 Grateful to have each and every one of you with us today. Grateful to have our presenting sponsors that allow us this wonderful opportunity to bring guests on thought-provoking conversations, national leaders, experts around the globe, and we could not do this without the continued support from these sponsors. Please do check them out, okay? These are amazing companies. They exist to help you do more good. They exist in your community and they exist to help you move your mission forward. So if you have not checked them out, make sure you spend some time today or this weekend doing just that and I think you will find great value in their service, their products, and their own missions. So Julia Patrick, thank you for creating this wonderful platform. Julia is the CEO of the American Nonprofit Academy. I'm Jarrett Ransom, Nonprofit Nerds CEO of the Raven Group and we are thrilled to have the continued support of Fundraising Academy National University supporting these Ask and Answered Fridays or Fri Yays. So this is the day of every week that we reserve questions that have come in from you, our viewers of things and challenges or problems that may be keeping you up at night and there are many ways to submit your question and it looks like we're starting out from Denver, Colorado today and so we will kind of go back and forth with these questions and, you know, provide some insight. Okay, so we've got Trey from Denver saying, can you discuss the impacts of hiring an interim CEO? Specifically, we want to know how long the position should last. Well, this is a great question, Trey, and thank you for asking this. My canned response is going to be six to nine months, but it also depends. So there are interim CEOs and in fact there's interim succession leaders or transition leaders at kind of each C-suite position. So I myself provide the interim CEO role, the COO, so operating in CDO for being development. So the CEO, I'm going to say about six to nine months. However, I have seen it extend past that, past that nine months. And I think it depends, Trey, are you hiring, are you bringing in, I should say, engaging this interim CEO because you had a CEO leave or resign or, you know, no longer in place or are you engaging your very first CEO? So if it is your very first CEO and you're moving and evolving your organization from all volunteer-based to now having a CEO, I'm going to push that to about 12 months or more. Yeah, 12 months or more, but if this is a position that exists already within your organization, I would shorten that. And the intention of this, Trey, is for it to be a strategic succession and transition plan. So by no means should this individual stay long-term. And in fact, once I notice that the board and the staff starts to get really comfortable with me, that's when I notice that it's time to pull the band aid because I don't want to stay as a security blanket. No. So then let me ask you this, would this answer be different depending on the situation of how the previous CEO was left? Like if they were fired or there was mismanagement, I mean versus retired? Yeah, I would say perhaps. So I did come in and serve as an interim CEO for an organization that did have mismanagement, so financial mismanagement. It was ugly, it was not something that was anything that anyone wants to be a part of, but there definitely needed to be some crisis communication, there needed to be some financial forensics done. And so it took a little bit more steps when it comes to that. But let's just say that not, that is the small fraction of most organizations. So typically this could be a health matter, this could be now that your CEO has waited through the majority of COVID maybe, right? That he, she, or they is ready to retire and truly ready to take that step away. We're seeing that here in our community, Julia, there are CEOs that were waiting and staying with organizations to make sure that everything stayed, you know, good or as good as possible. And now they're ready. They're saying, I can't, I can't wait any longer. Right. Well, it's an interesting thing because I would imagine with this great resignation that's going on with all the, the aging out of our leadership, and there's so many of these influences that have come to, to the same point. This concept of interim CEO, which was like, not too long ago, very unique. Now everybody's going to be really looking for that. So those folks out there that do this type of work or have this practice. Yeah. So unique in the nonprofit sector at large, but the, the, it started in faith-based organizations through congregation leadership. So the practice itself is not new, but it being implemented more towards charities. That is really, you know, trending or becoming more familiar. And it's a great opportunity. I highly recommend it for organizations because it is such a strategic move. I love it. Wow. Okay. Well, that's cool. Trey, I hope you have good luck with that. And I hope you let us know how it all shakes out because this is such a big deal. And you are one of many, many, many organizations, my friend. Okay. Melissa from San Mateo, California just wrote, we have, we just secured a media partnership with a local TV station, which is a big deal for us. Should we decline offers to appear on TV stations in the same market? I love this question. We don't want to upset our media sponsor, but we need the coverage. Yeah. Wow. Well, first of all, congratulations, Melissa. I think that is a huge partnership. And I'm going to pass the baton to you, my dear Julia, because this is truly your area of expertise. So I never did a media partnership without some sort of contractual documentation. First and foremost, it's very, very important. And I think you're right, Melissa, to be thinking about how, where do you stand with your partner? And how do you navigate that exclusivity as it were? So you need to first and foremost determine what type of agreement was entered into. And it might even be something you didn't negotiate or that you didn't, you weren't involved in. But chances are there's some sort of documentation that spells out exactly what's going on. Because this is the bottom line. Immediate outlet, whether it be print, broadcast, radio, even streaming, will be very, very unenthusiastic. That's a nice positive word. Unenthusiastic about covering or promoting something that helps a competitor. I mean, makes sense, right? So you've got to make sure that the media partnership is also good for you, because I've seen organizations get into partnerships where they think, oh my gosh, this is going to be fabulous. But that media outlet didn't really provide much coverage. And yet they hogtied them from working with any other media outlets. And so it goes both ways. You need to understand what the ground rules are. But chances are you are going to really be limited with your other media outlets. Another way to look at this is what we started with, is the different types of media. So you might have an exclusive with broadcast media, specifically the TV stations in your neighborhood or your market. But what about a Spanish speaking outlet? Maybe that's something that you could still engage with. Different ownership, different market. Definitely then you would be open to have new relationships with print media, with radio. I mean, with even like, I've seen billboard partnerships. So there are a lot of different media outlets. But yeah, it needs to be documented. And I'm going to say that old line that I love, you got to dance with the one that brought me up. If somebody steps up and says, yeah, we're going to partner with you, then you need to honor that relationship. But you have to define it first. Julia, does that mean that we should maybe steer away from media partnership or overall, is it still the best thing to have? Well, you know, that's my background. So I'm wearing a little bit of a tinted visor, as they say in the poker world. I think that it's really positive to have, if you do have a commitment that is really sufficient and significant. So for example, you know, are you going to have a partnership during a big giving time or big ask time? You know, where that morning weathermen and the evening weathermen are going to also be on, you know, promoting you. Are they going to be doing live remotes from your event? I mean, there are all different ways to go about this. We see this a lot when they share, when TV stations share their on air talent for MCing work. You know, I mean, there are a lot of ways to go about this. But the bottom line is it needs to be structured and spelled out. And I don't know of any media stations of significance that would enter into something like this without spelling it out, right? That agreement is really the key piece. And it's a contract. It would just be, it'll be exactly like an advertising contract, except where the amounts are. It's going to say that it's, you know, a donation or, but they want to track it because you have to remember these media outlets in the broadcast world have to to report to the federal government what the hours of pro bono minutes actually with the minutes of pro bono work has been done and in their communities. I mean, that's all registered and they have, they have target amounts that they have to reach. So, you know, this is something that they're looking to do. Now who's the nerd? It's good. That's great. Great question, Melissa. Wish you all the best. Hope that this answer is helpful for you. And yes, I think that contract is Julia shared is really the key ingredient. So make sure you take a look at that and see what it says because you might have a dance partner and you might have to stay with that one dance partner. Exactly. Doing the tango. Oscar from New York, New York writes, that's like so mean. I can't believe I made fun of Oscar. Maybe accent. We have had a tradition of offering our board members a nice dinner with a super short meeting each holiday to end the year. Then do a lot of those. With COVID, we are thinking that there must be a newer and fresher way to celebrate their service. Any ideas? That's a great question. And there is a lot of thought, you know, of going into what is important to spend your money, spend your time, thank your board members. So Julia, if you've been to a lot of these, yeah, what have you seen done differently? I serve on a board now where they always provided a meal for any and all of the meetings. And what they're doing now is they're doing a door dash coupon where the board liaison is doing, and I'm trying to think what the amount is, $20, $25, I'm not sure. And then it goes into an account. And it's very interesting because it has to be used that day. So you can't like bank it up and say, oh, I'm not going to eat, you know, and then, but I'm going to go out to dinner with my husband or my wife, right? I mean, it's kind of a weird thing. So that they do it that way. I personally don't want to be on camera on a Zoom meeting eating. While eating, sure. For me, I mean, that's just, that's just a judgment call. You know, so I might get something to drink from my own office, but that's the most that I'll do. So I find that very interesting. But I don't know, I kind of think it could be fun to do that. Maybe a more elevated door dash thing, because you would easily, if you took your board out, you're easily at $50 a person. Yeah. For a nice year end. I mean, that's not even with a lot of alcohol. Right. You know, so. Well, and there are ways, Oscar, that you can, you know, maybe bring in your mission to the board. There's also many ways and things, products in particular that you can customize for the board. So you might want to look at that. We've had charity charms on a couple of times and that company has, you know, everything from key fobs to bracelets to necklaces to cuff links. So there's a lot of different things to consider. I'm thinking also, you know, if you do want to send something of average, you could perhaps create a customized label or something that's special for the event or for the year or for your group. Yeah. So and that could also go with the dinner, the, you know, door dash or grub hub or whatever you have in your community. If you're, yeah, if you're watching though, and you're thinking, we are a rural community, how the heck are we going to do that? Right. Perhaps you engage with a local restaurant and you have the board members able to pick up their meal. That could work and, you know, make it make it easy, but celebratory. I think there's a lot out there. We just, you know, now's the time to really think about who is our audience. What would our boards like? Because, you know, Oscar, I like this quote, when you've seen one board, you've seen one board and they're all a little different. Yeah. And every board member, whether you have three of 21, 27, right, like they're all different. So I think it really depends on your team and your organization. I agree. And I also think too, I like the point that you brought up and I just want to amplify that, Jared, is that there are a lot of nonprofits that have some sort of social enterprise. And so we did an event last week. And in our party favor bags for our guests, we had items that came from our community, you know, that they're part of that. So definitely, you know, band together with your other nonprofits that in your community, that if there's some way to share that love, yeah, absolutely. I think I typically make that my holiday present to my parents and my brother is a local community gift from where I am. And so I've done that a couple of times and it's great. So think about how you might be able to use that same opportunity with your board members. Exactly. Okay, Jamie from Lexington, Kentucky writes in how many nonprofits do you know of that are using a second in command position to denote the incoming board chair. We've not done this, but we think it's time to do so. And we're not really sure how to go about it. You start because I'm curious if you've seen this in your board service. Yeah, board chair elect is normally what it would be called. And generally, that is described in your bylaws. And so it is assumed when that person takes that job that they are doing a two year or whatever the term of the board chair is stint of training. So the concept is that when, you know, January 1st rolls around or whatever that the way the end of the board service time structure is that new person is ready to go knows how to run the meetings, is familiar with all the board members. And you don't miss a step because we know, in fact, we had a guest on that talked about this was this week or last week that the average time to get somebody familiar is a six to nine month term, right? I think they actually said nine to 12 months. It's a learning curve for sure. Yeah, so you're trying to avoid this. I don't know about you, Jared, but I think board chair elect is is something that's standard that everybody knows. And so there's more importance put upon that position. And I love this model, Jamie, because it then prepares your board and that next board chair for the future, right? And so I have seen in particular these last two years, there is no succession plan with the board. So it is, you know, well, who will serve as our board chair and everyone's like, don't look at me. I'm not able to make that meeting or I'm going to turn my camera off. Or what have you and it's like everyone like no, no. In fact, I heard a story where one board chair was elected while they were eating and it was because she couldn't say no. And so I really think, Jamie, this is a beautiful, brilliant model for that succession planning. It brings continuity. It brings Insta like institutionalized knowledge. It brings consistency in the leadership and with the with the board. So as you, you know, bring in new board members, they are seeing the model and understanding kind of that succession plan. Plus, I think that shows this level of maturity within your model within the leadership. And it shows these new board members what to expect. Because what we want to do is really engage the board member. That's what it was. It was Gregory Nielsen, Julia, and he was saying that it takes about nine to 12 months before a new board member actually engages in conversation. And so by having this model, I think it really does allow these new board members to see the security that's already built, understand and become familiar with the model. Hopefully that helps to engage them at a much earlier pace than nine months. Right. And it's such a healthy way to go. And I also think that when organizations outside donors, funders looking in, they see this, it gives you more confidence that you have a board in a structure that means business that knows how to operate and is going to be more successful with, you know, basically financial investments. So absolutely. Yeah. Great question. And I do, I will use your word to amplify, check your board, your bylaws. Right. And if it's not there, consider putting it there. Put it in. Yeah, absolutely. It should be there. Hey, Jared, an amazing, amazing week. Yes. Super busy. Have a lot of really interesting things coming up. And I can't wait to share with you. We have a really, really interesting three day group or set of, I guess, come in and talk about cybersecurity. Big deal. Big deal. I met with him, he and his team, to talk about what this would look like. And I'm telling you, I was freaked out. Yeah. Freaked out. He said things that I had no idea. I mean, this is more than fraud in nonprofits. You know, we've talked about that. And a lot of times it goes with the financial institutional side of our business. This is totally different. And so it's going to be a group from I Bailey that comes in. It's going to be really powerful. I cannot wait to hear because I thought of these shows earlier this week when I heard from someone that their nonprofits website had been hacked. And I was like, okay, tune in for these cyber security shows because it's what we need to know more of. It's fascinating. They're going to get into what it looks like, what you should do, how you can buy insurance, how you can determine risk, coming up with a communications plan. I mean, all of these different things. And one of the comments they made was that this problem has been made so much worse by the pandemic because people are taking equipment and technologies off campus. And so it's actually made server and cloud issues a lot more perilous, right? And because people can't just get up and walk down the hall and ask a question, they might open an email that really was not a legit thing. Wow. Fascinating. Well, I am so glad again to have our continued support from our sponsors that allow us these opportunities and to bring these timely critical topics to all of you throughout the nation. We've said it before, but we really are super close to 400 episodes strong coming up on what two years I think of the nonprofit show. We will be launching our survey, our viewer survey, and we really hope a Sunday. So look for that email. And we hope that all of you will provide your feedback so we can bring more of what you want. So it's been phenomenal. Thank you for joining us today. Thanks to again our presenting sponsors. Please do take some time to check them out. They are doing great things. Blue Marine will be joining us to talk about Giving Tuesday. And that's going to be coming up soon. I hope that's on everyone's calendars. And again, thanks to Fundraising Academy for underwriting our Friday Ask and Answers. It's a lot of fun. And again, send us your questions. We will get them on. We can take them through any of our social media platforms where you can direct email us. So hey, Jared, have a wonderful restful weekend. You too. And a successful one because you've got some work stuff on the books I know. I got two speaking gigs today alone. So I got to go deal on those which will be fun. I'm dressed in purple today because I'm supporting autism. Purple is the main color of autism. So I'm doing some work with two large autism groups. I just thought it was for Fundraising Academy. I know. I should have. I did think about that when we logged on. I'm like, oh wait. But no, it's really for our friends serving in the autism and neurospectrum disorder sector. But as we like to end every episode, we want to remind you to stay well so you can do well. We'll see you back here on Monday, everyone. Thanks, Jared.