 Welcome and happy Friday. Thrilled to have you here. Fundraising Academy, which is a cause selling education model. Sponsors our ask and answer as our exclusive sponsor. You're so thrilled to have their investment in the show. Oh, look at me making errors as we go here. Just one second. But if you have not noticed, we have Julia Patrick here, of course. Julia is joining us on a different platform today, so we're both switching roles. But we are honored to have the continued support from all of our presenting sponsors. Those of you that are watching, you can see their logo on the screen. Those of you that might be tuning in and listening, we want to say thank you to Bloomerang, your part-time controller, Fundraising Academy, non-profit nerd, American Non-Profit Academy, Staffing Boutique, non-profit thought leader, and the non-profit Atlas. These companies keep us going and growing. Julia, I don't know if you've looked at our showdeck or our calendar. We are booked through the middle of August, so we have got amazing guests coming on. Thanks to our sponsors. Thanks to AFP Icon. Those of you that might have missed the green room chatter, I was sharing that I'm wearing. This says this is my fundraising shirt, and I picked it up at the AFP icon. Again, I thought, what a great compliment to Fundraising Academy. I love it. Jared, I've got to say, it's been fun to watch you be so jazzed and so excited about this conference that you participated in. You did a lot of heavy lifting for the non-profit show. It was really cool. But it's been really nice to see how this has moved forward. I just want to give you a shout out. Well, hey, I will take it. I received that. Thank you so very much. It has been a lot of fun. As I mentioned, we are booked with guests through about August, but all of our episodes, you can find them on Roku, YouTube, Fire TV, as well as Vimeo. If you're a podcast listener like I am, that's how I start every single morning for myself. You can now tune into the non-profit show on wherever you stream your podcast. Go ahead and cue us on up so that you can put us in your ears, listen to us as you drive, all the good things. Julia, as you know, today is Friday, which means this is our one and only dedicated show each and every week. Thanks to Fundraising Academy, where we reserve the questions of our viewers, our listeners, our followers. They send these question in, and I'm pretty sure we have a Rolodex of them. If anyone still knows what a Rolodex is. And we share them. So with the Rol reversal today, I'm going to start by asking the questions. And Julia, you're going to be in the hot seat first. Oh, okay. Okay. Here we go. So Harold in Brooklyn, New York wants to know, is there a standard contract or form used for fiscal sponsorship agreements? Great question. So is there a standard contractor form? You know, Harold, it's kind of a yes, but so this is the deal. If you are working with an organization that does fiscal sponsorship, let's say it's a community foundation or it's a larger umbrella nonprofit. Sometimes we call those the mother ships. They will have their own standard agreement. And generally it's done as an MOU, a memo of understanding and it lays out things such as what is the percentage they charge because this is not going to be free. And most nonprofit fiscal relationships have a percentages charged coming in and a percentage charged going out. So let me explain that. If somebody makes a donation to your organization and it goes through fiscal sponsorship, it is not uncommon to see something like anywhere on the very low end a 2%, that doesn't happen very often, but probably five to 9% charge of that money that the fiscal agent keeps. And then when you spend that money, you are charged again another five, sometimes as much as 90%. So these things are memorialized. These things are set forth so everybody knows what the working parameters are. So my advice to you is if you're not sure, then find out how long they've been using this document, this MOU and then have it reviewed by an attorney who works in the nonprofit sector. Sharon? Yeah, you can't get no offense, but you can't hire a patent attorney. Patent attorneys, GA team, they're great, but they don't do nonprofit work. Yeah, yeah, great feedback. And ironically, I recently met with a nonprofit attorney who's going to join us and talk about all of the policies that you need to safeguard your organization. But when we look at the fiscal sponsorship, I wish I could find a 2%. Most of the ones I see are anywhere from 7% to 15%. So you're right, that's right there in the standard. There are many, as Julia mentioned, community organizations that provide this fiscal sponsorship. So they provide that umbrella organization, maybe even the fiduciary agents of the board that then oversee the program of your organization under their fiscal umbrella. But there are also some national ones. And we've had a guest on before. It's probably been 18 months or so that talked specifically about, I think his name was Andrew Schulman, about fiscal sponsorship. So take a look into that. That is all really good information to know as you continue to navigate forward. I would absolutely have a contract. I was talking to this non-prominetary about, well, this organization is in partnership, but there's nothing in writing, which means there's really not a formalized partnership. So you wanna make sure that you absolutely have that. Yeah. Yeah, it's really serious. And especially because there are costs associated with administrating grant, not just the programming part, but the administration of how the funding is coming in and going out, there's some really dicey things. And so it's best to, even if you have to take a step back and kind of say, okay, we're gonna think about this and look into it before we actually receive the money into under this fiscal sponsorship. Because once it goes in, then the machine starts working away and you can't really make a correction. So get that agreement upfront and make sure you understand it, Harold. Make sure you understand it. Yeah, yeah, great, great feedback. And Harold, best of luck. Nancy from New York, New York. New York question. We are starting up a new nonprofit in our community that supports animal welfare. I am also new to the nonprofit sector and have been told that funders will not support new organizations. Generally they want us to be in operation for three years. Is this true? Yeah, I mean, I would say absolutely. And you know, it's funny, Jared, because to me, this tags really well to that very first question with the fiscal sponsorship because I have seen organizations that go under an umbrella of another organization where they're fiscally sponsored. And then even though I think it's a little controversial, they can tag into the longevity or history or period of service of that umbrella organization. You stole my thunder. Ah, sorry. That's what I was going to say, absolutely. And I'm actually refrained from saying it earlier, which I'm not sure why. Maybe my intuition stepped in and said, hold off on that additional response. I actually do advise that, Julia, that if there's an organization, because so many new founders think that grant writing is your solution to all your money worries and it's not. In fact, funders will not fund you until you have those first three years under your belt, you have evaluation metrics, you have success, you have continuity, you have a rapport and reputation in the community, you've made connections. So for that three-year four-year mark, I actually do advise that you work under a fiscal sponsorship because most founders start an organization like an Animal Welfare Fair or truly any piece within the sector out of pure passion, pure passion and not as much of the business knowledge or the hindsight of the fiduciary agents of the board. So take advantage of that, learn from these organizations, partner with their other fiscal sponsors, see how they are working, what's working for them, learn from others in your peer. I still think often of Rita Soranen, which is a phenomenal wise, wise woman with the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption and she is a key leader in that organization and she is key advocate for collaboration and sharing in dialogue. And so I think it's a wonderful opportunity but I would absolutely say, Nancy, you really do want to connect with other organizations, strengthen your base so that when it becomes four years, five years and maybe you're separate, you have all the good roads and evaluation to share with the community and these funders that you mean business. Right, you know, Jared, I'm gonna share something with you that might seem a little bizarre, but when I started the American Nonprofit Academy, you know, back in the day, I created the logo and I created it out of red for passion because that's exactly what I saw. I saw these nonprofit leaders that had so much passion and they were just so committed and then they thought things were black and white. You know, I'm a good leader, I have a great mission, everybody's gonna fund me, but very quickly they learned that there was a murkiness and a gray and that's why there's a very faint gray band around our logo because things are not black and white and you can't run just on passion, you can't just run on that red. You've got to take the passion, the black and the white, the red and you've got to take the gray and pull it all together. And I kind of feel like that's what these three years do. They help create a tenor and they kind of give you a patina to understand what it is that you need to be doing beyond your passion. Right, right. It's hard. It's really- That's beautiful talking about your logo. I've never heard that and I think that's fascinating. So thanks for sharing that. The other thing I wanna share with Nancy is to make sure you do some research in your community. There are many animal welfare organizations and maybe instead of starting a new one, I admire you for that and having that passion that runs so red. But take a look at your other welfare communities. Find out if there's a way you can serve within what currently exists to strengthen your community at large. So before you jump through Hoops, I would actually encourage you to talk to as many other organizations in your community to find out how you might partner and band together. Yeah, thank you for saying that. I think that's really important and it was something we don't, I think we talk about this in the sector but we don't necessarily encourage it enough because it seems like we're, you know, kind of trying to bring somebody down. Well, I don't like Nancy, but there's a lot of work that goes into it. It is, yeah, a lot of work. Yeah, absolutely. So best of luck, Nancy, truly. Able, Fort Worth, Texas. Do you think it is essential to only vote new board members on who have previous board experience? Our nomination committee is thinking about setting this up as a requirement for any new board members. Wow. Okay, Julia, what say you? You know, so I would say, I would have said this person's name is Abel, but I don't know. So Abel Abel, I would say to you that the guiding light for this question is predicated upon the knowledge that we have, that there are 1.8 million registered, that's only the legit nonprofits in our country. And if each one of those nonprofits have a minimum of eight to 10 board members, hey, you, that's a lot of folks. And these are people that are volunteering and they're doing this work pro bono after, you know, a long day at the office or on the job with their families, giving up time for their faith, their hobbies, everything else that we know. So it's tough. And I think while it might look like, wow, that's great. We wanna have only the best educated, trained up, ready to go day one board members. I don't know how realistic that is. And so, you know, for me, Jared, and I don't know what you think, but I feel like that could just be a constraint on an organization that ultimately harms them in their development of new board members. Well, I immediately think about what about diversity, equity, inclusion, and access? How are we engaging a young demographic, a marginalized community? How are we bringing these individuals with us, right? And that's our responsibility with privilege that I have as being a white woman. That is my responsibility. And there are so many ways in how you can build and strengthen your board. One way I love for this is really to create like a young advisory council. You don't have to use the word young, but it could be young in age, young in career, young in tenure, young in the nonprofit sector, young in your local community. Use that group, coach them, mentor them, work with them so that they run a similar board within your organization, and then you can move when it's time, you know, for particular board development, you can move those individuals, but you're strengthening them and you're investing in your community and you're investing in these marginalized communities as well. That's my first thought. That is my first thought. There's so many organizations out there. YNPN is one of my favorite. That stands for Young Nonprofit Professional Network. It is national organization. So your community in Fort Worth, Texas probably has a local YNPN. Highly recommend you look into this organization because they are doing exactly this. They are developing, educating, and investing in our young nonprofit leaders. So I really think that's our onus. We have to see it as our responsibility. I love what you said, and I think it's a mindset of cultivation. You know, it's not just like who's the warm body that we can get in and get going in and have them fundraise for us to write checks or whatever. We have to be looking out. You know, a lot of times we talk about that 10 to 10, 10 rule. How do your decisions impact the next 10 weeks, 10 months, and 10 years? And this is one of those areas. Making a hardline decision that might seem like it's gonna have long-term benefits. I don't know, Abel. I think you've gotta not go on that path. Yeah. I would encourage your nomination committee to think differently. Yeah, absolutely. Name withheld, so the word is out, Julia. The community knows how much you love this. So from Omaha, Nebraska, name withheld writes in, how do I get a handle on our nonprofit's donor database? I am new to the development team and I do not trust the data. I could use some ideas on how to test what information we have. Wow, you know, Jared, you have to take the lead on this, because I think you know a lot about this, but first and foremost, I think it's really powerful to use that phrase, trust the data. Yeah. I mean, to me, Jared, talk about mindset. That's something that you gotta get behind. Well, it's data in, data out, clean data in, clean data out. And so it's really important what has been put into your database. I am very protective of anyone's database. I don't want everyone and their brother, their sister, their aunt, their uncle to have access to it. And so to really keep that clean data, one of the things I would ask you to do name withheld is to truly run some queries and reports based off of donor segmentation. Who are your top 100 donors? Do a quality control, check with the board, the CEO, whomever you think might know some of these individuals and really identify, you know, get some notes written down. You might have to hand write them. You might have to type them into a document. Really just go through and quality control, check some of these key points of your donors. And I would do that at various different levels. Your monthly donors, your lapsed donors, right? Your recurring donors, and really do this for foundations and not just individuals, corporations, everyone. Do a spot check, you know, also feel free to call these individuals, not all of them because you won't have time, but call some of them. Ask them for their origin story within the organization. What brought you to X, Y, and Z organization? I would love to hear your story and hear it straight from the horse's mouth. And that is really, really important. So those are just a few things that I think you can do to truly spot check and maybe even, you know, elevate the donor information that may currently reside in your CRM. I'm sure Bloomerang has some great tips on this as well, being a donor database themselves because they integrate, you know, other databases. If you have been with a previous donor database, you want to migrate into another one. Bloomerang does this all day long and they might have some insight as well. That's my two cents, Julia. What about you? You know, I love what you said because it seems to me the bigger picture is actually use it and work it and see. And I love drill it down to what's actually going on. The other thing that I would do, name with help is I would march to the front of the line with whoever your provider is and say, look, I don't trust this data. What do you recommend given how you have, you know, manufactured this platform? I'm assuming they have a platform. I mean, if you're just working off a spreadsheet, then that's, you know, something else. But if you have some sort of software that you've invested in, start with them because a lot of times they can look at your, you know, work and say, well, first of all, we see some of these issues and you can automatically clean things up by doing this, this or that. So I would start in that way. And I also think too, a lot of times that we hear from development teams, Jared, that it seems to me they don't really understand how the software works. And so they get frustrated and they're like, well, this is just ridiculous. This is a bad product. We gotta get a new product versus saying, okay, how is it that we can be working with this product in a more efficient manner and, you know, make it work? And if it doesn't, then it doesn't, you have to move on to, you know, the marketplace. But it seems to me, you know, understand how this software is working for you. Because as we know, Jared, you know, there's so many different levels. You know, you start small and as it grows and then you add in the number of people that are coming and going and, you know, manipulating this data, you start it out without great praise and that is protect the number of people that engage with this incredible resource. You know, you don't want everybody going in there. You know, absolutely. And it brings to mind, and we've talked on this before in previous episodes, that the longevity of a development professional is 16 to 19 months. So that, this person should be in the database. They should be in it all day long. It should be one of the, one of the windows that is open on their computer every single weekday. And so just think of that natural turnover, you know, 16 to 19 months, that is a pattern named withheld that you really want to make sure, you know, that you clean up. And so I've done this where I sat down with a CEO and some of the board members and I said, okay, I have 25 names I'm going to go through right now. What can you tell me about these people? I captured it, I put it into the database and then the next week I did 25 board, right? And it was from that top 100 list. It's a lot of work, but it is so worth it. Yeah, that's a great strategy because, you know, if you identify that this is what you're going to do, everybody get on board. Jared, I think that's a great, great, great suggestion. I say this all the time, put it in the database, put it in the database, you know? Oh, I had a meeting with so-and-so, put it in the database. It has got to be in there. Maybe that's what my next t-shirt will say, put it in the database. That would be, I love that. And we don't have much time here, but we do want to address Devanda's question also from New York, New York. How long is the average maternity leave? I am thinking that our nonprofit would look more appealing to prospective candidates if we extended our leave. We currently offer six paid weeks. If they want to extend this, the pay rate drops per week. We are also looking at adding paternity leave as well. Interesting. Yeah, you know, I don't know, Jared, what you think, but to me, this is more of an East Coast discussion. It seems like East Coast nonprofits are leaning in more to paternity leave. That's great. We're not seeing that as much in the West. And I think that's something we need to change. But wow, really interesting how you've got that six weeks that's protected, and then as you go or if you need, that you then shift that. One thing, and you mentioned the brilliant Rita Sornin. She said to us that they are working really hard to get a national recognition of maternity and paternity leave for adoptive families because that does not exist. And so imagine that, imagine a family that is blended with an infant, a toddler, even a foster child. Yeah, this is a critical time. And so I love that you're also looking at this as a way to be more attractive to the marketplace. You know, I'm gonna say this is a great HR question. My son is 11 now. I had six weeks and I was in South Carolina. So that's probably the most recent of what Julia can share with you about her own maternity leave. But yeah, you know. So I'm so glad that you are looking at paternity as well. I also, as Julia said, wanna echo the foster care leave that that's really, really important. And I would say this is a great HR question, but it also speaks to Vonda truly to retaining your talent, not only to just attracting your talent, but retaining. So really great question. I love it. I love it. You know, every Friday I can't wait to see what comes in. I think that it really shows some intellect and some strategic thinking by the questions that we get, Jared. Super cool. Yeah, and you know, we've watched this since March of 2020, the shift of the questions, how the dialogue changes, you know, all from, how do we go to Zoom and oh, by the way, can you see me on the nonprofit show because I'm still in my pajamas and my bunny slippers, right, to now maternity paternity leave to attract that rock star talent in the workforce that is so desperately needed right now in our community across the nation. Across the nation. Yeah, absolutely. Really important. It's good stuff, good stuff. Yeah, thanks for all of you joining us here today. You know, it is a fryer dedicated to our ask and answer. So thank you, Julia, for nerding out with me. It's always a pleasure. Thank you also to Bloomerang, your part-time controller, fundraising academy, nonprofit nerd, American nonprofit academy, staffing boutique, nonprofit thought leader, and the nonprofit Atlas. These companies let us nerd out Monday through Friday. We are the only nations live nonprofit webcast dedicated to you and your mission right alongside these sponsors. So thank you for being here, Julia. I'll let you take us out because it's the fryer and we have two days to enjoy and relax in the sunshine. That's right. And as we like to end every episode, we wanna remind you, our viewers and our listeners, as well as ourselves, stay well. You can do well. We'll see you back here on Monday, everyone.