Unknown Speaker 0:03 Good afternoon or late morning everyone. This is Tim Sarrantonio, head of partnerships and business development at neon one today. I am excited excited for today's presentation by the registrations. So are you. Unknown Speaker 0:21 So few housekeeping items before I hand it over to Sherry qualm Taylor. Unknown Speaker 0:27 And our presentation on how to attract start attracting and securing larger donations from individuals. Today's session, as always is being recorded. That recording will go up probably later today, no later than tomorrow on our website at neon, one calm under the resources section for events. Unknown Speaker 0:50 And so the slides will be available there as well. But they are available in the handout section of Go To Webinar. Unknown Speaker 1:04 For some reason, our last webinar did give us some trouble, though. So if that's not working for download, for some reason, don't worry, it will be on the website. Unknown Speaker 1:12 And Unknown Speaker 1:14 this is going to be a high impact inspirational discussion. So we're really excited to have Sherry join us today. And there will be time for questions. But I want to go ahead and test the q&a right now. So for folks as we file into the room for those of you who are here, if you can pop into the q&a, who you are and where you're talking to us from and then now it'll give us we got Lisa from Yuma Arizona. 310 It's not three tenants. 202 but Unknown Speaker 1:51 is this gonna be a we're gonna see your skills here? calling up? Oh, excellent. We got Angela from Seattle. Leisha, from Des Moines. Andrea, also from Seattle. We got Oh, we got to hook you. You folks up. LAUREL from Buffalo. Hello, I'm talking Oh, Montauk. Oh, but you're in Florida. Oh, Sarah. tough life. Unknown Speaker 2:12 Awesome. No, no, no, that's great. Great that people are traveling to Corning. I'm talking to you from niskayuna New York. Actually, Sherry, where are we talking to you from? Chicago? 312. Absolutely. I should be there later this summer. We'll have to get Unknown Speaker 2:28 we get and from Arizona. And Kimberly from north of Boston. Awesome. Awesome. We got Rodney from Minneapolis. Got Jim. So very cool. And of course, we got to talk about Donna from Ottawa, Canada. Neon one does serve over 35,000 organizations across multiple geographic zones. So I'm really, really happy to have all of you here. Okay, so I'm going to be paying attention to the chat, you're going to see this face, thankfully, turn off. And I'm gonna hand it over to Sherry Sherry, please take it away and tell us how to start attracting those larger gifts. Good. Let's let's jump right in. So today we're talking about individual donations and securing and attracting larger individual donations. Because most people come to me and are like, how do we find them? How do we like it's a bit of a mystery as to how we will accomplish that. And so there's typically some commonality, or similar stories to people who sign up for a webinar, or what am I teaching Unknown Speaker 3:36 opportunities with a title like this? Oftentimes, you know, and maybe this is what maybe this is you, oftentimes, it's that you've kind of been raising the same amount of money for the last few years, like, you can grow your growth is inevitable, but it's not at the rate that you would want. Oftentimes, it's, especially this year, it's like, oh, we actually had a killer year last year, everybody, you know, stood up to the plate and, and joined us. But now how do we sustain it? Right? How do we actually retain those donors? How do we how do we make sure those donors Unknown Speaker 4:10 were like we can lead them to their best gift, it wasn't just a one time thing. On the other side, let me be the flip side of that story is maybe 2020. Like so many people showed you that you were too dependent on one thing. We've been too dependent on our government contracts and event about, you know, some significant foundation gifts, one big funder, right, whatever it was, at the end of the day, and probably all of those scenarios, Unknown Speaker 4:40 you've maybe find yourself feeling like, gosh, we need more unrestricted revenue, we really need the flexibility, that individual giving can provide so you can invest in your organization and and really grow, how you see fit and have your your revenue growth aligned with those Unknown Speaker 5:00 Amazing goals in your strategic plan. So as I said, I am Cherie, I'm talking to you from 312 area code here. And I started, you know, over a decade ago, migrating from my corporate career into the nonprofit sector. And the organization I started working for I had quite a bit of success in scaling their individual cutting program, we actually tripled the funding in 18 months. Super fun, super wild riders, as you can imagine, here's the here's why I tell you this story. from the get go. So much, couldn't didn't add up, right, I actually found that there was amazing missions, they were struggling to grow, which doesn't totally add up, right. And I found that a lot of the maybe traditional models or traditional approaches that I saw everybody doing and frankly, was was given that advice, Unknown Speaker 5:51 was actually keeping them from scaling and growing their missions and keeping them from securing the money they needed to invest in the whole part of the organization. And so, kind of approaching that from a fresh set of eyes or a you know, seeing it differently. I really started, you know, I left I left that organization and started my own business, as soon thereafter to help nonprofit CEOs really see how Unknown Speaker 6:18 how they could actually set up their organizations to attract donors, who would give them unrestricted gifts, which would help them grow, how they can actually put a plan in place to scale at a higher rate, and scale that unrestricted revenue at a higher rate. And so that's what I have the privilege of doing today. So I help nonprofit CEOs who are killing it, you guys are killing it, it's really the most fun part of my job. Unknown Speaker 6:45 I help them but they need more money, right. And so I help them and their teams really learn how to shift into the activities, the model that fully funds our organization. And when I say fully fund, I mean enough unrestricted funding for programs and overhead, my absolute favorite work. So today, specifically, Unknown Speaker 7:08 I want to tell you what we're going to what we're going to cover. And I will also say to you, I always hope that it's a little bit of a different angle than maybe you thought you were, we were hopping on a webinar for, because I want to talk about the root of the issue. And I see so often that the root issues of how we've structured our models, structure or organization, Unknown Speaker 7:29 are actually the things that are keeping individuals from giving larger gifts to us, and keeping our revenue from scaling. So I want to show you, the three things that I have found that actually cause your organization's lending to plateau, or maybe caused it to not scale at the rate that you'd like it to. And I'm gonna show you how to avoid those. And then I want to talk about this concept, which is, which is the methodology I teach? I'm kind of letting you see that today. How do we shift out of some of those traditional may have worked for a long time in the past, but how do we actually move into a stronger model that puts our organizations revenue on that stronger trajectory of growth? And then Time is money. We all know that. And so I want to talk to you, whether you're the leader of the organization, you know, on the development team, whoever you are board member, Unknown Speaker 8:21 I want to make sure that we are being Unknown Speaker 8:25 very aware that our hours are dollars, right. And I want to make sure that we are spending enough time on the activities that actually start securing larger gifts. Okay, so if you're with me, I'm gonna roll right into this. I'm going to talk fast, but Tim's got my back on the chat. Okay, so I'm going to give you a flyover on how this methodology of my works. Unknown Speaker 8:48 And I'm also going to have a very small case study of my clients, and I'm going to share it at the end of this, to tie it all together. So there's a real challenge in the sector. And it's often Unknown Speaker 9:02 it's in their individual giving that I think is really a corporate of these numbers. And so when you look at the, you know, 1.5 $1.6 million dollar nonprofits in the States, 91% of organizations never reached that $5 million. Mark. That's kind of bonkers, isn't it? Like, I kind of feel like that's like, what, that's crazy, especially after last year when we had never needed you more. I mean, no one can, I don't think can disagree with that. We've never needed to do more. We need you to get what you need to actually accomplish your big missions in our communities or states or nations around the globe, frankly. And so, this I share the stat in every webinar I think I've ever done, because when I learned this, Unknown Speaker 9:49 it really caused me to study where and why organizations were getting stuck. Why was their funding plateau and why? Unknown Speaker 9:57 Why was it not? Why was the revenue not growing? Unknown Speaker 10:00 at the rate that they wanted it to. And it really came down to this individual giving that we're talking about today. And so I really found that we can whittle this down into three main reasons that are really causing individual giving to plateau. So I actually want to walk you through these, to make sure that you're super and hyper aware of them, so that you can make those course corrections if you need to. So with this first one, I'm just gonna invite you to jump into the deep end of the nonprofit pool with me. So we can talk about my absolute favorite work, which is overhead. Unknown Speaker 10:34 So hopefully, we're starting already in a place where we're perhaps you didn't think we were. So here's the scoop. I have organizations coming to me every week, who are struggling to grow struggling to increase their revenue. And I immediately go to their program percentages. And they're usually kind of hovering at that 90%. Mark, because guess what we've been told that's where we should be. Right? Well, here's the challenge with that. Unknown Speaker 11:01 Um, as I just said, 2020, and we're still you know, we're past it, I guess. But I am like embracing it as this. Let's really make sure that we leave some of the ways we were doing things, we were leaving those in the past. And there's many misconceptions in the sector that I believe the 2020 proved, should end. And here's here's the biggest one that I see this misconception that nonprofits should be able to do more on less. Unknown Speaker 11:32 But this doesn't make sense to me, right? And so we've been expected, or you have been expected to change lives, solve real problems, continue serving in times of crisis, change your model, in times of crisis serve more people in times of crisis. I don't need to tell you this. You've just lived this the last 18 months. But when we look at that, and we say, but to do more, like what if you need it, right? What if you needed you needed? unrestricted accessible cash? You needed that at the ready, right. But we're told, hold on, donors don't want to fund or donors only want to fund projects, right? Like, we need to make sure we package a project together. They don't want to fund overhead and salaries. Okay, so what do we do with that information? Right, like, you needed a big reserve, you need an unrestricted large reserve? No, but we're always in the back of our mind saying, oh, but I don't think we're going to get funding if we have too much money in the bank, that foundation won't fund us if we have more than three months, right? You can need that flexibility to say, oh, gee, I gotta I gotta keep my staff over. We have to have the flexibility to spend on overhead. But we're worried because we're told, donors don't want to fund salaries or rent, Unknown Speaker 12:46 cash, we've needed donors who understand the need, and want to invest large gifts in the mission. But we're always worried. Don't be too pushy. We don't want to be too and they give a big gift last year, I don't want to push them too much this year. Right. And, and always mentioned the board. And we're not specifically talking about board today. But Gosh, we need to eager to participate board, roll up our sleeves, and let's go I'm here with you. But so often, the board says I don't know, I don't know any matriarch, I don't have a connection. You know, what, who would I even connect you with, right? And so when we have all these, this the stress of these things in our head, you know, the problem is, you know, when we sit down to our desks, and we kind of say like, okay, now Today's the day, we gotta find more money there, find more individuals, I gotta hunt those people down. Unknown Speaker 13:36 You know, much of the advice that we get, and you know, the voices, and I'm part of that I do tend to have webinars and podcasts and suggest that there's actually kind of a, an easy, like, kind of magic path to the money, right? There's this secret sauce that will take us there. And so we try these things, right, we try so many of the ideas that everybody has, and there's a lot of them are good, right? Like, you know, things like Unknown Speaker 14:02 I wish because I'm in Chicago, I'm always throwing out you should throw it Oprah now I throw a chance the rapper, you know, we need the celebrity endorsement, right? We need that. I want my video to go viral. You know, we had to do our strategic plan first, like, all these are really good things. However, I'm being honest today. I think I'm always honest. But I want to ask you could I be honest, none of these things are actually going to solve the long term trajectory and stronger funding of our organization. Because Unknown Speaker 14:34 if it's the the model and the approach at the root that's broken, that's actually what's sabotaging your growth. These things are important. Okay, again, don't hear me any of that any of these other things are important or not important. But these things actually sometimes prolong the real changes you actually might need to make in your overall approach to funding your organization. And your Unknown Speaker 15:00 overall approach to funding the work every year. And when you do that, then you actually can attract different types of donors that are transformational for your organization. So I want you to think today about Unknown Speaker 15:13 maybe thinking from the root, like, let's look at the whole funding model, right. Because if we kind of rearrange, like, Oh, we should do one of these, we should add an event, we should remove an event we should, all of these things. Those are all good things, but we have to make sure they're rooted in a strong funding model in the first place. Now, Unknown Speaker 15:32 the number one thing that keeps nonprofits from being fully funded, is actually kind of buying into this, we just got to grind harder, we just got to try to do more on less and not spend more money on overhead and not spend, where we need to just figure out a way to do it better, with less resources. Unknown Speaker 15:53 We have to leave that in the past that type of mindset and people expecting you to to fundraise in that in that world, that's actually what's keeping organizations from being funded. And so when we try to fundraise in that framework, trying to like fit all the pieces of the puzzle together and can't figure out why we're not generating revenue. Unknown Speaker 16:15 That's never going to work. What we need to do is look at creating an overall financing plan, how would we create an overall financing plan that actually achieves our mission? that actually gives us all the money we need for program, admin, and fundraising. So we're talking about raising more money from individuals and Unknown Speaker 16:39 part of this big shift of, you know, that I'm talking about and maybe maybe approaching your model or your the activities that you're doing a little bit different way. Unknown Speaker 16:51 Is is sometimes scary for people, sometimes it's scary for the board. But I want to say to you Unknown Speaker 16:57 2020 showed us We can't wait anymore, right? We can't wait any more to to level up and to be approaching our funding in a more sophisticated way. I'm going to challenge us all to learn to to lean into that feeling that is sometimes it feels risky, but it's not risky. We have to push against a lot of the sector's misconceptions are actually sabotaging our growth back to my overhead. Here's the groundwork I'd love for you. There has to come a time Unknown Speaker 17:27 when you make a conscious decision to invest in overhead. Right. And so you are raising more money from individuals Unknown Speaker 17:36 as way more to do with your leadership's approach and comfort level with I guess, risk right, the risk that feels like Dicky, when it's like, I guess we got to invest in overhead, or we guess we got to hire that person, I hope they can make their money, right? Because when my clients start investing, tools, resources, systems, tasks, how did you how to build capacity building, right. And we stopped spending as much on programs so that we can spend more money on fundraising and admin. Look what happens, we start scaling. And so a key part of you scaling your revenue, and investing in the types of things that attract individual donors for a period of time is, is really can impact your revenue, way more than you might think. And so a lot of times, I'm even called to, you know, a potential client meeting. It's like, what are the fundraising things you can teach me to do? And I can teach you how to sit down and, you know, make six figure asks and have that investment level conversation. But that's not where we have to start. We have to start with the infrastructure, and the model to make sure you're spending on the right things that actually attract the types of donors who want to invest in our mission. Unknown Speaker 19:00 There's this phrase I kept, I have to say it, Tim, maybe you saw me posting on LinkedIn about it. There's, there's this new phrase I heard on the podcast, and it was new, but I was new to me. In this this financial manager was saying that she she struggled with irrational frugality. It's a rational, we can't afford that. Well, actually, can we like I sometimes I struggle with that personally, like we can't go on that vacation. Well, maybe we could actually. So sometimes we as a sector struggle from this irrational frugality, when actually your organization will grow once we started investing more money. So you have to be spending in all three key areas, right your programs and in fundraising, there's going to be years when you are spending 90 and programs, there's going to be yours when you should only be spending 70 in programs because you need to put gas in the engine. Because if you're not investing in all three areas, it's going to leave you vulnerable to this funding plateau, which is what we're talking Unknown Speaker 20:00 Well, it actually leaves you landlocked opportunities that come your way. But we can't partner with that group, I don't, we don't have money. Oh, I love to hire that board member who says, now they want to work for us, we don't have the money, right. And it really it leaves us at risk in times of crisis. So the truth I want you to hear today is when you invest in all three areas of your organization, you actually raise more charitable revenue. And here's what I see all the time. So Unknown Speaker 20:28 this comment that I hear of like, we couldn't ever do that, because the board wants as much money to go to program as possible this year, or we can't do that our percentages will be screwed, will be skewed. Unknown Speaker 20:40 Well, in this exact example, is that is a client of mine. Where were they investing more in program, Unknown Speaker 20:48 doubled the dollar. So don't be handcuffed by the percentage conversation. Unknown Speaker 20:56 Think of who you're think of who Unknown Speaker 21:00 an individual donor is, think of the types of donors we're trying to attract. These are entrepreneurs, these are individuals who are leading successful companies. These are community leaders. These are people who have probably sat and asked for an investment before in their lives. They've had to ask for money. They understand this. They understand that you have to spend money to make money. So lean into these conversations, and do not be afraid anymore of this whole overhead discussion. Welcome it, bring it up in meetings. I know that sounds crazy. So when people say to me, oh, gosh, I hope they don't ask me about the percentages. Unknown Speaker 21:41 Why not? Tell them how you're purposefully bringing it down to 75. So that these things can happen. So I can do this. Because in three years, it'll be this and we'll be able to serve twice as many people, you got to know your numbers, you have to be able to hold your own, in that CEO to CEO conversation, to lead a donor to their best gift. I get real excited talking about overhead. Okay, so next thing, and it's it's tying into this concept, so that the three things I told you that really caused that plateau. So the second thing, and I love talking about this, which is a little crazy, because I'm going to talk about budgeting. Unknown Speaker 22:19 The second thing that keeps organizations from scaling, and raising more money from from individuals, is when they're raising to their budget and not their need. Unknown Speaker 22:29 What in the world do I mean by that? So in you know, post 2020, this has never been a greater topic of conversation. And it doesn't matter if you're a to your my like $2 million client who you know, is really deep in the hustle in the in the growth, or your, you know, my $40 million client who has Mackenzie Scott money. This is literally a principle that I played at Every Size organization. And it's actually more of a mindset shift in how back at the beginning of the fiscal year. I know, a lot of people are ending their fiscal year today, congratulations. Unknown Speaker 23:05 But that annual planning and budgeting, what do I mean by that? Unknown Speaker 23:10 We have to make sure that you're that you Unknown Speaker 23:14 may say that again. I asked a trick Trick question to most people. Oh, I don't mean to be tricky. But I am kind of asking a trick question. I'll say what is your budget? Unknown Speaker 23:24 And I usually get a lot of Well, we're hoping we could be at this this year. We'd love to be at this right. And so a lot of that is oftentimes rooted into in setting our plant annual plans in our budget based on Well, if we had the money, we would we would do these things. And we'd love to be at this number, right? Unknown Speaker 23:45 I want us to think about shifting that to here's actually what we need to accomplish our mission. Unknown Speaker 23:51 And I'm not talking about it's triple I'm just let's just add zeros. No, that's not what I'm saying. But so many people come to me, who are who, you know, their their budget says let's just say $6 million. Right? And then and and then their income on their budget says 5.7. Like, I don't know, that's what we have committed. So we'll see we'll roll that we'll see how this goes. Right. Unknown Speaker 24:16 There's a difference between your budget your board approved budget and then need your reason to. This is huge. This is huge. So I would ask you, maybe they'll ask you the same question like, what is your financial need this year? For those of you who are starting your fiscal years? are you raising to your budget was just always in reactive mode. always hope we can get there. are you raising to your need? Unknown Speaker 24:39 Right, are we raising to the number that's going to inspire investment level donors, help us know what activities we need to do to hit our need, you know, and proactively lead those activities versus our budget. And I'm going to tell you, most organizations who come to me are not fully funded, don't have enough for Unknown Speaker 25:00 overhead mn an programs Unknown Speaker 25:04 are plateaued and frankly, aren't raising high enough levels of unrestricted funding because of their approach to planning and budgeting. Unknown Speaker 25:14 Because it's too much in reactive mode. And so I'll ask you like, there are things and back to my like, we'll just try to do more unless there are things that we are sometimes afraid to put in the budget, because I was like, Oh, my gosh, how are we going to do that? But if we put them in the budget, it actually would help us raise more money. Maybe it's a systems type of thing. You don't visit donor management software, right? Maybe it's technology, maybe it's, it's, you know, you're a volunteer, did your brand look a message 30 years ago, maybe it's this reserve fund, that got tapped out last year, or, gosh, you had three months going into 2020. And like, you got to get nine months in the bank, right? Unknown Speaker 25:57 If you if you're going to start securing larger gifts from individuals, investment level gifts, Unknown Speaker 26:04 you have to be able to articulate the need in investment level conversations. Unknown Speaker 26:10 The only time you can do that, and actually sit down and say, I'm so glad you asked. We actually we have an $8 million neat this year, could I kind of walk you through that? Right, as opposed to? Unknown Speaker 26:24 Well, we're hoping I mean, we were at 7.2 last year. So when we we'd love to get to that we're right, Which one is that? Which one, which one of those that I said is sounds like a better and more secure investment, right? Unknown Speaker 26:36 is only when you from the root of the organization, the organizational planning side of the realization, it's only when you've been honest with yourselves, and you really created a needs based budget, that that you can actually design a real financing plan to achieve that. Unknown Speaker 26:54 And so, so often we're designing fundraising and financing I call them financing plans, how are we gonna finance the work, right? Because then it tells us what fundraising activities we need to do that actually meets or exceeds that goal. So too often, I've organizations come to me where it's like, here's the here's the budget. So we'll just keep doing our, you know, regular events and keep kind of just trying to do more on less and just keep grinding, right. And the activities are actually misaligned with the true financing plan for the organization. And so when you do this part, right, when we can make the shift, and actually create a realistic financing plan, how does that work for donor segment? How does that work for activity? How does it tell us what time we should be spending on something over another activity or something we did five years ago? And like it's kind of seen its day, and maybe we need to shift that and what should our board be doing? Right? Unknown Speaker 27:55 It's a win this part is done, right? We really can shift as a fundraiser from, well, if we had the money, we would do these things, right, which is not attracting investment level donors, it's not attracting people to say, you sound different than other nonprofits Tell me more right? To actually raise and based on here's what we need to accomplish our mission, I'm really excited to share this with you, I'd love to sit down and walk you through that. When you can really embrace your fundraising and your model and your strategy in this way. You do move from that squeaked by budget that never gets funded. Also, say, the strategic plan that's sitting there, and it's like how we're going to fund this so satisfying for me, when people have gone through very robust strategic planning exercises, and then never really jazzed. And it's like, we never have money to do those awesome things, right. Unknown Speaker 28:46 But if we can really shift into a real budget that reflects what our organization's need, right, that actually includes everything we need for programs, admin, and overhead and reserve. We need it over running good businesses, we must do that. Unknown Speaker 29:05 Then from the income side, you know, we have this income projection that's like it's never high enough, right? It's never like how we get a match those two things right? Then you actually can create a true financing plan that is truly your whole departments and your boards, roadmap for what you should do, when you should do it. That actually brings you to a balanced budget, and actually helps you raise up and ahead and hit that number that made might feel elusive right now. But I see this happen all the time. It's the craziest concept. Unknown Speaker 29:40 You know, a lot of times people are confused when I'm talking about budgets so much when you came to hear about individual giving. I'm going to tell you, we have to have this clear fundraisers have to have this clear when we're sitting down and attracting investment level donors they have to see that we are the experts Unknown Speaker 30:00 They should give their money to. Now all it's worth adding. I'm not saying skip the stories, get the crisis, skip the image. I'm not saying any of that. But we have to move into deeper, more strategic conversations with our donors, so that we're attracting those donors who actually really value having those stakeholder conversations and can write checks that are that kind of reflect those stakeholder conversations right? Now, I'll make one comment here. Unknown Speaker 30:31 If you're on the development team, you know, and not the leader of the organization, welcome. Unknown Speaker 30:37 Sometimes this is really hard, because it's like, what I don't always have access to the budget, or I want to be in those meetings. I'm not invited into those meetings. Unknown Speaker 30:46 And I would say like, oh, my goodness, what a missed opportunity. Because I really see your role Unknown Speaker 30:54 as that co pilot of, no, here's the expenses your innovation needs. And then from the development team, we have to intimately understand those numbers and, and what that true need is, so that you know how to create a financing plan that actually matches that. And so it's a little baffled, baffled by the fact that sometimes the development teams are not let into those meetings, how will they be able to sit down and articulate that with investment level donors? How will they be able to sit down and answer sometimes the very tough questions about the percentages? Now I see you're not spending 90% on programs anymore? Will Tell me why. You have to know the answer. They have to know that plan that I started with, they have to know the organization's plan, from a growth perspective, from financial perspective, to be able to lead that donor to their best gift. Unknown Speaker 31:49 Third point, Unknown Speaker 31:51 watching the clock. Unknown Speaker 31:53 Okay, so the third Unknown Speaker 31:57 point where I see people struggle to scale their individual giving, Unknown Speaker 32:02 is that we're doing pretty well, we're gonna we're requiring lots of donors, it's feeling good, we got our systems in place, we had a killer, you know, Giving Tuesday or a killer Giving Day, you know, all these good stuff. But then there's no specific plan, or training, or we haven't invested in ourselves to move the appropriate donor, some of those from more of those transactional activities, to more relational fundraising, right? Because oftentimes, I mean, wonderful, right, a lot of these activities. Neon is the premier, you know, giving day and peer to peer, I mean, numbers off the chart, you've brought in all these people, great, we've acquired them they've given, but there are some mid level donors, and there may be meat, there's been major donors in there. And you know, that gift they gave it while it was generous, and we're thankful it wasn't their best gift. So how do we actually move them into a deep relationship with us? Right, so this is where as a fundraiser, maybe the hardest thing Unknown Speaker 33:09 is, is carving out the time to actually do that when it's like who, oh, I do that I got, you know, here and appeal coming up. And I got all these things, right. I am. And I also manage volunteers and the newsletter and all these things. Unknown Speaker 33:22 Here's where my methodology and my model and kind of what I want you to think about as the fundraiser is that your time Unknown Speaker 33:33 don't go humble on me here in town, it's not your time as the fundraiser. And as the leader, if you're the leader on this call, Unknown Speaker 33:41 is your organization's most valuable asset. It truly is. Therefore, every hour you do spend fundraising has to be in this mindset of high ROI, right. Unknown Speaker 33:55 Everything I teach is built on this aligning your time with dollars, right? It's actually it's just a math problem. Unknown Speaker 34:04 Staff and board was the and board after 30, you know, especially the board, they're going to give you one to two hours a month, maybe it's got to align with the with the activities that are starting to find where we can move those transactional donors, I love them, but identify them and move them into deeper relationships, so that we can start leading those donors to their best gift. So when this part is done, right, we and we take that time and really prioritize. Sometimes the important over the urgent, it's hard, I know. Unknown Speaker 34:43 We can move from Unknown Speaker 34:46 some transaction revenue to relational revenue. We're moving oftentimes to a way more on or an unrestricted model. Unknown Speaker 34:55 we're identifying where it's good we would want everybody giving right but we're Unknown Speaker 35:00 identifying where we can move to really focusing on what I call single source decision makers, the decision maker, yes, I will write that check for you. Yes, I will accept your call because we're in relationship together. And it can move from kind of sporadic cash flow based on, you know, different times of the year, to that actually being a really strong kind of groundwork. But then your revenue growing, Unknown Speaker 35:27 growing right alongside that and having it be less up and down. So Unknown Speaker 35:33 this is the model that I start with and look at and run all my clients through, and I'll show it with you today. And if you are from a business background, like me, like I get, I guess this is the 8020 rule. I mean, there's no way around it here. But here's the model I start with, and I kind of run numbers in a couple different ways off of. So if we look at money on the right, and our time and budget and energy on the left. Unknown Speaker 35:57 And I show this because the number one question I get or complaint maybe or challenge or challenges the word Unknown Speaker 36:06 is when I talk to fundraisers is I don't have time Unknown Speaker 36:09 of time, I'm doing all the things right, like I, I've been in your shoes, I get it. But this is even more important, why we have to just really be aware of our times and activities. So I want you for your organization, I want your top 10 donors, yielding between 25 and 40% of your revenue. And then I want your whole top 30 donors yielding between 50 and 75% of your revenue. That leaves a nice chunk of grassroots and that very important group of the buzz, if you will, at 25%. Here's the thing, we have to be careful that when we are Unknown Speaker 36:51 attracting and securing larger gifts, that not all of our time is spent on activities in those top 30 that actually yields to restricted gifts. Right, all of those gifts can't be a Foundation's or sponsorships that are tied to an event, Unknown Speaker 37:09 you know, that are typically restricted gifts. I don't hear me sag and want to get knows, of course, I want you to getting those. But we have to do the activities that attract unrestricted gifts in this top part of the pyramid, just like on the smaller gifts, again, what this is acquisition, you know, Unknown Speaker 37:32 prime prime time, right? But we have to be careful that then if we have those extra five hours, or we can carve out five hours, it can't all be just in transaction transactions out. That's important. But we have to make sure that we when we acquire these hundreds of new donors, and Gosh, Unknown Speaker 37:54 I have so many people who are like, Oh, my goodness, we have 600 new donors and you know, April of May of last year. Amazing. Fantastic with the systems in place to do that. But don't stop there. Right? You know, how do we figure out if maybe they aren't giving their best gift and how we start forming relationship with them and having different conversations with them to identify who actually is not giving their best gift and who actually could kind of move up the pyramid, if you will. So we have to make sure that when we're focusing on growth, Unknown Speaker 38:30 that we really do want this top part of the pyramid to be unrestricted, right. And so I want you to start thinking about as you're having conversations with people who are in this top part of the pyramid, or maybe who entered at that bottom part and could grow up into it. Who are single source decision makers? So what I mean by that is, and we needed these last year, right? You'd have So today, who can I pick up the phone and talk to? Unknown Speaker 38:54 It was just because I was in relationship with that person, right? It didn't need to go through a vote of 30 people Unknown Speaker 39:01 to get the funding or it was like, well, we used to fund that. But you know, the news, so we're gonna fund this over here. Unknown Speaker 39:09 That's okay, but are the primary or primary mounts of revenue cannot be from those more transactional group vote type of scenarios, we have to make sure that we are prioritizing our time on individuals Unknown Speaker 39:26 on family foundations who, frankly are individuals, right, oftentimes, we have a relationship with them. And I'd also say so much money left on the table with private businesses, right? those businesses are not the giant you know, Bank of America but like it's actually a really a great maybe local business or business in your city to where you can have a relationship with that owner. So much money is left on the table when we go straight to like the application in the sponsorship type of approach when so many of Unknown Speaker 40:00 Those single source decision makers, those individual donors are dying, for you to have investment level conversations with them, they're dying to understand what their gift could do. They're dying to get more information from you. Unknown Speaker 40:15 And so what most people think when when we start trying to ramp up our individual giving program, is that, you know, we that I already said, like the grind more, right, right. And I'm so like, we can't, we can't do that anymore, right? Unknown Speaker 40:32 individual donors, who will give you unrestricted gifts, and we'll understand how all the programs and projects and how your staff and now your admin needs, how all that fits together, and who want to invest at that level. Right? They are in your donor pools. Unknown Speaker 40:53 I see it every day. Unknown Speaker 40:55 Enjoy board members know them, even if they say they don't. But we have to be having different conversations with them. Right? If there's, there's one thing that individual donors are dying for. And that is information. Unknown Speaker 41:10 There are things that a stakeholder level individual donor needs to hear and see from you, before they are going to give their best gift. And I find all over the country, that most individual donors who can give and can give more or say they're dying, for you to invite them to a conversation and sit down and tell with them. Tell them how you're funded. what your plans are. Unknown Speaker 41:36 Open up the conversation for that investment level those those percentages, discussions, right? Put that elephant out on the table, right? How are you running your business? How are you financing it? Unknown Speaker 41:48 How do you see them fitting into it? Right? They, they don't understand what you need. And there's only one person who can tell them what you think, what, what you need. And it too Unknown Speaker 42:02 many of my clients are doubling their gifts, tripling their gifts, because they've sat down. And they thought their donors understood this. And they didn't they didn't understand what the organization needed. Because that wasn't being articulated at the level that it should it can't be covered by an email campaign. Right. Unknown Speaker 42:22 So as I watch the clock here, I want to make sure we have time for questions. I said I would mention my Rockstar clients Simone to you. So Unknown Speaker 42:32 I brought her into this, I have a couple cases I share but no one has aligned their hours to dollars better than Simone. She's She's killer at it right. It's really the her funding model is the opposite of plateau. You know, she's really an example of how this works and how aligning your time to dollars works. And so she's she's an absolute expert at her mission. But she had never done major gifts fundraising before and hadn't done tons of fundraising before, before she started her organization. And so we've been working together for years now. And when she started, there's not only a great annual fund need, but also has pretty significant capital need, which is which is scary to start at first as well. Her donors didn't really know she needed the money. And I know that sounds funny, but Unknown Speaker 43:18 oftentimes donors don't know what you need. So often, when finally the we're getting to soliciting our donors I hear I hear him say, what do you need that? I can do? You need to make right that big of a check. You just never asked? No, you didn't ever pull that segment out and in, you know, message differently to them and have a one on one. I didn't know you needed me to write that size check. Of course I can do that happens every day. Her donors didn't understand she needed the money. They thought she had startup funding because she had grown her organization out of her house of worship. And they said, Oh, great, I'm sure they're funding, you know, absolutely opposite. She needed, you know, they were funding her in a very small way, actually. And so Unknown Speaker 44:02 what happens when you can align hours to dollars, right, like, so this is what it's done for someone every year. Every year she's exceeded her goal. Unknown Speaker 44:11 She's her fiscal year ends, I think September she's fully funded. Unknown Speaker 44:16 Most of her top three donors are single source decision makers, the high percentage of them, she's Vich is not dependent on a lot of foundation monies and application based funds. As a result of that, because she's, you know, earned her time, his his his money here, she actually has very little dependence on events and peels. Now, don't hear me say that, Oh, good. We don't have to do those. But then there, then they actually can work as acquisition strategies. And we aren't all stressed out. We're like that event has to make $100,000 or we're gonna, like we're just not going to be a great fall that we actually can then assign goals and use those events. Unknown Speaker 45:00 Or appeals as a step in a donor strategy, right? We can we can put them in, I guess, in their place. And I mean that in a really good way in a strong way, right? Unknown Speaker 45:10 And maybe the most important is like she's had, she really has this luxury of being in a growth mindset, right? We can think about growth, we can think about the things because we don't have to be in a scarcity mindset, right, when you're fully funded before the before the year end. Now on the other side, her learning and really investing in how do I lead donors? How do I start having the conversations that attract larger gifts and secure larger gifts? And so what is that done, it actually leads her to having tons of one on one solicitation to Iran, which is when a lot of major donors will give. She's fully funded. She's also secured 100%, of another capital campaign to purchase a second building because our programs are growing. Unknown Speaker 45:59 And she's got a full reserve. I share this example. Because you're early on I said, our mind says when people don't find us if, you know, if we have a reserve people won't fund us if it's, if it's not a project. Her funding model is the absolute opposite of that. She's got full flexibility, and therefore, a lot of control of her growth. She's a busy woman, it's inspiring. She has an amazing mission. Unknown Speaker 46:26 But her annual planning her annual budgeting Unknown Speaker 46:30 in her time is aligned to this model. She's never stretched and never gotten on the spin cycle. She acquires new donors all the time from activities, but then she segments them well. And she leaves them through really deep and amazing daughter experiences. Um, she's ever chased that one big deal right and never chase Chance the Rapper, right? So this concept of leading donors through their, to their best gift is something I want you if you're writing anything down today, your goal is really to lead donors to their best gift. Unknown Speaker 47:05 And then help them give that gift every year. Unknown Speaker 47:09 Think of if everyone or your donors were giving their best gift. So if that $25 donor who participates in your peer to peer activity, that's your best gift. Awesome, let's serve them to the maximum of our ability. Unknown Speaker 47:22 But if that donor does that, and we know that writing $10,000 checks on the road, you have some work to do. And that's okay, we can do that. Unknown Speaker 47:31 A couple more minutes here. Unknown Speaker 47:33 I want to say one really quick thing about this kind of fundraiser donor relationship. And oftentimes, when we start these tracking individual donors, how we get in the way often like we start making decisions for our donors, they certainly can't do that. They couldn't make a gift of that size. We don't get to make those decisions, right? I want you to really think of you being a peer relation and being in a pure relationship with those donors like that. That stakeholder language that CEO, the CEO conversation, where there's a real mission aligned Win Win, right? It's a true partnership, there's a natural comfort level, because we have taken the time to build the relationship and lead the donors through relationship. And you have way more control of that than you think. Unknown Speaker 48:25 The tricky part oftentimes, of shifting into a stronger individual giving program, I guess, it's obvious, but I'll just recap. As we wrap up here, you have to know what to stop doing. So it actually would be keeping you from attracting investment level donors and larger individual donors. You're, as I said, your annual planning strategy budget has to be set up to attract donors who want to give what you need all in. And then you have to know how to leave them right with the lead them through conversations, and really focus on that high ROI model. Most important when you do these, and you can actually start doing the different activities that that maybe get you closer to that model of securing 50 to 75% of your revenue for your top 30 donors. So I always tell people this for the last 1212 months, it really has been Unknown Speaker 49:16 even more so of an honor to serve the sector, just simply because you've never deserved more never deserved more you stood up to the plate, and it just worked so hard last year. Unknown Speaker 49:29 But if it's if you're like, I don't want to go back to what that was, you may have to change your model. There may be some some mindset work, you might also have to level up your skills. And so invest in yourself, invest into me that Unknown Speaker 49:46 Tim will send you a link to my website, but if there's, there's if anybody wants to reach out and talk I teach my methodology to smaller organizations who want to grow up and over that $2 million mark. I also work with teams who are really scaling by the middle Unknown Speaker 50:00 But want to be more strategic? And then I also teach to national organizations who really want to do some capacity building in their regions. So thanks for your time today. I'll throw it to Tim and see if I did pretty close to the 145 150. I was a little long, but I'll see if there's any questions. There are there are. So let me read. I want to read two Unknown Speaker 50:24 of them together from Alicia Laurel, because they're they're interconnected, in my opinion, and Sarah flag that laurels especially resonates with her. Lisa's question is, do you have any tips about engaging? So I'm going to do both back to back? Do you have any tips about engaging other staff in this conversation? And that's kind of earlier in terms of the overhead conversation, every year budget specifically? Every year, we ask staff about their ideas for the upcoming year and what they would love to do if we had the funding so that we could build that into the budget, but I'm not sure that we're preparing them for that conversation. Because the most common responses, I'm not sure. connected to that. And again, it's by in conversation that. So then the other one is how do you get your board more engaged in helping we are attend to 12 member board, to many people, in my opinion, and Unknown Speaker 51:17 was asking. Unknown Speaker 51:19 And only a few people are on board with helping at events, donating items and even donating money to our organization, several board members have never made a donation to the agency. Unknown Speaker 51:31 So kind of interrelated, not exactly the same. I guess I can answer both though. So let's first start with the the planning and the I don't know what I put in. So if I had that to actually when we go to the programmatic level, sometimes it's like, wait, I'm so deep in like, you want me to go and look and see like, what we're like how we're going to grow and be in however many years like, it's sometimes very hard for someone who's who's in the jar like they they're kind of looking through the label. Sometimes they almost need somebody to come outside the label and say, here's what it could be right. So I would go back, you know, even further than we've talked about today to say, what's your strategic plan? Say? Right, what, you know, I have a group who they literally want to double the amount of people they're serving, you know, like, every year for the next five years. What would that what would that need to be? And so I wonder if it's more of an exercise of have we decided, as a team or as a board? Where do we want to be in three years? Where do we want to be in five years? And then back into that what that looks like this year? Unknown Speaker 52:35 Right? Because part of the key of annual fund growth is we're going to be here in five years, we're really excited about that we want to serve here and move into this other state. And so this year, our need is this. Right? So sometimes we have to help people. Unknown Speaker 52:50 You know who who isn't it isn't their job every day to be the visionary, right? It's their job to deliver programs. So I would go back up to the top of leadership in the board to say, where do we want to be? Because that will tell you what you need to be doing this year. What are the three things we need to do to to get to 5 million this year so that we can be at 5.8? The following year, and then the 6.2 the following year. Unknown Speaker 53:13 So it always comes back to that. Now the board, I could do a whole webinar on board, we'll come back and do that. Now. Here's what I would say. Unknown Speaker 53:22 The board, there's the biggest advice I can give you. Unknown Speaker 53:25 Oftentimes, I'll go back to budgeting, oftentimes we say what is the board's role in approving the budget? Well, they look at it and they say, Yep, no, squeeze it here. Great. So it's a 5.8 budget. Okay. So that's 50% of their approval. Okay, so we're gonna spend 5.8. Okay, now, let's talk about the other 50% of their approval, which is, how are we going to finance it? What is it going to take for us to reach 5.8. And then actually having a financing plan that says, here's how we're going to reach 5.8. And having them understand what that means per donor segment per month, and then showing them back to my pyramid? What are the what are the lines that they need to focus on, if they're going to give me one hour, Unknown Speaker 54:12 a month, and it has to be major gifts, like mid level gifts, like maybe family foundations, maybe corporate. And so, so often, boards are not actively helping in fundraising, because we only have them approve the budget, the expense, and we like their job, as it from a fiduciary Unknown Speaker 54:33 standpoint is hitting a balanced budget. So they have to understand the true financing plan that would help them hit that number, and have buy in at that level. And then you have to manage up and show them the activities they need to be doing. Because if I'm running if I'm development director, Executive Director, I don't want them always selling just tickets to the event or doing a Facebook fundraiser for their birthday. Like those are good things. Unknown Speaker 55:00 But I actually want that participating in donor experience, I actually would rather have them sitting at a coffee with his donor, I finally got a meeting with his, their activities have to be aligned at the top of the pyramid. And your financing plan has to be aligned to that. So that they've approved that before the year starts, you can manage them and lead up or kind of manage up that process. Unknown Speaker 55:24 The most important thing I think that people can internalize, is that where you're going to get folks most activated board members, donors, etc, volunteers, all of them is when you can lean into their own self determination, can you tell them and do something that makes them feel that they came to the decision on their own? We're not strong arming them to make the gift or to pony up the money for the organization. So autonomy? Can you make them feel competent in their decision? Are they are they identifying that this validates them as an individual? Unknown Speaker 56:02 And yes, joy, we will be doing this, go to neon, one calm, I've been chatting with my team on when we can upload the resources, by the way, so. Unknown Speaker 56:12 So can you make them feel autonomous? Can you make them feel competent in their decision? Does it validate their sense of self worth? And then can you make them feel connected to a larger vision, a larger story? So so that that's, you know, I love my stuff in there, but I fully support that. I'll take that and put that into my next one. I also have one thing. And there is another question, by the way, I'll be really time we still have some time. Unknown Speaker 56:40 Here's the other thing, I'd say. Unknown Speaker 56:42 Your volunteer or your board members are volunteers. They're experts at something else other than fundraising, especially mid major level guests fundraising. Unknown Speaker 56:52 They don't know what to do. But what do you want me to? Can you give me a script? I don't know, I don't know what I even say, right. So sometimes my advice is, you might have to first model it for them. Which means you might have to create a great donor experience for each one of your board members, and model it and show them how it's done. You might, I hope you're soliciting your board members, show them that it's not scary, show them that you're really good at it. And it actually was really warm and wasn't, wasn't a used car salesman, and we weren't begging for money, it actually felt really good. But sometimes you have to model it and show them how it's done. So that then they actually feel comfortable introducing you to their colleague, because they're just kind of afraid you're gonna walk in and be like, give me money. Like, I don't know what you're gonna do. You can model it for them, too. Unknown Speaker 57:42 So, besides, of course, the amazing information on your own website and the neon one comm website, what are some other resources that you suggest people look to, in terms of leveling up skills for board members, staff members, things like that? Yeah, I mean, I'm a big believer. I mean, it's for my own business to in continually investing in yourself. Continually. I literally signing up for another like leadership, something later today. I'm like, I need to work on myself with that area. You know, I think so like when the when the budget crunch comes, it's a professional development goes right out the window, or that well, with our we've already done that with the board. You've got to be continually investing in the skills that you might be doing a pretty good job at. But with what if you don't know what you don't know? Right? Like, one example, this is a little off off the kind of topic today, but I invested in kind of a voice coach last year, not that I'm a singer or anything, but like, how do I actually use my voice in a more confident way? How do I how do I really convey that I'm an expert, you know, and, and how do I get out of my mind, and just so so I can just sit today and tell you, I'm so excited to tell you this, I got to tell you, all of that is translated to how I coach my my solicitors, and how I help people sit at the table confidently. Unknown Speaker 59:02 I knew it would help me because I was only 100 webinars last year, but I had no idea how it would influence my business. So that's a good example of like, continually invest in yourselves continually assume like, I might not know everything in that area and equip yourself with people who are experts. And one of the things so a few comments on that. Unknown Speaker 59:23 I think that cross disciplinary investment is a good thing that people think about for for being fundraisers effective fundraisers. Unknown Speaker 59:32 There's so many elements around psychology, sociology. You know, for instance, one of the things that that I'm investing in for myself that that item that I just mentioned, Sherry is because I'm completing a certificate in philanthropic psychology right now amazing from the Institute of sustainable philanthropy. So folks, you're going to benefit from that because we're going to turn that into Unknown Speaker 1:00:00 Like a whole thing, get ready because 2022 is gonna blow your mind, when it comes to us empowering you if those resources, that's my big thing that they're gonna have me working on is, is how can we create make you be feel like connected fundraisers, right. But what I'm reading, I do a lot of reading. In all honesty, I actually try to set aside time for self reflection and reading. And not everybody has that privilege. Unknown Speaker 1:00:29 But webinars are good, everybody's in kind of a different way that they learn but Unknown Speaker 1:00:34 try to look outside of it a big thing that I've been reading about for instances in terms of service. I've been reading a lot of like restaurant books, like setting the table. Love that here. You know, so cross discipline, I think is one of the things to take. Nice advice. Any final any final questions for today? I know we're a tad over. Unknown Speaker 1:00:59 But this was awesome. Thanks. I appreciate you having me. I'm thrilled to that this was my first neon official Nina, Unknown Speaker 1:01:07 you now you got to put our logo. Unknown Speaker 1:01:11 website, I promised I will go to brand not.me on one.com, you'll be able to snag it. I appreciate it. Well, we have fun characters there too. So um, folks, we are going to put this up on the website when I responded to joy. I actually put the direct URL that it's going to be but you don't have to like bookmark that or anything. We're getting an email ready Candace is working on that right now. So, Unknown Speaker 1:01:36 so excited. Just a little bit of a teaser, by the way, just in terms of what we have coming up in July for you. Unknown Speaker 1:01:45 Look, we're going to get a little bit lighter if the webinars folks, you know, we want you outside. So we got two awesome webinars. First, we're launching our overflow stock donation integration on July 6, I am very, very excited. I'm working on a stock donor workbook for you with that team. And then a little bit later in the month, July 13. We're going to be talking about automation workflows top five that you can use, we got Sophia from our team doing that one finally I'm not doing a webinar outright for us. Unknown Speaker 1:02:20 And I'm really excited about it but continuing to have amazing thought leaders like you Sherry is gonna gonna help deepen this and also empower folks like Megan to continue to get resources so as always connect with me on LinkedIn Sherry on LinkedIn, we're both having LinkedIn users Tim Sarrantonio Sherry calm Taylor and also Unknown Speaker 1:02:43 Yeah, drop me any drop us an email a line see how we can help and that's this is how we create content that we're here awesome. Have an awesome summer everybody deserves it. Hey, Happy Fourth of July to everybody who's doing that and the fiscal if you've if you're finishing your fiscal today You did it. I know. I know. July July 1 is my twins birthday. Oh, happy birthday. Unknown Speaker 1:03:09 Alright, have a great day, everyone. Thank you so much. Transcribed by https://otter.ai