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Durney welcome to tony martignetti non-profit radio i’m your aptly named host. Tony martignetti in this hour, we have to very knowledgeable, terrific guests are first after the break, we’ll be john hicks, john is expert in foundation and corporation foundation fund-raising among other areas, but we’re going to focus a lot on foundation fund-raising the research that goes into it, building the relationships, what to do when a foundation says no, how do you proceed and how do you proceed when you get that sought after yes, on a proposal after john, our guest will be brian flood. Brian is a third generation insurance professional and he’s going to share insights about all different kinds of insurance, the casualties, insurance and the directors and officers insurance that small and medium non-profits need to be aware of how to avoid and minimize can ever really avoid, but how to minimize risk in your non-profit this is tony martignetti non-profit radio big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent. If you feel that your organization is somehow left out in the cold, by consultants or by the media or by constituents generally, then you’re in the right place. This is big. Non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent. We have a break, and then john hicks joins us. They couldn’t do anything, including getting ding, ding, ding ding. You’re listening to the talking, alternate network waiting to get in. E-giving cubine. Are you stuck in your business or career trying to take your business to the next level, and it keeps hitting a wall? This is sam liebowitz, the conscious consultant. I will help you get to the root cause of your abundance issues and help move you forward in your life. Call me now and let’s. Create the future you dream of. Two, one, two, seven, two, one, eight, one, eight, three, that’s to one to seven to one, eight one eight three. The conscious consultant helping conscious people. Be better business people. I’m tony martignetti, the aptly named host of the tony martignetti show. Big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent. You’re non-profit is ignored because you’re smaller medium size. But you still need expertise and help with technology fund-raising compliance, finance and accounting will look at all of these areas on the tony martignetti show. Big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent on talking alternative dot com fridays one, too. Talking. Oppcoll miree this is tony martignetti non-profit radio, i’m tony martignetti your host, my first guest today is john hicks. John is the president and ceo of the j c geever in-kind fund-raising consultancy in new york city, john does a lot of public speaking for the foundation center, which will be diving into a little bit some details about the foundation center. He delivers their proposal writing proposal, writing, too and cultivating grantmaker relationships seminars throughout the country, the foundation center has coordinating collections throughout the country, and we’ll be talking about those. John is also on the faculty of columbia university’s master’s degree program in fund-raising management, he does a lot of speaking, and he also does a lot of writing he’s, a contributing author to two books, the foundation centers after the grant and wiley’s the non-profit handbook. Fund-raising and i’m very glad that john’s work brings him to the studio today. Welcome, john. Oh, thanks, it’s, great to be here. You’re an expert in in foundation fund-raising and we all know that a lot of almost all fund-raising his relationship building, let’s, let’s start by talking a little about building that relationship with foundations, how does how? Does that process start? Well, let’s do because i think that’s one of the big mistakes or big mean snow mers about foundation philanthropy that it’s all a grant proposal that we write and and that’s the be all and end all involves relationship building involves relationship building with staff professionals who run foundations, manage foundations, and in some cases, it involves building relationships with members of the board of directors of the foundation. So depending on the kind of foundation you’ll approach, the process is going to be a little different. We can talk more about that. Yeah, i do want to dive into that in a few minutes in terms of taking this through a linear process does one doesn’t does a small and medium medium non-profits start with research about foundations and trying to align the mission of the foundation with their own? Is that where we start? We’ll write. The first step in the process that we teach in the foundation center seminars is actually you begin with your own priorities. You figure out what it is that you need to do to meet the real needs of your community or constituency, and then you’re going to research foundation’s who want to accomplish the same things that you do by giving money to support your programs and that’s when you’ll turn toe a resource like the foundation center and their foundation directory online, which is certainly, in my opinion, the best one stop shopping resource in the marketplace. Tto learn about foundations, let’s, talk a little about the foundation center. I know they’re headquartered here in new york city, but there are they called cooperating collections throughout the country that people can access right. The foundation center is headquartered in new york. They have five regional libraries new york city, washington, dc. Atlanta, georgia, cleveland, ohio, and out in san francisco. But there is also a network of over four hundred cooperating collections these air public libraries, university libraries, non-profit service organizations around the country and they’ve even begun to move far. They’ve established their first cooperate collection in korea, and they’re developing networks in europe and throughout age of which is great work on their part, so it means that their intent is that anyone can have access for free use of foundation directory online at a cooperating collection and no cooperating collection is really more than about a half an hour’s drive away from probably anyone anywhere who’s trying to raise money, and those foundation center re sources are, as john said, i wantto reiterate, free in all those places that john mentioned, but john those air it’s really a a seminal program and a research package that the foundation senators put together, isn’t it? Absolutely? The foundation directory online is based on information that’s publicly available bye foundation, certainly taken from their websites and it’s updated constantly weekly. Um, you can go to their website, foundation center dot or ge, and you can locate a cooperating collection where you can access the information for your charge. And what type of information do they have on on all the seventy six thousand or so foundations that they they research? Well, actually, the number is now one hundred thousand, so isn’t i mean its presentation okay few years ago that it was seventy six, seventy seven thousand? Absolutely. So we’re the kind of information’s available is in addition to basic contact information, address phone number, members of the staff, you have information on all the trustees and officers there’s information on giving by these foundations most of the foundations they have sample grants you have access to what’s called a form nine ninety pf, which is the foundation equivalent of a tax return where you can look at their contributions and they have analyses on the larger foundations in particular, where it’ll show you e-giving down to the level of how many grants were made in a given year in a given county in any state or common wealth in the us. And you can certainly look att what types of giving, what types of missions the foundation’s e-giving too, and that isn’t that the way to start aligning the foundations with your own work? Absolutely so you’ll start with your own work, and certainly you can research across different subject areas of interest. Bye, different foundations, there’s tons of categories, tony, that you khun search across and you can combine searches. It’s, a very powerful search tool, and it’s it’s pretty easy to use, and particularly when you go into a cooperative collection there’s a library on staff who is trained in how to use this database so you’ll get hands on help when you go into a cooperating collection. Alright, so easy to use there’s professional staff helped help you if you do need help and research on roughly one hundred thousand foundations, this really is ah place where a smaller medium non-profit wants to start and again, it’s all for and this is free in the end, all the locations. Absolutely, absolutely. After you’ve done this initial research, you found maybe a dozen, maybe more or less numb foundations that you think are appropriate to ask for a grant of some type. What? What should be the next step? Well, in the case where the foundation is professionally staffed, we counsel the organization to at least try to reach out and have a conversation with someone, because even though the information you’re looking at online, even on the foundations on website, might suggest that there’s an interest, what is it that we don’t know? We don’t know if the foundation is accepting applications right now, given the economy, some foundations have delayed some of their review processes, so they’re holding back on the number of applications there accepting, but they’re not telling us this information publicly, so we learn that kind of information on a call, sometimes making a call to a foundation and you’re talking to a staff person, you will learn some of the things that they’re particularly interested in learning about your program, and that helps you write a more targeted, and i’m just a better proposal. I think this is an important point, john, that a lot of people are not aware of the foundation’s air willing. Tio take these kinds of calls, these sort of inquiry calls initial inquiry or doesn’t really depend on the foundation? Well, it depends on the foundation. Tony i i’m always issued the disclaimer that, you know, the textbook says call every foundation, but the reality is there are roughly one thousand very, very large foundations, these air mega foundations you’ve heard of them, the gates foundation, carnegie, kellogg they certainly are more than adequately staff then there’s another maybe fifteen thousand foundations below that top layer, and we can usually get through and have a conversation with those funders that leaves us eighty six thousand foundations and those air family foundations and those are usually i mean, for all intensive purposes, you really have to know the donor you might be able to talkto trust advisor and a bank, but those folks don’t typically take cold calls, and even if they do, they’re not going to be privy to what the family necessarily wants to do. It’s more in the domain of individual fund-raising i see so all right, so then you’ve, you’ve made this inquiry phone call where it’s appropriate, where they’ll accept it. What you’ve given us an idea of what we’re looking for, what what really is ah, is the next step typically? Well, once we’ve established that there’s a willingness to look at the proposal and that there’s a real interest in the program, then you follow through with the actual proposal. At this point, we get into a disclaimer, i always give it my foundation center classes end when he’s listening in who’s ever taken one of my classes, you’ll know what i mean. I always say that sixty five percent of this the success sixty five percent of the success is basically following the directions. I mean, if you can, you can pick up a box of cake mix and follow the directions. You can write a grant proposal, just answer the questions, but the other thirty five percent is you have to understand the nuances, and this is where the phone call is going to help you, but you followed through with a proposal and sometimes it’s not a full proposal, right? But a letter of inquiry in some cases it’s a letter of inquiry? Yes, the foundation wants to save a little paperwork on both ends. I have to say, one thing i am observing across my clients is that i’m seeing a lot of grantmaker is just going to the full proposal because they don’t want to have to handle paper twice, and they’re cutting down on their staff because of the economy, so don’t be surprised if they wanted to send a full application and where does building the relationship fit into this way had been taking it linearly, let’s, let’s talk a little broadly break out of that, that chronology, and how does the relationship building gets started? Well, a lot of times it is with that first step of a phone call, you have to have something of interest, but you have to remember, and i’m going to quote jules auras. He used to be a program officer at the kellog foundation, he’s written on the topic and he’s. Ah, thought leader in the industry and he says, and that shell people working foundations where three hats first had his gatekeeper there, you know, screening proposals next hat once it makes it past the screen is investigator, i’m gonna learn more about your charity learn more about your program, but i haven’t decided if i’m going to put it in front of my board. If it’s the right fit, i’m doing due diligence, but ultimately you’re going to the third hat that of advocates? So thie idea is at some point you’re going to have to have a conversation and a lot of it’s cold calls, some of it could be personal networking. You may meet grantmaker zad events or have colleagues in the field who can introduce you to some of these program officer so i encourage a lot of networking. It’s hart, this is a hard business to get ahead. If you simply sit behind your desk and on lee, right proposals boardmember zx could be important to this process, right? Let’s, help us understand how our organization’s board members are critical to this. Well, for every proposal that you’re sending out, you should that the officer director list for the grantmaker with your own board to find out if there are personal connections, they want your proposals in place and the foundation is looking at it there and then that investigative mode winning allies on the board is pretty important. The one thing you want to avoid and this is a trap i see organisations fall into is thinking they can go around the professional staff and simply lobby the members of the board to get the grant. Sometimes you do nothing more than end up antagonizing the staff of the foundation. So it’s ah it’s a very carefully nuanced process, you know, we’re bored to board pays off in spades is going to be the family foundations and its individual networking. I see, but we cannot ignore in the bigger organization the bigger foundations, the professional staff absolutely not, especially in those larger foundations, because the staff hold, you know, a lot of sway and they’re they’re there for a reason. This staffer there for a reason, this is tony martignetti non-profit radio. My guest is john hicks. John is president and ceo of j c geever fund-raising council in new york city and john’s. Going to stay with us after this break? You’re listening to talking alternative network at www dot talking alternative dot com, now broadcasting twenty four hours a day. Are you suffering from aches and pains? Has traditional medicine let you down? Are you tired of taking toxic medications, then come to the double diamond wellness center and learn how our natural methods can help you to hell? Call us now at to one to seven to one eight, one eight three that’s to one to seven to one eight one eight three or find us on the web at www dot double diamond wellness dot com. We look forward to serving you. Durney i really need to take better care of myself if only i had someone to help me with my lifestyle. I feel like giving up dahna is this you mind over matter, health and fitness can help. If you’re expecting an epiphany, chances are it’s not happening. Mind over matter, health and fitness can help you get back on track or start a new life and fitness. Join joshua margolis, fitness expert, two one two eight six five nine into nine xero, or visit w w w died mind over matter and y si dot com. Is your marriage in trouble? Are you considering the voice? Hello, i’m lawrence bloom, a family law attorney in new york and new jersey. No one is happier than the day their divorce is final. My firm can help you. We take the nasty out of the divorce process and make people happy. Police call a set to one, two, nine six four three five zero two for a free consultation. That’s lawrence h bloom two, one two, nine, six, four, three five zero two. We make people happy. Schnoll hyre hey, all you crazy listeners looking to boost your business? Why not advertise on talking alternative with very reasonable rates? Interested simply email at info at talking alternative dot com. This is tony martignetti non-profit radio, i’m your host. Tony martignetti with us in the studio is john hicks, president and ceo of j c geever fund-raising council in new york city, and we’re talking about foundation fund-raising for our audience, the small and medium non-profits throughout the country, john, we were we digress. A little talk about relationship building, let’s, let’s jump back into the sort of more linear chronology eww! Put yourself in the sixty five percent category of giving yourself a sixty five percent shot by following the directions you made that point what we’re waiting now, and we get a we get a negative response, or or might we get an inquiry for more information? Help me understand what comes next, right? In some cases, you’re going to get a ah, an inquiry for more information of the grantmaker is interested remember it’s a process of learning process on their part? Particular, if they’ve never funded you before there’s going to be information exchange, this is something i do talk about quite a bit in my seminars, the foundation center that i find that in the beginning there may be an exchange of information over the phone there, maybe even be a meeting. But once the proposal is seriously under consideration, what happens? Usually there’s a site visit particularly more money? You request they actually want to come and see the work that you’re doing, and then a lot of the information exchange becomes paper. They want more financial information on your agency, they want to do a lot more do dilgence and digging into the books, and then that takes us out to the result. And either you have the grant or you get that you get that negative that turned down the request for more information, i would think an organization should take as a good sign. It’s always a good sign turned down they’re interested, you know, it’s always a great sign. One of grantmaker i just upgraded that’s a great sign for grantmaker comes in and ask you for more information because they don’t do that unless they’re seriously kicking the tires and looking at making the grant and let’s say you do get the turn down the negative response. How should you react internally? And what should you do with respect to the foundation? Well, internally, you’re going to be frustrated. And you need to keep that internal that’s that’s the number of thes of advice, one of the challenges of getting a turned down from a foundation. And i always say this that if you if you’ve ever gotten a declination letter from a foundation, you probably share my believe that every foundation has hired the same guy to write the letter because it’s the same bloody letter. Thanks, but no thanks. Ah, this point, you’re going to use the phone again. Something i do say in my seminars to the foundation center is that a lot of grants began with a word. Now, this is like, you hear this and sales urine dating individual giving, we say six knows, and you’re half way to it. Yes, absolutely. So the whole idea is that, um, the grantmaker may have ah, a lot of interest in supporting you. They just aren’t ready to make that commitment. And so what we’re trying to get at is, are we close enough where we should continue the conversation, give them or information? Or are we just simply not something they’re interested in supporting? And we need to move on so that we can use our time well in the foundation could use its time. Well, that’s, where phone calls going to really pay off, okay, so again, hyre foundations are willing to take those kinds of calls from from organizations that they’ve declined. Some foundations are tony there isn’t that marries again. Yeah, it’s ah, there’s only as i say to my foundation sandorkraut oops, i say to my clients, there’s, only one way we’re going to find out. We try and pick up the phone, right? And you’ve gotten the positive what we’re calling a foundation and you made the transition is actually now a grantmaker to your organization, you’ve gotten a approval. How should you react? Well, in the first thing that grantmaker wants to do is to simply be gracious and say thank you and one of the more surprising things we’ve learned over the years from grantmaker zoho is that a lot of charities cash the cheque and they may send back the paperwork, but they don’t take that moment to say thank you, and you have to remember somebody’s going to bat for you, and they’ve done a lot of work and they’ve put themselves out there. Elizabeth olafsson who’s a grantmaker here in new york city with the stolen charles guttman foundation something she said once i think we all need to remember this, that there are three owners grant her board owns it because they voted to, you know, make the award our charity obviously owns it because we have the cash, but she owns it because she’s the one that went to bat for us, so thinking that person is it sounds like a very small thing, but it’s a very big thing when it comes to relationship building, so that’s number one and number two is making sure that you are totally locked into giving foundations the reports that they require when they require them. Because foundations use this, these reports really tto learn about how effective they’re rants are, so they’ve become our partner. I think there could be a potential for fallout in the relationship if the grant is made, whether in full or in part, and the organization, the non-profit is not fulfilling its responsibility back to the foundation. Well, they’re two pitfalls one must be mindful of, one is not reporting, and therefore we’re not keeping up our end of the bargain of course not using the grant for the purpose that it was intended that’s going to be very important, but something else we don’t think about and i think it merits mentioned here is what happens when things don’t work out, you know grantspace are made on under the assumption that sure this project’s going to be successful, we would never ask for the grant. We didn’t believe the project’s going to be successful, but sometimes projects just aren’t successful. Sometimes we don’t give enough kids involved, sometimes we come up short on the other fund-raising grantmaker sze understand this? What they want us to do is to communicate with them early if we have a sense that things are not working out right? Come to them earlier in the process and have that conversation. Don’t wait until the final report, then it’s too late for everyone and let’s let’s, talk a little about aligning cultures or maybe determining culture, whether our foundation would be properly called may be old school orm or cutting edge and how that might impact your relationship with them. Sure, one of the things that i spend time thinking about is a consultant one i’m doing research, andi, i’m guiding someone through the process, coaching someone through the process is i really tried to look, but, you know, beyond the numbers i look beyond what’s on on a web page, and i like to spend some time thinking about what is the corporate culture of the foundation. Sometimes we’re dealing with a very small shop foundation they’re very hands on, they’re going to expect the same kind of treatment from us, they’re going to want to have access to people inside our organization, so i look at the corporate culture of the foundation, but i also think about the foundation’s values sometimes we’re approaching a thunder with a solution to a problem and our solution a lot of times when well, whenever we get a grant, i can pretty much guarantee you that philosophically, we’re on the same page with grantmaker but sometimes there are just some differences of opinion, particularly when it comes to values yeah, there’s, a conservative and a liberal site to the foundation world, just as there is to the non-profit world, some foundations air driven by matters of faith. Some charities are, too, but the two faiths may not. Completely lined up, so we have to think about some of those nuances. First, i’ll just to decide whether we want to spend time trying to build a relationship, and then as we build relationship, how do we use that information and those perceptions to strengthen and cement the relationship? Ultimately, this is very nuanced stuff. This is tony martignetti non-profit radio. My guest is john hicks, president, ceo of j c geever fund-raising council in new york city. John let’s, look a little at corporate foundation fund-raising in just the two minutes or so that we have left, what what ways would you distinguish corporate foundation fund-raising from the foundation? Fund-raising we’re talking, we’ve been talking about, well, corporate foundations and private foundations in in terms of how they’re organized, they look exactly the same and largely they operate the same. Ah, the nuance that creeps in on the corporate side obviously is corporation is associating, if you will it’s brand with your charity. So one of the things you have to think about is how does that brand benefit you benefit your constituency and how it is you know, you’re affiliation with the corporation benefit the corporation, so i tried to think about it it’s easy when you look at something like, if it’s a pharmaceutical corporation and you’re a medical charity, the connection’s air pretty dead on. But then, if you’re not let’s, say you’re a local youth service organization, you’re looking at a pharmaceutical, then you’re thinking about things like, you know, our are there a lot of corporate employees who live in the community where you’re providing benefit? Are you building a higher quality of life for the community? So those are the things i think you need to think about as you’re approaching the corporate foundations, does the non-profit maybe have a little more opportunity for salesmanship in in the corporate work? In other words, persuading the corporation are helping the corporation to see what the value could be to that company and the corporate foundation. No, i’m going to say that most of the corporation are corporate foundations, operate very much on a very objective plane, just like private foundations. Obviously, if you’re working with a corporate contributions person and they’re giving money of their own corporate coffers, that’s where the showmanship comes, i mean, maybe the easiest way of summarizing this is if if you were approaching a corporate foundation, i would be talking to you about how to develop the right proposal. People going in to talk to a corporate contributions officer. We probably talking about how to take your program and develop a really nice power point. Dad, at present. It okay, my guest is has been john hicks, president and ceo of j c geever john, why don’t you give us the company website, please? Sure, you can visit us at www dot j c geever that’s, j, c g as in george e theisen, victor e r dot com gentlemen, thank you very much for coming to the studio, and i would like to have you back, and we’ll continue the conversation on a future show. Maybe delve more into the fountain to the corporation side. Thank you very much, tony. Talking alternative radio twenty four hours a day. Are you suffering from aches and pains? Has traditional medicine let you down? Are you tired of taking toxic medications, then come to the double diamond wellness center and learn how our natural methods can help you to hell? Call us now at to one to seven to one eight, one eight three that’s to one to seven to one eight one eight three or find us on the web at www dot double diamond wellness dot com. We look forward to serving you. I’m tony martignetti, the aptly named host of the tony martignetti show. Big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent. You’re non-profit is ignored because you’re smaller medium size. But you still need expertise and help with technology fund-raising compliance, finance and accounting will look at all of these areas on the tony martignetti show. Big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent on talking alternative dot com fridays one, too. You’re listening to the talking alternative network. Geever this is tony martignetti non-profit radio, i’m your host, tony martignetti joining us shortly will be brian flood to talk about insurance and risk management for your non-profit i’d like to spend a couple of minutes elaborating on something that was talked about in our very first show with my guest was stephen perrotto, and steve talked to us about planned e-giving and we talked a little about charitable bequests, that foundation of planned giving for any non-profit irrespective of size, regardless of mission, the charitable bequest is always the most popular planned gift in any planned giving program. You would expect about eighty five or so eighty five to ninety percent of your gif ts to be charitable bequests, and i’d like to talk a little in detail about marketing those charitable bequests. Stephen, i delved into a few areas using a newsletter, your website direct mail, and i’d like to go into a little more detail about some of those areas. Direct mail is a very common way, too market the idea of the charitable bequest for your organization what your mail is essentially saying is it’s important to have your state properly planned? And when you do that consider including us in your plan, you’re typically talking about someone’s will, because everyone has a will. There may be other state plan tools that work around the will, but everyone has a will, and everyone can understand what you’re talking about when you ask them to include your organization in their will. So direct mail is a very common way. I like tio, see direct mail that’s devoted exclusively to the idea of the charitable bequest. Now that can the expensive because direct mail devoted to one subject means postage and printing and maybe male house operations, depending how many your people your mailing to and you’ve just got one idea going out in that mail that’s, the charitable bequests but if you can afford the direct mail devoted to charitable bequests, it’s it’s really ideal. If you’re doing that, i like to see those mail pieces personalized, so not addressed to dear friend, but using the person’s name and address in an inside address on the letter and then addressing the letter oryu greeting them with a formal greeting. Dear mr mrs or miss doctor, not again not dear friend, i like to see these enclosed envelopes. Not windowed envelopes. I think window envelopes look too much like an invoice or a bill, and this is a pretty personal subject. This is someone’s estate plan, and you’re asking to be a part of that. So i think that merits something different than a than a windowed envelope. All the direct mail that we do for clients goes with a reply. Peace people should have the opportunity to tell you, most importantly, that they’ve already included you in their estate plan. You might not very well know that because you’ve never asked, and now you’re giving someone the opportunity to reveal to you that you are indeed already a part of their state plan and another one or two check offs on a reply card should be devoted to letting the person asked for more information about the subject. Maybe you ask, maybe they check off a box that says they’d like to attend a seminar or they would go that they would consider including you in their state plan. You’re giving people a few different ways, too self identify as having an interest in including you in their state plan, so direct mail a very common and very effective way of getting charitable bequests if you can’t afford the direct mail or even if you can but in addition to direct mail, the pieces that you’re already sending the communication devices you already have for your constituents to your donors, to your prospects. If you have a newsletter, a terrific sidebar on on a page on the newsletter so it doesn’t have to be lengthy fifty or a hundred words about the importance of having your state properly planned and the idea of considering including your organization in that plan in your will. I would also suggest you including that sidebar, your legal name and your tax id number so that someone can take that information on their own, bring it to their attorney and include your organization in there. Will they don’t have to ask you for more information. Everything they need is in that just a small article or or sidebar and a note about your organization’s tax i d number that is not private the way all of our individual social security numbers are private. Your organization’s tax i d number it’s also called an employer idea number e i n that is a public number it appears on all the form’s nine ninety thatyou have to file john. My previous guest mentioned the nine, ninety pf for private foundations that’s that that’s the annual tax filing for private foundations your organization asians are filing the nine, ninety annually just as all of us as individuals file a ten, forty annually and you’re organisations federal tax i d number is on that nine, ninety and that nine, ninety is a matter of public record. People can get it from the irs. They can often get it from your state attorney general, the charity’s bureau. They can get it from organizations like guide star or charity charity navigator. So don’t keep that tax i d number private or share it so that your donors can include you in their state plan. So there’s some ideas of marketing the charitable bequests, using direct mail, using the other communications devices that you have that you’re already using and sending that won’t add to the cost the way direct mail will. My next guest is brian flood. Brian is a third generation insurance professional with the flood group llc on long island. He has a number of non-profit clients and works with them, too control risk in their organizations using insurance. And we’re also going to talk about some ideas that that he has that are not not the purchase of insurance, but also helped too control risk in your organization. You do need to be concerned about what could go wrong, what could happen and look at ways too mitigate minimize those risks and, um, vory, please, that brian’s work brings him to the show today. Welcome, brian. Hi, tony it’s. Nice to be with you. Thank you. Thank you for joining us. Brian let’s, talk some about the sort of the basics of coverage. What are just let’s? Say, just your top two areas of insurance to start that you think non-profits need to be paying attention. Metoo we’ll find if i too work. Tio, pick two areas that i find not-for-profits seemed to have the most difficulty understanding. It would have to be, uh, directors and officers coverage. And also the employment practices. Liability coverage. Okay, let’s. Dive into those. What? What is directors and officers coverage with the directors and officers coverage? What? They were looking to protect our the people who are serving. On the board of directors and also any employees of the company for things such as mismanagement of the operations organization assets hyre things that come up with self dealing and conflicts of interest or acts that go beyond thie authority that could be granted in the bylaws of the organization. Perhaps it is a violation of certain state and federal laws. You are even a breach of producer duties, his role items that come up typical duitz that outsiders would bring against a board of directors, and so the organization can ensure its board against liability for all these different negligence is, and malfeasance is that you’re describing that’s correct at these and more on typically, these litigations can last several years, which becomes a continuous financial drain on the not for profit organization on if the organization winds up in a situation where it cannot indemnify its directors, its officers, or of its employees, either because of the allegations of a lawsuit or is the result of the organizations and solvency, then this financial burden can become the responsibility of the organization’s directors, officers and employees. And you really want to shift that burden to an insurance company. So they do you mean that they could be individually liable from from their own personal assets without this kind of coverage, right, without the proper coverage in place, its potential for the individual to be liable, which is what necessitates the coverage being purchased. I see. And could the organization also be liable again? Absent the right kind of coverage? Could the organization be financially liable for these types of wrongdoings? The organization is right. The organization’s frequently brought into suit where the entity has to defend itself, too. And people may go after the assets of the entity as well as the board of directors itself is providing a defense. Ah, part of the coverage that we would expect to see in the director’s an officer’s liability policy providing an attorney for the parties that are sued that’s correct it. Typically, the insurance company would select counsel for the defense of the suit that has brought against the organization and within the nuances of the directors and officers policies. It’s really not a one size fits all product, and it can be very much individually tailored to an organization on one of the things that is very important. To look at when it comes to defense costs is to make sure that the defence cost are providing a limit outside of the liability limit. In other words, if you have a million dollars of coverage to pay for a claim, you want to have the defence cost paid outside of that limited liability. So in addition to that limit of liability edition, too that’s correct this way. It doesn’t. The defense costs, which typically make up a very large portion of the claim, does not feed into the limit of liability that you would purchase. This is tony martignetti non-profit radio. I’m tony martin, your host. My guest is brian flood. Brian is vice president of the flood group llc and insurance professional organization in a company in long island. Brian, the other type of insurance that you mentioned, i asked you to pick two of the top ones that concern you the most for non-profits and the other you mentioned was liability insurance. Can you help us understand what the issues are there, right. The other one they picked was the employment practices, likability practices. Okay, portion of it. And this is an area again. It’s it’s. One that not very well understood bye not-for-profits organizations and it’s not very well understood by the insurance community, the brokers, a lot of the brokers and agents that are out there selling it. Unfortunately, an area that again has many nuances to the wording of the coverage, and i confused it myself with general liability. So i’m guilty of everything you’re describing right on what happens here is that with the employment practices liability here, not for profit organization are finding out the hard way just how complex the employment relationship has become. Employers are subject to ah widening net a federal legislation which could include the american with the americans with disabilities act, the civil rights act of nineteen, ninety one. The asians thie age discrimination in employment act, admitting there’s many more federal, state and local employment laws that they need to comply with the equal opportunity equal opportunity commission is out more aggressively investigating employment practices clean, and they’re filing lawsuits for sexual harassment for discrimination, wrongful termination, retaliatory treatment, unfair hiring practices and other types of workplace towards and it’s frequently. When i worked with for-profit organization, i find that latto this coverage has not. Been suggested to them to purchase, and they do have a need for it because the the variety of not only direct payroll employees that they have but also the volunteers and the committee members uh, people that really genuinely interested in helping that organisation willing to donate their time in their energy, the liability then can go beyond just employees. You’re saying it can go beyond the employees, and it can also go what’s called third parties lot of people who will say you’re a good your organization discriminated against me because of, and it could be a number of items, their race, their religion there wait there’s a variety of claims that have been brought against organizations people say i was not allowed to benefit from the services of your organization, and i feel that i was discriminated against. And now it’s a third party, somebody outside of the organization that’s bringing action under this type of coverage. So it’s it’s very broad, and what it offers on dh again, it’s one that is, seems to be not very well understood and not very well just displayed out there in the not-for-profits community and in terms of the brokers being out there, teaching not-for-profits the value of it. This is tony martignetti non-profit radio. My guest is brian flood, and brian will join us after this break. You’re listening to the talking alternative network. I really need to take better care of myself. If only i had someone to help me with my lifestyle. I feel like giving up. Is this you mind over matter, health and fitness can help. If you’re expecting an epiphany, chances are it’s not happening. Mind over matter, health and fitness can help you get back on track or start a new life and fitness. Join Joshua margolis, fitness expert at 2 one two eight six five nine two nine. Zero or visit w w w died. Mind over matter. Y si dot com. Upleaf duitz are you suffering from aches and pains? 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My guest is brian flood, vice president of the flood group on long island in new york. Brian, would you give us the web address, please? For your for the flood group testimony? Our web address is www dot the blood group dot com excellent people confined you there. Thank you, let’s. Spend some time talking about what organizations khun do to minimize risk internally rather than the purchase of insurance which is critical as we as we talked about back-up, do you have some ideas that organizations can implement on their own internally too manage risk? Stony, when it comes to what can be done internally, there are several things that not-for-profits khun d’oh. Andi, a lot of these procedures are very good at helping support the insurance policies that they may have in place. In other words, their internal procedures become their first line of defense. And with choosing the correct agent broker toe work with them on their behalf, they can really help develop some wonderful internal controls. The basics of internal risk control include first off having it well laid out disaster recovery plan. What types? Of what types of disasters are you anticipating in a disaster recovery plan? Well, with the not for profit organization buy-in but you have one that is a food bank and they have a disaster at their warehouse destroys all the inventory in the warehouse, there would need to be a plan. Okay, what are we going to do the next day to get our organization? The warehouse is up and running again and continue providing this valuable service to the community on a lot of times, very scary hyre day one after a disaster on a lot of confusion, where where plan is not laid out and the volunteers or end or the employees of the not-for-profits i really don’t have a clear focus is to exactly what are we going to do to be able to continue this? But a well laid out disaster recovery plan could put everybody at ease where there’s on organized chain of command well, this thing of back-up suppliers alternative location to move the operations, too, a really well designed disaster recovery plan. Kim wey these things out nicely and take a lot of chaos out of a difficult situation we talked earlier. About employment practices coverage, and it sounds like there are such a just a morass, really, of federal laws and probably even state laws as well. That impact on the employer employee relationship. Is there something that an organization khun, do tow, help minimize risk around employment practices? There is a well crafted employee handbook again can be the first line of defense to help minimize employees related practices lawsuit on in that hymn book, various items would be addressed to it is the employment of that person in employment that will can the organization let that person go at any point? What is the what? Our grievance procedures, what disciplinary procedures for employees that are just not performing well? We have all these various matters that typically wind up when they’re not clearly defined and outlined an employee handbook they want to become in discrepancies and ultimately and unhappy employees could leave the organization, and they leave with the full intent of well, i feel i feel like i was very poorly treated by that organization. I’m going to retaliate and bring a lawsuit against them front was a good employee handbook will have all of this all of these procedures laid out nicely that on the last page of the employee handbook, a place for the employee to sign and date it acknowledging that they have read the employee handbook and that they understand how the organization function. This could be daunting for ah, for our audience of small and medium sized non-profits are their templates, or should templates be avoided? And should these be done out of whole cloth? How how shouldn’t organization go about crafting, say, the employee handbook? Tony, this is where i have to say the insurance industry has really stepped up nicely realizes that there are organizations that are out there that are big enough to get themselves into trouble, but small enough yet where they still need the guiding hand of a new insurance company or knowledgeable insurance broker to help put these pieces into place for them. Many of the insurance companies have designed web portals, which are basically human resource web portal that are associated with the purchase of the insurance policy from that insurance company. And your policy number becomes your id to get onto their human resource web portal. And there they have templates for the employee handbook. Where an organization called go on, download this employee handbook and then it would be suggested that they review it with their own counsel teo tailored to their specific needs, but it would take a lot of the legwork off of their plate because it is most of my life i’ve looked at our very nicely designed on. If they’re designed by the insurance company, i can pretty well rest assured they’re trying to put as much of the cautionary language buy-in there is possible help protect brian. You’ve mentioned a few times the importance of having a knowledgeable broker. So i’m going to remind people that you are vice president of the flood group, a third generation, family owned insurance agency. Why don’t you give us your web address one more time? Yes, that is www dot the flood group dot com. My guest has been brian g flood of the flood group, and i want to thank brian very much for being with us, brian, thank you very much. Thank you, tony. Enjoy speaking with you. It’s, time for me to say thank you, too. People who were involved in this show, my creative producer, claire mckeever, line producer matt in elko and the owner of talking alternative broadcasting, sam liebowitz, this’s, the tony martignetti non-profit radio. Big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent every friday, one two to eastern, right here at talking alternative dot com. Thanks for joining us, co-branding dick, dick tooting. Getting ding, ding, ding, ding. You’re listening to the talking alternate network duitz to get you thinking. E-giving good. Are you stuck in your business or career, trying to take your business to the next level, and it keeps hitting a wall? This is sam liebowitz, the conscious consultant. I will help you get to the root cause of your abundance issues and help move you forward in your life. Call me now and let’s. Create the future you dream of. Two, one, two, seven, two, one, eight, one, eight, three, that’s to one to seven to one, eight one eight three. The conscious consultant helping conscious people. Be better business people. Dahna is your marriage in trouble? Are you considering divorce? Hello, i’m lawrence bloom, a family law attorney in new york and new jersey. No one is happier than the day their divorce is final. My firm can help you. We take the nasty out of the divorce process and make people happy. Police call a set two one two nine six, four, three five zero two for a free consultation. That’s lawrence h bloom, too. One, two, nine, six, four, three, five zero two. We make people happy. I really need to take better care of myself. If only i had someone to help me with my lifestyle. I feel like giving up. Is this you mind over matter, health and fitness can help. If you’re expecting an epiphany, chances are it’s not happening. Mind over matter, health and fitness could help you get back on track or start a new life and fitness. Join Joshua margolis, fitness expert at 2 one two eight six five nine to nine xero. Or visit w w w dot mind over matter. Y si dot com. Cerini i’m tony martignetti, the aptly named host of the tony martignetti show. Big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent. You’re non-profit is ignored because you’re smaller medium size. But you still need expertise and help with technology fund-raising compliance, finance and accounting will look at all of these areas on the tony martignetti show. Big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent on talking alternative dot com fridays one, too. Talking dot com. Hyre