Big Nonprofit Ideas for the Other 95%
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Tony’s Guests:
Corporate employees can make gifts to your nonprofit, but they can do a lot more for you. DeShele Dorsey, senior managing director for corporate social engagement at Changing Our World, shares smart ideas on soliciting and closing companies for mentoring, pro bono service, board membership, service sabbaticals, loaned executives and more.
Regular contributor, Maria Semple, The Prospect Finder, explains the differences between the two ways to do your research, and how to determine which is right for your shop.
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Here is a link to the podcast: 061: Engaging Employees & PR2: Prospect Research, Proactive or Reactive
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Here is a link to the podcast: 061: Engaging Employees & PR2: Prospect Research, Proactive or Reactive
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Metoo hello and welcome to tony martignetti non-profit radio we were always talking about big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent. I’m your aptly named host last week, our big ideas were prospect research on women donors and learning lobbying limitations for the women donorsearch mint. Samantha cohen of the american civil liberties union was with me and she revealed, had a reveal the giving potential for your female prospects that’s often hidden, and that was the last of my pre recorded interviews from the association of fund-raising professionals, new york city chapter fund-raising day last june and the second segment was learning lobbying limitations, with our legal contributors, jean takagi and emily chan, there with me every month and last week they explained the limitations on lobbying by non-profits what activities are lobbying? How much of it can you do and how do you report it this week? We’re engaging employees. Corporate employees can make gifts to your non-profit, of course, but they can go a lot further as well. Deshele dorsey, senior managing director for corporate social engagement at changing our world, will share her smart ideas on soliciting and closing companies for mentoring probono service boardmember ship service sabbaticals, loaned executives and a lot more and then pr to prospect research. Proactive or reactive. Our regular contributor, maria simple, the prospect finder. We’ll always find it. The prospect finder dot com will explain the differences between the two ways to do your research and how to determine which is right for you, proactive or reactive. Between the segments on tony’s, take two at roughly thirty two minutes after the hour. Have you ever done a favor for someone and then felt that they let you down in some way? I’m going to talk about my block post this week, which is i’ll pick your brain and drop your list. We’re going to take a break, and when we return, then i’ll be joined by the shell dorsey and we’re going to talk about engaging employees, but i want to let you know we’re live tweeting. This show used the hashtag non-profit radio, and you can join the conversation on twitter and stay with us. You’re listening to the talking alternative network. Dahna 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 way. Look forward to serving you. 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 to one, two nine six four three five zero two for a free counsel section. That’s lawrence h bloom two, one, two, nine, six, four, three, five zero two. We make people happy. Oppcoll 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. Metoo welcome back to the show. I’m joined now by deshele dorsey, and we’re going to talk about engaging employees deshele is senior managing director for corporate social engagement at changing our world of fund-raising consulting company she previously worked for t c c group, where she provided a variety of consulting services to corporate citizenship programs and nonprofit organizations her clients, they’re included prudential, the gap foundation and henry street settlement in new york city. She’s, based in atlanta, georgia, and i’m very pleased to welcome the shell dorsey to the show hyre deshele hi, how are you? I’m doing very well welcome, thank you so much for having me. My pleasure. I want to remind listeners that we are live tweeting the show use the hashtag non-profit radio to join us on twitter deshele we’re talking about employee engagement, but individuals make up the largest portion of total giving, so why should non-profits be looking at companies, corporations? Well, corporations are committed to being good citizens in their community, which essentially means they want to be actively engaged in helping to address issues that not only would directly affect their employees but affect the places where they have operations. So it’s a nice opportunity for corporations to play, play a significant role in making sure where they operate are vibrant and lively. And do you know what what portion of total giving is from corporations? Yeah, it’s generally about ten, twelve percent, i believe a total getting every year and certainly that fluctuates, but his brain pretty consistently at that level. So, tony, you’re absolutely right. The majority of cash contributions in particular, come from individuals. Corporations do make a significant investment as well. Okay, yeah, and ten or twelve percent, i mean, that’s nothing to laugh at, so on it can go beyond ways that a lot of individuals khun give and that’s what we’re here to talk about. So we’re talking about employees in cos i mean, cos there are encouraging or maybe even creating incentives for their employees to be engaged with non-profits yes, absolutely there’s a variety of different ways that boy, you can get involved, and i think what most non-profits are familiar with this, certainly just the general assistance that a non-profit might have some common sort of community based activities such as, you know, going to your local food bank and helping pack pack four words stock shelves or maybe cleaning up a local park, but there are a variety of other ways that companies have looked to incentivize their employees to get out there. You know they have matching gift programs, sometimes employees, they’re just super busy, and maybe they can’t go out in the community. But imagine gift provides an opportunity for employees to give some resource is and double that gift because the company would match that contribution, right? Okay, and that’s on the fund-raising side and we want to go, we want to go beyond fund-raising and in fact, i pulled our listeners before the show and asked, what are your corporate solicitations limited to financial gifts and sponsorships and a hundred people? One hundred percent of people who answered said, no, we go broader than finance just financial gif ts s o we want and we want to talk about the broader stuff. So what are some of the other ways? And then we’ll go into detail on on a bunch of them that that people can employees khun b might be engaged beyond fund-raising and now that’s really great to hear that non-profits are actually exploring all the alternative ways that they can get support from a company, some of the more common ways would be bored service. A lot of companies will look to place their typically their senior managers in some of their hyre level executives on board and serving in leadership roles on those boards, some of the other things that have come to fruition more recently over the past two years, or things like probono service or skills, baseball and hearing. And this is a little bit different than a typical, you know, paint a school cafeteria project, you really looking at opportunities where you can take the employees skills and apply it to a challenge, one issue that a non-profit might have. So for example, you know, if a company sorry non-profit needed help with their human resource is activities and building out, you know, a talent management program, then the company has those skills, and they can apply them to the non-profit so this is sort of the company seeing the its its employees as assets beyond the contribution that making the workplace but but seeing them as assets for charitable giving, using their talents absolutely and there’s more and more of that happening, we see a lot of work being done in the environmental space in that regard. So you know, a company that might have skills on logistics, transportation can help a company, you know, helping non-profit think through how to be more efficient in their processes, for example, or thinking through how they might better use water that’s a part of their mission. When you look at sort of food related organizations so there’s a variety of ways that companies are doing it, the probono pieces, something that’s exploding pretty significantly, but it’s also harder, harder type of product to implement because that there’s more owners on the non-profit to be engaged, and we have just a minute before our first break deshele just how would a non-profit identify the companies that it should be targeting are soliciting? Well, i think there’s a couple of things one of you want to look at what your mission is and how that might online with the company, and then you certainly want to explore companies are much more transparent than they have been in the past about the ways in which they use their volunteers or their their corporate volunteers. And so they can go to their web sites often, and see listings of the variety of ways in which employees can be activated in the community. Okay, and it might also be based on location to write. You wanna look where what’s local to you, because we’re not talking about just big companies doing doing this social engagement, okay, we’re going to talk more about that. After the break. We’ll pick it up there would take this break, and then, of course, deshele dorsey will stay with me. We’ll keep talking about engaging corporate employees. E-giving anything shooting, getting depicting duitz duitz you’re listening to the talking alternate network. E-giving e-giving you could 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. Hi, this’s, psychic medium. Betsy cohen, host of the show. The power of intuition. Join me at talking alternative that calm mondays at eleven a. M call in for a free second reading. Learn how to tune into your intuition to feel better and to create your optimum life. I’m here to guide you and to assist you in creating life that you deserve. Listen every monday at eleven a, m on talking alternative dot com. Are you feeling overwhelmed in the current chaos of our changing times? A deeper understanding of authentic astrology can uncover solutions in every area of life. After all, metaphysics is just quantum physics, politically expressed hi and montgomery taylor and i offer lectures, seminars and private consultations. For more information, contact me at monte m o nt y at r l j media. Dot com talking alternative radio twenty four hours a day. Lively conversation. Top trends, sound advice, that’s. Tony martignetti, yeah, that’s. Tony martignetti non-profit radio. And i’m travis frazier from united way of new york city, and i’m michelle walls from the us fund for unicef. Welcome back to tony martignetti non-profit radio, where live tweeting used the hashtag non-profit radio if you have a question for deshele door so you could also call eight seven seven for a tow for one two oh, i don’t know the phone seems so nineteen, seventy seven we have we have the hashtag use the hashtag for pete’s sake the phone seems so june okay deshele dorsey, right before the break, we were talking about small companies being involved in this i mean, so they’re also seeing there their employees as as assets for charitable giving, right? This is not only for, you know, ibm and google. Absolutely, and i would even venture to guess in many cases, because the smaller companies may not have the sort of cash resource is that a larger company might have, they would even be more apt to sort of offer their employees so you have law offices, you might have local facilities, you know, small mom and pop, you know, chain stores and things of that nature who would be more than happy to get involved and be a part of what non-profits air doing in the community and leveraging their place. They get engaged and another way i think teo learn about what’s happening with corporate engagement this way is through ah, a volunteer counsel in the area, and i know i’m going to ask you what, what that is, but i just want to pull give you the answers to our pre show poll, which were, you know, i asked, do you have a corporate volunteer counsel in your area? Yes or no? And then the third answer was what everyone chose. I better listen to the show because i don’t know what that is so deshele what is a corporate volunteer council? Well, the council’s really were set up through a lot of the work that companies were doing in partnership with the points of light institute, which i’m sure many of your listeners know emerged a while back with with hands on network and essentially, these are coalitions where companies are paying a membership to be a part of ah, conglomerate of their peers who want to get together and talk about that practices think about ways that they can be more strategic and support, and also champion corporate volunteerism and just support other civic activities and the way in which a non-profit can be used four to a council like that is really to keep those members informed about what’s going on in the community and how they could use volunteers helping maybe even tow, offer inside and suggestions on how they might work better in particular cause areas that are important to that communities. How could a non-profit find out if there is such a council in their community? The best way to find out is to leverage information that would be available on on the hands on network website. And if you go through there, there is actually a link that shows you where the corporate volunteer councils are, okay. And what about a local chambers of commerce? Could they be a good a good way of engaging with the corporate community? Yeah, i think what would be useful in terms of the chambers is that there are many events that are open to the public where corporations are actively involved in are sponsoring those events. So if you know local non-profits are looking for ways to network with company corporate executives than those air really great programs that happen on a regular basis where? You could just get out and network because sometimes it’s really about a matter of having that relationship that will help you to open doors, the opportunities that maybe in companies, whether they’re big or small and that’s a great resource to use as well. Okay, so we have the hands on network, the local chambers of commerce. Are there any other web based resources for matching companies with non-profits yeah, there’s, a lot of great resource is online, and a couple that i would recommend volunteermatch dot or you can go there and see what kind of activities are available idealised artwork is another option, there’s a couple others, i would look at served dot gov, which also has a number of initiatives that they’ve sponsored with companies and the other was all for good. And the thing to keep in mind that non-profit should understand is that the a lot of these websites are populated into management system that the corporations will use to help provide a sort of gateway for their employees to learn about volunteer opportunities so non-profits that are listening to your show should definitely check out the sides and think about posting the opportunities. That they have available, whether that’s for general volunteering or something more significant, like the skills base that we discussed earlier, then after the charity has identified the company’s based on mission match or locality, or where employees air based from that company. Um, how do you then approach? How do you start your solicitation? Yeah, that’s a really good question, and every company is going to be a little bit different. And i would love to say that there’s like, easy, a magic bullet in getting that. But sometimes, if if they’re retail based company, it might be going into that local store and approaching the manager there no that’s applicable for a lot of places, like a target or, you know, our kroger or a walmart for that, for that sake, the other is that a lot of local areas will have what they call internal volunteer committees. And so hopefully there’s information that might be on the website that will help you figure out how teo contact someone on that committee, and then they would then in turn, brings the opportunities in house. The other things that your listeners could consider is that many companies offer what? They called days of service and assuming that there is an opportunity or a match between what the company wants to do and the mission of the non-profit then there may be weighted submit information that would perhaps make them eligible to be considered for a day or a week or a month of service activity that company would host, and if in the first example you gave, you know, just really walking into a local store target or something similar, just maybe something that is like you said earlier, mom and pop, you’re it may be an easier ask solicitation because you’re not asking for money, which probably a lot of non-profits air doing, but you’re asking for sharing of expertise? Absolutely, you know, it’s it’s certainly an equally important ask and what’s relevant for the non-profit is to make sure when they are prepared to go in front of the company, as i mentioned before, that they’ve done their homework, they really understand what the goals and objectives of the companies, but also that they’ve clearly defined what it is they’re looking for and having corporate volunteers activate because that is one of the tension points that a lot of companies experience, but also making sure that the non-profit has given sufficiently time to help develop in shape what the project might be so both entities can be successful in the process. My guest is deshele dorsey and she’s, a senior managing director for corporate social engagement at changing our world of fund-raising consulting company were talking about engaging corporate employees, all right, so deshele we’ve we’ve identified, you know, howto pick the right cos to approach and how to start that approach let’s talk about it in detail some of the ways that we can actually get company employees involved board service is probably one of the easiest ones and most commonly understood, right? Yes, absolutely. And really, what you’re looking for here is your board has responsibility with the non-profit really govern and make sure that the mission is being met and you may have particular needs whether that around finance, whether that’s around organisational development or maybe you just need someone that has a really has a really good network, and you want an opportunity to kind of broad and your donor-centric you don’t want to be abusing your board members in that way, but most most poor members and really sad ones understand that when they come to a non-profit part of their responsibilities to help with fund-raising and so that is a definite opportunity that can be pursued with, and we’ve had plenty of guests on the show that have have talked about what’s appropriate in inboard engagement in terms of fund-raising and friendraising and other things so that’s why i think boards service is probably the first thing that comes to mind when we think about engaging corporate employees, but but for maybe the smaller company, the or the bigger companies doesn’t have people to devote to that kind of time commitment. There are lesser ways, smaller time commitment ways, but still valuable ways that companies can share their their employees expertise, absolutely. And you see this manifesting in a couple of ways, sometimes time’s, a company made offer just time with some of their middle managers in your executive to do mentoring and coaching with with non-profit executives and we’ve seen that great work come to fruition through leadership development program that a company like american express had in other instances you could have your executives loaned out to a non-profit for duration of time and this is called what we what we say is loaned executive and you may say, you know what? We really would like to help have someone on board to help us transition through this change. Our ceo has left the non-profit and now we really want to have someone in either to mentor that person orto help facilitate the organization, moving in another direction alone, executives to come in and be with you for a year, maybe two years and there, you know, and eventually lend out, went out from the company non-profit on dh, then you wait, okay, so let me stop you. Deshele so so for a period of a year or two there cos they’re willing to pay the salary of the executive and have them work in the non-profit day in, day out? Yeah, absolutely. And sometimes they’re shorter durations, obviously that that’s a huge commitment, but this is really designed for individuals who are emerging leaders because the companies could see it as a development opportunity. But also this is a good way for for non-profits think about engaging retirees, people who are leaving the work for us full time. And they’re still looking to be actively engaged, and the company might help to facilitate that person being part of the non-profit okay, excellent, yeah, please go ahead, continue. Um, and i was just going to say the other is obviously the skills based and again, that is really focused on a very specific in country of khan concentrated project for a shorter period of time typically wouldn’t necessarily take a whole year, but in that instance, you might get a whole team of people that are coming in but say you want to revamp your system, for example, about those that those individuals will come in to work with you on a regular basis. It’s almost like having a consultant come in, but what you’ve done is in exchange for having to pay a fee for that you’re actually getting the company lindell’s skills for you. So, like, the so the employees there sort of taking a sabbatical, maybe for a couple of months or something like that to do a discreet project like that? Um, it can be a formal sabbatical as and they’re taking full time often in most cases it’s really that they’re dedicating some portion. Of their work week be with the non-profit and helping them over a duration of time so it could be they’re dedicating a day or two a week to that non-profit and they’re still working there full time job, but they’re sort of set aside this time to do this probono project or maybe they’re just doing in after hours they’re doing it on some of their free time as well and facilitating that. But the the goal is you created a really concrete projects for this team of employees to work on, and they’re going to support you for whatever duration of time is necessary to complete that product. Okay, excellent. And then maybe something a little less formal, but suppose a non-profit just feels they’re a little that could use a little expertise, just like a couple of hours a week in a certain area, maybe it’s communications or marketing or i mean, it could be anything i imagine that kind of lesser commitment is possible too, right? Yeah, and i think a lot of companies would still see that as part of a way that they could lend the skills of their employees there to a non-profit and helping to support their, you know, growth and development. Um and it really will depend just what the company’s willing to do skills base is a new area of growth fur company so many are learning and figuring out how to set these up and howto work appropriately with non-profits and the time frame can sort of be negotiated, depending on the relationship you have with that particular company. No. Ok, so these air excellent evidence that i think a lot of non-profits don’t think of i think they just think of the corporate sponsorship on dh many think stop there s o these air these excellent ideas, thank you. I wantto spend a little time on employee e-giving just in the future, a couple of minutes that we have left and i was monitoring the small or engaged in really in the small non-profit put that on twitter and the hashtag is sm and pee chat it’s run by pamela grow and mark pittman on dh they were talking today about employees e-giving in terms of monthly monthly giving, um, and i wanted to share something that came from there from that chat that small non-profit shot that the the most common gift is roughly ten dollars, per pay period, and that came from someone named at philanthropy inc. Deshele is that? Is that about what you see that’s sort of an average gift? Ten dollars per pay period? Yeah, when you’re when you have companies who are engaged in what we often call federated campaigns, the most common one being united way, you will have employees who make a commitment to pledge some dollar amount and take a small portion of that out of their paychecks over an extended period of time, and that just makes it easier for the donor to be able to make that contribution instead of having to, you know, in some ways, write a big check all at once. Yeah, about ten dollars is probably right, and i would imagine, you know, with the recession, it will probably stay at about that level people are, you know, we’re getting back on their feet, okay? And the thie advice for soliciting that type of a gift from from your prospects there was there was a sort of a consensus on the small non-profit chat, and it was summarized by at pamela grow that it’s best to do a dedicated appeal to the audience, dedicate appeal for monthly sustaining gift’s rather than make it part of a broader appeal? What’s your sense of that? Yeah, no, i think that is absolutely fair and the reason that that’s important for non-profits understand is because individuals really wantto have a better sense in a transparent way of what their individual dollar is going to do. So if you’re offering the donor hyre thie opportunity to say, i’m going to invest, my resource is and i know whatever dollar amount i gave is really going to go to help support this local tutoring program that’s my community that’s a little bit different, andi is a lot more tangible, and they can see the value of their contribution more directly a lot of non-profits has done a really great job of saying if you donate x number of dollars, it translates into, you know, this many hours of tutoring, for example, that makes the donors feel really good and they can they can communicate even and share the passion and enthusiasm they have about working with your organization, they can tie it to something tangible, and they’re also seem to be a sense that the donors often increase their their monthly giving. Yeah, i think, as as thie donor, to know your organization much better has a better appreciation for what you’re trying to accomplish and also that the non-profit has taken the initiative to engage the donor beyond the gift. So whether that’s inviting them to special event that’s applicable or, you know, communicating with them through a newsletter and some of the online platforms that we have now, the donor’s affinity will certainly increase, and as a result of that, they’re likely to consider giving a greater good. My guests have been deshele dorsey, senior managing director for corporate social engagement, a changing our world deshele thank you very much, thank you so much, it’s been a real pleasure, and i also want to thank everybody who was on the small non-profit jet run by at pamela grow and at mark a pittman today, we tried to join those small non-profit chats when we can and when the topics are are consistent across their chat and my show after this break, it’ll be tony’s take two and then i’ll be with maria simple and we’ll talk. About proactive versus reactive prospect research. So stay with me. You’re listening to the talking alternative network. Dahna are you feeling overwhelmed and the current chaos of our changing times? A deeper understanding of authentic astrology can uncover solutions in every area of life. After all, metaphysics is just quantum physics, politically expressed, i and montgomery taylor and i offer lectures, seminars and private consultations. For more information, contact me at monte m o nt y at r l j media. Dot com are you concerned about the future of your business for career? Would you like it all to just be better? Well, the way to do that is to better communication, and the best way to do that is training from the team at improving communications. This is larry sharp, host of the ivory tower radio program and director at improving communications. Does your office needs better leadership, customer service sales, or maybe better writing, are speaking skills. Could they be better at dealing with confrontation conflicts, touchy subjects all are covered here at improving communications. If you’re in the new york city area, stop by one of our public classes, or get your human resource is in touch with us. The website is improving communications, dot com, that’s, improving communications, dot com, improve your professional environment, be more effective, be happier, and make more money improving communications. That’s. The answer. 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 welcome back to the show, it’s, time for tony’s take two, which is always roughly thirty two minutes after the hour. My block post this week is i’ll pick your brain and drop your list that comes from something that’s happened pretty recently past couple months, i guess, where i helped out to people with fund-raising advice fund-raising advice for one, and then the other was arranging a fund-raising internship with a with a former client for a second person, and and then they subscribed from my email list. Unsubscribes and, you know, i thought it’s not really a huge deal let’s face it, there are much bigger things teo concern ourselves with them whether somebody is getting our weekly emails, but i just thought, you know, that seems kind of ungrateful after i had helped them both with pretty substantial time commitments, like maybe is an hour and a half for each of them if you put it all together and then they unsubscribes so was i was i being unreasonable? I don’t know. I mean, i don’t i certainly don’t help people with a quid pro quo in mind. I’m never looking for you know, i helped you. So now what you gonna do for me in the next six weeks, or wherever? But it just seemed a little weird to me, actually, so i wondered if i’m being unreasonable or hypersensitive, and so that’s. What i asked in the block post, and i got a bunch of comments, and i’d appreciate your opinion of that, or or your or maybe another story. Maybe you’ve got something similar. I’m interested in your take on the whole subject and that’s, my block post this week, which you’ll find at mpg a d v dot com, and that is tony’s. Take two for friday, september thirtieth with me, now, is maria simple, um, ria. Maria symbol. Very simple is the prospect finder durney hyre maria, would you put me on hold now? I had you on mute at my end, so you wouldn’t hear me making noise. Well, that’s all right, i’m glad we didn’t hear those odd noises, but but then ewan muted. Okay, maria simple is the prospect finder. You’ll find her at the prospect finder dot com. And we’re talking this week with our regular prospect research contributor about proactive versus reactive research. Maria, what is reactive research? Okay, so reactive research is when a nonprofit organization has the name of an individual say that they know they’re going to approach, and then they decide. Well, what i’d like to do is research that individual a little bit more before i make an approach to them. And then, um, i asked him for a gift, so that would be unknown individual. And you’re going to be looking for information on them. Okay, so that would be reactive research. You already have the name of someone, and you want to just find out more information on them. Okay, um, and what is proactive than so proactive research is when a non-profit, perhaps their staff and and or their development committee eyes sitting around saying g, you know, we feel like we’ve exhausted all of our current donors think about looking outside of our current donor is and tryingto identify some more individuals who can donate to us either individuals, foundations, corporations, whatever the category is, but they want to broad in their base of support, so they proactively go out and try and find additional people who might be interested in there cause because they might be donating to other similar interests self, and we’ll find out howto uncover those additional people. In the pre show survey, i asked which best describes your prospect research in your shop? Is it mostly proactive or mostly reactive? And everyone said that they were mostly reactive, just researching the people that they already know so let’s try to encourage people, perhaps to be a little more proactive, but if you’re a small shop, maybe that’s not really possible, right? Well, the thing is this, tony, you have opportunity there are going to be sort of natural low for any staff of a non-profit whatever the size is so you want to take advantage of, perhaps. Those known lo period for you, when you’re not really ramping up for an event, for example, when you have the opportunity to perhaps sit back and take a look at the big picture, you know and say, all right, what can what else can we be doing to look for additional donors for our non-profit so it definitely can be done, but what i would say is they should build it in and put it on the calendar. You mean the calendar, like they would put on a calendar on events, teo, cultivation of aunt or any of the other type of event they might be having make sure that they build in some time to be able to sit back and proactively think about how to expand their donor base. Okay, so actually so callin during time for prospect research that’s what you mean, yeah, to proactively be able to do it? Because the reactive research, whether even if they’re just going to google and no further, they’re probably at least doing that, right? So they have a meeting with somebody or a company, and i would hope that they are, at minimum, looking at google to find out the more information prior to that business meeting. And then if you are limited to the reactive research there are you can certainly go beyond google looking at the names that you already know. Oh, yeah, absolutely. There’s a lot of free web sites as well. A fee based. I actually have a going beyond google for download document. Right on my web site on the resource is page so that’s free for the taking and there and available. So there are definitely resource is that can help you. And if you’re not able to look at your database and trying to determine who to research in the database, then there are companies that will screen it for you so that the names could be elevated. Okay, but those air always fee based services, right? Okay, what might you be looking for within your own data if you’re going to do this on your own to determine who you should be paying more attention to? What i think they can do is take a look at the longevity, how long the donor has been contributing to them, even if it has been a very consistent amount of dollars over. A long period of time and, you know, long period of time varies, you know, for the non-profit but i would say somebody’s been giving to you for a ten year period, and they’re consistent about it. The text seems to come in every year at the same time that somebody who’s made a commitment here. Non-profit and you are somewhere in their fearful answer bait. So longevity of gift size of gift matters. And also if somebody just happens to send you a check for an amount that is way out of the range of their normal e-giving that’s a flag as well for you to think about researching them a little further and cultivate that relationship, okay? And this is all with an eye toward perhaps elevating their giving. Is that right? Yes. That’s. Right. You want to take a look at doing this type of research so that you are taking people that are currently tied into you in some way, shape or form they’ve bought into your mission. They love your non-profit they’re committed to you on dh. You want to think about how to engage them further and elevate their giving? Okay? And you identify. That commitment, a cz you were describing based on their giving history, right? Absolutely. And, you know, let’s not forget people who are longtime volunteers for the organization because there are people who, i guess, unfortunately have the mindset of, well, i give my time to your organization, therefore, i don’t need to give my money on day, maybe give giving their money elsewhere so it might be kind of interest, i think, to take a look at some of those very, very committed volunteers who are giving of their time, but not money and researching. Well, what are they doing in the community in terms of money? And is there some way we could further the conversation so that we can be included in there monetary philanthropy and not just giving of their time? It occurs to me that the research we do when we’re looking for planned e-giving prospects is all reactive because you can’t bring someone new to the organization and then and then expect them to be a plan giving prospect and asking them to include the organization in their will or some other state plan when they’re just brand new to the organization, so we’re always doing, i never i never really i never described in this way, but looking for plan giving prospect for always doing reactive research that’s, right? You’re always reactively taking a look at people committed to the non-profit and you’re probably looking for all those same signs that i would be looking for, you know, that longevity of gift size of gift again, just looking to elevate them to perhaps a larger gift or as you just mentioned, maybe they’re absolutely right before a planned gift at this time or at least to be thinking about that conversation. And the key thing about looking for those plan giving prospects is when you’re looking at the donor’s longevity, as you were describing maria, the consistency of giving you don’t want to ignore the smaller gift, even if someone’s been giving ten dollars, a year, and if they’ve been doing that for a decade or more, you know, seven out of the past ten years or eight, fifteen or eighteen of the past twenty years that makes them a great plan to giving prospect, i think it could make an excellent plan giving provoc fect yes, absolutely, you know? And as i mentioned there are just some very inexpensive free resource is that you can go to to just find out a little bit more about that prospect, just to see if you can elevate that conversation to that point and s so let’s. Then now go beyond the reactive into the into the proactive. So hopefully this is ah, smaller non-profit that finds its slow time and sets time aside for prospect research or it’s a bigger shop. And they have the resources to do more proactive going outside the database research. How would they get started? I think one of the things that they can do is take a look at the other non-profits in the community who might be garnering some of the larger gift. Especially if that non-profit is somewhat similarly related. Admission. Teo, you so, as an example, if you have a women’s health and counseling center and they are interested in expanding their donor base, they might take a look at who’s giving to the local cancer societies, the local harder association, the local hospital. Anything having to do with health related mission. Okay, maria, we have to take a break. We’re going to continue this. Exact topic about ah, carrying on your proactive research with maria semple are regular prospect research contributor. After this break, so stay with us. Talking alternative radio twenty four hours a day. 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We’re live tweeting use the hash tag non-profit radio i want to thank fundraiser beth and at fund-raising bethan at dominique de jones for joining us on the live twitter chat. I’m with maria simple and she is our regular prospect research contributor. We’re talking about doing proactive versus reactive research, so maria let’s just continue in going proactive, trying to find people outside your database and acquire new donors. Your advice is right before the break was toe look for non-profits that are maybe similar in mission and see who’s giving there. Yes, absolutely. And, you know, during the break i was also thinking about another excellent free tool that we all have available to us is linked in, and they’re for example, you might be able to find people who are interested and easily connected to okay for explaining to them what your organization is about and so on and so forth. You and you and i talked about your interested in urine, anand immel welfare non-profit and you would like to connect with more people in your community who are interested in animals and pets, etcetera, so you can go and do a key word. Search on the advanced search page of lengthen log into your account, go to the advanced search page um and find group right. Would that have on interest in animals and you’ll find quite a number of them. So there’ll be people from all walks of life who are keenly interested in animals. You can also go to the keyword field and look for people in a specific geographic region who might have the word animal somewhere in their profile listed. So you know something like that can be very, very helpful in expo being your daughter donordigital base or your volunteer or board based and again it’s free and i love that little of detail. Thank you very much. That’s i think most helpful toe listeners. Another way of finding out who gives to organizations is just by getting their annual report. Yes, absolutely. And sometimes those annual reports are available right online in a pdf downloadable format so you can take a look at those annual reports and try and determine who’s giving. You’re not going to get an exact dollar level, you know is most daniel reports might list somebody giving it the silver bronze gold level. Platinum, etcetera, but you’ll have at least an idea of the range of where somebody is giving. So definitely, i look att annual reports of non-profits whether i’m doing reactive research or pro active research so absolutely could be useful in both in both cases and if it’s not available on the web, you can always just contact a non-profit and asked him to mail you a printed copy, right? Yes. That’s right old school. Just like the phone. So joon, old mail phone. We don’t need these things dispense with this. I don’t believe that. Just joking. So there are also some online resource. Is that you like? There are. There are several bass resource is that i like you think for a proactive research. Would you like me to mention if you’ll please detail? One century source might be wealth engine. They actually have a prospect generator tool that you can utilize with their particular service. I like i wave dot com i w a v dot com. They also have the capacity to do some pro active research. They have donor-centric sample where you can put in the name of a specific non-profit or type of non-profit. And lists of donors who gives to those non-profits will will be generated for for you. And you know, you would have to parse the data so that it’s suitable to your particular geography. But, you know, it’s it’s definitely doable news resource is and that’s, something you could do for free. You can go to your the library website dahna and log in using your library. Barcode you know, we’ve talked about that before in previous show using the local library. Yes, yeah, absolutely. So you can tap into the local news. There were statewide news resource is for free through your library link, and then be able to do some research on people who are, you know, named is the who’s who in the community people being honored things of that nature on and perhaps find more people who are interested in your theme newspaper like the u s mail in the phone. These things still exists. Yes, and they’re not expensive. Used them for pete’s sake. I mean, they’re so you know, i don’t know they’re so under thought off is what i’m trying to think of. What about that could even be local foundations right in a in a community may be local family foundations or something. Yeah, so what? You might want to consider doing iss every non-profit organization has the capacity to search a source called guide store, and they can search on their advanced search level, actually for free. Tony ok, a thousand dollar level of service that non-profits concert for free, they’ve agreed to maintain their own non-profit data, which is a win win all around, right? You’re getting a better story about out about your own non-profit and then you also have access to their premium level of search. You and i talked about that that what you would hopefully do is go in and identify more family foundations in your geographic community. Okay, you put in a zip code, you can go out, i believe, about a hundred mile radius from your zip code search for those family found foundations. These are people that have decided they’re going to take philanthropy to a new level, and they’re getting serious about it, and they have decided that they’re going to form a family foundation to filter their giving. Those are excellent prospects to go after pro, actively researching what i usually suggest to a non-profit once you have that list let’s say you identify one hundred new family foundations in your community that you serve that you didn’t realize existed. Take a look at the trustees of that foundation. Circulate the names of those trustees with your board wave your key volunteers. See if anybody has a connection to any of those people trying to make it more of a warm introduction as opposed to a cold introductions. Marie, we have just a minute left before we have to stop. What about business? Resource is like business publications or the chambers of commerce. Chambers of commerce. Their excellent. Most of them will have their membership directory searchable online. Also again, through your library link, you confined businesses. Uh, tailoring your search on a resource called reference yusa. You’ll be able to find businesses and business owners through that particular resource. So i think those could be excellent sources. And not every business is doing terribly these days. So try and take a look at what is doing well and focus your efforts there. Great detail. Thank you very much. Maria. Welcome. Maria simple is the prospect finder you’ll find her at. The prospect finder dot com she’s, our regular monthly prospect research contributor she’s, also the author of panning for gold, find your best donorsearch prospects now been a pleasure having maria on i also want to thank deshele dorsey from changing our world for being a guest today next week. I don’t know it’s gonna be a show from the archives? I haven’t chosen it yet, but there’s a way that you can find out you don’t have to wait until next friday at one p m eastern. When the show starts, you can sign up for our show alert duitz and you could do that on our facebook page. You know where facebook is, then just searched the name of this show and there’s a link there. 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