 Welcome and thank you so much to each and every one of you that have chosen to spend your time with us on this Friday. Again, October the one October the one October one. So, if you joined us in the green room chatter you learned that we're celebrating a bit today for some personal milestones. But again, we are so grateful to our presenting sponsors their companies stand and exist for you to help you do more good in and throughout your communities, no matter where you are so these companies are loyal to the nonprofit sector. Most of them exclusively serving the nonprofit sector and are really here to help you to continue to navigate your mission driven goals forward so thank you to our sponsors. And thank you to Julia Patrick, CEO of the American nonprofit Academy. For those of you that are loyal guest. Thank you for for joining us you know that she roped me into this by saying it'll only be a two week stent and we're actually coming up on two years so our survey will come out soon so that we can start to collect and gather demographic data from each and every one of you around the nation so we can continue to better serve you through our episodes. I'm Jarrett Ransom, also known as your nonprofit nerd CEO of the Raven group. Julia tries to claim me most days but there is plenty of me to go around in this in this nerdy brain so I am excited to totally nerd out with you Julia because, as those of you that have joined us on a regular basis Friday is reserved for our ask and answered, we're so grateful to have fundraising Academy, cause selling education underwriting these Friday shows now our Friday shows. I think Tony Bell will definitely endorse that because he seems like a fun Friday guy as well so again thank you. This is one of our most favorite days of the week. And Julia, I'm excited. Well, I am too because Charlene from Miami, Florida has written in. We've had issues getting some jobs filled, particularly with our critical development staff. What do you think about hiring out of state CFREs. That's very, okay, fascinating. We are really confused about this. So, okay, wow. First of all, Charlene, I got a witness to you. I never thought I would live in a point in time when things would be so challenging or different that we would actually talk about hiring new staff for development that was out of state. That's like a pretty big deal. That's a big deal. Talk about innovation. Talk about finding a solution to the challenge. So kudos to you Charlene. I'm going to dive in and say, you know, fundraising Academy does offer so many amazing CFRE support services and resources, in particular our friend Jack Alotto, who is with fundraising Academy. I would really say Charlene, it doesn't necessarily have to be a CFRE, but I would really look at that development professional. A couple of nuances here that you're going to want to consider. When you hire someone out of state that HR policies reside in the state in which they reside. If you're hiring someone outside of Florida, and you're let's say Georgia, South Carolina, one of those surrounding states, the HR policies, so you'll want to, you'll want to consult either your HR team, your HR contract consultant. And those employment law, it will go with the state in which the person resides. So I am by no means an HR professional, but I have learned that through our friend Sky Mercer through LinkedIn and she's she's very, you know, very resourceful shares a lot of information on LinkedIn. But I would really look at what is your timeline for this person are you looking for a temporary person because it's q for end of year or is this more of your permanent solution. So those are a couple of thoughts that I'm, I'm thinking about I think also a contract employee or a consultant because also come in regardless of where they might be in the nation, many of us are working remotely. Many of us have worked remotely prior to the pandemic, and even more so now since the pandemic, because simply Charlene it's it's just more thought of just like you're considering this. Julia. That's what I've got. What do you have. Well, I don't have anything as masterful as that. Okay, next question. I can't beat that. My only thought would be if, if and when you do have in person things and you have that sense that your development team needs to be on site. I mean, you, from Miami, you're right if you choose somebody that's going to be in one of those adjoining states, it's still a travel, but it's not as bad as hiring somebody from let's say, Montana or Wyoming or Washington State where the cost of getting them to your campus or to your event is going to be pretty significant. But I guess Jared, it just, and again, for those of you who don't know, we're exactly 20 years apart in age almost to the week. Guess who's older. Clearly, I am. I invested in some really good makeup. Yes. I'm just, my thought is, you know, I, in development to me, Jared, it's such a personal relationship. And it's such a hands on relationship. And so I just think you've got to be a really good manager. I mean, I mean, and not just managing the employee but managing the process. And that employee that you hire has to be able to manage themselves and manage working remotely. It's a new dawn. And it could be really exciting. But wow, I'm just like blown away by this question. Me too. And one of the things you can consider Charlene, I don't know if you are local locally serving or if you're, you know, if you're more vast in your geographic scope, you could see where the majority of your constituents lie outside of this main area. And perhaps that would be an opportunity to consider. For instance, there's many regional offices where there is a headquarter in one state. And then there are staff or employees in various states throughout that particular region. And now with the pandemic, a lot of people have relocated or moved into another community. So you could actually stay connected with your constituency base if you're able to geographically pinpoint perhaps where this potential growth and employment opportunity is. You know, that's smart. I when the minute you said that I like think of were our universities, university systems have done a really great job at this of figuring out where their alumni ultimately go and even down to private, you know, high schools, the same thing. So yeah, Charlene, you need to get back to us sister and let us know how this journey goes. Absolutely fascinated. Okay, Stephen from Denver, Colorado writes in and he asked, because anyone out there seeing a reduction in professional services and businesses, reducing their pro bono work. You see, this is a question that we've kind of had before. It's like the pro bono discussion is coming back up which it always does in a changing economy. It seems that business for so many is booming. And that means they're not willing to support nonprofits like they once did. Yeah. So in a non turning economy, especially if construction is is really impacted, you will see those organizations that can or that have the deep pockets, invest in pro bono projects to keep their some of their teams together, because I don't know how hard it is to reassemble them once they've let them go. But yeah, Jared, I got to believe, I've got to believe that this is so hard that companies are like, pardon me, I, I don't have the staff. Right, send out to do a volunteer project because we're working we're working overtime we don't have enough employees. Right. The capacity simply isn't there. I mean, when we look right now Steven at the workforce, you know, across the nation, we know that the workforce is limited. And so really looking at the capacity of the current staff, many individuals and I think regardless of sector, because I'm curious, you know, in particular what professional services you are interested in. Perhaps it's printing perhaps it's marketing. I'm not quite sure what that looks like. Maybe it's, I don't know, janitorial services, I'm really not sure. But I think it really depends, as Julia said on the economy, I think it depends on the sector. But I would also be willing, you know, to ask Steven if, if it's not pro bono, is there any type of grace or financial concessions that they would be willing, you know, to provide so I think that is usually, you know, always on the table when it comes to nonprofit. I struggle with that a little because of the scarcity mindset. Right. And so I feel like too often nonprofits we we think in this a little bit entitlement stage that we are a nonprofit therefore we work with very little, but we're really trying to change that paradigm and to come from this place of abundance. We are a business, we are a tax exempt business, but we are still a business seeking a profit. So I struggle personally with that Julia as you know, because I really don't want to continue to perpetuate this scarcity mindset. Right. And I think too you get what you pay for. I know that sounds trite. But I think that in a pro bono situation sometimes it sounds good up front but ultimately it doesn't always work well for everybody so I'm a big believer in a reduction of fees and it can be a dang near pro bono to the business owner that it's such a deep discount that it seems, you know, like, I'm not making money I'm not covering the cost whatever, but it's still there is a transactional nature involved that builds accountability. Yeah, I think we're going to see this funny you mentioned transaction because I'm thinking in particular this is a wonderful opportunity to see your return on relationship. So, regardless of whom you're partnering with year after year Stephen I'm thinking again marketing services, or that if this is an annual partnership, I would seek these opportunities in a greater bigger way, as opposed to, we now need this one item done, who can serve this in a pro bono capacity rather I would look at the full year to see what are these partnerships. I know here in our community there are very large corporations that may offer marketing as part of their presenting sorry, printing I want to say as part of their presenting sponsorships. For instance, if you have programs for an event or something this particular company will say send that to us and our printing shop on staff will cover this for you so I'm going to say also look at the greater picture as opposed to this transaction. Let's look at this return on relationship. What are these companies individuals and leaders in your community that you can champion and build on your relationship. Yeah, I like that. I like that. I think, Jared, before we move on to the next question, that's a more holistic, healthy approach, as opposed to stop gap measure. Yes, that's the thing we need to be moving our nonprofits, more towards strategic thinking and not just knee jerk reaction. Absolutely. I mean, yeah. Okay, next question comes to us from Orange County. And you know, this is one of my favorites when it's name with help to be dicey. Okay, we have a CEO who's wanting us to get her on podcasts. While we don't really have a marketing communication department. This task is falling on the stress development team. But of course, any suggestions. Is this even a good idea or use of our time. If you're fishing to be here with us on the nonprofit show, you are more than welcome any of you are welcome to submit an entry on American nonprofit Academy calm as well as the nonprofit show calm that's probably a better URL. What I recommend here is to really, again, instead of knee jerk reaction. What is your strategy, what are you wanting to do who who are the markets that you're you're wanting to be a part of. There are so many podcasts right now. In addition, there's webinars. And so, you know, and then we, I believe Julia are the only national broadcast. The nonprofit sector. So I would create your strategy and I would say this goes right along with your marketing communication strategy. And then I would put it out into your community your board members and volunteers, because so many of us know people that are producing podcast in particular I think those are a dime a dozen right now. And you can probably find some opportunities but again, why, why are you looking for this what what is your end goal how will you use the recording. Is it with your right target audience there's a lot to consider. There really isn't and I think sometimes, you know, a CEO, a CEO goes out and looks around at their peer group and then they're like, oh my god, I'm the only one that's not doing podcasts. And then they come back to the office and they're like, I got to get, you know, I got to get hooked up. Well, you're right you need to have a strategy and this is the reality is, you don't need to be preaching to the choir. You don't need to be telling your story to the people that already know it, or that are sector oriented, unless it's self serving. But it would be better off to get your story told on the evening newscast for in front of your community that might not know you. That's right. I mean, yeah, I, I agree man this is almost like a theme today and that is being strategic and not knee jerk. Well, you know, I think for so long now, we, we, all of us have really been trying to navigate the unknown, and we've by default, had to react instead of, you know, be able to proactively create a plan. And I feel like now, name withheld Orange County, we are able to start focusing on the future, even though it's still uncertain, but focus on the future in a more sustainable and strategic manner. And I think that will actually serve all of us and hopefully you'll see greater results when your CEO is able to serve, perhaps on these podcasts. And I would say that while you're probably like so many of us in the nonprofit sector and budgeting, get a budget for a marketing communication contractor. Oh my gosh, I mean, this should be what you're worrying about and not whether or not your CEO is getting on podcasts. I mean, that's a big, big deal. Sorry, but I'm not, I guess I'm into shaming our viewers today. No, you have your publishing hat on it's wonderful because that is your genius zone and you have many years of experience and expertise. I do far too many to count. Okay, now we have another question that's come in and this is a, this is an interesting question. I'm thinking that we had this question. I think that this question came in to us a year ago, not this question but a question similar to it. And the question is this the nonprofit nerd Jared ransom gave a percentage breakdown of where an organization should derive their funds. Can she please repeat this. Yes, I could. Um, so yes, and Julia you're always so good to have me, you know, repeat this when it does come up in conversation. So kind of the magic percentage that we're looking at here Janelle is no more than 30% so up to 30% in grant revenue and 75% should be made up of individuals. So your individuals could give through the vehicle of an event of a direct mail of all these other opportunities. But you really want to have the majority of your pie of this pie chart made up of individuals right there's many other you could have event revenue you could have. Yes, I did. So, but the two big pieces that I like to share is, you know, 75% or the majority of your of your income your revenue should be made up of individuals, and then no more than 30%, maybe 35% if you want to push the limits made up of grant revenue and so those are your two main segments that you want to focus on. But again, there's there's other, you know, areas. I think it's giving USA is that the resource Julia that every year comes out with report of how much money was given through foundations how much money was giving through individuals. So I keep my finger on the pulse of that report, each and every year because it does show you how these numbers shift in shape, depending on the economy. In fact, last year, our philanthropy dollars were up. And I have heard that that is probably the case as well for this year. Again, as you all know we're in our Q for final push, where another number I'm going to throw out about 30% of all operating dollars are raised in these final four months. It's stunning and you know I think one of the things of the giving USA report. This talks about every year. One of the things really interesting is they track the nine main nonprofit sector is giving what and how it's shifting and going up and going down and for like 20 years it didn't change in the last five to eight years it's been changing. But, one of the things that it talks about is what that corporate dope philanthropic dollar looks like and what those corporate donations look like. And it's always at about 5%. It's not a lot. So I think a lot of nonprofits just think oh well we're going to go to the biggest bank in town or the biggest employer or you know that's where we'll derive you know the big chunk of change. It's not the case. Yeah. So yeah, I appreciate that you you said that Jared and I think that's really smart now when you're doing your budgeting would you suggest that an organization does this at the same time, so that they know what their like to target their revenue and actually set goals within that. So you would look back in fact at the last three years of your history, I would pull hopefully you have a pretty robust CRM customer or client relationship management software like blue meringue to help you with that. So you would have that history of the last three years that will show you the breakdown of your revenue where it's come in from. I know a lot of organizations, you know, receive government funding as well. I just received a PPP. And there's been, you know, many other revenue sources over the last 18 months. So that might skew your numbers a bit but I would go to your, your analytics, go three years back, see what has been tracking and trending and from that data, strategic, make a strategic decision to forecast next year to help set your goals. So this be the sort of information that would go on the CEO dashboard for board members or the development director or absolutely to me. It needs, you need to do the work but then you need to keep communicating at monthly. Absolutely. And then I also like to see this dashboard. So if you go further with the finance department and the finance committee or team to see when are these dollars forecasted right so you're seeing q1234. And so if you know that you have a big event, and that is your main money maker happening in, I don't know, let's say September or October, then you can forecast based off of your previous three years how much money has come prior for this event. You can see if you have direct mail pieces how many of those are you sending and and forecast that so you can start to see a true cash flow. That's a great opera. Well I shouldn't say true it's a forecasted cash flow. Yes, and then you can also share that with your, your board, right so that one of the things that we've been talking about in particular, with your part time controller that we did a power week with them is really about, you know, looking at your budget on a quarterly basis. So let's set our budget but let's go back and review these financials quarterly. So this information this data will not only help you forecast but it'll also help you change any potential forecasting that you may have based off of the information. This is when I get super nerdy and I'm sure some of you have already glossed over and you're like, I don't even know what she's talking about. So, I think it's really good because I'll tell you the sitting on the other side of the desk and that is, we're so many boards that I sat on, you know that meeting where the accounting team comes in or the finance team comes in and they do their annual report. I think it's just a crime eating because it was like the last, you know, was like how we ended the year, and then you're just sitting there a trying to figure out what the hell happened, and hoping that you understand everything, but powerless to make any changes or any generative discussion. So I like what you said because then it gets everybody in the moment and involved in saying, Look, we need to stop worrying about how many paper clips that we're ordering and talk about, you know, Well, and the board plays a critical role in this so keeping the board apprised of the CEO dashboard. Where are we to date what if we forecasted what's the reality of reaching that forecast. Now the board as advocates in the community can advocate towards the bottom line again, we're tax exempt but we still should be profit focused. Because the more profit the more service the more we can pay our rock star staff, all staff, and the more we can serve our communities so really moving to this profit focused is what I hope many of us are doing because we would love to exceed our revenue. Yeah, oh my gosh, absolutely. Well, you know, you probably, you were like I was just looking for the percentages. Maybe in 75 those are the two that you want to you want to keep close to you. And if you want to go down that rabbit hole with me, you know, reach out. Well you are the nonprofit nerd, and that is what we are very, very happy about because once again, we got some great answers to our Friday episode. Wow, Jared ransom. This has been a really amazing season, moving up to this final push. Hard to believe it's October 1. My husband made the comment to me is like you know we try we hurry up so fast to get, get through the summer get through the summer and then all of a sudden the falls here and then we're just like, shoot, what happened you know, that's right. Thank you for your words of wisdom today because so many of us in the nonprofit sector we're entering that frightening, exhilarating, stressful time of year and where a lot of the magic happens. It's a critical time. It's a critical time for our sector but it's a critical time also for us individually because many of us, you know, we either look forward to are we dread the holiday season. The nonprofit sector is, you know, very dependent on these final, you know, few months of the year. So I hate to say make or break you but it really it's a really critical time so I would also love to advocate for many of you to use this weekend or most of you can to rest and recharge as often as you can, because the hustle and grind is not sustainable but for you to be able to show up and produce and do your work efficiently effectively throughout these final months right of the year, because it's a marathon, it's definitely a marathon, but it goes, it goes by like a sprint. And I appreciate you, you know, closing us out this day and this week and in this quarter and starting a new month with that wisdom that that's brilliant Jared. You know, for those of you watching, we don't have a script, we don't practice this what you see is very, very organic and authentic and we come to this with a lot of different pieces in our lives and backgrounds. And so that's, that's really cool that's like one of those magical moments Jared thank you for sharing that because truer words have never been spoken. Hey everybody thank you again for sharing this day this week this month this year. And a big thanks to our sponsors they've been here from the beginning, and like Jared said you know pretty much every single one of these businesses that you see are just dedicated to the nonprofit sector so it's just dang dang exciting because you've got amazing professionals in your corner. Wow. Okay Jared, we ended strong but we're starting strong next week, lots of amazing guests, and it's going to be a rock and roll in October. I am looking forward to it and again thank you to fundraising Academy for underwriting and sponsoring our Friday ask and answered. It's a lot of fun. And yes, next week is chocked full so make sure that you you receive our emails because Sunday, you will get the lineup and again I hope everyone enjoys your weekend and happy October. Happy October and as we like to end every episode of the nonprofit show. We want to remind you to stay well. So you can do well. We'll see you back here on Monday everyone. Thanks Jared.