 Welcome everybody. Thank you for joining TechSoupConnect Florida. We are so glad you are here and they say the early bird gets a mom. So all you're getting today is my intro, but you're gonna get some powerful tools in just a moment from our speaker today, Melanie Campbell. If you're not familiar with TechSoup, please visit techsoup.org because if you are a nonprofit, that is the place to be. If before you buy in a software or hardware, please visit TechSoup and I guarantee you will save 50 to 80% of computers, software, telephones, your QuickBooks. You name it, you guys have been there. There's over a hundred partners that partner with TechSoup to provide discounts to nonprofits. So I love TechSoup. I've been a part of TechSoup for a little over 10 years. It used to be called Tech for Good, but now we call this TechSoupConnect. And TechSoupConnect is something that's separate from TechSoup is where community organizers volunteer their time to do events like this once a month. Speaking of that, we always need help. So if you love to speak and love to share with nonprofits, we meet once a month. We're always looking for speakers. We're looking for people who would manage the chat room. We're looking for people who will spread the word, create a graphic on Canva, help promote it. Just any way you wanna be involved, again, it's only once a month. And I really do not bother the team members more than, I don't know, probably four hours a month, if that. So my name is Aretha Simes. I'm one of the chapter leaders here. And Melanie is going to present in just a moment. She is one of the co-chapters. And Anita will be on in just a moment. She's a co-chapter leader. And I really appreciate you being on. I'm gonna move out the way so Melanie can start her topic. Today's topic is the fundraising journey. Why didn't someone tell me? Go ahead, Melanie, take it away. Morning, everyone. So when we were talking about topics, I was looking at the glossary and the fundraising professionals background to be able to take the test. And I was like, I never thought of it this way. So that's how I came up with my topic today. For me, the basics, oh, Lord, come on, there we go. The basics include your mission, your vision, your values, we all know that. But have you ever thought about how your board gets involved? What are their job descriptions? Have you ever looked at the bylaws? What about the different committees? Robert's rules, are we doing everything like we're supposed to? Because some nonprofits or some funders wanna see your board minutes. And that comes down to your agenda and your minutes. Are we covering everything? And I'm gonna apologize in advance. I'm from the South, so I do talk a little fast occasionally. Next is your matrix. Are you looking at who is on your board and how you can utilize them to be able to bring in not only donors, but also funders. Are they on other boards? I'm all about looking at other people's wheels and coloring it my own. And finally, term limits. When do you need to get new board members on? When do you need to, you should always be looking for new board members, but making sure that you're not getting stale and stagnant. The next thing is finances. Reethan wants me on camera. Hi everyone. Next is finances. Have you ever looked at your audit? Because funders do. Next would be your budget. Does your organization not only have an organizational budget, but also program and services. And that's important whenever you go for grants because some funders wanna see your whole organizational budget and some wanna see just your program or services for that particular item you're asking for funding for. The next is really big. You're 990. Look at other people's 990s. You have sister organizations out there that are getting funding. They can't go for the same funding year after year. So piggyback on that and go in and see if you can get their funding. Always think outside the box. Next is the different forms that you're gonna need to be able to do funding. And yes, F, Connie, we're gonna share, I guess we can share the slide deck. Can't we, Aretha? Yes. Okay. Your 501c3 determination letter. I recently came across an organization that they started out with one name and then they changed it, but they had lost the paperwork when they changed it. So we had to contact the IRS. So make sure you have your proper documentation that has the correct name on it, has the correct address on it. Funders look at these kinds of things, articles of incorporation, different policies and procedures. Nowadays, the biggest one that everybody's asking for is diversity and inclusion. The other one that's come about recently is whistleblower. Do you have all these policies in place because funders are gonna want them? And you wanna be proactive and have everything. Like I always tell people have things in two different ways and an actual hard file cabinet, paper, I know what a concept. And then also on your computer so that way you can upload it. There are a couple of funders who still like paper. They're few and far between, but. And then code of conduct slash ethics. Every staff should be signing one of those every year. Every board member should be signing one of those. So that way you're always in compliance. Grant writing. Here's the big one. Outcomes. Make sure that you have your outcomes and your measurements all tightened up. Recently I went for funding from a nonprofit and they are very critical about making sure that you have outcomes and measurements. And do you have something to back it up? Are you using national statistics? Are you using your own? Make sure you have all these things so that way you can explain out what's going on. Next is evaluations. Are you actually looking at this? I always suggest that you look at your programs if not annually, at least bi-annually to see if there's any tweaks you can do. Work with your program staff so that that way they know what you're going for. Program staff don't always understand fundraising. They just think poof, it appears. So make sure that you're educating them on why they have to do documentation, why they have to get the demographics. It's a win-win whenever you're working together like working with the CFO, making sure that they understand that whenever you need a budget, you need it in the format that the funder's asking for, not necessarily in the format that you guys do it in the system. Next one for me is, oh, isn't it in full screen? I'm sorry. She's asking me all these questions on one stuff. We're gonna stop sharing for a second. We're gonna start sharing again. Sorry, you must've had my presentation view. Next is sustainability. This is one that you could have a canned response, but you always wanna make sure that you're looking at your fundraising plan every year. Don't just do it and put it on a shelf. Be able to check in on it every month and say, this is how many grants we've written. This is how many donors we have. This is the events we have coming up. Make sure that you're always looking for new revenue streams for new ways to get funding. Because no funder wants to hear, well, we'll be coming to you next year. Doesn't really work that way. Next piece is your insurance. Make sure that you have liability, workers comp, and most importantly, directors and officers. It's amazing how many non-profits don't have directors and officers insurance. These are things that funders wanna make sure you have so that way they know that you're covered. Next are a couple of miscellaneous things. My big one is always data and demographics, age, race, ethnicity, income, education, zip codes. Those are the basics, but it depends on your program or your services that you offer. And you wanna make sure that way you can say, this is who we have in our system and this is who we serve. Next is a strategic plan. This is something that's always gonna be at the upper level, but it should involve fundraising in the development department. Fundraising plan, like I just said before, make sure that it's diversified, that you're not just going for grants from local foundations. It's really okay to go for grants from the federal and the state level. They're not as scary as you think. They just ask the same question five different ways, trust me. Next is your marketing and communication plan. You wanna make sure that way you're out in the community. So if Ms. Smith has been loving animals all of her life when she decides to give money, she gives it to you guys because you're there front and center. It's amazing how you can find funders in the strangest of places and or how funders find you. Next would be treat your nonprofit like a business. That is something that's gone by the wayside of being, oh, I'm a nonprofit. Now you're still a business and you wanna run it as such. Don't expect that because you wrote that million dollar grant, you're gonna get it. Funding's not always worked like that. And for those of you who've never written a grant, funding can come anywhere between two weeks to a year later. It's usually in the RFP request for a proposal, but not always. And you wanna be careful with using acronyms because acronyms can really get you in trouble. There are some acronyms in the medical world and the construction world that are two different things, mean two different things, but they're the same acronym. So don't assume that somebody knows what your acronyms are about. And then compliance and transparency. You always wanna be transparent, not only with your donors, your board, but also your staff. Let everybody be on the same page. And accountability. You wanna make sure that everybody's on the same page, but also if you say you're gonna do something, you follow through. If a funder asks for a report, you get it to them. My favorite's the one where you buy a piece of equipment that way you can just send a receipt. There's your report. Next is your nonprofit stuff, which I already talked about your 501c3, but also your tax exemption, your solicitation of contribution. And I always check the IRS, check a charity, just to see where I'm at, to make sure that my charity's in compliance. Did the auditor actually get that 990 in on time? And then always be checking your federal IRS and state regulations, because it's amazing what all changes every year. And don't forget to thank people. Thank people. I think it was seven ways is what it used to be. Now I think it's like 10, it changes every year. But always thank. Thank your donors, thank your board, thank your volunteers and thank the staff. Because again, those program people are doing some of the work for you, which is always good. Any questions? Aretha? Take a deep breath here. I don't see any questions in the chat room. Are you gonna, I don't know where you're at. Are you, you have more? Are you ready for questions? I'm ready for questions. Okay. Does anybody have any questions? So, Melanie, you can feel free to unmute yourself. Because this is, these are all the things that people never tell you. You don't really think about them. Once you've been doing this for a while, you get into that routine. But like I said, I looked at that glossary and it made me step back and go, okay, let's go back to the basics, which is always a good thing. And look at the nonprofits from the outside, from the funder's point of view. And what is it that they wanna know that I need to tell them? Because you never know who knows who. Also, you don't know what the other individuals know. So if you have somebody out in the community who loves animals, I'm sorry to keep using animals, but that's the one that's coming in my mind. And wants to give to your organization, but they're not really sure what all you do. They just know that you happen to have a dog on your website and you have dogs in your ad campaigns or on social media. You wanna be telling people what all you do, what all your services are, your programs. That's where those outcomes really come into play. We were able to adopt out 85% of our animals in our shelter. We were able to have 100% of the animals that left the shelter be fixed. So that way we cut down on unnecessary animals. I can't think of the wording. Let's see what else. You also wanna think about it from the funder's point of view. Do you have, are you up to date on everything? You have at your ready at any minute, your 990, your audit, your 501C3 form, your board matrix. You have your board down pat. So you know who they are, what positions they're in, how long they've been on the board. Some even funders wanna know their race and ethnicity and or what industry they're in or the position that they hold out in the community. These are all the things that we take for granted and it would have been nice if somebody had told us at the beginning, you need to know all this stuff. Another thing is to be able to read the 990 sometimes it's 30 plus pages. Do you really wanna read all those 30 pages? No, you wanna fast forward through to see the last, I think it's three pages usually of who did they get funding from. Now, sometimes you can look at their inner reports but not everybody has their inner report online. This is also helpful whenever you go to look at a funders 990 to see who all they funded. So here in Central Florida, the first one I'm gonna think of is Dr. P. Phillips Foundation. You wanna pull their 990 and look and see who all they funded. It's interesting to look at who all they funded because again, coloring somebody else's meal, making it your own. Are there any questions? Hi Melanie. I know I just threw a lot at you. Hi Melanie, Danita here. Just wanted to go back in, circle back and see if you could help us out a little bit more with the specifics on sustainability. Programs oftentimes are not able to continue to get funding because of the specifics involved in sustainability. So can you explain further what that is and then give us the specifics on what you've seen funders look for and down to the details of how you know that a particular program will be able to continue its funding course through the sustainability measures that it puts in place. That's where it comes back to your whole organizational budget. So to be sustainable, you look at your budget overall. So are you able to pay salaries? Are you able to pay rents, get supplies? You always wanna be looking at your fundraising plan also. So your sustainability should always be we have a diversified fundraising plan in that we do grants, we do events, we have donors and we're constantly looking for other sources of revenue out in the community, other foundations, state, federal grants. You wanna always tell the funders that you're constantly looking for it, not that you're just sitting back on your laurels and anticipating that they're gonna give you all the funding for the program. Nine times out of 10, you never wanna ask a funder for a whole program because that kinda makes a red flag go up of why are they asking me for a whole program unless it's a new program. If it's a new program and that's because the funder wants to fund only new programs. That's when that RFP comes into play. You want to always think ahead and anticipate that you're never gonna get that funding. Again, for two weeks to a year, depends on the funder. Some funders give out the funding two weeks later, some of them a month, six months, you just depends. Sustainability wise, like I said, you always wanna be looking at your fundraising plan, your organizational budget and be planning ahead. Did that answer your question? Yes, that gives good insight on it. And actually it goes into another question I have for you, which has to do with the strategies for larger nonprofits versus smaller nonprofits that they utilize in terms of fundraising. Some of these grassroots organizations are out here and we are not able to have all those marketing departments and all that stuff. So what are some specifics on the strategies that smaller nonprofits can utilize versus what you've seen with the larger nonprofits? Smaller nonprofits really do need to take time. They need to step away because as emails are still gonna come in, the phone calls are still gonna come in. I always recommend to step away at least once a year, if not quarterly or biannually to look at everything, to really dig into the data and see, okay, so we wrote 10 grants last year and we got four of them. Were we being strategic and who we were going to for funding? Also, how are we getting donors? Are we increasing our donors? Are we not? You want to look at everything and that's what the big organizations do also. They just happen to have a team. But if you're a solo development person or even if you're a contractor working with a solo person, you wanna work together and really look at the whole picture. That's where those dashboards quote unquote come into play. So that way you can look at all the different revenue streams and see, am I actually utilizing my time efficiently? That's where events, sorry to anybody who's on events, but you know how events can be. You put a lot of work and time into it. But how much did you really get out of it? Is it worth it? And I know that people love those cheaper chicken dinners, but sometimes they're not really worth it. So it's making sure that you're looking at everything. Volunteer times, do you actually have volunteers that are able to help you or are you doing it all yourself? Okay, thank you for that. I didn't know if anybody else had questions because I could keep going all day but I don't wanna do that. I really want it to be open to everyone. I have a question. You know, my name's Jodi. Hi, I was late, so I apologize if you've already covered this. So how do you handle or what should you look for? I don't know how obvious this is, but like when you get funding and maintaining your sovereignty and how you run the business, the nonprofit, is do you find that to be an issue or there are ways to negotiate those types of things? Can you give me a little bit more on that one? I'm actually here as an unofficial consultant for DeLand Pride. So that organization, it's a 501C3. But those are, I don't wanna say controversial, but that could be viewed as controversial depending on your viewpoint. I also was involved with a, or was made aware of a similar organization in Tulsa and they're like the fifth quality organization, largest organization in the United States. And they specifically chose not to take any funding that would relinquish any kind of control on how they ran their nonprofit. So I don't know if this fits into that or not, but does this make any sense at all? Yeah, are you talking about like restricted funding or government funding? A lot of people think that government funding is going to restrict them and or it's going to cause a lot of problems. The only problem it's gonna cause is that it's gonna keep you in line and make sure that you stay transparent. And it will make sure that you're doing your monthly or quarterly reporting of your outcomes. A lot of people don't like to go for government funding because I feel like big brothers watching them. To me, I actually like federal and state funding because the applications, they ask the same question five different ways. So it makes it super simple. But a lot of people that's, I think that's what you're asking. I know that a lot of some funders will actually restrict your funding. Like I only want it to go for bus passes or I only want to fund animals to be fixed. Those kind of things. So you're saying government funding is not gonna be restrictive about like your policies? Nope. I mean, they can ask you, do you have a whistleblower policy or they can ask you if you have certain policies? They, most funders never want you to do lobbying. Most funders never want you to, what's the word? Exclude anyone? Mm-hmm. Those things. Are we done? Yo, let me piggyback on what Melanie said. And also I think for you, I wouldn't apply for any funding that would restrict. The funding will say this is not for religious organization. This funding is not for LGBTQ. It will say that. So you just apply for those types of grants. It will say that in the RFP. So never take any money. First of all, you're not gonna get it because they're telling you don't want to apply. You're disqualified for the get-go. I just didn't know if there's any sort of fine prints that we would need to be aware of if we took like government funding that would say, if you're not serving this population, you're not getting the money. You know what I'm saying? You're gonna tell them that. You're small and you're growing. Nope, that is gonna be in the request for proposal. It's gonna tell you who they want this money to go to. So don't take any money for something else and then use it for something else. Yeah, that goes back to the whole adage of the circle going into the square peg. Don't try and fit your organization into the funder. Always be true to who you are. And like LaRita said, read the RFP. RFPs are extremely explanatory of what they want down to the font and the page margins. Okay, all right. I'm from the for-profit world and I just volunteered to help them. Dude, have you guys ever heard of TechSoup? I've heard of you guys before I worked with another nonprofit many years ago and so I'm just trying to help them out a little bit. So thank you, I apologize. So Danita, you take the floor with your billions of questions. Thank you so much. That was a great question though. Anyone else having any questions or comments? One question I want to ask you, Melanie, I know you are a member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals. When you go to those conferences, what are the one thing they are telling you to tell nonprofits? I know you can't say just one thing, but if there's something that pops in your head to the forefront of your mind, they're saying, this is what we need to tell nonprofits. Can you share that with us? First of all, that it's unethical for us to take a percentage of the grants. That is the first thing that everybody's, can I just write you in the grant and you can get a percentage of it? No, it's unethical. We actually have a code of ethics with the Association of Fundraising Professionals. It's online and that is a huge one that I constantly get as a consultant. Okay, so I can just give you a percentage, right? No. That's a good one, that's a good one because all small nonprofits are saying, hey, we don't have any money, can we just write you into the grant? I know everybody's silent, but raise your hand, chat, Rube, if that's you. I get it, I get it. Anybody else have any questions based on what Melanie has said or what somebody else has asked? Melanie, can you just go a little bit further and talk about fee structures for grant writers, funders, those types of things, just help people out so that they don't get into that, that ugly abyss of forking out money and not getting out. Yeah, there are consultants out there who will, very few, I will tell you this, will do it for free. And that's mostly people who are learning and or who have gone from, or are transitioning from a actual development position to be a consultant. Most consultants, their pricing range is anywhere from starting at 50 to 150, it depends. It depends on what kind of grant you're applying for, what all you're gonna want them to do, or you're gonna want them to do the research, the writing and the reporting. Those are the three different areas. And then also, are you gonna want them to be part of your fundraising planning? And when you say 50 to 150, you mean? An hour. There you go. An hour. And it's so, you need to really look at it. You hire, you go to a dentist because they do dental work. You wanna hire somebody who has the expertise, like my expertise is in health and human services. I would never, ever go and write a technical grant for, say, research at UCF. That's just out of my realm. Most grant writers know their realm that they're in and they stay there. And they're honest. Like for me, I get a 65% is my return rate on the grants that I've written. And we keep statistics too. So I hope you guys heard that 65%. That means no one can guarantee that you will get the grant. Yes. I still wanna open it up for anyone else to ask a question. I actually wanna piggyback on that one. So don't ever assume because the grant writer wrote you a grant that you're gonna get it. Just because we have a good reputation or we have a good track record, it depends on the funder. You've got their board reviewing this. You've got their board making that decision. They can change minds. With COVID, a lot changed too. A lot of people shifted how they wanna do their funding. And just outside of grants, what other types of fundraising have you seen these that out taking away the wonderful chicken dinners? What else have you seen could be potentially something that a nonprofit could utilize in order to raise funds? The simplest one is Amazon Smiles. The next one would be to have your board for their birthdays, do a fundraiser on Facebook, or do a fundraiser with whatever donor software you're using. They all have those components in it. Another is, I think they call them backyard dinners so that the board member invites to say five family and friends over and then ask them to donate. You really wanna involve your board and get them doing fundraising. I know that's one of the biggest problems is that most boards are like, oh, I don't wanna ask anybody for money. But you're involved in the cause so you care about it so you can ask for it. Great, anyone else have any questions? And if not, here's my email. So you can send me an email too. Yeah, please email her. Again, we're always looking for co-hosts. We only do this once a month so please email myself or Danita or Melanie and let us know if you're interested. So if there are no questions, we're gonna give you your time back.