 Okay, welcome officially folks. My name is Mike and I am working with TechSoup, NetSquared on bringing this presentation to you today. It was actually to be delivered a couple of weeks back but we ran into some issues and so we've postponed it to this morning. And anyhow, as you can see, I'm actually doing this from Hamilton, Ontario. And this is recorded if I think we'll, you could easily download this I think after the fact. But our topic today is peer-to-peer fundraising. And so I am a fundraising consultant by trade and peer-to-peer fundraising is something I really stumbled upon. I guess I shouldn't really use the word stumbled upon more like it's a concept that I really grown to learn a little bit more about within the past seven or eight years. Especially as, once the advent of social media really took off about 10 or 12 years ago, little things like peer-to-peer and crowdfunding as well seem to really take on greater significance and overall fundraising strategies for nonprofits. And specifically, these are, they seem to have really blown up in terms of special event fundraising but also individual appeals. I think this is one of the big things that I really wanna drive home today is how it fits in your overall fundraising system. And peer-to-peer fundraising, one thing about peer-to-peer is it's an exceptionally versatile form of fund development of fundraising. And this is especially useful when you're trying to acquire new doors. So for things like as we call them acquisition appeals, something that we can actually make a part of our annual fundraising activities. And the other thing with peer-to-peer is this is a strategy that you can actually just adapt to activities that you're already doing. And as we'll see, there's a lot of different directions you could go here. So I think like further ado, I'm just gonna jump right into things here and just talk a little bit about what we actually mean by peer-to-peer fundraising. And basically what's nice about peer-to-peer is when it comes to staff and volunteers, it's not nearly as demanding as a lot of other forms of fundraising. So peer-to-peer fundraising is basically when the donors and supporters and other constituents of an organization agree to raise money on that organization's behalf. Now, the types of donors and supporters that do get involved are normally, they're not necessarily chosen at random, but rather these are donors and supporters that normally have demonstrated some strong level of affinity for the organization and the people that it serves. And basically these are donors and supporters that are very enthusiastic about reaching out to their friends and neighbors and their respective spheres of influence, just to invite their support in various ways towards the organization. So there's different forms as I was kind of teasing earlier. One of the more common things is when it's using peer-to-peer in when it comes to things like sponsorship appeals and anything like along the lines of anathon event like bullathons, walkathons, marathons, spellathons and the like, the kind of event where we have to go out and raise pledges from people within our respective spheres of influence. And it seems like over the years, like we've done this at some point in life, especially in our younger days or our childhoods, if you're older like I am, and you can remember what life was like before we had computers. And when we went out and raised money we actually wrote on paper, specifically NCR paper where we would keep a duplicate and we would submit the other duplicate of information and along with our collection of funds towards the organizations that we were representing. So when you're taking part in things like special events and we're going in collecting sponsorships, that's one of the more common forms of peer-to-peer fundraising. But they can also be used in other types of running and generating activities, as we'll see in a minute. But the other thing I really wanna point out here, I think we sometimes confuse peer-to-peer fundraising with crowdsource funding, also known as crowdfunding. Now, they're extremely similar, but they really apply to a couple of different situations. Now, crowdfunding is actually a form of peer-to-peer fundraising. But when we're talking about crowdfunding we're usually talking about short-term or emergency-based type of appeals. So things like we're raising money for a town that has been affected by a natural disaster or if somebody has to have an emergency operation, even some more extreme cases of raising money for a justice fund, for instance. So usually it's for something that's very, very sporadic and something very immediate and short-term. And normally these are the types of appeals that the individual is taking part in a crowdsource funding, don't necessarily have an affinity towards a specific organization or even a specific cause. Rather it's something that has skyrocket in terms of relevance and in terms of their immediate affinity and priority. And so it's usually something that's, and where people would reach out to people within their own spheres of influence. But we're not talking about, you know, volunteers of an organization going out and trying to invite people into the sphere of that organization. Rather this is just a very, very standalone sort of activity that only comes along every so often. And usually there's a defined start and dissolution aspect to a crowdsource funding appeal where once the money is raised, basically any names, any contacts that have been collected are basically eliminated. So crowdsource funding usually differs in that sense. Now, there's a couple of, you know, as I kind of already indicated, there's some great points to, you know, to peer-to-peer campaigns. I think one of the nice things is just how easy and expensive they are to manage. You can basically start one up with as little money as possible in terms of, you know, establishing a platform. And in fact, you don't always necessarily need technology. We can start when you add hawk by using simple, you know, pen and paper and just, you know, taking down names. You know, it can be something as simple as that. But it's, they're rather easy to get out through ground. There's not always a ton of planning involved. Doesn't mean that there's no planning. And actually, you know, the more planning we take, I think the more successful and the more effective it will be, especially in the long-term. But generally speaking, a peer-to-peer campaign, especially if you're doing them for the first time, can be fairly straightforward and put together. And of course, the big thing about peer-to-peer campaigns, and this is often overlooked amazingly, it's overlooked. And it's a great opportunity to actually attract new donors and supporters, you know, and to actually populate your base of support. So that's the one thing that often gets overlooked, especially when peer-to-peer is being used as a part of an event of some kind. So when you're collecting names, I mean, those are names of people, even if they're giving for the first time. If they learn a little bit more about the cause that they're contributing towards, these are people that potentially might want to stay outside for a while. So we don't want to overlook the sustainability factor and specifically the opportunities to feed that sustainability that come with each peer-to-peer campaign. And like I said also earlier, this is something that you can actually adapt to campaigns and appeals and other types of fundraising activities, not just fundraising, but even outreach. You know, when you're trying to raise awareness, you can even, you know, you can factor in a peer-to-peer strategy with things that aren't even really fundraising related right now. So anything that has to do with reaching out in the general public, anything that has to do about advancing the brand and the profile of the organization, this is something that you can also, again, segue a peer-to-peer appeal or a peer-to-peer strategy and even make it a part of that ongoing activity on an annual basis. And with that, of course, it's a great way to just build your brand awareness, let people know about your cause and more importantly, the impact that your cause is having in the community at large and how it's making such a difference and how investing in the cause is enhancing the overall vitality of our communities much more effectively. Now, it's not just about money because this can also be about, you know, recruiting volunteers as well as in-kind support. So when we talk about fundraising, it's more like resource raising. So a peer-to-peer appeal can be not just about raising money but it can be really about the three T's of raising time, talent and treasure. So when we've got volunteers and supporters who demonstrate a strong degree of affinity for our cause and they're willing to go out and to hit up people within their respective spheres of influence to support a cause, we don't wanna waste the opportunity to maybe identify a couple of potential volunteers or even who knows, maybe even some prospective board members within those contacts. In other words, as we give these people an opportunity to see who we are and what we're all about and more importantly, the big difference that we're making, hopefully this might resonate with them and actually, you know, encourage them to maybe become a little bit more involved, not just financially, but you know, maybe they've got some expertise, maybe they've got some time that they'd like to share, maybe they have a connection that they'd like to share with us. Maybe there's a specific skill or product that they'd be willing to donate in kind that will enhance the overall outcome and impact of our services and programs. Now it's not all sunshine and rainbows here because there are some drawbacks and I think one of the things that we never wanted to overlook is the necessity to actually train the participants, the donors and the supporters who agree to be a part of that peer-to-peer campaign or that peer-to-peer appeal. We don't wanna make, we wanna ensure that they're thoroughly trained and supported and they know precisely what it is they're doing and how to do it because when we just send people out there blindly there's a lot of, there's a plethora of different things that can happen that can go wrong. They can, you know, they can deliver the wrong message. They can direct people towards the wrong bank account. They can direct people, you know, they can maybe misrepresent the organization. So there's, we just wanna make, you know, they might become frustrated if they don't really feel like they're being supported. So we wanna make sure that, you know, before we actually cast them out there and allow them to go down the pavement, we wanna make sure that they have the message down path. We wanna make sure that they're comfortable in using the technology. We wanna make sure that they're comfortable in directing people towards their page and they're familiar with the process and they know that we're here to help them. So training and support is crucial. Otherwise there's, like I say, there's a train wreck might be awaiting us. Now also be prepared for some participants that might be a little bit lax in collecting all the funds that they have collected and are in receivables. Be prepared that they might not submit them in time. So we wanna try to provide our participants with some kind of a drop dead date or a deadline where we would prefer to have all, you know, all the proceeds in so we can tabulate and make our, you know, auditors happy, et cetera. So there sometimes can be, you know, and even worse when our participants have to chase down people that they have approached and people who have pledged to them, even though, like we say, things were in receivables, there might be some occasions where not all the funds get submitted or collected. So there might be the odd shortfall and discrepancy between what's, you know, what's in receivables and actual cash on hand. Now, when things go wrong, whether it's because they're not thoroughly trained or an act of God happens or something, there may be some damage control. There might have to be some spin doctrine, especially if there has been a questionable interaction or maybe something inappropriate happened that might require a little, you know, a little bit of reprimanding and like I say, a little bit of soul searching to make sure that these things don't happen again. So when you've got people who are representing the organization and they're kind of acting in a, almost in a free agency sort of environment, we wanna make sure that we're choosing the right people who can, you know, who know how to behave diplomatically, discreetly, keep things professional, but also ensure that the mission and vision remain intact, make sure that they're not doing anything above all that is going to negatively impact the people that we're serving. Now, with in this day and age, of course, peer-to-peer being a very technologically oriented form of fundraising, be prepared for some technological challenges or issues. You know, the platform we're using might get shut down as I encountered yesterday with something that I subscribed to. And so there's always, you know, when we depend on technology, in many cases, we're depending on something that really lies outside of our control and there's a lot of things, you know, glitches that can happen that really go over our head, that can screw things up. So there's always going to be the odd technological issue. So, but again, this is usually something that lies outside of our control, but at the same time, we want to anticipate that these things could happen. And just being aware that that can be a bit of a hiccup that can kind of impede the entire progress of what it is we're chasing. Now, I want to talk a little bit more now about how these things work. So we hear about peer-to-peer and we know it's all about, you know, sending people out to work on our behalf and to raise money, but precisely like strategically, like what does the process look like? Well, I think taking it from the top, I think the more successful peer-to-peer campaigns are the ones where there's a little bit of imagination and a little bit of creativity employed. And so this is where we don't want peer-to-peer appeals and peer-to-peer campaigns to be just a simple matter of people going out there and raising money and asking people because they can get stale in a hurry. Peer to be a big part of our ongoing fundraising activities. There has to be something fun and kind of joyful and, you know, something a little quirky about it. And so, you know, something, so when you're planning a peer-to-peer campaign, it always helps if you do employ a little bit of creativity. But the other thing is we also want to make sure we're being extremely flexible in the types of activities where we choose to actually employ a peer-to-peer appeal. So one thing I would always recommend with organizations is do a quick scan of whatever it is you're doing across the board, whether it's fundraising or not. So even things like, you know, if it's appropriate, even things like our AGMs or open house events or any social media awareness campaigns, might there be a way to, you know, sneak, don't want to use the word sneak in, but maybe there's a way that we can actually maybe, you know, piggyback some kind of a peer-to-peer element to some of these activities. So we don't necessarily have to reinvent the wheel, you know, in these cases, because the versatility of a peer-to-peer fundraising appeal or a fundraising campaign is something that can really, you know, something we can apply to a range of different types of activities. So it's not just special events, it can be volunteer recruitment activities, awareness billing, challenge appeals, you know, those kinds of things. And so I was mentioning the creativity aspect before. My wife and I are actually starting a, some kind of an appeal this coming weekend, as a matter of fact, for an organization that we're both on the board with. And so this is, you know, as a lot of things are, even as the pandemic seems to be slowing down a little bit now, still a lot of activities are virtual, even though we are starting to meet more in person these days. But we're taking part in a virtual marathon, where the idea is we want to, we're going to be not running necessarily, but we're going to be covering five kilometers over five different days, using five different means of transit. So day one, we might walk, day two, we might walk backwards, day three, we might crawl, day three, we might skip. Cart wheels are still clutch, but swimming is certainly doable, especially if we're heading up to the kites, this, you know, this coming week and a half down the road. So little things like that, so we would stream ourselves, you know, taking part in each of these activities. So the people that we're approaching, that is like the people that we're asking to sponsor us, as a part of this peer-to-peer appeal, they can watch us in action or they can download us, you know, once we actually upload things to Instagram or to our YouTube channel, for instance. So employing different ways of engaging the people that, you know, just so that, you know, we're not, you know, we don't want peer-to-peer activities to get stale. So it helps that from the beginning, if we do employ a little bit of, you know, fun and creativity in that regard. Now the other thing, I think if you're recruiting participants, whether they're your donors or volunteers or whoever it is that's participating in these peer-to-peer appeals, providing some kind of an incentive helps. So things like, you know, raising money the quickest or raising money, having your funds turned in, you know, the earliest or playing suddenly the person that raises the most money, having some kind of like a price structure. So if, so the person that raises the most money is going to get a $100 Tim Horton certificate or they're going to get DoorDash coupons or something along the lines or they might get, you know, Netflix coupons or Google cards or something along those lines. I have to tell you, technologically when it comes to these little things, I'm still learning them myself. So forgive me if I'm not overly versed in the array of different types of technological and digital prizes that we can provide some of our participants. But providing incentives, you know, especially, you know, when others who might be on the fence in terms of whether or not they wanna take part, you know, incentives can be something that kind of, you know, convinces them, you know, in our favor that kind of nudges them, you know, towards a positive reply. Now, as far as the types of participants here, once again, this is where I think, you know, so before we actually start to send people out, we wanna make sure that we're not overlooking everybody. So it really helps if you sit down and do a long, take a long, hard look at your current donor files, your volunteers and basically anybody in your various databases or information circles who seems to have been, you know, maybe they've kind of, you know, dropped off the radar within the last couple of years. But historically, these might be people who have taken part in events and have demonstrated a strong sense of affinity for the cause. So doing, you know, doing a little bit of what we call database mining, where we just go through our records, you know, and just kind of track everybody's involvement and how diverse people have been involved with the organization over the years. So we don't just wanna limit this to people who let's say have made monetary donations in the past, but certainly start with those that have made monetary donations because this is something that really gets overlooked by a lot of groups. It's very difficult for somebody to go out and hit up a whole bunch of people and ask them to, you know, make a monetary contribution to a cause when they themselves have not made a monetary contribution to that cause. So making sure that the people you're sending out have actually made their own donation, whether it's been made recently or whether it was made last year, as long as they have made at least one donation to the cause, you know, during the course of their involvement with the organization, that really is a huge prerequisite. And it just goes back to the old question that a lot of us might get asked, and that is, well, how much have you given? And when the answer is zero, well, usually the response from the person we're approaching is also going to be matched by that. So having people who have already made some kind of, even just a token contribution to the cause, this is often a very huge prerequisite. So it really helps when the people going out have made their own contribution. And of course, we're hoping that a lot of these people happen to be either current or past board members because in most cases, of course, most, you know, very few people associated with a cause show a greater affinity than those who are actually governing the cause. So having board members and past board members involved really sends a huge message to other prospective participants in that they're seeing the leaders of the organization and the past leaders of the organization involved. And so this is a way of also generating gravity and just encouraging other participants to get involved. But certainly volunteers and staff, suppliers. So the person who does our books, our lawyer, the person that comes and checks out our propane tank every year, our office suppliers, our transportation providers, any group or any business that helps us with our operating needs in any form, don't be afraid to get them involved, especially if they've been involved, if they've supported other aspects of the organization, such as sponsoring a whole golf tournament or purchasing tables at Gallus, that kind of thing. Representatives from other organizations, this is another area that sometimes gets overlooked and sometimes it's for taboo purposes, but there is quite, you'd be surprised at the quick pro quo aspect in the nonprofit sector, because oftentimes we do support one another, especially if these are organizations that we partner with on different projects and in different areas, groups that we share resources with. So resources can include also again, people and money. And so we might put a team together for one of their events and they might put a team together for one of our special events. And so it's a way of just kind of scratch my back, I'll scratch yours, but there's also some great opportunities for cross-pollination in terms of the donors. That is some of their donors, because they give to that cause, well, maybe they might realize that supporting both organizations might actually enhance their overall impact that is the impact of their contributions, the donors' contributions to the wellbeing of the community at large by supporting both causes. Now, of course, we also don't want to overlook clients and their families. And once again, I understand this can be a very sensitive issue in many cases, but you never want to naturally exclude your clients. It's actually a very healthy practice to give them a chance to at least say no. We don't want to necessarily jump to the conclusion because this is also a way to really offend a lot of people. When we presume that our clients don't want to get involved because we feel it's going to be a burden to them, but employing that sort of a mentality really is a regressive practice because what that really does is it devalues fundraising in the overall pursuit of the mission and vision. And when we devalue the importance of fundraising, we're basically shooting ourselves in the foot and more or less making things difficult for ourselves because when we've got a negative fundraising environment it makes things just a little bit more difficult to get out there and actually raise money because we're almost gasolineing ourselves or kind of sowing doubt in our minds that maybe we're not so worthy. So these can be some very unhealthy practices when we don't give our clients and their families the chance to either opt in or opt out of fundraising activities. Now, once we've got the people target, that is once we've got our prospects identified in terms of who we want to perhaps take place or sorry, take part in a peer-to-peer appeal, that is once we've chosen the people who are going to approach people within their respective spheres of influence, the next thing we want to do is we want to choose a platform where each individual participant can use to construct their own campaign page. That is so each participant can basically create their own fundraising page and direct people to go towards and actually support their efforts. So, the classic of course, I think when most of us think about these kinds of pages we think about go fund me. But as we'll see just before we wrap up this presentation today, there really are a plethora of different types of peer-to-peer appeals, particularly the kind of platforms that also work in tandem with our CRMs and databases. So, we want to choose a platform where basically any information being entered onto their platform page basically automatically gets entered into our system. And this just allows us to manage your proceeds and issue receipts and just tabulate things a little bit more smoothly than let's say if they're to do their own, their own separate EO campaign page. So, choosing a platform that's user friendly that's fairly straightforward in terms of, if you've got participants that might want to create their own page, we want to make sure that we're doing so in a very, very straightforward and very user friendly manner. Now, when your participants are constructing their own pages, a couple of things that we certainly want to keep in mind is we want to make sure that people not only know where their money is going, but what kind of a difference is their money going to make? So, we don't just want to articulate the cause by outlining the mission, the vision of the organization. But more specifically, what specific facet of the programs and services that organization offers, which specific facet is going to benefit from their donation? And even more importantly than that, once this donation has been made, what kind of a difference is it going to make in the lives of the people that we're serving? In other words, how's this going to make the community more vibrant, more vital? How is this going to make this a better place to live and to work and to play for everybody? So, we want to make sure that the donor knows exactly how their investment, not only how it's going to achieve, but what kind of an impact is it going to have on the community at large? Now, oftentimes donors and certainly participants want to know, how are things looking? Like, how do they set targets? And that's another thing. It really helps when we encourage our participants to set goals for themselves. That is, how much money do they think they're capable of raising from within their social circles? And certainly we want to be conservative maybe the first time we do this, but once you, when you're doing this on an annual basis, this allows us to maybe surpass last year's goal. So, progressively it gives us something to work towards. So, establishing a goal and having some kind of a mechanism on their page, which charts the progress and monitors, how close we are to reaching that goal. So, things like your standard donation thermometer, like we see on your typical United Way page or any capital campaign will have their thermometer where the top of the stick is the goal and that's where the bell goes off and all these great things happen. So, where are we in relation to that? So, some sort of a mechanism that just, again, not only that, this might encourage some people to maybe step forward with a challenge contribution if they feel that that's going to get them over the hump. Now, of course, as we said earlier, we want to make these things as easy and straightforward for the donor to make their pledge. And we also want to make sure that we're choosing a platform that's going to enable the donor to receive not only their recognition, but their tax receipts and anything else they need to actually move forward. So, I was hinting earlier that the huge part that is overlooked, the value added of a peer-to-peer fundraising appeal is how potentially this can also feed our base of support. So, when you're collecting information on some of these platforms, we don't just want to collect the obvious information such as their name, address, province and postal code and telephone number, et cetera. But also, let's ask if it's okay to obtain their social media contact because we might want to just keep them in the loop going forward as to the residual impact that their donations are having. In other words, we want some kind of a mechanism in our possession that will enable us to actually store these relationships. In other words, give them an opportunity to develop an affinity for the cause. And so, if they're willing to provide us with their social media and for whether it's Instagram or Facebook or Twitter or Reddit or what have you. Excuse me, this is a means for them to continue to see the work that we're doing so that, again, we're giving them an opportunity to develop an organic attachment of the work of the organization and of the mission and of the vision. And most importantly, we want to get them to start to begin to care about the lives that are being impacted by the work that we're doing. So, of course, we absolutely, this just goes towards due diligence and just common courtesy, but make sure you find out precisely how they want to be recognized. Do they want their full name? Do they want their short name? Do they want Dave? Do they want David? Do they want Jessica? Do they want Jesse? So, how do they want to be recognized? Do they want their corporate name or their company name up there? Do they want their club name? Do they want to remain anonymous? So, absolutely find out exactly how do they want to be formally recognized on any correspondence or any information that might get circulated. Now, the one thing that I kind of hinted at earlier one of the drawbacks, of course, is when participants feel like they've got this Robinson Crusoe Syndrome where they're on this desert island and they don't really have any form of support and morale can really deteriorate in a hurry. So, at all times, we want to make sure from the beginning until proceeds are submitted and even afterwards, we want to make sure that participants know that we have their back. So, support and encouragement to the participants at every stage, if you haven't heard from them in a while, check in with them periodically, but also systematically. So, make sure that, let's say, we don't want a week to go by where we don't hear back from our participants during an appeal or we don't, or better yet, four days would actually be a better practice. So, every four days, make sure that we're checking in with them. How are things going? Do you need any information from us? Is there anything we can do? And oftentimes, in terms of identifying people within their respective spheres of influence, sometimes we might actually need to get involved with them and just not just give them a nudge, but to maybe inspire them to maybe look, to consider other areas or other avenues that they have maybe considered exploring. So, this is almost like sitting down and doing like a webbing exercise. But if you find that one of your donors or supporters that are raising money on your behalf, if they're encountering a little bit of difficulty in identifying prospects that they want to approach, sit down with them and maybe just review their six degrees of separation. So, obviously, we want to make sure that they've considered all immediate family and friends. You know, there's going to be people that they absolutely want to hit up, and then there's people that they would never want to hit up. So, who do they feel comfortable approaching? Who do they want to exclude? Let's make sure we've covered that thoroughly. Then, of course, we want to think about people that they work shoulders with at work, even in the virtual world, so colleagues and coworkers. Neighbors, even if they live in a rural community, our closest neighbor might be a mile down the road, but still, we don't want to overlook these contacts. People that we interact with on a fairly regular basis. You know, their business suppliers, especially if they happen to be entrepreneurs, if, you know, if they happen to hold a fairly influential position in a company, maybe they have some sort of a, you know, a connection with people like business to business providers that they happen to be associated with. Secondary contacts, in other words, a family member, a friend that they've already approached, maybe they might want to hit up one of their neighbors, so there's always these secondary contacts that people, they have already approached, and those people have already given, so there might be a little bit of residual impact coming from those areas. And don't be afraid to maybe ask them to consider other hats that they've worn. That is, do they go to church? Are they a part of a service club of some kind? Are they a part of a sports league? You know, what different activities are they involved with besides work and family? So other hats that they may wear, so would they ever consider approaching other people in their parishes or other people in their congregations, other people in their clubs, other people on their sports teams and whatever associations, other people in the union. So with other different hats, with other capacities they serve, you know, make sure we're not overlooking opportunities in those areas as well. Now, once, of course, having, like I said earlier, as well, making sure that things are collected within a certain timeframe, again, just to keep everything nice and structured. You know, and this way, you know, things balance and, you know, our statements aren't thrown off and most importantly, everybody gets recognized. In other words, we want to, you know, especially when you're doing appeals, one of the most important things with appeals is to achieve closure. And you can only really achieve closure of a campaign if all the proceeds are actually collected and tabulated and received issues and such. There's just as an aside, when you're doing things like direct mail and individual campaigns, there's really two rules that we want to follow. The first thing is we want to get it out. That is, we want to get the ask out there. And once we get the ask out there, rule number two is get it in. And we want to make sure that when we're getting it in, that getting it in falls within a very specific and very structured timeframe. So we're not just leaving things out there willy-nilly. Obviously this should go without saying, but thank you layers and tax receipts being issued promptly. Time sensitive. We don't want a month or two months to go by. Heck, we don't even want a week to go by between money being received and thank you layers being issued and of course tax receipts along with that. Recognition must be appropriate and tasteful. We don't necessarily want to give like a tacky, ticker tape parade for every $10 support that comes our way. But something nice and tasteful, something that would make them feel good about being a part of the solution certainly is something that we want to make sure it's not loud, it's not understated, but it's kind of just right as they say, kind of like bullilocks and three bears in that regard. But I think most importantly, and once again, this goes back to the importance of things like collecting social media information, getting as many different ways to reach out until they choose it opt out of the relationship, but give the new donors a chance to say no. But do so in the process of letting them see the value of what it is you're doing. This is a topic for another day, but one of the things that we often say in fundraising is when for every ask, that is for every type of communication that revolves around a request or an ask, we want to balance that with four or five additional forms of communication which have nothing to do with asking, but rather it's about showing them their donor dollars and their time and energy at work. Now, in other words, showing them the impact that their investment of money or time and energy or in-kind support or combination of these things, showing them how their collective investment is having an impact on the quality of life of the people and the organizations and the communities that we're serving. So most importantly, cultivate new relationships because we've got people coming in, we're feeding our donor base. So the idea is we want to make sure that these bases of support become sustainable and by sustainability, we're talking about building relationships and by building relationships, we mean long-term relationships. And the secret to building long-term relationships is communicating with our supporters and establishing two-way communication. So it's not just about us talking to them, it's also encouraging them to talk to us. We want to learn what makes them tech. We want to learn more about their philanthropic interests and needs, what do they want to see done? What areas do they want to support? How can we work with them to help them to be their brothers and their sister's keepers? Now, just a couple of things I want to mention here as far as the different types of campaigns that we can employ with peer-to-peer sort of techniques and approaches. And like I say, they really is a wide range here. So we mentioned bike-a-thons and walk-a-thons, but also birthday and anniversary appeals, along with retirements too. And what we mean by this is in lieu of gifts. So instead of buying me a tacky birthday present or instead of buying us something on our anniversary, we want to invite you to make a donation to our favorite cause. So we're setting up a birthday donation page here. And you often see this with Facebook a lot where people are raising money for the Canadian Cancer Society or for the Parkinson's Society or somebody and or Habitat for Humanity. And so it would mean a lot to me if you would donate anywhere from this amount to this amount. If you wouldn't mind following this link and going to this page. And not only that, they would find a little bit more about the causes that you were supporting. And like I say, the same thing can be applied to retirements. Christmas and holiday appeals, of course. Now, this is kind of like a two, we're talking about two different concepts here actually, when we're talking about Christmas and holiday appeals. In other words, instead of buying me a Christmas present, you can go to my favorite, you can go to this, excuse me, this donation page that we've made up and make your contribution there. And so once again, this could be an in lieu of gift. But also of course, organizations that are doing Christmas appeals maybe getting our more encouraging, some of our more loyal donors and some of our more loyal volunteers and such, would they mind doing their own individual Christmas appeals or separate appeals where they can approach people within their spheres of influence. And basically they're serving almost like ambassadors of the organization and extending requests to give towards our Christmas appeal to people within their respective spheres of influence. But it's coming directly from them on behalf of the organization and memoriam. So when we're in, so this would apply not just to somebody who perhaps has passed, but you know, on the anniversary of their passings, you know, just, you know, if there happens to be a cause that was near and dear to their hearts or something that, you know, the family might want to make a contribution for and certainly that's something that would work. Game nights, this is more of a special event, especially a, you know, like a virtual special event where some organizations are encouraging groups to get involved in, and this is almost like a combination social and fundraising and in some cases, even this might even be part of the programming depending on the nature of the organization. But when you're hosting a game night, you can actually approach people and ask them to sponsor your game night. So a bunch of us are going to be playing risk over the weekend. And so just to support our efforts, we invite you to go on our page here and you can kind of support our efforts, you know, it's a risk marathon or a risk binge or something. We're playing Monopoly, we're playing chess, we're playing backgammon. So, you know, just a regular basis. And this, by the way, this is something you can actually do on a cyclical or on a regular basis. So once every quarter, hosting a game night where we invite people to maybe support our efforts the same way we would ask them to support us if we were taking part in a bike defile. Virtual stay at home gal is very much the same thing asking people to sponsor us, capital campaigns, acquisition appeals. And this is a lot more direct by an acquisition appeal. Basically, we're directly asking our most ardent supporters, you know, those who have demonstrated a strong level of commitment and affinity for the cause, we're asking them to basically go out and recruit new donors on our behalf. And so this is kind of like where they're making a personal appeal on behalf of the organization to their friends and family members and other contacts within their six degrees of separation. Just to, would they consider supporting this cause that means so much to me? We would welcome your support and we look forward to, you know, showing you the impact of what that investment is going to have not only immediately, but going forward down the road. Now, gift matching appeals. This is where when a donor has made a contribution, they might, you know, especially if we're talking about a fairly significant contribution. So if I'm somebody that makes a $500 commitment, I'm gonna hit up my friends and neighbors and ask them to help me match that amount. So collectively I'm raising another $500 from friends and family in little dribs and drabs. Challenges like the ice bucket challenge, skydiving roller coasters, getting us to conquer our fears. This is something that, you know, we might want to ask people to support our efforts. So we're gonna be, you know, we're gonna be riding, you know, Leviathan or Behemoth. We're gonna be jumping out of a plane. We're gonna be taking part in next year's polar bear competition, you know, on New Year's. So we're gonna be jumping in a frozen lake or something along those lines. But, you know, facing our challenges is another thing that, again, where there's a little fun element to this and just it makes things a little bit interesting and, you know, can sometimes be that little extra match that would get people to do actually get involved monetarily. Now, a few things I want to mention here about the different types of platforms. Now, I'm not gonna go through each of these because they all have their own little, you know, they all have their pluses and negatives. But what I've got here are just kind of either of the more common and some of the more popular and certainly used for friendly platforms that you'll find. Donor Perfect and Black Butter is something that I'm fairly familiar with. Salsa is what I'm just getting to know right now. So these three especially are extremely relevant these days. Kindful, I've seen, I don't really know a lot about them, but they've got some tremendous reviews. And the same with a lot of these other ones. Bloomerang is about the only one I'm really, really familiar with on this page. But just, you know, based on reviews and just on feedback I've received from other people, Give Life Charity Proud and Fundraise are also platforms that you might want to consider because the one nice thing about each of these platforms is they can be saved in your existing CRM. Anyway, folks, I just want to thank everybody for taking part here today. And I'm just going to stop the share for the moment and come back to our little shot here. And not sure if anybody has any questions at all. Do you have a list of that that you can send out of all? Yeah, actually, this is going to be accessible on the NetSquared website. Oh, okay. I think within, it should be within the arrow if I'm not mistaken. But yeah, and this is also a record, like I say. And so. Is NetSquared TechSoup? I believe, event squared, yes. TechSoup.org, what I can do, I can email you guys the link afterwards. How does that sound? Oh, that'd be awesome. Yep, so I can make sure that you guys get the direct link for, you know, for all this stuff. And of course, if anybody has any questions, by all means, don't hesitate to call or contact us. And there's, the way this is going to work is I'm supposed to be doing one of these each quarter. So we're probably going to be doing another one of these in September, so I'd be happy to keep you guys in the loop in that regard as well. And don't know what the topic is going to be. Although you might, I might be repeating the one I did last time, just to, you know, just because I guess there's a lot of people that wanted to hear about that one and they'd like to take part in an actual live presentation. So it might be on the effectiveness of a CRO, Consumer Relations Management System, AKA database. So I'm not 100% sure exactly what the topic will be. I'll probably know within the month, but I will definitely love to keep you guys in the loop if that's okay. Anyhow, if there's no other questions or anything, I just want to thank you guys once again for taking part and by all means, stay safe and, you know, best of luck in the summertime and hopefully we'll see you again. Thanks so much, Mike. Great, that's been great. Do you ever teach a course on like monthly, how to establish monthly giving programs? Yeah, and maybe that could be something I do next quarter. Thanks for the idea. Yeah, by all means, and actually, you know, we could probably even work some of this info in there as well. Yeah, setting up like a monthly donor program, especially like one from scratch, like the traditional way of doing a monthly donor program is, you know, kind of like part of your traditional moves management process where, you know, people that have been giving it various levels like for an extended timeframe, we invite them to maybe become a monthly supporter. But what's wrong with asking a person to become a monthly supporter from the get-go? Right. You know, at a very modest amount. I mean, what's nice about the giving of course is just the income certainty. You know, which certainly, you know, aids us when we're doing things like grants and, you know, another fundraising campaign. Alrighty. Well, thank you so much. Great. Well, thank you guys and I appreciate everybody taking part and hope you have a great summer. Okay. Take care. Take care, guys. Bye.