 Welcome back everyone to another episode of the nonprofit show. We're delighted you're here if you joined us in the greenroom chatter Oh my gosh, we're having a fabulous conversation with Meredith Terian because Meredith where are you coming to us from? Tampa, Florida The original spring break girl, right? That's right. Yeah. Oh my gosh we were talking about all things spring break and And we were talking about hunting for shark's teeth on the beach. That's super cool We might have to take the Nonprofit show on the road to Florida just so that I can experience something like that Well, Meredith Terian one of the great trainers at fundraising academy founder of the allied group has joined us today She's in the hot seat. Are you ready? I am ready. Let's get started. It's going to be a lot of fun You know, we're here because we have amazing support and that comes from folks like Our friends over at Bloomerang American nonprofit academy nonprofit thought leader staffing boutique your part-time controller 180 management group fundraising academy at national university JMT consulting nonprofit nerd and nonprofit tech talk These are the folks that join us day in and day out. You know, Meredith knows this I know this our friends at fundraising academy know this We've done more than a thousand shows and you can find us on our app streaming broadcasts and podcasts So we get to you where you are. Okay lots of questions. Oh, how funny this comes from long beach, california Right in the whole theme of spring break. Wow. Okay. I didn't even plan that Paul writes as I plan our family summer vacation. I'm thinking about adding on a few days So I can meet up with donors I'm trying to determine how to navigate the costs associated with travel Specifically airfare and hotel expenses any suggestions Okay, so this is a really interesting question And I think it's one that a lot of times we we've all kind of found ourselves in that situation at least I know I have And I think a couple of things one. I think it's great that you're trying to for in this case, paul that you're trying to um, you know Save your company or your organization some money by combining the the convenience of you being in a certain area with Meeting with your donors. I think there's not a really right or wrong answer here It's one of these things that you kind of have to do tactfully It depends on a case by case basis But I can tell you this I think that the best policy is to be completely honest and transparent with your organization On the fact that you'll be traveling and you'll find yourself in an area this summer Where you know you have a couple of donors and you'd like to make the most of your time I think that your company would be really grateful that you are, you know, again being honest and transparent here And that you're willing to take some time out of your your vacation to do some work Specific to your question though, how do you handle things like hotels and airfare? That gets a little trickier. Here's what I do when I am when I'm in that situation So what I'll typically do is if I'm traveling for a personal reason with my family Then I will usually charge my hotel To a to like a personal account or a personal credit card because I have other family members staying in the hotel with me So when I normally would have picked like a very simple kind of business oriented hotel If I was on a trip by myself I might have picked a more extravagant hotel or resort because I have my children with me So in those cases, I usually cover my hotel costs independently now for my airfare though I I will ask permission and charge that to my company or to my organization and say, you know, I'd love to I'd be happy to take care of the hotel on my own But um, you would need to buy a plane ticket either way to make it out of state or to make it to see that donor So I think that again as long as you're honest and transparent about it Your company or your organization will really kind of appreciate that you're willing to take the time to do this on a vacation And again that you're that you're taking time away from your family to do it Yeah, you know, especially I'm thinking like paul in long beach You know when you're on the west coast and or you're the like you you're in the east coast um, your travel is Laborious because it takes time to get across even just to the midwest. I mean you're talking an easy three hour Journey just to get halfway or even into the midwest I mean, it's it's kind of arduous, right? You know being it's not like paul's coming out of chicago where he can go in either direction with a little bit more ease So, yeah, I think you got it. I like what you said. I think you got a plan this around and kind of understand that it works in everybody's favor and Your kids your spouses you might have to give up some time there, but I think you're right. I think it's a good thing to do just in terms of overall Use of your time and and getting that connection. I also think too meredith, you know Paul like the rest of us probably hasn't had any one-on-one face time because of the pandemic and you know, if you're in another part of the country So this could be really an opportunity and I got to believe a lot of people are going to be thinking about this Going forward. I agree and I think it's one of these again It's one of these topics that we a lot of us probably think about It's it's a scenario that we most of us have found ourselves in at one point or another But there's not like a right or wrong answer here I think it largely depends on what the policies are at your organization Maybe what the culture is and then again probably the best policy here for anything is transparency and honesty Yeah, really interesting and then I got to believe too kind of like In one way what the results are like if you Do this and then you start to see that certain things are happening or moving forward It's going to make it easier for everybody to understand going forward what to do how to do it. I mean it's You know, yeah, I think it's very very interesting. Paul. Thank you for sending that in I got to tell you I I would not have thought of this in that way. You know, I was like, wow. Yeah, that's That's a that's something to be thinking about and um, well meredith and I were chatting chatting about spring break Summer break is right around the corner. So yeah, right Yeah, I mean kind of time to do it. Okay, let's go to our next question And this comes to us from Andrew and Denver, Colorado We will be celebrating 100 years in service next year. Holy cow. Amazing. Congratulations I'm wishing to have our logo changed somewhat for the purpose of milestone marketing Not everyone thinks this is a good value as it'll cost some money. Can you weigh in? So this is an interesting topic and like you said, congratulations on the upcoming milestone because that's that's uh, That's huge and that's very it is an exciting year, particularly the 100th, right? So this is not just any any anniversary. This is a big one Um, here's my opinion and my take on this and julia. I'm curious about yours So I think that altering the logo for milestones Can be a really strategic move to really signify the progress and and sort of celebrate the longevity of your organization So it's something that we see other organizations do and I think the reason they do it is because it's very effective, right? So it can help you to elevate your brand. It gives you increased visibility among your donors and your supporters increased interest from your supporters It gives you the opportunity to tend to differentiate Your brand and differentiate your message And so it gives you a lot of marketing and advertising opportunities, right? So I think that it's a really good policy to try to leverage that Um, and I think that it can be really effective at again sort of elevating your your brand and your visibility in your community with Your donors and kind of giving you some new fresh content Now to your point on there being an associated cost with it So absolutely there's going to be a cost associated with any with doing this kind of thing You probably have to bring in graphic designers. You probably have to do some editing to your website Certainly have to maybe redo things like your Maybe it's maybe it's something like your uh your letterhead or something like that That's going to require a little bit of you know effort to change You want to weigh the potential? Return on investment with the expenses or with the investment itself So, you know, I think that if you're leveraging that logo in such a way where you're doing fundraising appeals Um, you're you know, maybe you have a gala coming up that's going to celebrate the 100th anniversary Maybe you're going to do some email appeals or a direct mail appeal You can factor in the cost associated with making those changes to your logo and then certainly track your results and your data and your analytics very closely So that you can quantify like what was the investment and what was the return on it But I wouldn't suggest that you shy away from doing it because there's an associated cost There's an associated cost with raising money anytime we do it and when we do it effectively You know, we we understand that we have to invest some Personnel and time and resources and money into getting a return there So I wouldn't shy away from it necessarily, but I do recognize that there is an associated cost Julia, what do you think in this in this situation? I think that absolutely a hundred percent I mean, I've seen organizations that you know might do like a ribbon or might do like what we call a tag line Right, don't change the whole logo. Just add add on to it And we're not talking about you know changing the the building identification and stuff like that to your point It's going to be your web presence. It's going to be your a2 note cards your thank you note cards your letter head Um, it's going to be on all of your media, you know press releases You know paperwork stuff like that that that goes out Because I think this is a what we call a white hat story, you know, it's a good story And so when you send this out, you never know What's going to come back to you, right? I mean, you never know where somebody doesn't Want to do a story about you in the media or maybe a family or a community group wants to celebrate this milestone and give a A gift that celebrates that a hundred years. I mean, but this is the thing Andrew this has to be done now You don't start using that on December 1st when you were founded a hundred years ago In my estimation and I'd love for you to weigh in on this I think you got to start now Because next year is just months away depending on where your anniversary Falls or how you're going to do it, right? If you're going to do it for a calendar year, which I think is probably You know more logical Hop to it, baby. This is this is now, right? Yeah, I agree. And I think you said something really insightful, which is That, you know, there are certain donors who might be inclined to give above and beyond or maybe double or triple Even what they normally give in their annual giving simply because you advertise this big milestone So you absolutely want to emphasize this you want to share it with folks You want to like scream it from the rooftops? So let to celebrate the fact that your organization has made it to this really monumental milestone and like julio said I mean, like you said, there's There's it's not a huge investment. You're not, you know, overhauling your entire Program services mission everything. I mean, we're talking maybe maybe a few tweaks to your logo Maybe the way you leverage your digital communications or you like your digital You know messages might look a little different Yeah, and I think this is a great thing to do You could start like the hundred year celebration club and everybody gives an extra hundred dollars or you do something that, you know gets That honors that milestone because it only comes once and for a lot of organizations They don't even get to a hundred years in service, right? I mean, right This is like a a huge thing with Amazing opportunity and you could do a whole series of things like, you know, a hundred people to Commit to, you know, a hundred hours of service a hundred people to You know serve Here or there. I mean, there's just so many things that you can Weave through this and I think it's really powerful You know Denver is an old city and so there are other There are there are milestone marketing pieces on so many levels And some communities a hundred years Is a is a huge deal in my community And my state's not has only been a hundred years old for a few years. You know, I mean If you got to figure out where you are and who else is doing it and what's going on But oh my gosh, this is not to be missed. It's an amazing thing and You know, I think too, it would be really interesting Andrew To then this might be a little bit of a heavier lift, but maybe to partner with A historical society based in Denver and maybe get a book or something done, you know Self-published about what it was like when your organization started a hundred years ago What were they doing? What were they serving and How was their ecosystem in the frontier west looking Like right and yeah, because it's an amazing thing. So gosh, Andrew, you're probably exhausted that we've had all these But this is cool, I never asked that question too. So That's a good one. Yeah, it really is really really is. Okay. Now, you know how I love the name with health Yes Okay Actually, it's city with health carol from city with health rights Our board is considering holding a joint gala with some other cult. This is what's really important cultural nonprofit With some other cultural nonprofit organizations to raise money for the 2025 season Do you see any major issues with such a collaboration? I'm assuming it's like Traditionally when when I see this it's like the ballet the opera and the symphony Right, right. So here's what I'll say about this one. It's particularly from a fundraising standpoint So collaborating on joint events, whether that's a gala or maybe a golf tournament or others Can offer a lot of advantages, right? So you have opportunities to share resources to to expand your networks increase visibility in your community You know each of your organizations probably has their own sort of separate database and Like, you know email lists for donors and supporters. So you have a much greater chance of increased visibility I think that one of the things you want to be really cautious of is to consider the alignment of your missions And your goals. So like in the example you gave Julia with like the opera the symphony I mean as long as you have very similar missions, I think that it can work really really well But you want to be really cautious that you're not bringing in organizations that are at like a direct Conflict with what your goal or your mission is at your organization I think the other thing you want to be really cautious of is coordinating logistics things like event planning fundraising strategies things like financial management In a in a joint event one of the biggest concerns is who is planning the event and who is paying for it So when I mean when you get too many cooks in the kitchen Things can sometimes get more complicated and more chaotic than if you have, you know One organization that is planning the event So I'll give you an example. Um with a with an organization I used to work with a few years ago We would host a golf tournament It was a really kind of unique opportunity because we would bring in four or five other organizations other nonprofits that had very similar mission areas And what we did there was we had our organization was fully in charge of the planning the logistics and paying for the entire event But we were inviting these other nonprofits to participate in our event and to receive like to receive donations So what we did there was at the end of the event all money came in through our one organization And then we took we reimbursed ourselves for whatever it cost us to put on the event So all of the expenses were paid out first Then we divvied up the donations according to what folks at the event designated their donation to go to So there were pledge cards on the table where folks could select which box which organization they wanted to donate to So that way your donors in the room have the opportunity to designate one or two or three Maybe all of the organizations that are there they can designate them as beneficiaries of their donation But your organization or whoever is paying for it gets to gets their Their cut first so to speak to cover the expenses first So then what happens is like the net the net revenue after all expenses are paid that gets divvied out to your different organizations So again, I think it you want to be cautious of a few things. There's certainly a lot of benefits here But be cautious about things like logistics event planning financial management and like who's responsible for expenses Okay, so then let me ask you this question So let's say, you know the the I'm going to call them the lead organization That manages everything pays for everything takes the risk takes the risk Then how did they feel about divvying up money with organizations that maybe Didn't like do any work which just kind of showed up and got money Do you see what I'm saying? Like how did you level set expectations and kind of Navigate that because that's that's emotional and it's judgmental But yet it's real when you look at your team and you're like you haven't slept for three months and you're You're just working so hard. Yeah, how did you mitigate all that? So you're absolutely right. I mean that is that's really the question there is, you know, how do we make this fair and you're absolutely right I mean, it's not just a financial expense to plan an event, especially something like a gala There's also a huge personnel time on your staff for planning these types of events So in our case, I think the reason we did that is that we recognized a very real Tangible benefit to inviting these other organizations to participate in the event I mean we the the room the crowd that we filled in the room It was, you know far beyond what we had the capacity to do individually as one organization So it gives our brand visibility to a much larger, you know group of donors and And again, we took the cut off the top off the like gross revenue reimbursed all expenses first And then we also had an agreement where our organization would take Like 25 of the net proceeds then the remaining 75 was then divided amongst the other organizations We invited to attend so for them There was no heavy lifting. There was no investment all we had all they had to do was come and join the event So it was a it was a win-win for them and for us it provided us with a lot of visibility and and you know Allow us to expand our footprint So I think that there's a lot of advantages, but you're absolutely right I mean there are and there's a number of different ways you can do this But those are the ones I would caution you to to just be aware of and to have very clear communication about upfront One last question Did you have an mou a memo of understanding so that there was like a legal tracking document that said What exactly was going to be going on? Oh, yeah Yeah, so um in that case we had a contract, right? So we had like to your point a a memor a memorandum of understanding or agreement But we had a contract that was very clear upfront about You know what the revenue split was and who was responsible or took lead on the on the event How it was branded so in that case the event was branded as our event, but it was a It was a charity golf tournament where we invited participating charities to to come and You know invite their their networks. So yes, I think that's a great point You bring up is to just be clear in everything in a contract or a Memorandum of understanding something that kind of identifies what the expectations are. Yeah, very interesting. Well I love it. I think you know It's it's a great opportunity not easy, but a great opportunity. Okay. Let's jump into Marion from Pittsburgh Who writes how far in advance should we send a press release for an event announcement? And is anyone even doing press releases in the modern media and digital era? Yeah, okay, so let me let me answer the first one the first part of that question first I think that The timing the lead time typically depends on the scale of your event, right? So for it's generally advisable to allow two to four weeks before the event To give media outlets kind of enough time to review the information To potentially include it in their coverage plans, etc But for major events with high profile guests You might want to consider sending out your press release like six to eight weeks in advance That will ensure maximum exposure for you Now on the second part of your question here, which has to do with you know, the relevance or the You know the importance of press releases in general today I think that in regards to press releases in a digital era traditional media outlets remain important So digital channels have definitely have increased exposure now and have kind of dominate the landscape So that being said, I still think they have value I think that it does a few things for you as an organization. It allows you to have a much broader reach Your your press release can be distributed There's all kinds of online platforms now where you can distribute them what we call on the wire Which allows you to have a very broad exposure And and you can work with public relations experts who can get your your organization some airtime So I think there's still a real value to it oftentimes It doesn't it's not a huge heavy lift. It's not a huge financial burden for you to have these published So I don't see any downside to going ahead and publishing the releases Well, so I'm going to push back and maybe disagree with you a little bit So my background is in media and and I would say That you should be at least three months out and the reason why is because It's it's cheap and easy for a media outlet to have calendars event calendars And you will get on that and then everybody else looks at those, right? So what happens is a lot of times if you can do them even further out Other organizations will be like, oh that big gala is happening then we don't want to have our event or whatever So you kind of put the flag, you know in the sand so to speak to protect your date That's one issue But the other thing is is that you know Your media partners and your corporate sponsors they want to see you out there So the value of you promoting and pushing out this is going to help you It might help you sell more tickets or whatever But ultimately it's going to help you with your relationships that you have with your sponsors And so that for me is back it up back it up back it up And then don't just send it once You know, you can do something here's the six six months. You know, I'm noticed we're going to honor our honorary chairs or this or We're going to honor so and so here or we're going to have this entertainer and then you know three months Oh, we don't three months We're going to have this event is like a reminder and then to do your point You know the the three to six weeks you can do it then so it's not a one and done It's a journey and it's a process And heads up this same content Should be echoed in your own social media on your website and your news tab of your website, right? So it's it's not a one and done and I think Oh my god, Meredith. I could be talking about this for a day Well, you you're absolutely right and I love the other perspective here Particularly from someone like you who has like a real a real background in media relations I mean, it's um, I love hearing that other perspective on like hey This is what's going on behind the scenes that you're not even aware about with the media outlets Yeah, okay. Well, we've got time for one more question got to go fast Because I was like hogging the mic as they say Okay, Hannah from Madison, Wisconsin writes We just realized that our board and executive leadership team did not activate the conflict coi conflict of policy documents at the beginning of the year We're going to do this at our next board meeting sister. It's already march It's already april right Should we back date them or use the actual day of the date signed? Okay, so In a nutshell here in a nutshell here I would advise you to not back date any contract that you sign or that you have your that you have your board member sign I think it's generally advisable to To have it signed on the actual date and have it dated on the actual date that it was signed So if you do it the other way it can raise questions about integrity and compliance So so that's really important definitely want to have them sign it on the day Or have it dated on the day that it was signed I think that the other thing that you want to be cautious of here is If you think that there is any conflicts of interest that arose in the past three months say before you had the contract signed You can consider approaching those through other means. So consider doing things like like recusal processes you can you can have You can have folks recuse themselves from votes or disclose maybe in a memo Any conflict of interest that existed or arose before they signed the document? So that way you're still kind of covering your base, but you're not doing anything unethical by having these these Backdated or or you know dated prior to when they were actually signed Love your answer on that and I think you're absolutely spot on one of the things that I really advocate Is doing all this all of these policies and anything that needs to be signed or updated And sometimes it's a little challenging, but to do it in December Before the year turns so that when january hits You're good to go. Yeah, right I just think it's like cleaner and neater, but yeah, absolutely. You never want to sign a document that Dated. Yeah, exactly. I I think that's really um, really important And I love what you said like the key takeaway here that I have from what you said is Try to get your ducks in a row a little earlier So if you can get organized in advance, then you won't run into this, you know This issue have those documents signed like before the first of the year even starts, right? Absolutely Well meredith, thank you. You got our ducks in a row today here on another episode of ask and answer With fundraising academy every friday is our ask and answer. It's really fun People write in they call in Sometimes when we're out in public, they'll be like, hey Can you can you put this question? You know On the show and so it's really a lot of fun. Some of it comes through our social media And so we always encourage you to write in and uh meredith This was a lot of fun super kooky and diverse questions. I loved it I think that that was really really fun. Hey everybody Who's not super kooky but super diverse? How about that for a? Lead in our our sponsors and we are so grateful to have them with us They include bloomering american nonprofit academy non-profit thought leader staffing boutique your part-time controller 180 management group fundraising academy at nationally university Where meredith joins us from jmt consulting nonprofit nerd and nonprofit tech talk These folks join us day in and day out so we can bring these great conversations Wow, okay meredith. You're the go-to girl man. I loved your answers. You gave me some New things to think about and so that was really fun. Thank you so much Well, it was great. Thanks for having us again Julia has always loved being here on the show. So looking forward to the next one Absolutely. We have just a few seconds left You are going to be broadcasting live from the cultivate conference coming up in amazing san diego california You're going to be trading your beaches of tampa for the beaches Of san diego talk to us briefly about what we can expect at cultivate Yeah, absolutely. So make sure you join us in early may for cultivate and like she said in san diego california It's going to be a we have so many great sessions planned We've got two full days of just really great information Some fun activities planned where we can we can kind of bring everyone together We've got some great dialogue going on about all things that have to do with cause selling With fundraising stewardship and even some of these culture questions Some of these things we talked about today that maybe don't have a right or wrong answer So make sure you join us in san diego. We also have a virtual Way to join the conference as well And we will be sending out recordings afterwards. So even if you can't make it all the way to california Make sure you still register for the conference so you can take part in the content Love it. That's brilliant. Well, you know, this will be another great opportunity for us to gather and and learn from And meet the folks from fundraising academy, you know, they're from all over the country They're incredibly diverse and then they come together and bring You know their tools and their approach to cause selling. It's it's absolutely riveting. I just Really encourage everyone to take a look at it It sells out, right? I mean last year it sold out. It sure did. That's right So right now we have tickets are available and on sale You can navigate to our website at nationaluniversity.com And you can take a look at all the different ticket options there Awesome. Well, hey meredith. I hope you have a great weekend. I hope you have an even better spring break