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Welcome to tony martignetti non-profit radio big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent of your aptly named host tony martignetti last week, we fired-up you’re bored fund-raising that was with author and authority gail perry, and she revealed proven techniques to motivate your board to step up to their fund-raising responsibilities. That was for the full hour this week, bountiful bequests why you should start a plan giving program with requests and how to do so my guest will be susan dame green, and then we’ll be talking about thrift shop ops should your non-profit have a thrift shop as a potential source of revenue. And what are the implications of doing that? And how do you get started? My guest for that segment will be shevawn weber between the guests on tony’s, take two at thirty two minutes after the hour. Talk to all of your plans e-giving prospects not only the men sexism, i think it’s hurting some of our planned giving prospecting moron about that on tony’s take two, we’re headed to a break, and after this break, i’ll be joined by susan dame green and we’re going to talk about bountiful bequests stay with me? E-giving didn’t think tooting, getting dink, dink, dink, dink. You’re listening to the talking alternate network, waiting to get a drink. E-giving you could 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. Do you want to enhance your company’s web presence with i catching and unique website design? 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Durney bonem welcome back to tony martignetti non-profit radio where were always about big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent, i guess now is susan dame green, and we’re going to be talking about bountiful bequests. Why you should start a plan giving program with requests and how to do it. Susan is the president of beeps bee i p s you’ll find them at bib stre dot com and she’s joining us by phone from salem, massachusetts. Susan has worked in plan giving for roughly twenty, set for twenty seven years, having worked at the american red cross st jude’s, children’s hospital and child reach, where she helped the canadian and japanese affiliates start planned giving programs a lot of experience in plan giving, and i’m very glad that her practice brings her to the show. Susan welcome from salem, massachusetts. Oh, thankyou, tony. I’m very glad to be a pleasure that it’s a pleasure to have you on let’s. Start with something that has related to your name. When i first saw your name, i thought she must be english royalty. That’s an english title. Just explain to people it’s i know it’s not in english title. Explained why that is well, years ago, when i got to be single, i decided i was going to go back to my maiden name, which was dame, but that wasn’t such a good name for a professional woman, and so i decided my middle name is antionette i would go to my grandmother’s last name, which was green, but g at age forty two wasn’t any good, so i decided to get rid of the ai into dame green, so i made my name legally named green in nineteen eighty nine. All right, well, your nobility on this show. Oh, thank you. My pleasure. Why should a non-profit start a plan giving program with requests? Well, i’ve been doing playing, giving twenty seven years, so i’ve kind of been around the block a few times in what i’ve seen is that ninety? Well, i’d say eighty to eighty five percent of the gifts come in as simple bequest. Everybody wants you to start with all the complicated things, but the reality is, most of the money comes from request and it’s a simple thing that’s when we’re talking just about planned gift, you mean that eighty to eighty five? Percent of plan r request. Ok, ok. And do we do we have a sense of how many people have been including non-profits in their will with a charitable request over history? Well, according to giving us they it probably about seven billion dollars this year. So a lot of people are beginning to include playing gift requests in their wills and plan giving is getting to be more and more popular. When i started in plan giving, there were very few people doing it. And now it’s everywhere and so it’s a great time for people to hop on board, even small institutions because everybody else has been doing all the advertising, you can take advantage of what they’ve been doing and simply ask your donors for gift. Not that hard and that’s also a motivation to be doing it because your competitors are that’s, right? Everybody else is doing it in the statistics that my boss used to show me at red cross, i used to be the director plan giving at the american national red cross, and we supported in train twenty, eight hundred chapters. He could document his eighteen years that people equals or exceeded their lifetime, given with their death gift, so it’s very important to start asking you donors for that gift because that’s a very good way that you could not only keep them tied to you, but end up with a lot of money from them, and i typically don’t counsel people to do things just because lots of others are because there are lots of mistakes being made in fund-raising but i think i think this case is an exception to that. I do think that the the enormity of of non-profits asking is an indication that other non-profits that aren’t ought to be i agree with that anybody can start a plane giving program, and so how do you know when you’re ready? We’ll it’s that simple? How do you know when you’re non-profits ready? Well, now i have a slightly different approach than other people do. And remember, i based it on the years experience that i have, but i think anybody can start a plane giving program. If you have a group of donors that you can ask, you could send them very simple, ask wetter and i’ve sent you a sample of that, and i think you’re going to be putting it on your website, right? Yes. There’s going to be ah, what that’s the sample ask letter or consideration letter. Is that right, susan? Yes. And listeners will find that file on my block on the same post that has today’s show. There’ll be a linked to susan’s resource material, including including that. Go ahead, susan. How do you know when you’re ready? We’ll do. What you can do is you can start looking at your donor base if you can afford it. And the donor base is small. I send a letter once a year to its many of the donor basis you can afford. Concentrate on the sixty five and over. The reason is this is a business. Like any other business. You’re going to get a result much sooner. I’m sixty two. I’m much more like who could die then you, tony. You’re in your forties, right late. But yes. Still, i’m still in authorities. I got a couple more years. Yes, thank you. So, that’s, what you want to do? You want to concentrate on people who are going to give you a result for the money that you put into it. And it’s a very simple thing to dio i’d also start with slogan, and i put the spoken everywhere a really simple one that many, many people used to leave a lasting legacy remember the sergeant society in your will or a state plan any kind of slogan that you like, but include the correct legal name of your institution? Susan, before we get too far into how how to do this, i wantto, uh, i ask you about something that you said start with people who are roughly sixty five and over. There has been some publicity within the past year about making suggestions that non-profits asked people in their azaleas their thirties, about including a non-profit in there will what’s your what’s your opinion of that? Well, it’s like everything else, i think you’re going to get a better result from the people who are older there at that time in our life, when they’re thinking about a will and there thinking off there in the conservation and distribution years sixty five and honor the conservation and distribution years. There’s four financial stages of life, one when you’re a kid and you have no control over your old money except your wow and then once you graduated from high school or college, and you’re in charge of your money, but the bills come in so that’s your your high earning years but it’s also your high out years and then fifty five to sixty five that’s your accumulation years that’s the year’s most people accumulate money towards the retirement that’s the years the kids are out of college and their house is paid for, and you’re pretty well settled in your career. So sixty five and over is where people are conserving their money and thinking about distributed so if you talk to people when they’re interested in it, that’s where you’re going to get the best results, yes, and also at that age and, you know, we just have about thirty seconds left before our first break. Also, around that age, they’re thinking about using their estate to teo to distribute to charity that’s, right? There’s thinking about ways of making a difference in the world through their money because they’re no longer physically able to do that, and they still care. Most of our donors still care very much about what happens to the world after this break. Susan damegreene will stay with us. Our subject is bountiful bequests. This is tony martignetti non-profit radio. You’re listening to the talking alternative network. Are you feeling overwhelmed in the current chaos of our changing times? A deeper understanding of authentic astrology can uncover solutions in every area of life. After all, metaphysics is just quantum physics, politically expressed, i and montgomery taylor and i offer lectures, seminars and private consultations. For more information, contact me at monte m o nt y at r l j media. Dot com i really need to take better care of myself. If only i had someone to help me with my lifestyle. I feel like giving up. 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, fitness expert at 2 one two eight six five nine to nine xero. Or visit w w w dot mind over matter. Y si dot com. Buy-in 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 call a set to one, two, nine six four three five zero two for a free consultation. That’s lawrence h bloom at to one to nine six four three five zero two. We make people happy. Xero talking alternative radio twenty four hours a day. Welcome back with my guest, susan dame greene, the president of tipps llc, susan, before the break, we were just talking about the conservation distribution years and and our older citizens using their estate plan as a way of giving back that’s right? That’s, right? Our donors like to give back during their lifetime, and then when they get into the conservation and distribution years they’re thinking about conserving what they have and how they want to distribute. It will be questioned and wait wait for them to go. Also, if you’re encouraging bequests among people who are so much younger in their thirties and even forties, aren’t there philanthropic interests likely to change not only before their death think interests are going to change, but their whole life is going to change dramatically? They don’t think so now, but it’s all good and involved in ways they couldn’t even think of and the chances of you still being in the will later on her fairly small plus do you want to wait forty, fifty, sixty years for the gift to come in? All right, so we know why it’s important to start with requests. And your advice is that any organization can do it as long as they have donors who love their mission right, who are sixty five and over that’s, right? How should non-profits get started with this? If they have the money and they have the the number of donors, they could do a computerized sort of the file and find the people over sixty five if they don’t, they can go through the files. They’re small organization taking go through the file and they know a lot of their donors and send a very simple letters to the donors asking them for bequest. Once a year on dh, that letter will have on my blogged we’ll have ah, template letter that you khun you can use from courtesy of susan. Thank you, it’s. A simple peer-to-peer ask and that’s all they really need to dio once they do that and they get a response. Then they put them into a system like an excel spreadsheet and keep track of them and then stay in touch with them. What about the will get to how to stay in touch and howto say thank you appropriately. And how often? What about the? The organization that has a larger number of donors, but they don’t have a date of birth. They don’t. They don’t know their ages. Maybe they do have thousands of donors, but age is not something that they’re very ever captured. Well, they can hire a vendor who will do an age overlay of their files for them. They may not be able to give the exact date of birth, but they can give them a minimum of a year of date of birth, depending on how many donors air on the file. Or they could do research themselves and find out what the ages of the donors are. When i was a child, reach what i used to do with the major donors that they called each one up and tell them you make the times in our life possible by the gifts you give us. We’d like to celebrate the time of your life with you. Will you tell me your birthday’s going on in your birthday card? That’s? Terrific it’s, very sweet, actually. And it’s a very simple way. And i got turned down one out of five thousand because they all want to have a first date arika and so it was it was easy, and it made them feel included, and it made them feel happy about it. So there’s a lot of ways you could do it that air noninvasive if you have a small list or if you have enough staff in the time, yes, that would probably be a good project for an intern or maybe a volunteer to do absolutely someone who loves the organization. People, i think love to get phone calls that are just thank you and a little more, you know, would you would you share your birthday or something like that versus thank you? And we’re asking again this year. We’re not talking about that, but but i think to get that live call right now, it sounds like it would be endearing. The live college very important. As a matter of fact, we were talking about howto thank them once they’ve named you in the document. It’s really important, i think, to do with three pronged thank at st jude children’s research hospital we used to do, uh, thank you. Call and someone from our office would call and say thank you. And it was usually a violent here and then. We’d have one of the board members call and say thank you, and we send them out a down thomas society’s certificate, either with one of our fifteen reps in the field. Or we’d invite them to a luncheon where we present this certificate. So they really felt thing. How about some other ways, though, that we can be encouraging this? So you suggested a pithy tagline way have the peer-to-peer ask letter. What are some other ways that a smaller midsize non-profit which are the ones that i know you work mostly with, not exclusive and you work with some big organizations to yeah, but how else can can the smaller shops get the word out? Well, they want to let people know that they accept requests. And by putting that tagline everywhere, people will start to know that you are interested in and accept requests. The biggest problem is people are dying to give to you, but they die before you get to ask them. So, yeah, i put it on the back of every piece of every envelope, every piece of stationary on the bottom of every page on the website, on every board report, every single minute every kapin newsletter every single page is the newsletter just so people start getting the idea boardmember it’s, you mentioned that’s interesting. Oh, absolutely, you should be asking your entire board as a matter of fact, you should get the entire board to commit, because that really shows other people that the board is interested and committed and wants this place to continue after they’re gone. And, of course, that’s the kind of doughnut you want. You want the donor that wants a place to continue after you’re gone, and so your your objective would be one hundred percent of the board has the organization in there will one hundred percent, and you don’t have to ask the amount. Tell the board members that up front it depends on the organization, but most organizations don’t ask the amount you can after they’ve been a donor for a while, but just to get them on board, simply say, please include us in your will no leave a lasting legacy. Remember the sergeant society into willard’s state plan all right, and for the fresh air fund or whatever the name of your organization is your advice, then is in all these places that you you mentioned the back of envelopes and board minutes and all your newsletters and correspondents that you’re using. What? Just thie that simple tagline, that simple tagline everywhere with the correct legal name of your non-profit it can be very effective and then start the the regular program of mailing two people as well as you probably wanna have articles. If you have a new sweater, you want to have an article in your newsletter features someone who has given a gift and is interested in excited about the organization and wants to talk about it. So that’s consistent with your peer-to-peer ask letter, right? You want to profile people who have already done this that’s, right? So people that it’s possible and it’s painless. Really? And what? Well, let me ask. I want to open it up. Are there other ways that you should be? People should be communicating this. What about what about their their individual meetings with just having one on one lunches and things? People? Yes. It’s. A very easy thing to do. What happens with plan giving is you’re building a relationship. And now i was on cape cod doing a speech. For the plane giving council of cape cod, and i was talking with dominic. He and his wife have been married for forty years, and i said to him, well, you know, how did how did you start dating her? Oh, well, you know, i asked her out, and we dated for about four years before we got married. I said, if you had proposed on the first date, what would she have said? And he said, oh, my goodness, i don’t know, but by the four years was up, we both know we want to get married. I said it’s the same thing with the donors, you build a relationship, but the best part is with the donors, you can skip the kissing stuff except with some of the little old lady, so want to kiss you on the cheek anyway, but when you’re having these face-to-face conversations, a lot of people are intimidated by the subject because they feel they’re talking about the donor’s death, and so they’re they’re reluctant toe raise it in a face to face conversation. Well, the reality is, quite a few donors will tell you once you start developing a relationship with them. And you can bring it up remember that the reluctance of the plan giving officer it’s not how the donor is feeling donor’s know that they’re old. They know they’re going to die it’s not a secret, their sister or their cousin there uncle there, father, their mother, their husband has died, and so they’re in that planning stage of life. I don’t know if you have kids, tony, but i bet a lot of your listeners dio and when you were potty training, those kids that’s all you talked about and now these donors air in the stage of life where they’re looking at conserving and distributing their assets. They’re all talking about this to one another so it’s only normal for you to talk to them about it so older americans are ready to ready to have that conversation. The reluctance is on the is on the fundraiser side that’s, right? That’s, right? I’ve been before i’ve been playing giving twenty seven years, and before that, i was a trust vice president for eleven years, and i dealt with over four hundred states year personally. And let me tell you, those donors know what’s going on they know. That they’re going to die, they know that they need to make this plant and they are, and they’re very willing to talk about it. I can’t tell you how many of them say to me, my daughter won’t talk to me about the fact that i’m dying. This is the biggest thing that’s happened in my life when you talk to me about it. So those playing, giving officers, we need to get over that we need to get on with the business and you’re not talking about the person’s death, right? What what you’re talking about is how their estate can benefit this organization that we know they all that way. No, they already love that’s, right? And you can talk more in instead of talking about when you died, talk about in you will let put in something or think about putting in something that will continue this work that you’re so interested in. I know you’re interested in helping all these young people learn about graphics and, you know, we can do that kind of program that you’re doing now, and we can do it with a gift in your will if you and down your annual gift of five thousand dollars and let’s, figure out the amount that program can continue in perpetuity. How would you like to see that happen so you could make it a really positive, upbeat experience, because to them it is the positive, upbeat experience they’re very interested in things involving and continuing after they go, they’re interested in making a difference in the world. Yes, the conversation is not about death, it’s, about the continuation of the organization that they love, right? You said it better than i did. I’m sorry, i’m just, i think, it’s, so important, i guess, that’s. Why i’m repeating it. How do you ah, how do you open that conversation? Are there? What? What advice do you have? Just how do you get into the subject? We’re in a face to face meeting. Well, i don’t do it. The first meeting, the first one, i go out there and i thank them. And i talk about the organization a little bit. But then i say to them, tell me how you first got interested in the fresh air fund and there are twenty five minutes later. My goodness, can i get a word in edgewise here? Because they love you because they’re people are already loved the organization. We know that as you said, you’re not you’re not asking on the first date about including the organization there will but you know you, they already love you. So? So your advice is sort of let’s. Bring that passion to the surface, right? Let’s get them thinking about it that’s, right? And once they start thinking about it, ninety percent of the time, i don’t have to ask them. They help me, so it makes it very, very simple because you get them thinking about what they’ve accomplished in their lifetime. And most of our donors are pretty happy people they’ve accomplished what they’ve accomplished, their fairly well settled in their lives, they have the time, they want to talk to you and they love your organization. And i’d say a hundred percent of them know more about our organizations that we do. My guest is susan history that you never even knew was there? Yes, right? Because they know the organization longer than you. That’s, right, that’s, right. My guest is susan damegreene and she’s, the president of dips b i p s that’s bravo, india. Papa sierra, if you were in the military and you’ll find vips at victor dot com on. We’re talking about bountiful bequests. Susan, after someone tells you that they have included you. Well, you alluded to this. What do you recommend asking for documentation? Proof of the bequest? Well, the first thing i do after they tell me if they send them a thank you letter and i invite them to become member of the seaquest society. Now, whatever the name of your organization, you can use that same name. But many people pick something that’s meaningful for the name of the bequest society. So once they remember that the quest society then i started inviting them to luncheons and making sure that i stay in contact with them on a regular basis. When i was at st jude, i did a study of fifteen years worth of planned gift collection records. We found out that people who were who had named us and we thank them appropriately we got double the amount of money from that group that we got from the people who didn’t get thanked for one reason or the other. We also found out right now, i just i’m sorry, but in that research, that was that was outright giving you get planned gift was planned. Gift result. Fifteen years was a planned gift who had died and left us money. We found out because the program had gone on for quite a while before i got there. And so i did a study of fifteen years with the collection records, and we found out people who had named us in a document and were appropriately thanked. And we did that three pronged. Thank i talked about earlier, they doubled their gift. We got twice as much money from the people who would thank that the people who work thing. And then i had fifteen people in the field of st jude. So it was easy for me to send the plan e-giving rap about to talk to them. People who wanted to be part of the st jude family we could document. They gave three to four times as much as the control group. So it really pays to cultivate these people and treat them like family because they are, because without them, we couldn’t do the work that we do. What about that? We just have about two minutes left. But what about that documentation? Do you do you advise that? Non-profits asked for proof. Can i have a copy of the will or copy the bequest paragraph? Well, that’s all over the map. That depends on the area of the country and the way people feel about it. It’s getting to be more common that people will ask and the way we used to do it, to be a little bit more subtle than the give me a copy of the will was we would send out a optional questionnaire and it with a business reply envelope. Everything has to go with a business reply envelope because you remember you’re talking about people’s money and it’s fairly secure, and they wanted to be a secret. They don’t want other people, so don’t so don’t send ah self mailer postcard back that says that has check off that say, i have included you in my will or i would consider including you, it’s got to be in a secure envelope. Yes, in a business report, and we sent a survey out and we’d say optional. We put it in there, how did you get interested in and our non-profit you know, how did you get interested in child reaches that one that i use? And then we asked a bunch of questions, and then the second page would say optional on it and say, tell us about your gift, and then we’d asked a bunch of different questions about the gift, and some people would fill the whole thing in, and some people wouldn’t, but we got about a forty percent response, which was fabulous that we did do call up after we send it out to follow up, make sure they got it and ask if they felt comfortable filling it in and answer any questions they had about it, but we were able to actually document now i know diane thomas, that university of st thomas in texas is a customer of ours, and she uses a different form and several universities in texas actually do. Have you signed a pledge certification that is the legal form that tell exactly what you’re leaving? So my way of doing it is one way, but everybody does it anyway, okay, so it’s really sort of around the map, it’s what you’re comfortable with and what you’re what you’re part of the country will will tolerate. I guess now you’ll notice, i don’t know if you noticed, but the actors fund of new york is one of my clients and wally monroe there uses the edwin forrest society to propagate hiss and ask people what they’re gift is, and that has worked very well for him. Okay, susan, we have to leave it there. That’s, that’s all the time we have you’re quite welcome. Thank you for joining us. My guest has been susan dame greene, the president of dips llc. She joined us by phone from salem, massachusetts. Susan, thank you again think we’re going to take a break, and after this break, i’ll be joined by shevawn weber. We’re going to talk about thrift shops, ops. Stay with me. E-giving didn’t think tooting getting ding, ding, ding ding. You’re listening to the talking alternate network to get you thinking. E-giving cubine are you feeling overwhelmed in the current chaos of our changing times? A deeper understanding of authentic astrology can uncover solutions in every area of life. After all, metaphysics is just quantum physics, politically expressed hi and montgomery taylor and i offer lectures, seminars and private consultations. For more information, contact me at monte m o nt y at r l j media. Dot com talking alternative radio twenty four hours a day. Oh, 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, you’re listening to talking on their network at www dot talking alt-right dot com, now broadcasting twenty four hours a day. Welcome back on the host of tony martignetti non-profit radio and very shortly, i’ll be joined by shevawn weber will be talking about thrift shop operations first aa few minutes to take for tony’s take two sexism has been bothering me it’s on my mind, i posted a blogged posted a block post about that last week, and you’ll find my blogging m p g a d v dot com ii was asking whether sexism still exists for professional women, and the answer i got from a very good number of comments was a resounding yes and that’s distressing. What i’d like to focus on right now, though, is that the impact of that sexism on fund-raising one of the comments related to planned e-giving fund-raising very much what we were just talking about with with susan damegreene this woman was a professional fundraiser, and she and many of her friends also is not just her. I have talked to organizations about planned e-giving have expressed interest in including the organization in their will or their others a state plan in some way, either through explicit conversations are emails or just dropping hints, and the women are ignored just the suggestions are just left lingering and that’s very distressing and frustrating that actively interested prospects for planned gif ts and of course it would apply to any type of gift, but the woman who commented on my block was specifically talking about planned e-giving being left open, conversations not pursued and her sense and i agree, is that it’s? Because she’s, a woman and her friends are women, that if they were men, their enquiries and interest in planned e-giving would be taken more seriously. That has, you know, societal impacts, and it also has ah, direct fund-raising impact. So i hope that you are not among the people men who are marginalizing or ignoring your female planned e-giving prospects because that’s just antithetical to what fund-raising is all about and everything that susan damegreene just talked about. And again, there’s more about this topic on my blogging mpg a devi dot com and that’s tony’s take two for friday, november nineteen my guest now is shevawn weber she’s, the manager of thrift shop, the matter of the thrift shop for a spire on broadway in melrose park, illinois, which is a chicago suburban she’s joining us by phone from melrose park susan has managed small businesses, including non-profit thrift shops over the past thirty years. You can follow shevawn on twitter. Her idea there is thrift ing the number four. Good and i’m very pleased that her work for a spire on broadway brings her to the show. Today shevawn welcome. Hi, tony. Thank you for having me. It’s. A pleasure. Tell me. Tell us about a spire on broadway. What’s the work that’s done. Their fire on broadway has been in operation for thirty five years. It was started by a parent dahna shevawn. Can i just ask you, could you speak a little bit louder? Maybe move the phone a lot closer to you, herr to your mouth. Thankyou. Hyre on broadway was started by a small group of parents of children with developmental disabilities. About thirty five years ago. Um, i was hired to manage the store that lacked leadership, and i’ve been with aspire for thirteen years. And what type of donor base does aspire have? We have very large in-kind gift donors. Hoexter tends south to indiana to the east, lake michigan to the west, very far western suburbs and we have done pickups. As far north as lake geneva and that obviously those those in-kind gifts obviously supporting the thrift shop. Yeah, what about the larger donors face to do a spiral? What does their fund-raising look like more broadly beyond the in-kind gif ts to the agency, right? I really can’t speak to those. Okay, your expertise is in the thrift shop. Ok? That’s that’s what we’ll talk about. What does the revenue of the thrift shop look like? We bring in approximately a quarter of a million dollars per year in sales. And do you have a sense of how that ranks among thrift shops? I don’t know. Okay, are there other thrift shops? That air non-profit thrift shops in the community where the spire on broadway thrift shop is? There is one other store in our community. There are several in the neighboring communities, however. And is that an issue for non-profits that are thinking about starting a thrift shop wood with the location of others in the vicinity be important for them to think about. It is important to an extent. Drifters like to venture out and go to many thrift stores. Oh, interesting in one trip. So really? Ah, a congregation of thrift stores in a small area is desirable. Okay, so having a few in one area and you say thrift er’s so tell us a little more about thrift er’s they’re they’re your customers tell us little more about what the customers to the thrift shop look like. Directors our full range of people, we’ve got dealers, antique dealers from the city of chicago who come in and make a large purchase is the furniture to resell in their stores. And then we have families in need who come in and buy everything that they need for their households. So the the antique dealers, that could be another source of revenue that non-profit might not be thinking about initially, but it could be a good source of revenue. Absolutely. What else should ah non-profit have in mind or need let’s put it this way. What they need to have in place before they can really be serious about opening a thrift shop. I think organizations need a solid core volunteers to support the effort of a thrift store. This is the biggest challenge for thrift shop trend and voluntary has moved toward corporate group group with fewer ongoing volunteers. And because training is so time intensive, ongoing volunteers are crucial to the efficient see. So having agood corps of volunteers before you open a threat store, i think is a mandatory. And so is all your labor volunteer and none of it paid except for you. Or is there a mix? No there’s, the mix we do have paid cashier’s and paid movers who go out and pick up furniture for us. But the volunteers are critical to it. Absolutely. We could not be in business without them. Okay, aside from this kadre of committed volunteers, what? What else does the non-profit need to be thinking about? If if they’re considering doing this? Well, they have to think about investment costs, you know? Do they have the administrative and financial resources to support the startup? Can they float the organization during bad sales month? You know, rent utilities are easy to determine, but other costs that they might. You need to consider our building space modifications, women and supplies budget for advertising or marketing consultation. And the volunteers are strong in numbers. Possible paid staff, right insurance. You’re going to have a physical location. So there’s a license to practice. Oh, right. That’s it. Yeah, the state licensing. Or maybe even city licensing, right? So we need volunteers on dh. Some money and including you mentioned something interesting to floating the floating the organization when sales or lean right. Well, what else? Well, we need don’t we need? How about those in-kind donors? I mean, they’re critical right there, critical, and we have found that with a hand written thank you note, teo each donor every time they bring him a donation results and repeat donations. So, you mean you get their address and you mail them handwritten note? Is that what you do? And you’ve shown over time that that that donors who get those versus those who don’t are more likely to come back there? And what about estates? Is that a very big donor population for you? It’s about twenty five percent of our total sales each year we go and pack an entire home and bring it back to the store, and it we have a very large truck and it’s crucial to our revenue. Yeah, well, actually, and and that truck brings up other expense issues insurance we mention sure it’s, but insurance on on vehicles if you’re going to go picking up, which makes it a lot easier is you’re suggesting teo to get those big loads on and then there’s people driving it does you mentioned but there’s maintenance on trucks and gas. And you know all the expenses of that. Also. The how do you market the thrift shop specifically to the states had how do you get known in that state community that is basically word of mouth? Once you have successfully completed a pickup for someone who conducting the state, sales were travels fast? Not too many non-profit thrift stores are providing that service. Oh, really? No on dh. What? What made you decide to get into it? Well, actually have a friend on the north shore who conducts the state sales and she’s been very good to aspire, so i had that initial connection. What about auctioneers? Is that a potential market for you? We haven’t considered that that’s something we may i want to take a look at, okay? Yeah, i was just thinking. If there are auction items that aren’t sold, might they be interested in donating that that’s a very good point. Okay, let’s focus on the donor’s a little more because they’re so critical to the organization that’s thinking about doing this again, that’s our, you know, that’s our perspective, an organization that isn’t doing it but might consider a thrift shop. How do you get the donors to know about ur give to you versus that other thrift shop that you said is not too far away? Well, i think families and friends of aspire, our primary source of donations for the thrift store and through word of mouth that spreads to neighbours and beyond communities. I’m not sure how other thrift stores go about obtaining in-kind for their stores. But for us, it’s spent mostly word of mouth. Do you have money allocated for advertising that very much. Okay, and a little bit you do have. Then what community do you advertise to? Is that for the customers versus the donors? Pretty much we advertise on the brick shepherd dot com and we have a little bit on a spider’s web site. But other than now and twitter, okay, you know, but nothing on an ongoing basis in just a minute or so we have before the break. What about the volunteer training? That’s? That’s going to be important, isn’t it? How do you? How do you train the volunteers? And what do you train them on? Well, you first orient saved them to the building and to the organization. In the mission, and then it’s, just finding out what is a good fit for a volunteer, what would they like to do here? Do they want to interact with customers? Are they creative and are good at merchandising? Or do they want to be behind the scenes and sort through during donations, tag, garments, steam, garments and so on? And is the individual training for each of those tasks, or, or is it more on the job? Initially, i’m training them on the job, and then they are assigned a buddy, and the body kind of makes them comfortable for that first day, and then i’m available for questions, and, you know, i check on their progress on different volunteers need different levels of, uh, motivation. Sure, for motivating. My guest is shevawn weber, manager of the thrift shop for a spire on broadway in melrose park, illinois. We have to take a break. Please stay with us. You’re listening to the talking alternative network. 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. 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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. Talking. Dahna welcome back. I’m with shevawn weber, and we’re talking about thrift shops and whether that makes sense for your organization. And if you think it might what factors you should have in mind. Shevawn you do some interesting things with other revenue sources, and we talked about the antiques dealers before we look at the others. Is there anything more you want to say about how you i got into bringing them into your shop? How that worked out thie antiques dealers. No, they really basically found us. Okay, you opened your door on dh. They started coming to you. They pretty much on dh. Why would you divert things to them rather than sell them in your store? Well, they were on the floor. They’ll they were there hyre and items, you know, maybe several hundred dollars piece of furniture that they could then return, return to their shop and resell to an interior decorator for even traitor a mountain. So they really dealers speak out a product through thrift stores. And and it sounds like and it’s a product that the average thrift er is not going to buy. That’s. True. Yeah. So when when these possible pieces that could be right for for the antiques dealers come to you, do you do you offer them for sale for sometime? And you have a policy about making them available on the floor before you give them to the antiques dealer. Or do you just go right to the dealer? No, they’re right up there on the floor, available to the public. And if they happen to be there when the dealers come in, then they make a purchase. Oh, you’re not holding things aside for antiques dealers. And why is that? Is that a firm policy? I guess so. Why is that? I just think, it’s ethical to make it available to everyone rather than diverted just for the dealers. Ok, otherwise you’re back room becomes holding tanks for dealers. And i just don’t think that fair. Yeah. Okay. Um, you also do some selling on ebay. Tell us about that as a potential source that people might not source of revenue that people might not be thinking about. Yeah, we sell any bay. We felt items that would appeal to a niche market. Like high school yearbooks. For example, there are average customer here on the resale shop is not interested in those, but they are, well, fire on ebay. Really? We do. We do about twelve thousand dollars a year in sales on ebay, and it is volunteer driven and it’s. Really fun. We have some fabulous finds on there, and our user name is support spire and high school yearbooks. That’s interesting. So people don’t hate high school yearbooks to you. And then i mean, unless you went to that high school or in that year, they’re of no interest, but on ebay, where there’s a national or into a new international audience, then there’s a market right? Interesting. What else do you divert to ebay that listeners might be interested in? Oh, gosh, way, fashion’s collectible books, original art, a stage jewellery, you know, all kinds of vintage toys and games, everything, well, certain ditches, you said, nitch items. And do you have the same policy about about making things available on the floor? If you think they might be right for ebay or no, just divert them directly to the ebay person who’s. The volunteers handling that right here, sort through donations for things she think well, succeed on ebay, and then if we live that item and it doesn’t sell, then it goes to the sales floor, okay. So there are some other sources of revenue besides people who just who? The sisters who come in true and also we so any fabric requirements that we can’t use here to a rag picture. So there’s no way. Oh, actually not putting clothing in the dumpster and it’s another revenue source. Right. Interesting. Okay, um, susan, just in the thirty seconds or so that we have left, why is the thrift shop important to aspire on broadway? Why do they have one? We have a thrift store to bring in revenue. A fire on broadway provide greater visibility for the agency in our community. You know, it’s connect donors. Sometimes a backdoor donor at the drugstore can’t be an entry point into a bigger relationship with the organization. Excellent. Yes. Okay. Those air, those were all important revenue and prospect generation. Too interested. We have to leave it there. My guest has been shevawn weber one. Thank you very much for joining me, shevawn. Thank you. Tony shevawn is the manager of fifth shop of the thrift shop for a spire on broadway in melrose park, illinois. And of course, also, i want to thank susan dame green for joining me earlier next week no show happy thanksgiving there won’t be a show next friday, the day after thanksgiving, on friday, december third, the second part of how to kill your career in five easy steps that’s the second half of my interview with robert sharp from the national conference on philanthropic planning and another interview from that conference tax policy and the future of philanthropic planning, a washington, d c attorney for non-profits and a lobbyist for non-profits we’ll talk about what’s likely to happen legislatively in washington and how that affects your organization’s bottom line. Those guests are emily lamb and perry wasserman, and again, they were also recorded at the national conference on philanthropic planning. Ah, i’ll be out in the next two weeks after thanksgiving in bangladesh, sir lanka and thailand and of course, at the end of the friday december third show, i’ll tell you, what’s coming up on the tenth, you could get our insider alerts and see my live appearances on our facebook page that’s facebook, dot com tony martignetti non-profit radio, the creative producer of the show is claire meyerhoff line producer and owner of talking alternative broadcasting is sam liebowitz. And our social media is by regina walton of organic social media. On tony martignetti. This is tony martignetti non-profit radio. Join me. Not next friday. But friday, december third, right here, on talking alternative broadcasting at talking alternative dot com. Durney i didn’t think that shooting good ending things. You’re listening to the talking, alternate network, waiting to get you thinking. E-giving cubine is your marriage in trouble? Are you considering divorce? 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