 Hello and welcome, we are so grateful to have you here for another episode of the nonprofit show. Today our guest is Dominic calms which I'm probably going to refer to as Dom at the entire episode, but Dominic is the founder and CEO of be generous. He's been on the show with us just one time before so I'm excited to get more information from him. He's a wicked smart guy he's got so much great insight and information to share with us in the sector. In particular today's episode is about economic change and the impact that it might have with our donors so before we dive deep with you Dom we want to remind our viewers and our listeners who we are so I'm Jared ransom your nonprofit nerd CEO of the raven group, and I am grateful for Julia Patrick who created this American nonprofit Academy platform called the nonprofit show. She's taking a much needed week off and I hope that she is resting well and getting back up to speed because we have a lot happening. We also want to give shout outs to our amazing presenting sponsors, including Dom and his company be generous. But we also want to say thank you to blooming American nonprofit Academy fundraising Academy at the National University again be generous. Your part time controller staffing boutique nonprofit thought leader and the nonprofit nerd. These companies keep us going and growing but better than that. We're here for you. They're here to elevate your mission they're here to support you. So look into them research them contact them because they are all fantastic. We've already done the benchmark test and we approve so thumbs up to these amazing sponsors for sure. I also want to remind you that you know if you're bored this weekend and you've got the trip to fan kind of going on, you can go in and watch many of our episodes all of our episodes on Roku YouTube, Amazon Fire TV, as well as Vimeo and for those of you that are podcasters and maybe you want to walk off that turkey. Go ahead and listen to the nonprofit show wherever you stream your podcast because we are on the podcast form as well. You've been waiting so patiently and I know that's probably really hard for you because you've got high energy and I always love nerding out with you but Dominic calms founder CEO at be generous and for those of you that are listening. Check out be generous.com it's just the letter be and then generous.com so welcome Dom. Thank you so much for having me. It's great to be with me. It's great to have you and we've nerded out beyond the nonprofit show so I've gotten a lot of taste of you and really enjoy what you bring to the sector, your energy your passion. So for those of you that are watching and listening I would love for Dom to share a little bit about yourself and then of course about this platform be generous. Yeah, so I was born in Asia, I was born in Hong Kong, kind of interesting and then grew up in London, England, and eventually made my way to the US ended up at University and grad school New York City, and ended up on Wall Street after graduate school at Columbia University I didn't love it. So I was on Wall Street for a few years. And I thought there's got to be more to life than this and so I ended up going to the public sector, and I was a political aid to the Afghanistan ambassador during the war in Afghanistan which was incredibly fascinating, and was an associate in the chairman's office of the Senate Finance Committee, which was very, very cool so I moved to Washington DC I worked in the United States Senate on Capitol Hill for the chairman of the finance committee so we were doing some interesting work during the first Obama administration. And, you know, ultimately decided that maybe there was a way that I could combine the dynamism the resources of the private sector with the promise of the public sector which is to improve the conditions of the world somehow. And I thought well that would be where I want to sort of have my career. And so I found myself at this very niche intersection of profit and purpose. So, where I've really spent my last 10 years is building private technology companies that are traditionally backed by investors and venture capital money, but that build products to create efficiencies in the largest underserved sector finance in the world, which is the US philanthropic market. And all these companies philtech companies philanthropy technology companies kind of a play on fintech but we are a philtech company so I'm currently running my third philtech company called be generous and that that's a little bit about my story. I love it and I love what you do. Excited to join forces forces with you as well to get more people you know on this platform, the donate now the pay later methods so excited for that and thank you for sharing more about yourself. We dive deep really you know when it comes to the economy and donors and as we move forward into 23 but talk to us Tom a little bit about what are the current donors and the giving trends that you're seeing and just, you know, far and why talk to us about this. Yeah, it's not great. So I don't just say that because our product solves this problem so yeah shameless plug, but also if you look at the giving trends they're not great so. Kiva just did a study the micro lending platform and concluded that most donors say they're going to give less this giving season and 44% of them cited lack of funds, which makes a lot of sense you know consumer spending is growing at a related rate only grew 2% in the first nine months of this year inflation obviously was running at 8% at one point which is eroding the purchasing power of most Americans and 41% of Americans now reports struggling to buy basic goods on a monthly basis 41% you know one of every two people so I think you know most nonprofit should expect a tighter season this year, having said that you know, even in recessions and debatable if we're in one or not but even in recessions charitable giving doesn't normally go down very much so it's somewhat inelastic charitable giving. Now it does go down on average about half of the point during a recession but that's not a sizable dip compared to a lot of other industries which can see the decline of 1020% in some cases. So Americans are very philanthropic Americans like to give Americans do give an extraordinary high levels. But I think this year with consumer spending where it's at, and people's perceptions of the economy, which does influence their spending habits, and at the same time inflation where it is. You know there's been obviously a lot of mass layoffs in the tech sector in particular, but that news sort of ripples throughout the economy, the meltdown of FTX the crypto exchange and others. I think that Americans will probably not give as much this year as they traditionally do. And you know, I mean to be honest with you that's why products like the generous and donate now pay later are so helpful to nonprofits, and why so many nonprofits have adopted our product because it actually actually genuinely solves this problem. And when obviously when I started the company two years ago I wasn't anticipating a recession. But this product, what we created donate now pay later actually solves this problem we're talking about so we can get into that later but that's my thought on on kind of donations. Yeah, no thank you and and at the end of this episode we're going to ask you to pull out that crystal ball because I knew you had one because you could forecast this you know two years ago to say hey this. This is what we need. And I just have to say personally Dom you know, I'm getting emails almost daily from vendors and you know people that I do business with that are announcing their pay increase or their rate increase I should say for next year. And I am feeling that sting and it's like, it's just, it's inevitable fear, and I just have to name it I have to you know kind of own that and witness to everyone because when those emails hit my inbox, I immediately am like, Okay, you know but it like it like insights a little bit of fear, a little bit of uncertainty and so at the end of the year. Here we are q for 20, you know 2022. This is giving season and we have, we have trained our society to give the majority of their giving and these final months and yet also the recipient of inflation. Totally totally I mean, yeah it's it's not great you know 40% of all donations come in November December with five to 8% coming in the last day of the year which is incredible and obviously giving Tuesday is a is a big giving day as well so you know we are running at you over 6% inflation right now and it remains to be seen if the fed can get that under control but I mean that really will erode purchasing power if 41% of Americans saying they're struggling buying basic goods and the price of certain foods for example about 1520% rent is up significantly across the country. I mean home prices haven't majorly corrected yet so I think most Americans are going to be thinking about themselves this year and you know we can understand that right we got to put food on the table and got to be able to put gas in the car whatever it might be and not necessarily thinking about how much can I give away right now. And you know as much as that's tough to hear you know given that we're both in the nonprofit sector. I mean it's understandable in a certain in a certain respect right I think it's clear that Americans want to give more. In fact, Fidelity charitable created this wrote this great report called overcoming barriers to charitable giving. They pulled American donors last year. And they concluded that about 72% of American donors said they want to give more, but are constrained by their current cash position or liquidity right. So even more impetus for starting be generous and donate now pay later because again it really solves a problem like that but yeah I mean Americans are philanthropic and want to give but I think some are constrained by their ability to really do so. Yeah, and I love the platform that you created and I always anytime I talk about it Tom I say, you know when you go online and you purchase clothing maybe a pair of shoes and it says, Okay, do you want to pay for all of this purchase right now, or do you want to pay over time but you're still going to get the shoes in the mail. Right. And so it's the same concept and I just kind of bake it down to that level because you know if this is the current donor trends and giving trends that we're seeing. It begs the question will donors try new giving portals bring this economic change something like be generous. What are you seeing in that space. The answer is is that I always like to say the proof is in the pudding right so let's look at our trajectory we launched two months ago. We were expecting to sign maybe a few nonprofits between now and the end of the year it's giving season it's busy season. We've signed almost 100 nonprofits in like a couple of weeks including some really big ones, like for example, Peter, people for the ethical treatment of animals which is really big obviously, and core, which is one of the largest organizations in the country, and the Jewish Federation of Massachusetts and beat a week. And I mean I just go on and on and on. So, the point is that there are certainly demand for our product, our product works incredibly well. And we have received over in just in just a few weeks $75,000 of donation loan requests from small dollar donors so it is it is working and it is working well. And, you know, we obviously for those who don't know we've created the first ever philanthropic credit product which instead of allowing somebody to buy now pay later, allow somebody to donate now and pay later so exactly what you said, the nonprofit gets the donation upfront right away immediately, but the donor doesn't have to spend any money out of pocket, and instead the donor pays for that donation over three six or nine months, completely for free. No transaction costs, no, no late fees no hidden fees no interest payments nothing like that so you just taking your donation spreading it out over three six or nine months, but we'll send the nonprofit the money today. I love it one of the things I talked to my clients about is, you know the power of the sustaining donor. And if we look at $1,000 as a gift an annual gift that is broken down to $83 and 33 cents per month right so if we're talking to donors and they want to give more, perhaps they want to move from 500 and double that to 1000, you know what does that look like on that monthly basis so that hopefully we can, you know, have them give more as they wish because as you said, 70 71% said that they wanted to give more as they were giving, but the reality is, you know, as I even mentioned the inflation, the fear of the unknown, the economic turmoil, we're also talking about a campaigning season and anything politics kind of, you know, jumps into the philanthropy space as well so I love that you're having great success on this Dom and I'm not surprised. Well, thank you. I appreciate that. I appreciate that. Yeah, it's been, it's been delightful to be honest with you. I mean, look, you know, we, you know, 50% of all donors in America are on a monthly giving plan. So donors are comfortable we know donors are comfortable giving monthly just because you look at the data. The problem with monthly giving really is twofold one, not all nonprofits can afford to have money drip in over the course of each month because they a lot of nonprofits need the liquidity now you know half of all nonprofits have less than one month of cash reserves on hand half right so a lot of nonprofits need the money now and the other benefit which is this is the biggest drawback I mean drawback excuse me is according to guide star 50% of donors who signed up to give monthly don't make it to the first year, they drop out right so there maybe it's a credit card expiration maybe it's a plaid link, you know breaks for their ACH account maybe they just cancel it might be. And so nonprofit it's not necessarily reliable revenue because 50% of people are canceling, according to guide star for whatever reason then that's a huge drop off rate, and then nonprofits have a choice that we just let it go or do we pay for expensive overhead to try to then collect and try to actually get people back on. So the difference between that in our product is that from our standpoint, non donors from our product donors. This is a monthly gift from our donor, whether it's $19 on a sustainer model or $19 a month on our model, it's the same thing money coming out of your account every month no fees or anything like that. The difference for the donor is they'll get the full tax deduction right away. So if it's $100 times 12, they'll get $1,200 tax deduction today, although they don't actually spend any money. And the biggest benefit for the nonprofit, and this is a big benefit is that even if the donor stops paying, the nonprofit gets all the money up front. And of course we don't claw it back or anything like that. So if I signed up to give $100 a month and to let's just say PETA one of our clients and PETA gets $1,200 right. And then I decide on month three I'm not going to pay anymore. PETA has nothing to do with PETA PETA already has the money. Right so in a normal sustainer model, PETA would be out effectively $900 in that instance right and they wouldn't get they would literally have lost $900 if I canceled on the third month. Whereas in this opportunity to donate now pay later, PETA gets $1,200 and they get it now. So it's, you know, it's a it's a good model, it's a good model. It's a great model. And I loved your story to you had. I think the first episode Don you shared about a gala or gala. Where someone wanted to buy this, I think it was like an electric guitar and they were like well we can't wasn't you were you sitting next to the guy and you're like I was yeah, I just love that so okay we're not going to tell the entire story because I want people to go back to that story. It was a good one. But I think that's you know it's it's phenomenal so. Okay, now's the time to pull up that crystal ball. So shine it up pull it out because clearly you're the one that had it two years ago to start, you know the But what is your crystal ball forecast moving you know closing up this year moving into 2023. There's a lot of uncertainty there's a lot of unsettled individuals. What are you forecasting in the philanthropy space for the new year. I think the number of donors overall will be slightly down this year the number of donors, but I think there will be a net increase in total donations. So when you see the numbers that are going to come out probably toward the middle of next year right they always do them six months later so when the numbers come out, you know six months later so you're talking about kind of middle of next year for 2022. And I think they'll show a net increase in the total amount donated, but a reduction in the overall number of donors so if you look last year, about $484 billion was donated to nonprofits. And about 75% of Americans gave that's kind of the general statistic. I think this year you'll see that 484 go up it'll maybe be closer like 494 92 something in that range I don't think it'll be much higher than that. The overall percentage of Americans who give will be in like the mid 60s. So what that effectively means is that wealthier Americans will give more, and people who cannot afford to give as much will probably drop out of giving this year or give or give less is what I'm predicting. No, I would say you're right and I want to say like you heard it here first you know like a quote Dom on this forecast for next year. I think you're right there's a lot of money out there and so what I want to encourage people is don't stop asking right the people that have the money to give and the propensity to give they will give. And I think the worst thing you can do is to sit on the sidelines or push that pause button and I think we both know Dom there are a lot of organizations that did that in 2020, and they might have closed their doors by now. Well, what's crazy is that there was a net increase in giving during cobit like, like everything else right when cobit first sort of came to the United States everything dipped consumer spending films of course because nobody what the hell was going on everyone thought, you know this is the end of the time forever so to philanthropic giving in that first quarter where cobit slammed into the US, it precipitate precipitate drop just like everything else though, but then, if you look over the last two years, give there was a net positive, I think it was 6 to 7% net increase and philanthropic giving during that cobit period which means exactly what you said, which is that those who can afford to get stepped up and gave more and also with the growth of donor advise funds, which have you know almost $200 billion of assets under a million dafts in this country that has also spurred philanthropic giving so I think I think that's right nonprofits should not sit on the sidelines. And you know there are there are lots of innovative products like donate now pay later and be generous and others that can that can allow donors to give without stressing their bank account I mean that's literally our motto it be generous. So allow donors to give what they want to give, not what they're constrained to give, and it's no cost to them. So to your point a moment ago, the donor who normally gives maybe 100 bucks might now say, well I can give $200 because it's only going to cost me $20 a month. Right for 10 months as an example, but the nonprofits going to get $200 now. So it's like a win win for everybody you know so I think I do agree with you I don't nonprofit shouldn't sit on the sidelines. Okay, is now a good time to ask about your end of year campaign that you're offering for be generous, as I've seen it on LinkedIn and I know we've got a time to connect as well but tell our viewers and listeners what be generous is offering, offering my apologies for the end of your campaign. Yeah, absolutely. So we're doing an exciting end of year campaign, we're matching, we're matching donations so we're basically going to try to give away essentially up to a million dollars of matching donations for our clients who use donate now pay later. So we have a bunch of clients as I mentioned who use donate now pay later and we're essentially going to double up their donations that they raise between now and the end of the year at no additional costs so there's no strings attached there's no cost to any of this. You know $100 on donate now pay later will make it $200. So we will match dollar for dollar up to a certain cap, depending on the size of your organization and like I said there's no strings attached. It's just straight matching grant. Yeah, no I love that. And it's something that you know I really think we need to look into because I just I love the model so much. We did have a viewer asked you know hey what was this last episode that Dom was on so I, I just diverted my eyes to our spreadsheet so it was episode 643 but it was on October the fifth so it was, you know how fintech can be used for good in the nonprofit space and so Dom was on his inaugural episode for us it was October the fifth so you can go back and take a look at that you can hear the gala story. I love it I like to do a lot of MC events for our MC services for galas, and I always plug it I'm like you know if you had this service. I mean totally right I mean that you know we won't give away the whole story but basically the gist of it is, somebody wanted to purchase something through a charitable auction at a big black tie gala. They basically were stressed out about how much they wanted to donate and I said you could do this doing donate not pay later, and the guy was like, I can, I can make this charitable contribution now but it's not going to cost me any money. The nonprofit gets gets the donation I'll get the guitar because it was guitar like you said, I could pay for this over the course of a year at no cost to me and I'm like yeah he's like oh it's a no braider. So he got these so he bid it on the guitar and he got it, and it cost him nothing and he gets to segment those costs over the course of a year, but of course he got the guitar and the nonprofit got the donation. It's, it's so fantastic so well thanks for all you do, Julie and I are actually looking at crystal balls because clearly we need to invest in the crystal ball method and the forecasting of this. I'm just hearing what you're forecasting and I do think you're right so if I was a betting woman I would put a bet on on your forecast for sure. But again, Dominic calms founder CEO with be generous. Check him out and chances are he could be in your neighborhood or your community he's got a very lofty travel schedule coming up, and then do check out the website be generous.com donate now pay later fill tech company doing some really, really great work. And again, Julie and I are always so grateful to have amazing rock stars like yourself Dom join us in the conversation. We are coming up on our 700th episode right around Christmas day, but we couldn't do it without the support of you Dom at be generous so thank you so very much, and also to our other amazing rock star sponsors which include blamering American nonprofit Academy fundraising Academy at National University, again be generous. Your part time controller staffing boutique nonprofit thought leader and the nonprofit nerd. It's a good time to check out these companies because they really are here to help you elevate your mission in around and throughout your communities. So please do check them out you won't regret it again we've added them thumbs up from us they're they're awesome. You'll hear more from Dom and our other sponsors, moving into the new year so thank you Dom it's it's always a pleasure. I know we're wrapping up a little early but we fit a lot into this conversation. And as we talked about before I think some people still need to hit the grocery store so maybe we'll give them a little bit more time. Absolutely it's a pleasure being with you always thanks for having me on and thanks for giving us the opportunity to talk about what we built and how it can help nonprofits. And I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving and I hope everybody has a nice Thanksgiving. Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for all you do it's always fun to nerd out with you and other rock stars with the same mindset that are innovative and disruptive so thank you for being who you are very grateful. And for those of you that have joined us so glad to have you here, another fantastic episode of the nonprofit show. This is it for the week so that's a wrap for the week we're going to be enjoying our family our friends are turkey. The rest of the week so join us back on Monday, but get some rest and until then, we ask you to stay well, so you can do well. Thanks everyone.