 Hello, and welcome. So glad that all of you are here for us. Another episode of the nonprofit show, this is dedicated to our ask and answer episode. Thanks to our amazing partners at National University, the fundraising academy, cause selling education. And today we have a movie with us. I'm always excited to have him in the hot seat. In fact, you know, as we go down the calendar movie, I might kind of hand select these conversations that I want to have. But all of the fundraising academy team is really stellar. A lot of great information, a lot of good stuff that's, you know, they're sharing in and around our communities. So again, I'm Jared Ransom, you're nonprofit nerd, CEO of the Raven group. And today we have with us moohi quadja. I'm excited to have him and all of his letters behind his name which are MPA CFRE CFR M, and he's also a trainer with fundraising academy. And I also like to give a shout out to your co founder title here moohi. You are the co founder of the American Muslim Community Foundation. And I just love learning so much about you so before we jump into our questions. I want to make sure that our viewers and our listeners because you know we're on podcast. I want to say thank you to our sponsors so a huge shout out of gratitude goes to Bloomerang American nonprofit Academy, again fundraising academy at National University, where moohi joins us from be generous which is the donate later platform, your part time controller staffing boutique nonprofit thought leader, as well as the nonprofit nerd these companies keep us going and growing will be moving into our fourth year come March so believe it or not. We have just been, you know, moving and grooving thanks to our amazing sponsors. You can find all of our plot, sorry, all of our channels, all of our episodes take three of our episodes on these platforms here so check us out on Roku, YouTube, Amazon Fire TV as well as Vimeo. I had mentioned before you know we do have some podcast listeners so queue us up wherever you stream at your podcast, and the nonprofit show is here for you, however you want to absorb that entertainment so moohi. So glad to have you here. Tell us a little bit about yourself and your role with fundraising Academy. Yeah, I'm glad you call it entertainment because I find myself very entertaining. Yeah, you know, born and raised in Michigan been with fundraising Academy. Since earlier this year it's been a great connection and just been learning a lot, but also just being a resource to others and opportunities like this and doing webinars are what I love and sharing best practices I've been in development for 13 years now went to the University of Michigan. I talked with the internship there, learned about how they fundraise with the university with alumni with the hospital with the fourth team everything in between. And they have a 500 person development staff. And they raise billions of dollars and that's what it takes to do that so you know we call ourselves the leaders and best and love to be teaching and all of that with them. You know, 500 I cannot imagine. I typically work with the smaller organizations that you know the one development director might have a team of three, but you know they're really doing all of it, including the marketing the development the donor prospecting the follow up the event planning taking the trash out, you know, changing the light bulbs know I've been that one person development staff before so. You know, been very blessed in my career to be at very small shops that very large ones like the American Red Cross was a chief development officer for a telehealth nonprofit called the maven project, but really happy being fully remote with training. It was fundraising Academy, and it's just a really great fit so can't can't speak more kindly of fundraising Academy of National University for all that they do. And just really fortunate to post some of their webinars every once in a while and yeah everybody should check out fundraising Academy. Yes, and the portal which will share more about that as well. Well, thank you for sharing about yourself movie, we're here for the entertainment so for those of you that are watching or listening. Again, what we do is a series of questions that have been provided by you our viewers are listeners, you send them in, we save them for frayas, and then we answer them so today comes to us from Shannon Shannon in Chicago. We are seeing more diversity and our donor base, however, our development team is white, and only English speaking, how aggressive should we be and hiring new development staff that can engage more fully with these diverse donors. That is a solid question movie. Yeah, I really love this question and it shows that people are paying more attention to opportunities around engaging their donors. One thing that I would also recommend is important is based on the type of organization, who are your constituents, who are you serving. Are they diverse as your team diverse as your board diverse. And then are your donors diverse and reflective of it so right. You know, if, if the organization has a diverse group of donors and they feel comfortable speaking English. I don't know if I'm absolutely sold on meeting to hire for skill set of other people in different languages. However, if, let's say, the organization is a refugee agency, and they have a lot of people coming in from Europe or the Middle East or Africa or other places. It might be nice to have somebody who has a secondary skill set in their language. So not only can they talk directly to the beneficiaries, but then also in communities across the country or in their region, go to community centers that are reflective of those recipients and do presentations in those communities where they may be able to acquire new donors. So it's a very complex question because there's so many layers to it and not knowing the exact organization or what the makeup is of their current donor base but I think if there are major donors or a lot of donors. We start off with translating materials and trying to do different types of things that you're making your solicitation in a different language and then seeing if that yields more donors from that community as well. But I wouldn't jump off the bit that just to go hire somebody who speaks another language just based on on that. That's a really good insight and feedback. I appreciate it so much. You know, I live in Arizona as a border state to Mexico and we have a huge Latinx population here. Unfortunately, I only speak one language fluid I have played a lot of football or soccer for those of us that call us, you know, call it soccer. And I have learned a lot of conversational Spanish, but not enough to like create a fundraising campaign in that language right like I wouldn't be able to do that and I love your insight here moohi and I would say to like, tap into your team and maybe talk about your development team but as you said, you're bored, you know, there might be a board member that can assist. If you're looking at, you know, creating your materials in these other languages of your donor base and then also I'm going to go out on a limb to say, you know, it doesn't mean that these individuals don't speak English, you know, or maybe that's the other thing like diversity, you know, comes in so many shapes and forms and I don't know Shannon that we can say, you know, that our donors don't speak English because many other countries as you know moohi because you are quite the traveler, many company, our countries, there, there is English, you know, kind of mixed into the language and so I think you know let's just consider our resources and what we can do. I always say, as you said so I'm going to echo a little bit there. Diversity on your board on your staff in all departments, you know that's really important coming from that. I like to say that Jedi lens right justice diversity and that inclusion so Shannon some great insight from our friend moohi here hopefully that helps as you move forward into your 2023 and start thinking of who needs to be you know on on that seat with you in the development department so. Okay, oh, this comes from Charlotte North Carolina we were just talking about one of our amazing partners and McCauley Lopez, who's been a thought leader with us and resides in Charlotte. So, and you might know Laura or you might need to meet Laura. Laura's question is how important do you think handwritten notes are to donors. We have older team members who think this is critical and frankly younger team members who thinks that it might be a waste of time. This is a good. I absolutely love this one because I'm probably in that older millennial category, I was born in 1985. So, I, as a development professional and learning these best practices still love sending handwritten notes. Their personal, especially this time of year with the holidays it's a quick easy opportunity to drop in a holiday card. I wish them a happy new year. Yes, it's going to land in the trash and the recycling but at least it's a touch point. And for the marketing perspective and value I think it's worth it. It brings your organization's top of mind for those in your portfolio. You may not have email addresses for everybody. Yes, you can send a very personalized email and they're super effective. And if the donor ends up seeing the handwritten card and you have good or decent penmanship, and you make a thoughtful thing you to them. It will go a long way in reinforcing the stewardship with the donor and increasing the donor loyalty up until the point where the donor tells you not to send it. Do you recommend muhi, you know, in addition to emails, text messages, video messages. I'm wondering what this younger as we have like a younger demographic is leaning towards. Do you have any other recommendations of how we might kind of multi channel this in addition to that handwritten. I mean, they probably want like a be real or tick tock or Instagram message feature, you know, these kids, these days, these kids, they just want to follow on social media, you know, that's all they care about. Someone just subscribe to their YouTube channel who knows but I think some somewhere in between right. It could be a text message it could be something that is an elect that is electronic and not paper, you know they probably don't even know where to get a stamp and where to write their address on an envelope like let's be real. Now, now you're bashing the younger generation. But but yeah, I also am the younger generation right now there's another class of kids beneath me but I think that I think that they are hyper engaged as donors they want to be. They want to be included they want to know even though they may not have the wealth right now they still like to give and they're forming their philanthropic habits. So what works for this new generation isn't what has worked for our generation and generations before us so that's a very critical topic and something to engage on but I think there are tried and through tricks of the trade that we need to stick to and until the donor tells you otherwise. Right, there's no reason to change it. There's no reason to change it. Well Laura, I want to empathize because I grew up in South Carolina not far from you actually outside of Columbia, South Carolina, and I kid you not the Emily post book was literally on my bedside table so I tend to go back to Emily post and you know her recommendations for. Gosh just you know what's what's appropriate in society, and these thank you letters I do subscribe to that as well movie that and I'm not, I'm a little older than you but not too much older than you. And I still, I love receiving a handwritten thank you note I love writing a handwritten thank you note. So Laura, I'm, I'm going to go out on the limb and say, please continue this practice. And, you know, if you don't have good penmanship, have a volunteer or someone else write them, and then you can still get that full, you know, a fact and benefit but two votes here to handwrite and to keep that moving forward so good luck to you Laura and your team. Okay, we're moving from North Carolina to New York so Jacob sends in this question. How important do you think milestone marketing is our nonprofit will be 25 years in service this coming 2023 and our team is divided on if it should be marketed. Take it away. This time I read this question I was like it's a no brainer they absolutely have to right and I was like what a what a low hanging fruit and opportunity to get in front of their donors. But it is also a lot of work like how are you going to celebrate are you going to do a big old fashioned gala may not be the best use of time but also great opportunity as well. Do you simply want to do some branded new logo with the 25 year anniversary insignia on it and do something classy. I think that there needs to be recognition of 25 years of your mission, not a lot of nonprofits make it that long. Right, you know, there are millions of nonprofits in the US so many fold so many clothes so many don't get the funding they need so many struggle day to day but what type of mission is this organization and and how well connected are they with their donors or could they reconnect based on do they have donors over the last 25 years that need to be celebrated for donating to them for 25 years. Right. Yeah, and think of like, you know, if they were to do a capital campaign around this opportunity of we've been here for 25 years, support us in raising X amount of money. A gift of a monthly gift of $25 campaign a monthly gift of whatever else. I think there's so many creative ways to recognize the hard work of the board members that have been now emeritus who may be stepped off over those 25 years. I engage them as plan giving opportunity members like there's so many I wish my org was at 25 years so I could be celebrating 25 years. You will you will be. Where are you in the timeline. We're about seven years old. Yeah, for American Muslim Community Foundation. Yeah, yeah. Okay, well believe in three years when we're at 10 years I'm doing some recognition area. Hey, you got it and I'm with an organization now muhi celebrating 35 years so this question. Top of mind for me as well and I'll just throw out Jacob some things that have come to mind in our conversations definitely changing the logo adding the anniversary year to that. We're also looking at highlighting 20 are sorry 35 alumni. Where are they now right so how do we, how do we bring their life. Yeah, so doing that, but there's also statistics and I can't nerd out with you on them but I'll need to find them that even though it's a milestone year it doesn't necessarily equate to a higher fundraising capacity because of that milestone year so essentially saying an anniversary year does not mean higher donations because of that you know connection, but I still think there's a monument as opportunity that needs to be celebrated, I believe in celebrations of all sizes. And so I love what you said you know, pulling up those, those donors that have been with you for 25 years, pulling up the past board the advisory council those individuals that have played a significant part of this journey and I think that's what needs to be celebrated and recognize so I think there's some great opportunities out there some maybe don't cost as much money as others, like a big gala or something that you know requires additional time and attention for this for the staff, but there's so much to do Jacob and I really hope that you know your team will say. Okay, we want to celebrate this and here's what we're willing to do and maybe some of those other opportunities that don't land or don't fit your budget maybe you don't consider those. You know, you can revisit at your 35 and just say, we'll take that into consideration for 10 more years down the road. So, a lot of good things to happen. So wish you well Jacob. All right, new he Marcy and Lexington Kentucky we are just popping all over the states here. Marcy sends in this for us. We need some quick, easy and cheap ideas to make our workplace more attractive to staff. In essence, we want our team back in the office and not only remote the concept of making the office a destination of choice is something that we need to focus on for 2023. What do you say Mr travel bug. Yeah, how honest do you want me to be right now. I mean, you're representing fundraising Academy but I'm wanting to know I mean I will. I would say that one of the things that even in my career that I thoroughly enjoyed since pre pandemic and even 2019 when I was when I left American Red Cross and went to American looking Community Foundation full time was the idea of a virtual office I didn't need to go in. It changed my life significantly. And I think that is one of the silver linings of COVID-19 was the emphasis on people finding that balance between work and life. So, as pivotal as an office space may be. I really hope a lot of nonprofit organizations and the overall culture of working in America shift a lot I've seen job posting that have said full time 32 hours a week. I've seen job postings that have been fully remote. I've seen job postings that are leaning towards this whole idea of working left, but being more efficient and keeping the same demand, right. So it's a very fine balance and I don't think an enticing workplace is going to make people want to go into an office organizational culture, the people you work with them being actual good people and people behind a mission that want to make your organization succeed. Those are reasons why I would want to go into an office, because we're all passionate about it. So yeah, like maybe twice a month, go into the office. Let's start there. And on those days that you have in office days. What are you doing to make it enticing. So, celebrating birthdays. I'm a big fan of. I think there's something special in that once a month. And those are the little things an in person training day could be something else professional development, another enticing reason to be with an organization. I think that a free lunch and go a long way as well. So, yeah, some of those things might be enticing, but I don't think that those are going to be the things that say, Oh, I want to be back in the office for 40 hours a week. I've been done at a moderate pace, and there are effective internal team meetings that take place at those times where you are able to catch up with your co workers and be focused and dedicated to figure out those complex things that need face to face things. I think that's a good balance, but more than a few times a month. I don't think it's going to be that effective. Great answer. I'm right there with you in that camp. There's so much effectiveness that we can do and pay attention to our mental health, you know, in our own personal lives. You know, you're successful super productive in the work that you do and you travel all over the globe. Right. I also typically work remote 100% of the time, you know, and, and I very rarely even tell my clients where I am because as long as I have internet connection. And so I understand coming from the employee standpoint that, you know, how do we make this an inviting place where people want to come back to work, but I'm going to be a little disruptive and say, I don't want to come back to work and if you're not willing to do this remote opportunity, you might want to bless and release the staff, and then rehire and a new opportunity for people that are looking for an in house opportunity. I've seen that with another client movie where it was like, you know, we have a lot of staff. We're not, you know, really here for the long haul post COVID to want to be in the office and they had positions that had that flexibility. So great, go like we empower you to go find where you want to land. We really empower you for that and then there are some positions that maybe need to be a little bit more in house. But you can also some of the things that I want to recommend of what you could do to maybe sprucing up your your space is, you know, many of our offices, I feel that I've been in muhi are really run down, they're really drag they're really like they're just not inviting right and so maybe you need to like feng shui it up, you know, like, get some good energy and they're painted get some get some new photos get some new decals. Put some fresh live plants in there, get some new furniture that's not been donated 30 years ago and it's the dark mahogany, you know, L shaped Tetris form like do something that's fresh and fun and fits the energy that you're wanting to invite. And Marcy, I think that will help, I hope will help, but also, I do encourage you with movies blessing to also like, stay mindful of those people and individuals and if they are rock stars and they are doing their job and they are crushing it. Why stifle them and bring them in the office. So, that's our opinion, right buddy. That's right, final answer. Well hey, these are always such a good opportunity to ask and answer. I call them are fry a episodes because we reserve these episodes each and every week. Today is dedicated to your questions and today you've heard the answers from moohi quadra so excited to have you here in the hot seat, all the way from London. So, again, remote opportunities. It's a thing it's successful. I've been myself heading up to Utah and doing a strategy session with a client a three hour board strategy retreat on Monday, fully remote. So, it can happen. But hey I want to thank you moohi seriously for spending your time, your talent, your expertise with us I want to thank fundraising Academy for being a fantastic partner with us on the show every single episode honestly but also these Friday days. Do you also check out the American Muslim Community Foundation that's where moohi is a co founder you've heard that they're seven years old they've got just a short three more years to celebrate 10. So excited to see what that brings for you. And a first shout out of gratitude to our amazing presenting sponsors that allow us to have these very unscripted and real dialogue so thank you to blumering American nonprofit Academy fundraising Academy at the National University again thanks to moohi for joining us today. Thank you for being so generous, your part time controller staffing boutique, nonprofit thought leader and the nonprofit nerd we are so very grateful to have their support and moohi again shout out of gratitude to you for spinning today with me. Happy to be here. Thank you so much. Now go enjoy London I want you to, you know, it's got to be cold though right is it a little chilly. We're going to be here in the week and then it's, it's pretty cold. So, you know, from Detroit, so I can handle it. All I can see is a cold head so make sure that make sure that's covered up but hey for all of you that joined us live or perhaps watching the recording. Thank you as well. Join us on Monday almost said tomorrow but today is Friday so join us on Monday. Until then, stay well so you can do well.