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Nonprofit Radio for November 15, 2021: Bitcoin & The Future Of Fundraising

My Guests:

Anne Connelly & Jason Shim: Bitcoin & The Future Of Fundraising

 

That’s the new book by Anne Connelly and Jason Shim. They share the potential in cryptocurrency donations and explain simply, how to get started. Private keys; public keys; wallets; and exchanges. It’s time to learn what’s inevitably in your nonprofit’s future.

 

 

 

 

 

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Transcript for 567_tony_martignetti_nonprofit_radio_20211115.mp3

[00:00:02.84] spk_1:
Hello

[00:00:10.84] spk_2:
and welcome to

[00:03:09.04] spk_1:
tony-martignetti non profit radio Big nonprofit 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 suffer the embarrassment of hydrogen itis security Eva if you rubbed me the wrong way with the idea that you missed this week’s show, Bitcoin and the future of fundraising. That’s the new book by ANn Connolly and Jason shim They share the potential in Cryptocurrency donations and explain simply how to get started private keys, public keys, wallets and exchanges. It’s time to learn what’s inevitably in your nonprofit’s future. I’m tony state too, Veterans Day, We’re sponsored by turn to communications pr and content for nonprofits. Your story is their mission turn hyphen two dot c o here is Bitcoin and the future of fundraising. It’s my pleasure to welcome co authors to nonprofit radio and Connolly is faculty at singularity University. She’s worked at Doctors without Borders and been a member of their board. As director of fundraising at Dignitas International. She set up one of the world’s first Bitcoin donation programs and is certified in strategic disruption from Harvard business school, Which sounds like a degree in anarchy. We’ll talk a little about what that what that’s about. She was named one of Canadian broadcasting corporations. 12 young leaders in changing. Canada and one of the 50 most inspirational women in technology in Canada. She’s at an underscore Connolly and welcoming back Jason shim he’s director of digital strategy and transformation at pathways to education. Canada his experience spans the nonprofit and academic sectors helping organizations stay ahead of the technology curve In 2013, he led pathways to become the first charity to issue tax receipts for Bitcoin donations. He’s an editor at ledger, a peer reviewed scholarly journal at the University of Pittsburgh Pit, publishing original research on Cryptocurrency and Blockchain technology. Jason is on the board of intend where amY sample ward, our listeners know her is Ceo and Jason is at Jason shim together they wrote the book Bitcoin and the future of fundraising. A beginner’s guide to crypto, crypto currency donations and welcome to non private radio Jason. Welcome back.

[00:03:12.14] spk_0:
Thank you so much.

[00:03:13.50] spk_2:
Thanks for having us.

[00:03:52.24] spk_1:
It’s a pleasure pleasure to have both of you. Uh and let’s start with you, the the Cryptocurrency is like a new technology like at one time the telephone and talking movies, right? Talkies and the T. V. And internet and cell phones. Uh these technologies all had their their naysayers and those who thought it was just a fad, you know, talking movies, those will never last. So what do we what do we say to folks who are naysayers. Uh thinking that Cryptocurrency maybe it’s just a fad or it’s too dangerous. How do we allay those concerns about this new technology,

[00:04:43.64] spk_0:
It’s very reasonable for people to be nervous about new technology. I mean I can remember my parents talking about the Internet back in, you know the early to late 90s and saying, you know anyone will be able to look up the recipe for a bomb like we need to stop this, this is dangerous. And you know, that’s true in today’s world, anyone probably could look up the recipe for a bomb, but no one would ever consider saying we should stop the Internet. It’s a bad thing for society. Um And I think that’s where we’re at with cryptocurrencies as people are still in that phase where they’re learning about maybe some of the scarier elements. Uh and they haven’t quite gotten to realizing just how powerful and incredible this technology is, both for themselves, but also for society and people around the world who might not have access to the same financial services that some of us do.

[00:04:53.64] spk_1:
Yeah, that’s a very interesting point. Uh let’s say a little more about how this can be liberalizing for a lot of folks, a lot of parts of the world where banking infrastructure is not something they take for common or, or financial infrastructure broader than just banking is not, is not something that they take for granted the way those of us in the, in the west do.

[00:05:43.04] spk_0:
Yeah, I think there’s two sides that really is for many of us in North America, we have easy access to banking services and um but even in the states, more than 25% of people are unbanked, they don’t have access to that. And when you look around the world, those rates are even worse and so many people just operate in a cash economy, it means they’re locked out of any sort of loan systems or being able to better themselves through more formal financial services and then there’s a whole set of countries where people can’t even trust their national currencies. So if you look at places like Argentina, Iraq Venezuela, sorry Iran where inflation is astronomical Even right now in Canada, inflation is more than 4.5%. But if you look at Venezuela in 2018, their inflation rate was hundreds of millions of

[00:06:08.39] spk_1:
was not more hundreds of millions or billions of percent. Yeah,

[00:06:53.04] spk_0:
it was wild. And so you know if you can imagine your life savings disappearing overnight simply because the government is printing too much money or isn’t a good custodian of the national financial system. That’s the reality for a lot of people. And so I think when I think about Bitcoin more than anything, it’s not. Its goal is not to replace national currencies. Its goal is to provide people with choice so that you know, if they’re really happy with the currency their government is providing, they can certainly use that. But if they don’t have access to it, they don’t have access to banks or they don’t trust their government to do a good job of managing their money. They have another option. And that’s what for me is so exciting is it’s this global permission list system where anybody can take part um and use it to fundamentally change their lives.

[00:07:10.44] spk_1:
So Jason is it is it as simple as just needing an internet connection for anyone in the world to to participate in in cryptocurrencies?

[00:07:12.44] spk_2:
Yeah, I mean that’s pretty much the foundational building block that you know, if you have access to an internet connection and you can download, you know, the uh you know, there’s a few different approaches of accepting Cryptocurrency. But yeah, it starts with an internet connection in terms of getting getting access to that that wider network for sure.

[00:08:05.44] spk_1:
Okay. Um uh the uh I did a quick search of just comparing the us and Canada and adoption rates are much higher in uh in Canada than than in the us. I found like 13% of Americans Have bought or traded Cryptocurrency but it’s it’s like 30% of Canadians. So much much wider adoption for our well for your country, for our neighbors here, for me, for our neighbors in the north, for for your country, for the two of you, any any explanation as to why it might be 30% in Canada vs just 13 in the us.

[00:08:09.94] spk_0:
I think what might be Oh sorry, go ahead.

[00:08:12.24] spk_2:
Go ahead. And

[00:08:12.63] spk_1:
I

[00:08:48.84] spk_0:
think what’s even more exciting really than comparing the United States and Canada is looking where it’s growing globally. You know, some of the greatest adoption rates are in places like Nigeria or South east Asia. Um and that’s really demonstrative of, you know, when you have locations that maybe aren’t providing the financial services that we have in north America, the rates are exploding um from a Canadian perspective, I know people are really keen to explore new technologies and we also have a massive immigrant population that wants to send money back home. Um so trying to find mechanisms that enabled them to do that without paying fees of 8-12% through Western Union. The coin is a really great option for a lot of those people.

[00:09:28.14] spk_1:
Mm hmm. Alright. Uh now and I was, I chose you but you didn’t answer. You didn’t answer the question. So I’m gonna try Jason although it was anarchist. Uh that is that the degree in anarchy. I knew it. Um what is what we call it? A strategic disruption. Alright. The anarchy degree or certification. So uh, Jason any, any, do you have any insight into why so much more widely adopted in Canada than the U. S. Not that what I said was not valuable. I, I appreciate what’s happening in *** et cetera. But I just wanted to bring it, I don’t want to try to bring back to to the north America here.

[00:12:01.94] spk_2:
Yeah. In terms of adoption rates like what I found over the years is that, you know, when, when tech companies in the past have been looking for like pilot areas that I, I know that Canada has stood out as being, you know, the place where, you know, um, initial kind of rollouts or pilots that have happened. So, you know, when I know that when, you know, folks are testing out like new apps, you know, for their organizations, it’s a multinational organization, it’ll tend like what I’ve observed is that it has tended to be uh tested in Canada first and I, I imagine, you know, that may reflect, you know, that it’s a fairly, you know, uh text avenue connected, you know, uh population, but also uh there were some hotspots for Cryptocurrency, you know, in its early days, I mean, ethereum was born out of Toronto battalion, peter in is, you know, Canadian the founder of ethereum and uh there there are several clusters in Canada that, you know, a lot of the initial developments encoding around, you know, Bitcoin and ethereum and subsequent projects uh I think really grew out of that. So I think what we’re seeing in terms of the increased adoption rates is an extension of that where uh you know, not unlike, you know, early silicon Valley where, you know, a lot of, you know, tech development happened there that, you know, for, I think the early 20 tens, um uh Toronto really served as kind of, that, that initial hub in those communities that really got engaged, so no surprise that, you know, subsequent, you know, companies emerged and uh, you know, adoption uh may have been a bit quicker here. Um, but you know, I think that we are seeing that definite dispersion where there are multiple uh you know, crypto hubs that have emerged in the last 10 years for sure. But yeah, I mean Canada is also a wide place of you know being able to send uh send payments um easily and by a practical example and this isn’t particular to Canada, you know specifically, but you know when when working in international context, you know, hearing from, you know developer contacts in the local community that when you’re considering paying developers overseas and all the options that available like Bitcoin is emerging as you know uh when uh when when speaking to folks about you know how they’re managing payments, you know, Bitcoin is often an easier way to pay um developers in other parts of the world than it is going through traditional payment mechanisms um because of that the lesson administration and at times even just the availability where you know trying to pay someone, we’re banking systems are limited, you know, as I mentioned earlier. Uh so I think all these things combined have contributed to higher um you know, Canadian adoption as you pointed out.

[00:12:39.04] spk_1:
Yeah, interesting. All right, thank you. Um so you mentioned ethereum or ether being the the second most popular Cryptocurrency behind Bitcoin, Jason was was Bitcoin originated in in the States or was that was that also in Canada? That’s uh interesting somewhere else. Well no, I’m sorry, it was another country, wasn’t it? Uh, Bitcoin,

[00:12:47.04] spk_2:
I location wise, I think it’d be best described as um kind of Bitcoin emerged online that, you know, to this day, the, the, the founder, founder or founders of Bitcoin. Um, you know, uh, so in terms of like a specific location, videos created, uh, you know, Bitcoin would have been online and then, you know, Ethiopia, many of the major players who are known were based out of Toronto.

[00:13:34.64] spk_1:
Right, okay, okay, that’s right. You say in the book that the founders of Bitcoin are still unknown to us. Right, okay. All right. Um, and with some trepidation go back to you. Uh, so since I made fun of this, tell me about what a certificate and strategic disruption is. What is that? I

[00:14:48.64] spk_0:
think the key element about it is it helps you develop a mindset about how to think about moving forward with your organization or your company, where you try to essentially disrupt yourself. And that’s why companies like Apple were so successful is, you know, they had a product and a product that worked, they could have just, you know, kept producing that same product for many years until some other company came by and beat them out and the company would go under, but instead of waiting for someone else to come out with a better product, like she said, hey, we’re going to actually cannibalize our own offering. We’re going to make a better product. So you know, we’re not going to just make the ipod, We’re now gonna make the iphone, Um, and our customers are gonna buy that instead. And so they were constantly creating new and imaginative things and changing the lives of their customers and so strategic destruction is really that. And you can apply the same type of mentality in the nonprofit sector and say, listen, you know, we’ve got a pretty good fundraising program. We’ve got major gifts that come in. We’ve got direct mail that goes out and um, we can sit here for 20 more years and raise money this way. But the nonprofits that are going to do the best in the long run are the ones that really look at their program and say, hey, let’s, let’s actually shake up the way that we’re doing things. Let’s try some really new and innovative stuff. Some of it will fail. Some of it will succeed spectacularly. And that’s actually gonna help us future proof the organization, um, and help us be, you know, essentially a stronger longer lasting organization moving forward.

[00:17:06.64] spk_1:
It’s time for a break. Turn to communications. Communications. It’s in their name. So they don’t only do the public relations and the media work that I’ve talked a lot about communications is so much more vast than that. So think about documents, documents you used to communicate case studies, your annual report, white papers turn to, can create these documents for you. They’ve got a journalism background, a writing background. They know how to understand your, your tone, your core messages and how to bring those out in your written documents. So you got this content that needs to be created and it’s not getting done. You need help think about turn to because your story is their mission there at turn hyphen two dot C. O. Now back to Bitcoin and the future of fundraising. Let’s uh, let’s, let’s bring it back to Cryptocurrency and north America. Give us give folks some motivation uh, in terms of raw numbers and potential growth. Uh, so we can help allay fears because you know, aside from it being a new technology, you know, lots of folks get the, uh, pay me $2500 in the US in Bitcoin or else I’ll release these bad things about you on the internet, you know, and I’ll share your contacts with their, you know, etcetera. So there’s some that contributes to some of the fears, these, uh, these um, uh, you know, email scams. So help help allay some fear with some hard numbers about where crypto is and where Bitcoin is maybe specifically and about the future.

[00:19:00.64] spk_0:
Yeah, I think the best numbers I can help relay are really numbers around donations that have already happened. And so you know, last year, the talent veteran who is the founder of ethereum, He gave a billion dollars to Covid relief, a billion with a b. So tell me about any other billion dollar donations that you heard about last year, you know, in any country around the world. And so, and that’s just, that’s, you know, it’s not the only one we had. The Pineapple Fund gave away $55 million borders Australia just got a $35 million dollar gift last week. Um, so the numbers that I really want to convey our, that, you know, there’s a community of crypto donors that are waiting to make these gifts that have just enormous amounts of money and a real passion for changing the world. That’s why they got into crypto because they want to make a difference. And so now they’ve got all this money and they’re trying to find organizations that they can actually give this money to. And right now that’s, that’s a challenge. Like right now there’s some incredible organizations accepting. But in order to find charities that are accepting crypto, most donors will google, they say which charities accept Cryptocurrency and then they pick one off the list. And so there’s this amazing opportunity for charities that are out there are nonprofits to actually uh, connect with this donor group that’s really being ignored by most of the community and really make deep relationships with them because they’re very different from traditional donor groups, how they like to give, what interests them, that type of thing. But the potential for their giving is just astronomical and the potential to create change together. Um, is what really gets me excited

[00:19:02.91] spk_1:
about cryptocurrencies

[00:19:04.01] spk_0:
in the space.

[00:19:30.44] spk_1:
Yeah. At the end of every chapter, you have a little call out box about a donation, a big number donation that was made in Cryptocurrency. Um, but yet the penetration rate, I think in the States, there’s only three or 4% of charities only are accepting, uh, Cryptocurrency donations. Uh, and some of them big ones that you name our United Way Red Cross. Do you want to, do you want to shout out a couple in, uh, in Canada that are accepting.

[00:20:58.14] spk_0:
Yeah, absolutely. I mean pathways to education of course, which is Jason’s organization was one of the first war child has been accepting for a long time. We have organizations like the Mississauga Food Bank, which is a, you know, a major site pita United Way up north as well as accepting. So it’s not the case that there aren’t, you know, well recognized organizations with good brands and, and that are well trusted. There are many names. Um, I think what sort of holding some organizations back is just, is education, You know, we’re at the stage where Bitcoin can be a little bit scary. Um, people don’t necessarily feel comfortable, They’re not sure whether it’s gonna be worth it. Um, and, and that’s really just a small hump to get over, you know, you can watch a lot of great videos online to learn about it. You can, you know, get the book that Jace and I put together, which is specifically written for fundraisers who don’t know anything about crypto and want to get started. Um, but more than anything, the best way to kind of get excited and start learning about cryptocurrencies and is just to buy some And you don’t have to go out and buy, you know, a $10,000 worth or anything just by a dollar’s worth of Bitcoin. Um, think of it as, you know, investing in evening of your time and learning something new and fun. Um, and that will really help you understand, you know, how it works, what it’s like, what you could do with it. Um, and uh, it’s a great way to get your foot in the door.

[00:21:29.44] spk_1:
Yeah, and Jason you in the book, you to recommend that as also establishing credibility with the crypto donor community is buying some, buying some on your own even before your organization has a, has a mechanism has set it up so that you’re not, you’re not just testing your, your own organizations, uh, infrastructure for accepting these gifts, we’ll get to that, but just buying and buying some on your own sounds like gives credibility to you, gives you credibility among the donor community

[00:23:52.64] spk_2:
for sure, and I think that many who are involved in the Cryptocurrency community, You know, I think it goes to really, how do you build that deeper relationship and have a conversation with folks that it’s it’s not just, you know, solely talking about, you know, the, you know, yes, there’s a donation part, but it’s also, you know, I think, you know, being able to speak knowledgeably about it, um, and, you know, as as people are involved in it and interested, you know, it, um, showing up in the communities as well. And I mean, that that that’s another kind of tactic that, you know, we do mentioned, you know, in the book and, you know, have seen used to to get the fact that, you know, if if you’re going to engage, you know, communities of donors that are very interested in, you know, something that they have self identified that, you know, before folks get into it. You know, folks typically, you know, do a lot of research and um, and you know, form, you know, uh, in person communities are online communities around it and just showing up in those spaces and being like, yeah, you know, I’m often, what I found over the years is that, you know, when participating in, you know, those Cryptocurrency spaces and everyone’s doing introductions, it was a few years before I was, you know, for a long time, you know, was the only charity in the space of reasons like, hi, you know, I work for a charity. So what brings you here and immediately there’s a way to connect over that and focus get really interesting. It was a few years before a second charity arrived. And you know, that was an indication to me that, you know that this was growing in awareness and such. But you know, I think that having that background of even having purchased a small amount, you know, gives that it gives that experience and credibility around, you know, it’s not just you know, saying, hey, you know, uh can you make a donation? Okay thanks, bye. It’s you know, how do you cultivate that longer term relationship where we’re part of something bigger here? Like there there’s um Cryptocurrency, you know, emerging as uh as a new asset class as a way to facilitate transactions that, you know, uh bigger, bigger possibilities. And in terms of, you know what we’re seeing with um uh with the ways that people are transacting, interacting, you know, uh, N. F. T. S around the corner. We haven’t touched on that yet, but it’s uh it gives more surface area for to connect with people on and you know, I think that, you know that one building a relationship, you know, having having more of those commonalities is also important.

[00:24:41.14] spk_1:
So, and mentioned the the fact that a lot of lot of crypto donors now are just Googling, you know, where can I make a crypto donation, but we wouldn’t expect that to continue as the penetration rate becomes higher among charities. Mean, so it is going to be building relationships and, and eventually it’ll become just another way of making a gift from folks that know, you, you know, like, like writing a check or transferring stock, eventually they’ll be the world will be just, you know, it won’t be, where do I make a donation by, through crypto?

[00:25:03.94] spk_0:
It’s no different really than, you know, when charity started adopting online donation platforms and, you know, website donation forms in the early days, there weren’t that many that had them and people wanted to use their credit card to donate online would have to figure out which charities made that possibility. But today, no charity would ever think of not having an online form. And so really it’s just, it’s just a timing thing, we’re just still in the early days and very exciting days. And because of that, there’s an incredible opportunity for the organizations that do get on on board early

[00:26:20.14] spk_2:
and, and, and to that point, like, I I think that, you know, when, when we think about, you know, early days when there were opportunities to donate online that, you know, I think there was a period in which organizations would have, you know, um competed on, you know, features that even just having the ability to accept credit cards online would have set you apart and, you know, as more people, you know, adopt online credit card payments, then you have to, um, you know, compete on a different kind of, uh, on like service provision. So, you know, the, the ease for which someone can make it right. And you know, I think we’re seeing that similar transition where, you know, right now, it’s still that, that phase where it’s like, okay, you know, does someone accept it? Yes or no? And that, you know, as that, um, as that number increases, then it’s going to be a different proposition where it’s like, alright, who, who does it with the most ease or who provides that additional added experience? That is, you know, absolutely fantastic. Um, and you know, as we look into, you know, how, um, how folks are engaging. Like, you know, it is there a future in which, you know, folks, you know, have some sort of representation on, you know, the Blockchain that’s like, you know, this certifies that, you know, you have donated to this organization or you know, you, you can unlock, you know, uh, different online, you know, possibilities, you know, through your donation that’s embedded on the Blockchain or opportunities like that. So, you know, I think that that’s kind of a possible feature that, you know, things can move in that direction as well.

[00:27:27.44] spk_1:
Jason, let’s make sure everybody understands the Blockchain. Uh, it took me a good amount of reading and many guests before you or well give myself a break a few guests before you. Maybe not many, uh, you understand what Blockchain is but it’s really it’s really something very simple once I once I once I understood it was simple but it took a little I’m trainable I guess I’m trainable. That that that’s the good news but uh you know so every every Cryptocurrency is on a Blockchain and you the book is a very good primer about all the, about the whole world of Cryptocurrency not just about Blockchain but I found your book to be a good primer use good analogies, I mean simple analogies that are easy to understand. So well let’s make sure everybody understands what a Blockchain is and and why each Cryptocurrency has its own Blockchain. Can you explain that Jason since you just mentioned Blockchain?

[00:29:06.64] spk_2:
Yeah yeah so so when we’re making a transaction you know there there is a record that has kept it and traditionally you know there may be like you know 11 record that is kept but what’s different about a Blockchain is that as a transaction happens on the network uh everyone who is participating in the network keeps a record of um of all the transactions that are happening. So you know the three of us right now that um you know uh tony Jason and that you know if I were to transfer Uh you know $5 you know worth of Bitcoin over to end That the record that has kept. You know imagine all three of us scribbling that because we we witnessed that happening. And so, you know, it’s between, you know, uh someone could claim it’s like, oh you didn’t actually give and you know $5 you gave her three and be like, no, no, wait a minute. Like you had seen that transaction, you had written it down. And so that is kind of a really basic explanation of, you know, what, how the Blockchain operates except instead of three people, imagine that with 30,000 people or more like, you know, just every single person who’s participating, the network keeps their own, you know, extremely detailed ledger of everything that is happening within the network and that that’s, you know, in part what keeps it secure that instead of trusting, you know, one single party that, you know, could, you know, alter, you know, those those records. It’s like you you have the collective that, you know, everyone sees everything that’s happening simultaneously in electronic format.

[00:29:45.94] spk_1:
And you to explain in the book why that’s enormously secure, secure from, from hacking from financial fraud and theft, uh, secure from mistakes. So, you know, listeners, you gotta get the book to get to go into the depth of the security of of the Blockchain. Um All right, so let’s let’s let’s start getting into the nitty gritty of of how to and can you start us off with, I think it’s important to explain what the keys are, the private key and a public key and then we’re going to get into how folks get their own are going to buy and maybe sell their own Cryptocurrency but you started off with the keys and.

[00:31:25.64] spk_0:
Yeah no problem. So if you think about your wallet um that you have in your purse or your back pocket and you store your cash in their Bitcoin uses something called the wallet as well. Um And it’s where you store your Bitcoin but it’s digital. Now if you think about your house, every house has a public address so 123 any street and you can give that address to anybody in the world they can send you a letter. They can you know show up and look in the windows but they can’t actually open the door to your house and take any of your stuff. And so your Bitcoin wallet also has a public address. And what you can do with that public address is give it to anyone that you know wants to send you money and they can send you money and it gets deposited into your wallet. But your wallet also has something called a private key and it’s kind of like the key to the front door of your house. And so if you give that key to anybody um they can open the front door of your house. They can come in and take all your furniture and all your electronics and whether they’re legally allowed to or not they can do it And the same sort of thing applies to your wallet’s private key if you give them that private key, anybody can then open up your wallet, take your Bitcoin and there’s really no recourse. And so, um, essentially what that means is you want to always keep your private key safe, always keep your private key backed up in a number of secure locations. Um, and what’s really nice about that is if you ever have any issues with your wallet, like let’s say you lose your phone or you know, something happens where the company making the wall, it goes under and you’re suddenly like, where’s my money? As long as you have your private key, you will always have access to your money. And so that’s what’s really amazing about it versus say if your bank went under, you might not have access to your money ever again. If Paypal froze your account, you wouldn’t be able to access your money with Bitcoin. As long as you have your private key, you always have access to your money.

[00:33:39.24] spk_1:
Okay. And again, as I said, the book, such simple analogies that the public key is like your address and the private key is like your house key very very, very comprehensible. It’s time for Tony’s take two veterans Day was last week and I was remiss in my show planning for last week’s show. So I don’t want to let it go. Unmentioned. I’m grateful. I’m thankful. I thank the many millions of people who have served our country in the military and also my gratitude to families who have lost folks because of their military service families that made that sacrifice and the military members themselves, that made those sacrifices. I’m thankful to those people as well. And if there’s someone in your family who died in the military, died supporting and defending our nation, I thank you. I had my own service. I was in the Air Force uh Military services is a calling and I I admire those who continue to answer that call. That call to to service duty to our country. Thank you. Thank you. Mhm. That is tony stick to Veterans Day. We’ve got boo koo but loads more time for Bitcoin and the future of fundraising and you know, you want to continue. It seems to me like the next step is, or the way you lay it out is the next step is getting a wallet.

[00:34:00.54] spk_0:
Yeah, so there’s lots of different ways to get a wallet. Um There’s most, the most easiest ways just get download a mobile wallet on your phone. Um There’s ones on the web as well and there’s a number of different companies out there now. Um

[00:34:01.66] spk_1:
and just explain what the wallet is for.

[00:35:27.24] spk_0:
Oh yeah, the wall is just restoring your Cryptocurrency, that’s it. So it’s kind of like the wallet you’ve got in your purse or in your back pocket. Um it’s just where you keep your crypto and it enables you to send it to other people. So if you have like Venmo or something like that, it feels a bit like Venmo um you just open it up and you can send your Bitcoin to someone else. The difference is there’s just no centralized company behind it, the way there is with Venmo or Paypal, um so you know, there’s a number of different wallet companies out there, some of them will enable you to hold on to your private key. Like Blockchain dot com is one example of a wallet that I use, that enables you to hold on to your private key. Many of you probably heard of coin base coin base is a little bit different because they actually hold on to your private keys. So it’s probably less secure from that perspective because it’s always good to have your key, but if you’re afraid of losing your key, coin base is probably a good option for you. Um So once you pick the wallet, you download it onto your phone um and then you can use an exchange to actually buy Cryptocurrency. So typically you would either connect your bank account or use a credit card um and just trade some of your usd or eur Canadian dollars for us northern folks and they’ll give you something corny return kind of the same way, like if you were going on vacation to Mexico, you would take your usd to an exchange booth at the airport and they would just trade you some usd for mexican pesos here. You’re going to get usd and get some Bitcoin back.

[00:35:34.14] spk_1:
So and if it’s a, if it’s a wallet like coin base, you said they hold your private key, you can also hold your private key. I mean like they can’t have it and you have it.

[00:36:17.53] spk_0:
No, because at the end of the day it’s like your house key. You know, if two people have a copy of the house key and all of a sudden the contents of the house are gone. Who stole them? You don’t know, you fundamentally need to have, you know, one person that, that’s responsible for the contents of the wallet and that’s either gonna be you as an individual or the company will take on that responsibility for you. Which has its pros and cons. Um, and so yeah, for a lot of people that’s, that’s a huge plus having someone else manage that responsibility for um, others in the crypto space. It’s really important for them to manage and own their own money.

[00:36:22.73] spk_1:
Can you name any other of the more popular wallets you mentioned Bitcoin dot com coin base

[00:36:29.96] spk_0:
coin bays bread wallet. Um, there’s electra. Um, there’s Jason. What other ones can you throw in there?

[00:36:37.93] spk_2:
I think that that, that covered off all the big ones, the

[00:36:47.23] spk_0:
metal pay exodus. Yeah, there’s, there’s a number a number of different options out there for folks to choose from these days, which is great.

[00:36:52.57] spk_1:
Okay. And it’s just a matter of googling right. What what are the top 10 wallets or what what’s a wallet for my, is it is it country specific? Do you need a wallet that works in your country, Jason?

[00:37:21.43] spk_2:
No, it’s uh it’s pretty cross border. So you know the song is that you can download it from uh you know, your respective app store and it works, you know, just uh you know, making sure that you’re finding a reputable wallet that you know has solid reviews and but you know, there’s uh no country specificity aside from, you know, uh if it is attached to a certain provider, a company that accepts a certain currency. So I know that there are some wallets um on the international side that are particular for um deposits, that you know, if uh if you want to deposit in a certain currency, then that may be the only kind of particular about it. But otherwise, you know, it’s pretty uh pretty universal.

[00:38:08.22] spk_1:
Okay? You make the security point in the book about not keeping your private key on your phone. But you both have mentioned the phone and using a phone app, but you’re supposed to just write your private key down and keep it somewhere secure. Like uh I get like a safe deposit box or something.

[00:38:44.82] spk_0:
Yeah, safe deposit box is a great spot safe in your house somewhere where you’re keeping really important documents. The way to think about it is you know that key will fundamentally open access to all the money in your wallet. So if you had $500 in cash where would you store that? Would you store it in your desk drawer? Would you store it in your bedside table? Probably not. You probably store it somewhere a little more secure. So based on how much money you have in your wallet, that’s sort of where you want to think about storing your private key if it’s 20 bucks, yeah, maybe put it in your desk if it’s $100,000 you definitely don’t want to leave that lying around.

[00:38:48.12] spk_1:
Um And Jason can you say a little more about exchanges?

[00:40:30.41] spk_2:
Yeah. So in terms of exchanges um you know we talked earlier about, you know while it’s exchanges are where the many of the transactions are around the world, you know take place. And really that it functions you know similar to regular kind of currency exchange or a stock market exchange where you know there’s it establishes a market where there you know those buyers and sellers and so you know um uh as I mentioned earlier, you know if you’re looking to exchange something like us dollars for you know. Bitcoin that um you know you’re you’re usually gonna be working with an exchange in order to uh to do that and on exchanges, you know, depending on on the exchange. You know, they may list a whole bunch of um different currencies, cryptocurrencies, you know, uh So you know, they may list in U. S. Dollars, you know, Canadian dollars, you know, Bitcoin ethereum, you know, if folks are looking at things like, you know, dodge coin um uh and it’s going quite quite extensive. I mean, you know, some of the larger ones are definitely, you know, listing uh many many different cryptocurrencies. Um but you know, if those who are looking for like, you know, the major ones that you don’t have emerged, you know, primarily, you know, Bitcoin in theory. I mean those are pretty standard almost across all exchanges these days. And uh they they the exchanges are really the mechanisms for which um you know, as a release back to two nonprofits that uh you know, after someone does make a donation of of Cryptocurrency um you know, having that exchange, you know, connection or um and some providers, you know, have that baked into their uh their services. That’s how you convert the Cryptocurrency back into, you know, a currency that the uh charity can use, you know, so if you s you know, how do you get that big pointed us dollars, you know, you’ll you’ll be working through an exchange in order to convert that so you can deposit into your bank account as well,

[00:41:05.61] spk_1:
Jason, let’s make something explicit because you know, when we’re recording Bitcoin a single Bitcoin is around $55,000 roughly a single ether is around $3500. Let’s make explicit that you don’t have to spend $55,000 if you want to participate in the in in buying some Bitcoin.

[00:41:08.31] spk_2:
No, absolutely not. So you know the uh it goes up to eight decimal places and I think that that’s something that is uh that’s helpful to to be aware of. So you know it is possible to buy like you know 0.00000 won worth of Bitcoin or ethereum. So um you know they’re uh definitely do not have to participate entire Bitcoin or entire. Either in order to participate in the in the ecosystem.

[00:42:15.20] spk_1:
Okay. And so you have in the title of your book you you you you you say Bitcoin but non profits could be accepting any of the any of the coins that you mentioned. But does it become so when you when you stray from Bitcoin and ether which are the two most popular, are you are you taking a greater risk if you get into like stellar and you mentioned dodge coin and by finance does it become riskier for for you personally if you’re doing your your experimental purchase and your credibility building purchases or or for your non profit if you’re accepting those other less popular like all the old coins.

[00:44:43.99] spk_2:
Mm it’s similar to I would say like you know in kind donations or stock donations that charities would ordinarily receive. And so you know, I think that when considering Cryptocurrency donations, like the vast majority of them are being transacted in Bitcoin followed by either in that order. However, when looking at all the coins, you know, what’s worth kind of thinking about is you know, imagine a prospective donor who you know may have, you know, picked up Dodge coin when it was valued at 0.0001, you know, sense and held onto it. And you know, now I think the last I checked it was like 26/27. And so you know what with regards to risk, I think it’s more helpful to assess like, you know what what’s the conversation that’s being had. You know, is someone approaching your organization with, you know, uh a donation was like, hey I like to contribute, you know, 100 $100,000 worth of dodge coin. You know, generally speaking, I would hope that, you know, a charity that is approached with that kind of um offer. You know, it’s okay, let’s, you know, let’s find an exchange that that will, you know, help us convert, you know that that amount of dodge coin, you know, into uh into U. S. Dollars to allow us to to accept it. And and so um, you know, I think it really depends on the audience. Um and so you know I think that’s what drove some of the early adoption where, you know, as Bitcoin started, you know, rising in price, you know, more offers of donations were emerging and you know, I think that you will see, um, you know, similarly with the old coins that are out there that, you know, definitely for folks who have gotten in early on some of the old coins and you know, um, it, I think it still remains to be seen which ones will, will take off. You know, we’ve already seen, you know, the emergency, you know, Bitcoin and ether. But you know, five years from now. You know, who, who knows, you know what, maybe up there. And so, um, what I have observed is that many of the exchanges are responding accordingly as well. So as as a, uh, all coins or other cryptocurrencies are taking off. You know, they get added to exchanges, which does make it easier and simpler for, um, for organizations to uh, to exchange and transact in that. So, um, you know, there, there have, there have been instances actually of folks donating, uh, you know, all queens, I think dodge coin, you know, definitely has a lot of fun stories about how, uh, how supporters have, uh, have donated their, um, their, their rapidly rising uh, currency.

[00:45:49.99] spk_1:
Yeah. Because you know, like you’re saying dodge coin, someone could have bought it for uh, tens of thousands of a penny. And at one point, I think it went up to like 60 cents or 65 cents in value. So if someone had spent like $100 or even a foul, all the more of 200 or 500 or $1000 buying millions of shares and then the price went up to 60 cents. You know, they’ve got, they’ve got a lot of money in dodge coin all of a sudden and if they then converted it to dollars Canadian or us, uh, they’ve got a lot of money potentially to give. And, and the, the book points out a lot of folks who are very, very generous with their, with their Cryptocurrency windfalls,

[00:46:34.98] spk_0:
Jason correct me if I’m getting the numbers wrong, but if something approximately where if you had, you know, invested $100 in ether at its launch, you’d have over a million dollars today for $2 million dollars today. Like it didn’t take a lot at the beginning. If you were really passionate about this project, you put a little bit of money in um, to suddenly have this astronomical wealth that would be almost impossible to generate in any other way in our society. And so it’s, it’s really what you end up getting is fairly ordinary people, you know, that came from ordinary means that that now have this wealth that, you know, they’re not interested in buying gold plated sneakers, you know, they want to create change and that’s where the nonprofit sector can really help them do that.

[00:47:23.18] spk_1:
And let’s stay with you and move to the organizational level Now. Let’s talk something about getting, getting buy in uh, in the book. You make the point that you’re not even sure the board should be approving this, they shouldn’t be involved. It’s more like, should we start accepting credit cards? You know? Uh, so it’s more um, asking for support rather than permission. But let’s talk about, you know, Ceo by in or maybe vice president of development by in uh, what are some of the reasons you might you as a crypto advocate in your organization? Might might start putting forward for why your organization should get into this. So

[00:49:16.07] spk_0:
the reason that I used when I was convincing my Ceo back in 2014 was I said, look, you know, it’s really what we can do is accept it, we can sell it immediately. There’s no fluctuation, there’s no currency risk, anything like that. And fundamentally that’s no different than accepting a stock. Like we already accept stocks and other securities. So if we do exactly the same treatment as we do with stocks, there’s really no risk to the organization and I think this day and age, there’s no brand risk, there’s, there’s no another stigma that used to exist around Bitcoin is really not there anymore. We’re seeing it adopted by not only charities, but major organizations and companies Microsoft, IBM, all kinds of different companies are heavily involved in cryptocurrencies. So I think that’s, that’s the key one is saying, okay, we already do this with another volatile asset on the stock market. Here’s another opportunity where we can essentially bring in A whole new set of young donors. And I think that’s probably my favorite argument for Cryptocurrency is most of the donors and most of that community are between the ages of 24 and 40. Um, and so if you’re really looking to bring on a whole new set of the younger generation of donors, this is a great way to do it. And you won’t be cannibalizing any of your other activities. You’ll have this whole new set of donors with no risk. Um, and for any organization that fundamentally says, hey, we want to be innovative. We want to be new here is a great way that you can do that. That is not only exciting and innovative, but it’s also a revenue driver. And so it’s pretty hard to say no to something where you say, okay, you know, we’re gonna, we’re gonna give this a try. It’s going to cost us essentially nothing to set up. We can set it up over the course of the week. There’s no risk and it might make us some money and bring in new donors to me. That’s an absolute hell, yes.

[00:49:56.87] spk_1:
Okay. There was like four or 5 very good reasons why, you know innovate, prepare for the future, expose yourself to do constituents. Uh, it’s becoming mainstream. There’s no stigma. Um, and and help you raise more money just in a different format. Um, let’s just make explicit. And is it is it your your recommendation that non profits would sell their their Cryptocurrency right away as you would with stock or what, what is your recommendation for? What to do with a crypto currency gift once you have received it,

[00:51:17.86] spk_0:
I wouldn’t recommend it. But that’s my risk tolerance. And so what’s really most important is to look at, like, what is the risk tolerance of your organization? You know, And I think, um, every organization should really sit down and say, okay, how much cash do we have on the balance sheet? You know, how much money do we have every year to play with? And what percentage of that Are we willing to put in a high risk investment? So maybe we decide that as an organization, we want 99% of our money that we raised to be there at the end of the year, and that’s totally fine. Um, but take that 1% and hold it in a Cryptocurrency and see what happens. Um, and say, look, this is a microscopic risk that we’re going to take for the potential upside of making a lot of money. Um, or maybe your organization might be a little more risk friendly. You say, look, we’re gonna we’re gonna have safe, secure investments or just keep our money in cash for 75% of what we bring in 10% we’re going to put in, you know, uh index funds with the stock market and the rest, we’re going to put in Cryptocurrency something a little bit higher risk, like I think really at the end of the day it’s not so much, you know, should you sell it or not, it’s how much of your portfolio are you putting in high risk versus low risk assets? And I think the thing to keep in mind this day and age is with inflation, where it is putting your money in cash is not safe, You’re losing money every year by holding that money in cash. So if you’re trying to maintain the amount of money that you have by the end of the year, you need to be doing something with it. So is that something high risk, low risk, what percentage is it? Um That’s up to the organization to decide. But I would really recommend that every organization actually take a critical look at what they’re doing with their money um and reserve at least a tiny portion of that to take a look at holding cryptocurrencies for the longer term.

[00:51:49.66] spk_1:
And the reason you say you’re losing money if you’re holding cash is because of inflation.

[00:51:53.89] spk_0:
Absolutely, yeah,

[00:51:55.76] spk_1:
Jason anything you want to add to the organizational policy.

[00:52:00.85] spk_2:
Yeah, I think from just looking over a trend lines, you know to the point that that and made about risk, it’s you know really aligning overall organizational strategy with what organizations looking to achieve and how you know their asset holdings maybe um may reflect that and that their risk tolerance and I think when looking at trends like it was as early as I believe it was 2014 at the time that Canada was looking at digital currency programs and you know, although that program at the time that it was called the mentorship program, you know didn’t proceed, you know uh

[00:52:32.83] spk_1:
I’m sorry Jason who would you say was looking

[00:53:11.45] spk_2:
at? I’m sorry the Canadian government or the Bank of Canada was looking at a program called the uh the mint chip program and that was really a Canadian digital currency that was being explored. But now there’s been a resurgence I think just in the past week, you know the G seven group of nations you know agreed upon, you know a set of standards to examine, you know digital currency. So I think when looking at, you know overall trends, you know digital currencies and cryptocurrencies are not if but it’s a when and you know for organizations are preparing for the future, strategically it’s it’s really you know do are by by participating in the ecosystems. Now you’re especially future proofing organization for that future which is going to come of, you know as governments are seriously looking at digital currencies that the same principles that govern you know, how do you treat you know, cryptocurrencies that this is all going in the digital direction and you know that much is evident. And so, um, it’s more of a timing consideration now. It’s, you know, would you like to do it now or later? It’s

[00:54:24.84] spk_1:
coming right. It’s it’s not, it’s not if, but when I think that’s a terrific place to wrap up. You know, there’s, there’s a lot more in the book. There are checklists for how you set this up at your organization. But I wanted to focus on the basics a person venturing into this because with the statistics that that I mentioned, so there’s still 87% of Americans are not involved in crypto and still 70% of Canadians are not involved in crypto. So I want to, I want to overcome that and then move to the organization level. And as I said, the book is a very good primer, lots of easy to understand analogies. The book is Bitcoin and the future of fundraising. A beginner’s guide to Cryptocurrency donations. The co authors are an Connolly at an underscore Connolly and Jason shim at Jason Shim and Jason, thank you very, very much.

[00:54:32.94] spk_0:
Thank you so much, appreciate it.

[00:54:34.68] spk_2:
Thanks tony

[00:55:08.54] spk_1:
pleasure thank you for sharing and and doing it in a simple way next week. Mission uncomfortable. That’s a working title with stew Swinford, that’s not a working name. He’ll he’ll stick 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. Our creative producer is Claire Meyerhoff

[00:55:10.73] spk_2:
shows. Social media is by Susan Chavez. Marc Silverman

[00:55:14.50] spk_1:
is our web guy

[00:55:15.65] spk_2:
and this music is by scott. Stein.

[00:55:30.94] spk_1:
Thank you for that. Affirmation. Scotty You with me next week for nonprofit radio Big nonprofit ideas for the other 95%. Go out and be great.

Nonprofit Radio for August 30, 2021: Decolonizing Wealth

My Guest:

Edgar Villanueva: Decolonizing Wealth

Edgar Villanueva’s book, “Decolonizing Wealth,” takes an innovative look at the purpose of wealth. His thesis is that the solutions to the damage and trauma caused by American capitalism, including philanthropy—can be gleaned from the values and wisdom of our nation’s original people. He’s a Native American working in philanthropy. (Originally aired 11/30/18)

 

 

 

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Board relations. Fundraising. Volunteer management. Prospect research. Legal compliance. Accounting. Finance. Investments. Donor relations. Public relations. Marketing. Technology. Social media.

Every nonprofit struggles with these issues. Big nonprofits hire experts. The other 95% listen to Tony Martignetti Nonprofit Radio. Trusted experts and leading thinkers join me each week to tackle the tough issues. If you have big dreams but a small budget, you have a home at Tony Martignetti Nonprofit Radio.

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[00:02:21.14] spk_1:
Yeah. Hello and welcome to Tony-Martignetti non profit radio big non profit 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 hit with hyper guard Dallas the asia Footnote one If you tickled me with the idea that you missed this week’s show de colonizing wealth. Edgar Villanueva’s book de colonizing wealth takes an innovative look at the purpose of wealth. His thesis is that the solutions to the damage and trauma caused by american capitalism, including philanthropy can be gleaned from the values and wisdom of our nation’s original people. He’s a native american working in philanthropy, This originally aired 30 November 2018 Antonis take two gratitude all day. 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. Let us begin here is de colonizing wealth. It’s my great pleasure to welcome to the studio Edgar Villanueva, He’s a nationally recognized expert on social justice philanthropy. He chairs the board of native americans in philanthropy and is a board member of the Andrews Family Fund, Working to improve outcomes for vulnerable youth. He’s an instructor with the grantmaking school at Grand Valley State University and serves as vice president of programs and advocacy at the shot Foundation for Public Education. He’s held leadership roles at Kate b Reynolds charitable trust in north Carolina and marguerite Casey Foundation in Seattle, Edgar is an enrolled member of the lumbee tribe of north Carolina. You’ll find him at de colonizing wealth dot com and at Villanueva Edgar, you’re welcome to studio.

[00:02:22.29] spk_0:
Thank you. tony Pleasure to be here.

[00:02:23.87] spk_1:
Congratulations on the book. Thank you. Which just came out last month was october

[00:02:28.33] spk_0:
october 16th.

[00:02:29.31] spk_1:
Yes. Alright. And you just had a very nice interview with the new york times?

[00:02:33.16] spk_0:
Yes,

[00:02:34.14] spk_1:
congratulations on that. They perhaps perhaps perhaps you for nonprofit radio

[00:02:37.66] spk_0:
Right, right. I’m ready. All

[00:03:25.24] spk_1:
your, all your media appearances to date have brought you to this moment. Right. So it’s all culminated here. Um, I promised listeners, footnote one, footnote 12. hyper guard Alice these asia. Uh, of course, anybody listens to the show knows that I open with something funny like that. A disease. Every single show. Uh but in Edgar’s book, he mentions hyper guard anesthesia. So this is the first time Over 400 shows that the, that the guest unknowingly has uh, provided the opening disease state. So thank you very much. You didn’t know what we do that every single show. Um you didn’t know that you’re not listening to nonprofit radio It’s it’s your life. All right. Um, okay. De colonizing wealth. Uh, you’re you’re, you’re a bit of a troublemaker

[00:03:30.54] spk_0:
a little bit.

[00:03:33.34] spk_1:
Yeah. You’re raising some eyebrows. Uh,

[00:03:33.76] spk_0:
someone told me yesterday that I was the Colin Kaepernick of philanthropy, which I was like, I haven’t thought about it that way, but

[00:04:04.94] spk_1:
that’s not also bad. Get a little closer to the mic so people can hear you. Yeah, just get not almost intimate with it almost. Um, I used to call myself the charlie Rose of charities until he blew that gig for me. You know, he ruined that. Uh, can’t use that any longer. Um, because you talk about uh, colonizer virus and exploitation and division. Um, like these are bad things.

[00:04:06.84] spk_0:
Yes, they are bad thing. What

[00:04:09.48] spk_1:
uh, what is the, what’s the colonizer virus? Why do we need to de colonize

[00:04:46.74] spk_0:
so many of us who work in philanthropy or even the non profit sector, um, you know, have this firewall that we are completely disconnected from, um, Wall Street or from capitalism or, or some of those uh, processes and systems in our country that may have a negative connotation for the good doers. But in philanthropy, we are not very far, you know, disconnected from uh, corporate America. Most of this wealth was made by corporations and businesses, um, sometimes, uh, not in the best ways, not in the

[00:04:50.24] spk_1:
backs of a lot of indigenous and colored people.

[00:05:10.14] spk_0:
Yeah. When you look at the history of the accumulation of wealth in this country is steeped in trauma. Right? And so legacy wealth that has been inherited for generations. Now, folks may not even know the origin of their family’s wealth, but you know, when we look back and we see in general how wealth was accumulated. Um, you know, especially I’m from the south north Carolina, we’ll talk about that. Um, there absolutely was the legacy of slavery and stolen lands that, that help contribute to the massive wealth.

[00:05:23.04] spk_1:
And you feel there are a lot of lessons we can learn from the values of native americans.

[00:06:09.24] spk_0:
Yeah. So you know, we as a, people talk about healing a lot. We have a lot of trauma that exists in our communities. Um, you know, because colonization as we often think about it as something that happened five years ago in north Carolina, especially where I’m from, we were the first point of contact, but colonization and the, the acts of separation and exploitation are still continuing present day. And so in my community, native communities across the country, even as recent as my grandparents generation kids were forcibly removed from their homes and put into boarding schools. And so we’re still, we’re experiencing a lot of trauma as a result of these practices, but we are a resilient people and those who are closest to a lot of the problems that we are trying to solve today as a society, have a lot of answers and wisdom that we can bring to the table.

[00:06:22.24] spk_1:
You say that the natives are

[00:06:23.73] spk_0:
the original philanthropists.

[00:06:44.94] spk_1:
Um, now you’re a member of the lumbee tribe of north Carolina. Uh, Robinson county north Carolina, which, which is not too far from where I own. I own a home in Pinehurst, which is a little north and west I think of, of Robinson County lumber. So the lumbee tribe, I assume the lumber river is named for the lum bees and Lumberton. The town

[00:06:49.90] spk_0:
named for lambis. Right? So love bees were actually named after the lumber river after river came first. Yeah, the river came first and so certainly the river came from

[00:07:00.26] spk_1:
the name of the river

[00:07:10.04] spk_0:
came from rivers been there much longer than, Yeah. So we are, you know, a hodgepodge of historical tribes that were in coastal north Carolina. Um, that I came together to form the lumbee tribe and named ourselves after that river.

[00:07:40.94] spk_1:
Um, and we’re gonna come back to uh, native americans as the, as the original philanthropists. But uh, that, that struck me a lot. I think you, you say, you say that the end of the, at the end of the book is where I, where I caught it. Um, uh, we just have like a minute and a half or so before the break. So just we’re introducing this, we’ve got plenty of time together, wealth. You say divides us, controls us, exploits us. What’s that about?

[00:08:01.84] spk_0:
So the accumulation of wealth. So money in itself is neutral wealth in itself, I say is, is neutral, but it’s the way that wealth has been accumulated in this country that has caused harm when we value when we, you know, fear and were motivated by greed. Um, the acts that can result as a, as a result of that to exploit the land and to exploit people or what that’s what has caused the harm in itself. So, um, the case that I’m going to make in this book that I’m making in this book is that wealth and money can actually be used for the good. If it historically has been used as a negative thing that has caused trauma, we can flip that to use it for something that can actually help repair the harm that has been done. You’ve got seven,

[00:09:10.04] spk_1:
6, 6 steps to that second half of your book. It’s time for a break. Turn to communications. They’ll help you find your voice and get that voice heard in the right places. Places like the Wall Street Journal, the new york Times, the Chronicle of philanthropy, fast Company Market Watch and lots of others you’ve heard me name. They’ll help you find your voice and get it out. Turn to communications, your story is their mission turn hyphen two dot c o. Now back to de colonizing wealth. *** tony-martignetti Uh, that is your indian name. Did I by any chance say that correctly.

[00:09:13.13] spk_0:
I think that’s correct. I’m a little shabby with my Ojibwe these days. You

[00:09:17.72] spk_1:
don’t know your, you know,

[00:09:18.75] spk_0:
you know that sounds, but

[00:09:25.84] spk_1:
that is your indian name. Uh, leading bird, uh, tell the story of how you got that name. Well, welcome back to don’t welcome back to the exploitation and control, don’t we? Yeah, this is a good story, how you got that name.

[00:11:55.54] spk_0:
So my tribe, the lumbee tribe in north Carolina doesn’t have a tradition of naming you are, whatever your mom calls you, that’s your name. Right. Right. So, um, but when I, when I was working in north Carolina and native communities, I went to a conference where there is a medicine man and some, when the medicine man was meeting with folks who wanted time with with him to, to talk or have a session and growing up in north Carolina, my identity as a native has always been quite complicated. We didn’t have these types of practices in my home in Raleigh north Carolina. And so, but I was very curious to meet with this medicine man and to um see what could happen from that encounter. And someone told me if you’re, if you’re really lucky when you meet with the medicine man, they might give you a spiritual name or a native name. Um, and so I met with this guy in the Marriott hotel in denver colorado or this, this native health conference. So it was all uh, tell the story in the book is quite um hilarious and in many ways, but at the end of our session where I was feeling um excited about, you know, the conversation we had but also a little confused and skeptical in some ways because I’ve, you know, had such a colonized ways of thinking. Um he did offer me a native name, Naghani pinochet, which means leading bird. Um, so I was very honored and my first thought was, what kind of bird? Right am I a little tweety bird or am I mighty eagle birds are best? So um he explained to me that I was the type of bird that flies in a V. Formation. Um, and as I when I left I studied these birds and and they’re the leading bird. I’m the leading birds leading bird. I’m the bird that flies in the front of the V. Formation, which is the kind of leader that is often visible but really understand its co dependence and interdependence on the other birds. And so if you watch birds flying in a V. Formation, it’s really like an amazing natural national phenomenon, how how they communicate and fly together. Uh the other thing that’s remarkable about the leading birds type of leadership is that it often will fly to the back of the pack and push another bird forward. So it’s not always the one that’s out front. And um when I, when I learned these characteristics, um I just felt really, um I was really, really happy and content about this name because I do see that’s the type of leadership that I model in my everyday life and I think it’s the type of leadership that’s really important for the nonprofit sector.

[00:12:32.04] spk_1:
You explain how the birds communicate, which I’ve always wondered, uh, they’re, they’re just close enough that they can feel vibrations off each other and micro movements. I think you say off each other, but they’re not so close that they’re gonna bump into each other and, and you know, be injured. But that’s how they, and I guess they’re feeling the breeze off each other and sensing these micro movements of each other. So they’re that close but not so close. They’re gonna be injured, right?

[00:13:00.84] spk_0:
It’s very, it’s very fascinating. It’s like a scientific, uh, you know, gPS built into their bodies. And the other thing I recently heard about these birds, um, is that you don’t ever find one that dies alone. And so, you know, I want to learn research that a little bit more. But I think when they’re when someone is down or you know, there’s an injury or whatever may happen. Uh, they, there’s there’s a certain way that they take care of each other. And so um, you know, it just kind of speaks to our common humanity and are interrelated, you know, being interrelated and

[00:13:21.14] spk_1:
exactly our interdependence. Now this is a, this is an indigenous belief that we are all related and that’s what it makes me think of. The birds also absolutely working so closely together that they feel micro movements. But how explain this this belief that we are, each of one of us related to the, to all the other.

[00:14:34.54] spk_0:
Yeah. So there there is a native belief um all my relations that means um you’re, all of our suffering is mutual, all of our thriving is mutual and uh you know we are, we are interdependent and so it’s a very different mindset or worldview from sort of the american individualistic type of mindset. Um we also have connected to that viewpoint is this idea of seven generations. So not only are we all related, you know, in this room right now and that we’re relatives um and we are related to the land and to the animals around us, but all of the things, all of the decisions and um that we are making today are going to impact future generations. So there’s an idea that I am someone’s ancestor and so what our responsibility to move through the world in a way that is thinking that far forward about our um our young people. And so these are concepts that were taught to me by my family, but also in recent years this book gave me the opportunity to revisit and spend time with indigenous elders to remember these teachings and and to think about how to apply them in my work

[00:14:54.74] spk_1:
and you encourage us to each that each one of us takes responsibility for as you said, were thriving and suffering together. Um what I’m referring to is the each of us takes responsibility for the colonizer virus. Say more about that.

[00:14:55.96] spk_0:
Yeah, so you know, I think are we all responsible?

[00:14:58.94] spk_1:
We’re all

[00:15:11.24] spk_0:
responsible because we’re all affected. Um, I think some folks, when we, you know, we learn about colonization in schools is something that seems pretty normal, right? We um, we think of colonization and the colonizers as heroes like the natural path of progress. Absolutely

[00:15:17.37] spk_1:
way it’s learned,

[00:16:11.34] spk_0:
right? We have holidays, you know, for for Christopher columbus for example. And so but the realities are that colonization um, was something that was terrible that resulted in genocide and all types of exploitation. And uh, that type of history that we have in this country is something that we um, as as the people have not come to terms with, we actually we don’t tell the truth, we don’t face the truth. And so I think we’re still dealing with the consequences. Um, and so the dynamics of colonization which are uh, to divide to control, to exploit, to separate those dynamics. Um, you know, I I refer to them as the colonizing virus, because they they are still in our bodies as as a nation. They show up in our policies, our systems reflect the colonizer virus and in our institutions in the nonprofit sector, and especially in philanthropy, where we are sitting on lots of money, privilege and power.

[00:16:20.24] spk_1:
Uh, these

[00:17:25.54] spk_0:
naturally to your point about us, them organizations go ahead. So, you know, I think the philanthropy, for example, can perpetuate, um, you know, the dynamics of colonization because when you look at um uh where this where this money came from and how we as a sector don’t face the realities of that truth. When you look at ask the question of why this money was held back from public coffers, um that, you know, had it gone into the tax system, it would be supporting the safety net and vulnerable communities. Um And when you look at who gets to allocate, manage and spend it, you see a very um white dominant kind of mindset happening because for example, if we get into the numbers just a little bit um foundation set on $800 billion of assets. That’s a lot of money that has been uh you know, sheltered from taxation. That’s money that would have gone into public education, health care, elder care, um things that we need for the infrastructure of our communities, but that money has been put there with little to no accountability. Um Private foundations are only required by the I. R. S. To uh pay out 5% of their assets. And so then, you know, you’re looking at just a small percentage of money that was intended to be for the public good. Only a small percentage is actually leaving the doors being invested in community. Let’s assume

[00:18:11.04] spk_1:
it’s uh I know there are a lot of Foundations that use that five minimum as their maximum. So that’s so 5% of that would be $40 billion. Uh So the counter is, but there’s $40 billion coming Each year. Could be more, but let’s take the minimum just to be conservative. And you know, we’re trying to preserve this uh this foundation capital for perpetuity. So if, you know, if we if we spent in the next two years, the 800 billion, then we wouldn’t have anything left for future, just future years and other generations were trying to, you know, we want to be around for in perpetuity. The foundations would say,

[00:19:26.24] spk_0:
right, right. And you know, I think I think there is a case to be made for saving some funds for a rainy day in the future. But the truth is that 5%, when Congress had acted that 5% role, Um it actually began at 6%, I believe in 1974. And then in 1976 was lowered to 5%. The reason that Congress had to actually put this legislation forward is because foundations were not paying out any money. And so when you think about the intent of foundations, are they being started to actually benefit the public? Are are wealthy wealthy 1% or whoever corporations starting these foundations just for the sake of having A tax break. And so that that uh IRS minimum payout of 5%. That rule was put in place to force um foundations to actually begin making grants. And so, you know, so it is sort of the other thing to explore if you are with a 95%, that is not leaving the doors. Um, if the intention is really to do good in communities, we have to look at how that 95% is then being invested too, generate more money for future grantmaking And the truth there is that the majority of those funds are tied up and harmful and extract extractive industries, um, that are counterintuitive to the mission of foundation. You make the point

[00:20:20.74] spk_1:
often uh, that often right, Those investments are in our industries that are hurting the very populations that the foundation is explicitly trying to help through its, through its mission. And, and in fact funding um, the uh, something else that was going to ask about the, the way the money is. Um, All right, we’ll come back to it if I think of it. Um, there’s there’s a lot that organizations can gain by hiring people of color indigenous people. What uh, and and very few. You’re, you’re a rare exception. Um, working in, in found doing foundation work. Uh, what’s the, make explicit those uh, those advantages?

[00:20:49.64] spk_0:
Sure. So you’re right. I’m absolutely um an exception. I think when I started in philanthropy, I was one of 10 native Americans that I could find, we kind of found each other. What year was that? Uh, this was in 2005 And we are now, there’s about 25 of us now, the last time I counted. Um, so yeah, there’s, there’s, you know, an amazing opportunity for foundations and I think more and more foundations are understanding to bring folks in uh, 22 foundations that have lived experience

[00:21:12.64] spk_1:
and not only foundations but nonprofits and Ngos doing the groundwork. Absolutely foundations of the funders. And of course some foundations are now actually doing their own groundwork. We’re seeing that emerging, but, but for the nonprofits doing the day to day work

[00:21:15.21] spk_0:
as well

[00:21:16.01] spk_1:
represent the communities that you’re

[00:22:06.94] spk_0:
absolutely, it kind of makes sense, right? And uh, you know, it’s funny because some foundations actually require that of non profits. They ask about the diversity of their staff and their board, but they themselves have no type of, you know, values around diversity of their staff. But you’re, you know, the point is that for sure that any non profit or foundation to, to have folks uh, that that work there who have authentic accountability to community and understand and have been impacted by the issues that you’re trying to solve is going to bring an awareness and um, you know about the problem in a different way. It’s going to create some proximity that I think is gonna just inform strategies. That that makes sense. And I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve been in strategic planning processes and board meetings where decisions were being made and I always carry my mother, my family with me, you know, in spirit, into the room and I hear these decisions are these conversations and I’m thinking like, oh my God, like you know this, you know, this this would not in any way help my mother or my family that still living in poverty. Decision makers disconnected, there’s such a disconnect.

[00:23:12.94] spk_1:
Yeah, um and I I thought of what I was going to ask you about or just comment on the Foundation wise, we do see some Foundation saying that they’re going to spend down their assets. Uh I wouldn’t say it’s a needle moving, but you do hear that from time to time, that there’s a foundation that’s committed now to spending its its assets down, you know, uh was paul Allen, was that uh not paul Allen the Microsoft? I think the Microsoft founder, co founder who recently died, I think his foundation was paul Allen Okay, okay. Uh I was thinking of steve Allen comedy all comic, that’s why I thought, no, it wasn’t him, but it was paul Allen, I think his foundation is one, but there are some, so we do hear some glimmers, but you say in the book a few times people we need to move the needle.

[00:24:15.24] spk_0:
Yeah, I think, I mean, I think deciding to spin down is a very progressive way of thinking about it. There’s so much need now um if we actually release the funds or even if you don’t want to spend down, you can make a decision to pay out more. Um there there’s a lot of amazing work happening um right now that is so under resource that if we could um support and get behind investing money in these various movements and these uh in communities of color which are so marginalized by philanthropy, you know, uh the 5% that is being invested, only 7 to 8% of those dollars are being invested in communities of color. That would make a big difference. And so I think um you know, I think it’s a conversation that the boards of Foundation should think about, what is the value of, you know, why why do we want to stay in perpetuity? Like what is that about a family legacy? Is that really about making a difference in the world? Because in some ways it feels I can see that has been a very selfish type of uh you know, uh way of thinking,

[00:24:33.24] spk_1:
if this was CNN right now, I would I would play a video of you, but I don’t I don’t have that. But in your in your times, uh we have to work on that at talking alternative, we need we need video capture and screens and everything. Uh in your video, in your interview with David Bernstein new York times, uh you said by not investing more in communities of color philanthropy? Venture capital, impact investing in finance are missing out on rich opportunities to learn about solutions.

[00:25:52.34] spk_0:
Yeah. You know, I think that I think of, you know, people of color indigenous folks as being the canaries in the coal mine sometimes when, when policies fail or systems fail, um, we hurt the hardest and uh, but there’s just something so magical about and sense of pride that I have about my community because we are so resilient regardless of um, you know, all of the trauma, the colonization, the um, you know, genocide stolen land, we still remain intact as a people. Um, and so there’s, there’s gotta be something magical about that resilience that I would, if I weren’t native, I would be interested to know like what, when you think about sustainability, you know, we have a corner on sustainability. Um, indigenous peoples around the world are on the frontlines of saving this planet on, you know, um, you know, really fighting for environmental protections. Um, there, there’s so much wisdom and you know, often foundations roll out new theories of changes are changes are see strategies or there’s a new model or theory theory of change that comes up and I’m like, wow, we’ve been doing that in our communities for years. If someone would have asked us, you know, maybe we can get there faster.

[00:26:00.64] spk_1:
Is there still a lumbee community in Robinson robeson county?

[00:26:04.27] spk_0:
Yes, there are, there are about 60,000 enrolled members in the lumbee tribe. The bulk of our community is still in Robertson County

[00:26:12.59] spk_1:
now have a north Carolina driver’s license. Will that, will that get me in? Can I be a member?

[00:26:17.86] spk_0:
You know, we were very inclusive. We, we, we’ll take, we’ll adopt you as an honorary brother, but you have to have a little bit more documentation to get officially enrolled. So it’s, it’s a stretch for an italian american with north Carolina license

[00:27:18.24] spk_1:
player and, uh, driver’s license. All right. Um, you, you talk about, you know, I guess, I mean, we’re skirting around these things, Make it explicit the power imbalance, you know, that, um, minorities are seeking it. And uh, mostly middle aged white guys are, are doling it out. Uh, you know, piecemeal, um, the, the imbalance, you know, the grant, even the, even the word, you know, the granting, it’s like some, uh, I don’t know, it’s like some holy orders has, has bestowed upon you something that’s a gift when, uh, your, your belief is that your thesis in the book is that it’s, it’s a, it’s a right equally held by all,

[00:27:46.44] spk_0:
yeah. You know, I think power and money, A lot of, a lot of this does come down to power and ownership. Um, we are talking in the nonprofit sector right now, a lot about equity, right? And equity is very different from diversity and inclusion. Um, to me, equity really is all about shifting power. And we often think about that from the lens of equality. So we’re going to have the same power, which is a good thing. But to really achieve equity, it’s gonna actually require that some folks who have had power for a long amount of time give up more power to take a

[00:27:54.36] spk_1:
back seat. So that’s not gonna happen. You know, that’s, that’s highly unlikely. Like infant is really small, unlikely.

[00:28:27.24] spk_0:
You know, it’s, it’s a hard thing for people to, uh, to think about. And especially if you have, if you’ve been privileged for so long, um, equity might actually feel like oppression for you, right? Because it’s like, you know, well, I, I, I have less than I’ve had. So, um, but you know, we, I want to think about this through an abundance of my frame. There’s enough, there’s enough resources, enough power to go around. Um, we just have to work together to make sure that we are privileging those who have not been privileged by that problem.

[00:32:43.94] spk_1:
So I love that you, you approach it from a position of abundance and not, not scarcity. It’s time for Tony’s take to gratitude all day. This is coming up just next week. So this is something for folks that are listening to the show very quickly after it’s published. No, wait, what am I saying next week? Yeah, it’s this week. It’s this week september 1st and second. It’s gratitude all day, september 1st and second Wednesday and thursday, it’s online, It’s a live stream, you join and share with the world your gratitude. What are you grateful for health, your family, friends, good drinks, prosperity, uh safety. Uh you know, I’m thinking things that well, I don’t want to share my gratitude, I’m doing that, you’ll, you’ll hear what I’m doing mine, I can’t give you mine now, I can’t do that now. So I’m trying to think of what your gratitude might be. Uh wonderful vacation blossoming flowers over the summer. Uh you got approved for your life insurance policy, you bought your new home, you sold your old home, your kids are starting college, your kids are leaving college, whatever you’re grateful for you get the idea, you join the live stream on Wednesday and thursday the 1st and 2nd and you share it with the world whatever you’re grateful for now, The best time to do this is 7-9 eastern on Wednesday september 1st because that’s the part that I’ll be hosting. See, there are different hosts throughout hosts throughout the 24 hours and I’m the hostess for 7 to 9 p.m. Eastern Wednesday night. The whole thing runs from one p.m. On Wednesday to one pm Thursday. So the best time to share your slot, share your gratitude is my slot because that’s you know, you don’t want to take a chance with with a lackluster host when you can have a lackluster host of your segment. So 79 p. M. That’s, that’s the best time to share your gratitude, although you certainly can do it anytime during the 24 hours. And where do you get all the info for gratitude all day. It’s very simple. You go to gratitude rising dot org Now if you can’t join us because you didn’t listen to the podcast the day or the day after it was published, then just do your own gratitude. You don’t have to share it with the world. Do you? Do you do daily gratitude? You know what that is in the morning when you wake up, you you just, you’re beyond the twilight zone, but you haven’t gotten out of bed yet. A couple of minutes devoted to daily gratitude. Now I don’t do it daily, but I do it often verbalizing, saying them out loud, verbalizing the things that you are grateful for, think through and go into depth about the things I’m grateful for just talking to myself, but saying them out loud. So if you can’t join us for gratitude all day, do your own day gratitude and hopefully daily gratitude that way. But I love the idea of just gratitude, giving thanks and sharing it if you can. But even even saying it out loud is, you know, sharing it with yourself. It makes a difference saying it out loud versus just thinking about it. It does, That’s gratitude and that is Tony’s take two. Now back to de colonizing wealth. Now I want to go back to Edgar Villanueva. Edgar. Villanueva. See, I thought he would pronounce his name. Edgar And I was wrong. And but that’s that’s why I said Edgar. But it’s Edgar. Edgar. A gravel in river. And de colonizing wealth. Welcome back. You didn’t go far.

[00:32:45.10] spk_0:
Thanks for having me. Okay. I’ll still be here. Yes, absolutely.

[00:33:06.44] spk_1:
You haven’t done anything that would lead me to shut your mic off. Um It hasn’t happened, I’ve threatened, but it hasn’t happened. So let’s, let’s start getting uh positive. You know, the second, roughly the second half of your book is seven steps to healing. Um, And uh, I thought you came up like five short. I mean, we have another 12 steps. I mean, if you want to, if you want to share power, you’re gonna have to have, you got to step it up with like 12 steps or, or even 15, you know, you have more than the colonizers. Uh, but but the seven steps are in themselves. They’re they’re pretty radical.

[00:33:33.64] spk_0:
Yeah. You know, it’s funny because I did have some resistance to having seven steps, right? Because it makes it seem like there’s a there’s a quick and easy fix. If I just do these seven things, then we’re done with this and we can move on

[00:33:38.37] spk_1:
prime number. So that

[00:33:56.14] spk_0:
I think that’s that’s unique. I don’t know why, but yeah, so, you know, but I did need to simplify the process in some ways just to help us get our minds around, uh, you know, a process that we can begin. but there is no linear way or a quick way to um, to solve, all these problems or to, to undo what has been done. But there are ways to, to, to move forward and the steps to healing for me where are

[00:34:07.42] spk_1:
listening out for us, just list all seven and then we’ll

[00:34:17.64] spk_0:
talk about, I’m sure. So they’re grieve, apologize, listen, relate, represent, invest and repair. Okay.

[00:34:22.54] spk_1:
Um, so you’ve been thinking about this for a while. I mean this, uh, I just did, I admire though. I admire the thinking that goes into this.

[00:35:30.24] spk_0:
Yeah. So some of it comes from my own personal experience, um, when it kind of coming to terms and with the sector that I’m working in and the disconnection that I felt as a native person in the space and spending time in my community to just re ground myself and my values and um, and kind of acknowledging the wisdom that was in my body and in my community that I could bring to the space. Um, the other parts of it come from, I did lots of interviews with folks who work in nonprofits and philanthropy who were, I think of very forward thinking people in the space activists who are leading movements around the country to get to a place of, you know, what, what, what have you gone through personally to kind of reconcile some of this. Um, and then, you know, a lot of this is also based on an indigenous restorative justice model. So we hear a lot about restorative justice um, in the nonprofit sector. Now, this is a method that’s used in schools and in the criminal justice system to help people deal with things that have gone wrong to kind of get back on the right track. And so this is a model that has come from indigenous communities where we um sit in circle with the offender with someone who has harmed us or done us wrong to get to a place of truth and reconciliation.

[00:35:58.84] spk_1:
So, uh, grieving, uh, you say everybody, I mean because of our inter relatedness where we all need to grieve, including the people of color and indigenous, you know, those who have been oppressed.

[00:37:06.43] spk_0:
Absolutely, we all need to grieve. Um, we need to get to a place where we’re just very clear and honest about the history of this country. What has happened, what the idea of, um, you know, white supremacy, which is not a real thing, right? But why the idea of subscribing to that the harm and the loss that has calls for people of color, but also white people. And uh, you know, I think that’s uh, we it’s pretty clear the trauma and the harm that has been caused a community of color. It’s not so clear. We don’t talk about it very much the loss that uh, the colonization and uh, the idea of white supremacy has actually caused in white communities. But it’s uh, it is, there is a loss there. I talk about it in the book um, of the idea that white people came from from communities where they had cultures and uh tribal ways of, of interacting in many cases um languages and things that were given up in order to assimilate to this idea of being american. And I think now we’re seeing folks feeling a sense of loss about that. That’s why if you see these commercials for these DNA tests are so popular right now because everyone wants to kind of remember where they’re from and they feel connected to that in some way.

[00:37:34.63] spk_1:
Um, and um the the thing you talk about too is uh the orphans orphans, you say that those of us who are descendants of, of the, of the settlers you call us orphans, how’s that

[00:38:54.42] spk_0:
I call them orphans. This is a term apart from some research that has been done on whiteness and it is, it’s kind of speaking to this idea of loss. Again, sort of giving up the culture that maybe from from, from the home country, from where where folks, settlers came from giving up those, those ways of being interacting in community to subscribe to this individualistic way of being in America. And so with that there’s been a lost of sort of that, that mother country um for lots of white folks and a loss of identity because although, you know, I’m not anti american, let me be very clear about that, this is the greatest country in the world. I’m very proud to be a citizen of this country. Um, but there is something about leaving behind and not remembering where you originated from in order to adopt sort of this new culture here. Um you know, and and not um that that makes you feel sort of like an orphan. If you’re not, you have no connection to where your grandparents or from or the language they spoke with, the culture they have. Um and I feel that that’s a loss for many white communities. That is actually a feeling that is shared with communities of color. Um, and if we recognize that loss in that trauma that we have in common, um it opens doors for a different type of conversation about race.

[00:38:58.32] spk_1:
You said a few minutes ago that white supremacy is is not a real not real. Why? Why do you say that? Well, I mean, there’s a white supremacist movement, uh, how are you thinking about it that you say it’s not real?

[00:39:41.42] spk_0:
Um Well, well, the idea that that uh, you know, a certain group of people, white people are superior because of the pigment of their skin is not a real thing. Right? So this wasn’t an ideology that was created um in order to be able to have the types of oppressive movements and systems and policies that have been put in place for many years. And so it is a mindset that has been uh you know, an idea that is not real, but we have built systems and um societal norms around that. You know, growing up I was taught that you know, are sort of the default for me was whiteness, was was better. And so if I were to behave or dress or act in a certain way that appeared to be more white than that was going to be a better thing for me. And so we know that the idea of white supremacy is, you know, the idea of it is not real, but there are very real implications and for how we have adopted that, that belief. All right.

[00:40:11.71] spk_1:
Um and you’re you also encourage uh nonprofits and teams to have a grieving space while we’re talking about, we’re talking about grieve, we just have about a minute before a break, but and then we’ll move on with the seven steps, but what’s a grieving space in an office.

[00:40:54.31] spk_0:
Yeah. So you know, these these steps are our personal, but it can be applied in organizational setting. And so I think especially those of us working in the nonprofit where we’re supporting communities, we need to have space spaces in our in our our work live to be able to talk about bad things that have happened and to grieve that and to feel emotion to be human about it. And so, you know, I share some research in the book and some antidotes of folks who have have done that, and the research shows that there um it’s actually um leads to a much more productive workplace to have moments where we we stopped the work to actually grieve and acknowledge the events are happening, you know, in our communities.

[00:41:33.91] spk_1:
The book is de colonizing wealth, just, just, just get the book, you know, because we can only scratch the surface of it here in an hour. But uh, de colonizing wealth dot com, that’s where you go. I like the idea of the grieving space, you know, uh acknowledge, you know, everything doesn’t go well all the time. It’s impossible. No organization succeeds 100% nothing. So give yourselves time and space to talk about it, acknowledge it, learn from it and and move on rather than it being some cloud over the organization that everybody’s afraid to talk about or something, you know, it’s how how how oppressive is that

[00:41:52.91] spk_0:
very oppressive and in philanthropy is especially because we were sort of carrying around these these secrets of like how this wealth was amassed or secrets that are within these families that um, you know, many people feel bad about. And so we just need to kind of, you know, be truthful and honest about the history and spend time grieving over that so that we can move forward as you said,

[00:42:32.10] spk_1:
and and that was the next step in terms of uh, your next step apologizing recognizing which includes recognizing the source of the foundation money. I mean, you worked for the Reynolds KB is KB. Reynolds Foundation Reynolds tobacco north Carolina. You know that money was raised on the backs of slaves. Um, I’m not going to ask you if the KGB Reynolds Foundation acknowledges that, but that’s an example of what we’re talking about in the, in the step apologizing.

[00:42:35.56] spk_0:
Absolutely no, there was, there was no acknowledgement of that. And uh, chapter one of the book is called my arrival in the plantation because our foundation offices were literally on the former estate or plantation of R. J. Reynolds. And so, uh, really literally and metaphorically I was, I was working there. But no, there was, there was, there was no acknowledgement of that. And I think you see that, you know, in, in north Carolina, recently, the chancellor of the University of North Carolina acknowledged that the history of slaves and building that university and that some of the buildings there named after a former slave owners, what most people of color want. Um, it’s just to be seen and heard and for folks to make that recognition

[00:43:31.70] spk_1:
acknowledge and maybe move to apology. Perhaps that didn’t johns Hopkins University do something similar that, that they had, their founders were uh, johns Hopkins, their founders were slave owners.

[00:43:34.49] spk_0:
I think Georgetown University

[00:43:38.10] spk_1:
Georgetown. Sorry, thank you. Okay. Georgetown, there were pre right. There were priests, uh, priest founders that were slave

[00:44:16.49] spk_0:
owners. That’s right, actually, no. Um a friend of mine who lives in New Orleans as a black woman who is a descendant um and was called to Georgetown to share about her family’s history. And it was a beautiful moment. They set in community together, talking about the history talk acknowledging the contributions of her ancestors. And there’s a big right up in in the paper and you know, this has been a very uh healing I think for the university, but also from for my friend Karen, um who is now having that, you know, that recognition that the contributions of her ancestors, you talk a

[00:44:51.49] spk_1:
good bit about the reconciliation process in South Africa. Um Canada, uh you gotta get the book. I mean, we can’t we can’t tell all these stories. I mean, I know listeners, I know I know you love stories as much as I do, but there’s just not enough time to just get the damn book. Just go to de colonizing wealth dot com, for Pete’s sake. You go right now, if you’re listening live, where are you poughkeepsie? It’s connected. He uh Nottingham Maryland just go to de colonizing wealth dot com. Um okay, listening, you talk about and empathic and generative listening.

[00:46:20.28] spk_0:
Right? So, you know, often um, when we, when we moved through a process like this, we feel bad, we’ve apologized. Um uh, the default sort of like dominant culture way of being is like, okay, I’m done with that. I’m going to move forward. And so, but before you move for an act, you just need to pause to actually listen, Uh, to listen and learn. So to, uh, for, for non profits. You know, I ran a nonprofit, I’ve worked in philanthropy for 14 years. When I asked nonprofits what is the number one thing that you wish funders would do differently? The response is always, I just wish they would listen. Uh, because there’s something about having resources, money, privilege and power when we enter the room, there’s a power dynamic where we automatically feel that we can control the airspace and we have an agenda and the non profits are going to be responsive to what we want. And you know, that often is the case. But the best way to really build a relationship with folks where there is a difference in power and privileges is to actually stop and listen. Put aside your own assumptions and, and try as best you can to put yourself in their shoes to understand their experience and their history. It’s just, it’s just going to make you a better person, uh, feel like listening as a human, right? We all want to be, We all deserve to be heard. And so that is just something that we have to keep reminding folks who have privilege is to, um, to, to stop at times to also listen and to let others be hard put aside the white savior complex. Absolutely. Uh,

[00:46:51.38] spk_1:
listening. We talked about, we talked about that a lot on the show in terms of just donors. And I know you’re next, you’re next step is relating versus being transactional. And that’s, that’s, that’s the beginning of a relationship. As you said. You know, listening, genuine hearing, uh, two whether its donor’s or potential potential grantees. Um, there, there’s a lot to be learned.

[00:46:53.59] spk_0:
It goes back to the

[00:47:08.98] spk_1:
value of bringing, representing the communities that you’re, that you’re serving. Uh, okay. So relation you want us to, uh, you want to relate, let me ask you, you, you, you read, um, how to win friends and influence people. You say dozens of times. You said it doesn’t, I have trouble reading a dozen pages in a book. You’ve read one book dozens of times. Uh, what do you take away time after reading? Uh, the L Carnegie’s book dozens of times.

[00:47:37.08] spk_0:
Well, you know, I still have an original copy from that. I, um, I stole from the library of uh, my mom was a domestic worker and she was caring for frail elderly man. Um, they had this vast library. So I end up with this little book that you stole from an infirm elderly elderly man. I feel terrible about a book. It haunts me to this day. So this is a public, you

[00:47:46.10] spk_1:
didn’t even think to leave like $20 or something

[00:48:26.47] spk_0:
on the table and have it if I had it at that. All right. Um So hopefully this is my my way of giving back, this is my reparations for for that that wrong. But you know, and the one take away from me in that book uh is uh is really kind of connected to relating and listening. Um is when you’re when you’re talking to folks, people just really want to be heard. So mostly you should listen. Um And if you actually just listen more than talk, people are gonna think that you’re a great friend like well Edgar that was such a nice time with you. But even if I didn’t say much and so yeah, it’s really about listening and letting others feel that they are important because they are um you know, we I think people just feel so invisible these days that just by giving people that moment of feeling hurt and connecting with something that they are interested in. Um It’s just gonna really take you much further in building a relationship

[00:48:54.57] spk_1:
and stop the transactional, the transactional thinking. Um You have you you have an example of uh um a like building design, like office design. Kitchens, you’d love to see a kitchen in the center of of offices.

[00:49:31.07] spk_0:
Yeah. You know so sort of like these ideas of like the colonizing virus infects every aspect of our community. So yes, even the way buildings are designed especially buildings that are financial institutions. Think about what banks look like when you walk in and with with all the marble and you know, hard edges, absolutely foundation offices where you have to go through five levels of security to get in as if we’re as if the millions of dollars were in the office. Right? And so we just threw even how we design our offices. And um, you know, the way they appear can be super intimidating for folks who are coming in who need access to resources.

[00:50:45.06] spk_1:
It’s time for a break. Send in blue. It’s an all in one digital marketing platform with tools to build and to end digital campaigns, They look professional, they’re affordable, they keep your campaigns organized. It’s all about digital campaign marketing. Most software. You know, it designed for big companies with big, big enterprise level price tag, sending blue is priced for nonprofits. It’s easy to use and walks you through the steps of building a digital campaign. You want to try out sending blue and get the free month. You go to the listener landing page at tony dot M A slash send in blue. We’ve got boo koo but loads more time for de colonizing wealth. Now we’ve got several more minutes for de colonizing wealth. Again, just go to de colonizing wealth dot com, get the thing, get the book just in terms of designing organizations, uh more egalitarian you’d like to see.

[00:51:35.86] spk_0:
Absolutely. So uh, one of the steps of the book is represent and what you look at the, uh, the demographics of the nonprofit sector and especially in foundations that part of the sector. We still have a long ways to go with diversity, particularly when you look at the board of directors and the ceo positions folks who really hold power in organizations. So what are the, what are the ideas that I put forth in the book? Is that foundations should have a requirement that at least 51% or at least 50% of their boards to reflect the communities they serve. Um, this would drastically change what, you know, shake up what the seats on the bus look like. But this isn’t this, uh, far from what is required of, of many nonprofits. Funders actually are, you know, requiring this, of their nonprofit, that their funding, um, and many government organizations that receive government funding, federal funding have these types of requirements that the folks who sit on the boards must be folks who are benefiting from the services of those nonprofits.

[00:51:49.40] spk_1:
Again, representative? Absolutes, yeah, that’s a, that’s a stretch. 51%.

[00:51:57.36] spk_0:
It’s a stretch. It’s a stretch. But, you know, um, the conversation has, has been zero about it. So I figured, you know, if we put something a bold vision out there to help us imagine what’s possible, maybe we’ll get a little bit further down the road.

[00:52:17.45] spk_1:
And there are some examples you cite the novo Foundation in the book. Uh, they have a women’s building that they’re, they’re repurposing some old warehouse or something to turn into this building and, and the decisions being made by, by women who are going to be using the

[00:52:45.25] spk_0:
building. Absolutely. There’s some great examples of foundations and funds that are um, really, um, putting these values into practice in their work. Novo is, is a foundation that I really appreciate. Jennifer and Peter Buffett, the founders of the Novo Foundation, wrote the forward to my book. And they are folks that you, if you get to know them, you can see that they have done this work. Um, and it shows up in how they give, they are a foundation that absolutely sits in community and listens um, to folks who are impacted by, especially women and girls, which is an issue they really care about and they fund in a way that is responsive to what they really need versus what the foundations agenda might be.

[00:53:06.85] spk_1:
Is it no vote that funds for five years or seven years? It’s guaranteed you cite this in the book, no matter how much trouble you’re having in year 123, you’re going to be funded for five or seven years for their initial commitment.

[00:53:39.05] spk_0:
Right, Right. And, and that type of long term commitment is, uh, you know, something that, that is the best type of funding, you know, folks can be, you can focus on building relationship versus so I’ve got to meet these certain objectives, so I can keep getting this money year after year and so to be relieved of that, that pressure of thinking about where am I gonna, you know, how am I going to pay the salaries next year? Um really allows folks to have the freedom to think about the actual work that they’re doing in communities

[00:53:44.55] spk_1:
and and planning and and can plans that are being

[00:53:47.42] spk_0:
one only 1 or two

[00:53:56.25] spk_1:
years. Um so we kind of mishmash together, you know, relating and representing um investing.

[00:54:44.74] spk_0:
So investing is really a call to philanthropy to think about using all of its resources for um for for the public good, right. And so we are not going to be a sector that achieves equity that that is really moving the needle issues If we’re supporting with the 5% in our right hand, Really good work, you know, mission-related work. But in our left hand we are investing 95% of our resources in um industries and causes that are extractive that are, you know, really canceling out the positive of of our resources. So, you know, there are great foundations like the Nathan Cummings Foundation for example, who just recently declare that 100% of their assets, their entire corpus is going to be used in support of their mission.

[00:54:47.29] spk_1:
Uh Again, other examples in the book and uh we just have about a minute or so before we have to wrap up actually. Um, so talk about your final step, which is

[00:55:28.04] spk_0:
the final step is repair. Um, all of us who are philanthropists are givers and as we’re getting close to the end of this year, we are all philanthropists. I’m supporting, um, nonprofits in our communities. Think about how we can use money as medicine, how can we give in a way that is helping to repair the harm that has been done by colonization in, in, in this country. And so think about looking your personal portfolio. Are you giving to at least one organization of color um, to support grassroots leadership? So reach across, um, and support folks who may not look like you invest in ways that are helping to unite us versus thinking about some of the traditional ways of giving that have not been, uh, you know, along the lines of thinking or exercising these types of values.

[00:55:50.94] spk_1:
Okay, so I’ll give you the last 30 seconds, uh, in the way that the way I learned that natives are the original philanthropists was by what you, what you talk about your mom.

[00:56:13.63] spk_0:
Yes. So, you know, I think a lot of giving, when we look at giving in this country, the biggest philanthropist, philanthropist or folks who are giving the most highest percentage of their income incomes are actually poor people. And so I do talk about my mom in the book, um, who, um, was, uh, you know, is actually very low income and but yet she gave to our community and and how to run a ministry of our church to support Children,

[00:56:18.38] spk_1:
the bus ministry,

[00:56:19.36] spk_0:
the bus ministry.

[00:56:20.24] spk_1:
Just gotta, you gotta get the book,

[00:56:21.23] spk_0:
you got to read the bus ministry and so it’s giving of time treasure and talent, not just resources and so all of us who are caring for our communities in ways that are um you know through love is uh we’re all philanthropists

[00:56:33.73] spk_1:
get the book, go to de colonizing wealth dot com. Edgar Villanueva, thank you so much.

[00:56:37.97] spk_0:
Thank you for having me on tony real pleasure

[00:57:40.83] spk_1:
next week converting followers to donors with Adora drake, if you missed any part of this week’s show, I beseech you find it at tony-martignetti dot com were 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, our creative producer is Claire Meyerhoff to show 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 Be with me next week for nonprofit radio big non profit ideas for the other 95 go out and be great. Mhm Yeah

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Hello and welcome to tony martignetti non-profit radio big non-profit ideas for the either ninety five percent. I’m your aptly named host. Oh, i’m glad you’re with me. I’d suffer the embarrassment of pem fi gis if you bullied me with the idea that you missed today’s show persuading the wealthy to donate ashley whillans research reveals the language that stimulates giving from your wealthy potential donors and your boards role in executive hiring. Jing takagi are legal contributor and principal of the non-profit and exempt organizations law group walks us through this important board responsibility hyre ing the executive officer that originally aired on july eleven twenty fourteen on tony’s take two the charleston principles we’re sponsored by pursuant full service fund-raising data driven and technology enabled, you’ll raise more money pursuant dot com and by we be spelling super cool spelling bee fundraisers we b e spelling dot com my pleasure. Now to welcome ashley whillans to the show, she just turned her phd from the university of british columbia. She conducts research with non-profits companies and government. She was a twenty fifteen rising star of behavioral science. In twenty sixteen, she helped start the behavioral insights group. In the british columbia provincial government next month, ashley begins her faculty career as an assistant professor at the harvard business school in negotiations organizations and markets she’s at ashley whillans and i’m very glad to welcome her to non-profit radio welcome, ashley. Thank you so much for having me this morning. Pleasure. Now, there’s. A lot going on in your life. You just got your ph d just last month, right? You just graduated? Yeah. That’s. Right. Uh, something like two weeks ago. I just got my my doctorate. Congratulations, that’s. Outstanding. Because because when we started, when we started emailing your your email signature said phd candidate and now it says ashley whillans phd. Yeah. That’s right. That was the most exciting email change i made recently. Yes. Right. You got to go into preferences signatures and change. Delete the word candidate that’s. Outstanding. Yeah, great. Yeah. Now i see you are not using period’s. Most people do. Ph, period d period. You’re opting against the periods. Is there some kind of ah, that a brevity fetish you have or something? What? Why’s that no periods. Yes. Efficiency, laziness, something like that. Okay, even those two keystrokes, those two period keystrokes. It’s. Too much with the right hand. Too much. Okay. Okay, on dh now, big, big changes coming up you. So you’re you’re in british columbia that you went to university of british columbia. But now you gotta move to cambridge, right? You’re moving tomorrow? Yeah. Moving tomorrow. Uh, morning. Cambridge, massachusetts that’s. Incredible. Um, good luck in the move. Are you are you a canadian originally? Your canadian citizen? I am a canadian. Okay. All right. Now, aren’t you at all concerned about our muslim ban? I know ashley willens. So that’s a suspicious sounding name to me. Is that a muslim? Ashley whillans is that a muslim name? Sounds sounds muslim. No, i i don’t have to worry about it, but i know it is an issue for some of my my friends. So this’s america shortly? Okay, you’re you’re friends, right? It’s affects a lot of people’s friends and that you know where the where the democracy, where everyone is under suspicion. So i did see your head shot and i did not see ah, hey, job on your head shot. So may i hope you’ll get through scrutiny. I don’t know what we’re looking at canadian citizens, how scrupulous were being. I hope you have no trouble coming in. Let’s, get to the substance of sort of self concept and and giving, let me ask, let me start. A lot of people think the wealthy are selfish. Is that so? So i would definitely hesitate against that general idea related to the research that i did. I think it’s, so i think that that wealthy individuals have a lot of personal control and so it’s not that wealthier individuals, on average or selfish, but rather that they and are used to and enjoy having autonomy or personal control over decisions in their daily life. Yeah, that autonomy then and an agency we’re going, we’re going to get to. There was a really interesting study in twenty fifteen of preschoolers, which is related to the work that you did and we’re going to talk about, can you? Can you summarize that for us? That twenty fifteen preschoolers research? Um so i think broadly, this wasn’t my research was that the preschool fighting is that kids from wealthier families actually give less tokens during an economic game in the lab than been children from less wealthy background, so they decide to keep more tokens for themselves, even when the tokens they’re going to go to other children who who couldn’t be there to participate in the study because they were at sick in half because they’re sick in the hospital, right? This study is just one example of many that are sort of proliferating in the social sciences, suggesting that, um, people from wealthier backgrounds tends to give less when one provided with the opportunity, right? And your research finds the way teo overcome what? What? Maybe? Well, it’s, your research points out that it’s really not something innate, but it’s the messaging coming from the charities that is a variable factor that can influence the giving of the wealthy and the less affluent, too. Yes, that’s right. So, really, what our research fight is that the and this is this isn’t necessarily surprising so fund-raising professional, they’re like, of course, you should table your message to your audience, but i think what’s, really. So what we find is that he’s more agenda messages, messages that focus on personal achievement and control are more effective it encouraging giving among those with the greatest capacity or messages that focus on what we can all do together to help the cause are more effective for those with the less capacity give but across our studies of more than thousand working adults from both chicago in vancouver, we don’t find any inherent differences in our studies between those with most the most money in our samples in those with please okay, samples so we don’t see a main effect where people who are wealthy orc are giving much less, and people have less money or giving maurine the content of the earth studies. But rather we find that depending on how the message is frame’s related to charitable giving, the wealthy give more or the left latto give more. Okay, now that sound very it sounds like you’ve said that those few paragraphs a bunch of times in the past couple months or so nastad sounded very, very polished and finished. Have you repeated those words a few times? No, not too much, not too much, but i have thought about this research a lot over the last three years. Yeah, okay. All right, well, it’s there’s a lot there. We’re gonna unpack it, but, um, yeah, i like the bottom line is that it’s not only about the wealthy and it the tailoring a lot of times fundraisers or anybody and non-profit they talk about tailoring a message? They mean used the person’s first name or, you know, address them personally or address them by ah, bye program that they’re interested in or certainly maybe e-giving level where, you know, but we’re we’re talking about cutting it. A different way. Which would be bye affluence. Do i have that on my perverting? Your researcher of kapin basically absolutely right. Okay, okay. We’re gonna go out for our first break. Thank you for telling me. I did not pervert your research. I don’t want to do that. We’re gonna go out for a first for our break. And when we come back, you and i will continue talking about persuading the wealthy and others to donate using the right messaging. Stay with us. You’re tuned to non-profit radio. Tony martignetti also hosts a podcast for the chronicle of philanthropy fund-raising fundamentals is a quick ten minute burst of fund-raising insights published once a month. Tony’s guests are expert in crowdfunding, mobile giving event fund-raising direct mail and donor cultivation. Really all the fund-raising issues that make you wonder am i doing this right? Is there a better way there is? Find the fund-raising fundamentals archive it. Tony martignetti dot com that’s marketmesuite n e t t i remember there’s a g before the end, thousands of listeners have subscribed on itunes. You can also learn maura the chronicle website philanthropy dot com fund-raising fundamentals the better way welcome back to big non-profit ideas for the either ninety five percent. Ashley whillans recent phd. We’re talking about her research on messaging and e-giving ah, the different levels of of affluence. Actually, you did this with riel charities. Is that that’s what i gather, right? Yes. That’s, right. So we conducted the research with an organization that focuses on effective plan to be the life you can save on. We’ve also done this with a large private university in the united states. Okay, i guess you’re not at liberty to say the the name of the university is that? Does that part of the agreement? That’s, right? Yeah. Kapin nondisclosure agreement. Okay, now we know that you’re headed to harvard business school, but, you know, that’s just may just be a coincidence. Oh, by the way, what? It wasn’t there, it wasn’t. It wasn’t there. Okay, but where were you going to be? Teaching? I mean, you know, it’s like getting your syllabus together right for your first. Are you going to teaching in the fall? I’m teaching in the second semester, so i’ll be teaching negotiations. I take the class first and then i teach in the second. Semester they make a making a new professor. Sit through the class, see that you understand how the class goes and you get a feel for what the classroom is like. Oh, man, and you get paid for that. You’re on salary while you’re doing that? Yes, falik okay, well, of course you have other responsibilities as well. You’re not just going to one, you know, just taking one class. And they i’ve been sitting on the quad for the they don’t let me off that easy. Okay? Cool. No, it’s. Very good for you. All right. So a charity without a canadian charity, the charity is in the united states. They’re both the both the college and the charity work in the united states. Ok, ok. Was that hard? Is that hard? Teo recruit charities too. Let you mess with their messaging? Yeah, that’s a great question. It definitely took a little bit of collecting initial evidence on the idea first. And i’m also part of the society for philanthropy initiative out of the university of chicago. So it’s run by john list and other economists who are centered at the university of chicago and there’s a conference every year that brings together fund-raising professionals, professionals, leading academics in economics, sociology and psychology. Two begin to think about and talk about using the insights from our fields and put them into practice. So that was a great source of connections for us when we went and tried to find field partners for our research professor john list in chicago, i think he’s been on this show, i’m pretty sure he has i’m i’m gonna go to tony martignetti dot com and search his name, but i’m pretty sure john list has been on. Yeah, that’s great, yeah, he’s a major he’s, one of the leading academic academics in the field of fund-raising so he really started the academic field of philanthropic studies and fund-raising looking at from a behavioral science perspective, his career really took off after he was on non-profit radio. So this is very auspicious for you. I don’t know if you know that this is a watershed, this watershed for you. I don’t know if you’re aware of that. Great, great. Now i have been. But now you are here. Yes, you know, gen shang. Do you know professor gen shang? I don’t know, you know. You’re not well connected, all right? We’ll have to connect you in the university environment. She’s another professor. Now it, uh i think she’s now at cambridge. The other cambridge? Not the not the knockoff. Cambridge. You’re moving to she’s. The original cambridge, i think. Pretty sure. Okay, so all right, so you recruited your charities and then what’s the next step? Yeah. What was next after that? Oh, you got a what we had a discussion about. You know what? Campaigns were upcoming that we might be able to do. Random i control trials. So that’s, where we’ve flip a coin essentially on dh randomly find everyone who’s going to receive a mail out to receive one of the treatments or the other treatment. Andi, that was actually done all by the university alumni office. So they were able to select one set of messages for the group that we randomly assigned in another set of messages for this other group. And then we were able to put these messages into the field and look at donation rates, both participation rates, so likelihood of donating to the campaign. And also the amount that people donated to the campaign. Okay. On dh it took about i think it was in the field for so we were waiting for the results for three or four months on dh. Then we were able to look at whether and how different messages affected different potential donors differently, and the charities had wealth, information or income information about the people who receive these melons right in our field study with the university office we hey, we did a little bit of guessing and well, so we didn’t have individual level wealth data, but we did have a zip code data. We were able to get the average level of well in the neighborhood that individual’s lives. We also knew how much they donated in previous campaigns, which is a pretty good indicator of wealth of someone who gives six, seven, eight thousand dollars to their university alumni office is probably a lot someone who’s wealthier than then another individual who’s giving five, ten, fifty hundred dollars over the last couple of campaigns. So we only that is an index of well, all right. That’s a good that’s. A good proxy. Ah, especially if it’s over over a period. Ah, good period of years or so that’s true. And you used ninety thousand dollars as the cut off between affluent and less affluent, right? So where we got that number is actually so those were from our more tightly controlled experiments in the field where we i went up to adults at different finds museums in vancouver and chicago. And we asked him to participate in a study who provided them with a windfall of money and prevented the opportunity. Donate either in terms of agency or communion is we’ve been kind of talking about and we measure their individual loss. Okay, so that was different. That was different. Fields, scratch that off. Actually, just emerged from our data. So wave randomly assigned everyone in our sample to see either these more achievement focused or these more community focused messages. And then we ran additional analyses looking at you know what? At what point that these messages focused on achievement really seem to be working on. We found that message is focused on achievement. Really seemed to start working at promoting giving around this ninety thousand dollar mark. So that’s, that point actually emerged from the studies that we were conducting. Okay, okay, so that so that was a different set of field research, the the ninety thousand dollar affluent level that was from the university or the or the or the charity mailing? Okay. Okay, well, by the way, what’s, your what’s, your windfall payment to participate in the research at the at the museum’s. What do you what researchers consider a windfall? Yeah. So when paul is money that you didn’t expect to get way, provided all of our participants with a ten dollar when thawed the beginning of the study. But we there’s a couple of things that we do to help people ten dollars that’s a winner money, ten dollars. A windfall. I don’t really like twenty, five hundred or five thousand or something, man. They’re underfunded, you’re badly underfunded payment. You could go for lunch or something or have a coffee. So what we actually do, though, is way. Tell people that’s their payment for participating in our study, and we put it in a foryou envelope on we tell participants to put that payment of money away. So those couple of small, small thing telling them it’s their payment for their effort in our studies and telling them to put it away and just sign for it how people on our studies feel a sense of ownership over the payment because we know that if so, then we can feel a little bit more confident, but the results will generalize to the real world because people are treating that more like their money and left life, you know, something that’s like a payment that belongs to the researchers as opposed to them. You people are pretty tricky like you. You’re really trying to pull the wool over our eyes if we’re if we’re a subject subject, yeah, it helps. It helps us feel more confident in our results if i didn’t and here’s some of our experiments all money, you know, can you make a decision with it? People are going to make a different decision then, if they feel like i’m now asking them tio part with some of the money that they’ve earned in our study, i see very wily ofyou, behavioral scientists. All right. Are you familiar at all with the research of ah, do you know the name’s, sara kiesler and lee sproule? No. Okay, old social scientists from when i went to college. But i thought you might have come across there. They were behavioral social scientists also. But i won’t dwell on there. There, the forefathers, for four founders, foremothers of your of your research, but it’s not important, okay. Okay, so all right, enough of the detail. Now what? Uh, what emerged from the the different messages flush it out for us. So what we found was that messages that focused on achievement encourage generosity among those with the greatest capacity to give so above that ninety thousand threshold that we’re talking about where’s messages focused on community. But we can all do together to help the cause, encourage generosity among those with the least amount of money in our samples. And this was true, as i said before, both when we measured individual level wealth and when participants knew they were in a study. And these findings also emerge when we conducted this research in the field with the university fund-raising office and people didn’t know that they were in a study. So we also thought that these messages focus on achievement promoted e-giving for individuals who were graduates of an elite business school in the united states um, and then that study it increased the amount that that individuals gave in the study. Now what you refer to as the communion message, by the way that’s interesting tries to work communion, huh? Why’d you choose communion instead? Of community. So this is just really a kind of jargon. Ease social. See there’s the trouble right there. Yeah. Jargon. We have jargon jail on a non-profit radio. It was the first problem, right? There’s the problem right there. Okay. Okay. So community is one way you can think about it. That’s totally fine if it’s with a lot of research and our field showing that people from different cultural backgrounds tend to think about their relationship with others in different ways. So in north american cultural context, we tend to be more gentle. We focus on this self as really standing out. Where is in more collectivist culture, such as in east asia? We focus more on fitting in, and our relationships with others are really important. Recently in the social sciences, people have started to draw parallels between these different cultural mindset and the mindset that are so secret with having more or less money. So i used the word agency and communion tow link this broader literature. But really, you can think about this in terms of agency or community that wealthier individuals tend to be more singularly focused and really wanting to stand out. We’re lost wealthy individuals tend, on average to be more focused to their community, so they tend to want to fit in with those around them. You have the gift of of ah, complete explanation and appropriate qualification, which will serve you well as a professor. A ll the professors i’ve interviewed, including john list have those gift detail and qualification were required. I know if you know that, but you’ve. You’ve acquired it through your three year study. Congratulations. All right. So so the message is that you used for the the communion. The message was let’s. Save a life together. That’s one example. Right? And then the for the individual achievement of the agency message he used you equals life saver. Those are those are a couple of examples of messages. Yeah, yes. Okay. And those would have gone out in direct mail is that is that right? There will be mail pieces. So in our initial studies, we had people in our studies read those appeals in the context of an actual experiments. And in the university fund-raising study, those messages went out in direct mail. So those messages were at the very top of what people saw. And at the very bottom, right before they made or messages like that break before they made their donation decision. Okay, okay. So, really, you know, a zeiss ed? The research applies to the affluent as well as the non affluent or less up. However you want to describe it, you want your messaging to be appropriate, and we’re introducing sort of a new variable. I think that or at least one that i have not scene which is messaging by wealth level here. Yes, that’s. Right. So i research really does show that thinking about or knowing something about the socioeconomic status or background of potential donors, i can provide one clue about the types of messages or appeals that might be more effective for for a different different groups. And again, this really fits with what we know in psychology about how well shapes the way we think about ourselves. So we know again, that’s the kind of reiterate we know that lower income individuals on average and we’re always talking about general, is to think about the world in a way that’s, more relational. How can i fit in with my community? How can i make a difference fight by being part of my group where hyre social status hyre hyre more wealthy individuals tend to think about right standing out from the crowd and how they can show their uniqueness or economy in their lives. So i think, knowing just a little bit about how well shapes the way people think about themselves is an important clue as to how we might want to frame charitable giving or messages of round fund-raising to encourage e-giving among both groups, andi, i also think that it’s important, so i think i mean, again, the idea of tailoring messages isn’t new, but i do think that this a gent iq framing this sort of focus on personal achievement or self, you know, control sort of seems teo conflict with the way that we think about charitable giving as something that together we all help an important cause. And so i think it’s important to another kind of important message embedded in this work, but sometimes we need to step beyond encouraging people to do things that have positive outcomes, like give charity or healthy for positive reasons, and instead focus on encouraging people to do positive behavior for reasons. That fit with their pre existing values on goals. I don’t know if it was your new york times op ed with your with your co researchers or was one of the pieces i read, you know, your insight could see you’re concerned about being contrary to the morality of charitable giving and that concept of community, but but i understand your concern, but we can we can help the community by tailoring the message appropriately, the way the way you’re describing, um i wanted to ask where we just have about two minutes left. Ashley so where now is your your research going to be heading? Is there going to be more in the in the fund-raising realm? Lorts yes, so i’m starting a major project now, looking at how we can encourage e-giving early on, so how can we encourage mindsets, associate with generosity and giving for kids? And what and what also our conversations? How did conversations between children and parents shape not on ly the way that kids think about the importance of giving but also shaped parents own behavior, so we want often and still in our children the important values that we care about. And we want to know how conversations about e-giving not only affect the way that children prissy e-giving but also affect care and some behavior, but they’re looking to their kids, they’re trying to instill important values to their families and in that could be reminded about the importance of philanthropy, and this interest really came out of a lot of research we did that didn’t work, trying to change people’s minds about giving or the importance of thinking about contributing back to the community, sort of later on in length that we were serving high net worth donors, individuals with hyre levels of wealth, and we found that some wealthy individuals who are more generous tend to think about their success is being drive from the situation from help from others on dh that that seemed to be powerful component on what afflict e-giving but when we tried to take that insight into the field and leverage it to encourage charitable giving were large and successful, one important question then becomes, how can we encourage this? You know, more communal mind set more community focused way of thinking early on before people become financially successful or go through education. And so have become really interested in my collaborators, and i have become really interested in serious about the rule of conversations, the powerful role of conversations, about e-giving early on, both for kids and for parents. And so those are some of the ideas that i’m going to be blurring of the next several years. Alright, excellent good explained like a true professor on, but i hope you just hope you’re not going to rob our children of their youth. We’re not gonna we’re not gonna do it let’s not go to that extent when as you as you in this children for your research work errantly designing about e-giving game. Okay e fine. And also i’m alright. Parents need not be worried toe have their children participate. All right, we have to leave it there. Actually, whillans congratulations on your new phd. You can. You can follow ashley at ashley whillans. Thank you so much for sharing and being a part of non-profit radio. Actually, thanks so much. And congratulations. Thank you so much for having me. Real pleasure. All right, take care. Your board’s role in executive hiring with jean takagi is coming up first. Pursuant, they’re infographic it is five steps to win at data driven fund-raising this infographic would probably be the on the other end of the spectrum from the type of research that we were just talking about with ashley, because this is going this distill things in, you know, five simple steps, which is not what academic research is, but while still valuable all data driven because, you know, pursuing tell you every week data driven they have, they have this infographic that will help you define your goal and what the most important metrics are and optimizing and tuning fine tuning for best results, learning through infographic, you can learn from academic research you can learn through in infographic because you are a you’re a lifetime lerner, and you’re a flexible learner, so don’t ignore the ends of the spectrum and the infographic and the peer reviewed academic research from the folks at pursuing dot com. You go there and then you click resource is then info graphics. We’ll be spelling supercool spelling bee fundraisers. You need more money for your good work. I know you do throw a spelling bee. Anybody can throw a party generic party well, maybe not. Anybody? I mean, i’ve been to some bad parties, but most anybody could throw a decent party but a spelling bee party that takes it to the next level with live music and dancing that’s a that’s, a true party and fund-raising, of course, for your because your your mission, your good work. Check out the video at we b e spelling dot com, then talk to the ceo it’s that simple. Alex greer now tony steak too. The charleston principles. My video is from charlotte, but the principles are from charleston, and i decided that they share enough common letters. First five teo to do a video inspired by charleston even though i was in charlotte and charlotte, north carolina, nicer town. I’ve been there many overnights and there when i shot the video and i’ve never been to charleston, but i can tell from the pictures charlotte’s nicer, i couldjust north carolina, i can see that i see from the pictures the charleston principles there’s a love that has nothing to do with you should’ve fast forward it best that all right, here’s, what we’re talking about charleston principles right now, it’s all about charity registration the state you know where you got to be properly registered need state where you solicit donations. All that charleston principles have some very good ideas and definitions of solicitation problem is it’s hard to tell which states have adopted them of largely, but i can help you. Check out the video at tony martignetti dot com. And that is tony’s. Take two now. It’s. Time for jean takagi on your boards role in executive hiring jean takagi he’s with us. You know him? He’s, the managing editor, attorney at neo non-profit and exempt organizations law group in san francisco. He edits the very popular non-profit law block dot com on twitter he’s at g tak g ta ke jin takagi welcome back, alt-right onen congratulations on one ninety nine. I’m looking forward to two hundred next week. Cool. Yes. I’m glad you’re gonna be calling in for with us. Thank you very much. Thank you, it’s. Very exciting. Really? One hundred ninety nine shows ago. It’s one hundred ninety nine weeks it’s it’s. Remarkable. We’re talking this week about the board’s role in hiring the executive. And i’ve i understand that there are a lot of executives in transition, i think. So tony and it looks like some surveys have confirmed that it’s certainly been an experience with some of my clients and even on boards i’ve sat on over the last couple years, and there’s, a great group called compass point out in san francisco there, nationally known as one of the most respected non-profit support centers and together with blue avocado, a non-profit online publication, they have a national survey on leadership succession in transition going on just right now. The last time they published the results was in two thousand eleven, and they found that sixty seven percent of current executive anticipated leaving within five years and ten percent. We’re currently actively looking to leave right then, and in two thousand eleven, the economic times weren’t so were so great, so sixty seven percent anticipating leaving within five years that’s a pretty staggering number. So now we’re already three years into that survey into that five year projection. Yeah, and sixty seven percent of two thirds. So if we had held this show off until two thousand sixteen, then it would have been moved. But there’s a new one coming out, you said, yeah, well, they’re they’re just starting the survey online now so you can participate on that. I don’t know the website, but if you, you know google non-profit transition survey executive transition survey, thank you, you’ll get that okay, and its compass point it’s a compass point and blew up a goddamn kottler who you’ve. You’ve mentioned blue vaccaro before i know. All right, so, yeah, two thirds of of ceos were expecting to be in transition within five years and where we’re only three years into it now. So the presumably these people are still looking. What? But boards don’t really spend enough time preparing for this kind of succession, do they? Well, you know, in many cases they don’t, and sometimes, you know, they might stay, they don’t get the chance because their executive director comes up to him and give him two weeks notice. And now, you know, the board may be used to meeting every month or every other month or even every third month, and now all of a sudden they’ve gotta ramp up their efforts and find an executive to come in in two weeks. That’s going to be really tough to do on dh, you know, again, if we say at any given time, two thirds of the non-profit executives are looking to leave their job, you know, it’s very likely that within your board term, you know, you may have an executive transition to manage, and sometimes with very little notice. So that’s that’s? Why? I think succession planning is just really a core duty of non-profit board. Well, how do we let them get away with this two week notice? I mean, the ones i typically see are, you know, the person will stay on until a successor. Is found you that’s, not your experience. Well, you know, you’re really lucky if you if you do get that situation, i think most non-profit executives are hired on at will basis. Meaning that there’s, not a contract to stay there for a given number of years. Either party can conception, rate or terminate the employment relationship at any time. And as the average, you know, employee may give two weeks notice to go on to another job there. Many executives who feel the same way that they, you know, they may feel like they own allegiance to an organization. But another opportunity comes up and it’s not going to be held for them forever. And they may want to move on. Um, and they may feel like what they gave the board really advanced notice that they might be looking for something that they might get terminated. So they may keep that information from the board until the last two weeks. Well, because all right, so that i am way in the dark because i would. I just presumed that executive directors, ceos even if small and midsize shops were not at will. But they were but that they were contract i mean, when i was a lonely back in my days of wage slavery, director of planned e-giving i was in at will employees, which means you can end it like you said, you could end at any time and so can they like, if they don’t like the color of your tie one day they can fire you, you’re at will. But but that that’s typical for for ceos and executive directors. Yeah, i think for smaller non-profits it’s very, very common. Oh, i just always assumed that these were contract positions with termination clause is and no, okay, but, i mean, you know, it’s, your practice, i’m not i’m not disagreeing with you, i’m just saying i’m okay, i’m learning something s o that’s that’s incredibly risky. So it is. It put you in that position of saying, well, i need to replace somebody immediately and i don’t you know, as a board we don’t meet very often can we even convene within the two weeks to start the process going? It’s going to be so much better if you had a plan of what happens in case you know, our executive every doesn’t give two weeks notice, and even if the executive says, you know, in your scenario, maybe a longer notice, maybe, you know, in six months, if they do have a contract at the end of my contract, i don’t plan to renew, you know, i think we should go through the process of looking for for a successor and having a plan or thinking about that plan that have just coming up with something on the fly is going to probably result in a much better choice for selection of a leader in the future and that’s going to be critical and how well the organisation operates and how the beneficiaries of your organization are going to do are they going to get the benefits of a strong organization, or are they going to suffer because the organization can’t do it? You can’t advance to commission as well as it should? No, i mean, you’re you’re calling it on the fly. I would say two weeks notice for an executive director, departing is a crisis, even four weeks notice. Yeah, in many cases, you’re absolutely right. Okay, i’m right about something. Thank you. You’ve got something right today. All right. So, um what do we what do we do, teo, to plan for this? Well, you know, i think the first thing the board has to do is start toe think about the contingencies. So what do we do and and actually want one thought that comes to mind that, uh, that you raised tony is should we get our executive director on an employment contract? If they are and that will employee do we want to walk it in? And they’re sort of pros and cons with that? If you’ve got, like, not the best executive director in the world, terminating somebody on a contract becomes much, much more difficult than if they were at will employees. So, you know, you kind of have to weigh the pros and cons, but, you know, revisiting your current executive director and the employment relationship is maybe step one, and suddenly he was thinking about, well, do you have a really strong job description that really reflects what the board wants of the executive director and the basis on which the board is reviewing the executives performance? And maybe the sort of initial question to ask in that area is do you actually review? The executive director and that the board you absolutely should. You and i have talked about that the board’s is not part of their fiduciary duty to evaluate the performance of the the ceo? Yeah, i think so. I think it’s a core part of meeting their fiduciary duties that really, you know, as a board, if you meet once a month or once every couple of months or whatever. What’s more important, you know, then really selecting the individual who’s going to lead the organization in advancing its mission and its values, and implementing your plans and policies and making sure the organization complies with the law. Taking your leader is probably the most important task that the board has, because the board is delegating management to the to that leader. Yeah, absolutely. And i think it’s often forgot naralo overlooked that individual board members inherently have no power and no authority to do anything so it’s only a group when they meet collectively, can they take aboard action? So for individuals to exercise, you know, powers on behalf of the organization that has to be delegated to them and typically the person responsible for everything is that ceo or the executive director. We’re gonna go out for a break, gene. And when we come back, you now keep talking about the process. The what? What goes into this process, including the job offer. So everybody stay with us. Like what you’re hearing a non-profit radio tony’s got more on youtube, you’ll find clips from stand up comedy tv spots and exclusive interviews catch guests like seth gordon, craig newmark, the founder of craigslist marquis of eco enterprises, charles best from donors choose dot org’s aria finger, do something that worked neo-sage levine from new york universities heimans center on philanthropy tony tweets too. He finds the best content from the most knowledgeable, interesting people in and around non-profits to share on his stream. If you have valuable info, he wants to re tweet you during the show. You can join the conversation on twitter using hashtag non-profit radio twitter is an easy way to reach tony he’s at tony martignetti narasimhan t i g e n e t t i remember there’s a g before the end he hosts a podcast for the chronicle of philanthropy fund-raising fundamentals is a short monthly show devoted to getting over your fund-raising hartals just like non-profit radio, toni talks to leading thinkers, experts and cool people with great ideas. As one fan said, tony picks their brains and i don’t have to leave my office fund-raising fundamentals was recently dubbed the most helpful non-profit podcast you have ever heard. You can also join the conversation on facebook, where you can ask questions before or after the show. The guests were there, too. Get insider show alerts by email, tony tells you who’s on each week and always includes link so that you can contact guess directly. To sign up, visit the facebook page for tony martignetti dot com. Time. Dana ostomel, ceo of deposit, a gift. And you’re listening to tony martignetti non-profit radio. Big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent. Got to send live listener love let’s. Start in japan with tokyo kiss or a zoo and nagoya. Konnichiwa, seoul, south korea, seoul, some someone south korea, always checking in love that anya haserot. Moscow, russia, mexico city, mexico, ireland. We can’t see your city ireland’s being masked for some reason, but we know you’re there. Welcome, welcome, ireland, and also taipei, taiwan. Ni hao, nobody from china, that’s, funny, nobody from china today, coming back to the u s we got cummings, georgia, in ashburn, virginia. Live listener love to you in georgia and virginia. Okay, gene. So now we’ve let’s say, we’ve learned that our exec is departing and let’s not make it a crisis situation, though let’s say this person is generous enough to give six months notice. So, you know, let’s, not make it a crisis. Where what’s our what’s, our what’s, our first step as the board. Terrific. And i’ll just add, even if you don’t, if you know your executive is not leaving any time soon and i think you should go ahead and start this process anyway. Oh, yeah, clearly we should be. We should have a succession plan in place. Yes, we’ve talked about it, right? Okay, yes, i think the first thing to do is get a committee together so it might include boardmember some outside experts outside with the board. If you don’t have that internal expertise and just getting different perspectives out there, some of your other stakeholders might be really important in what? You know what you want to look for in an executive in the future. So get that committee together first. Get the buy-in of the current executive director bonem so unless it’s going to be, you know, a succession plan for a termination? Yeah, we’re really unhappy with executive director, right? Let’s not get into that. Yeah, let’s get their buy-in and have them help in the process. Especially with your scenario where they’re giving us six months notice and everything is amicable. Let’s, you know, see she who knows better about the organization than the executive director that’s in place right now. So i’m getting there buy-in and help and contribution. I think it is pivotal. Does this committee have to be comprised of hr experts? Why? I think having a least one or two hr experts is going to be really helpful. But i i think it’s more than that. It’s, you need to program people who understand what the executive you know roll is with respect to advancing the program. You need the fund-raising people to know well, what is the going to do with respect to fund-raising perhaps the seeds, the lead fundraiser and some small organizations as well. So we need thio gather a bunch of different people with different perspectives and expertise to figure this out. And i think that’s a very good point to include a t least a programme expert. Now, could this committee include employees, or does it have to be sure you can i absolutely on dh, you know, you might even have have have different subcommittees in there. So eventually this is going to go up to the board. But as the the committee is doing the legwork for determining what you need an executive director and putting together a job description and, you know, perhaps, but the performance evaluation is going to be based on for the future executive director all those things can get, you know, be be aided by the contribution from several areas. Okay, okay, what are your thoughts on hiring a recruiter vs vs? Not well, you know, i think it depends upon what the organization’s resource is our and the organization should understand the marketplaces in a swell hiring two great executive director is the competitive thing, so, you know, if you’ve got a lot of resources and you’re able to you want to allocate an appropriate amount of resource is tio what i think again is making one of your most important decisions of the board? I don’t think you want to do this on the cheap at all. I’m just the same way i didn’t want you to do it on the fly or or or are in a rush matter-ness think you want to invest in this and you don’t have great expertise inside about things, about like, doing job interviews and doing background checks. On the sex thing, you know how to differentiate between one candidate and another when they all look good on paper and when they’re maybe professional interviewees, but they’re not. There may be not great leaders. How do you figure all those things that if you don’t know that on executive search firm could be a great help and it can just open up the marketplace of potential candidates as well? Especially if they, you know, decide to do a regional or even a national search, it really can ramp up hu hu you’re going see in front of you and the quality of the candidates that this election comedian the board eventually will have to choose from. Okay, does the committee now come up with a couple of candidates to bring to the board? Or is it better for the committee to choose one and bring that person to the board? How does this work? You know, i think the committee should be tasked with bringing several candidates up on sometimes it may be a multi tiered process so they might go through two rounds of screening, for example, and and at least let the board see who’s made. The first cut, and then and then, you know, present to the board, the final, perhaps two or three candidates. If you’ve got, you know, ones that are very close and in quality in terms of what the board want in an executive director, i think that’s pivotal. I wanted to add one thing, though. I’ve seen this done before, tony and i don’t really like it and that’s when. If a search committee or search consultant comes up and says, you know, to the board, tell me what you want in a good executive director, everybody you know, spend five minutes, write it down and send it to me, or you take it home and email it to me and tell me what you want. And then the search consultant collates the the the answers and then that’s, you know, the decision about that’s what’s going to be the qualities you’re going to look for. I think this needs a lot of discussion and deliberation and the value of, you know that that thought process and that really difficult thinking and getting all those generative questions out there is going to produce a much better product in terms of what you’re looking for and who you can get and how you’re going to do it. Yeah, you you send this tio use email and, you know, it’s going to get the typical attention that an e mail gets, like a minute or something, you know, it’s it’s going to get short shrift. And your point is that this is critical. It’s it’s, the leader of your organization you want do you want the contributions of the committee to be done in, like, a minute off the top of their head just so they can get the email out there in box? Yeah, definitely. We could talk about board meetings and another show, but put this at the front of the meeting and spend, you know, seventy five percent of your time talking about this. This is really, really important, okay, you have some thoughts about compensation, and we just have a couple minutes left. So let’s let’s say we’ve the board has well, i can’t jump there yet. Who should make the final call among these candidates? Is it the board? Yeah, i think it should be the board that makes the final approval, but they they’re going to put a lot of weight based on what the executive of the search committee, you know, tell them who they’re you know, the recommendation is okay, and i think that toe add one more thing to it is make sure the organization looks good to clean up your paperwork and your programming and even your facilities. Just make sure you’re going to be attractive to the candidate as well, because if you want to attract the best, you better be looking your best as well. Okay, okay. And the with respect to compensation now, we’ve talked about this before. What? What’s excessive. And there should be calms and things like that, right? So it’s really important to make sure that the board or unauthorized board committee one that composed just board members, approved the compensation before it’s offered to the candidate. Even if you don’t know that they’re going accepted or not, once he offers out there that compensation package, total compensation should have been approved by the board. And you want to do it with using the rebuttable presumption of reasonableness procedures unless you know its far below market value. Okay, if you get payed accessibly or if you pay somebody excessively, there could be penalty taxes for everybody. Including the board. Should be careful of that. We have talked about that rebuttable presumption before. Yeah. All right, jean, we have to leave that there. I look forward to talking to you next week on the two hundredth great. Congratulations again. And i look forward to it as well. Thank you, gene. Gene takagi, managing attorney of neo the non-profit and exempt organizations law group, his blog’s non-profit law block dot com, and on twitter. He is at g tak next week. Social change. Anytime, everywhere, part one with our social media contributor, amy sample ward. If you missed any part of today’s show, i beseech you, find it on tony martignetti dot com. Responsive by pursuing online tools for small and midsize non-profits data driven and technology enabled, and by we be spelling supercool spelling bee fundraisers. We b e spelling dot com creative producer is clear. Myer half family bullets is the line producer durney mcardle is our am and fm outreach director. The show’s social media is by susan chavez, and this cool music is by scott stein. Be with me next week for non-profit radio. Big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent. Go out and be great. 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