 Welcome and happy Friday. We are so glad you're here. Julie and I love this day and whether she's on with someone from fundraising Academy or I'm on with someone from fundraising Academy. The nonprofit show has this Friday or Friday dedicated every single week to an ask and answer and we are so excited to have the underwriting of fundraising Academy. Again, Julia Patrick so good so good to be here with you Julie is the CEO of the American nonprofit Academy. I am her nonprofit nerd I'm Jarrett ransom but I also remind you there's plenty of nonprofit nerdiness to go around. I'm also CEO of my own consulting firm the Raven group. And again we are just esteemed to have the ongoing support from our sponsors so I'm going to give a verbal shout out for those of you listening. Thank you to blimmering your part time controller fundraising Academy nonprofit nerd American nonprofit Academy staffing boutique nonprofit thought leader and the nonprofit Atlas these companies have been with us many from the very beginning that was March of 2020 when we had a show would last two weeks here we are coming into three years and 600 episodes. If you miss any of our episodes or you want to go back and rewatch them. You can find us on several streaming platforms, including Roku Fire TV Vimeo, and I think there's something that I'm missing but we're also also in podcast so if you're a podcast listener go ahead and and tell the little person in your phone to queue up the nonprofit show. We all have her or have there's someone in our phone, but go ahead and queue up the nonprofit show to listen to any of our conversations. And it's it's really an interesting thing, Jared with the different voices around the world that ask us questions that send in you know their remarks. And before we launch into our questions. I want to really encourage everyone to be on the lookout for giving USA's annual report it came out this week. It is launched on the same day, pretty much within a few hours in different points of the nation in different cities. The city where I reside Phoenix Arizona we're very fortunate we are one of the cities where this information is launched. And so I go to it every year. I find it riveting. I find it comforting and confirming because it has it's the longest survey that's ever been maintained. It's more than 60 years old of continuous research and study which is remarkable and and I was thinking about you know we have a lot of development directors and CEOs that aren't even 60 across our sector right. And so, once again, fundraising is, you know, being monitored and tracked, but the bottom line for me and I get reminded every year that I go to this presentation and I've been doing it for more than a decade. Individual donors, that's where it's at lesson 4% of all annual giving is done by corporations. What reference giving USA often often often it's amazing. It breaks things down into the sectors about who's getting what, how things are coming about. It gets into everything from the quest to foundations who are giving I mean, it's just fascinating. And look at it across that trajectory of six decades. It really is encouraging how Americans are very philanthropic, and it's common Americans. It's not just the big, you know, super rich. It's, it's the school teacher that lives next door to you. It's the cashier at your supermarket. I mean, it's just, I don't know, Jared, I'll tell you, it just makes me so proud of our country. Oh, it's so important, you know, yeah, it's so important for us to have these voices and to keep building our sector, because we like to toot the horn that philanthropy is not about the amount of zeros at the end of a number. I mean, philanthropy truly is the simple act of generosity, and there's not a quantified amount of generosity in that definition. Yeah, yeah, it's fascinating. I mean, really good information again giving USA. Thank you to all those folks that work on it. And in our community, Richard Tolliff send from Phoenix Philanthropy Group, every year does a masterful job at presenting the findings and he's one of the partners with the Giving USA Institute. So I wanted to make sure to give him a shout out because it's really powerful. We're going to get him on to talk to us about generational wealth and generation, the impacts of generational wealth, like how these different generations give and work in regards to their their philanthropic activity. Very interesting. Yeah, very, very exciting. Yeah, so anyway, I just wanted to start our conversation today with that. But we have a lot of questions that have come in. And we have Jackie from San Diego, that's written in and said we're planning our fall community luncheon. We have a potential media sponsor. The issue is they want an exclusive, which will then not allow us to partner with other media outlets. Can you please advise us on this? Jackie, this is ironic because I got the same question about an exclusivity sponsor from from another client of mine. And they asked the same question about, you know, can we only accept one sponsor kind of per area. So not media, but just kind of in general, you know, whether it's a sponsorship for an event. And, and we do that to here. And so yes, you can absolutely do that. And I would say more over media sponsors definitely want that exclusivity. So there's so many amazing companies that do play well with each other in the sandbox, not to say that media doesn't, but it's just right. You can say that you can say I can say that it's just different and you know the I'll let me I'll let Julia speak more more into the media concept itself but the answer is yes you can absolutely have that exclusivity. And you might want to outline that in your sponsorship packet so that it's clear, because if this question is coming up from your media sponsor I can only imagine it will be, you know, coming up again but Julia why don't you drive us home with the media. You know I was in the media for 30 years so absolutely when somebody would come to my media outlet. Definitely, we were always involved in an exclusive arrangement we wouldn't. We would not play with others in the sandbox. However, where I would play is so I was print media. I would, I would work with an organization if they had a broadcast radio or TV media partner. Hispanic, Hispanic media partner Spanish speaking media. And then early in the day I would do it if there was an online media. Right. So those are different because we weren't really stepping on one another's toes. And the way I looked at it was that if the Hispanic media outlet promoted something it would get my name in front of another constituency right. If a radio, if a TV company, you know, outlet, they would get my media company in front. But yeah, I mean now I was really, really strict about that. And I think that's just how I did business and how I protected my team and my, my company. Now I think that unless it's like a community action. So for example, the one time that I did this that I stepped aside was a big event that had to do with fentanyl, the fentanyl epidemic that was it really impacted our community. And all of us in the media ownership got together and said, this is such a big issue. We're all going to support this. And it was like all of the TV stations, all of the print broadcast outlets, everybody got on the same wavelength for this one topic. I've never seen it done before since it was very bold because there were a group of us that said, look, this is not about our, our, the value of our public publications. This is about the value of our city, right. So for example, I mean to put it into a modern day piece, if maybe you were going to be talking about gun violence, or back to school, you know, hunger, something like that that impacted an entire community that you get everybody to sign on, then maybe so. That's a, that's a very rare thing. Very, very rare thing. Well, I really appreciate that because that, you know, that takes it to another level which makes me think also Jackie, that, you know, if you have a gift acceptance policy at your organization, you would want to, you know, resource that when potential sponsorships come up because there have been times where the organization does not want to be aligned with a certain company, and you want to have the right to say no thank you. And you can have that by way of your gift acceptance policy and outlining those companies, missions, products that you will align with and will not align with. I bring this up Julia because growing up in the Carolinas tobacco money was a big topic. Will we will we not accept tobacco product money. But really, you know, it really just depends but it I think it also depends on your mission so I've worked with, again, outside of the Carolinas, an organization that was teen focused and they never wanted to have any kind of alcohol sponsorship. And so again just can the consideration of your audience and your demographic. Absolutely. And I think that this is a discussion that you need to have well in advance of going out and selling sponsorships to your point, Jared. Absolutely. It's not just media here. It's, you know, how many insurance companies banks plumbers, whatever the heck it is. Are you going to do and I think that that's really, really an important issue. And it's a tough one. It's a tough one because you limit yourself. In many ways, you're, you're in essence turning away money. So my final comment on this is, if and when you are doing this, you need to elevate that price. Because the reality is, if you're only going to do one bank, then you can't, you know, you're going to walk away from all this. So, anyway, I think that's kind of an one of those interesting questions. Yeah, we looked to Jackie as opposed to like, just made you exhausted with all of our comments. Okay, Jacob from Chicago, Illinois writes, what is the average tenure of a nonprofit CEO. We're trying to determine some strategies that will address C-suite and CEO succession planning. Our current CEO is great, been with us for a long time, but she will be retiring in 2023. We want to be prepared. Jacob, you can't, you can't stall. If we're looking at a 2023 departure, you've got a lot of work to do. I would say, and Julie, I'm curious if you know differently, but I've really heard it's very similar to a director development 18 to 24 months for that CEO. Now, that is not everyone. I know organizations that they've had their CEO for 10 years, for 15 years, for seven years, you know, so some longer standing CEO leadership. However, I do also know right now, Jacob, the thing that is happening most often is these long standing CEOs, those five, seven, 10, 15, are retiring. You're ready for their swan song of, you know, a next, a next opportunity. And so I really don't think you can ever approach succession planning too early. And I would like to see this not only in your C-suite, but your middle management as well as well as your board, right? Succession planning is across the organization. I like that your CEO has given you, you know, her notice that, you know, looking at 2023. So going forward, I would say always build in a succession plan. Yeah, I agree. I think the number that I'm seeing more is four to six years on the CEO piece. But I agree with you that development director and we talk about this a lot. But AFP reports is that it's the average tenure is 18 months, 18 months. And most HR professionals will tell you that it takes between six and eight months for a really top notch C-suite executive to even figure out culture where the parking in the bathrooms are. Right. I mean, so if you think about trying to get, you know, figure, figure things out and you're taking six to eight months, you only have just about that much time left before that person is starting to look for something else. So it's a it's a big issue. And I think we really with a great resignation and then the aging of our leadership, we are seeing these people that are leaving. Also, Jerry, you and I talked about this, but I think there are a lot of CEOs that were aging out and ready to leave before the pandemic, but then they they held back because of all this change and, you know, instability. And so now they're like chop chop. They held on to the reins and they said, okay, I'm not going to leave you now I will stall. I just had another conversation with a client to, you know, same thing that was, you know, a strategic planning consultant. I talked to them about my consulting work. And I said, what's your retirement look like because three years ago when we did this plan, that was on the table. And she said the same thing I told him I would stay and I give him another two years max. So whether people are retiring Julia or just truly exhausted. I think that's, I think that's a good comment, Jared. I think that's a really good comment. Yeah, just, just that exhaustion. Well, again, a big issue, Jacob, we wish you well because this certainly is something that we are all looking at and living through. Jaylene, I think it's Jaylene. Interesting name, isn't it? Atlanta, Georgia writes, as we began to prep for our fundraising goals for next year, I would like Jared to explain, oh my God, we get this question all the time. I would like Jared to explain the main percentages of where revenues should come from. This would be specific to grants, individual donors, sponsorships and monthly pledges. Well, Jaylene, I'm so glad you asked. So the 30%, I know 30% is really where I say no more than 30% of your overall operating budgets should be allocated for grants. Less would be better. A little bit more can be okay, but we really don't want to go above that 30%. Having a healthy diversified revenue stream is so very imperative. So giving USA is actually where I paraphrase all of this data from 75%. You want to look at those individual donors. So individual donors, you know, they could be attending events, and so you're receiving that through an event revenue, but they're truly an individual giving by way of the event. You know, partnerships, that's events. So you could have some event revenue. Absolutely. And your monthly pledges. So one of the things that I'm working on with an organization now for their, their been upon model breakfast is to do a five year pledge. So that would be a monthly pledge, you know, an annual pledge. And so really looking at your overall operating budget Jaylene and finding out where have, where have, you know, all of the funding previously come from that will help you to track and analyze you And so my dear friend Sasha Lewis at moves management talks about pulling up a pivot table and that this data is in your donor database. And so you're able to pull this data, I would say go back five years and typically I would say three Jaylene, but I'm going with five because And so that's really been, you know, the, the most recent change and you really just want to right size your ship so that you don't have all of your eggs in one basket. So the phrase goes, you really want to have that spread out through a variety of different streams. But you know, it's so interesting to me, Jared, we get this question a lot to you specifically. And I think it was not too long ago, we had somebody right in and I think we put it up. It was like, please have Jared, repeat this because I repeated it and no one believed it. So we went to happen. I think that was the grant award rate. Yeah, they were like, we don't. I needed this from the nonprofit show and everybody in the room was like, yeah, that's not right. Well, when in doubt, you know, when it's multiple choice when in doubt pick C and this case pick 30% when in doubt pick 30%. I love it. I love it. Hey, we have a question that's actually come in live. And so I want to go ahead and read it because it's really an interesting question. It comes from anonymous. So I don't know what their first name is and I don't know what community they are, but they write my organization would like our funders to put the dollar support where their JDI rhetoric is. As such, we want to add a line item on every budget proposal to ask for funds towards our JDI activities. It would range from five to 10% of the direct costs of the budget request. That's a big number. Do you think this will fly or do we just tuck it in somewhere and let the request fly under the radar? That is interesting. Fascinating. So anonymous, I always vote for transparency, and I would share very honestly where that goes. And I think you will actually find that the corporate supporters, sponsors, partners that you're working with, depending on their JDI, which for those of you that are wondering, what is this term you're talking about? Justice, equity, diversity, inclusion. So that's JDI. And so really looking at this as a way to facilitate more conversations, more training, more access and equity. I think it's brilliant. I love the concept and I would vote for the transparency. I know that this is something, this is a pillar and core value for you and your mission, the organization at large, and that this is what you're doing moving forward. I think that's really important. And I commend you for this. I would love to hear how this goes, because this could be a best practice that is just being piloted. And so anonymous, if you're willing to message us, I truly would love to hear more about this initiative. I'd love to see your proposal, and I'd love to see the response to this. What do you say, Julia? You know, I don't agree of adding this to other programming as a budget item, because I think it could be perilous to the bigger picture, because funders and grantors have very strict things that they're like, yeah, we don't fund that. However, what I see this as a main effort in promoting this concept with your organization to what Jared is saying, go ahead and put this in your programming and make this commitment because there's funding out there for this specific issue that I think that you can then pull into your organization to not only train your team, your board, but your clients, your community. I mean, that's solving a problem that I think you can get funding for. And I agree, flying it under the radar, it's not a good way to go. I think you've got to be forward thinking on this. And to your point, Jared, you know, I love the idea of maybe being one of those forward voices in your community that says, yeah, we're going to do this, and we're going to challenge other nonprofits in our community. We don't care what they're doing to do the same thing, to put this in their budget and say, look, let's, let's elevate ourselves, our community and our sector by addressing this. I'm really curious. So I do hope that you'll reach out to us separately or altogether, but separate of the show. No, I do too. I mean, anonymous and non, I would like to know what happens. And you know, it must be a raving fan because they know how much you love anonymous Julia. Oh my God, that's hilarious. That's true. I live for that. We haven't had one yet this show. So thank you. Live audience member. Love it. Okay, let's get another question in. This comes to us from Amanda in Miami, Florida. It says our event committee is addressing, that's a great word, is obsessing over swag bags for an upcoming gala. Okay, things are coming back if we're talking about this. Tickets will be 500 per couple, some on our committee don't believe we need them. Others think it is a deal breaker if we don't. Can you weigh in on this? Oh gosh, swag bags, you know, I think it really depends. I like to get these donated. So if you can get your swag donated by your sponsors, fantastic. I've been to so many events where, you know, if it's, you know, women empowerment, then they will have products that are, you know, specific for women, whether it's care products or, you know, skin products and I and I love that swag. Fantastic. I've even received, you know, like a $50 coupon or a card, if you will, to go and get, you know, like a deep conditioned and blowout and you better believe it Amanda. I used it and I loved it. I don't like for the organization per se to spend the money on these items. I like to build it into that sponsorship so that our companies and our partners are providing the swag, if you will. And there's so much out there that I think is great but do consider your audience, right, really consider your audience because the last thing you want is to give swag that people are like, Oh, here's more landfill items, you know. And that's, that's where I kind of draw the line. But tickets $500 per couple that's 250 each. I don't think that's out of the realm of like your average ticket price because I do think in our community Julia like this is a very average ticket price. Yeah. Yeah, there are a lot higher than this. I agree. I think there's something that says to, I think you need to have that underwritten, undoubtedly, because I think that's, you know, that's just a basic common sense thing. But I think that you need to make it realistic, you know, I don't need another emergency sewing kit with an insurance company's name on it. I don't need another bottle. Well, I mean, you know, there are a lot of things that I think are just overdone. So I think it's, it's more clever to do something different. I've seen like after dinner mints, you know, like cupcakes or cookies or like a dessert kind of thing. And it's a takeaway for that. I think you need to be very careful about using any alcohol, you know, issues. I know for a lot of organizations in our community, there was a period of time where they were getting wine or spirits donated and then that would, you know, leave with the guests. I think that that can be a little bit problematic. But yeah, I think you need to have something that aligns with your mission. You know, I think that's really, really important. And I think you need to be thoughtful because again, the landfill aspect of this is ridiculous. There's so much crapola that goes into the swag bags. It's just ridiculous. So, and I would think of cause marketing, you know, one of our one of our guests came at Donald with charity charms this would be a great opportunity to incorporate a branded logo opportunity in the swag bags and something like that like charity charms would be a fantastic item. There's key change there's cuff links there's, you know, necklace pendants, there's all kinds of opportunities to consider. Yeah, I agree. I think you can be. I think your, your committee needs to think a little bit outside the box, especially since we haven't been together. Yes, let's take out water bottles, mask and sanitizer because I think we all have a stockpile of that right now. Oh my God, it's like so true. It's sorry for those of you that have already ordered that. I know. Well, hey, you know, our time is up. I want you to know that anonymous did message us back. And so thank you so much. I will certainly reach out to you. Thank you. And we're here to help always so however we can be of service, please do reach out to us. Thank you. Yeah, absolutely. I mean that that's just super exciting. Again everybody I'm Julia Patrick, CEO of the American nonprofit Academy. I've been joined today by the nonprofit nerd herself. My nonprofit nerd, your nonprofit nerd, the nonprofit nerd, Jared Ransom. As always, we want to express our gratitude to all of our presenting sponsors, Bloomerang, your part time controller, American nonprofit Academy, nonprofit nerd, Fundraising Academy, Academy, Staffing Boutique and nonprofit thought leader. These are the folks that help us come on air every day. And we do come on there every day so without their support we would not be here. Absolutely. It's so much fun you know when I take a couple of days off I know I need it for self care but I have to be honest Julia. I miss our conversations. I really do and you would think that I would like you know not do my hair and makeup that day and really just you know, take advantage but then I find myself going. I wonder what was said on the nonprofit show today. What did I miss. It was that it's that FOMO right that fear of missing out. It's really true. It's really true. I mean, I had to take a significant amount of time off, you know, a couple weeks recently and I drug myself out of bed and turned on the archives that I watch through Roku. Because I was like, what did they say? What did I miss? So it's kind of funny. Well, you know what, another wonderful week. Thank you so much for being part of the nonprofit show. And as we end every episode, we want to remind ourselves and everyone out there in our communities, stay well. So you can do well. We'll see you back here next week everyone. Thank you, Jerry. Thanks, Julia.