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Hello and welcome to tony martignetti non-profit radio big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent on the aptly named host oh, i’m glad you’re with me. I’d turn probono genic if you got under my skin with the idea that you missed today’s show, build your grantmaker relationships, our panel of grantmaker tze and a grantee reveal strategies for building and maintaining relationships with your institutional funders. Foundations are made of people. How do you get close to them? This’s a panel i moderated at the foundation center in new york city. Tony take two show you love, we’re sponsored by pursuing full service fund-raising data driven and technology enabled tony dahna slash pursuing radio and by weinger cpas guiding you beyond the numbers. Wagner, cps dot com tell us turning credit card processing into your passive revenue stream tony dahna may slash tony tell us, here’s the beginning of build your grantmaker relationships, we’re here to talk about collaboration and impact, collaborate and impact, and our panel today is going to focus in the collaboration we’re gonna be talking about the relationship, building of collaboration, that aspect of collaboration between non-profits and the funders. All right, most of you are in non-profits potential grantees, and most of our panel are the funders. So i have maybe admonished, is too strong a word, but i have urged them to keep their advice, you know, relevant for potential grantees. How can each of you, in your non-profits collaborate, build relationships with potential funders, and even even when even when you get a no from a funder? What can you do after that? Our concern is that. This is scene is proceeding to transactional. It shouldn’t be transactional, your relationship with potential grant oars. Potential funders can be parallel to the work that you do in individual fund-raising in each of your individual programs, because funders, air made up institutions are made up of people, and we know people fund. So how can you build the relationship, keep the relationship strong, even in the face of a rejection, and thereby collaborate with your potential funders, which hopefully will become your funders? It’s. My real pleasure to introduce our winning panel of beginning with your on your left is caitlin mitchell. Caitlyn is a program and evaluation officer with empower the emerging markets foundation. Their work is around at risk youth in emerging markets in colombia, mexico and south africa. Next. Moving to your right. Dan werner. Stan is social justice program associate with the darkest foundation. Their priority is lgbt social justice, and we have amy berman she’s, senior program officer at the john john, a hartford foundation. And their work is around improving, improving the health of older adults. Christine can associate program manager at project sunshine. She he is our soul panelists who is among you apart, part of the non-profit five oh, one c three community, and their work at project sunshine is direct support to pediatric patients and their families, and anthony sanchez welcome. Anthony is corporate social responsibility manager at american express. They’re three priorities around csr, or preserving historic places, developing new leaders and encouraging community service. Each of their fuller bios is outside. Please, sze, give a warm welcome teo title, please. Now important to know about about christine and anthony, they’re actually they could be holding hands hyre american express that americans press is funding projects sunshine so we brought we brought to the panel one team that is actively collaborating, right? So keeping with you know what? I i, uh, i said is our purpose today we’re going to talk about relationship building, so i’m going, i’m going start with the most basic basic question means we’ll start with caitlin, um, creating strong relationships with funders again, for our, for our audience of small and midsize non-profits how could they what’s one or two ideas that come to mind about creating that strong relationship at the outset at the beginning of a potential relationship? One unique thing about power is that we strive to and have the opportunity to fund an organization for up to ten years, and i say that because when we enter a collaboration with new organization, um, there is not the idea that the organization is going to do everything perfectly, but there are a few characteristics that are really important to us. The first i would say is just honest communication, i’ve had a number of grantees over it’s inevitable that you will have adversity, that something won’t go well go won’t go as planned, and as a program officer in charge of managing our relationship, the most helpful thing to me and the kind of like star grantees versus ones that are a bit more difficult, we want to be star granted, yes are just goes who communicate, explain that, you know, there are delays in the project, often most of the time, for a very legitimate reasons. And in addition to that not only say, you know, unfortunately, caitlyn there’s been a delay, or we weren’t able to do this activity, but also have already problem solved around how to either overcome that challenge and or a different activity. So one grantee in oaxaca, mexico, thie end of their year long program, which was a leadership training for a group of twenty young people, was to take them to mexico city. These are young people who had never really been out of the way municipality in which they lived in right before, a few weeks before they were supposed to go to mexico city, there was extreme violence in their community and a lot of parents rescinded the permission for their young people or their their children to go, so six of eighteen that were planned to go. We’re able to go to mexico city, and that would be a big sort of, like what’s going on. Um, but when they approached me, they said, listen, only six of eighteen could make it. We still went on the trip, they still did all the activities, and we did a camping weekend closer to the community in which they live. They live where sixteen of eighteen were able to participate. We still went through the leadership training. We had hoped for the themes, the bonding that took place, and they still had that sort of new and broadening horizons experience. And then we’re gonna have a chance to talk about some examples, okay? Of impact. We’ll definitely get to that. Cool. So yeah, basically, it sounds like you’re suggesting honesty. If there’s if there’s tribulations if there’s trouble, let your funder no. Yes, much work inside, i think. A non-profit radio i host this podcast. We gotta keep it to an hour. So we got a concise pursuing the field guide for data driven. Fund-raising it’s, the latest resource on the listener landing page tony dahna slash pursuing radio there’s so much data available it’s overload just just the data that you already have these can be overwhelming makes me think of ah howard on network i’m mad as hell, and i’m not going to take it anymore. So much data. The field guide makes your data less daunting talk talk, howard down. This is what’s in it. Five high level steps so you can translate your business objectives into actionable steps. Ah, real world case studies showing you how other non-profits are using data to achieve their fund-raising goals and a worksheet for ah, conversation and thought creation to help your team find the right focus. It’s the field guide for data driven fund-raising tory dahna em a slash pursuant radio. Now back to build your grantmaker relationships. Then what? Aside from no being honest about potential problems, adversity? What else? What else can we do again? Looking to try to look at the outset. Wait! We don’t even have a relationship yet. It’s up to you. But early on at least no that’s. Great. And i was echo exactly what was just said i would also say from the outset you’re a new grantee and speaking from from position the foundation right work and some of the other foundations that we partner with, uh, i want this speaker anything but a new grantee is ah, in a new amazing relationship that your program officers excited about, and the foundation is excited about. Another dynamic within foundations is to not, um, overbear helicopter in and try toe add too much burden onto the grantee because we know that your work is paramount and we don’t wantto sit there and constantly be asking for you for updates because we know that you’ll probably be sending that in a report, so i’d say take the onus and agency to reach out to us and share updates in the interim we love when we get interim updates if you’re and i’ll keep it quick with this story, we have a grand t out in the rural area of california and the rural areas of california have more of ah sabat kind of economic climate of the us south it’s not all l a and the bay area we get updates about winds that they get at the local school board level and within the local court systems, and we love hearing those stories and we share them throughout our foundation on it goes all the way to the board level, so i would just say, be open and honest with us on dh feel free to reach out don’t think there that they’re the big foundation black box, and we will send a move. Port leader? Yeah, awesome open honesty and even reporting when it’s not required. Correct, right? You’re welcome. You’re welcome those okay, geever, by the way, let me also just remind each of you. If you don’t have the mic, you can still speak. You’ll be hurt by this. This fancy omni directional. So no, you’re welcome. You should have it. Yeah, but if you if you, uh, you know, make some quick or something, you’ll be hurt. Okay? So keep it clean because it’s gonna be it’s gonna be heard. It’s gonna be preserved, please. Amy berman. What? I advice for them. Oh, that starting that relationship real strong. So i’m going to go go to before you’re even a grantee. Andi, i agree with everything that i’ve heard so far, but before you’re a grantee, this is your opportunity to really understand who it is you’re going to be meeting with and you should be meeting with with the foundation that you want, teo get to know or go to an event where you know that they’re going to be and you should know enough about number one, their mission kind of grants that they do, because when you talk about the work that you want todo, it has to fit within the strategy of that foundation. But i’ll tell you even more than that, you need to look at the language on that website. So you know you’ve heard some hints here you’ve heard, you know, words like workforce or words like social justice, use those words in describing what you do if you were work, relates to that area, convey what you dio and what your interests are within that kind of language and context that will make it easier for you and the person that you’re meeting with, sometimes for the first time to see where the fit iss now, maybe the person is going to get where the fit is without you having done your homework, but it’s your job to really make that fit a parent so doing your homework in advance is really helpful. And one thing that i would suggest the first time that you meet with the foundation don’t hit an idea because that one idea may be the thing that is not within what they khun d’oh, let them get to know you and the range of things that you d’oh that will be the best entry. And one of the biggest mistakes that people make is they come in with a very specific pitch and there are other things that we then didn’t get to talk about and that’s the thing that would have been the right fit. Are you starting to hear the parallel between your individual giving and your potential institutional funding? Who goes into a meeting first meeting with a potential donor and solicit it doesn’t happen you get you have to get to know them. Amy’s, amy’s advising not only do your research, but very well your first meeting ought not be the pitch and again parallel with your similar to the work you’re doing in the individual fund-raising it’s kind of like asking something you’d marry. You on the way here, it’s, not really a smoker talking that’s where i’m going wrong. I realize that now fifty five years to hear that christine, please. So i’m for our relationship with american express and then other relationships. What we’ve learned is to is and i think why we’ve been so successful, is that as a non-profit we take, we tried really hard to understand the funder. So and previously i actually was at a foundation, so i kind of have both lenses too, but it’s so it’s exciting to have the two perspectives. But i think it’s sometimes you just need to think of funders as though they have all of this money and power, some just going to go in and they must be able to do x y and z i think there’s a lot of assumptions and and expectations that come with that relationship. But you think about the relationship from the point of view of how can i be helpful? What is thie funder going through? How can i? How can we make their lives easier while also maximizing our impact? So it’s not just about i need this from younger i want to get x get why, but okay, work. How can we create a conversation around? So for us at project sunshine, we focus on pediatric health care, so we always start with the child in mind. But we can’t do the work we’re doing without our amazing partners are funders, our corporate partners. And so while making sure that they understand our mission and the work we’re doing to ask them, okay, so that how can we make your life easier? So i think starting from that and doesn’t that sound like something you would ask? Maybe not in those exact words, but parallel again in your individual fund-raising what? What is it about your work? What is it? I’m sorry. What is it about our work that interest you that motivates you? That moves you back-up and what’s. You know, in terms of suggestion, how can we make your life easier? Are there different methods of giving that we could talk about? Maybe a plan to give to makes more sense for you? Maybe it’s structured over a period of years. It’s a one time outright gift. Maybe it’s a gift of something other than cash. Gift in-kind someone some other kind of asset. So, you know, again the suggestion, how can we make your life easier? You’re always thinking about how you can help your donors to make gifts to you. You see these parallels? Upleaf so just to add what toe what christine said, i think it’s important to set expectations, right? So on the corporate side, i mean, most csr teams in a corporation is probably a group of six to eight people at american express it’s a it’s, a team of ten, and we’re basically responsible for engaging over fifty thousand employees so it’s hard to do that, right? So we look for partners who can help us, we can help them with their objectives and to, you know, help with their mission. But on the other hand, we also expect them to engage our volunteers, right? So setting that expectation is important because it’s a win win situation, so we’re helping the non-profit achieve their goals, but we’re also engaging our volunteers, i think setting an expectation up front, it’s super helpful and your collaboration involves a lot of volunteer work out of service work by american express employees. We’re gonna get to that. That grants aren’t only in the form of money, by any means. Let’s. Open it up. Now we’re gonna come back, come to questions periodically through throughout time together. How about questions on this initial round of hi? Um, i was wondering how open funders are, too, like meeting new people, like cold calls, you know, email or phone call, like, how approachable would you say you are, how open to new relationships? This is perfect, it’s. Exactly. We’re talking about what you know we’re the beginning phases of the relationship, how open or you to increase. Sounds like everybody has something, say, uh, good, michael. So on. It’s it’s. Really important that’s a big part of my job. I’m constantly meeting people you know, my area is around aging it’s around care of older adults, so i am on the road as a national thunder. I’m on the road, probably almost every week. I am going and meeting with people. They have very easy access to may. Um, if people are committing their life for doing this work, i’m committing my life toward them, because my foundation’s mission is to do this a swell, so i’m completely accessible. Damn! Yeah, i would. I would say that in our experience, we are one of the largest lgbt thunders, so we get a lot of requests from us based global funders well from us based organizations, and we similarly only have a team of of six or so, so we just don’t have the band with and one of the one of the things i hate about my job is knowing that me, me and my team really don’t have the band with even though are you? We have open initial funding, concept submission so anyone can send them in. We all do look at them, but we don’t have the bandwidth to have that special touch and tell people. Oh, but this local foundation in seattle area is doing x y z, so? So i would say, just keep at people, find out where those funders in those spaces go, when we attend conferences and other things, you catch people in a different mindset, they’re not running the meetings, they’re not doing their grantwriting up, so i would say catching people in different spaces as opposed to the cold call is one avenue you could you could employ kayman and i would just say it’s a both a do innit don’t is because in power we are open to hearing from from perspective organizations, but do your homework ahead of time and make sure so empower supports work in fifteen emerging market countries. We say that on our website we list the country’s make sure it’s a country that you work in is one that we support uh, we support work with at risk youth ages ten to twenty four if you’re working with the elderly or with children were not the right organization. So in general, as dan was saying, we tried to respect our grand thi’s time, and hopefully the idea would be that then sitting organizations or are granted partners will also do their part too respect our time and something about you that initial really agree with that. Obviously, like i mentioned before, it’s very hard, teo, you know, answer every email, answer every inquiry, so doing research, i think our website is really good at providing as tony mentioned, we support three different pillars, but it it it’s a good place to start because it provides a list ofthe sample projects that we’ve supported there’s. Also an eligibility quiz. So going back to what hates that it it helps you figure out whether it would be a good match or not, because through that eligibility quiz, you know, if you were to select, you know, you’re in a place like arkansas, where we don’t have a large and employee base, that probably wouldn’t be a match because we like to support organizations in specific regions, especially you know, where we have a large employee headcount and and, you know, our biggest market, so doing research is super important. Yeah, so you’ve heard this a couple times now. So what do we do on the individual side? Oppcoll prospect research? You got to do it on the institutional side to you don’t want to embarrass yourself. Bye let’s say failing to send a letter of inquiry if that’s part of the that’s the first step, that latto dahna funder once no, so don’t miss step by not doing your research let’s move the relationship on a little bit now we’re not we’re not the inquiry stage. We’re not at the opening stage now. We’re funding. We are your hyre you’ve selected granted, how can we keep? The relationship strong now we already heard report when it’s not necessary. Keep us involved now some steel you can’t beat your idea. You gotta come with multiple ideas. That’s, why you’re here way also hurt. Share, adversity, tribulations, difficulties along the way. What other advice? Again? Keeping the relationship strong now that we are funded, uh, who wants to anybody could start. Okay, um one one thing that could be a challenge, but i think is also easy to find a potential volunteer for that really makes a difference for us is around honestly high quality pictures of the work that you’re doing if you have a really active social media page. And the reason is that we are not an endowed foundation. So we report to our donors about the work that we’re supporting and it’s really helpful. And unfortunately, some of the grand teeth like it featured the most are those that have really great documentation of their own world. So not every organization can can hyre it’s owned photographer that’s for sure. But i think that’s a good news that may be a volunteer who wants to come learn more about your program if they have. You know, photography skills could be a really great way just just yeah, raise awareness about the work that you’re doing and can i suggest that maybe it doesn’t always doesn’t have to be high production value to be moving and show impact? I’ve seen cases where hyre people who are benefiting from the organizations work? Do you sell do selfie videos and, you know, with some really simple editing tools that could be really compelling, so, you know, they might go on for twelve minutes or so that’s too long, but no, i guess the point is doesn’t have to be high production value necessarily two to convey impacts are so use your social media. Obviously we all know how important video is, how compelling that could be storytelling through pictures as well. Latto you know, let them let them know what the work is that they’re paying for. Please, dad, no, no on b we’ll keep it quick might sound very simple, but i know when i was in very early in my career non-profit that didn’t have much of a development office capacity, um but now i know being on the other and how important make sure your thunders are on your email list, so when you stand out everything about programmatic buy-in aspects or big announcements that, you know, all of your funders are getting those updates that we could focus on your work and that way. Hyre the funders are also updated. Follow him on twitter follow your funders on twitter i mean, it sounds basic, but it might it might get overlooked. Uh, facebook, you know, fan their facebook page, etcetera, etcetera, dahna connect in ways other than what what they’re what they’re requirements are for, you know, quarterly or semiannual reporting or something, you know, connect beyond that again relationship building, right? You’re doing it on the individual side, do it on the institutional side as well. You got something. My name is amy, so you suffer i don’t feel like i’m sorry, okay, so the other thing is about your expectation for us and, you know, it’s important that you have an expectation for us. There are people there are foundations that, you know, everything kind of goes into a black box when when i’m developing a proposal, i actually work with the grantee on the development of that proposal, so i’ll edit it, it’s, not a black box, it’s an intentional, so once we’ve decided we’re going forward, it is a very intentional act, but once you have the grant, the other thing is to consider me as a part of the team, so include us and convene ings, invite us, we may or may not be able to go, but we also have the ability to write and speak. I’ve given congressional testimony on behalf of grantees. You know we are, we can provide you with more than just grantspace port, we can actually provide you with elbow ovaries. We can be helpful to you. We can even bring other funders to the tape. So the more you engage with us as a grantee, more helpful, i can be for you. Excellent examples. Excellent. Thank you, wantto latto. So i know we’ve been talking about social media and videos and high tech stuff, so when i think, though, that that’s very helpful, i think and think don’t know old fashioned is just a meet in person so far after me and i had breakfast today before we came here, and we try to make it a point to remember that for organizations, companies that there’s a person there that you’re talking to, who maybe just got married or so to also build a relationship around the person, not just the institution, i think yeah, as i said earlier, institutions are made up of people i mean, how how plainer can we make the comparisons tear into your individual fund-raising program it’s the same it’s the same strategy keeping keeping informs, inviting you invite your major donors to things, invite your institutional, you’re you’re funders like you said, they may or may not come, but the invitation should always be out there. They should be getting all your press all your tweets, etcetera can’t drive home in it. Let’s, take a break! Wagner cps this testimonial quote, this is my first year and we’re a growing non-profit wagner, cpas. Was completely attentive and gave the impression as if they were right next door when handling our review engagement. Even though we’re in a different state, they made me feel like we were the only client they had, and they were able to walk me through starting up our accounts to finishing our yearly statements. Nothing was too small of a task for them to handle, and they were always available for questions and concerns. The customer service was exceptional, which is a rarity these days and was greatly appreciated. I received great advice and guidance for better business practices from a professional, all while feeling supported and genuinely cared for in the process when your cpa’s really stands out as a partner and i could not be happier with the results. End quote, small cancer research non-profit here on the east coast, supported and genuinely cared for are they butlers, front desk clerks, nurses, first responders, many petty girls are they made her desire somalia’s are they bus boys? Are they airline pilots? Are flight attendants who used to be stewardesses? Remember same baizman when they were stewardesses, slight tennis now of the massage therapists, acupuncturists, nutrition coaches, rehab counselors none of the above they’re wagner, cps, humble weinger cps more than cpas, trusted advisors, you know, they get to know you. I keep reading this testimonial because it’s it’s so, so genuine and just not what you’re goingto see about most certified public accountants. Um, i’ll take care of you and you want somebody who’s going to do that for you going beyond the numbers. Eat. Talk to huge tomb. You heard mi ri a lot about him last week. Talkto him. Good guy. Weinger cpas dot com. Now time for tony. Take two. Show your love. I need you to show your love to our sponsors. Please. These are the companies that are keeping this show. Ah, going to conferences, um, keeping it in the studio month after month, helping me produce the show by sponsoring it. So if cpa’s or fund-raising council and valuable fund-raising content and credit card processing our possibilities for you, then i would be grateful if you would check out our sponsors. You know who i’m talking about? Of course. Pursuing wagner and tell us please show your love to the sponsors. Check him out. Now return to build your grantmaker relationships. So on the corporate side, it about being, you know, you guys being flexible, right? Because, yeah, i can support you through grantmaking and providing volunteers, but there’s also other opportunities, so i always make it. I always make the effort of engaging non-profits where our affinity groups at american express because that if your woman empowerment organization there’s always a way to connect with employees and other ways, right? So we’ll offer volunteers, but we can also bring awareness to our employees, and they could make individual donations through our employees e-giving campaign or through our dollars for doors program, or maybe it’s an opportunity for you to come in and speak to a group of women and just bring more awareness, so the relationship doesn’t just have toe and at grantmaking were always big expanding that relationship and helping you as much as we can. All right, this is a time we’re going to turn teo storytelling. I want it. I want to turn to some examples of how these strong relationships have impacted work on the ground use. Use any example you like one of your one of your grantee organizations and let’s let’s start with anthony. And and the projects on shiny and and why don’t you talk about the work that goes beyond as you were just saying, perfect in trouble, you know, beyond money. So we started our partnership with project sunshine back in twenty ten, and our biggest challenge at that moment was engaging those i mean, where american express that we have several call centers throughout the u s and it’s harder to engage those employees who are you know, their job is basically being on the phone, being in a call center. So we were looking keeper ways to engage these volunteers because, let’s, be honest, most employees want to go out and violence here, but the challenge is finding the time, right? So not every employee has the luxury of going on park and planting a tree for four or five hours, so we thought, why not start this partnership with project sunshine? Who, i’m christine can talk more about what they do create thes care kids that are prepared in house. Esso employees don’t necessarily have to leave the office to volunteer. It only takes one hour. We started that partnership back in twenty ten immediately we got a huge response, because again, people felt like they were able to give back without having to invest so much time fast forward, i think two or three years later, the success of the program helped us build a case to go backto our leaders and say, hey, this is a great partnership were engaging more volunteers we expanded than to other locations on dh we’ve been partners now for seven years, and we’ve engaged over seven thousand employees in the last couple of years, and we’re now internationally. Last year, we started a partnership with project sunshine zoho it’s finding ways of thinking of all your employees population, right? So those who don’t have the flexibility and and i think that’s, what works? Well, that project’s on china heard the challenge that we were having, and they did a great job at finding a solution for us, especially if you’re talking to corporations think broadly again your course way said, your first meeting is not going to the solicitation, you know, make some enquiries. So after you’ve done your research on the web site, maybe talk to some other organizations that, you know they’re funding. However, however you go about your research, especially talking to corporations, you want to think about volunteers because anthony’s point is and please do want a volunteer, and that often is a part of what companies want to give. So it’s more than the money, especially not only limited to companies, certainly, but especially cos don’t think just about, you know, dollars out. Okay, so so how how are your work? Is pediatric patients supporting them and their families? And how are these kids and their families benefiting from this? Is that great questions? So we the healthcare landscape is constantly changing, and oftentimes the child, the patient, they’re stressed and terrified parents, they’re siblings kind of get missed. And so what we do is mobilized volunteers to really provide and come around the child, that the parents, the family, and to treat them the way that if we were the child, the parents or the sibling, we will let me treat it. And so we do a number of different programs we provide in hospital based parties, bringing the joy of childhood into the into the hospital setting, letting kids be kids. So we do that’s one part the part that we work with. American express and a lot of our corporate volunteers are sending sunshine programme, so the sending sunshine program really what’s designed kind of with i mean, american express was a big part of that it’s office based volunteering so volunteer corporate volunteers in their own offices get to ascend, assemble these craft kids so that’s like a standalone craft that that we sent to over three hundred hospitals and medical facilities so that if you i mean, you could imagine if you were a child and you just broken leg, you’re in emergency room, you’re going to be there for four hours, and you have a lot of stressed out doctor’s child life specialists, they able to grab these and give give them to a child to decrease their anxiety, to decrease there, even boredom, to the and to the the sibling who may be with them. And and the care giver is a moment to believe. So that’s one of the that the activities we also create these things called sergi dolls, which are medical play dolls, and we’ve made there’s research behind them about using these dogs to help empower children to understand the treatment that they will. Be going through. And when i first joined projects in china was like, does this really make a difference? And the overwhelming answer from our partners? That, yes, we have a wait list them so clearly there’s a need there, and the and that the need for on the hospital side for these children families that in a line so well with our corporate partners, i think it’s it’s kind of it’s amazing this wind wind that anthony was talking about. So over, i think, with the last time we checked over forty five thousand children, families received these craft kids hyre sergi dolls that american express employees put together, and one recently was around the hurricanes. So the we had said american express has a south florida region regional areas. So we had made a much of craft kits, sent them to hospital suspected by the hurricane. We received this amazing quote phone call from a child life specialist who say you saved our lives. So basically, american express partiers saved our lives because we received i think something like one hundred falik in floods of one hundred fifty two warring families who were clearly distraught and stressed, and the first thing they did was grab as many of these yellow projects on chain bags that are volunteers put together as they could and went from chaos to come. And these were her wits chaos to come immediately. Christine, how do you convey that message to american express that they would feel the impact of their work? So we don’t have a phone call with anthony, and we do try to sow way have a great development team that does a lot of social media, and we’re trying we try to provide photos reporting all the things that we had talked about on this panel so that we could make sure that power corporate incorporate partners feel that, yes, so we did for that specific one we were on the phone, and then anthony, who fed it back to the actual employees from actually we’re in a such a satisfaction right on our employees and those who volunteer because you see the immediate impact, right? So it’s not like going on like a community center and painting a wall blew right there’s really not much impact that you see there? Yeah, you paint the wall, but with these care kids, you know, if one hundred volunteers create a thousand kids, you know that they’re going to get to a thousand kids who need them. So every time i post project’s on shine project on our internet site, it sells out in a matter of like five minutes, like, okay flooded with emails because, again, it’s a good way for employees just donate a now hour of their time and see the immediate impact that these kids have. I could tell caitlin is burning, the answer will come back. I just wanted teo say this is an example of where that sounds like a phenomenal volunteer opportunity where it’s both beneficial in it’s a meaningful volunteer opportunity that’s beneficial not just for the volunteer, but also for the organization. I just want to say this is one of those moments where feel free to push back against your donor, where if they’re really excited and want to send volunteers your way and it’s actually going to create more of a headache, then be helpful or if you work in a context where it’s not appropriate tohave caitlyn as ah white, thirty two year hold american coming in, i thinkyou internationally. But with at risk, youth are more sensitive. Populations feel free to say no, because all too often, i think organizations, especially if it’s, a donor asking, feel i’m required to take on this hungers. And sometimes it’s it’s more trouble than it’s worth. Um the shining of ah story that one repeat that some of the themes that we’ve already heard, and i, i’m reminded of a grantee partner of ours, that it was actually same grantee that i mentioned working in the rural areas of california. Um buy-in they’ve been a grantee of ours for three, three years, so not, you know, like a historic one for us, but not a baby. And we have had an amazing relationship. They send us that the updates we’ve met curated this relationship. We took a tour of the central valley of california, seeing all the work they’ve done, we bought our ceo of our vice president, we met dolores huerta, and we really got to see their work after that site visit. You can tell that the relationship kind of tipped a little bit. You could tell that way had a shorthand. We had a common connection and fast forward to two weeks ago. The head of the project is doing great work, and they’re trying to scale their program. Um, we shopped thiss program director to the ford foundation, to the open society foundation and to an anonymous donor that works in this space. We introduced them tio like mine and thunders that we know here in new york city because we know that their work is so amazing, you know, in the rural areas of california kind of far away from big foundation institutions except for the california down men. Um, so that’s that’s a story that i love that i don’t think that may be a lot of grantees would think to say, please introduce us to your other fundez as you might think, that is a no overreach or or going past, but i think you can get a read on that relationship once it reaches that tipping point. That’s something i’m sure a lot of organization just wouldn’t even think to do. Introduce us to your other funders. Got to take a break, tell us credit card and payment processing. Check out the video at tony dahna slash tony tell us explains the process of businesses getting with tello’s making that switch and how you get fifty percent of the revenue that passive revenue month after month after month think about the businesses this makes sense for in your community and send them to watch the video after you watch. It you watch first, like that car dealership that which i was putting down car dealership. I was thinking i had such a bad such a bad experience. First time i bought a car, i don’t know where my mother and father were, but we agreed on a price. And then the guy the the finance manager put on this one act play festival with the supposedly his the executive above him. About what? What? Ah, what a great price i was getting. It was for me to over here in their office, and they kept the door open and the finance manager was being berated. I told you nothing below sticker. The guy giving me, like a hundred fifty dollars off sticker price, right? I told you nothing below sticker. This can’t happen again. One act play festival happening in this office with the door open for me, the client to hear outside. And so the finance manager comes out, you know, he’s looking sheepish, total total fabrication. I said, is everything okay with our deal? You know, he said he said, everybody has a boss. All right, think about those car dealerships. Tony got a slash tony tell us now, back to building your grantmaker relationships. I mean, you gotta you gotta impact story. I do have an impact story. So in the foundation world, the most popular areas to fund are the arts, education and children, and my foundation does not fund that. In fact, out of one hundred five thousand foundations in this country, only six are primarily focused on older adults, so very, very small group of funders that do work nationally in this space. And we really care about, um, creating age friendly health systems, you know, how are they gonna be responsive to older adults caring about serious illness and end of life and also about family caregivers? So one of the grant is here in new york city, it’s the center towards to advance palliative care, trains people to provide care and make sure that they haven’t vamp scare planning so that their, you know, their goals are what i care is that they get at the end that they relieve suffering. They make sure that people have the care that they need when they go through a very serious illness, even when they’re going to get better from serious illness to help them get through that serious illness. Um, and so the kinds of impact this work has had today, a palliative care is in roughly ninety percent of hospitals nationally. That’s. Huge. It only came to this country in the nineteen eighties. We have been along and sustained thunder in this space, and we may be slowed a warm, but we tend to be a longer and sustained thunder around impact. Um, the other thing was, there were very few funders that were interested in this space. Does anybody remember the death panel? Conversations? Okay, well, thankfully, we’re not having a lot of those today, but, um, there were very few funders that we’re doing focused work in this area. So i decided i was going to start having calls. This was not with the grantee. This was on behalf of the grantspace. I wanted to create a safe learning space for foundations that might be thinking about this. They wanted to learn. And so what’s happened with that. We now have a very large collaborative. People are more strategic. I know people that they want to fund. We fund together some things. We fundez next to each other and other things, um, this past year, about eighty million dollars in new funding was in this space. And this is on behalf of the grantee, the grant he could not have had those calls, but it was necessary to begin. Teo, bring people into the space. And now they’re coming out of the woodwork. We actually did a grant. Teo, give somebody money to help coordinate this crew. Um, you know, coordinate the calls and everything else. So thie impact is huge. The only other thing about this was about seven years ago. I was diagnosed with stage four cancer. And i had been doing this work long before my you know, this is my my area. Um, but then i made a decision. How could i make use of the situation to further healthy grantee? So i’ve been writing, speaking, uh, we’ve put on congressional briefings together. So any other way that i can be helpful, i am definitely shoulder to shoulder with grant. Thank you for sharing. Thank you, kayman a backstory. And then we’re gonna come back to the come back to you. It’ll be peppermint lifesaver time very shortly after caitlin’s kitten’s got an example. Yes. And i would just go back to some power can fund your question around, like, what to do once your rd, a grantee in-kind of in the medium term and how it can be really helpful for the relationship. So just to say one of the key criteria we look for when determining whether or not we’re going to fund an organization for a second a third, a fourth year, is this idea around are they learning organization? And by that we mean a couple of things on one, um, really, the most important is, like i said, we don’t expect programs to go perfectly there’s challenges that come up youth are dynamic and changing issue areas arise eyes um, but really impactful grantees that we have in great relationships in the really impactful programming are constantly learning and adapting and analyzing what went well, what it’s our strength what’s an area for improvement and even again, the same grantee in oaxaca, mexico. So in the course of their programming found that the middle school population that they were working with we’re engaging in self harm and cutting, and they recognized we as an organization don’t have expertise on this. But they themselves reached out, identified an organization in canada that focuses on this and then came to us and said, listen, and our next grant, we would love to include a line item to have training on this to better serve our young people and with a learning organization, i would just say also, openness to feedback, we think, you know, we support programs across the globe and sometimes see similar challenges in best practices, so it’s not donor-centric but being open to feedback is really important, even if you don’t necessarily take it on. And then also with this learning organization comes which sounds li, but playing well with others. So we often ask grantee organizations what other organizations are doing great work in their field and, um, it’s a rite of flag for us if they if they come back and say no one else is doing it as well as we are, which has happened and, uh, yeah, so i would say being a learning organization, playing while collaborating with other service providers, it’s something that we look four and yeah, provides question occurred to me based on what you and amy and we’re saying, especially if you’re being funded, what about? So if none of your funders duitz ask, can we meet your other funders? If you’re a grantee, what about saying we’d like you to meet our other funders? What about the grantee putting that those that possibility together? Is there a downside we’re talking about? Could there be a okay, so so the grantee could think of it. If none of the funders do there’s no doesn’t seem to be a downside to that, and just a just a couple of sentences. Don’t do this. Stop your top, don’t do this. Yeah, the worst thing that you could do is when you have an opportunity to get funding, to listen to the thunder about what it is. You should be funded. In other words, don’t move from your mission if it’s not helpful to your mission and strategy. It’s a disaster, okay. I’m going to just i’ll answer this from my previous foundation experience. One thing was, don’t get angry when you get there, like when you get defunded. So there was one of the things that was very difficult. Was when was for funder, is to not fund that’s very hard, i think, from i’m sure everyone here knows and to have to send out a declination is also hard to have that he met with anger and accusation. Not great. I would say, don’t go into your automatic pitch, right? Because we have objectives. You have objectives. So it goes just backto what we’ve been saying, doing research, and not just assuming all american express is a big company, with so much money that we would necessarily support. I’m sure your mission is important. But it might be something that we’re not is not within our gunman’s, that we would support. So not just going into your pitch and assuming that. Then don’t do it, miss deadlines, this deadline? Yeah, don’t miss deadlines you can man asked for an extension, don’t do it! Eleven fifty nine the day of but my in my over four years in philanthropy, i know exactly those organizations that i think you’re going to fall through the cracks unless our team reminds them and i feel like that’s a perception issue happens with individuals. You won’t know that one person that made a bad impression in your family or at work and that perception than permeates it and then stays. So just have a schedule have reminders have your assistance remind you whatever, but yeah, don’t nastad please there’s so many technical tools that can help you. You do everything from wake up to know when to go to sleep, everything in between. So i used the use the app to use the tools we have bonem to one i would say is don’t fall off the place the face of the earth so we’ve had some grantees just disappear. Yeah, and and not communicating, i would say, even if it’s a one line, you know again in mexico, right after the earthquake, we reshot guarantees how are you doing? So you know, we’re in the trenches, but thank you for thinking of us, boom, or, you know, where is your report? I’m sorry, there’s been delays. Just keep the communication open, so please let’s, join me in thanking that’s. It in-kind christine werner and xero miree. Buy-in i hope you see all the connections between your individual fund-raising and your newly invigorated institutional fund-raising program. Next week, turbocharger grants fund-raising john hicks returns you see how coordinated the show is, grantspace that grants week after week, this is all put together. If you missed any part of today’s show, i beseech you, find it on tony martignetti dot com were supported by pursuing online tools for small and midsize non-profits data driven and technology enabled. Tony dahna slash pursuant radio wagner, cps, guiding you beyond the numbers. Regular cps dot com and tell us credit card payment processing, your passive revenue stream durney dahna slash tony tell us our creative producer is claire meyerhoff. Sam liebowitz is the line producer, shows social media is by susan chavez. Our music is by scott steiner brooklyn, new york you 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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When’s the best time to post on facebook facebook’s andrew noise nose at traffic is at an all time hyre on nine a m or eight pm so that’s, when you should be posting your most meaningful post here’s aria finger ceo of do something dot or ge young people are not going to be involved in social change if it’s boring and they don’t see the impact of what they’re doing so you gotta make it fun and applicable to these young people look so otherwise a fifteen and sixteen year old they have better things to do if they have xbox, they have tv, they have their cell phones me dar is the founder of idealised took two or three years for foundation staff to sort of dane toe add an email address card. It was like it was phone. This email thing is right and that’s why should i give it away? Charles best founded donors choose dot or ge somehow they’ve gotten in touch kind of off line as it were on dh and no two exchanges of brownies and visits and physical gift. 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