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Nonprofit Radio for February 19, 2016: Innovation in Mississippi & Successful Giving Days

Big Nonprofit Ideas for the Other 95%

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Aisha Nyandoro & Cassandra Overton-Welchlin: Innovation in Mississippi

There are lots of stereotypes about social change in the deep South. We look at what’s really going on in one state. What are the challenges? What are the opportunities? Who’s doing the work? Aisha Nyandoro is executive director of Springboard to Opportunities and Cassandra Overton-Welchlin is a director at Mississippi Low-Income Child Care Initiative.

Aisha Nyandoro
Aisha Nyandoro
Cassandra Overton-Welchlin
Cassandra Overton-Welchlin

Caryn Stein: Successful Giving Days

Caryn Stein

What is key to make your giving day successful? How do you activate your community to make them super fundraisers? Which technologies are critical? Caryn Stein is vice president of communications and content at Network For Good. (Recorded at the 2015 Nonprofit Technology Conference, hosted by NTEN, the Nonprofit Technology Network.)

 


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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 we’ve got to listeners of the week first beth and lock in vancouver, british columbia, she’s at a fundraiser, beth and she tweeted, i quote, getting ready for work and listening to the-whiny-donor and tony martignetti i just love her exclamation excuse me, i gave the-whiny-donor life. Yeah, if it wasn’t for me, she’d be like a collection of one dimensional characters on your screen. I breathe life into her and gave her one dimensional audio. S o you know, can i get something? You know, besides listening to tony martignetti death? Thank you very much. Okay, lets try the next one. Professor brian mittendorf he teaches accounting at our hyre state university. He listens in his car and he tweeted a picture of my name on his audios screen on the car. And i just love knowing that he’s driving around ohio with my name on his screen. I just something very comforting about that. But then included in the picture was the avatar for the show and it’s a guy who’s in his seventies and wearing a bow tie and i don’t know what you think of my looks, but i have never worn a bow tie. So, brian, your toyota bluetooth is screwed up worse than the airbags, so drive carefully and you’re going around with the wrong picture on your car and that professor brian mittendorf is at counting charity. I don’t know too lacklustre listeners of the week i know who picks these people nonetheless, i’m glad you’re with me. I’d suffer the embarrassment of keratosis polaris if you rubbed against me with the notion that you missed today’s show innovation in mississippi, there are lots of stereotypes about social change in the deep south. We look at what’s really going on in one state what the challenge is one of the opportunities who’s doing the work monisha nyandoro is executive director of springboard to opportunities and cassandra overton welchlin is director of mississippi women’s economic security initiative, a project of mississippi low income child care initiative and successful giving days. What is key to make your e-giving day successful? How do you activate your community to make them super fundraisers? Which technologies are critical? Karen stein is vice president of communications and content at network for good and that was recorded at the twenty fifteen non-profit technology conference hosted by our friends and ten non-profit technology network on tony’s take two charity registration we’re sponsored by pursuant full service fund-raising data driven and technology enabled, you’ll raise more money pursuant dot com also by crowdster online and mobile fund-raising software for non-profits now with apple pay mobile donation feature crowdster dot com my pleasure to welcome first aisha nyandoro she’s, executive director of springboard to opportunities providing strategic direct support to residents of affordable housing. She’s been an academic evaluator philanthropist now and non-profit executive she’s been a fellow of the w k koala kellogg foundation community leadership network and ascend at the aspen institute springboard is springboard to dot or ge that’s t o and she is at nyandoro s t o r you sure? Welcome to the show. Hi, tony. Thank you so much for having me. Pleasure. Welcome. Also cassandra overton welchlin she’s, a licensed social worker. In addition to being director of the mississippi women’s economic security initiative, she worked with organizations from local to national to address the social, political, economic and ecological injustices in low wealth. Communities of color that grow out of racial inequities in public policy and she’s at sea welchlin cassandra welcome. Thank you for having me, it’s. A pleasure, ladies. Welcome from mississippi. Um, cassandra, why don’t you start by just saying a little more about the work that you’re doing at the mississippi women’s economic security initiative? What’s that work about cassandra we still have our kind of grew out of, um, a need to really hear more from women about what it is. They need to be able to take care of their families, and for so long, our organization has been working around getting low income working women access to child care so they can go toe work. We know that long come working, women don’t make a whole lot of money, and this child has subsidy really does add to that income so that they’ll be able to pay for that child care subsidy program our child care so that they’ll be able to go to work. Child care can be as expensive as college tuition, but if a woman has a child cast subsidy, then she’s able to, um, use less of her income for child care, more to go towards other things. And so we heard from women about what is that they needed, and so we wanted to put together, and jenna that responded to that. And so we developed the mississippi women’s economic security agenda to really try to put together a policy agenda that would improve the economic well being a women looking at child care, access to health care, access to equal pay and higher wages. And so ah women’s economic security agenda is there to promote those kinds of policies and put women’s voices front and center into the policy debate. And we’re the only ones in the south that’s doing this women’s economic security agenda and so it’s very important and that’s some of the work that we’re doing okay now did i have it as women’s economic security initiative? Is there a difference between an initiative and an agenda? It’s not the agenda is the policy piece. Okay, so the agendas policy. Okay, so what’s the initiative. So the initiative, um, it’s really kind of our overall work where we are doing coalition building. We are working to build, um, consensus among women legislators across the state. And so there’s several steps to that. And we’re doing movement building work within the state of mississippi inside of communities. And so the initiative fans across coalition building policy making and and really doing the civic engagement. Okay, cool policy level work. Excellent. Let’s bring ah, aisha and i should tell us about springboard to opportunities we just have about a minute and a half or so before break. Ok, great, well springbox opportunity works directly with families that live in a setting of affordable rental housing. We know that affordable housing is a critical step towards breaking the cycle of poverty, but in and of itself, it’s not enough on his own residents living in federally subsidized housing also needed part of services social capital, if you say so, to have overcome some of the challenges that they need to achieve and secure a more hopeful feature. This is where springboards opportunities comes in. We are built on the premise that affordable housing combined which strategic resident engaged services can provide a platform for low income families to advance themselves in life schooling work. We do this bite-sized serving is the connector between residents in the bradrick committee using strategic community partners, system programming to address the unique needs of our families were unique because we are one hundred percent resident driven, which means that we’ve listened. We’d listen, listen and made we act and we engage where the only entity in the mississippi doing the work on the ground, specifically with families that live in federally subsidized frontal housing. So, it’s, all things innovative in mississippi? Yeah, no coal, no kidding. Got two organizations that are unique in the south, right? Right, yeah, i know exactly where you, you know, unique in the fact that it’s a lot of overlay and there’s, a lot of overlap in the work that our two organizations are able to do to really help move not only mississippi ford, but the south. Florida’s well, okay, we’re going to go out for a break and when we come back buy-in cassandra, we’re going to keep talking about the work in mississippi, the challenges, the opportunity, the challenges, the opportunities 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 that other ninety five percent small and midsize non-profits that’s who we’re about it’s time for live listen, love, where are we? We got listeners chapel hill, north carolina and new bern, north carolina. Do you know each other? New bern in chapel hill? I’m going to be spending quite a bit more time there very shortly st louis, missouri, philadelphia, pennsylvania and there’s others, but let’s go abroad. Jakarta, indonesia is with us, seoul, south korea. Always so so consistent soul, thank you very much. Annual haserot mexico city, mexico when a star days, jakarta, indonesia i said jakarta and federal argentina we have argentina’s well, that’s a new one can’t do live listener love without doing a podcast pleasantries over ten thousand listeners, whatever you’re doing, whether you’re driving in the car with the the wrong picture of a wrong man on your screen, on that ah, wherever you are going to work over ten thousand listeners, thank you so much. Podcast listeners on whatever device you’re on whenever you listen and affiliate affections are am and fm listeners throughout the country, on those am and fm stations affections to our affiliate listeners and worry about toe. I think in the next few weeks we will be announcing a fume or new ah am and fm station affiliates. Okay, ladies, isha what’s the you know, we want to talk about the culture in mississippi, but i think we i feel like we can’t understand if we don’t know like the history of you know what? What’s what’s some of the history there that you feel impacts the current and impact your work, you know? Definitely. Well, you know, mississippi has a really unique in british history. I’m from mississippi, a comics of home grown goodness. So i love all things mississippi. But, you know, we do have a history of segregation, discrimination, jim crow. All of those things are really president part of our current reality, you know, unfortunately, we have one of the largest poverty rate in this country, and it’s also know blends over into childhood poverty one in three mrs to be children live in poverty. That’s, you know, sixty four, sixty four percent of these households are headed that single women. And so when you have that narrative shaping a community currently that believes and so what’s available if they released a future opportunities, and so that both of the realities that were working in but even though those are our realities of the people in this state love this state. We live here were working here that choice both could sandra and myself. You are from this area and we both chose tto go away to school and come back home to do the work and be grounded in the work. Because we understand the history of the space. We understand the uniqueness of the space. But we also understand the beautiful opportunities that are in this space. This well, we are a community rich in a loudly cultural in history. And by knowing that his three, we were able to move forward and write a brighter script in a new tomorrow. Okay, um, cool. Cassandra, do you wantto amplify anything or add to it, you know, just about about the history and what it creates for the for the present for your work? Yes. So i i’ll just agree with everything i usually says. And it makes the work. And as she says, she called herself, you know? Home what? Do you call yourself home home grounded in this? And i call myself the daughter of the south, a daughter of the south and it’s so important that we did come back home too, engaged in the work and try to improve our communities, poverty harms the life and the well being of our women and our children, and it also slams the opportunity. I mean, the doors of opportunity shut for them, no, and also diminishes the economic health of the entire state and saying that when mississippi annex policies and make, um, legislation that harms are disproportionately impacts community of color here it also impact the entire state not just that population in an impact, all of us, and so, as a result of that, um, we do have these deep, deep pockets of poverty that exists here, but yet we also have this resiliency that exists in our community. I mean, we are rooted in the civil rights struggle on the civil rights movement, and so a lot of that richness still exists here, where people continue to move forward and push through the heart hard walls, that, um, that have continually been built. But we continue. To push that down so that we can get hr families, make our families more economically secure and prosper, and so that our children can have these sustainable communities for generations to come. Cassandra is rich history and culture that is negative, but also we build upon that to move our community’s forward so that we can get more opportunities to our communities. And so so it’s it’s, good work, you know that being that’s being done, but yet there are some challenges that exist. Cassandra, why did you return to mississippi? I didn’t want to at first me just be clear about that. I didn’t want to because of what i’ve seen growing up in my own way in my own family, but there is a commitment to that family and commitment to my communities and one thing about me as a leader it’s important that i surround myself with other people who can hold me accountable to the values that were instilled inside of me. And so those communities came the other that people those people came together and say, cassandra, we need you back here because we need what you have to invest in those communities and so i came back and i came back, and i’m glad i did, because what i have is what my community needs and i didn’t want to be. And this is me personally be this trader where i’m going in other places e-giving and, um and and not giving back to the communities that invested in me, and so there’s this real value their of wanting to put back into my community what was given unto me, and so that’s a real value there. And i say, all the time when god made me, he really gave me a triple dose of from justice and what better place the ground that is here in this fifty? And so i wanted to return, and my family story is rooted in this place of, um, of grace of service on and also a poverty, and i wanted to be a voice for my family in that. Are you sure your work would be so much easier in some other part of the country? What brought you back to mississippi? You know, i don’t know it’s, not work, will be so much easier in other parts of the country, you know? I don’t know if my work would be is needed and other parts of the country, you know, you know. So even though doing its work in this is to be it’s difficult, i think the work of social change and community building it’s difficult in any context, does something cubine mississippi where this work it’s really hard. I think we as the country sometimes did not want teo deal with the injustices that exists that keep people paralyzed in the systems that keep people paralyzed and that’s just not unique to mississippi that’s the narrative, you know, throughout our country, in some places that so much to me. I really think my work would be much more difficult because i would not be ableto be the immediate menace stations of the work in action, and i would not i feel it, so i were living my purpose out loud and so the work will be difficult because i won’t be as committed. I want being grounded in it. The work that i am doing as the leader of springboard opportunities is particularly the work that i was called to do. I was built to do this. I was built to move. These community for teo implement this innovation that on lee as a model here in mississippi, but a model of how do you engage families in affordable housing system that can be, you know, replicated throughout the country for the work, i wouldn’t be any easier, it will be different. It would not be fulfilling, but, you know, it wouldn’t be me being in mississippi being here, it makes me ground it and in being ground it’s the only way that you can do this work because it is difficult, we are on the ground trying to change the narrative, changed lives in power, people. And that is not something that happens overnight. Andi the reason i said would be easier, i guess maybe i made it sound too pollyannish, but easier elsewhere. I was i was thinking of the i mean, i’m thinking of the challenges like around education being no solo funded and and recently, just within the past, like month or so, there was there were headlines about the failures of the child welfare system. You know, there’s just especially, you know, working in a population with with children, asia that’s argast thing i mean, you there’s. Just a lot of theirs just seems like there’s more challenges in mississippi now that you know that it’s not that is true. There are a lot of policies in mississippi that are unfortunately ineffective, but that’s why we have the innovation of programming and policy coming together on the ground. So cassandra the ram that she works in it’s really policy around that i work in this really grasses organizing in programming, and we’re able to bring the two together to really move the needle and change the narrative. So you’re right. The work would probably be easier in some places that were a little more liberal because we would have educational poverty policies worked for policies, childcare policies, transportation, all of the things that we all of the challenges that our families deal with. Those may not be as heavy a mountain to move, but yeah. Okay. Cassandra, let sze shift over to some of the opportunities. What do you see as being advantageous there? I mean, what do you what can you grasp onto toe advance the agenda. So ben jealous did an excellent report that was published by the center for american progress called truth south. And a couple of things he brought out in that and that we see manifested quite a lot. And i work is there’s some unique opportunities that we have right now. One of things that he brought up is this changing demographics that that’s happening but twenty forty three way will be a majority people of color state our country, and so as a result of that and that and even in mississippi and twenty, anna senses that show that, you know, white children were a minority here in mississippi. So we have some interesting opportunities where, you know, more people of color will be, um, a majority in our in our country saying that that has unique opportunities to do a couple of things. We know that people of color vote more progressively in their voting patterns, they vote for more progressive leaders, and they also, um, they and we also know that they get out and vote, so that creates a unique opportunity as we began to talk about how do we change the landscape and the leadership in our country, in our state houses at the local level as well, even at the national level. And so we have these unique opportunities, i think another thing is building because in the south, particularly in the south, we’ve had thes very conservative and x dreams leaders who post policies around on an attack on women’s rights, and as a result of that, they isolated white women. And so we found that if we can hold and bring along these white women as a part of a new voting block, then we can really shift an example. In four years ago, mississippi had an amid a ballot initiative, proposition twenty six, the personhood amendment where we’re going to completely limit how women were completed limit women’s rights around abortion and what happened, wass christian white women joined together with interface women of color to say i am pro life, but i’m also port port pro choice. My body is my body, so that presents some unique opportunities. The other thing is that the vote of the youth with black lives matter taking the country by storm it’s happening in every pocket of our community where young, bold young people are saying, you know, enough is enough my black skin is gold my black skin on my brown skin is important. And i’m not gonna let you do do this. And so you have these movements arising, but we can trace them back here in mississippi to the civil rights, civil rights, right, free family. Right. So these are some things that we could begin to build a bond too. Build these unusual alliances, alliances and these multi racial and interject generational voter coalitions so that we can transform the political power here in mississippi, but also in the deep south. Alicia are incredible opportunities that we have here to really move the things that we issue and i care about around our women and around, aren’t you? Yeah, i want to turn toe aisha aisha opportunities that you see in your work with with the the families, you know, you know everything next sandra has said, but i also see a lot of opportunities and the work is that there’s a changing tide. So you actually now have a a lot of individuals moving back home. So you have a lot of progressives and a lot of, you know, people going out to get educated but then doing like, the sand you and i have done, which are really moving back to mrs, being really growing, where you, you know, growing where your planet and getting e-giving back to your community and being more and still than involved within your community. So there’s a lot of opportunity there, but then also there’s a lot of philanthropy here in mississippi and in the deep south that we really don’t talk about there’s a lot of there was a lot of homegrown philanthropy was far individuals. E-giving but there’s also a lot of big philantech ity and individuals are really beginning to look at what we need in the region to change the narrative and really began to be the author of our own narrative and not letting the north or the east there other places really defined what this region is because we know what it is that we are beginning to work in conjunction more with the lance therapy toe really elevate the true story of mississippi? Okay, okay, are you sure? What about the special challenges of being a black woman doing this social change work in mississippi? So that’s, interesting question. I don’t see any challenges being a black woman doing this work, i think being a actually, i see no challenges with c it is nothing but opportunity. I am a black woman and eleven mississippi, and but with that, i understand what that narrative, maybe others other strike right to say what that perception, maybe two other than my perception of my reality in my abilities, but by that being the perception of others have made me a really hard worker. I work harder than most people that i know, but i work hard and i’m grounded, and i give all that i have to give. So being a woman of color doing this work in mississippi, it’s a beautiful thing, because because i’m grounded in community, i’m grounded in my history and branded in my narrative, i’m grounded in the elders, and itjust presents tremendous opportunity for me to lift up the challenges that i know you know, our present within my community and working on behalf of my community. Cool, cool. Cassandra wants the same question doing that doing that work as a black woman in mississippi. What was it like? Some of the things that i found on doing the work is so i ran for elected office. Oh, yeah, three years. Ago, i ran for state senate and one of things that i’ve found and it’s not just me, but other black women who have run for office and and this is really across the country is that you have, again, these gender inequities that exist, and it was hard for me to get the money to do what i wanted to do. It was very difficult to do that most people will. R r it is more eager to give money to i mean, to do this work more eager to give to me and to run for office to start a business we found, i found that also found that right? But so as a result of that, we’re having to build the strong coalitions and relationships among each other to reach across like i should say, we have these individuals that are engaging and more of this philanthropic community, and so we’re having to pull together some of these folks, some of our friends that have access to those resource is so we haven’t to think smarter about how do we get more of our blackbaud folks and black women into these elected positions? The other thing is that i use dahna doing our work, we also found i have found that it’s hard to elevate the voices of the people whom we care about. L’m the national platform, particularly in the media, it’s been very difficult to do that and to try to do it in a way that will change. As aisha says, the narrative of our communities and so being able to form these relationships with the feeling about the community and other people who may have access to resource is has been sochi. It goes back to this building, you know, these unusual alliances so that we can segway are in segway, away and through those platt forms so that we can elevate the voices of the communities that we care about. So i found that black women’s voices aren’t at the national level, the way it needs to be, and the communities in which we care about there’s a, um, they’re cassandra, but we’re moving towards that. And so, you know, those are some of the things that i found it, okay, we have just about thirty seconds left or so, and now you show i’m going to leave it with you, there’s. A saying that as the south goes, the nation goes, um what do you think that what you think the future of the nation is? I think the future of the nation looks bright, you know, the south is full of passionate, committed, innovative individuals who are connected to the space that were called to work in we understand working across sectors, we understand the importance of collaboration, but we also understand the importance of i’m making sure that all individuals just not the haves but all individuals, though that we proceeded to have nuts as well have a seat at the table, so we understand unusual alliances and create a partnership, and we understand the need of policy and effective programming, and we’re good stewards of our resources and were innovative, beautiful people, you know, the blues came from mississippi catfish colorings, all those beautiful things that you think about in the south, so i think the nation good, we have our challenges, but we recognize those challenges and despite that we’re moving for were being committed, and we’re going to do the good work. That’s asian nyandoro you’ll find her on twitter at nyandoro s teo and also cassandra overton welchlin at sea welchlin ladies, thank you so much. Thanks for sharing. Thank you. Real pleasure, right? Successful giving days with karen stein at the networks for good is coming up first pursuant and crowdster i’ve talked to their ceos, both of them. I know that these companies can help you in small and midsize non-profits they understand your challenge is they understand what your needs are, and they both have companies and products that have ah, that are designed to meet those needs. That’s ah, it’s trent recur at pursuant and crowdster that’s ah it’s, joe ferraro, their sponsors of the show because their products can help you raise more money. They both have terrific backgrounds in non-profit duitz and in corporate work, so they’re playing corporate solutions to the challenges that they understand that that you’ve gotten in joe ferraro att crowdster actually runs a non-profit so that’s pursuing dot com and crowdster dot com now tony’s, take two. Are you properly registered in each state where you solicit donations? If that question makes you cringe, then we should talk. And if you have no idea what i’m talking about, we should talk, you’re non-profit needs. To be in compliance with the state laws in each state where you solicit and that includes paper, mail and email, text text to donate if you have a donate now button on your website. That button is a solicitation when it goes live doesn’t really doesn’t matter if anybody ever clicks on it in any individual state or anywhere but when it goes live, that’s the solicitation and that triggers registration in at least half the states i can help on dh getyou into compliance. If we need to talk, you can get me at tony at tony martignetti dot com or the contact page at tony martignetti dot com and that’s tony’s take two here is karen stein from the march twenty seven twenty fifteen show and originally recorded at and t c twenty fifteen welcome to tony martignetti non-profit radio coverage of the non-profit technology conference twenty fifteen our hosts are intend the non-profit technology network. We’re in austin, texas, at the convention center, i guess now is karen stein. Karen is vice president for communications and content at network for good, and her workshop topic is the secret formula for successful giving days. Karen stein, welcome to the show. Thanks so much, tony it’s. Great to be here. It’s. A pleasure. Thank you very much. Thanks for taking time on a busy conference day. Yeah. It’s definitely exciting to be here at at the anti cia and see lots of old friends and make lots of new way. And so it’s it’s, always in one of our favorite events. Excellent. This is my second year here doing interviews on dh believe this is your second my second year here. And, of course, network for good has been here for many, many years. So since around two thousand seven, i think right for yeah, i believe so. First, long before amy sample ward was ceo. Definitely definitely. And i think it’s it’s growing into i think one of the premier non-profit events teo, be at i think so. I mean, that’s always what? You know, there are many conferences to go, teo. If for both attendees and exhibitors. But this is when we definitely make a point to always, always be out there. All right, so i’ll see you again next year. Definitely looks like a date. All right, all right. We’ll set you up with an interview for twenty sixteen um, successful giving days. So now i think the biggest probably most popular, is giving tuesday what are some examples of other ones? Yeah, so different types of giving days, they could be based around the time of year they khun b based around a region or an affinity group. So there are things like giving tuesday, of course, which is really the kickoff now for urine giving, and then you have things like give local america, which is focused more on regional giving in other community foundation states have their own giving days. We actually helped maryland due e-giving day for their state, and it wasn’t a maryland, yes, for their non profit organizations to the maryland non-profit association did e-giving day on and then you have ah, non-profits who want to come together and do giving days around affinity groups so things like give out day, which was really kind of focused around issues affecting gay, lesbian, transgendered folks and have those organizations come together not just to raise funds but also to think about how to raise awareness and use those social networks as a zit means to get their message out, i had henry teams as a guest about a month ago or so roughly talking about the success of e-giving tuesday generally and how what a huge spike there was for twenty fourteen he certainly emphasizes the decentralisation of it and all the sharing tools that are available is that common across the successful e-giving days definitely, i think that the reason why e-giving days have become so popular is because online fund-raising has become so popular, and it really has decentralized and and decouple the idea of fund-raising an advocacy from just not just the organizations, but it’s really something that everyone khun d’oh, and to think about how you can couple that technology with the idea that we have these large social networks, it’s really allowed that to take off in a very viral way, and we often talk about things going viral. This definitely has for sure, and i think it’s great on dh. So what are some other, you know, common traits, important components of a successful e-giving yeah, well, the thing is that that makes giving dae so unique, and i guess so effective is that it’s really using that sense of urgency? And we know that a sense of urgency, especially in fund-raising campaigns can really motivate people to act when they otherwise would not. And so having that limited window of time really gets people excited and it’s very focused, you have a lot of energy, kind of compressed in tow one day, twenty four hours, and it really gets people excited. And so i think, that’s one piece of it, right? I think it’s that urgency and to take that and then really empower people with a message and some fun sharing tools. So i think you hit the nail on the head there were thinking about how do you not just use social media as a promotion promotional tool, but to use it in creative ways with images, with videos with, you know, some kind of contests that could really encourage that excitement, right? Because that’s one thing that you definitely need forgiving day, you need something had to be fun, and you needed to be interesting, and you needed to be exciting because that’s, really what is going to get people to pay attention to you and be motivated to share that with their friends and their family? And so we think that that’s really one of the things that’s, that’s really important? So it’s, that sense of urgency, the idea that you’re having fun but it’s also this idea of specificity, how do you become very specific about what you’re going to be raising funds for in that day? And we find that the most successful e-giving dave gold gold, if you can’t really just be about general giving, it needs to have something else to it. It needs to have something specific, so maybe that’s a specific program that you’re working on, maybe that’s ah specific goal that you’re working tour, but it needs to be something, you know, maybe you’re trying to open a new soup kitchen and that’s the particular thing that you’re built, you’re raising funds for its not just about your your cause it’s about that one particular thing, because having that tangible thing again helps you be more creative and be very specific, and i think it gives people something to really grab onto and share and understand exactly where their money is going. Okay, interesting the specificity. So do you find that organizations that are just more general say on giving tuesday, you help us out today, it’s giving tuesday, they’re not being a successful is the other right? I think that there is if you’re not specific, you’re not going to be as successful. And i think that it’s not enough to say it’s giving tuesday, so give it’s the same thing as if you were saying now, it’s time for our annual campaign so you should give to us that’s not compelling for a donor, and so i think that, you know, if you can get very specific about the cause that you’re raising funds for maybe it’s a special, specific project, we see that that’s really makes a big difference because it also helps the non-profit get really clear about what their marketing materials are and what that message is, and it could help you stand out, especially on e-giving day we’re in so many people are actually putting out those fund-raising appeals having something unique can help you stand out above the rest. And so it’s really important for you to be specific about that ask because we know that that’s what donors are looking for, and that really does play into that idea of a e-giving day of really coming together to fund one particular thing that people care about. What should you be thinking about if you’re trying to decide whether e-giving day makes sense for your affinity group, not let’s let’s put aside participating in something national, like give local o r or giving tuesday if you try to think about it for your own, like university, for instance, you know, how would you what do you need to think through? Yeah, i think that what you really need to think about a couple different things. I think you need this the internal staff to be able to do it. It doesn’t have to be a large debt, but you do have to have someone dedicated to being the champion of that giving day for your organization. Because it’s really just like any other campaign, you need to have a plan you need to have. Ah, you know, one who’s going to man those marketing channels. So you need to have somebody dedicated to that. You need to really be able teo leverage social media. I mean, you could do e-giving day without social media, but i think it’s a lot more difficult. So you need to have we’re already started thinking about how do you build that up for your organization to use that as a lever? So you need to have some type of social media presence and you need tohave ah, fairly decent following, and that could mean different things for different organizations. A larger organization is going have probably many more followers. A smaller organization may not have as many, but the followers they do have maybe just his passionate so you need those people to amplify your message, and then you need a really easy way for people to activate, right? You’re sending out those messages through social media? How do you actually get those people to take action and make it very easy for them to do so in terms of donating all mine? Or if you’re called to action could be signing a petition? Most giving days are about giving funds and making a donation, but some organ it doesn’t have to be, but it doesn’t have to be at a lot of people use that as an opportunity to raise funds, but also to get people on their email lists he really expand their social network so some of those different asks that you could give to your supporters are yes, we would love for you to support the mission with a monetary gift, but you can also support the mission by sharing this this message with your followers and help us expand that network, and that could be really powerful, especially as we see millennials take hold that’s one way where they really i feel like they can make a big difference is being an advocate for that cause and that in some cases, especially for smaller organizations, can be a big win because they don’t necessarily have that built in base to communicate. Tio way assumed that most people know what e-giving tuesday is but give local america when i wanted to explain what that one is about because i don’t, i don’t think a cz widely known but it’s still very, very interesting. Yeah, it is, and i think it taps into this idea where so give local america is actually done through a lot of the local community foundations and it’s really all about giving local to your own local charity. So if you are living in austin and i think the us who actually, austin is having an event this week called amplify austin and it’s all about giving back teo to those charities and those organizations in the austin community. So it’s really focused on making sure that your charitable donations are staying within the community. I’m really getting people excited about what good is happening in their own backyard. So that’s really the premise of give local america’s toe leverage the networks and the non-profits through the local community foundations and created giving dae that way. So it is a national day devoted to giving, but it’s, the action is actually happening at the local level. We talk some about the technologies that you should be employing in your you’re now that you’ve decided to to embark on a given day, definitely so the great thing is that technology is really democratizing fund-raising and it allows that to happen at many different levels by really anyone, and so what we would would recommend is that you have a really strong online giving presents it should also allow your donors to make a donation online very quickly, but it’s also about mobile because we know that a great majority of people are now, reading messages on mobile email messages as well as the primary use of many social network it’s actually coming through mobile, and so that experience needs to be very mobile friendly so people could quickly take action, get that done and feel good about giving that gift rather than it being a long drawn out process. So that’s really critical. The other thing that you need to think about with your online giving platform is, is there an option for people to raise funds on your behalf? So is there an option for someone to come in and not just make a donation but actually amplify your fund-raising by becoming a fundraiser for you, so appear fund-raising functionality is also very important for that and then having some integrated social sharing tools. So we talked a lot about this idea of social media and leveraging networks has really allowed these giving days to take off so that’s one things that non-profits really need to think about is how are they going to then enable and empower those donors and those fundraisers to share their message with tools right on that page, right on their their facebook page on their web site just making sure that they’re making it as easy as possible to find those ways to share that message. And so i think those were really the things that are critically important. There are many other things that you could do. I mean, having a great email marketing tool, of course, is one and all these things are typically what you would find for any successful campaign, but particularly the mobile in the social and the pier fund-raising are extremely critical, forgiving days because you need to be able to activate as many people as possible within a very limited amount of time. I imagine there’s there’s lead time to this and, well, there’s, obviously lead time. That’s silly, but terms of getting some early adopters, maybe, you know, you got some key people lined up way in advance so e-giving day, what about some of the ground working s o u need t be planning ahead, so we would say if you’re if you’re thinking about giving tuesday and now it’s only march, but you need to be thinking about that now we would say that ideally, you would have about three to six months lead time. If you are thinking of of give local america, which is just in may, so that’s not too far away, you still have time to plan that. But those far ahead as you can get you, is going to be more. You’re gonna have more success oppcoll campaign and one of the things that you need to be thinking about when you’re planning that is being able to identify who are your most passionate supporters, whether those air people within your staff or your volunteer group, or maybe donorsearch one outside your organization, you need to be able to get those people on board are early, get their input, make sure they’re aware of what’s happening, and then equipped them with the right messages in the right tools to be able to really amplify that message for you. So that’s, really important to think about. 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 naomi levine from new york universities heimans center on philanthropy 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 fund-raising fundamentals was recently dubbed the most helpful non-profit podcast you have ever heard. You can also join the conversation on facebook, where you can ask questions before or after the show. The guests were there, too. Get insider show alerts by email, tony tells you who’s on each week and always includes link so that you can contact guess directly. To sign up, visit the facebook page for tony martignetti dot com. Duitz if you have big dreams in a small budget tune into tony martignetti non-profit radio, i d’oh. I’m adam braun, founder of pencils of promise. What more are we looking for? We’re in these people that we’re going to recruit early on long before the early the early adopter. Yeah, i think what you need to think about our, you know, our what is their story? Why do they support you? And i think that’s a really compelling question to start asking those people because that story you can use yourself, tio really inspire other donors, but you need to understand what motivates them. Why do they give to the organization? Why do they care about your cause? I really understand that i think what you’re also looking for frankly, are people that have large networks, you know, and influence yeah, i think i think he want at least two to three people on your, you know, group of supporters that can reach out to the media, maybe they have connections, you know, your board members are actually great people to get involved in this process because they are typically people that do have influence in your community or have connections, and that could be a great way to use them t get involved, get excited about what you’re doing and really, you know, kind. Of make give them something to feel proud about when they’re reaching out to their friends, family and colleagues about why your cause is so important. So those are some groups that you could look to you. But i think volunteers, board members, people that are recurring givers, you know, we’re really talking a lot about recurring giving it that network for good, because we know that those people are the most loyal in the most passionate people. They’re committed to your organization, and often times they will want to do more for your organization. So that’s, another group that you can look teo, you have excellent way of explaining this very concisely. Thank you, really. Oh, it’s, zvilli, oppcoll. Let’s think about trying to make the case in our organization if we believe it’s, right? And we’ve got the tools in place and we have staff that can support it and wear confident we’ve got some people in our networks who will take it on right? But, uh, maybe the board is reluctant or the orjust my immediate boss is reluctant with ceo, how do we start to make they bring these people? Yeah, i think there’s a couple of things that you can do, i think you can point to the larger success of these giving days there’s a ton of examples out they’re both from the hyre ed space, but also from from non-profits in general, that are raising a lot of money this way, and so i think you can use that as a springboard for having this conversation at your organization. I think you have to be realistic. You have to think about what is the investment that you’re making in this giving day because you do need to two planning to have some marketing dollars to put behind it. What we would typically say is that you should plan to spend about ten percent of what you hope to raise. And so i think, it’s important to be really clear on what that goal is for your organization, but it could be a way for you to expand your audience and raise more funds. And so i think it’s ah, this investment that’s well spent. I think the other thing to think about is a network for good. We’ve seen that this type of fund-raising so far has been additive for organizations. A lot of people are concerned. Well, zishe is cannibalizing other giving it actually is very additive, and it could be another way to not only grow your day donations, but it could be a way to grow that donor base, which is a critically important for so many non-profits especially those small to midsize folks that are really looking to build their lists. And so i think, that’s another way, it’s a it’s an opportunity, really, for those people to meet several goals at once and i think that’s a great investment of dollars. How do you assuage the people who do say it’s just going to cannibalize our annual giving? We’re just going to shift shift time of year that they give? Yeah. I mean, what we’ve seen in the data is that that’s not actually the case. And so, you know, we we do a lot of analys snusz on on your in giving. And what we typically find is that we see about ten percent of our animal volume for the entire year. Come in at the last three days of the year and that’s been pretty constant. And so this year we really interested to see what? How did this really big giving tuesday, if influence that. And so we saw that on giving tuesday. I think we are. Volume was about one hundred and forty eight percent. An increase over twenty thirteen on giving tuesday. I was like, okay, that’s that’s nice. But what happened later? Right? Because that’s really where more people are giving what we actually saw is that this past year in twenty fourteen, those last three days accounted for twelve percent of our annual bowling, and that volume actually went up those days got larger. So it’s really interesting. Now i can’t necessarily attribute that cause, but it was just interesting for us to see that happen because there was, you know, we were thinking like, well, maybe that is shifting, i think what it is is starting to just accelerate the way that people are giving at the end of the year, but what we saw is that people are giving both in both cases, right? They may not big be giving large amounts on giving tuesday as they will on december thirty first, but what we do see is that the largest average donation comes in on december thirty first and the second largest comes in on giving tuesday. And so it is and and that’s a bigger gift than what happened at any other time of the year outside of december first. All right, can we still have a few minutes left together? What? What more do you want share that that i haven’t asked you about? Wow, that’s a great question. Well, i think that the thing that we would really encourage people to think about is just start thinking about it, i think it’s a great way for you to think about how to message organization in a new way if you haven’t tried it yet. It’s a great way to activate younger supporters if you’re kind of looking for a way to get new people in the door get younger donors involved it’s a good way to activate them, right? Because they really take to this because it incorporates a lot of the behaviours and the technology that there’s so comfortable with using. And so i think, that’s another thing to think about if you’re looking to tap into a new demographic, i think that giving days are way to do that, and there are so many great examples out there that you can kind of look, teo, to see how people are doing this and it’s really, you know about being creative and about, you know, thinking about maybe a new way to spend your cause to people that haven’t heard about it before. Are there other national ones besides e-giving tuesday give local america others that we could participating before we start thinking about creating our own? Yeah, i mean, i think that the big too, you mentioned i think i believe there are there are other giving days don’t haven’t for some reason, i’m drawn, drawing a blank on that, but i think you know, the interesting thing is that we would really recommend that you participate in one that has maybe a bigger following. First, because a lot of those organizations, especially the folks, that giving tuesday, have a set of resource, is for you to take advantage of. And that could be really powerful for folks that are just getting started. And not quite sure now. Or forget also provides a toolkit for folks that outlines exactly what you need to do and when. And so, i think, it’s really important if you’re just starting out to try to go in on e-giving day, that’s already in existence, like one of these national days, or even a regional event before you think about maybe creating your own event, because i think you’ll learn a lot by doing that. Yeah, they’re sharing tools, a critical on dh there already set up. Exactly, you know. Want to reinvent the wheel your first time out. You wanna leave us with one one tip that you haven’t mentioned yet he’s going to think of something that just in the last minute, but yeah, definitely i wouldn’t say that on giving days, you know, just like any other day of the year, any other campaign it’s all about being very compelling and drawing in that emotion from the donor, so don’t leave that behind like we said, it’s, not just about the giving day it’s, about what you’re empowering that donor to make possible. So you really need to be able to think about tapping into emotion when you’re thinking about that fundraiser and thinking about that appeal letter or that social media post that you’re doing really leverage the powerful work that you’re doing and, you know, send that message out and draw all those emotions because that’s, what really is going to get people in the door? Thank you very much. Thank you so much, tony. My pleasure. Karen stein, vice president for communications and content at network for good, and you’re with tony martignetti non-profit radio coverage of the non-profit technology conference twenty fifteen thanks so much for being with us, i’m going to be an ntc twenty sixteen march twenty third, twenty fourth and twenty fifth in san jose, california. I hope you can go check it out. Info was at in ten dot or ge next week. Communicate with your communicators with kivi, larue miller and your event pipeline. If you missed any part of today’s show, i urge you find it on tony martignetti dot com. Where in the world else would you go? I’m still not sure about that. We got some last minute live listener love jin on china ni hao, new york, new york hey what’s up buenos aires, argentina bueno star days responsive by pursuant online tools for small and midsize non-profits data driven and technology enabled pursuant dot com and by crowdster online and mobile fund-raising software for non-profits now with apple pay mobile donation crowdster dot com our creative producer is clad meyerhoff sam liebowitz is the line producer gavin dollars are am and fm outreach director, and the show’s social media is by dina russell. This music is by scott stein be with me next week for non-profit radio big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent go out and be great 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 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 to sort of dane toe add an email address their card it was like it was phone. This email thing is fired-up 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 and and no two exchanges of brownies and visits and physical gift. Mark echo is the founder and ceo of eco enterprises. You may be wearing his hoodies and shirts. Tony, talk 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.

Nonprofit Radio for February 12, 2016: @TheWhinyDonor & Social Media Rants

Big Nonprofit Ideas for the Other 95%

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The Whiny Donor: @TheWhinyDonor

The Whiny Donor

She tells the nonprofit community what she doesn’t like about the nonprofit community–mostly around fundraising. @TheWhinyDonor shares her most urgent whines. She’s on two board development committees. Is one of them yours?

 

Amy Sample Ward: Social Media Rants

Amy Sample Ward

Amy Sample Ward, our social media contributor and CEO of the Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN), introduces NTEN staff’s top rants for the social networks. Are you committing these social sins?

 


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Hello and welcome to tony martignetti non-profit radio big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent. I’m your aptly named host. Oh, i’m glad you’re with me. I’d be hit with whipple disease if you fed me the idea that you missed today’s show the-whiny-donor she tells the non-profit community what she doesn’t like about the non-profit community, mostly around fund-raising the-whiny-donor shares her most urgent wines she’s on to board development committee’s is one of them yours and social media rants. Amy sample ward, our social media contributor and ceo of the non-profit technology network and ten introduces and ten staffs. Top rants for the social networks are you committing these social sins? So were filled with winds and rance today on tony’s, take two, be a non-profit radio insider, responsive by pursuant full service fund-raising data driven and technology enabled, you’ll raise more money pursuing dot com also by crowdster online and mobile fund-raising software for non-profits now with apple pay mobile donation feature crowdster dot com if you want to join the conversation today with your own wines and rants, tweet us, use the hashtag non-profit radio sam is in the studio is checking that feed. So use hashtag non-profit radio if you want to join the convo and it starts with the-whiny-donor she is at the-whiny-donor she feels the need to complain about some of the fails and foibles she sees as a donor to several charities. Part of the tail end of the boomer generation. She lives on the east coast of the us the-whiny-donor serves on the board development committee’s of two non-profits in the city where she lives. The-whiny-donor welcome to non-profit radio. Thank you very much. How are you? I’m great. How are you doing? I’m fine. Thank you. Wonderful man. You mind if i call you whiny? Is that or you can call me whiny? Okay, miss miss donor-centric formal way, right? I like informality on non-profit radio and okay, whiny um what do you about? Their why? Why? Why do you exist in this persona? Well, it’s, the reason that i exist, i guess it’s, because sometimes i just need teo to rant about things that come in the mail with direct mail and tweeting gives me an outlet to express my frustrations and irritations network for good had something to do with your your existence? Yeah, the way. The-whiny-donor came about wass several years ago, i, um i was an avid reader of network for good non-profit marketing block, which was at the time written by cacho anderson and i had just joined development committee’s so as a volunteer, i was very interested in what she had to say, and i was learning a lot, and so i emailed her one day with a couple of things that had happened to me as a donor, thinking that she might want to address them, and she turned my email into a blogged, which turned out to be very well received by her fund-raising readers so i realized that there was a man on audience that fundraisers actually did want to hear the perspective of people that were receiving what they were sending out. And so twitter was an easy way to have my voice heard, and so i’ve been tweeting for a little over three years and having fun with it, alright, now way want listeners to know that you’re not a professional fundraiser, right? You’re right, we’re not at all inspector, purely a volunteer, and so i i don’t know any of the sort of hard core things. That fund raisers do. I’ve never worked with razors edge. I’ve never had to send out a mailing myself as a volunteer involved in development committee’s, i’ve been on fund-raising campaigns, but never the person that actually have to do the hard work in the office. All right, so you’re you’re you’re generating awareness, though, of the donor-centric reesing awareness not like right now, what i hope to do in my tweets, besides just venting, is giving the perspective of the person who is receiving the appeals. I think sometimes when the staff person is sending things out, they may not really be thinking they know what their agenda is, they need to have they have a message that they need to get out there trying to raise a certain amount of money, whatever, whatever not understanding how the donor feels that the end merry callon, had a really good quote in a block post last week, she said, don’t put the ease of your inside operations above the weapon you make your donors feel and which i thought was great, because, um, you may have a certain, you know, the way your database works, you want to do it. This way well, that may not be the way that i want my information presented in mary’s case she uses her maiden name. And so if if if it’s convenient for the non-profit to use mr and mrs, that doesn’t work for her so and the non-profit may never have thought about the fact that there are people that are actually taking a fence at some thing that they’re doing. So i hope that in my tweets somebody will say, oh, well, that never occurred to me that that might be a problem for somebody. So, yeah, i hope that that my tweets may occasionally cause a lightbulb moment in somebody who works for a nonprofit. Okay, okay, um, whining i’m just going to fix you up on one thing everybody knows her on twitter is mary calais. Nor but it’s actually, mary kalon rhymes. Okay, sorry. Rhymes with salon. No, no. Ah, good to know. I never knew that. I just have not met her. I just read her avidly and i’ve had the benefit of having her on my other show fund-raising fundamentals that i do for the chronicle. Right, lance? All right, it’s kalon. So just you. Know, i don’t want people thinking that the-whiny-donor has all the answers and one hundred grams clearly i don’t know everything and you’re you’re clear about that to know all right, all right, cool the donor perspective and you like to thank people to this is not all a negative twitter stream you’re you’re very gracious in a lot of time saying you’re thank you came quickly or what a beautiful birthday card i got etcetera, your compliment right and well on another thing that i do on twitter it’s that i do share good content now that i know how to pronounce her name, marries content it always very good she’s, particularly donor-centric and there’s a whole bunch of people on twitter that really are, you know, there’s a whole new hashtag donor love and it’s that donor-centric city, and so i do like to share that content. Um, twitter is a great resource, i think not only do i get to tweet my own stuff, but i have learned so much from reading other people’s content that has informed the way i perform as a volunteer for the organizations that i’m involved in. So i love twitter when you, uh, when you give and we just have about a minute or so before first break you give you you feel very vulnerable, you’re you’re sending a piece of you exactly. There some donations are purely transactional, but there are certain organizations that i give to that i feel very personal about there’s, a crisis agency locally that i give to every year because my brother has needed crisis intervention, so when i give to that organization, it feels extremely personal. I’ve sent a piece of my heart to that organization, so when we do that, we really we want to, we wanted to be noticed it’s not trust transactional, thank us enthusiastically for it. We may really feel personally invested in in why we’re sending to your mission. All right, we’re gonna go out for ah break and come back one day and i will continue talking will get into some of her specifics. Specific urgent wines 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. Dahna oppcoll with the-whiny-donor we’re talking about her her most urgent wines on de eso eso let’s ah, whiny, let’s get let’s, get into some some details because this is this is what you’re known for on twitter, let’s, start us off with something that’s like, you know, your your your top? What what really irks you the most? Uh, there’s a couple things that hurt me the most, and people that read my tweets? No, that i do pay attention to how long it takes an organization to thank me. Um, my husband and i usually sit down sometime in december, last week of november, early december and right out about a dozen checks and send them to organizations, and so they’re all dropped in the mail at the same time. So it’s very clear which organizations are thanking quickly and the ones who thank me within about certainly within a week, while i’m still feeling that glow e-giving i’m impressed by that, um, this time around, i one organization didn’t send a thank you for about six weeks and that’s very noticeable when every other one has already come in and yours lags by about two or three weeks it’s pretty obvious, who was very slow on the uptake with their acknowledgement letters, you know, let me let me just say, just, you know, to relate this to what you said you, you know, you feel like you’re giving a piece of your heart, you said, right? So that’s, very vulnerable, and if you’re not thanked for many weeks, right, how does that leave you feeling? Uh, it makes me feel that you didn’t really need my donation in the first place, that it wasn’t really appreciated, and by then i’ve already sort of almost moved on, you know, i think that there is there’s a sweet spot when you thank somebody where we’re still in the glow of e-giving i sent it off, i’m feeling really good about it, and if you get me back when i’m still really a met feeling good about it, stage, i think that that probably reinforces my glow of clip e-giving whereas if you’re six weeks later, i’m already kind of ticked at you and it’s just not a good thing. Teo and worse, of course, is never hearing from the organization, but but a very late acknowledgement just by the time it comes you’re kind of like, well, finally for i am yeah, you ah, in december, you tweeted something about an organization that cashed your check very fast, but the previous year they have been very slow to thank you, right? And that was an organization, that particular organization actually i had to call them because they were doing a high frequency appeal strategy, and i can’t imagine why that works. And also let me preface everything that i say in my tweets it’s my opinion, i don’t offer expert advice so clearly high frequency appeals work for people. I can’t imagine why, because i find them cortly annoying, but this particular organization was doing the high frequency appeal strategy and i had gotten to more appeals from them before i finally got shanked for my check last year, and i ended up calling the organization and saying, look, i can’t stop sending me so many appeals. So oddly enough, the only option that they could give me was all oer one mailing a years. Of course, i took one mailing a year. What? The high frequency was just it was awful. Are you still supporting that organization? I do, and that’s the thing that’s so frustrating when organizations do something that i find actually offensive, but it’s an organization that i want to continue to support. So, yes, we do still support that organization because i guess one reason why i called them to say, look, stop irritating me with the high frequency of people’s because i did want to keep supporting them. You like them well enough to try to make it work, right? What they’re doing, their mission is extremely important. If you didn’t feel that affinity to their work, you would have just written him off and not called exactly exactly you feel. In fact, it was funny when i told the woman over the phone that her that her organization’s appeal was the last one acknowledgment was the slowest one to get to me out of about a dozen she was really surprised. Ah, in fact, she was kind of dumbfounded, and i don’t know why because they were really slow with their acknowledged letters. All right? Do you recall what she apologetic? Oh, yeah, she was very gracious and i was gracious over the phone. I didn’t, you know, in real life, i’m actually quite the life i have to take your word for that some of it comes across one hundred forty characters, but but it’s it’s probably good that you reinforce it. Alright, right, let’s. See you also. Ah, you also have some wines about donation pages. You mean the reply forms? No dahna online, the online donation pages i don’t do a lot of of oh yeah paper. Well, paypal is kind of difficult. They’re very small organizations that can’t afford better whatever and, you know, so they just do the papal and you and you all you get is a transactional receipt. Your payment of such and such was given to paypal, and it sucks the joy out of it. But you can understand where their why they’re doing that. They don’t have the money, yeah, to develop their own page. Or maybe they’re not there. I’ll bet. Amy sample word may wantto come in on this in the second half, but there are there are payment systems that are not papal that are probably low cost or free for non-profits on dh, they may not, you know, smaller organizations, unfortunately, you’re just not aware, you know, they’re just they’re not. Aware of a lot of tools that are out there so people defected to the big gorilla, you know, with paypal, right? And of course, that’s one of the things because i am not a fundrasing professional, you know, i’m sure that if people in the fund-raising community read my tweets and hear what i’m complaining about, they probably say, oh, come on, she’s a third asking for that kind of service when we don’t have the ability to do that, but as a donor, i don’t know any of that, so i’m expecting something without having any idea what kind of work it takes to put out a website or in donation page or get an acknowledgement letter out on time. Yeah, you are not familiar with the inner workings of a development office the different exactly. I have no clue departments, officer’s service donor, and so my expectations are very high even though my expectations may be completely unrealistic. That’s still how i feel and i would imagine, you know, and i’m reasonably sophisticated. I have some level of knowledge about what happens in a development office, but a lot of donors don’t, so all right, let me go, teo, let me go to one of yours. That that i thought was rather high expectation you tweeted about the heat being up too high in in a non-profit office. You know, that tweet was really tongue in cheek, and it was to the controversy about the wounded warrior project and overspending. And again that’s something that’s completely subjective. How does a donor in your overhead costs are legitimate and when you’re wasting money? So? So that was tongue in cheek. But it was in reaction to the controversy about the wounded warrior project. Okay, i my apology for that one. I didn’t. I missed the context of that. Okay? One hundred forty characters. I couldn’t put it in-kind context, but it was it was in reaction to that. Okay. That’s. Good. All right, so you’re not that unreasonable. No, gosh, no, not not that. Unreasonable. What else you got? Throw out something else that that irks you? Well, let’s. See, um, appeals that don’t recognize that i’ve given before. Oh, yeah, you know, or or of course, dear friend and that’s. Another thing i’ve noticed, actually, sometimes it the smallest non-profits that are the worst of doing that. With the dear friend, maybe they just don’t maybe they don’t have a development person on staff, but you would think that with the very small organizations they’d be able to personalize more somehow, i have no idea how that kind of thing works, but if i’ve given before, if i partnered with you for many years, i think you should acknowledge that in your letter that you know, i’ve been with you for a long time, or i gave last year or whatever, but when i get an appeal letter that has not acknowledged that i’ve given before i noticed that recognize that i’ve been with you for a while. Your husband got one from his alma mater that was a dear friend. Yes, that’s very surprised. Yeah. There’s there’s. No way. I mean, among any level of education, i don’t know with elementary middle high hyre ed that really that’s an inexcusable one. Well, and i stopped giving to my own altum otter because and i was never giving them very much money. So i was never. I never reached the level of where i got any good donorsearch stewardship. I was just one of the masses in the small donors, but, um, i got one acknowledgement receipt sort of letter thing that said, dear college supporter, i have been giving to them consecutively for twenty three years, and i thought, for heaven’s sakes, if you haven’t figured out my my name by now, you really don’t need my donation, and i have not given them anything since then. Well, that’s yeah, i mean, they certainly know your name that’s a that’s a method of keeping mailing costs very low because i know it was this particular thing was sort of a receipt receipt with a letter attached, and so the receipt had my name on it with the notation that i’ve been given for twenty three consecutive years, so it was just a question of i mean, they have it in their database with there i don’t i don’t know how you merge fields and all of that, but they could have put my name very easily on that sheet of paper. Yeah, and they didn’t bother just just to explain, i mean, it’s it’s a method of keeping costs lower because if they have to pay the printer assuming and i’m assuming high volume, but if they have to pay a male house to produce letters that are personalized, as well as receipts that a personalized, each personalized item increases the cost of a of a mailing. So if you, if you print it, if they print your name on the outer envelope versus having a windowed envelope, that takes advantage of the inside address on the letter that that costs more on, of course, that’s the kind of thing that the donor doesn’t know. All i knew was that i had been giving it to them for twenty three years, and and they didn’t use my name. I understand, ok, ok, your perspective, the donor perspective. That’s. Exactly what we’re gonna do is purely my perspective, understand? Um, you got a little disenchanted in in real life when you went to make a donation to your local thrift shop. Oh, yeah? What? You mean when there were so many things i wanted for a twenty foot pile? Exactly. I think that’s the result of the khan mari method book that was so successful lighting everybody’s de cluttering anything that doesn’t spark joy. And so the thrift shops air overwhelmed. Um, but yeah. Ah, that was an example of doing something, giving something and realizing they really didn’t need what i was taking. Suck the joy out let’s. Suck the joy out of it again. Sucked the joy. Right? So maybe thrift shops. And for those who have thrift shops, you know, maybe you want teo conceal that pile, not have the drop off area where the pile is, right. Okay, you know, possibilities dahna perspective. Um, you, uh you well, you want to you want to throw another one out? You got something that you want to whine about? Uh, boring. Thank you. Please use a few exclamation points in the thank you. Like i said, you know, as we noted, i sent my heart out to you. Respond with enthusiasm. This was not a business transaction for me. I like exploration points. So thank you so much for your donation whiny, exclamation, exclamation that’s! All right, but there are people who would disagree with that and say, you know, the exclamation mark is overused and particularly, if you know it’s okay, maybe online and tweeting and emailing, but but to have that transcend too u s mail is inappropriate and bad grammar and ah and bad punctuation, and we shouldn’t we shouldn’t be doing that. So i’m sure you’re well, i’m never into bad punctuation, but an exclamation point well placed, i think can make a difference. Okay, you did have ah, an example of bad punctuation that that hurt you when your was incredible. Your wasn’t i’ve been all over your feet, you know, this is this your was incorrectly dunaj a reply envelope, right? This organization sent out a reply envelope and the idea was good by putting your generous gift makes a difference except that instead of y o ur, it was y o u apostrophe r e. So when it first came the first time it came, i laughed about it. I’ve been a copywriter. We’ve all sent out things with mistakes and just been mortified, but i mocked it. But you know that. Was fine, but the problem was they sent it out in another mailing, and so either they haven’t noticed or didn’t care that they were sending something out with such poor grammar on it, and i did end up sending the envelope back because i intended to support this organization, but i couldn’t resist crossing it out and correcting their grammar, so i can’t imagine a company that a non-profit that would know that they have that kind of error on their reply envelope and still send it out. Now, i’ve, as a professional fundraiser, i’ve been on the receiving end of those types of corrections, et cetera, sometimes they sometimes they come with snarky comments. Was there a comment that you did you associate? You put a comment next to your correction? No, all i did was corrected, and i thought, you know, did you highlight it? Somebody’s already pointed this out, but if they haven’t, they need to know that this envelope is startlingly wrong. Okay, but you didn’t say that you didn’t have that is a comment no, i just crossed it out and corrected the word you didn’t you didn’t highlight it in with a marker. A yellow highlighter know i’ve gotten those two. Okay. All right. So sort of. Ah, an alternative to the exclamation mark yellow highlights. And then underlying with pink, you know, framed, framed in red. Right. All right, all right. All right. Um, what else you got? You want to throw another one out? Uh, let’s. See, uh, goes reply envelopes where you have to fill out the flap? I don’t like those, but the funny thing is, i was i was complaining about this with a group of friends, and they said, oh, we never even bothered to fill those out. We’ve just enclosed our check and let the organization figure it out and i thought, oh, that never occurred to me. I i i’m very compliant. I fill out my reply form, so i don’t know how the organization’s feel about it when people are just enclosing checks without bothering to fill things out, i would think that the organization would want people filling out those flaps. Your friends don’t hate those those those particular flap envelope i don’t like where the flap is the form that yeah, yeah. And you have to fill the whole thing out it. Hasn’t been filled out for you in december when i was filling out, you know, a dozen all at once, it was like it was the reply forms that were already filled out and nicely done. That made me feel good about those those organizations, they filled it out for you. You have pre filled right, but that cost them now going back to when i get that cost them yes, it actually cost him more than leaving a blank. Yes, right. You got a little embarrassed by something stamps, crooked stamps. Yes. I tweeted very starkly about mailing that i’d gotten where the stamps have been put on wrong and i so i sent out this snarky little tweet about meeting to have straight stamps, and somebody replied and said that it has probably been done in a sheltered workshop, which of course, made me feel terrible on now. I hope that i get lots of things with crooked stamps because obviously i would i would love it if people were using sheltered workshops to do that thing. So that’s also the beauty of twitter is that people do respond to me and put me in my place and explained to me that this is why organisations they’re doing what they’re doing. So i learned a lot that way. Let’s, let’s wrap up. We just have a minute left. You loved the birthday card that you got from your local? Why, yes, just in a minute. Why? Because it it was a it was a nice design, but also the message said something about may your day or maybe coming year be filled with the same wonderful things that you’ve done that your donation has done for people here. It’s just really nice and had a cupcake on it. Yes, it did. So the filling the cupcake? Yes, yeah, it was just really nicely done, she’s the-whiny-donor you’ll find her on twitter at the-whiny-donor that’s it i can’t at the-whiny-donor is where she is, whiney, thank you so much for being a guest. Thanks very much, tony. Good to talk to you. Real pleasure. Thank you, sabat. We got social media. Rance with amy sample ward coming up first. Pursuant, i have talked to the ceo. They’re trent ryker ah he’s got thirteen years working in small and midsize non-profits he understands you’re fund-raising challenge and his empathy trickles. Down through the people, other people that have talked to know in the company who work there and in the pursuing products, they’re using your existing data to help you raise more money it’s that simple, pursuing dot com and crowdster i’ve talked to the ceo, they’re too joe ferraro. In fact, i have decided that if i can’t talk to your ceo, then you can’t sponsor non-profit radio because i want to talk to the person who’s in charge, and i want to hear from them how their company is helping small and midsize charities. So that’s ah that’s, a new prerequisite, joe ferraro at crowdster he runs a small charity, so he gets your fund-raising challenges he’s in the trenches with you, and he was a senior marketing guy at t so he knows your challenges and he applies corporate marketing to overcome them. That’s why what i see is crowdster with their well the cutting edge the payment system apple pay for mobile donations because why shouldn’t small and midsize shops enjoy a cutting edge payment system? So you get apple pay and the sites are the crowd funding sites that they build for you are elegant. And simple, they’re easy for you to set up mean, when i say build for you, you know you’re you’re doing the building but it’s all through a user interface and it’s, easy to navigate and easy for your donors to navigate the-whiny-donor would like would like thes sites. You want to talk to joe ferraro, joe dot ferraro at crowdster dot com now tony steak too. Do you want to be a non-profit radio insider? I would love to have you in the inside. We have weekly email alert each week i sent an e mail letting you know who the guest star and with advanced news about my weekly video and also takeaways from the previous week. So if you are a casual listener, so if we’ve got a casual friend with benefits kind of thing going on, then you might want to become an insider and then you’ll know each week who you’ll be sleeping with and what we’ll be doing together. The three of us go to tony martignetti dot com and click the email icon that’s tony’s take two any sample ward? You know her for god’s sake she’s, a ceo of non-profit technology network and ten, her most recent co authored book is social change, anytime everywhere about online multi-channel engagement, she blog’s at amy sample war dot, or ge and she’s at amy r s ward on twitter. Welcome back, amy. Hi. Thanks for having me back. It was fun getting to listen to all those complaints. Well, you’ve got you’ve got a litany of of them yourself, but i know, but you know the-whiny-donor she’d bring the donor perspective. It’s true? Yeah. Okay, uh, let’s. Give a shout out for anti sena non-profit technology conference. What do we need to know about it? Coming up there’s a lot that you need to know about it. Okay, try to compress it into a minute. I think based on the forecast in most people’s locations today, the most important thing to know is that it’s in san jose, california, with palm trees and sunshine. So doesn’t that sound wonderful? Very nice. Okay. And where do we go for it? Yes. So the conference is in march, the twenty third through the twenty fifth in san jose. And there will be an overwhelming opportunity for tons and tons of knowledge and networking because it’s two thousand people over one hundred twenty five educational sessions and three days so you can get the agenda. You can get the registration information. Everything you want is that and ten dot org’s, flash and t c and who is hosting the live audio stream and tc live for people who can’t attend someone that you may know this thiss a pretty interesting guy. Tony martignetti interesting that’s, the best you could come up with like that thing was an ellipsis at the end. I can’t fill in everything else on the radio. Thank you so much. I mean, charming would’ve been good. I’m not going to fill them all in for myself. Funny would have been nice, right? Personality driven host. Ok, thank you. Yes, i’ll be hosting ntcdinosaur. So if you’re not able to go, you should go. You should definitely go because it is a terrific, smart conference. But if you can’t there’s ntcdinosaur the live audio stream that i’ll be hosting. All right. Ah, we pulled. I asked you to pull the ah ntcdinosaur dafs because non-profit thean ten staff thankyou, non-profit technology network. So much of technology is social media. And, uh, you got some? You got some rants? Yeah, it was exciting and a little scary that i put out the call the staff and very, very quickly, you know, the floodgates opened and people even commented, i didn’t realize i had so many complaints and let me start complaining. So we’ve got a lot from all the different intense, okay, let’s, see where we go? Let’s, uh, since we were with the the-whiny-donor why don’t we start with twitter? Yeah, okay, well, i think we’ve got a lot on twitter and i think twitter because other platforms have kind of followed, followed suit, you know, over time, other platforms introduced hashtags, for example, so some of these things trickle over into other platforms, but i think most folks here and tenet lee still consider them core twitter complaints, so a few of those are based in the world of bach and all of the content on twitter that is just totally automatic through little plug ins and box that people have enabled on their profiles and staff could have gone on for days about bots and how much they like them. Yeah, i think i wonder if twitter is just going to be you know, in five years, it’s going to be a bunch of butts talking to each other. Thank you. Thank you. Want teo talking to itself? Welcome, welcome. Thank you for following commune dot. Thank you for all you know, they’re totally some of the examples staff brought up the things that you automatically tweet to you or that automatically send you a direct message. A private message saying, you know, thanks for following. And i was laughing when the-whiny-donor was complaining about those generic messages that say, you know, fund-raising appeal that just says, do your friend, you know, please donate when people are trying to use these boss on twitter to create some weird level of personalization, but it’s twitter, you know how many of us can write out our full name in our account or, you know, a lot of people just have ah kind of shortened abbreviation. So then you’re getting these these direct messages as if their personal but they’re not they’re from a body that say, you know hi, amy rs lorts all in one word, you know, please go check out our website and donate like, what is this is so weird? Stop. Stop the bottom! I see the ones i see the ones was, you know, have a good and then there’s like too many spaces. And then it’ll say friday, and then there’s another couple spaces and a period like they they have to leave room for the longest day of the week, which i don’t know what which has the most letters, but like friday is a short one, so it doesn’t, you know it’s just it’s weird, but i think you know, there’s another there there’s the the complaints that we can have about box where it just feels weird or the content doesn’t make sense. Or, you know, it’s obviously not personalized, but staff also brought up a number of examples where people have, you know, it’s, not it’s, not the same whereabouts kind of tweeting at people for you, but the body is making it so that your account is automatically replying to other people or automatically retweeting certain accounts. So there’s people who have said, you know, any time this other account tweets, i wantto retweet it, but there’s no contacts there, so literally anything that account tweets you’re now re tweeting, that doesn’t work well. I mean, that’s, obviously waiting for disaster to enjoying zoho had what’s that, like, enjoying my birthday today, you know, which is not is not the greatest tweet, but, you know, a bunch of friends for my birthday, you know, getting together for my birthday today. I mean, you know, i could i could tolerate some that’s personal stuff, but, you know, to retweet that, right? It’s, ludicrous it’s, right, that you have other people just automatically re tweeted someone else’s you ran from personal tweet, but the other example, you know, where, where, but are going to make you look really bad? You know, if you’re automatically tweeting or replying to people’s content so i’ve seen this trend now where folks have enabled bots to say, like, you know, oh, you are my my highest engaged, but, you know, follower this week or my no thanks for the retweet on this, it got the most retweets or, you know, those kind of it’s like sharing stats somehow like it’s a competition, and we’ve seen, you know, in ten content for example, it’s, we don’t like that these occasions happen, and we do post this content, but when community member passes away, we will post about whatever happened and provide some honorarium language and, you know, allow for a lot of community members to find out the news from from their own community, which normally means a number of community members right in with their memories and, you know, it’s it’s, a very sad but touching opportunity to kind of bring the community together on dh grieve a community member who’s pass, but because people in the community have these bots turned on, it means a post that is sharing memories of a community member that’s now gone will be turned into tweets that say, you know, thanks for sharing that great post. It was my highest one this week or something, and that feels so horrible, you know? But again, you’re just leaving the body. They’re not gonna have any contacts, the body’s not going to turn off when it’s not appropriate it just put your account into a bad place, you know? It just does what you’re telling it to do. Yeah, there’s one osili i don’t want to appear to be a hypocrite, there’s one that i i use and i continue it because people like it. I get lots of likes and are they still know that what they’re called now favorites on? Is it likely i entertain their word? Yeah, is it likes now our favorite? I don’t know, but the heart when the heart goes on and people and people do react to this one it’s the one with its clear because i label it i mean it’s labeled by commune dot i t i don’t, i think it’s kind of dishonest if you pay the have that that tag taken off so that it looks supposed to look real, but so it says courtesy or, you know, thanks to community or from community and it’s the one that says you’re you’re the you’re the, um you’re the new follower with that’s the highest rated or so are the most popular new follower this week or something like that, and i didn’t like it because it looks phony, but people like people who get it like it. Who people who are named in it, they favored it, and sometimes they are t it now, not too often with the artie’s, but it gets lots of it gets lots of favorites, even though it’s blatantly from community on my stream so that’s, why i that’s why i think you’re welcome you’re welcome, teo use the tools however you would like there will be no inten staff person harding or re tweeting that post people like it. So you know, if there if there along with me on twitter and they like it, that’s, why i’ve kept it up, but i don’t want to be hypocrite, not not make that explicit, all right? Yeah, okay, let’s see, maybe i think, you know, leaving the world of body, um, talking and of course, like i said before, super big on twitter, but of course you’re going to see examples of boss on other platforms to but again, another piece that’s big on twitter and we see going elsewhere, but that staff are just driven crazy, crazy by our when people basically turned their entire post into a hash tag like every word is a hashtag or you know, it is one long one hundred forty character hash tag that’s trying to be a sentence because hashtags are meant to provide context to your post, right? And they’re meant to connect that content you’re posting into a stream. Of similar content, right? It’s it’s a topic this is anything related to non-profit radio so when your entire poster hashtags, it implies that you have nothing else to say other than i would like to be an account visible in lots of random streams. So if you’re not providing any message, you’re just you’re just dragging it into lots of spaces let’s, do one more on twitter, the the follow on follow-up follow dance oh, god that’s the harsh one and, you know, i think a part of that is i’ll get the notification that somebody has followed me, i look at their account and i choose to not follow them back and then they tweet me, you know? Hey, i would love to connect with you the very first time they do that, i say, okay, well, it’s not hard to find how to contact me on the internet, you know, you here’s my e mail address feel free to reach out and then they don’t know that i don’t hear anything more from them and then a month goes by, i get a notification that they followed me and they send the exact same tweets saying i would like to check with you. So at that point, i tried to give them the benefit of the doubt that they were a human. But now it seems that they are not trying to act that way. So in the meantime, they done followed you and then followed you back to try to get your attention. Exactly. You again followed you again. Yeah. Yeah, i know. And that’s, you know, that’s enabled by technology. I know it. And ten, you recognize that technology has a downside to that’s enabled by men i get. I get these weekly emails. People who want followed you. The new followers you have here is this the stupid people who want followed you and and you’re and they’re not follow you. You follow and they’re not following you back or something, you know? Please, i delete that nonsense. I should turn it off. It’s gotta be a it’s. A it’s. An option. I chose somewhere. Uh, tell you what i think. I think it can be turned off because i turned that off a long time ago. Because, you know, to your point, it just makes it feel like it’s. Kind of like when? We’ve talked in the past about vanity metrics. Yes, because it as the platform, whatever platform is every platform, is going to try and force these things upon you. Just because it’s highlighting something doesn’t mean it’s actually the most important aspect of that bull, you know, making an action an action item just because they’re highlighted exactly, exactly. All right, we gotta go out for a break. Amy and i going to keep talking about the the social media rants that came from the intense staff. Stay with us. Like what you’re hearing a non-profit radio tony’s got more on youtube, you’ll find clips from stand up comedy tv spots and exclusive interviews catch guests like seth gordon, craig newmark, the founder of craigslist marquis of eco enterprises, charles best from donors choose dot org’s aria finger do something that worked 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 fund-raising fundamentals was recently dubbed 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 are 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. Lively conversation, top trends and sound advice. That’s. Tony martignetti non-profit radio. And i’m lawrence paige nani, author off the non-profit fund-raising solution. Duitz welcome back to big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent. Oh my goodness, would lawrence pack nani, please start pronouncing his name? Panjwani lorenzo panjwani you’ve heard me rant about that before, but it’s it’s wine and ran today, so i’m i’m i’m repeating myself live listener love did you think i forgot? Live listener love dafs please st louis, missouri, new bern, north carolina, new york, new york we’ve got to washington, d c home villa p a, brookline, massachusetts, milwaukee, wisconsin live listener love to each of those city and state cities and states live. Listen, love plus, we got a couple that are, uh they seem to be masked. We can’t tell what city or state you’re in very strange, very strange, but you’re in the u s mexico city, mexico live listener loved to you, tokyo, japan, konnichiwa and, of course, seoul, south korea, always checking in just like just like japan, always seoul, south korea on your haserot we got taiwan tai chung in taiwan ni hao any simple word is in ah, portland, oregon and ah, we got some more rance so let’s move on to some other ah social network other fat forms? Yeah, let’s ah, let’s look at instagram. We got meghan. Meghan contributed some things about instagram what’s she got to say there megan had lots of complaints about instagram, primarily that you can only post from your phone when you know, i think from a lot of organizations perspective we’re normally scheduling all kinds of pieces of content right across the internet on different days or around different campaigns and feeling like, okay, i’ve got my computer open where i’m tweeting and posting the facebook and doing everything else, but then i have to go get my phone, make sure i’m logged in, you know, and posted this from my phone, which i think the root of some of that complaint is that posting anything from your phone on behalf of the organization, just like exponentially increases the potential that you’re goingto spell things wrong because we all have experienced auto correct on our phones. So so she really wishes that she could post from her computer to instagram, but staff staff sent around a lot of fake instagram captions that were all hashtags thing. I think instagram is very much a world where people go crazy with because unlike twitter, that at least is stopping how many characters you can use instagram just let you keep adding more hashtags. You know, i’ve got friends of mine and that they are my friends, so i don’t want to get get disconnected from them. But, you know their instagram post included like i swear it must be things that they’re just seen out their window. I don’t know how they’re coming up with, you know, just word what you don’t know what the relationship of the weak things they had back-up list that aren’t even in the post, you know, it’s, just like anything that comes to mind, word association becomes a hashtag ah let’s, go to aa, we want to thank meghan, where at the end we’re going to shut out all the contributors. Okay, okay, but let’s go let’s, go to ah, facebook, you got some ideas on facebook? Naturally. Oh, yes, i think facebook, we see some of the boss that we talked about earlier, but the big thing on facebook that folks were complaining about is the relationship between twitter and facebook and organisations thinking that they’re somehow saving themselves time by making it so. Anything they posted facebook, you know, automatically goes to twitter or vice versa. Anything from twitter goes to facebook, but they’re different channels. You have different members of your community in those two different spaces. You know, we’ve talked about all this before. It shouldn’t be the same message, but further, you don’t want to tweet that’s literally just a facebook link to a post because it doesn’t even say anything and under quitter, you know, it’s literally just did you are el facebook, dot com slash whatever, right? So that was a huge a huge no, no, that staff talked about was that cross posting and who knows what? Um and then, of course, ash brought up something that we do see all the time, by people and by organizations, and that is, you know, this knowledge or or assumption that posts on facebook do better if there’s a picture. So we better go find a picture and they just pull a picture off the internet that still has, you know, stock photography still has a watermark because it’s not just, you know, and they’re just hoping that they can crop it out and it looks ok, but there. It is, you know, looking looking. Totally stolen. Yeah, right. Blatant self with the watermark removed. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Megan, had megan had one about our fitbits? Oh, gosh, yeah. I mean, make it megan kind of wrote a longer message are longer rant to everybody about this, but ultimately those kind of a different world of boss, i guess where people are enabling their phone or different apse that they used tto auto pose all of this personal data about themselves to facebook so it just automatically posting, you know, i just walked half a mile and now i’m a starbucks. Great will all track you down. Why are you why are you enabling all of this personal data sharing just to be automated all the time? You know, that was a huge, huge ran turn that off. I mean, that’s an option, right? When you buy a fitbit it’s gotta be when yes, definitely and turn that nonsense off if we wait if we didn’t, if this was only a podcast and we’ve we didn’t have affiliate versions, i would i would have said something stronger than nonsense. But e i can’t i can’t say it because we’re governed by fcc rules on the affiliate side let’s go to ah let’s goto linked in okay endorsements, yeah, lengthen thie endorsements we had an interesting conversation with staff because ah lot of the things that we were complaining about are not necessarily the way you know you are. I are using the tool, but the way that lincoln has set the tool up for us to even be able to use it. So one of the biggest complaints was that any time you’re on the site, unless you kind of go to someone’s profile and click that you want to connect with them and are able to write a message anywhere else, it has that button, you know, connect with this person, you click it and it never it just sends a message. It just sent that generic, you know, with you only dinner, whatever. So there’s no, the the platform itself doesn’t even allow you to share a message or say, hey, i’m the one you met at the conference. Yes, today or high, i’m a really human and i would like to talk to you, you know? It just sends these automatic messages, which make it feel make it feel like now people aren’t going to know if you’re for real or what your intentions are, you know, there is a way, right? Like you said, you have to make the effort to send a personalised invitation to connect, yeah, exactly, lets on. And then we went down a rabbit hole about lincoln talking about endorsements. All right, we got to do this one your time, lengthen it, try and suggest that, you know, i endorse you, tony, for random words or tags, essentially and staff we’re talking about things that they have been endorsed for by people who have never worked with them, that, you know, they’re not they’re connected to on lengthen because maybe they know who they are, but it’s not like they’re a colleague who’s saying, oh, you know, tony, it worked with you on the radio show for two years. I would totally say that you’re really great at that or great interviews or whatever it might be, but someone who’s just met you, you know, shouldn’t be endorsing you for things, and then staff were saying, you know, best any one of our ten staff members has been endorsed multiple times. For cat, you know he doesn’t work in veterinary and any work we got a way, we got to leave it there. We’re gonna leave it there, but let me give a shout out tio dan and meghan and ash ash, by the way, clout. I can’t stand clout. Thank you for pointing that one out. Just just burn it. Bethany staff, do we get everybody who contributed? I think you do. Andrea. Andrea! Andrea! Thank you. Alright, amy sample ward. You’ll find her at amy r s ward. Thanks, amy. Thank you had wrapped out of fast let’s. See next week innovation in mississippi what it’s like for two black women doing social change in the deep south? Monisha nyandoro works in the grassroots and cassandra welchlin works at the policy level. If you missed any part of today’s show, i implore you find it on tony martignetti dot com where in the i’m just not sure about the singing this year, i don’t know responsive by pursuing online tools for small and midsize non-profits data driven and technology enabled pursuing dot com and by crowdster online and mobile fund-raising software for non-profits now with apple pay mobile donation. Feature. Crowdster dotcom are creative. Producer is clam meyerhoff. Sam liebowitz is the line producer. Gavin dollars are am and fm outreach director. The show’s social media is by dina russell, and our music is by scott’s dying. Be with me next week for non-profit radio. Big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent. Go out and be great. Buy-in 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. Amador is the founder of idealised took two or three years for foundation staff, sort of dane toe add an email address their card. It was like it was phone. This email thing is fired-up 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 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.

Nonprofit Radio for February 5, 2016: Volunteer Giving & Wounded Warrior and Overhead

Big Nonprofit Ideas for the Other 95%

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Greg Cohen: Volunteer Giving

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When is it OK to ask volunteers to donate? How do you get started? What about objections? Greg Cohen is senior associate at Cause Effective and he knows the ropes.

 

 

Gene Takagi: Wounded Warrior and Overhead

Gene Takagi

There is such a thing as bad press and Wounded Warrior is the latest example. They’re under withering criticism for excessive and lavish spending. Gene Takagi returns to explain good overhead versus bad overhead and how to avoid trouble. He’s our legal contributor and principal of NEO, the Nonprofit & Exempt Organizations Law Group.


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Hello and welcome to tony martignetti non-profit radio big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent. I’m your aptly named host. We have a listener of the week, chris john’s from burton, michigan he called maria semple are doi n of dirt cheap and free prospect research ideas. You know her well to tell her that her suggestion to use your local library has been helping him because she says that she has that advice often has been helping him a lot to raise money for a dog park playground, movies in the park and other projects. So chris john’s following maria’s advice. Very smart man. Congratulations on being non-profit radios listener of the week oh, i’m glad you’re with me. I’d suffer focal segmental glomerulosclerosis if you wasted my time to say you missed today’s show volunteered e-giving when is it okay to ask volunteers to donate? How do you get started? What about objections? Greg cohen is senior associate at cause effective, and he knows the ropes and wounded warrior and overhead. There is such a thing as bad press and wounded warriors, the latest example, they’re under withering criticism for excessive and lavish spending. Jean takagi returns to explain good overhead versus bad overhead and how to avoid this kind of trouble. He’s our legal contributor and principle of neo the non-profit and exempt organizations law group on tony’s take two youtube we’re sponsored by pursuant full service fund-raising data driven and technology enabled, you’ll raise more money pursuant dot com, also by crowdster online and mobile fund-raising software for non-profits now with apple pay amglobal donation feature. Crowdster dot com welcome and greg cohen back to the show. He’s senior associate itcause effective he’s worked in and consulted for hundreds of non-profits cause effective is the non-profit itself, that is, counsel to non-profits over more than thirty years, they’ve helped over five thousand organizations. They’re at cause effective dot or ge and at cause effective. Welcome back, greg cohen. Thanks really happy to be here. Pleasure. I love cause effective. Tell us more than i was just able to say what the programmes are all about. How you’re helping non-profits i love your work. Sure. Thanks so much. S o we work with me with non-profits in the new york city region. And we are though it’s called in the business a capacity build there. So we teach a man to fish or woman, and we focus on three areas relationship based fund-raising, which is mostly fund-raising from individuals and institutions where there’s a single gate keeper making the donation decision like a family foundation or ah ah, privately held business, strengthening boards for both their governance and stewardship for ditigal thank you for tonight boardmember is confident and effective fundraisers. Everybody needs that in the third area is the strategic use of special events, so not event management, but the bigger questions of what events are right for our strategic objectives and the audiences we can reach what’s a realistic budget, but for revenue and what we’re going to spend and what should be the objectives for our events. Your colleague susan gabriel has been on talking about events and strategic use of anniversaries and events. Yeah, i refer you when when someone comes to me and says, you know, how do we get to the next level? I think of cause effective? Actually, i haven’t. I haven’t been thinking of you only for the new york area. I don’t know if i’ve been making referrals from throughout the country, but you will talk. To anyone but tend to build coaching relationships, which are promoted through face to face contact, so we tend to keep in the new york city area. Um all right, so we’re talking about volunteered e-giving why are volunteers potential good potential donors? So, uh, after staff who knows your program better than those who are coming in and participating in providing your services but your volunteers so if we think about the basis for wanting to contribute to an organization, of course they’re many forms. Ah, yeah, of resource is that you can contribute one of the most valuable, of course his time. Thes air folks who are already your donors, they’re giving you time, not yet money, and we ought to be treating them as donorsearch exactly talk a lot more about that. We’re gonna get there exactly, but they’ve already shown a deep commitment to your work. They haven’t understanding it’s logical that out of the context of what they know about your work, that you could make a strong case for them providing monetary support as well. And it’s well documented that volunteers are among the most ready to make a monetary contribution on top of time. Ok, now i notice you say you say valentine, you almost say valentine’s, there was volunteers where you from, what part of country? From i’m from connecticut. I don’t know why i’m hearing, right? Yeah, it sounds like a look. Volunteers right now now made yourself kind of guy. I’m sorry. No it’s. Okay, but it’s essential that all that you’re going to volunteer, valentine and i should say that, um, i’m drawing upon more than my cause effective experience and talking about this prior to cause effective. I was executive director of the youth development group based in a public high school, and i had a stable of over one hundred volunteer tutors. Ah, so i interacted with a large number of very committed volunteers overtime. So most of my ideas actually have grown from that experience because they became very generous financial contributors as well as givers of their time. Our volunteers are seeing the need every time they’re they’re they’re working with our our staff for our program beneficiaries. I mean, they see the needs day in, day out. They name you know, it’s. Too bad. This is too bad they don’t have morgan is more. Money to do this because we could be doing this so much better. I mean, they’re living their living it exactly, although often, and this happened in my own organization where i had boardmember sze, who started as volunteer tutors and then became board members. They were very hesitant for us to ask for money because they felt it was intruding on the generosity that was already being shown by people giving their yeah, that’s, where i want to go next, actually overcoming these objections, but i think, you know, if you’re careful not to minimize the volunteering right on dh, just recommending the e-giving but let’s, talk about overcoming these objections. Boardmember tze mei say, oh, no, no, you know, they’re giving enough, you know, which is kind of contradictory because five thousand dollars donorsearch e-giving enough, but they could be giving ten or fifty we don’t know until we ask, right? But so overcoming objections, right? Well, so the first thing is to make sure that you’ve got the basics, as you say, of treating your volunteers in a steaming them well for what they’re already giving, so you wouldn’t want to jump into asking for money if you aren’t already treating the donation of time as something of great value, and and you want us to do this? Not just at the time were asking for a monetary gift from day one on so in walks in and says i’d like to give you my time. I would like to treat it as if they took out the check book and said, i’d liketo make a donation you have to treat, in fact, it’s harder these days for people to give time than write a check. I had so many donors who said i’m sorry, all i can do is give you money. I wish i could i’m in and give some time like and they actually envy the volunteers, so it starts with a steaming volunteers for what they’re already giving. If you haven’t done that, then don’t move on, okay, asking for donations and so let’s let’s spend ah, little time on that. How can we buildup that that culture within our organization, that volunteers are donors are communications? You know? How could we be doing this right? So one way is to make sure that volunteers have a holistic view of your organization and understand how you operate, so it starts right when you orient volunteers when they come in. Of course, you’re oriented to the specific work that they’re doing in the case of two djing with students and exams they face. But you also want to explain here’s the context in which the organization operates ah here’s, where we get our funding, these air, the different programs that pays for there’s, a big role for donations to help cover it so that they have a mental model that it operates. That was particularly important for my organization because people, when they first came in, assume that we were part of the department of education and that we were one hundred there are funded by state government indeed, we had a million dollars of funding all private, so when they heard oh, my goodness, you raise a million dollars privately all of a sudden there they were attuned to thinking about what role could they play in helping bring in that money? We’re raising awareness of the importance of individual giving exact to our to our revenue right before we’re asking were telling stories argast orientation, this is about the organization, all right? He’s got to go away for a break, okay, we come back, greg and i going to keep talking about volunteered giving 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 t i g e 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. Dahna xero welcome back to big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent. Greg cohen and i talking about volunteer e-giving okay, so we’re starting this process at orientation and training of board members, and we’re making this ah, clear to them that individual giving is important from the beginning. That’s right? Okay, okay, if we’ve laid the groundwork, um, we have some other ideas, like communications, like sending send your your volunteers, your donor communications. Exactly. So some of the rules that apply to donors again, you’re treating that time as a donation. So you’re profiling volunteers. You’re helping communicate to them the connection between their work and the outcomes for the beneficiaries of their tutoring and generally including volunteers as valued members of the community. So already before you’ve asked him there feeling very connected to the mission and to the other people who are doing the same work. Okay, now we have boardmember zoho are going to object and say, this is it’s, not appropriate. Volunteers are doing enough. How do we overcome? And maybe not only board members? I’m picking on bouchard’s. But how do we overcome these objections? Wherever they come from? So it caused effective we love to answer questions by actually asking them of the people who are going to be affected. So one of the most defective things is talk to some volunteers who say yes, i’d be open to contributing or who may already be contributing on their own initiative. Have them come in and talk to the board members, have the board members have the chance to ask them, what does it feel like when you asked, do you take offense, what’s the nature of an ass that feels comfortable and respond to their legitimate concerns about being too pushy with people who are already giving and let them hear it from the horse’s mouth? I think that would be my my primary oppress, ok, that’s. Very simple. Yes invite volunteers to the board members or to have a conversation with the board members or there or wherever it is that subjecting right? Interestingly, for the board members who put up resistance. In my case, we’re very generous donors themselves, but they weren’t ah, recognizing that there were other, maybe less affluent volunteers who would be as happy to give us their do you see much objection among the volunteer managers? Or directors, you know, are on staff, is that does that come up? It doesn’t usually because they know the volunteers best, and they recognize the generous spirit of the volunteers. And also, if a volunteer says, how come you you don’t have this, you know, study guides or whatever, then the answer is, we can’t afford it. They hear from the volunteers will let me help their interest, and we had some incredibly generous offers from volunteers even before we’re soliciting buy-in laptops for their students and in other ways, making material available to there, to the students they were working with and and other tutors and not surprising. I mean, they’re already committed, like you say they’re giving something so precious their time, and they see the need and they would like the need to be minimized or eliminated, right? So they fill the gap exactly so thie other thing is that many volunteers for us came through corporate programs and the culture of those corporate volunteer programs. Ah, encourage them both to give time and it’s. There are incentives for them to give money often a matching grant from the corporation if you’re a volunteer in an organization you give money will match it in a larger proportion than no. What for? For just a normal that donation donation by not volunteer and there’s even broken mohr of incentive if you’re on the board of an organisation for some corporations. All right, so if we’ve we’ve laid the groundwork, we have the right culture. We’ve overcome our objections. How should we get started? So i think one of the most effective ways for soliciting donations from anyone is to encourage up here of the types of people you want to donate to be your solicitor. So i would form a little asking group of people who are volunteers who are already e-giving and work with them to say, would you appeal to other volunteers to use the most powerful words? And fund-raising would you join me in supporting this organization as a fellow volunteer? So that would be a first step, which is to gather some folks around me who are already committed in that way to both give time and money. Alright suppose we just have maybe half a dozen volunteers from small organization. You know, if we recruit yes, a committee that’s half the volunteers. I mean, i guess we could do two or three on the committee latto recruit the other flavour for if you have six volunteers, i would still try to recruit one to be really ask her the other five, okay, at least in partnership with me, not alone, necessarily, but because, in fact, if you don’t get stumped by these questions, overviewing you’ve seen it all. This is not okay. We’re going into actually our thirty fifth year. So we’re at about five thousand organs at your web sites that they always pushing thirty five. All right, all right, all right. Um that’s great. I mean, that’s. Why, that’s? Why i refer refer people to you. Um okay, so we have a little volunteer committee do some training for that, the way we would sure help everybody has to learn to ask it’s not a natural thing. So some training. And then the other thing to think about is what are we explaining? We need the money for and as you pointed out, if we can connect it to providing resource, is that a line with the work they’re doing? Is volunteers it’s going to make a natural connection between the synapse in the heads of the volunteers. You don’t necessarily have to do that, because most individual donors will make a gift and trust this staff to put the money where it’s most needed. But if there are clear needs within the realm of volunteering that you can meet that’s, a powerful connection toe offer to broker between the money they donate and strengthening the program that they were here, it seems like a grand slam. Okay, okay. Uh, let’s, um, let’s see about knowing, you know, getting to know your volunteers mean, you have ah, bigger organization would have a volunteer director, i guess, but you’re lucky enough. Yeah, ok, but if not maybe it’s the executive directorate or, you know, maybe the director development, right? You want to i mean, this is a relationship fund-raising if we’re asking peer-to-peer ass right, you want to know the people you’re talking to exactly and in fact, that’s one of the precursors toe asking, which is do i know my volunteers why they’re volunteering, what their life stories are, what their interests are, and if you haven’t created enough of a relationship for them to exit to be known in front of you and seen, you’re probably not ready to ask. So building that personal relationship between that someone on the staff and the volunteers is another important step before asking. Okay? And again, you know, parallel, tow your monetary donors, you get to know them before you ask, right? This is a colt cultivation process, right? So we’re doing something parallel. We’re just working with volunteers, and another thing that comes from getting to know someone is from a technical point of view. You can assess how large your ask i should be. So i’ll give an example of a long time volunteer who i was in a conversation with who told me that he had lost his daughter tragically early in her life, and he had been with us for a long time and ah, i was able to say, peter, would you? I knew he was interested in kids being able to go on to college. That was one of hiss. Ah, personal motivations for tutoring. I said, would you be interested in creating a little scholarship fund to memorialize your daughter? And indeed, he he created that fund and annually funded it, but it came from me understanding he was retired. He was pretty well to do. Then when he told me that story, i was able to connect something he was very interested in to an important personal fact, which is is the memory of his daughter. And in a way, i think he connected his work with those young people with with her life. Yeah, yeah. Was she roughly the age of of the time? Wand, don’t you don’t ok, ok, the other the other natural thing to connect, to which we saw a lot of which is volunteers tend to associate ah good part of their identity with their volunteering, and so it’s known in their families that they are connected there going i’m telling their friends today is my day at the center is actually talking about the kids, the people at the soup kitchen, they’re coming back and sharing those stories and it’s because it’s part of who they are as people, so a very natural thing is to suggest to people, you know, to the couple that has everything, uh, if an occasion comes up, when people want to give you a gift, you could suggest making a gift in honor of the anniversary, the birthday to the non-profit in place of buying a present and that very volunteers, i love that idea, and i had a whole siri’s of people who gave regularly to honor the work of volunteers, including, actually i was in this public school. There were two teachers who were lived together for a long time and then decided to tie the knot after twenty five years of living together. Of course they didn’t need any toasters or blenders? So they said to all the guests, please make a contribution to the school’s. Non-profit and not only did people make gifts at the time of the wedding, but because we were good at communicating what we were doing, even though the bulk of the guests came from minnesota, where both the couple had grown up. Some of continued to be significant donors years afterwards, because now they felt a connection to the organization through our communications with them. Brilliant. I mean, that’s, that’s, another grand slam. You guys are good. You know what you’re doing? Something that you were just you said it’s just a couple minutes ago rings true. I was just having dinner with my mom and dad and, um my dad had just met an organization that he got connected to. That is, they don’t have shelters for young, young single moms, but they have day programs and referrals and counseling and education programs. And andi came, you know, he came home motivated by about this and my mother and he goes to the kitchen. My mother whispers under breath. There goes another day nobody’s boasting alright, has even started. He brought a donation of ah, gifts in-kind he had bicycles for the for their children and things like that. Um, but, yeah, you know, he’s boasting already has he really gotten started? But people like to talk about their volunteer time, right? And come father’s day there’s a chance for you to honor his service by making a gift in his honor to that organization. Thank you very much. Let’s. Not get carried away. I’ll get your good work. You’re too good. Now five, fifty four years old. I’m living at home, but it’s only temporary that’s. Only temporary. I’m in transition. Please. I’m in transition. Sabat. Okay, well, i guess we’ve talked about well, when we started every really covered, like when is the right time to ask? You gotta know them very well, right on they they have to be well embedded as a volunteer, so they have to have spent some time with you and built that sense of affiliation. Um, and then i think any time after you see, people are comfortable and in the routine and understand your work and you’ve oriented them and you know their story a little bit it’s appropriate to ask and then every organization has its own rhythm of program. So schools june graduation time. Ah, organizations that work with young mothers. Mothers day, of course, the holiday season for programs that work with underprivileged families. Those air kind of natural times to be asking are carrying out simple appeals to volunteers to participate. Do you find that volunteers become sustaining, you know, regular committed donors arm? Or just ah, one time when as and no and absolutely committed donors and and even if their schedules change and they and no longer volunteers? If they started a regular pattern of giving you money annually, they’re likely to continue mohr than other donors. Wow! After volunteers, as in cool, cool. Um, let’s. See, what about? We kind of covered, you know, who’s. Best to ask about how much? How much should you be? Right? Well, so that’s ah, that’s that’s always a tough question for any kind of fund-raising so partly its by talking to people sing are they generous with other causes? Find out a little bit about their other terrible involvement. You’re going toe in time. Learn more about the socioeconomic status of your volunteers through conversations and then you bring some of the same rules of judging how much to ask, but i’d say for the first gift, the most important thing is that they become a donor rather than the amount so it’s, just two to get that person to becoming donors of both time and money. In the first instance, i wouldn’t worry much about the size of the gift. And then over time, you can work on increasing the size of the gift. Then, of course, we love for the average doner to become a monthly sustainers because that’s going to last longer, and they tend to give maura’s an ad average gift than people give once. Here arika, um, let’s, talk a little more about treating your volunteers as donors. Um, you know, we talked a little about communications events. I mean, they should be invited as donors are let’s. Talk more about that. Uh, sure. So my philosophy is time should be treated in the same way. Money is, as i say, if in most of our lives it’s a more precious commodity than money. It’s hard to give time for things. So i would definitely include volunteers in all the activities that you include for financial donors, you indeed can have volunteers who are helping you run those events, for instance, and one way actually, it can work in reverse, which is if you have donors, one way to increase their affiliation with your group is to invite them to volunteer. S o there’s very good, some back and forth in that. Yeah, yeah, cool. Um, would you ah, if you have a aa, an expensive annual gala or some kind of an event, would you offer a reduced price for your volunteers? We’re getting carried away. Well, i’m going to go. Yes, and now i’m going to channel my colleague susan and say, if your primary objective for the event is raising money, then you don’t want to discount too many seats. Ah, but if i start with the objective, i want to celebrate my volunteers work that i’m going to create an event specifically to celebrate the volunteers so oh, and not worry about how much money i’m raising. If my primary objective is make those volunteers feel good there’s going to be some overlap because some of your volunteers, they’re going to become significant donors and you can move into those events that have fund-raising as their primary objective, but i’d be careful about crossing the tooth objectives of raising a lot of money and celebrating, yeah, ok on this would be susan’s more, but have have a cultivation event for earth a celebration for years. For your volunteers, you must be having volunteermatch condition events if you could bring in volunteers can’t save all your events just for those who are expensive tickets. What about volunteers at at board meetings that we, you know, we mentioned having them talk about their experience in giving to overcome that objection, but but just, you know, as a way for board members to relate to the what’s going on in the program areas, having volunteers, come talk to the board, i think it’s a great idea if you’ve got a significant volunteer program it’s a way of the board understanding the dynamic of that program and to check in on it the other important thing i mentioned some of my best boardmember tze had started as valentin ears and then became board members so it’s another aspect of the volunteer pool, which is it becomes ah farm team for discovering people who have skills and talents who ah, our perspective boardmember zoho all right, we just have about a minute and a half left tell me what you love about the work you do show him a nosy person and every non-profit represents a distinct subcultures, so i don’t feel so bad about asking where you’re frightened. No, not at all on dh with every client, they have wonderful missions and it’s fascinating to see who they’ve grouped around them and then personally satisfying to give them the tools to further that mission and see them grow and become more sustainable. You wantto give a shout out to an organization that you’re working with now comes to mind, or even if you don’t want to say the name just some. So i’m going filling here to ah wonderful organization called i challenge myself that challenges high school kids who maybe never rode a bicycle, too, participate in a health and fitness program and write a hundred miles by the time they they finish school in the spring, i challenged myself excellent, we should be challenging ourselves. Great life lesson, greg cohen, senior associate at cause effective there at cause effective dot or ge and at caused effective. Thanks so much, greg. My pleasure school. Thank you for sharing. Ah, wounded warrior and overhead with jean takagi coming up first. Pursuant you have a problem, you have a pain point, you need to raise more money. Pursuing is your solution one of your solutions? They have online tools like velocity for managing fund-raising ah, another tool is prospector to find your donors who are upgrade ready that five thousand dollar donors that could be giving ten thousand or that five hundred, dollar donors who could be giving fifteen hundred all helping you raise more money. They are data driven technology enabled. You hear me say that and that’s their tagline what i find interesting is they’re they’re smart technologies using your data, it’s analyzing and organizing your data to make you smarter and better at fund-raising you’re going, you’ll raise more money. I can’t make it any simpler pursuant dot com and also crowdster with their new one of a kind apple pay mobile donation feature, so they’re lengthy people can pay through ah, through their their their iphone increases mobile donations again. You raise more money there, they build campaign sites because it’s crowdfunding, crowdfunding sight so they build the campaign sites that you used? They’re simple for your donors, they are savvy on the back end, so your administration is not difficult. Easy for donors to navigate. Easier for you to navigate and they are crowdster dot com now, tony steak too. Have you checked out non-profit radio on youtube? My channel israel? Tony martignetti some clown stole my name before i could claim it on youtube fraudster, in fact, trust me, if a dude, if you want to steal my identity, go ahead, it’ll get you absolutely nowhere. I mean, i have my social security number on my credit card numbers on my website. Go ahead, help yourself have at it my date of birth it’s on my lincoln. Good luck, i have a credit score it’s not negative. It’s imaginary ivan imaginary number of credit score! It doesn’t exist, so you want to steal my identity on youtube? Go ahead, real tony martignetti i’ve got over two hundred videos from conference interviews, i’ve got some tv appearances and some stand up comedy bits are also there, so my stand up comedy gigs lots of interviews with lots of smart. Guests from the many conferences have been at the past five years. The link to youtube is that tony martignetti dot com. And while you’re there, you can pick up my social security number. That’s tony’s take two. Jean takagi he’s back. I love when he’s back he’s, managing editor of neo the non-profit and exempt organizations law group in san francisco. He edits the popular non-profit law blogged dot com and on twitter he is at gi tak gt a k jean takaaki. How you doing out there in san francisco? I’m doing great. How are you, tony? Terrifically. Well, you sound you sound brighton loud and wait. Sam’s turning it down till time down. Sam, he sounds great. Sound good. You’re calling from the same phone you always call from? I think so, it’s. Just a funny in san francisco. And we’re all waiting for the super bowl this week. Oh, yes, yes. Super bowl weekend. Oh, yes. Is that the one with the, uh, with the three point shots from the from the outer rim? Is that is that football i have? Well, we got the warriors here do that. We’re going to enjoy them, too. Okay. I’m crossing over in my sports. All right, let’s. See? Okay, we you got the warriors got wounded. Warrior, the wounded warrior project gene is is not in the news for good reasons. And i’m gonna i’m gonna venture that most listeners are well aware, but why don’t you just acquaint us with some of the bad press? They’re getting around some of their spending? Sure. Well, it started last week, and cbs news and the new york times both ran some articles that were highly critical of wounded warrior project and most importantly, on how wounded warrior project spent its money. So the wounded warriors project for just in case for people who don’t know is a very prominent veterans organization whose mission is toe honor and empower wounded warriors. They’re pretty big. The total revenues are three hundred forty two million for for the last year they reported on the nine, ninety, which ended fiscal year september thirty two thousand fourteen, three hundred forty two million dollar organization, big organization. But the what, you know, the most critical, i guess. Aspects of the spending that were alleged by both cbs and the new york times is based dahna charities ratings organization that said that wounded warrior project spent sixty percent of its total expenses on programs which kind of infers an overhead ratio of about forty percent. And that didn’t sit well with a lot of people. Yes, and the press continued, cbs had aranha siri’s. The new york times jumped on, um, rating agencies jumped in a little bit. Yes. So it’s, it’s, it’s gotten unattractive? Um, we’re not goingto dissect wounded warriors spending and and nine, ninety and their balance sheet because that’s not fair and it’s it’s not appropriate, but i did want to use it as sort of a leading to another discussion that we’ve say another because we’ve talked about this before, but it was a couple of years ago, um, to be exact, it was september sixth of twenty thirteen, so i think it is bears repeating and then review good overhead vs versus bad overhead and i think i want to start with just you need to be aware of perception. Yeah, that’s so true, tony. And just before we leave wounded warriors project, let me say that while charity are charity, ratings organizations might have said that there was a sixty percent program kind of ratio program service expenditure ratio wounded warrior provoc project says that figure is really eighty one percent. So let me just add that there’s a dispute over how how you characterize income and that comes to perception. Tony on dh what one of the documents that you mentioned the form nine ninety, which is the annual information return to the irs on dh you’ve had a show on this before it’s, a really important document because it really tells the public, because it’s a public document, uh, about what the organization has been doing all year, and when you put in numbers and descriptions of your activities in that document, the public is going to read it for what it is on dh if you don’t explain some of the nuances behind it and just using wounded warrior project as an example in this time they, you know, wrote in that they had twenty, six hundred twenty six million dollars in expenditures and conferences and meetings, but without explaining that any further that just leaves it opened. Teo misinterpretation, perhaps misinterpretation. The conferences and meetings were really to benefit the veterans and the beneficiaries of the organization rather than to reflect. You know what some people might think, which would be, like kind of staff training and staff parties on dh sort of morale boosting events and that’s, you know, there’s a huge difference between those things and, uh, not anticipating that can really be problematic for organizations. And they could end up spending tons of money on crisis management and dealing with all of the perceptions and misperceptions later on. Yeah, it feels like the wounded warrior project nine ninety was not artfully completed on the show you’re alluding to i don’t have the date of it, but the guest was named eat. Oh, tsh tomb. So if you go to tony martignetti dot com and you search his name, which is why i g t yeah, you’ll find the shows that he was on hey was on. And then i replayed it once, and the subject was your nine. Ninety as a marketing document. And indeed, you know, if if they spent twenty six million dollars of wounded warrior on conferences, but ah, big part of that was a big, big part of that was scholarships for for for the beneficiaries, the wounded. Service people, then that the nine ninety would’ve been a perfect place to say that and, you know, maybe they maybe they shouldn’t have put it in that category. You know, we could argue about whether that’s appropriate to put that number in that line on that line item anyway, but but, you know, you could explain things basically using your nine, ninety as a marketing document because it’s so pervasive, it’s, it’s, it’s, so easy to get it should be on your own site. And it’s it’s definitely a guide star and the i r s and state attorneys general sites. And, yes, it has a lot of uses. And that’s, the first place charity ratings organizations and journalists who are writing investigative pieces about charity’s often run for something bad that’s the first place they go on. So when organizations reviewed in nine, ninety and i’m probably reiterating what your former guests, it said, but when the review is, you have to think not only of it is a marketing tool for good purposes, but also for defensive marketing, because if it’s misinterpreted or leads to easy, miss miss perceptions of what the organization is doing with their money that’s totally avoidable by explaining it further. Yeah, and then you have a goodwill problem in a public relations crisis and that’s what wounded warrior project is mired in right now? And i’m glad. It’s, you know, it was very timely because it’s all just broke last week. Um all right, you know, so we could refer back to them if if if you think that’s valuable but let’s, let’s talk about some of the categories of good overhead. And i know one that you believe in is education for board and employees. Yeah, i think that’s a really important one. You know, you and you want invest in education for a few reasons, but the first one is to make sure the organization is run effectively and efficiently, not just on the administrative side but on the programmatic side as well. So you want dahna sufficiently informed boardmember executive staff and volunteers who can deliver programs in the best way possible for their intended beneficiaries. And if you want to be innovative, if you want to just sort of raised the bar to providing services in a better way, you’ve got to invest in that and you got to make sure your staff is prepared on well educated and sufficiently equipped to deliver those services. So investing in education, i’m just a very strong proponent of that and that so that’s professional development like conferences and, you know, travel and meals and things like that could have been aboard retreat mean there’s value in that? Yeah, absolutely there is, and they can be misused some of those things and, you know, again how you frame that in your nine, ninety or on your web outside about what you’re investing in when you when you make certain expenditures, is really important to say you’re investing in your team so you could deliver the best programs possible to the most people possible in the most effective way possible, looking for innovative ways to do things better. That’s what you have to say, all right? And now lets you know i’m going to get into splitting hairs a little bit, but, you know, if you have the wherewithal toe, have your onboarding treat or your staff retreat at a at a nice place, i mean, there’s, nothing wrong with being, you know and like, ah, hilton hotel or a western or you know, is there, but but maybe you don’t need to go to ritz carlton. Yeah, i think that’s a good point and that’s kind of like whether you’re goingto pay for everybody to travel in first class, business class or coach and it may depend in part on what type of organization you are. So if you’re an anti poverty organization, it’s a little bit sometimes problematic if you’re if you’re celebrating kind of an event at a five star hotel, although if it’s really based on, you know, training on doing things better, there could be an exception to that. So it really depends upon again what purposes you have for putting it in tow kind of that luxury category if you are with with, you know, veterans organizations where there’s always not enough resources to provide tio some of our most who we say, our some of our most valued citizens of our country and you know, but we don’t always act that way in terms of providing services that there’s some sensitivity there a ce toe how how luxurious their lavish your stack retreats or board retreats or your travel expenses should be yeah, yeah, you know, but sort of on the other side or, you know, it’s really related it’s, um, you know, smaller organizations, teo can’t be as effective as, you know, ah, wounded warrior project type organization with with the three hundred forty two million dollars that they raise the last year that we know, you know, even i don’t know it feels like even if it’s only sixty percent, which does seem low, but even if it’s only sixty percent of sixty percent of such a large number, you know, a smaller organization with a half a million dollar budget if they’re spending ninety percent on program who i’m having a hard time gene, i mean, who’s doing more for vets? Yeah, i mean, let’s talk about fund-raising good overhead they think that’s near endeared tio what you do as well. And, you know, i think there’s their legitimate issues there, and i think, you know, investing and fund-raising is really important, but i think there are limits as well. So, you know, the question might be, is it worth spending or investing? I should say ten cents to make an extra dollar, and i think most of us would just say you know, yeah, of course it would be, then there’s a question about whether it would be worth investing ninety cents to make an extra dollars. So you only netting ten, ten cents for for programs there on dh on dh, then that’s, maybe more questionable. Now there, times when you’re just starting a brand new fund-raising program and in the first year where it maybe that’s what it takes to develop this new structure because you want to do it properly, you want to do it legally. You want to make sure everybody’s up to speed and doing it, and it takes time to develop these relationships and donor engagement. So maybe you’re one ninety, ninety percent fund-raising expenses. Okay, but year after year, i think most of us would be upset by that number. So how you invest in fund-raising? Depends on what type of organization ur depends on what stage you are in with that fund-raising campaign or solicitation early stages you got invest more later stages. Is it’s more mature? You don’t expect that high high ratio again. So is it’s it’s nuanced? For sure? What do you think, tony? Yeah, i think we ought to. Take a break, but we’re going. I’m not going to ignore your question, but i agree with you. Let’s, go away and jean, i’ll come back. 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 philanthropy, 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 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 guest directly. To sign up, visit the facebook page for tony martignetti dot com. I’m jonah helper, author of date your donors and you’re listening to tony martignetti, not non-profit radio. Big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent. It’s time for live listener love did you think i forgot? Perish the thought live listener love going out cozza dero, california! Chicago, illinois st louis, missouri! Maplewood, new jersey. I’m hanging out in new jersey these days. New bern, north carolina. I’ll be hanging out more there. Ah, not too far. Mag adore ohio live listener love let’s stay in the u s new york, new york cool! Thank you, new york and philadelphia p a i love it, let’s! Go abroad! Mexico city, mexico live listener love, locate al uh, good afternoon, bonem bonem start is tokyo is with us and kyoto. Konnichi wa iran is with us. I love we can’t see your city, iran, but we know you’re there live listener loved to iran, italy, pesaro labbate lots of live listeners today and there’s more to it. We got o sole and young son in south korea on your haserot thank you, jeanne, for that indulgence. Oh, wait, i’m sorry, jean. I’ve got to do podcast pleasantries. How could i forget? Perish the thought over ten thousand listeners podcast, whatever time, whatever place, whatever device pleasantries to the podcast listeners and the affiliate affections to our am and fm stations throughout the country am and fm stations squeezing non-profit radio into their weekly timetable whenever it is affections out to the am and fm affiliate listeners. Thank you, jean it’s. Important tio recognize our our listener donors? Uh, fantastic. Thank you. Thank you for that indulgence. Okay, so you asked me a question. What do i think about this? Um, yeah, i agree. I think it’s very fact sensitive. And i go back to if you’re if you think you might have trouble, explain it on your nine. Ninety, i guess. That’s that’s the best i can do. Yeah. Or your website, but definitely give us some context that we just don’t openly criticize it. Yeah, yeah, on dh. We don’t. Right, because if you don’t, if you don’t explain it, then people will have to draw their own conclusions. Witness what’s happening at wounded warrior. Okay. Let’s, let’s. Ah, delve into another good overhead area that you’ve got for us. What else you like? Sure. Well, i like paying employees a decent wage. That obviously hot topic these days. And, you know, even if that might be higher than the market forces dictates. So you know if it’s above minimum wage and those employees might be hired, you know, for minimum wage anyway, well, maybe that’s not the right thing to do especially, you know, depending upon the type of organization you are, maybe just paying a livable wage is really important and consistent with your mission and very important in terms of recruitment and retention. So in the long run, when we talk about wages and determining what a reasonable wages under those circumstances, you’ve got to be mission focused as well, and not just martignetti just let market forces determine where you set your wages, and if you are concerned about executive compensation, gene and i, jean, you and i have talked about this. You can you could search for executive compensation at tony martignetti dot com. We can also pick my social security number. Is there? Um, good luck with it and and you’ll find where jean and i talked about the executive calm because there’s all kinds of there’s, a there’s, a rebuttable presumption and things you can do to make sure that your executive comp is fair and appropriate. Raging yeah, absolutely. And maybe one one. No two wounded warriors. Well, when you’re talking about executive comp position of a huge, massive sized organization, you can’t equate that teo executive compensation in a tiny organization, so there has to be some reasonable understanding of that, and we have to educate everybody about that as well. Yeah, yeah, i saw the wounded warrior ceo is paid roughly half a million dollars a year. I think that maybe that was twenty fourteen. And to me, that doesn’t seem bad. I mean, he’s managing a five hundred person, three hundred forty million dollars a year organization. But but there have to be things in place too, too, that the board has done to justify that salary compensation for the ceo. And jean and i covered those on that show. You could search for executive compensation. Um, i like technology, gene, technology, infrastructure. Do you have to keep up and you do maybe not wood like the latest iphones for all your staff. But you have to, you know, be aware that old technology khun lied to inefficiencies on the lack of innovation and in a new technology, could allow for more effective and efficient ways to deliver services and engage in advocacy measure. Impact we talk a lot about measuring impact now, but you know, some some old forms of doing things that don’t lead easily to being ableto monitor those things without an extensive amount of paperwork and old system. So i mean new technologies you fund-raising and communicating with donors and engaging supporters and finding new donors, staying up with technology and investing in technology is very, very important. And as you invest in technology and get more data data protection, that is also going to be important, and you don’t want to invest in one without the other, okay, um, there’s another category that ah, i want to talk about building engagement and collaboration among employees, volunteers. Boardmember yeah, i think that’s also really important again for recruitment and retention. That’s important mint internally for collaborations outside, i think so many non-profits get told, you know you’ve got to collaborate more because that will help us, you know, gaugin and get collective impact that’s a hot button term that’s that’s been used over the last couple years, and collaboration really isn’t port knowing what your allies and competitors, if you will in the market are doing and the best way. To do that is to invest in that because those things don’t just bubble up by chance and what they really need investment. So it’s like any relationship, tony, i guess, uh, you know, when two people want to develop a relationship with each other, it’s not just sort of overnight, and you don’t invest anything in helping each other and listening to each other, you’ve got to put time and resource is into it and that’s very true for organizations that are wishing to collaborate on dh i think in terms of, you know, engagement with employees, i think the quality of your work place, you know, you want to have people, you know, they don’t want the desks don’t have to all be donated. And, you know, you should have a nice workplace professional that people come to day in and day out. Yeah, and i think that’s the education and training actually it’s helpful as well for creating job satisfaction and again, recruitment and retention are affected by that, and that ultimately effects on how well you deliver services so that’s all tied together. So when we talk about overhead and you’ve had shows on the overhead myth as well i’m just a strong proponent that overhead is a very, very bad way to assess whether an organization is doing well or not. You alluded to that earlier this program as well. There there are better ways that teo assessing organization and while overhead ratio is may be an important factor. The most important factors impact like you said, so if an organization like wounded warriors project is putting in hundreds of millions of dollars helping veterans, even though its program ratio might not be as high as some people like that impact may be important and not easily replaceable. But doing gino, we just have a minute left and actually forbade overhead. I’m going to refer listeners if you want to get the categories of bad overhead. Gene and i talked about that on the september six twenty thirteen show i’m selecting toe just deal with good overhead, and we just have about another like thirty seconds or so genes. Can you say a little about risk management in about thirty seconds? Sure. So i think i’ll summarize it by saying an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Are the old saying that our parents, our grandparents, had told us and that’s what risk management is all about it on the board level, it’s creating policies and on the management level, it may be implementing and enforcing policies because it’s no good, i have a policy and with you enforce it. So make sure you’ve got directions, rules and guidelines for your staff and your volunteers and anybody that’s, that’s, you know, helping you further your mission. Jean takagi, managing editor, managing attorney at neo non-profit and exempt organizations law group you’ll find him on twitter at g tak gt a k thank you so much, gene. Thanks, sonny. Wonderful to talk with pleasure. Thank you. Next week. Do you know the-whiny-donor on twitter she’s at the-whiny-donor and she’s. Going to be with me. Plus, amy sample ward returns. She returns willingly. No whining by amy if you missed any part of today’s show, i beseech you, find it on tony martignetti dot com. Where in the world else would you go? And i’m still not sure about that. For twenty sixteen. Responsive by pursuant online tools for small and midsize non-profits data driven and technology enabled pursuant dot com and by crowdster online and mobile fund-raising software for non-profits now with apple pay mobile donation feature. Crowdster dot com. Our creative producers, claire miree off sam liebowitz is the line producer. Gavin doll is our am and fm outreach director. The show’s social media is by dina russell, and our music is by scott stein. Thank you for that affirmation, scotty. Be with me next week for non-profit radio. Big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent. Go out and be great. Hey! 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 of nasco 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 expected 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.

Nonprofit Radio for January 8, 2016: Don’t Burn Out in 2016 & The PATH for Charities

Big Nonprofit Ideas for the Other 95%

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Paul Loeb: Don’t Burn Out in 2016

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Paul Loeb has been doing social change since the Vietnam War and his most recent books are “Soul Of a Citizen” and “The Impossible Will Take a Little While.” After nearly 50 years of activisim, he has a lot to recommend about keeping yourself motivated day-after-day. We talked at Opportunity Collaboration 2015 in Ixtapa, Mexico.

Gene Takagi: The PATH for Charities

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The PATH Act signed by President Obama late last month includes 3 key items for charities: IRA Rollover, conservation easements & food inventory gifts. Gene explains them all. He’s our legal contributor and principal of NEO, the Nonprofit & Exempt Organizations Law Group.

 


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Hello and welcome to tony martignetti non-profit radio big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent. I’m your aptly named host happy new year to the live and podcast listeners happy new year again for our affiliate listeners. They had a special show last week. Happy new year, everybody! We have a listener of the week! Susan hurt on twitter she’s at susan hurt bassett. She has a thing for basset hounds clearly, and she volunteers at open door animal sanctuary in st louis, missouri. She volunteers and listens to non-profit radio, and she doesn’t merely listen, quote, i have learned a tremendous amount of valuable information from you, and i’m so inspired by your optimism and generosity, you are a true inspiration. Is that the best you can do? Susan really mean like no comparison even to god or anything like that? Susan hurt listener of the week congratulations and thank you so much for loving non-profit radio oh, i’m glad you’re with me. I’d be thrown into a log. Akufo sis, if i heard you say the words i missed today’s show, don’t burn out in twenty sixteen paul lobe has been doing social change since the vietnam war and his most recent books are soul of a citizen, and the impossible will take a little while. After nearly fifty years of activism, he has a lot to recommend about keeping yourself motivated. Day after day, we talked that opportunity collaboration twenty fifteen in x top of mexico on the beach and the path for charities. The path act, signed by president obama just late last month, includes three key items for charities the ira rollover, permanent conservation easements and food inventory gif ts jean explains them all place he’s got some other stuff for us, he’s, our legal contributor and principle of neo the non-profit and exempt organizations law group on tony’s take two thank you. We’re sponsored by pursuing full service fund-raising data driven and technology enabled, you’ll raise more money pursuant dot com. We’re also sponsored by crowdster online and mobile fund-raising software for non-profits welcome crowdster and thank you for supporting non-profit radio crowdster dot com here is paul lobe don’t burn out in twenty sixteen. Welcome to tony martignetti non-profit radio coverage of opportunity collaboration twenty fifteen we’re back on the beach in x top of mexico with me is paul lobe. He’s, the author, most recently of soul of a citizen and the impossible, will take a little while, plus three other books before those those two have sold over a quarter million copies, you’ll find paul lobe the impossible dot org’s polo. Welcome to the show. Glad to be here. Thanks. I’m glad we’re together on the beach. I want to talk about avoiding burnout. A lot of your work for decades. Going back to the seventies is in activism. Citizen activism, right? Taco actually, let’s. Start with a cool story that i heard you tell about rosa parks. So it’s. Interesting. Because rosa parks is the sort of story that everyone thinks they know. You know, i can go. I can be overseas and people know the name. I can talk to eleven year olds and they know the name. Oh, yeah. She’s the lady on the bus. But what’s interesting to me is that most people know in a certain version and they know it as one day she was writing on this bus and sort of just feed retired. She just refused out of nowhere and single handedly launched the civil rights movement. You know, all by yourself is this lone heroic woman. And i get very frustrated when i hear that story because duitz it strips away the context that’s, so important. I understand that actually is much more empowering that that story. And so i look in there several elements. There’s the one he is that’s, their mistake, the element of community. So she at that point is the secretary of the end of the civil rights organization in montgomery, alabama. And she has worked for dozen years. With the co founded by her husband, that particular chapter was a barber in the city and she’s doing these sort of humble towns, like getting people to come to meetings and all the stuff that certainly is not going to make the history books or the network news or even page six of the local paper. And when you take that away and you take out all the other people that she’s working with, it becomes a sort of lone crusade, which is very much a mythology of our culture. I mean, you know, one of things i sometimes bright lad in the language around social on for ownership is lone hero. Super person. Yeah, but she’s part of a community that she’s built and there’s others in it. There’s ah, a union organizer, gotomeeting nixon who’s, the head of the local. At that point, he’s, the person who gets a very young and reluctant martin luther king involved king is all these excuses. He’s young he’s, new in town is king was reluctant to join. He was reluctant to join. Yeah, he’s reluctant step for we think of them as leaping forward, but at that point he has not really fully he’s not embraced that path. He’s still, you know well, i i’ve got divinity school. I’m going to be a minister and it’s not at all clear, that that’s going to be his direction. So he’s looking, i think warily at it and there’s a phrase i used the perfect standard, which is the notion that you need to know everything be the perfect place in your life be the combination of sort of albert einstein, gandhi, king wonder woman, mother grace, you know, add seven other people. You know, none of us is ever going to get there so and it’s also about the perfect time and place. And of course he he’s saying, well, it’s not the perfect time in place. I’m too young. I’m do knew all the excuses, you know, in his case elements of truth, but he’s their excuses. And so it’s nixon, who persists, gets king involved. And montgomery is where the world hears the king as well as in rosa parks. So when you strip that away and you make it the long hero, it ends up, i would say, being very disempowering to people, even though think it’s an inspiring story because they have to be as her work as the perceived the problem with rosa parks pristine rosa parks as opposed to the real heroism which is doing the stuff day after day after day hyre and then the second element is that they think it is a sort of accidental action. One day, her feet hurt buy-in there she wasn’t the first person refused to move to the back of the bus. There was a young woman who was actually unmarried and pregnant, they decided not from the youth section not to build a campaign around because they’re up against enough as it is latto strategic decision and these parks had got the summer before arrests, going to trainings at a place called highlander center labor and civil rights center still going in tennessee despite being burned at once by the group klux klan and so she’s meeting with an earlier generation of civil rights activists smaller moving but still certainly present and when she acts it’s intentional, intentional doesn’t mean she knows the outcome. I always said that, there’s a two, two aspects one is, you’ve gotta have a leap of faith, the minister, jim waller’s from the social justice magazine, sojourner says hope is believing in spite of the evidence and then watching the evidence change. Yeah, so, you know, by your actions, you change and you have believe in faith about the possibility, but right next to that is intentionality, which just means you’ll be strategic. So you’re looking at you’re saying, ok, what you want accomplished? How do we get there? Who are allies are the obstacles? How do we get the resource is how do we carry it out? How do we tell our stories? All the practical stuff? Of course they had to deal with that montgomery and and when parks took that leap, she also knew that it was going to be part of intentional campaign. They would run his best they could, and, you know, they’d see where late and it is, yeah, i love the story because of the intentionality aspect, and that leads us to the social change work the people are doing now, right? And where we get to the potential for burn out in all this day after day after day after work that is so intentional and so time consuming, right? And and so and so emotionally fraught. And the stakes could be, like death and disappointing. Yes. And i just pointing, yeah, yeah, you know, never enough resource is all of those kinds of things. So so i think there’s a third element that’s missing is perseverance, which is okay, you know, twelve years, if she gives up in your tender rate, we’ve never so and so and so that that carries into that question of burnout resisted. You have to keep going. So let’s, spend some time talking about empowering people toe, right? Not burn out in their day to day work as they’re going about their struggles. Where? Wherever in the world yeah, you you believe a lot in support and they do. And the disempowerment of isolation, isolation is the killer. I mean, when you feel like you’re the only one, you’re up against everything, but when you change it to okay, we’re up against a lot. But there is a on the wii doesn’t have to be thousands of people. It can be three or four people that are the ones that you rely on but it’s so easy. I mean, i i find myself i run a project. That i found it that gets students engaged in elections using the resource is of the colleges and universities shut that out, what’s the name, the campus election engagement project, listselect dot or yeah, it’s really demanding on, you know, re sources and on also sometimes, you know, really hard personnel situations and, you know, because this comes up, you hire people and sometimes problems that you and i, rem number one particularly acute situation, which really wass i mean, it was just the kind of thing we are going to details that just wrenches your heart, wrenches yourself on it had the potential to destroy the organization and and just trying to deal with my own and then, you know, call. I talked to a friend who we have really wonderful street newspaper in seattle where i live real change that we’re homeless, people sell it, and it’s, partly professional staff partly almost poses a great model and, you know, i just called my friend who ran it it’s like, ok, tim, why don’t i d’oh it’s like, you know, you really you know, this is something that you can’t you’re not large enough to handle this on your area on you know, you just hear this, you have to be ableto, you know, hard as it is to say, this person can’t be apart the organization because, you know, it’s just this otherwise you’ll be in constant crisis that we need to have support yeah, it could be it could be colleagues similarly situated in the community or across the country, right? Yeah, i could be with funders even made the tech with technologies we have, you know, it doesn’t have to be geographically focused, yeah, but you do have tohave and you have to have a team of folks i mean, on the other side is we’re doing, like, i mean, i’m asking people in my election project to basically take the culture of a college or university, get access to the administration, and we go in through some networks that they tend to work with, but even still, you know, and the student government convinced them to do something that they haven’t done before, or now that some of them now they have done because they worked with us, which is to make a priority of registering their students to vote and getting to reflect on issues and helping them turn out of the poles and all non partisan does this last? Lorts yeah, and i mean, we’re just think, okay, here it is, here’s how we’ve done it before go do it and so it’s hard. So, you know, part of even like, working it’s harder working virtually, but we have our conference calls each, you know, in the heat of it geever and me, we’re gonna do a video and we don’t go hang out or whatever, and we’re supporting each other, we’re appreciating each other’s successes were brain streaming through the do the project, we also have coaching the cohesion in the group is what sort of were being extremely were being extremely intentional cohesion doesn’t happen automatically were laughing and making jokes were talking about did something cool happened in your personal life? Two be able to sort of give people the sense that it’s not just because in our particular case, they really are physically on their own there’s not somebody in an office, but they’re off on a college campus know whether off where if they happen to live, and then they’re either talking by phone or visit making site. This is tow campuses, but they don’t have the calling next to them. So we try and very intentionally create that community because otherwise they will burn 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. Yeah. About in in recruitment, there’s gotta be there’s gotta be things that you look for bringing people to the organization that are going to help create this cohesion, you know, it’s a good question, i’m not, and i wouldn’t say i’ve always been perfect at it. I would have had my share of fallibility, but i do think that, you know, as i learn and we all do, you know, that being able to i mean, have a strong sense of self but also know that you’re not going to do it all on your own know that you’re going to be working with others no, that have a sense of humor. I mean, if you’ve got a sense of humor and helps help cement slim and you see people in just, you know, dealing with the hardest possible, heart wrenching situations and there’s a sort of i mean, somebody called gallows humor, which french trenches humor has in-kind wartime or whatever guys get you through it’s so important in prison culture, they talk about the brotherhood of suffering, yeah, it helps to be that cohesive group, right? And so, you know, one of the stories i tell in the impossible. Take a little while is you know, they’re breaking it. Robben island prison in south africa. You know, they’re telling mandela and all those other folks, you know, you are going to rot here. The world has forgotten about you. You will never leave here alive. They isolate him in every way they can. And so they’re breaking rocks in a prison courtyard and they start whistling a freedom song and just just that, you know, okay, we’re not allowed to have this political conversation, but we all know what this means, and they’re they’re ice. They’re denied newspapers and, you know, further isolate him and they see a guard. Who’s got his tuna fish sandwich wrapped in a newspaper and throws, you know, it’s sam with sores on his paper in the trash, i take it, you know, surreptitiously under their shirt, they see a story that they think might give each other heart. And in a kind of coded script on toilet paper’s only paper. Most of them had access to the right, you know, just something that will tell that story of the outside world so that you are connected to the outside world into each other and then they pass it hand in hand, you know, when they’re waiting, you know, had lunch or whatever, but they have a chance in the yard. Yeah, so it’s just it’s those air extreme situations, but they also suggests to me that and this is the lesson of both soul of a citizen and be impossible to take a little while that in any situation, you know, you don’t have to be faced in prison. But if you’re doing difficult work, you need that camaraderie. You need that community. And you have got to be, you know, recently intentional about trading it about the scope of the work of the organization being judicious about what the organization takes on, right. So it’s not straying from mission and and stressing stressing in killing staff? Well, yeah, i think we are. I mean, i think we all face that challenge because if you’re trying to do something, i mean, i have the needs are so great, the needs are so great. And i always encourage people to think really large and to tackle big systems on a lot of times. There’s a tendency to sort of yeah, which describe it. It’s i think there’s a value in that more delimited personal work, it’s i don’t want to demean it in any way. Hyre but i remember stanford students saying very well meaning lee um, i’ve learned so much volunteering at this homeless shelter, i hope my grandchildren get the opportunity to volunteer at the same homeless shelter that i have and as his friends sort of try to gently remind him that really wasn’t the point. And so if you’re working at the homeless shelter, which is great, you wantto look upstream and you want to be able to say, okay, what am i learning from this one on one encounter? And how do i buy-in with others and joined together others to tackle homelessness on a larger platform? Because if you don’t it’s just going to the endless parade of need, so i think that that’s true and at the same time, well, where do you draw the bounds? And you look around at the issues and there poverty and inequality and climate change and, you know, went on and on, you know, police violence, i’ve got stuff on on on how do you deal with all of it? And so i think part of it is just you do have to think about what your capacity is. You do have to think about the past people. I tend to be somebody who thinks large and tries to get my project and staff to think large and probably, you know, maybe drives them a little too hard. But by my national directories is one of twenty eight year old is pretty good at balancing. All right? You know, this is what we can ask people to do. And if they do it, well, that will matter. But i have this wonderful friend who i nufer years who died at a hundred to is an environmental activist. And of course, you know what time she reaches our, you know, late eighties and nineties, um, you know, you’re asking your weather sees her secret of longevity is certainly but also her secret of being able to keep doing this work. Yeah, on dh. So, you know, one of the phrases she does that you know, you you do what you can, you can’t do everything you have to say no to people, but you could do what you can and then you could do some more, and you could do that your entire life. And then she also another point she was talking about reviving our spirits and she said, you know, you go kayaking, you go hiking, shooting both into her nineties, and she gets the mist of a smile and she says, then you come back ready to take on exxon, you know, so she’s willing to take on exxon, but she also knows that she has to go do those other things to renew her soul, you know? And, you know, and humor and just she on this sort of goes to the recruitment to you, right? You recruiting hole people? Yeah, you have other interests beyond the work that you’re you’re hiring them for your not recruiting robot? Yeah, no, absolutely. And so i think having, you know, having people who really are just i mean, it’s hard because i always when people are passionate about the car, but also but not one dimensional, but no one dimension. Yeah, yeah, and not, you know, we’re not recruiting robots. What about the idea of the bored as potential support you, you know, in times again, times of burnout. We’re not talking about yeah, fiduciary responsibilities, but hyre valuable to have a couple of trusted board members who, you know, i would you can’t trust confide in i mean, i would say the trusted people can be anywhere, so i think, you know, if they’re on the board that’s terrific, you know? And there was also i mean, sometimes you sort of worry, will you exposure in, er, you know, the afraid of the classic phrase about politics and sausage making it’s like you really don’t want to see how the sausage is made? I mean, there was there at least those those sure are mediators and made sausage sometimes i really don’t want to see how it’s made and, you know, do you expose the inner workings that boardmember than thinking, oh, my god, this is like, you know, we’re in crisis, we’re in crisis, you know, you know, and the same things too, with funders, i mean, certainly myself, you know, there’s funders who i have a very serious, trusting relationship you really do want to know and who i trust if they recognise that oh, everything is not going perfectly, but this is true in any organization and is not and is perfectly compatible with doing astounding work. You know, i remember i had a staffer once was running operation brilliant, brilliant guy and you, you know, innovated. A lot of the things that moved us forward is an organization about at one point he liked to plan, which is good because he brought. He brought us to a higher level of planning, and planning is really good, but at one point, he said, it’s supposed to election, he said, you planned all this stuff out and, you know, it’s all going out, it’s all happening, different blade. Yeah, and i’m like and yes, and that’s always going to be the way it isthe it is gonna happen differently and the planning with good and it makes us respond, you know more effectively, but there’s always going to be if you’re doing anything worthwhile, ambitious enough to be worthwhile, there are always gonna be things coming in from left field and purples and what not and it’s just how about sort of going backto what the one hundred two year old activist saying she kayaks, etcetera, right? And he’s mischievous? I mean, she remember us hundred two years, i think, like he was busy in your party little chablis apartment lived on second, section eight subsidence dilgence social security, which, when she was twenty three years old, is a young union activist should help lobbied through one of the first public pension programs in america became a model for social security, so something she didn’t twenty three or four benefits there are ninety eight and nine, one hundred, and i think her i can’t see what she was talking about her landlord and said, well, you know what? If something happens, you know? Yeah, just dig a hole in the backyard didn’t pretty small letter and take up my case, you know? She just was she didn’t know there was one point. Yeah, there was a reason in central america something there was a congressman did she met. It was very active in the audubon society and who very condescendingly in the way that when does towards the old and the young i said to her, oh, so i hear you’re a birdwatcher like isn’t that? And she said, yes, there’s a lot of birds in washington d c but been watching these days, but i was thinking of the kayaking, she she takes care of herself, she takes care of its just got this wonderful sense of humor, right? And she’s a kayaker and yes, you know, so having similar to recruiting people who aren’t one dimensional, not being one dimensional yourself. Yeah, i mean, you do have to take care of yourself. You do? I’m a big proponent of naps. Yeah, i’ve blogged about the the the the love i have for napping. But whatever it is you do, you need to have something outside. Yeah, yeah, i know. And it’s true and, you know, and again, i think we all wrestle with i mean, i certainly rest that it’s like, yeah, you know, my wife’s going out to see a play? I’m she works very. She works very hard, but in a more contained space, probably ad, you know, and i’m like, yeah, i got this deadline i got to do this, you know? But you know, if i over the years, i’m a runner. And run early sixties been running since i’m fifteen and fortunately, my knees haven’t given out and so, you know, if i go run, i also live in seattle, so i get to run by water. But, you know, if i’m traveling, lecturing on the road, it’s, like i take a break, which because i make it sound like my living, you know, i take a break and i run along usually if there’s water around, i’m going to run along the river or the stream of the, you know, whatever the lake and it just, you know, physically, it flushes me, you know, the toxicity out of you, but it also just, you know, it gives you a space and it’s it’s, you feel better afterwards? Endorphins, there’s lot to be said for endorphins, flood flow. All that stuff suppressing the stress hormones. Yeah, yeah, i can think of offhand. Well, dahna general in one of them. Yeah. Suppressing those. Yeah, and building up endorphins. And yet, yeah. And i think also things like diet. Yeah. He’s getting enough sleep? Yeah, yeah. I mean, i called. I mean, i called the holy trinity of, you know, exercise diet, which includes, um, good supplements. So yeah. Okay. Now, now, there’s not a not on the suicide. Very practical. And you know what? Yeah, you are dealing with serious dressed. This will help. Uh, this will lower your cortisone there’s. Another right doesn’t stretch on and, you know, and sleep, were i my sleep tends not to be that great. So i just figure okay, i’m gonna log nine hours to get a where you get seven and a half, okay? You know, and you know, and that helps about switch gears a bit to the two donor-centric dahna burnout, right? You know, i’ve been doing this. I’ve been supporting this cause a long time. I feel like it’s time to move on. I need any advice around that. Well, i think part of what happens is people have this constant pressure to sort of see the quick short term results and a lot of times howard’s in new york by accepting the impossible take a little while, the greatest story. And he talks about the optimism of uncertain you don’t know when the moment will turn you go backto parks of all the wasn’t like she was doing lots of things for twelve years as they all were one of them little spark. But you couldn’t anticipate which and so i think, it’s, very it’s. Very easy to sort of say that success is for human dignity that we’ve had were inevitable civil rights movement. Of course. Eventually they would have revealed gay rights in eventually. Well, our environmental challenges open question whether we will be able to you do what we need. Well, we are able to do what we need climate change. But they have the will is yeah, the will for it. I mean, right now, you know, the technology is there. Renewables have now passed, you know, they are cheaper than coal. There are equal with fossil fuel without any externalities at all. And you know, when next molly’s it’s not even close, so but will we have the political will? I don’t know. Um, it depends on us and you and the stakes are pretty ultimate because, you know, we’re talking about the habitability of the planet. So, you know, when i when i look at it, you know what i what i see is donors being subject to the same schools is the rest of us, but possibly possibly in a more immediate way because they’re not actual sum of money but a lot of making sure they aren’t in the field, they’re they’re dealing with, you know, with them, you know, then the publicans of hands, possibly and it’s so and they’re getting reports, but they may not even have time to read the reports and, you know, depends on how good the people are a storytelling and so i think and, you know, let’s, be honest, at least some issues, they they may be insulated by privilege, they’re not, you know, they’re not seeing in their social circle, and i remember talking with one of our funders, and she said, well, she has a couple different pieces, like one of her groups, they are just not always down in silicon valley, they are just not at all concerned about this stuff at all and, you know, so she’s in an environment that is not reinforcing her concern yeah, yeah, that’s but, you know, that makes it harder to continue as a donor, then everyone’s talking about these urgent issues and oh, yeah and, you know, here you are, so you’re trying to address them, so i think you know, the challenges well for the rest of us, to try and offer that perspective in our work, which is hard because we’re often mean again, the stakes couldn’t be life and death, you know, they’re huge, even if they’re not immediately life and death wait care passionate about our summit is to myself, it’s like this is what we can do, and we want to put these many people on the ground in our states in time to really work with the school’s for this election and the clock is ticking and, you know, so theo, from the donor perspective, if you want to try and really see that long term, you know, i mean, and of course, you want to be rigorous and you want all the rest of this stuff, but not get but see that long term goal is here long term goal recognize the the short term, the short term impacts we can have, right? And but you also see the longer the wait and see how things build on the other thing i think is, you know, there’s a certain, you know, i would argue that our our culture, including certain the non-profit donor intersection, has that has adopted on obsession with certain kinds of measurement to the detriment of other kinds of metro meant measurement. And so it’s, metrix, metrix, metrix, metrix. And i mean, i mean, i’ve been seattle in a city where it’s particularly talks because we’ve got a tech culture. And yeah, some of the numbers could be exceptionally important. Question about that. But here’s, a story that embodies the process of what’s occurring. That can be equally indicative. And so when you’re trying to evaluate impact, which is a reasonable and good things, you want to take that broad, long term picture. And you want to get the understand all the different ripples of a particular organization you’re supporting our considering supporting on. That that’s that can be as warm or important. Then then the numbers, you know, and not to dismiss the numbers, you know, but another way of measuring there’s qualitative his bed storytelling as well. Yeah, but, you know, in which can include numbers which can include numbers the air of i mean, you know, when i talked to donors, they know we have some very good numbers on our project. Yeah. Mark, best calculations. A couple hundred thousand students who voted our last year who wouldn’t have otherwise? This is huge, you know, for a tiny minute budget of labbate. Ah, half less than half a million dollar budget for that level of impact is amazing. Yeah, yeah. You have about a minute left or so you’ve been doing activism. What? Forty some years? Forty something years. It creeps up on you. What do you love about it? Why do you keep forty you? Why so long? What do you love? Well, some of it’s that the work continues to need to be doing dahna but some of it is that you do. I think the old skills and you build a sense of capability. And you can see things happen that you’ve done or and this is what i would say is that every way the books that i write try a likely impossible soul try to connect people to a broader stream of people working for such for social justice that started way before any of us were born and is going to continue long after we die. And if we feel connected that stream, it can help carry us, and we can help carry others. Add to me that’s a lot of what keeps me doing it because it means that not only do i have a community that supports in the current time, but i have a community historical time, which i could see is supporting, and that makes you an awful lot of difference. Follow-up he’s written five books, most recent, our soul of a citizen and the impossible will take a little while you’ll find him at the impossible dot org’s paul, thank you so much. My pleasure. A real pleasure talking to you. Thanks a lot. On the beach on the durney martignetti non-profit radio coverage of opportunity collaboration. Twenty fifteen. Thanks so much for being with us. Boy was good listening. To that beach on dh paul lobe sharing so much jean takagi and the path act for charities coming up first. Pursuant you know them, they’ve been with non-profit radio for six months supporting us. They have fund-raising management software for small and midsize shops. It’s it’s that simple. Use the tools you need and don’t subscribe to the other ones. I presume you need to raise more money in twenty sixteen than you did twenty fifteen growth is good, they’ve got the tools to help you do that like they’re a prospector and velocity. So check him out. You know what? What? Ah, they’re ideal for small and midsize non-profits what’re you waiting for for pizza pursuant dot com welcome crowdster just like it sounds they do crowdfunding, but not the usual. Their crowd funding sites are elegant and simple and fast, so easy for your admin, though in the back end and super easy for your donors. I had two long talks with ceo joe ferraro, and we both decided that crowdster is perfect for non-profit radio listeners, in fact, he runs a charity himself, which helps orphans globally, and he runs crowdster on the the guy likes to stay busy. What can you say? Um, you can talk to him. You know how i love picking up the phone and talking to people to do business. Give him a call. Five one, six, five o one, ninety three, double six if you want to check them out first crowdster dot com they really do make very good looking sites. Now. It’s time for tony’s. Take two. Thank you for loving non-profit radio over the holidays. I read the testimonials on itunes, which ah, i got a couple of non-profit radio listener that’s what he or she called themselves said tony’s, an animated host who knows how to conduct a good interview black oak games. Even though tony is interviewing the guests, it feels natural and they have a true, too way conversation, which i really appreciate. Back-up richard tony’s, a skillful interviewer who attracts great expert guests, thank you so much for that and all the other comments that air on on itunes and the other feedback i get, especially on twitter, thank you so much. I don’t even i don’t even have a sarcastic come back for those just thank you and you know, i hope. That i always do want your feedback, good or bad? That’s tony’s, take two. I got chink takagi on the line. You know, jean takagi is the managing attorney of neo the non-profit and exempt organizations law group in san francisco. He and it’s the wildly popular non-profit law blogged dot com and he’s at g tack on twitter happy new year jean takagi. Happy new year durney great to be here. Thank you again. This would be your fifth year. I believe we’re beginning your five. I think it’s been a good long run. I’m glad. Glad to have you back another year. That’s. Amazing. Tony and its great teo continue having our conversation. So thank you. All right, um, before we get into the path act, there is something that you alerted me to just happened yesterday. The irs had this proposal for acknowledging gif ts of two hundred fifty dollars, or more. And they have withdrawn the proposal. Can you can you get us up to date? Sure. Um, and so that’s. Ah ah, great new happening for the nonprofit sector. Although we have cem cem maybe controversial or dissenting about about that, we’ll get there. Go. Ahead. Okay. Object in your presentation, please. So let’s, start by saying what? What? What? The proposal wass and it was for providing an alternative for donors tio evidence that they actually have made a charitable contribution of two hundred fifty dollars, arm or under existing laws, donors are required to have a written receipt that contains certain information, including, you know what, the chick who the charity is, what amount of the contribution is, and importantly, there must be a statement on that receipt that says no goods or services were provided by the charity and return assuming that was the case. If donors don’t maintain that receipt, then they could get their deductions denied, even if they had actually made the contributions right. The time of getting that receipt, they must have that receipt in hand, or it must have been prepared before the donor files their tax return. It’s no good to do it after they’ve been audited and can’t produce that. So that was the original problem. So the irs said, well, you know, we should make up a rule that allows the charity tow, have some responsibility as well if they opto have it and it is really important which you’ve pointed out to me, said it is optional for the charity under this new rule, which ultimately was withdrawn. But the proposal was that the charity could file another information, return to the irs with the donor’s name, the amount of the contribution and the donor’s social security number, and that would be in lieu of providing a proper receipts the donor, and meeting those requirements of having a proper written receipt so that would evidence a charitable contribution to charity would take on the burden at its options, and you go about it there’s that the donor loses the receipt, or the charity didn’t issue the receipt with the right information about that no goods or services were provided to the charity. In return, it was still ok, everything was good. The donation was good because charity filed that information return with the irs, that evidence the contribution, that that the big dispute about that and why a lot of non-profit organizations, especially the big advocacy and national organisations got upset was because of the social security numbers that the non-profits would have to collect if they wanted to file that return, right? Ok, s o the need for the social security number makes sense because that’s the identifying part, may that’s the identifying the piece of data so it’s clear why it’s needed, and i just want to point out that this has been a problem just taking a little step back. It’s been a problem where donors and you and i have talked about this, so i make it clear for everybody. Donors have had their deductions denied because they don’t get or don’t keep well, i guess it’s more don’t get from the from the non-profits that contemporaneous acknowledgment that they need so this has been a problem area. And as you said, iris was trying to address it. You were, i’ll give you first shot we have is we didn’t really have a difference of opinion on the substance of this, that there was something around it that was troubling me. But you were very much opposed to this and a lot of others. You’re right. The big dick secure. Oops around the concern about that having that social security number metoo yeah. Thanks for letting me first time. Yeah. You know, the big problem is identity theft is a huge and growing problem both for individuals and the country itself. Identity theft is a huge problem, and the federal government has been i’m saying as a matter of policy, t people into agencies don’t collect social security numbers unless you absolutely have to, because there’s a danger in not adequately protecting them. So if non-profits opted to do this, they would have to make sure that they had adequate protections not to allow those social security numbers to get into other people’s hands. Andi so that was one of the big problems is could non-profit adequately protect the social security numbers if they didn’t really understand the rules regarding protection of what it’s called personally identifiable information that would allow people teo steal a person’s identity and there are a lot of laws around that and non-profits probably don’t know many of those laws and might accept the burden of taking on the ocean security numbers and filing that new information returned because they didn’t know about the laws, and that would create more liability for charities. That was the big problem. The other problem that comes up a scam artist would now be able to call donors. And ask for their social security numbers on behalf of a charity that they know that the donors are associating with so they might show up at a charity event. No, get to meet some people there, give them a call and ask for the social security numbers is part of the scam saying that they represent the charity, get that social security number and then commit identity, you know, theft that way as well. But those are a couple of the big, big problem that we had with this and, well, i’ll let you go next, and i have an additional tried t try to be civil about these things now in the place where we different was was not the substance i agree with your concerns and all the other agencies and and bloggers who are concerned about the substance of what opting in would mean my disagreement was why do we presume? It seemed like so many people were presuming that non-profits weren’t bright enough? Tow opt out of this, remember it’s totally optional. So why are we presuming that non-profits would opt in with great, vast unawareness of what it means to protect someone? Social security number versus presuming that the non-profits would say, you know that that opens up it’s up to some real potential liability and expenses of protection and software. So let us not opt in it’s a great point, and i don’t want to be little the expertise on dh ah skill that that non-profit leaders bring throughout the country, and certainly there are smart leaders throughout the sector, and the sector is the most trusted of all of the sectors by far and there’s reason for that. On the other hand, tony, last five years we’ve had more than six hundred thousand non-profit organisations lose their tax exemptions for failure to file with the irs. We’ve also had probably more than half of the organization’s they’ll tow register and states to engage in charitable solicitations in the state. Um, and, you know, part of that has to do just with a failure to understand some of the laws that may apply in the laws change from time to time, creating new requirements, which is case with the irs and smaller non-profits having to file all of a sudden, but also there had been a lack of really enforcement by different agencies. On non-profits because non-profits were trusted so much and a lot of scandals that have been coming up, you know, mostly because of the media attention that focused on a really pew of very isolated number. But very bad actors now has raised the enforcement level from from all the agencies. And because non-profits are not used to this level enforcement, it could easily oversee the neto to really adequately protect itself on legal compliance issues and that’s what we see a lot really well intentioned non-profits really bright leaders, but not being used to this level of enforcement. That’s our big concern with social security numbers. All right, let’s, go out for a break, gene, you and i’ll keep talking about this subject for just ah, a couple of minutes after the break, and then we got to move on to the path act. Um all right, so keep it civil. I do have to have something to say in response, but let’s, let’s, take a break and gene and i’ll be right back. Like what you’re hearing a non-profit radio tony’s got more on youtube, you’ll find clips from stand up comedy tv spots and exclusive interviews catch guests like seth gordon. Craig newmark, the founder of craigslist marquis of eco enterprises, charles best from donors choose dot org’s aria finger do something that worked neo-sage levine from new york universities heimans center on philanthropy tony tweets 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 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, i guess, directly. To sign up, visit the facebook page for tony martignetti dot com. Lively conversation. Top trends. Sound advice, that’s, tony martignetti non-profit radio. And i’m ken berger from charity navigator. We have such a treasure trove of drops that occasionally people move on. So that was king burger, formerly ceo of charity navigator. Sam will have teo to take that one out of the rotation, but there are many others. Okay, jeanne, now you mentioned the way can’t devote a couple more minutes of this and we’ll get carried away. You mentioned, you know, the six hundred thousand or so now that lost their tax exempt status for failure to file three years in a row, even just a little return little postcard. But we know that a lot of those were defunct, you know, out of out of commission organizations. Not all but a lot of those were that were so they wouldn’t be soliciting. Continue. Teo, get donations anyway of any size. All right? And then you you mentioned charity registration that hits my sweet spot. Of course, we know that i do that part of my practices, keeping charity’s compliant in each state where they are soliciting donations on your right there’s a lot of lack of awareness. I say that a lot when i’m speaking in training and even for those who are aware there’s a lot of misunderstanding of it. So i i grant that i just ah, sametz dahna from, you know, it’s, just the seams, the constant presumption that charity’s won’t figure it out and do it correctly. Andi, just not up to opt in. Ah. Okay, i guess. You know, i’m pretty much just repeating myself. I don’t know anything else you want to. You want to add to that to that discussion? Well, i’ll just add that if donors really want to be sure that they’re going to get a deduction, they should really just ask the charities to make sure that they maintain permanently the receipt that was issued to them at the time. So if the donor loses at the charity will maintain it permanently, or at least for the number of years where they could go back, um, to make that deduction and that will have the same effect. Okay. Okay. But i mean, donors have responsibility too. You know, the charity sends you an acknowledgement letter or e mails it to you. You want to save it, you know. Ah, charity’s only do so much for tow. Hand hold their donors and then it becomes the donor’s. Fault. Really? Okay. Um, let’s move to the path act protecting americans against tax hike. I believe as a path and there’s ah, there’s stuff in there for charities. And most significantly, the ira rollover made permanent. Yeah, i mean it’s a really interesting act and is part of this greater bill that was signed into law but there’s three charitable giving provisions that were originally established this temporary laws and year by year they were extended for for the following year. But because congress would wait until, like, december of each year to make retroactive so effective for the previous night, that was so annoying, they would do it like november or october or something and give you, you know, thirty days or sixty days to market and promote it infinite into your your fourth quarter, but busiest time fund-raising plan. It was crazy. Yeah, and sometimes it what? There wasn’t enough time, particularly with the ira charitable roll over. So let’s talk about the diver roll over first, so that the provisions of the ira charitable roll over, which was first available in two thousand seven, allowed individuals age seventeen and a half older to donate up to one hundred thousand from their traditional or their roth iras latto eligible public charity. So no donor buy-in funds, no private foundations, no supporting work. And you didn’t have to count those distributions to charities as taxable income. Yes, very important. Yeah. And so that would be separate because i mean otherwise. At seventeen and a half, you have to start taking distribution from your iras and that’s typically taxable income to you. So instead of taking it and then making a gift of it, which you know you could get a terrible contribution from you just don’t include it in your income. It all right? So right. The nice thing about about that if you don’t get it, actually not included his income and take a charitable deduction because that would be double dipping, but but you don’t reflected in your gross income, which has a lot of different benefits that it that are even better than it’s been getting a charitable deductions so you don’t want to recognize it is income and then take it as a deduction. You want to make sure this is done right? Which means that the ira has to be made directly to the public charity and eggs. I can’t go through you first as an individual and then tow a public charity. Right there is there is an exception to that gene. If, ah, one of the years it was, it was available, there was ah, you know what they call them? Not private letter rulings, but attacks alert or something that if the charity writes the check payable to the sorry the ira custodian, your ira custodian writes the cheque payable to the charity and sends that to you and then you that you then convey that check to the charity that’s. Okay, that that does qualify as a as what? This is really a qualified charitable distributions. Technically, not a roll over, but i just want to say so that’s a possibility. And the other way, the other group of people that this could be really valuable for is non itemizers. Because if you’re not itemizing you, don’t you don’t earn a chat, you know, claim a charitable federal income tax deduction. You take the standard deduction, but you can benefit from this. Roll over and be a non itemizers. Still get the benefit? Yeah. That’s absolutely right. So most people don’t itemize their deductions, so getting a lower growth income on dh, lower taxable income, in effect is much, much better than nothing at all, which is what would happen if you’re a non itemizers and you make a gift to cherish and, of course, that’s a big benefit. Also another benefit of a lower growth income, which would happen by making the charitable roll over, is that your tax treatment of social security benefits is better and you have a lower medicare premium as well, right there they’re all based on taxable income thresholds, right? Exactly right? So the extent you can keep your taxable income lower, you’ll you’ll get you’ll have greater benefits in the store security area and and others too very true, and we don’t want to get too much into this, i think is an hour to go through them, but another big benefit of certain states charging income tax to their residents, the state income tax, but i don’t recognize a charitable contribution deduction for state income tax purposes, but they will take the lower growth income based on the charitable contribution exactly made from from the ira. So again, another benefit that you wouldn’t get if you took in the ira as income and then made a gift out, so this rollover provisions is really beneficial and has been seen tio for the years that it’s been around has been seen to be a very, very valuable tool for forgetting jean. We have to we have to move past that now because we promised people all three components of the path act and we only have about a minute and a half left, so i’m going to sort of summarize the first one for gifts of food inventory. Non si corporations can now can now deduct ah greater amount up to their basis there there cost plus fifty percent of the fair market value and for non si corpse that used to be limited to just your basis in that food inventory. If i even the playing field now so that small businesses could get the same benefit big businesses which are typical, see corporations so really nice to see that you can get not only a deduction of your coffee of the food that you’re donating, but half of the profits you would have made if you sold it and well. Seymour contributions from food to food banks because of that. Excellent. Okay. And you got to be concise on the third one. I’ll let you go. We just have a minute left. Okay? Landowners can deduct the value of a conservation easements land that they’re giving up their development rights over so that there’s preserve preservation natural resource is the old rule. Thirty percent of your adjusted gross income for up to six years could be deducted. The new rule. Fifty percent of your adjusted gross, thinkin and up to sixteen years. So really promoting land conservation. That’s why i let gene explain it. You see how much more articulately and concisely he does it than i do. Thank you, jean. Thanks. Study. Jean takagi, managing attorney of neo non-profit exempt organizations, law group and our monthly legal contributor. You’ll find him on twitter at g tak g t a next week. Tips from maria part do maria sample back with smart tips from her book magnify your business if you missed any part of today’s show, find it on tony martignetti dot com where in the world else would you go? There’s little flat on go i’m still thinking about this for twenty sixteen, i’m not. I’m not sure. Responsive by pursuing online tools for small and midsize non-profits data driven and technology enabled pursuing dot com. We’re also sponsored by crowdster. Welcome again, online and mobile fund-raising software for non-profits crowdster dotcom are creative producers. Claire meyerhoff, sam legal, which is the line producer. Gavin dollars, are am and fm outreach director, and the show’s social media is by dina russell. Our music is by scott stein. Be with me next week for non-profit radio big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent go out and degree. 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 dh and no two exchanges of brownies and visits and physical gift. Mark echo is the founder and ceo of eco enterprises. You may be wearing his hoodies and shirts. Tony, talk to him. Yeah, you know, i just i 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 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.

Nonprofit Radio for August 21, 2015: Online And At Risk & Your Board’s Role In Executive Hiring

Big Nonprofit Ideas for the Other 95%

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Diane Oates: Online and at Risk?

Do you accept donations online? Have a “donate now” button? Are you using crowdfunding sites? You may need to register with lots of states, not just your own. Diane Oates is an assistant attorney general in the consumer protection division of the Florida AG’s office and a former National Association of State Charities Officials (NASCO) board member. (Originally aired July 11, 2014.)

 

Gene Takagi: Your Board’s Role in Executive Hiring

Gene Takagi

Gene Takagi, our legal contributor and principal of the Nonprofit & Exempt Organizations law group (NEO), walks us through this important board responsibility: hiring the executive officer.  (Originally aired July 11, 2014.)

 

 

 


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Hello and welcome to tony martignetti non-profit radio big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent. I’m your aptly named host. Oh, i’m glad you’re with me. I’d be stricken with dextrose gas trea, if i was forced to stomach the mere hint that you missed today’s show online and at risk, do you accept donations online? Do you have a donate now button? Are you using crowd funding sites? You may need to register with lots of states, not just your own. Diane oates is an assistant attorney general in the consumer protection division of the florida attorney general’s office and she’s, a former national association of state charities officials boardmember that’s nasco and that originally aired on july eleventh twenty fourteen also, your board’s role in executive hiring jean takagi, our monthly legal contributor and principal of the non-profit and exempt organizations law group neo walks us through this important board responsibility hyre ing the executive officer that’s also from the july eleventh show last year on tony’s take two, i’m not speaking to the new york times we’re sponsored by pursuing full service fund-raising data driven and technology enabled, you’ll raise more money pursuant dot com here is online and at risk with diane oats with me she’s an assist, associate assistant attorney general in the ohio attorney generals charitable law section. She had been with the office for eight years. Managing a broad range of cases, including charitable gambling and charitable solicitations. She has handled multiple investigations and enforcement actions and is ohio’s point person for multi state enforcement actions. Diana it’s, welcome to the show. Thanks, tony, for having me on. Thank you very much for holding on. Sorry about that. No problem. I hope you enjoyed the music. Oh, i did, um, let’s. See, so these are laws that non-profits have to comply with. And a lot of these laws haven’t really kept up with the new solicitation methods that that charities have that’s correct. A lot of the laws are are older and do not address any sort of internet solicitations. Ah, there are such guy lines is the charleston principles which charities can follow in determining whether they need to register in a variety of states that they are soliciting online right? And we’ll get a chance to talk about the charleston principles. It’s, it’s, but there’s there’s not only online. But then there’s also the mobile giving world, of course, and that is growing by leaps and bounds. We actually just had a multi state they nasco it’s, the national state association charity officials put out some wise giving tips for charities on how to manage ah, and be wise on the internet when doing any sort of mobile giving or any sort of internet solicitation. So you definitely charity should be definitely protecting their brand and making sure they know who is soliciting for them on the internet. Um, and we’re going to get to that document in the wise giving tips the primary question, i think, is what what is a solicitation? And unfortunately that really varies from state to state, you’re correct. In a lot of states, the definitions might be a little bit different in ohio. Uh, it is when a person asked for anything of value, so it can’t be money can be time, and that donation would benefit a charitable organization or a charitable purpose and that’s that’s fairly consistent across the states. But but there are there are nuances when you start to drill down into well, okay, so sending us mail asking for a donation. That’s, that’s. A solicitation everywhere but as you start to go down, too, email oppcoll having a donate. Now, button on your site, driving people to the donate now button that’s, where it starts to get a little murky across the states. Definitely, and that’s, where the charleston principals come into play, and that’s, where the differences arise, because i believe only two states, tennessee and colorado, have adopted the charleston principles into law. Ah, many other states, including ohio, used them as guidelines for when to determine if a charity needs to register with our state if they have such a thing as it donate now, button or any sort of online solicitation. Okay, so we know that they’re adopted in only two states. Right now. Suppose you’re not in aa one of those two states. Can you just pick up the phone and talk to somebody and ask whether they use the charleston principles as guidelines? I would advise calling either the attorney general and your state or the secretary of state’s office, whichever office has the charity regulator located in it and see how they treat the charleston principles you could call up if you’re in ohio, call up our office, we would be able to tell you we used merely as guidelines to guide us as to whether charity needs to register. Obviously, if you are located in a certain state, if you’re located in ohio and you’re soliciting from there, you would have to register anyways, if you’re not let’s, say you’re located in west virginia, then we would go through the factors with you to see if you would need to register in ohio simply by having a donate. Now button on your website. A lot of times, though, i find clients make a call like that, but ultimately the final responsive to get is always we can’t tell you or we can’t advise you whether to register, okay, that and that might be the response in some states and ohio. I mean, we we would try to help you out as much as possible again, we can’t give legal advice, but i mean, i think we could steer you in the right direction isto whether you would need to register or not looking at whether you are, you know, mailing or emailing any solicitations to someone in ohio, if you are soliciting through an interactive website meaning you can collect donations straight through that website and whether you’re these are the two big factors whether you’re specifically targeting a person in our state or whether you’re receiving donations from a purse from people in our state on a repeated an ongoing basis or substantial basis, that so we would go through those factors and try to work with the charity to figure out whether you need to register here or not. We would definitely do that, ok, maybe ohio’s friendlier than a lot of states that that may very well be, but and i’m not saying it’s not worth the call it’s just that because it definitely is worth the call. As you said, either to the attorney, general’s office or the secretary of state, it is worth the call. This is that sometimes, you know, the ultimate answer should i register falls on usually it falls to the to the charity and, you know, and they’re sort of referred to their legal advisors, but it’s still worth the call because, um, you can you can get a fair amount of help. Definitely. Okay, um, we have just about a minute or so before break. Why don’t you explain what thes charleston principles are just so so everyone’s acquainted with them? Sure, they are guidelines which, uh, charity can follow, too. See if they should register in a state merely if they are soliciting on the internet. So what they need to look at if they are domiciled in a state, they will probably need to register there. And what i mean by domiciled is if they have their principal place a business in that state, if they’re not domiciled in the state, they need to look at there. Ah, non internet activities. And if those alone would cause them to register in that state, like if they’re mailing or calling people in that state, they would need to register if they are just asking for donations through their website. And if they’re either specifically targeting people in that state on their website for donations or they’re receiving contributions from that state on a repeated and ongoing basis for a substantial basis, then they would need to register in that state all about looking at the contacts in that state. All right, we’re going to take this break. When we come back, we’ll find out where we can see the charleston principles. They actually happen to be my subway read. I carry them with me all the time, and i read them every, you know, like, every six months or so, i just go back and read them on ben. Diane and i will we’ll keep talking about what’s a solicitation on, including talking about crowd funding sites to stay with us. Could you tell at the beginning of that interview that i was badly out of breath? That’s because i was late to the studio. This was the one hundred ninety ninth show. Andi was the first time i had been late. I had teo either called or texted sam. He had to play the music. I like one and a half times over by the time i got here i had run from the subway, which which is what held me up. So yes, if you if you thought i was out of breath, you were right. And then i i was looking forward to the two hundred show and hoping that i wouldn’t be late for that which which i was not let’s, do some live. Listen, love before we go to this break st louis, missouri clifton, new jersey i used to hang out at clifton a lot because my grandmother used to work at a big pharmaceutical company in clifton son of a gun. Which one was that? I don’t think it was mark. Well, there was a big pharmaceutical company i don’t think is very big and clifton anymore, but she used to work there and i would go meet her after and then my parents were dropped me off. We’d meet her there, and then she would take me to her house. That was in clifton, and we have another us, your masked we see you, we just don’t know where you are. So could be the nsa, fbi, cia, some other acronym. We’re on to you, and we are we are investigating. Also, let’s go to aa japan, konnichi wa, too, in chino, maya and mexico city, mexico, is with us. Also. Hola, que tal that’s really about the best i can recall from from high school, but that’s not so bad. I mean, i think, it’s, how you doing? Right. Holacracy tall tower, mexico city listeners and there’s more to come. Let’s, go to this break, and then we’ll go right back into this interview with diane oats. 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 got lots of live listener love, let’s start domestic because we’ve got a lot of foreign listeners, of course, but let’s start domestic bethpage, new york. Many in bethpage don’t know who’s in bethpage do you know each other in bethpage live? Listen, her love to you there. Beverly, massachusetts, new bern, north carolina. I just spent some very nice time in north carolina. Thank you. New bern. Columbus, ohio. New york, new york. Live listener loved each of our live listeners. And, of course, there are more podcast pleasantries, of course, to those listening on the time shift where the iran a treadmill car, subway airplane, wherever you are, pleasantries to you. Nine thousand plus ofyou. Okay. Diana it’s. Um, let’s. See, where can we? What? We find these charleston principles to go and read them ourselves? If we would like to do so, i believe they’re located on the nasco net website. You can go to nasco net dot or ge. Okay. And that’s an a s c o net dot org’s the national association of state charities officials of which you are a boardmember. Yeah. And that’s, the organization that created the wise giving tips documents. So while we’re talking about finding documents, what what’s the full name of that document? Sure, it’s the internet and social media solicitations wise giving tips and the tips are for three separate audiences for charities, donors and fund-raising platforms, and it gives recommendations and tips on how to give and fund-raising wisely online. All right, the internet and social media solicitations wise giving tips and that’s also on the nasco website, right? Correct. Okay, crowd funding the crowd funding sites. Those raised a lot of questions. I get this a lot when i’m doing speaking, what if we are using crowd rise or deposited gift? What do who’s supposed to register them? Right? If you’re a charity again, i would direct the charity to the charleston principles. Usually on those websites, you’re not targeting a specific state unless maybe an event is taking place in a certain state or, you know, your charity is located in that state, so and i think it’s unclear also, whether the fund-raising platforms themselves need to register with states that’s still kind of an open question, okay? And also get questions related. When charity’s air working with community foundations and and the foundation is sort of the past through for the for the donations, the question then is who should be fun? Who should be registering and again looking at the charleston principles if it’s just a passer, entity that’s just doing some administrative work with processing donations, they might not need to register, so i would again and advise those community foundations toe look at the principles right for the community foundations and then the charity’s the same who exactly? Okay, but yeah, as we said, unfortunately, you don’t know for sure, except for two states, whether the state is is adhering to the principles. How come, how come, why is it that more states haven’t adopted them either? Officially, i guess through their legislatures or may be not as an act of the legislature, but just officially through the office that manages the charity registration process in each state, and that is a good question. I am not. I’m not really sure of the answer there, and yeah, i should probably talk to tennessee in colorado and see how they got that pushed through. I’m not sure why more states haven’t actually officially adopted them, okay, dahna because they are really cool, and they’re called charleston principles because i believe it was in meeting of nasco that was held in charleston, south carolina, where they were. These were adopted. I think they were. The discussion started there, yes, in charleston, south carolina, that’s. Why they’re called goodbye, not okay, but maybe not adopted there. Alright, yeah, attorney holding my feet to the fire e used to be an attorney, but so now that now i run roughshod over things. So thank you for being explicit. Okay, what about? We know there’s one state where you don’t have to register. Tell us about that. I believe that. Arizona? Yes. Yes, arizona. I believe they recently did away with their registration statue. I’m not too sure about that, but that is not a growing trend that icy. Definitely. I see that kind of an outlier. Okay, okay. So one point does not one data point does not make a trend. Things that i can’t even make a line from one point. Okay, but yes, arizona has explicitly said charities that are on ly soliciting in our state. I don’t need to register and yeah, they had a statutory system around registration and that was repealed or, you know, largely repealed. Yes. Um, now you made a point earlier that we wanted i want, like, just liketo amplify your home state where your incorporated that we should certainly be registered there. Yes, than any place where you have any principal place of business. Well, okay. So differentiating the inc you’re you’re only incorporated in one state, right? Because you’re not you’re not not-for-profits corporation, and that can only be one state. But you could have places of business. In lots of states, you can have the principal place of this that’s, probably in one state, but then you can have multiple locations everywhere and if you’re, you know, conducting solicitations from those locations and yes, definitely should be registering in the states. Now you’re you’re a, uh an important player in this because you’re a nasco boardmember but it’s so, um, divers, because we’re fifty difference sets of statutes and, um, timetables and fees and things do you do you get frustrated by this process? It it can get frustrating. And we definitely hear from our constituent charities that it is frustrating and that’s why we do have twelve states that are working on a single poor, cracked the website where charities khun go and register and they wouldn’t have to duplicate the process over and over again. Okay, this is the single portal initiative. Exactly. What more can you tell us about what state that is? Or i don’t mean state. You know what? What state it’s in, etcetera. What can you tell us? Uh, well, the single portal project is being headed by twelve pilot states. They include california, illinois, alaska, colorado, connecticut, hawaii, massachusetts, michigan. Mississippi, missouri, new hampshire and tennessee and basically it’s, a project that has three components one obviously is to create a unified elektronik registration system that will allow non-profit organizations and then they’re professional fundraisers to goto one site and fulfill their registration requirements for all states eventually at that site. Um, another component is also to be a public website where anyone can get this information that’s filed, academics could get it tio create analysis of emerging issues and trends. The public can look up this information to make more informed choices about their charitable giving and also non-profits can look up this information to compare thie effectiveness and cost of their professional fundraisers that they hyre and third, this would be a great tool for regulators. They could direct their limited resources away from registration and toward their core purpose of preventing fraud and misuse of charitable funds. Is this ah, envision to be a free site for charities? Um, that is a good question. I not sure about that. I know that this is kind of a three year time period where they’re going to try to get this off the ground rather soon and have it. Build up in phases over the next three years. I am not sure about the fees. I do not know that. Ok, ok. Um, timetable do what stage is it at now? It is at the beginning stages. Thie pilot states created a nonprofit organization in delaware. Teo, help develop and operate the website. And they just decided that the urban institute they chose them to design and build the single portal website. So it’s in the process of being built. And they are also establishing an advisory committee to help with the design and operation of the system. Okay, is it is it funded yet? Or were steven still too early for that it’s in the process of funding and the the non-profit, the multistate registration of filing portal the non-profit that was formed is reaching out to the non-profit community. Now, with grant proposals to help build up funds for this project. Okay, so that’s something to look forward to. Handup so is there not yet a timetable? Like when this should be live? Or maybe not all twelve states, but at least some initial minimum viable version? Um, i think i mean, the goal is to roll. Out the stages in the next three years. So hopefully in the next, maybe two years, the registration sites would be up and running. But please don’t call me that, okay? Okay, we won’t. Nobody listens to this show anyway, diane so you’re fine. Okay, well, we know that arizona standing alone. Not a trend, but are there any other trends that you do see coming up? The big trend icy is internet fund-raising on and that’s. Why nasco did put out this wise internet giving tips the intern fund-raising on the internet is growing. I believe in two thousand three it was about six point four percent of all charitable giving, but still it’s growing lead some bounds year by year. So we were really urge charities. Teo be aware of their presence on the internet and be aware of who’s raising money for them on the internet. A lot of thes fund-raising websites, they download the database of charities from guide star. And then anyone can just go on and start fund-raising for a charity, which is great. But you also want to make sure that no impostors are going out there and claiming that their associate it with your charity and trying to gain access to your donations, so check out the wise giving tips on also the charleston principles those will help you, andi will put, ah, put links to those on the takeaways from the show, which go up on the facebook pages afternoon diane, please leave us with the nasco conference that the charities are welcome to come, too. Yes, definitely. The two thousand fourteen nasco conference is on monday, october six, at the hyatt regency washington on capitol hill in washington, d c the theme this year is the evolving role of charitable regulation in the twenty first century. There are a lot of great panel scheduled i’ll just mention a couple first will be disaster relief and opportunities for collaboration between regulators and the not for profit sector. Um, our luncheon topic is our charities really charitable with our keynote speakers? Thomas kelly, who is a professor at u n c school of law, and john columbo, who’s, professor and interim dean at the university of illinois at chicago school of law and then one panel, i think, is going to be extremely interesting about ratings and evaluating charities. We have three. Panelists are taylor, who is president and ceo of the better business bureau. Wise getting alliance. Daniel bora chop, who is president of charity watch, and ken berger, who is the ceo of charity navigator. And then we also have panels on a messa you bit executive compensation are wise giving tips and then also a single portal update, so it should be a great conference, and you can get more information about the conference at nasco. Net dot org’s, thank you very much. Art taylor and ken berger have been guests on the show when we did the, uh, the altum the myth, the what was it, thea, the overhead myth letter that’s, right? We have the three signers of the overhead myth letter on and those they were two of them. All right, diane, thank you very much. Thank you, my pleasure, diana it’s, associate assistant attorney general in the ohio attorney general’s charitable law section. And i have an update tio what? Diane, i’m just talking about if you’re interested in this year’s nasco conference, that is october fifth of this year and ah, nasco net dot or ge is the place to get more information. I called my mother on the brake and asked her the company that my grandmother used to work for in clifton i was mistaking it was not a pharmaceutical company, but was i t and t international telephone and telegraph? Do they even exist anymore? It and t i don’t i don’t know if they do, but that was where there was a big plant that my grandmother worked at when i was growing up. Tony, take two and your boards role in executive hiring are coming up first. Pursuant, they do full service fund-raising they have web based tools for small and midsize non-profits do you need more prospects? I hear that a lot that that’s a problem. You need more prospects at higher levels and related to that. How do you know who’s capable of upgrade? This is what pursuance prospector platform does. It finds your upgrade ready donors. So you know who to pursue for larger. E-giving trent riker is the ceo at pursuing he has a background in non-profits for about twelve years, he leads this company. They are data driven, technology driven, and prospector platform is one of pursuing smart online tools. You’ll raise more money pursuant. Dot com, check them out new york times i’m not speaking to the new york times, and i implore them to stop stealing my guests. It happened latest incident. Latest incident was just last week. Remember, will mccaskill, the professor from oxford, oppcoll what happened? Okay, i do love scott stein, but not his time. Are we okay? Okay. I don’t mind. Scott stein a little. Well, who? Um it was a phantom sam throwing his arms up. He doesn’t know what happened. All right. Anyway, we’ll mccaskill so he’s on the show last friday. Of course, talking about his show doing good, his book doing good, better. And then on saturday, he’s in the new york times profiling his book doing good, better you believe that? And there was another time it was about two or three years ago and i’m sick of it. It’s happening too often do two points like that make a trend? Absolutely. The video where i explain this in more detail and you’ll see my ire. Is that tony martignetti dot com knock it off new york times do you know about fund-raising fundamentals? That is my monthly ten minute podcast devoted to fund-raising only for small and midsize shops, it’s fund-raising only not on ly for small and midsize shops, large shops could listen to, but i’m not thinking about them when i’m producing the show it’s a burst of fund-raising info i would say it’s only once. A month, i do it for the chronicle of philanthropy. So that’s published on their site and like non-profit radio, i picked the brains of experts and you listen on your own schedule. That one is not live. That is strictly a podcast. Recent ones preparing for your next recession with paul rosenberg from the bridge band group and boosting your plan e-giving with our own creative producer claire meyerhoff there’s info on fund-raising fundamentals at tony martignetti dot com and at the chronicle of philanthropy. Although gotomeeting durney dot com because i need the traffic and chronicle of philanthropy is doing just fine. That is tony’s take two for friday twenty first of august thirty third show of the year. Here is r wonderful. Ah, informative. Smart contributor on the law, jean takagi on your boards role in executive hiring jean takagi he’s with us. You know him? He’s, the managing editor, attorney at neo non-profit and exempt organizations law group in san francisco. He edits the very popular non-profit law block dot com on twitter he’s at g tak g ta ke jin takagi welcome back. Hi, tony in congratulations on one ninety nine. I’m looking forward to two hundred next week. Cool. Yes. I’m glad you’re gonna be calling in for with us. Thank you very much. Thank you, it’s. Very exciting. Really? One hundred ninety nine shows ago. It’s one hundred ninety nine weeks it’s it’s. Remarkable. Um, we’re talking this week about the board’s role in hiring the executive and i’ve i understand that there are a lot of executives in transition. I think so, tony and it looks like some surveys have confirmed that it’s certainly been syrians with some of my clients and even on boards i’ve sat on over the last couple years. And there’s, a great group called compass point out in san francisco there nationally known as one of the most respected non-profit support centers and together with blue avocado, a non-profit online publication, they have a national survey on leadership succession in transition going on just right now. The last time they published the results with in two thousand eleven, and they found that sixty seven percent of current executive anticipated leaving within five years and ten percent. We’re currently actively looking to leave right then, and in two thousand eleven, the economic times weren’t so were so great. So sixty seven percent anticipating leaving within five years that’s a pretty staggering number. So now we’re already three years into that survey into that five year projection. Yeah, and sixty seven percent of two thirds. So if we had held this show off until two thousand sixteen, then it would have been moved. But there’s a new one coming out, you said, yeah, well, they’re they’re just starting the survey online now so you can participate on that. I don’t know the website, but if you, you know google non-profit transition survey executive transition survey, thank you, you’ll get that okay, and its compass point it’s a compass point and blew up a goddamn kottler who you’ve. You’ve mentioned blue vaccaro before i know. All right, so, yeah, two thirds of of ceos were expecting to be in transition within five years and where we’re only three years into it now. So the presumably these people are still looking. What? But boards don’t really spend enough time preparing for this kind of succession, do they? Well, you know, in many cases they don’t, and sometimes, you know, they might stay, they don’t get the chance because their executive director comes up to them and give us in two weeks notice, and now, you know, the board may be used to meeting every month or every other month or even every third month, and now all of a sudden they’ve gotta ramp up their efforts and find an executive to come in in two weeks. That’s going to be really tough to do on dh, you know, again, if we say at any given time, two thirds of the non-profit executives are looking to leave their job, you know, it’s very likely that within your board term, you know, you may have an executive transition to manage, and sometimes with very little notice. So that’s that’s? Why? I think succession planning is just really a core duty of non-profit board. Well, how do we let them get away with this two week notice? I mean, the ones i typically see are you know, the person will stay on until a successor is found, you that’s, not your experience. Well, you know, you’re really lucky if you if you do get that situation, i think most non-profit executives are hired on at will basis. Meaning that there’s, not a contract to stay there for a given number of years. Either party can conception, rate or terminate the employment relationship at any time. And as the average, you know, employee may give two weeks notice to go on to another job there. Many executives who feel the same way that they, you know, they may feel like they own allegiance to an organization. But another opportunity comes up and it’s not going to be held for them forever. And they may want to move on. Um, and they may feel like what they gave the board really advanced notice that they might be looking for something that they might get terminated. So they may keep that information from the board until the last two weeks. Well, because all right, so that i am way in the dark because i would. I just presumed that executive directors, ceos even if small and midsize shops were not at will. But they were but that they were contract. I mean, when i was a lonely back in my days of wage slavery, director of planned e-giving i was in at will employees, which means you can end it. Like you said, you could end at any time and so can they like, if they don’t like the color of your tie one day they can fire you, you’re at will. But but that that’s typical for for ceos and and executive directors. Yeah, i think for smaller non-profits it’s very, very common. Oh, i just always assumed that these were contract positions with termination clause is and no. Okay, but, i mean, you know, it’s, your practice, i’m not i’m not disagreeing with you, i’m just saying i’m okay, i’m learning something s so that’s that’s incredibly risky. So it is. It just put you in that position of saying, well, i need to replace somebody immediately and i don’t you know, as a board we don’t meet very often can we even convene within the two weeks to find the process going? It’s going to be so much better if he had a plan of what happened in case you know, our executive every doesn’t give two weeks notice, and even if the executive says, you know, in your scenario, maybe a longer notice, maybe, you know, in six months, if they do have a contract at the end of my contract, i don’t plan to renew, you know, i think we should go through the process of looking for for a successor and having a plan or thinking about that plan that is just coming up with something on the fly is going to probably result in a much better choice for selection of a leader in the future and that’s going to be critical and how well the organisation operates and how the beneficiaries of your organization are going to do are they going to get the benefits of a strong organization or are thinking is suffer because the organization can’t do it? You can’t advance mission as well. It should. Yeah, i mean, you’re you’re calling it on the fly. I would say two weeks notice for an executive director. Departing is is a crisis even four weeks notice? Yeah, in many cases you’re you’re absolutely right. Okay, i’m right about something. Thank you. You’ve got something right today. All right. So what do we what do we do, teo, to plan for that? Just well, you know, i think the first thing the board has to do is start toe think about the contingencies. So what do we do and then actually want one thought that comes to mind that, uh, that you raised tony is should we get our executive director on an employment contract? If they are and that will employee do we want to lock it in? And they’re sort of pros and cons with that? If you’ve got, like, not the best executive director in the world, terminating somebody on a contract becomes much, much more difficult than if they were at will employees. So, you know, you kind of have to weigh the pros and cons, but, you know, revisiting your current executives director and the employment relationship is maybe step one. Oh, and suddenly he was thinking about, well, do you have a really strong job description that really reflects with the board wants of the executive director and on the basis on which the board is reviewing the executives performance on dh? Maybe the sort of initial question to ask in that area? Is do you actually review the executive director and that the board you absolutely should? You and i have talked about that the board’s is not part of their fiduciary duty to evaluate the performance of the the ceo? Yeah, i think so. I think it’s a core part of meeting their fiduciary duties that really, you know, as a board, if you meet once a month or once every couple of months or whatever what’s more important, you know, then really selecting the individual who’s going to lead the organization in advancing its mission and its values and implementing your plans and policies and making sure the organization complies with the law. Taking your leader is probably the most important task that the board has, because the board is delegating management to the to that leader. Yeah, absolutely. And i think it’s often forgot naralo overlooked that individual board members inherently have no power and no authority to do anything think so, it’s only as a group. When they meet collectively, can they take aboard action? So for individuals to exercise, you know, powers on behalf of the organization that has to be delegated to them and typically the person responsible for everything is that ceo or the executive director. We’re gonna go out for a break, gene. And when we come back, you now keep talking about the process. The what goes into this process, including the job offer. So everybody stay with us. Like what you’re hearing a non-profit radio tony’s got more on youtube, you’ll find clips from stand up comedy tv spots and exclusive interviews catch guests like seth gordon. Craig newmark, the founder of craigslist marquis of eco enterprises, charles best from donors choose dot org’s aria finger, do something that worked neo-sage levine from new york universities heimans center on 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 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, i guess, directly. To sign up, visit the facebook page for tony martignetti dot com. Duitz gotta send live listener love, let’s. Start in japan with tokyo kiss are a zoo and nagoya. Konnichiwa, seoul, south korea, seoul. Some someone south korea, always checking in love that on your haserot. Moscow, russia, mexico city, mexico, ireland. We can’t see your city ireland’s being masked for some reason, but we know you’re there. Welcome, welcome, ireland, and also taipei, taiwan. Ni hao, nobody from china, that’s, funny, nobody from china today, coming back to the u s, we got cummings, georgia, in ashburn, virginia. Live listener love to you in georgia and virginia. Okay, gene. So now we’ve let’s say, we’ve learned that our exec is departing and let’s not make it a crisis situation, though let’s say this person is generous enough to give six months notice. So, you know, let’s, not make it a crisis. Where what’s our what’s, our what’s, our first step as the board. Terrific. And i’ll just add, even if you don’t, if you know your executive is not leaving any time soon and i think you should go ahead and start this process anyway. Oh, yeah, clearly we should be. We should have a succession plan in place. Yes, we’ve talked right? Okay, yeah. So i think the first thing to do is get a committee together so it might include boardmember some outside experts outside with the board. If you don’t have that internal expertise and just getting different perspectives out there, some of your other stakeholders might be really important in what, you know what you want to look for in an executive in the future. So get that committee together first, get the buy-in of the current executive director. So unless it’s going to be, you know, a succession plan for a termination? Yeah, we’re really unhappy with executive director, right? Let’s not get into that. Yeah, let’s get their buy-in and have them help in the process. Especially with your scenario where they’re giving a six months notice and everything is amicable. Let’s, you know, see? Shoot, who knows better about the organization than the executive director that’s in place right now. So i’m getting there buy-in and help contribution. I think it is pivotal. Does this committee have to be comprised of hr experts? Why? I think having a least one or two hr experts is going to be really helpful. But i i think it’s more than that. It’s, you need program people who understand what the executive you know roll is no respect to advancing the program. You need the fund-raising people to know well, what is the going to do with respect to fund-raising perhaps the seeds, the lead fundraiser and some small organizations as well. So we need thio gather a bunch of different people with different perspectives and expertise to figure this out. And i think that’s a very good point to include a t least a programme expert. Now, could this committee include employees, or does it have to be sure you can absolutely on dh? You know, you might even have have have different subcommittees in there. So eventually this is going to go up to the board. But as the committee’s doing the legwork for determining what? You need an executive director and putting together a job description, and and, you know, perhaps, but the performance evaluation is going to be based on for the future executive director all those things can get, you know, we’d be aided by the contribution from several areas. Okay, okay, what are your thoughts on hiring a recruiter vs vs? Not well, i you know, i think it depends upon what the organization shins resource is our and the organization should understand the marketplace it’s in a swell hiring two great executive director is the competitive thing. So, you know, if you’ve got a lot of resources and you’re able to you want to allocate an appropriate amount of resource is tio what i think again is making one of your most important decisions of the board? I don’t think you want to do this on the cheap at all. I’m just the same way i didn’t want you to do it on the fly or or or in a rushed matter-ness think you want to invest in this, and if you don’t have great expertise inside about on things about, like, doing job interviews and doing background checks on the sex thing, you know how to differentiate between one candidate and another when they all look good on paper and when they’re maybe professional interviewees, but they’re not there, maybe not great leaders. How do you figure all those things that if you don’t know, that dahna an executive search firm could be a great help, and it can just open up the marketplace of potential candidates as well, especially if they, you know, decide to do a regional or even a national search. It really can ramp up who who you’re going to see in front of you and the quality of the candidates that the selection comedian the board eventually will have to choose from. Okay, does the committee now come up with a couple of candidates to bring to the board, or is it better for the committee to choose one and bring that person to the board? How does this work? You know, i think the committee should be tasked with bringing several candidates up on sometimes it may be a multi tiered process so they might go through two rounds of screening, for example, and and at least let the board see who’s made the first cut. And then and then, you know, present to the board, the final, perhaps two or three candidates. If, if you’ve got, you know, the ones that are very close and in quality in terms of what the board want in an executive director, i think that’s pivotal. I wanted to add one. Nothing, though. I’ve seen this done before, tony and i don’t really like it and that’s when. If a search committee or research consultant comes up and says, you know, to the board, tell me what you want in the good executive director everybody, you know, spend five minutes, write it down and send it to me or take it home and email it to me oh, and tell me what you want and then the search consultant collates the the the answers and then that’s, you know, the decision about that’s what’s going to be the qualities you’re going to look for. I think this needs a lot of discussion and deliberation and the value of that, you know, that that thought process and that really difficult thinking and getting all those generative questions out there is going to produce a much better product in terms of what you’re looking for and who you can get and how you’re going to do it. Yeah, you you send this tio use email and, you know, it’s going to get the typical attention that an e mail gets, like a minute or something. You know, it’s it’s going to get short shrift. And your point is that this is critical. It’s it’s, the leader of your organization, you want do you want the contributions of the committee to be done in, like a minute off the top of their head just so they can get the email out of their inbox? Yeah, definitely. We could talk about board meetings and another show, but put this at the front of the meeting and spend, you know, seventy five percent of your time talking about this. This is really, really important, okay, you have some thoughts about compensation, and we just have a couple minutes left. So let’s let’s say we’ve the board has well, i can’t jump there yet. Who should make the final call among these candidates? Is it the board? Yeah, i think it should be the board that makes the final approval, but they they’re going to put a lot of weight based on what? The executive of the search committee, you know, tell them who they’re you know, the recommendation is okay, and i think that toe add one more thing to it is make sure the organization looks good to clean up your paperwork and your programming and even your facilities. Just make sure you’re going to be attractive to the candidate as well. Because if you want to attract the best, you better be looking your best as well. Okay, okay. And the with respect to compensation now, we’ve talked about this before. What? What’s excessive. And there should be calms and things like that, right? So it’s really important to make sure that the board or unauthorized board committee one that composed just board members, approved the compensation before it’s offered to the candidate. Even if you don’t know that they’re going accepted or not, once he offers out there that compensation package, total compensation should have been approved by the board. And you want to do it with using the rebuttable presumption of reasonable procedures unless you know its far below market value. Okay, if you get payed accessibly or if you pay somebody excessively, that could be penalty taxes for everybody. Including the board. Should be careful of that. We have talked about that rebuttable presumption before. Yeah. All right, then. We have to leave that there. I look forward to talking to you next week on the two hundredth great. Congratulations again. And i look forward to it as well. Thank you, gene. Gene takagi, managing attorney of neo. The non-profit and exempt organizations law group, his blog’s non-profit law block dot com and on twitter he is at g tak. Some updates, of course, too live listener love because you were listening to live listener love from july eleventh, twenty fourteen. So that’s a that’s. A little bit at a date, more people have joined us, including wilmington, north carolina, media, pennsylvania. Pottstown, pennsylvania, and spring lake, new jersey. I spent a lot of time very close to spring lake in belmar because my other grandmother, not the grandmother who worked at i t that was my mom’s mom. But my dad’s mom and dad had a home in belmar and i used to go there weeks on end. My parents were thrilled to get rid of me when i was four, five, six, seven, eight years old. Oh, my gosh. Lots of weekends in belmar. And i know that spring lake is a very, very pretty town. Also, uh, what’s the big hotel there where i’ve been for dinner, the breakers. Is that the breakers? That beautiful hotel? Ah, not literally on the water, but pretty darn close right across that little little just across ocean have love spring lake and interesting springlake media and pottstown you’re listening from itunes cool live listen love to each of you also joining us sao paulo, brazil, beijing, china ni hao and belong j portugal live listeners love to each of you now you might have noticed that on that july eleven twenty fourteen show, there was no podcast pleasantries and no affiliate affections. You see how this show is growing and expanding and innovating constantly on one hundred ninety ninth show. The next week was going to be the two hundredth. We don’t have podcast pleasantries and affiliate affections. Now we do so pleasantries out to all our ten thousand plus podcast listeners wherever, whatever you’re doing, affiliate affections love you too all our affiliate am and fm stations i want to waken affiliate affections. I’m just realizing it’s a f f f f f after two dafs squared affiliate affections! I don’t know, maybe that’s too that’s hokey. Besides, i like thea. I like the the ah what is it when all the words start with the same whatever that that i love it’s an alliteration. Thank you saying so. I liked the alliteration, so we’re sticking with affiliate affections. No. After two next week, i told you it was coming. Incentive pay for your fundraisers to fund-raising administrators from the university of pittsburgh. Very senior people share their innovative pay plan for their frontline fundraisers. If you missed any part of today’s show finding on tony martignetti dot com, where in the world else would you go? I i believe that i had said that i was going to stop singing weeks ago, but i must have been misinformed. It’s my show and do whatever i want. And if you don’t want to singing host, get your own show, i beseech you, go ahead pursuant full service fund-raising you’ll raise train car loads more money, and i’m not talking about those two person little flat beds that the people pump up and down like a seesaw to move along the tracks like, you know, oh brother, where art thou? I’m talking cattle cars, container cars, tank cars filled with money pursuant dot com. We’re going to go out with a live version of cheap red wine today. This is the live version from the two hundredth show, which was the week after the show that we just turned the two segments from scott stein came in the studio, brought his elektronik eighty eight keyboard, and he played cheap red wine, our theme music. And since it’s snuck in earlier today, phantom lee, we’re going to go out with it. Here’s. The live version from the two hundred show our creative producer is claire meyerhoff. Sam liebowitz is the line producer show social media’s by susan chavez. Susan chavez. Dot com on our music is by scots. Dine with me next week for non-profit radio big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent go out and be great wait can agree on nothing. Wait till our ups from my down wait disappointed in each other. Now tell me, baby, and this love that we found. You know, you used to find me charming, but i can figure out how. And you said, you thought those handsome. But it doesn’t matter now. So came falling for my punch. On just long in time, we’ll allow, because i’m you got her empty promises. A bottle of cheap red wine. 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. It took two or three years for foundation staff, sort of dane toe. Add an email address their card it was like it was phone. This email thing is fired-up 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 of eco enterprises. You may be wearing his hoodies and shirts. Tony, talk 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.