 Welcome to our second day at the AFP conference. We have sent Jared Ransom to Las Vegas to the AFP ICON conference. We're so thrilled, Jared, woo-hoo! Thank you, Julia. It is amazing day two of the conference. The halls open up at nine, so the room is starting to buzz. It's really energetic, high energy. Before we went live, so many of our friends and family are family. We showed up online. We had Jason Champion with Winspire. He's just over here. We have golfstatus.org, so we've had Logan Footy on. The whole fundraising academy team is near around, and we're gonna pull one of them on air here shortly. We're waiting on Sean from Bloomerang. He's gonna join us. We are broadcasting live from their showroom, from their show. So it's really fantastic. We have so much going on here. As I said earlier, constant contact, donor perfect. Interviewed Mike Geiger yesterday with me. So really good stuff happening, really exciting. Last night was a big reception. I heard it was fantastic. Sadly, I did not attend, but I took some time to rest, and that was also much needed. Well, this has really been a fabulous thing to do, and we're so excited that you are there. This has really been fun. It's been something different. And so for our viewers that are joining us, this is a really different thing for us, and it's a lot of fun, and you never know who's gonna come in. So yeah, this is gonna be really a great thing. So here is Sean. He's joining us today from Blumeray. Hello. How are you, Sean? You came on camera just in time because we are in our green room chatter, and we're getting ready to get going. So you ready? I love it, I love it. Let's do it. Yeah, let's do it. All right. Well, hey everybody, this has really been an exciting, exciting thing for us to be a part of, just to remind you we're at the AFP conference, the ICON conference in Las Vegas. So let's get this show started. Good morning. Good morning, good morning. This is Julia Patrick. I'm here with Jared Ransom. And in case you wondered why things are looking a little different, Jared is not in our studio today. Jared is in Las Vegas with the AFP ICON conference and better yet, she's standing and doing a remote broadcast from the Blumerang booth. Thank you. Joy. That's right. Hashtag spread joy. Well, we love that. We are so thrilled. Sean, we're gonna get to you in just a second so that we can learn more about what you've seen here in these last couple of days. Again, if you don't know who we are, I'm Julia Patrick in our studios in Phoenix, Jared Ransom coming to us live, the nonprofit nerd from the AFP ICON conference. And yeah, with us here soon. Let's do it. We gotta get our nerd glasses on. We definitely, hey, before we get going, we wanna make sure that we thank all of our sponsors, Blumerang, American Nonprofit Academy, fundraising academy, the nonprofit nerd, your part-time controller, nonprofit Atlas, the nonprofit thought leader and staffing boutique. These are the folks that allowed Jared and I to come on. We have done more than 500 episodes and Blumerang has been with us since the beginning. So Sean, thank you so much for joining us today. Thanks for joining us at our booth. Yeah, it's fantastic. As I just said, the doors open at nine in the conference. What day did it start? Cause I know there was a pre-conference before the conference. Yeah, I mean, it really started on Sunday. Sunday. And now it's Wednesday and things happening in Vegas and things are happening. It is happening. It is going strong yesterday. As you heard, so many of the people were talking about the energy, filling the rooms, filling the workshops. We just talked to Fundrains Academy. They had over 250 people in their class selling education model. But Sean, you have been really involved with the nonprofit sector for so long. You've got great insight into what our nonprofits are looking for, meeting. So before we jump into that, and I've been primed, your staff wants me to ask you the really hard question. So bring it. Bring it. But tell us who you are, your role here with Blue Ring and what got you into this sector? Yeah, absolutely. So Sean Grollo, I'm the VP of sales at Blue Merengue. And I've been in the nonprofit space for about five years. I have about 13 years of technology sales experience. I don't know any different other than working for technology companies. But I've been in this space for, I'd say five years now, and I love it. And here's the reason why I love it. And it's specifically why I love this event. It's different than most technology conferences in that when people are walking around, it's not like people are trying to bring you in and sell you anything. It's like people are going around and they're trying to find opportunities to help. Because we're all kind of in this thing together. It's been a tough two years. I'm even friends with our competitors. And we root for each other because at the end of the day, we're all trying to help these fantastic organizations and walking people around like, it's not that sales and marketing conference when people are like, come on in, let me show you the bells and whistles and sales and futures and benefits. Now it's like, hey, tell me about your organization. Like what's working? What's not working? How can I help with anything? Because again, it's been a really tough two years and we've been through a lot and it's been redundant, but like it's good to see people again. And so we're sitting here, we're breaking bread, we're talking shop and we're just finding ways to move the baffle. Yeah, I love it. So, what are you seeing in terms of like, what are people asking you? What do they need blooming to help them with? Because we feel like there's just been so much change and you all as a team are on the leading edge of some of this digital interface that we need to be embracing. What are you seeing? Yeah, so the biggest thing that we're seeing is that we're taking a very close look at the giving trends year over year, right? Because obviously 2020 was a bit of an anomaly. We wanna keep a close eye on how those giving trends are impacting decisions that we're making, right? So for example, we had a session this morning and in 2020, the average donor retention rate was 41.3%, right? And so we're thinking about how can we impact that donor retention number? And a lot of our conversations are about that because that's the silver bullet. For example, incremental changes just to donor retention and you can increase that by 10% that it's a game changer. It's a game changer and it's a lot cheaper from a cost per acquisition perspective to retain a donor than it is to acquire a donor. So we're just trying to put that into perspective for a while. I love it. Now, are you finding that the folks that are coming by the Bloomerang booth, are they dialed into this or are you having to like educate them to this new mindset? We are having to educate them, right? I mean, that's part of the opportunity that we have in front of us, right? I wouldn't call it a challenge, but it's an opportunity. Because a lot of these folks that don't have the data, right? And if they do have the data, it's not the cleanest data, right? And if you don't have clean data then you can't make smart fundraising decisions. And so we're just trying to do our very best to take a step back, to analyze the clean data and help guide them to make decisions that's gonna help them communicate more effectively with their donors. Now that's nerdy. Love it. We do love it. It's super nerdy. So five years you've been in the sector and I heard you say, he doesn't know any different when it comes to technology and you're right, this has become what I would say a technology focused, fundraising first conference. And I guess Geiger, sorry, I hope you're hearing that because that is true. I mean, it really, look around and there's so much technology. We talked yesterday, the advancements in technology. You know, teams are of all different sizes. Small teams, large teams, talks to so many people. You know, also managing the workforce challenge, the barrier of employment. So even if we're a large team, you might have become a midsize to a small size. So how might you implement technology in a way to truly assist your team to get to where you need to go and want to go without that many people on your team anymore? So it changes. Yeah, absolutely. And you gotta trust the technology, right? I think there's been some resistance in terms of all of these new tools and applications that are coming out all the time. You know, I look at, you know, our partners over at Fundraise Up, for example, that didn't exist three years ago, right? And now they're one of the best fundraising tools that they got. And it provides that insights in the data to help you, you know, fundraise more effectively and create like a frictional donor experience because we know that, you know, if you look at conversion rates, people opt out if there's too many fields, right? Or if you've got too many data points, right? And so we're just trying to do everything we can to create the tech stack that's gonna put fundraisers in a position to be successful because, listen, the great recession is real, right? People are leaving it. And it's unfortunate, but it's the truth. And so what can we do to empower these fundraisers to get into a position to hit their fundraising goals because it's hard. Fundraising is really, really. And we're exhausted from these last two to one and a half years. So how can we, you know, really lean in? Thank you, Cheryl Stanford, but lean in to the whole technology wave and I was thinking about this last night. You know, I admitted I didn't go to the reception, did you? I did not. Oh, okay. So I was thinking about this. I had to be here with you. Oh. We had an early wake up call, but really looking at, I think technology has been there. We've seen the advancements in our sector, but I think what we've seen is the adoption of technology in our section because that is something that we haven't really, you know, so many times I've seen this, you know, really honestly, Sean, in the fact of, no, we don't need this technology or we're not gonna take this on because we've always done it this other way. And the rest of the world is flying past us because the nonprofit sector has not adopted what needs to be adopted. Maybe that's from fear. Yeah, there is fear. And part of what we're trying to overcome is the fear of change. And the people have been doing things a certain way for so long. And there's nothing wrong with that. And that's their comfort zone, right? So like when we're selling to people or talking with people, it's really not trying to sell them on a new tool. It's really trying to overcome that fear of change because again, change creates anxiety. And especially during time where things are uncertain, right? I hate to use that word now because everyone uses times of uncertainty. But things are uncertain and they wanna fall back on what their safety net is and what they're used to. If we can challenge these ways of thinking and challenge them by showing them data points that's going to help them communicate better with their donors and get that retention up and make those incremental changes like I talked about in that 10%, they're going to see the results, right? But we gotta show them and we gotta guide them. And you can't do that without data, but data doesn't lie. And that's why we're trying to just provide that as much as we can. Well, I'm super excited. I'm like so into the direction that Boomerang is taking us. You're such a leader in our market, in our sector and we are very, very appreciative of hearing what you do and how you do it. You know, I think that innovation part is an exciting thing for us because we have witnessed just the nonprofit show and having more than 500 episodes and being able to see and hear all these different voices you know, Sean, it seems to us, to Jared and I and we've amplified this a lot on the show throughout the time we feel like those that have leaned into the technology have moved ahead at such a quicker pace than those that have it. And I'm wondering if you could reflect on that have you been seeing that too? Absolutely, absolutely. I mean, it's all about challenging the status quo, right? Like if we're not innovating we're not moving forward, right? And even at Boomerang, right? We're looking at ways to add more value and make it easier for fundraisers, for managers or donors and like we're quite kindful a year and a half ago, right? And now we've got their tool sets in and their knowledge, right? To bring kind of the best of both worlds together so we can make it easier for fundraisers, right? So like we're constantly looking to innovate challenges status quo because we know there's no silver bullet in all of this and that's what's exciting, right? We can always be finding a better way to do something, right? So I think it's good to challenge ourselves and split test sometimes, have some fun with it, right? Like you don't want to neglect what we know works, right? But we also want to always be split testing something that was going to, again, move the needle in a positive direction and find that better way. And that's what we're all trying to strive for. It's just, it's to look for that next thing that's going to help, you know make an impact to these organizations. Wow, find that crystal ball. We talk about it. I think we need to brand this crystal ball. We do. Let's brand it. Let's shine the crystal ball. Sean, what are you seeing? Is that next wave of technology, innovation, disruption? What do you think it is? Is it with blooming? Is it integrations with the blooming? I'm really just open answer question here. What do you think it is? What's coming next? Here's what I think's coming next. And someone gets even here at the conference, right? You see AI, right? Yes. And people are like AI, artificial intelligence like what data? Where are they getting it from? I'm confused. Like I don't trust it. There's all I'm feeling right now like this. And that's warranted, right? But we're getting to a point where, you know the demographic of decision makers would change. Like we have new leaders and a new generation coming that is executive directors. And what they're wanting to do is they're going to want to use the tools that they want to use, right? The best of great tools that they feel like is going to, again, put that, put the organization in position to be successful. And we got to build bridges to get that data under one roof so they can make some sense of it. And then you're going to have that layer of AI that's going to be able to take all of that data, right? And look at it and say, okay, based on all of these different data points from all of these different data sources, how do I communicate with these people, right? And what is the ask that I should have? And what's the propensity to get? What's the capacity to get? Where are they located? What time of day do they get? Putting them in a position to say, okay, this person's located here and they've given at 10 a.m. historically yet, you know, on Saturday morning, whatever it is, things like that, the people don't have it. Look at that, that's coming, right? That's coming. And so that's really exciting because that's again, going to help, you know, move that needle in terms of retention and donor acquisition and all of those things. So I'm excited to see where it goes with this, but we haven't even scratched the surface. No, we haven't. So AI, I would agree, is really the next thing, artificial intelligence. Just talking to a gentleman earlier, his name is Kirk and he's going to be on the nonprofit show because I've made so many great connections talking about what's next, what's to come. You know, and he was talking about this. Why would you not invest in more people, more staff, which would really bring a return on investment? He said $17 million. Based off of this AI and that 10% adjustment. So I love that that's what your crystal ball is seeing. Yeah, we're still in that phase one of just awareness and trying to drive trust around some of these new ideas because again, you're changing, right? Like, okay, that's new to me. Like, how do I adopt something that's new and different? So it's our responsibility to provide case studies and provide stories that show the impact that it's had. Yeah. For you, you're the unknown, you know, we don't know what this is and we're so used to sending a direct mail piece, which I think are still great. I still love direct mail. That's one piece of the fundraising cycle. But it's a multi-channel approach. It has to be. It has to be. You're doing direct, you're doing email, you're doing social, you do all of those things together, right? And you're going to increase your propensity to convert these donors. And it's all about meeting them where they're at because some people use LinkedIn and others don't and some people use Instagram, some don't. So it's really just better understanding of what channels they use. Well, you know, we are thrilled that Bloomerang has been on our channel. You have been an amazing partner. We know that your product works. We have sent you customers. I know Jared is actively working with folks that use your products. And it's been really great. And you know, as anyone knows, who's ever done any conference work, the real estate inch by inch of a booth is of high value. And Bloomerang has opened up their booth to us to allow us to broadcast remotely the first time we've ever done it for two days. So we're so grateful. It's been a fabulous partnership. We're looking forward to all the new things that Bloomerang is doing and offering to our sector because we need it, my friend. Yes, yes. We need it. It's been fantastic. Thank you for being here. Oh, absolutely. We appreciate what you do. We love it. It's if you are interested in technology, how it can help your organization. Director of Sales, is that right? Mayor Sean can reach out to Bloomerang. His team is fantastic. And it's really just been, it's been great. You know, this whole spread joy and really this communal effort of how can we help? And like, it just oozes out of Bloomerang. It's got to be probably your top four values, working with people, really identifying, tell us what your challenges, your barriers are, how we might help you. You know, I was talking to one of your salespeople several years ago and they said, oh, I would also check out X, Y, and Z company. And I said, oh, are they a product of yours? No, they're a competitor. And I was like, what? Absolutely. Who does that? You know, when you know, we chose Bloomerang. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's all of my reps. Help them sell. Right? Help them sell. Help them sell. Hey, thank you so much, Sean. Thank you very much. I really appreciate it. Thanks for all you do. Thank you. Thank you. We'll see you soon. Wow. Yeah, I just heard from Sean really looking about, you know, how technology is changing. We're going to bring in now a representative from Fundraising Academy. And we have Mui here. So welcome and good morning. We gotta step back. Yeah. He's tall. I'm not tall. But yeah, so Julia Patrick, Fundraising Academy, Mui here, tell us a little bit about your role with Fundraising Academy. Yeah, it's really exciting. I just started in April. Wow. Yeah, I'm a trainer. So I did a webinar in April. We had two sessions here at AFP Icon. So it is really about teaching best practices. Fundraising Academy helps professionals who are in their career in that one to five year sweet spot. But really anybody can benefit from the content that we have. Love it. Love it so much. As you heard, you know, we've had Jackalotto on for the show several times. He's the best. The best. Tote Bell, also the best. Really great. Anna Burger, many amazing Fundraising Academy talent. What have you seen here with the conference, with the attendees? What's kind of rising to the surface? So there's a lot of excitement, of course, being in person after two years. If you can't tell, that's definitely the trend. You know, like being in person. Yeah, it's nice. Yeah, we're real. Yeah. So, you know, I've heard of people who are Chamberlain scholars from 2019 that didn't use it for virtual that the last two years they wanted to come and burst in and enjoy it. So definitely that's the energy here. You know, we had a session on handling objections and also on cultivation and stewardship. Seemed like there were over 200 people in the room. Wow. So it was just really electric to feel the energy, have the discussions with people, what's working for their organizations around those topics and really just having a deep conversation. Around the work that we do in connecting the donors with the missions and how to best deepen that relationship. Fantastic. Yeah, there's so much going on. And as you can tell, Julia and all of our viewers and listeners, you know, this will be live now, of course, but also recorded in all of our archives, Mike Geiger, AFP president was gone yesterday. And as he stated, all of the workshops, including the ones from Fundraising Academy, they're available if you registered for the conference. It doesn't mean you have to be here, but so many of those, you know, workshops are available in perpetuity. So make sure you check those out. One of the things we like to ask, and we just asked Sean here at Liberate is if you had a crystal ball, so we're gonna shine that up, right? Yeah, here it is right here. What does a crystal ball say for the future of Fundraising? What are you predicting? I think that there are going to be fundamentals that will just hold true and stay the same, you know, such as those face-to-face interactions and engagements with donors, those are always gonna be goal. You know, through the virtual space of having to engage with donors in a more safe way through the pandemic, you know, I think that will still be key. And just as effective in making the ask-in stuff, but I think those time-class effects of face-to-face meetings are gonna remain true. Some of the things that may be changing, I would say around the technology, you know, there's so many vendors here talking about AI and how that plays into your predictions and prospecting and all of the work that we do. So I'm so excited to see what that looks like. Yeah, I'm stoked for that too. Sean was a big proponent of that. I had mentioned a gentleman by the name of Kirk. He's gonna be on the nonprofit show and we're gonna get you on for a full episode. I would love to. We have to do that. If we were and we will, what is going to be your topic? What is your zone of genius that you're gonna nerd out because you brought your own nerd glasses that you're gonna nerd out about here for our listeners? I love a variety of topics when it comes to leadership and nonprofit management. One of my favorite principles is the purpose of life in Japanese called ikigai. So I'd love to talk about being your own hero, what that journey would like, taking a pursuit and career with passion and doubling down. There's so many people, especially in our industry that may not feel like they are the most compensated or respected in their job, but the perfect job is out there. Every organization will have some level of chaos, whether they're small or big or whatever challenges and constraints they have. But I really think that you can find a great job and be happy and love what you do and have great co-workers and find that rockstar team that is also purposeful with the mission alignment of what you're passionate about. So that's something that I would love to get on a cell box. Books, let's get you in. I love that. I love that. I was talking to, I talk about him often, my 11 year old son. And for some reason, we were having a soulmate conversation. And I said, do you believe in soulmates? And he goes, mom, no, there are billions of people in the world. And as you were saying this like purposeful passion role, it's almost like that soul job, that soulmate, that soul job, that soul connection, living from a place of authenticity, this place of, for me, it's be of service. I've shared before, my license plate reads be of service. And you think about where can I make a difference? And that's why we're in this sector, I believe. The Great Resonation has hit us hard. It's hit the entire nation. Yeah. I did it. It was pretty awesome. We did it. Oh my God. Just tell us about that. So in January of this year, I left my former employer. I was a chief development officer, fantastic telehealth mission, great organization. Mission was fantastic, but I was in 20 hours of meetings each week, internal. I had two part-time staff myself raising $2 million. Revenue was not an issue. It was like the org culture. It was other things that just kind of did not make it a great place to be, I felt. And I took the dip and I've been just part-time now. I traveled, I'm remote, I'm taking full advantage of it. So hopefully see me as a digital nomad, just kind of roaming these parts. That's perfect. We've seen so much of that. In fact, it's talking to AFP. There's a couple of jobs at AFP Global that are available. So many jobs open here at Bloomerang, fundraising academy, perhaps. So so many companies are truly looking for that talent and that sole connection. So I would love to have you all talk about that. Yeah. Yeah. Let's do it. Well, enjoy your journey, enjoy your experience. We're definitely gonna have you on a full episode to talk about that. Well, we could benefit. So many of our viewers will also benefit. Awesome. Thank you. All right, pleasure. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you, Ruki. Yeah, so as you can tell, there's just so much going on in here, really a lot within our sector. I'm gonna pull in the rest of the fundraising academy team. We've got all of you. We've got Pearl, we've got Tony, we've got Jack here to say hello. Hi. Hey, congratulations. I heard yesterday that, and Jack, you're gonna have to get in there. I heard yesterday that you had standing room only for some of your lectures. Yeah, it was really exciting. Pearl, what are you seeing? Are you seeing a lot of folks, like re-engaging with you for the first time or are you introducing yourself to new people? That's a great question. What do you guys think it was? It was a little bit of both, I think, so. I would say it was more reintroduction than I expected. Okay, folks who know about us or have heard about us here at ICON this year and then come to our sessions, but most of the folks I talked to, this was their first introduction of the fundraising academy. I'll be sorry, we're in shock. I see a lot of people with that first time of the time at the bottom. So that's good for, people are over the pandemic, they wanna get out. This is a great way to get together and see all the friends. And after the party last night, Julia, I would have been dancing with you all night long. Not, Jair. I know. Well, shoot, now I'm really bummed I had to stay back in our studios in Phoenix. Why have I been denied? Why have we been denied? Julia Patrick, huh? Well, you know, you can join us every day on the nonprofit show. So that's that one. I do join you every day. And I tell everybody to join you every day too. Well, you know, we are thrilled that you take your knowledge and that you spread it. We talk about this all the time, Jared and I, but if I know my community would have been better if I knew your skills 30 years ago, not just me, but my community, I would have been able to do more fundraising build more bridges and do so in a sustainable way. And so we are always thrilled when we have any of your talent on the nonprofit show. And I think it's because we are learning as you are speaking, you know, it's been really fun. And I'm thrilled that you're there sharing your amazing knowledge to so, so many people. I really hope you have a great rest of your show. Thanks for letting us have this shared experience. Yes, good to see you Julia. Live from AFB Icon. Be well everyone. Thank you. Thank you. Fundraising Academy, Bloomerang, so many amazing individuals, talents. You're welcome to keep the nerd glasses. Yes. So really looking at, you know, what's to come. We already heard next year AFB Icon is going to be in New Orleans. So make sure that you circle that on your calendar and really get that going. As we sign off, just want to say thank you again to Bloomerang who's been fantastic to work with. Really truly, as you said Julia, you know, this is prime space here. They've really been generous. Spreading joy, hashtag spread joy. Fantastic. So thanks for allowing me to be live here in the showroom. There's so much going on. I'm going to head over to Fundraise to do another podcast with them at 10.30. So a lot's happening. Thank you. Well, hey, thank you, Jarrett. It has been remarkable. It's really exciting to see how supportive our sector is and all the great things. And we are supported every day by an amazing cadre of supporters and sponsors. And again, Bloomerang, we have been broadcasting from their booth which is absolutely amazing. We want to make sure that we thank our friends, your part-time controller. Of course, the nonprofit nerd herself, Bloomerang Fundraising Academy, Staffing Boutique, the nonprofit Atlas and nonprofit thought leader. And as we end this episode, we end every episode with this. Stay well so you can do well. We'll see you back here tomorrow.