WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.030 --> 00:00:00.860 Neon One Webinars: Okay. 2 00:00:02.780 --> 00:00:22.759 Neon One Webinars: Hey everybody, it is so good to see you all starting to log in. I love my early birds, because you always are so great about doing what I am about to ask you to do. I am, if you can't tell, in a hotel room. I am not in my normal setup. Can you guys let me know in the chat, maybe by telling me where you're tuning in from, or what you're up to today? Can you see and hear me? 3 00:00:22.760 --> 00:00:25.940 Neon One Webinars: And can you see my screen? That would be extremely helpful. 4 00:00:26.050 --> 00:00:45.160 Neon One Webinars: I am usually in sunny central Florida, where I always say it is extremely hot. I am currently in sunny central Texas, where it is also hot, so I am in my element here. Let's see… where are you guys tuning in from? Molly, where are you located? 5 00:00:45.350 --> 00:00:48.540 Molly Breitbart: We are tuning in right now from New York City. 6 00:00:49.050 --> 00:00:51.429 Molly Breitbart: We are in Manhattan. 7 00:00:51.430 --> 00:00:51.980 Neon One Webinars: Nice! 8 00:00:51.980 --> 00:01:00.580 Molly Breitbart: not… if the sun is passing through, I can't say it's quite as sunny as I'm sure Central Texas is right now, let alone Florida. 9 00:01:00.580 --> 00:01:02.820 Neon One Webinars: Is autumn starting to hit you all? 10 00:01:03.010 --> 00:01:05.250 Molly Breitbart: Like, like, overnight, yes. 11 00:01:05.580 --> 00:01:15.430 Molly Breitbart: Like, yesterday was, oh, maybe I can, you know, hang out in short sleeves and what have you, no jacket, and this morning was like, oh, boots, yes. 12 00:01:15.820 --> 00:01:23.410 Neon One Webinars: Oh my gosh, I'm so envious. I… for all that I have been in Central Florida since I was 3, I do not like the heat. 13 00:01:23.620 --> 00:01:24.349 Molly Breitbart: Oh my goodness. 14 00:01:24.350 --> 00:01:29.219 Neon One Webinars: heat. I love it when the weathers get cool, and the weather's plural. 15 00:01:29.790 --> 00:01:33.449 Neon One Webinars: Obviously being out of my space has me a little discombobulated, but… 16 00:01:33.450 --> 00:01:34.779 Molly Breitbart: You're all good. 17 00:01:35.020 --> 00:01:49.309 Neon One Webinars: Perfect. Everyone, it is time for us to get started. I am so excited to talk to you today, and more importantly, to have Molly and her team talk to you today. So I just want to do a couple really fast housekeeping things, I promise. I won't take much of your time. 18 00:01:49.480 --> 00:02:07.559 Neon One Webinars: A lot of you, I do recognize some names who are here. If you are a Neon One customer, we are obviously going to be talking about how Margaret and Neon One can work together. If you are just kind of feeling out what Neon One is, what we're all about, and how Margaret can play into that, welcome, I am delighted that you are here also. 19 00:02:07.560 --> 00:02:19.890 Neon One Webinars: After this session, you're going to get an email from me with information you can use to kind of dig into this a little more, and you can also reach out to us using the links that we will include in that email. 20 00:02:19.890 --> 00:02:23.150 Neon One Webinars: Let me know if you have any questions, you can just reply, and I will answer. 21 00:02:23.150 --> 00:02:32.309 Neon One Webinars: Silly things, I know if you have attended webinars with me before, I love talking to you all, I love to see what you're doing, and I love to see that in the chat. 22 00:02:32.310 --> 00:02:52.939 Neon One Webinars: Please do use the chat to talk to us. However, if you have been to these sessions before, you know the chat can move really fast, so if you have a question that you would like us to answer at the end of this session, please do try to drop that question in the questions box. That will make sure that we get eyes on it and that we will be able to answer it quickly at the end of the session. 23 00:02:53.030 --> 00:02:59.119 Neon One Webinars: And then the perennial question, will we get a recording? The answer is yes. We are recording this session. 24 00:02:59.320 --> 00:03:13.879 Neon One Webinars: And, you will get an email from me tomorrow with a link to the recording and a link to the slides and transcripts. You will have that handy for you. And so, from there, we will turn it over to Molly and her team. 25 00:03:15.720 --> 00:03:16.890 Molly Breitbart: Alright! 26 00:03:17.140 --> 00:03:34.729 Molly Breitbart: Hello, everyone! Thank you all for joining us today. I'm delighted to be speaking with you all about Neon and Margaret. Quickly, I'm going to introduce myself. My name is Molly Breitbart. I'm the Director of Digital Innovation and Strategy at Hudson Ferris. 27 00:03:34.730 --> 00:03:46.150 Molly Breitbart: I'm actually going to quickly turn the mic over to Ed Liepman, who is founder of Hudson Ferris, to tell you a little bit more about the firm and how we developed Margaret, and I'll share my screen to do so. 28 00:03:59.770 --> 00:04:01.339 Molly Breitbart: Alright, take it away. 29 00:04:02.200 --> 00:04:03.370 Molly Breitbart: What's that? Dominic? 30 00:04:04.470 --> 00:04:12.810 Molly Breitbart: Well, it's wonderful to meet everybody. I'm Ed Lieben, I'm the founder of Hudson Ferris, and we are a fundraising consulting firm here in New York City. 31 00:04:13.160 --> 00:04:27.509 Molly Breitbart: And I think for many, many years, we've been trying to come up with something that would be extremely impactful to nonprofits of all sizes that would essentially democratize access to our business, to the business of fundraising consulting. 32 00:04:27.740 --> 00:04:38.869 Molly Breitbart: For those of you who have used a consultant in the past, have considered using one, you know that oftentimes, consulting is priced relatively high. 33 00:04:38.930 --> 00:04:53.479 Molly Breitbart: And that amount of money forms a barrier for smaller organizations to engage with consultants, and it even forms a barrier for larger organizations to add capacity to their team when they need it most. 34 00:04:53.680 --> 00:05:02.790 Molly Breitbart: And what we have developed here is something we're calling the world's first Digital fundraising consulting platform. 35 00:05:03.220 --> 00:05:22.450 Molly Breitbart: And, you know, what is fundraising consulting anyway, right? I get that question frequently, even from my friends and relatives. And what I tell people is that fundraising consulting is really… you're paying a fundraising consultant, or even a fundraiser, I would say, any development professional, for two things. You're paying them for their expertise. 36 00:05:22.650 --> 00:05:26.939 Molly Breitbart: And you're paying them to actually do things. You're paying them for their effort. 37 00:05:27.170 --> 00:05:35.400 Molly Breitbart: And what this platform allows you to do is to access both at a heretofore unheard-of price. 38 00:05:35.660 --> 00:05:42.380 Molly Breitbart: So, what you will see in this presentation is that we're going to cover exactly what Margaret is. 39 00:05:42.600 --> 00:05:46.989 Molly Breitbart: How it works, what's included, and how you can get started with it. 40 00:05:47.090 --> 00:06:05.879 Molly Breitbart: And I just want to say thank you to our great partners at Neon. This partnership is new, and it is allowing us to make Margaret even more affordable than it's ever been. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to Molly to walk through some of the nuts and bolts of the platform. 41 00:06:07.010 --> 00:06:09.669 Molly Breitbart: Thanks, Ed. So… 42 00:06:10.180 --> 00:06:34.280 Molly Breitbart: Again, Margaret is on-demand human fundraising support from the entirety of the Hudson Ferris team. The way Hudson Ferris and Margaret and Neon all play together is that Neon is going to help you manage your donor data, some of your relationships that you have, when you're going to be interacting with supporters or prospective supporters, and more. Margaret's going to help you 43 00:06:34.280 --> 00:06:38.630 Molly Breitbart: Determine the strategies that will help you raise more money from them. 44 00:06:38.630 --> 00:06:52.420 Molly Breitbart: So some… some of the… the many things you can come to Margaret for guidance, about, things like prospecting and your pipeline, how to prioritize and next steps to take with different prospects or current funders. 45 00:06:52.570 --> 00:07:06.269 Molly Breitbart: Grant strategy, development operations in terms of how your offices and teams are structured, systems you're using, how your workflow functions, how you can better be implementing and using your Neon support as well. 46 00:07:06.480 --> 00:07:13.270 Molly Breitbart: Board engagement, in terms of both readiness for board fundraising, as well as board member coaching. 47 00:07:13.270 --> 00:07:35.700 Molly Breitbart: Communications, any appeals, messaging, solicitations you have on deck, we're here to provide, as Ed said, the expertise and the effort, for all of these and more. Margaret is not going to be a replacement for your Neon CRM, hardly. It's actually going to help you use the systems and the informations that you already have to a greater benefit. 48 00:07:38.050 --> 00:07:57.020 Molly Breitbart: So, some circumstances under which, we think Margaret would be a helpful tool for Neon users. So, the idea that you have plenty of records in Neon, but it's certainly overwhelming to figure out who you're going to focus on first, what segment, segmenting that population in the first place. 49 00:07:57.020 --> 00:08:19.820 Molly Breitbart: finding grant opportunities without the capacity to then nail down and write a proposal for submission for consideration of funding. All of these types of moments, the questions and the circumstances that you don't want to let sit too long, the work that you and your team know really matters, but of course, everyone in a nonprofit is wearing how many hats, so you don't need me to tell you. 50 00:08:19.860 --> 00:08:25.990 Molly Breitbart: Tell you that, and that there are only 24 hours in a day, to accomplish our roles in. 51 00:08:26.080 --> 00:08:28.699 Molly Breitbart: And that's exactly where Margaret steps in. 52 00:08:30.030 --> 00:08:37.220 Molly Breitbart: And I'm actually gonna let you hear directly from an organization that is not only a Neon subscriber, but a Margaret user. 53 00:08:40.510 --> 00:08:50.789 Molly Breitbart: Hi, I'm Nanda Prabhakar, the Executive Director of the Opportunity Hub. We at the OpHub have been proud Market users for quite some time, and it's really been a game changer for us. 54 00:08:50.790 --> 00:09:07.669 Molly Breitbart: We're a mid-sized nonprofit with a really small development shop, and being able to have access to on-demand consulting from experts at Hudson Ferris has helped us expand our donor pipelines, think bigger, and to be more expansive in the way that we approach fundraising, development, and business development. 55 00:09:07.770 --> 00:09:14.419 Molly Breitbart: We are also Neon users, and we can't wait to see what a partnership between Neon and Hudson Ferris might look like in the future. 56 00:09:21.840 --> 00:09:33.090 Molly Breitbart: And with that, you want to talk about this next slide? Yes, we're often asked the same question, which is, well, what if I just ask ChatGPT or Claude to help me with this? 57 00:09:34.930 --> 00:09:44.450 Molly Breitbart: fundraising idea I have, or this fundraising issue that's come up. And the answer is that you're definitely going to get a great textbook answer. 58 00:09:44.480 --> 00:09:56.430 Molly Breitbart: Without question. You're gonna get an answer that's very sound, and very well-reasoned, and factual, but it may simply have absolutely nothing to do with you and your organization. 59 00:09:56.810 --> 00:10:03.450 Molly Breitbart: Or, it may be something that you could do, but you would need additional resources, you would need to have some 60 00:10:03.880 --> 00:10:15.529 Molly Breitbart: pre-existing conditions that would permit it, there may be any number of factors that the AI can't take into account because it's never really worked as a fundraiser. 61 00:10:16.850 --> 00:10:24.319 Molly Breitbart: So that's, I think, the key difference, is that Margaret is always human first, and it's always a fundraising professional that's 62 00:10:24.810 --> 00:10:33.700 Molly Breitbart: That's first to understand what you're struggling with, and uses their decades of experience to give you that. 63 00:10:34.060 --> 00:10:46.550 Molly Breitbart: Then people ask us about Instrumentl and other great writing tools. Frankly, to be totally blunt, you don't need to subscribe to any of these things. Your clawed co-work can do everything that it does. 64 00:10:46.650 --> 00:11:06.220 Molly Breitbart: without the additional expense. So, with Margaret, what we can help you do is we can actually help you set up your own internal AI systems to write grants, and if that's not what you're doing, we can review your grant proposals, we understand their fit with the funder, and we can help you write better brand proposals 65 00:11:06.520 --> 00:11:14.410 Molly Breitbart: very, very quickly, practically from day one. And then, of course, how does this compare to hiring a consultant? Well, it's infinitely less expensive. 66 00:11:14.500 --> 00:11:32.689 Molly Breitbart: When you think about the average retainer that, firms charge, I mean, you're really talking about somewhere in the neighborhood. I mean, here in New York City, on the low end, $6,000. On the high end, $25,000. So, as you will soon see, there's absolutely no comparison between those two things. 67 00:11:36.210 --> 00:11:49.610 Molly Breitbart: And then, a little bit about how Margaret works. We're going to share with you what the inside of a Margaret portal really looks like, and kind of the breakdown of what goes into the Margaret experience. So first of all, you'll be submitting requests 68 00:11:49.720 --> 00:12:00.009 Molly Breitbart: to Margaret, any of those areas wherein you want professional expertise on what you're doing from a fundraising perspective. We'll go through how you'll accomplish that in a moment. 69 00:12:00.010 --> 00:12:18.909 Molly Breitbart: From there, a fundraising professional here at Hudson Ferris will take your question, take your request, and use some of our premium resources that we have in-house, also as a cost saving to you. So everything from Don Atlas to Impala to Apollo I.O. and more. 70 00:12:19.150 --> 00:12:31.560 Molly Breitbart: And from there, because you are Neon subscribers, we'll be able to provide you with a comprehensive response in 24 hours. That is faster than our standard retail turnaround time of 48 hours. 71 00:12:31.560 --> 00:12:49.280 Molly Breitbart: And we often get back to you much sooner than even the 24-hour time frame. And those responses are always going to be delivered to you as downloadable PDFs. Those are PDFs that can be attached to an email and shared with a board member if needed. Those are PDFs that can be attached to records in Neon 72 00:12:49.280 --> 00:12:54.180 Molly Breitbart: directly. We always want to make sure our guidance is as actionable as possible. 73 00:12:54.180 --> 00:13:12.950 Molly Breitbart: And last but certainly not least, we can always go deeper on a given request. You can always pivot and ask us something completely different, or we always offer ways to keep, one train of thought going, whether that's through a coaching call as a Neon subscriber, you are entitled to 74 00:13:12.950 --> 00:13:22.599 Molly Breitbart: an hour-long call with a Hudson Fairs professional each month for coaching, we'll get into that in a bit, or other deliverables that will complement your efforts. 75 00:13:23.220 --> 00:13:39.350 Molly Breitbart: Your entire team will also have access to Margaret. There will be one super user who will submit all requests for your organization, but we want to make sure that you all know that transparency is key. Everyone will be able to see what's going on inside Margaret in order to best leverage the resource. 76 00:13:41.330 --> 00:13:48.320 Molly Breitbart: So, a few key steps go into Margaret. First is a one-time kickoff experience, which we'll go into next. 77 00:13:48.420 --> 00:14:08.850 Molly Breitbart: Once you have your kickoff accomplished, you will be able to request as often as you'd like. There is no limitation to how many requests you can place in Margaret. We just ask that you submit requests sequentially so that we can make sure that as a team, we're crossing our T's, dotting our I's, getting you all of the information that you need before moving on to the next request. 78 00:14:09.220 --> 00:14:27.230 Molly Breitbart: And as a side note, some features that are always available to you in addition to your request workflow are the chat function, there is a meeting functionality where we have those coaching calls with you, and you can always share files with the Hudson Ferris team so that we can better understand your organization's most current needs. 79 00:14:28.700 --> 00:14:29.760 Molly Breitbart: So. 80 00:14:29.760 --> 00:14:53.889 Molly Breitbart: For the sake of our walkthrough today, we're going to be working with an example client who, this is a fictitious organization, we take privacy very seriously here. But we're going to be operating as the Ascend Bridge program, which is a two-year post-secondary success program for first-generation college students in Newark, New Jersey. Here are some of the services that they offer to their beneficiaries, as well as some figures like their annual budget. 81 00:14:53.890 --> 00:15:12.969 Molly Breitbart: their current persistence rate, how many individual records they have in Neon, things like that. And that's all information that happens once, we… I should say, we obtain once someone logs into their portal. So this is what a portal looks like in Margaret. You'll see there will be the organization's name at the top. 82 00:15:12.970 --> 00:15:20.229 Molly Breitbart: You'll notice, the kickoff section in the middle here, and then to the right, you'll see chat function and meetings. 83 00:15:21.370 --> 00:15:32.940 Molly Breitbart: To break all that down, the first section is that workflow. That's where your kickoff, your requests, all of the information that is the functionality of the workflow is going to live. 84 00:15:33.420 --> 00:15:57.819 Molly Breitbart: Section 2 there is the Files tab. That's where at any time, you can always see anything that's been uploaded into Margaret, either through, by the Hudson Ferris team, or by you. And you can always, again, because human beings man Margaret and read everything that you submit to us, we want as much information as you're willing to share with us about your current donor collateral, your board, your 85 00:15:57.820 --> 00:16:08.270 Molly Breitbart: Current donors or prospects, grant proposals you're very proud of that you've received funding for, grant proposals that you're super proud of that you did not receive funding for, and you don't know why. 86 00:16:08.300 --> 00:16:18.279 Molly Breitbart: All of this information helps us better understand you as an organization, your voice in how you conduct yourselves in writing, and what your current needs are. 87 00:16:19.080 --> 00:16:44.029 Molly Breitbart: Number 3 is going to be the chat function. Again, you can see to the right there, the chat function serves as not only a log of everything that's happened to date, you can see some calls are listed there, things like that. But you'll also see there's this neat little paperclip icon in the bottom right-hand corner. You can also attach files there. The chat function is great for any questions you may have about platform navigation, if you're not sure where to put something. 88 00:16:44.030 --> 00:16:47.760 Molly Breitbart: If you have additional context, to a recent request. 89 00:16:47.760 --> 00:16:54.519 Molly Breitbart: The chat is manned in real time, so that someone will more likely than not respond to you in just about real time. 90 00:16:54.520 --> 00:17:08.970 Molly Breitbart: And last but not least, you'll see that there is this meetings section, so we can meet with you directly in your Margaret portal, and as you can see, Ed, featured here. This is where we will have any coaching calls with you. 91 00:17:09.230 --> 00:17:28.689 Molly Breitbart: And the coaching calls are meant to be sessions that, again, are one-on-one with a Hudson Ferris team member. Anything that's easier to talk about than type about is perfect fodder for a coaching call. There's a question in the chat about privacy for the Eugene. Yeah, let's address that now, actually, because I'm sure people are thinking about this. Yes. 92 00:17:28.780 --> 00:17:47.969 Molly Breitbart: We take data privacy very, very seriously here. So, one thing that you should know is we're not training a model on your data. We do use a variety of AI-based tools to enable us to respond quickly and efficiently. 93 00:17:48.380 --> 00:18:02.240 Molly Breitbart: We are always paying for the plan. This is not ever used to train a generic model, and everything is sandboxed, both within Margaret and then, of course, to the larger world. 94 00:18:02.590 --> 00:18:09.849 Molly Breitbart: the… the platform is based on the Moxo platform, which is used to create, bank… 95 00:18:10.000 --> 00:18:17.139 Molly Breitbart: portals, among other financial services portals, so the security protocols are extremely strict. 96 00:18:17.250 --> 00:18:36.260 Molly Breitbart: And, everything that we do through Margaret, like all of our contracts, are works for hire, which means that you own them. So there's absolutely nothing that is retained by the platform that we would have created during your time on Margaret. Exactly. 97 00:18:36.870 --> 00:18:44.000 Molly Breitbart: Yeah, hopefully that answers your question, Eugene. If not, throw some more in the chat. Yeah, absolutely. 98 00:18:46.790 --> 00:18:59.659 Molly Breitbart: Alright, so we just reviewed chats and meetings are always going to be available to you. You can always pop into the chat to say, hey, I'd love to schedule one of these coaching calls, things like that. We'll be able to assist you from there. 99 00:19:01.520 --> 00:19:11.859 Molly Breitbart: Again, breakdown of the files tab. To send the team a file, again, you can either use that file section or the paperclip icon in the bottom right-hand corner of the chat. 100 00:19:12.670 --> 00:19:37.370 Molly Breitbart: And then comes the intake form. So, like Ed mentioned, Margaret is very similar to any retainer engagement we have, in the same sense that we are, one, works for hire, everything belongs to you, and we take the same approach in getting to know you, it's just condensed. So, think of the intake form as a… and the kickoff call, as a discovery process, just highly distilled, and again, tailored to your organization. 101 00:19:37.680 --> 00:19:48.909 Molly Breitbart: So your intake form, we're going to ask, kind of, those baseline questions of, give us your organization name, your history and mission, the population you're serving, your current budget. 102 00:19:48.910 --> 00:20:12.790 Molly Breitbart: Tell us about who you consider your peer organizations in the space to be. Any impact numbers you have, if you happen to have a theory of change or a logic model. So here we are with the Ascend Bridge program, and again, from their intake form, we're seeing their budget, we're seeing some impact numbers that they impact about 180 students in their cohort of students at any one time. 103 00:20:12.830 --> 00:20:16.469 Molly Breitbart: And what some of their goals are. They're looking to, 104 00:20:16.530 --> 00:20:27.000 Molly Breitbart: Talk with us about maintaining a strong persistence rate, going through some coaching, working through how they can best provide emergency microgrants to their beneficiaries, things like that. 105 00:20:27.940 --> 00:20:45.319 Molly Breitbart: Once we have your intake form, again, the Hudson Ferris team will review it, and we'll schedule a half-hour kickoff call with you. This is where any questions that we have from your intake, or any observations we're seeing within your intake form, we're able to discuss those with you, closely, get some closer feedback. 106 00:20:45.320 --> 00:21:01.999 Molly Breitbart: And also make sure that everyone on your team is comfortable with platform navigation, things like that. We can get into our nitty-gritty, ask any questions. This is where we get more of our color and context, because once this call is completed, we open your request stage. 107 00:21:03.120 --> 00:21:21.780 Molly Breitbart: So, in Margaret, any requests that you place, there's gonna be a lovely form for that, that's just Ask Margaret. And it's going to ask you not only to complete some information, but for some follow-ups as well. So here, you can see we, just to make sure we're properly addressing whoever's posing the request. 108 00:21:21.780 --> 00:21:46.430 Molly Breitbart: We ask, who's asking? And as you can see, there's a multiple-choice menu of different options. This menu exists only to provide, some fodder to get the ball rolling. Nothing on this menu screen is mandatory, just that you pick one option. So, what's listed here are what we consider to be those traditional pillars of fundraising. The idea that you can come to us with questions about individual giving. 109 00:21:46.500 --> 00:22:01.159 Molly Breitbart: about events, about board and relationship engagement. Or, as you can see here, you can always just click none of the above, I have a different question, that's totally okay. And a free text field will populate that will allow you to just type what you need directly to us. 110 00:22:01.920 --> 00:22:21.550 Molly Breitbart: Oh, please, yes. Eugene. Can it suggests where an organization is ineffective or lacking, as opposed to, here's the plan, then do it. 100%. Yeah. So, I just want to keep hitting the point that it's really our team that's reading these. 111 00:22:21.580 --> 00:22:28.750 Molly Breitbart: Very frequently, people will put in… our clients will put in a question they have about 112 00:22:29.230 --> 00:22:40.009 Molly Breitbart: their own fundraising effectiveness, or their practices, and ask us to talk about those. And also, the coaching calls tend to take that shape, where 113 00:22:40.410 --> 00:22:47.320 Molly Breitbart: people will… troubleshoot a problem with us. And then, of course, we suggest 114 00:22:47.420 --> 00:23:03.150 Molly Breitbart: where improvements need to be made, if they need to be made. We talk about how other organizations we've worked with have solved a similar problem. So yes, it can do all of that, and you will see in the answer that it is an extremely detailed 115 00:23:03.150 --> 00:23:09.100 Molly Breitbart: Answer to you. And then, of course, there are even more ways for us to engage around the topic. 116 00:23:09.100 --> 00:23:14.220 Molly Breitbart: Absolutely, and keep these great questions coming. I'm loving these. Yeah, please. 117 00:23:14.480 --> 00:23:34.030 Molly Breitbart: So as you can see here, in this example, individual giving was selected, and if you look to the right here, you'll see there are always follow-ups. These are just some of the most popular responses we tend to see. That's why they're positioned as options. So here, for example, someone said, I have a meeting with a funder or a prospect, can you provide specific guidance? 118 00:23:34.030 --> 00:23:40.920 Molly Breitbart: Here, you can always say, I have a different question, and hit us with whatever you've got under the branch of individual giving, that's fine too. 119 00:23:40.920 --> 00:23:57.839 Molly Breitbart: But as you can see, if you're selecting an option from the above, you'll always be asked follow-up, so we want to know the full name of the donor or the prospect, any floating information you have, we want to know how the meeting was arranged, whether or not this person's a current supporter, any specific goals you have in mind. 120 00:23:57.840 --> 00:24:04.310 Molly Breitbart: All follow-up questions that just help us provide as robust a response and as tailored a response to you as possible. 121 00:24:05.460 --> 00:24:10.190 Molly Breitbart: If for any reason you need to upload specific files with your request. 122 00:24:10.190 --> 00:24:28.509 Molly Breitbart: So for example, document review is actually one of the most popular use cases for Margaret, whether that is a proposal for a grant that you're looking to submit, and you've just been staring at it all week, and your team has been staring at it all week, whether that is messaging that's going to your board of directors, whether that's, 123 00:24:28.770 --> 00:24:40.070 Molly Breitbart: copy that's going into an appeal or any other kind of collateral you're posting out for year end. We can review any and all of that, and you'll be able to attach the document right there to the question. 124 00:24:42.090 --> 00:25:02.140 Molly Breitbart: And from there, every… every response is, one, going to restate your question so that anyone who's in Margaret taking a look at that answer isn't, you know, left in the dark. So here, this is an example individual giving question from the Ascend Abridge program. They're basically asking, how do we… how do we turn an email list of people 125 00:25:02.140 --> 00:25:06.810 Molly Breitbart: Who are less into a project into people who are actually going to fund artwork. 126 00:25:08.600 --> 00:25:16.680 Molly Breitbart: Each response, in addition to re-saying that question, also at its end is going to send you an itemized list of 127 00:25:16.680 --> 00:25:31.879 Molly Breitbart: steps next. We never want anyone to read a response from Margaret and then feel like, well, now what? There's plenty of that in the world, and we want to make sure to avoid that. So there will always be specific next steps listed out for you, and 128 00:25:31.930 --> 00:25:37.600 Molly Breitbart: Furthermore, ways that we love to offer to be able to continue to help with that current request. 129 00:25:37.600 --> 00:25:54.240 Molly Breitbart: So as an example here, we can draft the conversion letter together, work on a script with you, we can set up a coaching call, and, you know, please let us know your availability. We always want to make sure that if there's a next action to be taken that you're interested in, you know that we're here to help support. That is why we exist. 130 00:25:54.240 --> 00:26:05.319 Molly Breitbart: And last, but certainly not least, we sign every response. We happen to know this especially cool guy who signed, this example request. 131 00:26:05.350 --> 00:26:18.739 Molly Breitbart: But you can always look us up on the internet. We're real people. You can see where we've worked in the past, all sorts of things like that. We always want to make sure that you know that an experienced human being is working to support you. 132 00:26:20.500 --> 00:26:31.089 Molly Breitbart: And again, as a Neon subscriber, you receive all of these responses in 24 hours or less. That's twice as fast as the standard turnaround time that we offer on Margaret. 133 00:26:31.090 --> 00:26:46.740 Molly Breitbart: And I often recommend to organizations that you just keep a running list of questions you might have. That way, and we hear this from organizations a lot, they're like, oh, you're gonna get sick of me, and we say, absolutely not, that's what we're here for. We, in fact, can't wait for your next request. 134 00:26:46.740 --> 00:27:03.839 Molly Breitbart: So that as you get something back, you can keep your pipeline moving. I also tell folks to leave the Margaret window open the way you might leave a Google window, or even, like, a ChatGPT window open, just so that it's there and available to you as fundraising obstacles or questions may arise. 135 00:27:04.140 --> 00:27:15.109 Molly Breitbart: Again, there's no limit to the number of requests you can submit. All of them are answered by experienced fundraising consultants. No scoped hours to think about, no long-term contract. 136 00:27:16.320 --> 00:27:26.589 Molly Breitbart: And again, with every subscription, in addition to those unlimited requests and that guidance, you also receive your complimentary hour-long coaching call every month. 137 00:27:26.680 --> 00:27:33.420 Molly Breitbart: We can also deliver guidance about prospecting, grants, boarding campaign work, communications. 138 00:27:33.420 --> 00:27:51.190 Molly Breitbart: And other complex problems, like departmental structure, board relations, campaign strategy, or any other conversations happening around what we call an inflection point for an organization, whether that's growth, restructuring, you name it. Again, we've seen it all, and we're here to support. 139 00:27:53.080 --> 00:28:18.049 Molly Breitbart: Additionally, all Margaret subscribers have access to an a la carte menu of services. So earlier, we were talking about the idea that fundraising guidance is expertise and effort. The standard workflow in Margaret is exactly for that expertise, but when you need some effort, when your bandwidth is limited, and you know your back may be to the wall in a situation, and you wish you could clone yourself, that's exactly 140 00:28:18.050 --> 00:28:26.090 Molly Breitbart: what the a la carte menu in Margaret is for. When you need a concrete piece of work, instead of just the guidance, the Hudson Ferris team can complete that on your behalf. 141 00:28:26.090 --> 00:28:39.399 Molly Breitbart: So, some of these options, include prospect lists, we can generate those either of individuals or of institutional funders, complete with rationale as to why they're a fit for your organization, and contact information. 142 00:28:39.400 --> 00:28:50.290 Molly Breitbart: We're also able to perform website, social media audits, or a donor journey audit to help you reduce friction in the online giving process, and we provide a detailed analysis that comes with that. 143 00:28:50.290 --> 00:29:01.809 Molly Breitbart: Grant proposal writing, as I mentioned earlier, instead of just reviewing an application that you currently have drafted, or something to that extent, looking at a previous year's application and suggesting tweaks. 144 00:29:01.810 --> 00:29:16.870 Molly Breitbart: We can actually carry out an entire proposal for you. You always are able to review drafts, and you are ultimately always the one to hit submit for ethical purposes on your final application, but we can certainly help take that off your hands. 145 00:29:16.870 --> 00:29:37.349 Molly Breitbart: We also offer solicitation trainings, which are a specialty of our firms, wherein we actually hire an actor to play the exact kind of prospect you're most likely to be in a room with, and that allows you to strengthen your pitch and solicitation skills with strength-based feedback from our team, which is pretty neat, if I do say so myself. It's very fun. 146 00:29:37.350 --> 00:29:39.869 Molly Breitbart: Oh, Linda C. Martin asked. 147 00:29:39.960 --> 00:29:53.460 Molly Breitbart: Are these, lists from Army on account or external prospects? These lists are actually external prospects, so I'm really glad you asked that question. They are highly vetted, and include contact information. 148 00:29:53.460 --> 00:30:06.339 Molly Breitbart: So, yes, it's all external. There's always… there's always a sub-question that accompanies that, just asking you to submit a list of your donors so we are not recreating a wheel for you or offering you folks who already support you. 149 00:30:06.340 --> 00:30:07.680 Molly Breitbart: Excellent question. 150 00:30:08.300 --> 00:30:24.530 Molly Breitbart: And this menu grows regularly, so this is just a small sampling of services that we offer, and as you can see, these are all extremely fractionally priced. We want this, this effort component to be, again, affordable, accessible. 151 00:30:27.770 --> 00:30:30.259 Molly Breitbart: So, in terms of getting started. 152 00:30:30.410 --> 00:30:44.180 Molly Breitbart: Let's talk about what your first week would look like. So, you're able to join your workspace. There'll be an email that comes to you from Hudson Ferris, courtesy of Moxo. You'll set up your login credentials, and I'll make sure that everyone on your team has access. 153 00:30:44.180 --> 00:30:58.459 Molly Breitbart: You'll be able to explore your workflows, complete that intake form, and schedule your kickoff call. And from there, that can happen as soon as you'd like. It's, again, it's just a half an hour session. We reach out to you as soon as you, confirm that you'd like to 154 00:30:58.480 --> 00:31:00.889 Molly Breitbart: Be on the platform in general. 155 00:31:00.890 --> 00:31:23.549 Molly Breitbart: And we also suggest as a tip, during your kickoff session, use that as an opportunity to book that first monthly coaching call. That way, you don't have to wait on scheduling anything, it can always be adjusted. We know how crazy, everyone's lives are, and how quickly things change in a nonprofit space, so it can always be adjusted, but sometimes it's just helpful to have that already on the calendar in advance. 156 00:31:23.880 --> 00:31:25.840 Molly Breitbart: With an agenda set. 157 00:31:26.180 --> 00:31:33.720 Molly Breitbart: Eugene has another great question. Does it accept meeting transcripts with automatic reasoning and or tweakable interpretation? 158 00:31:33.720 --> 00:31:58.050 Molly Breitbart: Yes. The short answer is yes. You can upload a transcript of a meeting, especially with your request. Yeah. It's often extremely helpful to us. Definitely. So, yeah, 100%. Yeah, and again, a person is going to be reading and processing and responding to your request, so anything… anything that you could essentially, like, print out and hand to someone, consider that perfectly relevant fodder for us to have access to and to read. 159 00:31:59.220 --> 00:32:05.170 Molly Breitbart: Great questions. Anything else while we're… while we're at a quick question… question break? 160 00:32:09.250 --> 00:32:13.860 Molly Breitbart: You're good? Okay, keep them… keep them coming in general. We're here to answer them all. 161 00:32:13.960 --> 00:32:21.730 Molly Breitbart: So some suggested first requests are things that we've seen organizations have success with as they first acclimate to the platform. 162 00:32:21.730 --> 00:32:35.719 Molly Breitbart: So, prospecting and pipeline is huge, so the idea that, you know, let's say you're like the AscendBridge program, you have 600 individual donors, slotted into your Neon account, but you have no idea who to focus on first. 163 00:32:35.840 --> 00:32:40.739 Molly Breitbart: We can help you, identify who priority prospects are in that set. 164 00:32:41.410 --> 00:32:54.079 Molly Breitbart: add next steps for what kind of outreach these folks should receive from the organization and in what cadence, and help you really refine and build a more disciplined pipeline and, improve your MOOCs management. 165 00:32:55.530 --> 00:33:10.719 Molly Breitbart: If you've found a funder, but the deadline is close, again, this is a great… a great way to use Margaret to your advantage. Not only can we assess the opportunity first before anyone starts working on it, just to make sure it's really worth the time investment. 166 00:33:10.820 --> 00:33:21.299 Molly Breitbart: We can also help you most accurately frame your request to the funder, strengthen your proposal language, or take on writing that grant proposal on your behalf, whatever is most helpful. 167 00:33:22.180 --> 00:33:39.869 Molly Breitbart: Donor follow-up is another area where I am constantly filtering requests. Most often, those questions can be distilled into, well, what happens next? They gave a gift, they came to my event, they supported our gala, or came to this cultivation meeting. What happens next? 168 00:33:40.410 --> 00:33:51.379 Molly Breitbart: Through Margaret, we're able to not only look at the donor journey in an auditing sense, but we can also take a look at, context based on other information that you're storing in Neon. So. 169 00:33:51.380 --> 00:34:05.300 Molly Breitbart: when they last received a mass communication from you, when you last, sat down to offer to have coffee with someone directly, all things like that. Because you have that data stored already, we're able to help you best assess how to leverage it. 170 00:34:05.300 --> 00:34:11.020 Molly Breitbart: And continue to grow and develop those relationships, and make your store trip even more turnkey. 171 00:34:11.130 --> 00:34:14.139 Molly Breitbart: Which is a huge benefit of being a Neon user. 172 00:34:14.679 --> 00:34:31.609 Molly Breitbart: Board fundraising is also an area where we see a lot of requests. Oftentimes, a board will really want to help with the fundraising effort, they're just not necessarily sure what those next best steps are. Not only can Margaret offer board training specifically for boards. 173 00:34:31.860 --> 00:34:56.080 Molly Breitbart: We also can help work through what board fundraising activity realistically looks like for your board, for your board members, and help prepare folks not only for donor conversations and other cultivation opportunities, but setting up measurable KPIs to continue to track and account for board fundraising success, and how they can complement your efforts as a development team. 174 00:34:59.040 --> 00:35:14.529 Molly Breitbart: And again, in terms of what it costs, Margaret is always going to be capped at, 50% of your monthly CRM fee. Billing is going to match yours, there are not going to be any seats to manage, it's going to align with your existing Neon subscription. 175 00:35:15.040 --> 00:35:19.319 Molly Breitbart: And yeah, we do also want to make a point of saying that Neon 176 00:35:19.580 --> 00:35:38.799 Molly Breitbart: has revenue-based pricing. So, this scales down to, with… along with your budget size. Yeah. So, you know, there are some, organizations that could be paying as little as $50 a month for access to this platform. 177 00:35:39.030 --> 00:35:46.310 Molly Breitbart: Exactly. Because again, it's built to be… it's built to be, affordable and accessible to all of you. 178 00:35:49.060 --> 00:35:59.969 Molly Breitbart: And then I feel like we… we did, in fact, cover these, yeah. So, I'd love to open the floor up to more questions. Let me stop sharing my screen. 179 00:36:00.250 --> 00:36:14.290 Neon One Webinars: I've got one for you. Well, it's probably technically two. So, Wendy asked… Wendy asked, her first one. Wendy asked, does Margaret work for religious nonprofits, particularly in finding appropriate grants? 180 00:36:15.560 --> 00:36:24.540 Molly Breitbart: Definitely. Yeah, certainly. Definitely. Because we subscribe to a large number of, platforms. 181 00:36:24.710 --> 00:36:41.399 Molly Breitbart: for research, we can definitely, tailor the research to the client. So, yes, if you're a religious or a faith-based organization, we'd be more than happy to help you find new prospects. Yeah, and we've… we work with several through Margaret currently. 182 00:36:41.960 --> 00:36:50.440 Neon One Webinars: Okay, perfect. Wendy also asked, does Margaret integrate with other CRMs, or can Margaret be used stand-alone? 183 00:36:52.270 --> 00:37:02.489 Molly Breitbart: Well, so, you know, certainly Margaret is sold on a retail basis. It's not, it's priced… it's not priced as aggressively. 184 00:37:02.830 --> 00:37:22.279 Molly Breitbart: And it is, the… some of the aspects of this package are not available. We do… it is sold, it is sold standalone in retail. It would just cost a lot more than if you're a Neon subscriber. And this, this pricing, as well as, this package of 24-hour turnaround. 185 00:37:22.280 --> 00:37:26.579 Molly Breitbart: And, complimentary coaching call are exclusive to Neon users. 186 00:37:26.880 --> 00:37:35.419 Neon One Webinars: Okay, perfect. Candace then asked a clarifying question in the chat. If it's 50% of what we pay Neon One, are all of the options included? 187 00:37:35.950 --> 00:37:37.189 Molly Breitbart: Yes. Yes. 188 00:37:37.820 --> 00:37:42.009 Neon One Webinars: Okay, brilliant. Ugh, I love a succinct answer like that. 189 00:37:42.010 --> 00:37:42.790 Molly Breitbart: Hi. 190 00:37:42.790 --> 00:37:43.759 Neon One Webinars: It's really candy. 191 00:37:43.760 --> 00:37:45.629 Molly Breitbart: that easy, you know? 192 00:37:45.990 --> 00:37:49.890 Neon One Webinars: And the answer that's just, yes, with no caveats, no nothing, that's really… 193 00:37:49.890 --> 00:38:00.599 Molly Breitbart: partnership with Neon just allows us to deliver our services at a more efficient… in a more efficient way, in a more scalable way, so yes. Exactly. Everything is included. 194 00:38:00.980 --> 00:38:08.680 Neon One Webinars: Lovely. Okay. Well, you two did an absolutely phenomenal job of answering questions as they came in. 195 00:38:08.680 --> 00:38:22.690 Molly Breitbart: I actually see one new one. Eugene, thank you so much. Sorry, not to call you out, but I really appreciate all the questions, that's wonderful. When you say grant writing preparation, I guess it would be great to get a little bit of clarification on that. 196 00:38:23.090 --> 00:38:30.580 Molly Breitbart: But let me just tell you what you can do. You can submit the name of a funder and ask to us. 197 00:38:30.700 --> 00:38:32.120 Molly Breitbart: Hey, 198 00:38:32.770 --> 00:38:50.430 Molly Breitbart: is this a good fit for us? So that's… we get that every day. Yeah. All the time. So we'll tell you, and we'll tell you based on our experience with that funder, or for the client's experience, anything that we know about the funder, we'll tell you. Yeah. You can also submit a list of 199 00:38:50.520 --> 00:38:59.060 Molly Breitbart: funders and have us eyeball it and say, these are good, these are not good. Yeah, don't bother there, this is a great opportunity, might we also suggest X? 200 00:38:59.300 --> 00:39:18.009 Molly Breitbart: You might say, also, hey, I'm gonna apply for this here, the guidelines, what should the proposal include? It's totally fine. And then you can show us a proposal and say, can you edit this for me? And then, yes, we will, we'll go through it, we will highlight strengths, weaknesses, things that need to be changed. And then, if that's not enough. 201 00:39:18.010 --> 00:39:42.940 Molly Breitbart: you can pay a fee of $350, and we'll need a proposal for you. Exactly. And I see, Eugene, you just posted some follow-up of, not so much write it for us, but organizing your content over time, to inform an organization's attempt at writing one. Certainly. Absolutely. We've definitely worked with organizations to prepare, essentially, like, language banks or, different opportunities that slate well into 202 00:39:42.940 --> 00:39:48.959 Molly Breitbart: you know, X, Y, and Z style proposals, or if the funder is interested in this, here's your best, 203 00:39:48.960 --> 00:40:04.270 Molly Breitbart: project to put forth, things like that, we can certainly assist with that, yeah. We need to ask if Ignisia for a couple months, we're gonna save those questions for our friends at Neon, so if you want to talk to Neon about that, that's great. 204 00:40:04.570 --> 00:40:19.610 Molly Breitbart: That's… that's where those questions are gonna go. And Carla, I see you here in the chat. Carla just added some information. Carla is from the Neon One customer success team, and she provided some additional information in the chat to help everyone, 205 00:40:20.080 --> 00:40:27.479 Molly Breitbart: for any, any more specific questions there related to, contracts, etc. Awesome. 206 00:40:27.990 --> 00:40:30.120 Molly Breitbart: And then, I feel like I… 207 00:40:30.120 --> 00:40:54.789 Neon One Webinars: The other one I was going to just call out, Candace, you asked, do we have an overview we can submit to the board for approval? That is something that, if you are a Neon One user, our customer success team will help you pull together. Additionally, tomorrow, when you get the email from us that includes a link to the slides and the transcript, they will have the slides there, so you can give them that overview. If you want something else, do please get in touch with the Neon One Customer Success 208 00:40:54.790 --> 00:41:03.120 Neon One Webinars: They are lovely, they are ready to answer your questions, and we all know how difficult board proposals can be. We are ready to help you with that. 209 00:41:05.700 --> 00:41:12.380 Neon One Webinars: Alright, this has been absolutely lovely. I have learned a ton about Margaret. It sounds… 210 00:41:12.380 --> 00:41:28.969 Neon One Webinars: like, nothing I've encountered before. Thank you all so much for sharing your time and your insights with us. Folks, do please keep an eye out on your inbox tomorrow morning for that email from me. It will include a transcript, the slides, a link to the recording, and then it will include next. 211 00:41:28.970 --> 00:41:38.849 Neon One Webinars: steps if you want to learn more, and then, obviously, you can reach out to us whenever you would like to. So, thank you all so much for spending your time with us. I know how busy you are. I know your time is valuable. 212 00:41:38.890 --> 00:41:42.459 Neon One Webinars: And we are so thankful that you are here today. We will talk to you all very soon. 213 00:41:42.940 --> 00:41:49.190 Molly Breitbart: Yes, thank you all. Thank you, everybody. Thank you for joining us, and we hope to see you again soon. Yes. 214 00:41:49.670 --> 00:41:50.640 Neon One Webinars: Bye.