561: Risk Management I – Tony Martignetti Nonprofit Radio

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This Week: 

Risk Management I
You want to keep your nonprofit safe. To help you, Gene Takagi starts a 2-part mini-series on risk management. We kick off with indemnification. It sounds boring. But it’s a word with great significance for your board members, officers, employees; your contracts; even your sexual harassment policy. Gene is our legal contributor and the principal of NEO, the Nonprofit & Exempt Organizations Law Group. 

There’s more at tonymartignetti.com 

182: Society-Level Giving & Fraud! – Tony Martignetti Nonprofit Radio

tony_martignetti_300x300-itunes_image2Tony’s guests this week:

Page Bullington, resource manager at Blackbaud.

George Durney, director of sales at Target Analytics.

Gene Takagi, principal of the Nonprofit & Exempt Organizations Law Group.

Read and watch more on Tony’s blog: http://tonymartignetti.com

165: Dr. Seuss Stories & Fraud Protection – Tony Martignetti Nonprofit Radio

tony_martignetti_300x300-itunes_image2Tony’s guests this week:

Kelley Jarrett, consultant at Blackbaud

Melanie Morton, manager of Blackbaud forms

Read and watch more on Tony’s blog: http://tonymartignetti.com

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Hello and welcome to tony martignetti non-profit radio big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent. I’m your aptly named host and it’s friday, october twenty fifth, twenty thirteen oh, you know, i hope you were with me last week, i’d be put into lord doses if i had to shoulder the burden of knowing that you had missed giving tuesday. Rachel hutchisson with blackbaud and anastasia dellaccio from the united nations foundation shared the history of giving tuesday and how easy it is for your non-profit to get involved with this international movement on december third, twenty thirteen and new low facebook reach has your facebook page reach plummeted? Amy sample ward, our social media contributor and the ceo of the non-profit technology network and ten, explained what’s going on and facebook and what you can do about it. She also shared her sixty seconds style stop, and it was a good one this week. Dr seuss stories what can green eggs and ham teach you about digital storytelling? Kelly jarrett with blackbaud has tips for each step of the story arc and lots of great storytelling examples. She’ll bring you to a resolution, a better state that was recorded it b b gone this year? Also fraud protection? Melanie morton, manager of blackbaud forms, explains where you may be vulnerable and had a limit your liability for nefarious deeds like check fraud also recorded it be become this year between the guests on tony’s take too. I’ll crush a planned e-giving myth responsive this week bye rally bound software for runs, walks and rides at rally bound dot com my pleasure. Now to bring you dr seuss stories and digital storytelling. Welcome to tony martignetti non-profit radio coverage of bb khan twenty thirteen at the gaylord convention center outside washington d c my guest is kelly jarrett she’s, an employee of blackbaud she’s business development manager. Our topic. Very interesting. Very curious. Dr seuss helps you rock digital storytelling. Kelly! Jared, welcome to the show. Thanks, tony. Good to be here. Doctor says there’s nothing sacred in this in this digital storytelling world. That’s a good question. Yeah, i mean, he’s. He taught us a lot that’s, for sure about how we can use storytelling in everyday life. Yeah. Okay. Um let’s begin what? What lessons can we learn from the good doctor? So i talk a little bit about storytelling in general as kind of a story art. So if you think about it, every story ever told really has a similar the theory behind it. And that is it follows the same story arc where there’s an introduction. A conflict that has introduced a climax and then a resolution. And dr seuss, for example, if you think about green eggs and ham, you have a character who was sort of boring and run of the mill and sits around, reads the newspaper and is introduced with conflict through someone offering him something he’s never seen before. And he decides he doesn’t like it without even trying it. Um, and that’s, of course, the green eggs and ham. And the climax is when he actually says, okay, i’m gonna take a minute and actually try it and see what i think and tastes the green eggs and ham, and is put into a new state, which is the resolution of the story. And he likes it he’s a little more adventurous and kind of takes that leap into ah new state of affairs for him in his life. So the idea here is that, you know storytelling is a part of everyday life. Strong good stories are told and re told over and over again, and typically will follow the same r this occur to you when you were telling the story through someone? Yes, i have two children four year old in a six year old is and that’s exactly what happened. So i was doing a little research about brand storytelling, which is what i’m passionate about web strategy and brand storytelling. I work with a team of creative designers, and they do web design and brand story telling themselves. So thie idea occurred to me when i was reading stories that i read as a child kind of re telling those and i knew the story and it made me feel good when there was resolution at the end. And those were the stories that i enjoy and retail to my children s oh, yeah, that that’s exactly the idea and it it occurred to me that it’s something that people respond teo and it really engages people when there’s a good story with a strong story arc. So i started thinking how that could essentially translate into a non-profit brand and their story. Because as we know, non-profit stories are their mission and how they serve their mission. S o it was really kind of a neat idea and concept that i did a lot of research on and found the connection and was able to kind of tell it through the eyes of dr seuss. What other stories might be out there with dr seuss or otherwise that were yeah, important in your research. There’s this critical research you were doing so weii started with, you know, books and stories are go for one, which is an actual story that happened in real life, where you have, you know, an introduction in a status quo and understanding kind of what the state of affairs is. There was there was around the taking of the hostages and organic eggs and the movie that’s exactly right. So obvious conflict was introduced, and then, you know, the climax occurred when they were brought home and resolution and and every story that i researched from storybooks to disney characters and stories teo, dr seuss and all of his books, tio translated into the idea of thinking through storytelling as a brand in the first one. I thought of was, of course apple, which has a great story. So steve jobs is kind of the lead character, and if you think about steve and as he relates to apple it’s sort of a, they tell a story of interesting people, right? They sort of created the story around their brand that makes you think apple is cooler than it might actually be because of the story that they tell s o once i started thinking in terms of brands, you know, that i looked into non-profits and thought, well, how are they kind of telling their mission stories through this idea of the r introduction, conflict climax and resolution and there’s a non-profit that doesn’t really, well charity water and the reason i used them in my session and kind of talk about them a lot as they keep a very, very focused approach to their story. So they what they do is they provide water to those who don’t have clean water, charity water dot org’s, yeah, exactly right, wonderful organization, but what’s especially wonderful about them is they tell their story very succinctly and never lose focus, even through all of their social media. Efforts all of their digital efforts, everything that they d’oh um, from a marketing and advertising and outreach perspective all relates back to the single story that they have created for themselves, so even extending that through campaigns and things that they’ve done with their birthday campaign, which i can certainly talk more about still relates back to their story, which is the introduction they introduced characters, people, that they have helped and served fresh, clean water, too, the areas that they’re serving and they talk about the current state of affairs and how difficult it is for these people to find clean water and know what will happen. And if they don’t have access to clean water and then the conflict is introduced with showing actual water that has, you know, really bad stuff in it, right? A lot of bacteria and things that can make children very sick. So they follow this character through all of the stages and at the time of, you know, thinking about how this story will come to climax, you think about how can you engage your users and audiences to help in the effort to bring clean water to this person and what they’ve done really well is inspired their users too, give or volunteer or fund-raising on their behalf and almost become heroes in their story, which is thie idea of translating storytelling to a non-profit brand. How do you make your audience feel like the hero in your story by allowing them to get you to a new state or a resolution? And that’s what charity rotted really does does really well, so i tried to, you know, talk a little bit of that about that and a session i did here at b b con where, you know, introducing the idea that if you keep focused on your story in your mission and explain to people how they can help serve that mission, they’re going to feel more engaged and more compelled to be involved in your organization. Charity water uses a lot of video, do you think that’s essential good storytelling? Or can we can we do a newsletter or, ah, direct mail letter? So i think, you know, i think multi-channel is key. I think everyone ci’s information differently and responds to different types of media differently, but to answer your specific questions, video is absolutely a gn essential part of storytelling because it has all of the visual and audible cues that you need to connect with someone, right? So it’s hard to just look at someone and have a connection talking brings more of a connection, so when you combine the two, you have video and you’re able to put that on the website, and it really does engage the user more. There is even a statistic that fifty seven percent of of people who view a youtube video from a non-profit will actually donate, which is a huge amount on dh it’s ah, so it’s compelling because it brings people into the story by using multiple cues. And i think video is a great way to do that and you mentioned multi-channel engagement so you can have direct mail that drives you to a fuller story video on the website, something with email you say more about the multi-channel storytelling? Absolutely so and what i what i usually typically talk about is there are so many ways to connect with your users. The one thing you have to remember is even if you use all of these channels, you have to have a consistent message. So it has to be saying the same thing. So if you have a direct mail piece, it should support your website. It should support the videos. It should all have the same message, because i think, you know, we can all agree that sometimes we have to hear things a couple of times in order for it to sort of think in and get what we’re trying to dio it’s, no different for non-profit users. So it’s important to remember that you know, multi-channel is important because it’s reinforcing that message, it’s providing consistency and it’s reinforcing the message that you’re trying to get across. And that message is your story. Talking alternative radio, twenty four hours a day. Do you need a business plan that can guide your company’s growth? Seven and seven will help bring the changes you need. Wear small business consultants and we pay attention to the details. You may miss our culture and consultant services are guaranteed to lead toe. Right groat. For your business, call us at nine. 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It will make you smarter. 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 do you have specific advice around the the introduction, the conflict climax and the resolution? Yeah, so i think it’s it’s a neat exercise to sit down and think through the story arc for your organization think through, you know, introduction. What is the status quo? What is happening right now, which is a problem problem in our world or in our town? That’s, exactly right? And as non-profits where we’re solving problem, how do you put a face to that? You know, sometimes physics khun b maybe numbing or maybe so overwhelming that they drive someone to inaction or at least that’s the fear? How do you i guess maybe maybe i’m answering my question, but you can say a lot more about it personalized this so that person feels they can actually have an impact on this problem that may be enormous. Yeah, absolutely. You have to. You have to personalize it. And that is by creating characters for your non-profit and characters. Khun, come in a lot of different ways. You can have, you know, characters that are part of your organization. So a lot of times, like if we think about the wreaths across america story the founder is really their main character, she tells the story. She’s clearly very passionate about it. She gets emotional as she speaks about you know what the organization actually does, and it’s a it’s, a powerful thing, and she’s become a key character in their story, so you can use people that are part of the organism just sure kelly’s talking about karen worcester, whose executive director of wreaths across america and well have been on the show, or will be very soon because i interviewed her earlier earlier this morning and become great, doesn’t it does get very emotional, actually made me very emotional when i asked her what it is that she loves about the work and talked about a mom laying a wreath with karen was with her, and what that means meant to the memory of her son of the woman’s son is very touching. It’s a compelling story and characters don’t have to necessarily come from within the organization. You can actually have people that you your mission has impacted. Tell your story and they become essentially characters of your story as well. So who have you helped? How have you helped them? What? Is their story and let them tell it, and essentially they become part of the story, talking about how you’ve affected their lives, right? So we talked about this a little bit and my session, and there was some great ideas from non-profits out there because it’s a little hard if you’re a cancer research foundation, for example, what is your who are your characters? What is your story? Because it’s there’s a lot that research goes towards and, you know, it might be a simple is finding, you know, who are those researchers and talk about what they do every day? Teo end cancer or pick a couple of funding priorities and talk about those stories and the people involved in those and those impacted by that particular thing that you’re funding at the moment. So there’s a lot of different ways to do it, but doing it has the key maybe researcher as a xero yes, yes, exact absolutely. And that’s a great, great way to say you got it. Okay, so that’s, our introduction what’s our what’s your advice around conflict in the back. So, you know, conflict should be introduced because clearly there are conflicts preventing us from serving our missions. So what? What is that conflict on dh it’s important to tell people? You know, what is the conflict that is preventing us from fulfilling our mission? Or what is the conflict that is preventing our heroes or our characters to be in a place of good? So with the charity water example, you know, they introduce a young man named john bosco who lives in a third world country has no access to clean water, and they talk about him and they introduced him, and they show him walking, you know, ten miles every day just to get access for a little bit of water for his family and his mother holding it on his back on her back and walking miles and miles and it’s very difficult and that’s the conflict no access to clean water, so there are a lot of different ways to do it. I work way worked with a local organization in charleston who who has a lot of different conflicts because they are on organization that supports conservancy of the land in our area. So there are a lot of different things that khun b talked about us. Conflicts and the nice thing that they do is pull those in and talk about them. Development industry, absolutely zoning your government. It could be corporate that’s exactly right? I don’t know individuals who want other uses than conservation. You got it. So the local, the most recent story is cruise ships that are coming into the charleston area and it’s, very controversial. And you know their ideas to educate and talk about, you know, how is it effects affecting our coastline? And what is it doing? And they talk about that story. And then they say here’s, how you can help and the resolution side is they say, if you do help here’s, what will happen if you don’t here’s? What will happen? Right? So are you going to put the coastline in a new state? Are are are we going to see it continue to deteriorate and that’s their story as an organization? Is there another example before we continue on rr another example you like to share? You probably have a lot of them. Yeah, i mean, i do have plenty stories. Conflict, but yeah. That’s that’s. Exactly. Right. And then, of course, you know that the climax part of the story is really where you’re getting the user involved, but i want to hear more conflict story, more conflicts are e-giving another good story throwing cash that’s a good question so let’s see let’s see, i mean, it could be a simple i mean, it doesn’t have to be life or death, but in, like a hospital foundation, for example, you can talk about the families who are struggling. Teo, you know, either pay for for this care or they’re going through with a disease, a family member with a disease that they simply don’t have access to. And it might be an organisation like let’s say the ark, for example, which is a wonderful organization who supports all types of disabilities, their families, educators, etcetera and by introducing is that the problem is related not to the diagnosis, but two communication and education that’s their conflict. If people don’t know about this there’s not going to be research to to solve this problem, right? So those are the types of things that can be introduced at con as conflict, depending on your story. Okay, let’s, let’s, talk about climax. Some ideas around there? Yeah, so? This is my favorite part, obviously, because it gives the user or the audience a chance to help and that’s what you’re really trying to do with the introduction in the conflict, you’re setting the stage for someone to feel like they want to help or need to help, right? So if you’ve done a good job telling your story so far, you haven’t introduction the status quo, you’ve introduced conflict and someone is feeling compelled to do something, and they feel connected, teo, the mission they feel connected to the non-profit they want to help, that is the goal of the first part of the story. The climax is really letting them help, and it could be a simple as donating, right? So one thing that we typically recommend is obviously, tell your story and then give the user and let’s just say this is online because we’re talking digital storytelling, give the user the background and have an and provide an avenue for them to help whether that’s two fund-raising if you’re if you have a peer-to-peer strategy and they’re goingto fund-raising on on your behalf as an organization, or donate directly, those air too obvious ways from a friendraising perspective to help, but there are other ways volunteer sign up for an event, tell them what to do that will help impact the mission and sort of get to a new state in a resolution of your story, i have an example of a good a good use of climax. Yeah, so if we’re following the charity water story, they do a really nice Job cleanly, they have 3 ways that you can help, and once they’ve told their story, they show all of the background and they introduced the conflict, and they tell all the character stories, and then they say, fund-raising on our fund raise and you can fundraise using a peer to peer tool fund-raising as and, uh, basically retell their story to your friends and family to get them involved, you can donate directly, but they the the other sort of benefit to are a good thing that they d’oh is they don’t just say, give to our organization, they say provide clean water for a whole community, provide clean water for a family and those of the different levels of giving, so they really put a tangible to it, and that is a nice way, tio tie the story to the gift and have someone feel like they’re really doing something for the mission and the gift to the impact. Exactly. It’s a family it’s, a community it’s a new truck, anu will you got it and it doesn’t always have to be financial. It doesn’t have to be donations necessarily that’s an obvious one. But there are other opportunities. I was giving the example coastal conservation league in charleston. This is an organization who is a strong advocacy organization, so in their case their action that they were requesting or their climax was to take action to send a letter to local representatives. Teo, get involved. You know, in some way to tell write letters to the editor you got of newspaper editors of newspapers. Our, you know, senators, anyone who has a staker, you know, is not only impacted by what’s going on, but can help solve the problem, the mayor, whatever the case is, depending on the conflict they’ve introduced. So the idea is, you know, e-giving options to be involved in this morning’s session. I don’t you know, i have a few ideas, but a lot of them. Came from the user, the groups that were there were a couple fantastic because one organization and unfortunately i can’t remember the name, but they are a foster care organization and of course they’re hoping to find foster families t keep these children, however, they were trying to get others involved, you can’t necessarily take on a child don’t have you know what? For whatever reason, they’re not in the right age group, they can’t take on a child physically, they are not able to commit to that, but they were trying to find another avenue to help, and what they did was allow for a fund-raising program that goes to funding a child’s birthday. So a foster child’s birthday i’m saying, give them a great birthday and also give to this organization. So what the organization did was they raised money that went to the organisation, but they did provide to this child is foster child a wonderful birthday and as someone i know who maybe is just out of college, wants to get involved can’t necessarily take on a foster child against them, a chance to be involved in this wonderful organization and really make an impact in their story? We should go to the final part of our ark. The resolution? Yep. So ideally, the resolution should put, you know, the hero as well as the characters in a new state, and it should be a better state, right? So if you’ve done your job, you know, if the hero has done their job, what will happen? Will the coastline be protected for one more year or against cruise ships? If that’s the issue at hand? What are those things that you can actually impact in the resolution shows online? Ideally, you know, how how was that resolved on dh it’s? Not always, of course we’re way called it in our session. The never ending story because it’s not like you can solve all the problems related to your mission. Otherwise we wouldn’t have non-profits that continually raised money and do wonderful things. But what it allows you to do is show the successes. Show what you’ve done. Provide avenues to show. How have you helped people, uh, and involved in your mission? Whatever that isthe hominy meals have you served? How many animals have you saved? How many? What coastline did you did you preserve from? Getting polluted. Whatever your issue is as a non-profit showcase online. The resolution. What have you done? And what did the donor’s dollars do? Is essentially stewardship, right? Assistant essentially showing stewardship online and showing impact you got which is so critical now and so much talk about that. Absolutely storytelling. You’re calling it resolution. Yes, but it’s it’s, it’s impact. Join your back. You got it? Yeah, we have a couple of minutes left. What would you like to share that i haven’t asked you about or hasn’t come out? Yeah, so i would say i mean there’s there’s there’s sort of a second part of this. Once you have your story, don’t have twenty five minutes left. Yeah. That’s three seconds short of the second part is very short. So the story telling is is the most important part, however it’s important to remember that you can extend your story. And the idea of getting your story retold is this whole idea of social media and campaigns. And how can you kind of further your story and get others to share your story? I think that what i would say if i had to sort of tone it. Down into a couple of points here is to make sure your story is strong and people are compelled to retell it, so social media is a great way to do that. How can you encourage folks to share your story on twitter? How can you encourage people to fundraise on your behalf? One perfect example of this and it’s probably a good to end on is the charity water example of the birthday campaign, so we talked about their story and it’s, a very powerful one. They created a campaign where someone could, instead of asking for presents for their birthday or expecting presents for their birthday fund-raising say, rather than doing that for my twentieth birthday, give twenty dollars, to charity water and here’s what you know all of the wonderful things that they d’oh, and they give them an avenue to tell their story online, where they can write a little blurb about how charity water has impacted their life, or why do they care if you’re very easy to share? Also you got only encouraging the sharing, but make it very easy and that’s a very good point. Absolutely, and they do that, and then not. Only do they do they encourage folks to share make it easy to share. They also have the opportunity to further share it, share it with my friends and family, link back and have the opportunity to continue the story on and on and that’s where, you know, if you think about viral marketing that’s sort of the essence of it. It’s the idea that your story will be re told and retold time and time again. Kelly, what is it that you love about this work around storytelling? Well, until it really moves you, it does, i’m passionate about it because i feel like non-profits really have strong stories, otherwise they wouldn’t be doing what they do it’s all about the story that they’re trying to tell. And so what i like about my work with non-profits and kind of talking through some of this is giving them the chance to focus on telling their story and a very clear and compelling way sometimes non-profits get so excited about all the wonderful things they’re doing, they forget their core and their their story that they’re trying to keep it. Teo and so this idea of kind of, you know refining your story down teo the simplest terms to make it clear to your your constituents and those who you were talking with is very important because it keeps the focus on what you’re trying to do, which is serve your mission. Osili jared is business development manager at blackbaud. The topic was dr seuss helps you rock digital storytelling. Kelly, thanks very much for sharing your advice. Thank you, tony pleasure. Tony martignetti non-profit radio coverage of bb khan. Twenty thirteen, thanks so much for listening, thanks very much to everyone at bebe con that was a very fun day, september thirtieth of this year. Stay with me. Coming up after this break, tony’s take two crusher plan giving myth and then fraud protection hanging. There e-giving thinking, doing good, ending things. You’re listening to the talking, alternate network, wanting to get me anything. Dahna good. 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. Hi, i’m ostomel role, and i’m sloan wainwright, where the host of the new thursday morning show the music power hour. Eleven a m. We’re gonna have fun. Shine the light on all aspects of music and its limitless healing possibilities. We’re gonna invite artists to share their songs and play live will be listening and talking about great music from yesterday to today, so you’re invited to share in our musical conversation. Your ears will be delighted with the sound of music and their voices. Join austin and sloan live thursdays at eleven a. M on talking alternative dot com. You’re listening to the talking alternative network. If you have big ideas but an average budget, tune into tony martignetti non-profit radio for ideas you can use. I do. I’m dr. Robert penna, author of the non-profit outcomes toolbox. Hi there, welcome back can’t do live listener love this week because we’re not live. I’m in the studio a few days in advance, but i want to spend i certainly want to send love to everybody who is listening live. I just don’t know where you are exactly and ah, special shout out to all our asian listeners routinely listeners from japan, china and south korea. So i wish you konnichi wa r ni hao and anya haserot tony steak to my block this week is don’t believe this plant e-giving myth. The myth is we have planned giving covered. I hear it from ceos, head fundraisers and board members. They believe that because someone has planned e-giving in their job title, that the organization is doing all it can to promote and market planned e-giving and the reality is that whatever job gets paired with planned e-giving we’ll have much more immediate deadlines and quicker payoff to the non-profit than planned e-giving ever will so plan giving gets short changed. For instance, have you seen the title director of annual and planned e-giving i have seen that one a few times and it’s a very unfortunate pairing for someone because annual giving has monthly production goals and in the fourth quarter very likely has weekly production goals planned e-giving cannot compete with that demands demand for the fundraisers attention. So in that case plan giving maybe half the title but it’s getting much less than half the fundraisers time, i think averages like ten percent or so of their time. Plan giving just always gets short shrift when it’s paired with some other fund-raising responsibility. So i urge you to not deceive yourself thinking that plant e-giving is covered just because it’s in someone’s title there’s more about that. My blogged at tony martignetti dot com the block post is called don’t believe this plan giving myth and that is tony’s take two for friday twenty fifth of october the forty second show of the year i have for you now a bb can interview fraud protection welcome to tony martignetti non-profit radio coverage of bb khan twenty thirteen where outside washington d c in national harbor, maryland at the gaylord convention center. My guest is melanie morton. She is with blackbaud and she’s manager of blackbaud forms melanie morton. Welcome to the show. Thank you, tony it’s. Great to be here. That’s a pleasure. Glad you were able to talk about a topic that doesn’t get a lot of attention. Fraud, protection? What? What are some of the vulnerabilities that that small and midsize non-profits those air our listeners grayce how? Well, when you look at surveys on payments, fraud done by finance professionals and fraud examiners, as well as the federal trade bored reserve board excuse me? Biggest. Won’t be. Vulnerabilities are experienced by smaller organizations. Okay? They have fewer controls, they have more instances of fraud. And when fraud occurs in their organizations, it occurs at a much higher rate. So it’s, much more expensive for them. So in my role, part of my job has been to sort of become aware of what those vulnerabilities are and to do a little campaign to make people, um, focus better on what their fraud protections are. We do have some products that have fraud protection involved in it, but more importantly, it’s really about putting the internal controls in place to protect themselves. Okay, let’s, talk in detail then what? What’s what’s most alarming vulnerability that small, small midsize shops should be aware of, well types of payment fraud that are out there. Check fraud is the most prevalent and the most expensive. So it’s really, really important for organizations to think about how to minimize their vulnerability to that that starts with having great controls and in place, first of which, making sure that they have clearly documented internal controls. So you define your standards and you train your staff on how you expect your accounting system and your payment process to go. Okay, a second one is having employee tip lines so that people can report fraud easily. Organizations that have a tip line in place or hotline for their employees see a much lower rate of fraud. Now, what would how would a small organization have a tip line? Okay, so look to your outside auditor. Exactly exactly or or a boardmember or the if you have an order committee of the board definitely could look to that definite. Okay. Okay. And then, interestingly, the third most effective procedure for preventing fraud is the use of internal audits, both the planned ones and surprise ones. Because you want your staff to be aware that you’re paying attention buy-in what’s most concerning about those really effective procedural controls is that they’re extremely cheap to implement and the worst controls, the ones that most organizations think are effective are the use of external audits while they’re required, they’re actually not particularly effective in preventing reid. Oh, so the annual required audit is not very good. These guys are a magician that generally accepted accounting principles statement is not, yeah, i’m going to be very reliable in terms of fraud, fraud, detection, exactly, and if i mean, all you have to do is google payments, fraud surveys and every single one put out there in the industry and by regulatory agencies will tell you that that the’s air just not an effective device in terms of having a big impact. Now, the organizations that are victim to fraud, of course, their worst, their biggest vulnerability is the fact that they have so they may have no, it clearly established controls in place at all. So that’s part of, you know why we’re out here just trying to remind people to really look at those things, you know, a lot of smaller non-profits might feel that they just don’t have the resource is to invest in you. Know less interesting parts of their mission, but if you want to have a strong reputation, you have to be known as a good steward of your resource is, and that starts with fraud prevention. Now, in terms of check fraud can weigh will for sure. Let’s, talk a little more about this internal audit that you’re saying it’s much more reliable. Where would we look again to board members to conduct an internal audit? Is that appropriate? Well, say, for example, in your payments process, you wouldn’t have the person who is submitting invoices or proving them for payment, writing the checks, or you wouldn’t have the person who writes the checks reconcile ing the accounts because you need someone to catch someone else’s error or impropriety in the same regard to internal audits. You just want to have someone who’s outside of a sort of a particular function, just confirming that those functions are being performed up to standard, so it doesn’t have to be a big organized effort. It might just be it was someone going and checking to make sure you’re someone who’s locked up check stock so that someone can’t it can’t be stolen, and misuse. Okay. All right. So some someone outside the function is looking at it, and it could be another employee. Exactly. I mean, supervisor is perfect for that kind of thing. Okay? All right. So let’s, move to check fraud. Okay. How do we, uh i guess the vulnerability is pretty obvious. People writing checks that they shouldn’t be either to themselves. Or maybe there overpaying offender that they have a relationship with. Are there other types of fraud that we should be before we get into how to prevent it? Oh, sure, sure. Well, so check fraud centers around three main areas and then there’s a fourth area that’s just simply creative by a weakness in the commercial code. So checks are vulnerable to alteration where the payee name or the amount gets modified? Um, i think a really simple way to prevent that would be to ensure that you don’t leave blank spaces. You know, next to a name or before a number. So just simply putting ass tricks before your numbers. So the entire field is filled system. No one can slip one comma that were five comma whatever in front of your number or change the name of vendor, another area where they’re vulnerable is with tampering where a check could be, say, dipped in a chemical bath that would wipe out the ink and then a criminal or fraudster could modify what’s on the face of the check. Okay, can i ask you about that one show i want to attend today? Seminar by frank abigail e i know you know, i’m sure you do. Have you ever met him? No, i haven’t woken at him that i’m very familiar with this huge fraud protection. He recommended a particular i implemented a bunch of things. I got a micro dot shredder because he made it clear how how insecure that even the cross cut shredder czar. So i have it my, my, my, my officer, things are shredded it’s a little like paper bullets. But you can’t unravel or something. And they can be shipped off to a sweatshop with someone where we’re makes pennies a day. Confirmed devours the flavors. Come put it back. Labor can put it back together. Another suggestion was he has a certain type of pen. Now i think his name is on dahna where the ink bleeds into the paper so that it can’t be washed in the way you’re describing exactly. Does that work for me or my being built? No, it works well and it’s commonly available. Okay, so you will see most stationery supplies. Sections of any any office supply store include pens that fight that check washing. We also make some available in our catalog, but they’re easily available. Okay. Now what if you are printing your checks on a printer? How do you prevent this acid wash bath from from removing the ink that way? Well, you know, i should say from removing that well, people in general in the industry talk about fraud protection as a kind of arms race, right? There’s a a determined fraudster will with the right tools, you know, we’ll do everything they can to defeat the protections you have in place. So, for example, different kinds of check stock. What will fight or be resilient to other various kinds of projects? Stock being the paper, the paper itself. Ok, right. So, for example, when i first started in this role, we were selling a check stock that was advertise that it was resilient to chemical washing. But then when we moved to offering, ah, high security check stuff, it was protected against a much wider variety of chemicals. So let me step back a little bit, so when we were talking about the vulnerabilities of cheques, they’re vulnerable to alteration, they’re vulnerable to tampering, and they’re also vulnerable to counterfeiting. Counterfeit checks are actually the most common late past ones when chek fraud happens and they can be counterfeited in a number of ways. One way is that the check is simply they’ve gotten the fraudster has gotten hold of your account information, maybe they legitimately received a cheque, or they’ve stolen one from your trash or from your office, which is why it’s such an important requirement to have your checks locked up? Hyre or they simply made a copy of one of your checks and then alter the information on the copies so hyre and because access to the technology to coffee checks is so prevalent now, that’s a real area vulnerability on our earlier version of our checks. For example, if it were color copy, the word void would appear on the on the copy, but then newer that wouldn’t show up with newer copy. Machines, because the technology had evolved in such a way that it didn’t trigger the same fraud protection in the paper. So that’s an example of you know why technologies have emerged to create more high security check and and then a final area of vulnerability, which is one that mr abigail likes to talk about. It has to do with hd icy plains, which is, um they’re holder and due course claims which holder in due course, right, which is a a portion of george in jail on a show, and i know i was doing. How do you know? So you must have heard me say somebody else. Put me some, put somebody else in charge in jail. Well, let me explain. Rated it. Ok, that’s, the way to get yourself on parole. Yeah, ok, i’m sorry. You can. I will just apologize right here, and you wanna play me like you talk like a lawyer holder in court. You’re listening to the talking alternative network. 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 huntress people be better business people. Have you ever considered consulting a road map when you feel you need help getting to your destination when the normal path seems blocked? A little help can come in handy when choosing an alternate route. Your natal chart is a map of your potentials. It addresses relationships, finance, business, health and, above all, creativity. Current planetary cycles can either support or challenge your objectives. I’m montgomery taylor. If you would like to explore the help of a private astrological reading, please contact me at monte at monty taylor dot. Com let’s monte m o nt y at monty taylor dot com. Talking alternative radio twenty four hours a day. Dahna anyway, ah holder in due course is basically it’s a function of our commercial code that privileges the needs of the banking system that unfortunately sacrifices the protections that account holders have. I’m out of meeting the requirements of the banking six system to simply function. So this legal term holder and due course means anyone who accepts payment of a cheque. Let’s see, they have to accept the payment in good faith and the device check itself. I can not appear to be suspicious in any way, so it looks reasonably correct. But that’s that’s the main function that you accept a check in good faith, and that in that you cash it so normally that’s a bank. But it could also be at the corner market who accept cash, is your paycheck and let you buy groceries. It could also be a check cashing service who then takes the check and presents it. And what could also be in terms of your accepting cheques? Don’t be a non-profit that process is absolutely charitable gift. Absolutely. Those are all holders in due course. Yes. So what’s what’s important about this function at this particular legal situation? Is that it? Creates a special vulnerability of check fraud. Um, i want one reason is that checks don’t expire as quickly as we think that they do a check is good for ten years after its issue and state, if it has been refused by your bank bounced. In other words, it is still good for three years from the date that it was rejected. So for example, a stop payment doesn’t necessarily protect you from a holder and due course claim. So mr avenues really done a great job of talking about this, and the commercial law classes always cover these a couple of these cases, one of which is on organization, issued a paycheck to an employee. That person claimed that they lost the check and requested a replace. So the company put a stop payment on the check and issued a replacement check. And then that person went and took the original check and tried to cash it at a corner store that store cash the check and then the return of the bank returned it and didn’t pay the check and said, this is a bad check. So the story or just posted on their wall to remind themselves not to ever cash anybody. Else’s check, check and then a gentleman named robert trip in who makes the business of buying bad checks. Purchase the cheque for like pennies on the dollar and soon for a holder in due course claim. And he won the claim because even though the company and put a stop payment on a check, it looked like a valid financial instrument. And it was in the court deemed it was valid. There was nothing on the face of a check to tell them. And that outstrips the stop payment plan. Now that could’ve been easily avoided. If the company had printed the words void after sixty days, ninety days, and not issued a replacement until after it, it had expired. But because they hadn’t done that, they had no protections and they were vulnerable for the entire period, that that check was a valid instrument which was ten years. Or it’s not commonly know for sure. So so the lesson is you put, this is called a disclaimer or you just humor you put an expiration date on the front of your chest. Okay, now i work with the manufacturer. That one of the biggest financial printers in this country, in fact, they serve on, you know, the federal reserve board and contribute to, you know, our several federal reserve our manufacturers. Okay, so i asked them i said so how many people print explorations on their checks? And they said less than five percent so it’s an enormous amount of vulnerability that we could easily manage, and then i’ll move on really quickly. So there’s another form a little. Well, we have a little time. I’m still interested in the stock, would you when you’re buying check stock from a printer? Uh, what is it you need to ask you? What do you what do you got to make sure you’re buy-in well, i’m glad you’re so i’m thrilled myself pretty impressed myself. So the features you care about are on your check stock. The most important ones are ones that will survive. Um, copying. So say someone makes a color copy of your check you want to feature on there that makes it evidence that this is not an authentic original. They want the original qualities of the cheque to jump off the page. For example, our high check our high security checks dahna has thermo chromatic ink, which means there’s a little lock symbol on the bottom of the check it’s bright pink it’s a fuchsia color. But if you breathe on it, you know, if your breath is hot, the color drains out of the image and that tells you that it’s an original document. So if someone hasn’t made a xerox copy of it and passed it that’s too expensive a feature to duplicate so it describes thermo chromatic ing is one one element you’re looking for, right? Ok, er another thing would be a warning banner on the front of the cheque that says this check has a number of security features which would be listed on the back. And please take the trouble to confirm that you have an offensive check in your hands for another example i used in my talk is a really famous one covered in in the case. Well, most important forms of vulnerability to hd i see claims is that even a counterfeit check is considered to be hiv dc, isn’t it? Holder in duitz duitz i’m older in due course h i d c but it’s definitely hd. I see. Ok, alright. For the category of planes. Okay, so the other one that’s really important work about paper now still okay. Why it matters. Have hyre security, chuck stock in general. All right, let me back up and tell you another story that had to do with other bad checks that mr trip by. Okay, so in the case of somerset valley bank and employers had outsourced their payroll to payroll processing company, and they printed on a certain kind of check stock, and they signed all the checks with a signature stamp. They had red and green was very distinctive, and someone managed to create a bunch of counterfeit checks. It looked exactly like the check stock that this individual use, and they use the same signature stamp or an identical signature. Stan and they passed off a thousands and thousands of dollars in them the bank and and the account holder became aware of it. So as the checks came in, the bank marked the checks, you know, basically stolen check. Do not present again. Don’t honor this Job and return 8000 dollarsworth almost to a particular check cashing service which our, our friend mr tripp and purchase. And then sued for hd icy plains. But he won that particular suit because there was nothing on the face of the cheque to indicate that it was counterfeited, so they were good enough copies to be considered valid instruments, even though when he purchased them, they remarked, essentially, these air stolen checks, the courts still ruled in his favor and he was paid the money. I love this guy trip in is like a deep, deep expert on he’s found a loophole older, of course, claims, yes, but he lost another important case because the check stuff and question at that point had the words this is high security check stock and the warning banner said, please look for the following features on the back of the check they weren’t on color coffee, they didn’t survive duplication. So a simple use of high security check stock, would it, you know, prevents those claims from happening and can limit your liability. Okay, so so i’ve talked here about certain processes or tools you can use to protect yourself from fried. A really important other component of this is the fact that your bank decides for you for the account holder. What ordinary care should consist of an ordinary care is another legal term, which basically says this is what a reasonable person in the same circumstances would do to protect their own interests. Failure to exercise ordinary care is negligence in the face of the law. Three important thing about thinking about the ucc code and the reason all these things come up. There was a time when fraud occurred against the account holder before nineteen, ninety three, when the bank was responsibility was responsible or liable for those broad plains. So if they passed, allowed a bad check to be cashed, the bank was responsible. That’s not true anymore. And, in fact, in the federal reserve board survey bank, why am i not surprised that that’s jane? Yes, financial institutions don’t list check fraud as their biggest form of vulnerability. They’re much more vulnerable to credit card fraud, where are protections are hyre but for check fraud, it’s the account holders who are increasingly and have been, um, more and more responsible and damaged by check fraud losses. So that’s another point, you know, it’s really important to stress for non-profits looking at their arrangements, so not only do you look at their arrangement with their bank. What? What? That bank constitutent make sure we know what your bank’s standards are with respect to your account, security and your relationship to them. If you don’t, you don’t live up to it. Your bank is gonna turn on you. Basically, what you’re saying, exactly, and not only is it important to know what their standards are but know how your liabilities are defined in your okay, okay, have just about a minute and a half or so left. Okay, why don’t you? Uh, this is such an interesting deep niche that you’ve got now. It’s um, it’s critical tell tell me what you love about the work that you’re doing. Well, first of all, i work for a company. I mean, i think all of us employees for blackbaud say this kind of thing, so it feels kind of goofy to say, but we’re so energized by the missions of the clients that we work with it’s just it’s just the happiest thing here. Help people be successful in this about on the personal level. Well, for me, it’s, you know, being a good steward of your v sources is critical, you know, non-profits air so often judged the judgement of them is reduced to one simple idea, which is how how much what percentage of your resource is have gone to the administration of this charity? And how much else has left for your mission? I mean, i think it’s a really unfair standard, but to the extent that that is how the public judges, not charities and non-profits it’s really important to make sure that people are empowered to use the tools to protect their interests and limit their liabilities as much as possible. So it’s, like my small way of helping people do their best and that’s that’s a nice thing to know you can do. Thank you very much, milady. Welcome from me. Thanks for your time. Thank you very much. Thank you. Melanie morton is the manager of blackbaud forms and you’re listening to tony martignetti non-profit radio coverage of bb khan twenty thirteen, thanks very much again to the people of b become and to melanie morton and also teo kelly jarrett next week when leaders leave, i hope i’m pretty close to confirming that author of priscilla rosenwald is going to talk next. Week about her book when leaders leave and share her strategies for planning leadership transitions keep your fingers trust rally bound is a sponsor. They make it easy to use software for runs, walks and rides. They’re a e-giving tuesday, partner, we talked about giving tuesday last week, so if you’re thinking of participating in giving tuesday, you want to know that they have a e-giving tuesday campaign that they’re offering for free, you would go to rally bound dot com forward slash e-giving tuesday i have met the ceo of rally bound shmuley pinson he’s a very good guy, their software is very smart and joe magee, who will help you set up your account, is very easy to work with. I’ve had a lot of conversations with him as well, and he’ll do everything that he can to help you set up your campaign. This is peer-to-peer fund-raising there’s support for your office as well as for all the people who are asking their friends to give to your campaign, you can claim a discount as a non-profit listener go to rally bound dot com or call them and talk to joe mcgee. Triple eight seven six seven nine o seven six triple eight seven six seven ninety seventy six our creative producer is claire meyerhoff. Sam liebowitz is our line producer. Shows social media is by deborah askanase of community organizer two point oh, and the remote producer of tony martignetti non-profit medio is john federico of the new rules. Our music is by scott stein. Oh, i hope to be with me next friday, one to two p, m eastern. Talking alternative broadcasting at talking alternative dot com. Duitz e-giving didn’t think that shooting the good ending. You’re listening to the talking alternate network duitz get in. Cubine are you a female entrepreneur? Ready to break through? 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You’re listening to talking alternative network at www dot talking alternative dot com, now broadcasting twenty four hours a day. 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 two to 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? 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