 the show today with some reflections about what happened, what you did, what you recognized. I don't even know how many questions we'll get to today, but I really want to take this opportunity. It was amazing that you represented the nonprofit show, but also you really represented an entire sector who has not been out. And so I'm so excited to hear what you thought, I mean, from all aspects of it. So I'm really excited to learn. Well, good. I am jazzed. I'm still buzzing from it. You know, my body is saying, slow down, take a chill pill, because as you might hear, my voice doesn't sound the way it typically does. But it was powerful. Not only did I see people from our local community, Julia, but so many national thought leaders that we've connected with, of course, you know, here, and we haven't been able to connect in real life or IRL, the swag on point. I mean, it was amazing. Candid was one of my favorite, of course, you know, that used to be, oh gosh, help me. Yeah, I know. Gosh, why am I watching? Anyway, so they gave me a wine tumbler. And that was really good. Well, let's get started. Hey, everybody. Welcome to another episode of Friday. This is going to be a really special Friday for us. I mean, all Fridays are good, you got to admit. But we're really excited because we sent Jared Ransom, the nonprofit nerd and cohost of the nonprofit show, to the AFP conference. And so we want to hear all about that and get her feedback. And first and foremost, I want to thank Fundraising Academy. They are our exclusive exclusive sponsor for Friday Ask and Answer. And how cool is this? You got to meet them all. We have never really met them. Four of them. It was amazing, the Fundraising Academy team. So so grateful to see all of them. I was about all y'all. I was just in Georgia for a family reunion. So I'm not quite sure where I am and what my language is today. You've been like on a terror. Well, the thing that I told the Fundraising Academy people, I'm like, now when you meet Jared Ransom, you're going to really be shocked because she's a super tall girl. And they were all like, oh my God, you're all short. That's what they told me. Yeah. Although Jack Lotto called me out. He's like, you're not that tall. And I said, well, I don't have heels on. So but I was, I was still taller. I'm sure you were. I'm sure you were. Well, it was really cool. Well, again, if you don't know who we are, hopefully you do. I'm Julia Patrick, CEO of American Nonprofit Academy. Been joined today by my intrepid, world-traveling suitcase totem, Jared Ransom, the non-profit nerd, also CEO of the Raven Group. Hey, we want to thank all of our presenting sponsors, which most of these folks we saw at AFP, which was super cool, Blumerang, your part-time controller, Fundraising Academy, Nonprofit Nerd, American Nonprofit Academy, Staffing Boutique, Nonprofit Thought Leader, and the Nonprofit Atlas. Okay, again, if you miss any of our shows, now we've been doing this, we're in our third year, you can go back on Roku, YouTube, Amazon Fire TV, and Vimeo, and get up to speed. This is a really cool thing that our executive producer, Kevin Pace, has done because maybe there's a point in your life where you're like, wow, you need to learn more about this, and I need to research this. You can go through these platforms and really get up to speed on a lot of things. So super cool. And then our podcast, which is going strong, blowing it up, check us out and queue us up. Okay, my friend, now you did something really brave, really cool. Talk to us first what AFP Icon is, and what happened? So AFP Icon is the world's largest fundraising conference. It's an annual conference, it travels, next year is going to be in New Orleans, so they already announced that, and that will take place. A little insight, Bloomerang has also said, see you back here next year in our booth, and I said, count me in, I'll be there for all days, not just two, and really looking forward to that. So tons of exhibitors, tons of speakers, tons of resources, they also, like us with the American Nonprofit Academy, they had in real life a book club suite, so they set up tables of all types of books, not just fundraising, but really a great opportunity. They were doing the flat rate ship boxes, you could stuff as many in there as you wanted, and then ship them home so you didn't have to pack them. It was brilliant. So I took a photo of that. It was really, really great. So you saw many of the books that we've had the guest on the show, and that was really cool to see, plus some new books that I hadn't heard of yet, so that was exciting. Speakers, top-notch speakers, truly, large diversity, equity, inclusion, and topics, and that was a big point of discussion as well, technology, technology, technology, and I've really coined this to this being the conference to say, this was a technology-first fundraising-focused conference. Oh, let me back up just a minute here. To paint the picture and set the stage, you were actually broadcasting from one of our sponsors, Booth, Blumerang, and if any of you have ever been involved in conference services, you know that literally every square inch is crazy expensive and has to be well managed, because it's a huge investment. Blumerang is one of those technology companies, right, Jared? I mean, first and foremost, so they had you in their booth. What did you see where people like, yeah, I know Blumerang or I know the product or I don't know the technology? How did that work? Definitely people knew Blumerang. They of course had their brand new logo, which you can see on the screen here. It's a newer version, so a new brand. Their showroom was impeccable. It was designed in a way to be casual, inviting, couches. They also had a backdrop for photos, hashtag spread joy, and so it really attracted a lot of people. But the main thing I saw Julia was the camaraderie within the colleagues, and I'm not talking Blumerang solo. I'm talking one cause, when spire, donor perfect, candid, Salesforce, virtuous, so many QGIVs, so many of these technology organizations truly being together as like comrades, you know? And so that I loved and Blumerang is truly like just the epitome of this. They do such a fantastic job of customer service, customer focused, relationship centric. There's really no competition, I would say, in the way of Blumerang in particular, and they really just like spread that energy, which is really cool. So a lot of connection from collaborators. So when you were meeting with different people, both exhibitors and both fundraising professionals that traveled from all over the world, what were you hearing them say? I mean, like what was their tenor? I mean, being that this, for a lot of these folks, probably the first time they've traveled in two years, being away from their families more than two years, I gotta believe there were a lot of families that put pressure on them that said, we don't want you going out or we don't want you, you know, engaging in this. How did this kind of play out? You know, there were families there. I also took my significant other who loves Vegas, so he had a great time. So I did hear that there were families either in the front, the end, or kind of throughout the event, you know, enjoying Vegas, enjoying some evenings or some mornings together, some great buffets or some shows. But I also really saw, you know, so many people, and again, this is reiterating what we said live is really just being in person, being in person made such a difference. Grabbing a coffee in person was like mind blowing, as you would say, hair on fire moment. So that was really spectacular. You know, just really seeing the connection of people. One thing I shared in the green room chatter is, you know, I asked several people for their business cards, and I heard from several people, are we still doing that? Are we still doing business cards? So tell us about that. Let's expand a little bit upon that. You know, how were people sharing your information and their contact information? Well, I myself took a boatload of my glasses, and I was sprinkling them like I was someone's flower girl in a wedding, honestly, plus my stickers, because I've had these beautiful things for a couple of years from, you know, when I would do in person events and speaking and seeing, and I was like, I want to give them, and people were receptive, of course, they would put them on, we would take photos, and just a really, really good time. Sticker frenzy, I think Lisa Frank, that might date me, but Lisa Frank was a phenomenal sticker book and sticker, you know, aficionado. Stickers everywhere. So that was also kind of your calling card, your business card, if you will. But the other way for connecting was LinkedIn. And so LinkedIn for nonprofits was there. And as I mentioned earlier, they had a phenomenal booth, also very, you know, very large investment in the conference and the sector and for all of us. They were doing headshots, but not only headshots, they were sending them to you. So you could use them however you wish, right? You could have as many of them as you desire. But really with LinkedIn, they were teaching people how to scan and use the QR that is built in to the LinkedIn app. And that was really serving the purpose. If you didn't have a business card, or you ran out, because a lot of people ran out as well. Sure, sure. Something else I'd love for you to address, because I think this is an idea that we could be using at events and our own communities. And I thought it was genius. Share with us how AFP and in their registration process, let all the participants indicate what they were comfortable with in terms of the human element. Sure, I had never heard of this. I thought this was so cool. Yes. So, you know, of course, we had the lanyard sponsored by Salesforce. Then we had the badge with the QR code on the badge. They had an app. So the AFP icon event had an app. This was interesting, Julia. There was no virtual attendance. So this was only in person, no virtual. So to see the recordings, because they were recorded, you had to register as an attendee. So it doesn't mean you had to attend, but you had to register as an attendee. And then you could still see the plethora of presentations. But the ribbons that were laid out at the registration table, so not only did they check your COVID vaccinations, they did. They had a COVID check-in. And, you know, they had signs, if you're not feeling well, please do not enter. But they had ribbons that you can stick onto the bottom of your badge that says, handshakes only, social distance, fist bump, elbows, you know, things like that. I joked and said, where's the one that says, go all in. I want the hugs. Because we were hugging. We were certainly hugging. Some were kissing. You know, the good old, good to see you. So they had that. They had first-timer badges. They had speaker badges. They had, you know, exhibitor badges. And again, what I'm saying badges is really that ribbon. And so you could have trains of those, of course, under your badge. So that was really cool. They were different colors. So you can spot easily in this visual representation how this person wants to be interacted with. You know, Jared, I think that's fascinating is for so many of us that are now going back into the event process and, you know, committees and folks that are watching us. That really could be something that would be a great and inexpensive thing to do, but could help build, you know, comfort and responsibility. Absolutely. You know, they're not that expensive. You go online, look for these ribbons. So as you're looking to have an event in person, you might want to consider these ribbons to really help to identify how people can engage and interact at their level of comfort. I think that's just fascinating. Now, I warned our viewers, you know, chances are we're not going to answer a lot of questions today. I mean, I have a lot of questions to discuss, but one of the things that I noticed, and I stayed behind in the studio, you were doing the remote and the folks that we had on, and by the way, you did an amazing job, because there's so much going on. Oh, my gosh, Julia, they were crowding. They were crowding so much so that the Bloomerang booth was like, no, no, no, you can't go talk to her. She's on air. No, no, no, don't step in the camera frame. But I do think that Bloomerang loved that energy because it really drew in the people. But I just wanted to mention that because it was fascinating. I could tell that people were like lined up to watch you because I could tell how hard you were trying to still be present with the camera, but yeah, see who was going on and then bringing people in and you did a masterful job. I mean, I just, I loved it. And I know that this is hard. But one of the things, Jared, that it seemed like was a surprise and that everybody commented on was the presence of AI, not just to say, oh, technology first, but really leaning into the future of fundraising in a different way than we have ever, ever addressed. I mean, I'd say two years ago, just the concept of digital interaction was a big, big ask for a lot of people. Absolutely. And I was just pulling up the gentleman I mentioned earlier this week, Kirk Schmidt, and he does a lot of AI. He's in Calgary. He's going to join us in July. And so I got a lot of people booked from the conference to be our guest and really, still filling that up. So we've got a lot to look forward to. AI was a huge piece and Kirk was the one that I was mentioning earlier in the live show that if you were just to incrementally invest in AI, you would drastically see the ROI return on investment to the tune of this one case study, $17 million. So AI, artificial intelligence, is really, it's trending. It's coming. It exists already. But really, again, tapping into it and adopting it in our sector is new. And is this dovetailing to the CRMs and the donor management software? Or are these tools that are outside and we have to figure out how to pull them in? What do you see? I think it's both. And I'm still very green in the space. Right along with cryptocurrency, but I ran into our friend Pat Duffy going to an event for Tim Sarantonio. Look at me, big name dropper. We looked up at each other. We were trying to figure out where we're going. And I rarely say this, but it came across. I thought pretty rude, but we made eye contact and I said, who are you? And he goes, Pat Duffy, the giving block. And I was like, that's how I know you. You've been on a couple of times. But so Pat Duffy is really into this Kirk Schmidt that I just mentioned and he'll be a guest on. So AI is not something I'm familiar with much like cryptocurrency, which is why I mentioned our good friend Pat and Alex. So I am looking forward to learning because I will integrate with CRMs. I believe some already have this capability, Julia. And there's other systems that you can integrate. Let me ask you about now. I know you were on the exhibit floor showroom and you know, you were obviously crazy busy dealing with the show and I was so thrilled that and I want to brag about this. You know, the CEO and president of AFP International came and kicked this off at our show, which is Geiger. Thank you. It was like super cool. And I think he loved it. And I know he had his whole team there to be a part of it. And that was just so fun and fabulous. And you did a great job with that. But I'm curious about like the learning track. So many of our participants are professionals, I should say, in our sector go to things like this so that they can get their continuing CE credits, continuing education CE credits, they, you know, they learn new things. What do you think that these folks were interested in? Like what were the classes that really seem to be drawing those participants in? That is a good question. And, you know, this catalog has tons of speakers, opportunities, tracks, sessions, workshops, webinars, not webinars, but you know, rolls off my tongue. There were so many, Julia, I don't think I could say one. Like, you know, you would see a session that might have about 15 people, I would say that was small. And then you have sessions with 1500 people in the main in the main room. And yeah, it really was, you know, to that extent, it's amazing and a little concerning because you can't be at all these places. So you really have to pick. So if you're with a team, right, I remember doing this, you take your team, maybe there's five of you and you say, okay, let's let's divide up, let's delegate and divvy up how we're going to absorb and get the information that we all want to get, bring it back together to kind of this hub center. And I was seeing a lot of that happening. There was a lot of people that were there as groups. And and again, you know, AI was a big one cause selling with Fundraising Academy, they had over 250 people in their workshops that was, you know, addressing objections. So what what do you do when someone says no, that was a really big one. And of course, that happens. So this is the world's largest fundraising conference. And so yeah, and so handling objections, that's a good one. Well, you know, it's really interesting because I've got to believe that the tenor of this conference was so changed because of the pandemic and the pandemics that we talk about. Right. On top of that, there is this major shift in our sector that is changing the way we're doing business. And that's the digital nature thing. So it seems to me, Jared, that you were kind of like in a perfect storm of all these different things coming together that is really, dare I say, historic. Yeah. Yeah, you know, we were broadcasting live. There were other people doing recordings for podcast there in their booths. I was invited by Justin Wheeler to be on Funerals. So so I did what they were doing is like these 15 minute interviews and then smash up. So they'll put four of those together, two, three of those together. So there was a lot happening. I would definitely say it was the epicenter of change. Right. The epicenter of change. I love that. I think that's so powerful. And I also think that it's really a strong indication, and this is my perspective, you know, not being with you except on air, that there seemed to be a willingness or desire to be embracing new ideas and technology. Would you would you say that was true? Yes and no. So it's interesting. I had a conversation here in our local community, Julia, with someone that's very involved with AFP, and they were questioning the fact of are we relevant? Are we still providing the information that our community and sector needs? Right. We talk a lot about not taking risk, and we've talked about this for the last two and a half years. Yeah. We non-profits don't have an abundance of money, of revenue, to make, you know, costly risk. So we become conservative in our efforts of that. And this is honestly the topic that I shared on the podcast with fundraise with Justin Wheeler is about, you know, not having the money to take chances. And there's these so many great opportunities. Justin talked about the LinkedIn crash and how one day an engineer took down LinkedIn, like the entire platform, right? And he thought he, she actually, I'm not sure, they thought that they were going to lose their job. And actually, you know, the CEO and everyone was like, no, we needed this to happen because we need to know how to fix it, right? And so we as non-profits, yeah, we might not be able to take it to that extreme, you know, but for instance, what if we didn't do a gala? You know, that's disruptive because we think, our boards think you absolutely have to have a gala. But do you? Right. Well, it's really a cool thing to talk about the measurement of risk and reward, doing things differently, competing, you know, 1.8 million non-profits in this country registered non-profits. There's a lot of competition for attention all the way through to resources. So it's fascinating to hear these discussions. And I am just delighted, Jared, that you were able to do this. I mean, if you want to, you know, carry that thread of risk, it was a risk for us. We've never done anything like that. We didn't know about the technology at the last minute. I didn't go because we were worried about the technology and working, you know, both of us leaving the studio. I mean, it was a learning time in a lot of ways for so many of us. So I am delighted that you were there, that you were so successful, and that you took some risks. Well, it was well worth it, honestly, the connections, the relationships, being in the epicenter of change. There were so many crystal balls in that conference room, right? There were so many crystal balls of what's happening, what's to come, what not to do anymore. That's so last year fascinating. And so, you know, again, the AFP icon next year will be in New Orleans. They typically, hint, hint, wink, wink, they typically do a promo code that if you want to sign up immediately after this conference, it's a much larger discount. So if you're excited, if I have, you know, enticed you to be there next year, be a part of the energy, please do take a look at AFP Global. Also, they're hiring. So if anyone is looking for, you know, to work with AFP in particular, they're hiring, they shared that with me, Derek, which is the Chief of Staff, and a lot of organizations hiring, Bloomerang, the same. Yeah. Well, what an exciting time to be in the center of the sector that we so, you know, we're so championed this. I mean, it's such a big part of our lives and what we do. And so super cool for you to be there. You know, I warned you and I warned our viewers that we probably wouldn't get to any of the questions because I had so many questions about you, my friend, being at the AFP Icon Awards. Again, I'm Julia Patrick. We've been together today with Jared Ransom, hearing all about her experience and our experience bringing the nonprofit show to you in a live remote. You know, I suspect we're going to be doing this a little bit more and more. So absolutely. Yeah. I was honored, very honored. I'm glad that we took this risk. Thank you to Bloomerang for allowing us to do that. Fundraising Academy, believing in us, all of our sponsors that keep us growing and going in these new innovative, perhaps risky ways. So really looking at that disruption and cannot wait because we have got a lineup to come. I guarantee you so many of these presenters, speakers from AFP Icon, you will see them here on the nonprofit show, The Nation's Only Live Broadcast. Daily Broadcast. Yeah. I mean, it's really empowering for so many of the folks that we work with. I mean, certainly for ourselves, really exciting. And so, Jared, thank you so much. And thank you for sharing your observations. Again, we want to thank all of our presenting sponsors, Bloomerang, your part-time controller, American Nonprofit Academy, Nonprofit Nerd, Fundraising Academy, Staffing Boutique, Nonprofit Thought Leader, and the Nonprofit Atlas. What an amazing week. Sister, you need to rest up. Hey, happy Mother's Day. Hey, thank you. Happy Mother's Day to you. And to all of you listening, however you play that motherly role, I hope that you take some time to celebrate, soak in some love, tell another mother that you love them, and yeah, enjoy your weekend. Absolutely. And as we end every show, we want to remind everyone to stay well, so you can do well. We'll see you back here on Monday. Have a great day.