 So anyway, I want to say welcome to another episode of The Nonprofit Show. Again, I'm joined with one of my all-time favorites, Jack the Lotto, CFRE trainer for Fundraising Academy, coming to us bravely to answer questions. And these questions are something that we get to do each and every Friday because of the great support that we get from Blumerang, American Nonprofit Academy, your part-time controller, Be Generous, non-profit thought leader, non-profit nerd, staffing boutique, and Fundraising Academy at National University. They are our big sponsor for each of our Friday Ask and Answer episodes. If you want to learn more about what we've been talking about, whether it be the Ask and Answer or any of our more than 700 episodes, you can find us on our channels on Roku, YouTube, Amazon Fire TV, and Vimeo. And if you'd like to consume your content or listen to our voices without our voices, you can. A lot of people want to do that for me. I'll tell you right now, Julia. I like to listen to that guy, but I don't want to see him on camera. God, listen, you know, I want to hear my voice and like, oh my God, I sound like a screeching woman, but that's neither here nor there. QSS, because we have our episodes all on podcasts. And Jack, this is really cool. I just got noticed from our executive producer, Kevin Pace, that we just hit our 10,000th download of our podcast last week. Wow, let's dance, let's dance, let's dance. Yeah, definitely, that's congratulations. Thank you. That's just what a success, what an accomplishment. I think so, I mean, I hope so. 10,000, I said this the other day, 10,000 of anything is a lot. But anyway, we get a lot of questions that have come in. So are you ready? Yes, let's do it. Okay, Peggy from Norman, Oklahoma writes, how can our nonprofit ensure our client programs are utilizing the most current technologies and are not outdated? We're not really tracking tech advancements in the tech industry, and I don't even know how to go about it. Yeah. This is an interesting question because, you know, the pandemic has pushed forward tech to the nonprofit sector like never before, but from my position, I think it's been all like donor-centric, fundraising-centric. It hasn't really addressed programming. What do you think? Yes. Well, you know what, I love the, you know, I like this question so much, Julia, because at the heart of it, she's asking us to tell her how she could use tech to better serve and advance the mission of the organization. And what she's saying is there's a tool out there that I need to know more about. So help me find information about how I could better utilize that tool to advance the mission of my nonprofit. I love this person. And I hope she's listening right now because kudos to her, four stars. So here's the thing. There are tons of conferences about nonprofits and techs. In fact, I Googled it just yesterday and I noticed that there's a conference coming up in April in Denver. There's another conference that's coming up in Phoenix, your hometown. Some of these conferences are only in-person conferences and so much more affordable. You have a place where you can find a lot of information about tech and fundraising or tech and nonprofits. Some of your sponsors offer some great Blumerang with blogs, for example, or other organizations that like AFP icon has it. We on our, at the Fundraising Academy on our My Learning Portal, we have a great webinar by Ryan Genard and it's about future trends in tech. Free, go there, get it. There's lots of free stuff out there for you to utilize. I agree, Jack. I think it's really important to start asking other organizations that have programs, maybe similar to yours, to see kind of like what that might look like and how some of these things are being utilized in other parts of the country because you're right. We have spent a lot of time and energy on the fundraising side, the donor management side, just management, but programming, yeah. I think we can do a better job. Yeah. Last but not least. It's a tool. Yeah, it is a tool. And I think that really, yeah. I think there's funding out there for this too. I think that's exciting. I think that there's funding out there for creating a tech strategy plan and that is something that then you can step back and really dig into what that implementation will look like. And so look for that type of thing. Right. Absolutely, absolutely. Okay, well, let's go on to our next question. And Jack, you know how excited I get when I see a name withheld. Dun, dun, dun, dun. Name withheld from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Rights. Another nonprofit in our community has started reaching out to our clients. We are a veteran's focused nonprofit. Should we approach this other nonprofit or try other ways to attract our clients back? Not donor, I'm saying client. I hear the word client. Yeah, right. So here's the thing. We started this conversation earlier. We owe our veterans so much. I mean, that's a statement that everyone in this country could agree on. We owe them a lot and they deserve quality care and if it's PTSD or whatever it is, they deserve it. What I say to this organization, yes, reach out to that other veterans group, but not as a competitor, but as a collaborator. Sit down with them. Look at their continuum of care and look at your continuum of care and fill in the gaps for this population who is so deserving of a complete and total care as they took care of us, our country. We owe them so much. Look at it this way. I work for our faith-based organizations. All of the faith-based organizations, Catholic Charities, LDS Social Services, Jewish Family Services, Lutheran Social Services, they would get together and they would look at the population they were caring for and they'd say, okay, Jewish Family Services, you're gonna help with refugees. Catholic Social Services, you're gonna do this. Lutheran, you're gonna do this and that's the way they took care of the community by collaborating. Here's the final example, hospitals. Hospitals, for example, in the Bay Area. Some hospitals don't do behavioral health because that's not their specialty. They do other things. Maybe they do pediatric ER or something else. They sit down and they say, how do we care for this community in a way that benefits the community? So guys, get together, collaborate, don't compete, don't try to poach clients from each other, help them. Do with that community of care. Simple as that. I like this, Jack. And I also think that what we're seeing, we're seeing a lot of funders demand this. A lot of funders saying, you need to come together in a collaboration because we're tired of sending little bits of money to everybody. We'd rather really dig in deep and get the best minds from the best groups. And so I love your attitude and your approach. Collaboration is key. And I think it's truly like a sustainable issue. Yep. And who's gonna benefit? Those men and women who have protected us. That's who benefits. Absolutely. Well, I hope that helps Pittsburgh. Name withheld and Pittsburgh. I love those name withhelds. Man, those are like juice impressions. Okay. It's true. Walter from San Antonio, Texas writes, are there special banks or credit unions that focus on nonprofits? We need to develop a relationship with a company who understands our sector. Everybody does, yes. Yep. So here's my first thing. The first thing in anything that you're gonna do as a nonprofit is does that organization share our values? Yeah. Do they have a synergy with our values? What are our values? For example, when I worked with faith-based hospitals, maybe they wouldn't take money from tobacco companies or have anything to do with tobacco companies. It's the same thing for nonprofits. The organization mothers against drunk driving. Do you think they're gonna take financial support from alcohol or spirits company? Probably not, most likely not, definitely not. So the first thing is do they share our values? And then the second things are ease of using. If you're using electronic fund transfers, for example, for monthly giving, then how easy is it for your donors? Are they customer-centric in the same way you're donor-centric? If you're donor-centric, then the bank you use to do the business with your donors must also be donor-centric. Is it ease of use? If it's their credit cards that you're using to process their monthly gift or an electronic fund transfer, it has to be easy. And then the third thing is what are their fees? Are they're charging too much? I think someone mentioned credit unions sometimes credit unions are much less expensive than a full-service bank. So you have to do your homework, but keep in mind values, donors and fees. You know, credit unions are nonprofits. And so that is a great, I think, synergy. And I would definitely look into the credit union system in this country and in Canada. So for those of our viewers watching us from Canada, you have the same kind of structure, but you're not gonna find a bank necessarily or credit union that just deals with nonprofits. But for the most part, they're going to have nonprofit divisions. So you need to find out who is the lead of the nonprofit division or department. And here's the little tip. Most of these groups will have completely different fee structures and programs for nonprofits. So that might be including a different merchant rate on these electronic transfers. It might be no fees on your monthly checking. I mean, it might be lines of credit that are at a different rate. So find out who these people are because chances are they can help navigate you to other nonprofit specialists. So definitely Walter, check this out. And to Jack's point, this is worth some investigation. More than 11 million people go to work every Monday for a nonprofit in this country. That's a hell of a lot of money injected into our economy. From payroll taxes to just payroll in general, healthcare coverage, we're a huge economic engine. And we don't often recognize that, right? And so do your homework because this is a huge topic. Walter, I hope that that has helped. And somebody told me a long time ago, Jack, in your boat for your nonprofit, you need a couple people. You need a banker, you need an attorney, you need an accountant, and you need a good board leader, a board chair. And then you can row through pretty much any storm if you have those four passengers in your boat. Yeah, I like that. That's really good. I may use that again, Julia. Do, please, please do. The boat metaphor, I'll call it. I'll tell you, a banker told me that. Yeah, it's true. It's absolutely true. It really is. Well, Walter, I hope that helped. Let's go on to Sharon and Baltimore, Maryland. The number of applicants to our nonprofit mentoring program has been declining since last spring. We have more mentees than mentors. Help. Yeah, I love this question. I think they need to take a careful examination as to what's going on. And they have to ask themselves some really important questions about this program. Are they mentor-centric? Can they clearly articulate the benefits to the mentor by being a mentor? Many of these organizations that provide this, they talk about the change that happens in the mentee. Yes, that's beautiful. That's really important. And I think it's great. But maybe what they also need to do is start talking about the benefits to the mentor. And there are lots of benefits. Mentors are changed by that interaction they have with mentees. It's a two-way street. It's not me as a mentor giving you everything you need to do and me not getting something back. I've learned in my roles as mentor. It's really an important role. The second thing I think that is really important that may help her with this is to ask her board members to start advocating and going out there and talking about the value of mentorship for both parties in that relationship. And thirdly, use your current mentors as ambassadors. Have them go before the rotary and talk about what they're getting by being a mentor. Have them go to the Chamber of Commerce. Let them use their circle of influence, their network to talk about the values that they get from being a mentor. And I think that will help you in the long run. Definitely do the stories that mentees will give as well as mentor. Start publishing those in your newsletter, on your website. Those stories where a mentor says, you know what? I got as much out of this relationship and I learned a lot going forward and it changed me personally and helped me understand my values better. Have that story on your website. It will really benefit that program. You know, I love that. And I think that's really an incredible way to look at a problem. And so you could take that framework for a lot of different issues where you feel like, wow, something's falling down, is to move that back around and say, okay, what is the benefit? And to interview the current mentors, maybe even mentors that have left to find out, well, why did you leave? You know, this isn't a shame interview. Just an opportunity for us to try and figure out what we could do better. And then I would say it would be really an interesting thing to talk to the mentees and find out what they got from the mentors. You know, like, what did I learn to be more confident or did I learn to be more intellectual? Or did, you know, it might not be what we think, right? We project a lot. What we think is going to happen in this relationship might be different. What do you do with volunteers? What do you do? You help them create job descriptions about what your expectations are within. You do the same thing with mentors. Here are our expectations. You're gonna meet with your mentee for an hour a week, whatever it is. Create that, that those expectations. We do it with our board members. You know, you're gonna come to one board meeting. All of those same systems that we use to have a volunteer have a great experience with our organization. We use those mentors. And then accountability. Make them accountable as well. If they're not doing it and they're not showing up with their meetings with their mentees or they're not providing some of the important things, then they need to be moved along. I mean, accountability is as important. You know, I mean, I see lots of organizations who are working with new nonprofit organizations showing I'm sure they're all over the country. They're all over the country, you know, where they provide some help with this small, fledgling nonprofit. The responsibility and they bring these executives maybe from business to mentor them in finance or strategic planning or whatever. There's lots of organizations doing that. So, you know, but they have an accountability factor. That's what we have to do internally with our organization and be mentor-centric. Let it be a value to them. Otherwise they're gonna say, bye. See you later. Pardon me, I love that. I also think that it's really, again, so much of your advice and in the direction of this can and should be used in other facets of managing our nonprofits, especially with programming where there is a human element, there is a human condition and we need to provide and honor a good environment so that we do get that continued support. And sometimes we have to ask those hard questions. We need to put aside what we think is happening and what we think should be happening, but to really dig down and look at this. Jack, as always, you give us so much to think about. I love, love, love your energy and your approach. It's been amazing. Before I let you go today, you are getting ready or you've started your cohort for the CFRE exam. Yes. Is that started or? We just had our first meeting last week. Our second meeting is tomorrow. So we're in the throes of it. I have 127 participants in that group. Is it too late to join? No, it's never too late. We'll catch you up. Okay, awesome. Well, I know you're a master trainer, Jack Alotto with Fundraising Academy. The CFRE part is something that you do in support of our sector. And from everything I've learned from you and from other CFREs, this is not a journey you can take on your own. You do need support. You do need to find a cohort to be successful. And then I would also say it's not just about the test, but it's about being professionally successful. If you can find those other people to join in with you along your journey, you're gonna be a lot more successful. So check out that process. Again, we wanna thank all of our sponsors who are with us day in and day out. They include Bloomerang, American Nonprofit Academy, Your Part-Time Controller, Be Generous, Fundraising Academy at National University, Staffing Boutique, Nonprofit Thought Leader, and the Nonprofit Nerd. These are the folks that are with us day in and day out. Jack Alotto, you are a treasure and I so appreciate any time I get to spend with you. Yes, thank you very much for having me today and congratulations, 10,000 downloads. Whoop, I know. It's pretty cool. It's actually very cool. Hey, everybody, as we like to end every episode, we want to remind ourselves, our viewers, our listeners, our sponsors, our guests to stay well so you can do well. We'll see you back here again. Thank you.