My Guests:
Elizabeth Neufeld: Virtual Volunteering
During the resurging pandemic—and after—there are smart ways to keep your volunteers engaged virtually. What’s this got to do with the movie, “Miracle on 34th Street?” Elizabeth Neufeld shares her thinking. She’s CEO and founder of Strat Labs.
Chris Sherman: Artists Sunday
Chris Sherman crafted this day of artistry that follows Thanksgiving and precedes Giving Tuesday. He explains what it’s about and how you can join the movement.
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[00:01:56.54] spk_1:
Hello and welcome to tony-martignetti non proper radio big non profit ideas for the other 95%. I’m your aptly named host. Oh, I’m glad you’re with me. I’d suffer with Leuco play Kia if you rubbed me with the idea that you missed today’s show Virtual volunteering during the Resurging Pandemic and after there are smart ways to keep your volunteers engaged virtually. What’s this got to do with the movie Miracle on 34th Street? Elizabeth Neufeld shares her thinking. She’s CEO and founder of Strat Labs and Artists. Sunday. Chris Sherman crafted this day of artistry that follows Thanksgiving and precedes giving Tuesday. He explains what it’s about and how you can join the movement. Antonis, take two planned giving accelerator were sponsored by turn to communications, PR and content for nonprofits. Your story is their mission. Turn hyphen two dot c o and by dot drives, raise more money, changed more lives. Tony-dot- M.A.-slash-Pursuant for a free demo and free month. Let’s get started with virtual volunteering. It’s my pleasure to welcome to the show. Elizabeth New Felt. She is CEO and founder of Strat Labs, supporting change agents in every corner of the globe by telling and marketing their stories. Her background is in operations, program development, community engagement, strategic marketing and communications. The company is at Strat labs dot us and at the Strat Labs. Elizabeth is at Lizzie Neuf. Any us on Instagram? Lizzie, welcome to the show.
[00:02:03.84] spk_0:
Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. I’m happy to be here.
[00:02:12.84] spk_1:
Absolutely pleasure. It’s good to have you were talking about virtual volunteering. You You have a post on this? Eso
We’re gonna talk through it, though, and we’ll get into more detail. Um, you’re just basically I imagine sprung from not wanting to lose contact with our volunteers who are more accustomed to being live face to face kind of volunteers. Yes,
[00:02:32.60] spk_0:
we had a lot of people reach out right when things were shifting and it was going to become clear across the country
that volunteerism it was going to take a turn in terms of how we were going to be able to volunteer during a global pandemic. When a lot of non profits rely on actual physical bodies and hands to get their work done on DWI started kind of quickly digging into what that was gonna look like we work with a lot of nonprofits, but we also work with a lot of social enterprises and companies that have pretty robust volunteer programs where they’re partnering with nonprofits and they rely on it for both. They reliant for employee engagement as well. A ZX, the nonprofits relying on the actual volunteer. So this was a big thing for us. We wanted. We wanted to dive in.
[00:03:21.34] spk_1:
Yeah, that’s increasingly popular. Ah, very common now that companies want their employees to be engaged with the
non profit with their non private partners as part of sponsorship or, you know, is part of giving. I’m hearing more about that. It seems much more common now.
[00:03:40.14] spk_0:
Yeah, it’s it’s incredible. I mean, we we hear it from almost everyone that we work with, that they want some kind of
employee engagement program that involves volunteering and the nonprofits that we work with. They tell us the same thing on the other side is that they don’t just want sponsorship dollars anymore. They want that, you know, employee
engagement. They really want to buy in. And that becomes increasingly more difficult when we’re living in such a virtual world because you know a lot of that employee engagement in those volunteers. It’s it’s about the community that they build and the community in that engagement, and they do that in person. You know, it’s meant as a team building activity, so it becomes more difficult. But we’ve been working on it with our clients and and really studying and researching and trying to come up with different ways and people can engage. And, you know, I think something to know in something that was It’s been very interesting to me is that the value of the volunteer hour is valued currently at $27.20 and that’s up 7% from 2019. So even in the midst of this global pandemic, the value of the volunteer hours still going up, which means it’s still relevant and it’s still necessary
[00:04:54.34] spk_1: who values that time
[00:05:04.44] spk_0:
that was done by the independent sector and the Do Good Institute. They put out what they put out a wonderful
survey, and they and research around it and what they actually break it down by state, and it shows you how much your state has the volunteer, our value, Dad. It’s pretty impressive e.
[00:05:24.94] spk_1:
All right. So one of the things that you recommend for ah, virtual volunteering is putting together a lobbying campaign.
[00:06:00.11] spk_0:
Yeah, you know, if your organization is involved in a particular issue and things have kind of been on pause, whether
you know, human service is that you’re a habit to had scaled back during this time. You know, one thing that you can do is and I don’t mean lobbying necessarily in the formal sense of being coming a lobbyist because that comes with other, you know, issues and complications as it relates to the 501 C three status. But just more in terms of getting your cause out there on a broader scale, really, really making a case for support for your cause. So it doesn’t necessarily even have to be for your organization, but just for your cost. So if you work with people that are homeless and you want to talk about this issue of homelessness in America, you know, bond together with other organizations that are doing similar work and come up with a campaign or a cause that helps you advocate and lobby for these issues.
[00:06:24.34] spk_1:
And so you would you would be encouraging your folks to do what kind of stuff for you.
[00:06:32.40] spk_0:
Ah, lot of times executive directors they want toe. They want to do this work and they want a partner with other like
minded organizations around the country around the world. They just don’t have the time. So if you can utilize your volunteers to dig in and assign a couple volunteers to become thes advocates, they become more of a global policy advocate, then necessarily for your specific cause and get them excited about it. So if you’re dealing, you work with people with disabilities, you know, encourage them and get them started with a list of organizations that you’ve always wanted to connect with and go after those organizations and come up with a platform that gets the conversation around disability out there in the world in a bigger way.
[00:07:26.34] spk_1:
Or if you work with Children. I mean, there’s all kinds of different Children’s causes, Uh, s So this is related to
something else you recommend, which is encouraging. Volunteering at other organizations. Yeah, cool. I love this is like this reminded me of Miracle on 34th Street. Macy’s recommending gimbals.
[00:07:34.04] spk_0:
Yes, absolutely so We saw this a lot in the beginning of things starting to shut down in March and April where, you
know, employees were at home and they were furloughed and they were on, you know, they were on hold, they didn’t know what they were going to do. And we heard of a couple different groups and some clients saying, We’re going to recommend that are employees go out and volunteer with other organizations because, you know, meals need to be delivered still, and, you know, people need to be checked on in some capacity, and so we’re gonna make up a list of company or organizations that we no need bodies, and we don’t have that need right now. And we’re gonna push that out, tow our volunteers and our staff and ask them to contribute it. It’s really a beautiful, you know, kind of coming together. I’m still hearing about it quite a bit. I’m hearing it more on the corporate side where, you know, if an organization that they were supporting is no longer accepting in person volunteers, they’re getting referred to do other work with other groups.
[00:08:44.84] spk_1:
Yeah, and of course, you’re gonna get the gratitude of those other organizations. Dio. Yeah, so talk about
collaborating and trusting each other, working together. You know, that’s yeah, it’s beautiful, really. That’s very savvy
on. Did you know it happens organically? You said, you know, it was just organizations were thinking of this. We may as well. We have this talent. We have these folks who are motivated. We may as well refer them where the need is if we don’t have it any longer. Yeah,
[00:08:58.55] spk_0:
no, it’s true. Really organic.
[00:09:02.34] spk_1:
What’s another? Another idea for virtual volunteering.
[00:09:05.50] spk_0:
Yeah, so another thing that I We’ve been working with a lot of our clients just gearing up for annual campaign season
on this end of year. Giving is that, you know, with older volunteers so those that may be closer to retirement or in their retirement and are volunteering with organizations but don’t feel comfortable being in person. We’re really encouraging a robust writing letter writing campaign for the for end of your giving. So not just asking them to write letters to group of people, but to come up with their own messaging to come up with their own sort of passion and their plea, and to set some goals around it, you know? Is it 50 a week? Is that 100 letters a week? But you can really cover quite a bit in terms of a mailing list with personal letters, and I think the impact this year on on end of your giving is gonna be tremendous. So if you get that personal letter in the mail, I think it’s going to mean a lot more this year than it ever has before. People are missing that connection and that touch and and the, you know, the campaigns of old will not no longer be, you know, able to kind of just be a letter that they get that’s printed on, you know, and looks good and has the right graphics. There’s gonna have to be that personal touch.
[00:10:48.94] spk_1:
It’s time for a break. Turn to communications. They help you build relationships with journalists because of a
relationship started by turn to and nurtured the New York Community Trust got to features in The Wall Street Journal. That’s the value of relationships with journalists turn to specializes in working with nonprofits. One of the partners, Peter Pan A. Pento, was an editor at The Chronicle of philanthropy. I like saying his name. Peter Pan, a pento. Lovely. They’re at turn hyphen two dot ceo now back to virtual volunteering
[00:10:58.54] spk_0:
for younger generations were kind of encouraging a similar idea, however, we’re looking at it, utilizing the tools that
they’re used to working with. So, for example, we’re taking younger volunteers, and we’re asking them to engage and do community management on social media. So a big thing that our clients often says, I just don’t have time. Thio interact with people on social media. And that’s how you get a following. And so similar to writing a hand written letter, we’re asking people to reach out to influencers in their space that they think would be interested in their cause on Bright them a direct message on Instagram or Facebook, Um, leave comments on different peoples pages and mention your organization in the comments so that people will potentially refer back. So we’re trying to think of things for every age range of volunteers because we know that you know, handwriting. A letter may not be something that a 20 something you know here wants to dio,
[00:11:54.54] spk_1:
but for somebody who’s 65 or 70 that’s ideal. Eso. What kind of support do we need to give you? Need a resource
Page? Uh, messaging. What? What,
[00:12:04.24] spk_0: you have to
[00:12:04.55] spk_1:
give these folks thio support them?
[00:12:07.04] spk_0:
Yes. So when people are developing their annual campaign and they’re really looking at, how are we going to utilize
volunteers right now, at this time of year, something that we’re recommending that they do is come up with that list of assets that they’re going to need to send every volunteer in a folder. And so for some volunteers, you’re gonna want to send that directly in the mail so that they have a hard copy of it, and some you’re gonna be able to send them a link to a you know, a folder through Google or whatever you may use, whatever your platform is. But you want to include photos. You want to include case statements, um, you know, call the actions and then let them pick what they what is most interesting to them? We’re encouraging people to come up with at least the recall. The actions that they can pick from that will suit them in terms of there’s kind of an overarching called action and there’s these sub called actions on Dhe that’s filters into a bigger campaign. So for letter writing, and that’s really important on Dhe, then in terms of managing it, you know, everybody should get their own list and they should be working off a list, and there should be
no overlap with those lists. I mean, not that it would be bad to get two letters from an organization, but you want to make sure, and you try to line people up with people that they’re connected to, whether that’s geographically or because they were a donor, that they knew at some point are, you know, you try to make that happen. There is quite a bit of process that goes into it, but you’re it’s October, so you have some time to plan that out.
[00:13:28.54] spk_1:
What are some of these calls to action that you see?
[00:13:31.54] spk_0:
Um, well, you know, this year we’re still working on a lot of those. I mean, obviously the big one being to donate, But it
depends on the organization. So ah, lot of our organizations, they’re saying that they really want to use this time to build their mailing lists and to build their following online, and so we’re including that in a potential call the action. So beyond just asking for dollars, we’re actually including that, you know, in the past that may have been Come volunteer with us or set up a volunteer day with your company or your community, and we just don’t know if that’s going to be possible this winter. So we have to kind of get creative and think of ways to engage with people online.
[00:14:08.44] spk_1:
Something else you suggested is ah, listening campaign.
[00:14:11.84] spk_0:
Yeah, I think this is really important right now. You know, we’re I feel like we did a lot of this in the spring and I think it
needs toe happen again. Right now we’re doing this right now with the Girl Scouts of Colorado and it’s been we haven’t we actually are just sending it up today, and I’m really curious to kind of see what comes back. But it’s going thio help inform how the organization moves forward starting in January and with a listening campaign. What you’re trying to determine is, you know what? Where are people right now? How can you show up for them? This relates specifically to volunteers. So, you know, they were used to working with your organization for so many years, or even maybe if they had just started. But they’re sort of, Ah, deflation. That comes, you know, that has come in the last few months with not having in person engagement. And so you want to really here where they’ve been? Have they been impacted by cove? It have they lost their job? Are they gonna When things turn around, will they be able to continue to volunteer with? You were looking at all of those things to help us better understand how we can communicate with volunteers so that when things do open up a bit more, we conserve their needs. Justus Muchas. We want them to serve the community.
[00:16:01.44] spk_1:
I wonder if there are ways to that. You can get the volunteers together now. I’m thinking, Well, you know, I I do plan to
giving fundraising. So volunteers that we work with are usually 70 and over, but I don’t think it’s restricted to that. But volunteers look forward to the community. You know that their community of volunteers, even if I’m a community, could be four or five people and I’m not talking about 100. But, you know, they look forward to that time together Twice a week. They’re doing something together, or once a month, whatever it is, and they’ve lost that. So I wonder if there’s a way to that You could rekindle that community online for folks Thio keep in touch with their fellow volunteers.
[00:16:07.56] spk_0:
Yeah, we we have recommended and we’ve set up a few of these, um, ambassador programs, volunteer ambassador
programs, And they actually they’re great because I think every organization really should be thinking about doing this. We do this. This came from the social enterprise world from the for profit world and that people would bring together ambassadors to help them sell product or to get their name out into the world. But there’s no reason that the nonprofit world shouldn’t do this on day. One of the organizations that I’ve worked with the range of Motion project does an amazing job with this, and I think they have maybe 50 ambassadors right now. It could be wrong on that number. Uh, the range of motion project
[00:16:49.59] spk_1: Colorado Denver area.
[00:16:51.22] spk_0:
They’re actually a global organization. They do have an office in Colorado. But they serve individuals, um, that are in
need of prosthetic devices around the world and the the website for its romp global DOT or GE. But they’re pretty incredible because they started this ambassador program a few years ago, and it has just grown every year. And it’s not just online, like there is a component of it that lives online. But there is this community that has been built around it, and in an age when we can’t get together, they are leaning on the online piece of it. And so that can include setting up a private Facebook group for those individuals or email group that you could just send constant email communication. Thio. I know that some of them not just wrong, but I know other organizations have, ah, text chain with their ambassadors, and you know, it’s it’s These are people that are out there talking about their organization and
doing good for them and also raising money for them on. But it’s also a great way to get Presas Well. A lot of these ambassadors come to the organization or these volunteers with good stories, and some of those stories could be shared in the press. Um, in a way that, you know, while it relates back to the organization, it has a real personal feel which the press love.
[00:18:24.64] spk_1:
Yeah, right. So, again, that’s Romp romp, Global Motion program romp global Dot or GE. I’m Global. Okay. I love that
ramp. Romper Room? Yes, exactly. I’m old enough to have grown up with Romper Room. What was her name, Miss? Uh, you know, I think I went to the studio once too. I
[00:18:26.41] spk_0: think I was
[00:18:26.74] spk_1:
in the Romper Room studio. I’m pretty sure I did her and I did. Bob McAllister to On What the heck was he? Bob
McAllister.
[00:18:34.24] spk_0:
There’s one generation above me, e I know of it.
[00:18:39.42] spk_1:
Wonder what the heck was Bob McAllister? He was the host of something. I was on him. But then Romper Room was
Yeah, I miss I don’t know, Miss Kelly or something. Can’t remember. Oh, uh, if anybody remembers should be any tony at tony-martignetti dot com. What was the name of the lady on Romper Room? I’m sure I could find it, But who’s that host? The woman who hosted Romper Room. She was like a kindergarten teacher. She
[00:19:02.22] spk_2: was It was
[00:19:13.74] spk_1:
wonderful. It was It was a romper room. Um, yeah. So Okay, back Thio. Sorry. So, um 1965 digression. Um on de So
when you have thes when you’re putting these folks together, I mean, what’s your role, like keeping in touch with them too, Or like, if their ambassadors for you, you know, how do you How often do you wanna be in touch with them? Like thanking them, seeing how they’re doing, asking if they need coaching or help or anything like that. What’s your role in keeping it keeping it going once you’ve given them tools in the platform?
[00:19:36.97] spk_0:
That’s a great question. I’d say that the issue that we see the most is that our clients will set up an ambassador
program, and then it will fall apart shortly after nobody is managing the community. So our suggestion is that at least once a week, at the very minimum, there should be some kind of prompt that goes into the Facebook group are on email that asked people to respond, and then in a non going weekly basis, we’re asking and this could be another volunteer role. This could be a volunteer that manages the community. That’s a little bit meta, but it’s meant to, you know, if there’s a real superstar volunteer, get them to be the community manager and have the manages ambassadors because you do wanna be interacting with them at the minimum on a weekly basis. But the idea is that you want to be giving them a prompt. It will further communication and conversation among them and then also a call the action eso You know whether or not that’s, you know, doing a funny video around, um, there cause that is, maybe at home and then they can all post if they all do. A video community edited together. Um, you could do these like, you know, have them set up a virtual fundraiser for the organization, and they do it together. They’re doing it in there, you know, group. They could also go out for press. You know that as a group they could go out for press. They could set a challenge for the community, like a running challenge or climbing challenge or a swimming challenge. Um, you know, they can also be tasked with being, you know, kind of doing what we talked about before with social media, which is going through and tagging celebrities and news outlets and kind of getting their name out there. But there needs to be someone at the helm who condemn erect some of that. And I recommend in this day and age that that person should also be a volunteer. It’s a great time that
[00:21:34.36] spk_1:
seems like the gold standard. Like if you can get a volunteer who’s that engaged, then you know they could take it the
way the fellow volunteers, you know, it’ll be easy. It’ll just just be a little friendlier, like then the organization like looking over your shoulder. You know, even if it’s a friendly relationship, you know, it’s just better if it’s self managed.
[00:21:42.44] spk_0:
Yeah, and we recommend to get them together. I mean, this has to happen virtually this year, but so I think it’s great.
Get them together. You send them some kind of fun box or something, you know, prior to their virtual retreat, and do a retreat where they plan out their activities for the next you know, 12 months. So we’re recommending people do that November, December, and maybe you send, you know, like some cookies or some You know something you know, to kind of get them ready, A stress ball. But you’re gonna be online for two hours. And you guys were gonna plan the month, you know, every month, an ambassador related activity again, these air volunteers. But this is kind of the way we have to think through, You know, the new age of volunteerism, given what we’re living and that you can’t necessarily show but a warehouse and pack boxes or ship meals out for people you know or deliver things. So you have to think of these other things. And I do think it can spanned generations to I know it probably sounds, given that a lot of it’s online, that it would only be for the younger generation. But we’ve seen that. You know, the older generation likes this Justus much. They want that opportunity to connect online their home, probably even more than the younger generation with less opportunity to connect. So Zoom has become, um, you know, a fixture in my mom’s life, and she’s 70 something years old. It’s also become a picture of my grandmother’s life, and she is 90 something years old so they’ve even become accustomed to this new way, and I think it’s important to provide that during the day.
[00:23:10.04] spk_1:
That’s great. You still have your grandmother,
[00:23:13.85] spk_0: Your 100. 0 my God, I’m
[00:23:57.44] spk_1:
so lucky to have them. That’s wonderful. Yeah, I have been hearing that zoom and even just some some older folks
who didn’t even have email or had an email but never used it. You know, in the first few months it wasn’t really catching on. And But as things dragged on and now sort of a resurgence, Um, I think folks have caught on that the only real way to keep in touch on a good frequent basis is going to be online. So they’ve they’ve adopted. They’ve they’ve adopted online work more than they were like March, April, even may some. It’s become more, a lot more. A lot more popular. Yeah, in really just the past, like 33 months or so, Yeah,
[00:24:06.40] spk_0:
we’ve seen some good multi generation programs pop up using utilizing volunteers where in old the older generation
might lead a class like an on going class. Maybe it’s monthly or every other week for a younger generation. We specifically saw this in the arts? Quite a bit. We had to art clients, clients that worked in the arts. And they utilized this format. And it worked really well where they were utilizing this sort of this older generation, um, to help teach some of the classes that would have otherwise been in person and being taught, you know, by someone else, Um, that had availability at three o’clock on a, you know, Thursday. But this was being done, you know? You know, at any time they could schedule at any time, and people from around the country were signing in to be part of it.
[00:24:53.34] spk_1:
What else? What else you wanna talk about around virtual volunteering?
[00:25:06.24] spk_0:
No, I think, um, you know, another idea would be, um, e just looking at something. So another idea I have, in terms of
virtual volunteering is really you know, that thinking through that the staff at these organizations are being test, but there’s been a lot of cutbacks. We’re hearing that, you know, staff have been reduced quite a bit at nonprofits just to stay afloat. And so ah, lot of staff that these organizations are taking on task that they may not feel qualified for, or even just the amount of work that they have is, you know, increasing on a daily basis. And so you can utilize volunteers to come in and help with, you know, administration. And doing that online is pretty easy. You know, whether that’s entering gifts, um, into a database where it’s cleaning up databases in preparation for an annual campaign or, you know, all the things that used Thio. You know, we’re kind of given that people would dio, but not not necessarily. You know, you may think like, well, I can’t do that because they can’t be in person, so I can’t teach them. But I think set up a meeting with them on Zoom. Show them how to do it, share your screen, give them access to the database or the system and let them help you Really, with that process piece, because ultimately, when we head into 21 it’s gonna be really important that people have a very strong volunteer process in place in order to maximize the benefit for that. For those that group of people
[00:26:36.54] spk_1:
so basically looking Thio use volunteers to fill gaps in expertise that maybe you’ve always had. Or maybe now you
newly have because you have the you have to let let folks go which tragic to start with. But the reality is, the work still needs to get done.
[00:26:43.39] spk_0:
Yes, absolutely. With everybody working at home in the in these companies, there’s actually a lot more access to them
and a lot of ways because they are at home and so they need to jump on, you know, a 30 minutes, um called to hear about a project that they could potentially take on for you as a volunteer. They may have more availability than they would if they were in meetings all day or they were off site, and then they had to come meet you somewhere. So in some ways it has provided a lot more connection that otherwise would have been harder to dio.
[00:27:14.24] spk_1:
We got time for one more.
[00:27:19.74] spk_0:
One more idea. Well, the other thing I was going to say, and I think this kind of gets lost in the mix, and this probably
should have been one of the first things I mentioned, but, you know, I think it’s important is we talk about process and how we you know and developing process so that you’re ready to go for next year. I think setting goals for your volunteers is a really, you know, strong way to approach a volunteer program. Eso even if the if the if you choose this Met, I like smart goals. I think that those air really helpful And I think, you know, just provides volunteers with additional motivation for donating time so you could do that in the form of incentives. Um, you can create opportunities for volunteers toe lead kind of what we were just talking about. Either you’re an ambassador program or even helping out in the case of staff that have been, you know, had to let go and they’ve got to take over. But I think if you’re if you set goals, however, you choose to do them, you know, I think it will give you a benchmark, um, for how to measure whether or not these volunteer programs or successful. They know the larger organizations have that because they have a person dedicated to volunteer management. But these smaller organizations don’t always do that, and I think it’s really critical.
[00:29:02.34] spk_1:
Okay, start with goals. Yeah, that’s right. It wasn’t the first thing you said, but we got there. And by the way, Bob
McAllister’s program was wonder Rama e thought of it. I did not Look it up, wasn’t I Wouldn’t do that while we’re talking e I still need to know who who ran Romper Room. Okay, She’s Elizabeth Elizabeth. Lizzie Neufeld. The company is Strat Labs. They’re at Strat labs dot us and at the Strat Labs. And she is at Lizzie nuf on instagram. You’re not on Twitter, Lizzie?
[00:29:07.49] spk_0:
Not really. Okay, hard. I got two little kids and I got I have to prioritize my social media, which I don’t even like to begin
with.
[00:29:16.21] spk_1:
All right? So people, people will find join instagram. Sounds good. You got You got lots of ups. You got lots of kids
pictures on instagram.
[00:29:23.04] spk_0: Yes. Okay.
[00:29:24.84] spk_1:
Thank you very much for sharing all these ideas. Thanks very much, Lizzy. Thank
[00:29:28.15] spk_0:
you so much pleasure to be here.
[00:33:26.84] spk_1:
Good to have you. Thank you. Time for our last break. Dot drives drives engagement dot drives Relationships that
drives is the simplest donor pipeline fundraising tool. It’s customizable. It’s collaborative. It’s intuitive. If you want to move the needle on your prospect and don’t relationships check out the free demo for listeners. There’s also a free month. You go to the listener landing page at tony-dot-M.A.-slash-Pursuant. It’s time for Tony’s Take two. Start your plan giving in 2021 with planned giving accelerator. I launched planned giving accelerator because I want to see a bunch. I want to see 1000 or 1500 new plan giving programs in the U. S. And when those each scale up to 100 new gif ts and knowing that the average charitable bequest in the U. S. Is $35,000 right? That’s a minimum of 3.5 billion new plan giving dollars for nonprofits. That’s what I want to do in planned giving accelerator. How are we going to do it together? We’re gonna get your program started in 2021. I’m gonna have live trainings. Of course they’ll be recorded. So if you can’t make the live naturally, we’re gonna do ask me anything sessions in small groups, I’m gonna have an exclusive podcast, not tony-martignetti non profit radio. That’s a fabulous podcast. We’ll have Justus fabulous of podcast, but it will be exclusively for members of the accelerator, just like the trainings. And they ask me anything sessions and the Facebook community that we’re gonna have. So there’s gonna be networking and learning from others who are in the community as well. That’s plan giving, accelerator. We’re gonna get your plan giving started in 2021. Like get this off your to do list. Do it together. I’m going to teach you everything I know about how to start and
grow your plan giving program. I’ve been doing this since 1997. Starting plan, giving programs, consulting in it since 2003. But since the very beginning, that’s all I do. At first, I was a frontline fundraiser, director of planned giving throughout my 23 years in planned giving. That’s all I’ve done start programs. So I know how to do it. They’re successful. Programs that I’ve worked with have raised over $100 million. You’re not going to get $100 million at least not in the first year. But I have a long record doing this with startup programs. I know how to get it started for you. I know what to do in the beginning so that in 35 10 years from now you’ve got the plan giving program you want. It’s all that planned giving accelerator dot com First class starts in January. Check it out. Join on def. Not even for the organization. You know, for your non profit forgetting that program started, think about it as to professional development. If you don’t know much about planned giving or anything about planned giving, consider it professional development. You’re gonna learn you’re gonna learn how to start a program. You learn the basics of planned giving so you can expand your career. A ZX well again. Planned giving accelerator dot com Check it out. Any questions? You can contact me through that page. Take a look. Plan giving accelerator that is tony. Stick to We’ve got a single butt cheek of time left. Here is artists Sunday. It’s a pleasure to welcome Chris Sherman to non profit radio. He’s founder of Artists Sunday. The Oranges at Artists Sunday, calm and at artists Sunday. Chris is at C V. Sherman. Chris Sherman. Welcome to non profit radio.
[00:33:29.24] spk_2:
Thank you, Tony. Good to be here.
[00:33:33.24] spk_1:
Pleasure. Good to have you. Let’s start with the obvious question. What is artists Sunday
[00:33:59.94] spk_2:
In a very good question, it is. So it’s essentially think of Black Friday or small business Saturday. But for the arts so
small business Saturday is the Saturday after Thanksgiving, black Friday and Friday after Thanksgiving. Artist Sunday is the Sunday after Thanksgiving, and the whole idea is to shop with artists and shop for something hand made on that day. Something handmade, uh, all kinds of art. So your traditional heart argued, Hang on the wall, something you put on your bookshelf to something you wear something that you take with you a wide variety of art. It is available through artist Sunday on artists from across the country.
[00:34:17.64] spk_1:
Okay, eso as the Sunday after Thanksgiving, where you have you have a lot of people traveling that day. So are you.
Are you among the travel advisers saying, Don’t travel on Sunday either go Saturday or Monday
[00:34:55.52] spk_2:
because that is that that is the one drawback to that particular Sunday. Actually, what we’re saying is we’re using
Sunday is the anchor. It’s not necessarily the day you have to shut up. You can’t certainly, and there will be certain promotions that are going on from artists and our agencies across the country. But just like Black Friday is not on Friday any longer. Artist Sunday is really just an anchor, so the idea is for you to shop with artists sometime during that time period for the holidays.
[00:35:05.14] spk_1:
Have you used giving Tuesday as, ah, model,
[00:35:10.04] spk_2:
giving Tuesday and small business Saturday. I’ve looked pretty much in our models for this process, and what we’re
doing is we’re saying it’s free to artists to participate, given the tool kit. Looks like you get if you were, you know, giving Tuesday or small business Saturday. And so it’s free to the artists and it’s free to nonprofits that support artists.
[00:35:31.44] spk_1:
Okay, good. I was just gonna ask about organizations joining as well.
[00:35:36.24] spk_2:
Exactly. So organizations are invited to join across the country. We’ve got organizations that are participating with
more joining every day. Those could be art district’s could be cities. Could be counties could be states. Could the chambers of commerce could be private organizations, non profits that support the arts in some way, shape or form anything from churches. Thio associations are invited to join and promote this to their artists and get their artists involved. And they get this tool kit as well that they can s so it’s really kind of a turnkey solution. You basically give them a tool kit to help them market, help them work with their artists to get them out there in public exposure. And then we do a national. We’re doing a national PR campaign to to tell consumers about this as well.
[00:36:39.37] spk_1:
Now you’re also competing. Besides travel, you’re competing with God. This is This is our day of is a day of rest for a lot of people. That’s true. What do you say to the? Okay. Okay. You have an answer. I know you have an answer. Uh, okay. Competing with God is a big, you know. That’s a big deal.
[00:36:46.73] spk_2:
I don’t know if we’re competing with God. We’re working.
[00:36:49.40] spk_1:
God. Okay. He’s Is he blessed this He’s giving you? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Awesome. Well, you’ve got God on your side.
Then you’re not competing at all. He’s in a field. God’s an affiliate member.
[00:37:00.97] spk_2: That’s true. He’s a partner.
[00:37:10.53] spk_1:
Okay? He listed should be listed among your partners. Yes, alongside God. I saw a lot of government agencies or
agencies or I don’t know how you would agencies. I get a counties, counties. I saw a couple of states I think to
[00:37:51.73] spk_2:
right. We’ve got, I think, 10 or 11 states now with regards to government agencies. I mean, there are 4000 art district
according to the national damage for the arts on. And, you know, we’re working with as many of those as possible signing. There’s many because as possible to join us. This is obviously the first year. But the whole idea is to have this take on a life of its own and become, you know, a Christmas Sorry Thanksgiving holiday tradition. Are
[00:37:51.87] spk_1:
you an artist? Is that what created?
[00:38:27.62] spk_2:
Yeah, Yeah, came to mind as last year on Artist Sunday, the Sunday after Thanksgiving, I saw a boost in sales and
thought, Wait a minute. This is kind of curious. There should be a day for artists for this kind of stuff, you know? So so that’s really kind of how the idea came about. And in addition to being a photographer, I’m also an entrepreneur, so I’m gonna kind of brought the two together, bringing my photography and the entrepreneurial experience Thio create the other Sunday. Is
[00:38:27.78] spk_1:
there a space in here for performing artists?
[00:38:30.72] spk_2:
Sure. Certainly so. Experiential artists performing artists, however you might determine them, uh, this year with that
maybe kind of difficult for them Thio, you know, in the theaters being closed in that type of thing. But certainly for musicians being able to sell their work, whether it’s a downloader CD if people still buy CDs that cut, uh, can certainly participate as well as visual.
[00:38:54.00] spk_1:
Okay, something outdoors is conceivable, Uh, whether if the weather permits in November, if you’re in the Southern
tier, it could be an outdoor performance.
[00:39:04.52] spk_2:
Exactly. And we actually have actually have a group with a traveling piano. I don’t know the name there somewhere out
of the West Coast, but they’ll do outdoor performances and a piano on a flat bed or something like that. And you know, the commune with nature and God and, uh, music.
[00:39:28.82] spk_1:
So folks who are interested they should go to artists sunday dot com
[00:39:52.32] spk_2:
Correct? Yep, we’ve got over 1000 participants. We’ve got 930 some artists. We’ve got 188 nonprofit organizations
across the country that are participating in war, signing up every day and you know we hope to have several 1000 by by artist Sunday by Thanksgiving time frame
[00:40:38.11] spk_1:
All right, well, hope non profit radio audience helps you hope listeners. Check it out. Artist. Sunday Thank You, Chris
artists sunday dot com and at artists Sunday, and Chris is at C. V. Sherman. Chris Sherman. Thanks very much And good luck. I hope you get those thousands thousands next week. Mommy lied to God with Carlos Mestas were sponsored by turn to communications, PR and content for nonprofits. Your story is their mission. Turn hyphen two dot ceo and by dot drives raise more money, changed more lives tony-dot-M.A.-slash-Pursuant for a free demo and a free month. Our creative producer is clear, Meyerhoff shows social Media is by Susan Chavez Mark Silverman is our Web guy and this music is by Scott Stein. Thank you for that affirmation, Scotty. Here with me next week for non profit radio, big non profit ideas for the other 95% Go out and be great
