 Welcome, let me start by saying that thank you for joining us today for another episode of the nonprofit show today as a masterclass with Julia Patrick CEO of the American nonprofit Academy. I'm Jared Ransom, Julia's nerd her favorite nonprofit nerd, but I'm also your nonprofit nerd CEO of the Raven group. And again, we are so extremely grateful to have our presenting sponsors join us today and each and every day. If you have not checked these companies out you will want to do that, although I like to remind you, don't do it now, but you will have about 29 minutes and you can do it in 29 minutes. So, smart. So thank you to our presenting sponsors that keep us moving along in this constant change that we are living in. So, again, please do make sure that you look into these companies because they can help you move your mission driven goals forward. Just as today's masterclass can do for those of you that have joined us and maybe you are a raving fan and you come back and listen to a lot of our episodes you will know that Julia and I on occasion, do you take some of the episodes and really share and deliver our area of expertise and that's exactly what Julia Patrick CEO of the American nonprofit Academy is doing with us today so thank you Julia. This is when I like to say we want to like unzip your brain and just juggle it all out because we really need what's up there and your many years of experience in the sector so thank you for for sharing your expertise with us. Thank you. You know it's a lot of fun. I want to say thank you for letting me have the second annual post Thanksgiving, ask an answered some of our segment with my daughter on Friday, which was really a lot of fun so I hope you all were able to show to share in that, because it was a really great opportunity to get that perspective you know Jared and I are 20 years apart from Jared to Kamlee that's another 20 years. And so it was really interesting to get some perspectives on that so, but I'm back to talk about media, how to finish strong for the year and this is super, super critical. Jared, what's the percentage of revenue that gets raised. So 30% at the end of q for, but now we're coming up honestly on the final month. So December and that percent in December is 13%. What is fundraising dollars coming in, and that 13% is of your operating budget. So nationally and statistically 30% of your operating dollars are raised in the fourth quarter of every year, and 13% is actually raised in the final month. So this is why I asked you that question, because if you understand that for your nonprofit. This needs to be one of your goals, why are we trying to attract attention. Why are we trying to get the media to pay attention to us, our donors are potential our funders. This is why we need to understand what our year and goals are for those of you across this country, who might have a state tax credit situation going on. I know that in our state we have, we have three now right. I think there's five, but I know, but the big ones are really those three three so we have nonprofit 501 C three we have education, and we then we have the foster care adoption segment. This is a huge opportunity because this is when people are thinking about these things on top of everything else. So understanding your goals tip number one, you got to take a deep breath got to talk to the other people in your organization, breathe, breathe out. Okay, now that makes me fall asleep. I was one deep breath. Pardon me, you know it's really important because that will frame all of the rest of your decisions. So then tip number two. Who are you a yammer into right knowing that audience right. Yeah, knowing the audience and you know Jared I think that's one of the things that we see that a lot from the viewers. There's a lot of questions as well as the guests that come on the nonprofit show. You know who are you trying to talk to. Are you talking to your donor investors are you talking to your funders. Are you talking to people that impact policy. Right. And this is a big issue and we forget that. I know what I hear often Julia and I'd love for you to share with us how we might be able to just segment this differently is we often take what we think is the easy road and we talk to the masses right we create our narrative our language for everyone. You know, we put everyone in the Coliseum and that's who we're talking to, but that's not what tip number two really is asking us to do. No, and so let's drill down a little bit if you're just trying to look at the media. This is a really important thing because you know during the holidays the media and especially these holidays. The media is deluged with super negative business, and that they have to cover. And if you think about a lot of media outlets, especially which talk about broadcast media. You know there's always a reason why they end their their 30 minute episode with the squirrel water scheme right. They got to end with something happy and fun and not just like a complete negative experience so that it leads you into that evening programming. Long story short, our nonprofits can be doing that. We can be talking about the great things that we're doing that dovetails to our media outlets. So for example, maybe you have a media outlet that's made a commitment to a certain supporting a certain type of philanthropy, maybe it's women and children, maybe it's the homeless situations within your community. Who knows but you can tag what your mission vision and values are to media outlets. It's not that hard, you can do it. And so that's why it's really important to understand who you're talking to. And then from there, you can share that same work to these other segments just exactly like you talked about Jared. But I think sometimes we forget it's okay to let a few things go in terms of telling the whole story to everybody in favor of narrow casting narrow casting, and that is a good thing. So tomorrow is giving Tuesday, and that is a national philanthropic day across clearly our nation. And so looking at our messaging for that Julia, I'm wondering if this is an opportunity to utilize you know your tips for today I think you have five tips when it comes to your storytelling. Is this something that we can use immediately into, you know, media conversations or, you know, even, even print media. So I would say you thought about this in June. Yes, right now it's too late. And there's another concept I want you to remember this, this word evergreen. When you create pieces for media to use yourself to reuse and repost which we'll talk about. You want it to be something that you can use again and a lot of times I'll talk about this in terms of just the weather. So doing something that is like super. Let's say everybody's dressed in coats and jackets and scarves that footage, those pictures, those messages whether they be online with it. I'm broadcasting media print media. Those aren't going to translate and they're not going to get used but if you can do things that are a little bit more evergreen meaning you can't really tell what season it is or when these images were taken. And they will get reused. Yeah. Okay, so for those of you. This is a great episode to prepare you for next giving Tuesday. I think so but now let's talk before we move on to tip number three. You know, you can do this as a follow up, giving Tuesday is a bigger deal in some communities, other over others, and it's also a bigger deal within the nine main sectors that we have within the nonprofit and it's not all the same. True. Yeah, that you know that's true and again some states have their own giving day. And so this is applicable for that as well. I love the evergreen tip that is something that is really, you know, important because we're all of course, you know, masters of our want to be masters of how we manage our finances. We want to create an evergreen product, you know that has content that will be usable in other seasons and times throughout the year that makes it that makes it, you know, way more valuable and reusable which I know we're going to talk about soon. Let's dive into how might we target our storytelling so there's a lot I'm sure that our organizations want to say and have to say, but how might we think about this when we need to target what we want to say. So, this is one of those things that I want you to maybe rethink about what targeting means. A lot of times we're like, we want to target within our demographics, our sectors of donors investors, policymakers community leaders, all of those things. I'm just saying what happens if you retarget the story to what it is it's going on. So for example, rather than we need money we need money we need money you can say, yeah, we need investment because we're going to build this new building and when we build this new building we're going to be able to take care of all these service sectors. And when we build this building, we're going to put money back out into our own community and we're going to actually be part of the economic engine of our community. And when we build this building, we're going to actually create a better environment and raise the values in our neighborhood I mean you can see where I'm going. When we target the storytelling, I think it's much more impactful. We have 1.8 million nonprofits in this nation, all telling their stories. That's a lot of noise. That's a lot of noise. So now target down, I think it's more intelligent. Now I have a curveball, you know we do the store I guess so it's only fair that I get to do it to you Julia. Okay, but I'm curious and I don't mean to take this as a Debbie down there. I know but let's let's say it's the summer and in the summer that's typically when we see drownings increase right so again negative and I apologize. Is this an opportunity if we offer, you know, swim lessons or we offer fencing or we offer, you know, water advocacy. Is this an opportunity to pitch the media knowing that the summer season is coming increase of water activity is that a target. Look, listen to what you just said, you're offering a solution. Yes. Right. So you've identified the problem, which is tragic and for those of us that live in the West, it is a real present danger. The main thing of it is is that you just offered solutions. And that is the magic of what the nonprofit sector can do. And the media loves that the media loves that that's a really positive thing so absolutely because it goes beyond just, you know, woe is me we need the kiss or cry we need money. It is it, it actually dovetails to that concept Jared that we talk a lot about. And that is donor investment. That person that says yeah I'm going to write that checker I'm going to give that credit card, because I know I'm helping to become a part of a solution. And that's magical. That is magical. And there's so many other opportunities and scenarios that tie into that example. So, to your point, Jared, I think it's really important to to analyze what your social impacts are. You know how does your community in benefit by your engagement so it's, it's about hiring people paying taxes it's about paying rent it's about, you know, serving a mission and a problem finding solutions undoubtedly, but we do a lot of other things. We build community build we build leadership we train I mean, there are many many things that we discount I think in our sector, and we don't promote right and nonprofits that exists those 1.8 that you you mentioned earlier. The reason for these organizations is to help provide a solution to the community problem right and so this is exactly why knowing how to tell our stories knowing how to pitch them to the media, knowing how to share. To provide these solutions to the greater audience and the constituents within our community. So that's, I am learning again I knew I would because this is this is your glory like when I think of genius zones you are such a genius and nerd a total nerd when it comes to this. You've alluded before and you said we're going to talk about this later but when it comes to reposting right so we have perhaps evergreen media evergreen content. How do we really benefit and stretch these this opportunity. You know, I'm fond of saying never cook one meal for once right. Right, you know if you're going to cook something to make sure a part of it or somehow can be repurposed. I mean that's how I've kept my marriage intact for 4243 years. I've fooled him into thinking that every meal is a new meal right, or at least he tells me that. I hope he's not watching. Look, because we're having turkey soup tonight for dinner. Something else. Hey, listen, this is the same concept, you're going to go to all this work your team's going to go to all this work and all the strategy, you need to have other places where this material can live. It means your website, reposting to social media, putting it in your newsletter and you might have more than one newsletter you might have an internal newsletter for your team. You might have a newsletter for your donors, you might have a newsletter for your community of stakeholders and policy decision makers right. There are many many ways that you can be taking this information. And let me tell you snail mail is not dead. And so, if you're doing things, communicate that. And this is a big deal to talk about where you've been engaged by the media where you've shown up. Not everybody's going to be able to watch one of the main media outlets, right. And so, at the same time, so stories or girl are going to get missed. It's your opportunity to reshare that. And now the beautiful aspect of relinking things. If you happen to be a CNN hero, or get posted on on that, that amazing philanthropic media sensation that CNN has created. Take that information and send links so everybody can see it. It used to be that if you weren't in your lazy boy at 505 and you missed the story you can never see it again, right. And that's not the case. That's the beauty of this, but it takes work and it takes some some gumption on the part of our nonprofits. Well, question for you. How do you recommend that we create an inventory of these stories is do you have, you know, I don't know I'm thinking of an Excel file or something because year after year when we're talking about reposting and repurposing. Sure, we might be able to go back to last year's story and change it a bit so that it's relevant and updated as statistics. What do you recommend we use to hold on to this content by way of inventory. So it was very good question your media inventory should always be in the nonprofit sector, transparently living on a media page within your website. And so that it's always there. And this is really important because this gets used by prospective donors, employees, investors and policymakers, they want to go back and see what you're doing and what's happened. And this is the place. And so absolutely, all of these things should live on your news page. Yeah, I mean if you have an ability on a team like a mark on team to actually work up an Excel spreadsheet where you can talk about this. That's great for your own internal reporting, especially if you're trying to grow your mark on team. So go back out to your to your management and say we need more money because this is what we're doing we need to expand our team. Yeah, that's going to help. But the reality is that can be cumbersome for some organizations. At the first point, if you have a news page and news feed kind of situation. That's where these things should live. Absolutely. You can put blog posts and stuff. Be that often. I rarely see media pages on websites for nonprofits. So it's interesting you mentioned that but that's, again, a big takeaway. You know, Jared, I'll tell you, I have seen more media stories get generated from media pages, because what happens is a reporter or producer who's trying to do everything. And I always give this horrible example, they're going from a semi truck that tipped over on the freeway and released, you know, 10,000 chickens onto the highway. They're coming to you, and then they're going to a beauty pageant afterwards right. I mean they're having to go to everything in between. Right. So the more that you can spoon feed your information to the media, the better. It's about control. It's about accuracy. You are going to have a better outcome. And we have, we've talked about this we have other episodes on this we even have, I think courses on the American nonprofit Academy website about this but yeah spoon feeding and getting that. And that information gathered for them is a big win for everyone media page. It's easy to. Yeah, I would think so and I'm also recalling who's joining us this week and McCauley shares a lot about using those backlinks. This is a great opportunity for that media page or your blog to utilize these backlinks. Google really likes that the SEO really likes that so that's, that's a wonderful tip. Now I hope we can spend the remaining of our time on this big, like, elusive concept that again I shared. This is something I am not familiar doing, and how do we pitch to the media. We really have to pick up this old school phone is that what you're telling us to do. The uninitiated, the left, what you know I saw this picture I'm like, what's the difference between the left and the right. Hello, they're kind of the same thing but the one on the right is a smart, much smarter situation. So if you joined us for the chat chat I talked about my child with first week of kindergarten. And the other who was sharing a big event, pinned a note onto my child's little jumper to pitch me basically to say, will you cover my event, which was really not a good thing and it just totally got my panties in the wad and it got my panties in the wad, but I'm just going to tell you that, you know, go back to that reference of the semi truck following up, you know, tipping over on the freeway and the chickens running all over everywhere. What a visual by the way. Yeah, but I mean this is true you're competing with that. And so picking up the phone and talking to a reporter who you've seen that covers a certain topic that dovetails to yours, or that you follow them on an assignment editor, that's the word we use in broadcast and print media assignment editor, or somebody that you know and this is one of those tricks. This might be something that a board member can help you with. So if you have members who know media outlet owners who are engaged in media. Maybe they're not in the media but they have those contacts that have been built up over the years. This is where you need to work it. And I'm not saying that you cause, you know, a lot of stress for yourself, but you make a list, and you make a call, and you're like hey I think I've got a good story. I've been coming out and sharing this. Can we get on one of your morning shows can we get on a news program can we get in a feature on your website can we get a feature in your newspaper can we get a pictorial in your magazine there are a lot of different ways to go about this. You know, there used to be a day when I was working for a Chamber of Commerce, a media, gosh, it was like a directory. I feel like the individuals were constantly changing like it was a revolving door as that assignment editor so you might have talked to you know Tom Smith, and then two weeks later you're talking to someone else and you know how do we keep up with our media contacts. Even if we, you know, build a relationship but then that individual leaves or is reassigned. How do we really engage with the media and develop these relationships. There are many many communities across the country and especially when you talk about like a top tier city, or even a top 25 in population size, you will find that there are subscription services that are in essence like a directory, and those are online they should be in print but they they're mostly online. The quickest, easiest and most surefire thing is to go to these media outlets individual websites before you pick up the phone, and just to double check. Right. I mean these people should be on your media list that you're sending things out to which we've talked to, we've talked about this before. And we say no your audience, hopefully you've been sending press releases or information invitations to your local media or regional media, undoubtedly, but just yet, and even if you're like you make a call and they're like, Oh, well, you know, Tom thumb is no longer here but Betty Boop is, then they're going to redirect you, but you would not know that if you didn't pick up the phone and call pick up the phone pick up the phone. That's saying just send an email. Yeah, you can do that. I mean you can tweet out something directly DM somebody directly. Absolutely you can do that. Especially you have if you have breaking news that might be an information that dovetails to a certain thing that's going on in your community. That's responsible, a responsible way to manage a situation. But when you're trying to pitch a feel good story, or human interest story. These are these are the tools, pick up the phone, you will be amazed at how few of your compadres do this in the sector and so you will rise to the top. And if the story doesn't work for them now, I bet it will in the near future. That's right. Now do you focus on one channel or station like let's let's say one me station, or do you pitch all of them if you have that availability. I know so this is the thing. If you have something that is broad based where it's, let's say you have a ribbon cutting to a new building. And it's, it's, it's a community thing and the mayor is going to be there in the city council or the city council or whatever. That is generally shown across different media outlets. But if you're doing something like a human interest story. That is really going to be best suited for one outlet. And the reason why I talk about that Jared is that you don't want to anger the other outlets and say wow you stole the story, the overpitch the story. So you have to be a little judicious about this right. Yeah, that's, that's good to know so instead of putting the spider web out to everyone you want to, you want to target the story to your specific audience. Funny how that works. We hear that before. Well, again, I love it when we can dedicate these episodes every now and then we do have a master class so today was one delivered by Julia Patrick so grateful Julia. And I would say, you know, we unzip your brain and we kind of jostle out what's been in there over the couple of, you know, years, many, many years but three decades, I wasn't going to say it but three decades thank you. I'm so grateful to have your expertise with us today. And of course I was along for the ride grateful to be here. I missed you on Friday but I know that you and Kamali had a wonderful episode so thank you for that. Thank you to our presenting sponsored sponsors excuse me, we are just, you know, continuously delighted to have their investment, not only in the nonprofit show in these episodes but truly in our sectors across the nation. They are here to help you move your mission driven goals forward so whatever that problem is in your community, they are here to help you solve it. Now's the time to check them out if you have not checked them out yet. Please do that and Julia, thank you it's always great to to learn from you and now is such a great time for us to know how to tell our story at the end of the year but truthfully this knowledge in and of itself is ever green. Yes, it really is. No, it really is and I and I think, you know, as we end up. One of the things is that you can see it should become a habit. It should become a part of your performance where, where you know, and you're always thinking, would this make a good story, and who would it be a good story for right. You know, it's not just the media but it's decision makers, it's investors, it's donors, it's other clients, it's people you can collaborate with. These are the things we need to be, you know, talking about. And I think as we end up a lot of times, we are reticent to tell our stories. We don't do a good job about shouting from the rooftop all the amazing things that we do. Don't be humble. Now's the time to share. It's always the time to share because again, the nonprofit sector is providing solutions to the community problem. Julia, thanks again and thanks to all of you that joined us today. Make sure that you join us tomorrow. I also mentioned and McCully will be back on again this week. And then I have a master class this week as well. So we are, we are sharing our decades of expertise, but please do join us again tomorrow and until then we always hope that you will stay well, so you can do well. Thanks, Julia.