Tag Archives: philanthropy

Community Works: Your Slides Are Here

Thanks so much for hosting Maria Semple and me to deliver “Will You Love Us Forever? How To Identify & Approach Donors For Planned Giving.” We had fun meeting you, and thanks a lot for your questions.

Isn’t Maria Semple the best!

Your slides are below.

Nonprofit Radio, January 20, 2012: Revel In Real Estate & Board Oversight Basics

Big Nonprofit Ideas for the Other 95%

Sponsored by GE Grace corporate real estate services.

Listen live or archive:

My Guests:

Interviewing Chase Magnuson and Allen Thomas
Chase Magnuson and Allen Thomas: Revel In Real Estate

Chase Magnuson of George Washington University and Allen Thomas from The American College have small and mid-size nonprofits in mind as they describe how to identify prospects for real estate gifts; also how to cultivate, solicit and negotiate these gifts. What is the due diligence that’s required to keep your charity safe from a bad gift?

 

Gene Takagi
Gene Takagi: Board Oversight Basics

Our regular legal contributor Gene Takagi, from the Nonprofit & Exempt Organizations law group, unlocks the vagueness around “board oversight.” This is part one. We’ll continue the discussion in February.

 


Top Trends. Sound Advice. Lively Conversation.

You’re on the air and on target as I delve into the big issues facing your nonprofit—and your career.

If you have big dreams but an average budget, tune in to Tony Martignetti Nonprofit Radio.

I interview the best in the business on every topic from board relations, fundraising, social media and compliance, to technology, accounting, volunteer management, finance, marketing and beyond. Always with you in mind.

Sign-up for show alerts!

“Like” the show’s Facebook page.

Make sure to tune in at 1pm ET on Friday and participate in the live tweet by following the #NonprofitRadio hashtag on Twitter.

Here is the link to the podcast: 075: Revel In Real Estate & Board Oversight Basics

Sponsored by:
View Full Transcript

Transcript for 075_tony_martignetti_nonprofit_radio_01202012.mp3

Processed on: 2018-11-11T22:48:55.531Z
S3 bucket containing transcription results: transcript.results
Link to bucket: s3.console.aws.amazon.com/s3/buckets/transcript.results
Path to JSON: 2012…01…075_tony_martignetti_nonprofit_radio_01202012.mp3.890957929.json
Path to text: transcripts/2012/01/075_tony_martignetti_nonprofit_radio_01202012.txt

Hello and welcome to tony martignetti non-profit radio big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent it’s me, your aptly named host for january twentieth, two thousand twelve. I hope you were with me last week when we had podcasting primer with john federico principle of the new rules talk about what podcasting is and how you get started. Are you doing video or audio? Only what’s your content and how do you distribute your podcasts? Also with me was scott koegler, our regular technology contributor and the editor of non-profit technology news, and he gave us his thoughts on twitter organization pages. Should you get in? How do you get in this week? Revel in real estate chase magnuson of george washington university and alan thomas from the american college have small and midsize non-profits in mind, as they describe howto identify prospects for real estate gif ts how to cultivate, solicit and negotiate thes gif ts and what is the due diligence that’s required to keep your charity safe from a bad gift? This is a recording from the national conference on philanthropic planning and board oversight basics. Jean takagi are regular legal contributor and principal of the non-profit and exempt organizations law firm in san francisco, defines oversight and explains how it should be executed to protect your charity and your board members. This is the first part of our conversation, which is going to continue in february between the guests on tony’s take to my blogger this week. You don’t need the fancy stuff for your plant. E-giving the most sophisticated gift’s really are not necessary to have a very successful and suitable plan giving program, and i’ll talk about that. We’re live tweeting the show as we do every week. Use hashtag non-profit radio to join the conversation on twitter. This show is supported by g grace corporate real estate services. I am grateful for their support. Thank you right now, we take a break, and when we returned, we ll talk about reveling in real estate and stay with me. Dafs you’re listening to the talking alternative network. Are you suffering from aches and pains? Has traditional medicine let you down? Are you tired of taking toxic medications, then come to the double diamond wellness center and learn how our natural methods can help you to hell? Call us now at to one to seven to one eight, one eight three that’s to one to seven to one eight one eight three or find us on the web at www dot double diamond wellness dot com way. Look forward to serving you. Is your marriage in trouble? Are you considering divorce? Hello, i’m lawrence bloom, a family law attorney in new york and new jersey. No one is happier than the day their divorce is final. My firm can help you. We take the nasty out of the divorce process and make people happy. Police call a set to one, two, nine six four three five zero two for a free consultation. That’s lawrence h bloom two, one two, nine, six, four, three five zero two. We make people happy. Oppcoll hey, are you crazy listeners looking to boost your business? Why not advertise on talking alternative with very reasonable rates? Interested simply email at info at talking alternative dot com. Welcome back, i hope you’re ready to revel in real estate. Here is my interview with chase magnuson and alan thomas from the national conference on philanthropic planning. Welcome to tony martignetti non-profit radio coverage of the national conference on philanthropic planning. Where on the riverwalk in san antonio, texas. The topic right now is except real estate gif ts exclamation mark on my guests are chase magnuson and alan thomas chases director of gift planning for real estate at the george washington university. And alan thomas is vice president of advancement for the american college in bryn mawr, pennsylvania. Gentlemen, welcome. Thank you. Thank you. Nice to be here with you. A pleasure to have both of you. You have an exclamation mark after except real estate gift chase why’s that why’s that so important? Well, it’s important because it’s one of the largest equity opportunities for both the donors to become philanthropist as well as the charities to benefit from they’re gifts of real estate. And historically, charities have been either rejecting or not accepting real estate gifts. And i think alan and irp bringing some pretty good reasons why organisations oughta consider real estate gifts in addition. With some wonderful solutions. I i think accepting real estate gifts is a wonderful topic name. But i would make it even more emphatic and just say, take real estate. Any kind of okay? What’s the reluctance been chase. Why have we seen that? The expertise of the organization’s doesn’t lend itself well to the real estate industry? Ah, they’re two separate disciplines, and they haven’t put together teams of experts to help solve problems. And there is a great fear love liability that comes with the ownership of real estate. And i think some of the some of the issues that alan and i are going to be covering today would help solve those problems. Reduce the risk is there is risk, right? And what? We can minimize the right. Yes, indeed we can. Okay. Um, ellen let’s. Turn to you and think about how we start to talk two donors. How do we start to cultivate them around thinking about a real estate gift? Tony, great question. We we need to encourage the charities, too, reach out to the real estate community in order to promote real estate, real estate professionals, real estate attorneys would absolutely real estate. Brokers, attorneys and financial advisors who represent potential donors as well. And we need to get this message out that charities are willing to accept real estate and that there are advantages too, their donors too, to make these gifts to charities. And there are vory wonderful mechanisms that will promote this and make this viable for both the donor and the charity. Okay, what it’s actually, the charities have been standing in the door rejecting gifts that donors very generously have come to the table with because the charity’s air not set up to handle it. Over eighty percent of all gifts from donors offered to charities are rejected out of hand. Real estate. Yes, and the and the best. We can calculate the amount of real estate that’s rejected every years between sixteen and twenty billion dollars. That could be coming to charities at least some a portion of that, if the charities would go to the trouble of putting together teams of experts to help them manage the process. So it is such a wonderfully ah wonderful opportunity. Foran untapped market to really spur on the charities in a very difficult time in fund-raising. All right, so let’s, pursue that. What? What does the charity need to have in place? Chase they need to have policy, some procedures internally. They need to have a committee of people who make decisions. The plan giving officer who is the front line agent for the charities have to have a working knowledge of the types of real estate gifts and how they can be used. And here at this conference, i would venture to say ninety five to ninety eight percent of all the plan giving officers understand the technical side of it. But they need they need residential real estate agents for for personal residents. They need commercial brokers for investment properties. Farm and ranch brokers who specialize in another area and industrial brokers for corporate gifts of surplus rules state. Yet really, it really covers a gamma of about twenty six real estate specialties, and no one person can have all of that kind of expertise by themselves. So this may not be appropriate than for the smallest, some of the smaller or smallest charities. Oh, on the contrary, they ought to team up with a larger, better position charity to share in the gift. Okay, let’s talk. About that, then. So what can the small and midsize shops do that that don’t have the the board or the wherewithal? Teo hyre this expertise what in the small tony do, tony, the small charity can partner with a larger charity, and that has the expertise and has those contacts and the team sort of driven approach to accepting real estate, and they can partner and split the proceeds between when it when a property is sold? Okay, so there are ways of partnering and and helping those smaller charities our message today to this, this universe of folks here at the plant giving conference is to help them understand that there are mechanisms and ways in which to accept real estate that will insulate them from the risk that maybe inherent, and they’re all course skeptical about the real estate market today, and we need to assure them that there are ways of underwriting acceptance of gifts that should be acceptable to their boards and make them comfortable, right? And we’ll have time to get to some of those go ahead. Chase looks like it was something i was going to say that the small charities by teaming up with a larger charity don’t expose themselves to cost of managing a process or hiring new people, and it can move very, very smoothly through the process. But what what professionals like alain bring to the table is they’ve actually closed major real estate gifts. What we here at these conferences, frankly, are quite often just theories on how it’s going to be done. So for four practitioners who have closed multiple transactions on all kinds of properties, you’re looking at one of somebody that’s very unique and chase the two of us wear all admiring each other well, no, i admire your strength, no, but it but it needs to be it needs to be heard out there somebody’s actually doing it rather than just theory on a piece of it can be done well, and your title is director of gift planning for real estate. So i imagine you’re working. I mean, we’re not just sitting back, you’re earning your keep. I’d like to get a copy of that to washington. I’ll get a copy of this for my university, so they didn’t have anything to do with getting dinged. You’re listening to the talking alternative network. E-giving cubine are you stuck in your business or career trying to take your business to the next level, and it keeps hitting a wall? This is sam lebowitz, the conscious consultant. I will help you get to the root cause of your abundance issues and help move you forward in your life. Call me now and let’s. Create the future you dream of. Two, one, two, seven, two, one, eight, one, eight, three, that’s to one to seven to one, eight one eight three. The conscious consultant helping huntress people be better business people. Buy-in hi, this is psychic medium. Betsy cohen, host of the show. The power of intuition. Join me at talking alternative that come mondays at eleven a. M call in for a free psychic reading learned how to tune into your intuition to feel better and to create your optimum life. I’m here to guide you and to assist you in creating life that you deserve. Listen. Every monday at eleven a, m on talking alternative dot com. Are you feeling overwhelmed and the current chaos of our changing times? A deeper understanding of authentic astrology can uncover solutions in every area of life. After all, metaphysics is just quantum physics, politically expressed hi and montgomery taylor and i offer lectures, seminars and private consultations. For more information, contact me at monte m o nt y at r l j media. Dot com talking alternative radio twenty four hours a day. Hi, i’m kate piela, executive director of dance, new amsterdam. And you’re listening to tony martignetti non-profit radio. Big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent. Dahna durney chase earns his keep exclamation Mark exclamation mark 3 of us, okay, now, but i want to say i want to pursue this a lot more so a small charity someone comes to them with the idea of a real estate gift, wouldn’t that charity be reluctant to go to another another charity and partner for fear of losing the donor relationship? Alan? Well, the important thing is that that small charity needs to still be the primary contact with that donor, and they need to be assured that they will be in the having that principal dialogue bringing the larger charity in as as an adviser and able to help guide the process. Chase and i talk about process because you need an infrastructure buy-in place and a process in order to be able to accept real estate gifts if you don’t have that infrastructure and process you’re going to be, i’m flailing away and and in all likelihood, probably not accepting real estate gifts when they’ve always falling into the eighty percent of jordan chase mention exactly, i would go in another direction for the small charity that’s looking at a million dollar gift, and they’re not. Capable of handling that, how dangerous does it have to be for them to lose their donor if the if the property is handled with a sister corporation and they get five hundred thousand dollars of the gift they get xero or they get five hundred thousand dollars, that doesn’t seem to be to be a very hard business decision for the small charity and whoever they’re teaming up with they’ve already vetted them, and they know who they’re dealing with. We all live in a very small community known as the non-profit world, and you simply cannot afford to to go against what you’ve told another charity you’ll dio and we really go out and say to the small charity, we’re not going to invade your relationship with your donor. This is a one off transaction that we might help with. Have you pardoned partnered at george washington with small charities? Not yet, but i’ve done it in my prior career, and we’re establishing ourselves to do exactly that. Okay, so are you reaching out to the non-profit community and some of the earlier they’re here well across the kind of nationally, okay? Yeah, and i think alan would do the same, and that will be part of our message today as well. Yes, you’re coming on dso, and it need not be in your in your respective cities, the part of the partner charity. No, there are our efforts or national in scope, and so isn’t chases. We, we will look at real estate, gets all over. The united states were actually intergalactic. With a word like intergalactic, you don’t need an exclamation. Absolutely no way that carries today. No fluctuation required the word that word is resounding in its own period. Even a semi colon that’s. Okay over does. Okay, no. But i think it’s important for the audience of this show is small and midsize. Non-profits i think it’s important for them to know that that both of your institutions are interested in talking to small or shops that that maybe offered a real estate gift and don’t have the wherewithal to manage it themselves. Absolutely, i would. I would liketo characterize us as mentors. Once we teach the smaller charity how to do it. Well, step away, and they never have to share again. Okay, but they can also use community foundations and other charities in their community that the donor might want to have an interest in rather than coming to a george washington university. All right, um, alan, you talked a little about cultivation. You starting to cultivate the gifts through the advisors. But i really should have started with identifying let’s. Let’s, uh, let’s. Identify the right donors to be proactively recommending or promoting the idea of real estate gifts how do we i d defy the right group toe promote these ideas too well in any kind of plan giving situation, the best donor that you’re going to have for your charity is one who has been involved in your charity in the past, who has a strong affinity to your mission and and has been a past giver. So first of all, you look at somebody who is invested in your charity already and would be the most likely prospect for a planned gift of any kind. And then you would want teo sort of identify those who in particular might have real estate assets above and beyond the average kind of donor and who might be a very good prospect. So that takes time to cultivate your plan giving donors and understand who those best ones are for real estate gifts and what type of real estate might they need to have? I mean, suppose they just have primary home could could could the type of donor that you described be a candidate for the type of gifts we’re talking about with just a primary home? Yes, tony, the very first example we will. Given our presentation today is called a retained life estate, and that is a gift where a donor gives they’re residents could be a primary residence or a vacation home or a ranch that they give it to a charity, and they retain a life estate to remain there through the balance of their lives. On tony martignetti non-profit radio, we have jargon jail, i’m working plan giving. I know what you mean, but let’s talk about life. Is that what i want to keep you out of jargon? Jail? Okay, otherwise i’ll throw you in. Okay? Pinstripe soup in all doesn’t matter, right? And you don’t get what is what is a life of state that life donor is retaining a life of state is when you reserve the right to stay in that property through the duration of your lifetime, and it could be one person or or joint people could be more than one. So if you have a husband and wife who are seventy five, seventy six six and they love your charity, they want to give their primary home to you, and they want to stay in that property for the balance of their lives. They transfer the deed to your charity and and reserve this life tenancy to remain in that property for the rest of their lives. So then when one of them in the first of them dies, the survivor continues to live there. Yes. And then at the survivors death? What? What happens to the property then? The charity has complete control over it. Okay? Because it is a new deed. Is that right? The deed is transferred to the charity when the retain life estate is created. Right? That’s what i meant at its creation. We’re we’re writing a new deed. Yes. Where the donor keeps the life residents like state on dh could be for more than one life. And then, at their death transferred to the check. Yes. And there there are two other benefits. Should the donors decide they want to move out of the home into a assistant living, they can rent the property and get the rental income. Or they can sell the balance of their life. A state to the charity for a lump sum. So it’s, sort of like a spic it for additional income for the donor, it’s. Wonderfully flexible it is. Wonderfully flexible, yes, i’d like to come. I’d like to come in a different direction, alice, giving you the allens, giving you the traditional explanation on how you manage and cultivate, but we’re also problem solvers. We often get donors that come to us that say we’re trier dh of managing our property, we need income, we could use some tax shoulder here’s our property, give us the alternatives so we’re like we’re really weaving a mosaic on different opportunities for lifetime income tax shoulder and to solve the property management issue, so we’re problem solvers at the same time we’re cultivating the relationship. Excellent, wonderful it’s a wonderful role to play it is the retained life estate, so we’ve been using the example singularly would baizman saying at the death of the donors don’t or donorsearch nto the remainder is to the charity, but this can be done for multiple charities then is that right? Yes. Ok. And how? How would the charity’s then work together? When the property is transferred to them? At the death of the survivor, there would be a primary charity that would take title to the property with the responsibilities to make sure it’s maintained that it’s insured and that sort of thing. And then an interlocking agreement with the donors and the other charities on how the eventual proceeds will be divided. Okay, very simple. It’s all worked out during while the donors are living. So they know how the proceeds will be distributed across the charity. Yes. And it becomes very much like a landlord tenant kind of situation because your donors remain there living in the property. Caring for it is they have been so it’s, like a landlord tenant situation and alan who’s responsible for the expenses. While the donors are living there, we typically look to have the donor take care of the expenses, the maintenance, the real estate taxes, the insurance. And so that the charity doesn’t have to make those expenditures. Okay, way. Make site inspections because we are the stewarts for the organizations that are getting the proceeds to make sure our asset is well taken care of. So how often is there a site visit? At least annual? Yes. Annually. Okay. And what if the donor chase would like to make improvements or renovations or to the property? Do they need to get the permission? Of the charities how does that work? Yes, that’s that is in the original contract for donation because additions to properties in the eye of the beholder may change the value. Heard it or do something else because uncle fred came in and decided to put a carport in but he’s, not a contractor. And when you go look at it, the carp ports on the wrong property. And here comes the litigation. Ok, so there does that we have, right? Yeah. Okay. All right. So following our course, we’re talking about identifying the right donors and cultivating chase let’s continue with how do you open this conversation with people who you think are good prospects for ah, retained life of state we were talking about? Well, i think that there’s some qualifiers such is their age. You you wouldn’t open this conversation without having several donorsearch meetings the you asked the question, what are you trying to accomplish and it’s from that point that we move forward, we can eliminate many alternatives in the gifting program of real estate because we’ve heard the donors are going in a different direction if if things like we want to live out our lives here in comfort that is the first kickoff to say, look, you could get some tax deduction, you could become your legacy can be turned into a current philanthropic recognized gift, and you can stay here and we’ll help you do that. That’s an easy conversation. You often meet the donors at their home you can look around you known awful lot about about your diet, your donor base. So i don’t. Alan, do you have if allen’s probably got a key question when he comes in the door, where’s the deal now you set him up now he better have one because you’ve set him up for god gave him time, anyone? Now, if you’d like to add more to opening that conversation, i would like to add a new additional part of the conversation, and that is that this is a holistic discussion that goes way beyond just the real estate. You need to know your donors in this situation because, for instance, you don’t want to take a retained life estate if that’s their single asset or predominantly their asset, and they don’t have any other income or assets in order to meet their future. Living living needs their medical needs, and you don’t want to find yourself in a situation where they need that the of the worth of that real estate in order to cover their future needs so that that that’s an additional part of the discussion which goes beyond just the real estate. So we is planned giving people need to have a complete, broader dahna perspective on what that donors situation is it’s very important. It’s all about the donors donor-centric donor-centric we’ve been saying about you don’t okay, all right, so then alan let’s continue. We opened the conversation, the person is willing to hear a little more do we start to bring in their advisors, their family? What? What sort of the next step? Maybe the second or third meeting about this topic, we absolutely need to bring in their advisers, and we highly recommend bring in family. Ah, the last thing you want is family to be surprised when when mom and dad have all of a sudden announced to them g i gave the homestead teo x y z charity, and we’re going to stay here for the rest of our lives. But it’s gone, so you don’t want direct, close family to be surprised in those situations, so you want the adviser of the family and we need to bring in our expertise with ah ah appraisers and conduct our due diligence to make sure that the property is valued correctly and that there aren’t any unsuspected sort of liabilities associated with it. Okay, i’m hoping we have a minute or so to get into some what some of that due diligence is, but chase, let me ask you who might some of these experts or should sorry donors advisers be that we’re asking the donors to bring into the conversation. In addition to their own family attorney, they ought to be talking to a specialist and will’s in the states. They ought to be talking to a c p a that we work closely with that professional, the plan e-giving a person should be eventually brought in on a three or four way conversation and then, depending on the type of property, the plane giving officer would reach out to a real estate specialist on on that particular kind of property to get an evaluation just a range of values, because some donors think their properties worth a million, and it may only be worth not to say only, but it could be where six hundred thousand so expectations have to be matched and that’s what alan was talking about, this is a process you don’t do it one setting, you work through it and that sort of thing. So everybody needs to be on at least the same page on what is the value of the asset we’re going to talk about today. And how do you want to use that? And do you want to share that between our organisation and others that you have historically given money to? And you could do that all in one package, and we’re here to help, okay? We have just about a minute left, gentlemen, alan let’s, talk a little about the due diligence. What? What does that do? The charity or charities working together? I need to do to make sure that this is an appropriate gift for them to accept. Chase and i have forms that we’ve actually developed form for the donor to answer three or four pages of questions, and then we have our own donor-centric list for ensuring that we’ve covered all the issues that zoning issues, title issues, environmental issues having an environmental phase one study done these are all things that need to be conducted in order to know that you’re getting a property that you’re comfortable with and you know it was free of liability and is going to be worth what you’re representing to your charity. The last thing you want to do is except a piece of real estate that later your board finds out, has evaluation drastically different than what you’ve represented and, oh, by the way, there’s some sort of environmental issue related there as well, so that part of the due diligence and that brings us really full circle in terms of minimizing the risk, there are potential risks, but we can work buy-in partner with other charities to minimize those risks we’ve been talking about except real estate gifts. Exclamation mark with chase magnuson, director of gift planning for real estate at the george washington university, and alan thomas, vice president of advancement at the american college bryn mawr, pennsylvania german one thank you very much, tony, thank you so much for this pleasure to be here. Enjoyed it as well. Tony martignetti non-profit radio coverage of the national conference on philanthropic planning in san antonio, texas. As you heard my interview from that conference, we’ll take a break when we return. It’s, tony’s, take two, and then gene takagi will be with me, and we’ll be talking about board oversight. Stay with me. You’re listening to the talking alternative network. Are you feeling overwhelmed in the current chaos of our changing times? A deeper understanding of authentic astrology can uncover solutions in every area of life. After all, metaphysics is just quantum physics, politically expressed hi and montgomery taylor and i offer lectures, seminars and private consultations. For more information, contact me at monte m o nt y at r l j media. Dot com are you stuck in your business or career trying to take your business to the next level, and it keeps hitting a wall? This is sam lebowitz, the conscious consultant. I will help you get to the root cause of your abundance issues and help move you forward in your life. Call me now and let’s. Create the future you dream of. Two, one, two, seven, two, one, eight, one, eight, three, that’s to one to seven to one, eight one eight three. The conscious consultant helping conscious people. Be better business people. Hey, all you crazy listeners looking to boost your business? Why not advertise on talking alternative with very reasonable rates? Interested simply email at info at talking alternative dot com metoo hello and welcome back. It’s, time for tony’s take two at roughly thirty two minutes into the hour. My block this week is you don’t need the fancy stuff for your plans. E-giving for small and midsize charities, having just a bequest marketing program is a perfectly respectable planned giving program. You see a lot of talk about mega gif ts and sophisticated and creative and fancy gift, and those certainly exists in all kind of trust arrangements and things that are even less typical than trust, but you don’t need them necessarily any program, irrespective of what the size of the institution is when they start playing e-giving always starts with requests because it is the most popular type of plan gift easy for charities toe promote its easy for donors to understand s o across all programs, bequests are the place to start, and they’re the most popular type of plan gift you’d expect about three quarters of of all your gift in any size program to be bequest. Um, because everybody needs a will and everybody understands what a will is and how to use it for charity. Purpose is very simple. Follow on from that, but for a lot of charities, that’s the place not only to start but also just to end because they don’t have the expertise to be more sophisticated with their donors in terms of types of terms, in terms of types of gifts, or they don’t have the money to hire the expertise necessarily. So the bottom line is you don’t have to go fancy and exotic if you’re if you’re smaller, charity think just about requests, and that is a very respectable planned e-giving program and that’s what the block is about you’ll find it at m p g a d v dot com the post is called you don’t need the fancy stuff for your plant e-giving that is tony’s take two for friday, january twentieth, the third show of two thousand twelve jean takagi is with me now jean is principal of neo, the neat non-profit and exempt organizations law group in san francisco. He also edits the popular non-profit law blawg, which you’ll find at non-profit law blawg dot com and you can follow him on twitter at g tak gt a k jean takagi, welcome back, great to be here durney hope your two thousand twelve great. Thank you. Happy new year s are our first discussion of the new year and we’re talking about the basics of board oversight. Why is board oversight even an issue so critical in these times? Tony, where non-profit organizations are really working in an environment of fewer resource, is greater competition and it’s up to the board to not only show leadership but teo exercise oversight. Teo give confidence to the public and two donors that the organization is running well, that they’re making effective and efficient use of the reason lorts teo accomplish and further their mission on dh what do we mean by oversight? What does it include, but really means about on? For most boards of directors, it means about looking over the finances of the organization, looking over the programs of the organization, looking at legal compliance and looking at the executive director’s performance. So all of those would constitute some levels of oversight to make sure that the organization is running the way it’s supposed to run. Okay. And what if the board, um, either collectively or individually, however it’s best to describe it? Um, isn’t doing proper oversight that’s where organizations could get in trouble, okay, that with some organizations, especially with the media and with the internet and public scrutiny and forms nine ninety, which are the annual information returns that charities have to file being available public to the public. Just fun. Guidestar dot com it’s, easy to see what’s going on financially programmatically it’s, easy for organizations to be scrutinized and for boards to be held accountable for what’s going on in an organization and while legal liability for boardmember is really, really remote in the charitable sectors. It can’t happen a time, but maybe more importantly, an organization, and simply get devastated by poor governance way seen examples of this with you, can i just before you go into the example, can i just remind you speak a little bit louder? Yeah, much better, thank you. Great. So we’ve seen examples of organizations that can get into trouble, and we might discuss this a little further later on. But the second mile is just one organization. There was a central asia institute that was associated with greg mortensen, who wrote the three cups of tea that was also in the news. Lately they’re a bunch of organizations over the last five or six years that have been in the news for poor governance on and ultimately that could really hurt the donors, the donation based on that could hurt the programs and the beneficiaries of these non-profit and the second mile that you referred to that was that penn state scandal crisis and on we will have some time to talk about some of the examples. What about? I mean, i hear the phrase fiduciary duty a lot, you know? But what, what, what? What are the duties that are fiduciary that board members have to the charity great? And i’ll try not to step into jargon, joey, i’ll get you don’t worry about is here. Yeah, but they’re really three separate legal duties that a board of directors or each director has that serves on the board of directors first is the duty of care, and that generally means that a director must act in a reasonable and in form manner under the given circumstances. So if they’re acting like a reasonable average person would who’s in charge of an organization, then they’re meeting their duty of care. You started you starting to fade a little bit, you have to speak a little louder part of that part of meeting the duty of care is just acting as a reasonable person would in a like position under similar circumstances, so it a person would review financials oven organization that they’re in charge of that would be considered reasonable, and all directors should be reviewing the financials. They should also be reviewing whether their programs are effectively and efficiently meeting their missions or furthering their missions. So having some sort of measurement tool or developing it, or on dh, that could be very challenging at times, but taking steps towards that that’s all reasonable ticks back from the fiduciary or director so that’s part of the duty of care, another legal duty is the duty of loyalty and that’s really acting in good faith and in the best interests of the organization, even ahead of their own interests. So when you’re in charge of an organization that the director on the board, you’ve gotta act in good faith and in the best interest of the organization, if an opportunity comes up, that would benefit you and to the detriment of the organization that’s an opportunity that you shouldn’t take. If it was produced you in in the contacts of being a director of the organization, that sounds like it flows over into conflict of interest policies exactly right? Okay? And every organization should have a conflict of interest policy, okay? We’ll get to the different policies. I know there are a lot of them, but that’s, this is interesting. Flushing out the fiduciary duties. Go ahead. I’m sorry. The duty of loyalty. Is there anything else there? Be good faith and best interest? Sure, and and it really is about managing conflicts of interest doesn’t mean that organization couldn’t take advantage of a director who’s going to provide a below cost lise to the organisation, for example, but that it would have to be done with disinterested members of the board, the board, the board director of directors or the members of the board that don’t have a financial interest in that least, teo clearly show that, yes, it is below market or no better than fair market value in favor of the other director who’s interested in that transaction. It also has to do with things like keeping things confidential if you learn of things of the director. Of the organization, including employee salaries that you’re not really supposed to share with the general public. Well, as a director, you have a duty of loyalty to keep that information confidential. The third d d that i mentioned with the duty of obedience, some face it within within the context of the duty of karen duty of loyalty, but the duty of obedience to be treated as a separate duty, you know, don’t you want to be a priest, teach the duty of obedience, right? This is not a valid, just a duty. Maybe we get it from the religious contacts, but it really has to do with obeying what the law says you have to do and obeying what your internal laws say you have to do and that maybe the provisions of your by-laws for example, and their policies that we we can talk about it means that you’re going to comply with all of those things, and you’re gonna do that reasonably. Okay, so that’s interesting internal as well as external laws correct all of the internal laws you set for yourself. You can’t just ignore that you can’t let your by-laws sit on the shelf. Without making sure that you understand and know them, then how to comply with them. Okay, now you said that there are obligations around finance programs, legal compliance and overseeing the work of the executive director or president, you know, whoever that is, whatever that title is, but how does a director who comes, how do they have all this expertise? I mean, how can they do all this? Yeah, very difficult questions. So some of the directors that that joined the board may not have the expertise. So part of what you need to do in recruitment if you’re on an existing board, is to try to get different board members who khun bring in such expertise so that they can share it with other board members. The other thing to do is to bring in consultants to help out. So if you don’t have that expertise on the board and you’re not able to recruit for it right away bringing and consultant and give lessons two to your board have been get presentations, make information available to them, and i think this is a the role of an executive director’s job as well, to make sure that their board has sufficient educational materials so that they’re able to properly support that executive director and meet their fiduciary duties. Maybe know and understand. What’s expected of you. It could really be a lot of fun. And you can find out how to really leverage your authority to help that organization do even better work. Okay, so let me see if i understand then then those three duties the duty of care and loyalty and obedience. Those air individual. But then the financial program, legal compliance and overseeing the executive director work those air collective of the board. Or is that not right? Yeah, i think that’s right. So that the three duties that we talked about right applied to each individual originally. Right? Right. Right. But the oversight process, the board, the board members all have their individual duties. But collectively is how they hold power. Directors individually, actually have no power, tony, unless they’re delegated with power by the board. So inherently they have no power individually. They only have it collectively and collectively, it’s how they have to exercise. That oversignt okay. Now we have just about a minute before the break. There’s. A lot more detail. To cover, but just in that minute or so. What if, individually a director is not meeting the one or or any of those duitz three duties? What, individually, khun b. The liability. Well, typically, liability is not going to be imposed unless it’s the worst circumstances. So unless there’s some sort of embezzlement going god or payroll taxes are not being paid to the irs that’s always a very bad thing, directors aren’t usually going to be held liable for for for little things. But if the director is not been paying any attention, not attending meetings, not reviewing financials, not participating in the decisions that the board is expected to make, they can get themselves in trouble, and part of that may be with the media, and they could be blasted by the media criticized that could do particular damage to individuals beyond what the legal liabilities are something for every director to be careful of. We’re talking about board oversight basics very interesting, very important for the protection of your charity and protection of your board members and chair and the board members protecting the charity and themselves with jean takagi are regular legal contributor, and we’re going to take a break and then we’ll return with more board oversight basic, so i hope you stay with us talking alternative radio twenty four hours a day. Hi, i’m carol ward from the body mind wellness program. Listen to my show for ideas and information to help you live a healthier life in body, mind and spirit. You hear from terrific guests who are experts in the areas of health, wellness and creativity. So join me every thursday at eleven a, m eastern standard time on talking alternative dot com professionals serving community. This is tony martignetti aptly named host of tony martignetti non-profit radio. Big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent technology fund-raising compliance, social media, small and medium non-profits have needs in all these areas. My guests are expert in all these areas and mohr. Tony martignetti non-profit radio fridays one to two eastern on talking alternative broadcasting are you concerned about the future of your business for career? Would you like it all to just be better? Well, the way to do that is to better communication. And the best way to do that is training from the team at improving communications. This is larry sharp, host of the ivory tower radio program and director at improving communications. Does your office need better leadership? Customer service sales or maybe better writing are speaking skills? Could they be better at dealing with confrontation conflicts, touchy subjects all are covered here at improving communications. If you’re in the new york city area, stop by one of our public classes or get your human resource is in touch with us. The website is improving communications, dot com that’s improving communications, dot com improve your professional environment. Be more effective, be happier. And make more money. Improving communications. That’s the talking all calm. If you have big ideas and an average budget tune, tony martignetti non-profit radio we dio i’m jonah helper, nari team in co founders of next-gen charity. Welcome back on with jean takagi. Jean takagi is with me and we’re talking about board oversight basics. You had said gene, that the the directors can khun delegate this toe to consultants or maybe i don’t know other experts, but they have to exercise their duties in hiring that the right consultant, right? That’s that’s, right. Chinese directors khun delegate all sorts of tasks out. So they made delegate learning cast. So, uh, to teo, specific individuals, the most common individuals directors are going to delegate things to they’re going to delegate management to their executive into their staff. Oh, okay. All right. Yeah, yeah, but they must do so with reasonable karen oversight. So the selection of their executive on key staff members is going to be an appropriate thing for directors that concentrate on ok. Interesting. So you’re including delegation of the day to day management from the board to the to the all the all the employees to the executive director who then hires all the employees. Okay, absolutely. For organizations that have the benefit of employees. That’s one of the most important tasks of the directors to delegate management but also exercise proper oversight over that process? Yes. And that’s, the oversight overseeing network, i guess another common example of delegation that i see is the audit function ordered ng that’s, right, tony so for many organizations, having an independent audit is really critical for directors, especially those who may not have a great understanding of howto read financial statements in great detail. All of them should have a basic understanding of that in order to meet their fiduciary duties again of providing oversight over the finances but an audit and really both educate the board and give them some comfort that they’re adequately protecting the organization’s assets if they get a clean audit. All right, so we talked a good amount there about so far about the financial side, but there’s also the programmatic side of the boards oversight, and i think that gets short shrift now, let’s not do that way. Don’t make that mistake. Yeah, and i think you know, non-profit organizations, charitable organizations don’t exist. Ultimately, for a bottom line, they exist to further their charitable mission on dh there’s, no sort of measurement or context or accountability for how well there they’re actually furthering their mission. And i think the boards are not doing their job effectively. That tough part about this is programmatic measurement of successes, and things are really difficult to do in the context of many non-profits i think that’s been ongoing issue, and i think you’ve had experts on your show before have been talking about how to how to measure program results in how to be more effective and efficient, but it’s a difficult task still one board have to embrace and try to go after rather than run away? No, most recently, i think the guest that comes to mind is ken berger is the ceo of charity navigator, talking about encouraging charities to measure impact so that that’s that’s what we’re talking about. Okay, so yeah, so we don’t want to give way don’t make the mistake of short shrift ing programmatic because you’re right, that is the reason they exist. It’s it’s you’re right, it’s not financial let’s. See what? What are you mentioned? A couple of the examples that have come out in the news lately. What what? What can we learn from these? Well, let’s focus on the most recent huge scandal that hit the jerry sandusky penn state, the second mile candle that came out and justin in real brief context on jerry sandusky was a former assistant football coach with penn state university, and he also was a founder of the second mile, which was a charity that was developed toe help kids. Unfortunately, sandusky was indicted in november, following good three year investigation into reported sexual assault of young boys over a period of about fifteen years while he was associated with both the second mile end state university. So really, uh, very troublesome and now the second mile, that charity is struggling to remain in existence right now, and they’re trying to figure out what they need to do but lots of lessons to be learned, but that ultimately we we don’t know how, you know the courts are going to try sandusky, whether he’ll be found guilty or innocent on those charges, but there are enormous amounts of westerns to be learned from that from mom for non-profit okay, well, we this is why we’re going to break the subject into two, two segments, so you’re going to be back in february weii just have about ninety seconds or so left. What do you want? To share in just that time with with the audience about what we can learn from the that second mile. Sure, i think you big comments tio make at first, okay, no free passes for the founders of the organization or for big donors or other big shots of the organization, they should be expected to do the job that they’ve been in task to do so their director on the board, they should be falling while the policies that every director has to follow. So, uh, if they’re a big donor, they don’t get special privileges to work with the organization’s programs unless it passed the test that that allow persons that are qualified to do those programs. Another lesson. If you are criticized and you’re you’re subjected to allegations of wrongdoing, i think the first thing you have to do is remember that the criticisms addressing those criticisms is more than just pr. You have to find out if there’s substantive and if there’s an investigation, that would be reasonable. You should order an investigation on dh that’s part of that oversight that we’ve been talking about. You get help when necessary. That’s really important, jean, we have to stop there, but you are going to be back to talk about this exact topic. We’re going to continue it. Jean takagi is principal of the non-profit exempt organizations law group in san francisco and yet it’s the block, which you’ll find at non-profit law blawg dot com jean, thanks very much for being on again. Great thanks pleasure. We’ll talk in a few weeks, okay? My thanks also to chase magnuson and alan thomas and the organizers of the national conference on philanthropic planning. Next week e-giving forward and back rob mitchell, ceo of atlas forgiving, will be my guest to talk about two thousand eleven’s e-giving by sector source and state, and we’ll also look ahead to predictions for this year. Keep up with what’s coming up, go to the go to the facebook page and sign up for insider email alerts on that page. If you like the show, please like the page, be grateful to have your support there as a fan. Listen, live our archive. You’ve been listening live. You can listen archive to from itunes non-profit radio dot net will take you to our itunes paige and you can listen on the device. Of your choice the time of your preference on twitter you can follow me you can follow the show’s hashtag non-profit radio the show is sponsored by g grace and company if you’re worried about the rising costs of rents for your organization or need to capitalize on real estate, you’re non-profit owns gee grayson company provides you and you’re bored with analysis, so real estate decisions are made with transparency and thoroughness. George grace has been advising non-profits on their real estate decisions for over twenty five years. You’ll find them at g grace dot com or eight eight eight seven four seven two two three, seven. Our creative producer is claire meyerhoff. Sam liebowitz is our line producer and he’s also the owner of talking alternative broadcasting social shows. Social media is by regina walton of organic social media and the remote producer of tony martignetti non-profit radio is john federico of the new rules, who was on last week. I hope you’ll be with me next week talking alternative dot com, which is where you’ll find me friday one to two p, m eastern. I didn’t think that shooting. Good ending. You’re listening to the talking alternate network to get you thinking. Nothing. Good. Looking to meet mr or mrs right, but still haven’t found the one. Want to make your current relationship as filling as possible? Then please tune in on mondays at ten am for love in the morning with marnie gal ilsen as a professional matchmaker, i’ve seen it all. Tune in as we discuss dating, relationships and more. Start your week off, right with love in the morning with marnie gal ilsen on talking alternative dot com. Hi, i’m julie, hi, i’m julia, what are you wearing? Welcome to j and j’s. Secrets of style and beauty. We know there’s, beauty and style, and all you do, whether it’s a job interview, first date or wedding, we also know that not everyone understands what works best for him or her. We’re here to help. Think of us as your personal beauty style and grooming guru’s, as industry experts will give you the best information for men and women on howto look phenomenal tuning tuesdays at eight pm tto. Learn how to look your best. Are you fed up with talking points, rhetoric everywhere you turn left or right? Spin ideology, no reality, in fact, its ideology over in tow, no more it’s, time for action. Join me, larry shock, a neo-sage tuesday nights nine to eleven easter for the ivory tower radio in the ivory tower will discuss what’s important to you society, politics, business and family. It’s, provocative talk for the realist and the skeptic who want to know what’s, really going on. What does it mean? What can be done about it? So gain special access to the ivory tower. Listen to me very sharp. You neo-sage tuesday nights nine to eleven new york time go to ivory tower radio dot com for details. That’s, ivory tower radio, dot com e every time i was a great place to visit for both entertainment and education. Listening. Tuesday nights nine to eleven. It will make you smarter. Are you suffering from aches and pains? Has traditional medicine let you down? Are you tired of taking toxic medications, then come to the double diamond wellness center and learn how our natural methods can help you, too? He’ll call us now at to one to seven to one eight, one eight, three that’s two one two, seven to one eight, one eight, three or find us on the web at www dot double diamond wellness dot com way. Look forward to serving you. Talking dot com.

My NextGen:Charity 2011 Interviews, Part III

Here are three more HD video interviews from the NextGen:Charity conference last November. Tony Martignetti Nonprofit Radio was a media sponsor and I got really thoughtful and insightful commentary from the 12 speakers I interviewed. Part I is here and Part II is here.

This is what I have for you this week:

  1. Make volunteering meaningful and accessible. There are highly skilled, busy people who want to help nonprofits. At Catchafire.org, which she founded and leads, they recognize that and make the connections. My interview with Rachael Chong.
  2. Branding–and other business lessons applicable to charities–from the founder of the very consistent brand, Ecko Enterprises. My interview with Marc Ecko.
  3. Nonprofit tips from the art of seduction and attraction, learned when he was on assignment for Rolling Stone to go undercover in a secret society of pickup artists. “Don’t open with your close.” His book is “The Game.” My interview with Neil Strauss.

Click here to get to last year’s NextGen:Charity interviews.

Nonprofit Radio, January 6, 2012: Three NextGen:Charity Interviews & Your 2012 Prospect Plan

Big Nonprofit Ideas for the Other 95%

Sponsored by GE Grace corporate real estate services.

Listen live or archive:

My Guests:

Abby Falik, Charles Best, and Wali Collins: Three NextGen:Charity Interviews

Abby Falik
Abby Falik is the CEO of Global Citizen Year and she has thoughts about innovation and leadership for social change.
 

 

 

Charles Best
Charles Best is the Founder and CEO of DonorsChoose.org and we talk about connecting donors to the causes they support.

 

 

 
Wali Collins
Wali Collins is an author and a stand-up comic, and he wants you to live a regretless life.
 

 

 

 
Maria Semple
Maria Semple: Your 2012 Prospect Plan

Maria Semple, The Prospect Finder, is our regular prospect research contributor. She’ll help you devise a sensible and executable prospect plan for the new year.

Please take a moment to take the survey for this week’s segment with Maria! You’ll find it here at the end of the guest and segment descriptions. Thank you!
 


Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world’s leading questionnaire tool.

Here is a link to the survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ZD8QF8S


Top Trends. Sound Advice. Lively Conversation.

You’re on the air and on target as I delve into the big issues facing your nonprofit—and your career.

If you have big dreams but an average budget, tune in to Tony Martignetti Nonprofit Radio.

I interview the best in the business on every topic from board relations, fundraising, social media and compliance, to technology, accounting, volunteer management, finance, marketing and beyond. Always with you in mind.

Sign-up for show alerts!

“Like” the show’s Facebook page.

Make sure to tune in at 1pm ET on Friday and participate in the live tweet by following the #NonprofitRadio hashtag on Twitter.

Here is the link to the podcast: 073: Three NextGen:Charity Interviews & Your 2012 Prospect Plan

Sponsored by:
View Full Transcript

Transcript for 073_tony_martignetti_nonprofit_radio_01062012.mp3

Processed on: 2018-11-11T22:49:32.029Z
S3 bucket containing transcription results: transcript.results
Link to bucket: s3.console.aws.amazon.com/s3/buckets/transcript.results
Path to JSON: 2012…01…073_tony_martignetti_nonprofit_radio_01062012.mp3.937427351.json
Path to text: transcripts/2012/01/073_tony_martignetti_nonprofit_radio_01062012.txt

Hello and welcome to tony martignetti non-profit radio for friday, january sixth, two thousand eleven i’m your aptly named host. We’re always talking about big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent. I hope you had a terrific new year’s celebration last week. Were you with me? You could not have been. There wasn’t a show last week, so don’t say yes because you were not here last week. There was no show last week, but two weeks ago on december twenty third certainly you were here. But to refresh your recollection since it’s been so long on december twenty third, i had two interviews from national philanthropy day at the westchester county chapter of the association of fund-raising professionals. First, it was linked in lovers jerry stengel, principle of venture near mark halpert, principle of your best interest and maria simple, who we all know and beyond later today showed their love of linked in for research, branding donorsearch volunteermatch judgment, recruiting board members and more. The second interview was your board can fundraise dennis miller. Principle of dennis c miller associates helped you motivate your board for fund-raising with training, proper expectations, meaningful experiences, leadership and mohr. This week, i have three next-gen charity interviews for you all pre recorded at that conference, abby falik is the ceo of global citizen year, and she has thoughts about innovation and leadership. Charles best is the ceo of donors choose dot org’s where teachers post their classroom needs and donors support those needs, and he and i talk about connecting donors to the causes that they support. And wally collins is an author and a stand up comic who wants you to live a regret list life second half of the show will be with maria simple, the prospect finder, our regular prospect research contributor on your twenty twelve prospect plan. She’ll help you devise a sensible and execute herbal plan for your prospect research for the new year on tony’s take two at roughly thirty two minutes after the hour. My block this week is share my optimism for twenty twelve i’m always optimistic at the beginning of a new year i can’t help it, and i’ll talk a little about that we’re live tweeting the show today. Use hashtag non-profit radio to join that conversation on twitter. This show is supported by g grace corporate real estate. Services, and i’m grateful to them for their support. Right now, we’ll take a break, and we’ll come back with these three next-gen charity interviews. The first will be abby falik. So stay with me. You’re listening to the talking alternative network. Are you suffering from aches and pains? Has traditional medicine let you down? Are you tired of taking toxic medications, then come to the double diamond wellness center and learn how our natural methods can help you, too? He’ll call us now at to one to seven to one eight, one eight, three that’s two one two, seven to one eight, one eight, three or find us on the web at www dot double diamond wellness dot com. We look forward to serving you. Is your marriage in trouble? Are you considering divorce? Hello, i’m lawrence bloom, a family law attorney in new york and new jersey. No one is happier than the day their divorce is final. My firm can help yu wei take the nasco, stay out of the divorce process and make people happy. Police call a set to one, two, nine six four three five zero two for a free consultation. That’s lawrence h bloom two, one two, nine, six, four, three five zero two. We make people happy. Bilich dahna hey, all you crazy listeners looking to boost your business? Why not advertise on talking alternative with very reasonable rates? Interested simply email at info at talking alternative dot com. Metoo welcome to tony martignetti non-profit radio coverage of the next-gen charity conference two thousand eleven we’re at the tribeca performing arts center in downtown new york city with me now is abby falik, founder of global citizen year she’s been an invited speaker at the clinton go global initiative and also the aspen ideas festival and, ah, we’re going to share have her share some of her thoughts about innovation, as she did here at the at the conference. Abby falik welcome to the show, thanks so much. Tony it’s, great to be here. It’s a pleasure to have you thank you for sitting down for an interview on a very busy day. Um, so our audience is small and midsize. Non-profits but they and i think sometimes they don’t think innovatively i think sometimes there’s sort of stuck in the trees. What? What was your start with your your general message on innovation and creating social change? So i think if we’re all paying attention, there are opportunities beyond what’s, immediately apparent, and sometimes it requires us, as i shared my talk this morning, to step out of our daily routine sometimes to immerse ourselves and foreign cultures or contexts to see things he’s from a different vantage, but that innovation doesn’t need to mean necessarily starting your own business from scratch or starting a new enterprise or being an entrepreneur. Innovation can happen within organizations innovation can be a simple as changing the way you talk about your organization publicly, the way you do your fund-raising the way you’ve structured your online platforms, so the innovation really has to be inspired by the leader. So how does a leader inspire themselves and everybody working with them? Teo to think innovatively and creatively, i think the role of a leader is to envision something that doesn’t yet exist to see the future in a way that is compelling and clarifying on inspired to others. And when you can see that and paint that picture, as i’ve been able to do now with global citizen here, others begin to fall into step, and they and they follow along because they believe in what you’re all working toward. And how do you translate that to your own hiring so that you’re hiring people who are going to be open minded to this and and bright thinkers on their own? How do? You make sure that you’re getting the right people working for you, which is absolutely a challenge because otherwise you’ll be up there thinking great thoughts and no one’s, no one’s following, particularly in the early stage, you need other people who think creatively andare wired as entrepreneurs as well, because to get from xero to anything requires that every body is an engine, everybody can see something that doesn’t yet exist and instinctively reach out to find the resource is needed to apply them toward bringing something toe life. S so so i have found that it is often young people who see themselves as less constrained. Millennials tend to have a knack for believing they can run through walls and make things happen. And so surrounding myself with a creative young team of people who say, see the bigger vision and then are comfortable building the plane well, flying it all right now global citizen year is a non-profit so there’s a that right that’s five oh one c three were five oh one c three. I’d like to say that non-profit is our tax status and not our management style. Okay, excellent. All right, so you’re what’s. The status means is that you do have a board and what do you do for around bored with croup, mint teo, bring people who will be equally inspired? I would say similarly, on a founding board or particular, not so young, no people who are more seasoned business savvy who can help guide me because they have the muscle memory themselves of having built new organizations or are currently leading other organizations. So looking for people on the board who are older and wiser on dh can, you know, essentially be my my personal adviser’s mentors on dh allies in being able to be credible on strategic in in how we grow, alright on dh, how about for yourself? How do you make sure that you’re not bogged down in day to day management? Have it’s very seductive to deal with administration rather than, you know, broader thinking the way you described. What do you do with your recommendation for that ceo? That executive director who is in the trench trenches every day? Yeah, absolutely. I think i am fortunate that i’m wired in a way that inclines me toward the xx external parts of the role, so i love more than anything, sharing my vision and giving other people an opportunity to get involved, whether it’s funders, supporters, allies in in reimagining how young people learn about themselves in the world. And starting with that as the basic premise, i have tried to build a team of others who compliment my skills and who are equally passionate about the set of things that i am not a skilled at on dh shouldn’t be the one to be doing so have recently hired a phenomenal vp of operations who takes the other side of the house, and she takes it as seriously and as strategically as i do with the work i do externally, ok, but that requires terrific insight into your own shortcomings. That’s very cool, right? You have to know where your shortcomings lives. You hyre so a lot of introspection, right? Indeed. And early on, somebody i know and respect very, very dearly suggested that i keep a journal about the things i do everyday that give me energy and the things i do that actually deplete my energy. And that from that list, i could describe a job description that would, over time. Move me. Toward the things that really do get me revved, and from which i derived more and more energy and enthusiasm. And so my pa primary objective is leveraging myself into the role where i am at my best, playing my right roll and surrounding myself by people who are much smarter and more talented than i am in a certain set of other things. Innovation in leadership. Is there anything, anything you want to leave people with? Um i think in the not-for-profits sector, we can often constrain ourselves by thinking too small and even in a you know, particularly in a down economy, there could be a sense of thinking within constraints, and i would just encourage everybody out there to continue dreaming because we’re the ones who need to drive social impact missions forward. Abby falik thank you very much. It’s been a real pleasure. Abby falik is the founder of global citizen year and these kinds of thoughts or we’ll get we’ll get you invited to the clinton global initiative, aspen ideas festival and other places where thought leaders are this is tony martignetti non-profit radio coverage of the next-gen charity conference two thousand eleven would be falik thank you again very much. Thank you, tony, my interview with that be falik i think she had some outstanding thoughts insights into leadership for social change we’re gonna take a break now, and when we return, we’ll have my interview from the same nextgencharity conference with charles best president, ceo actually of donors choose dot or ge and then wally collins, author and stand up comics, so stay with me. Yeah, you’re listening to the talking alternative network. Duitz no. Durney are you suffering from aches and pains? Has traditional medicine let you down? Are you tired of taking toxic medications, then come to the double diamond wellness center and learn how our natural methods can help you, too? He’ll call us now at to one to seven to one eight, one eight, three that’s two one two, seven to one eight, one eight, three or find us on the web at www dot double diamond wellness dot com. We look forward to serving you. Is your marriage in trouble? Are you considering divorce? Hello, i’m lawrence bloom, a family law attorney in new york and new jersey. No one is happier than the day their divorce is final. My firm can help you. We take the nasty out of the divorce process and make people happy. Police call a set to one, two, nine six four three five zero two for a free consultation. That’s lawrence h bloom two, one, two, nine, six, four, three five zero two way mate. People happy. Bilich hyre hey, all you crazy listeners looking to boost your business? Why not advertise on talking alternative with very reasonable rates? Interested simply email at info at talking alternative dot com. Dahna welcome to tony martignetti non-profit radio coverage of the nextgencharity conference, where in lower manhattan at the tribeca performing arts center and my guest now is charles best charles leeds donors choose dot or ge, where public school teachers post classroom project requests and donors comm pic the projects that they want to support the site has been selected most likely to make the world a better place by the techcrunch community. And in two thousand nine and two thousand ten, fortune magazine named charles in as one of their forty under forty list of businesses. Hottest rising stars. Charles best welcome to the show. Thanks, tony. Clyde, to be a pleasure to have you. Thank you. Um, so using a site you’re connecting donors with projects that they never witness live, how do you help make that connection? How do you get out of the donors feel connected to the work that they’re supporting? Well, we really feel that hardworking teachers out on the front lines have almost a tent up expertise and imagination that’s just waiting to be unleashed. And donors to dot org’s endeavors to unleash that frontline expertise and to generate classroom project requests that may often be better targeted and more innovative than big top down solutions designed by someone who’s ah, hyre up ok, so you want the so the teachers themselves are describing the project and what the impact will be for their for their students. That’s, exactly right there, about twenty five thousand classroom project requests seeking funding at any point in time on donors choose dot organ those projects all submitted by what we call frontline educators, mostly classroom teachers, but could also be a guidance counselor coach library in those projects really are ah, window into both the unmet needs of students and the innovative potential of dedicated teachers. And how do you manage the donor relationship so that donors feel a connection again with the project there most likely never going to see live? They’re not going to meet the students who who benefits from it, who get that impact. How do you manage that? That donor relationship with the projects? Well, even a donor who gives one dollar to a classroom project on donors tuesday dog will get photographs of the project in action. Thank you. Note from the teacher and impact report from the teacher. A couple. Months into the project talking aboutthe student learning that’s taking place, they’ll be able to see a cost report showing how every dollar on the project was spent. And if the donor gave fifty dollars, a more, they would also get physical. Student thank you letters from the classroom. It’s, it’s really rich feedback. It has a lot of our donors feeling like they got more out of the experience out of the exchange than the recipient and it’s it’s kind of our secret sauce and say a little more about the impact report. What what do you encourage teachers to include in that as their writing that for their donors? Because there is so much in the charitable community about impact? Absolutely well, the impact report, the impact letter that we asked the teacher to write to their donors is not filled with jargon. In fact, it might not even pass muster with a foundation program officer, but it is plain spoken from the heart, uh, description of the student learning that’s taken place as a result of their project being funded. And so it sounds like you’re working very hard. Teo have that relationship, even though this is all web based with base e-giving have of relationship between that the donor, a teacher in the classroom where the project is, and the students, because you said that they get pictures from the students as well. Our thank you notes for a fifty dollar arm or gift. That’s exactly right? Yeah, we see a donation to a class a project on our site, not as an end unto itself, but as a first step on a path that will be toward fulfill edged engagement with public school classrooms and low income communities. And key to that is the ability of the donor to write a message to the classroom, telling them why they picked their project, and the teacher khun message right back, even outside of the photos and teacher. Thank you note and teacher impact report and student thank you letters which are ah, part of the process. So now this is significant because the donor’s air having contact directly with the people who are the children that are that are enjoying the outcomes, the impact of their of their gift, and that’s quite unusual, and most charitable work. I mean, there aren’t a lot of donors meeting the people who are enjoying the benefits of that of the agencies or the organizations work that’s absolutely right, it’s not a face to face interaction, but i think it it feels almost just about as as vivid and rewarding and meaningful as a face to face interaction. Tell me a little about the donor reactions that you get after after the the process is completed, and i’m sure you’ve got multiple lots of people who come back, make repeat gift tell me, share some of the feedback that you’ve gotten from donors when they’ve had that close connection with with the classroom. Well, we often hear from donors when they get especially funny or especially emotional letters from students, which which could be a student making a funny reference to recess and how they yearn for it all day long. Or it could be a student talking about the fact that this is the first time anyone’s given them a book. Bonem and and that’s, what? What prompts a good number of our donors toe say that they feel like they got as much out of the exchange as the classroom they were looking to help and what’s the percentage of donors who make a repeat repeat gift you know, the percent of donors who make a repeat gift is excellent if you look at year to year three year for going from year of acquisition the first year that they give to year too, are they giving one year later? It’s actually only one in five of donors who acquired in a given year who then will give again in year two, but if they’re giving in year two there’s a ninety percent chance they’ll be giving in year three, four, five, six and you i’m gonna guess you. Ah, you see this as something that other non-profits should take on is the relationship between the people who are enjoying the benefits of the work and the people who have enabled that work to take place. Don’t you say a little about that for the audience? Absolutely well, you said it well, but we do see the interactions on our site as the basis for yeah, riel correspondents, if not actual relationships between the donors and the classrooms that they’re looking to help and and we hope that this means that donorsearch e donors to settle argast is a lot more than a web site where they’re gonna transact a contribution. Are there many donors that have seen the the classroom’s face-to-face we know it happens, it doesn’t happen is part of our process, but but we hear all the time from teachers who, whether it’s, the teacher or the donorsearch how they’ve gotten in touch kind of off line as it were and and no two exchanges of brownies and visits and physical gifts that’s fabulous. They just needed that much more they needed teo for probably for ninety nine and a half percent of the donors, the correspondents, the way you described it is sufficient that’s, right? But for that, uh, half a percent or whatever, i would just say nice. Yeah, but that half a per cent they just needed that closer connection. Totally, yeah, totally, but for the other ninety nine and a half, you’ve got it worked out, and i think the message is is clear for for our audience that that connection is crucial between the donor and the and the and the i don’t like to call them service for the people who are benefiting, uh, and i don’t see much. Of it, yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. Thank you, tony. My pleasure, charles best is leader of donors choose dot or ge and this is tony martignetti non-profit radio coverage of the next-gen charity conference two thousand eleven. Welcome to tony martignetti non-profit radio coverage of the next-gen charity two thousand eleven conference. We’re at the tribeca performing arts center in new york city. And my guest right now is wally collins. Hey, while he was the opener, welcome. Well, thank you for welcoming me. He was the opener and he’s also going to speaking later. Here it next-gen was a comedian and author. His stand up comedy credits include being on nbc, cbs, abc, lots of other acronyms and cc comedy central. But he’s, also an author, not only stand up comic but also an author, and this is his book. I know you can see it and i’m going to let wally pronounce it as you’re looking at it. How do you pronounce the title? This book it’s called the you never know book of encouragement that’s right? The word is you never know and the subtitle underneath the door is living a regret lous life, right, love that so? We’re talking to small and mid sized charities. Um, how does your work overlapped with charitable work? Well, actually, the whole idea behind you never know. It’s. Not charitable, but it’s motivating. Okay. And charities need motivation. There’s donor’s need motivation. Exactly. Big overlap. Exactly. And the the producers here has asked me to speak to help motivate people to help live their dreams, call for the their goals and desires. And exactly what i did. I was an architect before i got into comedy, and my mom asked me if you could be anything. What would it be? A sin not to be an actor. Now, she’s confused why you’re not going to be an actor. So i told all from springfield, massachusetts. No one famous ever came from springfield, massachusetts. And she says, well, you never know. So it kind of, like, spark mean like, oh, wow. So i pursued comedy and i just kept that mantra in my head. You never know. You never know. And with that, i was one original holst on comedy central show. In fact, i was the black first black holes on comedy central. And when your when it was that nine hundred ninety one and so i kept that mantra in my head, i said, you know, i can go for anything because i don’t want any regrets, and the whole point of you never know is that i don’t want to be that person on my death but saying, i always wondered what it was like, i always want to know i’m always curious about what if what if i had, i regret not having exactly, and sometimes we would do it, like end of the day, like, you know, going to hello to that girl to that guy or how combine to make that phone call, how come i can’t get to that charity, you know? So how come i didn’t donate? I should have donated, you know? So i want people to live in regret this life, because that is the key to happiness, it’s not about, you know, the result or succeeding our failings, the fact of trying and i realized that that once you try and then you’re in the trying that’s, what happiness is like, the example i give is that when you go on a journey, it’s a long journey and when you get to the place, you need to get to see a friend of family. The first thing to say to you is how was your trip? You know, it’s about the journey is about to try. So i realize that. And so i wrote this book there’s fifty two encouragements. And the each encouragement is to inspire you to go through any kind of door. Any kind of problem in-kind obstacles. All right, so there are fifty two of them. One a week is that they’re with your own mended. Oh, yeah, coincident that was no, no, i actually i want to do one a week and let let that be your mantra. Let that be a motivator for the week and people who read him all the way through some people read about random, you know, and it’s it’s, it’s really cool. Because it’s getting great reviews and people are gay. Give his gifts now to friends and family. Can we talk about a few of the way? We want people to live a regret lis like exactly. We want them to be motivated not only in their work, right? I mean, what does for work and all. Aspects of life. Exactly. Personal life. Your work. Exactly. Relationships, you know, losing weight, anything into your health. The book talks about, you know, it’s good inspires you about but your health, we’re gonna go. So can i, uh, not a challenge. I’m no. Now go ahead and pick out the ones that i think a little interesting. Maybe you will find something provocative. I don’t know, but okay, i don’t know. Well, let’s. See? Listen and learn. Well, that’s. What? Your lesson around. Listen and learn. Listen and learn. You can learn a lot about a person if you just shut. See that the person talk and i don’t. I can learn so much about your guy would just keep quiet if i would just ask you some decent, open ended questions that i would learn so much more than is in this bio or something. Because people know comedian and author and that’s what i understood. But it’s, just if i would shut that trap, i could learn so much more about you much, much deeper than the book or any bio would reveal or anything like that right now. That’s. True. Exactly. I was quiet and listen. To what i learned about you, that’s, the whole point of listening learning is that you do learn a lot about a person, just let them talk and not necessarily agree disagree what they say, but just not your head from time to time to say i am listening to you and you really learn about their values, their views there, big city personality so that’s part was one of the encouragements just just listen and learn about someone, just listen, and i’m going to drive that directly to the the non-profits that were talking to in terms of listening and learning from your donors, they’ll tell you so much about why they give to your charity what it is that is special in there lives about your work, right? And when you can key on those things that you know, move them to give, then you’ve got a sweet spot and you you’ve got a method of justin simple helping them to give just that simple. Excellent well, alright, way, no there’s intersection we’re exploring, finding, picking out, then go ahead and shuffle through the a fish life with a fish life about well, it’s basically like a metaphor. You look at fish in an aquarium and their content. But they’re in an aquarium and the way we think a lot of people think is that, you know, they’re content where they are. And so i’m going to live the rest your life, living as a fish in an aquarium. Or do you really want to go through that door? Because the logo for you never know is a door it’s, a partly open door, that’s, possibilities, opportunities. So are you going? Allow yourself, just basically get into the united state of mind and brought and brought in your your world to a beautiful sea of possibilities and opportunities. No commentary e very well said, right? And i think it’s a terrific metaphor also dahna arika head it’s no, this is a great one. This is an uplifting let’s. Celebrate good times right now. That’s pretty much it for today. Everyone, we have a habit of holding onto champagne. We have a habit of you know, now i’m not gonna wear tuxedos with something special happens, you know? But i realized that and it’s kind of fun. I do. From time to time i put in my tuxedo, my wife, we we put it on and you know, we’ll just celebrate that day. We’ll celebrate tuesday, all right? At home, where you go out on your talk, we go on your evening attire, we go out and and we go out and celebrate and people looking like what you celebrate, like celebrating tuesday like and they can’t say that something like oh, yeah, you know, celebrated don’t wait, celebrate today and take the time to recognize what in your life merits celebration and there’s so much and one of the encouragements called take inventory and in order for you to basically receive things in your life that you want appreciate the things that you have already, and we take him for granted, you know, the simple things like the breath in our lungs, in the fact that we can, you know, we can listen, we can hear those simple things we take for granted as we have them all day we have every day. So if you take inventory of all the things that you have, then the other things that you want to receive or things that you want to think you want to achieve a lot easier don’t stereotype standup comics bourelly has some terrific thoughts that i think apply t the charitable sector, and certainly well beyond his book is the you never no book of encouragements, there’s, the door opportunity and below that live a regret list life, right? And while he collins is a comedian and author, and again, he stand up comic credits, all kinds of nbc, cbs, abc, etcetera and well, here, i want to thank you very much for being my first guest at next-gen thank you for having really appreciated my pleasure. This is tony martignetti non-profit radio coverage of the next-gen charity two thousand eleven conference where the tribeca performing arts center in new york city while he thank you again, you’re welcome my interview with while the collins and i want to let you know how you spell his name is w ay l ay while the and his book that you never know, book of encouragements, that first word is spelled, why apostrophe and e v a n o, you never know, and you can always find him. Of course, by just googling his name. We’ll take a break when we return. Tony’s, take two and then maria simple on your prospect plan for two thousand twelve. So stay with me. You didn’t even think that shooting, getting, thinking things, you’re listening to the talking alternative network, waiting to get anything. E-giving you could are you stuck in your business or career trying to take your business to the next level, and it keeps hitting a wall? This is sam liebowitz, the conscious consultant. I will help you get to the root cause of your abundance issues and help move you forward in your life. Call me now and let’s. Create the future you dream of. Two, one, two, seven, two, one, eight, one, eight, three, that’s to one to seven to one, eight one eight three. The conscious consultant helping conscious people. Be better business people. Hi, this is psychic medium. Betsy cohen, host of the show. The power of intuition. Join me at talking alternative dot com mondays at eleven a. M call in for a free psychic readings. Learn how to tune into your intuition, to feel better and to create your optimum life. I’m here to guide you and to assist you in creating life that you deserve. Listen every monday at eleven a, m on talking alternative dot com. Are you feeling overwhelmed in the current chaos of our changing times? A deeper understanding of authentic astrology can uncover solutions in every area of life. After all, metaphysics is just quantum physics, politically expressed hi and montgomery taylor and i offer lectures, seminars and private consultations. For more information, contact me at monte m o nt y at r l j media. Dot com talking alternative radio twenty four hours a day. Lively conversation. Top trends. Sound advice, that’s, tony martignetti non-profit radio. And i’m ken berger from charity navigator. No. Durney welcome back to the show. Time for tony’s take two at roughly thirty two minutes after the hour. My block this week is share my optimism for twenty twelve i can’t help it a tte the beginning of every year. I am optimistic about what’s coming even in january of last year, two thousand ten, early deep in our recession, i was still looking forward to what was coming in two thousand ten i always feel that way, and i’ve hardly ever been disappointed about that. Um, that was last year. Well, in two thousand ten, deep in our recession. Oh, two thousand eleven was our recession. We’re deep in our recession. Even the year before that. Sam is prompting me. It doesn’t matter what year was we’re talking about, sam. I was i was still optimistic. Um, so this year, what i’m looking forward to is among many other things that you see on the block is expanding the reach of the show on itunes. If you’re listening on itunes, you’re one of roughly a thousand a little more than a thousand people listening each week to the podcast on itunes hope to expand that and also due maybe. One or two more conferences than i did last year where were on the exhibit floor like the nextgencharity conference that you heard three interviews from today on there’s other stuff coming up, so i hope you’ll take a look at that. And also, i hope even more important, in that you’ll share with me what you’re optimistic about their only already. Some comments on the block. Please add yours. You’ll find my blogging mpg a dv dot com and that is tony’s take two for friday, january sixth, the first year first show of the new year maria semple is with me maria, how are you doing? Hello, tony! Happy new year! Thank you very much. Happy new year. Maria is the prospect finder she’s an experienced trainer and speaker on prospect research. Her website is the prospect finder dot com her book is panning for gold. Find your best donorsearch prospects now again welcome maria. We’re talking about your prospect plan in two thousand twelve that’s right? I thought it would be a great way to kick off our first show together of twenty twelve so i’ve got some great tips to share and i know that you had done a a bit of a survey prior to this show is, well, do we have any results on that? Sure, we do. Look at the she leads right into the survey. That’s. Cool. Um, we’re going to be talking a little about donordigital bases, so the i’ll share one of the questions, which was, do you have a computer based fund-raising and donor management database, and about eighty nine percent of respondents do have a computer based, and then roughly eleven percent do not. So what is your advice around a. A computer based okay, great. Well, actually, i’m delighted to hear that the statistics were as high as they were in terms of organizations that are using one. Um, i hope that those that are using one or are thinking about selecting one, um, do a little bit of homework in advance, and there are some great websites to be able to help them do that. Um, as a prospect researcher, right? Or a fundraiser? Oh, our executive director of a nonprofit organization it’s really important that all those meetings that you have with prospect, all of those touchpoint whether they be through email marketing through, uh, letters that are sent out, annual appeal, etcetera, that all of that is somehow captured and recorded into some sort of a system, and there are wonderful systems out there now to do some advanced research on what to use what to look for. A couple of websites. I want to point your listeners toward, uh, idealware idea l w a r e idealware dot or ge is actually a web site that is, uh, themselves a non-profit that they helped non-profits makes smart software decisions. Um, and they actually have a page on their site. Talking about how to choose software. Uh, they have one that i noticed that was published june twenty eleven. A consumer’s guide to low cost. We have a live seminar coming up january twenty sixth of this month on choosing a low cost, so definitely anybody thinking about this for this coming year might want to check out idealware dot or ge? Um, another great site is tech soup, and this probably won you maybe even touched upon in the past on some of your shows. Tony uh, tech soup dot or ge t ch soup dot org’s great site to help non-profits so forth and you can actually get, uh, low cost and sometimes free technology through them. So both those sites would be great for doing some research and trying to figure out which system would be better. And we’ve also had scott koegler our regular tech contributor, i’m talking about don’t management software several shows ago, but it was it was on a cloud based discussion that we were having, you know, and maria, i think a lot of people just think of the one big player they think of blackbaud and razor’s edge, which is many tens of thousands of dollars to get into, and and i think a lot of non-profits don’t realize that there are enormous numbers of alternatives. Teo razor’s edge. Yeah. There are actually an interesting that you mentioned blackbaud because one of their divisions is e tapestry, tapestry, dot com. They used to be a standalone company and were absorbed a few years back. However, they are one of those cloud based type systems that you just happen to refer to, um, and also very low of low cost entry point, etcetera. So that might be something to think about. I am a stand of using something that is cloud based. I like the fact that the system is, uh, all of your donor information is not actually housed in your office. In terms of in case there’s a fire or a break in or a flood, you know, there’s so many things that could disrupt your ability to just pick up and proceed your fund-raising program. Sam wants whatever the tragedy is, you know, has has passed. Maria, let me let me interject there from the prospect research perspective. What else do you want to see in a donor management system? I want to see something that is very easy to use from a staff standpoint as well as a board standpoint. So the simpler the system, i think the better if they can’t. If a boardmember can have a a meeting with a donor or a donor prospect, let’s say they have a dinner meeting, and then they’re able to go home right afterwards, log into the system. Uh, password protected system, obviously, and record the contents of the high points of the conversation. That’s going to be extremely useful to get with, you know, like a contact report. Dahna filed right away while it’s still fresh in their mind. So i think that’s something that’s easy enough for both staff and board. Teo use obviously password protected and it’s my understanding that you can even have, you know, certain levels of information accessible as well to various people. So something that’s easy to use, easy to produce reports if you can have something that will integrate with sending out email marketing, uh, obviously something that’s going to integrate with the mail merge system of some sort that so that you can do all of your mailings right from that system and capture the information. I love that you mentioned the contact report because that is such a wealth of information when and critical. Information so that when volunteers like boardmember turnover and ceos and fund-raising director’s turnover, the institutional knowledge isn’t lost, its preserved it’s it’s critical because the donor and the volunteers, they remember those conversations, but as staff in the non-profit turns over the non-profit could lose that valuable information if it’s not preserved, right? Absolutely. It’s it is it’s very important, tony. And i know even in your work that you do with plan giving. I mean, imagine, you know, you walk into an organ is ization that has had some what of a decent say, major gift program in place? Um and then they want to introduce ah, more integrated plan getting component and then staff changes. And suddenly you have no idea what conversations have potentially taken place in the past about plan giving. You had captured somewhere it becomes embarrassing to the organization. Yeah, absolutely. You know, because the donor is going to expect that that his wishes, his concerns, his or her concerns were captured somewhere. And it doesn’t matter who he’s talking to with the organization. If it’s a new face, that new face should be well aware what that donor’s intent is for the future and you have some advice around from prospecting within, which is sort of what you’re leading to. It doesn’t have to be leading to a planned gift, but mining that database in your two thousand twelve plan, right? Something that they may want to focus on for this first month or two the year why not take a look at who your top ten gift were in the past year? Okay, whatever that that gives level is for your organization and then taken also take a separate look at what the top ten prospects have been for your organization in terms of lifetime giving. So here we’re talking about individuals ok, way we’ll get the institutions shortly, right? So what? What i’m hoping is that by being able to identify those those people, there may be some cross over there you may want extended even to top twenty, depending on the size of your organisation, but then you’ll have perhaps a nice pool of people that you can begin to think about a great cultivation plan on start putting something on the calendar, maybe a nice cultivation event coming up in the next safe um, it’s beginning of the next quarter, right? So come up with the names what the plan is gonna look like for cultivating these individuals. What the event will look like whether it should be it. You’re home someone’s home at your organization, you know? And you know, morning evening, whatever seems to be the right fit for your organization. Or maybe try both. And, uh, think about a way to cultivate those donors and elevate their gift further. So that’s a bit of reactive and proactive prospecting really combined. Let me define that. I know you don’t like jargon, ok, i was she cussed me out. You’ve been on the show enough times. I could tell exactly as she had the spurs raj and the jailers keys jingling in the background. So reactive research. You have names of individuals, you need to know more information about them. So you have no names and you need to know more about those individuals. Ok, proactive is when you’re proactively trying to come up with a completely new individuals. Ok, so the great thing about a cultivation event is even though you have individuals who are giving to you, why not encourage them to bring a friend? Bring a new person to the table who would also benefit from knowing about your organization? Maria. One of the poll questions was. How would you describe your prospect, research, proactive research, proactive, reactive or a combination? About twenty two percent said proactive, about twenty two percent said reactive, and about fifty six percent said some combination of proactive and reactive, which is what we were just talking about. We’re going to take a break right now and maria simple, of course, the prospect finding will stay with me, and we’ll continue talking about your prospect research plan for two thousand twelve. So i hope you’ll stay with us. Dafs you’re listening to the talking alternative network. Are you feeling overwhelmed in the current chaos of our changing time? Duitz a deeper understanding of authentic astrology can uncover solutions in every area of life. After all, metaphysics is just quantum physics, politically expressed, i and montgomery taylor and i offer lectures, seminars and private consultations. For more information, contact me at monte m o nt y at r l j media. Dot com are you stuck in your business or career trying to take your business to the next level, and it keeps hitting a wall? This is sam liebowitz, the conscious consultant. I will help you get to the root cause of your abundance issues and help move you forward in your life. Call me now and let’s. Create the future you dream of. Two, one, two, seven, two, one, eight, one, eight, three, that’s to one to seven to one, eight one eight three. The conscious consultant helping conscious people. Be better business people. Dahna hey, all you crazy listeners looking to boost your business? Why not advertise on talking alternative with very reasonable rates? Interested simply email at info at talking alternative dot com. Yeah, zoho. Maria simple and i are talking about your prospect plan for two thousand twelve and i learned that we have a listener in dhaka, bangladesh. I think i know who that is. Hello. Hello, daka. Good, good. Tio, have you with us as well as there are a couple listeners in the u s also, but we should recognize our bangladesh listener. Um, maria. So we’ve talk about proactive versus reactive. What about doing some more proactive research outside of your own database? Okay, so one thing i want to make sure i set aside some time to talk about is setting up alerts. Tohave information pushed to you. Let’s. Get some of this put on autopilot for twenty twelve. Uh, let me talk about some ways to do this. If you, uh, go to google, set up a free google account, you can set up an alert, a google alert on whatever you want. That means that every day google is going to go out on the web and scour it for information related to that word or that phrase, uh, that you’re going to want to have them look for on a daily basis and they will push that information out to you so let’s google do that legwork put push the information to you and you can take a look at the search results as appropriate. Maria, how do you set those? How do you set up alerts in google? You go into google and then there is a spot where it’s one of the options going across the top. It’s not if it’s not there, they’ve moved it. Look under the more tab, and then you’ll be able to find how to set up alert. What i would suggest is, again maybe sticking with your top ten donors set up an alert on their name. Okay. Ah, and this would be a good way to find new information that might that might come up on those donors. Uh, we’re proactively if there are potential donor prospects that you would proactively like to find out more information about, um, somebody that you’re thinking about incorporating into your fund-raising plan at some point in the near future, why not start having google gathered some information and push it over to you? Also, your organisation’s name? Just a great way to keep tabs on how your organization maybe mentioned. Out on the web. Uh, newspapers have alerts that you can set up and, well, okay on, we’re still in the free category, right? We’re talking about free resource is yeah, this is all free. In fact, one of the newspapers that i like to have information pushed from happens to be my statewide business publication, and gabe is, and they actually push news headlines to me. So this is a great way for non-profits to proactively stay on top of what’s going on in their business community in their state, okay? And then have an opportunity to take a look at some of those business headlines and i’ll bet you they’re going to be some gems of information in there on some companies and business owners that they had no idea we were right in their own backyards that are actually very successful while we’re talking about alerts, how do you get the alerts? They you actually set it up so that you indicate what pieces? Well, on the business publication, they just send you business alerts related news going on in your buy-in email you mean that’s a particular email it to you right on google they e mail you the search results on whatever the phrase is that you’re interested in in researching. And i think a lot of these alerts to you can set the frequency whether you want your alerts daily or weekly or something like that. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. On google, i happen to have alert set up to be sent to me daily on certain phrases that i’m interested in keeping tabs on prospect research, high net worth things of that nature, another source that actually is foundation related. So this will help us to segway into what we want to look at in the foundation world as well for our twenty twelve prospecting plan. Ah there’s a source called foundation search dot com that is one of the foundation research sites, right? But one of the things that you could do with them is set up a free email alert. When new foundations are registered in your state, you will be emailed and alert indicating that a new foundation’s been registered. So this is a great way again. This is a pro active measure on your part. Stay on top of new foundations. New family, foundation’s being registered thiss would potentially give you an opportunity to get in the door a little bit sooner than maybe one of the other non-profits state and that you are elegant was foundation search dot or ge dot com dot com foundation search dot com excellent. All these free resource is, you know, one of the whole class went out, that one is actually a fee based. I didn’t want to leave out only because they do have that alert service within the foundation community, which sometimes non-profits are really looking for that extra edge. One of the poll questions was do you know that there are lots of free resource is for prospect research, and only twenty two percent of people said yes, and the other seventy eight percent said no, i better listen to the show. So i hope that they are doing that because we’re just maria has just given you three or so free resource is that looks like about another free prospect research tool site for your twenty twelve plan and just about a minute and a half, we have left. Okay, well, i have a bunch of them aggregated actually in a free down. Tell us where where do we get the dunlop found my website and it is a free resource called going beyond google to research your prospects so that one has a number of resource is in it. But one that i thought i would highlight. Let me before you go before you go further, let me just remind people that your site is the prospect finder dot com. Right. Okay, go ahead, plea. And what you can do is one of the resource is that i was thinking about the great toe highlight because it’ll help point you in the direction of both businesses on business. Bonem maria, we just have about a minute left. Okay? It’s reference yusa you can get it free through your local libraries. Could do it search based on your criteria, the types of businesses you’re looking for on again, this is a great way something for you to do proactively first quarter of this year and figure out a way to implement and integrate these new businesses that you find a small, medium, successful businesses in your communities. I hope that seventy eight percent that didn’t know about the free resource is are listening. Maria simple is the prospect finder. Her book is panning for gold. Find your best donor prospects now and she’s our regular prospect research contributor maria, thanks so much for being on again. Thank you so much. Happy new year, everyone. Thank you. We’ll talk to you in february. I want to thank maria simple and also abby falik charles best. And while he collins for sitting down with me in a very busy day at the next-gen charity conference and my thanks also to the leaders of the next-gen charity conference next week, podcasting primer john federico, principle of the new rules and our remote producer for this show will be with me if if you’re not listening to this show on friday, january sixth, which those of you who are now with me are doing, but for the thousand or so people after today, you already know what podcasting is because you’re listening to one, but john is gonna have is going to explain how to do podcasting as outreach for your non-profit how to get started with budget and gear and content and format and strategies. Maybe you will start your own internet radio show, but don’t call it twenty martignetti non-profit radio. That name’s taken scott koegler will also be with me next week, he’s, our regular tech contributor and the editor of non-profit technology news, and we’ll be talking about twitter organization pages what are they? Should you jump in? And if so, how should you get started? Keep up with what’s coming up on the show. Sign up for our insider email alerts on the facebook page. If you like the show like us on facebook, click that button you know you can listen live our archive archive go to non-profit radio dot net non-profit radio dot net that will take you to our itunes. Paige subscribed there and listen anytime on twitter. You can follow me! Use the show’s hashtag use it with impunity that hashtag is non-profit radio we’re gonna have a guest tweeter next week guest live twitter next week is going to be dan blakemore. This show is sponsored by g grace and company. If you’re worried about the rising costs of rents for your organization or need to capitalize on real estate, you’re non-profit owns gee grayson company provides you and you’re bored with analysis, so real estate decisions are made with transparency and thoroughness. George grace has been advising non-profits on their real estate decisions for over twenty five years. G grace dot com, or eight eight eight seven four seven two two three, seven. Creative producer for tony martignetti non-profit radio is claire meyerhoff. Janice taylor is our line producer shows social media is by regina walton, of organic social media and the remote producer, and my guest next week of the show is john federico of the new rules. I help people with me next friday, one, two, two p, m eastern on talking alternative broadcasting, where you’ll always find us at talking alternative dot com. Oppcoll i didn’t think that shooting the ending. You’re listening to the talking alternate network. E-giving cubine looking to meet mr or mrs right, but still haven’t found the one. Want to make your current relationship as filling as possible? Ethan. Please tune in on mondays at ten am for love in the morning with marnie allison as a professional matchmaker, i’ve seen it all. Tune in as we discuss dating, relationships and more. Start your week off, right with love in the morning with marnie gal ilsen on talking alternative dot com. Hi, i’m julie, hi, i’m julia, what are you wearing? Welcome to j and j’s. Secrets of style and beauty. We know there’s, beauty and style, and all you do, whether it’s a job interview, first date or wedding, we also know that not everyone understands what works best for him or her. We’re here to help. Think of us as your personal beauty style and grooming guru’s, as industry experts will give you the best information for men and women on howto look phenomenal. Tune in tuesday’s of eight pm tto. Learn how to look your best. Are you fed up with talking points, rhetoric everywhere you turn left or right? Spin ideology, no reality, in fact, its ideology over intellect, no more it’s time for action. Join me, larry shot a neo-sage tuesday nights nine to eleven easter for the ivory tower radio in the ivory tower will discuss what’s important to you society, politics, business and family. It’s, provocative talk for the realist and the skeptic who want to go what’s really going on. What does it mean? What can be done about it? So gain special access to the ivory tower. Listen to me very sharp, your neo-sage tuesday nights nine to eleven new york time go to ivory tower radio dot com for details. That’s, ivory tower radio, dot com. Every tower is a great place to visit for both entertainment and education. Listening. Tuesday nights nine to eleven. It will make you smarter. Are you suffering from aches and pains? Has traditional medicine let you down? Are you tired of taking toxic medications, then come to the double diamond wellness center and learn how our natural methods can help you, too? He’ll call us now at to one to seven to one eight, one eight, three that’s two one two, seven to one eight, one eight, three or find us on the web at www dot double diamond wellness dot com way. Look forward to serving you. Talking all calm.

Share My Optimism For 2012

"Bright Optimism" courtesy of Theen Moy on Flickr.
I can’t help it. I am optimistic at the beginning of each year. Join me. It feels great.

In January 2010–in the depths of recession–I thought the future was bright. I always think a new year holds great promise and cannot remember being disappointed.

In 2012, I’m genuinely excited to expand my keynote speaking to encourage more love so that we raise more money; broaden the reach of Tony Martignetti Nonprofit Radio through iTunes and at conferences; generate more Charity Registration clients, because the regulatory and compliance environments for charities will tighten as the boundaries between them and corporations blur; automate my Charity Registration work to make it so much easier and cheaper for our clients; perform more stand-up comedy than I did last year; and keep working toward my audacious dream of creating Bloomberg® for nonprofits.

What excites you for 2012? Please share your optimism.