Featuring:
Featuring:
Big Nonprofit Ideas for the Other 95%
Episode 26 of Tony Martignetti Nonprofit Radio for February 11, 2011:
In this episode I’ll talk with the people behind three of the best nonprofit websites around.
First, I’ll speak to Marcia Bloomberg, founder NonProfit Direct: The NonProfit National Resource Directory.
Nonprofit Direct is absolutely free for nonprofits looking for assistance to help them survive and thrive. Consultants, coaches, vendors and specialists pay a low ONE-TIME fee for a listing. In order to have a listing on the site, a business or service does not have to be a nonprofit; rather a business or service is being offered to the nonprofit sector.
Second, I’ll speak to Diane MacDonald, principal of Philanthropy Alive! Philanthropy Alive’s mission is to connect organizations to foster capacity building and collaboration for more effective program delivery, leveraged buying power and to create a united and growing voice of advocacy to inspire change.
Last, I’ll talk to Ami Dar, founder of Idealist.org.
Idealist connects people, organizations, and resources to help build a world where all people can live free and dignified lives.
Idealist is independent of any government, political ideology, or religious creed. Their work is guided by the common desire of our members and supporters to find practical solutions to social and environmental problems, in a spirit of generosity and mutual respect.
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I interview the best in the business on every topic from board relations, fundraising, social media and compliance, to technology, accounting, volunteer management, finance, marketing and beyond. Always with you in mind.
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Here is a link to the podcast: 028: Resplendent Resources
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Welcome to tony martignetti non-profit radio big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent, i’m your aptly named host. What a coincidence that i found this terrific show you may recall last week it was branded best bets for branding and promoting your non-profit my guest was howard levy he’s, the principal of the red rooster group. This week we have resplendent resource is non-profit direct philanthropy alive and idealist, dot or ge critical help for your smaller midsize non-profit the founders of these three sites are going to talk to us about what they’re doing, what the sites air about and why you should be using them. I’ll talk to marsha bloomberg with non-profit direct in the studio with me will be diane mcdonald, with philanthropy alive and by tape mihdhar, the founder of idealist dot or ge that’s from an interview that was recorded at the next-gen charity conference last november on tony’s take two thirty two minutes after the hour. Itunes is not only coming, itunes is here. I’ll remind you about that all of that after this break. But before the break, i just wantto recognize something historic. Today is the day that ah, the egyptian president hosni mubarak resigned. He has left the country. Our producer sam didn’t know that because he’s behind the controls all day happened around five p m local time in cairo. He went to his family vacation home. He and his and his family went to their vacation home in sharm el sheikh, and the vice president made a very brief announcement that said the president had resigned and the army is in control. The president left the army in control. So if you’re listening to this ten years later, i’m sure this podcast it’s the last, at least that long you’ll look back on this as the historic day that egyptian monarchy became, well, became something else. We’ll have to see what becomes. We’re going to take a two minute break, and after we returned, i’ll be with marcia bloomberg. Stay with me, you didn’t do anything, do e-giving ding, ding, ding ding. You’re listening to the talking alternate network e-giving duitz is your marriage in trouble? Are you considering divorce? Hello, i’m lawrence bloom, a family law attorney in new york and new jersey. No one is happier than the day their divorce is final. My firm can help you. We take the nasty out of the divorce process and make people happy. Police crawl are said to want to nine six four three five zero two for a free consultation. That’s lawrence h bloom, too. One, two, nine, six, four, three, five zero two. We make people happy. Durney are you suffering from aches and pains? Has traditional medicine let you down? Are you tired of taking toxic medications, then come to the double diamond wellness center and learn how our natural methods can help you to hell? Call us now at to one to seven to one eight, one eight three that’s to one to seven to one eight one eight three or find us on the web at www dot double diamond wellness dot com way look forward to serving you. Hey, all you crazy listeners looking to boost your business? Why not advertise on talking alternative with very reasonable rates? Interested simply email at info at talking alternative dot com welcome back with me now is marcia bloomberg. Marcia is the founder of non-profit direct. Over nearly thirty years, she has worked in education and family services in new hampshire and vermont, and at the jewish community federation of cleveland, ohio, and also cleveland hillel. In two thousand seven, she founded the bloomberg group, a consulting and coaching company in western massachusetts, and she also created non-profit direct the non-profit national resource directory, and that is what brings her to the show today. Welcome, marcia, how are you? Fine, thank you, toni, and thank you so much for having me on today to talk about non-profit direct is my pleasure to have you welcome you saw a need. What what was that need? I did you know, i can’t really deeply about non-profits in the work they do to make the world a better place. And when i was in cleveland as executive director of a nonprofit there, cleveland hillel sometimes needed an outside event coordinator program, evaluation of evaluator or a grant writer, and i wasn’t sure what i could find someone who could really provide what we needed, and i might ask around among my colleagues, but sometimes that works sometimes it didn’t. I might get one name, but i didn’t know where to find a list of consultants with their credentials and testimonials. So when i moved to massachusetts a couple of years ago and i got my certification in life coaching, i realized that an important by product of the coaching program was that i had to focus on my own life and what inspired me. So as a result of that introspection, i was inspired to create non-profit director non-profit nasco resource directory. I figured if i had a need, others must have a need as well. So it started as a directory of consultants, i guess, and vendors to non-profits exactly when i started in december two thousand eight that’s exactly what it was at this point. It’s grown teo well over two hundred consultant coaches, vendors and specialists, and we now include other kinds of resource is i’m really happy to say, what is the the girl? Uh, police marchenese it w w w dot non-profit dafs direct dot com okay, non-profit dash direct dot com. So two hundred, i’m sure you aspire to be much larger. Absolutely. I would love to have a thousand or more consultants and vendors and specialist listed from across the united states. Right now, we do have folks who served non-profits from almost every state in the union. But i would really love to have five times as many. Okay, why don’t you give us a sense of the breath of the vendors and consultants that you have? Okay, well, we have people listed in over eighty categories of service, so there are folks who offer services in accreditation administration management. There are folks who provide awards and recognition board development. We have those who are specialists and capital campaigns and other kinds of philanthropic development in civil rights, compliance in multi agency collaboration in diversity, all kinds of things. Okay, and how does it work for non-profits? How did they take advantage of non-profit direct? Well, if non-profits go to www dot non-profit dash direct dot com, they will see that there is the directory, the consultant’s directory, along with ah non-profit resource library. And that library is created in conjunction with dea on core, and it is ah, listing of lots and lots of resource is that have been uploaded to idea encore, which i’ve downloaded in various areas of non-profit functioning. So that’s there for non-profits to usas well, okay, way will. We will get to the resource library. But in terms of the consultant in vendor directory first is that free for non-profits? Yes, it is it’s absolutely free to peruse the directory. I would like to say, though that non-profit direct doesn’t evaluate the firms that are listed. We really leave it. Teach non-profit too research whom and what they need and what the best matches. Okay, and how does one search is it by expert area of expertise, you can search my area of expertise if you go to the directory non-profit direct there’s. A tap on the top of the pay the welcome page that says our directory so you can actually search by service category a to z on the welcome page as well. On the right there’s, a pull down menu of service categories and you can type anything that you would like into the search function. So if, for example, someone was looking for a grant writer in massachusetts, they could type in massachusetts, and they would get a list of those firms in massachusetts. Okay, and in spirit of disclosure, i wantto our listeners to know that this show is listed on non-profit direct, but not a quid pro quo. With all the i paid the fee to be listed, and i saw the resource and that’s why i invited marshall to be on, um, marcia, you assume there are consultants and vendors all over the country. There are way. Have them from maine to alaska. Okay, we are going to take a short break, a couple minute break, and when we returned, of course, marcia bloomberg, founder of non-profit direct, will stay with us. I hope you do, too. Talking alternative radio twenty four hours a day. Are you feeling overwhelmed in the current chaos of our changing times? 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Is this you mind over matter, health and fitness can help. If you’re expecting an epiphany, chances are it’s not happening. Mind over matter, health and fitness could help you get back on track or start a new life and fitness. Join joshua margolis, this fitness expert, at two one two eight six five nine to nine xero, or visit w w w dot mind over matter. Y si dot com. You’re listening to the talking alternative network. Duitz no. Oppcoll hi there. Welcome back. I’m tony martignetti, the host of tony martignetti non-profit radio big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent with me. This segment is marcia bloomberg, the founder of non-profit direct. You’ll find that at www dot non-profit hyphen direct dot com marcia, since we’re talking about how non-profits used the sight you you said the directory is free, and the resource center, which will get two is free, is there there is the aa membership option for non-profits is that right? Yes, are actually our latest creation is the non-profit membership, and what we offer is access to all of our tell a seminars we offer between twenty and thirty tell a seminars every year, and so there’s access to each of the tell us emissaries when a non-profit joins non-profit direct there’s also the opportunity to participate in a monthly mastermind group for non-profit leadership and to have two sessions of leadership coaching with me as the coach for a member of their organization. And in addition, we have lots of are listed specialists who have offered either discounts on their services or free consulting for those who join as the non-profit member of non-profit direct. And how did the seas work for non-profits? There are actually two different fees based on the annual budget of the non-profit so it’s a non-profit had an annual budget of under five hundred thousand dollars. Membership fee is one hundred forty nine. And if the annual budget worth five hundred thousand or more it’s two, forty nine for a membership. Okay, whatever some of the tele seminar subjects that you’ve had. Well, we actually let me tell you, the ones that are coming up. We have, i think, twelve that air scheduled through july one is brand building through the board of directors. Another one has to do with fund-raising auctions, common pitfalls and how to address them. We’ve also got fourteen keys latto leading, effective and engage in collaborative teams, raising money with social media, fundamentals of prospect research, those air, some that are coming up okay, nothing about planned e-giving in there. I’m disappointed. I think that we probably have to have you on. Let’s see, you said that your coaching background sort of led you to introspection to create non-profit direct and you do two complimentary leadership coaching for the for the non-profits have joined the site, right? What was it about? Thea, what is it about the coaching that brought you to non-profit directs a little more about that. Well, i really had teo i was being coached while i was learning to be a coach, and one of the things that coaching allows you to do is really look inside and think about what is your real purpose in life and what do you passionate about? And i knew when i went into coaching that i wanted to do something for with about non non-profits but i wasn’t quite sure what and literally it was an inspiration one day that that it popped into my head, that really what i needed to do was create non-profit direct and what would the value be to someone in getting two hours of coaching time with you? What can you do in two hours for of leadership coaching? It’s really? Just a beginning, but it’s a way for a leader in a non profit. Organization either a volunteer leader or professional to think about one challenge that they’re facing, it could be a new organizational challenge, or it could be a personal challenge that relates to the work that they’re doing and to really think about where the challenge comes from and to try to draw on their own hyre wisdom to create a plan to approach the challenge so that they can work their way through it and succeed. We’re about someone who’s apprehensive about coaching. Well, you know what? It is an option if a non-profit would like to take advantage of, you know, really it’s not mandatory, you won’t neo-sage going toe, you’re not going to tie them to a chair for two hours, but people that may have an interest, but they feel, you know, i’m sharing maybe organizational, our organization secrets or my own. I have to talk about my own shortcomings as a leader, perhaps. How do you overcome that kind of apprehensive nus for someone who may have an interest, but those are the kinds of things holding them back. Well, that’s an interesting question, and i think there are lots of folks who wonder about that. Although coaching is not therapy and it’s not consulting, it is like therapy and that anything that’s said in a coaching session is completely confidential and that is agreed upon up front. And is there a right? Is there? I’m just going to go a little further. Is there a written document that says that to assure the person yes, there is there is. There are all kinds of different kinds of coaching contracts, depending on what the services are and who the coaches and that kind of thing. But, yes, there is a document that we can each sign explaining the confidentiality of sessions. Okay, okay, that was a little digression. Just i wanted to just make that clear for people, but but so generally overcoming the apprehension. Yes. You know, i would be happy to have a conversation with anyone who might like to talk about what coaching is and what coaching entails, how we go about it. What? What techniques are what the concepts are, but i would never push anyone who was apprehensive into doing it. It would just be an educational sessions. Okay, i understand i’m with marshall bloomberg and marcia is the founder of non-profit direct non-profit hyphen direct dot com and we’re talking about some of the benefits to non-profits that might join the site, although there are free resource is on that site, you don’t have to non-profit doesn’t have to join we’re talking about some of the benefits if you if you do happen to, and marsha another one of those is the way called the mastermind siri’s, why don’t you tell us what that is? Well, interestingly enough, matt, the concept of mastermind was developed by andrew carnegie, so it’s something that’s been around for quite a while, and it was made popular by napoleon hill, who wrote a book called think and grow rich and it’s. Actually, the concept is that when people put their heads together on and they work on a challenge together, that you can create a kind of mastermind that’s more than the sum of its parts, and that you’re really drawing on everyone’s experience and a kind of collective wisdom so a mastermind would be at the other end of the spectrum of groupthink. Yeah, he’s really with groupthink. No, no, no that’s the okay that’s, the that’s, the that’s! The curse of of ah, sort of decision making by committee, which is that they end up well, there are a lot of implications of it, but basically they end up revolving around and following a course that isn’t the best, but it has to do with people not wanting to disagree with others and everybody rallying around maybe the first idea that sounds good, so everybody jumps on it, so i think it would be at the other end of the spectrum committee in committee and sort of crowdsourcing work. It’s the mastermind, yes, and it’s really not a decision by committee, it really is. But one of the members of the mastermind group may throw out a challenge, and those folks who have experience with it or have an idea about it might share something from their own experience from their own expertise. But the person that really throughout the the challenge is the one who would make the decision about what makes the most sense for him or her. I see, and you’ve had these mastermind session’s already not with the non-profits since it’s, a brand new membership option’s waiting for for a large enough group so that we can really begin, but i’ve been a member of a mastermind group for the last couple of years, and it’s been exceedingly helpful in helping me understand how to build my own business. All right, so what do we talk about the resource library, which is another offering on the site that is free, right? Sonar non-profit doesn’t have to join the site to get access to the resource library. You started to talk about it want to tell me a little more? Sure non-profit resource library is a tab on the welcome page of non-profit direct so anyone can go to it and see what’s listed there. Most of the material that’s lifted is free idea encore, who was a partner in the library, will allowed folks toe upload material that has a cost, but no one has to download that material if they’re not interested in paying for it, and i would say that ninety or ninety five percent of it is is free so there’s lots of material on starting a non-profit on legal issues for non-profits various categories of information and all in all, in downloadable form, or most of it down little form and what’s the organization. That you’re partnered with for that resource library you mentioned? Yes. It’s called idea on core network. Okay, but of course, you access it through non-profit direct. Yeah. Okay. Um so what are some of your goals for the site? It’s now i’m sorry. Just starting to its now what? To it’s? A two, two and a half years old. It’s. Two years old years, ok? And as i mentioned, i would love to have thousands of consultants, coaches, vendors and specialists listed from all around the country on dh. I would like it to be kind of a one stop shop in the first place. That non-profits look, when they’re looking for these kinds of resource is so that’s that’s really what i’m working toward. And so it sounds like a lot of education. And beyond into empowerment. Yes. Absolutely. That’s a great way to put it. All right, you can. You can use that in your it’s. Not a breach of jargon. Jail. Everybody understands empowerment. So yeah, this show we have jargon, jail for anybody, use jargon, but that’s not that’s, not jargon. That’s. Uh, that’s legitimate. So you can’t be welcome to use that. Okay. Um and this applies for and is beneficial for all non-profits of different charitable missions does that matter? I’m really trying to serve non-profits across the board, but just like tony martignetti non-profit radio, i really think that non-profit direct is most appropriate for the other ninety five percent small and midsize, exactly okay, and including startup because you mentioned that there was resource information about starting a non profit in the library in in the resource library, there is information about starting a non profit, and we have some specialists listed whose area of expertise is starting non-profit okay, so even if you’re not a non-profit yet, you still can take advantage of non-profit direct, oh, absolutely. Okay on dh geography doesn’t matter. Geography does not matter that tell of seminars are virtual that they are held by phone every couple of weeks and they’re not webinars. They’re actually done through an audio conference service, and the presenters who are speaking generally send out there are they email out their information ahead of time so that folks have a power point or a pdf toe look at it’s kind of a faux webinar. Marshall, what are some of your challenges? In in marketing and promoting non-profit direct, i think, partly that it’s so new, and that we have a national focus. And so it’s, very broad, and also i am at this point the only employee, okay? Dahna but so you’re sort of competing with sites like the one that we’re goingto profile later in the show idealist dot or ge you you want to be thought of in the first instance, but there are some sites that do have resource is maybe not his riches yours, but that are better? Well, not better known. Oh, absolutely an idealist dot organs of fabulous organization, and they have been around for quite a while. I actually looked at their sight today, and some of the differences are that one of the ways that people use idealist, not organs, when they’re looking for jobs in the nonprofit sector and that’s, not something that non-profit direct offers, they also lists all list, all kind of kinds of events non-profit events that are taking place in a multitude of places, we don’t do that, so i feel like we’re a compliment rather than competition on dh also, in fairness to you, they know idealised. Has been around since nineteen, ninety five long time, long time, all right, so let’s say, in five years, aside from having thousands of vendors and consultants, what else would you like to see on non-profit direct? I would really love to know from non-profits what their major challenges are so that we can help to address them. I feel like i have to do this in partnership with non-profits and that i can’t kind of pull out of the air where we’ll be in five years unless i know what their needs are. And so we are trying to find that out. We find it out through our tell a seminars, i’ve done some surveying, and i’ll continue to do that. And is there a way that people can get in touch with you? Are, you know, be part of that process if they’re not members of non-profit direct? Oh, absolutely. I actually have a database at this point of almost seven thousand non-profits that we’re in touch with someone would like to be in touch with me, i can give you the email address. No. Once you do that, please it’s marcia dot bloomberg at gmail dot com that m a r see a doctor b l o o m b e r g at gmail dot com and then please go home. So the possibility of signing up for our newsletter and that way i also get the contact information and that there’s an e newsletter sign up on the non-profit direct sight so that even if someone isn’t yet using non-profit direct, they can be a part of your conversation in helping to build the site. Absolutely seeing what those non-profit needs are yeah, and i would love to hear from non-profits in terms of that, what kinds of things? Yeah, what kinds of things do you do you get feedback on now? Most of the feedback actually comes through the tele seminars, so i can tell when we’re offering a tele seminar by the number of non profit organizations that registered to participate, we had anywhere from from ten to sixty and the kinds of questions that they ask and the challenges that they share during the question and answer period, why don’t you share an example of something that’s been been challenging and maybe overcome at the same time, but at least ah challenge. If not overcome the challenge that i heard the other day when we did i guess it was yesterday when we did a tell a seminar on developing relationships with grantmaker tze was an organization that has been submitting a grant to a local boedecker for several years and not been able to access a grant on also hasn’t been able to make it appointment with with anyone at the organism at the foundation. So the presenter talked about ways to get around that, and it was an interesting was an interesting challenge, and we had about twenty five organizations on the call who are trying to build relationships with grantmaker zand that’s a really critical one in this economy and and that’s something that’s shared pretty widely by small and midsize non-profits that repetitive, repetitive grant process that just never yields anything exactly exactly alright, excellent, excellent work. Ah, more sure anything you want to leave us with about non-profit direct just that i hope that folks will find it useful and that they will get in touch with me. So let me know what other kinds of resource is they might need so that we can help to create those for them. Thank you very much. Thank you for joining me, marsha. Thank you, tony. Take care, thank you very much. My guest has been marshall bloomerang bloomberg and she’s, the founder of non-profit direct. We’re going to take a short break, then it’s, tony’s, take two, and then i’ll be joined by diane mcdonald, and we’ll be talking about philanthropy alive. Another valuable site. Stay with me. You’re listening to the talking alternative network. Dahna this is tony martignetti aptly named host of tony martignetti non-profit radio big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent technology fund-raising compliance social media, small and medium non-profits have needs in all these areas. My guests are expert in all these areas and mohr tony martignetti non-profit radio fridays one to two eastern on talking alternative broadcasting do you want to enhance your company’s web presence with an eye catching and unique website design? Would you like to incorporate professional video marketing mobile marketing into your organization’s marketing campaign? Mission one on one media offers a unique marketing experience that will set you apart from your competitors, magnify your brand exposure and enhancer current marketing efforts. Their services include video production and editing, web design, graphic design photography, social media management and now introducing mobile marketing. Their motto is we do whatever it takes to make our clients happy contact them today. Admission one one media dot com hey, all you crazy listeners looking to boost your business, why not advertise on talking alternative with very reasonable rates? Interested simply email at info at talking alternative dot com welcome back where thirty two minutes into the show and that means it’s. Time for tony’s take two at thirty two. Itunes is no longer coming. I’m sad to say i’m related to say it’s already here so it’s no longer coming it’s here, you can subscribe to the show on itunes and get automated downloads. Then listen at your leisure on the device of your choice that could be your phone might be your laptop or your desktop or your ipad or some other tablet or a netbook. Whatever device can play an mp three, which is just about every device you can listen anywhere you want to sit at home, in the car, in the kitchen, the bedroom, wherever the hallway while you’re vacuuming, you can listen all those times on dh now i’m past the twenty four show Mark this is show number 20 eight so you can actually listen to twenty martignetti non-profit radio for a full day. You could just go back to back twenty four hours nonstop, non sleep and listen, take a break. You know you could take an hour, soto latto latto nap but i would keep the show playing. And so your hearing it sort of subconsciously in your sleep, i would do that. So there’s plenty of media, plenty of content for you to listen to and subscribe to and the way to subscribe is to go to non-profit radio dot net non-profit radio dot net that will bring you to our itunes, paige and that’s, where you’ll be able to subscribe, you’ll get automatic downloads to your device and listen at your leisure that is tony’s take two for friday, february eleventh with me in the studio now is diane mcdonald, and a quote that i found on ah website of hers is, quote, i believe the future of not-for-profits development lies in collaboration and sustainability. End quote diane is the director of operations for all for africa and that’s, the website where that quote is from but she’s here today to tell us about philanthropy alive and how that site and that venture will fill a collaboration gap. Diane has worked in program development with chefs for humanity, action against hunger. She founded an educational community center and developed yoga play, a therapeutic practice for children with special needs. You can tell she has a lot of experience. Around small non-profits founding them doing program work with them, as well as being an executive director or interim deputy director. I’m very pleased that her work and her around philanthropy alive and her concern about collaboration gaps brings her to the show today. Welcome, diane. Thank you for having me looking forward to being here. It’s a pleasure. You are here. You’re in here. You’re in looking forward to talking let’s. Talk about philanthropy alive. Why did you start it? Um, i had the opportunities probably about three or four years ago with the world food program to go to the north atlantic district region in nicaragua. And we were looking at the after effects of felix and food distribution, and we’re driving down the road and i’m seeing villages that are completely, really rebuilt with every different color jerry can and roofs back on the houses and then five kilometers down the road, i would see a village that was still completely decimated where people were still living under plastic and under sticks. No food, no sanitation, and it really struck me. And ever since then, i mean why some communities were were better further along in rebuilding. Than another’s well, and i think it was mostly seeing the jerry cans that in what’s a jerk a jerry can is a like a petroleum or a water jug that people carry water in. So calm in developing countries don’t want to put you in jargon jail so quickly, you’ve only been here a minute or two that’s okay, jordan charge in jail over joey kane’s. Okay, so i think what struck me is that every organization kind of has their own color, jerry can so you’d see a village that had ten different color jerry cans and another village that had no one there. And so to me, it seemed that, you know, there was no communication between organizations who was going where, how food was being distributed, how water was being distributed, how cleanup was being done, and it really struck me. And of course, we saw this with haiti and there’s been a lot of news about this in the media, and so at that moment, seeing it first hand, it just really struck me how little communication there is amongst not-for-profits really working on the ground and does that lead to what you call the collaboration gap? Yes, absolutely. Why don’t you talk about that? What? What? What bothers you there? What bothers me is that i don’t believe that organization schnoll are speaking to each other and i think that, you know, knowing myself running many charities, we get very mission driven. We are very concerned about our donor base are fund-raising and we’re not communicating with other organizations who are in our same field in our same sector, whether it’s childhood nutrition, childhood obesity, international development, s o we’re just so focused on our mission and our impact and our accomplishments that we forget to talk to our neighbors, and we don’t think about that. Perhaps in working with them, we could actually be mohr impactful on dh create greater change, and i think that it’s that communication gap, that is really the major cause of organizations not working together and philanthropy alive. And i want people to know that the site is not built out yet, but it’s founders here and it will be philantech be alive is a solution for that house house that, i presume is that it is a solution are goal is teo really and hate to use this term, but our goal is to really almost create a facebook for not-for-profits the door would be closed, so it wouldn’t be a site where initially funders and donors air looking, it would literally be a platform for not-for-profits too become in communication with other organisations in their same sector, so conversation walls about a particular topic that may be of interest on ability to communicate amongst each other. Talk about what’s working what’s not working also inability for organizations to talk across sector. So, you know, if an organization, for example, i’m very immersed in africa right now, so use this example if an organization is building a school in a village that has no sanitation, no hygiene, no health center, you know, how who can they communicate with to say, hey, let’s, come together in partnership and take a holistic perspective of how we’re going to work in this particular community rather than just go in and build just a school? So the platforms goal is to allow organizations to reach out with projects and to say where they need help, where their gaps are, and then for other organizations to be able to chime in and help fill those gaps and what’s the state of the site right now. Now, i don’t mean the site itself. I mean your your work toward developing the site. We are in conversations with the technical team, but we’re still we have a long way to go. It’s probably six months away from happening six to eight months away from happening. And you have a method similar to my first guest, marcia in gathering information, having starting these conversations with non-profits your educational sorry, your discovery educational siri’s, which is which is actually happening now. So don’t you tell us about it is great. Well, we are. We launched a series of panel discussions last month were doing those in partnership with ej, elaine, edward angels, palmer and dodge and that’s, a law firm that’s a law firm. They have a very strong tax exempt practice, and the goal of these panel discussions is really just teo again, like the website will is just to really begin to have the conversation. Our first panel discussion was funders. We had someone from arabella advisers, unicef and the robin hood foundation, and those funders really sat down and just talked to the organizations to the attendees about the different ways that they have created collaborative partnerships and the great success that they have achieved since then. So we’re going to be running thes every month for the next six months and every topics a little bit different. But all of the topics really focus on various components of collaboration. Ok, and how can someone learn more about the discovery educational siri’s they can go to our very basic website, which is www dot philanthropy dash alive, dot com and there’s a sign up sheet there to get our senate form for for getting information, being on your mailing list. Okay, these panels are they all in new york city? Yes, all the panels air happening at seven hundred and fifty lexington have on the eighth floor. And so what? What? Some of the feedback that you’re getting or messages that you’re hearing that’s actually more important than feedback. What are you hearing in these in these panels? You know, what’s. So interesting is that when this whole project first kind of came into my brain and and we started discussing it, you know, i really felt that there was going to be a huge kind of barrier across to have these conversations and what’s interesting and what was so great in january is the enthusiasm of the attendees who were all folks working in the not-for-profits sector, there is a real understanding that something has to shift and the understanding that we need to start talking more communicating, more sharing ideas, building capacity, really, having those larger conversations in the world is so apparent, and people are really, really excited by what we’re doing now. There are great examples, i think, of collaboration in some non-profit sectors, like maybe environmental work versus distressing signals and outcomes in other charitable missions, which where the collaboration gap is more severe or or exists versus where it doesn’t want to talk a little about some of the sectors that you see doing it well and not so well, um, i think the environmental sector is an excellent example, and i think that of someone who’s doing it really well, there’s a lot of different environmental organizations and associations that have pulled together, you know, many different organizations into one association it’s increased their advocacy, i think just if you look around the world today and see how much information there is out there about global warming and green salute shins you can see that there’s been success there, and that tends to be a sector where there’s been a ton of communication and a lot of collaboration and not just collaboration among non-profits right? But outside with government business is essential to draw into the environmental movement. Absolutely. So they’ve been collaborating just not among non-profits and i, i presume philanthropy alive will allow other entities besides non-profits absolutely, i think collaboration, can’tjust be among the not-for-profits there has the funders need to be involved outside corporations and businesses. I think social entrepreneurs right now there’s a lot of kind of line crossing right now with social entrepreneurs who our starting very mission driven businesses that can work in collaboration with organizations that are already entrenched in a sector. So i would agree wholeheartedly, and i think that that is where the environmental movement has been so powerful is that there’s a huge, holistic communication and every sector is involved, and you can see what that’s done the word is out there, the advocacy is clear, the message is clear and we’re all hearing about it very uplifting. But there are charitable sectors where we haven’t seen that kind of that kind of outcomes, correct? That scene just the just the two minutes or so that we have remaining, are you concerned at all that if the site is not open to donors? Ah, that it’s sort of anti transparency is that, you know, because donors funders are interested now and not only accountability, transparency, openness, do you see this as antithetical to that there’s a back into the site that will be open to funders and donors on dh? That is, after collaborative projects have been created and determined by the people within the sight that those projects can then be visible for funding. So the key is to be able to have the conversation without feeling threatened and feeling like your donor base is at risk because you’re sharing your information or talking about problems, you know we don’t in this sector, we don’t really often have an opportunity or a platform to say, hey, here’s what’s not working, who can help me and that’s because we’re always trying to talk about what is working so that we can increase our funding. But we i believe so strongly that we need a platform where people can say, hey, this is where i’m in trouble, this is what’s, not working. This is where i’m not being able to build my capacity, this’s, where i’m not feeling like i’m having a great impact, and i think that that needs to be a closed conversation. The site is philanthropy alive. You’ll find it at www. Dot philanthropy, hyphen alive, dot com and my guest has been the founder and street strategist, and working and doing everything around building the site, that is diane macdonald. Diane, thank you very much for joining me. Thank you, it’s. My pleasure, my pleasure to have you. I want to thank diane and also marcia bloomberg, and we’re going to take a break. And after this break, will hear have a pre recorded interview that i did with ami dar, the founder of idealist, dot or ge. Stay with us talking alternative radio, twenty four hours a day. Buy-in are you stuck in your business or career trying to take your business to the next level, and it keeps hitting a wall? This is sam liebowitz, the conscious consultant. I will help you get to the root cause of your abundance issues and help move you forward in your life. Call me now and let’s. Create the future you dream of. Two, one, two, seven, two, one, eight, one, eight, three, that’s to one to seven to one, eight one eight three. The conscious consultant helping conscious people. Be better business people. I really need to take better care of myself. If only i had someone to help me with my lifestyle. 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Their motto is, we do whatever it takes to make our clients happy. Contact them today. Admission. Wanna one media dot com? Talking. Durney welcome back. Now i have a pre recorded interview that i did with ami dar, the founder of idealist dot or ge. And this is from the next-gen charity conference in new york city last november. We have that interview here it is. And joining me now is ami. Dar mi is the founder and executive director of idealist dot org’s. It was built in nineteen ninety six with thirty, five hundred dollars. It has become one of the most popular non-profit re sources on the web with information provided by one hundred thousand organizations around the world. And it has seventy thousand visitors every day to the site. I’m very pleased that idealist and armies work brings him to our coverage today. Ami, thank you very much for joining me. Thank you. Let’s. Talk about idealist. I think people know it for the job. Postings out. How did, uh, how did that? That portion get started? Well, the whole thing started the same time. And we built inside ninety five, ninety six to allow any organization in the world to essentially have a space on the web for free at the time. Ever want to be on the web? But having a website wasn’t sort of obvious how you do that, and so we said, let’s, get a site where any non-profit ngo charity anywhere can come create a profile off themselves, their mission and then post the things that non-profit sort of dew and need. We didn’t get to the whole donation business, but we said, non-profits need staff, they need jobs, you know, volunteers and interns, and they produce programs, they produce events, and the produce resource is, yeah, so allow any non-profit to list as many of those as it wanted from the very beginning, and then a schools are doing that the job’s things sort of took on a life of its own, people kept coming back to the site to find jobs, and so the site became better known for that, but we still do all of the other stuff as well, and we’re going to talk about some of that other stuff, but that was a critical time in ninety five twenty six, the web was just emerging broadly and non-profits we’re trying to figure it out. Yeah, it was interesting year, i mean, ninety five, actually, we started eighty five and it’s the same year that craigslist, amazon, ebay and yahoo means interesting year the following year, another interesting year is the year in which for the first time, people took websites and attached them to databases of ninety six was a year in which you could go and find a book on amazon or go and track your package and fedex. And so we said, well, wait a second, why shouldn’t non-profits have their own database where you could, like, find stuff? And that was complete revolutionary time now it sort of now it sort of obvious, and i remember having a friend i had my first business in ninety for ninety five remember having a friend who predicted that the web wasn’t gonna last. It was bad, he’s still in business. Remarkably, he still doesn’t know his own business. I had opposite that. We have a whole bunch of meetings like that with funders, basically, who said, you know, this thing is just a fad. It’s going away there was again, you know, you just you don’t know about you, but i’m sort of getting old and i remember things for example, remember ninety six, ninety seven, ninety eight how? It 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 cleared up, but why should i give it away? So so the thing’s justified? It was going to palace. Well, it’s sort of lasted a bit. Yeah, and let’s talk about some of the other resources that are available besides so that the audience knows they could go there. Aside from looking for jobs or posting jobs. What what’s? Another area you’d like to have the audience know about? Well, volunteering for example, they could confine ability opportunities where they are all over the world. The site the whole site works in english, spanish and french. So ideas are the least touchpoint or at least one more with the whole site is in those three languages. You concert, you can browse, you can sign up, probably call him alerts, which is that you could basically put up a profile of yourself and say, you know, i’m in new york, but i want a volunteer in india as a nurse next summer and so every time non-profit post something matches your interests or your location, you’ll get a no, dear John good morning here. The 3 or four things that match you, they’re posted yesterday, and so we showed at about a quarter million of those emails every night. Two people ok on, you know, the beauty of it is that the most free, so it just goes out, doesn’t cost us anything. We want to pay for a quarter million stamps, and people get their email alerts in their inbox next morning and there’s something that i’m not sure people are that familiar with that individuals can benefit from it. The these types of volunteer opportunity alerts exactly so free you have about a million people right now. We’re getting those on your, you know, invited to sign up. Okay, what’s, another one you’d like to share non-profit side. I mean, you could get bonem use you get interns. If you have any event that you do it, you can promote it and people can send up for it. You can. If you have, you know any kind of resource you produce. The dvd produced a video. You want to share that with people come along and do that. Really? So sharing. All your content insurance account listing it on sharing it and people come for that if you are a different thing altogether, if you’re thinking of possibly going to grad school next year or two, we partner with grass schools, all the country, to do these about twenty fairs like face-to-face you can go in twenty cities in the country and meet admissions people from, you know, things like social work and non-profit management actually talk to them your city’s. So we just finished a whole season. Now we’ll have another season next fall in summer for, like, twenty more so there’s a whole set of then then we have what we call these resource center’s, ifyou’re, volunteermatch injure or non-profit manager, you could go and find out all kinds of things useful links, so i think people need to go on just basically check it out exploring you clearly want idealist to be ah, part of the the social media fabric so that his non-profits are embarking on a social media strategy. You want them to be considering idealist as well as a place for content. Absolute your management volunteer finding etcetera. Okay, anything you’d like to leave us. With a look out for for the next version of the site, we two years ago, we were working on this. Complete new idealist. Artwork will be launching the next few weeks. We’re hoping for the end of the year, so look, offer completely sort of new, modernized site, and hopefully people will find it useful. Okay, excellent. We look forward to that. Thank you so much. Want to thank me dar, the founder and executive director of idealist, dot or ge for joining us? You’re listening to tony martignetti non-profit radio coverage. Live coverage of the next-gen charity conference. Indeed you were. I also want to thank diane macdonald and marsha bloomberg for joining me today next week, finding prospects and finding a job. Maria simple, principal of the prospect finder, returns to the show to talk about the second edition of her book, panning for gold find high net worth prospects now also next week i’m looking, we’ll catch up with our recruiting consultant, paula marks, as she helps our non-profit job seeker leonora enter the non-profit job market hope you’ll listen next week. You can keep up with what’s coming up. You don’t have to listen for me to tell you what’s coming up every week, you can find out on your own. Sign up for our insider email alerts on the facebook page, and you’ll hear from us weekly. 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Ami founded Idealist.org with $3,500. It’s now relied on by over 100,000 nonprofits. Idealist’s rich resources go far beyond the job postings it’s best known for, and Ami uncovers those lesser-known features so you can take advantage of them. Here’s the video of our conversation.