Big Nonprofit Ideas for the Other 95%
You can subscribe on iTunes and listen anytime, anyplace on the device of your choice.
Tony’s Guests:
All About Awesome Auctions: Roger Devine of SchoolAuction.net tells us all about online, silent and gala auctions.
- How much staff time and expertise are required?
- Which kind of auction makes the most money?
- Do you know what a paddle raise is?
I’d love to get your feedback on these questions before Friday’s show:
- Have you done auctions?
- What worked or didn’t?
- Was it what you expected?
- Did you make your goal?
You can answer in the comments or on Facebook at this link. Thanks!
If you listen, your next auction won’t be a spanking.
SAASy:
Software as a Service (SaaS) is gaining popularity among nonprofits.
Our regular tech contributor and editor of Nonprofit Technology News, Scott Koegler, explains the money-saving trend and whether your office should be part of it.
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.
When and where: Talking Alternative Radio, Fridays, 1-2PM Eastern
“Like” the show’s Facebook page.
Don’t forget to subscribe to the show’s podcast on iTunes. Download and listen whenever and wherever you want.
Here is a link to the podcast: 037: All About Awesome Auctions and SAASy.
View Full Transcript
Processed on: 2018-11-11T22:43:13.272Z
S3 bucket containing transcription results: transcript.results
Link to bucket: s3.console.aws.amazon.com/s3/buckets/transcript.results
Path to JSON: 2011…04…037_tony_martignetti_nonprofit_radio_04152011.mp3.87413532.json
Path to text: transcripts/2011/04/037_tony_martignetti_nonprofit_radio_04152011.txt
Durney hello and welcome to tony martignetti non-profit radio big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent. I’m your aptly named host. We’ll give a little shout tio, my predecessor, the larry bloom who hosts the divorce our right before my show. He had a big announcement today that he’s been waiting to make for some time. And that is that he’s changing the name of his show to the divorced our because his is finally final, his his his divorce is done, and he announced that today and that a little play on his show title is not my idea. That came from our producer, sam call it the divorce tower. So congratulations to larry bloom. Very nice of him to give me a little shout on this show leading up to my show, although he said that i’m felix unger and he’s oscar madison so dahna i probably own more like felix and than he is, but i don’t really like being felix, so but we love larry bloom on back to tony martignetti non-profit radio may recall let last week we helped you excel in email execution because i had dave pulis and he’s, the principal of granite partners as my guest and he shared elements of effective email marketing and gave tips for developing your list if you don’t have one and for keeping your list clean and hygienic and also had claire meyerhoff, the editorial director of the plant e-giving company, reveal how to write for email fund-raising so that your messages get opened rid and responded to this week, we’re all about awesome auctions and sassiness roger divine of schoolauction dot net is going to tell us about online silent gala auctions, how much staff time and expertise are required. Which kind of auction makes the most sense for you, which kind of makes the most money all about awesome auctions and then software as a service sass is gaining popularity among non-profits a regular tech contributor and the editor of non-profit technology news, scott keller, is going to explain the money saving trend and whether your office should be a part of it on tony’s take two in between my two guests it’s going to be philanthropy one hundred years ago, little look back to rockefeller, carnegie harriman and their friends and that’s it roughly thirty two minutes into the hour on tony’s. Take two. After this break, i’ll be joined by roger divine, and we’re going to be all about awesome auctions. Stay with me, co-branding, think tooting, getting dink, dink, dink. You’re listening to the talking alternate network, get in. Nothing. You could. 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. Whillans 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. We look forward to serving you. 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 hello and welcome back to tony martignetti non-profit radio i’m very pleased to introduce now roger divine, who is a founding partner in northwood llc, the developer of tofino auctions and schoolauction dot net management. Those are auction management software products, and he has chaired multiple fund-raising auctions for schools and groups in portland, oregon, and has an email newsletter on that subject i’m very pleased to welcome roger divine to the show. Roger, welcome. Thank you. Pleasure to have you thank you for joining me from from portland. Yeah, wonderful s so we’re all about awesome auctions. Why don’t we start with what the different types of auctions are? Okay, well, we before we do that let’s, give an overview of what an auction can be, and then we’ll talk about the different pieces of it. But i attended often a variation on most often it’s, a variation on the traditional gala fund-raising dinner, and it is a, oh, an event where you bring people to the to the venue and you serve them some appetizers or dinner and you include one arm or activities in the event designed to incent gas to make donations by spending money all right, guys. That’s, right? And the key thing that unites all of the the events that you can have within your gala fund-raising auction and that makes the whole thing work is a fundraiser is that these auctions tend to be, as with many gala fund-raising events of philanthropy, a spectator sport, you’ve got you’ve got an event that follows the eighty twenty rule pretty pretty. Seriously, you’re going to raise about eighty percent your money from twenty percent of your gas. But you need the other eighty percent of the guests there because they provide the applause and the public accolades that that spur that twenty percent of the guests onto hyre bidding. Okay, but so now this is the live auction. This is the live auction, right? Well, this is this is this is several of the components that happened within it. And let’s, go ahead and dive into what those components are. You know, you’ve mentioned a live auction, that’s that’s the easiest one for your guests who may not be familiar with the with the idea of the auction. Probably easiest one for them to visual. Yeah. That’s. Right. That’s where people most think of people. Mostly think of when they think of an auction, but there are other types, but there are that’s, the common one, and most often you want to include a combination of them the live auction has on auctioneer who stands up on stage. You’ve got some fairly high value items you try to and send some competitive bidding in the moment people raising up there big paddle, thie other most common type of of activity you’ll have at a gala fundraiser gala fund-raising auction is a silent auction falik auctions have typically items that air of slightly lower value than the items you auctioned off in a live auction, and you put them out on tables or you put out displays to represent them on tables and have been cheap in front of them that allow your guests too, write down their name and bid number during a specified period of time. Silent auctions will have a closing time when the bidding is closed on those items, clerks going pick up the sheets so that nobody can cheat on right there big number down after the closing time, and then the item is awarded to the high bidder on as recorded on the bedsheet ok falik options are buy-in are very popular and they have a couple of advantages over the live auction you khun do them with slightly lower value items. They don’t have to be quite as sexy quite as exciting a cz the items that you wantto put up on stage, you can also execute a silent auction with, uh a lower cost in that you don’t have to hire an auctioneer to sell them. Andi, let me take a moment to talk about that. I mean you generally some organizations feel like they don’t have to hire an auctioneer even if they do hold the live auction eyes. Is the auctioneer worth the expense? Or can just someone from the from the organization do it? It is it is, in my opinion, completely worth the expense to hyre not only a professional auctioneer, but one who has the benefit auction specialist designations. Sometimes you might find a car auctioneer or a cattle auctioneer who volunteers to do this it’s a completely different a chance. It’s a completely different mindset and you will find that benefit. Auction specialist pay for themselves four to five times over. Okay. So that’s a professional designation that somebody will have the b s benefit auction specialist. Okay, the professional designation, uh, generally auctioneers go to auction school to learn how to sell things on stage on some of them will specialize in benefits and they can go on and get their b a s a designation and it’s worth looking for. And roger, let me just ask, does that specialization come in sub categories so that there’s people who specialize in different types of objects, like maybe sports memorabilia or something like that? Or is it does it not get that refined? The specialization does not does not get further subdivided, but you certainly do have auctioneers specialized in certain types of items most commonly wine. There are there are auctioneers who are, uh, specialists and selling wine and have a great deal of knowledge that they can drawn during an auction in order to spur the bidding. Hyre okay, roger divine is with me, eyes cos schoolauction dot net where all about awesome auction’s today. And after this break, we’ll move from the different types of auctions to start to talk about what types of non-profits are can benefit most from from auctions and what they need to have in place in order to do that, so please stay with us. Talking alternative radio twenty four hours a day. 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 oppcoll 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 i really need to take better care of myself. If only i had someone to help me with my lifestyle. I feel like giving up. Is this you mind over matter, health and fitness can help. If you’re expecting an epiphany, chances are it’s not happening. Mind over matter, health and fitness can help you get back on track or start a new life and fitness. Join Joshua margolis, fitness expert at 2 one two eight six five nine to nine xero. Or visit w w w dot mind over matter. Y si dot com. You’re listening to the talking alternative network. Schnoll welcome back to the show on dh armed with my very welcome guest, roger divine of schoolauction dot net and we’re talking all about auctions today, roger before we get into the different types of non-profits i want to read something that came from the facebook page on the subject. She says that first he says online she finds to be easiest to run. I know we’ll talk about online auctions later on, but with respect to the live auctions, she says, holding an auction at a charity event can be fruitful, but often tremendous work for the organizer’s. The last one i did was not worth the effort. She found that sporting memorabilia sold the best, so maybe we can maybe you can come in on that. We can use that as a transition into the types of non-profits that it makes the most sense for and what non-profit needs to have in place. Indeed, absolutely is a really insightful comment on dh the core there that i want to call out, um, and used to to introduce who should be holding auctions or not is the comment that there are a lot of work gala fund-raising auctions if you’re going to have them if you’re going to hold them live, but at an event you know, it’s, a huge party that you’re planning and you’re bringing together a lot of effort’s involved to procure items, to merchandise those items and then to run the operation on the event night itself. You know, i’ve called this in various places a department store with a six hour life span that you’re bringing it all together and your your your selling items to people, and you’re checking them out and it’s all done within six hours, and it can be a lot of work now that said, it is generally work that you’re volunteers, volunteers associate with the organization are going to be capable of picking up fairly quickly. There’s not a tremendous amount of specialized expertise that is necessary to put this on. And so i would would put forward that the organizations for whom a gala fund-raising auction tens make the most sense our a those organizations that dafs, you know, our are not necessarily blessed with a high power development director if you are if you’ve got somebody that can run, eh? A strong direct mail campaign if you’ve got somebody that can do a strong fund-raising campaign that does not require event well, you’re probably better off putting your effort there. So that’s interesting. Okay, it’s, just a fact of life that there are people out there in the nonprofit world that are extraordinarily good at raising raising funds through campaigns that they can execute with a lot less work than attention put on a gala fundraiser. Okay, i just think i fundraisers don’t require specialized expertise and so there’s another tier of organizations where they make a lot of sense, which are the organizations that are, let us say ricin volunteers, but perhaps pour in professional development, you know, there’s a brand that we sell our software and our called schoolauction dot net and that’s for very good reasons. Groups like school pts booster club’s um and the like tend have lots of willing volunteers who can help who can take on a little piece of that, a lot of work, and you could spread the work among many hands, and they can mountain a event like this and have it be a very effective fundraiser for them, okay, volunteers, smaller organizations that are rich in volunteer organization schools, churches, community based non-profits community based service agencies often tend to find me to be a very successful, worthwhile effort. Okay, so how do you then start to organize your volunteers? What tasks need to be accomplished so that you can come to this come to fruition with your with your gala auction? Excellent question. I try, i try my best. Usually they’re not that good. So it’s all downhill from here. Well, let me let me try to live up to the question with the task to weigh breakdown the tasks involved in putting on a fundraising auction, i would go like this. Obviously you have to have a procurement effort. You have to get items that you’re going to offer for sale at your event, whether it be sports memorabilia, as your facebook commenter on or local business gift certificates or the like. You want to get as much of that stuff donated to your event possible. Roger, can i let me stop you for a minute? Do you agree with jane from the facebook page that sporting memorabilia sells? Well, supporting memorabilia often sells? Well, it depends a lot whether you call it the best or not, depends on who you’re grouped in, you know, who’s going to be in the audience at the event and in addition to your private part of your procurement efforts should involve, uh, sitting down is an organization and trying to analyse who you’re going to be able to get to attend your event as guests because in the end, unique if you want them to buy stuff, you have to have stuff they want to buy. So okay, very good glad you stated something that seems clear, but really not until you say it, which is you gotta know who your audience is god, if they’re not sporting fans than sporting memorabilia, is not going to go well, okay, so your procurement? Yes, there we go, there’s procurement, and then there is recruiting guest ilsen either probably the two largest efforts that you’re going to put on selling tickets to your event and getting the items that you’re going to sell once they’re there and these should go hand in hand as weii just stated there’s a connection between who your guests are and what you want to procure there, but they can be broken out and given as as areas of responsibility, two different teams. How do you like to see the procurement dahna is that? Is that literally knocking on local business? Local business doors, that’s a significant portion of the of the effort there direct male is an excellent tool to use teo sort of bulk out your procurement effort if you can get ahold of a decent list of area businesses. Um, i am building one by the way, i’m building what we’re calling the ultimate donation database and it’s going to be a free resource for everyone. I also published a free email newsletter called procurement tips for schoolauction why don’tyou neo-sage since you’re talking about yuri newsletter, i was going to it later, but since you mentioned it, why did you tell people how they could get your newsletter? Terrific. They can go and sign up for that for free from the front page of our weapons sight, which is www dot schoolauction okay, and what would we be offering the business in exchange? I mean, how, how, how, how would we tell the business that we’re going to be promoting you as the donor of one of our auction items? Another excellent question, because there is two in a row obvious easy answer, which is that they’re going to get a tax deduction for there donation. But that’s hardly the most sexy answer, and it’s hardly the most compelling one we can offer to them. One of the tips i like to give people is that if you are running a community organization, a school or a church, every donor that’s within a physically located within fiber ten miles of your organisation, you should send them a door sticker they can detail that can put in the window of their store. That says, i support this organization you want teo promote, you want to help them promote their position as philanthropist who are involved with their local communities. In addition, you can. If you have an auction website, aziz would have. If used our software, you can promote your donors from the web site. You can give the link back to their website, etcetera. We also offer a feature in our software where we can allow you to call out. Certain donors are at the bottom of every guest receipts on the end at the end of the night, so the point is, you want to be promoting that auction item donor. Like, for instance, the sticker in the window? Absolutely we’re doing this because you want to have a long, long standing, ongoing relationship with them. You want to be able to demonstrate that there was value to them and giving you a donation? Um, and at the same time, you’re also promoting your organization when you do so. Of course. So of course, the mutual benefit, right, it’s also interesting that you say that the charitable deduction is not the main motivation because that is what, exactly what i find talking to individual donors as as a fund-raising consultant, the charitable deduction is interesting to them, but rarely is it the primary motivation for the for the individual gift so interested? Just an interesting parallel with roger divine of schoolauction dot net, and we’re talking all about awesome auctions. Rodger what about using those volunteers marshaling those volunteers for the actual party planning the stuff that’s going to go on that night? Absolutely. And you really need a good crew of five, six volunteers that are excellent party planners to go in and set the event up. I find this to be one of the easier skills to marshal usually. Your organization within its volunteer pool within its reach, has got a couple of people that are really good at putting on a party on dh can work with caterers and work with decorators to get the room set up. Of course, i often ask for this because i’m miserable in this myself, and when i chair an auction, i will agree to do so only if i have somebody who is extraordinarily good at the the event set up and working with the caterers to be my co chair. Okay, so don’t go to any parties that roger invites you to when he’s hosting them. That’s not entirely true, i always hae always outsourced. Okay. Disasters all right, i know what i’m good at, and i know what i’m not all right? And that doesn’t apply to dinner parties. So you know, if you’re in the portland area, roger invites you to dinner to accept the invitation that doesn’t. That doesn’t apply them. Yes. Alright, please go ahead on. Okay. So in addition to the procurement and the ticket sales and the party planning skills, the other thing you need to have is that you really you’ve got a lot of moving pieces here, you’ve got to have somebody operationally who’s, extremely well organized and my personal biases that you should give them good tools to work with. People have been known to run successful auctions off of a stack of lined notebooks and maybe an excel spreadsheet, but i’ll tell you that it’s, a fairly inefficient way for them toe work there’s a tremendous amount of production of bedsheets and other collateral catalogs and the like that needs to happen. At a certain point. You need to be tracking all of your donations, tracking all of your ticket sales. Certainly my product or any of the other specialized software products that are out there for running benefit auctions. I tend to think that they’re they’re well worth the investment that you make. Okay, as well as that benefit auction specialist now would would. Would we expect the benefit auction specialist toe have these tools teo, to use for the the live auction? Or are they really just going to be the performer that night? The benefit auction specialists will bring much more than just being the performer. That okay, they may not provide you with the softer, although there are cases where they dio uh, they certainly can make recommendations based on what they have seen work for their other customers. But when you hire a benefit auction specialists, you should also beginning some consulting from them prior to the event on how to structure the live auction and talk about who your audience is with them. They bring a lot to the table there. Roger in in the few minutes we have left, i’d liketo transition to the online auction. Andi, open it with this comment from the facebook page from casey, i will say this starting out, it takes a little bit. I registered with ebay and they are currently limiting me to how many items i put up for sale. I called customer service, and they told me they do that for every new cellar. So far, we have been doing all right, and i’ve noticed an increase in traffic on our on our own web page. Excellent. Do you see that much spillover from on having an online auction to an increase in hits on the organization’s web page? Well, let me tell you where they come together. If you’re going to make an online auction work and you do need a platform, you can use ebay or you can use a private platform we provided as part of our software to andi, i’ve worked with a lot of organisations that have mounted fund-raising auctions online and the key skill there you may not need a party planner. You may not need an auctioneer. What you do need to have his excellent marketing skills. Because the key thing to know about online auctions is that if you build it, they will come does not apply. You have to hit your email list. I know you had a guest on last week who was was was telling your listeners howto build and clean. Ah, good email list. Just you have to hit that list hard and you have to hit it often in order to push people to register for the auction to push them toe look att specific items. You want to segment your potential universe of bitters and promote specific items to specific potential bidders. And then you really need to promote the sense of competition in the event you need to spur people on things. This particular item is out there, it’s getting these kinds of bids, um, you know, don’t let this bitter get it for this cheap yet, you know, give them some competition, get in there and did against them it’s for a great cause. So, you know, you know, clearly not just putting it up on dh, letting people come to it weigh it just doesn’t work that is just like a blogger, a web page exactly you have to promote in order for it to be successful. And if you do that, if you are promoting your fund-raising event in order to be successful, you will probably get some pass along in those emails, and you’ll probably drive as an ancillary benefit a lot of traffic to your organization’s website. Okay, another another comment from the facebook page, the host of tony martignetti radio is charming, articulate, adore bonem sir, no, this is from ana, she says bidding for good often works, but you need to know your audience very well. Can you comment on bidding for good bidding for good? Is is a company that runs an online auction platform that is out there. They have a a nice, uh, piece of software that i think. Works very well. It is one of our competitors, so i’m going to kind of limit myself and what i say about them, just a few niceties there, a print it’s certainly one that everybody needs to check out where you’re comparing and you’re doing your your shopping run for platform, you need to check them out. They are a leader in the marketplace. However, the the corner for comment that you have to know your audience is incredibly insightful and it’s one that we should repeat over and over again. If you’re going to get any fund-raising done through any of these events, you need to know who your audience in that room is, so that you can incent them in the correct ways. You can provide the right things for them to bid bid on. You can stimulate them with the right type of messaging and you can appeal to their whatever is most appealing to them, their sense of philanthropy, their sense of wanting a good deal, their sense of being a pillar of the community, etcetera. Roger divine is a founding partner in northward llc, the developer of tofino auctions and schoolauction dot net you can go to that website to get his free email newsletter on the subject of auctions. Roger, thank you very much for being on the show. Thank you, tony it’s. Been wonderful. My pleasure. We’re gonna take a break, and after this break, tony’s, take two. You’re listening to the talking alternative network. 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 friday’s one to two eastern on talking alternative broadcasting do you want to enhance your company’s web presence with an eye catching and unique website design? Would you like to incorporate professional video marketing mobile marketing into your organization’s marketing campaign? Mission one on one media offers a unique marketing experience that will set you apart from your competitors, magnify your brand exposure and enhance your current marketing efforts. Their services include video production and editing, web design, graphic design photography, social media management and now introducing mobile market. Their motto is we do whatever it takes to make our clients happy contact them today. Admission one one media dot com hey, all you crazy listeners looking to boost your business, why not advertise on talking alternative with very reasonable race? Interested simply email at info at talking alternative dot com zoho welcome back, it’s. Time for tony’s. Take two at roughly thirty two minutes into the our philanthropy one hundred years ago in nineteen ten, the new york times earlier this year had a ah survey. Now i’m sorry. Years ago, they had a survey of philanthropy one hundred years ago in in nineteen ten and i blogged about that article that that i found from nineteen eleven it was, actually, i think it was the january first nineteen eleven issue, which had a survey of philanthropy in nineteen ten and in nineteen ten there was one hundred sixty three million dollars given to charity, and the article talks about some of the biggest names among that hundred sixty three million, like john rockefeller and andrew carnegie. It’s. Interesting that they they ah particularly admired anonymous donors in that in that article on dh altruism was cited as the main reason for giving which roger divine and i just talked about in terms of auctions, but not always unanimous, not always altruism. Mary harriman gave thirty one thousand dollars to the town of turner, new york, on the condition that turner new york changed the name of the town to harriman. And you’ll see in my block and that the town did consent to that they wanted her thirty one thousand dollars for a new train station, and they change their name to harem in new york. And that town still exists. That’s also the family that created harriman state park, which is an up on the hudson river in new york. There’s more about that dahna the philanthropy in nineteen ten on my block, which is that m p g a d v dot com. And that is tony’s take two for today, friday, april fifteenth with me now it’s scotty kegs. Scott koegler scott is our regular tech contributor and the editor of non-profit technology news. And we’re going to talk about sassiness service as a software explaining this money saving trend and whether you should be a part of it. Scott, welcome back. Thanks, tony, but i’m afraid that i’m going to have to put you in jail because, you know, fast is actually software service, not services. Did i say, oh, here it is. I said it. I said it backwards. All right, that sze jargon jets like reverse jargon jail. I screwed that up. Okay, uh first, explain it. I know it will go ahead with your, but it occurs to me that but the basic premise of of software service really probably deserves a little bit more of an explanation. Okay, yes. Um, you know, most most everybody is or wass used to using software and software basically consists of it is something you download or a cd or a disk that you put into your computer and you install it on your little computer. Ah, and that’s called locally installed software. And sometime ago somebody got the bright idea. Teo put it someplace else other than on your computer. And actually, that somebody was ibm back in the time share days when they had these big computers, nobody could afford a little, you know, computers there weren’t any. So they installed the software on this big computer, and they ran a liars to terminal so people could use them. And so software service is installing a software on a big computer. We’re a bunch of computers somewhere connected by a wire. That wire today is the internet and way connects to that server, and we run that software, and so we’re not installing it. But we’re just using it so that’s, why it’s called as a service and so have we essentially come one hundred eighty degrees from know what? We’ve got three hundred sixty degrees from the mainframe to sixty years, right from mainframe, which you described teo locally based which we’ve been doing for a decade or two decades, i guess then back to back to centrally located software just it’s more accessible. You don’t have to be wired anymore physically. Why? And i just want to go back to the show archives and to remind people that it was my very first show, which was on july sixteenth of two thousand ten that scott was a guest. That was obviously the first time for everybody and that’s that’s the show where we talked about software is a service, so if you want to dive more into what it is, you can listen to that july sixteenth show, and i have in mind that that was my very first show and very glad that scotsman with us ever since. So scott, so you have a survey of you’ve been serving the usage of of software as a service among non-profits we did. Wait, did a survey we asked people what their impression currently was and if it’s changed over the years over the last year, and it turns out that there’s been a pretty good shift, i would say about a year ago, the there was a lot of no doubt, i guess, you know, f you the fear, uncertainty and doubt about it, letting our data really not the software self, because nobody really care. Well, nobody was that concerned whether the software worked or crashed or whatever, because something always crashes. But their concern was mohr, based around the security of the data. And, you know, tony ana non-profit world, you’re donordigital a and you’re constituents, the funds that you’re receiving and the plans we got for raising funds are pretty private stuff. Yeah, security is a critical concern, right? So that was really ah, big deal. Because nobody really had a good track record on security. Pretty much the only thing that was out there that was, uh, really heavy duty. Sas kind of software. That was maybe two or three years ago was salesforce dot com, which was really a pioneer in the business. They put out this application that allowed you to put your prospects, your customers, your contact information, and so people would use that in sales in the selling process, a lot like constituent data, actually, and at least a sensitive because what he had there was huge corporations putting there customer, and they’re prospect, date out there and you can imagine, you know, non-profit uh, constituent information is proprietary think about large corporations and, you know, they’re competitive edges and trying to get customers and make money just so salesforce dot com was really the first big one, and they were very successful. They they’ve had some, uh, some issues with their data, but nothing, nothing on the order of disaster, where there were data has been breached and the information has got out been stolen. So that’s really brought a lot of credibility, and since then, in the last two years and particularly last one year sas application have just been moving off the chart. I wonder if that, you know well, i guess you expect that trend to continue. We can talk about that. Just i just maybe i’m too cynical, but i just think some time there will be some major breach of privacy and that headline will cause a lot of a lot consternation. You agree? I believe that there will be there actually have been but they have been pretty well controlled. The systems that are out there, you think about it. If i have ah, software application in my office, i’m pretty concerned about the security. I don’t want anybody stealing my information, but the fact is that i don’t have any expertise to make that secure. I’m just kind of, you know, lock the door night during the computer off, but that limits how i can get to my data, you know, who can use it when it’s available, you know, certainly not twenty four seven, but you look at the sas based companies and they really have a stake in it if they get one breach, even if it’s just small, they’re going to get a lot of bad press. If they get to, they’re going to lose customers, and if they get three, they’re going to be out of business. So they really have much more incentive on much more at stake than than even the private organization of the singles non-profit okay, let me just digress for a second. Did you get any of the notices about the company? Absalon a breach of email addresses? Did you get any of those yourself? Because i got five there five companies that i’ve given my email, i just to marriott hilton and a couple of financial sites offgrid that i’m surprise, surprise those financial sites even mentioned because your balance is like two hundred dollars, but but it zoho approaching my area code to want to i’m trying to get my savings account to equal my area code that’s my goal for two thousand eleven, but now i have five company i’m just me five companies that use the absalon and the disclosure was pretty much all the same that that excellent company had breached through some third party my email address so that’s true, they didn’t get your your data so they don’t know your balance, although you just told us all what it was, but they didn’t know that they all they got was your email address. Yeah, now i know in that case, right, but there have been worse ones among credit card companies and all but just so you know your point. Very well taken that bad press could could kind of kill the could kill a company and and maybe substantially inger the sas industry, right? If you think about it, there is one sad company that kind of goes under the radar, people don’t really think of it. Assassin but that’s, google, gmail, google documents all those kind of things are really sas based applications and there’s no dearth of people using that mean there’s millions of people using it buy-in not that it isn’t taking hold, okay? In just a minute or so we have left before a break. Why don’t you acquaintance with one of the areas that you think is the reason why sas is growing in popularity. Based on your article on your web site, the single biggest one is cost the there’s you can get into, you can implement a sass based application, baste something usually for free for a trial period and then you rent it monthly rather than buying equipment, buying software, getting people training all those kind of things that a big deal. Okay, we’re going to take a break. Of course, scott will be with us one return and we’ll talk. More about software as a service. And why. It’s gaining popularity among non-profits talking alternative radio twenty four hours a day. 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. Buy-in i really need to take better care of myself. If only i had someone to help me with my lifestyle. I feel like giving up. Is this you mind over matter, health and fitness can help. If you’re expecting an epiphany, chances are it’s not happening. Mind over matter, health and fitness could help you get back on track or start a new life and fitness. Join Joshua margolis, fitness expert at 2 one two eight six five nine to nine xero. Or visit w w w died. Mind over matter. Y si dot com. Duitz do you want to enhance your company’s web presence with an eye catching and unique website design? Would you like to incorporate professional video marketing mobile marketing into your organization’s marketing campaign? Mission one on one media offers a unique marketing experience that will set you apart from your competitors, magnify your brand exposure and enhance your current marketing effort. Their services include video production and editing, web design, graphic design photography, social media management and now introducing mobile marketing. Their motto is, we do whatever it takes to make our clients happy. Contact them today. Admission one one media dot com. Talking. Bonem welcome back. I’m very glad to have scott with us this week talking about software as a service. I said it right that time geever because you’re the first, you’re actually the first guest to put me in jargon jail? I think so. Well, but i blew it. I so i called it services software, you’re on it. You’re keeping my feet to the fire. So before the break, we’re talking about cost so you can get in really just aren’t they? Aren’t they often based on the pages by the number of records that you’re putting in the service? Depends. They all have some kind of a rental agreement. Heimans that rental is by the number of records, sometimes it’s by the different functions that you use, so if they’re different modules to be enabled, you know, could be an extra five dollars per month for this or that, but, um, yeah, there’s there are many different yeah, and for a small organization, this could be ideal. I mean, you’re talking about a five dollar entry cost at the very outset, right? And some of them i’ve said, uh, there are some that allow you to get in for free more of a of a trial. And you, khun set up the site, see if you like it, see how it works and go from there. And if it doesn’t work, simply delete your information and off you go with another another trial somewhere else. And isn’t that also a issue that you’re sort of bringing to mind for me the the ability of you to get your data back if you stop working with a company? Yeah, that was always a problem for at least an issue. Uh, pretty much everyone now gives you access to your own data. There were some some pretty loud screams about not getting your data back. And frankly, most of that was occurring in the in the install software world where you and i ghisolf softer on your own computer, and there really was no way to get it out. So you had to operate to the same, you know, the next version of the same stuff otherwise re entering into a different version, which which, you know, if you have even just hundreds of records, let alone thousands or tens of thousands that’s that’s out of the question. So those days of holding your data hostage are pretty are over you’re saying it’s worth a question just to be sure i haven’t run across any sass based organization that holds your data hostage. Okay? And of course, your your article on this subject is that n p tech news dot com because scott is the editor of non-profit technology news, what else is ah reason that non-profits are expanding their you? Scott, the ability to update the applications is just great. One of the things about that installed software is that you get this announcement from your software vendor saying we’ve got we’ve got an update, you can download it here or here’s the desk even and you need to install it. Well, you always have some hodja death right? About installing new software on your computer because what if it doesn’t work? You know, then you’ve got a service call you out of business. You can’t do anything. And so what software the service does is that almost everyone every sas based application i’ve seen, the updates are done in the background, and almost without you knowing it, so the company will come out and with letter rather than saying there’s a new update? You need to install it, and they’ll say we’ve been starting new update, you’ll notice these things have changed and and so they’re just there it’s kind of a seamless transition. You don’t have to worry about your data getting lost company handles it and the update that they did for you, they also did for the other ten thousand customers. They have so it’s a one shot deal? Yeah, on dh. So you’re getting the same version of the software that much bigger, more sophisticated shops they’re using, exactly and that’s a great point, you know, the year taking advantage of the pressure that the large organizations are putting on your software provider because let’s face it if they have hundreds of thousands of millions of records, they’re paying much more than you are with a few thousand records, and they have a lot more clout with the sas cos and believe me, they leverage that so thie the installations, the updates they put in place the features they had, all those things are benefit you just as much as they do the big companies getting those updates, though automatically, that could that itself could. Cause a little agenda, by the way, i love the guy, you know, koegler is telling martignetti about agita that’s because you walk into the office one day and it’s different than the way it was the day before. What you’ll find is that most of these people, these companies are very sensitive to that, so they’re not going to make wholesale changes. They’re not going to make something it says hey, what’s this they don’t make maybe a couple of menu changes, then they add a few features so that if you’re kind of searching around the menus and the functions, you may stumble upon them. But then they, you know, they have run up against that surprise before they’ve done with the phone calls, and they just they don’t do that. Okay? Okay. Excellent. Tell us another reason what else you got? The boy? Uh, one of the big things is time to market or time for implementation when you install software. There’s always the where they’re wass always the issue of well, do i have the right kind of computer? Is my server big enough to running the right version of the operating system? I running max. Or windows or winex, and sometimes you’re limited in your selection of software based on the computers were running. Now, if you have a computer or even a smartphone or a tablet or anything that has a internet browser, you’re there, you can run the software. All these things run on pretty much any browser that can connect to the to the web, and that means that people in different locations can all be collaborating, i guess at the same time, right? Absolutely that thie other thing and that’s again and great point is that if it’s installed in your office that you need to supply the outbound connection to the internet, you need to manage the user access. You need to be sure your connections on all the time and when it isn’t with such as, you know, saturday night at ten o’clock or sunday afternoon at three, you’re responsible for that and the sas cos, well, they you know, they staff around that they’ve got people that were there, they’ve got triggers that announced when something is wrong, they know it before you do, and so they take care of it again. They have a lot more at stake and then just one installation. So? So, you know, full time access and remote access are key factors. Scott, in just a minute, we have left. What are some of the functions that non-profits confined in software as a service? Well, specifically for non-profits certainly constituent management. Funda counting, mailing list management. One of the big things i just started. The tale of your last conversation about about auctions, auctions, services air great, then that’s a typical sas based application. So all those things that that a non-profit is doing all things they would like to do are probably available. Some kind of sad faces. All right, scott koegler, the editor of non-profit technology news. Our shows. Regular contributor about those issues. Technology for non-profits scott, thank you very much for being on again. Thanks, tony. Real pleasure. Thank you. Next week, it’s going to be a conversation with hildy gottlieb she’s, the author of the polyana principles and she’s going to be my guest for the hour. She’s got some really transformative ideas for non-profits to create enormous change in their communities. And if you would like to participate in that conversation, leave a comment on the show’s. Facebook page and be a part of the conversation, just like anna and some others were today. I hope you’ll be with me and hildy for that conversation, either through facebook or by listening live, you can keep up with what’s coming up, you can go to the facebook page and sign up for our insider email alerts. You’ll know who the guest star in advance. You want to wait for the week’s show, you’ll know before everybody else. And while you’re there, please click like become a fan of twenty martignetti non-profit radio, always reminding you that you can subscribe to the show on itunes. Listen, any time on the device of your choice, automatic downloads that is, that non-profit radio dot net, creative producer of tony martignetti non-profit radio is claire meyerhoff, our line producer. Who’s. Also the owner of talking alternative broadcasting is sam liebowitz and our social media is by regina walton of organic social media hope you will be with me next week here on talking alternative broadcasting at talking alternative dot com that’s. Next friday, one p, m eastern. Dahna you didn’t think that shooting good ending things. You’re listening to the talking alternate network. E-giving get in, it’s. 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. We look forward to serving you. 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 you’re listening to talking on their network at www dot talking all calm now, broadcasting twenty four hours a day. 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. I really need to take better care of myself. If only i had someone to help me with my lifestyle. I feel like giving up. Is this you mind over matter, health and fitness can help. If you’re expecting an epiphany, chances are it’s not happening. Mind over matter, health and fitness could help you get back on track or start a new life and fitness. Join Joshua margolis, fitness expert at 2 one two, eight sixty five nine to nine xero. Or visit w w w died mind over matter. N y c dot com cerini upleaf talking.
