190: Numbers In Your Stories & Research Pre- and Post-Event – Tony Martignetti Nonprofit Radio

tony_martignetti_300x300-itunes_image2Tony’s guests this week:

Brian Mittendorf, professor of accounting and MIS at The Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business.

Maria Semple, The Prospect Finder, consultant in prospect research and author of “Panning for Gold: Find Your Best Donor Prospects Now!”

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

119: The Bequesting Brain and Donor Database Dungeon – Tony Martignetti Nonprofit Radio

Tony’s guests this week:

Russell James, Ph.D., associate professor and director of graduate studies in charitable financial planning at Texas Tech University

Scott Koegler, editor of Nonprofit Technology News

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. Oh, i very much hope that you were with me last week. It would cause me great distress. I couldn’t stand knowing that you had missed thirty four things to know about people. Andrea nierenberg, president of nuremberg consulting group, returned. She had so much simple and valuable easy relationship building advice from october fifth that i invited her back and the last show, which was, of course, two weeks ago, she had thirty four things to know and howto learn them how to preserve them and what to do with them, and her list of thirty for is now on the facebook page and are linked in group also get engaged to amy sample ward are regular social media scientist, social media contributor continued her siri’s on real engagement and building trust through the social networks. October was setting the tone this month. It’s your call to action. Amy is membership director for and ten the non-profit technology network and blog’s for the stanford social innovation review. I want to welcome new listeners. I need a big spike of listeners in october and i hope that you’re still with me in november hoped very much welcome. Welcome to the show this week, it’s, the big, questing brain professor russell james at texas tech university does neuroimaging research to see subjects brains light up when they elect to put a charitable gift in their will. This former plan giving fundraiser and director of the graduate certificate in charitable financial planning has research based advice for your cultivation and recognition of bequest, gift and donordigital baste dungeon scott koegler, the editor of non-profit technology news. Our regular tech contributor wants you to keep your donordigital base secure so nothing escapes. We’ll talk about inappropriate use sql sounds like jargon jail already inference and overloads between the guests on tony’s take to my block this week is charity registration matters. Why compliance with state charity solicitation registration laws is important? If you’re listening and you’re on twitter, you can use the hashtag non-profit radio to join the conversation with us there where monitoring that hashtag in the studio and i want to welcome my guest is russell james he’s, an attorney and phd he’s, an associate professor and the director. Of graduate studies in charitable financial planning at texas tech university, where he also supervises the graduate certificate and charitable financial planning. He has spoken at the f p international conference, the big twelve gift planters association and giving korea we have listeners from korea pretty regularly, actually, he’s presented his research at universities in the u s, spain, germany, the netherlands, ireland, scotland and england, but i noticed not whales, i guess the welsh don’t care for russell james for some reason, the welsh have not invited him, but the irish, scottish and english have he’s, a consultant to the south korean government, around their effort to adopt plant e-giving legislation, he’s been a plan e-giving fundraiser and a college president. Russell james, welcome to the show. Thanks so much, tony. Glad to be here. It’s a pleasure to have you. You’ve had a lot of jobs but a lawyer. Fundraiser, college president now, college professor, you’re you’re having trouble holding jobs? Yeah, that that is an issue. But hopefully i can. Okay, what’s next, the construction trades. Maybe. I don’t know. No, i’ve got ten years. I’m gonna stop. Okay. Well, that’s it you’re set. Okay. Um, our big questing brain. This is really very, very interesting to me. You do? Ah, neuroimaging research. Why did you decide to pursue this? Well, i’ve spent a lot of time in the area of fund-raising a particular plant giving, and there have been a handful of studies done on shared will get e-giving decision making in the scanner, but nothing had been done yet. Looking at decisions for request, a charitable giving. And so that was something new and something i was interested in. And after getting ten years gave me the opportunity to take about a year and a half or two years to learn how to do this neuroimaging so that we could proceed with finding out how the brain works. When you ask people questions about making charitable bequests, this is not a line of research that a non tenured professor would have the luxury of pursuing. Well, it it takes a long time. And since my original background is not in neuroimaging, it takes a fair amount of time to get up to speed with the process. And it helps having a little bit of job security before you start chasing rabbits like this. That’s one. Of the few jobs you have not held is neuroimaging scientist. Thank you. Um, and what was your methodology for this? So the approach was tio have people when they’re in the scanner, they can observe a computer screen, and we could ask them a variety of questions. And what we wanted to do here is we wanted to have questions that were identical but on lee different and whether we were talking about giving money or volunteering or leaving a bequest gift. And since we can’t actually enforce a bequest gift in the scanner, what we did is we ask them if you signed the will in the next three months, what’s the likelihood you might leave request gift to a particular organization. And we used about about twenty eight large charitable organizations on we also ask them about if they were asked in the next three months, what was the likelihood they might give, give money to the same organizations? Or that they might volunteer time to those organizations in the idea being here, we want to see what brain areas are engaged when people are thinking about the probability or thinking about this idea of, well, let’s. See if i was asked if i was finishing a will. How likely is it that i might do this? Okay, and you compare that with a current gift and volunteering, okay? And because you see those as as different methods of support. And so you thought there might be some different segments of the brain that are that are involved exactly. And also because we understand a lot more about current giving and volunteering because people engage in that behavior very frequently, we can observe it a lot. But the quest e-giving is something that people engaged in very rarely oh, and oftentimes not observed. And so we sort of want to compare with the thing that we know about better. Did the volunteer part did that involve boardmember ship buy-in a chance it did not. It was just a generic question of hey, if you were asked the next three months, right, your likelihood that you might volunteer time too. You know, the american cancer society, for example, okay? Because i think it was boardmember ship. I think their brains would have exploded inside your scanner. You have what we want to avoid. You’d have a mess, and plus you you have a dead subject. So it’s no, in these invalid research. Okay. Concerned with their safety. So that’s a that’s cool this other inside a scanner. And does this look like now? I’m just a little curious about the technology. Does this look like an emery that people slide into? And then the screen is above them? Or what does it look like? That’s? Exactly. Right? So they’re inside an m r i it’s a fairly large boardman sheen, but it still they’re sort of locked in there. And before they do this particular experiment, they get used to using the screen, have a couple of buttons that they can use on each hand to respond to questions on. So they sort of get used to and really, you know, they focus on the screen because there’s nothing else to look at. I mean, it’s fairly dark out there. And you have this projected image of the computer screen on that’s the process which seems very weird, but you actually get used to it pretty quickly. Is you’re going through these preliminary process? How did you get volunteers for to be subjects for research like this? Well, for this first for this first group, we just asked folks who were around the university campus so employees graduate students, that sort of thing in the future we’re looking at once we find the results to make sure that those results are also replicable when we are doing with other populations. Ok, i see grad students. I mean, they’re hungry. That right? So for twenty five bucks, they’ll do anything. You know what? They are paid. Yes. Ok. Eso what did you what did you find? I’m interested in what you found across the three different types of, of, of gift of a way of ways of supporting now also, russell, we just have two minutes before our first break. So just, like, sort of tease what? What you found what we found was two different areas that were much more strongly activated for bequest decisions. Van forgiving, volunteering decisions. Those two areas are the call once called the peculiar and once called the lingual gyrus. Now the brick union is something that’s engaged frequently. When people are taking an outside perspective on themselves, sometimes called it’s been called the mind’s eye. And the lingual gyrus is actually a visual or visual ization area. So when you’re dreaming, for example, you will engage the lingual gyrus, and if you have damage to that area, it can eliminate your ability to dream. So we saw these two areas and independently we’ve got some activity that involves people looking back on themselves from an outside perspective and also engaging in visual ization. But what was really exciting is what we found in other studies that simultaneous osili activated both of the same areas that i think is a lot more applicable to this situation where we’re looking at now so i can tell you about those way have time, or we’re going to take a break first. You said the lingual gyrus is the dream center. Is that right? It’s engaged in that engaged okay area. My lingual gyrus was was hyperactive last night, but you’re probably not into interpreting dreams out suppose you dont go that far do don’t go that far. All right, well, we’re going to end with you, then we’re done. No, russell, james will of course stay with us for this break. And i hope that you do too. 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. Dahna 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 needs better leadership, customer service sales, or maybe better writing, are speaking skills. Could they be better at dealing with confrontation conflicts, touchy subjects all are covered here at improving communications. If you’re in the new york city area, stop by one of our public classes, or get your human resource is in touch with us. The website is improving communications, dot com, that’s, improving communications, dot com, improve your professional environment, be more effective, be happier, and make more money improving communications. That’s. The answer. 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 welcome back were with professor russell james from texas tech, and we’re talking about the requesting brain. We will not be analyzing my dreams. Sorry, but those were disappointed in that, but we will continue. Of course, this is conversation. So this is russell. This is what people sort of their self image and and what you call, sir there, their life story right in the reason we say, that is we looked at some other studies that engaged both of the same areas simultaneously. And one of them, for example, was where they i had older adults in the scanner in their sixties and seventies, and they were shown photographs from across their life from the the different ages of their life. And when they saw those photographs in the ones that they remembered what they were doing, they remembered exactly what was happening in these two areas were much more strongly engaged. And so the idea is that these are areas there is associated with what we would call visualized autobiography and there’s, a variety of other studies that also suggests that your reasonableness of this conclusion so the idea being that when people are thinking about making a charitable request decision they’re actually thinking about this concept of how does this fit in to my life story? It’s almost like they’re riding the final chapter of their autobiography and asking about whether or not this cause or this organization fits with that life story. And so it turns out those are very different questions than we might ask with, say, a current gift issues that are in other context, really important, like what’s the next big project, or how financially financially good is this organization, those things sort of fade into the background on this actually fits with some other research that was just finished last year in a phd dissertation by claire roundly and united kingdom, where she interviewed folks about why they had left money to the organizations that they had identified in their in their state plan. And it turns out that really it was all about their life story, it was about their connection with the cause, or with the organization because of something that had happened to them or to a family member that makes that that connection come together. So this it’s a little bit with an example, one of my friends who’s been planned e-giving after he graduated from law school and had this background training when he would go out and talk to people, he would see that they had all of these tremendous tax advantages that they could take advantage of. Maybe they’ve got qualified money that they want to make a gift and, you know, there’s, a state gift and there’s ways to do that, and he would start by talking about that. And he said i had to learn to stop doing that, that what i needed to do was to start by asking, how were they connected with the organization? What was their life story and how it was it was connected in on so that seems to fit with some of the things that we’re seeing in the scanner here, okay? And that’s pretty widely recognized, i think that it’s it’s, the love of the, the charitable work, whatever it might be feeding people, sheltering, education, spiritual, whatever it is, it’s, it’s, the love of the work that that moves people to include the charity in there in there will absolutely. And i think, it’s the issue here of you know, when we think about this sort of related into some psychology from fifty years ago that talks about how two people deal with it, reminders of their own mortality and a couple of things they do one they tend to avoid those reminders, but the other thing they tend to do is to seek what’s been called symbolic immortality, that’s that something about me that’s goingto live beyond me. So it must be, you know, my name or my values or my my family, and we tend to focus on those things mohr when we’re reminded of our of our own mortality. And so this links in with this old psychological research from for many years ago that talks about people’s desire for symbolic immortality, and it’s actually a form of to use another technical term, a form of autobiographical heroism where we wantto see ourselves as being a significant our lives is being meaningful. And so this, uh, psychological theory fits with what we’re seeing in the scanner, in the sense that people are engaging in this kind of autobiographical thinking when they’re making this kind of you did a very good job there of keeping yourself out of jargon jail by defining that very hard to do, but okay on dh this has some implications for recognition of gift, which will get recognition of gift by will, which will get through this thiss idea of immortality i have to send live listener love got tons of listeners today, it’s incredible! I’m going to recognize first. Seoul korea live listener loves seoul, korea my guest, russell james has consulted with your government as they were trying teo create plan giving legislation. Also in asia, we got tokyo and asahi, japan, and a masked listener in china. I don’t know there’s some kind of furtive activity or it’s blocked by someone else but got a mask listener in china here in the u s spearfish, south dakota. I love that welcome spearfish. You’re not you’re you’re hunting there, but you’re but you’re only hunting fish on dno. No big arms, i guess. Alexandria, louisiana, new bern, north carolina live listener love to all of you in asia and here in the u, s and there’s more to come. Um, visualized autobiography now. So this is russell. This is the way we were perceiving ourselves. This is not this is not rational, right? But this is our our our own self image of ourselves. Well, self image, the difference in an inactive activation here was not taking place in the in the number crunching part of the brain thing wasn’t the purely rational prefrontal cortex this is mme or the you know, the the imagery on the scene oneself and sort of your your own life story or or autobiography, you know, finding some support for some of this earlier research in psychology about people being reminded of their own death kind of lends support to certain results that we see in certain strategies that we see if somebody is pursuing consciously or unconsciously symbolic immortality as part of their estate planning problem that’s, symbolic and what i’d like to be symbolically immortal. Well, i would like to be a very good well, you know, let me tell you about some plan giving opportunities. They’re over there at texas tech and the graduate certificate and channel financial planning to wear. When we look at charities that receive a larger share of their income from the quest sources. Often times, you’ll see charities such as universities that are expected to be around for a very long time, especially giving things like a, uh, an endowed fellowship for a scholarship that that we expect to live on beyond us. And it may be one of the reasons why these organizations or other organizations focused on saving lives, whether finding new cures for for new diseases or other kinds of lifesaving approaches can sometimes be particularly attractive, and if you compare that to other organizations that don’t necessarily focus on raising funds for something that’s going to be permanent, but rather raising funds for something they’re going to do right now and spend right now that’s very attractive for current gifts, but it may not be particularly psychologically attractive force st gifts, because we don’t really want something that’s. Just all of the money is going to be used for a big bang immediately after we die. We’d rather have something that is going to last a long time that maybe our grandkids could come and and say, oh, yes, that’s something that my grandfather set up and still here today. But organizations that might have a more current mission could certainly create a fund or an endowment. Or maybe, ah, part of their mission, that is. Something that’s going to be that is everlasting exactly, and what i would encourage because i know there’s always a tension in those organizations if you set up something that’s permanent, those air funds that you can only use the interest off of, for example, endowment that income off. So what i would suggest is setting up these kinds of permanent giving opportunities exclusively for the quest donors on say, you know you can set up a permanent endowment, you nose let’s say it’s, an animal charity, a permanent endowment that will support, you know, one or two are five animals of whatever the interest of the charity is forever, but that this gift is on ly through request e-giving so you don’t have to worry about cannibalizing your current giving, but yet you give those kind of permanent opportunities that are more psychologically attractive when it comes to charitable bequests. Decisionmaking. Okay, i want to remind listeners. Russell james is an attorney, phd and his associate professor at texas tech university, where he supervises thie graduate certificate in charitable financial planning, and you’ll find information about that at encourage generosity dot com is there also, then the concern russell by the way, do people ever call you james russell? People mess that up all the time. I notice i have not done it once. I’m being scrupulous about not calling you james. I don’t get that with, you know, my name’s, it’s, not generally, not a problem, very black, but i will not. I’m being very careful not to make that mistake with you. Do do smaller organizations now, you think have have a little a bit of a challenge over larger, well established institutions that have been around for decades and generations? Yes, certainly, i think that’s a much bigger challenge when it comes to raising the quest dollars as opposed to raising current dollars, especially if we’ve got this connection where we want something that’s going to last a long time, then we sort of have to overcome that barrier if i’m not even sure the organization itself is going to last a long time. There are some ways to overcome that, though. I mean, you could certainly set up permanent endowments that were, you know, managed by a large corporate trust or bank or something like that so that you could give that that feeling, that sense of permanence that would be there regardless of the sea organization but it’s definitely a barrier. The other thing, though, is that people don’t necessarily have to be attached to a particular organization. They may be attached to a cause and it’s just a matter of finding those people who have that life story connection where it is attached to a cause, if that’s the same cause of your organization on dh trying to make that connection with the life story. And so how would a smaller or newer charity go about doing that? How do you make that connection with the with the person’s life story, based on what you’ve learned? Well, there’s, a couple of different ways to do it. One is obviously if you just know your donors and you know, those those connections and those stories, the other is to remind people of those possibilities by telling stories that give them examples, you know, telling the story about a person who has supported a particular cause been involved with the particular cause and ideally, if you have an example, this may be only for a little bit older organizations. But if you have an example of someone who has left money in a bequest that you could talk about how that person is still having an impact today, even though they passed away a number of talking about the deceased request donor zach plea because that’s that’s, the thing that’s really attractive is if i see that example, not only is an example to me in my behaviour, but it’s a signal that says, hey, these people are still being remembered, they’re still being talked about, and they’re still making an impact and that’s the real message that i think we want to get across. That’s, that’s, symbolic immortality, exactly, and that’s different than what we typically see, which is here’s a story about current donors who have made a plan now that’s fine, but that’s not the same thing as showing that we recognize people who are deceased in there, sir. Still having an impact because that’s, where we get that real example of the symbolic immortality. Excellent, i think that’s really that’s very concrete, valuable advice um, there’s also, you have some advice around recognition based on a person’s longevity of giving, irrespective of of the size of the gift. Certainly so if you think about the goal here, the goal is to make it obvious to the person that putting your organization in their state plan fits with their autobiography. It fits with their life story. So one of the ways that we can remind them of how much they fit their life story fits in with the organization is to consider giving recognition to people, not just for how much they gave this year, but recognition to people for their longevity and giving, especially your older donors who, you know, maybe financially, they have a lot of assets, but not a lot of income, and so they’re not giving us much currently, but recognize them for, you know, reaching a five year club, ten year club, twenty year club, you might even consider recognizing them for their lifetime, giving that this is some amount that you’ve given throughout the line throughout your life and the purpose there, you know, certainly if you’re recognizing him for longevity, that has a nice side benefit on current giving that, you know, you want to keep the street going, of course, but it also is a way of saying, you know, it’s, just like, you know, you get one of these credit cards, and it says members sense, you know what if i’ve got that member since nineteen seventy eight will you know, i’m going to stick with this organization because it’s, just part of who i am, you know, part of my my my autobiography in a sense well, i think charity’s aaron a much stronger place to be. Able to do that if they just remind people, you know, look at how long we’ve been together that that kind of idea, where it makes it clear that the organization that the cause is part of their life story and that that makes it fit in very well when they’re deciding which beneficiaries to use in an estate plan, excellent listeners, i hope you’re taking notes or you’re gonna have to go back and listen to this podcast again. Here i thought, russell james, you know, i figured academic is going to be stuffy, nothing is and nothing is going to apply it’s all going to be a theory, a land, and but we’ll have him on anyway. You know? I’ll make fun of him and things like that, but no, i mean the value, the advice is really valuable. No, i knew this is this is really valuable advice for forgetting bequests. And russell. I never thought you were stuffy. I’m just getting well, i can be if you want me to. Because i also presented academic conference. Yeah, no, i know i left that out of your bio now. No, no, we don’t we don’t want that. Don’t turn. Don’t start turning that on. Keep keep the charming side. All right, so also that this this idea that the organization is going to live beyond me, i know you touched on this a little bit, and i just want to i just wantto see if you have any more advice around how we can get people to recognise that this organization will will live beyond you when when they’re sort of a new organization, we just have about a minute left. Well, one thing to consider is this if we look at the strongest competition and our field for those charitable request dollars, the absolute strongest competition comes from private family foundations, and they’re psychologically very attractive because they have your name on it. They follow your rules, and they could live forever. But keep in mind these very attractive organizations are also new organizations. They’re ones that people create essentially for themselves. So it is possible to set up a scenario where you could emphasize that this fund, for example, is a permanent fund. And, you know, if you feel so compelled, you could even indicate that it’s administered by a, you know, by some other financial institutions or entity. Yet if you if you need to do that, but understand that is the gap. It is easier for a long time organizations, but there’s, some strategies that you can do, which will try teo bridge that gap a bit absolutely excellent. James russell no russell james on attorney, phd, professor at texas tech university and supervises the program and graduate certificate in charitable financial planning at texas tech, and you’ll find that at encouraged generosity. Dot com russell, thank you so much for being a guest. Thanks for having been my pleasure. Thank you, and right now we take a break when we return. It’s, tony’s, take two and then scott koegler, our regular tech contributors with me, with me for donordigital baste dungeon, and i hope you will be too co-branding dick, dick, tooting the good ending, you’re listening to the talking alternate network, waiting to get me thinking. Nothing. Cubine hi, i’m donna and i’m done were certified mediators, and i am a family and couples licensed therapists and author of please don’t buy me ice cream are show new beginnings is about helping you and your family recover financially and emotionally and start the beginning of your life. We’ll answer your questions on divorce, family court, co parenting, personal development, new relationships, blending families and more dahna and i will bring you to a place of empowerment and belief that even though marriages may end, families are forever join us every monday, starting september tenth at ten a m on talking alternative dot com are you suffering from aches and pains? Has traditional medicine let you down? Are you tired of taking toxic medications? Then come to the double diamond wellness center and learn how our natural methods can help you to hell? Call us now at to one to seven to one eight one eight three that’s to one to seven to one eight one eight three or find us on the web at www dot double diamond wellness dot com way look forward to serving you! You’re listening to the talking alternative network. Duitz if you have big ideas and an average budget, tune into the way above average. Tony martin. Any non-profit radio ideo. I’m jonah helper from next-gen charity. Welcome back, it’s, time for tony’s take two at roughly thirty two minutes into the hour. My block this week is charity registration matters. Part of my consulting work is doing charity registration, four charities that don’t want to do it themselves. This is registering in every state where you are soliciting donations so it could be a texas charity, and they may be sending email to wisconsin and paper us mail to pennsylvania and that texas charity needs to be registered in wisconsin and pennsylvania. I do that work, and i also wrote a book for charities that want to do it themselves and my block this week is just reminding charities that it’s important teo be in compliance for three reasons you could be embarrassed. There have been charities that are become public and in the headlines. Um for their failure to comply and have a couple examples on the block. Your board members are at risk because their fiduciary steer charity and if you’re not following laws, there’s potential for personal liability, actually among your board members and the irs inquires the year your annual form nine ninety has a couple of questions that i ask about your compliance with thes state laws and that’s a lot. My blogged the post is called charity registration matters. My block is that tony martignetti dot com and that is tony’s take two for friday, november thirtieth, the forty ninth show of the year. Oh, what a pleasure to welcome back scott koegler he’s, the editor of non-profit technology news, which you’ll find it n p tech news dot com he’s, our regular tech contributor. You can follow him on twitter at scott koegler konigstein and i saw today. Scott, you have a beautiful about paige at about dot com you’re in a desert scene there. Looks like you climbed a desert mountain or something. Is that is that photo shopped? That was actually in phoenix a couple years ago. Okay, it was i did. I did perform some photo shop on it, but nothing that you could notice. Hopefully. Really? Well, it looks very noticeable to me. Were you actually in that setting? Where? The photo that the photo purports tohave one that was sitting on that rock you were? I extracted the cactus songs, though, so that they wouldn’t show. Okay. Oh, i see. All right, they were stuck in your leg? Is that why? Okay, we’re talking this month about donordigital baste dungeon there’s a lot of sensitive data in people’s databases isn’t there there is and it’s one of those things that i think i think everybody kind of knows about it, but i think also that it’s it’s also something that is typically beyond the the the understanding of most folks who are engaged in managing a non-profit i mean, it’s pretty technical stuff, you know? Well, you’re going to break it down because you’re a former officers ceo, right? You’re a former chief information off, you’re going to break this down information off, okay, so we’re goingto this maybe typically outside people’s can, but we’re going to get it within their ken great, but what’s in their first of all what we need to be concerned about what kinds of data first? Well, typically it it could be any data. But the most sensitive, of course, is the information about your donors on a sensitive for a whole bunch of reasons one is you really don’t want that information being spread around, too, although we’re all friendly within the non-profit community let’s, face it. Everybody’s competing for the same funds. So you really don’t want that whole list of donors and their history, uh, kind of spread around to somebody else who may be able to make them, you know, make a better appeals, right? Right. So just just just not letting you get out of the bag the names, right? But then you might have ah, dates of birth. You most likely have addresses. Credit card. What? Right? I mean, well, sure, but right now i’m talking about just the competitive nature, but okay, okay. I’m getting getting someone’s eso security number, which i think typically is not part of a donor database, but definitely credit card information. A cz you said, probably date of birth. Certainly addresses. And those kind of things are pretty sensitive. Um, well, i just moved to south carolina, and just before i moved here. Thank goodness they had a break in of the south carolina, um, business and resident database. And there were literally millions of so security numbers and names. I just sucked out of the database and people around the world, man. Now, imagine if that was new york that that would actually have value. Terrible, right? But in north and south korea in south carolina, no that’s, terrible money, there’s. Nobody listening. I don’t think live listener loved, but nobody in south carolina today, so but i will send live. Loved out tio reston, virginia, forest hills, new york where i used to live. I used to live in a hundred street sixty seven thing i used to write. Buy-in forest hills high school and brooklyn, new york all right, we got some local of local live. Listen, love no. Alright that’s. A terrible new yorker joke. I’m sorry, south carolina. I apologized. No it’s critical. So so that’s that’s pretty embarrassing to the government to the state of the government. What they found out wass that if they had installed a twenty five thousand dollars update to their database, they would have they would have prevented the whole thing which cost them something like forty million dollars. Zoho and isn’t the security doesn’t cost anything it’s relative cost and the damage to your reputation and, you know not to mention the damage to your to your constituents. Financial, no stability and abilities, right? Identity theft is a huge issue. Okay, you haven’t ordered that one of the okay on, we’re going to talk through it. You have an article on this subject at p tech news. Dot com let’s talk about something that i’m not sure you can prevent this one, though inappropriate use right by people who are authorized to access data, right? Did you know tony? And you probably didn’t know this because you’re smart guy, that’s, ziga risk the security is not from outside the the organization, but from inside. Well, i can’t say i knew it, but it sounds intuitive because if somebody’s going to do bad acts, you can’t prevent that all the policies and all the procedures, if somebody wants to get around them and they ran inside are already they’re going, they’re going to do it right, right, it’s pretty easy to do. You put a thumb drive in your computer and you copy it out and there you go. Yeah, typically nobody knows who or what happened. Yeah, there are, by the way, uh, software and systems operating systems like windows. Mac. Um, i got tools that can that can actually prevent that. But again, you have to know about it. You have to know. Think about it, then you have to actually install it. Monitor so it’s not a story simple, but the point is that yes, it’s really possible and happens all the time that somebody within the organization absconds with your data and something they shouldn’t. Yeah, that seems like the toughest one because, like i said, if somebody really wants to get it and they’re inside already, i think they will what’s the physical damage is next what’s your concern that well, you know, physical damages is basically if your computer dies or if your hard drive, uh, you know, fails and he didn’t have been appropriate back-up of your data and again that’s one of those things that just happens all the time and people don’t really think too much about it. Everybody thinks about back-up, you know, you get a computer and set up your back-up hopefully, but unless it’s a an automatic function, unless you’re monitoring it and unless you actually test e-giving bringing your back-up data back from the world story asked the retrieval, right? Yeah, you never know if it really works and you know, the day comes when you really need it, you try it. For the very first time ever. And guess what, probably a thirty percent chance that it’s not gonna work, okay? And that and the back-up shouldn’t only be local shouldn’t only be in your office or even in your in your town. Geever right, absolutely should be. You should have in addition to your local back-up you should have offset back-up, and that could be if it’s physical you can have courier service, pick up a a thumb drive or or a hard drive or wherever and physically carry it off site, and they’re also more and more online back-up services that you simply connect to over the internet cloud, right when you and i have talked a lot about the cloud we have right sabat besides that, a lot of databases now are actually stored in the cloud, so you may not actually have a copy of it anywhere physically within your facility. Okay, so wait be sure you know where it is and where the copies are that you are able to get it back when one and if you need it, something that struck me as interesting you. The article talked about sql so well, i’ll give you a break and i’ll bring it up so you can avoid jargon. Jail? Explain what we’ll explain what sql is. Do you know what? I hope you know what sql stands for? I looked it up. Well, actually, it’s irrelevant, you know, it’s. Very relevant. Weary language structured clear language. Yes. Don’t say it’s irrelevant when you don’t know it’s and it’s enormously relevant. Oh, no, i do know, but the okay. All right. Well, it’s, what? Really right? See, what it stands for is the only thing i know about it that’s all i know that’s. So i’m trying to show off. That’s. The only thing is all i know is what the initials with the abbreviation stands for. Okay, what does west culwell metoo tony martignetti okay. Donordigital base. Which hopefully, in sum of money, what you’re actually doing is your you’re performing a sql query. You’re asking the database to find specific information and that, like that query language. You know something and actually in english, it says find data, like, quote tony martignetti in database a, b c that’s. How actually looks like. But those queries can do a lot of things besides find they can actually delete data. They can change day there, they can move data. And so i could perform equity that says, find all records that include tony martignetti and delete them. Okay, that’s so and there’s all kinds of other things. But you but how would somebody who doesn’t have access to the database this is an outsider now, right? How would somebody who doesn’t have access to the database execute thes sql queries? Well, that’s, that’s what hackers do they find vulnerable spots in certain systems on they just do it. Sometimes they just do it because they’re mean and nasty. And sometimes they do it because they want to move your data from where you have it to where they want it. All right, so so it can’t happen, but it’s basically can it comes up with the under the domain of hacking? Okay, i see you don’t visit, right? It’s, not just inside. I think i think to be more damage done to a database if the if the command was to add tony martignetti, that was probably more create more. That would be much more destructive. What we have just like a minute before before break. Or so ok, you have another interesting one inference. This was logical but interesting what’s what’s inference about in front er, otherwise known as social engineering. If i want to find had the president of a company, i’ll call in to just pick up a phone, call the front desk and say what’s the name of the president company and they’ll give it to me and then i can ask for not in the same phone call, okay, right, separate call or other information and over twenty calls, i’ll get everything that i want. Okay, so each individual bit is innocuous, but you put them all together some nefarious actor is doing, and you can have some really private information, right? Right. And it’s pretty easy to come by surprisingly, yeah, ok, well, yeah, because each little pieces is innocent. Okay, we’re going to take a break, and when we come back, scott and i will keep talking about how to keep your your database dungeon secure. You’re listening to the talking alternative network. Duitz lorts 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, better business people. Dahna 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. Welcome back to big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent. All right, scott koegler we’ve laid out these problems and there’s even more in your article. Att n p tech news. Dot com what are some ways toe? Get around and prevent to really prevent these these problems? It really is tough, tony, because there are so many ways that things could go wrong. So the biggest, biggest thing to do is to make sure that you’re paying attention. Uh, number one, i know where your data is and know that it’s backed up half the fact that you have, uh, valid back-up so you can restore check? Uh, check your employees and your your people that are working and have access to the data. You really may not be able to actually prevent it, but no, i just talked to them about how sensitive this is. Be sure that anybody who has access to get to the data has not disclosure. Uh, language in whatever document signed with them, it won’t protect you won’t actually keep them from doing it. But for a lot of people, it may be enough of a, uh just a warning for them toe not go there. It just makes it a little bit tougher. Okay, what about having different access levels? Certainly. And fortunately, most of the applications that are for sale today for non-profits i already have those kind of things. So you have? Ah, user who is able to look up information and possibly key and donations, but they probably don’t have the ability to look into personal histories. They have the ability to delete records, those kind of things. So for the most part, what kind of function is is built into software that amount profits will will buy in order to run their operations. Okay, um, when? When you do buy software, aren’t there sort of default administrative ieds that hackers might be ableto exploit? Uh, yes. Absolutely. Good points a little about that. Would you please? Sure every application comes with the typically it’s the admin or administrator password with password? Password? Uh, absolute first thing you want to change that, uh, you may want to. If you’re actually in charge of setting it up, you may want to remove that that user after you’ve already set up a different one and also check the list. Of existing user accounts because sometimes there may be some in there that air again set up by default. Good remove any that you you don’t know what they are, you can do that also just kind of during your and during the course of using the system, check the usual to see who’s in there. You may have somebody who was registered inappropriately, either by accident or on purpose. They may have found some way to get into the system and register a high level access the count. There really shouldn’t be there. And the best thing to do is just either restrictor access or just delete them. If they are actually somebody that you want in there, go call you up and say, hey, what happened? And if they’re not good, okay, former employees to write, you might have old account old ieds for former employees, certainly, and that should be covered under the hr policies. And i know a lot of small organizations don’t actually have hr policies that goes along with the non disclosure agreement. The sooner someone is charlyne ated, actually, before they walk out the door before you terminate them, you should remove access. To any of the information that you hold right? Okay, so before you actually have the meeting where they’re ended, where they’re terminated, you wantto cut off their access so that they don’t go back to their office and do something mean, sure, because one of their going to do the most right after the meeting, not before yeah, okay, okay, now, i mean, it sounds underhanded, but its protection, i mean, it’s just basic risk management, okay, what about is this much of a deterrence? If if users know that all they’re i don’t know, maybe a keystroke, logging or all their activity with the databases being logged, is that a deterrent? Um, you know, it’s a return for somebody who thinks that they will be held accountable for somebody who who believed that they could get away with it, they don’t care. So it really comes right down to how trustworthy, ru employees and, you know, what kind of people do you have volunteering? And, um, yeah, it’s tough, and i’m not sure that those kind of things are are effective, but it’s, you know, it’s one of those things that also probably couldn’t hurt, right? Yeah, okay. I mean, it will keep the honest people from crossing the line, right? Like putting a lock on the glass door. Okay, okay, um, the thing i was thinking about is maybe this sort of suggests that doing background checks on employees is valuable. I know their their charities that object to doing that, but this is sort of suggesting that knowing the background of a potential employees could be could be helpful. Absolutely. And i think it depends on what’s at risk if you’re a small charity that, you know, has limited resources and limited funds. And, um and you know what, you’re actually what they’re actually what they have, that risk may not be all that much, and i don’t mean to say that you know, that there’s little at risk, but you made you may not really care about doing background checks, but if you’re a respected organization, i think anyone who is coming to volunteer there appreciates that kind of thing. Scott, we have to leave it. We have to leave it there. You can go. Thank you very much. You can follow him on twitter he’s at scott koegler. And that happens to be his name to another coincidence and he’s, the editor of non-profit technology news scott, thanks so much. Thanks my pleasure. Next week i’ll have one of my interviews from bb con, which was the blackbaud conference i was at about two months ago or so, and also maria simple will be back she’s, the prospect finder, our prospect research contributor. And she’ll be back with maria’s top ten the sights she uses most in her work she’s, our doi and of dirt cheap and free. So you know that you’re not gonna have to spend a lot of money to follow her advice today. There’s a new fund-raising fundamentals, which is my chronicle of philanthropy podcast its new out today the topic is year end fund-raising tips you’ll find it on the chronicle of philanthropy website. You’ll find it on itunes and again. It’s called fund-raising fundamentals. You can listen non-profit radio live our archive. Our archive is on itunes at non-profit radio dot net. From there you can subscribe and listen on the device of your choice at your leisure, wishing you good luck the way performers do around the world were still in czech republic and slovakia zoho mv us. Islam vous break a neck, so i wish you for the week. Islam vous. Our creative producer is claire meyerhoff. Sam liebowitz is our line producer, shows social media is by regina walton of organic social media, and the remote producer of tony martignetti non-profit radio is john federico of the new rules. Last minute live listener love out to mexico city, mexico. Thanks for joining us from there, and i hope that all of you will be with me next week at talking alternative dot com. You’ll listen on next friday, one to two p, m eastern. You didn’t think to get ending. You’re listening to the talking alternate network. Get him. Take it cubine hi, i’m donna and i’m done were certified mediators, and i am a family and couples licensed therapists and author of please don’t buy me ice cream. Our show new beginnings is about helping you and your family recover financially and emotionally and start the beginning of your life will answer your questions on divorce, family court, co parenting, personal development, new relationships, blending families and more dahna and i will bring you to a place of empowerment and belief that even though marriages may end, families are forever join us every monday, starting september tenth at ten a m on talking alternative dot com 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. 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 friday’s one to two eastern on talking alternative broadcasting are you fed up with talking points, rhetoric everywhere you turn left or right? Spin ideology no reality, in fact, its ideology over intellect no more it’s time for action. Join me, larry. Shock a neo-sage tuesday nights nine to eleven easter for the ivory tower radio in the ivory tower will discuss what’s important to you society, politics, business and family. It’s provocative talk for the realist and the skeptic who want to know what’s. Really going on? 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096: Motivate Your Board For Major Giving & Revisiting Your 2012 Prospect Plan – Tony Martignetti Nonprofit Radio

Tony’s guests this week:

Jennifer Herring, president & CEO of The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk.

Maria Semple, The Prospect Finder, consultant in prospect research and
author of “Panning for Gold: Find Your Best Donor Prospects Now.”

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

View Full Transcript
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Zoho hello and welcome to tony martignetti non-profit radio for friday, june fifteenth twenty twelve we’re talking about big ideas, big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent of your aptly named host it’s good to be back in the studio have been away for a couple of weeks. Last week i was at fund-raising day got about ten interviews for the show, one of which we’re goingto listen to very shortly today, but great fun meeting everybody on the exhibit floor got some sponsorship enquiries good to see everybody there about fifteen hundred people at the conference and good busy booth we had on the exhibit floor this week it is motivate your board for major e-giving and revisiting your twenty twelve prospect plan from last week’s fund-raising day conference. Jennifer herring has advice on motivating, working with and supporting your board to help them step up to their fund-raising duties she’s president and ceo of the maritime aquarium at norwalk in connecticut and also revisiting your twenty twelve prospect plan. Maria simple, our prospect research contributor and the prospect finder those a midyear checkin of her new year’s ideas on your twenty twelve prospect plan that was back. On our january sixth show have you hosted those cultivation events that she recommended and used them as prospect research tools? Do you have your free google lorts set up? We’ll recap a few of those ideas from january and between the guests. Antony’s take two nearly one thousand new york city charities lose their tax exemption. I’ll explain what happened to their exempt status and that’s not limited to new york. You can use the hashtag non-profit radio to join the conversation on twitter. Andi i very much hope that you were with me last week when it was got women donors from last year’s fund-raising conference and also maria semple was on last week sharing strategies for using linked in. Right now we take a break, and when we return, i’ll have the first of my interviews from fund-raising day this year. Stay with me. They couldn’t do anything, including getting ding, ding, ding ding. You’re listening to the talking alternative network, waiting to get you thinking. E-giving cubine money, time, happiness, success, where’s, your breakthrough join me, nora simpson, as i bring you real world tools for combining financial smarts with spiritual purpose. As a consultant to ceos, i’ve helped produce clear, measurable financial results while expanding integrity, passion and joy share my journey as we apply the science of achievement and the art of fulfillment to create breakthroughs for people across the world. The people of creation nation listened to norah simpson’s creation nation fridays at twelve noon eastern on talking alternative 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 you’re listening to the talking alternative network. Welcome back, it’s time to motivate your board for major giving. This is the first of my interviews from the fund-raising day conference hosted by association friendraising professionals new york city chapter just last friday. So this is the first of the ten that i got years. Motivate your board for major e-giving with jennifer herring, welcome to tony martignetti non-profit radio coverage of fund-raising day two thousand twelve, we’re in the heart of new york city in times square at the marriott marquis. My guest right now is jennifer herring. Jennifer is president and ceo of the maritime aquarium at norwalk, and her topic is major gifts two point oh, straight talk for your board, jennifer. Welcome to the show. Thank you very much, tony. I’m glad to have you on dh. Thank you for taking time in a busy conference day. A pleasure. Why don’t you acquaint listeners with the work of the maritime? Aquarius. Ah, the maritime aquarium is a regional aquarium located in fairfield county, connecticut, that serves primarily connecticut in westchester. But the whole tri state region it’s focused on long island sound. In fact, it’s, the only aquarium focused on long island sound our mission is to inspire people of all ages to appreciate long island sound and protect it for future generations. We have a wonderful collection of long island sound animals and a lot of ability to touch and directly experience animals. It’s a very intimate aquarium. Okay, we also have a very large education program that reaches out primarily to underserved students around the tri state area. And how long have you been there? I’ve been there for going on eight years now as the ceo. Okay, let’s, get into your seminar topic. Major gifts two point oh, straight talk for your board. You’re encouraging gift officers to be change agents around board fund-raising way. We’ll have plenty of time for detail, but generally what’s what’s the problem that you see, i think that the challenge with boards is to keep them engaged. Getting them on the board is on ly step one all fund-raising especially major gifts. Fund-raising is about personal relationships. And just like any friendship, personal relationship needs to be cultivated and maintained on a continuous basis so you can get getting people on the board is the first challenge and talk a little bit. We want we want talk? A little about recruitment will get sacked, right? But once they’re on the board keeping them engaged, challenging them with meaningful ways to be connected with your organization, it’s an ongoing challenge and the strategy behind that is something that the development officers can and should play a significant role in. Okay, let’s, let’s talk a little about the recruitment of board members. How do we make plane? What the fund-raising expectations are at the recruitment stage? I’ve done that for many, many years, no there’s always a conversation, you know, once you’ve i met, the person cultivated the person enough so that your at a position to have a conversation about whether they want to join your board. And of course, that person has to be somebody who’s passionate about your mission and somebody who is going to bring something either some expertise or capacity or preferably or a network of contacts are preferably all three two the nexus of issues that the organization feeling you have ensured that the person you’re recruiting is bringing something, what one one to a little three of those? Absolutely because, of course, the ideal boardmember brings wealth, wisdom and work. And we want to engage all three. So you’re having the conversation and it’s almost always conversation, at least in my current job between me, sometimes with another trustee and the perspective person and i just lay the expectations out on the table. Now we have kind of a sliding scale of expectations, depending on the capacity of the person the board has voted. This is a small organization, it’s, about a ten and a half million dollar budget and how many trustees are there there at the moment? Thirty one that’s large could be that’s a lot that’s. A lot of trustees, partly because in a cultural institution, being on the board or on a committee of the board is the only way you have a connection there. No grateful patients. There are no alumni. You have to create a connection and keep it going. Okay, and the board is a very important way to do that. So getting back to the recruitment conversation, i always put a specific number on the table. Um, and it can be as little as the minimum annual gift that the board has voted. Should be the minimum, which is twenty, five hundred. Dollars uh huh. Often i will say site a larger annual gift if i know the person has more capacity plus either giving ah, e-giving or selling a table to the gala. And then we’ve been in a campaign mullet for the last five years. I usually say, you know, once you’ve gotten involved in and been a member and really gotten connected, we will be coming to talk to you about a major giff ok? And the first number that’s an annual number that’s an annual number. Okay, so you’re very clear about the expectations, do you? Do you do this in writing and let the person take it home to take it to the office and considerate or this is really all verbal well, what we give them in writing, we don’t give them the expectation and writing, okay, we give them the role of the board. You know what? What our expectations of them are in terms of their responsibilities and what they can expect of us in terms of response. Civilities, we give them a lot of background material about the organization would let them see who they’re colleagues on the board would baby give them. Aboard list, but we don’t have, you know, a pledge form that they have to sign beforehand. We figured that the verbal conversation is enough, and then we solicit them ah, at the at year end or calendar, you’re a fiscal year, and we have a june thirtieth fiscal year for what we’ve talked about. All right, now you have a new boardmember they’ve they’ve accepted based on the expectations, what is ah, board training look like for brand new board members around? Fund-raising well, we don’t have a really formal training for us it’s on the job, maybe they go on other calls, outgoing calls with others or what we mostly do. We have a pretty elaborate committee structure, one of which is this is a campaign committee, but a marketing committee of finance committee, education committee and exhibits committee, so we use those committees to get them connected with the meat and the program of the organization we use the gala committee very actively to engage people in soliciting tables for the gala. That’s in some ways, the easiest kind of fund-raising to do because it’s very transactional, then there’s a a certain small kadre of leadership volunteers. Who have made major gif ts and who are in powerful positions in the board that i work with personally to develop specific ask strategies that they participate in to go on called fund-raising calls with terrorism that’s sort of on the job it’s on me. Okay, so it’s on the job training because i’ve i’ve found i’ve worked it now for non-profits and i in none of them has there ever been, you know, you get the whole board together and you have a little fund-raising training thing. We tried to do that, actually on a retreat in two thousand eight, the week that the stock market was falling apart when we were about to launch our campaign and had a little role playing about how you ask, but that contrived, right? So everybody knew everybody knew was staged its quite trust, and i found that it’s much better to work directly with the person who’s agreed to go on a call with you, and what i do is write a script for that person, and i do it for myself too about you know what the objective is, how much we’re going to ask for what the background. Is the, you know, the background, research, the relationship with the person to the organization, and then what each of us is going to say, e-giving lending, e-giving e-giving, ding, ding, ding, ding! You’re listening to the talking alternate network, get him. Cubine money, time, happiness, success, where’s your breakthrough join me, nora simpson, as i bring you real world tools for combining financial smarts with spiritual purpose. As a consultant to ceos, i’ve helped produce clear, measurable financial results while expanding integrity, passion and joy share my journey as we apply the science of achievement and the art of fulfillment to create breakthroughs for people across the world. The people of creation nation listened to norah simpson’s creation nation fridays at twelve noon eastern on talking alternative dot com. Are you stuck in your business or career trying to take your business to the next level and it keeps hitting a wall? This is sam liebowitz, the conscious consultant. I will help you get to the root cause of your abundance issues and help move you forward in your life. Call me now and let’s create the future you dream of. Two, one, two, seven, two, one, eight, one, eight, three that’s to one to seven to one eight one eight three the conscious consultant helping conscious people be better business people. Oppcoll you’re listening to the talking alternative network. Treyz i’m ken berger of charity navigator. And you’re listening to tony martignetti non-profit radio. Big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent. Yeah, so you actually rehearse since you have a school to do, you practise the meeting in advance? Well, i practice myself. I mean, i sit in my office and speak the script, and i often will have a telephone call with the person who’s going with nato to go over it, and they used these scripts. They work really well to shape the the conversation and, you know, it’s sort of various whose mouth, the actual ask is going to come out of it most often comes out of my mouth even if we’re going with a peer, but it doesn’t matter, really, because the presence of the pier there makes all the difference. And why don’t you say a word about that? For people who may not recognise what what’s the value of having is someone someone alongside with you, who’s a a peer of the of the person you’re soliciting. So having somebody who’s involved who’s already made a major her gift who’s giving their time and and treasure to the organization validates the organization for the person that you’re asking the money for and sets a bar down four for what they’re doing, especially if it’s a trustee because the trustees are supposed to be the ones who care the most were the most invested and therefore need to be the biggest investors in the organization. That somebody on the outside of the organization is always looking. Two how much trustees were doing and how much in particular that trustee who’s asking has done to help scale their level of gift thinking. So so here’s an example. Actually, this isn’t a trustee is somebody whose son is a trustee. And who i’ve tried to get a trust to be a trustee for years has taken on the project of raising money for a new research vessel, which is a two and a half million dollar project. He’s in the shipping industry. He’s. Very passionate about it. He cochairs the committee he brought in the person who’s. Um, project managing the project. Who’s built many boats. He helped move us to the decision away from retrofitting an old boat to building a new boat from scratch. He agreed to raise the money. He gave a half million dollars lead gift. And i took him to see ah, prospect that’s been in our family at about the ten. Thousand dollar level for a number of years. Who we honored it, our gala, who we’ve cultivated pretty thoroughly and whose connection to the aquarium was around our existing research vessel. So we went and sat with him right before christmas in their kitchen. Sam uh, the gentleman who’s leading this project talked about it very passionately talked about what he’s done, and that is instance, the actual ask came out of my mouth. We left them with materials. But then the leader that the head of this effort played golf with the prospect in florida continue to cultivate him on his own separately from anything that the institution was doing. And this gentleman stepped up with a half million dollar gift, matching the lead gift for matching the lead gift. So it was a long cultivation effort, probably going on for five years before we got to the critical moment where we found the right project that connected to this person’s passion. And i’m sure that the fact that he was being solicited by somebody else who had made a gift at that level was one of the things that determined no, his i mean, this is somebody with a lot of capacity. Who’s named things all over town. This also speaks to the value of the long term relationships that you mentioned now that may not have been a long term relationship, but it was the beginning of it was the beginning of a relationship between those between those two between those two. Absolutely and and there is the long term relationship with the institution. Find this gentleman the person who made the five hundred thousand dollar gift had been involved with the institution for at least five years. But between these two people, right, a developing relationship, correct? See each other’s piers on dh makes it tougher for the person solicited to refuse. The other thing usually is that when you’re going to have a solicitation call, the person that you’re soliciting knows why you’re coming to see that it’s not a surprise way don’t want toby blindsiding people you want them to know, right? I mean, you basically set up the meeting in a way that says, i want to come and talk to about this project for this campaign or so that they know what it is and if they don’t want to be solicited. They won’t take the meeting mostly right? Let’s talk about the role of the professional fundraiser in supporting lord fund-raising what do you see as the the role? Well acquaint people with the structure at the aquarium? Do you have? Ah, vice president, director development? Yes, there are some gift officers or we have it, but we have a very small development, as we have in highly experienced director development who’s been doing university development, heading university development departments for thirty years. We have a person who does foundations and ah latto the patron program and various other many aspects of fund-raising is sort of the director of the annual fund, but he’s also doing major gift so it’s not very good at everything that it is typical of a small shop. We have a person who does the gallas and corporate fund-raising we have a person who does membership and the acknowledgment of gif ts and some fulfillment of patron level gift, which is a thousand dollars for us, we don’t have very many patrons and and that person has an assistant so it’s basically five, five people in there, other things that are being done out of this. Opponent who eyes the liaison to the board for fund-raising assume it’s, the it’s, the director of development and to some degree that the person who manages the gala because the board is so involved in the gala so and and also the personal i would say that there are three of our gift officers that that have relationships, not with every boardmember but with some board members, and then since you’re giving your your topic is major gift, right, what’s, the what’s, the support that the director development probably is the one providing to the to the board around around major, gifted director, director of development it’s mostly providing support to me around major gift activities and that’s possibly because i have such a strong fund-raising background was the ceo. I mean, that’s what i’ve been my career has been for thirty years, so we talk about strategy. He identifies prospects, does the research. He does a lot of personal cultivation with these people, too. So he makes friends with them. He talks about his travels there, travels. He fixed us up with theater tickets. He does things that just brings them closer to the organization. He’s very active. In working with the board on small, intimate cultivation dinners, that’s something you ask board members to do? We asked members events and not in the way host them right in front of our biggest exhibit, which is a shark tank. So you’re you’re having dinner with the sharks swimming around in this elegant table. There’s, you know, a maximum of twenty of you there’s, some interesting intellectual guest, either professor from yale or the principle of our partner school that’s closing the achievement gap or somebody like that, you’re there with a bunch of peers that the board members bring to the table and that’s part of the cultivation effort that’s proven very successful and really important in moving people into major gift relationships with us. What do we do with or four board members who have a reluctance to do fund-raising now, even at the so even going back to the er, teo bringing them on, bring them on the board, the recruitment if they express our reluctance, they have skills that you need and they’re willing to do their own giving maybe a maybe a much higher level than the twenty five dollar minimum, but they have a reluctance to do to be asking people for money, what can they be doing around fund-raising we just don’t bother with them because we don’t have time, frankly, so you wouldn’t accept that kind of a boardmember no, no, we just leave them alone to what they’re doing, okay? And don’t try to make them do something they can’t d’oh. But even if they can’t ask there not comfortable asking, they could, for instance, host the hosting events so that’s were constantly, uh, trying to get people to bring their friends to our events to our friends of his are exhibit openings introduced people to us, and every year when we have aboard retreat, they all the people there pledged that they will do that and every year on ly a few of them do it word definitely working very hard to get boardmember sze to agree to host or co host thies, small dinners are shark tank dinners and bring with its great they’re called struck thank dinner. Yes. Oh, isn’t that great? I just read something online that if there was one drop of blood in one million drops of blood or something like that, sort of sense that consensus was that on npr’s website or something it could be but that’s something that that one of our education programs that demonstrates two kids very interesting how they do it with a little drop of tomato juice, being deluded and deluded and deluded, and and they figure out when they can taste it and okay, yeah, so your shark tank dinners so we’re constantly trying to get boardmember is to bring their peers to shark tank dinners, which is very difficult to do, and only a few of them are really able tto leverage those kinds of relationships. It’s, you know, we have in some ways a naive for this is not new york city, and this is not new york city fund-raising with the kind of power boards that i’ve worked with at the new york public library and the wildlife conservation society it’s a very different kind of bored, maybe many of these people are being our board members for the first time, some of them are, you know, business people may be in the upper middle management of the bank, and there they don’t have that kind of reach into rich people community that um, that is common in new york. On the other hand, fairfield county has a huge amount of hedge fund wealth and a huge amount of maritime wealth, although in this economy, that’s less than it, wass. And we’re getting more and more of those kinds of people on our board who do have a network and are able to to bring us at least to get this us in a room with them. Okay, then the challenge becomes how two convince the sector. That is more and more about venture philanthropy that has measurable impact. That there’s something for them at the maritime aquarium? Yeah, on dh. Well, we want to stick to the board fund-raising topic, but i know that impact and outcome assessment is very here for lots of charities. And yes, it is a struggle for cultural institutions to do that. Although it sounds like maybe around your education in this job we do. We are able to do that around our education on shifts and initiatives in some very interesting ways about closing the achievement gap, and one of our trustees made a very strategic a gift to us that allowed us to do a case study about a partner school that we’re working with and what impact our partnership has had in their achievement there. Rising achievement of school that’s almost all inner city kids. Jennifer way have just about a minute left. And i want to talk a little about the case for support on dh analyzing that case for support again in just a minute. So what’s your advice around scrutinising that you need a strong case for support. You need your board to be able to deliver it in an elevator speech s so that they can be great ambassadors for you. The case for support is what’s going to make people give? They have to understand that you have to teach them through your case for support that you are an institution that can help them change the world, that they can change the world through your institution, and get the joy and satisfaction of doing that through their philanthropy. The the elevator speech for board members, do you help them write it? First? Talk about what we have definitely done that, and we’ve done it in various ways. The elevator speech should have a certain set of statistics, and i’ve actually gone so far as to take a business card and write him out that they can keep in their pocket this citizen. But the elevator speech also has to connect to the passions of the boardmember so that they can talk about the institution in a way that that communicates the passion that they bring to it. So every boardmember doesn’t have the same elevators, no every boardmember doesn’t and shouldn’t have the same elevator speech. Excellent advice. Ok, it goes to what? What? What moves them the most. What moves down, right? We have to leave it there, but thank you so much, tony. My pleasure. Jennifer herring is president and ceo of the maritime aquarium at norwalk in norwalk, connecticut. Pleasure. Thank you very much for joining me, jennifer. My pleasure. Thank you, toni. This is tony martignetti non-profit radio coverage of fund-raising day two thousand twelve marriott marquis, hosted by association of fund-raising professionals, new york city chapter. My thanks again to the folks at fund-raising day and jennifer herring. Right now, we take a break, and when we returned, tony’s take two, and then it’ll be maria semple revisiting your two thousand twelve prospect plan. So hang around. You’re listening to the talking alternative network. Are you feeling overwhelmed in the current chaos of our changing times? A deeper understanding of authentic astrology can uncover solutions in every area of life. After all, metaphysics is just quantum physics, politically expressed hi and montgomery taylor and i offer lectures, seminars and private consultations. For more information, contact me at monte m o nt y at r l j media. Dot com are you stuck in your business or career trying to take your business to the next level, and it keeps hitting a wall? This is sam 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. 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 welcome back, it’s. Time for tony’s, take two on tony martignetti non-profit radio my block this week is nearly one thousand new york city charities lose tax exemption the new york city department of finance ah revoked the property tax exemption from nine hundred twenty five city based charities because they failed to demonstrate a legitimate charitable purpose. They lost their property exemption for what? For property that they owned. And, as i say in the blogged, something similar to that was reported in the new york times last year and and the block post has a link to that coverage, i think the lessons for charities are you need to stay true to the charitable mission that got you. The irs is designation of tax exempt however, many years ago that was and in the case of one of the charity’s sighted, but you’ll see in the blogged from new york city, that was nineteen, thirty four and but now, obviously, new york city is challenging that. So you need to stay true to that charitable mission that got you that original tax exempt designation and i think, also need to stay in compliance with state and local regulations. And laws because i could see compliance being linked to keeping your tax advantage at the state and local level. And that’s all we’re talking about. We’re not talking about federal tax exemption. These were ah, this is all state and local tax advantages also want to remind you well, that’s on the block and my blog’s is that tony martignetti dot com and that’s, this week’s post. I also want you to remember that we have a linked in group and on the linked in group. You can tell me what you ah, i have as ideas for future shows. Or give me feedback on previous guests. When if you’d like to say, please check us out on linkedin. And that is tony’s. Take two for friday, june fifteenth the twenty fourth show of the year. The year is almost half over. How is that possible, maria? Simple. I know your air right in here. Hello, maria. Simple. How are you? I’m doing well. Maria is the prospect finder she’s, an experienced trainer and speaker on prospect research. Her website is the prospect finder dot com. Her book is panning for gold. Find your best donor prospects now and most importantly, she’s, our regular prospect research contributor, and this month we’re revisiting the twenty twelve prospect plan maria from the january sixth show. You had some ideas back then, i did absolutely so i came up with kind of a list of things that people could do, and i thought i’d be a good idea to revisit it now that we are hard to believe midpoint in the year of twenty twelve already, i know, um, so not to revisit the entire show, but some of the tips that we had, we brought to the table at that point we were talking about, you know, prospecting from within your database in-kind of mining that database and tips for how you can keep up with some of your top prospects. But we also talked about proactively identifying people outside the database and bringing them into your organization to learn more about your missions and by hosting by hosting some cultivation events, right? Right. So we did, you know, talk about cultivation events. My suggestion had been to in the first three months of the year, really trying to identify people from within the database and proactively identified people outside your database that you might invite some cultivation events and then try and hold those events in second quarter. So let let’s assume that people may have taken our advice hosted one or two cultivation events, but if not, we have some lessons or we have some ideas to get started. The year’s not over and it’s only half. So you can still, you know, implement all of these and just think about shifting the tips into the second half of the year. That’s even we have even more than half. This is only the twenty fourth. So twenty four, twenty four, fifty seconds have passed. So what is that? Twelve. Twenty six and then it goes down even further. Teo six, six, eighth goes from all right. Well, you have more than half the year left. Yeah, just a little over half the year. So all is not lost. But anyway, let’s, let’s talk about some of those. Those tips that we talked about, we mentioned identifying maybe the within your database. Who were those top ten to twenty gifts that you’d received in the past year. And also your top ten prospects in terms of lifetime giving to your organization and, you know, inviting those people to attend a cultivation event. Now, you know, sometimes people refer to these parlor event. You know, whatever terminology want to use, the event can be held at your facility. If you have a facility you want to showcase or outside in somebody’s home. So in particular, if you have somebody you’re affiliated with with your board or another volunteer who’s willing to open up their home, particularly if they have a lovely home. And really, the setting would work very nicely for us. A small, intimate gathering. The key to remember here, there’s no. Ask at that. You know, that could also be on site. You might have. You might have a very interesting place for people to gather on site i in the interview that everybody heard earlier in the show. Jennifer herring is president of the maritime aquarium at norwalk in connecticut. And they like to host things in front of the shark tank. Right? So it could be a small gathering. If you have a small shark or maybe have a gecko or, you know a hamster, you could host a small group in front of a little aquarium. With, you know, eight or twelve people watching the hamster go around in a wheel, i mean, that could be compelling. Yeah, certainly if you have a facility that lend itself well to that type of gathering that’s great. I attended something recently at the liberty science center here in jersey city in new jersey, and it was a fabulous event, and so, you know, just get creative and think about what would draw people in. Is it the space? Is that this person’s home on dh? The key is to really be able teo stick to the time frame that you tell people it will be, particularly if you’re going to do it around some sort of a breakfast event, people need to get on with their day, be a little bit more lax if it’s an end of the day event, but from a prospecting or prospect research point of view you want to think about while you’re attending that event, listening for, you know, some of the general interests now, you know, i’m assuming that a lot of the people that are listening to this show may be from a smaller to midsize non-profit so the person taking on the role of prospect researcher is either the executive director is the development director, maybe a communications director. Whoever that person is that also does some prospect research at the organization should be in attendance at this event with the so purpose, really, to do a little bit of intelligence gathering. Yeah, you want to be you want to be making sure that people are that staff, if you do have multiple staff, you don’t want them huddled together over in the sort of the room, even if it’s just two or three of you, you know, huddled in a corner, chatting or all seated at the same table if there are multiple tables, that’s, a that’s, a big mistake, you’re not you’re not going to be out talking to people as much as you could be, right? So this is an opportunity for you to showcase your non-profit but also to elicit a lot of wonderful information that, quite frankly, a lot of instances you may just not be able to find this information online. So so what type of information might that be that you’d want to elicit as wearing your prospect? Just general interest just engaged the person in conversation on and be a good listener that is just so very keys just to really put your listening ears on. And we’ve talked about we have talked about that in the past. Thie radical listening, which came from a previous guest. Melanie schnoll begun. And then you picked up on radical listening and recommended it as prospect research vehicle. Right? Total cultivation event is a great place for you to become a radical listener. So gent general interests that they have any family information that you khun gather sometimes there might be information about children, ages of children just to get kind of get an idea of where they are, what point in their lives that they’re at. Um, are they you know, more of a plan giving prospect for you? Are they really just starting out in their lives, their careers, and have very young children? Just you want to be genuinely interested in in their lives? S and and what? What it is about your work that appeals to them, right? And one way to find out about that is, well, obviously to directly ask them. But it’s also interesting to try and gather where else? They’re volunteering their time. You know what other charities air they particularly interested in so that you can try and figure out? Well, gee, just, you know, the programming and then services that we offer does it a line at all with what this family has in terms of their general charitable interest. So in the case of the maritime museum, they might be thinking about, you know, china, find out what you nowhere else these people are are spending their time. Are they interested in other maybe water conservation efforts, other charities that really address water quality in the long island sound? You know, things of that nature, and so for sure, you’ll know that you’re on the right track and engaging this person in additional conversation. So, you know, that might be a great way to find out where they and their spouse volunteered their time also vacationing. You know, this is a great opportunity for you to say so, you know, do you have any exciting vacation plans for this summer? Uh, so, you know, be listening for responses like, yeah, we’ll be spending, you know, the entire month of august in our home. In the hamptons, you know, they say that nature good to know just just generally find out what type if they say no, we’re doing this stay cation thing this year, you know, pick up on that cue, um, and then really, really important the circles back to something we talked about in the january show is to be able to really create some sort of contact reports on capturing critical information that you’ve been able to glean from the, uh, from the cultivation events. Right now, we have a great dahna database right now, back in january, we talked about we encouraged i think it was the eleven percent that didn’t have a computer database to look at the clouds packages that available, and you went into detail and on that in the january six show, so hopefully some of those people have converted teo computer databases, right? And if they’re still in there, sort of in the shopping phase, i’ll just remind them real quickly that the two websites that that might be something for them to check out that might give them some additional info on what’s available out there. Idealware dot or ge talked had a kn article about how to select a database and tech soup dot or ge is a good place to find some low cost and free tech advice. So, you know, check those out if you’re still in shopping mode. Andi, i you know, i truly believe that cloud based is the way to go it’s just going to give your staff and your board the most flexibility on dh then your point about saving that valuable information that you that you learn at a cultivation event in that computer database or if you’re not computerized yet, i guess you know, you you print up a contact report and put it in a person’s folder, right? Exactly and, you know, it’s really important, like, just just like you don’t want that staff to be all congregating together in the corner, it’s going to be very important after the event post event very quickly thereafter within a day or two to have a debriefing if it’s not a meeting, get a conference call going, you know, there’s free conference services out there there’s no reason why you can’t just say, you know, knowing in advance the date of the event, let’s say it’s a thursday evening by by friday midday, you could be having a conference call in have that scheduled way in advance that you’re going to have a debriefing call, you know what were the important point? Somebody found out from speaking with some of the people, and you may want to actually pre-tax fine people, right? So if we know in advance that mr big bucks is going to be there, why not do a little pre advanced research on him and find out a little bit of information? And so that a boardmember can be assigned to perhaps be the person to you know, just have a discussion and you can even try and figure out who the best four person would be, that you’d want to make sure cultivating that individual during the way we’re going to take a break. I want to emphasize before we do one thing that you said, which is in terms of inviting people, look a tte donors who have give been giving for the lifetime large donors over their lifetime, so individual gifts may not be so large, but they’re giving history over the life over their lifetime with your organization. Is quite large. Those air also good people to invite. We’re going take a break, and maria simple will still be with me after that break. And i hope you will, too. Talking alternative radio twenty four hours a day. Hi, this is psychic medium. Betsy cohen, host of the show. The power of intuition. Join me at talking alternative dot com mondays at eleven a. M call in for a free psychic readings. Learn how to tune into your intuition, to feel better and to create your optimum life. I’m here to guide you and to assist you in creating life that you deserve. Listen every monday at eleven a, m on talking alternative dot com. Hi, i’m carol ward from the body mind wellness program. Listen to my show for ideas and information to help you live a healthier life in body, mind and spirit, you’ll hear from terrific guests who are experts in the areas of health, wellness and creativity. So join me every thursday at eleven a, m eastern standard time on talking alternative dot com professionals serving community. Hi, this is nancy taito from speaks. Been radio speaks. Been. Radio is an exploration of the world of communication, how it happens in how to make it better, because the quality of your communication has a direct impact on the quality of your life. Tune in monday’s at two pm on talking alternative dot com, where i’ll be interviewing experts from business, academia, the arts and new thought. Join me mondays at two p m and get all your communications questions answered on speaks been radio. This is tony martignetti, aptly named host of tony martignetti non-profit radio. Big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent. Technology fund-raising compliance. Social media, small and medium non-profits have needs in all these areas. My guests are expert in all these areas and mohr. Tony martignetti non-profit radio fridays, one to two eastern on talking alternative broadcasting. Talking. Hi there and welcome back we’re revisiting your twenty twelve prospect plan with maria simple maria just teo wrap up that topic on cultivation events. Was there anything more you wanted to say about that before we get to one of the other topics from from january? I would say in terms of pre imposed cultivation event, there are a couple of websites that you might want a bookmark to be able to do some of that general research on an individual that might be attending or might have attended anay event. I outlined some of these in the going beyond google article that i have on my website, and maybe what i ll do, tony is at after the show go ahead into your lincoln page as well as your lincoln group as well as your facebook group on dh post there about what where they confine that exactly, but it’s a suspect finder, dot com and it’s on the resource is paige, so some of those things that you can do is obviously run the person’s name through google. Now the big tip with google is that you want to put quotation marks around a person’s name, so that you’re finding their name as a phrase in google if is so, certainly you could do that. You can set up a google alerts again on the top ten donors we had recommended back in january that you look at the top donors that you have in your database and set up an alert on their name that’s free google will push the information to you so you could find out if something new is happening, especially in somebody’s business career. Now, last time we talked about alerts, i think you had set one on me or we talk about something and you used me as an example. I was lousy results was a wealth indicator. Was that that wealth indicator? What? What, you know, what’s interesting about setting up. Stop using me as an example, right? Google and google alerts is if you google plus now is actually influencing, and we talked about that on one of your shows it’s influencing your search results. So if you are on google plus and you are logged into google, the results are actually going to be skewed more toward social results. So if you’re doing this purely as a prospect researcher. You may want to actually log out of google. Um, your google plus account before commencing your prospect research. Just a tip. I think you might get a little bit more of objective results, if you will. It’s not gonna be so much skewed toward just social sector social media here. And you had you had examples on of other alerts that that people could set beyond the free google lorts, which are which are outstanding. I use them a lot for for my work, right? But you had some examples of others specific newspaper alerts. A lot of the newspapers out there permit used to set up alerts on specific phrases. If you and also the news sources in your state here i track in new jersey, i track and jay is, uh, they send me daily alert just generally what’s going on in the business community. I get those alerts twice a day here in new jersey. So that’s, something you want to consider looking into. What is that publication that covers your state? It might present from interesting opportunities for you because they tend to not only highlight, you know, negative news that’s going on, but also some real positive news and then one of the fee based services that some of your listeners maybe currently scribed, too, for doing foundation research is called foundation search dot com and as paid subscriber, one of the things that you have access to is a new foundation alert service. So if you are subscribed to that service, definitely set up the alert for yourself. They’ll let you know anytime a new foundation is formed on registered with the irs in your state or whatever states you decide to set up, as you know, the alert service and you will be pushed the information through email, then you can check it out a little bit further waken set these alerts up not only for individuals but companies and foundations. That’s, right? Yeah, you can definitely do that as well. Cos and foundations, you want to set up those alert so, you know, whatever it is that you’re looking to track for certain, you want to set up the alert there? Um, lincoln is a great place to research. Somebody pretty opposed an event. Also, they have free alerts that you can set up within lincoln. So let’s say you’re always, you know, prospecting for somebody who holds specific in a certain industry. Let’s say the accounting industry or something like that. Ah, and you want to always be notified anytime somebody new joins lincoln who’s in the accounting field and also happens to be within a certain radius of your zip code, you can set those types of alerts up up to three of them, actually under a free lengthen account to take advantage of that. And have lincoln pushed the information to you, maria, is that using the advanced search? Yeah, yeah. You can do with the advanced search page just to do the search initially and then? Ah, once you set those, you see the search results, you can actually save that search and you’re allowed to save up to three searches. Particularly useful. Okay. Okay, so the cultivation events, the alerts i’ve calculated now the year is six thirteen ths of the way through. So you have you have seven thirteenth remaining to take advantage of these ideas that maria originally recommended back in january. But don’t feel bad, maria. We have just about thirty seconds left. What do you want to leave people with in? This mid year checking this revisiting of the prospect plan i think it’s really just the idea of getting proactive on dh getting their delve into your database proactively trying mine it proactively look for people who are outside of the database that you need to bring in and learn about your organization and really help them stored them along said that they will feed knew names into your organization and be willing to host their own cultivation event. Maria simple you’ll find her at the prospect finder dot com our regular contributor, maria pleasure talking to you, thank you very much. We’ll catch you next month and my thanks again, of course, to jennifer herring and the folks at a f p for ah, letting me be on the exhibit floor last week at fund-raising day in new york city next week, what happened in two thousand eleven? Well recap the years fund-raising with bob evans of giving yusa and returning rob mitchell, the ceo of atlas, of giving we’ll compare and contrast they’re two methods and what their findings are for last year’s fund-raising also scott koegler, the editor of non-profit technology news, returns with going mobile he and i will talk about mobile aps and your mobile website a few weeks ago on tony’s take two i talked about my core beliefs that charity’s need to do better and that they deserve the help that they need. Lynette singleton, from singleton consulting group, is a good friend to the show and she’s, a frequent re tweeter of the show on twitter and she’s offering to help the charity’s need she’s hosting a ninety minute webinar on marketing on thursday, june twenty first, you’ll learn what marketing really is and how it can help your non-profit had a position you’re non-profit conduct a marketing and communications audit and develop a marketing plan to achieve your goals. I have talked to lynette and she’s, a smart lady, and you’ll learn a lot from this webinar non-profit radio listeners get twenty five dollars off registration used discount code non-profit radio that’s two words it’s on thursday, june twenty first at two thirty eastern and you register at s c g the number four non-profits dot net cg four non-profits dot net to register for lynette singleton’s marketing webinar you can keep up with us on the facebook page like us. On that page, you know where to find us live. An archive non-profit radio dot net is for the archive. That’s. Our apple page are apple, itunes, paige. The show’s hashtag is non-profit radio on twitter. Use it often. Our creative producer is clear, meyerhoff sam liebowitz is the line producer, shows social media is by regina walton of organic social media, and the remote producer of tony martignetti non-profit radio is john federico of the new rules. I hope you’ll be with me next friday went to two p m eastern at talking alternative dot com. You couldn’t do anything to get good ending. You’re listening to the talking alternative network, get anything. Thank you, cubine how’s your game. Want to improve your performance, focus and motivation than you need. 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035: 50 Asks in 50 Weeks – Tony Martignetti Nonprofit Radio

Tony’s guest this week is:

Amy Eisenstein, Author, “50 Asks in 50 Weeks” and Principal, Tri Point Fundraising

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

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Zoho! Duitz dahna welcome, this is tony martignetti, the host of tony martignetti non-profit radio big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent and as every week, the aptly named host what a coincidence that i found this very show it’s april fool’s april one, two thousand eleven are april fool’s edition this week we’re going to be suffering no fund-raising fools on this april first you may remember first, though, last week i had back office blunders, and i’m looking jeff marston, the president of resource centers for management, explained in back off his blunders how to stop squandering money on your back office costs, and he revealed tricks to save big money on supplies, phone, energy desks and other stuff that your office needs. Also, we revisited the i’m looking recurring feature last week, we checked in with our recruiter, paula marks, and our non-profit job seeker leonora scala paula’s advice last week and a zit has every month that we’ve checked in with them helps not only paula, but you with your help’s not only leonora, but helps you also with your own search, whether that’s going on now or a search for you in the future this week. As i mentioned, no fund-raising fools on this april first day, it’s ask awareness for small shops with amy eisenstein. Amy is the author of fifty asks in fifty weeks. A guide to better fund-raising for your small development shop, and she’s going to share lots of valuable insights for opening relationships, identifying prospects, cultivating, soliciting, talking about different responsibilities for fund-raising in your small and midsize shop, and at about thirty two minutes after the hour, as always, it’s, tony’s take two, roughly thirty two. This week, it’ll be six tips to mastering your fund-raising relationships, based on a block post of mine and also a style consultant, dubbed me a profile in awesomeness this week, and i’ll share. I promise just a very little bit about that that’s, all on this week’s show after the break, i’ll be joined by amy eisenstein, and i hope you’ll stay with me. You’re listening to the talking alternative network. E-giving. 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. 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 welcome back to tony martignetti non-profit radio. I’m joined now by amy eisenstein. Amy is the author of fifty asks in fifty weeks a guide to better fund-raising for your small development shop and she’s going to be with me for the hour she is the principle of tripoint fund-raising, which you’ll find at tripoint fund-raising dot com before fund-raising consulting. She helped small and large non-profits raise millions of dollars as a director of development, and as i always point out, when this is the case, that’s, the kind of experience we love on the show she’s consultant now, but she has been buy-in the development shop shops in non-profits she’s, a frequent speaker and facilitator at board, retreats she’s, also the past president of the association of fund-raising professionals, the newjersey chapter, and i’m very glad that amy’s book fifty asks and fifty weeks brings her to the studio. Amy welcome, thanks, tony, glad to be here. My pleasures go got to have you. My voice is cracked. Have you sixteen, sixteen years old going on forty nine. Let’s, see so fifty asking fifty weeks when you wrote you wrote a book, so you must have seen a problem or a gap in small and midsize shop fund-raising what was that it’s? True, when i was a one shop development office, one person development office, i should say, i really found that i was elated and in a silo and could get so sidetracked and stuck doing grant reports database management thank you notes, planning events, writing newsletters all the things that have to happen in a one person development shop, but weeks and weeks could go by without actually making and ask. And of course, as a result, i wasn’t raising much money. So i looked at the development shops around me and saw that they were having the same issue, distractions, distractions and other work that’s urgent, but not as important. Not as important as making these solicitations actually making the ask um so in a small shop on dso, we’re talking as your book does too small and midsize shops so sort of how would you define those? Right? I’m talking about shops with one development staff person or up to three, maybe or an executive director who doesn’t have any paid development staff okay, and your book is all about encouraging? Mohr asks specifically fifty and fifty weeks, and i’m not going to ask you about the formulas for fifty what counts? What doesn’t count, but we are going, you know we’ll talk obliquely about things that that relate to getting two, fifty and fifty weeks, but i’m not going to hold you to a formula. So in a in a shop that’s that size who is responsible for fund-raising and what are the responsibilities? Sure, while fund-raising is always a team effort in any size shop and so the executive director needs to be involved, any development staff that hopefully an organization has is involved as well as board members have to be involved in order for the fund-raising to go well, so really everybody has their own piece of the puzzle to dio andi, everybody plays a role and tell me what the other question waas so just what the responsibilities are, but i think we’ll get to that. That and also hoping later, to talk about what happens if you have perhaps an executive director. Who’s not comfortable with fund-raising show so well, i think we’ll dive into that there’s this time. Okay, your book is mostly about individual fund-raising right, but so let’s, just talk about how individual fund-raising fits with other types of fund-raising sure. Well, the premise is that in small shops, often the organization is focused on its fund-raising in the past, on grantwriting and events, and focus really heavily on those types of fund-raising so my book encourages organisations to diversify their funding base and branch out to individual giving, which is a huge component of philanthropic dollars in the non-profit community that they’re not tapping and right, but typically a small startup non-profit begins its fund-raising with what people understand best and actually is probably a little easier in terms of fund-raising and that is the grant writing and research not that grants are easy but can be easier than individual asking on and then also events which i think people feel they have a handle on when they get started. That’s, right, and so it’s challenging non-profits to reach out and really tap individuals, which can be harder and take longer it’s about relationship building but that’s really where the big money is, so they have to get there if they’re going to grow their shop. Okay, so the importance of making this shift from the institutional to the individual, right? Okay. And so why event let’s explore just a little bit, like a minute and a half that we have before the break? Why is event fund-raising not such a stable way of continuing and growing your non-profit to the next level? Yeah, i think that having one or two events per year is a good way of fund-raising and cultivating donors at the same time and getting the word out about your organization. But something small organizations are inundated with events. They have five, six, ten, twelve events per year, and they’re just absolutely draining. The resource is time and energy of their volunteers of their staff, and actually, events are the most expensive way to raise a dollar in fund-raising so having more than one or two is just not efficient are effective, okay? And the return on investment is quite low generally for events correct it’s the lowest return on investment of all other types of fund-raising okay, and when we returned from this break, then amy and i will delve into making that transition to individual giving from the events and institutional giving. My guest is amy eisenstein, the author of fifty asks in fifty weeks. 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, i and montgomery taylor and i offer lectures, seminars and private consultations. For more information, contact me at monte m o nt y at r l j media. Dot com are you stuck in your business or career trying to take your business to the next level, and it keeps hitting a wall? This is sam liebowitz, the conscious consultant. I will help you get to the root cause of your abundance issues and help move you forward in your life. Call me now and let’s. Create the future. You dream of. Two one to seven to 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 hyre 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. Y si dot com. You’re listening to the talking alternative network. Durney durney welcome back to tony martignetti non-profit radio i’m with amy eisenstein, the author of fifty asks and fifty weeks, and while we’re on the break, amy made a point that i might have misstated, you know, sort of overstated the importance of individual giving in an overall development shop, and really, the point is that you should be diversified. So please, amy, expand on that a little bit, right? I just wanted to emphasize the fact that within a small shop, when organizations are so heavily focused on grantwriting and events, they’re not diversified, but the book is about making sure that you have a diverse fund-raising plan all year long that includes grantwriting a few events, individual giving and variety of bulk mail appeals, and so it’s really about diversification and making a solid plan and sticking with it. And so yeah, so i didn’t mean to say that you eliminate grantwriting and events, but you make a transition into individual and of course, keep the other components as well. So thank you, let’s talk about a case statement because i think that’s an important for individuals want to explain what? What that is. Why it’s important? Sure, a case statement is a written document that explains basically why people should give money to your organization and why your organization exists. Why it’s important and makes the case for your for supporting your organization and developing that case, though, could be quite a challenge. I know there’s some non-profits that will maybe do ah ah long term analysis of a strategic planning to help them to build their case statement. It’s not so easy sometimes to right? That is it? Yeah, it’s definitely challenging, and once you’ve written it, what you think is a solid case statement, you should take it out and test tested on the road with several of your most loyal donors have them look at it, read it, react to it, see if it that’s why they’re motivated to give to your organization and see if it really speaks to them and make tweaks and part of developing it, and we’re spending time on because it is so important with your fear individual individual fund-raising as part of developing it, we’ve had guests that have said valuable tohave outside people, you know, aside from your board and your your fundraisers contributing to your case statement. Absolutely, yes, you want community’s perspective and input when you’re developing your case statement so that it has wide appeal, okay? And and sort of flushing out why people, why they give on dh sometimes i think non-profits find that people are giving for reasons that the non-profit itself doesn’t really realize absolutely sometimes you can be too close to an issue, and it takes the outside perspective and people who are actually giving to tell you what mate motivates them to give and that should be reflected in this written document that you’re going to show to prospective new donors. Um, and the case statement is shown sort of in what respect? I mean, how how is how is the tool house that used once you do have it crafted? Finally, how is that used in soliciting gifts from individuals? Right? I think it can be used in a variety of different ways. You can bring it with you, certainly on a first visit or a second visit and with when you’re meeting an individual for the first or second time to tell them about the organization tto learn more about them and what they’re giving interests are why? They might be interested in your organization and let them have it as a take away so that it can re emphasize your conversation and fully explain and writing. Why your organization’s important? But you would never well, i’ll ask it this way. Would you ever just say male or email a case statement to someone in lieu of a meeting? No, i mean, that defeats the purpose of the relationship building component. I mean, i guess there probably are exceptions for an organization that’s fund-raising across the country and perhaps doesn’t have the resources to send staff for board members to visit donors, you know, in other states, yes, you could develop a long distance relationship in those cases, i would mail it, but usually you want represented in person, you know, because you want to be having a conversation with talk about those relationship building steps, but it’s a zoo suggested sort of leave behind, right? Tio personal conversation? Sure. Okay. Um, so, let’s, since we’re talking about those personal interactions, those personal meetings, how do you start, too? Develop the people that you’re going. Teo asked to meet for you. Meet with you. So if you are doing just events and an institutional grant grantwriting how do you start to develop a list of people that you can hopefully talk to her at least start, you know, start to ask to talk to right? Well, there’s four steps in the fund-raising process on the first one is identification identification of new prospects or potential donors, so when you’re starting out an individual giving program, aye, the first thing i have organizations do when they’re trying to do this is look in their database, and hopefully they do have a list of supporters and previous donors, and so looking for two things in that database, one is obvious to most people it’s, their largest donors, although i cautioned them toe look at cumulative giving all that over the course of the year because if you’re looking at one time gif ts you may have somebody who gives multiple times over the course of the year, and even though none of their individual gifts are large once you combine them, obviously they turn out to be a larger donors than some people who donate one time during the year, but also important is to look in your database for loyal donors if you have any longevity or history donorsearch history in your database, safer five or ten years of giving anybody who’s given for more than five years in the last five or six years, even if their donation level is lower, i would consider a high priority of somebody that you want to get to know so that those so your databases one way hope hopefully you have some donordigital records to look at other ways. Of course they’re going to your board members and finding out who they might know who might be interested in getting to know your organization. So so the board’s roll wait, why don’t we start to talk about that? The board’s role in fund-raising you’ve just touched on one important part of it bringing people to the organization absolutely a huge part of the board’s, responsibility and fund-raising is what we say call opening doors and introducing people to the organization boardmember czar, the ambassadors of the organization and there to sort of spread the word tell the community about how wonderful your organization is, really talk it up and introduce people to the executive director and development staff and the organization. In general, that wouldn’t necessarily have those connections if it weren’t for the board members. So if you’re going to make this shift no into individual giving, you need to have bored support, absolutely. And what if? What if you sort of get bored support for the concept? But then when it comes down to asking the board members who do you know who can you bring to the next event? Who can you bring to meet the executive rector there, then reluctant to do it? What do we do? Right? I think it’s a major challenge that lots of organizations face getting the board members bought in and involved and engaged, and so there are a couple of different things to do. Won is a lot of board training and coaching, board retreats and development and talking about it so that people start to feel comfortable with the idea of introducing people to the organization, but also making sure that they understand that this is donor-centric fund-raising and we are not going to be asking people for money who don’t show an interest in the organization it’s really about communicating their passion about the organ ization to their friends. And colleagues and neighbors. And if those people respond positively that they’re also interested in the organization, then we can take it down the road of a potential donation. But it’s not like every but name that they bring to the table is going to get asked for donations. Some people just aren’t going to be interested and that’s okay, so you have to raise that comfort level with your board, and you can do that in the way. As you mentioned. Yeah. Okay. In developing again. We’re talking about identifying the prospects. Can a list of people who have come to your events cannot be a place to start? Absolutely. And we would look at those people who have given they might fall into that category or people who’d come to other events, possibly fundraisers or non fundraisers. And they should definitely be added to the list. Do the records. You alluded a couple times to the donor database. Does it have to be a computer database? Suppose this is a small, really small shop, and they’re not that sophisticated, you know, maybe they have index cards or something like that. I mean, if you worked with that, what? Do we do? Yeah, this day and age, i think that everybody should be computerized at this point, even if it’s microsoft access, which is a perfectly fine database to start with, it does not have to be a fund-raising software database that you paid for that’s, right? And so actually was at a client yesterday, and they have their donordigital basin access and for right now, that’s fine that’s more than adequate for the size organization that they are, but i was concerned and ask them if they’re donorsearch files were in boxes in paper, and i was relieved to hear that it wasn’t and microsoft access which it should be computerized this day and age several weeks ago, on a regular feature that we have where scott koegler he’s, the editor of non-profit technology news, comes on and talked about technology for non-profits and many shows ago several shows ago hey talked about cloud computing and how there are there are companies that have cloudgood based fund-raising software with ad on modules, maybe for events and for finance. Obviously, security is a concern, but i was surprised to hear that the cost of those is quite affordable, even the smallest shop it’s true, actually, lots of those internet based or cloud based. I don’t really know the difference, but software programs they charge by the number of records, and so if you have less than five hundred records or thousand records, they’re very inexpensive and totally affordable. That’s identification. So what? What did you say is the next step after identification is cultivation, innovation and how often or what are what are some steps around cultivation? Now that we’ve got? We’ve identified some people, sure, so cultivation is the relationship building process in between when you’ve identified perspective donors and before, of course, you asked them for money so it’s getting to know the person on dh, educating them about your organization. But the important part about cultivation, i think, is that it’s not one way it’s, not just the organization or a representative from the organization telling the donor prospect all about the organization it’s really asking lots of open ended questions about that perspective potential donor to get to know them, too. So examples of cultivation activities would be going out to coffee, the executive director or development staff or boardmember with that perspective donor xero organization, if that’s appropriate, it would bring be bringing them to an event, whether it’s a fundraising event or ah graduation or something that your organization does on a regular basis. So those air, different types of cultivation activities, i’m with a b eisenstein, and amy is the author of fifty asks in fifty weeks and she’s also the principal of tripoint fund-raising tripoint fund-raising dot com. Amy, a lot of charities have really sort of heartstring missions, and so that if they can bring people in to see the work that they’re doing, i would think that that’s gonna be really valuable. Absolutely, i mean, if you can bring people on a tour that is some of the best ways to cultivate donors to really learn about them, but also have them learn about your organization. So if you’re a school or an environmental organization, or if you have something to show that’s a wonderful way, hospital is a wonderful way to show prospective donors exactly what you d’oh it’s a bit more challenging with other organizations, such as a domestic violence shelter. You wouldn’t have anything to tour because it’s a confidential location and you have to be a little more creative with your cultivation opportunities, but you can definitely do it for all different types of organizations and let’s, talk about the details of this so let’s say you had a willing board. Okay, so on the ah boardmember has identified let’s, say three or four people what’s the process for from getting that person from what we’re called, what you’re calling identification to cultivation, who asked them who invites them to come? And you’ve already identified lots of things you could invite them to, but how’s it actually done sure well, in the ideal scenario, if a boardmember identifies somebody, a friend or a colleague has somebody that they would like to introduce to the organization, you would have that boardmember call and invite them either to coffee with the exec director or the development person or to the event or to a tour. So in the ideal scenario, a boardmember would reach out to their connection and invite them tto learn more about the organization and whatever way, in a less than ideal situation weather when a boardmember perhaps doesn’t know the person you want to cultivate, maybe a donor, a private prior donor to your organization boardmember could still reach out on call or development person or eggs negative director could call and say, you know, we want to thank you for your prior giving, and we’d liketo get to know you a little bit more. Introduced you more to the organization update you what have you on? Bring them in that way. Do you find that let’s say, for this first cultivation meeting that that something group setting is better because it’s less off putting to the person, or is it better to try to meet them individually and get them to get to know them one on one in that first instance, yeah, i think you want to do a combination of activities is probably the most appropriate, and it is going to depend on the individual if they’re willing to meet one on one that’s, a great way to introduce them to the organization. But if they’re more comfortable coming to a group activity that’s perfectly appropriate, too, so so maybe have, ah, couple of things to choose from. I mean, when you’re actually someone’s, actually making the invitation, maybe there’s a couple of things? Yeah, absolutely. I have three or four things on my list in front of board members you know the upcoming events, so one possibility is a tour. One possibility is the next fund-raising event, and one possibility is coffee with the executive director and sort of let them throw them out. What, however, the conversations going and invite them, and then if the person doesn’t want to come tto one they can say, well, how about something else? Andi just didn’t like thirty seconds or so we have before the break. I suppose i don’t want to come to anything supposed, the person says no, do we ignore them from now on? Or is there some other way we can still try? Yeah, i think definitely putting them on your mailing list so that they start to receive hopefully newsletters or emails about upcoming events, your annual report, those type of things and then trying again and six months or so they may have changed their mind, maybe their schedule was busy or whatever the case may be, i would give it a few more tries before stopping completely. Okay, excellent that’s a great leading to what we’re going to talk about after the break and after tony’s, take two, which is some of the direct mail, the bulk solicitation, a cz you call them in the book. My guest is amy eisenstein, the author of fifty asks. And fifty weeks after this break, it’s, 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 fridays 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 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 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 welcome back to tony martignetti non-profit radio at roughly thirty two minutes into the hour. It’s time for this week’s edition of tony’s take two my block post is called six tips to mastering your fund-raising relationships, my block is that m p g a d v dot com, and i want to touch on just three of them. Last week, i talked about three talk about three others quickly today, and you can always read mohr at the at the at the blogged getting out of the office if you’re talking about fund-raising relationships and my guest today, amy has made this point. If you’re too distracted by administrative tasks or sometimes volunteer, you know, sort of committee work, then you need to do what you can’t extricate yourself. Delegate, plead with your boss, stop volunteering, maybe so that you can spend more time out of the office, actually developing relationships that lead to the types of activities that amy and i are going to be talking about solicitation and then stewardship so spend time out of the office if your if your job is fund-raising you should be out of the office, i think more than half the time and there are a lot of people who think, you know, seventy five percent of the time you should be on the road, meeting people where they work, where they live, where they play to build those relationships, make introductions i love to see, and i always encouraging clients to use the non-profit thatyou’re fund-raising for as a leverage to bring people in and and connect them. So in events are you introducing donors to other donors and they don’t necessarily have to be in the same same profession? I guess they could be that there could be synergy there, but they don’t necessarily have to be they both people because they’re at your event love your work, so get them talking about your work. Are you introducing not only donors to donors but prospects to donors? Who better to tell the story of the great work that you’re doing? Then somebody was already supporting it? And who better to encourage additional people to do that? So be willing to make those introductions use the organization as the connection point and you’re the connector on dh. The third one i’ll talk about is just, you know, be good to people, if this is fund-raising relationship building, people like to be treated with respect and, you know, i blogged about and talked about a few weeks ago multitasking when you’re on the phone and how off putting that can be and how insincere it comes across on the phone, you want to avoid things like that, and i think basically just treat people the way you’d like to be treated, and that will help you in building sincere, honest relationships. And of course, we all know that, you know, people give to charities they love that are represented by people who they like, and they’re more likely to like you if they feel that you have ah, that’s sort of a sincere, honest relationship with them. So the blood and the block post is six tips to mastering your fund-raising relationships. And the other thing i wanted to mention is just that a style consultant image consultant friend ofmine dubbed me a profile in awesomeness, and you could see a video about that on my block. The post there is called i’m a profile in what that is tony’s take two for friday, april first and with me waiting patiently. As i talked a little longer than i usually do for tony’s, take two is amy eisenstein, the author of fifty asks in fifty weeks and principle of tripoint fund-raising amy, welcome back from that verbose break. Thank you, tony. Amy was able to go to the bathroom, go get coffee, came back with some danish lunch for the whole office in the time that i was talking to tony stick too. So we left before the break, talking about those starting to think about direct mail and and book solicitations. So what? What what advice do you have around thinking about using direct mail? Okay, so i’m going to get to that in a minute, but i just want to go back for one second to something you just mentioned in tony’s take too, and that is about being out of the office fifty or seventy percent of the time. So i think that that is accurate and appropriate, where you might have a major gifts officer or somebody who’s working on individual solicitations full time now, in my book, we’re talking two small development shop people who are doing everything they’re doing the grantwriting the event planning the newsletter, writing and all everything in between and so they’re going to have a much smaller portfolio of individual donors. So they do need to be out of the office asking a fair amount. But they are going to be in the office more than perhaps someone who’s asking for individual gifts as their full time job. Okay, excellent. Thank you for keeping that in context. And also, teo, to keep things in context, we want to be sure that people understand that your book is about not at campaign consultant, not campaign fund-raising or major gift fund-raising but it’s more about building the your initial list or your annual fund list. That’s, right? And so right. I just wanted to clarify thank you. Clarify the point that this individual asking that were encouraging people to do is really about increasing and enhancing your annual fund. It’s not about going out and getting major gifts or campaign gifts for the first time. You’re trying this stuff, so it might be a five hundred dollar donation or five thousand dollars donation towards your annual fund and that’s perfectly good to dio with individual asking. Yeah, yeah. And of course, the definition. Of a major gift varies by organization, but if we’re talking to a small shop oppcoll a sze yu said yu know fifty or even five hundred? Maybe even fifty dollars might be a sizable gift when it’s the first one that the individual has made right. And yes, we’re keeping things in context here and amy’s keeping my feet to the fire, keeping me honest, okay, so let’s talk so let’s talk about using direct mail or the book you call them book solicitations, right? Bulk solicitation, so by that i mean both traditional male as well as email. So i just think it’s important for small shop organizations to be continuously in contact with their supporters, their donors, their list via email and traditional male, and have unorganized calendar at the beginning of each year of when they’re going to be sending out email solicitations and when they’re going to be sending out mail solicitations and not just have it randomly happened when you happen to get to it but have a planned out schedule in advance on dh with the price of mail and email these days. There’s really no excuse for non-profits don’t not to be. Emailing their donors it’s so cost effective, but also it’s critically important to continually have some sort of system of mail solicitations as well traditional mail solicitations. Okay? And actually next week’s guest is going to talk about email marketing and best principles in the practices and email marketing. So now we’ve moved from we’re moving now from cultivation to solicitation, the next step in the fourth step process, right with individuals? How do you write that letter? Let’s get started, we’ll have lots of questions for you, but how do you write the letter that asks for support? Okay, so we’re talking about bulk mail, so you’re talking about a letter, but if you’re doing the individual solicitation, you’re going to do it face to face, so we’re going to talk about two different things bulk mail, letter? Absolutely. I hope most non-profits have their end of the year campaign, and that would come as a mail solicitation and so having a well written letter, obviously from very basic things like no grammatical errors, no spelling errors, but really, that tells the story of your organisation, what you accomplished that that year and some success stories, individuals, success stories. Even more importantly than all the statistics of your organisation, but talk about that one individual whose life you really impacted, so that goes a long way. Okay, do you have ah, is there a rule? Or do you have a rule about the length of the solicitation and what should be in the in the mail? And again we’ll get we’ll get to the individual face-to-face too, but showing his book male what do your tips about length and inserts and things like that? Yeah, i think opinion varies on length of letter, you know, i’ve heard everything from one to two to four pages i think is good strong one, two, two page letter is my personal preference, and you absolutely need to include a business reply envelope, something for people to send back their donation in s o that’s critical, don’t send the letter without a reply envelope, because the donations just won’t come back and and so we’re talking about the traditional male but also email it’s important teo email, solicit your donors and as well. Of course, more and more people are giving online these days, so you need to have a link that brings them to a place where they can donate right online with a credit card and there’s so many affordable options these days to donate with credit cards online. There’s no excuse for a non-profit not to have the ability to have people donate to them online with a credit card. How would we go about getting those email addresses since this is our this is our initial foray into individual giving? Where do we get that from? Yeah, i think start building your list by asking your current list in the mail for their e mail addresses. You’ll get a few that way asking for board members to start collecting email addresses of friends and family that want to receive your emails collecting them every time you do an event or an outreach or give a tour. Of course, you can only solicit by email or send e mails to people who willingly opt into your list so you don’t want to be sending e mails or spamming toe anybody that doesn’t opt in to your list, but collecting them that way, just like you would collect traditional emails, are addresses and add them to your database. Okay, who should? The letter or the e mail come from that’s. An excellent question. I think that you can change it up. Ideally a volunteer. So from a boardmember you’re bored president or the fund-raising chair, but it can. Some of them can come from the executive director, but mostly volunteer. You’d rather see a volunteer someone who’s already supporting in a different way. Absolutely. Okay, let’s, talk a little about the face-to-face solicitation. Ah, now, i know you have a lot of ideas about that in the book. What were your thoughts initially about that kind of meeting? Yeah, i think you know, when people talk about not wanting to fund-raising especially boardmember zor volunteers, this is actually the part of fund-raising that they think of as all fund-raising it’s, the ask and it’s only a ce, you know, one moment in time, one meeting as a compared to the whole fund-raising process. And so we need need to really break it down and simplify it for board members and volunteers who are going to be helping with this. But basically, it should be done in a face-to-face setting, not over a meal, preferably as many people newbies make the mistake. Of wanting to go to a restaurant because they think it’s great to go to lunch, but it really is challenging when the waiter interrupts or you’re trying to chew or eat or decide whatever the restaurant can be loud and their comm in the, you know, hearing issues, so it’s also it’s a public place and you might be talking about you’re going to be talking about, which will get two dollars in dollars and cents, right? So a meeting in the home or office of the person that you’re asking if if they’re willing to that’s where they’re most at ease, but otherwise in the organization’s office, or maybe at the board member’s office, where everybody feels comfortable, sort of neutral territory and set up that meeting to have a conversation about asking them, inviting them to support the annual fund and hopefully a boardmember will be with you explaining that they already supported the annual fund. Amy eisenstein is with me. She is the author of fifty asks and fifty weeks when we come back from this break, we’ll talk more about the individual face-to-face solicitation stay with us 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 eyes thisyou, 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. N y c dot com 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 marketing. Their motto is. We do whatever it takes to make our clients happy. Contact them today at mission one one media dot com. Talking dot com. No. Welcome back. We’re talking about small and midsize shop fund-raising with amy eisenstein, the author of fifty asks and fifty weeks and amy before the break, we were talking about that individual solicitation meeting. Um, who should be in that meeting? Yeah, ideally, it should be a boardmember and the executive director that’s the ideal scenario for an individual meeting. But whoever has the best relationship with the person you’re going to be asking for money needs to be there on dh two is the right number it’s easier to have a conversation with three people than it is just one on one and that way? Also, somebody from the organization can be listening and asking good questions while two people dialogue okay on dh. So aside from the board, members should be the executive director or the fundraiser. Ideally, it should be the executive director. The executive director is the visionary of the organization and the face of the organization, and if you’re asking someone for a substantial donation at whatever level, they will want to be hearing from the executive director, if the executive director either isn’t available or is unwilling or is not the person the relationship has been built with then it can be a fund-raising staff person. What do you think about rehearsing this meeting beforehand? Yeah, i think rehearsal is really important. We do role playing with clients all the time before they get ready to go for an ask board members definitely need to be coached and practice with role playing and no who’s going to be doing which part of the meeting the meeting needs to be introduced and the ask needs to be made and you need to know in advance, who’s going to be doing what? Okay, so you’re not stepping on each other and looking sort of amateurish, right? Okay, plus, do you find the rehearsal? Just reduces people’s anxiety about it or doesn’t make the more anxious but it’s still necessary to do. Yeah, i think for the most part, it relieves anxiety because they know what to expect. Some people are just going to be nervous, no matter what you d’oh. But after one or two asks, go well, then they’re not nervous anymore than it’s fun. Excellent. And it ought to be mean, right? Because we’re trying to get support for a mission that we all love that’s, right? It should be fun. You make a very important point in the book about after the actual ask is made. So a person who’s asked for a dollar amount or arrange what’s what’s your point there that you’re very precise about in the book. Yeah, after the ask is out on the table, the askar is need to be quiet, i assume that’s what you’re referring neo-sage once you ask say, i’m asking, will you please consider joining me? Dahna in supporting the after school program in the range of two thousand dollars that’s the ask? Then you have to be quiet. The person that speaks first, as we say, loses, and so if you speak first, you’re likely to backpedal and say, oh, i know that’s a lot of money during the period when the donor is thinking about what they were just asked to do. The oscars need to be quiet because i’m sorry i dropped your brothers want make sure people are saying this is the hesitation period and what might i had asked her do if if they if they do blurt something out, right, right, they’re likely to back pedal, so you’re right after you ask, you need to be quiet no matter how long it takes for the person you’ve just asked to respond, whether it takes ten seconds or so five minutes, they need to think about it, process it, and you need to be ready to listen to whatever they have to say. Whether it’s yes, no, or maybe we’re going to assume that you’re asked goes well, and the person gives in the range that they were. They were just solicited because i want to spend a few minutes thinking about the next steps stewardship saying that important thank you, what’s your advice there, let’s, say it’s now that we’ve just left the meeting what’s our what’s our what? How do we start stewardship right after the meeting ends in success? Sure. Well, of course you’ve thanked the donor right before you’ve left them for the meeting. But then you go back to the office and you craft thank you note and maybe you have a draft of one written advance, but the thank you note should go out soon after the meeting. They probably haven’t handed you a check in most cases. So it’s thank for the thank you for the meeting, and we’re excited that you’re, you know, committed to supporting this activity or project or whatever, and we look forward to talking to against soon or whatever the case may be. Or you can give even details about the gift that they’ve just promised to make. And then, of course, another thank you needs to go out after the gift comes in, but thank you can be done in many ways, in person, by phone and e mail all sorts of ways by multiple people. Okay, so not just the boardmember who invited the person or not? Just the ceo, but multiple multiple thank you’s from different people. Sure, especially if there were two people at the meeting there should be. Thanks. You know, a written formal. Thank you from the organization can come from the boardmember or the executive director and the other one can call and thank or send an email. Sure. Okay. And how about after that? Now the gift has been received. We wantto cultivating the person. Probably for their next gift. Whenever that might be. We’re not everything about the timing of that. But just so how do we continue? Stewardship so that we can lead into cultivation again cultivation in seoul station again? Sure, you know, clearly you want to be inviting them to other cultivation of events, but in terms of thanking the person in six months or a year, whenever is appropriate, you want to write to them, thanked them again, and let them know what their money has done for the organization and that’s, a really critical piece that lots of organizations either forget or missed and that’s letting the donor know how important their gift was to your organization after it’s been used. Okay, what the actual outcome was in terms of maybe telling a story about the person who had helped. I mean, in that kind of detail, absolutely. If you can do that, or say what the organization’s been able to accomplish with their donation and others, you know, many times their donation hasn’t funded the whole program, our project, but thank them for their donation and the part that it played in making your organization a success this year. I also like the idea of remembering the gift anniversary, the one year point from the time that the person made the gift. What do you think about that? Yeah, i think that’s a great time, except for that you may be at that point ready to ask them for their next gift, so maybe six or eight months in, you want to thank them for their gift again and let them know how it’s going or what it’s being used for, and so that at that year point, you’re ready to ask for the next gift. Okay? And that is where we have to leave it from. Getting from the first gift to the next gift. And my guest has been amy eisenstein, the author of fifty asks and fifty weeks a guide to better fund-raising for your small development shop and she’s also the principal of tripoint fund-raising at tripoint fund-raising dot com amy, thanks very much for coming to the studio. Thanks, tony it’s been a pleasure to have you next week. As i mentioned earlier email marketing, my guest will be dave pulis principle of granite partners and he’s going to share five elements of effective email marketing and have tips for list hygiene. You shouldn’t want to be working with an unhygienic list that sounds gross, he’ll keep your list clean? I hope you’ll be part of that conversation next friday. Keep up with what’s coming up on tony martignetti non-profit radio. Sign up for our insider email alerts on our facebook page it’s, facebook dot com, of course, and then just the name of the show. While you’re there, please click like and become a fan of the show itunes, you can subscribe, download automatically download and listen on the device of your choice. Iphone, ipad, other tablet computer, that’s all at non-profit radio dot net, we’ll take you to our itunes paige, the creative producer of tony martignetti non-profit radio is claire meyerhoff, our line producer and the owner of talking alternative broadcasting is sam liebowitz. 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