Nonprofit Radio for December 15, 2017: Zombie Loyalists

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Peter Shankman: Zombie Loyalists

Peter Shankman

Peter Shankman is a well-known and often-quoted social media, marketing and public relations strategist. His book is “Zombie Loyalists.” He wants you to create rabid fans who do your social media, marketing and PR for you. He’s got super ideas and lots of valuable stories. I like to play this each December. (Originally broadcast 12/19/14)

 

 

 

 

 


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Hello and welcome to tony martignetti non-profit radio big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent on the aptly named host oh, i’m glad you’re with me. I’d be thrown into kenna mortal phobia if you told me zombies caused you to miss today’s show zombie loyalists peter shankman is a well known and, uh, often quoted social media marketing and public relations strategist. His book is zombie loyalists. He wants you to create rabid fans who do your social media, marketing and pr for you he’s got super ideas and lots of valuable stories i’d like to play this each december, and it was originally aired on december nineteenth twenty fourteen authorities take to the estate tax and planned e-giving we’re sponsored by pursuant full service fund-raising data driven and technology enabled tony dahna slash pursuing and by wagner cpas guiding you beyond the numbers when you’re cps dot com, you’re not a business you’re non-profit apple it’s accounting software designed for non-profits non-profit wizard dot com tell us turning payment processing into your passive revenue stream. Tony dahna slash tony tell us here’s the first bit of peter shankman and zombie loyalists. I’m very glad peter shankman is with me in the studio. He is the founder of haro help a reporter out connecting journalists with sources in under two years from starting it in his apartment, hora was sending out fifteen hundred media queries a week to more than two hundred thousand sources worldwide. It was acquired by vocus in two thousand ten he’s, the founder and ceo of the geek factory, a boutique social media marketing and pr strategy firm in new york city, peter is on nasa’s civilian advisory council. You’ll find him at shanklin dot com and he’s at peter shankman on twitter. His latest book is zombie loyalists using great service to create rabid fans. I’m very glad his book brings him to non-profit radio and the studio welcome peter, get to be here, honey. Thanks. Pleasure. You live on the west side of manhattan. And you and you there’s a there’s. A pretty well known five star steakhouse. I’ll get wolfgang’s not far from you know, but you pass it to go to a different steakhouse, right? Morton’s? Correct. Why is that more? I’m a zombie loyalist importance. What does that mean? I love the service. The attention to detail the quality the sort of where everyone knows my name mentality when i walk into that mourns or any mortons around the world, they have a tremendous custom relationship management system. When i call one number ah, in new york or anywhere in the world, it they know who i am by my cell phone. And i’m treated with just, you know, phenomenal. Uh, happiness toe here for me. And my wishes are granted is aware, and we have any happy hour holiday party coming up at morton’s next couple days. And, you know, as always, i forgot to call and make a reservation. You know, i called yesterday and said, hey, i need a and she has to get a reservation for seven people. Dahna you know, there’s a night at, uh, seven p m, which is, you know, the week of holiday play, and they looked and they said, oh, well, and then i guess their computer system kicked in. Of course, mr chang is not a problem. I’ll get the fire anyway, you know how it will have a great booth for you that, you know, and we’ll tell us names the people attending and you know, you know, you know, they’re going to specialize menus for them and their names on they really they have ah, really high level of service that they provide not just to me that’s the beauty of it, you know, it’s one thing for everybody, yeah, it’s one thing, if they do was provided to me, but they do that for everyone, and that is huge because, you know, being able to call when a normal person makes reservation and not that i’m special, i’m actually rather abnormal. But what a normal person makes a reservation and says, no more tests, okay, greater. You celebrating anything so, yeah, it’s, my wife’s birthday waiting always ask after anyone said, oh, you know what? It’s, my wife’s birthday great what’s her name and her name’s. Megan, whatever. And you go in and they and you sit down on the on the menu, it says happy, but they make it, and then megan, whoever she happens to be well in the next forty five minutes, you know, taking fifty selfies with her menu and that’ll go online and when her friends, you know, want that same experience, they’re going to go morton’s you say in the book you get the customers you want by being beyond awesome to the customers you have. And that’s. Why? I want to start with that morton’s story, which is in the middle of the book. But they do it for everybody. And then they have the vips as well. And there’s the terrific story of you tweeting tell that story that’s a good story, but it’s a good story. Love stories. I was flying home from a day trip to florida and was exhausted and starving and they trip meaning you’re flying down a canoe down to six a m lunch meeting flew back same day. You know, one of those one of those days and ah, i jokingly said the tweet hey, morton’s. What? You meet me at newark airport when i land with a porterhouse in two hours. Ha ha ha ha ha! Um, you know, i said it the same way you’d say winter. Please stop snowing things like that. And i landed find my driver and said, next, my driver is a is ah, waiter in a tuxedo with the mortons back. They saw my tweet. They put it together. They managed to bring me a a steak and and, you know, as great of a story is that is that’s, that’s, it’s a great stunt and it’s a great story, and it wasn’t staged. It was completely amazing, but, you know, that’s not what they’re about, they’re not about delivering steaks to airports, they’re about making a great meal for you and treating you like world when you come in and, you know, if they just did that, if they just deliver the stake, the airport, but their quality and service sucked, you know, it wouldn’t be a story, you know, you know what they did for peter, but, you know, my steak’s cold, you know? So what it really comes down to is the fact they do treat everyone like kings and that’s that’s really, really important because, well, why is it happening to have a great experience of morton’s? And then you tell the world, you know, oh, yeah, great dinner last night, that was amazing, i would totally there again. And as we moved to this new world where, you know, review sites are going away and i don’t, i don’t need to go to yelp reviews and people i don’t know, and you know, if they’re shills, whatever the case may be, i don’t know or trip advisor, same thing i want people in my network who i trust and people in their network who they trust, then by default, i trust so and that’s going to that’s already happening automatically, you know, when i when i land in l a and i type in steakhouse, you know, not me, i know, i know where the steak house on telly, but if someone typed into google maps or facebook steak house in los angeles, you know they’ll see all the state houses on google map, but if any of their friends have been to any of them, they’ll see those first. And if they had a good experience, only if the sentiment is positive will they see those first and that’s pretty amazing, because if you think about that, the simple act of tweeting out of photo oh my god, thanks so much more in love this that’s positive sentiment, that network knows that. And so if you’re looking for a steakhouse, you know, and your friend six months ago had that experience oh, my god, amazing state this great place the sentiment will be there on dh. The network will know that that we will show you that steakhouse because you trust your friend. And this is where we start to cultivate zombie loyalists. Exactly is through this awesome customer service of the customers. You you have say more about something. Yeah. I mean, you have so many companies out there who are trying to get the next greatest customer. You know, you see all the ads, you know, the facebook post, you know, we’re at nine hundred ninety, followers are ten are one thousand follower gets a free gift. Well, that’s current saying screw you to the original nine hundred ninety followers who you had who were there since the beginning. We don’t care about you. We want that one thousand you know, that’s. Not cool. The the companies who see their numbers rise and you see their fans increase in there. There. Ah, revenues go up are the ones who are nice to the customers they have. Hey, you know customer fifty two. It was really nice of you to join us a couple months ago. How do you know? How are you? We notice that you posted on something about a you know, your car broke down? Well, you know, we’re not in the car business, but you know, you’re you’re two blocks from our our closest, ah, out loud or whatever and, you know, once if you need to come in, have a cup of coffee, will you use the phone? Whatever, you know, those little things that you could do that, that that really focus on the customers you haven’t make the customers you have the ones where the zombies who tell other customers have great your and this all applies to non-profits certainly as well the question, but even more so yeah, i mean, if you know non-profits constant worry about howto make the most value out of their dollar on how to keep the dollar stretching further and further. And, you know, you have this massive audience who has come to you, who’s a non-profit who said to you, you know, we want to help here we are volunteering our help and just simply treating them with the thanks that they deserve, not just a simple hey, thanks for doing it, but actually reaching out, asking what theywant asking how they like to get the information, things like that will greatly increase your donations as well as making them go out and tell everyone how awesome you are letting them to your p r for you and that’s what a zombie loyalist does and this is for this could be donors could be volunteers in the organization who aren’t able to give a lot, but giving time is enormous. And if you know if they have such a great time doing it, they’ll bring friends as as zombies do. You know zombies have one purpose in life? A real zombies have one purpose in life. That’s defeat it doesn’t matter how the mets are doing, it doesn’t matter, you know, because chance that they lost anyway. But it doesn’t matter how how anyone’s doing you know, what’s going on in the world economy, it doesn’t matter what matters was zombie is where they get their next meal because they feed and they have to infect more people. Otherwise they will die zombie loyalist to the same thing. All they have to do is make sure that their custom, they tell the world we all have that friend who does it, you know. That one friend who eats eat nothing but the olive garden because, oh, my gods! Greatest breadsticks everywhere, you know, and they will drag your ass the olive garden every single time they get that chance. That’s a zombie loyalist. And you want them to do that for your non-profit and there’s a big advantage to being a smaller, smaller organization. It could be so much more high touch. And we’re gonna talk about all that. We got the full hour with peter shankman. Gotta go away for a couple minutes. Stay with us, it’s. Time for a break. Pursuant they’ve got a webinar replay for you. It is proven stewardship strategies very timely because lots of people are giving to you this a month. So how do you keep them giving next year? And in twenty nineteen et cetera? You know how costly it is to lose donors and have to replace them? Nationwide dahna attrition you’ve heard guests say it it’s around seventy five percent each year, which is crazy. I’ve had guests trying to help you with that. Hopefully, your numbers are below the annual average, the nationwide average. Keep your donors you after year with a strong stewardship program that’s what this webinar is all about stewardship strategies rachel and cathy give you examples of top thank you’s they talk about automation without sacrificing personalization and they have free templates for you to use. The webinar is proven stewardship strategies it’s at tony dahna slash pursuant capital p now back to peter shankman and zombie loyalists. Peter, it doesn’t take much, teo stand out in the customer service world doesn’t really doesn’t, you know, and the reason for that is because we expect to be treated like crap. You know, if you think about that book, i love this example, whenever i give speeches, i asked, i asked you in the audience and like, who here has had a great flight recently, like at least one personal raise their hand? Ok, what made it great and without fail there? And well, we took off on time and i had the cd was a sign and we landed on time and like, so you paid for a service, they delivered that service, and you’re over the freaking moon about it, like that’s the state that we’ve become, you know, that’s how bad customer service has been that you are just beyond thrilled that they did exactly what they said they were going to win, nothing more less than twenty minutes in the post office line exam, and i’m ecstatic exactly, you know it it’s so we really are at a point where we only have to be one level above krauz i’m not even asking my client to be good, just one level of crap, you know, if everyone else’s crap and your one level above that, you’re going to win my favorite. My favorite jokes, thie two guys are out in the woods, hunting in the woods and the just jog. It was the first one sees a bear, and they see this barren bears raised up he’s about to strike, and the first one reaches down and tightens up his laces on his running shoes and it was the studio don’t be, don’t be needy, you can’t outrun a bear and just kind of need to understand how wrong you know, i love that joke because it’s it’s so true that’s the concept, you know, all you have to do is be just a little bit better than everyone else, and you’ll win the whole ball game. Now we have to set some things up internally in orderto have the structure in place, no question about it to create the zombie loyalists. Yeah, i mean, you haven’t. You have. Ah, company, where the majority of people in your company are afraid to do anything outside the norm, you know? I mean, lookit, lookit a cellphone companies, you know, they call them cause you have a problem, right? T or t mobile. You call them your problem? They’re actually the customer service. We’ll handle your caller actually judged and rewarded based on how quickly they could get you off the phone. You know, not on whether or not the fix your problem fast, but how fast they could get you off the phone. Which means how many more calls get everybody worked when i worked in america online, we all had to do a day of customer service every month just to see what it was like. That was a brilliant idea. But, you know, again, it’s just it was a system called vantage for you to sign on. And as soon as you signed on, if you want to call, you know, that was tacked. Against you, if you’re in a call and it went over a certain amount of time that was tacked against you, so the decks were stacked not in the favor, the customer. There are some companies out there who allowed there customer service employees to simply be smarter about what they dio and do whatever it is they need to do to fix the problem. You know, my favorite story about this verizon wireless? I went overseas, i was in dubai and i landed two buy-in i’m turning my phone had gotten global roaming on my phone, which, you know, twenty bucks for every hundred megabytes. Okay, so i land and i turn on my phone and it says, like, before i’m even off the plane, i get a text that you’ve used two hundred dollars in roaming charges. What the hell, you know, three hundred dollars by turning it off the planet. We’re something’s up here, so i called horizon on a nice guy answer the phone and oh, yeah, i mean, you know, the first thing that was yes, sir, you do have global roaming, but it doesn’t work in dubai. Okay, well, that’s not really global that’s. More hemispherical roaming, i think, is the issue, and so i said, well, look, i’m gonna be here for a week. I said, you know what? You have my credit card, bill me like cubine bilich a thousand bucks and you let me have the phone for, like, a week and you know that, you know, five hundred hours i won’t go over to gigs would just do something for me. Sorry, sir, i’m not authorized to do that. You can look. So what i have is well, you can pay twenty dollars and forty eight cents a megabyte. I’m like i’m sorry. Seriously, which equates essentially too. I will be charged. Twenty thousand forty eight seconds, three thousand forty eight cents for every i think the times for every four seconds of the video gangnam style if i would decide to watch my phone like this is pretty ridiculous. So i simply hung up. I’m hung up on your eyes and i went down the street to the dubai, the mall of the emirates, which is the largest mall in the world, is a freaking ski slope in that, and i’m not joking and as a ski slope in this mall and went to one of like the eighty six different electronic stores in this mall. I bought an international unlocked version of the same exact cell phone. I have went next door to the local sim card store, but, eh, sim card that gave me twenty gigabytes of data and a thousand minutes of talk for forty dollars. I then put that in my phone because i it’s an android phone. I simply typed in my user name and password for google and everything imported. And verizon did not get a penny on that trip. How easy would have been from horizon to say. Okay, you know what? We’ll cut your brake. They still make a lot of money off me. And i would tell the world how great verizon wants to work with and how wonderfully, how helpful they were. Instead, they guaranteed that i will never. They will never make a penny from any international trip. And i take what? Fifteen of them a year? Because now my cell phone, um, my international cell phone that i bought all i do is pop out the sim card on my land, wherever i am putting a new sim card so and you’re speaking and writing and telling that story boards and then rittereiser and every time i tell the story about variety, i make it a little worse. Apparently verizon tests out the durability of their phone by throwing them kittens. I read this and, you know, it must be, you know, not necessarily, but you know, the concept that that all they had to do all the energy was in power mark right now, and it wasn’t mark’s fault. Mark was a really nice guy, but he was not allowed to do that. He would get fired if you try to do a deal like that for me and so it’s this concept, you know, and the funny thing is it comes down if you really want to go go down the road in terms of a public company like verizon of where the issue is, you could even trace it to fiduciary responsibility because the fiduciary responsibility of any company’s ceo all the way down the employees to make money for the shareholders future responsibly means by not allowing me and they don’t allow a mark the customer service agent to to help me on dh take a different tack is actually losing money. Too many ceos think about the next quarter oh, we have to make our number six quarter. I’m fired companies and other countries to anything with next quarter century, and they make a much bigger difference because he okay, what can we do now that we’ll have impact the next five, ten, fifteen years? You know, and really implement the revenue that we have and an augment and cos america don’t don’t think about that. That’s a big problem i’d buy a product line has a lot of natural and recycled materials seventh generation and their their tagline is that in in our every decision, we must consider the impact on the next seven generations. It comes from an american indian, it’s great it’s a great line. I mean, just think about how much money horizon would have made for me in the past three years over just just my overseas you’d be telling a story about like them, about morten, like the one about things? Look, a lot of people listen to me and they went for a time when you googled roaming charges variety when you google verizon roaming charges my story about, however, how i saved all this money really big came up first because i did the math, and if i had not called mark and bought my own cell phone and done this time, i would have come home with thirty one thousand dollars cellphone bill and your damn authorizing one damn thing about that is we’re like up to bad start with fine print and plus the employee who sold you the quote international plan, right? I’m sure you told her, didn’t she said, where you going? I’m going to canada and i’m going to dubai. I’m assuming she didn’t know where to buy wass she when we thought it was near canada, but yeah, long story short couldn’t use it. All right, so employees have to be empowered there’s to be we have to be, but changing a thinking too. I mean, the customer has to come first. The donor of the volunteers don’t volunteer. You get at the end of the day where’s your money coming from look, if you’re non-profit or fortune one hundred where’s, the money coming from, you know and if you we see it happening over and over again we’ve seen what you’re seeing right now play out every single day with company uber on uber it’s so funny because uber makes you know the value of forty billion dollars right now, but that doesn’t mean anything. It doesn’t mean anything if people are running away in droves, which people are there’s a whole? Delete your uber app movement that lord, no god, you people are doing what’s the problem well, it’s several number one, that uber is run by a bunch of guys who honor the bro code. The company was actually started by a guy who, in on business in business insider, said he started the company get laid, his goal was to always of a black car when he was leaving a restaurant to impress the girl he was with that he came out and said that, and you see that culture run rampant throughout uber from their god mode where they can see they actually create there was, ah, don’t read this, my business insider as well that they created a hookup page that showed or, ah, walk of shame page that showed where good women were leaving certain apartments like on weekends oneaccord believing certain place on weekends, going back to their home, it was obvious that they, you know, some guy, and i think they did that, and of course, just there their whole surge pricing mentality, which is, you know, two days ago there was a couple of symbolism the terrorists, thinkers, harris attacking in sydney at that at that bakery, and sidney, uber and sydney instituted surge pricing for people trying to get out of harm’s way, you know? And and they later refund it all was a computer glitch, i’m you know, i’m sorry you have a stop fun and you can when you see something happening like that, there has to be someone in the office because you know what? Not cool, we’re going to take care of that and hit the stop button, and it was, yeah, bad tons and tons and tons of bad publicity. You know, i was having an argument with one of my facebook page facebook dot com slash peter shankman because they said, oh, you know, so what? They don’t, they don’t turn surprising. I have enough cabs there and, you know, people can’t get home, i said, i’m pretty sure that the on ly come, but i’m sure that no one had cab companies there. I’m sure that there wasn’t anyone who had enough cars. They’re private cabs, uber’s, whatever yet the on ly stories i read about companies screwing up during the event where uber not joe’s sydney cab company you know, i didn’t see him staring up because he didn’t turn on surge pricing, you got it. You got to respect your customer after as we’re ah training for that then not only trying to change that mind ships well in in trying to change that mindset rewards for custom, for employees that do take go to go the extra mile. Well, first of all, if you give the employees the ability to do it to go the extra mile and understand they won’t get fired, you’re not going to get in try always to tell every one of my employees you never get in trouble for spending a little extra money to try and keep a customer happy you’ll get fired for not doing it, you know you’re fired for, not for seeing an opportunity to fix someone and not taking doing everything that you could, you know, rich. Carl is famous for that rhys caldnear hires people not because whether they could fool the bedsheet but for how well they understand people. Because in wisconsin’s, mind it’s, much more important to be a people person and be able to be empathetic. And that it’s such a key word empathy is just so so sorely lacking. You know how much you’ve called customer service? Yeah. You know, i have to have to change my flight. Might my my aunt just died. I really dio ok. Great that’s. Three dollars. I just wanted one hour earlier. You know, you show up at the airport. Your bag is overweight by half a pound. That’s twenty five dollars. I just can you can you just cut me some slack, you know, so empathy and giving the custom, giving the employees the ability to understand that the customer that sometimes you can make exceptions and it is okay to make changes. And this is where a smaller organization has huge advantage. It’s. Easier to change. That’s. What kills me. You know, i go to these, try to frequent small businesses. When can i get you something? Small? Businesses and they won’t. They act. Like large businesses, you know, in the respect that they don’t have ah, like they want to be respected almost they don’t have, like, a sixty six thousand page code that they have to adhere to. They can simply ah, do something on the fly. And yet, for whatever reason, they won’t do it. And it’s the most frustrating famous and what guys, you’re acting like a big you act like mega lo mart here, you know, and you’re not mega lo mart, and you’re just joe’s house of stationary, whatever it is and, you know, not be able to help me, you’re pretty much killing yourself because you don’t have eighty five billion customers would come to the door after me, you know? But i have a pretty big network and for a small business, two get killed socially as social becomes more and more what how we communicate, you know, it’s, just craziness, it’s, you know, we’re pretty much in a world, i think, where something almost hasn’t happened to you unless unless you share it a joke that, you know, if i can take a selfie, was i really there but it’s true, you know we do. Live in a world where, you know, i remember god ten years ago, maybe not even not even ten years ago, i was one of the first people have a phone in my camera, you know? And it was like, running from that’s what i said, yeah, carry my phone, right? And it was like a i think a point, eight megapixels, you know, it looked like i was taking a picture with a potato, but it was it was thiss i remember it was two thousand two and i was in chase bank and there was a woman arguing with the teller, and i pulled out my video, you know, it was there the crappiest video you’ve received, i pulled out and i said, you know, i started recording and the one being the cat woman wasn’t the woman behind the counter was talking to the customs saying you do not speak to me that way. You get out of this bank right now and the customers saying i just wanted my balance and you and your manager comes over. I get this whole thing on my little three g motorola phones phone and i remember i posted online and gawker picks it up. I gave him my e mail. You know, my headline, i put my blood was, you know, chase where the regulation ship is that go out yourself, you know? And it was it just got tons of play on gawker picked it up, it went everywhere, totally viral, it’s one of those things he was just like, you know, this is in two thousand two it’s twelve years later, how the hell can you assume that nothing is being with that you’re not being recorded? You know, i i and we’re blowing i sneezed a couple weeks ago and ah, ah, not to get too graphic here, but i needed a tissue big time after i was done sneezing, i’ve never going through my pockets, looking for desperate, looking for tissue, like looking around, making sure it wasn’t on cameras somewhere that someone didn’t grab that with hoexter viral sensation, you know? I mean, i went god, i went to high school with eight blocks from here, right? If the amount of cameras that aaron lincoln center today were there in nineteen, eighty nine, nineteen, ninety, i’d be having this conversation entirely i’d be having this conversation behind bulletproof for themself? Yeah, so, you know you’d be you’d be talking to you have to get special clearance to visit me. Pray be it the super max in colorado, you know, it’s one of those things that you just like my kid who’s who’s almost two years old now is going to grow up with absolutely no expectation of privacy the same way that we grew up with an expectation of privacy. And i’m thankful for that because she will make a lot less stupid moves, you know? I mean, god, the things that i thought, you know, in in high school, i thought the stupid is in the world, thank god there wasn’t a way for me to broadcast that to the world in real time. Thank god creating these zombie loyalists, and we’ve got to change some we’ve gotta change culture and thinking and reward zsystems let’s, go back to the cost of all this. Why is this a better investment than trying to just focus on new donors? I love i love this analogy and accufund analogy let’s open a bar and there’s, a very cute girl across the across the park and catch my eye catcher. I got to go. You know, you don’t know me. I’m amazing in bed. You should finish your drink right now. Come home, let’s. Get it on. I’m impressed. I am that good chance. Are you gonna throw a drink in my face? Go back talking to her friends. I’ve done a lot of research on this that’s probably now lets us sue let’s. Assume an alternate world. I’m sitting there on my phone. I’m just playing like you know, no boards with friendraising and she’s over there talking to friends, one of her friends. Holy crap! That’s peter. Peter shankman. I’ve heard him speak he’s in this fantasy world. I’m single too. He i think he’s single and he’s having this amazing guy. I know he has a cat. You haven’t. You should totally go talk to him. The very least i’m getting this girl’s number that’s pr. Okay. And what do we trust more me with my you know, fancy suit collar going over the seventies leaders in hi. I’m amazing. Or the girl saying, hey, we’ve been friends since their great i’m recommending that guy. You should trust me on this, you know? Obviously, that that’s where good customer service comes into play and that’s where corporate culture comes into play because i have a great experience with you and at your company, i’m going to tell my friend when they’re looking, and i will stake my personal reputation, there’s nothing stronger than that. And these are the people who want to breed at zoho willis that’s stronger than advertising strong of the marketing and they’re going to share people want to share that think about the internet runs on two things it runs on drama, drama and bragging are bragging and drama and if you if you need any proof of that, you know, go and look at all the hashtags with crap that’s happened, you know, bad customer service, bad, whatever, but then look at all the good hashtags you know, when our flight’s delayed for three hours and we’ll lose our seat. Oh my god, i hate this air land on the worst airline ever, but when we get upgraded, right hashtag first class bitches or whatever it is, you know it looks to me like that on the because we love to share it’s on ly a great experience. If we could tell the world and it’s only a bad experience, if we could make everyone else miserable about it as well. Need to take another break. Wagner. Sepa is they really do go way beyond the numbers they want you. They want you to know about these guides. The guides, they have many, many guides their help. You find your way through technical stuff. Break it down. Make it simple for you. Um, for example, ordered committee versus finance committee. If you’ve got these two committees, they’re different. What are the different roles and responsibilities? Um, this is one that hangs people up. You’ve heard me mention it before. Independent contractor versus employee checklist. Um, you don’t want to get snagged by your state department of labor or the federal, possibly department of labor and punch. Potentially be penalized. So i was talking about with tom. Was cell back-up early november. You want to do this right? Employees versus independent contractors, your disaster recovery plan. It sounds boring, but it’s important, if you have some kind of man made or natural disaster, where you going to go? How you going to run your non-profit business? How quickly can you be back-up serving people disaster recovery plan when he’s got something on that. Um, if your church church church internal audit plan, take a look at that bank statement review form. Take a look at that. All right again, wagner the going way beyond c p aying regular cps dot com click resource is then guides i plus software. You’ve heard me talk about this, the differences fund accounting that’s why you don’t want to be using quickbooks or microsoft or a p or turbo cash or something made for businesses fund accounting because you don’t want to miss spend money that has been given to you critical. Check him out. It’s apple owes accounting easy, affordable non-profit accounting non-profit wizard dot com now time for tony’s take two the state tax is lowering this or eliminating it going to hurt gif ts from the states ah, you’ll see it in my video. There is some evidence that when state taxes are low or we’ve had none in this country that it ah depress is charitable, giving the incentive isn’t there. People tend to give mohr to family, um, and reduce their reduce their giving to charities on dh. There are arguments on both sides. Um all right, so check out the video, you’ll well, i mean, i can’t be definitive, but i can’t talk about it on the video, and the video is at tony martignetti dot com talking about the state tax and whether it’s goingto hurt planned gif ts from estates and that is tony’s take two now back to peter shankman and zombie loyalists. Peter, you have a golden rule of social media that that a good number of customers like to share and people are going to keep doing it, people will always share again. It goes back to the concept that if you create great stuff, people want to share it because people like to be associated with good things. If you create bad stuff and buy stuff, i could mean i mean anything from, like, a bad experience too, that content people not only won’t share that, but we go out of their way to tell people how terrible you are. Yeah dahna you know, how many times have you seen companies fail horribly? You know, after major disasters when company’s heir tweeting, you know, completely unrelated things after after random school. Shooting? No, it was after the shooting at the theatre in aurora, colorado, the dark knight, the tweets hey, shooter’s, what’s your plans for this weekend, you know, and i’m just going, really, you know, but of course the thing was the thing was retweeted millions of times, you know, with a sort of shame on the so we were society, like i said earlier, that loves to share when when great things happen once but love to tell the world when we’re miserable, because we’re only truly miserable when you make everyone else miserable. Arika it’s funny you mentioned, ah, generosity siri’s the one of my favorite stories, which goes to sort of a bigger picture of culture, and somehow when you’re just doing your job because that’s what you’re supposed to do your job, but you don’t realize there are ways to get around that i i listened to your podcast, among others, when i’m running through central park on dh, more like if you know my body type more like lumbering through central park, but i get there, i’m in iron man have it and so i go to central park and it’s super early in the morning cause i usually have meetings and i dont run fast down. I run like i really dont run fast, but but as i’m running but let’s give you the credit that you have done a bunch of iron man, i have try that. The thing that i do, i do it. You know, my mother tells me that i just have very poor judgment in terms of what sports i should do. But on the flip side, i’m also a skydiver, which is with my weight is awesome. I fall better than anyone, you know, but so i’m running through central park last year. It was february, february of thirteen and fourteen of this year and it was pretty fun for forty five in the morning because i had a an idiom meaning and had to ten miles. So four foot every morning running about but labbate around nineteen, seventy ninth eightieth street on the east side in the park and a cop pulls me over and i said, what you doing? Look at him, you know, i’m wearing black spandex. I have a hat, it’s five degrees. I don’t wantto playing checkers, you know? Well, you know, i’m like i’m running and he’s like, okay, can you stop running? I’m like, okay, you get the park’s closed. Look, i’m in it. Look around, there are other people who know part doesn’t open exam like he’s ago would you have any idea? And you’re like, no, i’m running, he does what you name? I’m like seriously, look, i’m writing you a summons i’m like you ready metoo sametz for exercising for i just want to clarify that you’re writing metoo and sure enough, the guy wrote me a summons for exercising in central park before it opened. That charge was breaking the violating curfew. You know, i’m like i get the concept the curfew is to keep people out after two a m it’s not to prevent them going in early to exercise, to be healthy. I’m like, i’m not carrying, you know, a six pack, i’m not drinking a big gulp, i’m not smoking. I mean, i’m doing something healthy and you’re writing me a summons for it. Um, i said, you know, i’m gonna have a field day with this. I said, i kind of have some fathers, there will be a lot of fun i’m not you know, i know you’re just doing your job, sir, even though you have the discretion not to, but okay, so i go back home, take a picture, might take it, email it to a friend of mine in new york post front page, new york post next day. No running from this ticket, you know. In your times covered it, runner’s world covered. I mean, i went everywhere. Gawker covered it, you know? And my whole thing was just like, dude, you have discretion. Look at me, you know, i’m not i’m not even going super fast for god’s sake. I’m just just trying to exercise here, you know? And of course i went to court and i beat it. But how much money that cost the city for me to go to court fight this thing? You know, every employee you have to give your employees the power of discretion, of power, of empathy to make their own decisions. If you go by the book, bad things will happen. And again, small shops so much easier to do. Yeah, flatline flat organizations. I work with a non-profit animal rescue non-profit a friend of mine was a skydiver and shut him out. But i can’t but there’s a friend of mine scott ever and she was killed in a base jump several years ago, and her husband asked to donate in her memory to this non-profit so i sent him a check. And about three months later, i get a coffee table book in the mail and i was living by myself the time i didn’t own a coffee table. It was you no more money to spend on my flatscreen and i ah, remember, i call i look at this coffee table guy throw i throw in the corner, i look at it over next couple days, it pisses me off about how much, how much of my donation did it cost to print? Melon produced this book to me, and so i called them up. Well, sure, we believe most of our donors are older and pry prefer to get a print version as opposed to, like digital, you know, where they throw it away like you don’t throw digitally, but okay, i’m like so so you’ve asked your you’ve done surveys in, you’ve asked all you know, we just assume the most number older i’m like, i open my mouth one of joining the board and spent the next year interviewing customers, interviewing every current and past donor-centric get their information and shock pre-tax ninety four percent said online, and so over the following year, we launched facebook page, twitter, page zoho flicker account, youtube everything p s the following year for that donations went up thirty seven percent in one year in that economies, right ran away tonight, donations went up thirty seven percent in one year, and they saved over five hundred thousand dollars in printing malian reproduction. Imagine going your boss boss revenues up thirty seven percent and we save the half million dollars in boston about your really good beer. You know, all they had to do was listen to their audience, be relevant to the audience you have, and they will tell you what they want. We have tons of tools for segment. My god, you’ve gotta listen to what segment you want people want to be, you know, someone? Someone asked me today. You know what, what’s the best way i knew nothing about their company what’s the best social media left me to be on should be on twitter shevawn facebook i said, i’ll answer that question if you can answer this this this question to ask you is my favorite type of cheese gouda or the number six they said, i understand that’s not a real question like neither is yours like i can’t tell you where the best place to be your audience. Can i said, go ask your audience, believe me, they will tell you, there’s a gas station, the midwest come and go. I just love the name kumo, angio and their tag around. But you can read more about the tagline is always something extra. I mean, come on the jokes just write themselves for god’s sake, but they don’t take themselves too seriously love that. Come on ghost knowing the name of the company gas station and, you know, i remember there in iowa and i went to visit a friend in iowa, and i was like, you’ve got to get a photo of you in front of coming goes on, and the beauty of this is that and some of their employees actually look at their customers when they’re on their phones. We start to go, you know what? Use twenty more facebook and they say, oh, you and they record the information and they know it customers will give you so much info if you just ask them, because then they feel invested, they feel invest in your company, they feel like they that you took the time to listen to their non-profit requests of their their their questions, and they feel like they’re nufer harrow every month we have a one question harrow survey, you know, heroin question survey, and it was we get like a thousand people responded spend entire weekend emailing everyone responded, thanking them personally and touchpoint hyre weekend, but it was great because we’ll wind up happening is that? You know, if we took their advice and launch it on monday with the new thing, they oh, my god, how did this? They took my advice. Yeah was your advice to a hundred other people advice, but we took it and they don’t like it and it just it just made them so much more loyal, and they tell hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people we get in. There were days i got there days where i was in temple one morning, the garment center, synagogue and my phone. I feel like phone getting really hot in my pocket, which is not normal, and i’m starting her on i look at it it’s almost on fire. It had frozen because we were mentioned in seth gordon’s morning blogged. Oh, and at that time i was getting emails every time we get a new subscriber and the phone actually frozen and was locked and and was, like overheating i t at the battery and, like, reset the entire phone because we’ve got so many new fourteen thousand subscribers in, like, three hours scene obscene, you say excuse me, you say that customer service is the new advertising, marketing and pr? Yeah, it really is. Well, again, you know, if we’re moving to that world where so imagine a lot of limp and i love that i can use this. Now imagine a lot of land latto lamb has water, oil and a heat source, right heat source heats the oil, the oil flows with water, it makes pretty colors i’ve heard it looks really good when you’re high now i’ve heard. Now imagine if crystal’s imagine if you’re, uh, everyone you meet in your network, okay, is a drop of oil. The water is your network and what is your world? Everyone you meet in your network from from the guy you’re sitting doing the radio interview with to the guy who serves you ice cream with local deli to the guy who does your dry cleaning to your girlfriend to your wife to not same time to your kids. Second grade teacher to your second grade teacher years ago. Everyone you meet is in your network, you know, right now, when facebook for started, i would see the same weight from a kid. It was junior high school his posted on the same weight as like my current girlfriend, which is ridiculous. I don’t need to know about everything my friend from junior high school’s doing, having talked to kate in fifteen years, his face was getting a lot smarter, as has google. Now i see the people labbate kate with the most okay. And if i if i reach out to communicate with new people, they start rising and my feet in my stream if i don’t, they fall it’s just like a lava lamp. Every person you connect with is a drop of oil that heat source at the bottom that’s rising, raising or lowering those drops of oil is relevance. So imagine the heat sources relevance and the more i interact with someone, the more the higher they go in my network in the more i see of them, the more trust level there is when i’m at a bar and i meet someone at a restaurant unconference i meet someone i don’t need to, um connect them. I don’t need to go on facebook friend request, you know, awkward friend requesting is when you seven think that lesson my friend requested some of the real world with second grade will you be my friend? My daughter is doing that because, you know it’s like cat will you be my friend? Kind of the captain will be here, but, you know it’s, this awkward thing who the hell friendly west someone if i find hang out with you, the bar and we connect again and we talk and we go out to dinner and we’re having a good time with friends. I don’t need to first request that you, you know, that’s going away, friending following liking and fanning is all going away. What will interact is the actual connection. So if i meet with you and i have a good time with you and we talk again, if i use your business if i go to your non-profit if i donate if i volunteer, whatever the network knows that the more i do that the more interact. With you, the more you have the right to market to me and the more you will be at the top of my stream in the more i will see information about you, the less i will have tio search for you. But if you do something stupid or we’re no longer friends xero you’re going to fade. I don’t unfriend you just disappear. Unfriending is also dated a woman we broke up. It was nine months after we broke up. There was one from the other one because it’s just awkward zoho kapin friend of me. But you know the causes of not having to do that of just, you know, okay, i haven’t talked in a while. I don’t see your post anymore. The real world that’s how it should be and if you’re not feeding zombie loyalists, yes, they can start to defect. No question about it. I wanted to spend a little time on if you’re not reading now you are talking to them, giving them what they want, talking about their information, helping them out. They will gladly go somewhere else with someone who is, you know, if i have a great experience of the restaurant every week for three years, and then all of a sudden, over time, of noticing less and less that restaurant’s doing less and less tio, take care of me, you know, and maybe management’s change, and i don’t feel that, you know, i’m ripe for being infected by another company. I’m right for someone else comes to, you know, peter, because if i tweet some like, wow can’t believe i have to wait forty minutes for a table that didn’t used to be like that. If if someone else a smart restaurant, they’re following me and they’re going great, you know, appears no, wait, no way over here. Why don’t you come to blocks north? We’ll give you a free drink, you know, you know, and that right there that’s first sign of infection and i might become infected by another by another company because mommy little us for them and so let’s take you have a lot of good examples. Let’s, take a one on one situation. How can we start to cure that? The simple act of realizing following your customers, understanding when they’re not happy and fixing the situation before it escalates, you can contain a small outbreak a small outbreaks. Well, viral outbreak. You can contain that by getting the right people. Finding out what the problem is getting them to one room, fixing their problem, healing them. You have a good united story right back. When was continental? I was a frequent flyer and booked a trip to paris. Andi, i was very angry because they charged me four hundred dollars, looking for you. I remember what it was and that i called the ceo just just for the hell of it. I’m like i’m going. I wrote a letter or an e mail. So this is before social, right friend wrote an email, the ceo and like this ridiculous. I’m freaking fired-up like three months later, my phone rings hello, peter, please hold for larry kellman, ceo of coming little and i’m like, oh, crap, you know? And i got your telephone he’s like peter hated misjudgment e-giving started these fees of their new way. We sent that note. I’m getting it and see it. We’re gonna weigh them for you. But if you have any more problems, you know, feel free to call me and end of the phone the next forty minutes. What is staring at it like, holy crap? Larry kellner, the ceo of united airlines, just called me and talk to me and it was like, it was like, god coming down and say, you now have the power to levitate your cat. It was just ridiculous and so, you know, i have been faithful to continental and now united ever since on dh they continue to treat me with respect and do great things, and they’re they’re improving. They were getting a lot of crap over the past several years and that there really are starting to improve its nice to say, and not only, of course, your own loyalty, but you’re oh, my god, how zombie loyalist for them and how many times how much it’s unquote fired-up latto bradrick attract so many friends to united? I’ve made so many friends. I mean my father, you know, he only fleshing out it now, which means he only drag. He dragged my mom on the internet and i only drink my wife. You know, there’s a lot of lot of work that way we gotta go away for a couple of minutes when we come back. Of course. Peter and i’m going to keep talking about his book comes out in january. Zombie loyalists got to take a break. Tell us credit card and payment processing it’s passive residual revenue for you pays you each month. If you become one of their non-profit partners, you will get fifty percent of every dollar that tello’s urns from the businesses that you refer. And how do you do that? You think about the businesses that air that are already supporting you, whether it’s something local or something bigger that supporting you, is it possible for them to switch their credit card payment processing? I guess odds are it’s going to be something local? Smaller business is going to have a lot more control over who processes their credit card payments. Think of businesses owned by your board. Think of businesses down the street, you know, in the neighborhood family businesses. If they’re taking credit cards, they could potentially be a referral from you to tell us. And remember that special non-profit radio offer that that tell us has if teller’s can’t save them money, you are going to get two hundred fifty dollars a gift to you from tell us. If tellers can’t help them, so make those merchant referrals think about the business is that are that are supporting you that air in your community that take credit cards, it’s like every business. Um, those can all be potential referrals. Tell those payment processing, tony dahna may slash tony tell us now, back to peter shankman and his book zombie loyalists. You have some examples of zombie loyalist leaving and mass like dominoes netflix they’re both they’re both in the book so it’s so one leaving, if you know if you know, start the cure one leaving, yeah, and then that’s the thing you know, the little experience, maybe the internet with the hashtag everything like that, you know, it doesn’t take a long time for those things to sort of blow up in your face and, you know, the other day, everyone say, oh, you know, twitter’s responsible for for us losing another, you’re responsible for you losing? Yeah, yeah, and if your product isn’t great and you’re your actions, don’t speak well of who you are, then there’s no reason your customers should stay with you, you know? And it was all social media is really hurting. I know you’re hurting yourself. The only difference is that social media makes it easier for the world to know. Yeah, they’re just telling the story. Dominoes and netflix are good examples. They bounce back, they took responsibility and yeah, they both owned dominoes came out and said, you know what? You’re right, our pizza and we do have a problem. We’re going to fix this and they spent millions fixing it, and sure enough, they’re back with a vengeance. Now i may or may not even ordered the maroons in awhile, and i live in your city that’s, that’s a that’s, a sacrilege. But, you know, i have the app on my phone from oversea no traveling, somewhere being should bring or whatever and you know what? Do you get it? Eleven thirty at night when your flight’s delayed me landed dahna um, which reminds me i should go exercise on flip side looked so much like netflix. They they also were screwed up, you know, they were losing that trial switch between the two. They came up with a new name and it was so gross and public. Oh, man again, you’re watching the same thing happen with uber right now, so we really need to see if they’re able to repair themselves. Listening is important, but both those both those two examples they’d listen to their customers think there’s a problem with listening because everyone’s been saying, listen, listen, listen, for months and years and years and years now, but you know, no one ever says that you have to do more than just listening to listen actually follow-up you know, it’s one thing to listen, you know, i used to have my wife, i could sit there and listen to her for hours, you know? But i don’t actually say anything back she’s just smack me, you know, and go to the other room, and so you really have to it’s a two way street, you know, listening is great but can’t respond and look, i think further, and i was like, oh, twitter, so great, because someone was complaining on twitter and we went online, we we’ve saw the complaint that we fixed their problem in yes, how about if the problem that exist in the first place, you know? Because the great thing about twitter is that, yeah, people complain on twitter the bad thing about it is there complaining about you on twitter so it’s like what if the problem didn’t exist in the first place? What if? What if you empowered your front desk clerk to fix the problem so that i didn’t have to tweet hurts is my favorite story of all this i used to rent from her it’s religiously, and then i went to aa phoenix sky harbor airport has past april and i gave it i was giving a speech and go on my name’s supposed be on the board, you know, second grade that car and it wasn’t okay. What happened? I’m going upstairs. I weighed forty minutes on the v i p line after forty minutes they finally say, you know there’s a on ly one guy here a lot of people might have better chance we go in the regular line. Okay? Probably told us that a little earlier in the regular spend forty five minutes waiting the regular line it’s now been are you tweeting while this is happening? Well, i had to know i was actually not only tweeting i don’t have time to create a mean that should give you some idea. Of how long i was online with myself on those over, even if that means i get to the counter. How i can help you. Yeah, i was downstairs. The vp doesn’t tell me. Owe you have the appearance of asian intern upstairs? Like yeah. Ok. Let’s, let’s put a pin in that. They just sent me up here. Like, right. They have to help you. Well, it’s. Not really. They you guys for the same company. I mean, i could see the reservation on the screen. You you can help me. Sorry, sir. I can’t help. You have to go to the next. Like you just next to me. Okay. So if you know anything about sky harbor airport in phoenix, all of the rental car coming through on the same place. Yeah. So i walked fifty feet. It’s a bus takes you to the big a big a civilian where they’re all next week. I walked fifty feet from the cesspool of filth. Depravity that was hurts to the wonderful zen garden of tranquility that was avis and inform, innit? And i had a nicer, cheaper, more nicer, less expensive car given to a woman named phyllis who? Was sixty six and moved to phoenix from detroit with her husband for his asthma. I knew this because she told me she smiled at me, she brought her manager out and said that’s, another refugee from hertz, and i said, this happens a lot. They’re like, yeah, i’m like, well, you think they have done something about it and so on the way out in avis, i thank them. I walk past her, so i shoot on this, you know, sort of look at the look of the beast. I get my avis carnage at my hotel wanted to tel. I write a wonderful block post about my experience, called peter, and hurts in the terrible, horrible nobody could really bad customer experience. What you have a kid, you find rewriting titles about your blood post that have to do with kids books. I do not like hurts, sam, i am and and i included in this block post the five things i’d rather do than ever rent from hurts again. I think number three was was ah ride a razor blade bust through a lemon juice waterfall. With just, you know, and it’s a bit, but of course, the next day hurts reaches out to me. Oh, miss jay manuel, this is ahead of north american customer service that’s all you’re back, i’m like like, you know, we’d love to have make no like you’re not going to fix the problem. Number one seven avis car. I’m never going back to her it’s number two through a five people yesterday, five people interacted with all of whom had the chance to save me and keep me is a customer for life, a customer who have been so happy and i would have loved you five people blew it, so don’t waste your time trying to convert me back. You’re not going to know what you want to do is spend some of that energy retraining your staff to have empathy and to give them the ability and the empowerment to fix my problem when it happens, because five people, it takes every single employee to keep her company running. It takes one to kill it. Yeah, p s avis reached out to thank me personally. And i am now just this ridiculously huge loyal fan of avis. And always will be. You have a pretty touching story, but when you worked in a yogurt shop, you’re really young. We have a couple minutes tell it tell it could stay that was in the east side, which again, is yet another reason why i live on the west side. Nothing good ever happens in manhattan’s east side, so i was i was working and i can’t believe it’s yogurt, which was a store that i think back in the i c b y no, no t c b y was the country’s best yogurt the countries i c b i why was a poor i can’t believe that you can’t believe is that your family was yogurt was a poor attempt to capitalize on his teamviewer working in this store, and i go in every day and make thee over to clean the floors. I do, you know, a typical high school job, and it was during the summer and houses people walking by things like second avenue or something. And there were these brass poles that hyung from you know there was awning, right? That’s elearning that there and then the brass poles that held the awning. Up and they were dirty as hell, right? I’m sure they’ve never been polished ever. And i found i found some brass polish in the back with all the beer in the back and went after anyone outside. And i’m positive polishing the polls. My logic was, if the polls are shiny, people saw them, maybe they come in the store, maybe they’d want toe, you know, buy more screenplays and the manager came out, what the hell you doing? Told him what i thought. I’ll pay you to think inside, you know, like there’s. No customers in there. Okay, i’ll make sure the yogurt still pumping it full blast and i quit. I just quit that job. I mean, like, i couldn’t even begin to understand why someone would invest. I mean, t own a franchise bring fifty grand to at least to buy that franchise. Why wouldn’t he invest in the two seconds it took a little elbow grease to make the police claim that might bring in more customers? What the hell, you know, but you’re not paid to think you’re not paid to think my favorite line. Yeah, i just i i encourage if any kids. Listening. Those teenagers. If you. If you boss says that to you, quit quit, i will hire you. Just quit it. Probably worse thing in the world that you could possibly do, because you have customers who you have customers who every day could be helped by people who are paid to think and that’s the one you want. We gotta wrap up, tell me what you love about the work you do. I get paid to talk. I mean, my god is the same stuff i use get trouble for in high school, but on a bigger picture, what i really love about it is being able to open someone’s eyes and haven’t come back to me. I run a series of masterminds called shank mines, business masterminds, shank minds, dot com there day long seminars around the country, and i had someone come to meet so, you know, i took your advice about x y z, and i started listening little more, and i just got the largest retainer client i’ve ever had in my life by a factor for she goes, and i just can’t even thank you never said gorgeous by-laws aki listselect kayman thank you enough. Oh, my god, being able to help people. You know, at the end of the day, we’re i’ve yet to find another planet suitable for life. I’m looking so we’re all in this together and if that’s the case, you know, why wouldn’t we want to help people just little bit more? You know, there really isn’t a need to be as do she is as we are as a society, we could probably all be a little nice to each other, and you’d be surprised if it’ll help. The book is zombie loyalists, published by pal grave mcmillan comes out in january. You’ll find peter at shankman dot com, and on twitter at peter shankman. Peter, thank you so much. Thank you. Next week, dennis miller returns with a guide to hiring your next ceo. If you missed any part of today’s show, i beseech you, find it on tony martignetti dot com were supported by pursuing online tools for small and midsize non-profits data driven and technology enabled tony dahna slash pursuant regular c p a’s, guiding you beyond the numbers wagner cps dot com stoploss accounting software designed for non-profits non-profit wizard dot com and tell us credit card and payment processing, you’re passive revenue stream tony dahna slash tony tello’s, a creative producers claire meyerhoff sam lever, which is the line producer. The show’s social media is by susan chavez, and this music is by scott stein you with me next week for non-profit radio big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent go out and the green heimans buy-in 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 took two or three years for foundation staff, sort of dane toe add an email address card. It was like it was phone. This email thing is right and 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 dh 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, 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 expected 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.

Nonprofit Radio for December 8, 2017: Scale Up & Sustain

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Kathleen Kelly Janus: Scale Up & Sustain

It’s a question I hear often from nonprofit leaders: “How does my organization get to the next level?” Kathleen Kelly Janus’s research leads her to the answers and she shares them with you. Her new book is “Social Startup Success.”

 

 

 

 

 


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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 knee or throw sis, if you gave me the false impression that you missed today’s show scale up and sustained it’s a question i here often from non-profit leaders. How does my organisation get to the next level? Kathleen kelly janice’s research leads her to the answers and she shares them with all of us her new book is social startup success on tony’s take two next month’s non-profit radio we’re sponsored by pursuant full service fund-raising data driven and technology enabled tony dahna i’m a slash pursuant and by wagner cpas guiding you beyond the numbers weinger cps dot com, you’re not a business. You’re non-profit at close accounting software designed for non-profits non-profit wizard dot com and tell us turning payment processing into your passive revenue stream. Tony dahna slash tony tell us i’m very glad to welcome kathleen kelly janice to the show. She is a social entrepreneur, author and lecturer at stanford university. Her work in philanthropy millennia oppcoll millennial engagement and scaling early stage organizations has been featured in the wall street journal, huffington post, stanford social innovation review non-profit radio is there techcrunch and the san francisco chronicle. I’ve been in the wall street journal too, so you know she’s, the co founder of spark i haven’t cofounded anything that’s the largest network of millennial donors in the world. Her new book is social startup success. How the best non-profits launch scale up and make a difference she’s at cake janice and i’m very glad and pleased. Thrilled that kathleen’s book brings her to non-profit radio. Welcome, kathleen kelly. Janice. Thank you so much for having me. Tony it’s, my it’s. My real pleasure. I am. I am anxious to talk to you about this book. As anxious as i was to read it because i do always get that question. How do we get to the next level? And i believe you have. I believe you have the answer. Answers, answers. I believe you can point us in the right direction. I hope so. Okay. Okay. I want i’m going to start with reading something. I’m actually gonna start with the conclusion of your book. Thiss paragraph. Just it struck me. So it says the journey. And we’re going to talk about your journey has made me even more keenly aware of how many non-profits are operating on a month to month basis, scrambling to raise money to sustain them. While so much innovation has occurred in the nonprofit world in recent decades, my conversations with organizational leaders and my observations of their daily routines have impressed upon me how considerable the challenges any non-profit faces are, no matter how innovative its model or impactful its services. What’s going on out there? Kathleen kelly jansen, janice well, i think you you really summed it up nicely. There. Those are your words, not mine. I just give you something up. I just i’m a copycat. What what’s happening is that we’re we’re on the one hand living in a philanthropic renaissance, it’s a really exciting time for non-profit innovation. So many incl, credible ideas are happening, and i’ve really had a front row seat here in the silicon valley watching so many non-profits capitalizing on a lot of the growth that we’ve seen in the tech industry as well, organizations like key by using crowd fending teo, be able teo support organizations in the developing world. And then, on the other hand, we have so many incredible ideas that are dying on the vine because organisations can’t get the financial support that they need to get to the next level to get to a level of sustainability, and i became really interested in this question myself. I was really, really curious. Why are some organizations succeeding and wire others really flailing? And it turns out that in fact, two thirds of non-profits in the united states are five hundred thousand dollars in below revenue, and many of these organizations should stay small, community based organizations and are feeling an important role in the non-profit community. But many of these organizations want to scale. They figured out a proven model that is working to support their beneficiaries. T help create a more just world, and they simply can’t get the capital they need to grow. And so might research really explores the foundations of success. What is it that organizations need to do in order to take that next step, and to grow their impact to the next level? You talk about the struggle to scale, which is essentially what you just said, even more eloquently. So? So? So let’s, we’re not gonna have time to go through the the entire book, you know, you’ve got five elements of what you think it takes toe scale and be sustainable, so i’m gonna i’m just gonna start with encouraging people. You just, you know, if you want to get to the next level, you just got to buy the book. I mean, non-profit radio is good as it is cannot substitute for this for this book. So all right, i may mention that a couple times, so why don’t you walk us through the five parts of what you believe, you know, your researches, you know, lead youto believe are the essential parts of what what’s needed? Sure. So there’s five strategies that i identify at that came up over and over again and one hundred interviews that i did around the country of organizations that have scaled past two million dollars and beyond and and that’s really the level that i define as a certain level of sustainability. And so the organizations that tend to scale really all exhibited these five strategies. So the first one is that they began testing their ideas very early on. And before they went out and raised money, they figured out some ways tow pilot it the programs so that they could figure out what was working at what was not about that by the time they went out to market, they had they had awesome impact to show and were able to get funded for that and b we’re able tio, then integrate a culture of innovation that helped them constantly improve their models as they grow. The second strategy is that these organizations that the organizations that tended to scale more quickly in a large survey that i did the survey results show that these organizations, we’re able to say that they began measuring impact from the very start from day one and that’s that makes sense because those are the organizations that were able to go out and tio show donors that they were having an impact. And but those are also the organizations that are able teo increase their impact by letting go of programs that aren’t working or tweaking them and making them better. So that impact measurement is really key and it’s, often something that organizations struggle with the third strategy is funding experimentation. And developing a plan to test both earned income sources as well as philanthropic income to figure out a funding model that works, and teo to be able to take the organization to scale there is no one size fits all sending model for nonprofit organizations. Every organization has to figure out what’s gonna work for them. And so putting some processes in place to test out different sources of income is going to be the best way for organizations to figure out what that is. The fourth strategy is developing a culture of collective leadership. I think we all have this tendency in today’s society, tio to revere the founder to put founders on the pedestal, whether it’s in the for-profit world with mark zuckerberg, the founder of facebook, or associating apple with steve jobs or even in the nonprofit world. And, you know, the quintessential example is mohammed yunus is is the founder of the grameen bank and won the nobel prize, and leaders should be honored. But at the same time, they’re the best organizations figure out that greatness is not built on one person it’s built on the backs of teamwork and the best organizations figure. Out how to bring in senior leadership early on so that founders can go out and spend time on fund-raising and strategy that they have really strong boards of directors that help help them grow their organization. And they flipped that hierarchical pyramid on its head and put the staff up front because they realize that they’re staff are the ones that are on the front lines making an impact and have the closest connections often to the beneficiaries is really the key to their work. The final strategy is storytelling with purpose. I think we all have a tendency to listen, teo a ted talk or ah, great political speech and think, wow, that person is just a natural. But when i went out and talked with all of these leaders, the best storytellers spend a lot of time practicing their craft. I had one social entrepreneur tell me that her she feels she’s an olympic athlete, and her olympics sport is storytelling and speech making, and because she could be speaking the word of god. But if it’s told in a boring way, then no one’s going to listen to her and these leaders figure out that organizations can have impact when they’re able to build a movement, and that comes with telling a good story and getting people on board and it’s not just that the leadership level is at every level of the organization because these organizations realized that staff members, board members, beneficiaries and champions can all be brand ambassadors for their organizations. And so they work hard. Teo help them with their storytelling so that everybody can go out and be champions for the cause of the five strategies. And to me, what was most exciting about this research is that i kept waiting for someone to say, you know, it’s, just charisma or grid or some sort of innate trait that makes an organization succeed or not. But no one said that on, and in fact it really came down. Teo thes strategies that any non-profit can implement, no matter what kind of resources they have at their fingertips. Kathleen, we had to take it’s time for a break. I wanted to do the overview. Hang with me while we take a break. Sounds great. Pursuant. The art and science of acquisition. That is their newest paper to help you bring in new donors paper covers strategies that work from successful acquisition campaigns you want to think of this as your campaign for new donors. Now i know this is fourth quarter, and you’re probably not devoted to acquisition. You’re more focused on ly bones and sideburns. Tryingto get those people back in and you’re and a renewal gift from your current donors for this year. So download it, check us out and keep it for next year’s acquisition work because it is it’s available now, you know that pursuing his data driven so research is going to be based on numbers, their research and what they have found is going to be most successful for you in your acquisition work, which metrics are most important for you to track? What is success look like et cetera. It’s not easy to bring in new donors let pursuing help you it’s, the art and science of acquisition, and it’s at tony dot m a slash pursuing capital. P in brovey okay, kathleen, i’m sorry. Thank you. Thanks for holding on their kapin. Okay. Excellent. I want to do some with our live listener love. Okay, kathleen, you are there, right? Yes. Absolutely. Ok, wonderful. I feel like doing the live lister love a little early. So let’s shout out to tampa, florida would ridge, new jersey woodbridge. So consistent with the listening i’ve some believe in. Would you please identify yourself? Woodbridge, newjersey, please come forward. I want to shout you out in person. Um, new york, new york, multiple new york, new york. We’ve got charlotte, north carolina live was naralo vago. And after charlotte and jersey city, new jersey my, my, uh my dad’s, my dad’s hometown, that’s, where he was born on mcadoo, half jersey city, new jersey live listeners love to you college station, texas is with us. So our germany good dog, seoul, south korea, on your haserot comes a ham nida mexico city. No! Yes, mexico city, mexico we’ve got multiple there. Good afternoon. Born a smart bona bona santa that zilly bonem start is is italy with us pornos era if you are, tehran is with us and took a result japan and the united kingdom live lesser love to each of you. We’re gonna divide it up today. The other two thirds are going to come a little later on all right. Kathleen. Now you don’t, you don’t like to go by katie or kate or cath or k. You’re strictly a kathleen girl. Is that right? That’s, my name kathleen. Okay, no, katie’s. Okay, okay. Um let’s, talk about your journeys i mentioned in when i read a little bit from the conclusion your parents were very active and promoted a spirit of giving when you were young. This is that seems to be the genesis of your interest in this hole in the whole sector. It was definitely an inspiration for me. I’m really lucky that i grew up in this amazing little small town and napa, california and my parents were very involved in the nonprofit sector. My dad was a community banker and my mom was a teacher, and they they served on dozens of non-profit boards throughout the year, so when i think about our weekends, we often spent time volunteering in soup kitchens or serving at the local medical clinic for low income workers, but our volunteer efforts and there we we sat around the dinner table and talked about how organizations often struggle. So my parents were talking about fundraisers they were hosting tio try and help support an organization that was struggling to get the resource is that needed to do that important service work. That’s what was where his thiss was actually this was dinner table conversation for you? Yeah. You know that that’s that’s ah that’s not comin right. I didn’t know any different. I know, i know. Yeah, but, you know, it’s, not it’s, not. I mean, i know you’ve realized that since then, but that’s a remarkable okay. I’m sorry. You know, that’s just that’s. Just remarkable, as i was reading about you having these conversations with your parents about sustainability, even though that word we weren’t using that word, but that’s what you were talking about? Well, yeah, and it’s. Not that my family was very sophisticated, it’s, just that they believed really strongly that there are people in our community who are not as fortunate as us and that it’s our duty to give back to those people. But that it’s not just about giving back teo, people who are less fortunate it’s about making sure that the organizations that are supporting them are strong so that they can provide those important social services. That something that was very much a part of my upbringing. Yeah. That’s outstanding, um and let’s. Now come to the research that lead you to the er to the overviewing that you gave us earlier. What was thea? Was the process for this lots of interviews? Yeah, so i really came at it because i had experienced this issue myself personally when i graduated from law school, i started my own small non-profit with a group of women and san francisco called spark, we engage young professionals and gender equality issues, and we also had this problem where we had a ton of buzz. In the beginning, we were growing our revenue every few months, doubling our annual budget, and then at a certain point, just when we were hitting our stride, we hit a wall and we couldn’t get the capital that we needed in the door to get to the next level and increases the impact that we wanted. So that was around the half a million dollar mark wasn’t it has a million dollars for us and for every for every non-profit it it could be different, but i have found that that half million dollar mark is a really critical st hump because it is a place that a lot of organizations struggled to get beyond that kind of like initial grant funding and initial seed capital to really get some more sustainable grant in the door. So to get back to your question about the process for me and when i began teaching social entrepreneurship at stanford wearing my research cap, i began looking at this question more critically. I developed survey and sent it out tio thousand organizations in the united states that were in some of the top social entrepreneurship portfolios, like echoing green and a show cow and school. And so i heard back from them, and i tested everything from, you know, was their social media better and helping them scale? Or was it there impact measurement in the way that they were measuring impact? And i came up with some initial findings that i went out and tested and got to go out and interview in person one hundred organization founders there they’re funders their beneficiaries, their staff, and really just asked them a key question, which is what is the secret to non-profit success and the findings they’re based on the stories that they told me in those interviews, the the parts that i wantto start to focus on is that that early stage you call it testing, testing ideas, i think of it is sort of you know, mastering as much as you can. The problem. Like trying to get your mind around what the problem is and testing solutions to it. Um, i is it okay if i describe it that way? Absolutely. What i found in my research is that the best social entrepreneurs fall in love with the problem, not the solution. Well, if there is a lot harder when you fall in love with that solution, teo, let it go even if it’s not working, but if we really focus on the problem, then you’re going to be a ble. Teo, figure out the best strategy to address the problem. You talk about ideation and brainstorming and not allowing any solutions to be censored at at the early stages. Yeah, and that’s you know that is that this human-centered design theory that has come up at stanford, at the d school or in various capacities? It’s really? Just a fancy way of talking about problem solving and a process for understanding how to brainstorm ideas, and it doesn’t really have to be fancy. I also do an example. An organization that i interviewed. It was wishbone, which is ah, crowdfunding site for low income kids who want teo have summer experiences in the arts are in fillmore and cooking helped them following their follow their dreams, and when the organization started, they didn’t start by launching this huge website in this platform and investing a lot of money, and then, you know, then find the kids, they did it the other way around. They did a really low cost test to figure out whether the model would work, so the founder was a teacher for low income students in los angeles at the time she assigned an essay to them and ask them to write about their passion. Then she took some of her favorite papers, and she photocopied them, and she stuck them in a male in the mail with a stamp and sent them to her relatives and her friends to say, would you fund these kids to be able to follow their passions in the summer? And she got a bunch of money from those people, and she was able to send them to summer camps and do internships and realize that there was really something there, and so it was really just this kind of low cost testing. In the beginning, that helped her figure out what worked and what didn’t and helped her develop an engine that she could then grow too scale and it is hard to to throw off solutions. I mean, you know, remove solutions, eliminate them, you know, you feel like you’ve got some resources devoted to it, but the outcomes are just not coming. It’s it’s hard to throw off, throw them off, though, and and started a family a lot of work to overcome that a lot of organizations get stuck in that cycle for two reasons. One is because it’s really hard, teo admit failure. So i think that’s a big problem in the sector is just getting more comfortable with failure, but because oftentimes sees these programs are doing important work and it’s not that they’re necessarily bad, maybe not the most impactful they be. I’ll tell you a story of one really successful example of this, an organization called last mile health founded in liberia. Tto help get help care for some of the poorest communities there, tio decrease their mortality rates had when it started thirteen different programs, everything from women’s health programs, tio aids programs helping patients with hiv aids as they started to grow, they realised that the program that was having the biggest impact was this program that was helping bring community based care to the rural areas of liberia, so there were no doctors there, there were people who had to walk, sometimes twelve, thirteen hours to get to the capital city on dh they had very few doctors serving millions of people, and so these community health care workers were able, teo give them the treatment that they needed, sometimes using cell phone service, teo get care remotely and as it turned out, because it was so successful, they decided they made a very hard decision of closing down all these other programs that were very good programs but just weren’t having that kind of level of impact they wanted to see. And when the ebola crisis hit in two thousand twelve, that was absolutely critical because they had focused their efforts on these community health care workers, those community health care workers were able to prevent it’s a global health crisis, so i can’t think of a better story, you know, that they really because they were able to focus their energy on a program that was working, they were ableto have massive impact, and so i think we all have to keep that kind of end goal in mind when we’re when we’re doing this, that it’s really about maximizing the potential of the impact that we can have and let’s talk about measuring that impact let’s start with the distinction between you’re outputs and your outcomes or your impact. Well, what i found is that a lot of organizations tend to to focus on the outcome on the on the outputs, those air, the vanity mac tricks that are very easy, tio t c so for example, how many people are participating in your programs or how many people are coming to your website to get social services but ultimately it’s not showing how the programs are having a change on their life, their long term outcome, it might even be something physical, like how many’s ah, backpack kits we put together for homeless outreach. Yeah, but then what is the home of the people do with them? And how did that change their lives? Great and does not change their lives? Thank you. Get out of homeless because it was really the ultimate goal, and so this is something that i think a lot of organizations struggle with because non-profit leaders are not data scientists, and sometimes it can be overwhelming to think about, like, how do you measure outcomes? How do you measure the ripple effect of providing that backpack to a homeless youth and what that does to get him in the door to a shelter that does that help him ultimately get a job and ultimately get him off the streets? That’s a really hard path to follow, but you don’t have to be a data scientist, and it doesn’t have to be so hard, and in the book, i give a lot of really tangible strategies that non-profit organizations can use to help figure out what are the long term outcomes and get past these vanity, not metrics that just make us feel good about our impact but aren’t really telling us whether we’re making progress toward the old nicole kathleen, we just have about a minute or so before next break, talk a little about the, uh, using this data to help you tell your story. Yeah, that was something that i saw. Over and over again is we have a situation where seventy five percent of non-profits collect data, but only six percent of them feel like they really know what to do with that data on the best non-profits figure out how to get it into bite sized chunks of information that someone can easily digest in just a few minutes and that khun b, whether you’re a small organization or whether you’re a huge organization, it really just comes down to those bite-sized pieces of information, indulge me while we take another break, wagner, cps they really do go way beyond the numbers for you, lots of resource is on their at their sight. When you’re cps dot com, you’ve heard me talk about the different guides and templates that they have there’s a lot of help for your nine ninety if you are preparing that yourself, i know you may very well be outsourcing that, but if you’re if you’re doing it yourself, there’s nine ninety help there’s help for your board different board committees like finance versus audit. What? What are the different roles that your boardmember and those two different committees should be filling? And how do? They complement each other. How do you keep them separate or didn’t finance committees there’s a conflict of interest policy for board members? There’s. An ethical statement, forbush, board members. So lots of board help. Employee’s versus independent contractors that’s a morass for for a lot of offices you know, you don’t want to get penalized by your state department of labor for mischaracterizing so there’s a checklist for employees versus independent contractor all right, so that those are some examples of the guys that are out there when you see piela is there more than just cpas, as i say, way beyond the numbers you go to regular cps dot com click resource is and then guides abila software, you are a non-profit but there’s a good chance you’re using accounting software that was made for a business like quickbooks or turbo cash, or and the problem there is that those don’t include fund accounting, so to cover yourself, you are probably using some external spreadsheets to keep your funds separate, or you’re using separate bank accounts to keep things separate because you don’t want to spend one one designated fund for a different purpose, like the jim renovation money on the lunch program. So you want to use a ah, a software and accounting software that includes fund accounting and that he’s made for non-profits and that is appaloosa counting helps you separately. Account for each of these different designated funds that you probably have and need to keep separate. You go to non-profit wizard dot com, and that is the landing page for non-profit radio listeners non-profit wizard dot com now time for tony’s take two next month non-profit radio is dedicated to your plans for twenty eighteen for instance, we’re gonna have something on the oracle net sweet social impact offerings, there’s software that allowed people may be aware of, but there’s also consulting from social impact the social impact team at oracle net sweet. We’ve got somebody to talk about that picky duvette from oracle net suite or business advice from score this is theirs. It’s free to you as a taxpayer funded in large part by the small business administration, we’ve got somebody from scored explain what’s available there. Where’s, the new tax law mean for you in the new year, jean takagi is going to explain it. You know him, of course, are legal contributor plus maria simple with prospect research amy sample ward on social media they’ll both be with me in january. Also talking about your twenty eighteen plan so the month of january devoted to next year’s planning. The video is at twenty martignetti dot com, and that will be very shortly. All right. And that is tony’s take two. Let’s, let’s continue with the podcast pleasantries. He was surprised i divided it up. We say on the heels of the live listen, love has to come. The podcast pleasantries well, the heels a little longer this time it’s a stiletto this time podcast pleasant few star over twelve thousand listening in the time shift. The vast majority of our audience is there, and i’m thank youl thankful that you are with us pleasantries to the podcast listeners and the affiliate affections to our am and fm affiliate station listeners throughout the country. Thank you so much for being with us. I’m grateful that your station includes us in their weekly schedule, and i’m glad that you are listening on the on the terrestrial on the terrestrial side, the am and fm affections to the affiliate listeners, thanks very much. Kathleen kelly. Janice. Thank you. You’re welcome. You’re still there, right? Yes. I’m here. Okay, cool. Um i noticed you. Ah er is going back to your parents. You you dedicated the book to your parents. And you say for my parents who taught me the value of citizenship? How do you define that citizenship. What do you think of a citizenship? Well, for me, i’ve been raised with this idea that we all have a duty to give back to making the world a better place, and so we all have the capacity to make impact in some way and to me that’s really exciting, and i think getting even mohr and more prevalent, i acknowledge that not everybody was is lucky to have been raised with that mentality as i was, although i’m sure there are others who had those really important dinner conversations about social impact where no, no, i’m not sure how called prevalent there you are, but more and more what i see with my students at stanford when i see the next generation, is that there is this changing mentality that non-profit work used to be just about writing a check to a foundation or teo non-profit and then being on your way, people want to roll up their sleeves now they want to get involved non-profit work is no longer relegated, tio, you know, when you leave the office at five p m that millennials are thinking about how can they make a difference in their work in making the word world a better place? Whether that is using their skills to do pro bono work, or whether that’s e-giving back through donations and getting others involved in like minded causes to me, this is really exciting because it’s increased the potential for all of us. Teo make an impact in the world because we’re thinking about social change in a in a really different way. But it’s also really exciting for non-profits because there’s an opportunity for non-profits teo capitalize on that and i think too many non-profits out there are operating in this old fashioned model where they’re seeking donations may be they have, you know, an annual event or an annual dinner where they bring people together for a long program and over dinner and then that’s it, they collect their money, and then they get back to them the next year when it’s time for the dinner again, but people don’t want that donors don’t want that they want to be engaged, and they want teo feel like they’re making an impact. And so the onus is on the non-profits to really think about how to help donors get involved and ultimately that will lead teo, i think more funding for organizations as well, you encourage non-profits to think about earned income, recognizing that it may not fit in every situation that there might be non-profits where it’s not appropriate. But let xero about the potential for earned income and howto explore it. Well, i am keenly aware, as someone who i was trained as a human rights lawyer, that not all causes air suited for earned income human rights work is a perfect example of someone cannot afford the bus fare to get to the courthouse in the first place. They can’t afford to pay a lawyer for their rights. Many organizations are going to rely on philanthropic capital to fill that gap, and that is important and that’s okay, but what i found in my research is that when possible, the organizations that are able to bring in earned income are going to be ableto have this kind of level of sustainability that helps them get through the hard times. Ah lot of organizations talked about the recession in two thousand eight went so many grantmaking organizations pulled funding that they had already promised these this was money that organizations were relying on, but their endowments had gone down. And tanked with the down jones, and so they weren’t able to provide that really important funding and the organizations that had earned income sources, like a fee for service model or, ah, model where they were selling products, those air, the organizations that had the fuel to get them through that time when they didn’t know where their next philanthropic check was coming from. So it’s something that i think all non-profits need teo, at least consider as they develop their funding model, are their sources of earn income that can help grow the organization and and be willing to experiment with those. Absolutely you also encourage a multiyear fund-raising plan so it’s a little about what you’re going to that i think so many organizations think about fund-raising like filling a bathtub with a teaspoon it’s painful, you’re putting the water in teaspoon by tea spoon, and then at the end of the year, when you start a new budget cycle, you drain the bathtub and you start over again. That is a really painful way to approach fund-raising and what the best organizations do is they think about fund-raising on a multiyear strategy’s, so they make sure that their grants, when possible, are multi year grant so that there looking at funding three to five years out and not just here in a year, and then they help educate their donors on the importance of that, so not just not just foundations, but also individual donors who can contribute on a year to year level. And when you set that culture into motion, it helps you think much bigger about the prospects for fund-raising a supposed tio from a place of scarcity, that mentality of scarcity it’s hinders a lot of not just organizations, but people, you know, they just they feel like the think aren’t going to get what they need kayman it really does, and i hate to use that example because i think it’s really easy, you know, as a researcher to say, just think bigger non-profits i can think is because they wanted that doesn’t mean that the funding is going to come in the door, but i do notice there was one funder that i interviewed who said you can tell the difference between the organization when you ask them the question, what would you do if you had ten million dollars? And the ones that are able to answer that question right off the bat, those were the ones that are going to go big because they’re the ones that are thinking in that way and that have a plan and are and believe that they can get there. And so i think it’s really, it is really about mentality in many ways. Yeah. Wait. Okay. So we need to overcome that. We need to have the courage to think at the ten million dollars level. Absolutely. And owners need to be thinking bigger too. I mean, go both way and that’s your responsibility to help your donor’s think that way, grayce imagine what we could do if we had ten million dollars. Imagine how many lives we could touch. Inspire those donors to be a part of the solution? That is really what it’s all about collaboration. You mentioned it earlier when you were giving us the eloquent overview. Um, let’s, let’s. Talk about the collaboration delegation. Strong leaders are not afraid to past tasks onto others. It’s really critical and organizations cannot succeed without a really strong team. The story that i love that really illustrates this is of kiva dot or gray mentioned earlier that crowdfunding platform to support small businesses in the developing world using donorsearch unnie from premiere from criminal united states, but also now all around the world, and this organization started right around the same time that i co founded spark, and so i got to see this firsthand competition, yes, and they well, well, they were anywhere competition, but you could benchmark against i guess you were well, yeah, and and it was really amazing story because jessica jackley and matt flannery, the founders, were on oprah winfrey. They were featured and bill clinton’s e-giving book and were featured on the oprah show that income that didn’t come for you as co founder of spark no, as much as you like, we saw what happened for them, they raised eleven million dollars overnight after being on the oprah show. They they literally crashed their servers and and we’re no longer able to accept funds, and so overnight they had to think about leadership in a very distributed way because they needed all hands on deck in order tio distribute all of those sons that they had received, and so now is an organization. They have one hundred employees and five hundred volunteers around the world. There, keep a fellows go into the field, tio tio follow-up on the grants and tio ensure that there going where they say they’re going. And teo, tell those stories and catalog those stories, they rely on all those volunteers and all those staff to be on the front lines. And so they have strategies to make sure that those people, their staff, feel empowered. Teo, support the mission of the organization. So an example is they allow their staff to develop their own impact metrics so the staff can feel connected to how their work in particular, is contributing to the mission of the order are excellent. Okay? It’s, not it’s, not top down, right? We’re we’re talking about the antithesis of top down leadership. Absolutely. I mean, even their feedback model, they have horizontal feedback mechanisms so that they’re not e-giving and receiving feedback in a top down way, and that really helps set into motion this culture of horizontal value for all employees. All right, kathleen, we take our our third break. I want to remind listeners the book is social startup success if you’re listening live. You could be cooking right through now to barnes and noble or amazon. Be buying it while i take this break. Tell us. Credit card and payment processing. This is a way for you to become a partner with tell us by referring to them businesses that would be willing tohave tell us on the ceo is why it look at the fees that the businesses are paying for their credit card and other types of payment processing. But, you know, credit card being the most common. Think of the businesses that you talk about, the ones that perhaps your your board members run or are part of businesses in your community that are supporting you now in different ways, whether it’s through some kind of sponsorship or they are purchasing tables at an event, or making outright gift to you. However there supporting you, might they be willing to change their credit card processor toe also benefit you. And the benefit that you will get is fifty percent of the revenue that comes from each of these businesses to tell us will be yours. Not fifty percent of the profit. Fifty percent of the revenue that comes from tello’s that comes to tell us from these businesses will be yours. And if tell us, can’t save the businesses any money, then you will get to what you want. You will get two hundred and fifty dollars. That is. Tell us his promise. You can see the whole bargain at tony dot m a slash tony tello’s. Kathleen, the the other part of collaborative leadership besides strong strong senior leadership is a strong active board. What do you like to see there? Well, a lot of organizations. Start out with it what i call in the book of friends and family reward where they know they have to legally have a board of directors, and so they go out and they recruit anyone who’s close to them tio help them with their organization, and this leads to a lot of problems because friends and family are not always the most suited to help you grow an organization on they don’t always necessarily have the skills, and oftentimes friends and family tell you what you want to hear, those really pushing you to be your back, not going to challenge you tell me they’re not going to challenge you. They’re not going to challenge yes, exactly, and so and so and so, really what? I saw it, the organization that scaled had a robust organise, a robust organizational board that was suited for the skills that they needed and the talents that they needed to grow the organization. And even if it meant having to go through that a brutal process as moving from the friends and family board tio more robust kind of governance board my husband always we have three children, and my husband always likes to say i can’t fire my mother in law, you know it’s a lot easier sometimes to hire a baby sitter. Well, that should be your job. You should be finding your own mother is so much easier for you to do. No one wants to have to fire their mother, so don’t put your mother on your board. That’s the lesson on dh really getting it right the first time is the best recipe for success, but there are strategies that i talk about in the book for how to move past the friends and family board to govern in sport. That’s really going to help challenge you and get you through the strategic planning process to help you build a theory of change so that you can show your a solution to the problem and illogical and impactful way board relationships. Very tough for lots of organizations. The relationship between the ceo and the board sometimes it’s a micro managing board, even those even the relationship between staff and the board can sometimes be difficult. Um, intra board relationships there’s a lot, there’s a lot of potential for problems there there’s a lot of potential for problems and there’s a lot of potential for solution. Well, one leaves you doesn’t have to be that heart. One of the key things that i talk about in the book for developing a really strong board is putting the policies in place. Sue you’re very clear about what the expectations are of your board. I think a lot of these challenges come in when it’s just not clear, whose role is what and what boardmember zehr supposed to do. So let me give you an example. Organisations that responded to may survey said that only fifteen percent of their boards are involved in fund-raising when asked what they would like their boards to do, more of sixty six percent of the executive director said they would like their boards to be doing more friendraising so that’s a huge disconnect and i would i would ask those organizations will what have you done to communicate with your board that you would like them to be doing more fund-raising what have you done, teo, establish what their fund-raising goals are in the board policy. What have you done to support their fund-raising efforts? Have you provided events that they can bring their contacts? Tio, have you given them the stories that they need to tell at a cocktail party so that they know how to make an elevator pitch if you want your board to be involved in friendraising you need to lay the foundation to make that happen. So i think a lot of board frustrations but executive directors have with their boards can easily be alleviated by just laying the foundation with clear policies and clear expectations like the model of collaboration that you were talking about, you know, bottom up you encourage that also in in storytelling, and i know i’m not sure if you had a well, i was gonna say my favorite part was the storytelling part, but if you had to pick, that was my favorite. I’m not saying that’s the most important if is it possible for you to say which of these? And we’re going to talk about storytelling very moment, very shortly, which of the five areas is like, most important, are you willing to rank them like that? Or you think they’re all equally it’s like asking maeda choose my my favorite child? They are all important, but i will say that that that that kind of they do, i write about them in the order that i write about them, because i think that they do. They do lay the foundation for success in that order, so you can’t tell a good story until you have the deed of and the qualitative stories to show for that, and so that impact measurement and that testing process is really key to get there. So you did. You did think through the sequence of ah, that you’re goingto present these in the book, yeah, it’s, that sequence is very important, okay? Non-profit metoo tested me more haphazard, but you, you thought through that when you’re writing a book is different. So you you, actually, you thought through this, okay, i’m gratified to hear that, okay? So let’s, talk about the story telling you. You like again, bottom up. Absolutely, it has. Teo involved everyone around you there’s an organization i interviewed called ideo dot or ge, and they used design thinking, teo help non-profits develop innovative solutions in their work, and they have this thing that they they implement on and their staff meetings called storytelling roulette, where they spin the wheel like a wheel of fortune, they they spin it and then randomly it will land on a story and they’ll pick a staff person in advance who on the spot has to tell that story as if they were pitching it to a donor or a potential partner? I’m not because, eh, every staff member hasn’t necessarily been involved in all of those projects and doesn’t necessarily have that institutional memory. That is the way to build institutional memory. It’s also a way to build skills. Storytelling is not something that just happened. Storytelling happens with a lot of practice and, uh and and a lot of opportunities to practice one of my dear friends, nadine burke harris has ted talk with three million views, and she runs an organization called the center for youth wellness focuses on toxic stress when i interviewed her and asked her about that ted talk, she said. She practiced it for six months, this ten minute talk, and she said, by the end of those six months, her has been could’ve given the ted talk for her because she had practice it so many times in front of him. So i think it’s important, that we remember to make this space for that practice, not only for ourselves as leaders of organizations, but also for all of our teams and our boards and even beneficiaries talk about in the book. Yes, i wanted to go to the beneficiaries. I was, so you’re so you’re so comprehensive. I was hoping you were gonna leave beneficiaries, then i would sound smart, so i know. But what about beneficiaries? But, yeah, way, just have about a minute and a half left before we wrap up. So talk about encouraging beneficiaries to tell. Well, i think when you’re working with beneficiaries to tell stories, i think there’s ah lot of things that organizations need to do to be very conscious of what it means to put a beneficiary in that position and to set them up for success. So it’s not always appropriate, and i think what organizations have two d’oh ah lot of thinking to make sure, for example, that the beneficiary is well past and being part of the program, that they are in a better place to be able to tell that story. But there really is no more powerful story for unorganised ation to tell them someone who has successfully made their way through the program and has created a better life because of that outcome. And so we talked earlier about output versus outcomes that is an outcome when you can show that someone’s life has changed and hearing that from a from a beneficiaries own mouth is really going to be your most powerful sales person for the organization. Those air so compelling the mean those khun b riel tear jerkers literally it’s and they don’t have to be high production value, but they could be very very compelling. Very, very moving. Absolutely. All right. We have to leave it there. I want to thank you very much. Catherine kelly. Janice. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Tony it’s been my absolute pleasure. The book. Get the book for pete’s sake. We just did a romp through it. You need the book. Social startup success have the best non-profits launch scale up and make a difference next week, zombie loyalists that’s our annual replay of peter shankman talking about extreme customer service. If you missed any part of today’s show, i beseech you, find it on tony martignetti dot com were supported by pursuant online tools for small and midsize non-profits data driven and technology enabled tony dahna slash pursuant regular ciba is guiding you beyond the numbers. Wagner cps dot com appaloosa accounting software designed for non-profits non-profit wizard dot com and tell us credit card payment processing your passive revenue stream tony dahna may slash tony tell us our creative producers claire meyerhoff. Sam leave lorts is the line producer shows social media is by susan chavez and this very cool music is by scott stein you’re with me next week for non-profit radio big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent. Go out and be great. No. Kayman oppcoll 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 p m 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 dio they have xbox, they have tv, they have their cell phones. Me dar is the founder of idealist took two or three years for foundation staff to sort of dane toe add an email address card. It was like it was phone. This email thing is right and 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 dh. 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 expected 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.

Nonprofit Radio for December 1, 2017: Music To Major Gifts

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Mitchell Linker: Music To Major Gifts

No One Dreams of Being a Fundraiser.” It’s a nonprofit truism and Mitchell Linker’s new book. He and his music are with me for the hour.

 

 

 

 

 


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Dahna 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 listened to the weak it’s touched reema hussain. She e mailed me, quote, i’m a huge fan of your podcast exclamation mark! Thank you for all the incredible insights and ideas your podcast welcome to tony martignetti non-profit radio provides for aspiring change makers end quote, i don’t know welcome welcome is not part of the show the title of the show the name of this show is tony martignetti non-profit radio try toe. If you’re going, i’m going to shut us out, try to get it right and also aspiring aspiring change makers. I don’t appreciate the qualification these air, these air engaged change makers, they’re doing it. They’re not just hoping aspiring trying to make change. Teshima grateful for the grateful for the love, grateful for the love thank you very much and for loving non-profit radio congratulations on being our listener of the week oh, i’m glad you’re with me i’d be stricken with a para nicaea if you pointed out to me that you missed today’s show music to major gift no one dreams of being a fundraiser it’s a non-profit truism and mitchell link er’s new book he and his music are with me for the hour on tony’s take two thank you! Twenty seventeen responsive by pursuant full service fund-raising data driven and technology enabled tony dahna may slash pursuing and by wagner cpas guiding you beyond the numbers wagner, cps dot com you’re not a business you’re non-profit appaloosa accounting software designed for non-profits non-profit wizard dot com and tell us turning payment processing into your passive revenue stream. Tony dahna may slash tony tell us what a pleasure! Welcome mitch linker to the studio. He is a professional fundraiser in education and author of no one dreams of being a fundraiser by unexpected journey from music to major gif ts welcome to studio mitch, thanks a lot. I’m grateful to be here. That’s a pleasure? Yes, i’m a fan of the show. Thank you. Thank you. Well, that that’s that’s a prerequisite to being get now it’s actually. But it helps. It helps. Sucking up. Definitely helps, but don’t don’t suck up to them. And you look great today. Yes, right. Thank you. I got a lot of crushing questions for you. Don’t worry. Okay. All right. So music to major gift. That was that’s. Thie, that’s york that’s. Your story? Yeah. Okay. Story so far at least. Ok. Oh, so there may be another career. Well, given my track record, there could be several years. Oh, i see. All right, so maybe, like, fundraiser to french teacher. Okay. You know, i think i’m i think i found my found like, okay, cool. Alright. So music. Young age? Yeah. I’m talking to a former professional musician that you, you professional’s a little charitable on how much money he laid someone kayman song made money off to defend, not a living by are barely squeaking. No credit cards were important to you. Wake up to some of that. All right, but, you know, we gotta start with the early days. So the kiss concert nineteen, seventy nine? Yeah. Very important to you and your brother. You pleaded, pleaded with your dad. He took you. Why? Why? What happened? Why? We’re still big to you, you know, i don’t know. It was at a time in my life there was some personal turmoil going on, you know? And so i think it became something that i could cling? Teo there’s, some transitions going on. And what about kiss? Just so you know, i was the makeup, the makeup it’s. Funny. The music. Not so much. It was the makeup i just remembered. Like tracing their faces on that old tracing paper. Yes, i do remember treyz upleaf onion skin on. Yeah, exactly. You traced over with a pencil? Yeah. So it just became obsessed with them. And who’s your favorite in the band. Ah, it was changed. Gene simmons? Yeah. Had to be you. Okay, let wass i should say, was it, wass you don’t have a favorite and god now. Oh, no he’s around. You present it alright. Still could be back in the day. He was the guy. There is something just so you know, demonic and then terrifying about you want lloyd loved you had never seen him live. Never seen them live. Your dad took you and your impression. What can you remember? Well, the problem was which i talk about in the book was that i got sick. I think i was probably too young to be on the show. I was, what? Seven and i just didn’t feel well, i think the noise, the just the overall stimulation of it all. I just remember sitting there kind of crying and upset the whole time, and i remember seeing and i remember seeing jim, gene simmons flying, and i have vivid memories of the experience, especially considering how long ago it was. But it wasn’t a happy memory on that. I wanted getting sick and i went down health, alright, so so i mean that’s all right? That’s not a great memory. So why? Why continued in music or what? Well, you only seven then you’re still doing your still dabbling in music a little bit. Well, that young age, obviously, and it was obviously it’s part of sort of the tableau of how i became a musician, because, i mean, you know, i continue to be fascinated with him for years and years, so that was sort of my gateway. Um, so yeah, it was very formidable for whatever reason. I’m sure a lot of people have that story or some variation because kiss spoke to young kids during that era. Alright, yeah, but you got sick, and then you still continue to you. Know you’re well, everything is everything is life or death when you’re seven years old, so i’m not going to, you know, it’s so important to you, but everything is about, you know, the red wagon was important, but all right, but all right, you continued on, um so your music career was kind of like, i see, like, three, two, one, there were three people in the dent. Yeah. Then you were down to two with the day traders. Man, you did your home, and you want so i read the book. I appreciate everything. I remembered it. I do have it written down, but i do remember, i’m looking in his eyes. I’m saying now that was the dent and then the day traders and then ends. And then solo eso i’m and the day traders was too. Yeah, there was two person doing a two person act. All right, um, the dent was important to you. Yeah. You want it now? All right. I just want to set the scene that you grew up in. You grew up in west hartford? No, no. I was originally new york city when i was very young. And i have tio, connecticut, my family moved to connect, okay? And i’ve been in connecticut everyone’s, not west hartford know fairfield county, fairfield, fairfield and that i’ve been in the central heart central connecticut region like west harford since the year two thousand. Ok, now i know west hartford buy-in i guess as i was growing up in north jersey, i don’t know if this is still true dahna what started? It was very wealthy community because a lot of insurance companies were based in hartford, right? And then a lot of senior executives lives in west hartford, right? It was a pretty exclusive place, and in fact, i remember when i was a planned giving director visiting a potential donor who was a retired insurance executive in west hartford, and he had a huge house. I don’t know his west hartford? Yes, they were growing up. Was it still that way? Less offgrid is a great place there. There are a lot of really great quality of life. Sort of suburban towns in central connecticut glass and very avon and west hartford. Certainly probably. Okay, but that’s not where you grew up. You know, a group in fairfield if you fairfield. County if you feel count welfare flipped the town the town in fairfield county right now. Is that southern? Yeah. That’s, southern connecticut near new york city. That it’s a good place for commuters to live, right? But there is also a town named fairfield and felt very far like when i moved to central connecticut. Like the only time i ever went to central connecticut was to go to the heart pacific center to see things like kiss concerts when i lived down in fairfield county. Ok, so it was even though it’s a small state, they’re two very distinct areas, all right. And you were? You were a musical act. And excuse me in connecticut. Yep. Yeah. You made something of a name for yourself in connecticut. I like to think so. The hostess joking. Excuse me. Yeah. Okay. Starting with the dent. Yeah. You and two friends. Yeah. Tell us about the dent. Yeah, boy, i mean, man, do we go back? We were talking jeff and i my god, we would play with tennis racquets before we could actually play instruments when we’re pies really wears one. All right? And then we segue way too real. Instruments as we got older in high school and then we met dan. So yeah, the three must go way, way back. Arika like, fifteen years old and what not? And then as we got older, we got more serious and started actually writing songs and obviously, playing our own instruments. And then it just became your right. You want a karaoke? Chadband now you actually did play instruments. You know, we actually played instruments of yours, wasthe yours was originally i was a drummer, and then i was demoted to lead singer, okay? And i play piano took for writing purposes, but i’m not good at i’ve never been proficient. Okay, that shows that such a difficult question for me to answer. I saying the musician people ask, what did i do? And i get this ten minute answer. Well, i just started drops piela well, it depends how detailed you didn’t do anything particularly well. All right, all right. That’s okay. But you played. I played plate. Okay. All right, let’s, go out, let’s, go out for a first break. Sure. Well, way with which is me speaking and and so if you stand by time for a break. Okay. I don’t need one. But pursuing the art and science of acquisition it’s their newest paper to help you bring in new donors. This paper covers strategies that work from successful acquisition campaigns. And you do want to think about this as a campaign. Your acquisition of new donors campaign. I know this is fourth quarter, obviously so likely. This is not devoted teo acquisition during this part of the year. Probably not. So download the report and keep it. Keep it for next year’s acquisition work. You know that pursuing his data driven technology enabled. So the research is going to be based on the numbers. This report obviously no exception and helps you to understand your numbers. What metrics should you pay attention to? How do you know whether your campaign is succeeding, et cetera? Where do you get it? On the non-profit radio listener landing page. And that is that tony dahna may slash pursuing capital p now back to much liquor. And his book. Nobody dreams of being a fundraiser. All right, so the dent was, uh, it’s a time. I mean, it was hard to get traction. Yeah, you didn’t have a book. Or you don’t have an agent, right? You were recording doing some gigs. What happened? You know, intimately to the funny. I would recommend that everyone write a book because for me, even if very few people read it, it was like therapy. And i learned a lot about my started process and to your question, one of the things i realized in hindsight because we struggled so much we were so focused on this dream but had difficulty, as you say, getting traction. Part of it was in some sense, we weren’t all in, and i realized about that about myself. You know, i wasn’t the type of guy who’s going to live in a van for six months in total squalor. Like i loved writing songs. I loved music, and i did love traveling. But i just never was able to kind of make that full life commitment. And i only realise that in retrospect, i guess that’s sort of an aside but that’s, one of the fifty things i learned about myself in the process of writing this thing and so it’s sort of helped me realize oh, yeah. That’s, that’s, that’s, that’s. What happened to an extent, maybe we didn’t commit as much as we should have. We committed to the writing and, like the dream was there, but as far as what you actually need to be. Two d’oh it’s. So difficult and unpleasant. Yeah, maybe over romanticized it. I think so. Yeah, yeah. Now, how do you feel about your commitment to fund-raising today? Oh, one hundred percent. Okay, yeah. Now i feel like this is my do over. So i had a career. Okay? That’s what? I’m trying to get it. But as you were a musician, we’re still with the dent. You felt like you were committed. Then did you feel committed then? Do you think? I mean, is it possible to look back and say, you know, there were times when i just really wasn’t sure i should be doing it, but i kept kept on or did you feel like you were all in then? But now, looking back, you feel like you weren’t that’s a great question. That’s. Why you’re good at this. Cool. I scored one, okay. Initiating with because i think to some degree i probably always knew and part of it. And this is another epiphany. I kind of wondered what i think. The dent, we just kind of stayed with each other of familiar addie familiarity and comfort were best friends. Maybe that wasn’t the best sort of trio. Maybe that wasn’t the best partnership for all of us. And perhaps if i had not, i was just so so committed to these guys. Maybe if i had, you know, gone solo earlier or met someone else or one of the then met someone else. Maybe i would have sort of hitch my wagon to a different thing. And momentum would have occurred. There was just something about the dynamic of the three of us that in a way, held us back. And i think on some level, i knew that. I really do know. Now, in hindsight, so great. Much interesting. Okay, now dahna there’s. A lot of hard work. There’s. A lot of there’s there’s. Some overlap between being a struggling musician band, right? And fund-raising, right. You point out rejection networking. Yeah. Um, and you have a third one, too. Oh, well, a thick skin, i guess. That’s partly right, partly that was fleeing with rejecting. Do you feel like some of what? You faced negatively with the dent and then the day traitors, you know, actually help you in fund-raising? Yes, and that’s a thing? Well, i well, despite what i just said, you know, in my mind, i was generally all in and it was all i thought about. And as i talk about the book constantly pounding the pavement, trying to get gigs trying tio get a record deal, that was really that was that was the thing that you’re selling. And so, you know, there was a real commitment there, and yeah, it was just constant rejection. Like anyone good thing would happen, and it would be almost a surprise be so reinardy you want us to exactly what was wrong with sure. I got a judge, you might make it. You being a little hasty, take the weekend to think about and then let us know if you actually wanted to play next friday geever references of people who protected us wherever you want. So that did inadvertently trained me. And i talk about that a lot in the book, which is how you came to the question, but yeah, i was used to rejection. I was used to things being difficult, i’m used to the struggle on dh when i started to have success in something that that that wasn’t music, which was the fund-raising it was just amazing. It was like this incredible epiphany and that’s the ironic thing is, there was so many periods of time in the early days and music days when i thought, am i wasting my life? Certainly people in my life probably thought i might be needing to make a pivot, but it turned out to be to be great training. What i encourage anyone to do, what i did is their path to fund-raising not necessarily, but i know everybody’s got some path to it, and rarely, as your title suggests, is it linear, right? I don’t know that i sort of have the confidence in the fortitude and the desire that i have now if i hadn’t gone through that so i have no regrets, though there is a period of time where it felt dark. Now you have a day Job during always transitions in 3 two one trend and maybe that’s part of the commitment thing, i never just quit that job and completely did. It i was getting a little too scared. That’s probably what i mean, when i say, like, was i fully in? I think i’ve always had a little too much of a fear factor, actually even interesting. Now, i mean, your second band. We’re not gonna really dwell on the second band. Yeah, two ofyou, but day trader, i mean, that’s not there, not all day traders. I don’t consider being all in it’s, not like they’re right invested in a wall street career. I mean, they’re in a stock for a couple hours, and then they’re out. So, yeah, maybe there was something precedent about that name who knows? I don’t know. Yeah, that was no that nothing. Although very impressed by perceptive i think about thiss joe doesn’t just come together. Country popular belief i’ve get email like, you know, there’s a slapdash oh, i love it, but i know what’s up there, you know, it’s. Not true. All right, so the day job was you were you are involved in non-profits eventually landed in non-profits for awhile, i’d said dalliance is with several different random things on then eventually i stumbled upon non-profits i had no awareness. Of the non-profits sect alien says good work think people, but i’m sure not probably radio listeners will know that we’re but it’s good work dahna city. We’re going every now and then i’ll pull one out, but that was probably the only time in this show. So when i first started in development, it wasn’t conscious really was more just a job. Yeah, you today just fundez life, right? My love of exactly exactly. And it worked well, for a while. It was very then there was a time where you became a lot more intentional about a career in development. Starting to music. Music was not paying off, right? I was getting hold. Yes, you’re getting older. How would you know? I think we should set the contact older, you know i am. Wow. This is so you gotta come on. I mean, you wrote a book about your life. Hold forty five. Okay, forty five. I look much younger. I get ten years on you. You do all right. That’s a good thing. This is a podcast on nobody contest that assertion that you just made you could go on the website. Make your tony martignetti dot. Com make your own decision about whether which looks younger. Well, it was saying that i was sent it. I take it is thank you. People should draw that conclusion. Other on, i think it is a self serving. Pathetic, you know, sounds presidential almost okay. We don’t do politics. I’m non-profit radio. So you became a lot more intentional. Things were not going well. Money, tight music floundering, really? Your own gig. You’re on your solo career. You said you canceled you cancel every gig. Your music and your solo career, right? Literally canceled every gig that yeah, and then the whole thing is that when i think i feel like i actually started to find my voice and got better at music, i was at a point where i was to light. Like i said earlier, i was in these bands and i was felt beholden to these other people. And then when i finally went solo, i felt like i got a groove. But at that point, i had a lot of debt was getting older, and and then what really happened was the recession economy picked out and i don’t, so yeah, i felt so vulnerable. And i thought, well, i’m already in development. I’m gonna make this my thing, and i just completely abandoned music at that time. Okay, now, around that you were doing database management, and then you moved into prospect research. Yeah. There’s around this’ll eight, two thousand seven, two thousand eight session time or a little bit earlier i was doing really said advancement services. Then i was broadening it a little, but it was still not i was doing major gifts, you know, know, know, know? Know? Yeah. So but generally, i was sort of the research. Got back. Still back office? Yes, exactly. Right. They talk about, uh, two. Two bosses were discouraged. You and one who encouraged you. Yeah, the discouraging ones. What way? Wantto little cautionary tale. What? How did they discovered you in your? Yeah, because you had expressed an interest to them in right of career in fund-raising in furthering your working fund-raising two people discouraged you. How so? Well, i think in and in hindsight, maybe i would have discouraged me too, because i was still kind of like a young punk. You know, i guess i still could have had an air of you want e? I mean, they would you respect him? You worked for them? Yeah, i mean, when it was never malicious, but i think i just i didn’t look the part at the time, you know, our act the part. Probably i probably acted young and, you know, i was very vocal about my love of music, so i’ve sort of had me compartmentalized. And i worry artists lead, right. So then to suddenly say, i want to do this very serious, very diametric opposite you. Another edward of lessons going opposite that’s. Not such a trick. That’s. Not a good word either. I don’t know. Did they use it wrong? No, it depends what you mean. We’re not going to flush it out, but i don’t think it’s good. Okay, now i’m gonna move. Okay? So that i’ll point out the vocabulary. You have got to stop my you really do. I’ll point out that i don’t. Who will? I’ll point out the high points and we’ll let listeners make most of the decisions on their own. Okay, um, so, uh, letty so let’s talk about the guy. Who are you? A man or woman who inspired you? Somebody believed in you. Yeah. What? That person, a few people along the way just sort of recognise that i had a personality that might be come suitable. Yeah. Thank you. That and i guess i i was always conducive. Well, that was good e i think part of it was just i had a lot of different ages. Yeah. Okay. Okay. I think i was and i had an energy and a zeal. And and so it’s a man or a woman, it was a few people on it if you are because you encouraged me, and that way we should be seeing people beneath the surface and look at what traits they possess and how those might actually, uh, transfer into fund-raising career or anything in non-profits so that, you know, we peel away the layer let’s, not judge a book by the cover. And there are there are traits that people have that could be valuable to non-profit and yeah, we should try to see that if if we’re ever in this kind of situation, i agree, and i’m deeply grateful for that for that encouragement, because at that point in my life, i hadn’t had much encouragement, you know, i’d sort of just been on my own trying this thing, and it wasn’t really working out, and then it goes such a long way and yeah, i agree that it was sort of a raw skill energy, whatever i had that had sort of a few people had noticed, and i was grateful for that. And i would have never really come to that on my own. You say that you perceived fund-raising as the guys in glengarry glen ross, which happens to be a favorite movie of mine. But, you know, if those who may not know it, it is excellent. Al pacino, walter matthau. No, no. Jack lemmon pompel al pacino. Alec baldwin. Very, very small, but very pivotal role. Al pacino, jack lemmon. Alan arkin. Excellent at harris. Excellent. Kevin spacey up. Excellent. Yeah. Okay, so these are these are shyster real estate people. We get the idea to get the idea for a movie that they’re special. They’re selling marshland in florida, people bonem and yet was sort of your perception of your gifts of asking people for money and, you know, part of it’s funny. I remember we went to this. Conference early on and i was i was doing research at the time, and i went to this it’s very funny nights that i went to this dinner and it was basically major gift people. I don’t even know why i went to it. You may have been that it was for everybody, but it was predominantly major give people and, like, the volume of that room was so loud, it was just a bunch of what i perceived as extroverts just really sort of out there confident people and part of it from he was a jealousy because i had been so just estranged from that world or i was just i had a very small world, and i wasn’t very confident. And then i saw these people in these personalities and i just thought, man, that’s, what fund-raising must be you’ve got to be this big, outgoing person. I cant do that that’s, not my personality, and i know where you’re going with this, but basically i came to realize you don’t necessarily have to be that way. But it was just it was so intimidating to me and then when i unpeeled back what i thought, a major gift officer does and what they do dio it just seems so scary and it just i sort of pigeonholed you have to be a certain type of person who is outgoing and brave and frankly, all the things in many ways you do need to be. But it was so different from how i perceive myself. I don’t know how you know where i’m going because i don’t know where i’m going, okay? I’m sure i’m not sure how you’ve mastered that thiss seems like a good place. We’re going to play one of mitch’s song. Oh my gosh! It’s ah it’s better this’s the dent is that this is this is me. So this is a solo. I’m sorry. Ok is the last thing i have things there, you know, he’s making this transition now getting serious about ah career in in fund-raising so things are looking up it’s ah, mitch linker. Yeah. Solo solo. Better anything else you want to say to lead into it? Well, this was never never. It was recorded as a demo, but it never went anywhere. I never did an album, you know, i didn’t put it on itunes or anything. But this was right at the moment that i basically stopped. So this is the first time anyone in the world so all right, so it’s podcasts, or you can play it back. You know, i could build buy-in anywhere you cannot buy. Give me a call, i’ll send you guys here. It is better. Which hyre two. Nice. Just get lucky. So, wait, king. Yeah, i’ll be down for a little while. Wait. Right? Duitz wait. Kapin wait. Two. Events back-up snusz buy-in hyre latto buy-in duitz hands. Krauz hyre mitch linker, better you heard here on non-profit radio. The only place you will we just take a break. Wagner, cpas. They really do go way beyond the numbers that typical cpas get mired in the guides they have. They have a couple dozen guides for you online. They’re going to help you sort your way through technical stuff because they break it down and make it simple for you. These are written specifically for non-profits, for instance, orders committee versus finance committee. That’s a that’s. A document they have. What one of different roles they break it down. Independent contractor versus employee checklist. Yes. You need a checklist. I just had attorney tom will sell on just talking about this. That was the november third show. You don’t want to make a mistake between contractor an employee and be penalized disaster recovery plan it’s another guide that wagner has for you. I’ve had a guest talking about that darvill arika last time she was on was june twenty third talking about your disaster recovery plan if your church wittner has a church internal audit plan, okay, you’re reviewing your bank statements each month. There’s a bank statement review form. All right, you get the idea way beyond the numbers. Take a look at everything they have go. Wagner, cpas dot com quick resource is then guides apolo ce software. You’re a non-profit but you use accounting software made for a business. I never thought of this. I never thought of that dichotomy. That’s a good word, but but it exists. And until apple owes brought enlightenment to me, i hadn’t. I had never thought about this. Why do you need non-profit software? Accounting software fundez counting that’s the difference. Fundacao n’t ing you have these different designated buckets funds of money and you don’t want to use the money designated the scholarships for the gymnasium renovation project. Mitch, you work in education, fund-raising you wouldn’t want to do that, would you? No, thank you. Now be quiet. You need to you need to separate account for each fund-raising appaloosa counting don’t use quickbooks and terrible cash. Where do you go for this non-profit wizard dot com now time for tony steak too. Thank you. Thank you. Twenty seventeen that’s what? My video says this year if you are listening in any of the different channels which we’re going to get through very shortly, it’s. Coming up. If you are getting my insider alerts in your inbox every single week, i know mitch lincoln gets them. You do much, don’t you? Thank you, never quite. Yes, i am grateful if you’re if you’re following on twitter, you’re retweeting about the show if you’re loving the show in-kind whatever method, however chan, whatever channel you used to show your love for non-profit radio i say thank you, i really do not mean mitch is breaking up, but i’m no, my gratitude is sincere, you know that. 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Thank you for standing by. Thank you for your minor contributions. Okay, so things are picking up and you start to self teach yourself. You, uh you got conferences, books, you’re you’re diving in. Yeah. Self self education. Yeah, yeah. I just immerse myself again. I completely abandoned music to this day. I haven’t arika on dh. I just committed myself one hundred percent tio fund-raising and yeah, i just i tried teo network as much as i could. And this wasn’t a cringe moment for you when i played better, was it? Um, you’re dying inside aren’t dying inside where? It’s a little embarrassing that’s ok? Really? No, no. I mean, i’m proud of you. I’m proud of it. Well, there you go. All right. No embarrassment. All right? You may feel embarrassed, but you’re gonna play the whole thing. But that’s, just a sample here. We were all in non-profit it was all one hundred percent in committed to the worst humor. But i committed to it. You know, that’s that’s what distinguishes most people would cut their losses. Oh, no, not me. Oh, i’m in. I’ll be the joke to death until i until either i get sick of it. Which that’s. A very high threshold. And that’s. Happening right now, you’re witnessing it says you says you, you’re not one to judge dahna i don’t know why i just i’m just declaring you sure you’re not you’re not judgment worthy. All right, so you you developed a cut. You eventually you you found a coach, you found a couple of coaching? Yeah, mentors. This is important to you as your sort of removing your way into now you’re in major gifts and you’re blowing some things which everyone does. This is not an embarrassment. I have not as many as you, but i’ve blown things bonem coach and mentor mentors coach is very important to you. One of the few key takeaways for anyone who’s might be interested in the book or maybe thinking about major gifts. One of them is for me was transformational, and i just think everyone should probably no matter what you’re doing in life would be great to have a coach and mentor. But for me having that like one on one follow-up just dialogue, having someone you can go to and run situations by and sort of talk things out with someone who has experience and he’s been around the block. And has seen everything. It really changed my life because i was struggling. I again, i educated myself, but when i was trying to practically apple, you know, apply what i had read or studied. I just wasn’t comfortable and this sky and then a number of people who i met, i’ve a long list of mentors really changed everything for me. And so again, anything in life you probably need people to look up to, but certainly with major gifts. I would definitely encourage anyone to just find someone outside of your environment outside of your job. Somebody doesn’t know the players who can objectively just sort of look at situations and talking through them. And if you are someone who is experienced looks to take on look to help people, i mean, we need to go any further. The profession is not only you know, of course, yes, if you are new to the profession. Absolutely, mitch is vice advice is very sound. But ifyou’re mortem or experience looked looked to help. You know we got we got to elevate the profession, whether it’s fund-raising or whether it is one of the back office. Yeah. Important back office. Functions give processing or prospect, prospect research database management. You know, we gotta elevate. You gotta elevate the profession. We all have a responsibility to bring up those of us who are ah, you’re newer. Yeah, you know, and it’s and it’s so much fun. It’s fun, teo. And i think most people want to give back and want to help. And, you know, the few times i’ve had the opportunity to kind of pay it forward, i found it incredibly fulfilling. So you’re right. It’s, a two way street complain and you tell some very good stories in the book about how just simple conversations in the thirty minute conversation, you know, huge. You see epiphanies? Yeah, exactly how exactly is that a mixed metaphor? See epiphanies having epiphany when you see an epiphany? I don’t know if you could see the light at the end of the tunnel. Let’s, stick with that. I don’t know if you see an epiphany or you just can you stand? Can you see an epiphany? Sam doesn’t know. Yes, cristal’s, he’s, except the man surrounded by crystals. But i think it’s happened. I’ve thought about it, i think it’s having epiphanies that you have a different all right. U s a let’s now, now you’re a bona fide major gift officer, you’re you’re getting over the hurdles thanks to the coaches and tours, you’ve got some practical advice that that you like around let’s start with the donor now you’re in a solicitation, right meeting dahna preemption, that was a tough one for you one guy, one guy wrangled you twice meaning go ahead, i’ll let you explain preemption in case someone is not aware of what we’re talking about and i don’t know, i don’t appreciate that might be a term that i just, you know, it don’t quantified you have, you know, basically, when you have a number in mind or a gift you want to talk about and then the donor they, you know, had you off the path early in the conversation, so don’t worry about yeah, i know why you’re here. I’m going to give the three thousand dollars i gave you generally, you know you’ve got fifty thousand in your mind, exactly. They’re committed to their three thousand dollar gift from last year, so that’s one of one hundred things that hurt the type of scenarios that are difficult to navigate you really only know through experience and through having p experience. I mean, the experiences krauz you didn’t sail, you have to fail, get some help from a which makes your and go out and do it again because you gotta you gotta keep taking by two the apple, right? So, it’s a little practical advice around preemption. What do you do? You throw out ah, boy. It’s happened. Okay, let’s, hear hypothetical. Well, from the book you’ve got. I don’t remember. I forget what number you had in mind. But let’s, stick with my hypothetical okay, yeah. You’ve got fifty thousand your mind in the first five minutes of conversation, you know, agreed the person he says, look, i know why you’re here. I’m going, i promise you, i’m going to the same three thousand i did last year and then he pivots to a different subject. Now you’re off. That’s your oft e-giving subject thanks to the right, the donor and preemption. What’s your advice? Well, you know, it depends largely on the report. If you feel comfort that’s sort of. Why, for my experience will dictate how far you’re gonna push. Sometimes you’re just going to say thank you and move on and hope the next time you khun growing more prepared. You know, i think sometimes maybe thank you, but thank you, but which is sort of what i was going to say that, you know, if you have a report there’s comfort if you just sort of very authentically and genuinely and politely say, that’s great. I appreciate that. But, you know, i’ve really been looking forward to talk with you. I have a couple ideas that i actually want to share with you. Would it be okay to let you know we were thinking, you know, most times people are going to say, ok, sure, we want to hear what you had in mind and maybe it’s tied to a naming opportunity that it’s a zoo has a certain level that sort of, you know, dictates that, uh, yeah, you know, sort of those things that are our scholarship at a certain minimum. So they’re these tools to kind of help you navigate that, but really it’s it’s having the boldness and and then the comfort teo continue that conversation, and sometimes it goes well and, you know, it really all depends. Yeah, okay, you talk about urgency, urgency and contacts. Yeah, you like those? Those that’s what i learned from my key mentor. Okay, for shut out. Yeah. You know, context is just sort of explaining, you know, you have numbers in your mind when you’re talking to the donor, basically sort of justifying the number and explaining why someone’s gift is important and, you know, the end of the day when you’re raising money, it always comes down to a small number of people who are really bringing in who are giving a pass majority, the money, whether you’re talking about a small campaign or very, very large campaign, it always comes down to a small number of people, and by context, i like to sort of convey that to donors and sort of let them know you’re in a small group of people that were going to help bring about real change to save and change lives. There aren’t that many people out there, you know you are one of the few so that’s sort of the context. Is there’s actually something? Pierre ical research i was just reading, like with in the past two months or so, a report about someone had done some experimentation around different types of materials. What one printed said, you know, all together we can prevent hunger in the community or something, and the other was you can be a change maker. You and it’s always so is the global or their full community versus targeting the individual. And that individual marketing piece did much better write. Interesting. You are the change maker, you’re the you’re the you’re the pivot. You’re the critical link in this right in this problem in our community. You the solo? Yeah, that’s, great that’s going so that’s. So that’s your contact context piece just sort of really just explaining how important someone is tio urgently, then the difference that they can make and why? So that that’s that’s that was hugely helpful. May and having this giving conversations so don’t like setting the table urgency. Urgency is, you know, just putting parameters so that so that there’s a reason to have a conversation at a certain time like capital campaigns are all about urgency oftentimes it’s a very arbitrary timetable, but it gives you license to talk about giving at a certain time because there’s a deadline, you know, political. Campaigns it’s more finite. It really is, you know, there’s election day. But other campaigns often times it’s just sort of a random period of time, but it it’s a great tool. It helps gift officers. It helps fund raisers sort of justify why you’re having conversation at a certain period of time. So it’s an instrument to help move conversations along. How do you deal with the rejection that being rejected in music helped you? I helped you achieve in fund-raising i mean, you don’t get everything that you asked for now in from donors. How do you how do you process it? What do you thinking about? You know, help people who are struggling with this here’s. How i feel about that. There are many times when i come out of the visit or situation. Or maybe after a follow-up and the gift doesn’t come through. But i still feel ten feet tall and it’s because i feel as though i did the right thing. You know, i feel like i asked for a gift that made sense. It was well received. You know, maybe your daughter will say that’s the right number two house for or i appreciate you coming to me, but now is not the right time or this isn’t the right project, but it’s very amicable and it’s not a negative experience for for anybody, you know, there’ve been plenty of times where i didn’t get the gift, but i feel good. I feel like i was brave and i had the conversation they need to be had and it was the right one, but for whatever reason, it just wasn’t the right timing for the donor. Yeah, further donor, exactly, and oftentimes no is just know now, but, you know, for six knows you’re halfway to ah six knows you’re halfway to her, yes, but i’d like to say, but what about when you walk out on you? Not feeling so good? Like maybe i’ll let the institution down, like i didn’t know there was an opening and i didn’t seize it. Yeah, you walk out regretful? How do you process that? And then, you know, carry on, because a couple of days later, you’re gonna have another donor meeting. I do beat myself up about it, i as i get older, i feel like i’m still in the infancy of my career. I’m going to be learning to the day i retire, which hopefully will be decades from now on. I’m trying to beat myself up less about it, but basically i just try to learn from every experience i literally will write down how something went, what i think it could have done differently. I’ll talk to my mentors, i still have my coaches and i just try to learn from every experience and most importantly, i hope that the relationship is preserved. I didn’t do any damage and generally don’t that’s key, the relationship is over. Absolutely no, we long to always go back. It’s a long term it’s a relationship? Yeah. It’s. Long term, based on trust and absolutely and it’s about the institution. Yeah, about the institution. Excellent. Let’s, take a little break. Tell us. Credit card and payment processing. This is a passive residual revenue stream that pays you each month as one of their partner non-profits. You are going to earn fifty percent of every dollar that tell. Oh skits. Half of what they earned from the businesses that you refer to them goes to you that’s revenue with a long tail. They have an exclusive. Offer for non-profit radio listeners this really is only available to you. 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Tell us that is the only place that you’re going to find the two hundred fifty dollars, offer at tony dahna. May slash tony, tell us. Try to get them some referrals and get you some long term revenue. All right, mitch liquor, that was called, you much clinker beauty, that it’s been known to happen. Yeah, sorry, okay, i admit it. I mean, i applied myself for being being honest enough to say congratulations. Thank you very much. Small victories. I’m very important to me. I amuse myself. If no one else, i amuse myself on the most damning me who’s. All right, well, if you’re not, i still have so and that’s. What this is the center of the universe is me so. Let’s, see where we are. Okay, so you’re the institution. Yes, you’re. I mean, you’re sort of keeping in mind that it’s, the institution that you’re asking for it does not help you in d personalizing this whole process. Exactly. I was going to say that. Thank you for saying that because that’s something that i’ve learned and i talk about this in the book with music, it was personal. When i was rejected, they were saying we don’t like your orders. It’s, your honor, i don’t like your voice go as your art. You’re right, we’re not this this your art it’s not about me. When fundez it’s not about the solicitor it’s about the mission of the organization and that’s how you can remove yourself too. And you just want to do the best thing on behalf of that organization because it’s mission driven, you’re tryingto again safe and change lives. And so, you know, i lament of something doesn’t know so they go well, because i do to an extent feel so i’d like the organization down, and hopefully i can do better in the future. But it’s not about you, it’s. Not about being a great fundraiser or having the magic words to say or, you know, here career it’s about the lives that aaron backed you do have to keep going out? Yes, you know, you’re gonna have to get over the rejection and put on the brave face for the next meeting with the next donor a couple days later and for your next meeting with that donor that you feel like you didn’t do so well with you’ve got to keep getting out, you’ve got it, builds your experience absolutely, the more you’re out there, exactly, the thicker skin you’ll get, and the more experiences you have, yeah, every experience you have it’s like, okay, that will never happen that exact same way again, because i will learn from that moment. So after there’s no, it’s not, and this is a funny thing i talk about the book it’s like experience, but also being reflective and having people who are training you because i spent a lot of time out in the road and i wasn’t making progress because i was making the same mistakes again, and i didn’t have the tools to get beyond those mistakes. So it’s a combination of that. Experience and then really working at it and i again, i feel like i’m just starting, um, i learned every day how long have you been a major give fundraiser? I’ve basically been doing i’ve been in major gifts over ten years now, but i mean, i started in research, or i’ve been yeah, i know, but i mean, frontline fund-raising yeah, not indicate eleven years. Yeah, alright, yeah. Ten, twelve years. Yeah. Uh, you have a love hate relationship with travel. Yeah, yeah, i and c i romanticize it. I do enjoy travel, but it is. Romanticize it leading up to the trip. Yeah, right. Yes. I’m going to call again way hotel. Quiet and then you’re on the trip. Not so much. Well, it’s, just it’s. A lot of work is a lot of work. A lot of things can go wrong, especially when you’re tryingto beyond dealing with the travel. Just navigating all these visits and meetings that may change or being thrust it’s exhausting. But i feel like a conquering hero when i come back from a trip, you know, having been through it’s it’s very, i think it’s a powerful experience and it’s so great. When you have a trip and you get to see a lot of different people, because and this is a point, i want to get to that it’s the best Job in the world and 1 of the reasons for that is you meet so many interesting people, you would never meet otherwise successful people, people who are doing great things in the world, people who’ve who’ve had extraordinary experiences and you’re given this opportunity to talk with them. And you know, if you go on a trip and you’re on the road for a week and you have ten or fifteen meetings, my god, what an incredible opportunity to to see the world through the the eyes of these people who have done extraordinary things, it’s incredible, the people i’ve met who i would never have met otherwise you only travel tips for a long trip, not just like a couple of two or three nighter, but suppose you’re after ten nights, years ago, we used to have ah, what i like to be called that tony’s no style tips, tony’s travel tips hard to believe it would be in a liberation, but tony’s travel tips travel doesn’t that’s not t teacher now. So anyway, we had started there years ago. I just used to plead with the regular contributors to give me a style tip or something weird, the more formative years still tryingto master this podcasting still am travel tips for people on the road for, you know, a week or more. Well, it’s funny, i actually i was going to put this in the book, and i didn’t. So there’s there is more material out there. I wrote sort of things basically travel tips, right? There’s gonna be a volume two sequel, so i have many, many things. A lot of it is a really all right. Well, one thing i’ll say for fund-raising in-kind non-profit your listeners always have back-up meeting set because you’re going to have cancellations, things are going to move around. So that’s something i’ve learned, i would just be crestfallen when i’d have a triple set and then one by one meetings with follow-up hard. Now i find myself in a starbucks just depressed, you know, you’re on the institutions nickel to exactly what am i doing in san francisco? Back-up trips? Back-up visit visits is key what are some other? Good tips that i have durney too many, all right. Well, yes, when you travel, you do that’s. What i like to do is a sort of i guess these air back-up i’m in town, then i call people who have always said now, you know, i don’t want you to come to just to visit me. Yeah, i get that. So actually, sometimes i would go just to visit them, and then i would build a trip around them, but i’d say, you know, i’m gonna be in town to see somebody else in a couple days or or depending on the person, i’m not even spring it on them, like the night before or day before because a lot of people planned e-giving e-giving consulting mostly retired, you know, now they do have, you know, if you get him out of there with a doctor’s appointment, then i am that wipes out the whole day. Sure, now i have a doctor. Point ten now, four o’clock dinner. No dinner now. I wouldn’t do that. I have a doctor appointment. Ten o’clock. I can’t make the dinner, so you run that risk. But you know, if you’re in town for another couple days, you can still say, you know so well don’t like to know that you came for them. Yes, there are there’s a cadre of people who like to visit you, we’ll take the visit yet as long as they don’t feel that you’re there. The reason you came? Yes, absolutely, and a cz related to that. I’ve found that sometimes it is usually easier to get the meeting on very short notice, you know, you plan these things far in advance, but there’s a real magic sometimes to say, hey, i’m going to be around tomorrow, you know, just so happens i’m in town. Yeah, someone looks at their schedule, they have an opening. Sure, you know, it’s not something that you would. You would plan a trip that way, way, your tonto. But but there is, you have some anker visits, you know, pretty solid ones, you know? We’re not going very unlikely to bail, right, and then you can build the other ones around. Yeah, and sometimes a short notice actually is convenient for bianca and works out. Um, just remind listeners, of course, that the name of the book is no one dreams. Of being a fundraiser. That’s it barnes and noble it’s an amazon find book retailers near you well online. Yeah, find online book retailers a click away so, you know, live listeners. You could check it out right now. Go to barnes. I happened like barnes and noble. Okay, check it out. Well, well, well. I continue the chat with while we continue to chat with with mitch channeling you channeling you trying to think, what would you do? Or that person asked? Course, i don’t know who the person is, but i’m amusing myself opening yourself up to donors. You talk about some donors, you’ll share your music passed with something long, but but the personal connection means a lot, right? Yeah, it does. It does to an extent, because generally my philosophy is i mean, you need that personal connection because you want trust and you want a real genuine report. But at the end of the day, it’s about the donor and that’s something that i’ve learned is that generally you find that if i’m talking too much on a meeting it’s probably not going that well because they’re not opening up. I’m not learning from them. Right. So it’s, like you need that, that human connection and that hopefully a long term relationship, but it’s it’s it’s about there experiences, as i say in the book there ah ha, moments, you know that how they really feel about the organization kind of getting to that understanding and and that that their emotional connection to the mission of the organization you’re representing that’s what it’s all about it’s out it’s both yeah, i’d love to end there, but we have another minute together. Okay, i think i want to say okay, say it in a minute. In a minute. Yeah, okay. Oh, you mean from now for milk? When? It’s morning. Say for a minute, i’m just not that smart. When i was going to say was, you know, getting back to when i was saying earlier that i look to major gift officers like they’re another species of human, if there’s anyone out there who’s thinking about the fields, working as a gift officer, i just i see myself in part of the reason why i wrote the book is to be a champion for the field because i think it’s the best job in the world again, as i was saying, and it’s so powerful to be able to help make a difference for our cause and to meet wonderful people and it’s, i feel very grateful that i stumbled upon this, and even if you think you couldn’t do it, you should still try it. If there’s an inkling of the suspicion, you might want to do it, give it a try, pursue it, dip your toe into it. Maybe ask someone you work with to take you on a visit and experiment and you might surprise yourself because i never would have thought a million years. I’d want to do this now i feel like i found my calling that’s a great place to wrap it up. Great. Thank you so much. Misha linker, professional fundraiser in education and author of no one dreams of being a fundraiser. My unexpected journey from music to major gifts thank you again. Thank you very much. Next week, scale up and be sustainable. Kathleen kelly janice will be with me to talk about her new book, social startup success. If you missed any part of today’s show, i beseech you, find it on tony martignetti dot. Com that’s a good word, were supported by pursuing online tools for smaller midsize non-profits data driven and technology enabled. Tony dahna slash pursuing capital p weinger sepa is guiding you beyond the numbers. Wetness. Cps dot com, appaloosa counting software designed for non-profits non-profit wizard dot com and tell us credit card and payment processing your passive revenue stream. Tony dahna slash tony tell us our creative producers, claire meyerhoff. Sam liebowitz is the line producer show social media is by susan chavez, and his very cool music is by scott stein of brooklyn. You with me 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 craig newmark insights orn presentation or anything? People don’t really need the fancy stuff they need something which is simple and fast. 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