Tag Archives: digital marketing

Nonprofit Radio for September 6, 2021: Turn Followers Into Donors

My Guest:

Adora Drake: Turn Followers Into Donors

Adora Drake has a strategy for converting your social media followers into donors. Let’s hear what it’s all about. Her digital marketing company and coaching practice is Adora Drake Marketing.

 

 

 

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[00:00:02.84] spk_2:
Hello and welcome to tony-martignetti non profit radio big non profit

[00:01:43.74] spk_0:
Ideas for the other 95%. I’m your aptly named host of your favorite abdominal podcast. Oh, I’m glad you’re with me. I’d be forced to endure the pain of Kaif Asus if you twisted me around the idea that you missed this week’s show turn followers into donors. Adora drake has a strategy for converting your social media followers into donors. Let’s hear what it’s all about. tony state to planned giving in the pandemic era. We’re sponsored by turn to communications pr and content for nonprofits. Your story is their mission turn hyphen two dot c o and by sending blue the only all in one digital marketing platform empowering non profits to grow tony-dot-M.A.-slash-Pursuant in blue. It’s my pleasure to welcome for the first time Adora drake to nonprofit radio She is a digital marketing strategist coach and consultant. She helps nonprofits feel inspired to take action, gain clarity in their marketing strategy and learn how to convert their followers into raving fans who want to be part of their mission with her unique coaching programs. Her company is at Adora drake marketing dot com and she’s at Adora drake on instagram. Adora drake. Welcome to nonprofit radio

[00:01:46.94] spk_1:
Hi, so happy to be here.

[00:01:52.94] spk_0:
It’s a pleasure to have you Glad you are. Yeah, well where are you from? Where you zooming in from.

[00:02:00.54] spk_1:
So I am actually born and raised here in Dallas. We’re just unusual now because there’s so many different people here in texas but I am actually Born and raised native here in Dallas Okay right If you

[00:02:08.69] spk_0:
Live there more than four years, you’re a

[00:02:10.09] spk_3:
native. You’re

[00:02:14.23] spk_0:
a bona fide. Your bona fide.

[00:02:15.65] spk_1:
Yes. Like generation Texan here. Okay.

[00:02:19.93] spk_0:
I got a lot going on in texas now.

[00:02:22.18] spk_1:
Oh, tell me about it. Academic

[00:02:23.95] spk_0:
wise. Legal wise now, just a Russian abortion wise just

[00:02:28.49] spk_1:
today. Oh my goodness. Right. I’m like, wow, this is a big melting pot of stuff. Yeah,

[00:02:34.05] spk_0:
I don’t do politics on nonprofit radio We can do that off line, but good

[00:02:40.13] spk_1:
lot going. You’re

[00:02:53.74] spk_0:
in the news texas is in the news. It’s not to me, it’s not all good. I’ll leave it there. All right. Um, so you have a way of helping our listeners turn there social media followers into donors. Isn’t

[00:02:55.79] spk_1:
that right? That’s correct. That’s correct. I hope it’s correct for that. Yes,

[00:03:00.49] spk_0:
I hope it’s correct because otherwise we’re done.

[00:03:02.81] spk_3:
Okay,

[00:03:04.57] spk_1:
absolutely correct. tony

[00:03:05.71] spk_3:
Okay.

[00:03:07.45] spk_0:
I got one thing. Right, so far.

[00:03:08.65] spk_3:
Okay.

[00:03:13.74] spk_0:
You call this your scale method. Okay. What, why don’t you outline the elements of scale and then we have plenty of time to go into each, each step

[00:03:22.34] spk_1:
separate, awesome, awesome. So scale stands for social media content, audience lead an execution and like you said, we’ll go into each part of that scale method and how you can use that skill method.

[00:03:36.94] spk_0:
Okay. And you’ve obviously seen success with this with nonprofits that you work

[00:04:00.24] spk_1:
with. Yes. Yes. Yes. So I work with a small nonprofits all the way to midsize nonprofits and I’ve used a scale method on them. The process is very simple to follow. Um, as long as you really stick to that scale method, I know you’re gonna see some, some really good results from getting people from your social media and building that are all the way into getting people to donate, getting those funds.

[00:04:03.46] spk_0:
Okay. Well small and mid sized shops. Those are our listeners. Yeah.

[00:04:07.91] spk_1:
So

[00:04:11.74] spk_0:
Perfect. All right. So, um, social media, right For us. Okay. What do you have your principles here? What do you like to see done here?

[00:05:00.74] spk_1:
So one of the things that I know a lot of non profits and even for profits getting mixed up is they feel like they need to be everywhere. And that’s not always the case. So the first thing you want to make for sure is that you really hone down on that persona and your target of who do you want to have, um, come into your, your nonprofit or follow your nonprofit and who is that potential donor look like? Because that’s going to be really important when it comes to choosing the right social media platform. Each social media platform has their own features. Um, they attract different types of audiences. And so it’s important if you don’t know who that persona is, you might pick the wrong one and focus your efforts on the wrong one. So number one is to really hone in on your target, Once you figure that out and you choose a social media platform, that’s when the fun begins because now, you know, that’s where my audience is and this is where I can start putting out that content.

[00:05:09.64] spk_0:
Okay, okay, before we get to the content. So you want folks to look ahead to what the future donor is going to look like so that they’re on the right social networks?

[00:05:39.84] spk_1:
Yes. You have to know exactly who you want to attract. And for those of you who have already, you guys already have an organization going, you need to just look at the people who have already actively been involved with you, like who are the people who come to your events, who are the people who register uh, for your webinars or whatever your fundraising events are. Look at those people and see where would they particularly be on social media, That’s where you want to start attracting people who are already interested in your organization and picking more people, just like those people.

[00:05:48.64] spk_0:
Okay. Right, Right. Makes sense. All right. So, um, you know, be a little specific about some of the, some of the platforms, like, you know why my, why might you choose instagram over twitter for instance?

[00:07:24.74] spk_1:
Well, they’re completely different. If you were gonna go if you’re more visual, you really need to show your audience, you know, some of the projects that you guys are working on, you want to make sure that you have really good chris pictures and things like that, that’s really where you want to go to something like an instagram or Pinterest um those are really like I said really visual, these are, people are gonna be scrolling really quickly and often before they see your caption or before they see anything else they see this huge picture of something you’ve posted and so it’s really important that you get that right. Um if you are going to be showing some really visual type of content now, if you’re going to be sharing more like informational content, then you might want to lean towards something like twitter, twitter is, has its own legal system of people who are interested in information, they’re sharing information, they want to follow information they want to like, and they often click off of twitter and go to your website. Often more often they would on instagram and so if you are an organization there that’s trying to get an event for instance, out there to your audience, twitter might be a better, a better platform for you. So you just need to look at the different features and then get an idea of where can I find my target audience and how can I better create content for them? What your video is a big thing now, you know, video, especially on the other platforms are trying to adopt more videos, just like youtube, but youtube is the king of video um but also the other platforms you can do short video. So if you teach something or show something, you know, for two or three minutes posted on instagram are posted on twitter. That’s another way to show how to get in front of the right people on those platforms.

[00:07:47.74] spk_0:
You haven’t mentioned facebook now, there’s a lot of disenchantment with facebook as organic reach has plummeted. They just want your dollars to expand your reach. What’s your, what’s your thinking on facebook?

[00:08:23.54] spk_1:
So when, when people think of facebook, they do think of facebook advertising because it is probably have the best advertising if you are going to start. But that it is really good for organic as well. There are a lot of different groups. So if you know for sure that your audience is interested in, let’s just say feeding the needy or something like that, it might be really good for you to create a group specifically around that because you can later use that group, uh, to give out your information or get them on your email list. And so there are some ways that you can organically benefit from being on something like facebook.

[00:08:24.92] spk_0:
So you’re, you’re saying better maybe on facebook to create a group devoted to your cause versus versus using your nonprofit page to put content out. Is that what you’re saying.

[00:09:46.04] spk_1:
Yeah, and the reason why you would want to do this is because people don’t like to feel like they’re being sold to it. I don’t want to feel like, you know, you guys are just gonna want to follow me because I’m, you know, I’m gonna give you funds, you want to really build a relationship and build interest around your mission. And so if you are, we’ll just use the homeless shelter. For instance, if you are, your mission is to serve the hungry or serve the needy, let’s say you make a group about serving your community and serving the needy. You get all these different people coming in, they’re really interested in this topic there. They serve their community. They’re gonna be more likely to want to come off of that platform or want to donate or want to come to your events because they are already showing interest from being inside of this group. Now, the difference between a group in a page, your page is specifically for your particular organization. So if you want to show something that you guys are particularly doing that week or you want to share your employees are doing keeping them in the note, that’s one thing. But that group is going to really keep people engaged because they’re already interested in this topic and you’re giving out information and they’re giving information and now you have a relationship. So when you get on social media is about building relationships, that’s, that’s where that social peace comes in and so you want to make sure that when you’re on there, that you’re building a relationship that way, when you ask for funds down the line, they’ve been knowing you, they they’ve been following you all this time. They’ve been engaging with you. They know for sure that you guys what you guys do and how you guys help.

[00:10:06.44] spk_0:
And are you saying that reaches organic reach, non paid is easier to achieve through a group than it is through a nonprofit page?

[00:10:15.64] spk_1:
Yes, absolutely. That’s because the reaches its a lot better when it comes to facebook. Um, you know, the reaches a lot better.

[00:10:22.60] spk_0:
Yeah. In the group

[00:10:24.11] spk_1:
in the Exactly. Exactly. And it’s a lot easier to give people, you know, into your group. And so once you’ve got people into your group, it’s yours. It’s your group. You can start collecting emails, you can start sending out, you know, particular information and of course they can go and like your business page, but it’s not it’s not the same as actually engaging in coming in and sharing videos and things like that inside of a group. It’s a little bit more personal.

[00:10:47.04] spk_0:
Okay. All right. So that that’s advice I hadn’t heard before that you’re, you’re more likely to get better reach with a with a group than with a page.

[00:10:55.46] spk_1:
Okay.

[00:11:03.04] spk_0:
Okay. Um, All right. So then the content that that belongs in whatever it is, there’s facebook group or instagram or you know, whatever platform you’re choosing, what how do you select the right content.

[00:11:29.34] spk_1:
So your content should be based completely off of the interest, which is usually your, you start with the messaging of your organization. People come and they follow you because they believe in your mission. They believe in what you guys have to offer and then you want to create content around that. So don’t switch and do something. If you’re talking about homeless, don’t switch and talk about something about the earth or something like that, you want to make sure you’re Strictly focusing on your mission. Then you want to use that 8020 rule, it should be 80% information, 80% sharing about your events and things like that. Then only 20% asking for donations and money. So very little bit of actual fundraising and more giving and actually engaging with people.

[00:12:59.24] spk_0:
It’s time for a break. Turn to communications. They’ll help you find your voice and get that voice heard in all the right places. So many of the places that you’ve heard of, like the Wall Street Journal, the new york times, the Chronicle of philanthropy, fast Company and market watch. Many others you’ve heard me recite through the weeks to help you find your voice and you’ll get your voice heard. Turn to communications. Your story is their mission turn hyphen two dot c. O now back to turn followers into donors. I like to empower folks within the nonprofit to um, create content on their own. Yeah, It’s not all just from the fundraisers or the marketing, communications design people, but you know, folks who are actually doing the program work. Maybe there shooting short videos or you know, etcetera, folks on the ground doing the work. What, how do you feel about that? You know, empowering folks on the, on the ground floor, uh, to create their own content.

[00:13:41.24] spk_1:
I totally agree with that tony because that’s where the real content comes. Like when you can look on there, let’s just use instagram. I’m scrolling, I’m looking and I see a picture of people actually handing out bags of food or they’re handing out there at the hospitals and helping people. And I’m seeing people on the ground doing things. Then I know that that organization is serious, right? I know that they’re actually out there on the ground and they’re not just some huge corporate where I don’t know where my money is going. So I think that that is a good idea to always have like you said, people on the ground actually making their own content and they actually can actually get to know your audience to. So when the data comes up, you know, you can actually see what are people clicking on and what are they commenting on? What are they saying And what type of things are they, are they liking? You know, so these are all going to help you down the line as you continue to great continent to really see by looking at your analytics.

[00:13:59.94] spk_0:
Right, okay, excellent point. I wanted to ask about analytics. The analytics vary. You know? Uh some some sites will give you more, you know, a play of some platforms. I should say like a platform like linkedin. Uh you know it gives you very little you might you might not be on you might not be on linkedin for for you know volunteer and donor relationships. But that’s just one that I’m most familiar with because I spent a lot of time there. So I know that they are particularly uh

[00:14:23.69] spk_1:
yeah I think about the algorithm.

[00:14:35.14] spk_0:
I mean about the uh the analytics unless you know you start paying for the pro the upgraded um upgraded packages but you know so you’re kind of at the mercy what platforms or what what networks do you see? You know are more generous with uh with the analytics versus less.

[00:14:45.14] spk_1:
Well let’s just let’s just start with what analytics you should be looking for. So one of the things that you want to look for is you know, not only just the followers but like how many lives you are getting? How many impressions you’re making? So that means that your content is actually being seen

[00:14:59.13] spk_0:
the real you want really metric. Yeah, vanity metrics. Like how many I’m not talking about

[00:15:08.74] spk_1:
that shallow. Right. And of course followers. That’s good to have that because you’ll see you know how many people actually following you

[00:15:12.87] spk_0:
wanted, you wanted trending in the right place. But that’s not the ultimate measure exactly clicks and shares and uh shares and comments etcetera. Much more valuable.

[00:16:10.84] spk_1:
Way valuable because it’s going to help you, even when you decide to run ads down the line, it’s going to help you decide, you know, which type of people actually click who, who is sharing, who’s coming to my website. So these are all in a little that you can look and use and then you can see like especially on instagram and facebook, they’ve got their demographics down to a science. You can actually start building demographics around that. So like I said, it’s going to help you down the line as you try to run ads. You know, what age clicks, what’s the gender? What are they most interested in? What other similar pages do they follow? These type of analytics that are going to help you really target that that person over and over and over again. So yeah, looking at those analytics is going to be key. The best. Like I said, the platforms right now that are really good at analytics or are the big three really twitter facebook instagram if you are on on Youtube, they have awesome analytics as well. I’ll tell you how many views you have, How many people have like your videos, how many people share your videos. So these are things that you want to see and collect that data and see like, you know, how can I find more people that I want to attract? How can I find these donors online?

[00:16:27.44] spk_0:
But Youtube doesn’t give you the demographics though, does it? Of of people who have been watching viewing.

[00:16:32.52] spk_1:
It

[00:16:49.24] spk_0:
does give you give you a job and age location. Okay. You too does Okay. Good. Alright. Alright. Um All right. Um So you’re I don’t want to go through these two quick, but let’s say, all right, maybe we’ll end up coming back because you got a lackluster host, you know? So sometimes times I think of things later on,

[00:16:53.31] spk_1:
All

[00:16:54.42] spk_0:
right, we’ll cut we may end up coming back, all right, but we’ll get through. Okay, So a is your audience go ahead? What’s what’s your what’s your advice around audience?

[00:18:36.74] spk_1:
Audience is mainly finding those people who are going to want to continue to follow you, gonna follow you off of the platform. And so one of the main things like I said is you’re gonna want to look for that persona and then you want to try to mimic that persona over and over again. Now, people are looking at vanity measures like, okay, well, I have a lot of followers, but there are specific followers that never leave you. They’re gonna always continue to follow and be there. And so when you go in on these platforms and you’re looking for these people and you want to make sure that you have that one persona down, and you go to these different profiles on there and you follow them and you engage with their content. And so a lot of people actually miss that they post things and then they leave or they posted and they maybe answer one of their comments on theirs, but they never go back to someone else’s or engaged with their posts. And so that’s a huge part of social media. Another thing, another thing with audiences being found, right, So you’ve got this great profile, how do you get found? Almost all of the platforms use hashtags. And so these hashtags are really important there, the element that are gonna help you be discovered by new people. And so it’s very important that you at least research 15 main hashtag um that you guys can rotate out so that you guys will be found if someone searches for that particular hashtag. So, for instance, hashtag social change. For instance, if you use that in your post, when someone types in social change, your post will be in that large list of uh directory where people can actually click that photo and see where is it coming from, that will lead them back to your profile. So, these are all things that you want to make sure that you have in order to build your audience.

[00:18:38.48] spk_0:
Okay. Right. So you want to you want us following folks who are maybe influencers that are following us. Be generous. Be generous with sharing their content, not just engaging with them around your own content.

[00:19:06.34] spk_1:
Yeah. And even if you’re not sharing your your on their profile, you’re asking them questions, you know, what do they do or what, why do they like, x, y, z, you’re just having a really good conversation with them and most like, I don’t want to come to your profile and see what you guys have to offer, and that’s how you get a true follower that I want to engage with, you, not just somebody who will be going in two hours. And so it’s really important that you engage with these people and build relationships.

[00:19:18.14] spk_0:
Okay, so the relationship building and the use of the right hashtags,

[00:19:19.88] spk_1:
that’s how you get discovered related

[00:19:25.14] spk_0:
to your work, should be, should you be creating your own hashtags or better to leverage off hashtags that are already existing, but others have already you, I mean there’s maybe hundreds of thousands of people already using an established hashtag, so it’s better to go that way or better to create your own and try to build momentum there.

[00:19:56.34] spk_1:
You definitely those 50 hashtag that I’m talking about, you do want to do a little bit of both, but mainly you want to use the ones that are already already being used because people are actively using them, they can actively find you now, once you build a bigger audience, of course you can use your own hashtag then you can tell your audience, hey, my hashtag is hashtag fedora and they’ll know to use that hashtag then. But when you are just starting and you’re just getting your marketing up, you want to use hashtag that are already being searched and already being used that way people can come to your profile and that’s when we’re, those impressions come in that we were talking about earlier, you get more impressions?

[00:20:19.49] spk_0:
Yeah, okay, okay, better to start with the, with the established,

[00:20:23.74] spk_1:
definitely. Yeah. So that you can get found. Yeah.

[00:20:28.24] spk_0:
All right, your l you’re always lead. Right, yep,

[00:21:37.74] spk_1:
yep. So that part in between the audience and the lead is super important. So it is the information that you give your audience that’s going to lead them on into your email list. It’s important to have an email list which a lot of non trump is either have an email list and they don’t use it or they don’t have an email this at all. I just feel like it’s not important, but you have to be actively building an email list because these are your particular raving fans that are going to continue to follow you even off of the social media platform, even though we know social social media is not going to disappear. Um you just want to make sure that you have your own particular people that you can consistently talk to, that you can consistently share with and so that between the a and the ill you want to have uh an opportunity to give them information in exchange for their email. Now, this can be a video, this can be a live event registration. This can be um, a pdf just giving them some really cool information about what you guys are doing or why it’s important to care about your mission. Like something of value that they can give you that valuable email because that email is going to help you down the line. That way, if you don’t, if they don’t see your post that day, at least they can check their emails now because they have you have them on the list

[00:21:48.84] spk_0:
I’ve seen or is that I think put up too much of a, of a barrier when they’re asking for that email and I’ll ask, you know, for maybe first name, last name. I’ve seen phone number.

[00:21:59.67] spk_3:
You know, this

[00:22:00.87] spk_0:
is all information. That’s very nice to have because you can write the first name and last name and phone number. You can probably research the person. But I think I think the, I think you’re losing more people because people don’t expect, you know, I don’t have to give up don’t give up my phone number and my address.

[00:22:15.72] spk_1:
Yeah. And you shouldn’t have to, you should get your white paper

[00:22:19.62] spk_0:
on on your work, you know,

[00:22:21.04] spk_1:
so Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. Asking for that type of information like your your email is very valuable to you anyway. Right. Because we don’t give our emails to everybody. We dont want spam, we don’t want people on our inbox. So when we decided to give our emails out, that’s already a big deal for us. And so it’s really important. Like you said to simplify that should just be a name and email. Nothing crazy and it should just be in exchange for whatever that value is really quickly. So we quickly get the information we need and then later on down the line if you need the name and address and all those other things, it’s because I registered for something, I registered for an event or I registered to come out and do something with you. But that’s later down the line and I know you

[00:22:59.94] spk_0:
like, like I’m happy to give email and first name.

[00:23:03.54] spk_1:
That’s perfect way

[00:23:14.94] spk_0:
this organization, you know, you can personalize my email you, my first name. You know, I might give up last name or I might just make up a last name but it gets beyond that when you get on

[00:23:16.96] spk_3:
that phone

[00:23:18.06] spk_0:
number, you

[00:23:29.64] spk_1:
know, I click away. It’s too much. It’s too much and you don’t even as a, you know, when you’re marketing, you don’t need that number. Most people don’t do calls like that anyway. I like I said ask for that down the line. If you know, you’re gonna need that. Um, you can ask for that during someone’s registration or something. But they’ve already expressed interest to you. They know you they’ve been following your content. They opened the emails, right? And so then, you know, okay, they’re comfortable with us. They can give us their phone number at that point.

[00:23:50.34] spk_0:
All right. Or if you want to do a text campaign, you can ask, you know, you want to opt in, you’ve been

[00:23:52.51] spk_1:
out of the option right on our email, do that the first one though, the first time you get them on there and don’t do that the first

[00:23:58.25] spk_0:
time it’s too much right.

[00:23:59.46] spk_1:
You would scare him off.

[00:24:01.66] spk_0:
They’ve been on the mailing list for a while and you know, we’re

[00:24:03.97] spk_1:
gonna that’s fine. That’s fine. You

[00:24:13.14] spk_0:
know what we’re gonna do a SmS campaign. So, you know, if you’d like to opt in, you know, here’s the place to give us your number or reply with or something. You know, exactly.

[00:24:18.56] spk_1:
You should always be simple as possible

[00:24:20.79] spk_0:
after you’ve already got some goodwill. I feel like

[00:24:55.74] spk_1:
Exactly. And since we’re talking about that tony we can talk about some of the metrics that you should look for in your email is especially like once you get them on their like, what do you do with them? And I know a lot of nonprofits get stuck there. So one of the things that you want to make for sure is that you’re consistent with your email. So don’t just take the email and they never hear from you ever again. Don’t make that mistake because oftentimes when we do that and let’s say event comes up three or four months down the line and we’re wondering why no one registered or nobody opened our emails. We have really low email rates. It’s because you’ve let them cold. Okay. So you want to be for sure that you consistently talking to your list and you’re consistently giving them information so you can still use the 80 20 rule. And I was telling you earlier,

[00:27:44.84] spk_0:
it’s time for a break, send in blue. It’s an all in one digital marketing platform with tools to build end end digital campaigns that look professional are affordable and keep you organized. They do digital campaign marketing. Most marketing software is designed for big companies and has that enterprise level price tag sending blue is priced for you, sending blue price for you, price for nonprofits, it’s an easy to use marketing platform walking you through the steps of building a campaign to try out, sending blue and get a free month. Hit the listener landing page at tony-dot-M.A.-slash-Pursuant in blue. It’s time for Tony’s take two planned giving in the pandemic era. That’s a webinar that I’ll be delivering graciously hosted by J. M. T. Consulting. It’s on Thursday September 30, 2:00 EST, naturally I’m gonna weave in my stand up comedy, keep this light and entertaining uh as well as informative, informative is important. We don’t miss the informative, but we’ll talk about it. But I will talk about what planned giving is, who your best prospects are, where you get started and how planned giving fits. In our pandemic era. You can go to J. M. T. Consulting dot com, click events and then click experts speaker series. They have a bunch of experts and me. But that’s how you make your reservation. JMT consulting dot com events and then expert speaker series. Or if you prefer, you could go to JMT consulting dot com slash events slash planned hyphen giving hyphen in hyphen the hyphen pandemic hyphen era hyphen with hyphen tony hyphen martignetti I I presume you could also just search JMT consulting tony-martignetti that might work also. But you choose your method, no judgments here is a judgment free zone. You choose how you want to make your reservation, it’s yours, it’s yours. I just hope you will. I hope you’ll be with me with me and jmT consulting thursday september 30th two o’clock eastern. That Is Tony’s take two. We’ve got boo koo but loads more time for turn followers into donors with adora drake

[00:28:34.04] spk_1:
and some of the main ways to get that really high open rate. It starts with the subject line. So the subject line should go straight to the point. It should be really quick and grab the intention of your reader and then once they click on that uh that email, the content should be helpful. It should be informative and it should quickly let them know. You know why they should keep reading. So that’s a little bit copyrighting their, uh, when you’re thinking about that. But if you have a newsletter, it’s a great place to put, you know, what are you guys coming up with? Why? Why should we care to be on your list? You know, especially when someone is a brand new person on the list. I like to create something that caught a welcome series. So I just kind of welcome them in. You know, introduce them. Let them know what the mission is, what we like to see in the future and things like that and kind of really get them into the organization and get them excited for being there. And as well as exchanging for some value. How

[00:28:44.27] spk_0:
long is that welcome series?

[00:28:46.44] spk_1:
It varies. Um, I usually have a minimum of seven emails. Um, and it’s just going to walk them through the entire first week that they’re on the list. And then after that you, you can go to just like once a week or something like that, but you want to make sure that you’re consistent at least once a week minimum,

[00:29:02.54] spk_0:
but initially you’re doing one a day, seven days. Yeah. People don’t object to that.

[00:29:25.74] spk_1:
No. And one of the things that I get asked all the time what they unsubscribe. Fedora if they unsubscribe, but you have to think of it this way. If they unsubscribe, then they’re not supposed to be there. Um, they’re not one of the people that are going to eventually donate to you. They’re not gonna want to follow. You know, you don’t saying so you’re kind of just losing deadweight. Kind of hate to say it that way, but it’s kind of dead weight and so you want to make sure that your, your list is lean. Um, they’re actually wanting to be there. They’re actually gonna open those emails because those are the people that are gonna donate or volunteer your time later down the line.

[00:29:40.52] spk_0:
That’s also going to help you with your email service provider.

[00:29:43.94] spk_1:
Yeah. Safety cost using uh,

[00:29:47.55] spk_0:
if you’re using mail chimp or constant contact or something. I mean if you have a huge list, but it’s un engaged. That that hurts, that hurts you. And they

[00:29:55.92] spk_1:
might, it does or

[00:29:58.28] spk_0:
your your email service provider or the recipients might end up might put you in spam even though the person asked for your email, but you have a big fat bloated un engaged list versus having to say you’re saying having a lien list it is engaged. That’s more likely to end up in an inbox than a junk box.

[00:30:16.22] spk_1:
Exactly. And that’s exactly what the goal is, especially when you’re creating an email list is to make sure that these people actually want to be there because these are your fans, you’re gonna go to later down the line when you do ask for donations. They already know you and they’re warm already. So these are warm leads

[00:30:30.24] spk_0:
and listeners, we’ve had guests on this. So you know, if you want to just search, go to tony-martignetti dot com and search email delivery ability, I’ve had shows on going into depth what a door and I’m talking about right now about the algorithms that companies you pay are using against. You have a big fat bloated and engaged list.

[00:30:52.99] spk_1:
So true. It does

[00:30:56.23] spk_0:
deliver ability. So you can hear shows specifically on that topic and how to avoid it. Um, we’re just touching on it now, but it is important your own companies that you’re paying could be hurting you.

[00:31:14.94] spk_1:
Yeah, I’ve also created a pdf just for you guys. If you guys want to learn the top five emails that I use on my email list of my clients list, you guys can go ahead and download that to uh, that’s gonna be in my website. Adora drake marketing dash non profit radio So you guys can go get

[00:31:24.97] spk_0:
that. All right. So, uh if this, if this podcast doesn’t return,

[00:31:30.72] spk_3:
you

[00:31:32.01] spk_0:
got some land, she’s got a landing page for us

[00:31:34.33] spk_1:
uh podcast. You guys are

[00:31:36.85] spk_0:
going to hear from the door drake again. This is gonna be the last time.

[00:31:39.34] spk_1:
Oh no,

[00:31:40.42] spk_3:
not Okay.

[00:31:41.73] spk_1:
No, I mean I hope not.

[00:31:42.99] spk_0:
But you set upon landing page you got metrics against us.

[00:31:45.70] spk_1:
Matrix. Matrix. Yes, that’s right.

[00:31:48.46] spk_0:
What did you say metrics what

[00:31:50.07] spk_1:
always have metrics. That’s right.

[00:31:51.73] spk_0:
Okay. Like you like the metrics maven. Okay.

[00:31:54.72] spk_1:
I like that. You know, I

[00:31:57.96] spk_0:
love alliteration. You can use Metro. Alright, so Adora drake marketing dot com. Hyphen dash dash dash hyphen non profit radio all one word. non profit

[00:32:10.67] spk_1:
All one Word. Yes. No spaces.

[00:32:12.74] spk_0:
Okay. And that’s where we’ll get your top five email. What subjects?

[00:32:26.74] spk_1:
It’s going to be a top five types of emails. So I’m going to tell you the types of emails that some of them was that series that we were talking about. I’ll tell you the types of emails that you can send out to your list. Keep them engaged but really to keep them engaged and wanting to donate at some point.

[00:32:30.79] spk_0:
Okay. Okay. And I just want to make something very, very clear. So when you’re welcoming someone to the list, they’ve they’ve taken your content, whatever it is, video or etcetera, whatever white paper etcetera. Uh, they’re new to your list. So you you send an email each day for the next week.

[00:32:49.04] spk_1:
Yeah. Now this is this is not hard as you guys think. It’s not me going on there every day typing up an email and this is something that you can set up an auto response. You can schedule this out. Right.

[00:33:01.43] spk_0:
I’m just making sure that you don’t find that? That’s too much in the beginning.

[00:33:33.04] spk_1:
No. And I don’t want you guys to be scared in thinking that even if you do something one a day that is too scary. I mean if anything it’s like having a conversation with a friend every day or talking to your mom every day. Right. She wouldn’t get tired of you. So why would someone who’s who’s following you and want to be a part of your mission? They wouldn’t get tired of you either. They just want to know more and more to And so the more you show up, it’s actually the opposite, the more you have people wanting to be there. So people who drop off, they were going to drop off at some point anyway because they weren’t really your target. And so I don’t want you guys worried about what they keep unsubscribing everyday. Well, that means you need to continue to keep growing your list with real people.

[00:33:48.94] spk_0:
Right. Right. Keeping that that lean but engaged list. Okay, Okay. And then your advice is at least once a week after that first week, minimum

[00:33:49.81] spk_1:
minimum, at least minimum. Yes. At

[00:33:52.68] spk_0:
least you said minimum. Yeah,

[00:33:53.90] spk_1:
Yeah, that’s fine. Yeah,

[00:33:56.67] spk_3:
I

[00:33:57.79] spk_1:
don’t know what I’m talking about. You got

[00:33:59.46] spk_3:
it at

[00:34:00.29] spk_0:
least minimum

[00:34:01.36] spk_3:
minimum

[00:34:02.86] spk_1:
minimum. Alright. You have it out. You gotta go in a

[00:34:06.95] spk_0:
minimum minimum of once a week after. Right, okay. Yeah. Because when you’re event comes up and nobody nobody RSVPs, it’s because you haven’t been keeping in touch the people forgot about, you know,

[00:34:19.77] spk_1:
seriously? We have our lives. Right. Right. Right. And you disembark as long as like who is this? And why did I even get on the list, you know, so don’t be gone too long. Make sure you stay in front of them, let them know what’s going on. And when you show up and they show you show up in their inbox, they’re going to know exactly who you are. You want to open it. So stay consistent

[00:34:40.34] spk_0:
and then you build that relationship up. Maybe you get their U. S. Mail address. Maybe you can you do a print annual report. Maybe you can send that to that. You wanted to send them a little swag. But take your time build a relationship over

[00:34:54.20] spk_1:
the relationship. You’re right, Tony. Alright. That’s the main key. Is that building a relationship piece,

[00:35:00.24] spk_0:
Right? Because we’re trying to turn them into donors for God’s sake.

[00:35:02.79] spk_1:
Yeah. We’re asking for money here.

[00:35:05.67] spk_3:
That’s the goal. So

[00:35:06.81] spk_0:
our volunteers could be, you know, it could be maybe committed

[00:35:09.46] spk_1:
the other time, which is really valuable. Right? Valuable. Also. Absolutely.

[00:35:12.91] spk_3:
All

[00:35:14.13] spk_0:
right. Go ahead with your E. For execution, please.

[00:35:47.44] spk_1:
So execution is the main part is when we’re asking for money. Okay, So we’re ready to get them from the list and we’re asking them to give us a certain amount of money um for our calls. And so all of these other elements that S C. A. And L. They all lead up to the execution and so how do you do this? You’re gonna want to make for sure again that you’re consistent with that email list and when you ask for the sale or you ask for the donation, they already have a relationship with you and you’re really clear on where can they go and donate? Um What’s the timeline? Do they need to get on a call with you and talk about this more? You’re really defining out, you know how can they go about giving their money? Um Do they need to you know have particular people there or whatever the at the C. T. A. Is you want to make sure that you’re really clear on this and that’s that execution execution piece.

[00:36:15.43] spk_0:
And how long would you say from someone first joining the list to to asking them to make their first gift? What what what time period should that be?

[00:37:26.33] spk_1:
Um this is gonna vary by by organization but if you’re looking at the analytics and you’re seeing that people are consistently opening things that consistently clicking on your newsletter and they’re coming to your website. That’s probably a clear sign that they’re really interested. Okay so if they’re more interested in you’re seeing a 40% open rate uh They’re clicking is about a 20% click rate then it might be you can probably asked earlier but if you’re seeing that they need a little bit more time and not quite opening up the emails um then you’re not quite getting a click like you want, you might want to space that add a little bit more. So I always advise minimum uh to keep giving 80% and only asked 20%. So if you’re giving for four weeks straight, just straight information maybe on the fifth week, you can ask, hey, would you like to donate to our calls here and this and that. So it’s just about giving and balancing out that making for sure that they’re comfortable with what you do. They kind of see where the money would go. And then once you’re ready down the line, you say, hey, we’re needed to raise money for this or your money would go towards this. Cause how would you like to donate? And this is the perfect time to get started before the holidays because this is the time that you can create all the content, right? You can get them really comfortable with you and let them know what your messages and messaging is. And then you just ask for a sales. So you have plenty of time between this time in december to start getting that going.

[00:37:38.33] spk_0:
Yeah, because we are right. We’re coming up on the fourth quarter of the very important fourth quarter. All right. So, so you’re looking for you, you think 40% open rate and 20% click rate. Those are those are good numbers.

[00:38:53.02] spk_1:
Yes. And so I was talking to someone earlier. She was like, well I don’t have a 40% open rate and that’s fine. The averages around 30-35% open rate. That 40 is just a really good engaged audience. So they’re actually opening it. And it’s probably because you have a really good subject line. Right? And so I like to say that if you can get around 40, that means you have a really engaged audience, they’re not cold. Um, and they’re warm. And so Anything below that between 30, 30 and 35, that’s average, but below 30 is kind of bad. So you might want to either clean up your list or you might need to, um, you know, change your subject and kind of see, so that’s that testing piece. And a lot of people, you know, don’t know that about market, but marketing is a huge area where you have to test and kind of see what works for you, what works for your organization. And so you want to test and see what kind of subject lines do my audience open? Are they opening them at all or where did they come from? What’s the information that I gave them exchange for the email? And am I consistently making content around that or have I changed up something that makes them not want to open the email? So these are all things that you want to look at when you’re building an email list because like we said earlier, you don’t want to have a big list of people who aren’t really engaged already. You have a list of like 100 people, but they’re really engaged. They’re gonna, they’re gonna, you know, give you those funds at the end of the day,

[00:39:05.42] spk_0:
when you say, clean up the list, you’re talking about dropping people off who are chronically un engaged, you know, they’re not not opening the not clicking.

[00:39:45.32] spk_1:
Yeah, exactly. It’s not gonna do you any good to have. It’s just literally vanity metrics at that point, before I clean up the list, I always just do you know a really quick check and say, hey, are you there? Or hey, would you like to continue to learn about X. Y. Z. If you get replies on those emails, you can keep those people on the list. The other people have not opened it or have not click anything. Those are used a clear sign that they’re not really, uh you know, people that you should probably keep on your list. And so before you clean them up, you can always just send out those quick little to emails that I just mentioned and kind of see, uh, you know, are you guys still wanted to be here? Or you can just drop those people who are not opening them,

[00:40:03.81] spk_0:
let’s make something clear. Just so there’s no listener that’s that’s got a question in their mind, uh the open rate that’s when someone opens, that’s opening your opening your email. Right? The open. That’s just that’s going from, you know, on your phone. That’s going from the little some little summary to tapping it to opening it up. And

[00:40:12.67] spk_1:
yeah, any time you open up email, that’s your open rate, your full

[00:40:15.45] spk_0:
message. Right? And then the click rate is just somebody clicks on anything in anything in the message.

[00:40:20.41] spk_1:
Usually you’re yeah, usually your newsletter, whatever link you have in there. So let’s say you have a link that leads back to your newsletter on your website or at least back to your blog or whatever is you have in there. It’s gonna catch that click and like you said, so that’s the click inside of the email,

[00:40:34.71] spk_0:
your call, your call to action

[00:40:36.40] spk_1:
called the action. Exactly.

[00:40:37.50] spk_0:
Someone. Okay. I just wanna make sure everybody understands the open right click.

[00:40:40.44] spk_1:
Ok. So those are the main two that you guys want to look at when you guys are running email marketing campaigns and those are the main things we look at. Two is how high those rates are because that tells me if my content is working or not.

[00:40:53.81] spk_0:
All right. So that’s the scale method. Um as I, as I thought might happen, I did think of a few things now require us to go

[00:41:02.81] spk_1:
back. That’s

[00:41:13.21] spk_0:
the lackluster host, like I said, that you’re stuck with going back to the, to the platforms, the social media. Yeah. Um let’s talk about ones that are no longer emerging, but they’re newer slack. WhatsApp Tick tock is their value there for nonprofits? Or does it does depend on who your, what your persona looks like as to whether you’re on one of the newer platforms.

[00:42:07.70] spk_1:
Yeah. So if, if you’re going to join one of those, you really do need to make sure that your audience is over there. So if you are targeting, you know, teenagers or younger people, then you might can look into something like a Tiktok, right? But if you’re targeting, you know, wealthier donors who are over 60, they probably won’t be over there as much. Not that they won’t be over there is that they won’t be over their majority. And so you want to look at a platform where they’ll be like facebook or linkedin. Right. And so it’s gonna, like you said, go back down to that persona. But you know, when you’re thinking about which platform, if you want to be on and what you want to target? Look at, you know, where would these people be? What is that demographics that we talked about and that’s going to help you decide which one is going to, you know, work best if that platform doesn’t work, you’ve just been using it for like two or three months and you’re not really seeing much change. Maybe you should try another platform. So it’s again, that testing and making for sure that you understand? Where is my audience before you give up.

[00:42:20.10] spk_0:
Are you seeing nonprofits on Tiktok? Do you have?

[00:42:23.18] spk_1:
Honestly, I have not, I haven’t, I have not. You know what? I have seen a few on. What’s the other new social media platform? It’s like an audio only kind of platform. I can’t think of it right now.

[00:42:36.17] spk_0:
Oh, I think I’ve heard of this to uh, yeah. All right.

[00:42:39.41] spk_1:
I don’t know. You know what I mean? Right. Yeah. It’s just audio only. I’ve heard some nonprofit starting to do those because it’s kind of like podcasts and so that might be a really cool option for people if if you have a really good viewership, you want to turn them into listeners and that might be an option for you.

[00:42:56.20] spk_0:
Okay. Okay, slack. Is that is their value in uh, nonprofits on slack.

[00:44:04.89] spk_1:
Yeah. So slack is usually used to communicate which you can communicate with, you know, your volunteer. So that’s more like an internal type of software. You can kind of get in there and engage with people in your organization. So we can talk about that a little bit too. Like how do you kind of keep people engaged in inside of the organization? So something like a slag or Asana that’s going to help you really track your projects. Right. So these are, these are gonna be helpful for making for sure that those projects move along, uh, through the pipeline. So, uh, let’s say you guys are having an event and you want to start marketing it four months ahead of time, That slack kind of platform will enable you to put each team member in there that you guys can communicate, upload um you know, marking materials, schedule out those emails and things like that inside of that slack platform, so that’s what that’s used for and other ones are like a sauna or teamwork and things like that. Those are all kind of work on that capacity. Also when it comes to social media, which I talked, we had mentioned earlier like you don’t want to be glued to your social media right? So there are there are Softwares that can actually help you schedule out your content so you won’t actually have to be there every day at five o’clock scheduling on your content. So these platforms are things like you know, sprout social hubspot um plan only that you can actually upload your content and ahead of time and then schedule things out so that you don’t actually have to be there. All you have to do is come in still for about 30 minutes to come in and engage and making sure you answer questions and comments and things like that. So there is some pieces of automation that you can use

[00:44:35.89] spk_0:
Dora, what was the third one you said hubspot? I know I know sprout social and what was

[00:44:40.05] spk_1:
the social and what is called plan early and that one, I used a lot for instagram, for scheduling on instagram. Post

[00:44:46.39] spk_0:
plan, could you spell it for us?

[00:44:48.29] spk_1:
It’s called plan early. So it’s P L A N O L Y.

[00:45:00.69] spk_0:
Okay, cool. Thank you. All right. No listeners to be able to find it. Okay. Um you know, you got a little Dallas texas accent, so I wanna make

[00:45:02.80] spk_3:
sure,

[00:45:04.29] spk_1:
I don’t know I had next sent to someone said it the other, we got like, really

[00:45:07.51] spk_3:
got

[00:45:37.49] spk_0:
a little one man, I’m from new york. Uh how obvious is that? Just a little So, you know, I just wanna get folks to be able to hear through it. You talk about the subject line. What about, you know, uh lots of folks um encourage listeners to use that, that subheading uh right below the subject, like that summary that you see on your phone, you know, you get like 100 50 characters below the subject line. That can be used creatively also to encourage people to open. Right?

[00:46:11.08] spk_1:
Yeah, definitely. Um it can definitely be used to, but but mainly it is going to be the subject line record. That’s that’s what’s gonna make me click it and then the actual content inside of your email is gonna be the most important, but if you want to add, let’s say I’m having a contest or something like that and I want to make sure that people understand, you know, what, what they can expect when they open the email, then I might add a little bit of context inside of that secondary subject line that you’re talking about. Um, it’s not the most important, but it is, you know, something that you can add a little bit of extra information if you don’t have enough information in your subject line. Okay.

[00:46:20.18] spk_0:
Uh, why don’t you uh, story it’s story time. Did you tell the story of uh, you know, some non profit uh, that you know, maybe not, you know, step by step to the scale method, but nowhere you saw, you saw things where things are moving, you start to get some traction, saw some success converted to focus the donors and tell us a good story.

[00:47:47.28] spk_1:
Yeah, so one of the non profits I just recently worked with, they were uh mid sized non profit in boston and what they focused on is helping disadvantaged minorities find jobs. Um, they also were involved with feeding uh, their local community and one of their major uh, academies that they were going to try to open up was just to help younger teenage students to come in and learn how to volunteer and learn how to get back to their community and be really good students. And so they were trying to push that act that academy and they didn’t know how to do that. So most of their marketing was still done the old school way. So they were getting out there, you know, going to these different uh, local churches, going to schools and things like that on foot and not necessarily, uh, utilizing social media, they have been around for about 15 years. So they did have an email list, but they weren’t really using it outside of, you know, just letting people know like tomorrow we’re gonna be doing an advantage at X, Y. C. And so when they brought me in, they were like, hey, how do we uh, you know, really build some interest online and so that we don’t necessarily have to rely on doing these old school methods all the time. And so one of the first things I took a look at was that s of the scale method, which is their social media, which is almost non existent. Um, they have maybe one account, but it wasn’t used for like four years. So

[00:48:00.23] spk_3:
that

[00:49:52.47] spk_1:
is non existent. Yeah, I was like, okay, what’s this? So we really have to start almost from scratch their built their, all of their platforms, uh, to the point where people were actually following, we could actually, you know, see the analytics of them leaving the platforms and clicking their websites. We did get people onto their email list and then I taught them, you know, kind of what I was discussing here. Like how do you nurture those people now that they’re on your email is like, don’t just leave them hanging or don’t just let them know the day before the event, Like, hey, it’s tomorrow because you probably won’t get as much engagement. So I taught them how to use content inside of their email lists and how to, you know, get people interested before these type of events happen or before you, they want that call to action to happen so that they can really start seeing well, okay with this organization is really cool because they really do help their community. Um, or one of the, it was funny because during my time with them, one of the main uh, directors, he had an emergency outside when they were feeding the hungry that was actually featured on the news. And so I was like, hey, this is perfect for social media just to show that you guys, you know, not only you guys out there on foot, but you guys, you know, care about your community even when an emergency happens, you’re going to step in and so that just makes it just makes you look good as a brand and you can share all these types of things with your audience because they care to know it right. And so I walked them through the whole process, like you said, trained their team how to do this. So if you have an organization and you are, you know, you’re wanting to be a little bit more hands off. I do have the opportunity for you to, you know, come into my programs and do that. But they use that program where I kind of came in, set up all of their automation. So they don’t have to be glued to things and they can really focus on the mission of the organization. And so when I left them, all of their team was trained. They have the automation is in place and so they’re on their way now to, to bring in a lot of money less than I checked with With them up there in Boston. They had brought in about 50,000 into that new academy that I was talking about. Um, and that’s gonna be really focused, like I said on on these students this year, on how to make them really good students and make them want to study, make them want to volunteer and things like that.

[00:50:07.36] spk_0:
Okay. And that $50,000 was largely from the relationships that got built

[00:50:55.36] spk_1:
relationships in ways that we just talked about. Exactly exactly, strictly relationships really because you know, once you get them on the list, you got, you know, warmed up. A lot of people are asking questions as I was running a lot of their socials at the time. So I got to see people ask questions about, you know, how can I get involved or what do you guys do or how long have you guys been around? And that is a really good way to, you know, meet prospective donors, you know, get him on the list and share that information. Uh, one of the directors there, she also had a radio show. So she would do things every morning. Uh, let’s say on on Wednesday at nine o’clock, she would, you know, give her information. And I said, when I first came in I was like, okay, you’re doing this radio show. But what if I’m not listening at nine o’clock Eastern time because I’m here in central time. Alright, Am I never gonna see the show? And she was like, well, I don’t, I don’t know what to do. So I taught her how to repurpose that content. So where she can share it on her social media, she can also share that on her email list and more people get to see, you know what they’re doing up there.

[00:51:13.66] spk_0:
Okay, that’s a great story.

[00:51:14.93] spk_3:
All

[00:51:16.16] spk_1:
right, we’re

[00:51:19.14] spk_0:
gonna leave it

[00:51:19.49] spk_3:
there Drake

[00:51:38.26] spk_0:
actually, Dordrecht, digital marketing strategist, coach and consultant, you’ll find her at Adora drake marketing dot com if you want to hit the listener landing pages she set up for us. It’s a test now. So Dora drake marketing dot com. Hyphen non profit radio No spaces,

[00:51:40.96] spk_1:
no spaces. Thank

[00:51:43.12] spk_0:
you very much. Terrific ideas. Thank you.

[00:51:45.46] spk_1:
Thank you guys. It was a pleasure being here.

[00:51:47.86] spk_0:
Our pleasure, my pleasure, my pleasure, well, our pleasure to listen, my pleasure to talk with

[00:51:52.61] spk_3:
you

[00:52:25.05] spk_0:
next week, effective fundraising that’s Warren Mcfarland’s new book and he’ll be with me if you missed any part of this week’s show? I Beseech you find it at tony-martignetti dot com. We’re sponsored by turn to communications pr and content for nonprofits. Your story is their mission turn hyphen two dot c o. And by sending Blue, the only all in one digital marketing platform empowering non profits to grow. tony-dot-M.A.-slash-Pursuant in Blue,

[00:53:01.55] spk_2:
our creative producer is Claire Meyerhoff shows social media is by Susan Chavez. Marc Solomon is our web guy and this music is by scott steiner. Thank you for that. Affirmation scotty you with me next week for nonprofit radio big non profit ideas for the Other 95%. Go out and be great. Mm hmm. Mhm. What

Nonprofit Radio for January 12, 2018: Free Coaching In 2018 & Maria’s 2018 Plan

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Curtis Springstead: Free Coaching In 2018

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Welcome to twenty martignetti non-profit radio big non-profit ideas to be either ninety five percent on your actor named oh, i’m glad you’re with me, i’d suffer the effects of organ neo-sage if you got taste saying you missed today’s show free coaching in twenty eighteen, four coaches small non-profits nationwide through its network of volunteer specialist in marketing, hr technology management finance and mohr kurt kurt springstead is from the northeast region, and he revealed how to get free, ongoing support for your organization and maria’s twenty eighteen plans. Maria semple has strategies for your fund-raising digital marketing and trusted research prospect, research contributor and prospect finder. I thought he’d take you twenty eighteen plans all this month responded by pursuing full service fund-raising data driven and technology enables, tony got a last person and by wejust piela guiding you beyond the numbers. Western piela dot com hello durney credit card processing into your press of revenue stream. Tony dahna made black teller i’m pleased to welcome kurt springstead to the show. He is a certified mentor and chairman for the score northeast new jersey chapter his near forty year career was in information technology and ranged from programmer trainer and adjunct professor. Tow it, director, consultant and non-profit boardmember score is at score. Mentors and score dot org’s. Kurt springstead. Welcome to the show. Thank you. It’s. A pleasure to have you, um, score. Now, i i grew up with score being the service corps of retired executives, but that’s ah, that’s. Old news, right? Yes. We’ve dropped that. That acronym? Because it turns out that nearly half of us are working to some degree, many full time in some part time. Okay, so so i was like, like, aarp is no longer the american association of retired persons. It’s just aarp like that, right? Like that. Okay, um, and score is nationwide and supported by the small business administration. Technically, we have our own funding from the directly from the government, and we’re a partner of this administration. They just kind of helped me or the money out. Okay, okay. But of course, score is itself a non-profit so people can give to score and support the work. Well, the way we have our own non profit foundation called the score foundation. Okay, in order to to accept funds donated from the public or from corporations that want to sponsor is because as a government agency, which is what we are, we obviously can’t take donations. Oh, you’re still you like you’re a part of small business administration? Not just i thought, supported by the website says, supported by i thought that meant like you get grant, you get a grant from score. I mean, from s b a. But what exactly happened? Wear actually empowered by an act of congress and they give us a small grant that they they ask our big brother, the spd administer. Okay then, when someone tried to donate a large sum of money a few years ago, we had to figure out how to make advantage take advantage of that. So i created the square foundation, which then sponsors various programs that were involved in whether it be training or outreach. They allow us to be more effective than what we get from the government. Okay, so the yes. So the score mentors are acquainted with non-profits not wanting to turn down gift if they don’t have to. Absolutely. Well, we we end up in our particular chapter having to raise nearly half of the money we need to operate. So we understand all the all the issues that not-for-profits okay, excellent. Eso s o score is i think i feel i feel like my voice just crafting a score score score score is mentoring that is on coaching that is available nationwide, including for non-profits let give us a sense of the breath of this. What? What? What non-profits could learn? Sure. So, yeah, one of the key services we do offer is confidential and free mentoring for as long as you’ll have us. And, you know, there’s about thirteen thousand of my friends in three hundred thirty chapters across the country with people who have done everything you can imagine serial entrepreneurs, uh, people with industry specializations, i spent a lot of time as you mentioned it, but we have people who are retard lawyers piela people have come from not-for-profits organizations and so on, and then what we offer you is whatever services you might need it’s really, in terms of a coaching, a relationship. So if you were people come to us with simply a gleam of an idea, i’d like to create an organization or like to create an entity that does the following and i need to know where the steps are. What are my resource is? How do i make it happen? And since most of us and our careers have been down that road already, either in for-profit or not-for-profits we can i tried to tell you where the where the dangers are and what kind of decisions you might have to make. Okay. And that’s, that’s, that’s pre startup. But our listeners are are already in non-profits, you know, vast majority is already in non-profits so i first of all, i just love the idea that this is available to us as us taxpayers and non-profits ah, you know, in part supported by our small business administration. I love that guy like that, right? So actually, you should be really important. Happy the taxpayer because for every dollar the government gives us, we return fifty dollars. I don’t think there’s any other group in the government that actually gives money back. Is that right? Yeah. Okay. So the yes. I mean, well, you know, we tend to see a lot of people who are looking to start a business, but probably nearly half our business. People who already in business. Ok. For a significant period of time, and so the services are the same. The questions they’re sometimes different not trying to find out necessarily where to go, but we have some trying to grow or i’m thinking of adding a new line of service, or i’m struggling with managing the people that i have a client come to me has been a business for twenty five years, and suddenly the numbers went went rid. She had no idea why that happened or what was going on had, uh, any number of people who come to us with, uh, you know, i just we feel we need to grow. We need to serve more of our clients. We’re not getting out to the the community we were designed to serve. How do we make people aware of us? How do we get volunteers? All those kinds of questions that we run into excellent. Okay, so so even though it’s small business administration, you know that there’s a reason that you’re on non-profit radio i want listens to b b certain that they can avail themselves of this inn non-profit so so whether it’s marketing or law or human resource is a righty or accounting? What? I mean, like any any business functionality is available for the is available as coaching and mentoring that i haven’t run into anything yet that i can’t find, you know, the reality is that for, you know, a cz you’ve mentioned, i’ve been on board and, you know, i’m i’m running a fifty person ah, small non-profit myself locally with the team that i have, so i’m struggling to find more money trying to struggling to find volunteers, i’m tryingto struggle to keep them engaged, too. Figure out how i can reach more clients, which is one of the reasons is wrong with you today. What can i do to make sure that everybody knows our service is out there? So we have the same kinds of problems, the same issues. So, you know, sometimes you need legal advice, and i appreciate the nuance that there are some regulations and some decisions that are different for those of us who are in a not for profit status and the have you got a charitable registration you need to set up? How do you? Some of the legalities of when we hyre people on how we treat them are a bit different howto do with the tax situation. I mean, one of the most interesting questions i get it someone has come to us, has had a for-profit business i have working with a woman who’s been teaching art for a number of years, but now she wants to turn it over and offer some of her courses for free on the internet. And she was going to look for grants. Well, unfortunately, she’s a commercial operation and the number of grants for a commercial operation are quite small. So we started to talk about how she might look at establishing an aw for-profit and attract people to make donations to that business. So i, you know, i’ve only been with score about three years, but i’ve been all over the map. So in terms of those kinds of questions, i can’t help but notice the similarities between my four business work in my not-for-profits although, as every business has its own unique nuance, um where where we do our best to help with that? Yeah, we have to take our first break so you just hang out for a moment and it’s time for a break. Data driven fund-raising field guide that is their newest resource on the listener landing page. There was more data generated in twenty, sixteen and twenty, seventeen, and in all of previous history made that is amazing and it’s too much for you to deal with a field guide to help you translate the data. You have the fever got into actionable inside, drive your fund-raising so you can act on your data, not be stuck in its muddled through it. You know that, ah, fancy report that you get out of your fund-raising starita basis is not worth anything. If you can’t act on it and have it helped you in your fund-raising what is taking what they’ve learned in working raise large organisation, and they have boiled down to basic principles for you in data analysis. The data driven fund-raising field guys it’s at tony got a flash for students capital p now, back to springstead and free coaching in twenty eight i’m with kurt springstead on, we’re talking about score, which is consulting, coaching, mentoring, that’s available to you in all these different areas that that kurt has been touching on anywhere in the country. Him he happens to be in the northeast new jersey chapter, but how many three hundred chapters you said throughout the country, country hundred thirty welcomed the beauty of it is we have a significant number of clients that we service, uh, who who are comfortable with an exchange of e mails, and we’ve also started in the last year or two significant amount of mentoring the video conference, so if the particular expertise you need isn’t in the small team, in your neighborhood or in your your area, then with some help your you, khun, search and find a person anywhere in the united states, and you can make the arrangements to work with it. I was working with the young man who originally met with him in kentucky or talk with him while he was in kentucky and one day we were chatting while he happened to be in china working on this project, so we’re no longer bound by the code we working. Okay, excellent. All right. Very good to know. All right, so if someone wants to work with score, we want to take advantage of this vast consultancy basically that that’s free to us way get started with the the website it scored out. Or gore or how oh, that is the most efficient way to do it. Okay, you go to score dot organ, you’re going to find one of several buttons that it’s going to or hidden around the screen or on the screen that will tell you, you know, meet with a mentor. And at that point, you’ll be asked to you know what? How do you want to do that? Face-to-face email whatever you type in very minimal information that your name and address phone number email a little bit about what you want to talk about and hit entering within two business days. Somebody is probably going to be back in touch with you trying to establish the appointment to move ahead and you make a distinction between mentoring and consulting? How do i know which of those is better for me? Okay, well, actually, there you’re going to be with one person. We find that we have to wear a couple of hats were primarily mentors and had been a consultant most my life. I could make a hope, a simple distinction. A mentor, a guide you through the process asks you questions, ask you to probe things, operas you advice and counsel and points it out, but allows you to come to your own conclusions. We make no judgments about what it is you’re proposing to do or how you propose to do it, because ultimately it is your business. But there are times when what you need is information and instructions specifically how to do something and when we can do that, you know, we can’t practice law, and we can’t do the work of people do, but we can we can help you review a business plan, our build, you know, proposal to a bank. We’re going to coach you on that when i was a consultant, i i also would charge you to do that work or i do it for you. We are not. Equipped to fill out your business plan, but to help you go through that. So most of the time were mentors were were advising coaching, encouraging, sometimes supporting when times get tough. But every once in a while you need someone with the main expertise. Oh, and that’s, when we put on our consulting hat for a bit of time. Now, how do you get familiar with the work of the non-profit before this before this initial meeting? So so the initial meeting is for the purpose of, of understanding. What is it you want to accomplish? Where are you? What have you done so far? And then establishing a game plan? And one of the key things is do we need other players in the meat in the mix? That’s the advantage i have i i i’m probably meet with you with someone else anyway, just because more people that are listening, the better hyre information will gather anyway. But then if i know that there’s a particular expertise or challenge at the moment, then i can go out and make sure that i have the right person with me at that time, or i might need to do. Some more research to find out through my other channels, other partners that we work with to make sure that we have the information that you’re going to need or the access so the resources that you want. So that first hour, so it is really sort of like the doctor taking your vital signs, we need to kind of know what we’re dealing with first, before we start begin to do any kind of diagnosis. I mean, many people come to us, i think they have just a quick question. They want to get answered, and and that may be true, but oftentimes during the dialogue, they come to the conclusion that they there’s more than they had asked for the problem’s bigger or the questions are broader than they had thought and that’s that’s why we look at that first meeting is simply this sort of the diagnosis, okay? And you’ll stay with them. You said it’s a cz long as they’ll have you. Right, so the ad varies a bit by by chapter, but in our our chapter, the basic model is if i were to work with you, for example, i would intend to work with you for as long as you have me and as time would go on, i would expect you would need to have many different resource is, and you’d need things well beyond whatever my expertise might be. So i’m going to just make sure that i’m going to be your single point of contact with score throughout that entire relationship and get you the resource is that you need within score and without way our research, your partner, the fda, there might be a time when we need to reach out to there were two other governmental agencies, for example, to help you with something you’re trying to do and that’s the ideas we have that you can you can build that relationship with deaf. You not constantly telling your story to new people who might show up the answer a question, i suppose it’s something general, i’ve had guests on talking about, you know, planning on dh here we are in january talking about planning for the new year, i suppose it’s like, you know, i don’t feel like my will keep it in your in your ballpark, you know, i don’t feel like my eye is is adequate. You know, but i’m not really i mean, i don’t feel like the programs we have or the methods we have, like we’re two spreadsheet dependent, but, you know, i’m not really sure what direction to go or what, and i don’t know how much you know, money i need to spend, i suppose it’s something you know as general is that, uh, you know, sort of nebula nevertheless, is that well, that’s actualy pretty specific. Thank you, really? For that i was trying to give you a hard i was trying to give you a hard hypothetical. Yeah, so the whole idea’s, because i happen to have that the main expense, i’d start asking in little more in depth questions and understand and why you have these feelings with the challenges are what, what your current situation is preventing you from doing what things you think you’d like to be able to do, and we could talk about whether or not your system would do that. And then because i’ve had thirty or forty years, i can start to help you figure out how to shop for a new solution. If that’s the right case i could give you. Some ideas of what the orders of magnitude of expense might be the time to get these accomplished some thoughts about the steps of going forward, you know, recently have been advising a couple of people who are creating app in their particular space, and it’s it’s been a lot about strategy? You know what kind of a platform that we put it on when i have no money to start with? And then what do i do if i open up my app and i suddenly become, you know, huge, i’ve got, you know, one hundred thousand users where am i thought i might have a thousand on the first day, so all those kinds of things, you know, we’re equipped to do it, and, you know, it doesn’t it’s not always going to happen in a one hour session, and we understand that, yeah, of course, yeah, now i assume this is all confidential, absolutely pr every year we’re we’re required to re certify on our code of ethics and the number one tenant is confidentiality we that’s built into the when you actually agreed to be a client, you’re you’re covered by that, and i could just tell you from my own experience, unless we engage of one of my colleagues into a into a particular client, i’m not likely to be speaking about your personal situation with other members of the team. Frankly, just no, no need to do that. So you could be you can be absolutely certain that whatever we talk about it it’s just between us. Can we bring in other people from the organization? If i want, maybe it’d be helpful for you to talk. Tio my c f o r a boardmember can we can we engage multiple people on our on our side? Absolutely. We recently had a team of from my office to meet with the entire board, a new organization to provide some residents living facilities for people with special needs. And they were struggling with there being pressured but costs. And so it was important to get the full perspective from from their, uh, their leadership to what they thought their challenges and issues were. And that was so we had a nice big meeting, so we’re oftentimes it’s scaled up. And that sounds like a good story. Good non-profit story. How were you able to help? Those folks they st louis where they, you know, they gave us a rundown on what they saw, their challenges and what the in terms of the quality of people they needed toe hyre because of the concern for the people that the population they were serving, the challenge is about how they were funding the business. There were some options available to them, given the structure of some of the reimbursement that’s available through healthcare plans and such on dh ahs well as the diversity of their program, and we were able to share with them from our differing expertise. I had someone who had financial background, and there was another one with people back, personnel background, and i looked at some of the systems approaches, we were able to provide them with some frankly, in their case, so a way of sort of prioritizing the many challenges that that they had, and that seemed to be a recurring theme by the way that we run into many of the existing businesses there are there are so many things we could work on that sometimes we can’t make up her mind, which is the one that, uh, it’s going to be the most productive well and that’s, that and that’s a big challenge, of course, in the non-profit community, especially now, as you know, if if if we see government funding reduced to the point, where are our state can no longer offer services, you know, i think a lot is going to fall to non-profits and prioritization is going to be the challenge. I mean, this is gonna be so much more that needs to be done. Can we do it? Should should we be doing it on def? So you know how right? And, you know, i think the other thing is that for many clients of in both the non-profit world as well, the for-profit world, sometimes the best be that outside force or that outside opinion, um, your board is a good team, your volunteers were good team, but you you are not already looking through a filter based on your day to day knowledge of what, what you do and how you’ve done it. We come in with with none of those constraints, we don’t we don’t know everything about the business, so we’re not afraid to ask stupid questions or two proposed the idea from another industry or another space that perhaps could be adapted to your space. One of the interesting things we teach some business start up ideas, and one of the concepts in there for one of the leading thinkers is that there are no new business models. There are simply people who were innovatively applying business models into a world where they have not traditionally been used thinking of things like amazon into the book market, for example. So sometimes it just creates it’s just good to hear somebody who doesn’t already have the corporate think, if you will say, agree with your idea or think that your priorities are correct. What about around social media? If i if i feel i’m struggling, i’m not sure which which channels to be in? Um, i’m not you know, i don’t feel like i’m thoroughly engaged with people you know is help with social media within within the score of expertise to a degree, yes, i would be we find that more often than not just because of this, the fact that it moved so quickly, even with some of the the younger subject matter experts that we have on our team it’s just hard to keep up, so we understand i mean, frankly, is an organization we were struggling every day and constantly checking to make sure that what we’re investing in, what we’re doing is social meat is working, but so we can give that some overviewing could put that in the context of other efforts that you might be doing to get your workout, but we also can help you identify a partner if that turns out to be the right thing, because there are two aspects to it through the strategic aspect, which we can offer probably more help with, and we have we have, you know, hundreds and thousands of resource is on our national website on a variety of topics, several of which are around that we also produce a webinar every week on a different topic and oftentimes social media’s his way one part of that so we can provide that overall information, but sometimes it’s uh, i will just tell you that score we’ve hired a contractor who actually implements a lot of our strategy and making sure that we’re getting post out, helping us figure out howto measure and find out if it’s actually working if we’re if we should be boosting post if we should be buying at how are we using our google place that nature so we can get you two started in that the right direction? Sometimes all we can do is help you be a good customer when you have to go out and buy a resource. Because you what? You really someone who could come and spend time, day after day doing the work for you, which were just not structured, right? Right. That’s, not yours. Ok, but but you can’t help identify the questions we should be talking. We should be asking potential vendors and identify the for us, you know, a process for for hiring, whether it’s frankly, whether it’s, a social media manager or ah or an outsource cfo or right. I mean, you can help with that, you know, acquiring the expertise? Absolutely. And so it will be better than just sort of, you know, hitting up google and looking for the one in neighborhood. Yeah, we’ll give you some some measurements of some things you can ask during the interview. What should you look for in their in their background or in their proposal, if that’s the right thing and some sort of sense of perhaps with the fees and costs on toby, i’m thinking about this, too. In terms of finances, you know, a lot of people, lots of people get into non-profits started non-profit because they have enormous passion for some cause and let’s put aside the question whether forming a non-profit was the right business decision to make or not because they already passed, that they’re already incorporated, but they often are lacking the business savvy that it takes two to scale and sustain. And i think i think financial issues particularly stand out what you know suppose suppose that’s me, i mean, i got a lot of passion and i’ve already incorporated is a non-profit but i’m not sure i’m accounting correctly, you know, people talk to me about ah, accounting software, you know, how do i start? Right? And you have the reality also is this significant potential legal and issues if you don’t do that sort of thing, right? So yeah, that is that’s a very common peace. I would just tell you that very few people who go into business a cz well, who might have a passion for a not for profit uh, area really ever intend to be the business person they wanted. They want to serve the population, they wantto feed the cause they want to, you know, sell the best pizza, whatever it might be. So and then they say, oh, not so now. I’ve got to run this business thing and double these forms, and the government wants something, and i got to write a check to this guy and i just, you know, what’s all this about and that’s where we can provide a couple of layers of support sometimes it’s simply where those of us who are from score who have the financial chops of the management chop could just be that that mentor we meet with you on a fairly regular basis, help you realize, you know, figure out howto watch the pulse in your company and make some of the long term, bigger decisions if you’re comfortable doing the day to day checkbook and that sort of thing, okay, for other people, it’s it and, you know, maybe you’re lucky and you you’ve blossomed you in your really big skill, you know, i was on the board of a couple of not-for-profits that are, you know, had million, multi million dollar budget. So we we had professional accounting firms to do it eso again helping to find the right people. But also, you know, people will tell you, make sure you do the right accounting and so on. But you need to go with them and help them explain to them well, what your strategy, which your long term plan for the organ ization? Where am i going to go next? Because that might affect what they do today. So we can help you crystallize and formulate those plans on growth situations. And then you have someone who could do the day to day blocking and tackling. If you do need sources of funds, where do i find that? You know, if i’m not for-profit i have some opportunities. Perhaps go for grants. How do i write a grant? Where would i find a grant writer? Do i need a grant writer? That kind of thing all come up as we go forward. And then also how do our their limitations on the money that i have? I can tell you that in my organization. There are certain things that i can’t pay for with the money the government gives me to operate, but i can pay for with the money i get through donations off. All right, so these are all factors that we many of us have expertise we have their knowledge of and worst cases again, we will help you become the better informed consumer of services for by a professor. All right, we have to leave it there. I just wantto make sure that people understand, too, that there are a lot of do-it-yourself resource is at score dot org’s articles outlines templates. Kurt mentioned one hour webinar every week, so i’m encouraging you for twenty eighteen to check out, score, score, dot or ge and at score mentors. Kurt springstead thank you so much, my pleasure. We need to take a break. Redner’s here’s a testimonial, i was on my new position when i began working with regular piela my confidence, i can have grown knowing that i can rely on the professionals to answer any questions and make recommendations that will ensure the success of our non-profit you were given sound advice enabling us to increase investment income while at the same time, protecting you. Ask that. I trust and respect our audit team on the forward to their annual visit and vote. That is, from a midsize religious organization in the big graft. Dahna look at this. I mean the people of more than piela e-giving investment income on that’s. Good advice. And the person looked forward to their orders. I don’t think you have no properties are looking forward to order. I think they’re more feared, maybe dreaded, but it’s not a fortune from the midtown religious organization in the mid west and diversity of expertise reminds me of all the guys that they have all the guys, guys, guys, all these forms in ten places and white papers on diver subject oppcoll way beyond accounting. No, lecter goes way beyond the numbers for their clients. You know that you’re supposed to change audit firms every three years to get a fresh perspective on your practices on the first set of eyes looking over your books and your management management processes. You want the advice of a firm that goes broads help you? I think you know beyond the balance. So that is what i’m always saying. They go beyond the numbers talking on one of the people you could talk to. Is you too, who’s? Been a guest on the show martignetti piela dot com that’s not tony. Take two. Well, it’s almost for your twenty eighteen planning there’s. More coming after this one next week. Takagi what is the new tax law metoo for your twenty eighteen? Hundred. And on january twenty sixth, it’s gonna be me and amy, i’m gonna be talking about starting your plan e-giving programs in twenty eighteen, and then amy sample ward is gonna have her twenty, eighteen plants, just like maria has plans coming up very shortly. We’re supposed to have joe garrett. Unfortunately, he had a family emergency, couldn’t make the day that we were gonna be recording, so we’ll get joe garrett back fund-raising plan. But instead of joe playbook, that i get that, but i’m always got, so we have got you covered for the whole year, all month of january, that is all you got to do. My pleasure. Welcome. Maria semple, prospect finder, trainer and speaker on prospect research. Latest book is magnifying your business. Six tools and strategies that growing your business or your non-profits our joy and if they’re free, get the prospects finding dot com and at maria semple welcome back, maria semple. Happy new year. Happy new year county. How are you today? Thank you. Doing great. Thank you very much. It’s. Good to talk to you. And and you’ve been thinking through what i’m calling maria’s twenty eighteen plans. What are you going to start with? So, you know, i thought i would give a little bit of a mixed some tips that i might be, you know, might have offered through my focus. Well, it’s, um, it’s really focused in on prospect research in particular. And just, you know, trying to make sure that non-profits are a cz short up, as they possibly can be for the upcoming year. Okay, so that book might like that magnifies your business school gravity’s growing your business or your non-profit looking talking about? Yep. That’s the one that’s, the books magnifying. Okay, i wanna make sure that was it. All right. So what? Do you want something? Well, you know, i was thinking about thie importance of really solidifying your relationship with individuals. Andi, this is where i think non-profits really have the greatest strengths on dh, their greatest opportunities as well, for growing. So, you know, when you think about, you know, launching a major gift effort or maybe upgrading your major gift effort, this is really the year to do what if you haven’t done so already? So, you know, sort of a first step that you might consider doing is to do a database screening. There are a number of companies out there that will screen your entire donordigital base, um, so that you’re really able to kind of elevate those those prospects that might be hidden in your database and give you an opportunity that you know where to focus your efforts. All right? So you’re encouraging diversifying into an individual e-giving program if you don’t already have one that’s, right? That’s, right? But you need to know where we’re to focus so very often if you’ve got a board that’s been changing out a lot or you’ve got, you know, a lot of staff changes and so forth. And you really don’t have that longevity and people really standing who’s in that donor database, so you’re able to sort of look at it on your own, obviously that’s seen cheapest way to do it right? Because now you’re not, you know, outsourcing anything, they’re not paying anybody to screen the database, but i really find that when when organizations take an opportunity to do that, it gives them the chance elevator to the top, the names of the people they should really be focusing in on. So, you know, you might even do it. Has a lot of the companies will allow you to send in a batch and test your database to see, you know, if it’s going to be worthwhile. Thio do the whole thing. Okay, um, something else you want to have in place before you do a major gift on individual individual giving program, major gifts or welchlin yeah, you’re gonna end up with maybe get program if you take this important step starting individual e-giving program’s going to end up with major donors, some are goingto give more brothers, but either way, you want to have ah, constituent relationship matters in a database. You crn database in place on dh. There are very affordable ways of doing that there’s so many different cloud services and there’s some that you just played by the records. So when you’re starting small, you know, you don’t have to have the major’s your commitment, maybe database, that, uh, that is only going to have a couple dozen names in the beginning, but you want to have a way of capturing all those relationships all those different data points with people because of something that you just mentioned area staff turnover, when when one person leaves, they’ve had all the conversations with, you know, half your donors, uh, you don’t want to lose weight, and i talked about that. You don’t want to lose all that precious information, right is right, and, you know, it’s a problem as as i’m sure you’ve seen in your own consulting that happens time and time again, where you get in there and you talk to an organization and they say, you know, well, you know, i’m new here, i’m only on the job three months i’m really not sure what those relationships were like on dh then you find out that you know, a lot of conversations and so forth, which simply not recorded anywhere. Elearning yeah, i mean, the last thing that you want to do is call the donor and say, hi, you know, my name’s, maria semple, on our new year of the organization, and i’d like to get to know, you know, for your interest, why do you give to us, you know, i mean, you should know that you should know all of that information. Yeah, i just had that conversation with your your predecessor two months ago, so so database screening find find people on, of course don’t only pay attention to the wealthiest in your in your in your database on that also have your e r n, right? Okay, you’re you’re also encouraging, looking into recurring yeah, you know, this is a place that you have an opportunity to garner, and i’m going to say those smaller gifts, those people that will commit ten dollars in most twenty dollars a month, whatever it is that’s hating their credit card, everybody so, you know, many of us are already used to paying whatever netflix, whatever this monthly charges that’s hitting our credit card accounts. On dh so it’s already sort of been absorbed into our monthly budgeting and so forth. And so if you can convince people to start setting up a recurring, uh, payments to your organization that’s going to go a long way to helping booth and of course, you’re not talking to the major gets here. You are talking about getting people in, perhaps at a much lower entry point and keeping them engage. I think it’s pretty standard practice, but i was going to make this explicit no on that donation page that you’ve got. You want to have a button for making monthly or something like that so that the person who is giving at a level that could conceivably be the monthly recurring donation could easily do it, you know, you know, ryan and i have to go in someplace special to make a set of recurring giving, i think that’s pretty standard, but i want to make it quick, make sure hyre no, that could be it could be very valuable. And you know what we get on saying that people just forget about it and fills, usually until their credit card expires, and then they’re reminded oh, yeah, no, i got this thing, and then and then sometimes that’s an opportunity for you asking for upgrades when a person is reevaluating. I mean, yeah, there’s always a chance that they’re goingto stop those donations at a point like that. But there’s also a chance that they’ll they’ll increase it. So you use a of failed transaction as an opportunity to essentially increase. Yeah, yeah, and, you know, it’s an opportunity for you to really start using the language that you would use, maybe with a major gift donor-centric tuo invest on a monthly basis in our organization, you know, you might have a monthly investments that you have set up for, you know, for yourself, for your for one kings or, you know, whatever we’d like you to take just ten dollars and twenty dollars a month and invest with our organization in the future viability of the organization. So, you know, give that compelling story, give that compelling reason why they should be engaging and investing with you on one thing faces, okay? And that’s, uh, you wanted to be telling them stories about about your outcomes, basically, what a big part of the story. Selling that’s, right? That’s right night. I saw that you actually had done them a video recently, you know, kind of on this topic as well. You know, you’ve got to be able to thankfully tell your story and, you know, there’s a lot of information out there on the web, all you need to do is really do a google search for non-profits storytelling, um, there are a lot of experts in that arena i’ve seen some of them speak even at the american marketing association conference on dh you know, the thing that you have to get across to people is, yeah, you’ve got your stats on, you know, those important metrics that you’ve got to be able to communicate, but that’s usually not what’s going to sell somebody right on on wanting to invest with your organization. So you’ve got to be able to humanize it and tell stories about the impact that your organization has on the community and, you know, making sure that you’re kind of a hearing too, really good storytelling, a beginning, a middle and an end and really understand all the different types of stories that there are out there. There’s a reason why we can’t remember, you know stories about whatever little red riding hood and the three little pigs, right? There’s a certain set up to those stories, you can learn tons of information about that on the web, and i really encourage you, teo teo, focus focus in on getting the story straight not only for your major gift donors, but also across the board at all we know right now definitely cross for this matter from e-giving five dollars a month with five dollars, more than they need to know what you’re infected and we’ve had listen, we have a guest here too. You go, teo durney martignetti dot com and search storytelling, the the guests we’ve had on that subject will obviously come up. Yeah, you got to share your impact? Um, you’ve also been thinking about trying to capitalize on sigil ambassadors? Yeah, yeah. So talented people. Yeah. So, you know, i’m sure that this is something that amy sample ward talks a lot about when when she’s on your show, tony as well. But, you know, you want to think about engaging people to be able to help amplify your message. Right? So, you know i think we’re all asses point sort of accustomed to seeing campaigns were online where your friends or maybe joni there their birthday, you know, raising money for an organization on behalf of their birthday, that type of thing. So those types of sort of crowd funding these people are digital ambassadors for an organisation when they do that, all the people that were involved in that bucket challenge, they were digital ambassadors, right? And there were some that were really, really strong, obviously that the first family, the first guy that kicked it off, they must have had a pretty good following to get to get kissed off as well as he did, but you wanted to try and figure out who those digital ambassadors are if you don’t have any really it’s time to start recruiting some on broadening your outreach, even if you have to think about some paid opportunities, you know, on facebook such as, you know, i don’t know ads are boosted post, yeah, big book and also twitter yeah, yeah, you know, as you find the people who are most network most deeply connected and you start a campaign you wantto be working with them. And this is something that any and i have talked about to work them back channels. You get them enthusiastic and you get them talking before you start your public campaign, right? Get there. And you get that they’re connected to help you in the public. And so that i know that people who follow you, uh, people who were with you and you have the most followers fanned. Whatever. You know, those were the most connected are going. Teo, be active participants in your campaign. Maria, we gotta take a break. We’re going toe. We’re gonna come back and talk more about yeah, ambassadors. And i know you have some resources share finding them right now. I gotta take a break. Elearning credit card payment processing brovey check out the video at tony dot m a flash tony, tell us explained the process of businesses joining tell us on having their credit cards, other payments process by tello’s and reminds you that you are going to get fifty percent of the revenue that hello elearning that’s a long revenue stream because they have one hundred percent satisfaction rate. So you can be assured that the business is going to be pleased, and you’re going to be earning revenue from this four, a good long time every single month. Also, the video for their, uh, one hundred percent satisfaction and the price match guarantee. You go beyond that. Tell us, can’t save the money that you started to tell us, and you’re getting two hundred fifty dollars. So it’s worth starting. Think about businesses. That next-gen tio, you know, as the rest of you watch the video. Think about like, a local body shop where, by the way, out there, all wearing masks and your protection jewelry store the area where they make a pie with the crust recognize from a bakery where hope that we don’t have very good. Um, think about that think about the businesses that you’re you’re boardmember zoho family members only any of these potential referrals to tell us for credit card processing, you just have to generate some interest to check out the video. That’s brightstep teo, your long tail of revenue. Tony got a last tony tellers. Now, look, rebecca miree simple and her twenty eighteen plan. You have some resources for finding who the deepest, most networked ambassadors are among your constituents. Yeah. Yeah. I have some resources that you might want to consider looking into. First of all, i came across a great white paper download that blackbaud put together. They put together a nice free guide. And it’s actually called super has the kids program how to create a super advocate program. So there i read through it, and it looked like there were a lot of really good chips in there. So that might kind of give you the first time ideas about how the framework and what it is that you might want to do and, you know, it really is going to be able to create opportunities foreign organizations most committed supporters really did take more action hyre value actions than than a typical supporter. This’s why you’re our joy and of your cubine free, right? So that the guide is free, but the guide three guys? Yeah, another one, right, yet so a couple of other things actually one that you brought to my attention called attentively, which is one of the blackbaud solutions actually wait give you the opportunity to identify whose influential so they say that a mass email files with social data and so that you can better understand the social side of yours supporters. So if you do have an email list, it is an opportunity to see who amongst that list might be really great social ambassadors reorganization, that’s attentive dot leaves they’ve got a y yeah, they they also make the point that home email i just better don’t. Usually the one people used to sign up with social network, so if you have a file of of home addresses, home email addresses attentively that’s not that’s not well, my treat so that’s not a free one, but no that’s correct zsystems blackbaud but value there and finding the most connected people and you got zaptitude what is zaptitude about? Yes. Zaptitude right. Kind of an interesting name. They have one of their service offerings is called good influence. And i learned about this company a few years ago. And i actually met some of the folks behind the company at one point and met people at the american marketing association conference who use this tool. Two years ago, you been holding out on us. You got a couple of years. You’re feeling it now in january twenty eighteen, you know, i’ve got i’ve got to keep some gems for you. I don’t think w hole not on non-profit idealware way. Never talked about you and waited. All right, maybe you alright? I get it out? Yes. So anyway, they have they have a tool called good influence and basically it it’s an opportunity to is your existing customers because this is used side both, you know, businesses and non-profit so in this case, your existing donors to dr support through new donors. So it’s a platform that really again helps to amplify not so much doing the search like thehe tentative job l y product would do, but really, this could be a platform for you. Teo, try and scale off your digital ambassador efforts. And when i was going back and reviewing some information about the current leadership team i’m looking at the bio of the founder and ceo is kind of interesting in marinette, we talk about the good influence product with the bat phone for the social activation engine for the famous i spoke a challenge current, so i’d be interested in having another conversation with him, actually myself. Teo, figure out more about how exactly the good influence taught. It played into that. I stuck a challenge. Okay, cool. And that’s that information about that is that zaptitude yeah. Dot com. Right. Okay. That’s that that to write? Well, you would be our most likely contributors. So let’s, get some prospect. Researcher idea. That is okay. So i was also thinking about a new arena we haven’t talked about before, which is maybe trying to research some of the companies in your community that are set up as the corporations and so i know, you know, you know why i don’t want to get thrown in the jargon jail so let’s, talk a little bit of what? You know well, listeners know that’s okay, well, that’s all right, gene cog and i’ve talked about the corpse on there now, and they’re they’re social, social good missions, not sickly, profit driven, but they certainly can be profit making, so you’re okay. You’re okay, cool. Cool. Ok, good. So there’s, actually a website called b corporation dot net. Uh, where you can go and search by state and see, you know what? All the big corporations are right in your state on dh. Then, you know, you’re kind of using, you know, good old fashioned prospect research looking at that company, trying to figure out who’s behind the company and so on and so forth and trying to learn a little bit more about him. You know, these people already have a social mission built into their companies. Perhaps the work that you’re doing can align some way with a particular social mission. So, you know, i think it’s an opportunity for you two. Maybe developed, um, uh, some relationship with him. Yeah, most of the time. It’s, private companies, so relationship supply. The companies that are set on our course. I love it. It’s, like it’s, like doing the same kind of research assay. Would foundation wear where they would be court they’re aligned with, and whether you might fit in. Yes, in-kind. What do you got for us? You mentioned a family you mentioned foundation so it’s touch upon that for a moment. If you have not made your annual trust to your local cooperating collections of the foundation center in your in your next the woods it’s time that you do that no, we’re going ahead and get a subscriptions directly to the foundation directory online. So if you have the funds to do it and you do a lot of foundation’s research definitely worth while having that tool in house, but it is available fourth grade if you go to the foundation center or one of their cooperating collections in your community. So what i recommend is to try and focus in instead of the really big foundations in your state, which everybody seems to kind of know today everybody goes, everybody goes, yeah, focus more in on the foundations that are the family foundation’s, even if they do not seem to have a lot of assets and some you will even notice some will come up xero and assets and don’t let that turn you off because if they had gone through the effort of setting up the framework for a sound of private foundation, but there may be, you know, a plan in the future that that family is may be planning to sell business and funding the foundation, and you don’t know what the thinking is behind it and it’s going to get to know them a little bit. So don’t discount the ones that you even see with xero asset, okay? And you trying to find connections between your non-profit and foundations not only terms of mission, but you know, if you’re looking in your state, you’re looking for a board connections two are some kind of some kind of relationship, right board connections, mission over laugh, it could be that they are literally in your county or in your town. So these air opportunity three to try and develop relationships with some of these people don’t forget, i mean, if it’s a family foundation, people behind the whole thing on dh there’s, you know, it’s just happens to be the vehicle by which they are, um, you know, putting all of their philantech through so it’s worthwhile, taking an opportunity to research it there if you don’t have any access, any way of accessing the foundation centers products you could do a similar type search on guide star okay, another case, and as you do your research, don’t be afraid to bring lips of foundation board members and foundation names to your board meeting try to have a board members or, if not at your meeting, circulated some other way, but have your boardmember scrutinizing the foundations that you’ve found that align with your work and start getting people you’re boardmember you know where the where the connections might be, but we gotta leave maria, thank you very much. Happy new year, thank you are joining of thirties and free, you’ll find her at the prospects finding dot com and at maria sinful next-gen takagi what’s the new tax balm for your twenty eighteen fund-raising plan if you missed any part of today’s show, i didn’t think you’d find it on tony martignetti dot com were supported by pursuing online tools to small and mid sized non-profits data driven and technology enables twenty dollars, by pursuing your guiding you beyond the numbers regular piela dot com and tell us credit card payment processing your passive revenue streams. Tony got a last tony killers our creative producers try my family, which is the line producer shoretz social media site. Shadow and its wonderful music. In-kind you give me that? We’re not from the radio. Big non-profit ideas for the odd third, ninety five percent go out and records. What’s not to love about non-profit radio tony gets the best guests check this out from seth godin this’s the first revolution since tv nineteen fifty and henry ford nineteen twenty it’s the revolution of our lifetime here’s a smart, simple idea from craigslist founder craig newmark yeah, insights or no presentation or anything, people don’t really need the fancy stuff they need something which is simple and fast. When’s the best time to post on facebook facebook’s andrew noise nose at traffic is at an all time hyre on nine a, m or p m so that’s, when you should be posting your most meaningful post here’s aria finger ceo of do something dot or ge young people are not going to be involved in social change if it’s boring and they don’t see the impact of what they’re doing. So you got to make it fun and applicable to these young people look so otherwise a fifteen and sixteen year old they have better things to do if they have xbox, they have tv, they have their cell phones. Me dar is the founder of idealist took two or three years for foundation staff to sort of dane. Toe add an email address their card it was like it was phone. This email thing is fired-up that’s why should i give it away? Charles best founded donors choose dot or ge somehow they’ve gotten in touch kind of off line as it were on dno. Two exchanges of brownies and visits and physical gift mark echo is the founder and ceo of eco enterprises. You may be wearing his hoodies and shirts. Tony talked to him. Yeah, you know, i just i’m a big believer that’s not what you make in life. It sze, you know, tell you make people feel this is public radio host majora carter. Innovation is in the power of understanding that you don’t just do it. You put money on a situation expected to hell. You put money in a situation and invested and expected to grow and savvy advice for success from eric sabiston. What separates those who achieve from those who do not is in direct proportion to one’s ability to ask others for help. The smartest experts and leading thinkers air on tony martignetti non-profit radio big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent.