 Hey everybody, good morning. We are so excited. I should say good morning, good afternoon, whatever that may look like. We are really, really excited to have you joining us today because Friday, what an amazing day. We have a lot of things going on. And the best part is we get questions that come in from all over the place. And so we're gonna go through them. If you have any questions for us, go ahead and send them on over. If you're joining us live, you can do that or you can email them. You can tweet them. You can get us through LinkedIn. You can go through the American Nonprofit Academy website. You can go through nonprofesshow.com. We got a lot of ways you can get to us. Lots of access. Lots of access. Again, I'm Julia Patrick, CEO of the American Nonprofit Academy, joined today by Tony Bell, Senior Director Relationship Center at National University, coming to us today from the great state of Florida. So Tony, welcome, welcome. Thank you so much. Always happy to be here. Well, we love it when you're here because you always have a different take on things. And those takes come to us every day through our sponsors as well. So thank you to Blumerang, American Nonprofit Academy, your part-time controller, nonprofit thought leader, fundraising academy at National University, staffing boutique and the nonprofit nerd. If you are wondering what some of these questions are, you want to go back to some of our content. Tony, we are now, we just surpassed 725 episodes. Yeah, I know. Yeah. Congratulations. Thanks. I don't know. It's kind of stunning. But you can find those episodes, the archives on Roku, YouTube TV, Amazon Fire TV and Gimeo. We have channels on those. And then also now we're taking all of this content and putting it up onto a podcast platform. So wherever you like to consume your content, you can queue us up and we will be right there in your ears. And which is kind of fun. Okay, Tony, last week we had a riveting question that came in for the first time a question like this. It came from Althea in Wilmington, Delaware. Althea asked the question and I'll remind everybody what it was. A donor from overseas outside the US has made a big donation but we really don't know much about him. Is there any right reason not to spend the money now or wait until we find out more? We need it for operations now. So of course. Of course. I mean, yeah, that's reality. And LaShonda Williams, who I adore, she's one of your experts and she comes to us from the Houston area and she has spent her career in higher education. We had a great conversation. We spoke about really the relationships that we have with our donors and why we need to get to know them and how to connect with them and everything. But more importantly, we had an attorney, a retired attorney right into us and this was riveting. He spent more than 20 years in the field of nonprofit legal world, if you will. And he wrote something I'd never heard about. He said that the Office of Foreign Asset Control tracks these things and that there is an IRS form 8300, IRS form 8300 that you need to file and that's tracked. So this was a part of the conversation that neither of us had and I wanted to spend just a moment of time addressing that. This would be funneled through your CPA, whoever the firm is that's doing that level of work, not necessarily your bookkeeping. I mean, so many of our nonprofits will have like a bookkeeping provider and then they roll it up to a CPA overview. That needs to go through your CPA. And I just thought it was riveting. I really do, Tony. And I don't know what your experience has been with foreign contributions, but it doesn't happen a lot. No, I've never had the opportunity to celebrate donations from overseas. And of course, thanks to the viewer or listener for responding and making sure that we could even further educate the other viewers and listeners, not only today, but who might have listened last week. And I'm not surprised LaShonda went right to the relationship aspect of the question. Cause when we talk about call selling of relationship driven fundraising and LaShonda is certainly fantastic at that. So I'm not surprised she would write down the relationship lane when it came to responding to this question. So again, much, much gratitude and thanks to the viewer who sent in. Yeah, absolutely. Well, I think that, LaShonda's comments were spot on and we really had that conversation about it's not just about that one-time donation because that's not a sustainable approach. And it's, if you really want to understand what that relationship is and what that looks like. We also touched on the point which I thought was LaShonda brought this up first off is do you have a gift policy? Because we've talked about that, you know, are you an organization that will not take funds that come from a business or family that is involved in spirits or the distribution of spirits or tobacco or, you know, I don't know, whatever. And so we talked about that. And she made that comment first and foremost, go to your, you know, go to your gifts policy. And if you don't have one, hello, you need to have one. So anyway, this gentleman, I hope you don't mind me. If you're watching saying your name, Wayne Montgomery. Again, he said he spent 20 years in the field of nonprofit, you know, jurisprudence. And so I think it's really cool legal work showing up is in our sector is a big deal. And we need to know that and we need to know these things. And so again, super cool. Yeah, super cool. And so yeah, but we also have Leon from Seattle, Washington, who's written in. And he asks, our board is requiring our fundraising staff, three people to spend more personal time, such as lunches and happy hours with donor prospects. I'm sorry to laugh, I'm sorry to laugh because it's like, they're making me go out to lunch and drink. So that was inappropriate, but I just like what I mean is that's what I think. It's fryer, it's okay. I know, there's really only water in my coffee cup. We have been working on our new- I have green tea, so. Okay, that's even better. Leon writes, we've been working on our new outline fundraising system, but don't have any stats to prove this is working. How can we balance this? It's kind of the social nature. This is how I read it, Tony. The social nature of working with prospective donors versus maybe the shift towards digital or pushing out that way. And so I can't wait to hear your comment because this really factors in to cause selling in the relationship model. Yeah, when you were reading this, and as I'm rereading it, the first thing I thought about was, well, when Leon, good for you guys that you're diversifying your funding streams, right? You've got your relationship-driven fundraising. You're looking at technology and how do we raise funds in other ways? How do we set up digital opportunities for folks to be recurring donors on a monthly basis? So all of that stuff is fantastic. And I say that because not one of those alone is going to sustain your organization. So this is an ongoing balance that we have to manage as fundraising professionals is how do we lean into and maximize all of the tools or lanes that are available for us to generate funds for the causes and communities that we support. So there's that. But then I was looking, so Leon shared with us that there are three people in the fundraising staff. So maybe now it's time to kind of look at the three of you and how are you allocating your time? Maybe two of the three are better at happy hours and lunches or something that they're going to enjoy more than another person who might really enjoy sitting there and building the tech side of the strategy and opportunities. So I would say, meet as a team, figure out who just kind of naturally gravitates to one of these versus the other and figure out how you're going to divide and conquer. I love that. Now, I wouldn't have thought of that. And I think you're right because to your point, it's a new day. And I think the thing that you said that was the most brilliant is that this is not a one thing. You're not going to do everything by snail mail or email or having your annual gala. You should never just have one thing. There needs to be multiple pieces to the pie. And so I really appreciate you thinking that. And then when Leon has stats, because he said right now they don't have any stats to prove it's working, then once they have statistics for the success of their online fundraising, then there's more information to have a conversation around time allocation. The other thing, Tony, when I read this question, one of my first things is the board doesn't understand what you're doing. I just ignored the fact that it was board directed. Well, but you know what? It kind of makes me want to say to Leon, have you educated your board as to what you do or what a fundraiser does, what your team does? Because I think that boards, like they see the numbers, they see the spreadsheets and they're like, it's yay or bad, right? It's not like, what's your process? How do you fit into the process? What is the board process with all of this? And that's a tough thing. No, it is a tough thing. That's what I was thinking about how I always say, that's why they call it development, like it takes time. And there's a process involved, right? It's... Yeah, interesting. Well, I appreciate it was a great question. It is, and I appreciate the stress that Leon's looking at, but I really, really appreciate to your point, Tony, that they're trying to measure this and look at the metrics so that they can't figure out what's gonna work. Leon, let us know, because it's really, really an interesting question. We have another question that comes in from Ramona. And, you know, sometimes I'm in a man up to this, I take off the cities because I think it's a little too close to home. And so I wanted to give that person a little bit of space. So Ramona writes, the location where we've been for 10 plus years is being redeveloped into new buildings and fancy apartments. The new neighbors don't match our mission purpose, hunger and employment help. How do we tell our current clients we have to move? It's a really interesting question. In America, you know, backfill development is becoming really, really popular. I mean, we used to go to the edges of town and build the new things, but now it's coming back in because less space, it's easier, closer to other goods and services. I mean, we could go on and do a whole new show about that. Yeah, yeah. So this is not going to be something that's a one-off question. I think that we're gonna start to see, if we aren't already, nonprofits being squeezed out by urban development. Oh, for sure. And the thing that struck me about this question is clearly the people that they were serving are being squeezed out, which we see all the time, right in urban development, the folks that are living there can no longer afford to live there. And maybe they couldn't afford it to begin with for many, many reasons. So how do we tell our current clients we have to move? So I'm going to be transparent and say, I think that's really hard for me to answer, not really knowing more about the clients, but what I will say is that transparency is a large part of the foundation of nonprofit work. Yeah, yeah. And so I would say, don't minimize the intelligence of the individuals you serve with some song and dance or smoke and mirror approach, but to really be transparent around the situation and the why. You know, again, there's so many nuances that have to be considered, right? Who are we really serving? How are they going to receive the information regardless of how we bundle it? So there's a lot to consider. So not knowing all of those nuances and variables, my initial answer would be lean into transparency and be as transparent as possible. I like that. I wouldn't have thought of that as an overarching idea, but I think that's brilliant because absolutely you need to let your volunteers and your donors, and I would even say like law enforcement, I mean people that might be bringing or directing new clients to you, I would also say, Tony, that this is a municipal issue as well. And so that needs to come back to your municipality and to find out who are the people in your city government who might be the ones that are the liaisons between shelter services or human services or whatever, because they should be embracing this concept with you and helping you. If I didn't get the impression that they were shutting down their services, they're just relocating, right? So then there's the whole other thing, again, a whole separate show, right? But the access to the services now that they're not right at someone's kind of front door or back door, so there's a lot involved in that. And I just wish them a lot of luck through the transition. Yeah, I think this is something that we're gonna be seeing across America in a big way. People wanting to live in the urban environments and wanting to be in the sexy penthouse, lifestyle, right? And so it's gonna squeeze out. It does squeeze out other businesses and nonprofits. So kind of an interesting thing. Ramona, I certainly wish you well because this is not an easy thing at all. And it's a, to me, Tony, it's a societal question in discussion. It's bigger than just that organization. Oh, sure. It's a conversation that's huge. Tyson from Mobile Alabama writes, we have 10 times the number of volunteers that want to help online then want to come to our facility. We are running out of things for them to do. We don't wanna lose them. Should we offer their help to other nonprofits? I have never seen this question. Well, one. I mean, like moving out to other nonprofits, I'm like stunned. So first, kudos to the Mobile Alabama community that they have instilled such a volunteerism in there. So I love seeing that in this question. But it's interesting, Julia, because the first thing that did come to mind was is there an opportunity? Again, we don't know what the nonprofit that Tyson is supporting, what they do, what their mission is, right? But my first reaction was, how can they turn this into a micro enterprise for their nonprofit? Or how, meaning how can they help become almost a volunteer clearinghouse for their community if they don't already have something like a hands-on? Like we're very fortunate we have like a hands-on Broward in our county, which is an organization that is all about rallying volunteers to support nonprofits and to do community service activities. So perhaps Tyson has an opportunity to create something within their nonprofit that maybe other nonprofits subscribe to. I mean, maybe- I love that. You know, again, I'm making a ton of speculations and assumptions around what might be right or wrong for Tyson in this scenario. But it's great to have all of that, all of those human resources there to volunteer, your right, you don't want to lose them. Think about, you know, volunteers can support fundraising activities in more ways than a lot of fundraising professionals think initially. So, you know, think about the things that they can do in terms of touch points with donors and handwriting cards. And I mean, there's just so many things. They could be your online, you know, brand ambassadors. So send them, you know, send them hashtags to use and let them know when you're posting something so then they can share it. So think about how you can really use them in the digital environment to be your brand ambassador. So I think with a real simple fact sheet about your organization, they can easily jump in and help build the brand awareness. I love that. I wouldn't have thought of that idea. Yesterday, we had a nonprofit thought leader on Ann Macaulay Lopez who was talking about guest blogging and all of that. And one of the things that she brought up which I thought was so smart. She's like, you know, there are a lot of people out there that maybe that they love editing and they love maybe like a retired English professor or something like that, that would love that type of interaction. And that's an at home thing. And imagine if you had a cadre, like you had three to five people that were like your editors that you could say, we're gonna send out anything that from email to, you know, printed things to these folks and let them take a look at that. Imagine how that could help. And so maybe we need to rethink what a volunteer activity is and can be. I think to your point, we would have never thought about using our volunteers to champion hashtags or push out things on their social media. That's really smart. And it gets them involved. It helps, you know, expand your touch points and your reach genius. Yeah, I love that. Well, hopefully they can use them that way. But again, congratulations to that community. I know. And thank you to all of those folks that are willing to step up and lean in. I love, I think you're absolutely right. Okay, kind of from the same neck of the woods as we like to say. Brianna from Little Rock, Arkansas writes, our programming staff needs more training. We work with disadvantaged youth in sports programs. Are there any national resources we can look to? A lot of our staff are new. And so this problem is probably a larger part of the problem. Yeah, I mean, and so again, it's like training and we're getting new people in and they might have passion, but they need a little bit more direction. This is a very interesting thing. And my first thought is, you know, go to the, like the professional sports. Like how does the NFL or the NBA or MLB have things for training? I don't know. Well, so yeah, so disadvantaged youth in sports programs. So I'm sure that there is, okay, let me sit back. One Brianna, so glad you're thinking about professional development and professional learning, right? So let's just celebrate that, you know, recognizing a need and wanting to reach out to fill the need and get folks a training that's required for them to succeed in their role. That's what, you know, and to be better for the communities that they serve. So that is awesome. I'm sure there are national resources. Pardon me. We don't know specifically what type of training the staff really needs, you know? So I would say, you know, Brianna meet with everyone, figure out specifically the type of training that's needed. It may be a long list. So, you know, get it all on paper, prioritize the training, like what is going to be the quickest thing that's going to give us the biggest return and kind of focus your training efforts, you know, that way. I'm sure, I'll just say, I'm sure there are national resources because there are more national resources now than ever to provide professional development and professional learning opportunities in the sector. So, but I can't think of any one in particular I would point to without really knowing what the particular training needs are for that team. And disadvantaged, I mean, there are many, unfortunately, just many ways that you can define that and who might fit in that. So depending on kind of what they're focusing on in terms of serving disadvantaged youth, whether that be, you know, based on economy or special needs, then that will help her to identify which other nonprofit she might reach out to for that training. Maybe Special Olympics offers some training that might be, you know, Boys and Girls Club of America. You know, so I think that there are organizations that she can reach out to that may even provide some of that training, other national nonprofits. But again, I think defining and identifying specifically what the training needs to be. You know. And not that she hasn't already done that, but that would be my first step. It's so interesting, because when I read this question, my mind went to like the sports part. But what I hear you saying is, you know, they need training, their staff probably needs training and understanding food insecurity or abuse or learning disorders or other things that these kids need, you know, wraparound services. So yeah, I really appreciate you kind of giving a different piece. And I love, love, love. And this could be for any type of team training. What are the things that the team feels like they need? I mean, as opposed to pushing it down their throats and saying, okay, you're going to get a training in this and you're going to get a training in that. Duh, ask a question. Well, we all know, you know, the value of buy-in and how much farther you get when you have buy-in. So, and not everyone needs the same training and not everyone needs the same dose. So that's the other thing to consider is that maybe everyone needs training on Salesforce. But depending upon the individual skillset, I may not need the same dosage of training on Salesforce that one of my team members might need who's never even seen it before. So it's, you know, what is the subject and theme and what is the appropriate dosage based on that individual's experience. So see, you do come from a national university because I would never have thought of that. I really like that you said that. I have, I guess I think like we're all lumped together and we all need the same information. But no, I really like that because to your point, man, if you don't get the buy-in, the training is just going to be like a slog versus something that really helps everybody or helps the unit or the team. You know, and if you're trying to give me the full meal when all I need is the appetizer, you know, it's just. Yeah, I love that to me. I'm not going to be a happy person. Yeah, well, you know, sadly, you're not going to be an effective person for the organization. No, I'm just going to sit there. I'm just going to sit there the whole time and think, you know, this is a waste of my time. And then when the things come up that are relevant for me, I've already checked out. So. Right, yeah. And training can be crazy expensive. And so, using that whole piece. Hey, before I let you go, and we're talking about training, and I know, get your catchers met, because this is a little bit of a, you know, a wild throw, wild pitch. Okay. But can you talk to us a little bit about the fundraising academies, my learning portal and all that? Because bumping to the training conversation that we just had, there's a heck of a lot of training on there, and it is free, right? Yeah, yeah. We're really grateful that we're in a position right now where we can offer all of our cost selling curriculum at no cost to learners really around the world, right? Because it's digital. If you've got a keyboard and internet access, you're there. So, you know, if you go to mylearningportal.org, you can log in again at no cost, and you'll have access to pretty much the entire cost selling curriculum, all eight steps of the curriculum. And we also enhanced some of the curriculum for the portal to include donor quick connect questions. So, if you're getting ready to meet with a donor, we have a whole series of kind of ice breaker questions that you can consider using, really just to help get the dialogue started with that potential donor investor. So, you know, I'm glad that you mentioned it, folks should check it out. It is super robust. It looks good. So, I feel like it's a great combination of style and substance. So, I think folks will have a really good experience if they decide to lean in. So, mylearningportal.com. You can log in. Dot org, excuse me. Whoops. Mylearningportal.org. And you can also get to it through fundraising-academy.org, which is the other way to go about it. And also where you can learn more about this whole concept of Fundraising Academy and what they do through National University. Tony Bell, Senior Director Relationship Center at National University, specifically today representing Fundraising Academy. Tony, I'm gonna brag on you. You've sat across the desk as an executive director and so you know what this life is. You know how hard it is and what it takes for our nonprofit sector to flourish and to achieve their mission, vision and values. And so it's always powerful to have you on with us because you're not just a talking head. You're somebody that's walked that walk. And so again, check out Fundraising Academy, fundraising-academy.org and you can learn more about their amazing work. Again, we wanna thank all of our presenting sponsors from Bloomerang to American Nonprofit Academy, your part-time controller to nonprofit thought leader, of course, Academy Fundraising Academy at National University, Staffing Boutique and the Nonprofit Nerd. Wow, another great day. Tony, you've inspired me. Thank you. And it goes by so fast. It does, it really does. And I love these questions that come in. They are quirky and we never know what the questions, you know, where they're coming from, I mean, but it's super cool to see what questions are asked. And so thank you for joining us on this journey. I always appreciate your viewpoint. Thank you, always an honor to be here. It's a lot of fun. Everybody, as we like to end every episode, we want to remind ourselves and we want to remind you to stay well so you can do well. We'll see you back here on Monday, everyone.