 I am just so grateful to you, Tony Bell and Fundraising Academy Cost Selling Education at large for really being a partner with us when it comes to this show. Fundraising Academy is not new, Tony Bell is not new, but we are really looking at continuing and deepening our partnership just like we are each and every one of our presenting sponsors that you see here on the screen. These companies exist for one sole purpose and that is to help you do more good. So thank you to our presenting sponsors. Lots of great sponsors. Phenomenal. Like we wouldn't be here without all of you. And Tony Bell, of course, thanks so much for joining us today. I'm Jarrett Ransom, the non-profit nerd. My glasses are never far, they are right here and I might need them because Miss Julia Patrick is gone today. She's taking the day off and so she and I are kind of tag teaming and high-fiving on our way across the hallway in our studios so that we can come on and co-host here with our favorite friend, Tony Bell. So are you ready to get started? Let's do it. I'm looking forward to this. I too love these shows. They are wonderful. So here's our first question and I'm just going to read it aloud and Tony, I'll let you kind of dive in first but if you, I'm ready to ping pong. So, you know, I'm here. So our board who had never met virtually is now hooked on Zoom. In fact, they don't want to meet in person. I am the CEO and I think we need to meet up. So I think the question from Cheryl here is how do I navigate this? Right, exactly. Well, I think what's really fascinating about this question is the struggle that some of us might have had prior to this new landscape to get our board members and team members to lead into the technology so that we wouldn't have to convene face-to-face as often. And now they've experienced the wonders of technology and the fact that, you know, they can attend the meeting in shorts and flip flops and not have a 40 minute commute. I mean, I can certainly understand why board members now would love to really stick with the Zoom platform. I think that there are, and again, I think I can't point to a specific source, but I'm sure that there's some data out there and we're seeing more and more of this popping up and with some of the other questions, I'm sure I'll respond in the same way. But there's just more and more studies and more and more data around the value of being face-to-face versus Zoom, how are organizations being impacted by the full kind of virtual experience? So I would say to do a little data diving and find some information that supports the value of face-to-face. If they don't, I don't know, I don't think Cheryl mentioned the frequency of their board meetings, did she? So, you know, maybe once a quarter, you're still, you know, coming together face-to-face and you have kind of encouraged that based on the data that you've found that supports the value of doing such. It's still a slippery slope just because of, you know, folks that are vaccinated versus non-vaccinated and if we're gonna meet face-to-face, do we need to sign, you know, a waiver that minimizes the liability for the organization? So there's a lot of things to consider as we reconvene face-to-face, but if you're struggling to get them to even consider that, you might wanna find some data points that would support your conversation. You know, I agree and I think too, you know, this point for Cheryl to keep in mind is are they being participatory, right? Are they still participating? Are their voices being, you know, spoken and heard? That I think is, you know, really the bottom line of what are you expecting from your board? And if you take away the in-person versus virtual, are they contributing, right? And from there, you know, really have a conversation because I know a lot of this goes back to our bylaws that says X amount in person, X amount of excused absences. And you know, there's so many things to look and refer back to our bylaws, Tony, but I'm thinking in addition to everything you said, Cheryl, take a look and see just how, how they are participating. How is your board showing up? Are they video on? Are they actively engaged? Are they part of the conversation? Are they still asking those wonderful questions that are thought-provoking? That is what I would focus on. And then to your point, Tony, to reiterate, you know, maybe you do have quarterly face-to-face and I think that's a great opportunity to find that balance. Yeah, I love what you said there, Jared. I mean, I love how you tied in the bylaws, right? Because we should always consider mission and bylaws and all of our decision-making, right? So I'm glad that you tied that in. And as Cheryl doesn't need a whole lot of data points if there is reduced productivity as a result of the Zoom meetings. Yes, that is right. Excellent. All right, Cheryl, I hope that was helpful. Here's another one from Stephanie in Newark, New Jersey. Are you hearing about any other nonprofits who are adjusting their wages down to accommodate staff members who do not want to return to the office and maintain a work-from-home status? I have been asked by a valuable team member if we would consider this. Wow, that's a big question. And first of all, when I saw Stephanie's question, it took me a while to know, I know what WTF means, but I didn't know what WFH meant. So it took me a while. Work-from-home, I know. I don't know why that didn't resonate. WFH, WFH. I mean, I don't know why it didn't resonate with me initially. That's okay, we know where your head is. Sorry, just keep it honest. I actually have not heard of any organizations that are adjusting their wages down because of team members not returning to a physical workplace. In my opinion, it's not about where they're working. It's about the value that they bring and the productivity and the results of their work. I mean, that's what the compensation is all about. It's all about their experience and how they're moving the needle for your mission and organization. This is just my opinion. I mean, it's not where they're sitting to get that work done. What do you think, Jared? No, I agree. And in fact, I've seen recently studies on, you know, work-from-home but also condensed work weeks so that we can come back, combat. Let me see, OMBAT, compassion fatigue and burnout, right? And so I even saw this question when it came to, if we go to a four-hour work week, does that impact their pay? So Stephanie, this is a little different your question but I'm also relating it in a very complimentary type of way. So this organization was going from a five-day work week to a four-day work week. And not impacting their benefits, their salary, anything. So I see this quite similar to where I would not reduce anyone's wages for the sheer fact of them working from home, right? If their job changes by way of their responsibility, their outputs and you're truly shifting what they're doing and kind of like a restructure or a reorg, that's where I think the salary conversation should come into play, but I would not touch this with a 10-foot pole otherwise. Yeah, and this is where, when you participate in these types of Q&As, this is where you have to be humble and say, I don't know the human resources implications. So you have to think of the legalities within your state. So when you start talking about reductions of salary and all of that, so... Well, and I'm seeing here that what I'm reading is that the team member asked for his or her their compensation to be reduced. And that to me is like, please know, keep valuing yourself, right? Value yourself and the good that you do for the community. So where are you, where are you do it? I almost said where are you do it? Where are you do it? Should it matter in my belief? So Stephanie, I'd love to hear back from you on that. Yeah, great question. Great question. Moving into Phil, how valuable do you think team-building activities are? We have a diverse staff, several were hired during COVID and remote learning. I'm wondering if we need to do something that is less social and more educational. So how valuable do you think till team-building activities are? Well, so team-building, so I think connectivity right now is super important. So I wouldn't minimize the comment there around social. I think social connectivity is really important amongst our team members right now too, so that we have that opportunity to really get to know each other and that every touch point isn't specific to something around the business. So in our organization, we do a lot of those. So we've done painting convenings where we all convened on Zoom and had an instructor, teach us how to paint something. I love that. I did a cooking class, a Zoom cooking class for our teams or we sent out the ingredients that they would need, everyone got together. So we've created opportunities for team members to highlight some of their talents outside of the workplace and some of their passions outside of the workplace and share that with our team members through Zoom. And that has done a lot for our team-building, it's done a lot for the connectivity because we too have team members that have joined us during the pandemic and none of us have really met physically face-to-face. And so we do a little bit of team-building stuff, there might be a scavenger hunt that might be related to where can you find the time-off request form in our single sign-on, right? And so everyone goes and whoever can find the form, the fastest. So there are ways to build in some fun stuff that are educational and a little less social but still have that total fun social feel. I supported 100%, I think it's really necessary. I wanna join that team, that sounds like a lot of fun. And I would add to everything Tony said, Bill, in that, how valuable do you think team-building activities are? I would focus in addition to these great opportunities that Tony has given you to the mission, right? Let's focus these team-building activities to the mission that we have this common baseline of why we're here, what we are striving to do, having those mission moments, sharing success stories, and really elevating the mission and the why. I think that's super important. One thing I've noticed during COVID and I think it's been happening a long time before, I'm an extrovert, so I don't always understand this. There are a lot of introverts and a lot of hybrids, right? That are very uncomfortable sharing so much personal, vulnerable, raw kind of information. And just because I don't see it as vulnerable, someone else might. And so I have even Tony scaled back any icebreakers that I offer to really include that mentality that for some people, this is very uncomfortable, right? And to me, it was like I had no clue. It was not registering because I'm like, yeah, I'm all in, I love icebreakers. So consider that, Phil, as you're building out these team-building opportunities and to keep that kind of balance in mind. But I think if you do focus it on the mission, and I love that scavenger hunt because that layers in so many business functionalities that I think is a win-win. And Phil, engage your staff, because that's what we did. We didn't own this from the top down, and I hate that terminology, but we engage team members to help create these team-building activities and these social hours. We sent a survey out to the team. What would you be interested in participating in? What excites you? And then we kind of built some of those opportunities around the survey responses from our team members. I love that. And I don't know if you offered the cooking class, Tony, if you were the chef with the roof. I was. See, that's perfect. So like if there's someone on your team that says, I do this and I would love to offer this, I think that's great. My son took on guitar lessons virtually. And I think if there was someone on your team that was like, hey, I would love to teach you in your kid's guitar lessons, or just some basic chords. I mean, super cool, so. Yeah, and that was really exciting because folks really wanted to share their talents and the other things that they were passionate about with their co-workers. Well, I just love that. Moving into Jackie, Santa Fe, New Mexico. Can we get away with volunteer training in a video format? We have had a terrific volunteer coordinator who did a live training and she was amazing. She is leaving our organization and now we are concerned how to impart her level of training, information and encouragement. What's saying you, Tony? Jared's like, I'm so ready for this one. I have seen a lot of success with like asynchronous training, with training videos for volunteers with either an in-person or Zoom follow-up. So typically the video is kind of a pre... It's a preview. Watch this prior to our meeting. So then it gets a lot of the business stuff out of the way so that when you do convene either via Zoom or face-to-face, now it's about building the relationship with your volunteer because a lot of the business stuff got taken care of through the video. So I support utilizing videos for training in that manner, not as a standalone, especially when it comes to volunteers, but as a great initial orientation tool. Me too. And I think this is a great way, Jackie, to impart your volunteer coordinator's knowledge, her passion, years of expertise and experience. If you can get her, Jackie, if you can get your volunteer coordinator to document what is her training, what is the procedure, film it in addition to the documentation, or you can flip that, you could do the video and then you could have that transcribed. So there's a couple of ways you can do that. I love transcription services. And as much as you can make it evergreen, I think that would be amazing. I would ask or encourage you, Jackie, to ask your volunteer coordinator to pepper in some homework assignments. You know, like, hey, when we meet in person, we will want you to bring X, Y and Z, right? And I think if you can make some of those questions evergreen, have your current volunteer coordinator produce this and it doesn't have to be high quality. That's the other thing I like to say, not have to go to, you know, a studio to do this, although if you want our help, we would be happy to help you, Jackie. But I really think something as simple as, you know, a phone or a Zoom makes it quite easy to capture something like this. So, yeah, it's so easy to set up your own, you know, to record your own Zoom presentation and have that file. Jirit, you said something that's so important and you're always so good about mentioning this. And that is to make it as evergreen as possible. You know, you said evergreen a number of times and it's really important because we tend to forget, you know, because we're living in the now, but when we're creating these videos, super, super advice. Yeah, well, thank you. You know, sometimes I say things and I'm like, I didn't realize I said it that often, but it's so important and I'm not surprised I did because I really want organization to be able to stretch their dollars. So the more you can provide something that has a longer shelf life, which is whatever green is, I think the better, so. Yeah, no, you can't say it enough. That's for sure. Well, thank you. This is from a name withheld from our friends over in Orange County, California. The OC. Yeah, so it has here. I have just been hired as the development director of a nonprofit. I was hired because the HR manager in CEO liked my approach to fundraising. They now want me to teach the rest of the staff my process, but I'm not sure I can do this. Any ideas for me? Let's see here. Well, one name withheld congratulations on your new position as development director of a nonprofit, a really critical role within an organization wishing you much success. I can understand how it may seem challenging for you to convey the process that you use for fundraising. What I might, if you're really struggling with how to teach them your process, then I would say because we all agree that fundraising is a team sport. So if you're struggling with how do I teach them my process, maybe instead what you do is you think about at what points within your process can folks get engaged in your process and add value to your process? You might wanna counter that request by saying, it may be a struggle to actually teach that the specific process, but I can create opportunities for team members to become engaged in the process and I can certainly provide training on what that might look like. That's just one option. I love that option. The other thing is I really love the opportunity that it looks like you've received here named withheld to provide an educational moment to the entire team, staff, board, volunteers alike, how they play a role in your process, because sometimes fundraising is the F word. And sometimes when we come down the hallway, I have literally had people go, oh gosh, here she is again. And it's like, I'm not asking for anything in particular. I'm literally educating on an opportunity. So here's a great example. I was working with an organization and the volunteer coordinator did not understand how they played a role in fundraising and literally thought every time she had a group come in to rent out a room that I should not have the ability to talk to them. But I thought why wouldn't we have this very organic introduction, share a mission moment, right? They're using the room, not for the organization but for their team. So I think this is a great opportunity to educate everyone on, use this as this is who I am, very excited to be here. This is my role and my goals and this is how I would love and welcome all of you, as we say in the South, all y'all. All y'all to play a part in the success of continuing to fund our mission. It's not that hard. It's not, it's not. I mean, this is coming from two experts that love to ask for money. But I think this is really a beautiful opportunity and so that would be my idea is, instead of teach them, I would say share with them your process, your goals and how they can play a role. And Jared, I just, I wouldn't expand on that example that you gave a little bit for any viewers that may be working with a nonprofit where they have facilities and are renting out, meeting space and event space. I work with an organization that has that similar opportunity to generate revenue through rentals. And they also struggled with that. So what we ultimately did was with all of the contracts, it allowed a representative from the organization to welcome. Yes. So it was really, they would be at the beginning of every meeting that was booked just two minutes. Welcome to, you know, our facility. Glad you could be here a little bit about us. Restaurants are down the hall to the right. Enjoy your time here in our facility. We hope to see you again soon. I mean, it was just like that simple. Absolutely. Restrooms, here's what we do here. So if you have any questions about what you might see on your way to the restroom, would love to answer any questions. Here's our Wi-Fi password, right? So yes, I really want to take the fear out of, you know, we are coming into the room, locking the door and like going through their wallets. That is not what you do. Give me your phone. I want to look at your contacts. Right. Where's your high net donors? Are they in here separate? Are they starred? But I think this is a great opportunity, truly name withheld. So, and again, I echo Tony's sentiments. Congratulations. And I thought name withheld's question was going to be much more risque than that. Oh, I know Tony. Well, it is always so fun, as I say, to nerd out with you. And we're not done. We still have a couple of more minutes here, but I really, you know, would love to hear from you as it comes to continuing this COVID rebound. And thanks to you, I think that's where we learned this term, you know, moving from recovery to rebound. Anything you want to share that's kind of changed in the last, I don't know, month and a half or any timeframe, really? So this is how I'm feeling. I'm still feeling like we need to maintain the level of flexibility that we either had going into the pandemic or that we discovered was a skill that we had during the pandemic. So I think flexibility is still really important. I think listening is still really important so that we understand how the continuous changes are affecting the communities that we're serving. So that, again, through our flexibility, we can be responsive to those changing needs. I think that that's, you know, that's part of, that's still a critical part of the rebound is still leaning in and embracing flexibility. So that takes me back to our question that we had today. And I want to, maybe it was Cheryl, I'm sorry, I can't remember, but about the Zoom meetings, right? And is that still part of your flexibility? Yeah, it is because moving forward, we should accept this kind of hybrid model now. You know, we're going to, I think we're going to need to offer a virtual option more often than we ever have in the past. You know, I would agree. And I've seen, so kind of where I'm at and what I am seeing in our market is there, there still does need to be a lot of flexibility and a lot of families and individuals alike have chosen to either, you know, relocate. Now, then now is a great opportunity to relocate. I've been coaching a lot of people that want to move closer to their families and really seen this as a great opportunity to shift their geographic location. So that's opening up the workforce opportunity for perhaps a hybrid or a full remote. I'm seeing full remote opportunities really sky-ripe it. And I'm curious what Katie would say here at Staffing Boutique. That's been a really big, big opportunity. I myself have invested in another community that I've been manifesting for so long and it's finally come into fruition. So I'm actually looking to play a more active role in now two communities, right, in a bigger way. And I'm seeing that with a lot of my peers and colleagues across the nation. And one of the things that I've been talking to my team about as we kind of, you know, move into this, again, the next evolution of this landscape, right, is, you know, during the pandemic, we led with empathy. We led a lot with empathy. And so as we move into this next phase, where, you know, hopefully this is getting worked out, communities are reopening, we're not minimizing our level of empathy, but we're spotlighting our level of gratitude as we move forward. So we're kind of moving from the empathy stage to the gratitude stage because we have managed and led and supported our way through this. So again, not to get rid of empathy, it needs to live in us constantly, but I'm trying to encourage all of the team members that work in my organization now to really think about and lead with gratitude as we move forward. They are so lucky to have you. And I just, every time you speak and you kind of, you know, just dot the I and cross the T's, I'm always a little blown away by just so much passion and compassion that you have, Mr. Tony Bell. So, thank you. Well, you're my favorite nerd, so it's all good. Well, good. I keep seeing every, not everyone, a lot of guests coming on with glasses. So I just wrote down like nerd tape because I think I'm going to send all of, all y'all. I just thought of it. The only thing I need to do is put a little tape at some point. So I think I need to invest in that, send a little bit of a role to, you know, my favorite nerd. Someone reached out to me yesterday and was like, I'm your Northwest nerd. And I'm like, I love it. So thank you, Tony. And I hope that you have something fun for this weekend. And it's always, you know, exciting to end my week and a fry yay with you. Thanks so much. I fry yay all day. Yes, fry yay all day. I love that. So thanks to fundraising academy for showing up in a bigger way and being our presenting sponsor and partner here for our ask and answered. Julia Patrick, we missed you. I hope I did well. And Jarrett Ransom, your nonprofit nerd. And of course there's always ways for you to send us your questions. So here's four listed on the screen for you to take a look at. We always take live questions as well. So if you have anything for our fry yay go ahead and shoot it through. If we can't get it on live we will absolutely use it in a future episode. And of course thank you, thank you, thank you to all of our presenting sponsors. If you haven't found them online, please do. They are here literally to elevate the vibration around every part of the world. And they are pouring into the great work that you do to help you do more great work. So Tony, phenomenal. I hope that you do have something fun planned this weekend. And yeah, I know I'm gonna enjoy the rain. And everyone please stay safe. Please join us on Monday, get some rest this weekend. And until then stay well so you can do well. Thanks Tony. Thank you so much.