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Hello and welcome to tony martignetti non-profit radio. Big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent on your aptly named host. Oh, i’m glad you’re with me. I’d bear the pain of pyla, rale, gia, if i had the stomach, the idea that you missed today’s show how to appeal to high net worth. What are the wealthy looking for as they check you out on their way to becoming a connector boardmember investor? Melanie schnoll begun leads morgan stanley’s, philanthropy management tony’s take two mohr ntc video interviews responsive by pursuant full service fund-raising data driven and technology enabled, you’ll raise more money pursuant dot com and by we be spelling supercool spelling bee fundraisers we b e spelling dot com no additional begun she’s here in the studio she’s, the managing director of philanthropy management at morgan stanley. She works with the firm’s, wealthiest and most influential clients, including prominent business owners, venture capitalists, social entrepreneurs, professional athletes and entertainers, as well as foundations and non-profits she is the nominating chair and former board president of the juvenile diabetes research foundation, new york city chapter and vice president of the board of metropolitan college of new york. Melanie is also on advisory boards for the naomi berrie diabetes center and quinnipiac university law school. Welcome back, melanie metoo pleasure. It was it was april two thousand twelve. You were here a long time to for, like, for four and a half years ago or so you’re looking great. Good to have you. Well, i like that. Thank you. Absolutely need that every morning for now. You impressive bio. No book. I thought. In these four and a half years, you would have written a book by now. Well, you know what? What i’ve done in four and a half years, i’ve i’ve run eight more marathons. Is that impressive? Okay, that that’s ah, yeah that’s that’s a a run up to that, but i like to see a book that you like to see it, but now you’re doing the marathon this year, right? And getting the marrow, which means yes, we’re a little pre recorded about ten days or so, which means this sunday you’ll be running this sunday on behalf of a cause. So of course, i’d never just run twenty six point two miles for myself. I’m raising money and awareness for juvenile diabetes for jr of europe. Okay, you’re on the advisory board, right? New york city chuck’s correct. I was ah, president, but more important than that, i’m an owner and owner of the disease, so you’ve got to take a stand, right? You can’t just own a disease and allow other people to raise the money or awareness. You have toe roll up your sleeves like i do. Tow. Take insulin. Okay, you gotta go out. There and run and raise awareness and money. Was there a juvenile diabetes research foundation? When you first found out that you had diabetes, there was the organization’s been around for over forty two years, and i’d say that we’ve had our greatest success this year. So far, we have received fda approval for the artificial pancreas, which could be my life cloaking technology outstanding, right? An owner of the organization that feels magnificent feels magnificent, but it’s not a cure, right at the end of the lot of us owe our promise has always been better treatment, prevention and a cure. So you know another device to wear in your bodies, you know, another device to wear in your body. There was just something in the times i think is today that so many of the the health that cause related non-profits are now seeking cures rather than just counseling and support on howto live with the disease. Yeah, i think that was just in today’s times. Yeah, yeah, it was it was the right article. Greater. Alright, so that’s what? Basically we’re here to talk about what a non-profit khun do should be doing to get the types. Of people who are your clients? High net worth ultra high net worth individuals interested in the cause as as interested as you are in jd are okay and that that’s on all different levels that might be a boardmember donor-centric ter, maybe just like introduction, supporter and some other methods, you know, maybe a volunteer, but not a boardmember so we’re going to talk a fair amount about you’re bored, you know, sort of fine tuning your board and making that look appealing, but the conversation’s not limited there, and we may just be talking about very well. Azad said non dahna relationship all right, so you’ve got you got a bunch of tips. Um, let’s, let’s, get into the heads of these men. He says this is an elusive group for a lot of people. They read about them. It’s always arms length. You know, ninety nine percent of us don’t know these people personally, they never will never meet them. But i got to believe that in the end, they really just i want to be connected to a cause no different than the rest of us. Just people just with norvig gets more money, there are people okay. Okay. Let’s. Gratifying, right? Right. So they just want, you know, they want some connection, the personal relationships. All right? No, i fear that in this presidential cycle, people could come away with a negative opinion of the very wealthy, but i hope that most are not like that. I presume they’re not. I’d like to see the good in you. I think i think we have to think that money and ego could be separate, right would be separate, of course, andi, ultimately, the people that we’re talking about today, which i think i think we’re looking at, many, many, many, many, many people, right? Ultimately you don’t see someone who is ultra high net worth right? It’s not, they’re not wearing it on their face. There’s no color. There is no religion, right it’s associated with with the kind of hair that you have. So it’s a it’s a matter of being right, it’s it’s something that you become either because you inherit the wealth, you create the wealth. There might have been a situation which brought wealth to you and the majority of the clients that we work with. Many of them don’t want to be associated with money. They want to be associated with purpose. So when we think about what creates purpose inside of someone versus a person being a wealthy individual and therefore they have purpose, but what creates wealth in itself, i hope it’s not a purpose as not it i’ve heard lots of stories about very wealthy people who are quite unhappy and quite modest people who are quite a brilliant in their lives, exactly, exactly, definitely independent and independent of you go to now let’s reassure people that there could be a place for these, these these people, these folks in small and midsize non-profits and they don’t all necessarily want to be on the metropolitan opera board, stanford university, right? And not necessarily, i think i think it’s a fallacy to think that wealth associates itself with just large, robust organizations. There is an opportunity if you’re a significant wealth holder to be not just a difference in a small organization, but perhaps to be the difference in a small nonprofit organization. But again, it’s really related to what the organization is doing. There are small, independent colleges that do not have wealthy donors that don’t have wealthy. Alum and are seeking amazing volunteers support leadership. There are arts organizations that are not like the amazing one sitting here in new york city for small museums that are small art collections all over the country that require and need attention. So again, it goes back to you know, where does the person feel that incredible connected with the organization you’ve helped some of your clients start? Teo get engaged with small and midsize non-profits i think the best part about our work is that the best part about our work is helping them distinguish between an organization where they could have a long, amazing history with versus one which is, you know, nice to be on procedures, prestigious. They got great people sitting around the table, they all looked look like them. They all have bank accounts that are like theirs, but most of our clients like a balance, right, and that’s what’s also so interesting about the majority of the boards that i work with. There are a few wealthy people sitting among the board members. There are some who are just industry experts who associate with the organization. There are some who just have some incredible skills or time on dh? All of that is what makes the composition of aboard great so wealth is not wealth doesn’t necessarily mean that i’ll be a great boardmember a great volunteers, you’re right. In fact, it could be the other way around. It could be difficult for the organization. That’s okay, we take our first break um, you know, what can i say? This is going to be exciting, we’re going to talk about it is exciting, we’re going to talk about getting your organization in tune for for making these approaches and then also even these are just very good advice, even if you’re not approaching high net worth individuals, just this is good stuff for your board and for your organization generally, so stay with us. You’re tuned to non-profit radio tony martignetti also hosts a podcast for the chronicle of philanthropy fund-raising fundamentals is a quick ten minute burst of fund-raising insights published once a month. Tony’s guests are expert in crowdfunding, mobile giving event fund-raising direct mail and donor cultivation. Really all the fund-raising issues that make you wonder am i doing this right? Is there a better way there is? Find the fund-raising fundamentals archive it. Tony martignetti dot com that’s marketmesuite n e t t i remember there’s, a g before the end, thousands of listeners have subscribed on itunes. You can also learn maura, the chronicle website, philanthropy dot com fund-raising fundamentals the better way. Welcome back to big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent. Okay, melanie schnoll begun. Let’s get into ah, some strategies that we got for for looking good and just being solid. And, um, what is the word that we always use? Sustainable? Of course. Ok, so we, uh, we’d be well advised to show that we can help someone we might be trying to appeal to as a volunteer that will be willing to help them raise money. What kinds of help should we be offering to our volunteers? Right? So many ultra high net worth individuals created their own businesses, right? You would think that they know how to raise money and it’s incredible the difference between yeah, that’s different kind of raising it’s a different fund-raising right, a capital raise for business versus raising money for non-profit that you might be so passionate about. For some reason, the psychological obstacles that happen in someone’s head are incredible. And i’m a professional fundraiser, so to me, i can’t understand it. But you have to appreciate that people get really scared about asking friends, colleagues, business associates for money so non-cash profits staff really needs to feel comfortable. In health, being potential board members were volunteers overcome these obstacles, and there were definitely techniques to do it. I’m getting them into a mindset to realize that this is not asking money for themselves. Most people think when they go out, even though they know they’re raising money for an organization, a small organization, they care about the desperately needs the money, they feel that making that ask appears to be making and asked for them personally. It’s personal way we got to get rid of that, right? Like you got to take that idea. You gotta put it on a shelf way, way up on the top of your ceiling and decide you know what? I’m not going into that box because this isn’t about me. This is selfless. I’m spending my time, my energy might interest to create awareness and raise funding that’s either desperately needed or trust is needed to improve the work of the organization, so taking yourself out of that formula is really important. One of the ways that we do it is helping organisations help, they’re bored or volunteers were raising money, helping them create personal and public narratives, and a narrative is a story, right? We all have our own stories. I have a story about who i am now j r and your relationship with jamie our f etcetera, metropolitan college, all these organizations, all of these organizations, are all of those organisations, so finding that story inside of you that you’re really incredibly comfortable with this isn’t an elevator speech, this isn’t, you know, standing in the middle of, you know, a tight little elevator where the door is closed and the person can’t get out of the way. This is something where it’s so authentic genuine, but this is but this is making it sounds like magnum or personal. We’re trying to put personal up on the shelf now, but but personal because you’re comfortable telling the story about your association with the organization that this is not money for. So i don’t want anyone to think that when i’m raising money for tv, raph, i’m raising it so that melanie doesn’t have type one diabetes. I’d love to not have type one diabetes it’s a disgusting auto immune disease, but i’m not raising money for me, and there may never be a cure for type one diabetes in my lifetime, i’m raising money because i don’t want any other little girl to have type one diabetes because i don’t want another woman tohave to wear all of these devices underneath her dress, trying to figure out you know where i hook it on. Can i wear this tight, beautiful blouse? You know, i just i want people to feel comfortable recognizing that they can keep it. Anything is a type one diabetic. They could be a competitive athlete running the new york city marathon. They could run a big business, right? They could have babies. They would have to worry about living with complications that type one diabetes could bring on. So i take myself out of the formula. You’re not giving me the money you’re giving in an organization that’s working in excellence to do the research to find better treatments and cure. But i tell a story about myself, because, tony, i want you to see me in the center of the story, and then i want to drag you into that conversation because i want tony to see that my story about type one diabetes is your story also it’s your story. I help you. See the connection between me and you give you a quick example whenever i’m raising money for type one diabetes and i talk about me being in a car, my blood sugar being low first talk about the possibility of what could happen to me or my kids if they’re in the car with me. I then relate the story to a donor that that that i’m trying to raise money with from and i say to them, you know what? If you were in your car on the road when i was a possibility of negan into an accident, hurry myself is possible, the possibility of me being low and getting into an accident and hitting your car is also likely. Now i’m not saying that type one diabetics get into more accents anyone else? Probably less because we’re so much more aware of our health and our well, is that anybody else? I’m always checking before i get into a car, but that’s how i help other people who are raising money for diabetes make a story that’s personal, but connect themselves to somebody else and it’s, not about statistics. People are nervous about talking about, you know. The efficiencies of the nonprofit organization they’re nervous about talking about the impact of the organization. I could relate it to just a little story about me being in a car and talk about how j d ref is doing such amazing work on better technologies and how that’s helping me live a better life and helping you because i won’t be in a car on the road level. Yeah, outstanding, milly know very i feel it because i’m planning on soliciting cubine shaking you down for a couple of bucks for my city marathon on sunday, we’re already doing a service for j d r f there were going to take them on the promotions for the show, they’re goingto they’re getting there getting an hour of promotion. Okay, one one more idea of a simple way, tio help someone who’s who feels like they’re they’re not a comfortable, they don’t feel comfortable soliciting one more. One more thing, one more thing you’re gonna have three ideas in your head, like just three don’t noel the facts about the organization we get lost, we get lost. In fact, people get lost in numbers when you make a mistake about a number so you’re you’re making a claim that this little school is serving twenty five children living with autism and the results are fifty percent better lives, whatever it might be, we get lost in statistics, and the issue with numbers sometimes is people can prove us wrong with a number it’s harder to prove us wrong with just a story. So i suggest to all of three organizations i work with who are helping their volunteers, their donors raise money, give them three easy facts that we no can’t be disputed right can’t be disputed and that you could really understand again that you could create a story around one of the facts if if we’re talking about autism and let’s assume that we have a play centre for children xero through the age of five rights in a community important to that community, we know that that autism eyes is increasingly on the rise. We still don’t even know why this is happening to our young children, but this center is so important to this community. So three particular stories, right? So i would i would give them one story about one young girl, right? And how? It changed her life by being in a community where she began. Tto be able to associate, have friends right where he began toe learn skills, teo cope with some of her emotions. We’re too began to make eye contact, right? And then i give them another statistic and it’s a step about the way it changed the life of the parent. That the mother now feels confidence and leaving her daughter in this beautiful little community centre, that the mother now can have a part time job. Right? There’s so many ways to give statistics, they’re not versus forty eight percent of our families feel more confident. Yeah, with the with having a two family income just, you know, okay, exactly. Exactly. So those are the three fax are are incredibly important to fund raisers. And one of them should be a fact that that you can that the fundraiser, right? So as a non-profit is working with someone on the board that the fund raiser can associate with themselves, perhaps they have a child who’s living with autism so they could tell a story about, you know, my daughter, uh, when he was four years old was in this school, you know, and what it did for her and just giving specifics about actually how it can capture how it came to that family’s life, what it did for the siblings in that family, so three strong fax can never go wrong and lose the numbers if they if they don’t serve you, you just raise something that there has to be an affinity before we approach any individual way don’t want to go after high net worth people just because they are because they are wealthy, that there’s no, if there isn’t some genuine affinity for the work that you’re doing. There’s no point, right? May i mean, unless you’re a robber, right? Unless you’re looking to, you know, going to someone’s home and you don’t care now, why would you even think of that? I don’t know, i mean, i wouldn’t even think about it, you know what? I don’t know why? Because i think in fund-raising sometimes wait do feel like we’re robbing the person we do if we don’t if we don’t believe in the story of, you know, i’ve heard actually i’ve heard that from grant writers we were asked by sometimes its board members or their ceo go after this hit this foundation and there’s no connection, but they have to try to find one and they know it’s tenuous as their writing the words of their typing. They know it’s disingenuous, and they know it’s going to fail, but they’re executing something that they were asked to do by somebody who presumes themselves to know more about grantwriting than the professional. So and i’ve heard in that in that realm, it’s, that it feels very feel smart. Well, it feels empty, it feels empty and the results are horse, so you have to know that there’s some connection now you know, you’ve you maybe have seen another similar organization that the person supports you mentioned some of your clients are entertainers and are athletes, so maybe they tweet about a cause and they don’t know about your organization. See, according paper, you know, if it’s not somebody with seventeen million twitter followers but you see them quoted relating to a cause, something you’ve got to know that there’s a connection before you tryto given introduction, we call it a common denominator common denominator so my my son is in the sixth. Grade. We deal with all these fractions percentage of fractions, and every time i’m sitting down looking at his mathos work i’m thinking about fund-raising because i’m thinking, what is that common denominator and a common denominator means we have to have some tenuous connection, something that where there’s there’s a correlation between me and the person that i’m raising money from? So we do a lot of work, we help our non-profit clients to a lot of work on the person, the organization, the foundation before they go and make the ass. Okay, maybe we should touch on something. What do you do for your non-profit clients cause i mentioned it in your intro and that you mentioned well, let’s, acquaint people with that side of your practice. Great. Happy tio r work starts with advisory services, so we work with non-profit organizations, small and large helping them in three particular areas. The first is bored development in governance and going into a nonprofit organization looking at their board, seeing where there are strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. The typical swat analysis, right? And during a swat analysis with a board is amazing. We do it on the way. We do it backwards. I think most people start with their strength, like who doesn’t want to talk about how strong i am? We start with their threats. You call it a tuesday, we calling wools elearning you’re inter combining okay, that’s right metoo we turn it on its head so threats and weaknesses have to be first. You could always go to the opportunities and the strengths of a nonprofit organization. S o going in really analyzing the organization, there will be some tremendous talents thing on the board. Sometimes the board is tired. I mean, we have to realize that some boards where they don’t have bored tenure and this happens a lot, tony and small non-profits like the leadership on the boy that’s been around too long over and it’s because the bylaws say it’s two three year consecutive terms is the max and you look on the board in there, people have been there twelve, fifteen, seven, twenty years, nobody has the the courage or the energy to enforce what’s in writing at night, so you know, you don’t get fresh perspective. I mean it’s terrible it’s terrible, and part of the reason is because they live in a feat they live in fear, you know, starting fresh perspective, people come on the board and they see what is supposed to be six year max, maybe a possibility of a second of a third three year term, and their board members have been here for seventeen years, and i don’t even follow their own by-laws what kind of an organization? By joining that’s, right? So so not only does it have poor governance, right? Not only does have poor governance, but ultimately it’s a new fresh member of the board. When you look at someone who’s been on a board for so many years, you know it, they’re they’re they’re exhausted from raising money for the same organization that’s, that’s one it’s not that they’ve lost the passion for the work they care about the work they want to see the results, but ultimately every three to campaign cycles, a delete four five year campaigns at least, and everything in between those and the preparation of planning and that’s a couple strategic planning cycles with that if you was done right, takes at least a year or so and that, and that means that they’ve even seen strategic plans that have sat on shelves that haven’t even been on there embarrassed the board members embarrassed to leave don’t want to leave the organization flat, but the organization is embarrassed to get the person off he’s another by-laws say they should that’s right, it’s a bad situation. Let me tell you how we help. Let me tell you how we help. Let me tell you how we help, we go into that board and we sit down with, you know, the current officers and really talk about you, let’s, analyze your you’re bored policy, right? This is what your terms are if they’re right. If it was right when we wrote this this language, if we were right about this, then we have to govern this way. Onboarding exactly so we need to make decisions now, how do we get rid of a boardmember who cares about this organization, who we care about, um, letting them resign in honor, right, letting them resigning? I think a lot of times it just takes a face to face conversation at seoul. It takes some degree of courage. Just ask the person to come in and sit with the ceo. And se look, oh, it sit with the board chair, hopefully is not the board chair, but that could be the person, but whoever it is, you know, you gotta go. You gotta grow a pair and and start enforcing the governance that you’ve you’ve put in writing. That’s exactly right that’s exactly what it is that simple and the person is a very good chance that personal thank you. In fact, not only thank you, they want to go, they want they’re embarrassed to leave. They’re embarrassed to tell you that they don’t want to go and you’re embarrassed to ask them to leave. But but i’d never let but it’s an opportunity, right? We never let ah threat or weakness like having someone who’s tired, who’s been on a board too long not turn into an opportunity and into a strength we go back to our twos, and so what’s the opportunity as you are a cz ur graciously in honor it’s celebrating the service of a boardmember who’s. Now retiring, you ask for a gift, we ask for a gift and we do it upon exit. And we allow that retiring boardmember and honor we celebrate that. Boardmember allow his or horse story about leaving this organization all the work that he’s done and in celebration upon departure, leaving a major gift. And by the way, major, at their level right now, talking about small organizations, this person might not have a fourteen to give, given their capacity at their capacity. I never heard that one outstanding, and i’ve heard the transition respectfully, to an advisory board nice, but ask for a gift as forget. I mean, of course we’re going to do all of those other things. But why lose our opportune eddie? Allow someone to retire and give at their highest and best potential and celebrate and celebrate their service and their their their gift? Okay, would you hang out, take it, take sip waters, complicity from aroma while i do a little business, you just keep that. I give a lot to remember. It’s not it’s, not a paid, so we don’t have to disclose it. Um, so much more with melanie coming up first. Pursuant, they’ve got another free webinar. If this one is upgrade your best donors today with pursuant consultants chris taft and christian priest they’re gonna help you identify your donors who have the capacity and interest to do more for you maximize your resources as you engage the right prospects and fine tuning your prospect visits. This webinar is on tuesday, november fifteenth, at twelve central time. If you want to register, go to pursuing dot com and under resource is click webinars yet another free webinar from pursuing we’ll be spelling spelling bees for non-profit fund-raising these air, not your seventh grade spelling bee there’s live music, dancing, standup comedy fund-raising and of course, there is spelling woven in there as well. The’s air ideal for millennial outreach night you’ll love these things because you do them in bars restaurants, not your seventh grade spelling bee. Check out the video at we b e spelling dot com now tony steak, too. I’ve got more video interviews from the non-profit technology conference he’s a rond fund-raising i picked the brains of smart technology guests to help you raise more money. This is what we’ve got in this batch donorsearch vase to boost your revenue growing your sustainers revenue, smart email marketing and increasing donorsearch retention all for those group together my video with the links to each of these four video interviews is that tony martin durney dot com, and that is tony’s take two. Melanie, thank you for hanging in there. I love i just love that gift idea. I know i said it three times already, but i love that gift idea of the departure of a boardmember but, yeah, we can’t have the seventeen years service service members it’s it’s just it’s not right. It’s bad business. Well, you just mentioned millennials and as i think about boards again, some of the work that we do it, morgan stanley is developing these boards. There is not a board around today that’s not looking to bring young leadership onto the board, and some have young monisha advisory boards, even they have if they don’t, they should, and they don’t, they should, and millennials are feeling the pressure. Tony. They’re really feeling the pressure because they realize that these organizations are all looking at them right now, right? Like there is an eye on them to be safe metoo saviors i i go to conferences and there’s a panel of three millennials, and there has to speak for the whole thirty million court record three people supposed to represent the entire group, they’re representing their representing all of us both leadership from the past, and they’re going to be our future. So, you know, we need to be mindful of the pressure that we’re placing on them, but also but again, we need to recognize the opportunity. So as i think about boards and for, you know, the other nonprofit organizations, the organizations that that listened to your show that you serve bringing on young talent is incredibly important. But that common denominator right, you doesn’t necessarily mean that. Wow, that’s a person i want sitting on my board. So as i think about the colleagues on my team, even even craig was on my team was here in the studio with us today, when i think about, you know, how do we bring young talent onto non-profit boards? He gotta do the same personal assessment of them and that’s what i helped non-profits tio, we help them analyze the potential of a young boardmember so e-giving really almost like like a questionnaire and analysis. Who am i? What kind of boardmember could i be? What kind of time could i give? What kind of thoughts can i? Offer would i be intimidated? Sitting among ah board of people so much senior to me coming in and they’ve been there for sixteen years? Am i going to have a permanent gag order? Will i ever feel comfortable offering my opinion, having a voice at that table? So you need to really look at millennials who come on to your board if they’re going to join your big board and make sure that they have the potential to be an equal participating boardmember support the reassurance? Yeah, the coaching one of your ideas is that there be a board buddy system? I love talking about that. I love it! I love it it’s like anything else. When you learned how to swim, no one went into a pool on their own little diesel sensitive hands under me as i was kicking and flailing. I’m still i still i still need that i’m actually not very good even i live on the ocean i flail that the hands have grown but they’re a little different now of it’s the same i do love it well, maybe that’s because you should be using your feet more than your hands that’s a swimmer it’s really? The power comes from the feed from the from the from the legs, but you’re right, it’s that support underneath you until until you’re ready to swim on your own till you’re ready is from on the road. So it’s the same exact like to see a mentor assigned a banner different dahna mentor has a met buddy somebody now i heard friends or friends buddies wait friends of friends, pals, pals, buddies sleep together. Okay? That’s not that’s, not the kind of body. You know what? We’re going to keep this show really clean. Okay, so, so what’s going on? We’re not. We’re not talking about the word sleep that’s killing you, right? So blue. So it was the together part. It was together part, but in the bud washing room she’s really norvig it is mormon studio, but you’re blushing more now than you were ever best falik so the idea of a buddy system it’s not a mentor in it’s, not a sponsor. It’s it’s, not someone who’s going be there give you no guiding you your half and it’s not someone there who’s gonna sponsor you to take on a bigger role in the organization it’s someone who’s going to share with you what they went through when they were joining the board. So would he to know that? Like, when you walk, i’ll give you something. This amazing issue that people have when they first joining aboard, where do i sit? Oh, my god. I’m walking into this boardroom there’s ten board members to someone which we have assigned seats on by sitting in someone’s chair and that’s that’s their there right? How do i prepare for a board meeting? Should i come into notes all over the board book? They’ve dog tag in my book be all highlighted. Do i ask questions? Should i answer questions? I mean, all of these things that go on in someone’s head when they’re first joining aboard because remember, you’re joining a family aboard is a family. These are people who work together, live together, pray together, cry together, sometimes over the issues that they’re working on, and you’re the newcomer and your brand new and your brand new. So a body is someone who gives that kind of support. The first thing a buddy does is they find a seat for their buddy might. They walk in and they go, you know what? You’re going to sit right next to me, you’re going to sit right next to me that reassurance when you just walking for that first meeting, knowing that you got someone right next to you and who like whispers something in your ear, like, you know, by the way, don’t listen to that woman, you know, she doesn’t have a clue what the hell she’s talking about or oh, that guy talks about fund-raising but he hasn’t raised a dollar for this organisation in ten years, you know, that kind of insight on that thing kibitzing really help someone get comfortable and ease into their fiduciary responsibilities, sitting on the board outstanding because i wanted to talk about making explicit the responsibilities of the boardmember clearly the organization has responsibilities to the to the board with the boardmember has responsibilities to the organization, and they go way beyond fund-raising and we need to make these explicit on, i think, going back again to governance many organizations, even small organizations, right, even start up organizations recognized the need tohave policy, and they’ll perhaps even write policy they’ll feel, perhaps copy some other organizations policy and make it their own not knowing what to be in their policy, but at the end of the day, whatever their policy suggests that are the board members responsibilities should be in writing, why’s that so critically important because new board members, especially for small organizations, they need to understand. What am i supposed to be doing here? Like what is my role? The first critical role is to talk about raising money for some reason, we leave it for last we we nominate people to the board, we cultivate them. We’re so excited to bring them on. Sometimes we’re bringing them on because they actually gave a gift to the organization in the past, right? They were a donor to the organization, and then when we bring them onto the board all of a sudden, you know, we don’t talk about fund-raising i start, i lied with with fund-raising in fact, we have not policy usually usually there’s this give and get expectation on the board. I hate that word. I hate that word. Why what they mean by expectation? The reality is, if there is a need, then we should say there is board fund-raising policy and some boards will explicitly say how much the number is that they have to raise. They don’t necessarily have to say how they get the money. But, you know, every board needs to realize if there are ten, people sitting around this table and if there’s an expectation for us to each raise ten thousand dollars or five thousand or one thousand, you know, i don’t know how much some of the organizations who are listening might expect of their things are in the range so in the range, but let’s just say it’s ten let’s, say it’s ten because it’s easier for me to do that kind of mathos on dh there, sir. Ten people sitting around the table rights of ten thousand times ten. You could even do that math. Tony what’s. That number would be a hundred thousand. Well now, imagine formal difference. Wolber lorts right for michael. But both were former lawyers. Exactly. Imagine the difference in a non profit organization. If it every single year before it even had toe open its doors, it knew it had a commitment because the board understood that each of them had the responsibility and on dh. Not a goal, not an expectation, but the responsibility to get ten thousand dollars in that organization knew we have one hundred thousand dollars toward with that. Do you prefer to see those expectations as a dollar amount or something? You see the phrase personally significant gift each year? I like clarity. Ok? I mean, i’m all about being clear and concise. What i hope is that ten thousand is the floor, not the ceiling. Yeah. See, that’s the problem. If you if you say there’s a certain there is a responsibility to do that, that becomes the person ceiling. Exactly. I got ten thousand dollars. I’m done. So i’ve got ten thousand dollars in january and i could fall asleep for the next eleven months. Now, what do you do though if you have a diverse board in terms of assets and ability to give? Yes. And for some people with ten thousand dollars is a stretch. And for some people, it’s, you know, a remainder at the checking account at the end of the week. That’s, right. So so that’s. So now let’s, let’s. Go back to this ultra high net, worth enough people that we were talking. About the beginning of the hour right on policy in that regard doesn’t necessarily have to be the same for everybody, right? And when you’re recruiting a member to report when you’re recruiting someone and you know that they have the potential to give hyre than other board members, you’re i’m i’m very clear with that new board potential boardmember i will explain the composition, the board i want you understand who you’re gonna be sitting with, you’re going to be sitting with some people who are academics who don’t have the opportunity to give them selves significant, but man, they gave intellectual capital to this organization. We have some board members who can give, ah, small amount of money, but give their time and then and then you, tony, you know, you have a lot of time, you’re running a big business, you live in north carolina, you’re on the radio, you got a lot of people want your attention, right? Right, right. Sounds good. Sounds good with you was reality story. I’m creating a good narrative for drama you add to it is eyes intense it’s all about creating the factual was all factual but bring thrown creating the public narrative here creating the public narrative so around that story, i know you have the potential to give mohr, but you don’t have much time. You don’t live in new york, so you can’t always be here for board meetings. You can’t always be here for the volunteer events, so you know, you’re in north carolina, but you have the potential to give more. I would be very explicit with you, tony, i want you to understand something the required give for this board is ten thousand dollars, but one of the reasons that we want you on the sport is because we know you have some tremendous networks. We know that you’re very affluent, we know that you run a great business, we know that you don’t have a lot of time, so we want you to realize that we’re not going to ask is much time of us. We might be asking of other board members, but we do hope that you can give at a higher potential. And what do we embarrass about what it was like, seriously, what we embarrassed about asking, but we know it, right? We’re thinking it, but for some reason. Somewhere between our brain and our mouth, there’s there’s this disconnect, we can’t get those words out, and we know the person we’re talking to his thinking it because as i’m describing the diversity of the board, i know that the academics don’t have the capacity to give the hypothetical tony level that’s exactly right qualified with hypothetical that’s, right? So you’re allowing i know it, you know it let’s talk about the elephant in the room, it’s the elephant in the room, and instead we’re going to be professionals. We’re gonna be genuine, we’re going to be authentic and we’re going to be transparent, and if i’m going to allow you to serve in excellence, what i don’t want to happen is i don’t want tony in north carolina running a big business who says, wow, i feel totally guilty because there was, you know, a volunteer events today. We were going out and clean the park because we’re over the garden because we’re garden organs, unicorns i feel totally guilty. I wasn’t able to be there, and i wasn’t able to be there for the last three, you know, vegetable growing things and the flower cutting thing, but you know what i know i could dio i care about this organization. It was in my neighborhood when i was growing up. I want to be a big part of it. I could give more than other people can give, okay? Honesty, explicitness, professionalism. We’re adults here, all right, let’s, go out for our last break a little early, and then we’ll wrap it up. We’ll still have another, like, nine, ten minutes or so you hang in there. Like what you’re hearing a non-profit radio tony’s got more on youtube, you’ll find clips from stand up comedy tv spots and exclusive interviews catch guests like seth gordon, craig newmark, the founder of craigslist marquis of eco enterprises, charles best from donors choose dot org’s aria finger do something that worked and they only levine from new york universities heimans center on philantech tony tweets to, he finds the best content from the most knowledgeable, interesting people in and around non-profits to share on his stream. If you have valuable info, he wants to re tweet you during the show. You can join the conversation on twitter using hashtag non-profit radio twitter is an easy way to reach tony he’s at tony martignetti narasimhan t i g e n e t t i remember there’s a g before the end, he hosts a podcast for the chronicle of philanthropy fund-raising fundamentals is a short monthly show devoted to getting over your fund-raising hartals just like non-profit radio, toni talks to leading thinkers, experts and cool people with great ideas. As one fan said, tony picks their brains and i don’t have to leave my office with fund-raising fundamentals was recently dubbed the most helpful non-profit podcast you have ever heard. You can also join the conversation on facebook, where you can ask questions before or after the show. The guests were there, too. Get insider show alerts by email, tony tells you who’s on each week and always includes link so that you can contact guests directly. To sign up, visit the facebook page for tony martignetti dot com. Welcome back, big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent. Melanie, i love these ideas. E-giving really excellent. Um, by the way, you didn’t mention beach either on the beach in north carolina? Yes, i got it going. Address mamatoto the hypothetical means well, at that additional layer of fact and the view outside of your window. And now now you’re able to sleep with that with the shutters open because it’s getting a little bit cooler for indoor sliding doors, we could definitely do a fundraiser at your beautiful beach house in north carolina. Thank you so much for offering europe. Thank you for offering. I appreciate that. We’ll take that. We’ll take that done. Done. Let’s, not get aggressive. We’ll not only martignetti non-profit here not only taking we’re going where you already admonished me. Aboutthe sex joke that’s, right? We’re not gonna take it, but but at a gala we’re gonna raffle your home ofthe to somebody with a beautiful beach. Um, let’s show that our organization measures its own results, shows its impact assesses it’s assess its its effectiveness to the new potential investor etcetera that we might be trying to entice yes, so effectiveness. And measurement, right? So many conversations about this, i’m sure that you’ve had conversations like this on your range a lot we have, but it bears repeating buy-in impact reporting and measurements. Ok, so so we might have a slightly different opinion than many of the companies that are in the measurements reporting business. Go ahead and i’m gonna give you the opinion from the ultra high net worth jonah, right? So that’s, where we spend much of my time, our staff spends much of our time at morgan stanley. I’m you would think that the wealthy or someone is the more be the big bank accounts that they have the brokerage statements that they get. They always want all these reports. The reality is they don’t read them, they don’t read them, and i’m not saying everyone that no one reads them right. So their trust advisors, i might be reading them on behalf of the donor, but the ultra high net worth donor-centric ng all of your energy on it goes on red. So most of ultra high net worth donors want to know that you’re being effective, right? They want to know that if they have a connection to this organization. You’re not doing anything fraudulent, right? Just not doing anything. Fraud, that’s, that’s a that’s a floor that is the floor, right? That’s the floor. They want to know that their money is going to be making a difference, right? That there’s something that their gift is going to be accomplishing of the organization, that if you did not have their gift, you couldn’t do it right, like there’s. Just something else that was that might not have been able to have been happening. But the most important, the most important again is the relationship that they have with the person who’s making me ask or the relation that they have with someone on the board. So they look at these relationships and time and time again, they go back to, even if we might be doing a deep analysis on the impact of the organization and ah, qualitative and quantitative analysis of their work. If an ultra high net worth client has a relationship to the organization, if they have relations in person who’s asking him for the money or they have relation with a boardmember or they’ve had a relationship with the cause, the cause is done something for them personally for their family, all of the statistics there, not as relevant. And i’ll tell you why because we think about how doe i compared to another organization doing similar work. So if i went to will go back to the example of autism, if there was ah, community center in my neighborhood that was working with a small group of children ages zero to five and on and i had a friend whose daughter went to that school and i saw the impact it made on my friend’s life doesn’t matter if there’s another bigger organization working on autism, finding the research, doing the working towards the cure? No, because it’s so it’s, so easy for me t sting you wish between why this organization first another not because i don’t want to know that there’s going to be a cure, but i have that connection to this organization where my friend’s daughter excels, so it goes back to what we’ve been speaking about. Beginning results matter metrics absolutely matter when you’re looking for very large gifts, he need to make sure that you could back, huh? What you’ve accomplished with someone’s donation. But the end of the day working on that relationship nine times out of ten is what an ultra high net worth persons looking for just like a high net worth person or a low networth person. They’re looking for the relationship, the connection. We want to reassure our volunteers that their time is going to be used wisely, efficiently that we we support our volunteers, are meetings or efficient let’s talk a little about a little about overcoming some of the objections that people might have to volunteer like like thie perception is that all the volunteers are retired and they have lots of time um, the job’s right there, or or there where their home with their kids so so during the breaks with their kids, like they’re trying to find meaning in their lives and those of the people you should be asking for a volunteer, not me so much right away over how do we isn’t non-profit overcome that objection. So so i don’t want to assume that that mom’s at home who have tremendous potential to volunteer, really, who have no time because it’s the busiest, it’s it’s the hardest job on the face of the universe to be at home with your children that’s why i never stayed home with my children. Ah, much easier for me to go into morgan stanley, but ultimately, volunteers is going be an issue if your children listening to this is going to cause any but it could be something the family you know what? That when it was so so ryder and talk, i just want you to know later in life when when you’re lying on the couch just say it was because my mom just it was because of my mom don’t spend all the money saving himself gave all the money out of time and money save all the money and going back to the volunteers we confined volunteers anywhere, right? And the problem that that i see non-profits have is they don’t have an established volunteer program, right? They don’t know how to maximize the effort and the energy of their volunteermatch base. So if we are going after established individuals who have very, very busy lives and you want them to volunteer for a particular purpose, then outline what is the project, the program, the day, the hour than you want them. To spend maybe it’s doing a radio show like this, right? Like maybe it’s coming into your studio and spending one hour with you talking about the work of their organization man is that away toe volunteer and to volunteer in excellence, but many organizations who have who bring in a lot of volunteers, they become their staff to some extent, they’re not spend the time giving their volunteers thie the preparation to be really good volunteers, so even small organizations that are run by predominately of volunteer base volunteers could get lost. They don’t understand, you know, how am i going to be useful to this organization? So if they go into a small school or if they go into a library, let’s make it into a library, so i’m going to volunteer for a library in my neighborhood and, you know, i’m not a librarian, right? And i don’t know how to use the dewey decimal system anymore, right? To even use the library library. I don’t rememberthat night except duitz one through nine, right? That’s because we’re old on the card, the card catalogue. I’d love to go to court catalogue sametz just glide out so nice. There, all wood with the satiny brass fixture on if you pull the handle out, a lot of little tag inside the little it’s little frame. And if someone was eating like an oreo cookie, there was like that love thumbprint, right? Greystone think dahna car in the little time we well, i i don’t know what they use that anymore in our libraries. So when you’re going into a library, you know what? How you could be volunteering in a library and making sure that the volunteers that come in there, that there’s real potential for them tio feel to feel effective. The one opportunity teo do that is tripoint someone who is going to be the leader of their volunteers, right? Who is responsible for this incredible, incredible group of people who are going to be our staff for free, right? So someone needs to be assigned to be responsible for those volunteers they could check in with them. They give them their work orders. They evaluate them. They let them know what they’re being good. Volunteers, bad volunteers. How they could improve their volunteerism. So there’s accountability and and and support absolute. Okay, we have just like a minute and a half left and i want to how do how does that non-profit get the attention of the kinds of people were talking about? And we just have, like, a minute or so let let them realize that if they’re working in the space of on dh educating kids, health care, the feeding, the poor, those are issues that ultra high net worth individuals care about, right? We have to stop thinking that small non-profits need to be in the shadow of the large, established organizations ultrahigh networks care about the issues. How do we get their attention for our small roger’s warnings and make sure that we have stories there are powerful, so if you’re going to use social media, if you’re going to use volunteers to get the message out and advocate, if you’re going to use a letter writing campaign, be concise, be clear creating a public narrative that lets them understand why they are different than other bigger organizations, and make sure that you’re getting that message out to people not just mass but, you know, make it very pointed, so clarity, concise transparency and advocate for your organization because small organization’s matter. As much as the large ones, the ninety five percent matter. What is your twitter id? Melanie espy got melanie s begun. Mm. For morgan stanley at melanie s begun. Bj u n m s thank you very much, craig. Melanie, thank you so much. Great to have you back. Good luck this weekend. Thank you. And i appreciate your not coming on my hair. By the way, i’m dying. I have a second. So i have to just tell our listeners when i first met tony when we first became friends short cropped hair. Now it’s beach fundez mario. Probably like a lion like a lion next week. Eight areas of non-profit excellence. If you missed any part of today’s show, i beseech you, find it on tony martignetti dot com were sponsored by pursuant online tools for small and midsize non-profits data driven and technology enabled and by we be spelling supercool spelling bee fundraisers ideal for millennia. Ls we b e spelling dot com our creative producers clam hyre off. Sam liebowitz is the line producer gavin dollars are am and fm outreach director shows social media is by susan chavez. And this music is by scott stein of brooklyn. Be with me next week for non-profit radio big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent go out and be great. Yeah. What’s not to love about non-profit radio tony gets the best guests check this out from seth godin this’s the first revolution since tv nineteen fifty and henry ford nineteen twenty it’s the revolution of our lifetime here’s a smart, simple idea from craigslist founder craig newmark yeah insights, orn presentation or anything? People don’t really need the fancy stuff they need something which is simple and fast. 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 got to 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 idealist took two or three years for foundation staff, 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 dno, two exchanges of brownies and visits and physical gift mark echo is the founder and ceo ceo of eco enterprises. You may be wearing his hoodies and shirts. Tony talked to him. Yeah, you know, i just i’m a big believer that’s not what you make in life. It sze, you know, tell you make people feel this is public radio host majora carter. Innovation is in the power of understanding that you don’t just do it. You put money on a situation expected to hell, you put money in a situation and invested and expect it to grow and savvy advice for success from eric sabiston. What separates those who achieve from those who do not is in direct proportion to one’s ability to ask others for help. The smartest experts and leading thinkers air on tony martignetti non-profit radio big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent.