800th Show!

Tony Martignetti
Hello and welcome to Tony Martignetti Nonprofit Radio, big nonprofit ideas for the other 95%. I'm your aptly named host and the podfather of your favorite hebdomadal podcast. It's July. It's nonprofit month. We've got the live music, and that can only mean one thing. It's our 800th show and 16th anniversary show. It's the jubilee!

Kate Martignetti
Woo!

Tony Martignetti
We have a listener of the week, Timothy Curran. He messaged me on LinkedIn. Tim said, I'm new to the nonprofit space and have found your podcast valuable in educating myself on what fundraisers find valuable. Maybe more importantly, how good ones strategize. Oh, Tim, you are in the right place for nonprofit strategy, for understanding how nonprofits are, are coping, what they are thinking about. And I am so glad to have you as our listener of the week for the 800th show and the 16th anniversary jubilee. Thank you. Thank you for being our listener of the week, Tim, Tim Curran. Here's our associate producer Kate with what's coming up for show number 800 and the 16th anniversary jubilee.

Kate Martignetti
Hey Tony, your co-host is Claire Meyerhoff. We've got much more live music from Scott Stein. Our contributors Gene Takagi and Amy Sample Ward are here. Everyone is with us.

Tony Martignetti
Woo! Thank you very much, Kate. Claire Meyerhoff, welcome to The 800th Show, our associate, our creative producer. Welcome.

Claire Meyerhoff
I'm so excited to be here because as, as our listeners know, I was there from the very beginning. The idea for Nonprofit Radio happened at a— well, he had the idea, but I was— it was brought to me at a Ruth's Chris Steakhouse in North Carolina. In, uh, 1900.

Tony Martignetti
Yes. And, and why did I bring it to Claire Meyerhoff? Because she has a background in, in radio and media, including WTOP in Washington, D.C., and also with Sirius. You'll find Claire Meyerhoff's company is at pgagency.com, and she is Nonprofit Radio's creative producer. Claire, your first show was show number 2. Number 2, July 23rd, 2010. We talked about storytelling and jargon. 16 years.

Claire Meyerhoff
Well, and that's when we threw people in jargon jail. And jargon jail is still extremely relative today in all fields, really, because I see a lot of things on, on, on the Instagram and little things where people talk about, you know, corporate jargon and how to like say it more, you know, communicate more effectively. So I think we were like trendsetters with Throwing nonprofit peeps in jargon jail.

Tony Martignetti
And jargon jail continues. Absolutely. We did set the bar. And when a guest transgresses, I do admit them to jargon jail.

Claire Meyerhoff
Yes, like capacity building. Does it have windows?

Tony Martignetti
Well, that one's an exception, but yes, jargon or acronyms. Acronyms will also land you in jargon jail. Unidentified acronyms.

Claire Meyerhoff
They're like BLT. Then like we know what that is.

Tony Martignetti
BLT. If

Claire Meyerhoff
it's a sandwich. But if it's like, you know, board leadership development or board leadership torture—

Tony Martignetti
Torture training, right? That qualifies you. Absolutely. That qualifies you. Let's bring some folks in. Let's bring Amy Sample Ward in. They are our technology contributor and of course the CEO of NTEN, awarded a 2023 Bosch Foundation Fellowship. Their most recent co-authored book, The Tech That Comes Next, about equity and inclusiveness in technology development. You'll find Amy on Blue Sky as Amy Sample Ward. Amy Sample Ward, whose first show was number 100 on July 13th, 2012. Welcome.

Amy Sample Ward
So easy to remember. It was show 100.

Tony Martignetti
Yeah, you do have the easy one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. When we get to Scott, it's like 158. But yeah, show number 100. Absolutely.

Amy Sample Ward
In New York.

Tony Martignetti
700 shows late— 700 shows ago in the studio in New York. That's

Amy Sample Ward
right, up the tiny elevator.

Claire Meyerhoff
In the tiny elevator. It was like this big,

Tony Martignetti
right? Right. That was, uh—

Amy Sample Ward
I always really thought it would break and I would live in that elevator in New York City.

Tony Martignetti
You would just be initiated in the elevator. That was—

Claire Meyerhoff
that was, um, in the building.

Tony Martignetti
That was on West 72nd Street with, uh, Sam— Sam—

Amy Sample Ward
Yeah, Leibowitz.

Tony Martignetti
Sam Leibowitz. Yeah. Yep. You remember those days?

Amy Sample Ward
Yeah.

Tony Martignetti
That was— you were living in New York City then.

Amy Sample Ward
I know. Time, it just—

Tony Martignetti
16 years ago.

Amy Sample Ward
Wow.

Claire Meyerhoff
Wow.

Amy Sample Ward
That seems impossible. Don't do the math anymore in this show.

Tony Martignetti
All right. All right. It's good to see you. I'm glad you're— I'm glad you're with us.

Amy Sample Ward
I'm glad to be here to celebrate the Jubilee.

Tony Martignetti
Thank you. Gene Takagi. Everybody knows. It's kind of a waste of syllables to continue saying it, but of course, each contributor deserves their due intro. He's our legal contributor and the principal of NEO, the Nonprofit and Exempt Organizations Law Group in San Francisco. He edits that wildly popular nonprofitlawblog.com. You'll find the firm at Neo Law Group, and you'll find Gene as @GTAC, whose first show was number 7 on August 27th, 2010.

Claire Meyerhoff
Wow.

Tony Martignetti
Welcome, Gene. It's great to see you. Great to have you.

Gene Takagi
Congratulations, Tony. Unbelievable run, and to continue further. So excited to be with you, Tony.

Tony Martignetti
Thank you. I love these. I love these anniversary shows. They just Yeah, they just, they bring the team together. Scott Stein. Scott Stein, whose music, whose song Cheap Red Wine has been with us, debuted on show number 158 on September 16th, 2013. Scott's a pianist, songwriter, music director. You'll find him at scottsteinmusic.com. On Facebook, X, Instagram, and YouTube, he's @ScottSteinMusic. Great to see you, Scott.

Scott Stein
Great to see you too, Tony. And, uh, this is something that I look forward to every year. It's really— this is so much fun, and I am— I'm just thrilled that the show has continued to grow and thrive and that I get to keep coming back on and doing my thing. This is, uh, this is super fun.

Tony Martignetti
It's a thrill. Thank you. I'm so glad our mutual lawyer friend— It's

Scott Stein
Josh Becker.

Tony Martignetti
Josh, Josh Becker, exactly.

Scott Stein
My old roommate. That was the connection.

Tony Martignetti
Connected us, and we've been using cheap red wine ever since, since September 16th, 2013. And of course, thank you for the live intro music, and you're going to be doing 3 songs for us today, right?

Scott Stein
I am, yeah. Excited to do it.

Tony Martignetti
All right, cool, cool. Kate Martignetti, she's our associate producer. She's a graduate of the American Musical and Dramatic Academy, now attending Rowan University. Kate's first show was number 645 on June 19th, 2023. Just kind of started as something fun while, uh, I was visiting the family in New Jersey and I liked the sound that you brought to the show, Kate.

Kate Martignetti
Right. We were in the guest room because we needed somewhere quiet between like the dogs. And then I don't know if it was a holiday you were over or just visiting for something. And we were like, okay, there's people in the house, kind of loud. Let's go upstairs, you know? And you had your little mic, which I have now. And we just did it. And it was right after I graduated too. And you were like, let's see how this sounds. And let's use like your skills that you were working on in AMDA. And now we're here.

Tony Martignetti
Number 645 was your first show. Unbelievable. Yeah. So all these years, and we're celebrating 16, Claire. Claire, Claire, Claire brought— Claire is bringing the fun to our, to our 16 theme. What do you have for us, uh, brilliant, uh, creative producer?

Claire Meyerhoff
Oh yes, well, you know, in, in a flash of brilliance, because it's the 16th show, it's the sweet 16 party. So that's just, you know, the most brilliantly creative. So I have compiled a list of 16 Sweet things to say to sweet Tony about.

Tony Martignetti
Yeah, and play us in for a little— this is a little music, Scott. Just play us into the Sweet 16 theme. Thank you. Beautiful.

Claire Meyerhoff
So sweet.

Tony Martignetti
What a transition. Claire, Claire, our Sweet 16, please.

Claire Meyerhoff
So, so number 1 on our, our list of 16 sweet things about, uh, Tony's 16th year of Tony Martignetti Nonprofit Radio. Number 1 is it's very sweet to thank all our listeners for being with us for our 16th anniversary. Yay, listeners!

Tony Martignetti
You got, you got to thank the listeners.

Claire Meyerhoff
Um, there's— You got nothing.

Tony Martignetti
Well, there's a word, uh, for a podcast that nobody listens to. Diary. Yeah, we're not producing a diary for 16 years now. So of course, we are enormously grateful to the listeners.

Claire Meyerhoff
And we have so many listeners. How many listeners do we have, Tony?

Tony Martignetti
Over 13,000 a week.

Claire Meyerhoff
Wow, over 13,000 a week. So for each episode, like 13,000. And then do people go back and listen to the old ones? So do we have a surprising statistic maybe about You know, an old show that people listen to because you get little pings about it or something?

Tony Martignetti
I do have a surprise for listeners. I don't go back and look at the stats. That's my surprise.

Claire Meyerhoff
Well, that's

Tony Martignetti
good. We're producing the show. You know, I look from time to time. I do look from time to time.

Claire Meyerhoff
You're in the

Tony Martignetti
moment. But I'm not overly, you know, not overly concerned about it. I get maybe you're supposed to be more sophisticated, like say, all right, this topic, We had a spike because we talked about whatever, and so we should do more of that. I don't know, but, you know, it could be the guest was particularly good. It could be it happened to be a good time of year, people listening. You know, I don't— I guess I'm, you know, well, we— the listeners know that they're suffering under a lackluster host. That's understood. That's understood.

Claire Meyerhoff
You can't blame me. You know, witty and sweet and like a techno, you know, technology person like Amy. So you can't be everything.

Tony Martignetti
Thank you, data scientist.

Claire Meyerhoff
So, you know, you know what's sweet is that our— we've had more than 1,000 guests and they've been so sweet to share their expertise with our listeners. So we, we've had over 1,000 guests, I'm sure. Like, I just kind of did some very simple math for, for me, which is, you know, simple is the only math I know. So I did a little simple math and I figured it is more than 1,000 guests, most likely.

Tony Martignetti
This is where you go back to the lackluster host who doesn't know exactly how many guests there have been.

Claire Meyerhoff
It's probably, yeah, it's 1,000 plus.

Tony Martignetti
It's certainly 1,000 plus. 1,200 maybe? Is it 1,500? I'm not sure.

Claire Meyerhoff
You know, it'd be cool to have like a whole list of like all your, all your, all your guests on the show, all these experts. And some people have been, I guess, multiple times. So you'd have to count that. So for right now, our last— our first 3, which is our last one for this little chunk, is that, you know, 50 episodes a year for 16 years. Well, that, that is very, very sweet and very, you know, shows the dedication of our sweet host, Tony Martignetti, that he puts this, this podcast on every single week except for 2 weeks when you, I guess, take a vacation or something. Yeah, 50 eps a year. That's amazing.

Tony Martignetti
Well, but, but the guests help. Uh, Gene and Amy help, right? You know, they, uh, uh, Kate is with me every single week. That helps.

Amy Sample Ward
But we're not the podfather, Tony. No, that's all you.

Tony Martignetti
Well, all right, true, true. I— you're right. But the guests— I mean, without you, you can't— I don't think you could sustain a show 50 times a year with, with only the host.

Amy Sample Ward
Right. You

Tony Martignetti
gotta have, you gotta have the guest. I mean, I think to me that's boring. That sounds like, that sounds like a journal again. I think we're diarying then. Yeah,

Amy Sample Ward
but you get, you, you take on the role of all the listeners and you get to ask the guests the questions that everybody wishes they were asking that person. So you do a great, you do a sweet job of doing that, taking on the role for listeners.

Tony Martignetti
So thoughtful. Well, and you're with me, uh, several times a year. And I'm grateful for that, as is Gene, several times a year, because we're all doing it for the listeners. I mean, it all settles down to the community, right? We're just trying to help the nonprofit community in a particularly difficult time now. However, we've been doing it for 16 years. It's all for the good of the— Community. the folks, the nonprofit professionals, our CEOs, our fundraisers, our board members. And there's some consultants who listen too. It's, you know, we're just trying to do right by the community and we are channeling them. All of us are channeling them. You and Gene are channeling our listeners too when you're on, right? We're just thinking about what people ask. Yes, right. We're bringing them into the conversation as best we can. What would they want to know? Thank you, Claire, for our first three of our first three Sweet Sixteens. We're going to turn to our the show's I don't know is it is it right? You are a music director. Can I call you music director once a year?

Scott Stein
Because you once a year, yes, absolutely.

Tony Martignetti
Okay. Yeah, he is the he is the music director. He helped us out on. On cues and things. Yeah, definitely the music director for the 800th Show. What's this first song you're going to play for us, Scott?

Scott Stein
I'm just going to play a brand new one. This is called Take the Back Roads, and it's basically how the proverbial grass is greener on the other side. And as you get older, you start thinking that maybe things were easier when you were younger, and then you start to realize maybe that wasn't the case. And so you just kind of are left with the present. So

Tony Martignetti
new song, is there a new album coming?

Scott Stein
Uh, not at the moment. Uh, okay, I would love, I would love to do it. Uh, my, uh, my financial resources are going elsewhere at the moment. But, uh, I

Tony Martignetti
understand. You also have a family. All right, all right. Scott Stein, Take the Backroads.

Scott Stein
The old Leslie size, like Midwestern skies in November, takes me back where it all started. Vocal kicks in. My senses begin to remember age 17, already brokenhearted on an old auditorium stage, dreaming and thinking that I was more for my age. A man always wants to take the back roads. A man always wants to take the back roads, take the back roads. But now the scissoring It's just the light on the dash at the stoplight on the way to my job in the city. Short on thrills, but it pays all the bills and it's all right. I don't mind. The sunrise is pretty. It always knows where I'll be. Always knows just how to shine when I'm coming around. My mind always wants to take the back roads. My mind always wants to take the back roads, take the back roads, the long way back home. Thank you, Tony. My mind is a mirror. I can't tell my fiction from fact. My mind is a mirror. I know that there's no going back. Oh, I know. Man always wants to take the back road. Man always wants to take the back road. Well, my man. My mind always wants to take the back roads. My mind always wants to take the back roads, the long way back home, but they don't lead back home.

Tony Martignetti
Outstanding, Scott. Thank you. Thank you. My mind always wants to take the back roads. When will that be available?

Scott Stein
That's a great question. Um, I, I don't— yeah, I don't have any plans to go in the studio right now, so, uh, yeah, maybe at some point in the future.

Tony Martignetti
All right, well, check out all of Scott's—

Scott Stein
But I'll be playing it live, uh, a week from, uh, Sunday, July 5th, as part of the Operation Gig, uh, concert series in Ditmas Park here in Brooklyn.

Claire Meyerhoff
Oh,

Scott Stein
so outstanding. You can see me with my trio.

Tony Martignetti
All right, and more of Scott's music is, uh, of course, where would you expect it to be? But, uh, Scott Stein, scottsteinmusic.com.

Scott Stein
Indeed.

Tony Martignetti
Claire, we, uh— oh, you want to play us in a little bit, Scott? A little more sweet? We got a little, little intro to the—

Scott Stein
Oh, of course.

Tony Martignetti
Gotta keep up our rituals.

Claire Meyerhoff
Well, it's our— he's our music director, so he should make the decisions about the music. He is. We have 2 more on our list of sweet 16, 16 sweet things about Tony Martignetti Nonprofit Radio. And number 4 on that list is, aww, Tony is sweet for his kindness to guests and listeners alike. Tony is very kind and very nice to his very great— all his guests. He really, he truly is. He's just very gracious and asks, you know, questions in a probing but polite way and has a lot of talent with his— Thank you. With his sweetness. And number 5 is we use the term radio instead of podcast because radio is like vintage sounding. And that's, that's very sweet. Like, I think Tony Martignetti Nonprofit Radio instead of like the nonprofit podcast. Like, I think the radio just sounds really just—

Tony Martignetti
Yeah, let's talk. Let's talk about that for a minute. Yeah, because I grew up loving radio.

Claire Meyerhoff
Yeah, me too.

Tony Martignetti
WNEW, WPLJ in New York City. They were both classic rock, album rock-oriented stations. How about you all? What, Scott, what music did you grow up with?

Scott Stein
Oh man, it's a long list. My father is now retired, but he was the cantor of our synagogue for a long, long time and professional cantor. So I grew up with a lot of Jewish music. I grew up with a lot of classical music, a lot of Broadway, not very much rock and roll, surprisingly. I had to find my way on that. But I will say that a lot of the artists that I love Um, I was introduced to, um, thanks to a public radio station. So shout out to, uh, WAPS 91.3 in Akron, Ohio, my hometown. Really helped shape my tastes.

Tony Martignetti
Awesome. WAPS. Yeah, I remember, I remember also growing up with public radio WNYC. How about you, Gene? Early, early, uh, early radio influences for you? Or music, music influences?

Claire Meyerhoff
Yeah.

Gene Takagi
So I grew up in Vancouver. Grew up in Vancouver. Sea Fun, shout out to Sea Fun. Probably not around anymore, but I listened to a lot of jazz and I was at the Village Vanguard yesterday. So shout out to jazz in NYC.

Tony Martignetti
You're in New York City now. Yeah, like

Gene Takagi
just for a few days.

Tony Martignetti
For a few days. Village Vanguard is, uh, that's an institution. That's like, uh, Birdland is another jazz institution in, uh, in New York City. How about you, Amy? Would, would, would early radio, any early music?

Amy Sample Ward
I didn't listen to the radio as a kid. We My dad exclusively listened to blues and reggae, and we never listened to the radio. We always— he was always curating, whether at the house or in the car, you know, which record or which— like, he had a very extensive record to tape, tape to CD, you know, as times evolved. There was— everything had a copy on every Mode.

Tony Martignetti
Yeah.

Amy Sample Ward
So it was— he was your—

Tony Martignetti
he was your DJ then? He was your DJ?

Amy Sample Ward
Yes, all the time. And really, it meant I didn't know there was other music than blues and reggae because that's all there was until I was 16 and could drive myself. And then I was like, oh, if you just push these buttons, they just play music, but someone else curates the music, you know? Yeah. But we have always, I mean, since then and now as an adult, have always listened to OPB, which is Oregon Public Broadcasting, even when we lived in England, because it felt very like, oh, we're still at home if we're listening to OPB, you know?

Claire Meyerhoff
Cool.

Tony Martignetti
Yeah, right. You can hang on to, right, hang on to the rituals, the ritual of being home, even living abroad.

Amy Sample Ward
Exactly. Yes.

Tony Martignetti
Kate, how about your early music?

Kate Martignetti
Mostly it was mom and dad picking the station, but it was definitely like the one that I can remember is 102.9 MGK. I think that's classic rock.

Tony Martignetti
Magic. MGK in New Jersey. Okay. MGK. Do you still, uh, do you still listen to MGK type, uh, album rock or no?

Kate Martignetti
When it's on, but if I can get my aux cord to work, then, then no, then I'm on my Amazon Playlist.

Tony Martignetti
Okay, okay.

Claire Meyerhoff
From another year, Kate said that her mom liked Bon Jovi. Am I correct with that? Right?

Kate Martignetti
Correct.

Claire Meyerhoff
Yeah. Like, yeah, man, Bon Jovi.

Scott Stein
I think there's a New Jersey law that says

Claire Meyerhoff
yes,

Scott Stein
you have to, right? Him and Springsteen.

Claire Meyerhoff
Yes, that would be true, probably.

Tony Martignetti
Go ahead, Claire. Some more, some more sweet, uh, Sweet 16.

Claire Meyerhoff
I'm from Long Island, so it's like I grew up like a town over from Billy— where Billy Joel's hometown of Hicksville. And so Billy Joel is like the religion growing up and And it was kind of in the earlier days of Billy Joel. And we, my friends and I, we always talk about how we went to go see him at the Hofstra, not Hofstra, at C.W. Post at the Dome. And then a couple years later, that dome caved in from too much snow. So like, that's the show like we kind of always talk about because then there was this big like catastrophe, but no one was hurt. So thank God.

Tony Martignetti
There's another, there's a classic rock song that a lot of people listen to at the holidays. From C.W. Post, Bruce Springsteen's recording. Yeah, of, of,

Claire Meyerhoff
uh, right, that Christmas song,

Scott Stein
um, Santa

Tony Martignetti
Claus, Santa Claus, Santa Claus Coming to Town. That's from 1970-something. I'm pretty sure it's the '70s, and it's from C.W. Post on, uh, on Long Island.

Claire Meyerhoff
Yeah, we went in— I'm aging myself, but I think we went in like 1977 or '78, and I think the dome caved in like in, like in 1980 or something. But yeah, Springsteen played there. I'm sure if I, if I polled my friends on Facebook, I bet I have 10 friends at least that went to that.

Tony Martignetti
Yes. And 50 who will say they were there. All right.

Claire Meyerhoff
Right, right, right. Right, right, right.

Tony Martignetti
Okay.

Claire Meyerhoff
Go ahead.

Tony Martignetti
All

Claire Meyerhoff
right. So my next, number 6 on our list of Sweet 16 is about Gene, that he is so sweet for sharing his legal knowledge with all our listeners and us who are not attorneys. And he sweetly translates this, you know, complicated— these complicated issues for us to bring it right back down to earth where we need to be able to use this information that That Gene shares with us. So Gene is extremely sweet for that. It's—

Tony Martignetti
that's me. That's me applauding Gene. Absolutely. Gene is, you know, yeah, you explain things so people can understand them. You bring us important legal happenings, trends. Sometimes it's very detailed and sometimes it's bigger picture. You're the best, Gene. You're the best legal contributor we've ever had.

Claire Meyerhoff
It's so— well, he's the only one we've ever had, but of course, of course he's—

Tony Martignetti
Well, give Gene a chance to—

Amy Sample Ward
But Gene also explains things very calmly, you know?

Claire Meyerhoff
Yeah.

Amy Sample Ward
He doesn't get all worked up. Tony and I sometimes get all worked up, and Gene is just a voice of reason, you know?

Claire Meyerhoff
He's the voice of reason.

Tony Martignetti
You are calm, Gene. Gene, let Gene— Gene.

Claire Meyerhoff
Gene.

Tony Martignetti
Gene, Gene. Gene, Gene, the law machine. I used to call him that, but I think it made him blush, so I stopped. I stopped.

Gene Takagi
I love the Gong Show reference.

Claire Meyerhoff
The Gong Show reference?

Tony Martignetti
That's where it's from. Gene Gene, remember Gene Gene the Dancing Machine was on the Gong Show with Gene Barry. Actually, I'm pretty sure that's the host that was Gene, was another Gene. But yes, that's where I got that.

Claire Meyerhoff
No, Gene Rayburn, Gene Barry.

Tony Martignetti
No, no, Gene Rayburn was The Price is Right.

Claire Meyerhoff
Okay.

Tony Martignetti
No, wait. No, he's Match Game. No, Gene Rayburn.

Claire Meyerhoff
Doesn't matter.

Gene Takagi
Harris.

Tony Martignetti
Chuck Barris. Chuck Barris was

Claire Meyerhoff
Barris.

Tony Martignetti
Chuck Barris. Barris was the host of The Gong Show.

Gene Takagi
Gene Barry was a Western star.

Tony Martignetti
All right. Gene. Where I got Gene from. Okay.

Claire Meyerhoff
Stuff is just floating around in our old heads, me and Tony.

Tony Martignetti
Yeah. Yeah. Go ahead, Claire. Give us some more.

Claire Meyerhoff
Our baby boomer heads.

Kate Martignetti
It's time for a break. We are sponsored by the Bridge Conference, produced by AFP DC and DMAW, July 29th to 31st at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland. More than 2,400 professionals will gather at Bridge. Tony will be with them. The question is, will you? Thought leaders from nonprofits, associations, foundations, hospitals, higher ed, faith-based, and mission-driven causes across the country come to Bridge to discover new ideas, solve real challenges, and connect with smart people shaping the future of our industry. From 125+ educational sessions and hands-on pre-conference workshops to BridgeTech, the Faith and Fundraising Forum, and inspiring keynote speakers, Bridge offers something for every mission and every role. The conversations happening at Bridge will shape strategies, careers, and organizations long after the conference ends. Don't hear about it afterward— be in the room! Register at bridgeconf.org.

Claire Meyerhoff
You know, it's also sweet. Number 7, it's sweet that Tony is an attorney who's an expert in planned giving. He could have gone a lot of ways with his law career, but focusing on this estate planning and planned giving, he's helped so many charities with my favorite form of fundraiser— fundraising, which is bequests and other deferred gifts. And so thank you, Tony, for being— it's very sweet that you chose planned giving and estate planning and charitable estate planning as your expertise in the, in the wonderful world of law where you could have been an ambulance chaser.

Tony Martignetti
I'm so glad I did. Yeah, I would never be an ambulance chaser, but,

Claire Meyerhoff
oh,

Tony Martignetti
uh, yeah, practicing law just didn't work out for me. But, uh, the, the practice of planned giving fundraising, absolutely. I've, I've loved it since 1997.

Amy Sample Ward
And sweet that not only did you pursue this path You've also wrapped up a bunch of your knowledge in a book.

Tony Martignetti
Yeah. Oh, that was unscripted. That was very thoughtful. Very thoughtful. Yes. Thank you. Yes, I have a book.

Amy Sample Ward
I appreciate getting to read it early and tell you things that I didn't like, and then you fix them all.

Claire Meyerhoff
That's good. Good editor.

Amy Sample Ward
I mean, who else, you know, who else but sweet Tony Martignetti would say, oh, I hear all of your complaints and I've addressed all of them.

Claire Meyerhoff
Yes.

Tony Martignetti
I hope I did. Yes, you were, you were a very gracious, uh, beta reader, early reader of the book, along with Ezra As was Claire, and as was Gene. Thank you very much. The book is publishing in September. Yes, Planned Giving Accelerated.

Claire Meyerhoff
Yes.

Tony Martignetti
Thank you.

Claire Meyerhoff
Our number 8 is about Amy Sample Ward, who's here for our anniversary show. And Amy's so sweet for sharing all her, like, technology and trend. Like, you really know what's going on, like, more than we do, like, because Tony and I are more like, Over here, but you're over here with all your, like, super duper knowledge. So thank you for being so sweet to share all your knowledge with us. It's fantastic. So then we—

Tony Martignetti
Well, I have to say that I've always admired Amy because she sees the— because they see the micro as well as the bigger picture. I tend to focus on examples. And they see the forest while I'm looking at a tree.

Claire Meyerhoff
Right.

Tony Martignetti
No, I've shouted you out for that. Yeah. You see trends and things that the rest of us don't catch. You talk to a lot of people in the field.

Claire Meyerhoff
No.

Tony Martignetti
Thank you.

Claire Meyerhoff
Thank you, Amy. So Oh, and you know what is also sweet? Let's send out some love to Kate for her sweet voice and her sweet skills. She's brought such a nice, you know, complements the Tony Martignetti aesthetic very, very, very well. And it's very nice to have you here, and your addition has been just really sweet. I've just so enjoyed having you on board, and I know Tony really appreciates you because you do all these things now that Then he doesn't have to. So that's amazing. And you're getting very good experience for your, your resume and your LinkedIn profile. And you can— I'll help you beef that up if you need help with that, because I'm not good at that. So, so that's very sweet. And of course, Scott's sweet tunes truly elevate— to use another, like, buzzword— he elevates the show. Elevates. That's the new thing. Elevates.

Tony Martignetti
Elevates. I hadn't heard that one, but he does. Yeah, it works. It works. It works with Scott. Yeah, I've just, you know, like I said, Scott, I just, I love the music. I love the song Cheap Red Wine. You know, it's just, uh, we're just like cheap red wine. There's nobody waiting in line. We're just like cheap red wine. You know, that, uh, yeah, there's no

Claire Meyerhoff
song.

Scott Stein
To make a Billy Joel reference, I, I've referred to that record as being from my angry young man period.

Claire Meyerhoff
Oh, I know that song. Angry Young Man.

Scott Stein
Very, very kind of, kind of snarky and cynical as a 20-something.

Claire Meyerhoff
Yeah, right, right. No, I think that's really cute.

Tony Martignetti
But now as you're looking back, you're that— now you're doing Take the, Take the Road, Take the Back Roads.

Scott Stein
Yeah.

Tony Martignetti
As you, as you're reflecting after, uh, 20-some years.

Scott Stein
As a wise— I don't know about wise— older veteran. I don't know if I'm any wiser, but—

Tony Martignetti
Right.

Claire Meyerhoff
I'm sure you're wiser. So I guess I'm sweet, number 11, for making, for lovingly making this list because I threw out this idea to Tony. I was like, okay, sweet 16. Now I have to come up with 16 things. But I did. I sat on the couch, came up with the 16 things.

Tony Martignetti
Thank you, Claire Meyerhoff. You always, you always bring it. You always bring it for our anniversary shows.

Claire Meyerhoff
Thank you. A little something something. And, you know, it's so sweet, number 12, that we're here together once again for the 800th show. We're also— this is just the sweetest thing. I love this. Like every year I see the same people and it's really, really cool. We're like a little, you know, like a little gang.

Tony Martignetti
Like it's our tradition. Yes. Yes. Amy, thank you. You had to do some calendar magic to be with us, but you know that we would have rescheduled the recording if you could not have made it. Absolutely. There's no Uh, we'll, we'll do it without any one of you. No, this doesn't, doesn't, just doesn't happen that way.

Claire Meyerhoff
No, you can't. Like The Brady Bunch.

Amy Sample Ward
It's our ritual. Jubilee without all of us?

Tony Martignetti
It would not. It would just be a jube. A jube. You can't have, you can't have a juble, a 16th juble anniversary. No, you got to have the full jubilee.

Claire Meyerhoff
That's funny.

Tony Martignetti
Absolutely.

Claire Meyerhoff
So that's it on my list for, for right at the, at the moment. How are we doing on time? I

Tony Martignetti
think we're doing, we're doing, we're doing quite well. It's time, it's time actually for Scott to do a second song.

Claire Meyerhoff
Yes.

Scott Stein
All right.

Tony Martignetti
Intro, intro it please for us. What are we gonna hear?

Scott Stein
Sure. So since we've been talking about that, the song Cheap Red Wine, which actually came out back in 2009, I thought it would be fun to do another song from that same album. It was a record called Jukebox, and Cheap Red Wine is the first tune on that, that record. So I'm going to do the second one. This is a song, it's called Wish I Knew, and I went through a period where I just thought if I could write something that sounds like Carole King, I think I'd be pretty happy with that. So there are a lot of Carole King type chords in here. You'll hear, you hear that.

Tony Martignetti
All right. Wish I Knew.

Scott Stein
Unsteady feet, East Village street. Better slip away and watch history repeat. I'm trying to hold your hand. But you drew a line in the sand. So when I see you tomorrow, you're just going to leave me where I stand. Ain't that sad? You're going to rob me of the best thing that I think I ever had. Is there something I Is there something I can do to prove my worth to you? Darling, I wish I knew. Well, love is blind. When you can't make up your mind, you know you're giving me something, someone less than divine. When the night gets cold, you've got no one left to hold, then you turn around and tell Ain't that sad? You're gonna rob me of the best thing that I think I ever had. Is there something I could say? Is there something I could do to prove my worth to you? I'm gonna miss you. There's so many singers in the city, some with prettier voices than mine. You know, sometimes I sing off-key. Lord knows how hard I'm trying. Oh, I know. Oh, well, wish I knew what I was getting myself into. And I wish I knew, darling, just why it ain't through to you. Ain't it sad? You're gonna rob me of the best thing that I think I ever had. Is there something I could say? Is there something I could do to prove my worth? Whoa, whoa, ain't it sad? You're gonna rob me of the best thing that I think I ever had. Is there something I can say? Is there something I can do to prove my worth to you? Darling, wish I knew. Darling, wish I knew.

Claire Meyerhoff
Very nice.

Tony Martignetti
Outstanding. Thank you, Scott.

Amy Sample Ward
That was great.

Claire Meyerhoff
Really good. I could definitely hear the Carole King influence. I'm really digging that you're kind of tapping into those types because I feel like your previous song was a little Jim Croce maybe.

Scott Stein
Okay.

Claire Meyerhoff
Or something like that. Like it reminded me of sort of that era. And I think that's a great time in music and some of those artists.

Scott Stein
Yeah. I mean, that stuff's timeless.

Claire Meyerhoff
Fantastic. Like, yeah, if they Put those songs out today, it'd be better than anything today. That's just my boomer opinion.

Scott Stein
I think you hear their influence actually. There's, there's some folks out there making stuff that, that, that like you can, you can tell who's been listening to the, to like that era.

Claire Meyerhoff
Yeah.

Scott Stein
So there's, oh yeah, you hear, you hear that, you hear it

Tony Martignetti
in

Scott Stein
today. Today's. Yeah, I think so. I think there's, I still keep my, I don't listen to as much of contemporary stuff as I used to, but I, I still feel like It's, it's like part of my job to like keep my ear to the ground and kind of pick out the stuff that I like, you know, even if I'm not the target audience anymore.

Claire Meyerhoff
Right. Well, like Harry Styles has done a few covers, like I think Bridge Over Troubled Water or a few things like that. And, and they're really popular. I mean, well, everyone loves Harry Styles, but yeah.

Scott Stein
I mean, I'm a parent. Sorry, I didn't mean to go there. No, I mean, I'm a parent too, so I'm always like There's stuff that my kids like that there's plenty that I'm like, oh geez, now I know how my parents felt. But like every once in a while, like my older kid's only 7, but like he'll go like, oh, I want to play this song. And like every once in a while, like I, I get pleasantly surprised. I'm like, all right, there's, that dude's got some, you know, he's got some vocal chops. There's some interesting production things happening. Yeah, there's good music in every era. They're always—

Amy Sample Ward
I want, I want a Scott Stein version of a Music Together. Album. Do you know Music Together?

Scott Stein
Yeah. It's

Amy Sample Ward
the kids' music.

Scott Stein
I, uh, my, when I first moved to New York, actually I had a day job. I was working at like, you know, it wasn't Music Together, but it was like kind of a company that was trying to do something very similar. I was an accompanist. And I, you know, the funny thing is now I'm way more, I probably would be way more excited to do that now because I have Like a 7-year-old. Well, my 7-year-old would be too old for it, but like I have a 4-year-old. Yeah. So I, so I get that a lot more, uh, intuitively than I did when I was like, uh, 24 or 25, right? You know, it was like, oh God, I gotta play this again. I just wanna rock, man.

Tony Martignetti
Play us in for a little more Sweet 16, please, Scott, for our, our third and final Third and final Sweet 16.

Claire Meyerhoff
Claire, what do

Tony Martignetti
you have for us?

Claire Meyerhoff
Well, all I have to say is cake. Cake is sweet. And did anybody here bring a cake for the sweet 16 party? Where is the cake, Tony?

Tony Martignetti
We can, we can blow out, we can blow out the candles. How about that?

Claire Meyerhoff
I want a Carvel cake.

Tony Martignetti
Oh, Carvel is good. Ice cream, ice cream. They're, they're decadent. They're decadent.

Claire Meyerhoff
I could eat a whole little Carvel cake all by myself. So live listener love is inherently sweet.

Tony Martignetti
I love the live listener. Yeah, today, um,

Claire Meyerhoff
Yeah,

Tony Martignetti
Tim. Today, Tim Tim Curran messaged me on LinkedIn. Yeah, I love to shout out the live listener love.

Claire Meyerhoff
That's that's a good thing.

Tony Martignetti
They are. You know, there's a special. There's just special messages I get. Some sometimes it's like this one's LinkedIn. I get emails from time to time, or folks just a comment.

Claire Meyerhoff
Yeah,

Tony Martignetti
something comment. You know, just. Saying how much the show means to them. Sometimes they— some folks bring it to their board. I've had folks say that, that show, I listened, I had my board members listen to that, or it brought up a conversation among our board. To me, that's a home run episode.

Claire Meyerhoff
Yes.

Tony Martignetti
If it's moving folks to a conversation.

Claire Meyerhoff
Yes. And validates, you know, validates things perhaps this communications director or whoever have been thinking and saying, but their board wasn't really listening. So when we have an expert on our show who says something that validates it, and then they can bring that to their board or their boss. And that validation is extremely, extremely important in nonprofits because nonprofits come sometimes, you know, a little bit behind the times. They don't make decisions fast. They're not nimble, right? They have like committees, endless committees and subcommittees, and things don't get done. So, you know, when you get that good advice and you can just act on it and get that validation, then you can move forward much more Well,

Amy Sample Ward
Tony, back to the point I made earlier about you championing or taking on the role of, of listeners and asking guests questions. We've talked about before, like, some of the value of the podcast— of the radio show, sorry. No,

Tony Martignetti
no, it's a podcast.

Amy Sample Ward
Is the practice of the conversation so that people can go to a, you know, team meeting or staff meeting or board meeting and have already had one practice through What this conversation might look like.

Tony Martignetti
Yeah, yeah, very good. Yeah, yeah, right. You can— it can kind of, yeah, coach you through what, what might come up and, and some talking points. Yeah, very good. Yeah.

Claire Meyerhoff
You know, the longevity of your show makes you a, a very trusted resource for people and a trusted voice. You can say to your boss, this is, you know, this, this podcast has been on for 16 years and this is the best people in nonprofits have been on this podcast. It's not like, you know, some lady who— or let's— some guy who like has a podcast and it's like the second episode. It's you, you really, your validation is really backed up by your, by your, you know, your history of guests and, and the longevity of your show is amazing. Like I always tell people when they talk about podcasts, I'm, I say, well, Tony Martignetti has this pod. He's been doing 50 episodes a year, you know, once a week for 16 years. Like that's, that's hard to do without like a whole team of, of people and all that. So.

Amy Sample Ward
Tony is the sweetest masochist.

Claire Meyerhoff
The biggest masochist I've ever met.

Tony Martignetti
Well, we have a great team. We have a great team. But yeah, it just, you know, the consistency just helps me do it. If I wasn't consistent, you know, I'd put it off. Oh, summertime, June, July, maybe we'll come back in September. You know, it's the holidays. I'll just take the month of December off. You know, I just, I need the, yeah, I need The consistency just helps me. So thank you. Thanks, everybody. I accept your gracious comments about me and the show. Very thoughtful. What else you got there, Claire?

Claire Meyerhoff
For number 15, you know, just thinking about what Amy Sample Ward said is that your new book was lovingly prepared to help even the tiniest nonprofits realize sweet bequests. With planned giving strategies that are doable and do it now. I've learned, I've been in planned giving for about, well, a little bit longer than the show maybe, because that's how I first met Tony. I was writing an article and I found Tony and I said, hey, can I, you know, talk to you about this? And then you became like a resource for me. I'd call him up from my car and go, oh, I'm doing this. I'm writing a postcard about charitable gift annuities and blah, blah, blah. And Tony would explain things to me. So I, you know, I seemed like I knew more than, than what I did. Yeah. And so, you know, I love, I love planned giving, and Tony's part of my, my planned giving journey and a very important part of that journey. And we feel the same way about small nonprofits, that they can get these, these sweet bequests because your donors are going to leave their, their money and their assets to somebody. And if you don't let them know, if you don't engage them and communicate with them and have conversations with them, they don't know. They just don't know you're in the game. So they're gonna leave it all to Harvard or whatever and not the local dog shelter that they actually care about. More. So we are on the same mission, Tony and I, to educate and inform people about the wonderful world of planned giving. So I'll turn it over for the last 16th, our sweet 16th. I'm going to let Tony offer up something sweet. So did you think about that at all, Tone?

Tony Martignetti
I did. Well, thank you for what you just said. I've loved our time together collaborating. I've brought you in on a client or two through the years. And again, you'll find Claire, pgagency.com, stands for Planned Giving, of course. Brilliant marketer. Brilliant marketer.

Claire Meyerhoff
Well, thank you. I appreciate that.

Tony Martignetti
I'm turning it back to our listeners again for number 16, because I don't want to have a diary. I'm not a good diary. I don't journal. I don't diary. So I need you to listen. Otherwise, this show is going to become a diary. We can't have that. No, you know, grateful that you listen and pleased and gratified that it helps you. It helps you in your in your work. It helps you in your relationships with your coworkers. It helps you in your relationship with the whole community, with your donors. We're in a relationship business. You know, even if even if you're funded by mostly by foundations, you have relationships with people at those foundations. So much of what we do is just based on people and our relationships with them in all the different networks that we, that we have. It all— the networks are people. So I'm glad that the show is helping you. And I thank you. Thank you. For giving back by listening, by listening. And we still got some time. So I'm going to turn around to our esteemed panel and our anniversary show celebrities. Who else has a sweet— throw out something sweet. We'll do more than 16 sweets. Who's got something?

Amy Sample Ward
It's sweet that you keep coming back to the NTC as a source of interviewing many, many Very smart people who are sweet to offer all of their expertise to the community through your platform.

Tony Martignetti
Thank you. I love our relationship that we have between Nonprofit Radio and NTEN. Yeah, I believe it's 13 years. I'm pretty sure this year was the 13th year. And next year in Portland will be the 14th year that Nonprofit Radio is at NTEN. It's already on my calendar.

Amy Sample Ward
Great.

Tony Martignetti
Thank you. Thank you.

Amy Sample Ward
Yeah, but we love it because it also adds— I mean, it adds value for the community hearing from people they otherwise wouldn't hear from. And many of those speakers that you select for the show are even people you've never talked to before. So they're new in all those ways. And I think that is really valuable. I mean, speaking to Claire's point of 16 whole years of doing this is just if you talk to the same 3 people, if you only talk to Gene and I every show, God, no one would listen to the show, you know? But you're, you're always bringing on lots more people, and that there, there are people with expertise all across the sector.

Tony Martignetti
So. It's a joy. Thank you. Thank you. Who else? Who's got some, something sweet?

Kate Martignetti
I was looking through my office the other day.

Tony Martignetti
Oh, hold on, Jean. Kate, you go, you go, and then Jean.

Kate Martignetti
I found, and I was talking to my uncle about this, I found my first little note From my first payment, and it says, congratulations on your first payment for your first paying gig, Tony.

Amy Sample Ward
Oh.

Kate Martignetti
And it is 7/7/23. And I've been keeping every single note that he's given me and every little encouragement, you know, because his generosity and kindness is so overwhelmingly abundant and Thank you.

Tony Martignetti
It's not even, it's not even time for your birthday gift or Christmas gift. Imagine that. Oh, yes. Well, because your first show was June 19th, 2023. And yes, I, I, I like to include notes to vendors. You're not, you're more than a vendor. But when I have to, when I have to send checks to people, I don't just, I don't like to just put a check in the mail. I like to put a little Post-it note on, even if it just says thank you.

Kate Martignetti
It's more personal that way.

Tony Martignetti
You keep every one of those?

Kate Martignetti
Every single one in a little baggie.

Claire Meyerhoff
Make a collage, like a really cool collage. Maybe on your 5th anniversary or something, make a collage from the Podfather. That'd be a cool piece of art.

Tony Martignetti
Thank you very much. I'm glad. I'm glad you're with us. Gene, you had something sweet.

Gene Takagi
Throw in and add on to your generosity, Tony. So, and every year Tony's so generous to make that a contribution. To my end, to Amy's, some of our favorite charities. And people don't know that, but really super appreciated, Tony. So thank you for your generosity to your audience and your generosity to us.

Amy Sample Ward
Including this last year, Tony donated specifically for scholarships to the NTC, which helped us provide more scholarships than we ever had. At a time when, of course, the sector is experiencing lots and lots of financial loss.

Gene Takagi
Yeah, amazing stuff, Tony. Thank you.

Tony Martignetti
It's a pleasure to do that for for the two of you year after year. Thank you, Gene. It's it's a joy. It's this whole thing is a joy. I don't know. All right, you're getting me misty. That's thank you.

Amy Sample Ward
It took us fifty minutes in to get you to cry. We failed the jubilee.

Claire Meyerhoff
The jubilee tears.

Tony Martignetti
All right, thank you, Scott. Everybody knows that you gotta take us out of the 800th show and the 16th anniversary jubilee with nothing other than the inimitable Cheap Red Wine. Cheap Red Wine, please.

Scott Stein
You got it. From the album—

Tony Martignetti
from the album Jukebox.

Scott Stein
Yes. And thank you as always for giving me an opportunity to play and including my music every week. It's just— this is such a joy. So with pleasure, here we go. Thank you. Well, baby, just keep on talking. Sooner or later, I'll figure out just what you mean. You're singing romantic advice from a billboard. I'm looking for answers up on a TV screen. Well, then we can't agree on nothing. We can't tell our ups from our downs. We disappointed each other. Now tell me, baby, ain't this love that we found? You know you used to find me charming, but I can't figure out how. You said you thought I was handsome, but it doesn't matter now. So keep falling for my punchlines as long as your time will allow, 'cause I love you. Gotta rip your promises. I bought a little cheap and wide. You know some girl doesn't live with diamonds, and they won't talk to the cut of clothing that I wear. Well, I'm too poor to afford the good stuff, and you're too easily distracted to care. Well, I ain't got too many hours. And so I'm gonna do the best that I can. But maybe you'll have some competition one day when I'm a wealthier man. You know you used to find me charming, but I can't figure out how. You said you thought I was handsome, but doesn't matter now. So keep falling for my punchlines. As long as he time will allow, 'cause I've got riveting promises about a little cheap red wine and down. Yeah, well, maybe let's raise our glasses. You can drink to better days. The other people can kiss our asses if they don't like the things we said. And I ain't gonna curse the heavens, no, I won't fly strong.

Kate Martignetti
If you missed any part of this week's show,

Tony Martignetti
I beseech you, find it at tonymartinetti.com. And thank you to everybody. Thanks to each of you for being with us this week. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Kate Martignetti
Our creative producer is Claire Meyerhoff. I'm your associate producer, Kate Martignetti. The show's The social media is by Susan Chavez. Marc Silverman is our web guy, and this glorious live music is by Scott Stein.

Scott Stein
Yeah!

Tony Martignetti
Thank you for that affirmation, Scotty. Be with us next week for Nonprofit Radio, big nonprofit ideas for the other 95%. Go out and be great.