 Well hello. Thank you for being here. Welcome to all of you. So glad you're joining us today. It's another episode of the non-profit show. I might have checked our spreadsheet this morning Julia and we're at 644. So episode number 644 coming up soon to 650 which is going to be another big milestone. Today we have with us back by popular demand to talk to us about understanding first generation donors is Yanni. So so thrilled to have you here. I already love your energy, your positivity, like you're just you're very passionate and that that comes through. Yanni St. Louis is the Wynn woman and she's going to talk to us a little bit about what that is but we're going to learn a lot about Yanni when it comes to first generation donors. So before we jump into this conversation with her we want to remind you who we are. So hello so very much to Julia Patrick, CEO of the American Non-profit Academy. I love your leopard print there. It's like wow it's just it's it's powerful. It's a bit much but I have an animal event thing too. Oh yes. I want to apologize. Acknowledge yourself. This is great. It's not my favorite but it serves a purpose. Oh that power. I love it. And I'm Jared Ransom your non-profit nerd CEO of the Raven Group and I always honor to serve alongside Julia for the co-host here at the non-profit show. We're also grateful to have the ongoing support, the investment, the trust that we have with our presenting sponsors. So thank you so very much to our friends at Bloomerang American Non-profit Academy, Fundraising Academy with National University, Be Generous, Your Part 10 Controller, Staffing Boutique, Non-profit Thought Leader, and Non-profit Nerd. These companies keep us going working towards our 650th episode. We're not stopping. We are really just continuing as we grow and evolve these conversations. Speaking of these conversations truly have evolved over the course of this journey. So three plus years you can find all of the archives on many of these entertainment streaming channels. Those include Roku, YouTube, Amazon Fire TV, as well as Vimeo. But wait there's more. I'm not selling a ShamWow but I am encouraging to go to your podcast. I do love those ShamWow commercials those. So listen to the non-profit show wherever you stream your podcast. Yanni, I always like to ask our guest, are you a podcast listener? Do you listen? I am. I am very much a podcast listener. I love it. Yeah, me too. It's usually when I'm traveling or getting ready for the day as well as walking my dog in the morning. So hey, you can listen to us and as well as today's episode that we have with Yanni San Luis, founder, CEO, the Wind Woman. Welcome back. Thank you so much, Jared and thank you so much, Julia. It's a pleasure to have to be here this afternoon here on the East Coast and looking forward to the conversation today. Well, we were so impressed when you were on the first time and so we just had to get you back on for a really specific discussion about first-generation donors because I think it's just such an important topic and we don't always chat about it. But before we like get you on the hot seat, you are a professor at a university in southern Florida talking about marketing and then you also have your own firm, the Wind Woman. Tell us what the Wind Woman does. Sure. Thank you so much, Julia. So we here at the Wind Woman, we are a social impact firm and what we do is that we help nonprofit organizations and corporate foundations maximize their revenue, their impact and effectiveness. We do this through a variety of ways, whether it's turnkey fundraising campaigns, CRM optimization, board management or restructuring of their organizations. Wow. That's a lot. That's a lot. A lot of things. It's like a little departments that I have within our firm that take care of all these beautiful things for nonprofits. Yeah, that's fantastic. And it's needed and you're joining us today from Florida and we also want to recognize that we are in currently Hispanic Heritage Month and we couldn't have planned this anymore properly and better. So we're just going to own that, as you had said. But we're going to talk today about understanding the first-generation donors and I'm curious to learn more about this from you. Can you share with us what that really means at the beginning and then we'll jump into the legacy well? Absolutely. So just to share with everyone here. So first-generation, as it relates to here in the United States, are Americans who are the first generation in their family born in this country to immigrant families. That's basically what is the definition of a first-generation American. As a first-generation American myself, I was born to Cuban parents. I was born here in Florida and essentially when we're talking about first-generation, a lot of times we're thinking through scholarships if it's basically through university systems and things like that where first-generation scholarships, a lot of times state matching comes in. There's a variety of different things that can happen philanthropically. But a lot of times and I'm very passionate about this topic because in my background with the things that we do within our firm, but also in my experience, we've served a lot of majority minority institutions or nonprofit organizations and we often discount. We think first-generation and we think underprivileged, proverished. The members of the community were serving, but not necessarily those members of the community that can give and that's where I'd like to dispel that myth here today. Let's do it. Love it. I love because you are right. We have these tropes and we think that our newest citizens or members of our community are the ones that we're lifting up or supporting and it is just not the case. So let's get into it and kind of talk about how legacy wealth is new and different and you caution us to be patient. Absolutely. So patience, I mean a lot of times patience is definitely a virtue and as a fiery Cuban, Latina over here, that's not necessarily some things that I have enough time for on an average day. However, I will say here's what we're looking at as far as trends here and I'm thinking through for you all to think through when we're looking at and we're backing up and saying Hispanics right now are one of the fastest growing demographics here in the United States. So we can't discount the fact that what generationally where they come from, but here's where we want to start thinking through what our planning around first generation can look like because here's the thing growing up as a first generation Hispanic. One of the things that I realize is that there is legacy that I have to now carry on in my family's name and in the sense of my family came to this country for a better betterment of career wealth for for you know everything that encompasses what it is truly to live in a free country in a in an American society follow the American dream with that comes your own almost like you're born with the fact that you have to do better than your parents did so you have already a legacy mindset where you have to even think through how do I move the needle how can I make this situation better than what my parents and my families before me had gone through so legacy is already ingrained in the mindset it's just a matter of how you prove as an unprofit organization that those dollars should be able that you can be the people that are good stewards of that of those dollars so it's it starts can start small from annual giving donors and I've seen it very much so where annual giving donors can start grow into major donors and then go into principal giving and so on for for the future I love that you said that you explained that that you're the drive to be engaged in this legacy concept and approach is fascinating and I haven't ever really heard anyone talk about that could you give us an idea like are you saying that these things change and that first generation is going to be more interested in philanthropic endeavors when they're maybe in their 30s or 40s or 50s or 60s or do you have a sense of that trajectory I can just share with you especially right now as far as and these are just the younger demographics where we're talking about under 40 right now right so I'll share you know under 40 is what we're looking through as far as first generation and here's where I see I mean the legacy component within making sure that your sole purpose right of you being now you know following on on your legacy of your of your family is ingrained at the dinner table I mean when you're five I'm talking ladies this is something where it's like there is very much a lot of times that and my Hispanic and Latinos and even black Americans will likely agree with us and grow with me when I say that even my grandmother my abuela fifi abuela is a grandmother in Spanish would tell me you know I did not immigrate to this country for you to X and then drop built of whatever so much pressure in that I can see it is I was like oh and that's and it was one of those things wow and and it came to grades it came to you know one of the things that we had in the in the chatter behind seems it's like the way that you show up right you just couldn't you had to be you know you're better faster you had to be put your best foot forward and you're thinking of legacy you wake up and you're thinking of legacy and it's just a matter of you know we have to think through how are we going to how do we make our families proud and it is a pressure if you all have watched the disney movie and until that is real the pressure is real and I just share with you that it's just a matter of how we dial it back but also how we zero in on what the legacy can be so maybe we we first establish it and what's beautiful about targeting first generation donors is that nonprofit organizations can have the opportunity to actually co-create this with the the donor themselves and and and and cement I mean there's the way different ways that we can do this and and endowments become things that can live on in perpetuity are beautiful sentiments and tributes that can be placed and really work in tandem with you know the dreams of these of these individuals yeah well talk to us about and thank you first of all I want to honor thank you for sharing that and relating it to a disney movie because that to me is very very understandable there um but talk to us about how tithing might be a legacy expectation and how that you know the faith tithing in particular might look different for these generations absolutely so when you're talking about faith based and faith tithing that's very traditional within um within first generation families it's very much that is the legacy I would say that exists is that faith based tithing however now when we are looking at millennials started shifting this generation Z even more so has shifted this uh dynamic I know that here in Florida we have an incredible resource called the Florida nonprofit alliance and recently they did a research report of a giving report on the way that um this ties in in younger generations and right now um younger generations are they're giving an indifferent in different spurts so they're not just committed to one organization they're committed to multiple usually are responding to um justice causes and racial justice causes more recently um but here's the thing they're giving through apps crowdfunding campaigns greatest need type things and so we need to kind of dispel that you know it's just automatic you know faith based tithing is automatic it's not it's still very much how are we making a case if you are a faith based organization nonprofit we have to still think through that our cultivation and discovery strategy needs to shift we cannot operate from a space of arrogance that we think that you know the legacy is going to follow us with the younger generations yeah I'm glad you mentioned that because I was curious if this legacy expectation and obligation because I see this so so often with multi generations uh regardless of culture is you know are you seeing Yanni that individuals are expected to give to the same places that their previous you know family members were giving to or is it just the sheer act of giving so here's the thing about first generation to begin with when you're coming and this is going back to that patience piece that we talked about at the beginning what happens here is that the first things the the legacy here as it relates to um any type of giving comes and derives from the religious faith based giving if there is any giving a lot of times it it's it's it's tied to tithing right however when you're coming into the united states and or you know your first generation born here in the united states giving is not in in the way in the traditional sense of philanthropic giving um is not necessarily something that maybe you grow up with very formally where your family you know writes a check every single month it's not very standard so it's almost like you have to back it up and have to almost educate why philanthropic becomes a very full service approach where why philanthropic giving impacts different levels right because the first again your legacy here is to do better than what my why my family came here right that's that's the first piece but you have to almost start tying in with first generation donors why giving number one is a is a tax strategy it's is part of your financial wellness in fact you know it can cement your legacy we have to start being a little bit more patient in that regard but I tell I share that with you because that's the tie-in you have to there the legacy giving that existed was usually religious faith-based legacy for family it's more new when it comes here when it's more regular now you started to see more second third generation americans then you know start seeing the the um the sprouts essentially of of the legacy for for second third but first you're still having new you you still have to navigate through the newness that exists and have to back it up and just really establish you know what what's possible here so let me ask you this given that and I love that you shared with us that trajectory and the foundational piece of that this makes me think of this question for you and that is it are these first generation donors going to be more interested in faith-based organizations or faith-based founded organizations or something that has a tie maybe to refugee services or things of that nature or do they move away from that and want to do something different not necessarily I think that's a great question so what we're seeing a lot of times right now is that it might start with faith-based organizations because that's something that is just you know within your family however it starts kind of spreading out and starts growing branches in different in different regards and it's a matter of like for example you'll see systems of higher education where um there is a lot of affinity where are some affinity groups that they as they're starting to progress in their levels of career and service that they feel almost like they they feel like they owe their success to right and I say that because I look at I look at my own alma mater of Florida International University and I think about those were the stepping stones from my university you know my university career that gave me you know what I have today so it's almost like I I owe my success to these things and therefore I'm going to give back to the things pay it forward to the things that I have that I owe my success to and so you're that type of organization you have a lot more almost like we're talking about like the lifetime giving of a donor with with nonprofit organizations and with first-generation donors you'll have a longer trajectory with these donors should you be part of that success story and that's how the questions that you have to start thinking through yourself is how do we amount to their success and how can we make the case that you know we've we're able to get you from point A to point B and kind of integrating that into the messaging so that you can start really um defining and bringing up and and re-engaging you know we are very relationship driven here um as first-generation donors and I don't mean to be the spokesperson person as a first-generation myself however because I've raised a lot of money from these communities um and being myself also I'm just speaking from my that perspective however I will share that it's very relationship driven here in the sense that we expect a very high touch approach in the way that you are communicating you're being transparent you're sharing your you're sharing your milestones your impacts you know the impact reporting becomes very much you know we want to have in-person meeting there is a way of the you know we build trust so cultivation is incredibly important with this group and not coming in where you're swooping in when they've amounted to success but helping them and being through you know being part of success trajectory is where you'll start seeing um a lot more gains for organizations wow and engaging as you were saying like through the journey um talk to us about how these first generation donors are giving more than money they're giving I mean what are they giving real estate we have here stocks art collections what are some of the assets maybe that they're considering absolutely so when I was a first um when I was a frontline development officer I was handling a lot of individual giving and um and corporate giving as well and a lot of the corporate decision makers were first generation themselves as well and so here's what happens here where you start wanting to plan and want to just start first with what is possible when giving so here's where you can get creative when you're structuring gifts so you don't have to just structure a just cash base you can you know think through we had at one point I was working with a major university and we had very much an aggressive endowment strategy right we wanted to um increase the endowment we wanted to ensure that increased legacy and a lot of organizations have that goal but here's how we we structured gifts in a variety of different ways whether you know we sat down with the donor many first generation and we were thinking through where we wanted to plan for their future we were talking about legacy conversations on what their legacy was going to be like and just knowing that what is possible because a lot of times they think well I have to give millions of dollars to name a building or I have to do all these things but if you can say okay well we're going to take a percentage of this gift this is going to be cash and then the remainder you know I have a stock I have some stock options with the company I'm with I'd love to trade that in for you or I can I have some real estate I had there was an art collector a donor that we had that had an entire art collection that we ended up valuing and it was close to 1.2 million dollars and here we are and these are things that now become revenue that we can now use as assets for other things so I tell you that I think you have the first star and this is where the partnerships really work very handy my recommendation is always to think through where your wealth managers and partnering with financial institutions I'm getting to know your your wealth advisors wealth financial wealth management advisors and think through what bringing them in as a partner as a corporate partner which is a great fundraising philanthropic strategy and then helping them craft alongside you this journey of helping these donors these first generation potential donors figure out what their wealth you know how they can multiply their if you're the one that helps them figure out multiplying or you know and expanding their wealth they're going to be able to pay it forward back to you and that's where we can get creative with the ways that we can structure these gifts but it starts first with education and thinking about what's possible. Yeah and I can imagine too that's the transparency piece of let's be transparent let's share exactly with these individuals you know where their wealth of any size because I also love Yanni I love when people are like oh I'm not a philanthropist and I'm like but do you give because there is no dollar amount in the definition of philanthropy so giving in a transparent level for these expectations how are you seeing this is resonating now with these first generation donors. Absolutely I think that what ends up happening and this is going going back to the analogy that I shared earlier which was that a lot of times for first generation when you're thinking about an endowment of some kind you think about wow I have to give X amount of dollars what's that in cash what's that you know they're starting to think about the zeros and like when am I going to be able I don't think I'll ever be able to do that in my generation but if you're able to walk them through and say here's the thing we don't need all the cash up front this is what we need first to get the endowment started and this is where you can quarterly make you know to to grow it and then let's think about strategies to be able to grow this a lot of times you end up you know one of the donors that I had at one point ended up wanting to honor his grandparents and wanted to name an endowment to impact first generation scholarship recipients and things like that that you know for students essentially and part of the first conversations was all about well you know I'm not even sure if I have the the financial capital and you're like wait a second you're a business owner let me kind of break it down in quarters for you in the way that this can look this is the percentage of funds how about we start here and and just really again being transparent about the process and what we don't want to feel and a lot of times what what first generation donors don't want to feel is I didn't want to feel stupid so I feel like if we can think through just making it simple and easy in the ways that you know giving can come in variety of ways is time talent and treasure we gradually move through those cycles but if we can think through again what the transparency is and also be meet them where they're at a lot of times within the pandemic you know checking in with them if they're having some financial hardships or whatever it is and say you know we can pause this for a second and before they ask you to do it helps in that transparency as well so it's a one you know it's it's not a one-way street we want to make sure that the relationship is fruitful but that you're constantly you're communicating with honesty you're communicating with transparency and you're you know you're trying to help them and making it work for both win-win for both yeah love it Yanni I have a question and I'm very vulnerable in asking this but how can we be culturally sensitive when we're stewarding these donors without having that same cultural tie you know I think a lot of the piece and this is this is something and doesn't get old I have to share is recognizing and coming up into a donor and saying you know my apology you know not even apologies but saying I might not know about this but can you share a little bit more can you can you can you think through like can you walk me through what it was like to or and I think that you start with the story I feel a lot of times it is you know here here in south Florida the first generation immigrant story is a dime a dozen frankly because there's so many of us right there's a lot of we are the we are a majority minority demographic down here that's that's the reality of where we live right we are a majority minority the majority everybody a lot of people are first generation right so the storytelling there you know right you know the same story the thing but how but I will tell you each time that the story is told it's unique and it's almost like it it resurges their family legacy at that point so it's even first starting with tell me a little bit about your background but tell me about how your family came and what is what did that look like and what did it look like for you growing up and tell me what it you know after college what was your what was your story after that tell me like really asking the questions and understanding because at every level the truth of the matter is that regardless of the background that we come from we all have very similar ways that we've maybe were brought up that we can tie in I know that a lot of times probably even earlier in this call that I resonated with you know a grandmother or a family member that said you know I didn't do all these things for you to do X right we can resonate with those with those scenarios as well and so I feel like you just have some compassion with yourself first but I also just feel ask the question and just you know if you feel just I don't want I don't want this to come across as you know ignorant I just want to make sure that I'm getting this correctly and I think that that's appreciated as well just you know we don't expect for everyone to know it all yeah no thank you so much and all of this has been fantastic you know and and I love the stories you talk to you about the relationship we talk often about that return on relationship so Yanni thank you for for shining the light on this and sharing with us and again all of our viewers and listeners we do want to recognize that we are currently in Hispanic Heritage Month so this is a perfect opportunity to have you on and learn more about first generation donors Yanni you have been a fabulous guest once again so I want to say thank you to Yanni San Luis founder and CEO the win woman winwoman.com it's just been a pleasure to have you here I also want to make sure that we thank all of our supporting partners in the journey of the nonprofit show as Jared mentioned we are marching towards 650 episodes so we want to thank Blumerang American nonprofit academy staffing boutique fundraising academy at national university your part-time controller be generous nonprofit nerd and nonprofit thought leader these are the folks that are with us day in and day out and we are so full of gratitude for them to be with us we actually ask our executive producer to out log us off if he will after I give us this reminder to stay well so you can do well ladies thank you so much