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Laurence Pagnoni: Getting To The Next Level
Laurence Pagnoni is author of the book, “The Nonprofit Fundraising Solution.” Based on his work as an executive director and fundraising consultant, he has proven strategies to get you to the next level of fundraising revenue. (Originally aired November 8, 2013)
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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. Welcome to our newest sponsor, tello’s credit card and payment processor. They’re out of norman, oklahoma, but they serve the world welcome. Tell us so glad you’re with us. Thank you for supporting non-profit radio. Oh, i’m glad you’re with me. I’d get slapped with a diagnosis of lymph node itis if you inflamed me with the idea that you missed today’s show, get to the next level. Lawrence paige nani is author of the book the front non-profit fund-raising solution based on his work as an executive director and fund-raising consultant, he has proven strategies to get you to the next level of fund-raising revenue this originally aired on november eighth twenty thirteen and i did have to make a switch from what i announced last week, we will get oracle net sweet on later this year. I’m working on that on tony’s take two e-giving tuesday, responsive by pursuant full service fund-raising data driven and technology enabled pursuant dot com and by wagner, sepa is guiding you beyond the numbers witness oppa is dot com, you’re not a business you’re non-profit kaplow’s accounting software designed for non-profits non-profit wizard dot com and tell us they’re turning payment processing into passive revenue streams for non-profits tell us processing dot com here is lawrence paige nani will get to the next level. I’m very pleased that lawrence paige no knees book and his work bring him to the studio. He has spent twenty five years in the nonprofit sector and was an executive director of three non-profit fitz he’s been a faculty member at the gnu heimans center for philanthropy and fund-raising we’ve had guests from there, and the coach is a group of executive directors with the rutgers business schools institute for ethical leadership. His book is the non-profit fund-raising solution. Powerful revenue strategies to take you to the next level lorts back. Tony, welcome to the studio. Thank you so much. I’m glad to be here. It’s. A real pleasure to have you know, i love having live in studio guest. It just makes it that much more special. Congratulations on the book, it’s. Just it’s out this month, right? Yes. Just a few weeks ago and and delighted. It has a robust sales so far. Excellent, very good for you. Thank you. I have to ask you this. I’ve wondered about this since i first saw your name, which is years. Why isn’t it panjwani wipe agnone? How did you i’m not martignetti why did you? Somewhere along the lineage you went to patin? Tony had that happened? It’s my grand. My grandmother would like your question. It’s, lorenzo, antonio peggy oni that’s your your it’s, like a little birdie operate you’re you’re ah, expression of it is accurate, and but, you know, in american vernacular gets paige no knee. I hate that. I hate that your grandmother would love the pan uni i was a beautiful name. It is operatic. Um, the non-profit fund-raising solution. What is the problem? Well, under capitalization of the sector plagues more than seventy seven percent of non-profits they i have a vision, but they don’t have the money to implement it. And many organizations spend years on a plateau under two hundred fifty thousand dollars trying to execute their vision for some small non-profits ah, humble budget is more than adequate, and they’re doing good services and they are meeting their vision. So don’t mean to imply that. You need money too, do your work and they’re amazing volunteer organizations. But for those organizations that that need money, i wrote the book in that spirit of trying to help them, tio, to go to the next level, which is such a ubiquitous question. I mean, i get that a lot on dh. I work only really in the planned e-giving and the charity registration niches. But even i am asked a lot. You know, how do we get to the next level? Can you help us get to the next level? So there are a lot of organizations that do want to go to increased fund-raising revenue. It’s the number one question i get when i give seminars or public trainings, and somebody inevitably will wander up to that micah’s i say in the introduction and and ask me, how do you get to the next level? And on the one hand, it’s a poetic question, but on the other hand, it’s for my sensibilities, it’s a business question with mathematical methods behind it. And the book tries to explain that if you get your leadership, understanding the vision for what the next level looks like if the board supports that vision if you think about hyre level strategies and you work on changing the culture of your organization so that the organisational development matches that vision that’s the foundation, there’s four aspects are the foundation for going to the next level, and then the rest is tactical most fund-raising is tactical. The strategy comes from the organization, and we’re gonna have time to talk about the organisational development as well as the strategies and tactics, because i love that we have the full hour together. So the symptoms of this problem are mean ah, event to event fund-raising or maybe sole source revenue streams? Yeah, most foundation grants have ah, three year limit. There are some exceptions to that, of course, places like the robin hood foundation, which see themselves as long term partners, um, but event to event without any cash reserves and some organizations just go year two year like that and and and make do and with a little bit of luck and and providence, they they squeak by, but it’s hard to plan having an impact on your mission and on the sector. The field of service, if you will, that you’ve chosen if you really want to help at risk kids, i have a better chance at getting into college or getting the right on the right employment that’s a great example because it’s, exactly it’s for you, you do have to plan for years that’s a life cycle of a child and if you’re you know, as you say, just getting by year to year, how can you plan for that child’s future? You can’t you can’t plan for your own that’s, right? Do you think that since we see such a reliance on events, i have a theory? I don’t, but you khun you’re free to disagree that the reliance on events is so that people can avoid what they fear, which is having to sit across the table from someone and looked him in the eye and ask them for a gift. Well, it’s, funny as best as i understand it, and i’m always learning events were yeah, the history of them goes back to having an opportunity to thank your individual donors. They weren’t actually fundraisers unto themselves, and then they course morphed into that when in fund-raising when the event ah, is linked to individual giving and get in to get the individual giving program. They always raise more money because the point is that the twenty percent of your individual donor base who gives eighty percent generally on your revenue since the recession. We see it’s maybe seventy. Thirty. Um, they need to be talked to individually and thoughtfully, and having tough conversations with donors is part of that territory. And i think a lot of people are, um, are shy about that. Money, of course, is one of the great taboos of life and so it’s fraught with ah, emotional issues. Um, you allude to cem cem research done by stanford about the dominant revenue source. We’ll flush that after us. Sure. Well, you often hear people say that they need a diversified revenue base. Yes, and i’ve heard that for years as a fundraiser. And as in the former executive director, i used to worry about how much time and energy that talkto have more than one or two revenue streams. So a few years ago, stanford university ah did research on one hundred and forty hundred forty one non-profits that that had gotten over the fifty million dollar marks annual budget. What they discovered was a surprise that those organizations generally had a dominant source of revenue and possibly a secondary source of revenue and wasn’t as diversified as smaller non-profits. But they also said that smaller non-profits still needed to diversify until they got to that plateau. Ah, when or they got to that level, when they could break through for a dominant source of revenue. And the reason this is interesting is that those non-profits that got over fifty million. They knew everything. There was to know about that dominant source of revenue. If it was individual giving, say, for example, habitat for humanity. Their dominant source of revenue is individual giving, followed by in-kind donations, followed by foundations. Um, they knew everything there was from about individual giving. From ah there, first acquisition, to plan giving and the whole continuum within those two ends. Yes. We are going to ah, take a break, and we’ll of course continue with lawrence, and we’ll talk a little more about the the inflexibility that we’re talking about now and that sort of tradition of of dominant source giving, but then we’re gonna move on and we’re going to talk about what it takes for the organization, too develop within before he can get to the next level, so hang in there. You’re tuned to non-profit radio tony martignetti also hosts a podcast for the chronicle of philanthropy fund-raising fundamentals is a quick ten minute burst of fund-raising insights published once a month. Tony’s guests are expert in crowdfunding, mobile giving event fund-raising direct mail and donor cultivation really all the fund-raising issues that make you wonder, am i doing this right? Is there a better way there is? Find the fund-raising fundamentals archive it. Tony martignetti dot com that’s marketmesuite n e t t i remember there’s a g before the end, thousands of listeners have subscribed on itunes. You can also learn maura the chronicle website philanthropy dot com fund-raising fundamentals the better way welcome back to big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent. Lawrence paige nani is with me. He is the author of the non-profit fund-raising solution. So before the break, we were talking a little about thiss dominant source so they knew their dominant source and maybe a secondary source very well. So it’s so it’s not so bad. Teo teo, be focused that way. No. Ah, it turns out that that that there are different levels in every revenue source of from an average level two quite skilled level. What they had a have, of course, in their dominant source of revenue was they had to have deep and abiding expertise. Ah lo, staff turnover amongst the fund-raising staff was very important for those organizations because the institutional memory of with their donors had to be preserved. It’s called development for a reason it’s a developmental process. So if you’re walking the walk with a donor through their lifetime of giving, if they get comfortable with a fundraiser, the chances of that fundraiser being able to raise more money are much higher now. Of course, that’s that’s ah juxtaposed to the chronicle philanthropies article this past year, which showed that the turn of the dissatisfaction amongst fundraisers with their organizations was extremely high. Yes, and i we talked about that on the show. Did you? Yeah, i was distraught to hear that. And because fund-raising is a noble profession, and when it’s not respected, the process is not respected than people expect returns too fast, or they expect the fundraiser toe come in with donor’s ready to g o without having to cultivate them for your mission. And these are very irrational ideas dominate the conversations around fund-raising but it’s called development for a reason, and those non-profits that god above fifty million that had a dominant source were they had a patients to their culture, and they respected the cultivation process and they closed, you know, on on major gifts much more frequently than those that didn’t have that culture. What was the first organization that you were executive director of? Oh my, it was a soup kitchen for the homeless in richmond, virginia, and i’m guessing there are a lot of lessons you learned there. Oh, my goodness, i i on the and in the book i tell the story of how i forgot about the board no, i didn’t. I didn’t technically forget about board. I attended board meetings. I prepared my reports. I i had the board book ready and met with the committee’s when they needed me, but in my soul they were superfluous, and what was really important was getting the programme metrics right and getting the fundraising going. But i came to see how the board ah, in my second executive directorship, here in new york, at harlem united, i came to see how the board i could give the organization a gift that the ceo cannot, which is the gift of longevity and survivability, and that great word that we use in the sector sustainability. So in your ah experience in was in west virginia, richmond in virginia, at the soup kitchen. Were you sort of dragging the board along as you as you worked on the metrics that were important to you or you would just take kicking them was more my style. Okay, so clicking from behind? Well, there was the italian way, the italian right? More like a bull bull in a china shop. But ah, the urgency was, of course, that homelessness was extremely bad. The single room occupancy hotels in richmond, virginia, were closing at a rapid rate, and the homeless shelters were were increasing. So we had a a profound sense of urgency, and then right in the middle that the aids epidemic was becoming clearer to us. And so there was this sense of urgency, and we in fact founded three different organizations. Ah, as spin offs to to our non-profit but i came to see the value of board leadership and bored endorsement and and to recruit people that did add value. Not everybody is meant to be a boardmember and i had made the mistake of just recruiting volunteers that had a passion for the board. Without necessarily having the business, talents and skills that i needed to fulfill the mission that we were, we were aimed at over ten to twenty years, and we’re going to talk later on about one of the opportunities that you’ve identified leadership counsels for maybe the type of people that you’re talking about not suitable for the board but have interest and passion. And so there may be another role for them. Yes, so let’s talk about the board now the board has to metoo it’s essential at the board be developed before the organization is going to get to the next level? Oh, yes, ah, a lot of ceos inherited inherit aboard when they take a job that isn’t necessarily up for the task, and they wait on the sidelines for something magical to happen with that board, and they don’t necessarily see themselves as an intervening variable to bring the board to the next level themselves. But i recommend in my book that they do see themselves as part of the change process for the board by meeting personally with board members by recruiting people who have the skills and talents that they’d be delighted to have. In leaders and that’s not all they’re not always easy processes. They take time, but you’re trying to develop a shared vision on the board. Exact between the executive leadership and the the ceo executive director and the and the volunteer leadership that’s. Right. This could take a long time to align a vision. It can, but there are plenty of examples where it happens rather fast. I mean, the board share one. The board in richmond, virginia. The board of harlem united here in new york. They were united around the being thought leaders in the field of of ah, innovative health care for people who fell outside the health care system, the homeless and indigents. And they they i saw their revenue streams from the government, both federal and state, as needing to be reformed so that they could get the funds that were needed. For example, in nineteen ninety one there were no article. Twenty eight healthcare, primary care, organised clinics. For people living with aids, they were only the peruse of mental health. So what the board did with the executive staff leadership is they formed a statewide organization called the adult they health care coalition. And they changed the way the revenue stream were structured so that article twenty eights could include primary care for people living with aids. Article twenty eight is a federal state of new york state state health. S o that you could receive third party medicare reimburse. Okay. Okay. It’s. An amazing revenue stream. Extremely stable. And it helped people keep people out of hospital emergency rooms so you can provide care at a much lower rate. So sometimes revenue streams have that level of complexity to them. And you need a board that could understand the thinking behind them. And sometimes revenue streams are easier to understand. I mean, i think that’s why people often gravitate to foundation grants. They can look at a foundation’s website. They could understand the application process, and they throw there their hat in the ring to see if there are going to be, you know, lucky. Let zoho focus on again the achieving this shared vision across the board. So it certainly takes place in inboard recruitment board meetings and a month after month. I mean what’s the what’s, the executive director’s role in trying tow align the board with this with a common vision. Well, one of my great teachers, carl matthiasson, who was expert in board development hey used to say that a board will talk about anything and then he’d pause and he’d say, if you let them sound the point, the point was that the executive director ah, in in private dialogue with the board chair or the executive committee had to understand how to create an agenda that was consistent with where they were headed, so that the organization didn’t waste a lot of time. Often times, you know, can you imagine tony in an average year, how many board meetings i sit in and listen? And so much of what boards talk about is not is inconsequential to their their deepest desires and goals, paperclips and on dh office supplies a cz one example, you know, thinking ok, go and no on the worst, and the executive director doesn’t want to be micromanaged, you know you hear that language a lot. Of course. On the other hand, the executive director is under macro managing and the opposite, of course, of micro management is macro management and macro management is about the strategic alliance of the vision and here’s, where you see a lot of executive director’s, check out the and it leaves them vulnerable to being micromanaged. So i encourage in the book for the culture of a board to be robust and that the ceo see him or herself as part of a shaper or leader in that now lot of non-profit see, youse will read that and they would go well dahna you know, i’ve been doing of course i’ve been doing that for years, but when you look across the sector that’s not necessarily the habit off many ceos, they they often see themselves as just employees of the board and they and they abdicate that board leadership responsibility, yes, even though they’re not the named chair of the board, but you’re advocating that they still have a strong role in board leadership that’s, right? And some ceos who were former program directors and then that he became the ceo, they’re not by their character change agents. So what i’m describing is a character of a ceo that’s really a change agent because i’m interested in high performing non-profits that that solve the social problem that they set out to solve, whether it be reducing teen pregnancies or having more kids get through the school system successfully or or adult employment, for example. Um, so those ceos of those kinds of organizations generally are changing agents and it’s not to say there’s something bad about the ceos are not it’s, just that i think that they have to think about a different place in the sector that might be better suited for their skills and talents. Okay, let’s, talk briefly about the gift of significance that you recommend from from board members and you in the book, you have a calculation for what that ought to be boardmember boardmember and we don’t really have a chance to go through that calculation. But what? What? Why not a significant gift? Why? Why is it a gift of significance? Well, that’s a significant point. Most boards think about board trust e-giving as giver. Get, um dahna and then there’s. A third part of that is unsaid, which is give, get or get off. Get off! So i never liked that. And i taught at the united way here in new york city for many years i taught their board seminar and and did the given get policies and there’s wisdom to that and i’m not opposed to give and get policies, but i think there’s a ah much more thoughtful way to engage the process, which is to have a conversation about a gift of significance. What for you when you look at your philanthropic giving in the past few years, given your current income, what is a significant gift that stands out amongst all your, um, you’re you’re giving and the reason that this is a particularly good approach for trustee is that a trustee is stepping up in a leadership capacity toe inspire other donors to give by their giving, and they have to see the connection between how they think about they’re giving and what they want the donors of the organization to do. Because the development director or the vice president, institutional advancement or the ceo needs to say, my trustees have stepped up, they’ve made leadership gifts one hundred percent a hundred percent they khun cumulatively give, um, you know, twenty six thousand seven hundred fifty three dollars, i’m that precise when i calculate the cumulative giving of aboard and reported back to two donors and the donor’s often laugh, but i’d rather give them the real numbers to know that this is a real process if you’re if their boat donors, if you’re trustees on your board, that can’t give a gift of significance, but it’s not sure everybody can give the gift of significance. I mean, i’ve had its what’s significant to that exactly. I’ve had consumers of services that that social work, term consumers or program members on the boards that i’ve worked at and and i’ve used the same principle with them, it could be five dollars could be fifty dollars, but for them, it’s a significant gift and it’s in phrasing it that way is a gift of significance. It captures the energy that we’re looking for around thinking about being ah fund-raising leader and, of course, ideally, too, from time to time, you want to ask the board to stretch beyond their normal giving, which is when you’re in a campaign or ah, special drive or there’s an anniversary, things like that. So continuing with some of the strategies that you recommend, um, you like like parlor gatherings over what’s, a parlor gathering could be in an office conference room could be in your living. Room ah, parties with a purpose is that is the general frays. And the purpose is the benevolence that the party it’s not a party for a party sake it’s a party for purpose. And the purpose is to sponsor and endorse and give money to the charity that is is the primary focus. They’re ninety minute gatherings. I describe the actual methods and roll out and is very user friendly chapter but, ah lot of organizations keep waiting for that moment when they’re going to go to the next level and fund-raising, of course, is a practitioners art. So here in the parties where the purpose you see avery practical method that you could roll out in two to three months, sixty to ninety days in fact, one of the smaller non-profits that listens to your radio program read the book their whole development committee. They’re all volunteers. Well, i love them because they’re listening. Yes, i don’t care what they do fund-raising wise. Frankly, lawrence, i don’t care if they bought your book or not. They’re there listening to the show that you could stop there. I love them, whoever you are, we love you. You know who? You are we love you. I’m sorry, i know it’s true and they they are going to do a party that when they called, i said, i’ll give you a free as i do anybody, i give anybody of free ah forty minute phone conversation about questions they have about the book, or i also come into organizations to meet with the development team or aboard team anyway, so i gave them a free consultation and they wanted to do a party with a purpose in the future, and i said, oh, no, we’re going to have it before the year and we’re doing it now and they’re going to be doing it right after between christmas and new year’s. Excellent more with lawrence paige nani is coming up first pursuing they’ll help you find your existing donors who are hiding in your file the ones who are prime for upgrade how do you identify them? And deep in your relationships with them? It’s the next free webinar that’s the way to find out is find hidden gems lurking in your file looking you have these gems, they’re looking it’s november seventeenth at one o’clock eastern, but that doesn’t matter. You sign up to watch live or watch the archive, and when the archives available, you get an email, so register at the non-profit radio listener landing page, which is tony dot slash pursuant remember capital p wagner cpas. They do go way beyond the numbers some articles do you do you do missions, trips? If you have missions, trips, they have an article on missions, trips, contributions if you’re not doing mission strips, what about promises to give versus intentions to give? When do you record a receivable? You don’t know? You know you need to know this, but you do lots of valuable resource is way beyond the numbers. Wagner cpas dot com click resource is then blawg stop wasting your time using business accounting software for your books using quickbooks or sage, but you aren’t a business you’re non-profit you’ve heard those rumors, you are non-profit apples accounting is designed for non-profits built from the ground up for you, working in non-profits to make your accounting easy and affordable, they’re at non-profit wizard dot com, tell us credit card and payment processing. Welcome again to them. Does your organization need a passive residual revenue stream that pays? Like clockwork every month that is tello’s payment processing their partner non-profits get fifty percent of every dollar that tell oh skits and the merchants love them so easy to work with. Tell us processing dot com now time for tony’s take two. My latest video is giving tuesday are you on board? We did a whole show on this last week. My video includes lots of links. It’s e-giving tuesday roundup plenty of info for you plus remember there’s the possum shooting video and one of the links is how to cook your possum. I like to do mine the way the guy in the video does with sweet potatoes and bacon after i’ve captured one humanely my possum meals so start all that with the video at tony martignetti dot com and then go from there for the roundup in all the links that is tony’s take two let’s do the live lesser love it’s got to go out even though i’m prerecorded this week the love goes out. The love is emanating out from here on west seventy second street in new york city to the people who are currently listening live currently then now when it airs on the sixth. So live love to you you know who you are you don’t you don’t! You don’t really need me to define it. That’s true live love out to the live listeners and then the podcast pleasantry to our many, many multitudes, many scores like hundreds of scores of podcast listeners, the pleasantries go out to you so grateful that you are with us. You are the biggest chunk of our listeners. Thank you so much for being with us pleasantries to the podcasters and the affiliate affections to our am and fm listeners throughout the country. So glad that you’re station hosts the show so glad that you are listening you might give them some feedback. Let them know that you are in fact listening so that they no, that non-profit radio has an audience on their station am fm stations throughout the country, affections to listeners there, here’s more with lawrence paige, no knee and get to the next level let’s talk more about parlor gatherings. Lawrence you do is avery vory askew, said user friendly chapter, you have a lot of very robust advice, and i’ve always liked the idea of a small, intimate gathering so we’re goingto focus on my prejudice for these types of events, not to the exclusion well here on the show, and we don’t have a chance to talk about everything all the strategies that you have in the book, but the book is full of lots of fund-raising strategies i happen to like the i never heard them called parlor gatherings, but i like, i like that idea. Um, who should host these thes parlor gatherings? Generally? There’s one one host who has a good network of friends, were colleagues, family members and khun turnout twenty five to thirty people. Um, i’ve been it parties where the purpose parlor gatherings that have as much money as seventy five that’s a big parlour. Yeah, but they have, you know, they’re people with big names, and they have big networks and s o mostly, the host is responsible for inviting the guests, mostly the host. Now, in some organizations where our host doesn’t feel that they could deliver twenty five to thirty, people, maybe they have a co host or i’ve done three hosts and each of them commit delivering, you know, ten people and and that’s worked very well. Especially because they’ve had the support in partnership of two other people that they like and they’re going to do it together and they see it as a ah fun thing to do. I love the fact that most of the the expense budgets on parlor gatherings are a couple hundred dollars. We don’t put out a lot of fancy food. We use cheap wine or no wine at all, depending on the organization that always has to be thought through. Um, and we don’t spend money on trinkets or literature. Um, um if the if the host once, um ah, paper invitations as opposed to just using ah elektronik invitation service like ping ah, the host then has to pay for the cost of that, not the organization. And um and as i said, they are usually planned in sixty to ninety days. Okay? And you want you want nobody to talk for more than five minutes. That’s, right? Who? You should talk. Well, it has to be somebody that that people can emotionally connect with generally a client or consumer who is prepared to deliver and it’s comfortable talking to a group of those could be very tender. Intimate moments when it’s when it’s someone who’s benefiting from the services of the organization. That’s right, it’s seen i’ve seen tears in in colleges, scholarship recipients, but the cause is something causes you mentioned run much more deeply even than education. Yeah, i people who have healed from years of recovery, people who have been supported in their process of coming out of jails and prisons, people who i have ah been through adoption processes. I mean, their stories are extremely powerful, and telling a story is what you need to help them work on and prepare for, so that they have some flare on some theatrics to it where the the audience makes eye contact with them, and that that they have good hand gestures and that they’re articulate and everybody, of course, has their own style. I’ve been where some climb i’ve been to some parties with a purpose where the clients are are very stove oj and they have a quiet manner, but nonetheless, your grandmother would appreciate it slipping little italian, italian and there you are, italian listeners. Ah, they’re they’re quieter in their presentation, but nonetheless still powerful because they prepared still very moving. Very moving video is often good at larger events, but in smaller events ah, the intimacy of the smaller room gives gives good stage two to two personal witness who else should be talking? Well? The the some official from the organization of boardmember or volunteer or staff member ceo doesn’t have to be to see you. No, no, the ceo is more than happy more than welcome to think of him or herself, but again in a high functioning fund-raising culture, everybody should be empowered to talk about the money and teo, talk about the money in a way that that other people get it and doesn’t have to be the ceo there. There’s a one of the stories i tell in the book is a first party with a purpose for a small agency in brooklyn substance abuse recovery agency. They never did any private fund-raising they’d always relied on government grants and their first time out, they raised twenty six, twenty seven thousand dollars. They had two clients tell their story and ah boardmember, who never saw herself as a fundraiser, stood up and was crying after listening to the two consumers tell their story and she burst out with a five thousand dollar pledge and somebody else in the room matched it, and none of that was prepared. But it was prepared conceptually, because we do have a bias in who we invite, that we try to invite people that we know something about, that they have some means now we’re not. We’re not strict about that, but we do ask the question on do seek people who have that some level of affluence now, a lot of smaller non-profits say right off the bat, i don’t know anybody, you know, with the that level of affluence, and i say, okay, well, let’s work with what we have, and but amazingly, they always find somebody who writes that eighty percent of the rooms check on dh rehearsing you like tio, you’d like to rehearse. These rehearsing is very important, you know, the penultimate example of steve jobs that before he passed away at at apple, his his launches of new products were legendary, right? That he practiced those for weeks six, seven weeks every single day, running the whole team through rehearsals and himself, and anything worth go doing is worth practising foreign preparing well for so don’t think you could just, like, call the client up the night before and say, would you speak tomorrow at our, you know, party with a purpose? That’s not the way to do it? And what about the important follow-up to your parlor gathering well? Ah ah ah part of the second speaker or the third speakers role is to ask for funds and and a pledge form has handed out, and some people fill it out right there and it’s collected as people leave and for those that don’t hand the pledge, forman follow-up is necessary first of all, follow-up is necessary for everybody to say thank you, wei have a rule of sending out our thank you notes and forty eight hours business hours, which a lot of non-profits find, you know, really? Ah, hi rule to meet, but we think it’s important that people get both paper and email, thank you’s, and they get a cumulative understanding of what happened at the party because a lot of donors are going to leave and they’re not going to know the cumulative results that they participated in that twenty six or twenty seven thousand or five thousand or twenty, five hundred was raised whenever share that impact. You want to share that impact, and you want to be let people feel the good vibes of that they participated in, that they made it happen. And so the thank you notes need to go out the the results need to be go out by both female and paper. And then, of course, the e-giving history needs to be recorded in your database and there’s. No excuse for a non-profit whether they’re volunteer with no budget, not having a database, as i say in the book, you can go to e base dot or go get a free database that was developed by the rockefeller family foundation at my website. For the book the non-profit fund-raising solution dot com there’s links to free databases, or you could just use a good excel spreadsheet and stay organized or an access that a base that’s comes with your you know your computer there’s no excuse these days for you don’t have toe spend, you know, ten thousand a month with razors, edge or something, thank you for sharing those resources to leadership councils we alluded to these earlier what’s the role of a leadership council. Well, a non-profit has a board that that worries about its governance. Generally we say that the executive staff is supposed to be worried about one, two, three years of management, and the board should be thinking about five to ten years. The pentagon, of course, has a seventy five year strategic plan, so they know where they’re going to be. I would like our sector to know a lot more about where it’s going to be, but no pat, no matter how powerful your board is, you still need mork community endorsement for your organization and the leadership council gives you that it’s a non governance structure. Some people call it honorary councils or advisory councils. I like the term leadership council because it’s, what we’re looking for, we’re looking for them to be leaders and sometimes those leaders khun step up and say things that your board can’t say, or your executive staff can’t say about your cause. And as we saw this pit last year or two years ago with planned parenthood, there were many people on its leadership council who spoke up. In their defense, where they’re bored, needed to keep, ah, quieter, acquired or voice. So leadership councils are very important. And sometimes you put people on leadership councils who don’t want to do the heavy lifting of governance. And sometimes you put them on because you have good feelings about how they love your organization, and you want to maintain that relationship, but they’re not appropriate for the board. So it’s a it’s, a mix of characters. We’ll take a break for a couple minutes. Keep talking about leadership councils. Like what you’re hearing a non-profit radio tony’s got more on youtube, you’ll find clips from a standup comedy, tv spots and exclusive interviews catch guests like seth gordon. Craig newmark, the founder of craigslist marquis of eco enterprises, charles best from donors choose dot org’s aria finger, do something that worked. And naomi levine from new york universities heimans center on philantech tony tweets to, he finds the best content from the most knowledgeable, interesting people in and around non-profits to share on his stream. If you have valuable info, he wants to re tweet you during the show. You can join the conversation on twitter using hashtag non-profit radio twitter is an easy way to reach tony he’s at tony martignetti narasimhan t i g e n e t t i remember there’s a g before the end he hosts a podcast for the chronicle of philanthropy fund-raising fundamentals is a short monthly show devoted to getting over your fund-raising hartals just like non-profit radio, toni talks to leading thinkers, experts and cool people with great ideas. As one fan said, tony picks their brains and i don’t have to leave my office fund-raising fundamentals was recently dubbed the most helpful non-profit podcast you have ever heard. You can also join the conversation on facebook, where you can ask questions before or after the show. The guests were there, too. Get insider show alerts by email, tony tells you who’s on each week and always includes link so that you can contact guests directly. To sign up, visit the facebook page for tony martignetti dot com. Duitz i’m christine cronin, president of n y charities dot orc. You’re listening to tony martignetti non-profit radio big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent. What is our leadership council going to do? I lied endorse for legitimacy, credibility, they’re there to say we like these guys what they’re doing, we endorse and it there’s power by that association with their name, and they don’t even have to do anything just to have that happen. We do want people to do things on the leadership council. They’re generally a couple things. We want them to come to an annual gathering of the leadership council so that they could get their own personal update about the organization. Secondly, we want them to to meet with us individually, us being the development ofthis war, the executive office. We want to meet with them individually to talk about their own gift to the organization, plus their network of possibly doing guess what? Ah, party with a purpose for their network. So there’s a lot of in few inches integration of the tactics in part two of the ball, while part one is all about the way you think about fund-raising part two is all about the the intermarriage of various tactics. For example, in a leadership council, i think i mentioned this in the plan giving chapter you could have a leadership council just for the people who are part of it playing e-giving that there is a chapter devoted to plan giving. There is the only reason lawrence’s here. We’re not talking about that chapter it’s. The only thing that drew me to the book. I read it from backward. I read it, i read that chapter first. The plan giving is, ah, well, many times non-profits overlook having a plan giving society for their donors that that give through their bequests or their wills or insurance policies or whatever the mechanism and having a leadership council of your plan giving group is very important. Ah, there was a small client i worked with here in east haven, connecticut, the shoreline trolley museum. They’re in the in the midst of closing on a two million dollar campaign so that they could have proper buildings for their antique trolleys. They have one hundred antique trolleys, which tell the story of the trolleys from the eighteen hundreds. Amazing place. My kids love it and the ah, they never had paid attention to their legacy. Their their plan giving. Ah, donors and we started to talk to them or and organized that group. And they have a leadership council now off their plan giving donor and twenty, twenty one people joined the first year. And i think four five have joined the second year, and they were unsung people who had thought about e-giving for the future where i think you would know better than i, but something like a low seven percent of people think about a plan gift. Whereas in there course of their life, like eighty five or ninety percent of people think about giving but upon their death, they generally just leave their money to their to their family. Yeah, there’s. Some small percentage of people that have, ah, charitable bequest in there will yes, when the leadership council is advocating and endorsing, who were they advocating in endorsing, too? Ah, to the press to other thought leaders conferences during the height of the aids epidemic, the leadership council that i put together at harlem united many of those leaders would would mention in their addresses about aids and howto compassionately. Respond. They would mention that they were on the honoree council of harlem united. It meant it meant legitimacy for them and for us that they would mention that it worked both ways you had ah, leadership council, you said in the book that had fifty five members? Oh, yes, what that sounds huge. Yes. And i had the same response to the ceo, and he turned around and said, but look at my mission. I’m i have to represent, you know, thiss whole county and there were, i don’t know twenty four or five smaller towns in this county, and he represented three sectors, not just the nonprofit sector, but government and business and real estate was a big factor of that. So he needed a large counsel, and he saw the wisdom of that and he i actually had a staff member hired to manage that leadership council, and it brought him it was a wise move. It brought him a lot of impact because he he didn’t neglect his leadership council. A lot of times leadership, council’s air started. I see i go in and, um, auditing an organization and i look at their letterhead and i see, i say, oh, you have an advisory council says here? Well, yeah, but not really learns i said, what do you mean? Well, we really don’t you know, that was a couple years ago, and it was so and so’s idea and and it’s just fallen by the wayside. You see there’s an example where the culture of the organization didn’t embrace the tactic tactics don’t raise money. Yeah, excellent on their own, they need a culture to nest in and if they’re if they’re if the tactic is in an organization where the where it’s loved and cared for it then produces results, so then they get the crazy idea that, oh, well, the leadership council never really did raise much money for us, totally disassociating themselves from lack of developing it and creating a plan for it. At harlem united, our leadership council was reviewed every year, and the plan was updated and revised and evaluated, and that was brought to the boardmember that the board? I’m sorry at a board meeting, we we always had cochairs for the leadership council, male and female, pretty consistent about that for capital campaigns, male and female leaders of the campaign cabinet and those two leaders i would invite to come in and give a state of the union of the our leadership council to the board, and it was and the board members would go to the annual gathering of the leadership council. The board members were asked to do that, and so there was nice synergy and harmony there no competition, we have just about a minute and a half before to wrap up, and so i want to spend that time asking what it is that you love about the work that you do well fund-raising is a noble profession and it’s a bridge builder between the idea that you have that will make the world a better place and the money you need to actualize the program. And so the methods of fund-raising are build that bridge, and and you love building bridges, and absolutely one of my old teachers used to say, if you build bridges, don’t don’t be surprised when people walk on them or walk over you, but nonetheless fund-raising is that bridge between the non-profits idea and the reality of making it happen? There are lots of very good ideas in the book it is the non-profit fund-raising solution. Powerful revenue strategy is to take you to the next level. Lawrence paige nani lawrence’s l a u r e n c e panjwani perfect. Thank you so much for being guests. Been a pleasure. I’ve been delighted to be here, and i wanna shout out just quickly to all by blogged readers. About forty, five hundred of them raise your block non-profit fund-raising solution dot com and you can sign up there to be on the block. Outstanding. Thank you again. Thank you. Next week development assessments with glenn kaufhold if you missed any part of today’s show, i’d be seat. 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 pursuant dot com regular cpas guiding you beyond the numbers. Regular cps dot com stoploss accounting software designed for non-profits non-profit wizard dot com and tell us credit card and payment processors welcome again, tell us passive revenue streams for non-profits tell us processing dot com a creative producer is claire my off family boats in the line producer shows social media is by susan chavez and this cool music is by scott stein. Be with me next week for non-profit video. Big non-profit ideas for the out there, 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 yeah insights, orn presentation or anything? People don’t really need the fancy stuff they need something which is simple and fast. When’s the best time to post on facebook facebook’s andrew noise nose at traffic is at an all time hyre on nine a m or eight pm so that’s when you should be posting your most meaningful post here’s aria finger ceo of do something dot or ge young people are not going to be involved in social change if it’s boring and they don’t see the impact of what they’re doing so you 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, sort of dane toe add an email address card. It was like it was phone. This email thing is, we’re here now that’s. Why should i give it away? Charles best founded donors choose dot or ge somehow they’ve gotten in touch kind of off line as it were and and no two exchanges of brownies and visits and physical gift. Mark echo is the founder and ceo of eco enterprises. You may be wearing his hoodies and shirts. Tony, talk to him. Yeah, you know, i just i i’m a big believer that’s not what you make in life. It zoho, 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 put money on a situation expected to hell. You put money in a situation and invested and expect it to grow and savvy advice for success from eric sabiston. What separates those who achieve from those who do not is in direct proportion to one’s ability to ask others for help. The smartest experts and leading thinkers air on tony martignetti non-profit radio big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent.
Your board probably recognizes its fiduciary responsibilities, but does it know its role in overseeing programs? Gene Takagi is our legal contributor and principal of the Nonprofit & Exempt Organizations law group (