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Nonprofit Radio for October 9, 2015: Anti-Legacy Society & Deep Pockets

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Claire Meyerhoff: Anti-Legacy Society

You have to thank your planned giving donors and have a recognition society. But do you have to call it the legacy society? Plus, what do you do with the group? What’s the experience? Claire Meyerhoff is a planned giving marketing strategist.

 

 

Maria Semple: Deep Pockets

Maria Semple

How do you find pockets of wealth in the communities you serve? Maria Semple reveals her secrets. She’s our prospect research contributor and The Prospect Finder. (Originally aired on March 28, 2014).

 

 


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Hello and welcome to tony martignetti non-profit radio. Big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent on your aptly named host. We have a listener of the week one justice they blogged thank you all. Thank you for all of the amazing content that you do. We love your work end quote. Well, one justice i love your work. You’re bringing civil legal assistance to californians in need very important work without legal representation. What good our rights they’re at one hyphen, justice dot org’s and at one justice dot org’s. Congratulations, one justice, our listener of the week love you out there in california. Oh, i’m glad you’re with me. I’d suffer the effects of ps, eh, phyllis? If i had to wrap my head around the idea that you missed today’s show auntie legacy society, you have to thank your plan giving donors and have a recognition society. But do you have to call it the legacy society? Plus what do you do with the group? What’s the experience. Claire meyerhoff is a planned e-giving marketing strategist and deep pockets. How do you find pockets of wealth in the communities that you serve? Maria simple reveals her. Secrets she’s, our prospect research contributor and the prospect finder that originally aired on march twenty eighth. Twenty fourteen on tony’s take two with an i pad air responsive by pursuant full service fund-raising data driven and technology enabled, you’ll raise more money pursuant dot com what a pleasure to welcome back to the studio are creative producer and ah plan giving marketing strategist krauz meyerhoff. Welcome back. Thanks, tony it’s. Great to be here again in the studio of it. You were last year for our oh two hundred fiftieth july show. He had music. We had skits. We had all kinds of radio x tragically duitz that was cool. Let’s. Just make sure people know that they could follow you on twitter at claire says. And in their very creative way that’s easy, that’s. Got someone else s okay, you but you use it an opportunity and i think it’s clever. So now my way around. Yeah. All right. Um planned giving legacy societies or recognition societies? Um what’s. What is it? Since your you do plan giving marketing? What? What is it that you think is unusual? Are unique about plan giving marketing? Why be a plan? Giving marketing strategist what’s special about that? Well, because really, when you are thinking about your donor’s overall and and putting them into groups or whatever plan giving really is on ly about marketing in a way, i mean, yes, plan giving is about structuring a trust and things like that, but let’s not forget that, but for the regular donor, what they see when they’re getting your newsletter when they see your animal report, when they’re on facebook or whatever, what they see in the course of the day is all marketing that might enticed them or interest them in making a plan gift if they see a donor story. For instance, in your newsletter that’s about someone else, who’s made a plan gift and there really happy about it, and they’re going to have a scholarship or something named after their family because they’re making this bequest and then turns the corner and says, perhaps you’d like to make a gift like this that’s marketing so it’s all about communicating. I like to call it plan e-giving communicating and marketing because it’s not just marketing, okay that’s due to me, i didn’t know you. Ah, including that in your and your your title and well, it’s. Not really. In a title, one more clinton community marketing, communications also promotions and outreach. I’ll say what instead of saying, like, what are you doing for your plan giving marketing to a client? Because that that sort of signals the thing like, oh, marketing that’s my marketing budget ni hyre in this big company and play, you know, do all this stuff instead, i might say to them, well, what are you doing for your plan? Giving out reach? How are you reaching your donors to talk to playing giving about them so it’s a little bit about outreach, it’s promotions, it’s, public relations, communications. All that really, before you do the marketing, all that other stuff is free. It’s free free claire’s whispering for expenses. Okay, everybody here, that’s okay, no marketing does not have to be expensive at all. In fact, i’m doing something. Ah, at the foundation center in november called five minute plan giving marketing. Rand. Yeah, and i’m full of information and news. Yeah, and a lot of ideas do not do not have to be expensive and can be done in. Really? Just five minutes. A little sidebar on a newsletter you know, brief mention at an event things like that now that’s not a saying that all planned giving marketing is done with elements that a lot of them and be done that because that quickly buckslip way were in your in your thing and there’s another one in your newsletter instead of saying, remember us in your will that’s like saying, have a nice day so instead in your newsletter say, are we in your will if we’re in? If were in your well, could you call and let us know it’s important? We’ll we’ll keep your request confidential, if you like or if you haven’t yet updated your will call us. We’ll give you the information you need. So to ask the question are we in your willis so much better than the remember us in your will? Okay, so that’s that’s a great tip that’s the easiest thing that any organization khun do right off the bat now when someone does inform the organization that they’ve included them in the will, then hopefully we have a recognition society for us. Why is plan give recognition society important? Well, it’s important for several reasons the first reason is that it’s a way to thank and acknowledge the person that has made this wonderful gift this future bequest, so by inviting them to join the special society or group or circle, you’re acknowledging their gift to something very important, and they’ll see it in the in the annual report or wherever. The other thing. Why it’s really important to have a legacy society or some sort of a plan giving recognition? Society is so that other people know about it and know that it that it exists. I heard it’s a marketing you can use your legacy society as a marketing, a little marketing platform or or something to encourage other people to do the same. I find a lot of organizations don’t think about planned giving a recognition group, even though they have recognition groups for donors at the thousand dollars level. One hundred dollars five. Yeah, whatever. Whatever is a major gift for you or whatever is the threshold? Usually there’s almost always won two thousand, but yeah, one hundred to fifty five thousand twenty five. They have all kinds of recognition for those. Yes, but they’re not thinking. Oh, plan. Giving recognition well, those people deserve recognition too. It’s really often an afterthought. And that is why so often the little recognition society is simply called the legacy society, because that’s as much thought as when it’s what went into it. Oh, we need to put that in our in our annual report. Here’s the legacy society here are the donor. Alright, since you’re making fun of that name now we can get i was going to ask you some other things, but we’ll get to them. We got twenty times were ah, the name the name, legacy society? Not not the best. Well, it’s not that it’s, not the best. It’s just it’s shows a sort of a lack of thought and and and if you’re already called the legacy society that’s, fine, maybe have a little co-branding a little something and something that you can do if you already have a quote, legacy, society and it’s called that you could just tack a little name onto it, for instance. So let’s say you’re a school and your your school stone that’s in the class ring let’s say it’s, a girls school and and it’s an amethyst and you could you could make it the amethyst legacy society. So you get still. Call it the legacy society, but give it a little a little something. Something a little special buy a little something something i like to see something that’s unique to the organization. What, like i have? Ah, client that has the belltower society. It’s, a school on the bell tower, is an iconic building s on their on their campus over brooklyn college. Yeah, smith college in massachusetts. They have the great court society because that’s it’s, the great court gate is this beautiful gate that when you first come to campus and it has something on it and everyone knows the great court gate and the gate is a nice thing, you know, it’s a gateway again grayce country. Where avery? Good. So they have the great court pin with with the gate a little bit of the gate on it. So that’s what? That’s for what they do the very first i think it was the very first plan giving society that i started when i was at st john’s university. It was called the macallan society that was named for a treasurer back in the late forties, early fifties era and that was exactly the people who we were trying to attract to do a planned gift for the university, and they knew this treasurer avery well, because used to give you a break, he was a priest, right? Have your break on tuition like back when tuition was like ten dollars, for a semester, you couldn’t do it all at once, he’d set you upon a plan is a great story didn’t include that story and you’re marketing his father, thomas macallan. Exactly, and everybody knew father macallan that’s awesome let’s go out for a break and when we come back, we’ll keep talking about the legacy society and some other super plan gift recognition. Stay with us, you’re tuned to non-profit radio tony martignetti also hosts a podcast for the chronicle of philanthropy fund-raising fundamentals is a quick ten minute burst of fund-raising insights published once a month. Tony’s guests are expert in crowdfunding, mobile giving event fund-raising direct mail and donor cultivation. Really, all the fund-raising issues that make you wonder am i doing this right? Is there a better way there is? Find the fund-raising fundamentals archive it, tony martignetti dot com that’s marketmesuite n e t t i remember there’s, a g before the end, thousands of listeners have subscribed on itunes. You can also learn maura, the chronicle website philanthropy dot com fund-raising fundamentals the better way. Welcome back to big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent let’s do some live listener love st louis, missouri, wilmington, north carolina and new jersey jersey you’re masked. I don’t know why there’s no, are you one of the bad guys in new jersey? When the bad people we can’t see what town you’re in, but you’re in new jersey. We know i’m from jersey, so i could make jersey jokes, okay? Um also canada, british columbia’s with us turkey? Welcome on that! I think we’ve had a turkey before, but uh, not too much. Columbia is with us. Welcome, columbia, and we’ve got some other live listeners abroad will get two of course, affiliate affections. If you are listening on one of our am and fm affiliate stations, whatever time, whatever, whatever slop, worrying and your station throughout the week affections out to you all our affiliate station listeners and we’re going to affiliate coming up in, i think i can two more weeks i’ll be able to announce a new affiliate in the pacific northwest that’s all i am permitted to say at this time, that’s all i can say and, of course, podcast pleasantries if you’re listening in the time shift pleasantries out to you, wherever you are, whatever you’re doing while you listen, washing dishes, driving pleasantries to you, our podcast listeners hyre off. Let’s. See? That’s oh, that’s. So we were talking about naming, um so it’s not yeah, so a good idea. If you have legacy society, maybe you can personalize it a little bit. That was your idea. You already have it. And you don’t want to really get rid of it or lorts or scare your board too much or scary organization too much and that they were going to make america new name. Just sort of you could just add something to your legacy society. So you could be the, you know, the oak tree, like personalized or something like that. Okay, um, what are you seeing among plan giving recognition patterns and non-profits it’s all over the board? Because this is this is what i do so let’s say, i’m working with a new organization. The first thing i do is i go find their annual report online, and i look in the back and i see what they have and sometimes it just says bequest donors and that’s all they have, they have no riel, quote, legacy society and some people have really robust really thought out legacy societies with a great name, and they have a lot of benefits, recognition benefits. So what? Kinds of what kinds of i love your earrings, by the way. Very sparkly. Thank you. I’m sorry. We’re not surprised by my very sparkly let’s not get carried away, but the sparkle let’s leave it at that. What do you see? What kind of benefits are accompanying legacy or recognition? Society is very important when you’re when you’re starting to build out your legacy. Society experience. Let’s say you’ve never had a legacy society and your building this out and it’s. Like what kind of things can you offer? People used to say thank you and usually it’s. Nice to offer some sort of a gift. So perhaps you have some nice framed prints or a beautiful blanket with the school logo on it or the organization’s logo. Like whatever you think you can offer. That’s something that’s. Very nice. So it’s, really all across the board to have a gift. Okay, interesting. Let me stop you there. Uh, sorry, but we’re having a conversation. That’s. Interesting. So i have a different theory and that i’m not too big on the let’s. Go big on the little gift. I like a little lapel pins, but you do little framed frame things, those air interesting, like frames prince or something? Well, for instance, i know i know the ronald reagan library foundation in california, when you go in their legacy society, they don’t they don’t say this. I don’t think on their web site or whatever, but after you let them know you’re in the will, they send you, like this beautiful coffee table book, like one hundred fifty dollars gorgeous coffee table book, and you just get that as a way to say thank you. And i think it’s a very sincere way to show your appreciation. So a lot of really good organizations have a nice gift that they send, and then you could have other benefits. So for instance, sometimes they have a yearly lunch or dinner and all the way up, tio i’ve seen colleges, i know a college and i think it’s, south carolina and i want to say the name offhand cause i may get it wrong, but i know of ah college in south carolina, and they have a lot of alumni that live nearby, and so they’ve made a benefit. You can have free parking. On campus, when you come to events, so you need to, like, call the office and get a sticker and you can use the athletic facility, you can use the gym and that’s of great value does a great values but doesn’t cost the organization anything isn’t that first morning, and very few people are going to use it. It’s, it’s like people, you know, they get it and a few people will use it, but but not that many. So whatever you might have that you can offer people. So for instance, i worked with pearl s buck international in pennsylvania and their own organization that you can, like, adopt a child in vietnam, pay something every month and adopt the child, but they also have this beautiful the pearl s buck historic home, so so they’ve offered to members of their new and i’ll tell you the name in the moment of their new organization, when you put them in the will you get you get lifetime free admission to the pearl s buck house, and you could you could transfer that if you live in california that’s okay, you can transfer that if your friends are coming. East or something, you can offer them that’s cubine lifetime admission to the pearl s buck historic home. So things that you already have and you can offer people it just it sounds good, frankly, it’s, like when you’re talking about it, it gives you something to talk about there’s one that i like again, no cost when you’re hosting an event of some type, have a v i p seating area for your recognition society members, your legacy, society members, whatever. Yes, by piece sitting, you know and you could say, yeah, right, exactly or, you know, premier seating and and exactly does a lot of especially schools have, like, a christmas concert or something that’s very popular, and people come to the christmas concert, older people, they love to have that that v i p seating that this a nice a nice benefit for them. Another thing i’ve seen some of my clients do is, uh, before a big event, they host a little reception. They’ve already got the venue that’s already paid for it and it just add on like a half an hour cocktail reception beforehand. Maybe it’s a meet and greet with the ceo before. The larger event where you’re not going to really get time with that person but it’s something something special small added on to something that’s bigger. And so the marginal cost of that is not very big, right? So at a college reunion, if you have a special event for people in your plan giving society and the president of the college comes and you have a nice little cocktail party and you get and you get one on one time with the president of the college that’s that’s definitely special, but the name i think is really is really important to come up with these dust with the pearl s buck. Well, this is i worked at this organization and all they had when it when i came on board was the visionary society and the only place they had it was in the annual report, and that was it. So you never saw it on the website or you never never saw it anywhere else, so they felt it was time to refresh. So the visionary society like visionary, you can’t really see it like what is it? And so instead what i’ve done is we created something. Called the camelia circle because pearl s buck, the author that everybody loves that’s part of this organization that was her favorite flower was the camelia and right next to her office in the historic home is a beautiful greenhouse filled with camille ia’s. So we’ve made a beautiful camelia circle pin and it’s the camelia circle rather than society, because i tend a lot not like to call them societies and everything else is, well, the society. So if you have ten different societies, well, your plan giving society is yet another one. But if you circle that’s something different, i could say a guild or a league or a circle there’s a lot of other things, things that you can say. Okay, cool. Um, there’s one that occurs to me. I have a client that’s, pretty small ship it’s a historical society. And they’re celebrating what’s called the abraham lincoln brigade, which is a bunch of men who from america, who volunteered to go fight in the against the fascists in the spanish civil war. And they became known as the abraham lincoln brigade. The spanish civil war is like nineteen, thirty six to thirty nine and some of these men went over, like three thousand them and this society’s perpetuating their legacy legacy these these soldiers in the war from the u s and they call it the haram a society on the haram a haram a means absolutely nothing. That’s what i love about this, it means absolutely nothing to anybody outside the organization, right? But that doesn’t matter. That doesn’t matter to people right in any organisation. Haram a was a big battle in spanish, they all notice of that know all about it, and they’re right, and everybody else out there on the outside has no idea, and it doesn’t matter. It makes no difference because it’s special for the organism did they have any little image ing with that cause? It’s nice like when you’re when you’re building the image that’s? Why, if if, if you name it after a person, it’s a little harder to build the image because what you going to put the person’s face on a pin? So i like to use like if you have a special tree or like maybe with this haram a bottle, maybe there’s like a battlefield, a little crest of two crossed guns. Or i don’t know. Okay, i’m gonna ask you don’t have something like that now. No, look at this. Okay, um but yeah, just making the point that doesn’t have to be universally recognised. Its what’s special to your organization, i think that’s yeah, but not too out there because sometimes it’s a little too out there. And i like to do something that, like the great court gate at smith college, you can make things with the great court game. Like you can have that on stationery. You could make a pin out of that it’s a thing. And so i like like the camelia with with pearl s buck. We made a beautiful camelia circle pin and then and that allows you also let’s say you have a new member of your camelia circle. You could have them visit thie greenhouse and talk to the guy that runs the green. You can take a photograph of them and then you could give her her pin in the greenhouse. And you’ve a wonderful photograph for your newsletter that’s. Why i love the pin so much it’s an opportunity, it’s a pr opportunity i find i find donors do like the pins and they wear them, they were them two events and they’re great out of them and they’re proud of them and open and aside from that, they give you something to talk about. So for instance, i do some work for smith college, so we mail a newsletter to existing members of the great court society and in it, i always put a little thing. You’re a picture of the pin, your great court pin. Would you like that? Have you lost your pin? Or would you like an extra pin? Give us a call and we’ll get it. We’ll give you another pen. Say it gives you a little something to talk about to engage your donors because that’s, what it’s all about it’s engaging people, giving them a reason to call you or a reason to send you a little email? Yes, i’ve lost my pin. I’d like a new pin, right? You don’t have a pen, then you can’t talk about it. Um all right. So let’s, let’s. Go, little brother, what else is, uh, what else do you like in plant e-giving marketing besides the recognition society, we got ourselves some more time. I kind of like what you talked about at the beginning about things that you do for free, and that seems to be what i love to do i’ve i’ve started to put together some content, hopefully that will become a book that is all about marketing that you, khun do yourselves. That doesn’t cost you anything that any organization khun d’oh and basically it starts with that thing in the newsletter that says, are we in your will? If we’re in your will or other estate plans, please give us a call even if you wish for your gift to remain anonymous. It’s important that you share this information with us covered these different reasons and that’s, you know that’s free, you can put that in your newsletter you can put that on a buckslip so there’s a lot of things that you could do for free. So i really like to help organisations, whether their teeny tiny or a huge organization are missing the boat sometimes on the good free stuff. Well, if you have a book coming than, uh, share, share something else that’s, easy and free. Well, keep in free my kind of cheap and free i’d like to call it internal pr internal public relations. So? So you want to do more with your with your plan giving you hope to get more bequest? So why not have a little let’s say you’re having? Ah, volunteer, you could have a little volunteered gathering these air like kind of like top people, they’ve been with your organization for a long time. They don’t work for you, but they’re volunteers and their longtime donors you could have a little pizza party on a certain afternoon and invite everyone to the pizza party and say, we have something great that we’d like to share with you. This would be really, really helpful, you know that sometimes people pass away and they leave organizations gifts in there will like that. That cat shelter down the street just got a request for five hundred thousand dollars. Wouldn’t it be great if we got a request like that? And if it goes, oh, yeah, that would be great. And then you just share this simple thing with them and you say here’s something that you can do that’s really, really easy the next time you hear someone say, oh gosh, i’ve been coming here for such a long time and i can only donate ten dollars, a year. I wish i could do more. Well, you have to do nice volunteer is listen for that information and come back to me and share with me that person’s name that’s all you have to dio soc look at what you’ve done there, it’s, great internal pr you’ve you’ve shared this information with a group of people that their prospects as well, these long time volunteers, but you’re not asking them for a gift. You’re just sharing this with them and you’re putting the, you know, the idea and they’re in their head and then you’re giving them a very, very easy way that they can help beyond the way that they’re helping. Right now, all they have to do is listen for this key phrase from a donor. Gosh, i wish i could do more because that’s someone that could potentially be a fantastic plan giving prospect, they can’t give you a lot of money right now, but they might have a retirement plan, life insurance, and they wish they could do more and they wish they could do more so that’s that’s really key? So that’s a little internal public relations thing that you can do doesn’t cost you anything except for maybe a couple pizzas. I love it because you’re most people would call it training, right? It’s not, but internal pr. Oh, it’s, internal pr, it’s and it’s. Not a big deal. It’s not a big deal. Another way to do internal pr is you go to that to the young woman that answers the phone at the front desk at your organization. She’s, twenty seven years old and you say no if you say, you know, kathy, if someone called you up and said, oh, you know, i’m thinking about i’m going to the lawyer and i want to update my will, what would you say to them and cathy? Michael, god, i don’t know, i’ve no idea i’d have to ask somebody. Well, instead, next time someone calls, you know, make sure you refer them to me because here at the organization, i’m the person that that would help them with that. So it’s that’s, another way to do an internal pr is just communicate to key staff members about who’s doing what with the plan giving and you get the word out and i love that you said the person who answers the phones receptionist or somebody like that because they’re they’re talking to donors all the time and sometimes opportunities arise, so just don’t go you don’t know where their right, but you just don’t know who the next person is going to be. That’s talking to a plant, giving potential donor. I’ve gone up to the t to the help desk at a hospital and a huge non-profit beautiful hospital where i live in north carolina, and i went up to the help desk in the volunteer and she’s got the pin on thirty years service, and i said, excuse me, i said, but if i were going to update my will and and include the hospital, i love the hospital, how would i go about doing that? And this woman i know i threw her off, but but not too far because she was she was savvy, and i’ve been around a long time and she said, well, i’m not exactly sure, but i’m i can point you to the person that would be able to tell you that’s perfect, yes, and she gave me the name for the development person a development that’s a home run. So see, she knew so that so the next step after that would be, you know, introduced her to who the plan giving director is. And then she knows, like, a new a new title at the right. But now that that’s that’s the outstanding i mean, that kind of outreach is ideal. Otherwise, that person might have been lost. Well, i don’t really know i’m sorry. I don’t know. I’ve never heard of that. Okay? Feeling hurted, like people have never been mike away and say you might go and say, ok, never mind, you know, let’s. Forget it. Right. Okay. All right. We have just got half a minute. So you want to give us one planned giving marketing tip? Whatever it is related to free, free for all. Well, another really inexpensive thing that you can do is you could. You could have some information on your website that has your request language, your tax i d and all that right. You probably have that. Have your i t person make a little vanity kind of earl fort. So say you’re a s p. C a, you know, in new york dot org’s you could have slash requests or slash plan giving or slash my will or something, and and you have rent that unlike a special little card you could make with on vista print or something or through your organisation, make a special little card and have your title on there your name and title you’re the development director than on the back of the card. You have this little girl, and so when you’re going around and doing your internal pr and you go to the lady at the front desk, you could give her that card and say, well, if someone calls, you can just give them this earl where here’s ten cards and if someone comes before you give him a card or figure out on a donor visit or you’re at it, you’re at a dog wash, you know thing for your a s p c a and the person says, i wish i could do more. You could you know, this is where you know this is. You could send your lawyer here on look hard, so inexpensive and love zoho effective lovett claire meyerhoff planned giving communications and marketing strategist you’ll find her on twitter at claire says c l a i r e as easy, thanks, claire martin. Thank you, tony. Great show. And thanks for being our creative producer as well. It’s it’s it’s an honor and i have it on my lincoln. Thank you very much. All that tony’s take two and deep pockets coming up first pursuing they’re here. Hillary sutton is brand journalist for pursuing in the studio from lynchburg, virginia. Welcome, hillary. Thanks, toni. Excited to be here. Cool. I’m glad you’re excited. Thank you, rob. Very glad to have you were talking about pursuing for weeks. Generous sponsor of the show. Thank you very much for that, i think that’s ah, i think it’s a perfect relationship. Yeah. We’re we’re so excited to be able to support a podcast that provides action oppcoll information to people every week. And it’s. Just really helpful. Absolutely. I mean, look at all the stuff claire shared. Right. Like a dozen things that you could go on. Start taking notes over here. You could start on monday, take the weekend off and start your plan giving marketing and recognition on, eh? Um okay. Interesting title you have pursuing brand journalist. Why is what what is? What is that brand journalist do? Yeah, great question. So i’m a part of our marking team and i get the express honor. Teo, help share the success stories of our clients we it’s really exciting when we get to do we get to come alongside our clients who have big dreams, big visions for changing the world. Really every organization marvin improving the environment. I mean in so many different ways. And so i just love teo, get teo it’s get to connect those dots of how we’re getting to come alongside those clients and and leave the world a better place. Really you’re helping tell the story of how pursuant is helping clients in whatever they’re trying to dance, right, make the world a better, much better place. Okay, cool brand journalist covered that innovative. Alright, um, so you know, you know very well that the audience here is small and midsize non-profits on dh pursuant to the reason i think it’s such an outstanding relationship is because there’s so much that pursuing does that small emissions shops, midsize shops can take advantage of like all the tools, you know, in ala carte tools and things just help amplify it. I mean, i talk about it every week, but, um what? Look, why? How is it that pursuing is always thinking about small and midsize? Sure, while we have a couple of different offerings specifically, our velocity and our billboard are both offerings that just help small and midsize fundraisers work smarter, not harder. We’re going. We’re going to talk a little about velocity because there’s a survey and that’s actually for like, uh, managing your fund-raising and fundraisers. Time against goal, right? Yes. It’s e-giving productivity tool for fund-raising. Exactly. It’s a prospect management system and it’s. Interesting. Because we actually developed in house because we have some gift officers in house and we developed it to make their jobs easier so they wouldn’t spend time, you know, doing the same things over and over again. It simplifies process. It was it was being used by pursuing concerns as they were helping client that’s, right? And so it’s. So cool. I like that. Yeah. Developed internally. And it was so helpful that it was somehow sure we thought we’ve got to share this. Exactly. Okay. Okay. Let’s see, also you mentioned billboard? Yes. Okay. Billboard is our tool that does marketing automation. So it’s it it it’s a fantastic tool to use, you know, at the year. And you don’t have time to send out those emails. Live particular year in giving him so billboard is a tool that could help automate that and automate your non-profit running across its really cross all marketing channels, right kind of helps you develop well, send the messages and then it also has analytics. So you know which channels or productive is that the best mobile is the best e mail? Is this one your social media platforms? You know, etcetera? Exactly. Let’s go back to velocity because there’s a survey that i am going to put on my video next week. So on today’s the ninth, ten eleven, twelve so many the twelfth is going to video. I’m going to talk about the survey and i’ll have a link to it. But velocity, you’re trying to get more information and people can win an ipad air. Yeah, exactly. We just want to hear from fundraisers about some of their pain points. S o we can make our product better to make it to serve fundraisers better. So in exchange for your time, you get entered to win and an ipad ipad and are better. I’ve had a rare yeah, and i i went through the survey. It takes like five minutes. I’d say five, six minutes elearning yeah, there you go. It it’ll help develop the tool. But important that mean the tool is already available now? Yeah. It’s. Just like it’s going to be like improving it. Yeah. Step to face two or something. Okay, cool. Hillary, thank you very much for coming around your way. You’re my pleasure. And thank you again for sponsoring non-profit radio. Happy to do it. The video that hillary and i are talking about the survey and the link will be on tony martignetti dot com by the time you’re hearing this and that’s tony’s take two for friday, ninth of october fortieth show of the year. Here is maria simple with deep pockets. Maria semple is with us. She is the prospect finder, the trainer and speaker on prospect research. Her website is the prospect finder dot com and her book is panning for gold. Find your best donorsearch prospects. Now, she’s our doi end of dirt cheap and free ideas. You can follow her on twitter at maria simple welcome back from vacation, maria. Thanks, tony. Great to be back here with you. I’m glad you are. Where were you on vacation? We took the kids who are both in college. We took them on spring break and went down to riviera. Maya in mexico. Was this a selling vacation? I know you’re an avid sailor. No, it was land based, but it was wonderful. We did get out on a little catamaran to play that they had available at the resort, you know, to take out on your own. Just, you know, a smaller one. There this fun. Now we’re here and where your college kids thrilled about going on spring break with their mom and dad and sitting on the beach instead of being with their friends and drinking beers. Actually, they were they were just fine with it. And, yeah, we won’t address the other part of that. I’m sure if they’re below twenty one that i’m certainly don’t drink beers, right? Well, they they’re they’re of age. They put it that way. Okay. Okay. Um well, i’m glad you’re back. We’re talking about finding pockets of of affluence in communities. This this comes up in your practice, it does, it comes up a lot in, especially when i’m doing seminars or workshops in front of live groups, you’ve inevitably always have somebody raised their hand and say, g, we we really like to know a little bit more about our communities in terms of affluence. What what are the more affluent, zip zip codes? Um, and then, you know, what is philanthropy looking like in general amongst high net worth individuals? So i thought it might be kind of interesting for us to take some time and talk about what some of the resource is our that air available online to kind of examine, you know, both of those areas. Okay, before we go online, is there any chance of starting with your immediate internal resources, like you’re bored? You could could you start there, perhaps? Oh, yeah, absolutely. You could definitely start with your board. What? What i think is usually helpful, though, is if you very often, if if you goto your board and try and have a conversation at a board meeting or a development committee meeting and just kind of say, well, who do you know, give us the names of everyone, you know, you know, sometimes it’s better to kind of have maybe sort of almost a vetted list first to se gi these air, some people we’ve identified or these air some affluent zip codes we’ve identified in our region? Does anybody know any of these people? Or does anybody know anybody in these in these zip codes? Because then now you’re getting them to really focus in on some specific people are specific communities, and then, you know, versus them just trying to figure out who they know in their entire world or roll adex, okay, so we’re going to go online to try to generate thes resource is start t these resources to try to generate lists and, uh, give people names and communities and things like that, too, jog their memories. Yeah, i think i think that works at a little bit better for a lot of boards because a lot of people are a little bit more perhaps reserved. Or they say, well, you know, who is it that you want me to bring to? The table here, give me a little bit more parameter around that. Okay, well, you’re are dyin of dirt, cheap and free. So where should we get started with this? So, you know, the census pulls together a lot of great data about communities, and that really is the basis for a lot of these statistics that you can get regarding not only where income levels are and wealth, but how what the makeup is of the population. Right? So this could have implications not only for the fund-raising side of your non-profit, but also thinking about programs and services that you offer. And, you know, maybe you have certain services that are more geared toward females are more geared towards certain types of populations, maybe immigrants. So you would want to know how you know, what is our population, makeup and how well, with this programme are service you’ve made have a sense that this might be something that you want to offer at your non-profit but not knowing the exact make of of the community you you would probably be, you know, better off just kind of doing a little bit of research to see well, just what? Are the numbers of the people in that community that make up that population? Ok, how do we access the census data? So one source is directly from the census itself. It’s it’s called american fact finder. And the website is a fact finder to roman that’s, the numeral two thie arabic. We know that’s the arabic numerals, right. The arabic numerals, right. Fact finder to dot senses. Stop, gov. Um, so that is a pretty good place to start because what you can actually dio is you can put in your specific zip code that you would like to do a little bit of research on. And you can get information, for example, like the average adjusted gross income for that community versus the entire state. What charitable contribution deductions are in that zip code. So that could be kind of tito that’s. Very interesting. Yeah, it’ll. So i had gone in in prep preparation for this particular show today. I went in and put my own zip code in and saw that the average charitable contributions were three thousand sixty two dollars, right? So if you’re trying to think about where tio really started mining specific communities, it could be an interesting way to see if that how that community compares to other nearby communities, and you can also look at income income statistics. There you can look at income, you can look at average adjusted gross income, you can look att estimated median household income. Andi khun, look att house values as well. So i thought that was kind of interesting because a lot of people will say, well, g, you know it it seems to be that the communities where there might be hyre hyre home values could potentially then translate to higher income brackets and potentially hyre giving as well, yes, interesting. So you can you can play with these different variables of income and assets and charitable deductions average terrible reductions in the right zip code, for example, in my zip code. One thing that i found to be kind of interesting when i looked at the estimated median house value in in two thousand eleven as it was broken down by race, um, the asian community came out highest at just over five hundred seventy five thousand, the next highest level was the white population at four, sixty nine and changed so it was interesting to see how, how even they can break it down by race based on the information found and census data. Okay, and that’s all that fact finder to dot census dot gov, right and another site as well, which is it? City dash data dot com, where you can look at a lot of this broken down, but focusing first on the census site that i mentioned the fact finder site, you can download their data into excel spreadsheet, so i thought that was interesting, because then you can you know, if you if you needed to do any type of reporting at your in you can take those spreadsheets and share them with other people within your organization, be that, you know, staff or or bored, you can also sort you can also sort by different variables, right? Absolutely. And then they also had poverty, statistics and statistics around veterans. So if you were looking to try and figure out where the poverty stats where, you know, maybe you’re trying to develop programming for lower income children in your community or something like that, you can try and take a look at where those stats are also. Some non-profits are addressing the needs of veterans. And so you could try and determine what the numbers of veterans in our communities and trying to come up with programming for that too specific population. Okay, that’s a very good one. I love that one. Ah, yeah. All right. You mentioned city hyphen data. Dot com city data city data dot com there’s a hyphen in there? Absolutely. And i can put these on your facebook page, if you like after the show. Well, yeah, i’m going to do the takeaways and i’ll have a bunch of them. But you, khun, you can then add some or two, you’ll be able to add, add beyond what i what i put in the takeaways. Okay, okay. Terrific. So there again, you can search by zip code and again, you can look at the da’s adjusted gross income figures, charity contributions um, home values again broken down by race and so forth. And you know, you khun a lot of a data, you’ll you’ll note. It’s laid out a little bit differently. So i think what i would say to your listeners is checked. Both of them out. See what type of information it is that you want to pull out of this, um and see if if if the data is going to be useful for you. It’s presented a little bit differently on the two websites. But i have a feeling that the actual core of where all the data is coming from. It’s really? All from the census. Oh, interesting. Ok, same data differently presented. So use both. Lookit lookit. Both. Okay, absolutely. This is an example. You know, i love this example of ah, value that the government provides us through the through the census. Yeah. It’s all it’s all there, it’s free. And so why not take advantage of you know, all of this? All this work legwork somebody else has done for you. What else you got for us? So then i was beginning to think about, well, let’s, look, a philanthropy in general and the mindset, perhaps, of high net worth individuals and two interesting studies that are out there. One is by bank of america. They do a high net worth study. Ah, and the last one was done at the end of two thousand twelve. And another a source that i do want. To give some time to talk about is the chronicle of philanthropy because they did something in two thousand twelve called hyre how america gives you remember that and the make of america’s study, um, is quite lengthy, they do have an executive summaries well, and that girl is a bit longer. So but of course, if you if you just google the bank of america hi network study, you’ll get right to it as well. But what i thought was kind of interesting is that, you know, that they profile how the high net worth individuals are giving now. So where the state of giving wass and at that point in time when they did this study and also how they might be projected to give so i would really encourage the non-profits to take a look at that, especially if they’re looking to, you know, really increase their individual giving program amongst high net worth individuals just to kind of understand where the mind set is for these individuals, okay, so this is sort of after you’ve identified people that this isn’t really to identify pockets of affluence in your community, but how to deal with those affluent. Populations right? Why they why they give what motivates their giving? What motivates they’re getting right? So trying to trying to figure out where they’re giving, where, where might it be going? What is their mindset? So it’s one thing to be able to identify those pockets, but then how do you interact with them? How do you take that data and make it useful for you? Right? So one thing that i found interesting on on one of the pages of the report was that of that particular report was that the high net worth donors are increasing, they’re increasingly directing their gifts towards operating support. Ah, and this is something i get all the time. When i hear at my seminars, people will say, well, you know, the foundations and corporations they really want seem to really want to tie they’re giving to very specific program, nobody wants to fund operating support, but here in this report, they’re saying that they are open to the high net worth individuals are open to ah e-giving you contributions toward operating support. So i think that this is a huge opportunity for non-profits to focus up, because obviously these donors do. Understand about overhead. They understand that there has to be money for the lights and the heat, etcetera, and i think that you can easily direct some of your conversations to that. That sector. All right, we have to. We have to take a break for a couple minutes. Maria, when we come back, we’ll keep talking about these deep pockets, how to find them. We’ll talk about that chronicle of philanthropy survey, and i know that you have some others, so everybody stay with us. Like what you’re hearing a non-profit radio tony’s got more on youtube, you’ll find clips from stand up comedy tv spots and exclusive interviews catch guests like seth gordon. Craig newmark, the founder of craigslist marquis of eco enterprises, charles best from donors choose dot org’s aria finger, do something that worked neo-sage levine from new york universities heimans center on philantech tony tweets to he finds the best content from the most knowledgeable, interesting people in and around non-profits to share on his stream. If you have valuable info, he wants to re tweet you during the show. You can join the conversation on twitter using hashtag non-profit radio twitter is an easy way to reach tony he’s at tony martignetti m a r t i g e n e t t i remember there’s a g before the end, he hosts a podcast for the chronicle of philanthropy fund-raising fundamentals is a short monthly show devoted to getting over your fund-raising hartals just like non-profit radio, toni talks to leading thinkers, experts and cool people with great ideas. As one fan said, tony picks their brains and i don’t have to leave my office fund-raising fundamentals was recently dubbed the most helpful non-profit podcast you have ever heard, you can also join the conversation on facebook, where you can ask questions before or after the show. The guests were there, too. Get insider show alerts by email, tony tells you who’s on each week and always includes link so that you can contact guests directly. To sign up, visit the facebook page for tony martignetti dot com. Maria simple. I want to thank you for including a picture of me on your the prospect finder micro fiber cleaning cloth. Thank you. Like that. I do. I don’t know how i feel about my face being smeared across people’s monitors and smartphones, but but i think there’s a little picture of you and me in the studio, on the arm, on your cleaning cloth. Thank you very much. You’re very welcome. Very welcome. So i decided that sometimes that some of my speaking engagements i might be able to hand that out and be a nice little thing that people could keep and think about our faces for years to come. And i noticed, too. If i if i stretch it vertically, it makes me look hydrocephalus. Oh, my goodness, i haven’t tried there, and if you stretch it horizontally, then looks like i’ve gained about one hundred twenty five pounds. Can i send out some listener lovas? Well, three times? Well, because of your show, i was asked to go and speak to women in philanthropy of western massachusetts back in february, and they’re huge fans of your show. And so i just wanted to give a shout out to them and say hi, thank you very much with women in women in philanthropy, western mass, and they’ve invited me to come, but they’re booked until, like, next mayor april or something like that. Twenty fifteen not talking about this year. They’re booked until spring of next year sometime. So tired. Organized group. Yeah, i have time to make my reservations. Um okay. Let’s. Go back to our our deep pockets. Was there anything more you want to say about the bank of america study of high net worth philanthropy or we finished with that? No. You know, it’s very in depth. Really good projections. I found on pages sixty three to sixty five of the study of how they’re giving now and how they’re projected to give. So people are feeling a little overwhelmed with the study and they want to at least try and figure out where’s. What does this all mean for me? And where should i go with it? I would say they should focus on pages three to sixty five study that’s incredibly valuable, because and so is the fact that you said earlier there’s an executive summary, because if i was listening. And i heard sixty five pages in a survey. I think i’d move on to your next suggestion. But that’s, just me. But it is called the bank of america study of high net worth philanthropy. And as marie said, you khun, search for that and get it for free. What do we got over the chronicle of philanthropy? This how america gives thing. So what they did back in two thousand twelve, they, uh, they decided to make an entire map of the united states. You can put in your zip code and get a lot of data on where philanthropy is for those specific zip code. So i thought that was kind of interesting because, as you know, the chronicle is one of those resource is that a lot of people really rely on. Um so when i gone in, i put my zip code in. I took a look at they give a breakdown by total contributions. What the median contribution is. And then they also give you the median discretionary income. Um, andi give it as a percentage. They give you the percentage of income given, so i thought that was was pretty good. They give a breakdown as well by demographic. So do you just have an idea? You can look at a breakdown by age, race as well as education level of the population, just in case that was of interest to you. And they give a breakdown by income level of giving. So if you wanted to see, like, they break it down between the people who make between fifty, the study, basically start assuming on income level of at least fifty thousand. So fifty thousand to one hundred and one hundred, two hundred, two hundred and up and then all income levels help me understand how you would use all these sites. And i know there’s another one, one or two. We’re going to get to, but some claim gives you ah, project a task i need. How would you use all these different sites? You go to all of them. Or do you? You find some from some sites and other info from other sites. How do you approach this? Well, it really depends on what specific piece of information they want. Most of the time they’re giving me the name of an individual. Teo actually profile for them and other times they might come to me and say, well, you know, we’re interested in expanding and doing some proactive prospecting, you know, where are some of the more affluent neighborhoods that we should be looking to perhaps hold cultivation event? Um, sent mailers out, too, so they’re just trying to identify what are those pockets near them that they should be potentially targeting if they want to get into some proactive prospect and get some new names of people associated with their organization? Right? And if that’s your that’s, your charge, the ladder to find those pockets, how would you how would you approach that? So i would probably go teo, both fists chronicle of philanthropy study, as well as the census data, to try and identify where those hyre income levels are, and both of those locations where people are giving more so they be more of ah, i guess the more likelihood of success if they’re both approaching people with higher incomes and also are accustomed to giving hyre levels of money. Who okay, okay on and then, of course, you have to devise. You know what is going to be our plan if we want to? Go to that entire zip code. What? You know what? What are we going to do? Are we going to devise a mailer to go to all the households? There’s an every door direct program, for example, that the post office runs where you can target specific zip codes? Um, every every door direct, no shoot. Right? We’re out of time. Let’s. Hold that every door. Direct, let’s, let’s talk about that next time and unfortunately have to leave it there. So there are some other resource is that you have, which we will include you can add to the to the takeaway is that i do on the facebook page. Okay, sure. Absolutely. Thank you very much. Maria simple. The prospect finder at the prospect finder dot com. And on twitter at marie a simple thank you, maria. Thank you. Time for mohr live listener love lots of new live listen has joined us from carmel, indiana live listener love out to you especially and zoho in new wendorf, germany. Good dog also joined by inchon, korea anya haserot and hamamatsu japan konnichi wa also ten gin china still thinking of you that tragic explosion a few weeks ago threefold, weeks ago or so, still thinking of you, johnjn ni hao and also in india and i hope i’m saying it right live, listen love send there, too next week, a panel on stop pointing fingers at tech and hiring geeks with amy sample word. If you missed any part of today’s show finding on tony martignetti dot com, where in the world else would you go pursuant fund-raising tools for small and midsize non-profits you’ll raise barrels more money. I’m not talking about those tiny replicas you seon model railroad set ups on ping pong tables. I’m talking the sixty gallon models stacked in the musty barrel room of a winery filled with money pursuing dot com. Our creative producer is claire meyerhoff. Sam liebowitz is the line producer shows social media is by susan chavez, susan chavez, dot com and this music that you hear is by scott stein, thank you for that scottie with me next week for non-profit radio big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent go out and be great. Kayman you’re tuned to non-profit radio. Tony martignetti also hosts a podcast for the chronicle of philanthropy fund-raising fundamentals is a quick ten minute burst of fund-raising insights, published once a month. Tony’s guests are expert in crowdfunding, mobile giving event fund-raising direct mail and donor cultivation. Really, all the fund-raising issues that make you wonder, am i doing this right? Is there a better way there is? Find the fund-raising fundamentals archive it. Tony martignetti dot com that’s marketmesuite n e t t i remember there’s, a g before the end, thousands of listeners have subscribed on itunes. You can also learn maura, the chronicle website philanthropy dot com fund-raising fundamentals the better way, way.

Nonprofit Radio for October 2, 2015: Get To The Next Level

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Laurence Pagnoni: Get To The Next Level

Laurence-Pagnoni-large-300x239Laurence Pagnoni is author of “The Nonprofit Fundraising Solution.” Based on his work as an executive director and fundraising consultant, he has proven strategies to get you to the next level of fundraising revenue. (Originally aired November 8, 2013)

 


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Oppcoll hello and welcome to tony martignetti non-profit radio big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent. I’m your aptly named host oh, i’m glad you’re with me. I’d be stricken with neff roma golly, if i had to pass the idea that you missed today’s show it’s actually never throw megally get to the next level. Lawrence paige nani is author of the next the non-profit fund-raising solution. Based on his work as an executive director and fund-raising consultant, he has proven strategies to get you to the next level of fund-raising revenue this originally aired on november eighth twenty thirteen i wish he would pronounce his name panjwani lorenzo panjwani on tony’s take two video from venice. We’re sponsored by pursuant full service fund-raising data driven and technology enabled, you’ll raise more money pursuant dot com let’s go with our first segment here is lawrence paige nani. I’m very pleased that lawrence paige no knees book and his work bring him to the studio. He has spent twenty five years in the nonprofit sector and was an executive director of three non-profits he’s been a faculty member at the gnu heimans center for philanthropy and fund-raising we’ve had guests from there. And the coach is a group of executive directors with the rutgers business schools institute for ethical leadership. His book is the non-profit fund-raising solution. Powerful revenue strategies to take you to the next level. Lorts back. Tony, welcome to the studio. Thank you so much. I’m glad to be here. It’s. A real pleasure to have, you know, i love having live in studio guest. It just makes it that much more special. Congratulations on the book, it’s. Just it’s out this month, right? Yes, just a few weeks ago. And and delighted it has a robust sales so far. Excellent. Very good for you. I think i have to ask you this. I’ve wondered about this since i first saw your name, which is years. Why isn’t it pan yanni wipe agnone. How did you i’m not martignetti why did you? Somewhere along the lineage, you went to pack no knee. Well, had that happened? It’s, my grand, my grandmother would like your question. It’s, lorenzo, antonio peggy oni that’s your your it’s like a little birdie operate you’re you’re ah, expression of it is accurate. And but, you know, in american vernacular gets paige. No knee. I hate that. I hate that your grandmother would love the pan uni i was a beautiful name. It is so operatic. Um, the non-profit fund-raising solution. What is the problem? Well, under capitalization of the sector plagues more than seventy seven percent of non-profits they have a vision, but they don’t have the money to implement it. And many organizations spend years on a plateau under two hundred fifty thousand dollars trying to execute their vision for some small non-profits ah, humble budget is more than adequate, and they’re doing good services and they are meeting their vision. So don’t mean to imply that you need money too. Do your work. There are amazing volunteer organizations, but for those organizations that that need money, i wrote the book in that spirit of trying to help them tio, to go to the next level which is such a ubiquitous question. I mean, i get that a lot on dh. I work only really in the plant giving and the charity registration niches. But even i am asked a lot, you know? How do we get to the next level? Can you help us get to the next level? So there are a lot of organizations that do want to go to increased fund-raising revenue it’s the number one question i get when i give seminars or public trainings, and somebody inevitably will wander up to that micah’s i say in the introduction, and and ask me, how do you get to the next level? And on the one hand, it’s a poetic question, but on the other hand, it’s for my sensibilities, it’s a business question with mathematical methods behind it, and the book tries to explain that if you get your leadership understanding the vision for what the next level looks like if the board supports that vision, if you think about hyre level strategies and you work on changing the culture of your organization so that the organisational development matches that vision that’s the foundation there’s four aspects are the foundation for going to the next level, and then the rest is tactical most fund-raising is tactical. The strategy comes from the organization, and we’re gonna have time to talk about the organisational development as well as the strategies and tactics were because i love that we have the full hour together, so the symptoms of this problem are mean, ah, event to event fund-raising or maybe sole source revenue streams? Yeah, most foundation grants have ah, three year limit. There are some exceptions to that, of course, places like the robin hood foundation, which see themselves as long term partners. Um, but event to event without any cash reserves and some organizations just go year two year like that and and and make do and with a little bit of luck and and providence, they they squeak by, but it’s hard to plan having an impact on your mission and on the sector, the field of service, if you will, that you’ve chosen. If you really want to help at risk kids, i have a better chance getting into college or getting the right on the right employment that’s a great example because it’s exactly it’s for you you do have to plan for years that’s a life cycle of a child and if you’re you know, as you say, just getting by year to year, how can you plan for that child’s future? You can’t. You can’t plan for your own that’s, right? Um, do you think that since we see such a reliance on events, i have a theory, i don’t, but you khun you’re free to disagree that the reliance on events is so that people can avoid what they fear, which is having to sit across the table from someone and looked him in the eye and ask them for a gift. Well, it’s, funny as best as i understand it and i’m always learning events were the history of them goes back to having an opportunity to thank your individual donors. They weren’t actually fundraisers unto themselves, and then they course morphed into that when in fund-raising when the event ah, is linked to individual giving and get in to get the individual giving program, they always raise more money, because the point is that the twenty percent of your individual donor base who gives eighty percent generally on your revenue since the recession, we see it’s maybe seventy, thirty um they need to be talked to individually and thoughtfully, and having tough conversations with donors is part of that territory, and i think a lot of people are, um, are shy about that. Money, of course, is one of the great taboos of life and so it’s fraught with emotional issues um, you allude to cem cem research done by stanford about the dominant revenue source? We’ll flush that after us. Sure. Well, you often hear people say that they need a diversified revenue base. Yes, and i’ve heard that for years as a fundraiser, and as in the former executive director, i used to worry about how much time and energy that talkto have more than one or two revenue streams. So a few years ago, stanford university ah did research on one hundred and forty hundred forty one non-profits that that had gotten over the fifty million dollar mark annual budget, what they discovered was a surprise that those organizations generally had a dominant source of revenue and possibly a secondary source of revenue and wasn’t as diversified as smaller non-profits but they also said that smaller non-profits still needed to diversify until they got to that plateau ah, when or they got to that level, when they could break through for a dominant source of revenue. And the reason this is interesting is that those non-profits that got over fifty million, they knew everything there was to know about that dominant source of revenue, if it was individual giving say, for example, habitat for humanity? Their dominant source of revenue is individual giving, followed by in-kind donations followed by foundations. They knew everything there was from about individual giving from ah, there first acquisition to plan giving and the whole continuum within those two ends. Yes, um, we are going, tio take a break and we’ll of course continue with lawrence, and we’ll talk a little more about the the inflexibility that we’re talking about now and that sort of tradition of of dominant source giving. But then we’re gonna move on, and we’re going to talk about what it takes for the organization, too develop within before he can get to the next level. So hang in there. You’re tuned to non-profit radio tony martignetti also hosts a podcast for the chronicle of philanthropy fund-raising fundamentals is a quick ten minute burst of fund-raising insights published once a month. Tony’s guests are expert in crowdfunding, mobile giving event fund-raising direct mail and donor cultivation. Really all the fund-raising issues that make you wonder am i doing this right? Is there a better way there is? Find the fund-raising fundamentals archive it tony martignetti dot com that’s marketmesuite n e t t i remember there’s, a g before the end, thousands of listeners have subscribed on itunes. You can also learn maura, the chronicle website philanthropy dot com fund-raising fundamentals the better way. Duitz welcome back to big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent. Lawrence paige nani is with me. He is the author of the non-profit fund-raising solution. So before the break, we were talking a little about thiss dominant source so they knew their dominant source and maybe a secondary source very well. So it’s so it’s not so bad. Teo teo, be focused that way. No. Ah, it turns out that that that there are different levels in every revenue source of from an average level two quite skilled level. What they had a have, of course, in their dominant source of revenue was they had to have deep and abiding expertise. Ah lo, staff turnover amongst the fund-raising staff was very important for those organizations because the institutional memory of with their donors had to be preserved. It’s called development for a reason it’s a developmental process. So if you’re walking the walk with a donor through their lifetime of giving, if they get comfortable with a fundraiser, the chances of that fundraiser being able to raise more money are much higher now. Of course, that’s that’s ah juxtaposed to the chronicle philanthropies article this past year, which showed that the turn of the dissatisfaction amongst fundraisers with their organizations was extremely high. Yes, and i we talked about that on the show. Did you? Yeah, i was distraught to hear that. And because fund-raising is a noble profession, and when it’s not respected, the process is not respected than people expect returns too fast, or they expect the fundraiser toe come in with donors ready to g o without having to cultivate them for your mission. And these are very irrational ideas dominate the conversations around fund-raising but it’s called development for a reason, and those non-profits that god above fifty million that had a dominant source were they had a patients to their culture, and they respected the cultivation process and they closed, you know, on on major gifts much more frequently than those that didn’t have that culture. What was the first organization that you were executive director of? Oh my, it was a soup kitchen for the homeless in richmond, virginia, and i’m guessing there are a lot of lessons you learned there. Oh, my goodness, i on the and in the book i tell the story of how i forgot about the board. No, i didn’t. I didn’t technically forget about board. I attended board meetings. I prepared my reports. I i i had the board book ready and met with the committee’s when they needed me. But in my soul they were superfluous. And what was really important was getting the programme metrics right, and getting the fundraising going. But i came to see how the board in my second executive directorship here in new york at harlem united i came to see how the board it could give the organization a gift that the ceo cannot, which is the gift of longevity and survivability. And that great word that we use in this sector. Sustainability, um, so in your ah experience in was in west virginia, richmond in virginia, at the soup kitchen. Were you sort of dragging the board along as you as you worked on the metrics that were important to you? Or you would just take kicking them? Was mohr lifestyle okay? So clicking from behind? Well, there was the italian radio, the italian right, more likable bull in a china shop. But ah, the urgency was, of course, that homelessness was extremely bad. The single room occupancy. Hotels in richmond, virginia, were closing, ah, at a rapid rate, and the homeless shelters were were increasing. So we had a a profound sense of urgency, and then right in the middle that the aids epidemic was becoming clearer to us. And so there was this sense of urgency, and we in fact founded three different organizations. Ah, as spin offs to to our non-profit but i came to see the value of board leadership and bored endorsement and and to recruit people that did add value, not everybody is meant to be a boardmember and i had made the mistake of just recruiting volunteers that had a passion for the board without necessarily having the business, talents and skills that i needed to fulfill the mission that we were, we were aimed at over ten to twenty years, and we’re going to talk later on about one of the opportunities that you’ve identified leadership counsels for maybe the type of people that you’re talking about, not suitable for the board, but have interest and passion. And so there may be another role for them. Yes, so let’s talk about the board now the board has to buy-in it’s essential at the board be developed before the organization is going to get to the next level? Oh, yes, ah, a lot of ceos inherited inherit aboard when they take a job that isn’t necessarily up for the task, and they wait on the sidelines for something magical to happen with that board, and they don’t necessarily see themselves as an intervening variable to bring the board to the next level themselves. But i recommend in my book that they do see themselves as part of the change process for the board by meeting personally with board members by recruiting people who have the skills and talents that they be delighted to have in leaders and that’s. Not all. They’re not always easy processes. They take time, but you’re trying to develop a shared vision on the board, exact between the executive leadership and the the ceo executive director and the and the volunteer leadership that’s, right? This could take a long time to align a vision it can, but there are plenty of examples where it happens rather fast. I mean the board no share one the board in richmond, virginia. The board of harlem united here in new york. They were united around the being thought leaders in the field of of ah, innovative health care for people who fell outside the health care system, the homeless and indigents. And they they i saw their revenue streams from the government, both federal and state, as needing to be reformed so that they could get the funds that were needed. For example, in nineteen ninety one there were no article, twenty eight healthcare, primary care, organised clinics for people living with aids. They were only the peruse of mental health. So what the board did with the executive staff leadership is they formed a statewide organization called the adult they healthcare coalition, and they changed the way the revenue stream were structured so that article twenty eights could include primary care for people living with aids. Article twenty eight is a federal state of new york state state health. S o that you could receive third party medicare. Reimburse oka okay, it’s, an amazing revenue stream, extremely stable. And it helped people keep people out of hospital emergency rooms so you can provide care at a much lower rate. So sometimes revenue streams have that level of complexity to them and you need a board that could understand the thinking behind them, and sometimes revenue streams are easier to understand. I mean, i think that’s why people often gravitate to foundation grants, they can look at a foundation’s website, they could understand the application process, and they throw there their hat in the ring to see if there are going to be, you know, lucky. Let zoho focus on again the achieving this shared vision across the board, so it certainly takes place in inboard recruitment board meetings and month after month, i mean what’s the what’s, the executive director’s role in trying tow, align the board with this with a common vision. Well, one of my great teachers, carl matthiasson, who was expert in board development hey used to say that a board will talk about anything and then he’d pause and he’d say, if you let them sound the point, the point was that the executive director, um, in in private dialogue with the board chair or the executive committee had to understand how to i’ll create an agenda that was consistent with where they were headed so that the organization didn’t waste a lot of times. Often times, you know, can you imagine tony in an average year, how many board meetings i sit in and listen? And so much of what boards talk about is not is inconsequential to their their deepest desires and goals, paperclips and on dh office supplies a cz one example, you know, thinking ok and no on the worst, and the executive director doesn’t want to be micromanaged, you know, you hear that language a lot. Of course. On the other hand, the executive director is under macro managing and thie opposite, of course, of micro management is macro management and macro management is about the strategic alliance of the vision and here’s, where you see a lot of executive director’s check out the and it leaves them vulnerable to being micromanaged. So i encourage in the book for the culture of a board to be robust and that the ceo see him or herself as part of a shaper or leader in that now lot of non-profit see, youse will read that and they would go well dahna you know, i’ve been doing of course i’ve been doing that for years, but when you look across the sector that’s not necessarily the habit off many ceos. They they often see themselves as just employees of the board and they and they abdicate that board leadership responsibility. Yes, even though they’re not the named chair of the board. But you’re advocating that they still have a strong role in board leadership that’s, right? And some ceos who were former program directors and then that he became the ceo. Ah, they’re not by their character change agents. So what i’m describing is a character of a ceo that’s really a change agent because i’m interested in high performing non-profits that that solve the social problem that they set out to solve, whether it be reducing teen pregnancies or having more kids get through the school system successfully or or adult employment, for example? Um, so those ceos of those kinds of organizations generally are changing agents and it’s not to say there’s something bad about the ceos are not it’s just that i think that they have to think about, ah, different place in the sector that might be better suited for their skills and talents. Okay, let’s, talk briefly about the gift of significance that you recommend from, um, from board members and you in the book, you have a calculation for what that ought to be boardmember boardmember and we don’t really have a chance to go through that calculation, but what? What? Why not a significant gift? Why? Why is it a gift of significance? Well, that’s a significant point, most boards think about board trust e-giving as giver get, um dahna and then there’s a third part of that is unsaid, which is give, get or get off, get off! So i never liked that, and i taught at the united way here in new york city for many years, i taught their board seminar and and did the given get policies and there’s wisdom to that, and i’m not opposed to give and get policies, but i think there’s a ah much more thoughtful way to engage the process, which is to have a conversation about a gift of significance. What for you when you look at your philanthropic giving in the past few years, given your current income, what is a significant gift that stands out amongst all your, um, you’re you’re you’re giving and the reason that this is a particularly good approach for trustee is that a trustee is stepping up in a leadership capacity toe inspire other donors to give by their giving, and they have to see the connection between how they think about they’re giving and what they want the donors of the organization to do. Because the development director or the vice president, institutional advancement or the ceo needs to say my trustees have stepped up, they’ve made leadership gifts one hundred percent a hundred percent they khun cumulatively give um, you know, twenty six thousand seven hundred fifty three dollars, i’m that precise when i calculate the cumulative giving of aboard and reported back to donors and the donor’s often laugh, but i’d rather give them the real numbers to know that this is a real process if you’re if their boat donors of your trustees on your board, that can’t give a gift of significance, that’s not sure everybody can give a gift or significance. I mean, i’ve had its what’s significant to them. Exactly. I’ve had consumers of services that that social work, term consumers or program members on the boards that i’ve worked at, and and i’ve used the same principle with them it could. Be five dollars could be fifty dollars, but for them, it’s a significant gift and it’s in phrasing it that way is a gift of significance. It captures the energy that we’re looking for around thinking about being a fund-raising leader and of course, ideally too from time to time, you want to ask the board to stretch beyond their normal giving, which is when you’re in a campaign or ah, special drive or there’s an anniversary, things like that. So continuing with some of the strategies that you recommend you like, like parlor gatherings over what’s, a parlor gathering could be in an office conference room could be in your living room. Ah, parties with a purpose is that is the general frays, and the purpose is the benevolence that the party ah it’s, not a party for a party sake it’s a party for a purpose and the purpose is to sponsor and endorse and give money to the charity that is is the primary focus. They’re ninety minute gatherings. I describe the actual methods and rollout and is very user friendly chapter but ah lot of organizations keep waiting for that moment when they’re going to go. To the next level and fund-raising courses of practitioners art so here in the parties where the purpose you see avery practical method that you could roll out in two to three months, sixty to ninety days. In fact, one of the smaller non-profits that listens to your radio program read the book their whole development committee. They’re all volunteers. Well, i love them because they’re listening. Yes, i don’t care what they do fund-raising wise. Frankly, lawrence, i don’t care if they bought your book or not. They’re there listening to the show that you could stop there. I love them. Whoever you are, we love you. You know who you are. We love you. I’m sorry. I know it’s true. And they they are going to do a party when they called. I said i’ll give you a free as i do anybody, i give anybody of free forty minute phone conversation about questions they have about the book. Or i also come into organizations to meet with the development team or aboard team anyway. So i gave them a free consultation and they wanted to do a party with a purpose in the future. And i said, oh, no, we’re going to have it before the year. And we’re doing it now. And they’re going to be doing it right after between christmas and new year’s. Excellent. Excellent, indeed. Love lawrence paige, nani this’s uh, thiss was this a very, very good show? He’s, you should get this book if you don’t have it non-profit fund-raising solution. You ought to tony’s take two and more with lawrence coming up first, i’m going to chat about pursuant because they have a tool called billboard, and it helps you manage your communications. Naturally, you are multi-channel email landing pages, micro sites, donation forms, et cetera. The social networks don’t separate those integrate. I thought of that myself. I think i might, you know, it’s been a few weeks business since i’ve been in the studio because i was away, but i believe i said that a couple weeks ago don’t separate into great because billboard is integrated communications management puts all these tools and that all these channels together into one management tool and not only management but also analytics so that you know which of your channels our most effective because after well, depending on how many campaigns you do and and how engaged you are might be after three months, you want to look back, but if not if you’re not that prolific, maybe after a year. Or so you want to look back and see what’s been the most effective? The analytics will answer that then you find tune and you improve and you raise more money or get more volunteers or have more successful events, whatever it is you’re engaging for, you’ll do it better with the unified, integrated management and the analytics that go with billboard. So if you want to improve your engagement, your outreach, check out billboard at pursuant dot com really pursuing is a perfect sponsor for small and midsize non-profits our listeners obviously say it all the time because they have these tools that you can use separately online or, you know you can choose ah, larger suite of tools together or at the highest level, you know, they actually do on site, you know, campaign consulting, live bodies, helping you manage your campaign, so but you don’t have to go that far, so i just think they’re perfect, you know, sort of ala carte and i love the ceo trent chant ryker has a background in non-profits and recognizes the challenges that small and midsize shops are facing around fund-raising and engagement. Pursuant, dot com i’ve got video from venice, the net cia. I was there last week. Oh my goodness! Ah, in fact, exactly this time last week, there are gondolier is in the background, so you got to check that out and i’m talking about how you keep your plans e-giving above water, you do it by cultivating and soliciting the right prospects. The video with the gondolier ears is that tony martignetti dot com and that is tony’s take two for friday, second of october thirty ninth show of the year. Let’s, get back to lorenzo panjwani let’s talk more about parlor gatherings. Lawrence, you do is a very, very askew, said user friendly chapter you have a lot of very robust advice, and i’ve always liked the idea of a small, intimate gathering, so we’re going to focus on my prejudice for these types of events, not to the exclusion well here on the show, and we don’t have a chance to talk about everything all the strategies that you have in the book, but the book is full of lots of fund-raising strategies i happen to like the i never heard them called parlor gatherings, but i like i like that idea. Um, who should host these thes parlor gatherings? Generally? There’s one one host who has a good network of friends, were colleagues, family members and in turn out twenty five to thirty people. Um, i’ve been it parties where the purpose parlor gatherings that have as much money as seventy five that’s a big parlour, yeah, but they have, you know, they’re people with big names, and they have big networks and s o mostly, the host is responsible for inviting the guests, mostly the host. Now, in some organizations where our host doesn’t feel that they could deliver twenty five to thirty, people, maybe they have a co host or i’ve done three hosts and each of them commit delivering, you know, ten people and and that’s worked very well, especially because they’ve had the support and partnership of two other people that they like and they’re going to do it together, and they see it as a ah fun thing to do. I love the fact that most of the the expense budgets on parlor gatherings are a couple hundred dollars. We don’t put out a lot of fancy food we use cheap. Wine or no wine at all, depending on the organization that always has to be thought through. Um, and we don’t spend money on trinkets or literature. Um, um if the if the host once, um ah, paper invitations as opposed to just using ah elektronik invitation service, like ping ah, the host then has to pay for the cost of that, not the organization. And, um and as i said, they are usually planned in sixty to ninety days. Okay? And you want you want nobody to talk for more than five minutes? That’s, right? Who? You should talk. Well, it has to be somebody. Ah, that that people can emotionally connect with generally a client or consumer who is prepared to deliver, um and it’s comfortable talking to a group of those could be very tender, intimate moments when it’s, when it’s someone who’s benefiting from the services of the organization. That’s, right, it’s seen i’ve seen tears in in colleges, scholarship recipients. But the cause is something causes you mentioned run much more deeply even than education. Yeah, i people who have healed from years of recovery. People who have been supported in their process of coming out of jails and prisons, people who i have ah been through adoption processes, i mean, their stories are extremely powerful, and telling a story is what you need to help them work on and prepare for, so that they have some flare on some theatrics to it where the the audience makes eye contact with them, and that that they have good hand gestures and that they’re articulate and everybody, of course, has their own style. I’ve been where some climb i’ve been to some parties with a purpose where the clients are very studio vote j and they have a quiet manner, but nonetheless, your grandmother would appreciate it slipping little italian, italian and there you are, italian listeners. Ah, they’re they’re quieter in their presentation, but nonetheless still powerful because they prepared still very moving, very moving video is often good at larger events, but in smaller events ah, the intimacy of the smaller room gives gives good stage two to two personal witness who else should be talking? Well? The the some official from the organization of boardmember or volunteer or staff member ceo doesn’t have to be to say, you know, no, the ceo is more than happy, more than welcome to think of him or herself, but again in a high functioning fund-raising culture, everybody should be empowered to talk about the money and teo, talk about the money in a way that that other people get it and doesn’t have to be the ceo there. There’s a one of the stories i tell in the book is a first party with a purpose for a small agency in brooklyn substance abuse recovery agency. They never did any private fund-raising they’d always relied on government grants and their first time out, they raised twenty six, twenty seven thousand dollars. They had two clients tell their story and ah, boardmember, who never saw herself as a fundraiser, stood up and was crying after listening to the two consumers tell their story, and she burst out with a five thousand dollar pledge and somebody else in the room matched it, and none of that was prepared. But it was prepared conceptually because we do have a bias in who we invite, that we try to invite people that we know something about, that they have some means now we’re not. We’re not strict about that, but we do ask the question, ahn do seek people who have that some level of affluence now, a lot of smaller non-profits say right off the bat, i don’t know anybody, you know, with the level of affluence, and i say, okay, well, let’s work with what we have, and but amazingly they always find somebody who writes that eighty percent of the rooms check on dh rehearsing you like tio, you’d like to rehearse. These rehearsing is very important, you know, the penultimate example of steve jobs that before he passed away at at apple, his his launches of new products were legendary, right? That he practiced those for weeks six, seven weeks every single day of running the whole team through rehearsals and himself, and anything worth goat doing is worth practising foreign preparing well for so don’t think you could just, like, call the client up the night before and say, would you speak tomorrow at our, you know, party with a purpose? That’s not the way to do it? And what about the important follow-up to your parlor gatherings? Well, ah, part of the second speaker or the third speakers role is to ask for funds. And and ah, pledge form has handed out, and some people fill it out right there and it’s collected as people leave, and for those that don’t hand the pledge, forman follow-up is necessary first of all, follow-up is necessary for everybody to say thank you way we have a rule of sending out our thank you notes and forty eight hours ah, business hours, which a lot of non-profits find, you know, really? Ah, hi rule to meet, but we think it’s important that people get both paper and email, thank you’s, and they get a cumulative understanding of what happened at the party because a lot of donors are going to leave and they’re not going to know the cumulative results that they participated in that twenty six or twenty seven thousand or five thousand or twenty five hundred was raised whenever share that impact you want to share that impact and you want to be let people feel the good vibes of that they participated in, that they made it happen. And so the thank you notes need to go out the the results need to be go out by both female and paper and then of course the e-giving history needs to be recorded in your database and there’s no excuse for a non-profit whether they’re volunteer with no budget, not having a database, as i say in the book, you can go to e base dot or get a free database that was developed by the rockefeller family foundation at my website for the book the non-profit fund-raising solution dot com there’s links to free databases, or you could just use a good excel spreadsheet and stay organized or an access that a base that’s comes with your you know, your computer there’s no excuse thes days for you don’t have toe spend, you know, ten thousand a month with razors, edge or something? Thank you for sharing those resources to leadership councils we alluded to these earlier what’s the role of a leadership council. Well, a non-profit has a board that that worries about its governance. Generally we say that the executive staff is supposed to be worried about one, two, three years of management, and the board should be thinking about five to ten years. The pentagon, of course, has a seventy five year strategic plan, so they know where they’re going to. Be, i would like our sector to know a lot more about where it’s going to be, but no pat, no matter how powerful your board is, you still need mork community endorsement for your organization and the leadership council gives you that it’s a non governance structure. Some people call it honorary councils or advisory councils. I like the term leadership council because it’s, what we’re looking for, we’re looking for them to be leaders and sometimes those leaders khun step up and say things that your board can’t say, or your executive staff can’t say about your cause. And as we saw this pit last year or two years ago with planned parenthood, there were many people on its leadership council who spoke up in their defense where they’re bored, needed to keep ah quieter, acquired or voice so leadership councils are very important, and sometimes you put people on leadership councils who don’t want to do the heavy lifting of governance, and sometimes you put them on because you have good feelings about how they love your organization and you want to maintain that relationship, but they’re not appropriate for the board. So it’s a it’s a mix of characters, we’ll take a break for a couple minutes, keep talking about leadership councils and i’m going to do live listener love i gotta start with where i’m going to be next week. Mexico city, mexico welcome ola kato. I’m going to be there next week for opportunity collaboration, which used to be a sponsor of the show, actually staying over just overnight in mexico city and then flying the next day to x stop, where the opportunity collaboration unconference is going to be new york, new york live listener loved to you also to st louis, missouri, brooklyn, new york and wilmington, north carolina live listener love to each location each person forget the location the love goes to the person not to their office or their building or their block it’s to you heart to heart live listener love beijing beijing is frequent listening. Beijing thank you very much. Niehaus and seoul, south korea also so grateful for the loyalty coming from seoul on your haserot affiliate affections to our many affiliate listeners throughout the country at our am and fm affiliate stations and we’re going to have some new ones to announce. Give me a couple weeks we got some announcements coming up, but in the meantime, everybody who’s listening now from all our am and fm stations affections out to you and, of course, the all important podcast pleasantries for the over ten thousand people we know who listen, whatever device that whatever time, doing whatever activity podcast pleasantries to you, let’s, take a break, and then we go right back into lawrence paige nani like what you’re hearing a non-profit radio tony’s got more on youtube, you’ll find clips from stand up comedy tv spots and exclusive interviews catch guests like seth gordon. Craig newmark, the founder of craigslist marquis of eco enterprises charles best from donors choose dot org’s aria finger do something that or an a a me levine from new york universities heimans center on philanthropy tony tweets to he finds the best content from the most knowledgeable, interesting people in and around non-profits to share on his stream. If you have valuable info, he wants to re tweet you during the show. You can join the conversation on twitter using hashtag non-profit radio twitter is an easy way to reach tony he’s at tony martignetti narasimhan t i g e n e t t i remember there’s, a g before the end, he hosts a podcast for the chronicle of philanthropy. Fund-raising fundamentals is a short monthly show devoted to getting over your fund-raising hartals. Just like non-profit radio, toni talks to leading thinkers, experts and cool people with great ideas. As one fan said, tony picks their brains and i don’t have to leave my office fund-raising fundamentals was recently dubbed the most helpful non-profit podcast you have ever heard. You can also join the conversation on facebook, where you can ask questions before or after the show. The guests were there, too. Get insider show alerts by email, tony tells you who’s on each week, and always includes link so that you can contact guests directly. To sign up, visit the facebook page for tony martignetti dot com. Oppcoll what is our leadership council going to do? I lied endorse for legitimacy, credibility there, there to say, we like these guys what they’re doing, we endorse and it there’s power by that association with their name, and they don’t even have to do anything just to have that happen. We do want people to do things on the leadership council. They’re generally a couple things. We want them to come to an annual gathering of the leadership council so that they could get their own personal update about the organization. Secondly, we want them to to meet with us individually, us being the development ofthis war, the executive office. We want to meet with them individually to talk about their own gift to the organization, plus their network of possibly doing guess what? Ah, party with a purpose for their network. So there’s a lot of in few inches integration of the tactics in part two of the book, while part one is all about the way you think about fund-raising part two is all about the the inter marriage of various tactics. For example, in a leadership council, i think i mentioned this in the plan giving chapter. You could have a leadership council just for the people who are part of the plane. Get me that there is a chapter devoted to plan giving their importance. Only reason. Lawrence’s here. We’re not talking about that chapter three. Only thing that drew me to the book. I read it from backward. I read. I read that chapter first. The plan giving is ah, well, many times non-profits overlook having a plan giving society for there the donors that that give through their bequests or their wills or insurance policies or whatever the mechanism and having a leadership council of your plan giving group is very important. Ah, there was a small client i worked with here in east haven, connecticut. The shoreline trolley museum. They’re in the in the midst of closing on a two million dollar campaign so that they could have proper buildings for their antique trolleys. They have one hundred antique trolleys which tell the story of the trolleys from the eighteen hundreds. Amazing place. My kids love it and the they never had paid attention to their legacy. There they’re playing e-giving ah, donors and we started to talk to them or and organized that group and they have a leadership council now off their plan giving donor and twenty, twenty one people joined the first year. And i think four five have joined the second year, and they were unsung people who had thought about e-giving for the future where i think you would know better than i. But something like a low seven percent of people think about a plan gift. Whereas in there course of their life, like eighty five or ninety percent of people think about giving. But upon their death, they generally just leave their money to their to their family. Yeah, there’s. Some small percentage of people that have, ah, charitable bequest in there will yes, when the leadership council is advocating an endorsing, who were they advocating in endorsing, too? Ah, to the press to other thought leaders conferences during the height of the aids epidemic, the leadership council that i put together at harlem united many of those leaders would would mention in their addresses about aids and howto compassionately respond. They would mention that they were on the honoree council of harlem united. It meant it meant legitimacy for them and for us that they would mention that it worked both ways you had ah, leadership council, you said in the book that had fifty five members? Oh, yes, what that sounds huge. Yes, and i had the same response to the ceo, and he turned around and said, but look at my mission, i’m i have to represent, you know, thiss whole county and there were, i don’t know twenty four, five smaller towns in this county, and he represented three sectors, not just the nonprofit sector, but government and business and real estate was a big factor of that. So he needed a large counsel, and he saw the wisdom of that, and he i actually had a staff member hired to manage that leadership council, and it brought him it was a wise move. Um, it brought him a lot of impact because he he didn’t neglect his leadership council. A lot of times leadership, council’s air started. I see i go in and, um, auditing and organization and i look at their letterhead, and i see i say, oh, you have an advisory council says here? Well, yeah, but not really learns i said, what do you mean? Well, we really don’t you know, that was a couple years ago, and it was so and so’s idea and and it’s just fallen by the wayside. You see there’s an example where the culture of the organization didn’t embrace the tactic tactics don’t raise money? Yeah, excellent on their own, they need a culture to nest in and if they’re if they’re if the tactic is in an organization where the where it’s loved and cared for it then produces results, so then they get the crazy idea that, oh, well, the leadership council never really did raise much money for us, totally disassociating themselves from lack of developing it and creating a plan for it. At harlem united, our leadership council was reviewed every year, and the plan was updated and revised and evaluated, and that was brought to the boardmember that the board? I’m sorry at a board meeting, we we always had cochairs for the leadership council, male and female, pretty consistent about that for capital campaigns, male and female leaders of the campaign cabinet and those two leaders i would invite to come in and give a state of the union of the our leadership council to the board and it was, and the board members would go to the annual gathering of the leadership council. The board members were asked to do that. And so there was nice synergy and harmony there no competition. We have just about a minute and a half before to wrap up, and so i want to spend that time asking what it is that you love about the work that you do well, fund-raising is a noble profession and it’s a bridge builder between the idea that you have that will make the world a better place and the money you need to actualize the program. And so the methods of fund-raising are build that bridge, and and you love building bridges, and absolutely one of my old teachers used to say, if you build bridges don’t don’t be surprised when people walk on them or walk over you, but nonetheless fund-raising is that bridge between the non-profits idea and the reality of making it happen? Lots of very good ideas in the book it is the non-profit fund-raising solution powerful revenue strategy is to take you to the next level. Lawrence paige nani lawrence’s l a u r e n c e panjwani perfect. Thank you so much for being guests. Been a pleasure. I’ve been delighted to be here. And i wanna shout out just quickly to all by blogged readers. About forty, five hundred of them raise your block non-profit fund-raising solution dot com and you can sign up there to be on the block. Outstanding. Thank you again. Thank you. Yes, thank you, lorenzo. So more live. Listen, love while we were doing it the last time a couple of countries checked in india live listen love to you and and tokyo tokyo loyal listeners thank you very, very much konnichi wa. If you missed any part of today’s show, find it on tony martignetti dot com where in the world else would you go next? Week’s show claire meyerhoff is with me for our discussion of your plant e-giving legacy society hint. We don’t really like the phrase legacy society pursuant full service fund-raising you’ll raise bags more money i’m not talking about those little court bags that you put your three ounce shampoo in when you fly. I’m talking about duffel bags like the marines carry onto those c one thirties when they’re going overseas. Filled with money pursuant dot com. Our creative producer is claire meyerhoff. Sam liebowitz is the line producer. Shows social media is by susan chavez. Susan chavez. Dot com on our music is by scott stein, thank you for that information. Be with me next week for non-profit radio. Big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent. Go out and be great. Buy-in you’re tuned to non-profit radio. Tony martignetti also hosts a podcast for the chronicle of philanthropy fund-raising fundamentals is a quick ten minute burst of fund-raising insights, published once a month. Tony’s guests are expert in crowdfunding, mobile giving event fund-raising direct mail and donor cultivation. Really, all the fund-raising issues that make you wonder, am i doing this right? Is there a better way there is? Find the fund-raising fundamentals archive it. Tony martignetti dot com that’s marketmesuite n e t t i remember there’s, a g before the end, thousands of listeners have subscribed on itunes. You can also learn maura, the chronicle website philanthropy dot com fund-raising fundamentals the better way.

Buon Giorno From Venice! How To Keep Your Planned Giving Above Water

Cultivation and solicitation of the right prospects and potential donors for your Planned Giving program will maximize your gift revenue.

Nonprofit Radio for September 25, 2015: Smart Interviewing Makes Great Hiring & Your Job Descriptions

Big Nonprofit Ideas for the Other 95%

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Sherryl Nufer: Smart Interviewing Makes Great Hiring

Sherryl Nufer, a founding partner in Pareto Consulting, explains why Behavioral Interviewing is superior to traditional methods and how any size nonprofit can get better hires through more sophisticated interviewing, whether you hire once a year or many times a month. This is from April 13, 2012.

 

 

Heather Carpenter: Your Job Descriptions

Heather Carpenter is co-author of the book “The Talent Development Platform” and she’s got advice for your often-rushed-through, lifted-off-the-web job descriptions. (Hint: Stop doing that!)

 

 


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Hello and welcome to tony martignetti non-profit radio big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent i’m your aptly named host. Oh, i’m glad you’re with me. I’d be forced to endure the pain of a cute ryan al gia if i just got a whiff of the possibility that you missed today’s show. Smart interviewing makes great hiring cheryl nufer, a founding partner in peredo consulting, explains why behavioral interviewing is superior to traditional methods and how any size non-profit khun get better hires through more sophisticated interviewing? Whether you’re hiring once a year or many times a month, this is from april thirteenth, two thousand twelve, and your job descriptions once you’ve made the hyre it’s time for job description. Heather carpenters, co author of the book the talent development program, and she’s got advice for your often rushed through lifted off the web job descriptions gotta fix that on tony’s take two social media videos responsive by pursuant full service fund-raising data driven and technology enabled, you’ll raise more money pursuant dot com here is cheryl nufer if smart interviewing makes great hiring, i guess now is cheryl nufer cheryl is a founding partner of peredo. Consulting, providing small to medium sized organizations with business tools that are often available only the large for-profit corporations sounds like she’s sort of stole the tagline for this show. She’s, a strategy and organization development consultant with more than thirty years of experience, and i’m pleased that her expertise brings her on cheryl nufer welcome. Thank you so much, tony it’s really a pleasure to be here. It’s a pleasure to have you thanks, snusz what’s wrong with traditional interviewing? Cheryl well, we have a top ten list of what goes wrong in interviews, but really, they’re too big and the first one is that it’s? Hard to believe, but a lot of interviewers don’t really know what they’re looking for in a candidate, and so they just figured that the more people they interview, the better their odds it’s kind of like vegas, and they don’t know when they see it. The second big problem is that they ask risky questions when i say questions. Yeah, what is that? Yeah, i don’t know. Just wait. Typically think about what we call illegal questions. Is that a problem? But risky questions, questions that back-up candidate can prep for that. They can anticipate that they can prepare a candid answer for which may or may not be the truth. So the data on which to base your hiring decision is a lot. So those sounds like questions like what’s your strengths and your strengths and weaknesses, like those types of questions are risky that’s exactly right? Because people can anticipate them. Yeah, common ones we here are what you just said there, but it’s also questions like, what would you do in a situation? For example, if you were faced with an angry donor for this job is going to require a lot of long hours. Will that be a problem for you? Or my favorite is tell me about yourself. Why should i write? And these are risky because they’re predictable is unmentioned. Secondly, they solicit the candidates opinions and, you know, i don’t want to sound harsh, but the candidate doesn’t know a lot about what’s required for success in the job interviewer does interviewers opinion it’s most important and then laugh so you can say that? Not sound harsh if i say it, it sounds harsh coming from you. It just sounds very matter of fact unprofessional. And final thing is that they also asked the candidate to hypothesize, so if you ask me, what would you do in a particular situation? They can tell you just about anything now? Is that what they would do if they were faced with that situation? Your organization, they may or may not so again, all of these risky it’s interesting that you call very typical questions risky, but i understand. I understand why. Yeah, well, it’s all about making it’s all about collecting data to make a decision to predict how someone is going to perform in your organization and risky your your database here, your hyre decision. Alright that’s so that’s the interviewing that we’re all most familiar with, we either do it or we’ve been through it. Or both. Why don’t you just started acquaint us with behavioral interviewing? Okay, well, behavioral interviewing is not just about the interview. It’s really a business process, just like your financial processes review hr processes and it has a set of steps. And so it starts off with identifying and defining the skills for success. And then you create a line of questioning that’s based on those skills you put that in an interview guide, follow the guide. After you interview you right, candidate based on the data you collected, and then all of the interviewers get together and share their example of make a hyre or no hyre decision. So, first of all, it’s, a repeatable process. In terms of knowing what you’re looking for, i think that’s a really big difference what we talk about is looking for a balance skills well and what we’re looking for doesn’t that come from the job description? Well, not necessarily, but good question, because a lot of organizations job description are nothing more than a list of responsibilities that they will fulfill once they’re hired, but what i’m talking about is a list of skills that are required to be successful in executing those responsibilities. And so we look at those in terms of technical skills, which are really job specific and things maybe like marketing the iranians fund-raising sales and then another set of skills that we call professional skills. You might also call the sauce skills and these cross jobs and these air things like planning and team work and initiatives and judgment, integrity, those kinds of things wei have a saying that a lot of organizations hyre on technical skills when they have to fire someone. Cheryl, we have to take a break when we come back. We’ll continue this and start exploring why behavioral interviewing is better than what we’re all accustomed to please hope. Everybody stays with us, we’re talking smart interviewing makes great hiring what’s not to love about non-profit radio tony gets the best guests check this out from seth godin this’s the first revolution since tv nineteen fifty and henry ford nineteen twenty it’s the revolution of our lifetime here’s a smart, simple idea from craigslist founder craig newmark yeah insights, orn presentation or anything? People don’t really need the fancy stuff they need something which is simple and fast. When’s the best time to post on facebook facebook’s andrew noise nose at traffic is at an all time hyre on nine a m or eight pm so that’s when you should be posting your most meaningful post here’s aria finger ceo of do something dot or ge young people are not going to be involved in social change if it’s boring and they don’t see the impact of what they’re doing so you gotta make it fun and applicable to these young people x somebody’s a fifteen and sixteen year old they have better things to dio they have xbox, they have tv, they have their cell phones me dar is the founder of idealised took two or three years. For foundation staff to sort of dane toe, add an email address their card, it was like it was phone. This email thing is fired-up that’s why should i give it away? Charles best founded donors choose dot or ge somehow they’ve gotten in touch kind of off line as it were on dno two exchanges of brownies and visits and physical gift mark echo is the founder and ceo of eco enterprises. You may be wearing his hoodies and shirts, tony, talk to him. Yeah, you know, i just i’m a big believer that’s not what you make in life. It sze you know, tell you make people feel this is public radio host majora carter. Innovation is in the power of understanding that you don’t just do it. You put money on a situation expected to hell, you put money in a situation and invested and expect it to grow and savvy advice for success from eric sabiston. What separates those who achieve from those who do not is in direct proportion to one’s ability to ask others for help. The smartest experts and leading thinkers air on tony martignetti non-profit radio big non-profit ideas for the other. Ninety five percent. Dahna welcome back with my guests, cheryl nufer of peredo consulting, you’ll find peredo consulting at parade o p r e t o hyphen h y p h e n but don’t spell hyphen just put a hyphen in consulting peredo hyphen consulting dot com. Cheryl, why is this method behavioral interviewing superior to what we’re all accustomed to? Well, that has to do a lot with the questions that you ask, i said before the other questions, key behavioral questions are based on principle that past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior, so if we can figure out in an interview how a person behaves in the recent past in situations that are similar to what they face in our job, then we have a pretty good idea how well behaved if we hire them. So this is the opposite of stock investing, investment advisors who will say past results or no indication of future returns, right? Okay, but past behaviour is predictor of future behavior. Yeah, because we are creatures of habit. So there is a great formula for creating a behavioral question that your listeners could start using right away. So what you do is you start with the phrase something like give me an example of the time in the past, or maybe describe the past situation, and then what you do is you go back to those skills i was talking about a minute ago, the rooms that are important for success and you plug in burbage that describes the skills so let’s say we were talking about initiative, then we’d say something like, give me an example of the time in the past when you went above and beyond job requirements or a time in the past when you anticipated a potential problem and you made contingency plans. So what you do is always in behavioral interview issues asked what people did in the past versus what they would do in the future, which is a hypothetical. So this sounds harder to fake, but i have to tell the whole story. Now you have to tell a whole story, and it is very difficult to fake because they’re hard to anticipate. And a good interviewer should be asking specific follow-up questions. I mean it’s, easy to just ask the behavioral questions, but it’s an interview are you start listening for what you want. You want a real situation? You want to understand what they said or did in that situation, and you want to know what happened, what kind of results this is scaring the heck out of me if i’m in it, i’m nervous that’s a good thing i have my own business, so i’ve never run into this well. So what if i don’t have a story about initiative? Alright, i’m under pressure. I can’t i can’t think of one well, that’s a common thing, and our goal is the interviewer is to bring out the best in the candidate. So what? We can dio that’s good that’s, that’s reassuring it’s too, because when you’re comfortable, you’re going to share more information with me so i would prompt you with questions such as what about in this specific job? Or i may rephrase the question where someone doesn’t have work experience, i’m my nasco and to think about project that they did in college or maybe a summer job so anything that i can do or i can say, you know, we can come back to that question and give you a few minutes to think about it if you’d like. There are a lot of ways to handle that it’s not uncommon for someone to freeze up. Yeah, okay, i pulled listeners before the show. One of the questions i asked is, do you feel you’re hiring? Process is efficient and you’re hiring the right candidate, and about seventy one percent said yes and about twenty nine percent i said no, so we want to help the other third, but that two thirds may not be may not be as efficient and hiring savvy as as they think. That’s, right, that’s recorders almost sorry even if they have a good track record of getting good can bring one good talent. Beauty of a behavioral approach is that up? You don’t necessarily have to interview a lot of candidates and pick the best of the lot if you know what you’re looking for and you have a good screening process and you interview the candidates and their experiences match the criteria success. Technically, you could hire the first candidate you interview, which reduces your cycle time, and it also keeps you from potentially losing a good candidate because you’re hiring cycle is too long. Have you seen organizations do that either? For-profit or non-profit don’t they don’t they typically say, well, she was very good, but maybe we’ll find somebody better, absolutely, and that they are not confident in their process. There’s something in there got that says, you know, i’m just not confident in the data, my process for evaluating it and that’s where a good process really builds confidence to make that decision when you see that good step, okay? Andi yeah, these air interesting ondas you said very these type of questions very hard to anticipate that they’re going to come. How does the interviewer prepare? You talked down a little bit, going a little more detail on and then shortly we’ll get to how many interviewers there should be, but but but how do we prepare as an interviewer? So as an interviewer, well, basically you identify the skills that are required for success in the job. Based on those skills, you develop a line of behavioral questions using the formula that i shared with you. Typically you will type those up in an interview guide or just list if you have multiple interviewer shall divide that list up among all of your interviewers, so that there are no gaps in your questioning and there’s no redundancy safe, so everyone has their game plan they interview based on that. So that’s the primary way that you would prepare a search would review the resume common things, write what you want you want it certainly want to be prepared. So if it is a a siri’s of interviews interviewers, they don’t ask the same questions then no, they don’t that’s really a waste of time, and you have so little time in an interview. You want to make sure to use it wisely. Now they ain’t me ask multiple questions about a specific skill, but they typically don’t ask the same question because if they asked the same question, the candidate will probably give the same example and that’s kind of silly. You still tell the same story twice, exactly, and you would expect that so it’s not the interview each ball that’s the interviewers fault for not being prepared. On the other hand, what if all the interviewees stories, anecdotes come from just one of their jobs or something? Or just too? And they’ve got, you know, thirty years of experience or something like that? Well, that would absolutely be a red flag either there bread through depth of experience is not what it means here on their resonate, or perhaps there’s something that they just don’t want to share with you so that’s something that you may, if you find when you bring your interviewers together, that the same stories were told to everybody, then you could either make a no hyre decision or you could make a decision to have a follow-up phone interview where you would try to clean examples from some of their other work experience. Okay, so you’d like to follow up interview to be by phone, but the first one to be in person is that right? What i’m talking about here is typically you would do a phone screen organisations and then bring the candidate in for face-to-face what i was saying is, if you feel you can’t make ah hyre no hyre decision, you know, you always have the option to follow-up again by phone and asked more questions, okay, okay, um and so since we’re talking sort of around this, what is your advice around having just one interviewer or having a siri’s of interviewers, or even having a panel. Okay, well, we would always recommend more than one interviewer, if at all possible, and you can is that just to eliminate bias of one person, it could eliminate buy-in it? I can get you more data because if you have two interviews that you have more data on which to base a decision, there are two ways of doing what we call a serial interview, which is cheryl interviews candidate hands candidate off tony who interviews to hands it off to joe, and then when you separately and then after all the interviews, you come back together and share your example and make a decision. There’s also the panel interview where you have multiple people interviewing the candidate at one time and you can do multiple panels panels are great ways to involve more people from your organization and getting exposure to candidate. You just don’t want the panels to get too big. You know what is to become a panel? Interviews khun b scary. I’ve heard stories from people who were interviewed by five people or so that’s pretty intimidating it’s very intimidating i’ve been interviewed by many has six at one time. I know a lot about interviewing and that that was a nerve ng me, what we recommend is either two or three. When it gets above three, it can not only be intimidating, but it’s difficult for the interviewers to kind of it should be choreographed. So you should have someone out of the panel who is kind of the host and is kind of orchestrating this interview. There’s not anarchy, everyone’s firing questions at the candidate and it really doesn’t set the candidate up. Cheryl nufer is a founding partner of peredo consulting. You’ll find them on the web, but peredo pr e teo hyphen consulting dot com we’re talking about smart interviewing, making great hiring, cheryl. Is there an advantage of serial interviewing over the panel or or the other way around? Well, there is an advantage in the advantage is that when you’re in a panel, if you conduct one panel interviews, all three of you are hearing the same stories, the same situation in a serial interview it’s more likely that you will hear different stories, or sometimes the same story told different ways, and so you know, that sounds bad, but it can be bad if in fact there are vast differences in the story, like your fourth step in the supposed be the results. So if the results were different in the same story across to different interviews that’s about sign that’s a red flag may be the results keep getting better and better. Three interview that’s a great way to start catching a candidate who may be fabricating for people actually do that. Is that true? Absolutely, they do. I’ve heard rumors to that effect, but i always hoped it wasn’t so another question i asked listeners before the show is our hires in your office typically interviewed by more than one person and seventy one percent said yes, fourteen percent said no, so most people are doing the multiple interviewing and then fourteen percent said depends on the job. Um all right, is there a job where the solo interview makes sense or no, you really just don’t like that at all or there’s a situation, i guess i mean when just one interviewer makes sense. Here’s what i would say in some more straightforward job, maybe some entry level jobs it could perhaps the appropriate that i say it’s no more appropriate in bigger organizations bigger cos you have a really small organisation. You have to hire the right people. You i have no where to hide them. You have no one to cover for them hyre abad a bad fit so i think it’s always good in a small organization, if possible, to have a second set of eyes and get that second set doesn’t have to be somebody that the person is going to report to, right? It could be a colleague. I mean, taken officer just four or five people. They’re going to be hiring of fifth or sixth, like a cz you’re saying that’s a big percentage of the staff, it doesn’t have to be somebody that that person would report to write absolutely not. And in a small organization of horrified people, i mean everyone’s wearing multiple hats, they really have to depend on each other. So everyone has a big stake in making sure the best person has brought onboard, so it could be a appear. It could be someone that maybe is performed well in a similar job in the past. You’re absolutely right. It could be just as long as they’re good interviewers they would be appropriate? How do we gauge technical expertise? We’ve been talking about behavior? Well, you can use behavioral questions to get that technical competencies, but technical skills are a little bit easier. For example, if you were hiring someone for fund-raising you can actually have them bring in and explain fund-raising approaches that they’ve used in the past. I mean, i would ask a lot of follow up questions to make sure that what they brought us, something they actually did. There are tests that you can use for certain technical skills. You can also do simulations, so for example, if you were hiring someone for a sales position, are fund-raising position you could actually have them come in and do a presentation to a team of you, and so you were potential donors and see how they would handle it. So there are a lot of ways to get technical. Wei have just about a minute left, cheryl, what potential problems should people look out for us if they’re goingto implement behavioral interviewing? I think the biggest problem is asking a behavioral question and assuming you’re going to get a behavioral answer, so you have to be able to sort out hypothetical responses through a good line of follow-up questioning about the situation there. Action in the results. Okay. Situation, obstacle action and results. Cheryl nufer is a founding partner of peredo consulting, which provides small to medium sized organizations with business tools that are often available only the large for-profit corporations. Cheryl, thank you very much for being a guest has been a pleasure. Thank you so much. And i hope that this information will help your eye. I think it will help listeners. Thank you very much. A pleasure to have you. Thankyou, tony. Stick to and your job descriptions coming up first. Pursuant, they have this tool. Billboard it’s integrated management for your multi-channel engagement strategies. All right, s o jargon jail. I plead guilty for that. You, khun. I could throw myself in there. Let’s. Break it down. You communicate in lots of different ways. Email landing pages, micro sites, donation forms mobile, all the social networks best to manage them all separately. No, don’t separate. Integrate! I thought that myself that’s, that’s not pursue it. Language. I thought of that billboard is integrated management and the all important analytics that go along with all these. Tools so you know which channels move more people and which don’t from mayor you learn you improve, continue that it oration, that innovative process of learning and improving based on the analytics, and you’ll raise more money. Check out billboard it’s at pursuant dot com. My video this week is the next set of non-profit technology conference videos. They’re all about social media there’s a panel of three on visual social media, another panel on email deliver ability so that those e mails that you sent through billboard actually arrive at people’s inboxes video strategy and embrace embracing emerging technology and social media. They’ve been on non-profit radio if you’ve missed them or you want the videos because you like to watch the videos, then the links are under my video at tony martignetti dot com, and that is tony’s take two for friday, twenty fifth of september thirty eighth show of the year. I’m very pleased that heather carpenter is with me. She is a phd was a non-profit manager for ten years. She’s, now assistant professor in the school of public non-profit and health administration at grand valley state university. She teaches grad and undergrad courses in non-profit management, financial management, fund-raising technology, leadership and human resources management. The book that brings our two non-profit radio is co authored with terra qualls, and it is the talent development platform putting people first in social change organizations published by josy bass this year on twitter she’s at heather carpentier, which is at heather carpenter. But take off that last are heather carpenter. Welcome to the show. Thanks for having me, tony it’s. A pleasure. You’re calling from grand valley university. Where’s that michigan. Right war in grand rapids, michigan, which is on the west side of the stage. Okay. Okay. That was the summer there in grand rapids. It was really nice. We have a great summer. A little harsher winters, but yeah. No, but you do have harsh winters. Yes. Okay, heather, our job descriptions he’s often get very, very short shrift, don’t they? Yes. Yes. Well, having worked in non-profits for many years and done h r and operations, i know how busy we get. And often, when people leave organizations, we scramble and pulled together what we have on dh and send out a job description that is often outdated and hasn’t been updated in a few years, or sometimes, i think, even pulled off the web. Yes, yes, you’ve seen that, yes, ok, not that you’ve done that when you were leading your non-profit i understand, but i think it’s, i think that’s, also a pretty common practice. Why do we need to focus more on job descriptions? Well, job descriptions are really an important part of helping an employee to understand there roles and responsibilities within the organization. It also helps to track employee and volunteer performance and success, and this is, ah, a living document, right way need to keep these current as job responsibilities change. Yes, we recommend that non-profits update their job descriptions, actually, on an annual basis. Okay, okay. Do you do you think that poor job descriptions lead tio? I don’t know hyre turnover or lower morale? What consequences do you think result from not having accurate descriptions? Yes, i i agree with your assertion, we’ve found that couple of things can happen with outdated job descriptions, one that’s for a new hyre they might not really fully understand the role let’s say hypothetically speak about how when organizations lose employees and they have someone coming in, and they used a job description that’s out data from the labs it’s not clearly showing the response the accurate responsibility so the person might get burned out pretty quickly, finding out they have a lot of additional latto responsibilities, or maybe they don’t even have the adequate qualifications for for the rial responsibilities. So the job or, if someone’s been in a position for a few years, there’s what we call the pile on effect where often more and more responsibilities added, but that’s not actually reflected in the job description or in compensation, so so employees can get volunteers burn out that way, and then sometimes people become overqualified for the job or might be over, claude will decide. When they come in, the job description is accurate. Does this apply also to organizations that are mostly volunteers? Should should be job descriptions for volunteers? Oh, yes, absolutely, we believe that that will our book applies to not just paid staff volunteers as well, and we actually have sample job descriptions are bored board positions and key volunteers, as well as from common staff within various non-profit organizations like your executive director, development director on bury the book is loaded with lots of resource is sample job descriptions but goes way beyond that just dahna job responsibilities and forms, you know, and we’re just taking one piece of the book and talking about job description, but there’s a lot more to it, and the thing is just loaded with but templates and resource is yes, thank you. I really wanted it to be as practical as possible, having worked in the nonprofit sector for many years, ourselves it’s more of a workbook where organizations can pick and choose the chapters that they need the resource is from, but it is a whole platform if an organization decides to go through the process for from everything from understanding the organizational. Learning and professional development culture to actually assessing stats, professional development and creating a professional development goals and abducted tied to the strategic als of the organization. Yes. All right, all right. So where do we start this job? Description process. I mean, i know who it starts with its doctor, the supervisor. How does that what is the what the person need to do to get started? Well, the supervisor should really look at the position itself and often there’s different philosophies on job descriptions. And our our philosophy is that the organization, the supervisor, should build the job around the position and not the person because people change andi really, to really get an understanding of what is needed to advance the organisation for words. So we have something called a proficiency mapping cool and are in our book where supervisors can really identify the called common confidences that the knowledge, skills, abilities and other characteristics needed to perform the job and then rape those competencies on different proficiency levels. We use the profession into level scale created by the national institute of health, and they’ve been doing this type of job description, worked for many, many years. And really getting understanding of what level that the position and the responsibilities to need to be at when we talked earlier a few minutes ago about outdated job descriptions common, another problem with outdated job description says they’re not often at the level that the position needs to be on a smaller non-profits with great to have people who could do lots of different responsibilities, but sometimes we have very high expectations that someone in entry level type job might be more responsibilities, say, manager or leading the organization through some sort of process when that’s not necessarily the right level for that job, you have these five proficiency levels fundamental, novice, intermediate advanced and an expert yeah, and we provide definitions and also example words and responsibilities at each level. I like to tell you i jump pretty quickly from fundamental toe expert on i think, if i’d done something once, that makes me an expert, so i don’t know if that fits within your construct, but like one time i’m not the expert the first time, but after i’ve done it one time i consider myself an expert. Andi that’s cost that’s cost me a lot of money in like home repairs and things, but i can’t get around it that’s, that’s but that’s, probably not talking, doesn’t fit within your your definitions well, generally the expert and advance our our our director level positions on responsibilities. So at the executive director, we would hope a most size organizations that the person the person holding that position would have advanced on expert level. But we understand that at the lower level positions the coordinators, entry level positions that they’re more at the the novice and the intermedia level. And yes, i mean, we’ve found that it’s helpful, starting with the supervisor to create these confidences and proficiency levels on dh, then down the line, wei have employees assess themselves and not do a real comparison over the competencies profession? Okay, yes, we’re going to get that so so after the supervisors part, then then what’s next in creating these optimal job descriptions, the next step is really getting documenting the employees responsibilities, and they don’t see what the supervisor has done. But if you do have someone in that particular position just making sure that all the responsibilities are are documented because the supervisor might not have a buy-in of everything that’s employees doing. But obviously, if it’s a new position or if the job description has never been done before, then they would have the supervisor job. Do the proficiency mopping. Ok, ok, but but the next step now is the is the is the employee e-giving their input into what their responsibilities are around the competencies and the proficiency levels. Yeah, the next up, it’s. Just the employees identifying their their responsibility. Okay, a faster proficiency levels. Quite yet just for the job description itself. It’s really making sure that all the responsibilities are identified and the supervisor is really the one that making sure that all the proficiency levels are identified. All right. Ok. Ok. And we mentioned these competencies. Can you give us some examples of competencies? Sure. Before you do that, i want to tell you about the process that we took to to identify ten core confidences for non-profit managers like holly. And i actually did some some national surveys and looked at literature around training needs of non-profit managers and a what their confidence cesaire needed. So this is really backed and research that we identify the ten course set. Of common confidence ease that non-profit managers possessed. They’re very general there everything from advocacy to communications, marketing, the financial management to fund of elopement way also have human resource is way also in the book go through the process of have helping organizations create their own sub confidence ease, because since the time core competencies are very general, we know that each organization is different in their culture and each position and as well as department, it’s organization, house, apartment, that they have their own core competencies that are important to that organization. So we’ve also provided some examples of different size organizations and the sub confidence juices issues that they have so well, for example, intercultural confidence. He is a very important sub competency for many organizations. Uh, two working, working well under pressure are working with certain population. Uh, so we we worked with various organizations and their different types of missions required different confidences. So we worked with homeless organization last semester, and they, you know, they require their staff tohave competencies and understanding about people who have housing, have challenges. Okay, let’s. See, we have just about a minute before before we take a break. And then we’ll continue. I should do this. We haven’t mentioned the board should be job descriptions for board positions. Definitely we have. We have a sample job description for board chair board treasurer for secretary on various board general boardmember on there’s a there’s. A lot of resource is not just in our book, but out there on the web as well for creating and managing board job description. That’s an important piece we’ve we’ve done this process with all volunteer run organizations where it’s just the board teo organizations that have paid staff, maybe they’re smaller, they have all the board do their job descriptions and then the one to two staff members that they have so it’s important that it’s not just a staff process that boardmember look at their job descriptions and revised them. Okay, let’s, go out for a break, and when we come back, heather, of course we’ll stay with us and we’ll keep talking about your job descriptions, and then we’ll move to mapping, mapping you, thies competencies and proficiency levels to the job description. Stay with us what’s not to love about non-profit radio tony gets the best guests. Check this out. From seth godin this’s the first revolution since tv nineteen fifty and henry ford nineteen twenty it’s the revolution of our lifetime here’s a smart, simple idea from craigslist founder craig newmark insights orn presentation or anything? People don’t really need the fancy stuff they need something which is simple and fast. When’s the best time to post on facebook facebook’s andrew noise nose at traffic is at an all time hyre on nine a m or eight pm so that’s, when you should be posting your most meaningful post here’s aria finger ceo of do something dot or ge young people are not going to be involved in social change if it’s boring and they don’t see the impact of what they’re doing. So you got to make it fun and applicable to these young people look so otherwise a fifteen and sixteen year old they have better things to do if they have xbox, they have tv, they have their cell phones. Me dar is the founder of idealist. I took two or three years for foundation staff to sort of dane toe add an email address their card. It was like it was phone this email thing. Is fired-up that’s? Why should i give it away? Charles best founded donors choose dot or ge somehow they’ve gotten in touch kind of off line as it were and and no two exchanges of brownies and visits and physical gift. Mark echo is the founder and ceo of eco enterprises. You may be wearing his hoodies and shirts. Tony talked to him. Yeah, you know, i just i’m a big believer that’s not what you make in life, it sze you know, tell you make people feel this is public radio host majora carter. Innovation is in the power of understanding that you don’t just do it. You put money on a situation expected to hell, you put money in a situation and invested and expect it to grow and savvy advice for success from eric sabiston. What separates those who achieve from those who do not is in direct proportion to one’s ability to ask others for help. The smartest experts and leading thinkers air on tony martignetti non-profit radio big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent lively conversation top trends and sound advice that’s tony martignetti non-profit radio and i’m lawrence paige, no knee author off the non-profit fund-raising solution. I know i say it every time. Maybe maybe you listeners get here. Tired of hearing me say this, but i wish lawrence would pronounce his last name. Panjwani. He’ll be so much more beautiful than paige. No. Ni lawrence. I’ve said this a large his face. So no it’s, not like i’m going behind his back. And pandiani will be so beautiful. Lorenzo lorenzo panjwani okay, okay. Heather let’s move now. Tio mapping what is this? What is it? What is that? The mapping process that comes next? Well, this is the mapping process is really about revising the job description and making sure that it matches up with the responsibilities really, that are needed. We advise organizations to separate job responsibilities by the confidence categories, so we often see job descriptions that have the whole long list of job responsibilities, but were our processes to separate them by category? Cory so that it’s clear on the difference competencies that are needed with that particular job. We also have the manager identified proficiency levels based on the job responsibility, action, words. And so this is where? This is the revision process, the different levels and making sure that the wording really matches up with the proficiency level. So we might have a position that is hyre up that it needs to be or lower and can be a giant. Now you mentioned job responsibility, action words. What defined those for us? Well, the action words are provided in the proficiency mapping scale. So as we talked about before there’s five perfect into levels from fundamental awareness novice, intermediate to advance and experts and each of these i have a different level and we have action words that are associated with each level. So as i mentioned about the higher level positions we have the dance level there’s there’s, some facilitating, leading liaising managing and the expert level. We’re synthesizing. We’re training were troubleshooting. And so these hyre level action words are associated with hyre level job responsibilities. Okay, yeah. And that’s me. Well, i like to focus on the expert. You know, like i said, i would skip over novice, intermediate and advanced. I go right from fundamental to expert one one one one time. So i’ve gotten used to use those expert use those expert examples that’s where hyre just in my mind that’s where i belong let’s see? Okay, so in this job in the in this revision process now it’s, the employees and the supervisor working together, uh, well, family it’s the supervisor making sure that the job description is aligned because as much as we’d like to be an employee involved in the process, the next step in the talent of altum platform, which i don’t have time to talk about here is the individual professional development assessment and that’s where an employee actually haserot their confidence season proficiency level so it’s really helpful that they don’t see realign job description before that, that there going off of what they i think that they’re expertise is and their proficiency level is. And then that way you could do an accurate, um comparison. So what the job requires? Okay, well, you might be surprised we might have time to get to assessment a little bit. Way might be surprised. Um, now so the mapping there are there was, i think six steps on don’t really have you know, we don’t have time to go through all six of them, but help help us. Understand an overview of the process a little more detailed, and then we have so far. Yeah, so, as i mentioned in the first step of separating the job responsibilities by competency category, you’ll see then if there’s gaps and if you’ll have competency categories that you’re not covering it’s amazing how many organizations that we’ve worked with through this process, where they are missing confidence, ease for specific positions, like operations manager or or the executive director where often maybe, you know hr is a part of the operations manager job, but it’s not really accurately included are reflected in the job description or the job responsibilities or information technology is often a part of someone’s job, but not necessarily included, so it really helped helps organization to identify gaps with responsibility and say, well, we don’t have anything in this competency category. So let’s, let’s talk about what we need to include, i see, okay, it strikes me that this whole process to is going to i guess you said it, but just is going to make sure that you’re not bringing in let’s say, entry level people and having expectations that are unreasonable for them in terms. Of responsibilities and competencies exactly. We we also talk about degree levels as well and compensation. We worked with quite a few smaller non-profits that, like tio, take all the responsibilities that we provide his examples, and and use them to hyre their new entry level staff at the masters level were like, whoa, you know, let’s think about it’s entry level, do they really need a masters? Or do they even need a bath? Kottler for that regard, so this really helped to think through the position responsibilities that you need for the organization and ok, if i really need all those responsibilities and maybe it’s two positions, not one or i’m i think i’m being unrealistic with how many responsibilities that i’m requiring in this in this position. So having those those sometimes difficult conversations about what’s realistic for the organization since restoring tio, we’re talking about the possibility of entry level employees what’s your feeling on starting people at at low salaries? Well, i’m a little biased because i advocate for living wages because i teach graduate students in a lot of them are often on the job market, either during their degree program are afterwards and it’s really disappointing to see them have to take very low wage starting jobs also research so that it costs between seventy five, to one hundred for fifty percent of employees annual salary when they leave. And so what i’ve seen with my students and former employees is that bill, if they’re not getting adequate living wage compensation, then the leave within a few months and that actually costs the organization a lot of money organizations, i don’t think we often realize how much time and effort it takes latto post the new position to interview the people to do the training and that’s that’s money, and what will when in fact, we could pay a living wage and a good starting salary for entry level employees and have them stay longer even if they stay a year to that’s that’s better than the cost of done, leaving within a few months because they find a better opportunity that pays better. Excellent! We’ve got to leave it there. Unbelievable! You were right. We didn’t have a chance to talk about assessment. You are right, but you got it by the book it’s talent development platform she’s heather l carpenter, phd and you’ll find her on twitter at heather carpentier carpenter and take off that last are thank you very much. Other thank you. I’ve been a real pleasure next week. I just don’t know, because i’m recording this a couple of weeks ahead. It won’t suck, i promise you that if you missed any part of today’s show, find it on tony martignetti dot com where in the world else would you go? I told you i was coming back pursuant full service fund-raising you’ll raise laundry carts more money. I’m not talking about those one person metal things that you pushed down the street to go to the local laundromat or your stuff him in the in the back seat of your minivan, i’m talking those big plastic monsters on the loading docks at hotels and jim’s with sheets, and the towels are spilling over the sides, but instead of sheets and towels filled with money pursuing dot com, our creative producer is clear meyerhoff sam liebowitz is the line producer shows social media is by susan chavez susan chavez dot com on our music is by scott stein bourelly next week for non-profit radio big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent go out and be great. What’s not to love about non-profit radio tony gets the best guests check this out from seth godin this’s the first revolution since tv nineteen fifty and henry ford nineteen twenty it’s the revolution of our lifetime here’s a smart, simple idea from craigslist founder pregnant mark insights orn presentation or anything? People don’t really need the fancy stuff they need something which is simple and fast. When’s the best time to post on facebook facebook’s andrew noise nose at traffic is at an all time hyre on nine a m or eight pm so that’s, when you should be posting your most meaningful post here’s aria finger ceo of do something dot or ge young people are not going to be involved in social change if it’s boring and they don’t see the impact of what they’re doing. So you got to make it fun and applicable to these young people look so otherwise a fifteen and sixteen year old they have better things to do if they have xbox, they have tv, they have their cell phones. Me dar is the founder of idealist. I took two or three years for foundation staff to sort of dane toe. Add an email address their card it was like it was phone. This email thing is fired-up that’s why should i give it away? Charles best founded donors choose dot or ge somehow they’ve gotten in touch kind of off line as it were and and no two exchanges of brownies and visits and physical gift. Mark echo is the founder and ceo of eco enterprises. You may be wearing his hoodies and shirts. Tony talked to him. Yeah, you know, i just i’m a big believer that’s not what you make in life. It sze, you know, tell you make people feel this is public radio host majora carter. Innovation is in the power of understanding that you don’t just do it. You put money on a situation expected to hell, you put money in a situation and invested and expect it to grow and savvy advice for success from eric sabiston. What separates those who achieve from those who do not is in direct proportion to one’s ability to ask others for help. The smartest experts and leading thinkers air on tony martignetti non-profit radio big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent.

15NTC Videos: Social Media

More interviews from the 2015 Nonprofit Technology Conference, hosted by NTEN, the Nonprofit Technology Network. These are on social media, including video strategy, emerging channels and getting your emails delivered.