 to the nonprofit show. We are so glad you're here. I am live in Nashville raise one cause conference day two of the conference. Really excited to be here. You know the conference itself has just shy of 600 individuals and everyone has brought their energy to really be a fearless fundraiser. I also want to say thank you to Julia Patrick that created this amazing platform, the nonprofit show. Julia is the CEO of the American nonprofit academy and I'm chair ransom your nonprofit nerd and CEO of the Raven group. We also want to give a huge shout out of gratitude because whether we are live on conference floors or in our home studios, we always have the support of our amazing presenting sponsors. So thank you to Bloomerang, American nonprofit academy, your part time controller, nonprofit thought leader, fundraising academy at national university. Also thank you to staffing boutique, nonprofit nerd as well as nonprofit tech talk. These are the companies day in and day out that stay with us to help produce nearly 900 episodes. So I want to say it's October the 10th. We are coming up on our 900th episode. So again, thank you to our partners. If you missed any of our prior episodes or you hear about some of our guests that are on today and you want to listen to them again, you can find us on an app. So go ahead and download the app. If you're watching the show today, you can scan that QR code. You can also find us on streaming broadcast and as well as the podcast platform. So we are around here for your viewing entertainment and pleasure. But my first guest has been on with the nonprofit show before. Thrilled to have him with us. Sean Old joins us. Hello and good morning. Hi, Jared. How are you doing? Thanks for having me. Yeah, really excited to have you. So Sean, you've been on the nonprofit show before, but for viewers and listeners that may or may not know who you are and what you do, the amazing service that you provide, tell us about yourself and the amazing company you're representing because I had the great opportunity. We met one-on-one on Sunday and had a wonderful conversation. So tell us a little bit about yourself. Sure. Sean Old, I'm the co-founder and co-CEO of Google AI. I'd like to say we were doing AI before it became cool last year, but we provide a predictive analytics platform powered by AI to help nonprofits find their best donors and steward them along. At the beginning of this year, we took a bit of an evolution in leveraging the power of generative AI, the use of technologies, to basically take everything we built over seven years, add it to generative AI for a one-plus-one equals three opportunity. So if you're using chat GPT, mid-journey, barred, we provide one interface, one place for you to be able to do all of your work, experiment with other new technologies in the generative space as they come along to work, and be able to help you engage your donors in a more effective and efficient way. Thank you, Sean. You know, when I sat and you did this walkthrough with me that was beautiful, I am so excited and I know there's going to be other viewers and listeners equally excited. Yesterday, you were part of a discussion. So tell us about that discussion yesterday. You know, our viewers and listeners across the globe truly, not everyone can make it to the conferences. So let's pull a bit of the conference out into our viewers and listeners. Tell us about that presentation and conversation you were part of. Absolutely. What we had is Barbara O'Reilly, who was on yesterday moderating this, and she was looking at basically the old school versus new school mentality and what we can do as organizations. And what I love, one of the comments Trarian made who was on the panel, was it's not a binary decision. There are things that we've done well that we need to continue to do. And kind of an analogy is we went from a horse and buggy to cars, but we still use wheels, right? The wheel worked. And so if there are things that are worked, that's great, but let's find the ways to leverage technology to take it to that next level and make us even more effective and more efficient. And one of the big things I've tried to convey is AI, other technologies are not coming to take people's jobs. Or I jokingly said on stage, it is actually coming to take your job, but it's really coming to take the mundane parts, the parts we don't enjoy doing, and the parts to prevent us from really capitalizing on what we're good at. And so find ways to leverage the technology to take that mundane work away so that you can meet your mission faster, better, and more efficient. You know, when you say take the mundane things away, I'm like, please, you can have them all, right? And I'm curious, Sean, if you would tell us what's the difference between AI and generative AI? Because is there a difference? Sure. AI, artificial intelligence is a large umbrella. And under that umbrella are different types of AI. Generative AI is a new type of AI, but it falls under there. You've got machine learning. You can take things like facial recognition, all of those fall under the very large umbrella of AI. And so you have to be careful. And one of the things we talked about on the paper yesterday is a lot of people spend time chasing technology. It's the worst thing that you could do. The best thing you can do is fall in love with your problem, understand the problems your organization has, because not every piece of technology is going to be able to help. But if you understand what your problems are, it's going to be able to help you connect and get through the rest of technology that's out there to the thing that's really going to help your organization. There's a lot to learn, I think, with technology. And I, unfortunately, was not on the show, your dedicated episode here at the nonprofit show. So again, for viewers and listeners that want to know more about Boodle AI and Sean, please do go back to that prior episode. It's on the archive. But I'm curious what you're seeing, hearing, and feeling here at the conference, because I feel that we're all looking for additional innovation. So what are you seeing, what are the conversations you're having with some of the other vendors, sponsors, and attendees like yourself? Well, I mean, the great thing about the RAIS conference is it is very technological. So there's a lot of technology people here. Obviously, the launch of chat GPT and BARD and talk last year, there's a lot of people asking questions about general data. What does it mean and what does its technology look like? I think what's exciting is one of the first things most people in this industry are looking at is how do we do it responsibly? Yes. And so in the panel yesterday, we talked about, for those of you who are interested, there is a group of organizations coming together called Fundraising AI. Fundraising.ai is a website. It is its own nonprofit. Really making sure that our community takes a responsible approach to how they're leveraging data, how they're leveraging machine learning, and how they're leveraging AI so that we're doing the right things and setting a standard. Yeah, doing the right thing, setting the standards. So I love that you're part of that conversation. I presented yesterday on rents, repeat and recycle your content. And one of my suggestions was to copy a previous article, plop it into, that's the official term, plop it into chat GPT, ask it to change it, you know, 20%, summarize it, that kind of thing. So you can rents, repeat for purpose, some of your previous content for organizations. What's the next step you're seeing, Sean? Because I know you are at the like, you know, the peak of discovering and probably rediscovering some things that have been around, but maybe new to our sector. What are you seeing is like on this, the cusp that we should be paying attention to? Well, I love the rents, repeat, right? Because you take your content, you take what you've done and you teach these LLMs. And one of the things I would encourage people is don't just use chat GPT, use it, but use plot, use bar. I was telling someone last night, I have a 10 year old daughter and every night when she wants a bedtime story, I will not use chat GPT because it's not creative. My daughter thumbs down any bedtime story out of chat. But she loves the ones that are around, I'm sorry, plot for a minute. And so one of the big things I encourage people is don't get my awfully focused on one LLM because one LLM may work really well for you in your major if fundraising, but it may not be as good in writing descriptions for your auction items. And so experimenting in the platforms are out there, one of them being Google box that will allow you to experiment across all those platforms and better understand what's going to suit your organization in the best way possible. There's a lot of options. I get a little overwhelmed, but I'm curious are viewers and listeners that say, okay, I'm curious about Google and what you're doing. Is that accessible to everyone? Is it an invitation only? How do we get access for this, Sean? Sure. Well, we haven't advertised it. It is not open to the public, but we are accepting people who want to test our alpha. And so if you go to bootle.ai, there's an opportunity to test the alpha version. It's got about 30% of the functionality that will be out there when we launch. But if you're kind of more forward thinking, it's no cost. And you want to play with something that you will probably break when we want you to break it so we can make it better. Go to bootle.ai and you can sign permission to break something. Like, I don't think you get that often. Sean, this has been a fantastic conversation. And before I bring in the next guest, I'd love to have you share with our viewers and our listeners where will you be next? Because I'm curious, again, not everyone is here at this conference that maxed out just under 600 individuals, but there are other conferences coming up and you are in this space. So where are you going next if our viewers and listeners say, you know what, we're going to be nearby. Maybe we should check that out. Sure. My next conference beginning of October is actually going to be in Orlando, the International Catholic Stewardship Council meeting, a very faith-based conference. And then beginning of December in Baltimore, the nonprofit power conference. Well, Sean, thank you. I appreciate you joining us here. Absolutely. And enjoy the rest of your conference. It's been fantastic. Thank you so much. Thanks, everyone. Well, Sean Olds, again, he's been on the episodes before a dedicated episode. So go back and check that out. He's got some really cool things happening. Again, I had the pleasure of sitting down with him one-on-one on Sunday before the conference even started because we thought, you know what, there's a lot of energy going on at the conference. We might as well set some dedicated time. Well, I want to bring on our next guest for today's episode as we are here live at the conference. Come on up. Today we have also Kevin Spikerman joining us. Kevin's with Charity Buzz. Would love for you to tell us, Kevin, a little bit about yourself as well as Charity Buzz. Awesome. Thanks for having me. And again, thank you. Amazing conference that we have here. I think the two things about the conference, culture and content. Okay. The culture here is amazing. The staff that one cause brings is just top notch. You walk in, it's welcoming. So the culture here, so if you're thinking about come to raise, you got to come to raise. Yeah. And then the content, the content that they bring out is unbelievable. They go over the basics. They also bring in new stuff from like the AI, like what Sean was talking about. They're just on the forefront of error. So yeah, the conference here is amazing. But a little bit about Charity Buzz, what we do, we're an impact marketplace. And so what that means is that we have 250,000 plus registered bidders on our site that are ready to bid on auction items. So Charity has been bringing their items to us and we'll auction it off for you. The best part about what we do that I love is that once you give us the information, we build the lock page, we promote it, we market it, we sell it, we then send you the funds as an unrestricted print. So there's no work to the organization. You said my favorite word, unrestricted. That is something I think all of us are looking for is really that unrestricted dollar. You shared with me because we got to meet up also one Sunday at a reception for the conference. You shared with me a really cool success story from Charity Buzz. Is that something you can share publicly because I'd love for you to do that? Yeah, so we have a lot of organizations that we work with. We had one organization just because of the SAG and the strike in LA with the writers. So Julia Roberts, she was willing to do a lunch with her. It's a two-hour lunch. So an organization brought that to us. So we had a two-hour lunch with Julia Roberts and it sold on our site for $140,000. So that's $140,000 that's going for an organization. Julia Roberts, obviously that's an amazing experience, but she gave up two hours over time. We have other things like dinner with the cast of the office. We have dinner with Matthew McConaughey, things like that. So we've got a lot of celebrity things, but the typical organization that we're working with doesn't happen. The typical organization has tickets to a suite or lunch with the CEO that they know. So it doesn't have to be this over-the-top amazing thing. This has to be an experience of some sort. Thank you so much, Kevin. Really looking at that, I see the opportunity is ample for organizations because you're right. When we look at the makeup of our sector, I still say 1.8 million nonprofits registered in the U.S., and that's just the U.S. We have friends in Canada that that's not counted part of, but there's so many organizations truly that are small to mid-sized organizations that may not have access, as you just mentioned, to celebrities and even other experiences and opportunities. Have you seen this with other companies like a charity buzz type? And then that's my first question. And secondly, is how do we get involved? If this is something that we say, okay, we want to level up what we're offering to our supporters, how do we get involved with these opportunities? Yeah, well, I think the first thing is, I don't know anybody else out there that does what we do and has this network of it. I mean, 250,000 plus high net worth individuals, the average net worth of our bidders is over $3 million so that these people can spend money. So if you're a small nonprofit and you keep doing auctions and you're like, we wish we had more eyes. We wish we had a better audience. That's what we bring to the table. We bring that audience. And you were telling me, Kevin, that we don't have to have a specific event planned. We could do this at any time. Can you describe that opportunity? Yeah, so any time of the year, you could go to charitybuzz.com right now and there's items that are up. So we run things for two weeks at a time. So if you brought me an item today, we'd post it for two weeks, we'd close it, we'd send you the funds. So if your gal is in September and in March, you get a round of golf donated at a private hundred club and you don't know what to do with it. We can't wait till October of September. You can work with any time of the year. You can post one item, you can post multiple items, really that's anything. And our threshold is it has to have a thousand dollar value. Okay. And that's kind of the threshold to kind of get in the door. There's no sign-up fee, there's no contract and the usage fee is just an 80-20 split. So exciting. You know, it really is exciting. Again, that unrestricted opportunity is huge. You have so much to share with us and just a teaser, I have already booked you, Kevin, to come back on to do a dedicated episode here on the nonprofit show to share us more about charity buzz, because our viewers and listeners, again, across the globe, I feel like we're looking for something that's a little different. We're looking for something maybe that we have not done before. We asked this question and it's a crystal ball question, Kevin. If you were to have a crystal ball, shine it up, right? Like get it ready. What are you seeing for the future? Because many organizations right now, you know, we moved into our fiscal year, maybe if you started July 1, right? What are you looking in your crystal ball for the future when it comes to fundraising, maybe events and some auction items? What are you forecasting for us? Great question. I mean, I think the forecasting, I think going back to the basics, I think everybody needs to go back to just doing the basics, but then also like what's new. And I think, what's new is that it is exciting. When you look at all these companies that are here and all the speakers that are here and what they're sharing, you have to evolve. And if you don't evolve and try new things, you're going to be left behind. But the basics of writing a handwritten note, thanking your donors that way. That's something you just have to go back to basics. The basics is really important. And I love that you bring that up because I feel sometimes, myself included, I forget that going back to basics and the simplicity of building relationships is really important. We talked about on the show before return on relationship. So like that metric as opposed to an ROI, which is just as important, but I think that relationship, you know, is really important. You mentioned the speakers and there are, I want to say, 50 plus speakers here today. There's a lot of conversations going on, a lot of innovative conversations going on. I'm going to put you on the spot, Kevin, because there's also, there's other vendors here, but as a vendor and a sponsor, what are you hearing and feeling from the camaraderie of the vendors? Because you mentioned culture and content. How are you seeing that culture take place into vendors supporting perhaps one another? Yeah, no, I think it's extremely collaborative. And I think that's what I really enjoy about this conference is that it's very collaborative. You know, when somebody comes over and talks to us and they need consignment, I'm saying, go check out Charity Ace or Wins Fyre, auction back anise. And, you know, oh, I know them well. So, you know, people are shaking hands of pointing them to somebody else. And it's, it's not a hard sell when you come here. It's very much, how can I help you? What are your needs? And can I point to, if I'm not good for you, I'll point you to somewhere else. So it really is collaborative. And it's about helping people fundraise, not selling them a product. It's about what is your need. And as Sean said, what it, fall in love with, what he said, fall in love with your, with your difficulty, with your obstacles, right? And once you have that, then it's like, what do I need to find a solution? Yeah. The camaraderie, the collaboration, that's so plentiful here. I really love that as a piece of the culture. I feel like you're right. We're all here to help each other. We're all here to help all of you, you know, around the globe to support and elevate your mission. There's a lot going on in our sector, a lot of excitement going on. It wasn't till, for me, Kevin, just a couple of years ago that I realized how tech focused, tech forward our sector has become and looking at, again, back to Sean, right? Like embrace those challenges, embrace those difficulties, because in that I feel is where you learn to grow into that next phase, if you will, that evolution. But there is so much going on. What are you excited about? So from this conference, again, you're about to go back home and ends today, sadly, it's a two-day conference and you're right, feels like a reunion. And I think that many of us would like to stay more, more time with one another. But when you get back, what's the first thing you're going to do? So I think the first thing I'm going to do is get my team together and remind them why we do what we do. I've had so many conversations with organizations about what they do. I mean, a lady today, she works at a boarding school and she helped a girl whose mom passed away. The boarding school almost adopted her and found another home for her. And as opposed to putting her into the foster system, right? So I think getting my team together and just reminding them why we do what we do. And it's all about mission statement of the organizations that we partner. It's not about us. It's not about the person we're talking to. It's about the mission statement. And I've heard just so many stories of organizations of different people here telling me why they do what they do and why they're passionate about it. So first thing I'm doing is getting my team together, reminding them, these are the stories that I've heard and the stories. And so this is what we do. We help these people. That is beautiful. Kevin, thank you. Again, Kevin Spikerman, Charity Buzz. We're going to have you on in October. I forget the date. Middle of October. So Kevin, thank you. Appreciate you joining me today. We'll see you here in just a few. Well, as you hear from, you know, Sean Olds and Kevin Spikerman, really exciting stuff here. I love that Kevin just shared the first thing he's going to do when he gets back is to really talk to his team about their why. And I think we can all reflect back on our why. Let's go back to that purpose. You know, what is driving us? What is the importance of who we are and what we're doing? And so there's a lot happening here. I'm excited to bring on our next and final guest of day two, Ray's conference here at the nonprofit show. So this individual, you know, we had a lovely conversation and I realized she now lives where I went to college my first year freshman year. Come on up. Taylor has joined me. Taylor, welcome. Oh, well, hi. Well, I like to say welcome. I'm like, wait, you're welcome being me. I know. Well, and that's fun. So tell us a little bit about yourself, a little bit about your company and what you're also doing here at the Ray's Broadcast Studio. Good question. I'm Taylor. Hey, guys, what's up? How's it going? Hope you're having a good day. I am the owner and founder of a company called Barley Lake. And we have a sister company called Creative Shizzle. We are all about helping small organizations do more with their property and then making things look great because you've got a lot of shizzles on your plate. And so we take some of that off of your plate and help you get it done. Yeah. And yeah, I'm excited to meet you. I love the shizzle because you're right. There's a lot of shizzle. There's a lot of shizzle and a lot of shizzle on all of our plates. You are broadcasting live also. So again, you know, thank you to one cause allowing us the studio space. There were some individual Taylor that you've talked to here. What are they saying? Okay. Well, one, I actually just met Crystal Cherry in person for the first time. She is a board-alient speaker in the sector. I'm just talking a lot about DEI, how to engage your board in a better way. You know, how to, she was just talking about how to focus on various other groups in your fundraising. And the problem is that like we don't segment for that. And so how are we really tapping into donors' motivations for not running the studio? Yesterday, the keynote series, I wrote down a lot of quotes. There's a lot of really good quotes. And then just been buzzing around this space. And yesterday, oh, I met and I interviewed on my podcast yesterday, a gentleman from the Human Rights Campaign. And we were talking about kind of being major. They do a lot of events. They do like 30 something events. It's a lot. And he was sharing really strategies for how they've done to warm that audience up, gotten them re-engaged. And a lot of it is small. I'm hearing more and more of that. And Kevin, Spike, Ben, Tourney, Buzz just shared, you know, getting back to basics, getting back to that basic core fundraising, the relationship building. It's so important. I think at some point maybe we took it for granted, you know, really move into, how can we do a lot of things quicker? And might have taken advantage of some of these personal touches, as you were just mentioning. You mentioned a podcast. So tell us about your podcast and the kind of conversations you have there because you have a lot of shizzle and you're playing. My podcast is Talking Shizzle. I've done several podcasts. That's the current show. You can go find it at creativeshizzle.com. Just go to the podcast page. We talk about a lot. I mean, it's the Talking Shizzle show. It's kind of in the name, right? It's kind of in the name to recognize that there's just like a lot going on. We really focus on helping small business owners and non-profit organizations who have a lot to do and maybe a little time, a little mission case to do it. How to break down some of those challenges. And so I kind of just interview people who I find interesting with success and series to share. Whether that's building a business, building a team, getting better social media marketing. Kind of all the things you need to think about in running a business or I can't wait to listen to it because great topics I'm sure are covering. You're right. There's so much to talk about. It's a little random. It's a little random. Sometimes we say, you know, my last name, ransom should have been random. But last question for you, Taylor. Before we sign off today, I'm curious, what are you going to do? Your first thing besides the concert you're attending, because I know you shared with me, but you have a fun concert to attend firstly. What are you going to do when you get back? What's like the one thing you're looking forward to implementing or initiating or following up on? What's your task? That's a good question. I've been on the go for about a week now at conferences. I went to a marketing conference last week at Boston and then I've been on the go for about a week. One of the things on my mind that I've been thinking about and taking cues from me about it is that idea of purpose of your country. I get in the weeds too much. You want to wait on some of the wrong things sometimes, but really it's like, are we changing our audience? We can go back and talk to my team and say, let's take our data. Let's look at our list and make sure you're communicating with people on our list about what they think that they care about if they don't have data. I'm ready to implement and get better of them. That's a great tool that you're taking back. I love that. I think all of us, myself included, can do better. I appreciate you taking some time to join me here on the show. Thank you for that. Well, as we wrap up the conference here, day two, the atrium is filling up with the attendees that have just left a conversation at the main stage. That's where I was presenting yesterday, but as we move into the final piece of the show, again, thank you to our viewers and listeners that have joined us. You can find us on streaming platforms and hope that you will do that. Again, I've been live in Nashville from the Raise One Cause conference. It's been a fantastic conference. Look for this conference to come back up next year. I hear that it's growing and they will be allowing more people to join next year, maybe looking for a different venue to accommodate everyone. So please do check that out. Also want to say thank you to Julia Patrick that created the nonprofit show and allows me to take this show here on the road. I'm Julia Ransom, your nonprofit nerd and CEO of the Raven Group. Shout out of gratitude to our friends, partners, and sponsors. Thank you to Blimmering American Nonprofit Academy, Fundraising Academy at National University, Staffing Boutique, Nonprofit Thought Leader, Your Part-time Controller, Nonprofit Nerd, as well as Nonprofit Tech Talk. These companies have been with us day in and day out to help you amplify your impact and to be a fearless fundraiser. Thank you to all of you that have joined us here at the One Cause Conference in Nashville. Again, I'm Jarrett Ransom. You're a non-profit nerd. Join me tomorrow and until then, please stay well so you can do well. Thanks, everyone.