 I can't wait to get today started because it is Friday, which means we have, oops, we have our mugs that are representation of Fundraising Academy, which continues to be our underwriter for our Friday, or as I continuously say, Friday, ask and answer. Again, this is our one day a week where we dedicate our show to answer your questions. And we can do this thanks to our presenting sponsors. The ones that we have on the screen, but I will also let you know who they are, Blumerang, American Nonprofit Academy, Fundraising Academy, Nonprofit Nerd, your part-time controller, staffing boutique, Nonprofit Thought Leader, as well as the Nonprofit Atlas. So thank you, thank you, thank you to our presenting sponsors that keep these conversations with Julia Patrick, CEO of the American Nonprofit Academy, and myself, Jarrett Ransom, your Nonprofit Nerd CEO of the Raven Group, going and growing. We will soon be celebrating our 500th episode. And I was recalling back to our guests that we had on earlier this week, Julia, he talked and shared with us about podcasting and how the majority of podcasts rarely get above 10 episodes. So that would be like publishing 10 episodes, not downloading, but posting publishing 10 episodes. So the majority of podcast out there have 10 or less. And here we are, as a go and Jesse, you say that, Julia, we're a go and Jesse, coming up from 500. Yeah, I was talking about that with our executive producer, Kevin Pace, and he was stunned by that too. You don't see him, but he's with us every day. And when we are done, his work begins in earnest for the rest of the day, doing all the editing and getting our show up onto all the platforms that we're at. And he was like, I couldn't believe that number. And I said, I was thinking to myself, hell, we do 10 episodes in two weeks. Yeah, done, produce, ready to go up and at them. And so it was really interesting. And to those of you who have been so supportive of us, we are looking at the technology that will allow us to navigate these episodes going forward into a podcast mode, because we do realize that there are more and more people that wanna consume their information that way. And so, but yeah, it was very interesting to have him on. And I thought that it was interesting and we talked so much about this, Jared. How do you tell the story? How do you tell the story of your nonprofit? Because we know that engages donors stakeholders and our clients and podcasting is really one of those things that we need to be looking at. That's right, that's right. Talking about telling our story, and I know we have questions to answer. I was privileged to be in a workshop yesterday with Rick DeBrule and the Barrett Jackson car auction, I think just wrapped up and he's a big component MC host of that. But he shared with us about how do you tell your story? And the various storylines, right? Like there's some that you just, you tell your story, you tell your story, you hit the plot and the climax and then you come back down. He told us about this, the two man in a hole. And so it's you tell the story, it dips back down, you tell the story again, it dips back down and then you end on a positive note. So there's so many ways, so many story plots and how you can position the narrative of the same story. And so I think that would be an interesting conversation. And so maybe we will tap him on the shoulder and say, hey, hey friend, come on back. He's great. I mean, he does a lot of philanthropic work across the country. Most people know him as a gearhead. And I love the Barrett Jackson auction. I'm always like right on it. It started in the property up against my high school. I went to Scottsdale High and there was vacant land and Mr. Barrett and Mr. Jackson would take that land and do the card shows. And so it just dominated everything growing up here. But to see how it is just this global phenomenon is really impressive. But Richter rules are really impressive and that's an amazing thing that you got to be a part of. And we've talked about this before we go on to our questions. Not enough nonprofits will make that investment having somebody come in and talk to them about that media training, all the way to storytelling, whatever, however that fits. But that was really an incredible opportunity, Jarrett, for you to be a part of. Very incredible. A lot of fun. A lot of fun. That's really cool. Well, hey, you know, let's get going. We have a lot of questions. And do you know, Jarrett, what's gonna happen? My favorite thing of all things. A name withheld. Dun, dun, dun. And we're picking off with that one. I know. I can't wait. Okay, let's see what name withheld from Topeka, Kansas. I'm the CEO of a small nonprofit that's growing and has been successful. I have the great fortune of attracting some tremendous board members. Our current board chair wants us to adopt a policy that prohibits board members from serving on other boards with us or while with us. Have you heard of this? Does it make sense? We've had this question I think asked before and I'm fascinated by it because I know some organizations that make their board members leave other boards. That's interesting. And it's not just professional. You know, I know that this occurs in professional like trade association boards, right? Which makes sense. So for example, let's talk about the medical profession. Let's say that you are on a board, state or national, for your particular field of expertise. And you might be on other boards. You might be on other medical product boards or something that could have a conflict of interest. I get that. But I gotta say, I don't think there's enough talent going around working on our boards. I don't know about you, Jared, but I think part of being a board member is being an board ambassador to other boards, right? So I don't agree with this. I don't agree either, name withheld. And so what I've seen, and you're right, I think the point that you just made, Julia, there's not enough talent, there's not enough willingness from individuals. We even had, as we were talking earlier, Jane Garcin on from Canada, who does structured coaching with that board leadership. And there's a lot of individuals that are simply ill-prepared when they come in because they're not experienced, right? But I also find on the flip side, Julia, that when you find someone who's serving on a board, typically that person is so civically engaged that they serve on multiple boards, right? So typically most board members are already serving on multiple boards. Now I have heard, and I, you know, definitely a couple of years ago in the very beginning of the pandemic, one of my clients board members said, you know, she was sitting on five boards and she finally said, I'm not doing well enough on any of them. So I would like to make the choice to scale back. Therefore I'm only involved in this organization. And so she made that choice, right? So I've heard that where perhaps their capacity and work and life and whatever other commitments get too heavy that the board member says, for the greater interest of all organizations and my own personal wellbeing, I need to make this decision. Right. And you know, I can see that, especially if you were gonna go to maybe even like board chair, board chair elect, if you wanted to do something like that. But my sense of it, Jared, and it echoes what you just said is that, you know, these leaders in our community can bring us a lot of goodwill. They can connect us. And so if we disrupt that, ultimately we're doing a disservice to our organizations. Fascinating, fascinating thing. One of our guests said, when you know one board, you know one board. So every organization is at a different place in what I'm going to say the nonprofit life cycle. So serving on one board might be vastly different and then serving on another board. So I do think to your point, Julia, you know, these board members are being of service to our community. They're bringing connections. They're bringing thought leadership. They're bringing best practices. I see it as a good thing. I do too. I do too. And you know, until that day where we have people lined up at our doors wanting to be board members and we're turning them away. Right. That day is not here yet. Okay, let's move on to Bridget from Raleigh, North Carolina. Several of my team members think the handwritten notes are a waste of time. I think they're essential. Shouldn't we all be doing the same thing as a stewardship process? I'm assuming Bridget is from a development team. Probably. Probably. So the question is two parts, handwritten notes, big fan, I believe we don't get enough handwritten notes. And so they stand out. This is my secret. You don't have to write a novel. You can write something short and sweet and use a fun stamp. It's a fun stamp because people are like, wow, look at this, I got something in the mail. We're not getting enough things in the mail these days. But my question to you would be, should we all be doing the same thing in terms of process? What do you think about that? Cause you're the development guru. So Bridget, I was born in Georgia, raised in South Carolina and the Emily Post etiquette book was literally on my nightstand. So I can only imagine, Bridget, that if you were from the Southeast, you too were probably raised this way. And in fact, here are my personal note cards, right? I know, they're just, they're spectacular. I feel cute. So I am about to handwrite several handwritten thank you notes for various, you know, occasions. So I think when it comes to handwritten notes, they're absolutely a good thing. I even like when we do acknowledgement letters and it's the standard template, you know, even the signatures, the electronic, I love to put a sentence on there or just a couple of words, right? That says thank you or we appreciate your support so that it does stick out as a handwritten message so that it's not all, you know, template printing. But what I would say in regards to, shouldn't we all be doing the same thing as in regard to the stewardship process? Bridget, I would highly recommend that you look at your donor portfolios and you see just how you're addressing this. And so I will share personally, I just helped an organization. We split up our portfolios. One individual has over 1600 constituents in their portfolio. So sending, these are from $1 to $499, right? So this is our lower rung like segmentation. And then the next person has 60, that's a little bit more manageable. And then the next person has 11, even more manageable to do handwritten notes. So I think it depends on your audience, right? I certainly would not expect anyone to write 1600 handwritten notes, but perhaps you send a couple here and there and you could automate some other things, you know, to send out to an audience like that. So I think it's really knowing your audience if you're working a portfolio, what is your entire plan? And just, you know, to look at it more realistically and efficiently. So then let me ask you a follow-up question to that. I'm a big believer in the BOI method, you know, because of you, because of you were able to build this wing or because of you were able to, you know, put on this event or feed these people, whatever the heck, how do you feel about stewardship notes that come from clients or come from staff members that maybe the donor doesn't know them versus the person that they have the relationship with in the organization? Is that meaningless or is that? It's a great way to share your message. One of my previous clients and now personal friends, she runs Girls' Golf of Phoenix, which is tied into the LPGA. So she has hundreds of young girls that are participating in her golfing, you know, program. So she has these girls of all ages. We're talking, you know, teeny weenies, the three-year-old kind of girls that are just, you know, fascinated with glitter to girls that are pre-teens that, you know, have cursive writing, which yes, kids do learn cursive in some places these days. And so she's utilized these, you know, these girls as clients, part of the program to help tell the message. So absolutely, I love it. And who doesn't love glitter? Oh man, I hate glitter like I hate glitter. Noted. Sorry to our animal service shelters, people that are watching today. And Julia, a glitter bomb. That is on my, I'm telling you, I'm telling you, yeah. Okay, well, but that's, that's good. I think that's interesting. I mean, handwritten notes, yeah. Yeah, I love them. I think Marcus from Columbus, Ohio writes, we're thinking of adding the position of chief of staff to our nonprofit. Do you have any suggestions on whether this is a good idea or not? Chief of staff. So what do you see that in regards to like COO? That's how I would see it. I would see it more as, you know, an operations person. When I think chief of staff, I think politics, I think government, I think, you know, really at that level. So a chief of staff to me is really not knowing exactly Marcus, the intention of the responsibility for this position. I'm not opposed to it. I think it really depends on the organization. What are other titles? Something in the nonprofit world that I've talked about with several people. Titles mean things, mean something to a lot of our nonprofit leaders. Not all. There's some people that say, ah, title schmittle. But there's some staff that say, I want a higher title. I want a prestigious title. And I will tell you a part of this Marcus in everyone else who's listening to me on my soapbox right now. A lot of this has to do with the advancement in our nonprofit sector. So we might not get the highest pay, although I hope that's changing, but that looks like, you know, job advancement, career advancement, and it may help our staff move up into their own professional careers as they navigate their journey. So if chief of staff, if something that this person is really tied to, I would consider, you know, what the other titles are, is that synonymous with other people, you know, in the org chart. And again, you know, just to better understand the person and what the position would be doing. You know, I like what you just said, because I think you're right. I know between you and I, we've talked about this a lot with many of our guests. Like, how do we elevate the professionalism of our sector? And I think this could be one of those things. I also think that if you were an individual calling from a nonprofit, and you are calling a high net worth donor or policymaker or stakeholder, and you identify yourself as a chief of staff, that maybe that elevates your opportunity to communicate or get an appointment or get a tour or I don't know what. But Dina, it elevates engagement opportunity. So yeah, I'm liking this. I don't know of anybody outside of politics that's using this. You know, I don't either, but I have seen many places get creative with their titles. And, you know, even CFO, chief fund officer, right? They're not focused on the financials, which typically we think a CFO is the chief financial officer. But perhaps the CFO, the chief fund officer, maybe this is the person that's dedicated to helping to build the culture of the organization. So regardless of the organization, I think we can have fun and I think we can put some time and thought into our titles. Yeah, I think so too. Really interesting. Okay, let's go to our next question. And Holy Moly, as we say in my family, Holy Vaca. Name it. Holy Vapelt. It's a double whammy. Okay, I got a man up on this one. Oh, you took one? I took this off. I took this off because I thought they could identify because there are not that many billboard companies in America. Okay, so I'm gonna read it because I know you are really into marketing and have that background. So name without city withheld writes in and ask. We have a rather large company in our city who wants to donate billboard space to us for free. It is a great opportunity, but I am afraid that it might make our nonprofit look like we are spending lots of money on marketing. How do we use this amazing gift and protect our community image? I added community in there, by the way. Yeah, it's true. It's really, really true. And you can see successful organizations battling this. You know, how do we look like we're successful and yet still look like we need our donors' involvements? I mean, it's really one of those situations that you get, the more successful you become. It's fascinating. It's very simple to say this advertising is underwritten by ABC billboard company or whatever. You put that on. And then the billboard company should be a, you should give the billboard company a receipt and they should be able to take that as an in-kind donation. And that should be reported too, you know, on your stewardship in-kind donations are legit. And especially, especially in marketing because it may seem like free space, but it's not. Now in the billboard industries have changed dramatically because we now have digital billboards. And so it used to be when, you know, you had to literally do the wallpaper style methodology and then it got a little bit easier when they were doing raps. Now it's digital files that are going up. It's still expensive because those digital billboards are the big bucks. But so if it's a digital thing and they're just putting you in a rotation of space that has not been sold, it doesn't matter. It's still space. But I would definitely say this advertising or this marketing or this communication has been underwritten by. And I would do this on printing. I would do this on other forms of broadcast. When you have that opportunity, that's a good thing. Question, Julia. Would you also create some social media or other community pieces around this? For instance, you know, a social media post of the billboard that says, I hope you've seen our billboard. Thanks again and shout out to ABC billboard company for providing this opportunity to us. Like would you take that step forward? Yeah, and I love that you brought that up because absolutely you want to reward that relationship and you want to make sure that with those providers you, I don't use the word clear that with them but that you have that discussion for two reasons. One, so they know you're doing this and that you're supporting your stewardship. And two, that when every other nonprofit in your community calls them up and says, can we get the same gig? Right. Because as you acknowledge in print, I remember, you know, when we had to consider if we only did black and white newsletters or if we did four color, because some people would think, well, heck, you clearly are rolling in the dough if you're sending a four color printed male newspaper. And so having, you know, something that would acknowledge the printing relationship and partnership, you know, was kind of noted in each of these. Now whether people paid attention to that or not, we can't necessarily make sure that they see it who we can do our part in it. So I appreciate your feedback, Julia, because you have so much knowledge in that industry. Well, over my 30 years in publishing, I gave away a lot of advertising to nonprofits. And we got to the point where we had a nonprofit rate, you know, so that we kept all things equal. Certainly where there was a personal interest like where I was serving on a board or something and I wanted to specifically support that organization, then those would be 100% donated. But we did get to the point where we did have a nonprofit rate. And you know what? I'm telling you, if you go into a big box retailer, ask if, this is just a general operation thing, ask if they have a nonprofit rate. Always, always, always ask, because you will be amazed at the number of businesses that offer some sort of discount. I'm not just talking about media purchases here. Any and all things, that's just a general, I think rule of thumb. So anyway, okay. Well, thank you for reading that. We've got one last question. Okay. We got to crank through this one. Jana and Rob, I always like it when we have folks like, you know, people that send us a message as a group from Boise, it's not Montana. Isn't it Boise, Idaho? I don't know all the cities in Montana. Yeah, Boise, Idaho. Okay, I keep hearing fund development and fundraising being used in the same way. Isn't this two different things? Help us understand the differences. Big difference, fundraising and fund development. Go for it, Jerick, because this is your specialty. You know, and I do think that we've received something similar, and I feel that Jack Alotto with Fundraising Academy, and I might have answered this, fundraising is an element inside of fund development. So for me, I would describe it as fund development is the entirety of a variety, if that's not confusing already, of other initiatives and strategies that you're taking place within and throughout your organization and your community. Marketing communications is an element of fund development. Advertising, an element of fund development. Fundraising in and of itself is an element within fund development. Fundraising, same thing, right? Are we having this event to acquire new contacts or new financial contributions from the people that attend? So that's how I would describe it in the short amount of time that I feel I have left. Yeah, I mean, when I see fundraising, I think, and correct me if I'm wrong, I see it as event oriented. Like, okay, we're having a golf tournament or we're selling t-shirts or we're selling peanuts, whatever it is, that it's like a specific action that has a beginning, middle, and end, where fund development goes on beyond our careers. It might go beyond the tenure of our leadership or our board service, but it is a much longer trajectory. You hear me talk about this all the time, about the 10, 10, 10 rule. What are your decisions in the next 10 weeks, 10 months, and 10 years going to do? How are they gonna impact you? Fundraising, for me, is that 10 week, 10 month thing. Fund development is that longer period. And I like how you phrased it that these are components of a bigger strategy because I think we forget about that. I think a lot of times in the nonprofit sector, we're like, okay, make it or break it. We're gonna have this big event and then that's it. And that's not a good way to... Well, I think we're always fundraising, right? So we might have an annual campaign and our annual campaign is made up of a variety of fundraising efforts and initiatives, including events, right? Maybe we have a golf tournament. Maybe we have a breakfast. Maybe we have a dinner. Those are all fundraising elements, events, and activities, but fundraising is also that direct mail appeal that we send out. So it's also, you know, social media campaigns. Those are fundraising efforts that are part of the fund development plan. Yeah. I think it's a really, you know, Janet and Rob, I appreciate you asking this question because to me, when I see a question like that, it speaks to the issue of where you are in the organization and what's your mindset and what's your leadership looking like, you know? I mean, don't you think it's kind of revealing? Yeah, it's a good question. Yeah, it's a really, really interesting. Wow, you know, another great week. I wanna say thank you so much for all of our viewers. Jared, you're always an amazement to me. I love your viewpoint and the things that you bring to the nonprofit show. It's really exciting. And we are thrilled to be working together with you, our team, thank you all the way down to Kevin Pace, our intrepid executive producer, who Jared and I see on the screen, but to our viewers, you don't. But he's here with us each and every day. It's been an amazing journey. And guess what? We're marching towards the 500th episode. You're gonna get tired of hearing us talk about that. But we are, because it's such a big deal. I wanna thank all of our sponsors, Blue Moran, American Nonprofit Academy, Fundraising Academy, The Nonprofit Nerd, Your Part-Time Controller, Staffing Boutique, Profit.Leaders, and The Nonprofit Atlas. Amazing, amazing week. We have another huge week coming up starting on Monday. We do, we do. I'll be out Monday taking care of some personal matters, but Julia will be here. And we have our guest coming in from Your Part-Time Controller. It's gonna be a lot of fun because we're gonna be talking about what are the things that we need to be talking about when we're talking about finance and not just letting our eyes glaze over. So that would be really kind of fun. And it's Ellie Hume, she's a CPA. She's really fun. We've had her on before. And so yeah, join us for that. Plus we have a lot of other things coming up. I hope you get some rest this weekend. My friend, you've had a busy week? Well, thank you. I have a busy weekend. I have two lacrosse games. I'm not playing, but I will certainly be attending. But thank you. I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend, including yourself, Julia, and to all of our viewers and listeners. Thank you so very much. Thank you. And as we leave you for the weekend, we wanna remind you to stay well so you can do well. We'll see you back here on Monday, everyone.