a form. Okay? And what would we be looking? What what attributes would we be looking forward to? See? Well, at one point were just looking at names because we got names from a general database, but suppose suppose now we’re beyond that. We’ve mined our own data and gone toe linked in to confirm who’s an entrepreneur who’s not, but beyond that now we’re trying to find new entrepreneurs that we don’t know what we do on linked in tow, identify them so again you can fill out the form because they’re gonna have a Job title on 1 of the job titles, i believe, is entrepreneur, but if it isn’t, then you could do president of the company and you’re just picking a size a company because i know they have size of company. They do have industry so you can pick up by industry and i’m not sure if they have job function. They might have job function also. Okay. Andan other possible title. Besides, president might be founder, right? Like you’re found your deshele founder venture near you ventured years our company again. Okay, so linked in very underutilized. And you were on that panel. That was the december twenty third show. So if people want to know more about using linked in which that panel jerry was part of felt is the most underutilized social media. Then listen to the go back and listen to the december twenty third show. Devoted teo devoted to link, then. Okay. Other other resource is besides borden at yusa linked in so again local umbrella organizations like united way here in new york, we have board serve. N y c, which is done by united way. We have the junior league new york city, which trains people to become board members. Andi also mentioned palindrome advisors, right? Palindrome otto. You know, i mentioned otto because that’s altum pantene organization, which i was president, i was found her off. I was an entrepreneur at, like, fourteen, fourteen, fifteen years old was was founder of otto, where i grew up altum pantene organization, otto, i love palindromes. I also love liberations, but that’s for another show. So how do we approach these people now? We’ve identified who they are using. These resource is how do we get to them? So in the case of linked in, what you might do is have an intermediate person, somebody that you know, who knows them, make that introduction if you don’t know somebody because you’re passionate about the same thing sort of cold emailing them is not something that’s going to offend them, you know, you’re talking to them about something that they particularly care about. That could be poverty that could be animals. It could be whatever that non-profit is about. And you’re saying you care about animals and that’s what? We’re all about can we have a discussion? And email is actually on linked in. A lot of people have their email address unlinked in or you could use a lincoln message, i guess. Yeah. So there’s a couple of different ways you can have somebody make that introduction on. Then if you pay for link clearly that’s preferred if you have a warm, warm reduction warm introduction, right? Always a warm introduction is better than a cult introductions. If you have a list of names, you might run that list by your board, major donors and see if they know any of these potential boardmember yeah, i’m going to say the chances are the staff maybe doing that screening for you there’s ways and linked in that you would be able to know where the overlapping people are in which boardmember knows the person that you want to contact. Okay. All right. How do you do that? Quickly? How do you do that? Quickly? We just have a couple of minutes, but leave the detail hanging. How would you find those overlaps? So oh, god, you’re really putting me on the spot. And i have to think this through. You know, i can’t come up, yeah, facebook page. All right, so we’ll put it on the facebook jerry’s going to post on our facebook page, which is facebook dot com, of course, and then the name of the show how to make thes overlap findings on linked in. Okay, so now you’ve approached the person you start the you start the conversation? Absolutely, and part of the conversation might be an in person meeting and it’s really get to know you meeting, and that first thing is again to confirm passion alignment. So the most important thing is that they care about the mission of your organisation, and then we have to start to convey those expectations that you mentioned earlier and the next thing that we would talk about it’s really the time commitment buy-in and then after that, i would talk about what the duties are, so if they’ve never been on, if the entrepreneur has never been on the board, what fiduciary legal ethical responsibilities does the person have? What they may not realize is it’s the board’s responsibility toe hyre and evaluate the ceo, edie of the non-profit it’s the board’s responsibility to review and approve the budget in many non-profits cases. It’s, not the board’s job to do the work of the organization. I’m gonna leave with our last poll question, which was, if you do have entrepreneurs on your board, how are they working out for you? One hundred percent said they are above average board members. Validation of everything jerry strangle is telling us you should be on should be searching for entrepreneurs. Jerry is the founder of venture near offering social enterprises non-profits in small business media, small businesses, advice from professional advisors and piers with real world experience venture near dot com is the domain. Jerry, thanks very much for being in studio guest. Thank you. It was a pleasure. Please stay with me when we returned. Tony’s, take two. Yeah, you’re listening to the talking alternative network. Are you feeling overwhelmed in the current chaos of our changing times? A deeper understanding of authentic astrology can uncover solutions in every area of life. After all, metaphysics is just quantum physics, politically expressed on montgomery taylor, and i offer lectures, seminars and private consultations. For more information, contact me at monte m o nt. Y at r l j media. Dot com are you stuck in your business or career trying to take your business to the next level, and it keeps hitting a wall? This is sam liebowitz, the conscious consultant. I will help you get to the root cause of your abundance issues and help move you forward in your life. Call me now and let’s. Create the future you dream of. Two, one, two, seven, two, one, eight, one, eight, three, that’s to one to seven to one, eight one eight three. The conscious consultant helping conscious people. Be better business people. Hey, all you crazy listeners looking to boost your business? Why not advertise on talking alternative with very reasonable rates? Interested simply email at info at talking alternative dot com welcome back to time for tony’s take two on my block this week, my next-gen charity two thousand eleven interviews part for and the last part, sadly, my show was a social was a media sponsor of the next-gen charity conference last november here in new york city, and i got a dozen excellent, insightful, thoughtful interviews from the speakers there and the last three are linked on my block this week, abby falik is the ceo of global citizen year, and she and i talked about innovation and the leadership to envision it and drive it forward. Eric sacristan wants you to pursue your hero’s journey his journey took him across the country, meeting two hundred of the world’s, most influential and powerful people over a cup of coffee. Andi learned, you know, amazing lessons from these two hundred people on dh made a film about it called the journey it’s, a disney document documentary chronicling him driving across country with a vw. I think it was yellow. I’ve seen the video, i’ve seen the journey, i’m pretty sure he had a yellow vw microbus, which broke down a couple of times, and you watched him struggle for funding. To get the the vw fixed on dh to continue making his journey across country. And you also see him in phone booths calling some of the most influential people in the country, inviting them to a cup of coffee because that’s all he could afford to take them out too. And jacob are men in is a director at the x prize foundation, and he explains how the x prize motivates people and he wants you to make space to dream. So links to these interviews and the first nine of the twelve are on my block at tony martignetti dot com note the new earl for the blogged tony martignetti dot com that’s tony’s take two for friday, february third, the fifth show of two thousand twelve right now, it’s starting the plan giving conversation with laurie greiff from philanthropy day at the association of fund-raising professionals, westchester county chapter and here’s. That pre recorded interview welcome to tony martignetti non-profit radio coverage of national philanthropy day, hosted by the association of fund-raising professionals, westchester county chapter we’re at the edith macy conference centre in briarcliff manor, new york, and with me now is laurie graph. She is president of breakthrough philanthropy and her seminar topic is starting the plant e-giving conversation. Laurie graph welcome. Thank you. Hi, what are non-profits not doing in terms of just starting that conversation? Opening the door that you’d like them like to see them do more of, i think that they’re not making plan giving visible enough is a way to give to their organizations. People know about annual campaigns and major gifts and capital campaigns, and they’re actively marketed. But plan giving is something that people don’t think of initially when they want to make a gift. And i don’t think that non-profits bring it up enough and marketed enough. And what about the small non-profit can can the small shop be involved in plant e-giving absolutely, absolutely any non-profit that is funded by individuals and has been around for a while and has a long term mission should be doing plan giving, okay and around for a while. How long roughly should you live long enough to feel that your donors are totally committed to you? It’s very hard to say. Sometimes it could be just five years. Sometimes it might be ten years. It could even be three. Years, but if you have people who are totally committed to supporting the organization, then you should be talking to them about this kind of giving, okay on dh how do we know that they’re committed? How do we judge that? That commitment, because you’ve been talking to them all along, it’s it’s not even so much through their gifts, says through their actions, for example, you might think that someone who’s given to you for ten years is your best giver and maybe that’s the the case, but somebody who’s been volunteering consistently without even making significant gives at any point may also be a very, very good prospects. So it’s a question of knowing who you’re talking to it’s all about relationships, ok? And how about age? Is that that’s an important factor before we tryingto want to get out who we’re going to start the conversation with and then out everybody candidate at some point for playing e-giving but it depends. I think that you can talk to anyone at any point, because i have no qualms about saying to someone whose family has been committed to the organization say, a very young person who’s just gotten married just had a baby, you know you’re going to be doing a will. You might want to think about other things besides just your wife and children start building your estate now maybe you’d like to consider including us for a small piece right now and let them say yes or no, but least the thought is in their head and you have that much longer to ask them also. And for an older person while you you want to be sure that it’s not such an old age that they finished with their estate planning and they’re not going to change their will or make any changes. So it really is it’s up to the individual’s relationship, ok, eso, in terms of your seminar topic, you know, starting the plane giving conversation, who should be having the conversation? We’re not it’s, not just fundraisers, right? Not just professional fundraisers, but maybe boards or directors. Who do you like to see having these conversations? It’s fund-raising so whoever you use with your fund-raising that’s who you should be using with your plan giving, you’re already in the conversation and neither the donor is is comfortable with you or or with the exec, director or boardmember whatever their relationship connection is that’s the person you might wantto have involved with? Withy asked. On the other hand, i’ve asked many people justice, the fundraiser, but i’ve had a long term relationship with them, and they tell you the most extraordinary things, once you start that kind of conversation you just never know what’s going to come out it’s very personal. So you may be the best person in something you size up, just like any other major gift. And, you know, i may be i probably should have asked you this early on, but how do you define planned giving? What? What? What’s the scope that we’re talking about just so that listeners know what types of giving types of gifts we’re talking about? You know, it’s really not so much what i define us plan giving because the whole industry sees it in a different way in different, you know, larger organizations see it differently from smaller ones, anything that’s more complicated than writing a check, any gift from the ninety five percent of the assets that are not cash that people have, i think that that somehow touches on a plan gift? It could even be something current. I mean, people giving money from from their iras is considered a planned gift now, if you’re over seventy and a half but to me, it’s a major gift, it’s an outright cash gift so depends in terms of getting to starting that that plan giving conversation if we have volunteers who are regularly talking about fund-raising so, as you said, we want to engage them in opening the plan, giving conversation to what degree to do, volunteers need to be trained about details and technical sides of planned e-giving you don’t need the details, you need to know that the kind of gifts that come out of donors for plan gifts are generally the biggest gift they’ll make. They are commitments to legacy and making a change or an ongoing presence in the organization and that’s really all that you need to know if your volunteer talking to somebody once you get the reality of where they are with the organization, then then somebody with more experience may want to talk to them a professional. Okay, but but your seminar is about opening that door just getting the conversation started. Yes, but i was talking to a room full of professional fundraisers and amazingly, a lot of them didn’t have plan giving was just drives me nuts because it’s a huge, huge gift for anybody who does it it’s the biggest gift they’ll probably ever make, and they’re doing it to have an impact, a basic impact on the organization in the world. So, you know, it’s an important gift and it’s just beyond me, while people why people aren’t you know what it is, it’s not beyond me, actually, because people are pressed for time and this requires a tremendous amount of cultivation and getting involved and really working with donors on a long term basis. So going back to the volunteers, how do you train them? Tio, just start this conversation. What? What what words did they use? How do you teach people that gave some examples? For instance, supposing you have somebody with your organisation who doesn’t even give you a lot of money, but the volunteer to be at every every event, and then they volunteered to help out and and they’ve been doing it for years and years. What’s wrong with sang gi george, you’ve been helping us forever. You’re like part of this place already. Is there any reason you know why you don’t give money and you might say, well, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s, the action that really brings me into this, and then you say, well, no, there may be a time when you want to think about putting us in your will. So even if somebody has put off a little bit by the fact that they haven’t really been donors and now the fundraiser is asking them for a gift, there are soft ways of approaching people, anybody you could say, joan, you’ve been giving to us for years and years, and you’ve made such a different for whatever in our organization. Have you thought about putting us in your will? We’re part of your legacy, you know, something like that. The point is that you already know the people you’re talking to strangers are not going to be comfortable in this conversation, okay? So that’s the first thing that needs to be someone you’re really in the conversation? Yeah, but even if even if it is someone you know, that oh, you mean the the organization knows them. Or the person who’s doing the asking knows them or both. Well, okay, okay, but even if it is someone who has a relationship with the person, i think we’re there are still a reluctance to teo talk about someone’s a state plan. I mean, it involves death and it’s so personal and deeply private i couldn’t possibly bring myself to have this coming. I don’t mean me, but i’m the hypothetical volunteer. How can i? Yeah, i mean, how do i overcome my fear of just of raising this subject, even with somebody who i know well, you khun, speak from your heart because you’re asking for a heart felt gift. This is truly not just writing a check. It’s making a statement. So since you already know this person, the question you ask is, will you lead not? Will you leave us money when your dad but do you wanna have a continuing presence with us? Is it important for you to make an impact for the future? Do you have a vision of what you’d like this place to really look like at some point and that’s the door opener to asking for a future gift to making a real commitment to the organization, not about the person’s life ending, but about the continuation of what they think is a horton. So this is not a conversation about death? Hell, no. Okay, you can swear on tony martignetti no problem. It’s ok? We have jargon jail, but i don’t think that i think everybody knows what that means. I think that everybody knows that that that’s not a judge in jail offense, everybody knows what that means, okay? But i think that is what a lot of people’s reluctance is built around there, and they’re going to talk about the person’s dying and death, but now it’s about their legacy to the non-profit they love, right? Absolutely. And i mean, they’re no different than anybody else. The person you’re talking to wasn’t the only one who’s going to die. Everybody is so that shouldn’t be the issue the issue should be. How do you want to be remembered? And you don’t even have to say it that way. It’s it’s what you want people to see that you’ve done in the future? What would you like your name to be on? Or what would you like your legacy to be for everyone, you know, and i appreciate going know that level of detail. May we really what what words do you do we use? Do you recommend? Because that is helpful to people who have this reluctance? I’m with laurie graph she’s, the president of breakthrough philanthropy, and we’re talking about her seminar topic at national philanthropy day in westchester county, starting the plan giving conversation. So what other advice do you have for people who are i want to be starting this conversation, but are are either and technically challenged or just for some kind of, you know, have a reluctance? Well, it has to be someone who’s been fund-raising for a while, i don’t think even even a more senior person who’s in an administrative job can do it. You have to be usedto asking people for money or for assistance in some way, and you need to have the relationships. But the the best thing i can say and this is going to sound funny is practice. I mean, i’ve practiced in front of a computer camera where i’m looking at me soliciting me for a plan gift, and and everyone knows that when you first start doing something, even if you know how to do it, you’re awkward, and then you’re less awkward, and then then you’re doing it, and you’re good at it. So it’s, like asking for money for anything, how about practicing with with someone else in the office, a sort of a role play that’s. Good if you can keep from giggling. Okay, well, you khun, giggle and swear with long, you don’t do that in the actual leader. You want to get so fluent in this that it’s just coming out of your mouth, as you’re saying, and it’s natural and you’re comfortable, okay, and then, eh? So we’re talking about. We’ve been talking about asking the question, talking alternative radio, twenty four hours a day. Hi, i’m carol ward from the body mind wellness program. Listen to my show for ideas and information to help you live a healthier life in body, mind and spirit. You hear from terrific guests who are experts in the areas of health, wellness and creativity. So join me every thursday at eleven a, m eastern standard time on talking alternative dot com professionals serving community. 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 needs 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, stopped by one of our public classes or get your human resource is in touch with us. 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. Talking. Now, let’s spend little time dealing with the response suppose the responses i’ve never thought of it and, you know, i’m just not i don’t think it’s right for me? I don’t think it’s right for me, okay, i could get that, and certainly if you have a specific objection to two, including a charity, when you’ve been so generous your whole life, i would want to know what that is just because i like you and i’ve known you for years, and i’m curious, and we’re not asking you to just disown your family or take anything away from anything that’s already important, we want to be part of what’s important. So, you know, is there some way i can help you with this, or is there a personal bias? I mean, you just have to pursue what that isthe and in asking those important follow-up questions, i think you’re going to find out a lot about the person’s objection, and maybe that will help you overcome it. The difference is, tony, that when you ask somebody for a plan gift you’re asking for ah future commitment so it’s not like saying to someone we want you to leave. Us one hundred thousand dollars from your will, or a million dollars from your will. I’m sure there were people who were very good at asking that way, but i’ll restart with you’ve been so committed to our program, you’ve been doing this and this and this for so many years, and i know you especially love x what’s your vision for that for the future. Is there some way you would want to have an impact on that and that’s more of a way to go, then? Just it’s really listening to what the donor says? Very donor-centric yeah, well and listen, right. So asking good questions and follow-up teo to someone who objects and then listening carefully. You’re, as you said, teaches you a lot, right, i think, and just doing it, doing it and doing it makes you better and better. Okay, what other advice did you did you have to share with with your seminar today? Well, to bite the bullet and do it because this is the first practice for, well, that’s part of doing it is getting it down and getting it right and feeling comfortable and at some point making it the rial. Thing don’t just keep practising and practising billions and billions of dollars come into non-profits every year, just from bequests, somewhere between seven and nine percent of all e-giving going back decades, so if you’re not willing to tap into that resource, what possible excuse could you have we’ve been talking about, including the organization in a will can we open the conversation about some other type of plan to gift? Absolutely absolutely would you have to do is listen to the donor, because if the donor has other needs that our priority or better fit what they can do for your organization, it’s worth discussing thie easiest is a request and about eighty percent of all plan gifts or bequests, but there are certainly other ways that might help the donor make the gift. Okay? And so then how do we pursue those other types of gift that might be a little more sophisticated? Not grossly, you know, terribly non-technical but might be a little more sophisticated. How do we shepherd are our conversation? Teo, teo, continue it, but when we don’t really know what might be the right avenue, just that we have a donor was interested and there might be some other playing gift method that’s, that’s appropriate. Where do we go in while we’re in our conversation? Well, you have to explore the donor’s going to tell you things when you’re in this kind of conversation that you might never hear from them otherwise. So if somebody is more concerned about taking care of their son with a disability or if they’re worried about education for their kids and giving the money away at some point before the kids were out of school, thes air all things that could be dealt with through trusts or other instruments and listening to what concerns the donor helps and and and what calls to the donor also is what helps you decide. You know what? I may have something that will actually help you do better than you thought, but i want to check my numbers so i’m goingto call you tonight or something like that in this way, it gives you a chance to talk to more sophisticated people as faras the techniques go, and if you know the techniques yourself, you couldn’t throw it out and see what they say there was something i was really kind. Of burning to ask you and now i forgot it was it was directly related to something you just said, well, maybe you’ll come to me, so i just have to ask you generally then what? What other advice did you share in your talk today? That was it that was it really well, it was pretty much not to just sit back and assume that everything you’re doing is going to keep you in the loop, because plan giving is the future of technically and also virtually the future of all non-profits they have to be doing it in some way. And mom, my pitch was to just do it. If you’re raising money from people and not institutions, get on the phone, make appointments and do it, and not be fearful of the rejection of the objections of your fundraiser. So these things happen. I actually gave a simple hand out it’s, a list that set on the top low hanging fruit make your list. Who were you going to call when you get back to the office tomorrow? Who’s the first person you’re going to mention this to how are you going to get this started? And your organization may be you have to talk to your boss or the chairman of the borders somebody and sell it to them, give them the case for plan giving because you need it. I remember what i was going to ask you now. You said that, uh, a lot of times you’ll hear things that people will never share in any other, any other conversation, obviously, without attributing it. What? What are what are a couple things that you’ve heard that you think our personal that you wouldn’t have been able to find out if you hadn’t? If you hadn’t opened the plant e-giving conversation? Well, something’s a really personal, like, you know, where we’re very worried about a son that you’ve never met who’s been having some issues, and we want to be sure we have a trust set up for him and that also, by the way, is an opening for a charitable gift as well. Or you might hear, you’re not going to believe this. I just want latto i did actually do that from somebody in massachusetts, and so there are various different things somebody could sadio it’s not public yet, but george and i are getting divorced things come up that you would never know and you never really have to know unless you’re getting into family issues and then people tell you things and you become their best friend so all these reasons it’s it’s worth doing just get out. Oh, it’s great for dahna relations. It just makes your donors feel very attached to you. Lori graph is the president of breakthrough philanthropy and we’ve been talking about opening are starting the plan giving conversation. Laurie graph thank you very much for being a guest. Thank you, tony it’s. Been a pleasure. This is tony martignetti non-profit radio coverage of national philanthropy day hosted by the association of not of fund-raising professionals. Westchester county chapter. That was my interview with lori greiff. And i’m very grateful to her, by the way, at the conference, i was mispronouncing her name it’s greiff, my thanks to her. And to the organizers of westchester county a f p and also to jerry strangle my first guest today next week. Psychic medium betsy cohen. Yes, a psychic medium is going to take your calls and tweets to help your office overcome challenges and learn more about itself, plus two next-gen charity interviews one with marc ecko, the founder of eco enterprises. You may very well be wearing one of his pullovers. You’ve certainly seen them and also craig mark, the founder of craigslist and craigconnects keep up with what’s coming up. Sign up for our insider email alerts on the facebook page. If you like the show, please like the page, you know you can listen. Live our archive to listen archive goto itunes you’ll find us there at non-profit radio dot net on twitter you can follow me, you can follow the show’s hashtag, which is non-profit radio the show is sponsored by g grace and company. Are you worried about the rising cost of rent for your organization? Do you need a plan for real estate that you’re non-profit owns g grace and company will give you and your board full analysis so you’re real estate decisions are made transparently and thoroughly. George grace has been advising non-profits on their real estate decisions for over twenty five years. Gee greys dot com or eight, eight, eight, seven, four seven double two thirty seven. Our creative producer was claire meyerhoff, our line producer. Today was janice taylor shows social media is by regina walton of organic social media and the remote producer of tony martignetti non-profit radio is john federico of the new rules. I hope you’ll be with me next friday, one to two p, m eastern here at talking alternative dot com i didn’t even think that shooting the ending. You’re listening to the talking alternate network. Get in. E-giving cubine xero looking to meet mr or mrs right, but still haven’t found the one. Want to make your current relationship as filling as possible? Then please tune in on mondays at ten am for love in the morning with marnie allison as a professional matchmaker, i’ve seen it all. Tune in as we discuss dating, relationships and more. Start your week off, right with love in the morning with marnie gal ilsen on talking alternative dot com. Hi, i’m julie, hi, i’m julia, what are you wearing? Welcome to j and j’s. Secrets of style and beauty. We know there’s, beauty and style, and all you do, whether it’s a job interview, first date or wedding, we also know that not everyone understands what works best for him or her. We’re here to help. Think of us as your personal beauty style and grooming guru’s, as industry experts will give you the best information for men and women on howto look phenomenal. Tune in tuesdays at eight pm tto. Learn how to look your best. Are you fed up with talking points, rhetoric everywhere you turn left or right? Spin ideology? No reality, in fact, its ideology over intellect, no more it’s, time for action. Join me, larry shock, 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, it’s, provocative talk for the realist and the skeptic who want to know what’s, really going on. What does it mean? What can be done about it? So gain special access to the ivory tower. Listen to me, larry 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. 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. Talking dot com.

My NextGen:Charity 2011 Interviews, Part IV

I’ve got my last three HD video interviews from the NextGen:Charity conference last November. Tony Martignetti Nonprofit Radio was a media sponsor, so I got excellent, insightful commentary from the 12 inspiring speakers I interviewed.

Here are the previous posts:

Part I with the founder of Craigslist and CraigConnects, Mr. Newmark, urging simple, consistent messages to donors; Peter Thum, founder of Ethos water, on radical ideas and perseverance; and DoSomething.org‘s Aria Finger with ways to draw teens to your cause.

Part II with Wali Collins encouraging a regretless life; positive communications with Sharyn Abbott; and Charles Best on connecting donors to their causes. He’s the CEO of DonorsChoose.org.

Part III with Rachael Chong from Catchafire.org on meaningful volunteering; Marc Ecko, the clothing magnate, on branding; and Neil Strauss with fundraising tips generated from the art of seduction.

Here’s what’s new this week:

  1. Innovation in social change, and the leadership to envision it and drive it forward. She’s the founder and CEO of Global Citizen Year. She urges you to, “Continue dreaming.” My interview with Abby Falik.
  2. His site is his credo: Live In Wonder. He wants you to pursue your hero’s journey. His journey took him across the country, meeting about 200 of the world’s most influential and powerful people over a cup of coffee, and learning amazing lessons. The Journey is his Disney documentary that tells the story. My interview with Eric Saperston.
  3. Lessons on motivation and innovation from this director of the X Prize Foundation. Be audacious! Make space to dream! My interview with Jaykumar Menon.

Click here to get to the NextGen:Charity interviews from 2010.

Community Works: Your Slides Are Here

Thanks so much for hosting Maria Semple and me to deliver “Will You Love Us Forever? How To Identify & Approach Donors For Planned Giving.” We had fun meeting you, and thanks a lot for your questions.

Isn’t Maria Semple the best!

Your slides are below.

Nonprofit Radio, January 27, 2012: Looking At Giving, 2011 & 2012, & Breaking The Mold In Traditional Endowment Design

Big Nonprofit Ideas for the Other 95%

Sponsored by GE Grace corporate real estate services.

Listen live or archive:

My Guests:

Rob Mitchell

Rob Mitchell: Looking At Giving, 2011 & 2012

Rob Mitchell, CEO of Atlas of Giving, is with me to talk about 2011’s giving by sector, source and state. We’ll also look ahead to his forecast for this year.

 

Interviewing Kathryn Miree & Turney Berry
Kathryn Miree & Turney Berry: Breaking The Mold In Traditional Endowment Design

From the National Conference on Philanthropic Planning last year, Kathryn Miree, consultant, and attorney, Turney Berry, look at alternatives to endowment design that are rooted in lawsuits, law changes and difficulties implementing donor purposes that have arisen with the way endowments are traditionally set up.

 


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Here is the link to the podcast: 076: Looking At Giving, 2011 & 2012 and Breaking The Mold In Traditional Endowment Design

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Durney hello and welcome to big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent on tony martignetti non-profit radio your aptly named host it’s january twenty seventh twenty twelve i hope you were with me last week because what you would have heard and if you weren’t, this is what you missed revel in real estate. Chase magnuson of george washington university and alan thomas from the american college had small and midsize non-profits in mind, as they described howto identify prospects for real estate gif ts also how to cultivate, solicit and negotiate thes gif ts what is the due diligence that’s required to keep your charity safe from a crummy real estate gift? Also board oversight basics jean takagi are regular legal contributor and principal of the non-profit and exempt organizations law firm in san francisco to find oversight and explained how it should be executed to protect your charity and your board members, and that it was the first part of a conversation that will continue in february. This week, looking at giving twenty eleven and twenty twelve with me will be robbed. Mitchell, ceo of atlas, of giving to talk about two thousand eleven’s giving by sector source and maybe even state, and we’ll also look ahead to predictions for this year, then breaking the mold in traditional endowment design from the national conference on philanthropic planning last year, catherine miree, consultant and attorney attorney berry look at alternatives to endowment design that are rooted in lawsuits, latto changes and difficulties implementing donor for pus is that have arisen with the way down. Mints are traditionally set up between the segments, as always, tony’s take to my block this week. You don’t need the fancy stuff for your plant e-giving the most sophisticated gifts are not necessary to have a very successful and appropriate plan giving program for your charity. I thought this was going to be last week’s blawg, but i messed up with some of the pre recordings, so look for that this week and i’ll say more about it on tony’s take two between the guests. We’re live tweeting this show as we do every week use hashtag non-profit radio to join the conversation with us on twitter this show is supported by g grace corporate real estate services i’m very grateful for their support right now we take a break, then i’ll be joined by rob mitchell of atlas of giving. And we’re going to talk about looking at giving last year and this. So stay with me. Dafs you’re listening to the talking alternative network. Schnoll 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. Is your marriage in trouble? Are you considering divorce? Hello, i’m lawrence bloom, a family law attorney in new york and new jersey. No one is happier than the day their divorce is final. My firm can help you. We take the nasty out of the divorce process and make people happy. Police call us ed to one, two, nine, six four three five zero two for a free consultation. That’s lawrence h bloom, too. One, two, nine, six, four, three, five zero two. We make people happy. Hyre hey, all you crazy listeners looking to boost your business? Why not advertise on talking alternative with very reasonable rates? Interested simply email at info at talking alternative dot com. Welcome back to tony martignetti non-profit radio i’m joined now by rob mitchell, ceo of atlas of giving, which you’ll find it atlas of giving dot com. Rob has twenty nine years working in and around non-profits as a fundraiser and executive and also a consultant, he is, as i said, ceo of atlas, of giving atlas e-giving measures analyzes and forecasts us charitable, giving monthly by sector source and state. I’m very pleased that his work brings him to the show. Robert, you’re welcome. Thanks. Tony is good to be with you. It’s. A pleasure to have you, um, tell us about the atlas of giving methodology to do these look backs and also predictions of charitable giving. I’ll be happy to the atlas of giving started. Actually, when i was a practitioner, i was chief development officer of the american cancer. So society i was named in that position in june of two thousand won our fiscal year started at the society in september one and then september eleventh the world changed for all of us. Our ceo called me that day and asked me what this meant for giving at the american cancer society acid john i couldn’t possibly know, but they can’t be good, and i’m just not sure how bad it’s going to be or how long it’s going to last. A year later, we felt very pleased that we had finished a bubble of flat, and when describing our success to our board, one of the board members said, well, how do you know you did so well? And we had information from a handful of other charitable organizations nationwide charity organizations, i mentioned those in a the boardmember said, well, that’s, just anecdotal information, isn’t there a benchmark that you can compare our results too? Well, the truth is that a benchmark existed, but it was only annual and it only came out six. It only comes out six months after the calendar year ends. You’re referring to giving yusa yes, i am. So that conversation bothered me, and then this boardmember followed up with me later and said, you know, it strikes me that charitable giving is tied to certain factors in the economy, and if you can figure out what those factors are, you might be able to measure charitable giving on a more timely basis so way initially, while i was still at the society. I had my research team there look into this and other things took priority. Bottom line is we didn’t we didn’t have the time or the energy to pursue it very long moved on to other things. I left this when i left the society in two thousand nine. This was one of the things that was troubling me that i really wanted to get a direct answer to i stayed with you thie idea stayed with you for eight years. It did it did. And so, um, my, uh, we started a company called philanthropy max, and one of the first things that my business partner and i decided to do was to pursue this. So we hired a team of twenty five phd level researchers and analyst and we gave them some variables to look at. They added to the list, the list they looked at was over seventy different economic and demographic variables and and forty two years of published annual e-giving data um, so that’s what they had to work with, they came back a few weeks later, and they said, well, this is remarkable. We have identified what factors are involved what? What economic and demographic factors are involved with us charitable giving. And we’ve developed an algorithm and we check our algorithm against forty two years of published data. We have a correlation rate of ninety nine and a half percent. And the good thing, tony, was that those out of those seventy variables that we started with it boiled down to just a handful and those air variables that are reported monthly or quarterly. So we had a way finally to measure charitable giving as it occurs in the united states. But that was aggregate giving, and that was we started giving away the atlas of e-giving in two thousand ten, and it was just the the national number, the aggregate national number. But we did it on a monthly basis. And by the way, we were also able to create a forecast based on those variables and the formula that we developed. But we wanted to go further. We wanted to have information monthly on sectors so arts, education, religion so forth, their eight different sectors and sources, individuals, foundations, corporations and the quest. And then we also really wanted to add to it states so we sent the research team that assignment, and they came back a few weeks later, and we were able to crack the code all with, uh, what we call up, um, correlation percentages well above ninety percent for everything and most cases well above ninety five percent. So a sense. So essentially, what we have is the ability to measure charitable giving as it occurs in the u s by sector source and stayed on a monthly basis and then forecast to up up to a year in advance. All right, we’re going to take a break, and when we come back, we want to talk about some of these variables that are in there, and i don’t know if we can get you to reveal the number fromthe seventy, but we’ll see how far we can go. And then, of course, we do want to talk about what e-giving look like last year and what it’s ah forecast to look like this year. So rob mitchell will join me after the break. He’ll stay with me, and i hope you do too. They couldn’t do anything to get independent thing. You’re listening to the talking alternate network waiting to get in you could 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. Altum hi, this is psychic medium. Betsy cohen, host of the show. The power of intuition. Join me at talking alternative dot com mondays at eleven a. M call in for a free psychic reading learned how to tune into your intuition to feel better and to create your optimum life. I’m here to guide you and to assist you in creating life that you deserve. Listen. Every monday at eleven a, m on talking alternative dot com. Are you feeling overwhelmed in the current chaos of our changing times? A deeper understanding of authentic astrology can uncover solutions in every area of life. After all, metaphysics is just quantum physics, politically expressed hi and montgomery taylor and i offer lectures, seminars and private consultations. For more information, contact me at monte m o nt y at r l j media. Dot com talking alternative radio twenty four hours a day. If you have big ideas but an average budget, tune into tony martignetti non-profit radio for ideas you can use. I do. I’m dr robert panna, author of the non-profit outcomes toolbox. Duitz welcome back. We are looking at giving two thousand eleven in two thousand twelve with rob mitchell, the ceo of atlas, of giving rob, what are some of the factors that were identified from these this big group of seventy before i get into specifics? One thing i will tell you, tony, is that the economic and demographic factors that affect one part of giving aren’t not the same ones that affect other parts of e-giving ok, things like gifts from individuals, uh, have a have a different set of factors than then gifts from corporations. The formula for the education sector is very different from the formula for the art sector. So the sum of the eiken without giving away any secrets. Sausage, everybody. I think everybody for years has understood that there is a relation. There has been a relationship between gross domestic product in the us and charitable giving their other factors that that are involved in different things, and they involve everything from stock prices, toe home prices to earnings to consumer confidence. There there there are a lot of different there are many different factors, but interestingly free sector for each source for each state. The number of factors affecting those various things are actually a pretty small. They’re different from sector to sector source to sort the source, the source and state to state. But each one of those the formula, the factors involved in each of those individual formulas is a pretty small number. And so now are your algorithms, um, patented is that is that appropriate to patent something like this way thought so and way. Obviously, when we crack the code, we rushed right down to a patent lawyer. And the long and the short of it was, he said, your coca cola and we said, what does that exactly mean? And he said, well, if you if you publish, if you if you patent something, it has to be published and even in the application process there’s some things which are revealed. And he said that would give it away. So coca cola, believe it or not, has never patented their formula for coca cola over the years. So, uh, on legal advice, we were advised that in this case, for this particular type type of formula, it would not be wise for us to patent it. And you had an honest attorney who said you don’t need my help, pretty much ok, i love that alright, so that’s let’s dive into some of these numbers overall? What? What are the conclusions from two thousand eleven? And then we’ll look, you know, we look at some specifics, but generally, well, i think the biggest story for two thousand eleven is that we experienced a real resurgence in giving in two thousand eleven, and the resurgence wass far outpaced the growth in the economy. This is one of those years where the folks who have tried to make strong correlations between gdpr charitable giving are going to be a little off quit because e-giving grew and two thousand eleven, two, three hundred forty’s over three hundred forty six billion dollars that’s a seven and a half percent increase over the two thousand ten number. Now, when you consider the fact that and the final numbers, they’re not in on gdpr for for two thousand eleven, but when they do come in, they’re going to be some where it’ll be probably in a range of between one and a half and one point eight percent growth in gdp, so you can see the charitable giving really did well, and there were some there was some important reasons for that. Okay, well, um let’s hold off on some of the reasons, i think because i want to get into some more of the conclusions and but before we do that, even what i think is kind of exciting is we don’t have to wait six months from the end of the year for for the giving us a report to come out. No, the in fact, the report is posted on our alice e-giving website right now. So, um, we have we have we offer three products. The first one is called out with standard and it is available for free with a subscription. And then we have atlas, professional and that’s everything monthly by sector sources state. Then we have we have something called atlas custom. Our technology enables us to build custom benchmarking and predictive models for individual non-profits to identify what particular economic and demographic factors effect they’re giving. But because your methodology is so much different than e-giving yusa, which is based on surveys, we have something much quicker than then. June, i guess, is when that typically comes. Out yes and way think are we think our technology has other advantages as well? There are other than giving us say, there are other indexes and surveys and blackbaud has won, yeah, and most of those air based on, um, a group of customers that sort of fit a profile, and they’re not necessarily representative of all sectors for of very small charities or very large charities. Um, the survey kind of methodology is important, and i don’t i don’t want to diminish the fact that surveys air important, but there are things related to my background which i know happen in the survey process, which can be troubling over time. And when i was at the american cancer society, just as an example, as a matter of board policy, we we did not disclose our e-giving information on a contemporary basis. Of course, we filed the nine nineties and those sorts of things did annual reports, but in terms for competitive reasons are bored felt like it was it was important for us not to participate in those kinds of survey let’s. Look let’s, look at the prediction for two thousand twelve you’re predicting ah, just under four. Percent growth yes, the current forecast is two thousand twelve will finish the year with with about three hundred and sixty billion dollars in total e-giving and that would be a three point nine percent increase over two thousand eleven. But like any forecast, and we update our forecasts each month, right? So as these as the as the factors or the are reported each month, because you’re basing them on government supply data, then you you change your your forecast for each month. Well, and there are other things that happened as well, okay, look like thousand won is a great example. Two thousand one was was a very good giving year for most organizations until september eleven things changed dramatically after that. So you’re able to factor in world events like that, i guess world events, whether yeah, and whether they’re man made or natural disasters, tax policy changes, changes in government, all kinds of things, um, those things are all taken to account, so in terms of the forecast we updated each month, and so if we get it just as an example, if we get a severe weather event of some of some kind, that the severe natural disaster. Say an earthquake in someplace. Hey, that’s going to be good? It could be overall, actually good for the charitable giving economy, depending on what kind of event it is. Because people there’s an outpouring, obviously. And things like the indonesian tsunami and the haitian earthquake. Sure, there was a huge outpouring. But the thing to remember is that the charitable giving economy is complex, and so, um and and it’s somewhat defined so that disaster relief organizations benefit uh, a great deal during times of the those kinds of disasters. But that money has to come from somewhere. And usually it comes from other places and there’s some additive. But it usually comes from other organisms. Other non disaster organizations. Let’s, look at some of the sectors for two thousand eleven. So the arts sector how how did that fair last year? The the, uh, art sector, if you bear with me for just a moment. Sure got eight, eight sectors here to look over. The art sector was up for the year. Six point eight percent and the forecast for next year is for it to finish up five point two percent, which is better. Than the than the forecast for the aggregate national e-giving and but then their results this year weren’t quite as good as the aggregate national number. Yes. Okay. And what about you have ah, sector called society benefit? What is that? The society benefit is his organization’s, um, usually passed through organizations like united way? Uh, those those kinds of organizations would be included in society benefit jewish federations, those sorts of things. Okay, just a reminder for our listeners. I’m with rob mitchell, ceo of atlas, of giving. We’re talking about looking at giving two thousand eleven and two thousand twelve. How did those society benefit organizations do? In last year, they were almost at the national average, up seven point three percent and they’re projected to be almost at the national average next year. Five point zero percent okay, so pretty steady, but then religion i see has been, uh, losing market share. Religion has been losing market share and that’s been a trend that is that has continued for a number of years. Religion did not finish as strong as the nation did in two thousand eleven. Oppcoll let me get to that number really quickly, so recision was up, but not as much as the overall that’s correct, it was up six point five percent, but here’s the interesting thing for the forecast. For next year, it’s only forecast to grow less than half half of the national growth rate for giving so it’s projected to be up one point six percent and thousand twelve what’s the current market share current market shortages um, thirty five percent and how many years has it been since that’s? What you said several, but do we know when that when the decline in market share began? I don’t have that at my fingertips, like certainly get you that information? Because i don’t have that at my fingertips, do we? Don’t you know that there was a declining market share this year? Okay? And it dropped one percent from thirty six percent down to thirty five percent this past year. All right. And what do you expect for next year? Are you able to forecast that market share? Yes, we are able to forecast the market share. And so now i was i was misstated. Religion went religion was at thirty seven percent in two thousand ten. It was a thirty six percent in two thousand eleven, and it looks like if things go according to the forecast that it could be as low as thirty five percent next year. Okay, do we know where that where those dollars air going and again, it’s not a zero sum game, but do you have a sense of that, or not? Really? Well, you know, we we look at lots of different news and information about a lot of different things, and one of the things that’s no secret is that mainline churches in the u s have been losing membership, and it continues to be a problem for them, so that certainly is a contributing factor. The one thing that has not helped religion this past year and this is true of a lot of organizations that rely on lots of small gifts from lots of small donors, is that unemployment as a factor, has been particularly significant because when people fear being unemployed or they are unemployed, they discontinue their giving and often don’t resume their giving until they’ve had a chance to catch up after being re employed of course, like ours and furniture and clothes and taking vacations. That have been put off paying off debt, etcetera? Yes, so that that lags actually from the so the giving of a lag from a change from a decrease in the unemployment rate. Yes. Okay. Okay. Let’s, look a little at some of the sources, and i know you’re able tto look at individual foundation corporate m bequest. What happened to individual giving last year? Individual e-giving i was actually really, really good this past year. Individual e-giving was up. Um a little hang on one second. Let me get to that information. Individual giving was up seven point eight percent, slightly better than the national average. And the individual e-giving forecast for next year is pretty close to what we forecast for the aggregate it’s three point seven percent. Okay. And what was the just the overall dollar amount of individual giving for last year? Two hundred sixty point one. Eight billion. And that represents what percentage of total giving? Seventy five percent has that seventy five percent been pretty steady. It has been very study. It is. Okay. Um, let’s, look at some others. So foundation giving what? What happened that last year? And what’s forecast foundation giving. Wasn’t quite as good as the national seven point five percent. It was up six point, two percent in two thousand eleven, but next year it’s forecast to be currently forecast to be better the national giving it’s it is forecast to go up six point three percent. So steady growth in foundation e-giving from two thousand eleven to two thousand twelve way have just a couple of minutes left. Rob this number’s a really interesting is only so much time we can spend on them. What about the bequest numbers? Tony? I had a feeling you were gonna ask me, i’ll as planned giving is in my heart, of course, save the best for last bequest giving was exactly up as the same amount as the national e-giving average, it was up seven point five percent. It isn’t, uh it isn’t keeping pace. In two thousand twelve, according to our forecast, it’s going to be up three point, zero percent, and, of course, these air realized request. This is not expected, of course, and what percentage of total giving is a bequest? Revenue bequest revenue is, uh seven percent. Okay. And that’s been steady. Is that right? Okay. Last thing i’m gonna ask you is just something maybe a little fun because that we just have, like thirty seconds or so left. Since you can do this by state what’s the one of the most and least generous states in the country. Well, the most generous states in two thousand eleven for pennsylvania, illinois and florida according to their growth rates, pennsylvania had experienced upward are experienced growth of eleven point eight percent. Illinois eleven point four percent florida ten point five percent ok, and how about the other end? Um, there are a whole group of states which were there. Isn’t there isn’t a clear leader at the bottom, if you will. Okay, all right, so we weigh don’t have time to really to go through the list. We don’t want to embarrass anybody, any state randomly, so we’ll just leave it at that and we do have to leave it there for a mitchell is ceo of atlas of giving, you’ll find it atlas of giving dot com we were spending time talking about looking at giving two thousand eleven and two thousand twelve rob thank you very much for being a guest. Tony it’s. Been great to be with you. Thank you, real pleasure in very interesting numbers. Thank you. Right now, we’re going to take a break, and when we return, it’ll be tony’s take to stay with me. You’re listening to the talking alternative network. Are you feeling overwhelmed in the current chaos of our changing times? A deeper understanding of authentic astrology can uncover solutions in every area of life. After all, metaphysics is just quantum physics, politically expressed hi and montgomery taylor and i offer lectures, seminars and private consultations. For more information, contact me at monte m o nt y at r l j media. Dot com are you stuck in your business or career trying to take your business to the next level, and it keeps hitting a wall? This is sam liebowitz, the conscious consultant. I will help you get to the root cause of your abundance issues and help move you forward in your life. Call me now and let’s. Create the future you dream of. Two, one, two, seven, two, one, eight, one, eight, three, that’s to one to seven to one, eight one eight three. The conscious consultant helping conscious people. Be better business people. Hey, all you crazy listeners looking to boost your business? Why not advertise on talking alternative with very reasonable rates? Interested simply email at info at talking alternative dot com welcome back, it’s, time for tony’s take two at roughly thirty two minutes into the hour my block this week, which i thought was going to be my block last week, but it’s, not the block last week. It’s the block this week, so look for it this week. You don’t need the fancy stuff for your plan e-giving for small and midsize charities really having just a bequest marketing program and stopping there can be a very respectable planned e-giving program. First of all, bequests are where any program starts or irrespective of what your mission is or how big you are. You’re always going to start with requests because they’re the most popular planned gift expect about seventy five percent of your plan gifts to be bequests, and they’re easy for people to understand. Everybody knows what a will is, everybody needs a will. I may not have it, but everybody needs one and they know what one is so it’s an easy type of giving toe understand through a state plans and, um, for a lot of charities, that’s the place to end because you don’t need to spend money on expertise tohave people including you in their will so you could be going into real estate or the sophisticated trust or even charitable gift annuities, but you don’t have to don’t let a fear of the more sophisticated gift and the expertise required for some of them keep you away from inaugurating a plan giving program, start with requests and stopped there and it’s a very respectable and solid plan giving program, and that is tony’s take two for friday, january twenty seventh, the fourth show of two thousand twelve. Now i have breaking the mold in traditional endowment design to pre recorded at the national conference on philanthropic planning last year and here’s that interview welcome to tony martignetti non-profit radio coverage of the national conference on philanthropic planning. We are on the river walk in san antonio, texas. My guests right now are catherine miree attorney berry catherine is principal of katherine w miree and associates in birmingham, alabama, and attorney berry is a partner in law firm of wyatt, tarrant and combs in louisville, kentucky. Catherine durney welcome, thanks so much pleasure to have you. Your seminar topic is breaking the mold options in traditional endowment design. Catherine wanted to start with you. What the, uh what do we need to break the mold? What’s wrong with traditional design? Tony, i think if you look at the issues and lawsuits right now, where donors are suing charities, what it really reveals is that perpetual is a long time and it’s not entirely practical, to be very prescriptive in creating a long term funds to really look at the issues and talk about some of the solutions to the problems we see out there right now. Okay, durney, let’s, turn to the attorney. What are just some of the legal issues that we’re seeing in these lawsuits that katherine’s talking about right? Well, you you need to look at it from three different points of view. From the donor’s point of view. A planner and a charity are promising that they will do to certain things. And the donor believes him on the donor’s family believes them. And so the question is, can we really design an endowment that will work the way the donor wants over a very long period of time? Then you got issues from the charity’s pointed to it. Does it? Does a charity really want in particular endowment, particularly? If it’s if it’s very, very specific, it may be one thing if what you’re doing is saying we want teo, i had to pay for historical research. But if we say this is for research into the causes of world war i in one hundred years, that may not be something that the university say needs money for and the last, the last aspect that will be talking about is awareness of the effects on society. Is it good for us to have enormous accumulations and endowments? On the other hand, let’s suppose that we cut back on those for any of a variety of reasons. Is that good for society? They’re just complicated issues. And we like tio start people thinking about you and catherine a cz we’re getting into the topic. Let’s, let’s, define endowment. What were we talking about when we’re in these funds? What we mean that’s a great question to may endowment is any poo of fund set aside for the long term use of a charity or for charitable purposes? And so, in that respect, it could be what we all consider a traditional endowment at a university or hospital or any charity. Where the donor makes a gift to the charity and says, don’t spend the principal use only their earnings, or it could be a vehicle like a private foundation, which we see among a lot of the wealthy and a private foundation is perpetual and purpose, and it is, in truth, a pool of funds you’re required by law to distribute five percent of you’re investable assets that you but that’s an endowment, a supporting or could be an endowment, a donor advised funds could be an endowment, a charitable lied trust could be an endowment substitute. So these air all funds where the principle is invested in the earnings are used for charitable purposes, okay? But as attorney pointed out, the donor’s may have specific things that they want to fund, so if we’re going to be donor-centric shouldn’t we just allow them to do what they really want to do with their money and their gift? I love talking about donor-centric what that maims it doesn’t mean letting the donor run amok with a charitable purpose that would take a charity off mission, for example, attorney has a great example of that that makes me smile. Go ahead. Not my favorite one is let’s suppose that i wanted to go to my my church on tao, the singing of amazing grace. You can’t use the money to seeing how great thou art, but you can use it to sing amazing grace and some of the pastor says we’re going to do with that gift. We can have special robes for the singing of amazing grace. We could have a special rise or for the choir to sit to stand on, but all i’m really doing is disrupting the operation of the church and charity should be very sensitive to that, and i don’t, and somebody should come to me and say, well, it’s, wonderful that you like amazing grace and we can call the fund the amazing grace find, but but we just can’t administer a fun like that on a reasonable donors is going to go ahead and change that if you get some thoughtful back and forth and emphasizes his, catherine said the importance donor-centric donors want to help the mission of the endowment charity they’re they’re they’re working with, so you need to meld those, too. And catherine, if you’re attorney said, if the donor is reasonable and really wants to help the charity. Aren’t they going to be receptive to the explanation that that kind of purpose for an endowment just doesn’t suit us? Two of the things to the trends that i see that i think bear on this issue are one term endowments and to creating flexibility within the endowment and a method for or mechanism for change, i’ll give you a good example. I had a donor walk in and wanted to create a million dollar endowment for a program called success by six and the conversation i had with that does age six, i assume not six o’clock in the afternoon, right? Right, trying to do it in a day, six years success by six is an early childhood intervention education intervention program that catches kids when they’re three or four and prepares him tto learn and it’s a critical time in their lives and a lot of poor families. I don’t have that kind of support for children, and my question to the donor was, what are you really trying to accomplish? And when they said, i love these programs that go in and prepare young children, my response was let’s say that let’s don’t name a program that might not be here in a few years. Let’s talk about outcomes, let’s talk about what you want to do, so donors air prescriptive because they haven’t really thought of any other options, and i think our job is planners is to back him up a little bit and talk more about outcomes and purposes in terms, so we have options. We have the reflect, the limited term endowment and what was the other that you mentioned flexibility put in a plan b, a plan c in the event that the first purpose is no longer impactful? Effective makes okay now attorney in your work are you seeing donors who are receptive to these breaking the mold of what we’ve been doing for decades? Sure, let let let’s take, for example, and arts group the louisville orchestra if you have a donor who wants to benefit the louisville orchestra and wants to create a very long term endowment, it’s pretty easy to persuade the donor that a fund should be for the benefit or castro music in louisville, kentucky, an example of which is the level orchestra and that’s what? Should be funded first, but if one hundred years from now there’s some other something, then the larger purpose is funding live classical music and louisville today, we can’t really conceive of that it any other way than an orchestra that may be true in one hundred years, but but who knows? Education is another really good, and you have the issue of bankruptcy. Our orchestra and birmingham went bankrupt and took down with it a number of funds that donor said contributed so in attorneys example, what do you do? Have you protected the funds in one of our jobs? Is planners if we’re representing the donor, is to protect those funds for the use that they intended. So what do you do in that situation? And i hear that a lot from potential donors. What happens if the college or the orchestra doesn’t exist any longer? How do we protect the donor? Well, they’re they’re number of ways you could do that, one of which is you can put the assets the endowment in a separate organization in a philanthropic fund, a private foundation, a community foundation, a supporting or where it is not the charity’s directly, so that’s one way to do it another way is to have a gift over it’s a little extreme. What does that mean? Gift over way have jargon jail here on tony martignetti not probably don’t my antenna are always up when i’m with an attorney, right? Right? No way. What did you say left over as long as as long as that particular organization is doing x, then the endowment will be theirs. But if not, it will go over to a second organization. So the second organization has an incentive to police what the first organization is doing so let’s say let’s say that what i do is i create endowment for ah, for a hospital that’s supposed to be used to support it’s it’s women’s programs and for whatever reason, the hospital stopped doing that it goes in and becomes a long term care facility. If i have a gift over to another hospital, the other hospital is going to raise the red flag and say, oh, first hospital isn’t doing this anymore where’s our money? Well, that’s, a very that’s, a very good way to do it, and you’re finding non-profits are willing to accept that oversight. By another local non-profit i mean, but but because again they don’t they don’t think they’re ever going to get out of that business, and so it helps them do whatever it is they want to do. The harder ones, quite honestly, are something like a library where you have donors who really want to fund collections, and you have to have the very difficult conversation, particularly with elderly people, that collections may not be books, and they really don’t know when they say not books, they think, oh, it’s, going to be some endless room of computers and dvds and and a bunch of kids playing and this is not what we want to do, and you have to say, well, it’s, not entirely true, if, if in in, you know, the year one hundred somebody had endowed the creation of a pirate’s manuscript, you you would have wanted them to fund gutenberg, and they all kinda well, yeah, that’s, that’s, true, but but those air harder organizations, catherine let’s, take a step back and think about some smaller organizations that that really just wanted. Maybe they’re at the stage where they say we need to have an endowment. We want to start an endowment. What should they be thinking of our around the issues that you attorney are concerned about? I think the first place to start is the role of endowment, both internally. I always looking to cases for endowment. One is thie internal case. Why do we need an endowment, how we’re going to use it. So everybody over the board is saying, we need one, you want to, you want to question, why, okay? And why do you need one? And what is its role going? Tobe a and i don’t think people talk about that enough. And then that second case is washing donors. Invest in the endowment, talking alternative radio, twenty four hours a day. Hi, i’m carol ward from the body mind wellness program listen to my show for ideas and information to help you live a healthier life in body, mind and spirit, you’ll hear from terrific guests who are experts in the areas of health, wellness and creativity. So join me every thursday at eleven a m eastern standard time on talking alternative dot com professionals serving community oppcoll oh, 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 answer. Told you. Durney what attorney, in terms of structuring endowment, from a legal perspective, what does the charity beginning that process need to be thinking of? Well, you you need to decide, is it going to be an internal endowment or an external in down there? You’re going to keep it on your books or are you going to create an organization or creative fund at a community ways you mentioned earlier, communiqu, conditional donorsearch vie, having donors use their own donor advised funds that said, ok, so what do you want in house or do you or do you not? And then what sort of what sort of restrictions are you going to impose? What sort of gifts are you going to solicit? One of the things that that i fine at least, is that often time, endowments and plan giving generally very unfortunately serves a work avoidance function, it is we’ve got somebody on staff or the board says, oh, we’ve got a lot of older donors we need to raise endowment dollars from them, but nobody really wants to go ask anybody for endowment money, so they say we’ll order some brochures and we’ll mail the brochures out and we’ll have a plan and we’ll have a committee, and at the end of the day, they’re shocked to discover that nobody gives any money and so they then divert the person to doing special events, and three or four years later, somebody on the board says, we need to get serious about endowment, and we start the process all over again, you know? Oh, and and and you see it when you look at resumes, most of the resumes among the smaller charities in certainly in our area there the plan giving officers have us much special event experience as they do playing e-giving experience the ones where you have success are the people who are committed, and they say, it’s future, we’re going after the future all of fund-raising at the end of the day, it’s just telling your story. And if you have people in the organization who aren’t comfortable telling the story, i e fund-raising that’s a problem kapin you’re shaking your head, as tony was saying, future anything you want to say they’re no, i agree, i agree with him. Absolutely. I generally look at annual operating annual fund-raising supporting operations plan giving and deferred giving supporting endowment because it’s a one time gift, it perpetuates the donor’s ongoing gift. We know that those gifts come from the most committed donors, so i don’t disagree with you. You know, i thought maybe you were shaking your head in chagrin over over organizations that might be doing what i do. I see it all the time. So how should we structure internally in terms of fund-raising to avoid the the problems that attorney is describing when we’re starting an endowment, campaign or program? You know, i think an endowment campaign on its own is the hardest thing any charity will ever do. I look at it as part of the bigger picture, part of the bigger case. Two donors that they need to invest now and in the future, i see. I really think having people the son to play e-giving and having the disciplined allocate those gifts to endowment as quasi endowment, which is bored. Allocated as opposed to donor ellicott. Ok, let’s, talk a little about that quasi endowment. That was okay, too. Real types of endemic one is true endowment. That is where the donor places to restrictions on those funds that you cannot spend the principal. You may only use the earnings. The other is quasi endowment, and quasi is bored. Allocated endowment. That means the gift comes in without the restrictions. But the board itself places an endowment because it has the discipline to do that. And that is the easiest way. Oh, so that’s that’s an unrestricted gift that might just be a thousand dollar annual gift. It’s and the board makes a difficult decision. Yes, to not spend it right and put it into its true endowment. Right. And, you know the other argument i usually give, charity says if you budget a state gifts, you are basically budgeting death and that it’s a little tricky in terms of the unrestricted gifts being allocated to endowment by the board. Is there ah, policy or a guideline that you like to see a certain percentage of unrestricted gifts being devoted to endowment? I look at it. Mohr is all the testamentary gifts. The things that are triggered by the death of the donor. If the charity will put one hundred percent of those an endowment, it will basically in tao in many cases, the donor’s annual gift i wanted to. See have all that discipline and then if they need, if you have policies it’s, goingto be howto we withdraw some of those funds, but how do we use them that’s so hard to do, though in especially in the midst of a recess? Shin still, but attorney, i see you nodding. You agree it is, but you could never make any progress. It seems to me if you’re if you are always having to find new donors, you want to be able to tell the story two new people every year, but you want to continue to capture the story of our capture, the people you’ve already told story too. So if you’ve got a donor who gives you a thousand dollars a year, if you could get ten thousand dollars as a request or is a longer term gift of some sort, then this is good because they’ve basically funded their gift and now i can go after the next person aunt, i can actually expand and grow and develop in a way that it’s very difficult to do if you every year are starting from scratch. Of course, catherine, as our consultant, we know that the cost of acquiring a new donor is considerably greater than e-giving follow-up gift from an existing it isthe and i look at it it’s maximizing the donor’s role with the charity. If they are giving to you every year, you need to make that ask that they give in perpetuity and many of them will you’re not going to find people walking around on the streets that there going to make it down my gifts that haven’t that don’t have any other connection to your charity know you’re looking for that commitment in terms of and doesn’t that commitment. Evenflo teo two donors who were giving it small levels, right? Let’s, talk a little about that. Catherine. I see direct mail organizations whose average gifts eyes on an annual basis is very low. They don’t have those hi n major gifts, and yet there is committed and they might leave an average of st gift of thirty or forty thousand. It may not be as large as the major gift donors, but it’s significant, no charity would turn that what? So look to your small giving your donors were making small gifts, but doing it consistently maybe that zach decade arm or decades? Sometimes we see in longstanding organism right best the number one indicator, and what i have learned is that many of those donors make their only major gift at death because they can’t afford to do it doing like we have to leave it there been with katherine miree principle of katherine w miree and associates in birmingham, alabama, and turny bury a partner in a law firm, wyatt, tarrant and combs in louisville, kentucky. Catherine, attorney welcome. Thank you very much for being here. Thanks. Enjoyed the topic was breaking the mold options in traditional endowment designing your listening to tony martignetti non-profit radio coverage of the national conference on films about the planning two thousand eleven. That was my interview with katherine miree internee berry from the national conference on philanthropic planning on breaking the mold in traditional endowment design. I want to thank everybody this week, my thanks to rob mitchell for being a guest on dh catherine miree and turny berry for taking time. Teo, sit with me at the national conference on philanthropic planning and also thanks to the organizers of that conference. It was a pleasure to be a media sponsor there. Next week, tapping entrepreneurs for your cause with jerry stengel principle of stengel solutions were going to talk about the value that entrepreneurs khun give you and how to approach them. 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You Don’t Need The Fancy Stuff For Your Planned Giving

Fancy Schmancy courtesy of Brian Teutsch on Flickr
Small- and mid-size nonprofits take note: you need not get fancy and sophisticated to have a very respectable Planned Giving program. To force a metaphor because I’m quite pleased with myself for thinking of it while brushing my teeth: you don’t need the cool electric gadget when a toothbrush will do the job very well.*

Bequests (gifts in your donors’ wills) are the place to start every Planned Giving program, irrespective of your budget, mission and size. Everyone needs a will and the charitable bequest is simple to understand and execute. In every program, this will be the most popular alternative, so expect 75 to 80% of your gifts to be by will.

I’d like to see this become popular wisdom: bequests can be the place to stop your planned gift program.

If you don’t have a big fundraising budget, access to expertise and comfort talking about fancier possibilities with your prospects and donors, then stand proud with a bequest marketing program as your sole Planned Giving offering. That is a perfectly respectable and appropriate program for smaller shops. And bigger shops that have a smaller budget.

There are scores of ways to affordably promote bequests: newsletter sidebars; newsletter articles; mentions in one-on-one meetings; mentions in large events; event table tents; event invitations; website or blog pages; Facebook pages; envelope flaps; direct mail PS’s; direct mail inserts; gift reply devices; gift acknowledgement letters and annual reports.

If I’ve piqued your interest, you may find helpful five articles I wrote for GuideStar that are no less timely two years later: Make 2010 The Year YOU Start Planned Giving. Clicking will lead you to the fifth in the six article series, and you’ll find links there to the first four. (The sixth is about gifts beyond bequests that don’t require expertise to promote.)

Charitable trusts, life insurance, gift annuities, closely-held stock, real estate and all the rest are terrific gifts. But they’re not necessary for success in Planned Giving.

Bequests–standing alone–can be a terrific Planned Giving program for your nonprofit.

* My dentist reports identical outcomes in his practice. I’ve returned to the manual method.