When are these appropriate for your events? Do you need professional help? How do you create drama? And when do you get paid? Neill Bogan is director of development and communications at New York Common Pantry. Tracey Drayer is executive vice president for Nassau Region of Hadassah. And Yolanda Johnson is development manager at Princess Grace Foundation-USA.
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Yeah. 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 geneva community radio welcome in upstate new york, they’re on the northern tip of seneca lake, one of the finger lakes in new york state. So glad to have geneva community radio as our newest affiliate welcome and i’m glad you’re with me. I’d suffer the embarrassment of period in sign of itis if news leaked out that you missed today’s show auction’s, raffles and cash calls, when are these appropriate for your events? Do they need professional? Do you need professional help? How do you create drama? And when do you get paid from fund-raising day twenty fourteen, i was with neil bogan, tracy dreyer and yolanda johnson, and yes, my voice just cracked like i’m a fourteen year old. Also social appreciation well, look att social engagement for member appreciation or maybe your donor appreciation campaign that doesn’t include an ask amy sample ward is our social media contributor and ceo of n ten, the non-profit technology network between the guests on tony’s take two, no more rock star consultants. We’re sponsored by generosity, siri’s they host multi charity five k runs and walks here is my conversation on auction’s, raffles and cash calls from fund-raising day twenty fourteen earlier this year welcome to tony martignetti non-profit radio coverage of fund-raising day two thousand fourteen. We are at the marriott marquis hotel. Thriving new york city times square with me now are neil bogan, tracy dreyer and yolanda did johnson there? Seminar topic is auctions and raffles and cash calls. Oh, my way. Talk about maximizing revenue at your events. Seated well, he’s, the only gentleman on the panel. So you know that he’s seated next to me is neil bogan is director, development and communications at new york common country. Then we have tracy dreyer. She is executive vice president at nasa region of casa. And then yolanda johnson, who is development manager for the princess grace foundation. Neil tracy. Yolanda. Welcome. Thank you very much. I was using i was a quarrel. Could be jingle singers. This is wonderful. Okay? We’re trying to maximize revenue at our events. Let’s, start in the foreign there. You’ll wonder what what are what do you feel that non-profits are not getting right at events that they could. Be could be better at well, i think that the particular area that i’m covering within our session is auctions silent and live auctions, and i think that what non-profits can probably do a little bit better is think more strategically regarding auctions and their audience do the analysis to know who’s going to be in the room and just tell you what you khun selling, how you can sell it. Um and i think as faras live auctions are concerned, really making the determination of what will work, you don’t always do a live auction, you know, when they fail, they fail publicly when they’re successful, they’re very successful public, so you’ll be able to talk us through how you know when you should do whether you should do one. Yes. Okay, okay. Tracy, what do you want to you’re part of of actions and raffles and cash calls all by my part is rapid, and the important point with rappels is that it should be considered an integral part of the entire event, not just in ad on at the end. So planning for the raffle, especially for a large ticket event, needs to begin at the same time planning for the event begins because gathering enough prizes tohave event, a raffle that looks interesting and exciting to bid on or to put in your tickets or buy more tickets, increase the number i think it’s you were planning to buy because the prizes look good is very important. Tio tio gather a lot of prizes and that can take a lot of time. Okay, neal, i presume cash calls is that your expertise exactly cash calls are a great way to provide the right kind of opportunities for your audience to give if you feel that the cash call is right for for who your audience is and what? What your organization which cultures? Okay, let’s, let’s stick with cash calls neil, what is akash call it makes everybody understand what we’re talking about. Cash schnoll is a variation of a live auction that depends on the skills on dh, maybe charisma of your auctioneer and the messaging of your organization. But rather than selling on object or an opportunity, you are offering opportunities to give what does this sound like? What is the person say kickoff akash call they’ll say thanks for being here to support. The new york common pantry, about which served forty five thousand new yorkers last year with almost three million meals and to start off five thousand dollars, will provide groceries for five families of four for an entire year. And now here she is saying this to the entire audience of the entire audio and go ahead. So now we know it’s it’s, almost always the culmination of a benefit or a dinner of another fund-raising sametz come in the end. So it’s been, everything has been prepared, everything you’ve done is leading up to this cash call on. In some ways, if you feel a casual is right for you, you’re home giving program your whole development program leads up to this moment because for some people it’s when when they want it, okay, but before we get to the context, i wantto make sure people understand what it is we’re talking about. So what are people now inspired to do? Five thousand dollars could do this. What people literally raised their hand if you’re doing it manually, let these days there are processes where you could do this almost entirely digitally, although a live auctioneer will usually still just worked with raising hand and you’re committing to five thousand dollars. You’re committing to five thousand dollars and someone will come to you immediately to confirm that in our case, we use simply a preprinted card. We have volunteers spotted around the room, just like spotted us at any auction. They come right away. Come on, get your information. Hopefully a check or a credit card number. Oh, really? Right then. This is not a pledge for within the next six weeks it can be, but the best way to cover it on our experiences. Treyz lorts credit card person is enthusiastic there. They made their public commitment and they’re ready. So so do we. Take them away from their table and no move to the side of your arse. Wipe with our swiper. No way with a hand held on a little square was swiping right there yet. Or even just write the number down on a on a traditional okay paper card. Okay, so and this comes more at the end of an evening. Yes. In our case, the messaging has built through a whole program. We have honorees. People have spoken about our organization. We capped. That with a short video that really tries to show the impact that we can have for people who need food support on show how we can make things better with these folks on dh provide some of the emotional contacts and then videos over the auctioneer steps out and begins against okay. Now, this cash call is one amount, or where we get a bunch of people with five thousand and then we’re not going up to ten thousand way we do it is we actually we start high and work down. Okay, come on. We always have abid arrange three positions. There’s no dollar amount that goes unanswered. That that’s right way. Find that if you get the top couple of prearranged lower winds will take care of themselves. Okay? Spirit is hitting a room and okay, where does the common pantry start? What dollar amount? We started at five thousand dollars. Okay. Believe one year back on your first started. Ten weii brought it. We brought it to you learning and other charities. The first cash call, maybe five hundred. I mean, i’m standing on the side of charity that wear with all of your donors. We i think all three of you say you need to know whether it’s, whether each of these is appropriate in your organization, not only weather, but how five thousand starting in five thousand, somebody else might start in one thousand, right? That’s right where they might decide that this is not really not the way that they’re okay. And why might that be? Why my cash now? The zoho pure listen, because these are all good questions for you, too. How do we know when whether, how to? Forty martignetti non-profit radio details so people can execute or or follow-up with you and just fill in a couple of missing gaps that maybe we didn’t think of together? I would say in our case our board and benefit committee are very attuned to who there who their audiences to who our community of supporters is way have some provisions and really, you know, people ask people, would you do? Akash called, i believe before the first time we ever did it, we got a positive response, okay? It worked on we’ve been able to build on okay, so if you can preposition some people at the right dollar amount, maybe it’s worth doing that that’s, right? If and of course it does depend on in general, let e-giving level on the capability of your audience on your supporters. There may be a different type of event that it isn’t the right tone for their questions of tone and taste, but it we are event is i’m not too formal, it’s it’s, really, you know, trying to be aboutthe impact. The organization has so it’s, all right, it’s, the right tone for us, okay, alright, neil, what will come back your work, by the way, you’re welcome, teo, contribute to him, and i didn’t mean to actually dahna silo you, yolanda, if you had come on time, monisha you want camera, so he you’re probably better off because you were going to the hot seat. You’re going. I was gonna position you here. I’m glad i came down for coffee and realized that was early. You got stuck, right? Okay, so you want to go? You want teo, think about staying closer to you. I didn’t want to add one thing about courage calls. And that is, we had a very successful one that the end of our awards gala last year thinking very strategically towards a big, even if you have something different that’s coming up. Our gala is usually in new york city. It’s going to be in beverly hills this year. And so we said, we’re going to beverly hills, who wants to buy the first ground level table of fifty thousand dollars? And we got a taker. And he said he wants to buy a silver table. A twenty five thousand dollars. And we sold eight in about five minutes. So when you have something exciting and new and different, i think that’s also a great opportunity for cash. 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. You you don’t mind, tracy. We’re not a couple. We’re definitely will definitely get to the auction’s. Short shrift, the auction’s around. Sorry, we’re doing auction. I’m sorry. Go ahead, yolanda. You’re the first person who said you have to decide whether it makes sense to have an auction. How do you know? Well, i think that you have tio determine who’s going to be in the room. So the affluence e of the people there the intro it’s of the people there in accordance with what all items you have to offer. I have done in death analyses of our donors and what they like and those of the items that i go after. And then i know that i can sell them when those people are in the room. There’s no use in having things that are random for your demographic. So are people love travel. They love beauty treatments. You know, in certain things there’s certain things that they like. They like like that, they like to dine out. And they also like things that are mission centric, so unique opportunities with our artists. We support emerging artists in theater, dance and film at that emerging staged toe where? You know tony kushner wanted princess grace award in eighty four and look at what he did. So they love those unique experiences to be around the artists. So you need to know your no your constituents. You need to know your constituents getting to know you need to do an analysis of how much they have paid in the past. What you really think they will pay? This’s a very calculated things were just going out soliciting a villa here, or or i don’t know a car rental their you know, whatever you can get is not being particularly teacher. I don’t think so. Now there are times when you can get things. Because i also believe in packaging. You know, you have one thing that maybe, quote unquote random for your for your audience that you take something else that goes along with it that they love. And that creates a package that will still want to buy that. Do you do this on auction? Just once a year at a major gala? No, we do auctions just about every event. Okay, always with a professional auctioneer. Only with an auctioneer. If it’s a live auction. So we only do a live auction when it when we have items that are live, auction worthy, okay and what’s the other type of auction, silent auctions and online options. Okay, so silent auctions that’s where people are dropping their little tickets into no, no silent auctions where you walk up, you know, like we’d be in this room and then you have the bed sheets on the table and you have something displayed there showing you what auction the auction item is and you sign up for it. People competing, they wait around the aino labbate each other what they do, they stand around looking to see who signed up after they really will do that. Ok, ok. That’s. A silent auction? Yes. And then the online version online version, which really is very interesting, because then you have a global audience. You know, my organization, it’s, the princess grace foundation yusa. But we also have constituents in europe, so that gives them an opportunity to participate. So let’s say a little more about the live auction. Now, you said not always with an auctioneer. Oh, yes, always within our woobox naralo okay. What’s the value that the live auctioneer brings over having someone from the organization do it let’s make this clear. I’ve done it both ways. I would say that if you have someone who’s, extremely charismatic and has the experience to do it and has the report within the organization go for it, have a boardmember someone like that who’s, very charismatic, you’re live auctioneer weinger but for the most part, i would recommend having a professional auctioneer, we tend to use people from the professional auction houses who and, you know, it depends on the audience that evening. Sometimes you want someone old guard and then other times you want someone who is a little more hip. We’ve used people from paddle eight, you know, very, very hip and young, and we’ve used people from christie’s and sotheby’s, so it really runs the gamut according to what you have. Ok, i assume battle it is an auction house, it is three i’ve not heard of. Okay, well, enlighten us something else about auctions that we haven’t mentioned yet about so let’s focus on so we can start with why and a little bit about how but what else? What? Else would you like to share? You’re going? I think i would like to share that non-profits should be very weii already talked about strategy, but they should be careful in protecting themselves as faras auctions are concerned. Sometimes people don’t think all the way through, you know, the paperwork of an auction i arrest standards, you know, making sure that you have back-up for values, making sure that you have actual donation forms or emails and type of paper trail on file because things can come up later, you know that you want to make sure you’ve got all your ducks in a row. What happens after someone wins an item? The auctioneer is given the item to that person what’s the next next step where they just a runner come the way neil was describing come over to them or yes, we have. I like to build drama with my live auctions, so sure. Oh, look at this she’s lighting up your life. You’ve been lighting up since you got here. Really? But now even more. Yes, sir. Share the drama in the live auction. So one two things you khun dio i’m giving away secrets here, so there you go, everybody. But you always have to have a person in the house who’s going to buy the item, okay? And then you can have someone else is going to try to outbid them just to keep the drama go. Both of those predetermined? Yeah, you figured out this’s always a lot of behind the way you need to show you the show. So i’ve got i’ve had one person in the audience once before, and we knew that he was going to bid up to one hundred thousand dollars for this item. You had explicitly asked him to do this. And we told him you can stop there because after their, you know, you’re gonna have to buy it. Okay, thie other person was we had someone on the phone who we knew wanted it very badly. So we knew strategically we could get that person to go to one hundred grand. They kept outbidding each other. It got the excitement. People were yelling in the room. Everybody was looking around and then the person on the phone one. But we’ve got to up the ante because we have the other person in the room who was going toe to keep it going. Now that khun go rogue. I’m not a person who did not have the money did she kept going and it was just like, wait because it’s out of your control that that happens. But it all turned out. All all ended. Well, she got a little too busy as well, but okay, but it ended. It ended. Fine. Yeah. On dh then the other thing that you can do to build that sort of drama and the room is to ask ahead of time if your top item can be donated twice and then it winds, you know, someone bids on it and they win it and you’re like, oh, my god, the auctioneer says this is such an amazing item and it went once oh, my gosh! Wait. What’s this okay, they’re coming over to meet. They’re going to give it again. We’re going to have tuesdays at their bill and you know, and so then people go insane and you sell two. Outstanding. Alright, so there’s. A lot of choreography. Yes. Goes into these indeed in advance. Okay. Excellent. All right, tracy. Well, can i first make a comment about you? And you may not know, but there’s a booth over there on the other side of this room where they do silent auctions on your phone so you pay them for the service, and instead of going to the traditional clipboard and writing down, you know, how much of it is you put it on you pick the ones you wanna bid on, and then if you’re outbid, they send you a message so you can keep bidding, so because more game on your phone, you can still work the room. You don’t stand next to your item, you could be having a drink with your friends on the other side room and not i forgot to go back that you will run over, right? Everybody runs over to check out what’s going on in something, make sure you’re still okay. Even got the apples don’t want to see you. I want a visual visual confirmation, ok? Yes. So, tracy, with raffles. How do we know whether we should be doing a raffle at an event? You should be doing a raffle event no matter the level of the event you could, of course, charge less for tickets if it’s. A smaller event. So add a basic meeting. We may hold a raffle and the tickets would be one for five three for ten, seven. Twenty oh, and you just got you know if you don’t have items. If you haven’t got them donated, you might just go out and buy some some nice items and people have lower expectations for the price. But at our larger event of the year, we will charge raffles at five for one hundred three, three and one grand prize for one hundred euro hyre level. So of course they anticipate that the prizes will be of more substantial value. So as i said, the raffle work begins as you start planning the event so it’s really two phases. First you have to collect the prizes so you have to go out and use all your contacts. And in a given community they could have an endless number of organizations coming to them appealing for a prize. So you have to do something to differentiate yourself or you have to have contact at a at the store. It’s best to send in a good shopper to be the one to ask for a raffle. Prize to be given, yolanda is nodding shops shopping skills are important here. Yes, indeed on. And also now, if you go to a store that’s part of a chain oftentimes it’s not that store that you walk into that can give the price, i have to go back to corporate headquarters. So then you need the manager or someone in the store to be your advocate and actually write a letter to headquarters and say, this organization deserved the price. So it’s really quite time consuming, and you want to gather prizes, and sometimes even if i’m the letter to the potential donors, it says we won a prize value of one hundred fifty or two hundred fifty dollars, they give you something that doesn’t achieve that level. So you might want to put together a basket of smaller items so that it looks more substantial. So so that’s your pre event work of really collecting the raffles and wrapping them in a beautiful way, right? Because we’re displaying these at the meeting or the event, right, everything is on is on display. So you want the look of it to be something that stimulates the purchase of the ticket so as soon as the person now now we’re at the event, and as soon as the person walks in and gets to the registration table and comes to get their names head, they’re asked if they want to purchase raffles so and what we often do at a fancier event is in the envelope with their registration ticket. We print out their names on stickers, sort of like the ones you receive from the post to put on return address, but just their name so it’s a little fancy or looking at everyone elearning princessa xero princessa reprinted we know who’s coming so we know who’s coming in an envelope, they may not use them, but we’ll give them say, twenty stickers will be very optimistic on when they go in there. They’re just fixing them to the raffle ticket instead of, you know, student with pen and leaning up. So that sets the tone of the event also it’s a little fancy. I have to interrupt nufer secretary what about something that doesn’t look so sexy? Like its a rental of villa or something but person’s giving you like a certificate? So, you know, and you all you have is an envelope. Well, this one wouldn’t go into a lovely gift bag or it can be put in cellophane and wrapped with ribbon, or or something like that. It doesn’t have to be the item it and as long as there’s a description and and at a table of, say, thirty five raffles, you could also have a list of all the raffles, and it explains what his item one is this too and so forth so the people can choose so there are a couple different types of right? Well, there are many different types of apples, but the two main that we use is as you put your name on the ticket, you can put it in a large receptacle and then i don’t want pull the first ticket item person number one gets it and so thie other way is to wrap each item’s. Watch the watch, the infrastructure here you almost made like an earthquake. What your elbow there knowing my own strength very fragile. Option two is to display each item wrapped beautifully and put a identify which number it is and have a separate receptacle in front of each item, so then the person could take their tickets, and if they like item number two best, they can put all the tickets. Is that preferred? Because then people know what they’re bidding on versus beavers of being random. It depends. It really depends. So i would think that my personal business that that i would prefer that because i don’t want to put in for i don’t want to win a raffle that’s, you know, sixty miles away from my house for nothing, but i have a friend at a recent event. We switch to that method, which we haven’t done it at our particular event, and she happens to buy a lot of raffle tickets and typically, she wins this year she did not win, and she was a little frustrated because when you put in the big one, big pot and you, you know, ten percent of the pot, right, you’re probably gonna be picked, but in a little receptacle, if you spill it, split your stuff out so she personally felt it wasn’t good, but most people really enjoyed it, and our gift wrapper takes great pride and how beautifully she wraps, and that adds to the whole. Piece and then you can spend more time. So if your cocktail hours truly an hour and you know how much can you drink or eat there, you walk around with your friend to discuss the items. Where should i put my peace on that? And also instead of just selling raffles at the front door, you also have someone selling raffles right at that table. Because if someone sees something that they really want to win, they might buy more raffles and increase their odds of winning are putting more into that individual. Recep, buy more right there at the table, right. Ok, so there are many other types with those of the two main that i’m familiar weapon and i would say, and then there’s also grant prize raffle. So sometimes you have a few raffle items, prize items that are well above the other level. So you call that a grand price so you might sell grand prize tickets for two for one hundred or as i said before, one hundred dollars each of three regular and one grant so that’s a separate drawing. So what we have started to do is when you have thirty five. Prizes to draw if you’d spend online time with your audience just drawing name after name, it wastes a lot of time so weii draw the prizes outside the room and then we deliver them. We run around the room delivering them to people so it’s very exciting drama people coming so, like last year was delivering a big item. I walk over to the table and everyone’s looking at, you know, oh, who’s the winner when we hand it to the person gets very exciting like that. But then the grand prize, you always drop publicly because that builds up a little excitement there, okay? Anything anybody wants to add either if you want to add on the raffle side, you still have a couple of minutes together. Did you want to just speak to? I’m big on the back and this year about the paperwork involved in different things with apple? Thank you. Yes, you should before raffles or anything as i’m sure you need to check with the gaming local gave the new york state gaming commission and see what then kind of you need a permit, then from your local municipality as well? Non-profits don’t always do so? They definitely don’t always do it. But it’s, they should be doing that’s between you and your accountant. Nobody listens to this show anyway don’t work, but that will never be heard. That’s really? I mean, even at a p t a level we had to do that we had to go for the gaming license and the minister, and then there’s also tax regulation depending on the value of the prize. And then there’s also an affidavit that you can have someone signed a waiver for the organization that you know what the price falls apart afterwards. You don’t them coming back after the organization so they can sign a waiver as they receive the prize. And that protects you your london you had mentioned earlier to the you didn’t say the qualified appraisal, but that’s what you meant the mixture you have documentation for the value of the prize for the value of the prize and just from our own experiences, i’ve developed several it’s, not a paperwork burden, but we’re very well protected from both perspectives from if you give us something, it becomes our property is not something you can never get back once. You donated to us and it may or may not be. It’ll be used at that event if it doesn’t sell it, that even we’ll try it at a different even. But you cannot have it back. Excellent. Good to know that policy. Yeah, wanna implement it way took a lot of time to get it to solicit it. It’s ours is ours. And if it doesn’t go this time, we’re gonna we’re gonna hold it right. Always keeping a good relationship with that donor. But being up front that we really believe in our partnership and we want to take this item we know will sell it to somebody if it doesn’t happen at this. Okay, i think you had mentioned that sometimes your donor’s tried to set the level that you should be able to get for it, like they say, the minimum bid. But we like to avoid that. You know, i’m just saying, oh, yeah, i know you said you had an item one, so i still have it. Don’t let donors minimum it’s actually their prerogative to do so? I mean, they’re giving it to you, but if you can at all avoid it, try to because some places everyone, you know, if you’re giving something of your own and you’re going to set a high value, its worth a lot to you, but it may not sell in the room, you know? We know what will sell their different inflections with different items and better as a bargain, then as a top in-kind anything, neil, i’ll give you the last words way hadn’t heard from you for a while. Well, there’s follow-up for about thirty seconds, ok, obviously taking too long, you’ve got be secure. You gotta know, let each of your donations or pledges is that you’ve got documentation for each one or the actual payment you’ve got tio secure them in a fairly hectic environment. Then get back to your shop and record them and acknowledge them right away. Just like any other donation. Okay, treyz e-giving last word. Okay, one last thing neil had mentioned before that you take credit card numbers, you take credit cards and sometimes you scan and sometimes you just write it down way had an incident with someone about two hundred dollars worth of raffle prizes on. We didn’t scan at that point, we just wrote down the numbers, went back to the office, he just they didn’t win. They disputed the charges for seeing the raffles and we lost out thatwe had we had our terror, even the even the old fashioned hoops. Swiper, even your fashions white, the old sorry that you ever really went over the side. But that’s something. We’re now very cautious because of this one incident. I feel bad you longer you want to. You want to wrap up anything you want, teo? No, just thank you so much for having us. Opportunity. You’re welcome. Thank you for your mentor. I you know, i was just i don’t want it. Thank you very much. That is neil bogan and tracy dreyer. And you latto johnson. Thank you so much. Thank you, tony. My pleasure. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Listening to tony martignetti non-profit radio coverage of fund-raising day two thousand fourteen let’s do podcast pleasantries sending these out. Especially too. Katie reed levin she’s listening at simon’s rock the early college in great barrington, massachusetts, also christine to marco. I know her on twitter, big listener and fan of the show from mother’s seat in regional high school, and christina licata, literacy partners in new york city. Christina podcast pleasantries to you as well, those all women and another organization that listens. Cancer center for kids in mineola. I hope they have men. Are there any men at the cancer center for kids in mineola? Podcast pleasantries to those folks and everybody listening in the time shift. If you tell me you’re listening, i’ll shout you out, too, and we got live listener love, that’s coming up. Next is amy sample ward, but first, a little mention of generosity siri’s they host five runs and walks five k event, perhaps fits into your twenty fifteen fund-raising and engagement plan, then may i suggest you talk to david linn he’s, the ceo of generosity siri’s? If events coming up in new jersey and miami, florida, please tell him you’re from non-profit radio seven one eight five o six nine triple seven or generosity siri’s dot com this week’s video why we need consultants toe work and not be rock stars i’m finding fewer consultants who will actually talk to and work with small and midsize non-profits there there are on ly availability seems to be on stage or through a webinar on, and there are lots of organizations that will in fact pay for help doing the work actually doing it, not just telling the organization how to do it. A bunch of them are my clients, so i know they’re out there. The video got a lot of comments at tony martignetti dot com and also on facebook turns out to be a little provocative. I’m very interested in what you think about it. I do answer. Every comment that is tony’s take two for friday, twelfth of december forty eighth show of the year. I’m going to do some live listener love. St louis, missouri, honolulu, hawaii, new bern, north carolina live, listener love, las cruces, new mexico, fort lee, new jersey. Right across the river, fort lee, great neck, new york. I have a doctor in great neck. Which ones? That’s thea, the gastroenterologist. Yes, i know, i know one of those guys in great neck. Also. Georgia, cartersville, georgia, live listener, love all those locations. In japan, we got tokyo and matsuyama. Oh, my goodness, japan always appreciate you checking in konnichi juana and seoul, south korea buy-in yo haserot we got amy sample ward, i’ll have monitored for being late, but nonetheless she’s, the ceo of non-profit technology network and ten her most recent collected book, social change, anytime everywhere about online multi-channel engagement and we’re going to be talking about appreciation and engagement. She blog’s at amy sample, war dot or ge? And on twitter she’s at amy r s ward anywhere. How you been? Yeah, well, you may have heard the west coast had a bit of a storm last night with lots of power outages, so just dealing with getting everything back online. Sorry, that’s okay? I did not hear that i’m sorry that you had was this you don’t get snow, they’re important in oregon very much it was not. No, it was actually very warm and, um, you know, wind gusts seventy or ninety, some crazy high speed, actually a piece of building downtown just a few blocks from the intent office blew off and crashed through the fifteenth floor windows of a law office while the lawyer was working there? Oh, no. It was a very interesting evening. Pieces of a piece of a building flew off. My god, yeah, i’m doing unfortunate. Very unfortunate for that building owner that it flew into a law office right there. Prepared thing, actually, that only you know, that broken building is screwed. Okay, now i understand you’re you’re you know you’re like, like all the contributors, your typically early, not even just on time. So i understand completely. Let me ask you about something before we get to our appreciation campaigns and it’s. Just like in the past four months, i noticed at facebook they spun off their messenger handup and at four square they spun off. They’re a nap called swarm, and i’m wondering why why it is that thesis you two huge social sites would spin off two separate aps big chunks of what draws people to them. The facebook it’s, the messages message sorry messaging and it’s a four square the whole purpose of four square is checking in and they spun that checking function off teo a separate app called swarm why do they do those things? I have a few different ideas. Probably none of them have any, you know, piece of reality in them, they’re just totally my own experience trust your way, trust your judgment. I mean, i do think that one piece that factors in is the, you know, we’re all we’re using different apse all the time, and if i am using facebook to connect and i’m able to kind of, um, multitask inside of their consent messages, i can post things, whatever, and then i leave facebook and i go to some other messaging out to talk to friends. You know, facebook just had fifty percent of my time, but if i’m using facebook to do that, i close facebook and then i opened my messenger app and start messaging people there. Now facebook has one hundred percent of my time in that example, you know, so it’s providing a way for the app to be is nishi and focused as possible, but then still own the other nation focused parts that you know you want to do. So instead of having that all in one super multitask kind of ap experience, you’re splitting that off into ap, and part of that, too, is that you know, facebook is more of an example of this than four, square, but a lot of facebook users in the beginning were all using facebook on their computer where was a lot easier to kind of multitask. Have a chat, you know, send someone a message post on your news feed. Never. Well, now, you know, most people are using facebook on their phone, so it’s it’s much more difficulty to be multitasking inside of a nap. So again, you have multiple app that are all technically rolling up into the same umbrella. So it’s easier from the user’s perspective, i don’t have to import all those new contacts in new app still facebook, but it’s focused on what i’m doing there, okay, that one thing, and then you always have to factor in like, well, how are they? How are they monetizing those ap? What of the ads? What are they selling? What’s the data they’re able to capture? And if you have multiple app that are more focused and maybe have different different data pieces that air getting pulled in than that even more opportunity, i see. Okay? And that the one thing that doesn’t resonate with me eyes the ease of use of the ap facebook act it’s. A little it’s. A little busy. So i could say i see that spinning. Okay, see, that is a good reason, but okay, monetization. Tio, andi. Just time, time, time that they want you paying attention to their they’re brand okay, yeah. I mean, if you want to think about the four square example, i mean, when we first started using foursquare, it was you could check in somewhere. I am here. You know, you could see where your friends were, and then they really started in encouraging users to leave tips and post recommendations. And then they rolled out some features that were trying to see where you were and then ping you and say, hey, is this where you are? What if you do this thing here, you know, and have offers and promotions? So it became came. It became a little busy, right? So it made sense to spin off that other piece that’s more the recommendations and the where to go and where your favorite places. Because now that’s almost like competing with yelp. You know what? Give them a second app that’s more in competition with maybe at those shooters are already, you know, have installed on their phones on buy-in system apart a bit from that. Okay, cool. Thank you. Thank you for those insights. I find myself actually checking in a lot fewer a lot less often. Now with the separate swarm app. That’s that’s me. I don’t know. I have no idea what the statistics are, but i just, you know, i don’t feel like i haven’t even used it since that which happened interesting. I mean, i had a very boring foursquare news feed in which i only checked in an airport, so i didn’t only used to only see you at airports that’s, right? I just thought you were just there all the time. Okay? Yes. Well, it was a way of saying, hi, i’ve come to new york, was around or i’ve come tto wherever, but all right, thank you. Let’s talk about appreciating our donors and maybe and volunteers and maybe even employees through through the social networks. We don’t always have to be asking for something, right? I don’t think that we have to be asking for something. And i also think that really great. Ah, really great. Thank you. A really great sign of appreciation will be met with eagerness to give again or to volunteer again or two, you know, come again, wherever it was that you were an event, etcetera. So i think, you know, i have worked with people and organizations where it felt like if we’re not including an ask, you know, we can’t necessarily devote the staff time and energy to put on appeal together on dh, you know, i get that if you’re really strapped, there’s only three of us, you know, we have to make this happen, but i really think that taking that time t just say thank you really goes so much further in building that relationship, which we want to talk about fund-raising a special, especially individual fund-raising that’s really that’s really the peace, right, it’s building that relationship? No, i don’t know that you could sure maybe you don’t mail, but something outside of the hard cost of mail and all those thank you letters, you know, but i think there’s got to be a way, especially with social media, where it can be so much more quick and nimble to say thank you and make it feel. Really good. So maybe for twenty fifteen, we can plan an appreciation campaign. Yeah, let’s do it. Okay. And you have a bunch of examples. We’ll get to talk about some of the examples. Okay, but what? You know, this is true of probably any campaign that were we’ve talked about in the past, but what do you think we should be thinking about as we plan our let’s make it what is most likely a donor volunteer appreciation campaign. What should we what do we have in mind? So one thing that i think we need to have in mind is the timing of when we say thank you. I think often we always think, okay, well, we’re going to ask people for money. It’s december. Right now, you know, say, everybody’s got their end of your appeals, and then when someone donates and it goes into the database, they get their confirmation email and it says, thank you, and we made sure that it was a really nice thank you letter, but it’s a confirmation email and it says thank you, and we feel great because they got thanked. I also think there’s a lot of opportunity to have said thank you before that ask went out if we if it’s december it’s the end of the calendar year, right, what if november or even that very beginning of december is when you make sure everybody that already donated, donated in the year or maybe donated last december or volunteered so far this year came to one of your events this year? Whatever it is, that’s important to you is a monthly member, whatever they get thanked for what they’ve already done. So when they received that end of year asked, they feel like, oh, i’ve already been recognized, maybe i do want to give a little bit more or maybe i do want to come to the end of your, you know, gala, whatever it is, i think that that’s really important and some thing i don’t often see organizations do say thank you. First on dh then that people up for that ask later. Yeah, you get them feeling very good when the actors come that’s really interesting. All right, we’re gonna go out for ah, quick break and we may end up dividing this into two to conversation since we got a little short and i you know, i had extra question for you, but we’ll get through. Well, well, well, great, certainly nobody’s going to be short changed on non-profit radio. It just is not gonna happen. Okay, all right, we got to go away for a few minutes, 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 the most helpful non-profit podcast you have ever heard, you can also join the conversation on facebook, where you can ask questions before or after the show. The guests were there, too. Get insider show alerts by email, tony tells you who’s on each week and always includes link so that you can contact guests directly. To sign up, visit the facebook page for tony martignetti dot com. I’m rob mitchell, ceo of atlas, of giving. And you’re listening to tony martignetti non-profit radio. Big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent. I like the drama in rob mitchell’s voice. Thank you, rob mitchell s amore live listen love quick woodbridge in new jersey i love all the new jersey red fort lee woodbridge let’s go abroad croatia sorry, we can’t see your city i have a friend who works for unicef in croatia, ireland, turkey and vietnam. Vietnam we can see you cities kanto and hoochie minh city live listen, love out to each of you. Okay, let let’s continue thinking about are, uh, a campaign of appreciation. Uh, something that we’re always emphasizing together because you make me pay attention to it is you’re going to have to do this in the channels where your donors and volunteers are not in the channel where you would prefer to be thanking them exactly. And i think i think part of that is, um, uh, struggle and an opportunity so there’s the, you know, if we see just using that as an example, if we see people are tweeting about their local tech club and they’re an organizer, so they’re, you know, big volunteer for us, we want to jump right into twitter and start engaging with them and thanking them, and pointing people to them and, you know, doing whatever, but then we also want to find ways there. We leave that channel to make something private just for them, i think there’s that thank you and recognition that’s public. But for example, last week, everybody on staff sat together and just passed cards and everybody wrote thank you cards and signed everybody else’s thank you cards and mailed those out to aa group of, um what we call community champions, you know, really, really great volunteers for us. And it didn’t take that long, but everybody physically wrote, you know, out that card and we never mail things too. You know, we don’t ever male things were a technology organization. So when those folks received the cars at the end of last week, we started getting emails are like, oh, my gosh, you mean, how did you even have my address? You mailed me a card. This is so cool. Thank you for thinking of me. So i think there is that in the moment go into the same channel. That person is and thank them and engage with them. But then find something that can be special. That’s just between you and that donor or that volunteer or whatever that makes them feel extra special, excellent, excellent videos are very common as as an appreciation method, you could do them and mass, and you could do them, maybe even individually who, which i think i think what most difficulty when we think about video is one of the most often pointed two examples of how to do a thank you to your donors that i see in block post every year is charity water and how they, you know, record all these different videos so that, you know, if i donated, i opened up my email oh, my gosh, here’s a video where someone is saying, you know, hi, amy, thank you for donating, and i’m like, oh my gosh, they made this just for me, we, you know, most non-profits do not have the staff capacity to do that, or if we’re going to be really honest, maybe don’t necessarily feel like they have the technical skills to create lots of videos and edit them and feel like they know howto get them up quickly on youtube and embed them in an e mail and send them out. You know, so i think that video khun b, really personal, but i really think organizations should consider video something that can be personal because they’re being really authentic and they’re being their individual selves versus you’ve created separate videos for every single donor that makes sense. I mean, i think it’s a non opportunity for staff, whether it’s executive director, other staff to just not feel like it has to be a high production video that it’s really just me sitting at my desk, if you, you know, you sitting in the studio creating a quick, very authentic video that says thank you, and you can share that either an email or, you know, share that video on twitter, whatever that is, but i think it’s better that it that it’s really authentic as it’s created versus feeling obligated to create, you know, tons of videos just so that it has people’s names in it that makes them for sure, because you’re saying that something that’s, authentic, genuine, heartfelt will will come across and people are people don’t really expect to have a personalized video made for organization that could do that, you know, that is terrific, but the vast majority cannot, but everybody could be genuine, you know? I mean, i tried to come across genuine on a mic and video, and a ceo can do the same thing, and and you’re right, and staff to you, you have examples of each of those thie all right, the ceo of girls inc has a very nice, very thoughtful video judy reading berg and it’s just her sitting in an office and it’s like a minute nap video and she’s very genuine. Yeah, i actually i’ve talked do a lot of people at, you know, at our conference or other conferences where, you know, they say i’m the executive director, you know, i know that if i’m going to be in a video, of course it needs to be, you know, like in a nice setting or, you know, we don’t have a very pretty building, you know? We don’t have, you know, our offices and very nice i don’t know where that comes from that feeling that you know, you’re the executive director and you’re going to create a video for the organisation, it has to be in some, like, beautiful, you know, sound studio, i love it. When it’s literally your desk, like i would if i was working with girls. And judy has her video, i would say put more messiness on that desk, mate. Make it literally your desk, you know, people, maybe she’s, super neat and tidy, which i also am. I have currently two things on my desk, but but maybe that’s really her desk, but just have it be an invitation to come in and sit down with you. You know, i think that’s, um, that’s a really great and super easy way for any organization. Tohave a video feel like it’s being personal, you know, you’re just inviting them into the space. Of course, if it’s on office, where you’ve got all kinds of things in there, that could be a video. I mean, of course, there’s going to be, you know, exceptions to that statement. But i do think just invite them into your office have, you know, make it feel like someone sitting down with you have someone literally in the video sitting down with you, whatever you can do to just make it feel like you’ve been brought in, you know, personally now we just have about a minute left there’s an example of a different one from nature conservancy, which is a whole bunch of staff from all over the world, and a lot of it starts with them each saying thanks to you and then whatever it is their job is and how, how the donors all support their work, whether it’s underwater ah, you know, forest and grassland that’s a lovely one, too, thanks to you, yeah, i love that example video from the nature while we can, we’ll send out the these links and everything for listeners on dh i love that they use is an opportunity to highlight what staff do because with an organization like nature conservancy, often times you don’t even know. I mean, i want to support the nature conservancy, but i don’t know i’m supporting them because i don’t even know how to do that work. I don’t even know what you would do, you know? And so i think, it’s a great way to highlight this is actually what our organization does. These were the kind of staff that we employed to do this important work, because, again, if you’re goingto follow-up later with another ask donation request. People now have that understanding of oh, my gosh, yeah, you do need more funds because this is the scale of the work. These are the kinds of people that you no need to be on the ground doing this, and i want to support that. We have to leave it. There kayman sample ward ceo of inten you’ll find her at amy, sample ward, dot or ge and also at amy rs ward on twitter. Thanks very much, amy. Yeah. Thanks for letting me talk about appreciation. I appreciate you so much. Tony. Oh, amy. Oh, my god. That’s incredible. Thank you. I’m grateful. I’m so grateful that you contribute month after month. Thank you. Uh, i’m a little teary next week. Next week is peter shankman. Thank you. Next week is peter shankman. He’s got a new book called zombie loyalists because he wants you to create an army of rabid fans through great customer service that you missed any part of today’s show it’s on tony martignetti dot com. Keep generosity. Siri’s in mind, please. General city serious dot com. Our creative producer is clear. Meyerhoff sam liebowitz does a line production. Social media. Julia campbell remote. Producer john federico. Music. Scott stein with me next week for non-profit radio. Big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent. Go out there 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 posts 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. I 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 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 per se.
There are lots of apps and sites to help you organize supporters and volunteers in 2015. Amy Sample Ward is our social media contributor and CEO of 
