 And welcome to the nonprofit show. We are so glad to have you here to spend your Friday with us. Even our executive producer, Kevin joined us this morning and said, happy Friday to myself and Muhy. So really excited to have you here for the ask and answer. Thank you to Fundraising Academy at National University. We have Muhy Kwaja joining us today. Muhy serves as the trainer, a trainer, not the trainer, but a trainer, right? At Fundraising Academy within National University, he's also the co-founder at the American Muslim Community Foundation, where he's shared a lot of information about his role in starting this organization and even transitioning it. So really excited to have you here, Muhy. Always, always nice to have you. And for those of you watching and listening, I'm Jared. Jared Ransom, your nonprofit nerd CEO of the Raven Group. And I adore these days. I love Fridays. I love the ask and answer. We never quite know what we're gonna get, right, Muhy? It's just, you know, we've got a series of questions and I will read them aloud and ask you, of course, to answer them. But before we do that, I would love for you to share with us, Muhy, a little bit about yourself and a little bit about your role there at Fundraising Academy. Yeah, of course, I would love to. I am the trainer, as you correctly stated, at Fundraising Academy. Now, just kidding. All of my colleagues are fantastic there. And we have a great team of experts. Yeah, my background, I got started in development and fundraising work right out of college at the University of Michigan through their Development Summer Internship Program. Prior to that, I was an engineering degree, dropped out of that and finished my degree a few years later. But if it wasn't for that internship, I wouldn't be where I am right now. So I've worked in a variety of nonprofits in the telehealth sector, to the advocacy sector, to the humanitarian sector. And I've been a one-person development team and a chief development officer. So a wide range of positions and just really fortunate to have also started my own nonprofit back in 2016, the American Wilson Community Foundation, where we help families distribute their charitable giving through donor advice funds and grants. So yeah, that's been my background and just really happy to be here with Fundraising Academy. Yeah, fantastic. You know, my internship in college was also really the bridge to my career in the nonprofit sector. So I graduated with a mass communication and theater background. And so I'm definitely a bit of a Thespian. And then I used that opportunity to work for a Chamber of Commerce. And that's really what got me into the nonprofit sector as a career. So I love hearing, like what was that tipping point that introduced us? But thank you for being here and sharing with us. Also wanna say thank you to our amazing presenting sponsors that allow us this opportunity. So a shout out to our friends over at Bloomerang American Nonprofit Academy, your part-time controller, nonprofit thought leader, Fundraising Academy at National University, also where Muhe joins us, staffing boutique, nonprofit nerd, as well as nonprofit tech talk. These companies allow us these wonderful opportunities to have conversation. So please do check them out. I like to remind you that they're here for you. Their mission is your mission and they wanna help you do more good in, around and throughout the community. We are past episode 800 Muhe. I have to tell you a couple of days ago, I know we were at 800 and Julia sprung it on me at the very last, she was like, I think this is our 800th episode. So we celebrate in with, you know, digital fireworks, but all of you, you can find all of our episodes on many platforms, including broadcast, podcast and the latest and greatest as you can download the app on your smartphone. So I encourage you to do that because every single day you will then get a notification letting you know that today's show has been uploaded. So please do check that out. Muhe, where are you gonna be June 1st? I'm gonna be in San Diego with you. We're gonna have so much fun. So this is the inaugural conference in person, Cultivate 2023. Yes, June 1, San Diego at the National University, please join us. There are still seats and tickets available. It's an all day conference. The show will be broadcasted live and not only that day, June 1st, but the following day our ask and answer will also be there. So if you have your phones out, go ahead and scan the QR there at the bottom. You can look it up online as well, but we encourage you to join us. It's gonna be an amazing day filled with content that will help you grow the work that you do and your mission and make more impact. So we hope that we'll see you there. All right, so as you know, you know the drill here, Muhe, but ask and answer, these are questions that you, our viewers and listeners have sent into us. And so I will read them aloud. Muhe's going to answer them with all of his great years of wisdom and expertise in the sector. And then I might have some things to add. So we're gonna start off with Sean. And Sean is writing in from city withheld. I have thought about starting a nonprofit and I have an amazing fundraising idea, but I worry about pitching the idea to a current nonprofit and having them take my idea. Any suggestions? Let's hear from you, Muhe. What do you think? Hi Sean, thanks for writing in. I think that, you know, if you're really concerned, you could always create a NDA and have the nonprofit sign it before you pitch the idea. I wonder if you started this nonprofit and you ran with the programs and the services and this fundraising idea that you have, another nonprofit may not have the same tenacity as you would. They wouldn't have the same dedication to it because this is your idea, right? So the more energy you put behind this idea, the more momentum you're going to create. So it may be hard for another organization to poach the idea from you, but if it is in alignment with their services, don't be offended if they took some ideas from you, you know, consider it as flattery. I think you're gonna need partners down the line. You can't do everything on your own, even if it is your own institution and your own idea. So who knows? Maybe they'll become a partner of yours down the line if it's something that they see value in as well. Great points. I love the NDA. I think that is definitely a great place to start. And I know you can Google it, right? You can find plenty of templates online. So don't make it hard. Don't make it costly. The other thing I wanna add because this is, you know, specifically around a fundraising idea, I still love seeing the results of the ice bucket challenge, right? And once that went viral, I feel like there were so many other organizations saying like, what is our challenge? What is that thing that can put us on the map, make us, you know, go viral, have this really explode into so many different communities? And so the thing, Sean, that I just wanna add with that is, you know, if you're fundraising, your amazing fundraising idea really does knock it out of the park, it could grow traction, right? For other entities and individuals to say, we also want to try that, whatever it might be. So again, you know, once it goes live and it's extremely successful, I think that you might start seeing some replication of it. But I understand you wanna hold it close to your chest and vest right now. And, you know, especially if you're looking to start a nonprofit, we know certainly that there are good, a lot of money goes into starting a nonprofit, right? And so there are costs that surround that. So I appreciate you thinking about fundraising already as you look to start the organization because you certainly will need some funds to support that. But we wish you the best and we would love to hear what it is. So I'll sign an NDA, love to hear it. All right. Alavanya from Dallas, Texas wants to know, what is the best number of donors that a person on a development team should have in their portfolio? Oh, this is a good question. We are trying to determine how to go about setting up some procedures for the process of donor management and are all over the board on this. Ooh, great question, Muhy. What have you done? Like you share that you've been the solo development person, right? Solo fundraising, but you've also been chief development officer. So you've probably seen a little bit of everything here. What works best? Yeah, I really love this question. And I think, Alavanya, it's gonna matter what type of organization you are, what your fundraising goals are, how big your team is, all of those are gonna factor into your portfolio size and what the metrics are for the employee. Are they expected to have meetings and phone calls and letters sent out on a monthly basis? Also, in the same wavelength, is this more of an annual fund portfolio? Is it a major gift portfolio? So those things will determine the size. What I've found that has worked for me personally is working through the prospect pool, cultivating relationships, getting meetings, qualified prospects, people who can make a gift. All of those things take a lot of research and time and effort as we teach in the cost zone cycle. So by the time you get somebody into a good prospect who has given before, who has the capacity to give more, perhaps keeping 125 people in a portfolio that are well-managed, but there's gonna be a lot of vetting. So you might have to start with 500. You might have to start with a little bit more and get it down to that 125 to see who's responsive, who's engaging with these people who are reaching out to them. So yeah, those are a lot of things that can impact the right number for your organization. Yeah, and I echo so much of that. There's a lot of factors that go into it. When I have had a portfolio, I would say no more than 100 really was on my list, maybe pushed to 150, which I know is like a big jump, but it really did depend on who are these individuals? What is their gift? What is the expectation of moving that donor through the cycle? And I think there's a lot of factors into this. What does the rest of the team look like and those goals? So great insight there that you share, Muhy, thank you for that. And Lavanya, I hope that this helps. I know I feel like it's not a one-size-fits-all. And so finding what works best. I actually had a very interesting conversation with a client yesterday and actually one of the development professionals within the team. And we were talking about how best to divide the portfolio and that it wasn't all based off of money. It was really based off of like other non-hierarchical elements, which I really appreciated, right? And I think you spoke to this, Muhy, it's about who is the donor most receptive to, right? And how do we engage that relationship deeper and into the next phase? So I love coming at it. We can divide and conquer into so many different segments and reports, but really let's look at where is the relationship best held? And I think that to me is always the line. So Lavanya, I wish you the best. And I hope that you have some great success with that portfolio management. Okay, do you know this person, Muhy Jamie from Detroit? So, okay, the question here is we have a new budget for training and they wanna know should we put our newest staff members into fundraising training and not include more seasoned staff? Many of them are already trained and are professional fundraisers. It seems like a waste of money to include them. This is an interesting question. What do you think? Yeah, I wouldn't say it's a waste of money. I'm a lifelong learner. So I've always taken every opportunity to refresh, to get inspired again, to reconnect with other colleagues who are in the industry. I think it's definitely good to provide those new staff members, but hopefully you've provided similar resources to your seasoned staff. So just because they're seasoned, if you hadn't in the past year or two years given a professional development budget to them, and then all of a sudden you give it to the new shiny object in the organization, it may foster some resentment. So I think have a conversation with your team, what's their preference, how much budget allocation is there. We had an application process at the Red Cross. So it was a use it or lose it on the team. People who didn't wanna use it, didn't apply. People who were more ambitious and wanted to get a training under their belt, search for the right opportunity and applied. And if it got approved, they would take it. So I think maybe setting a budget for the entire team and then maybe being more suggestive with the new team members stating you should apply for this. But letting the people who know who are more senior on the staff, more seasoned on the staff, know that they're open to apply for it as well. Great insight. I love the individual, use it or lose it, right? Like that really encourages the person to take that opportunity if they see it and want it. And the other thing I think of, Muihi is there are so many free opportunities out there, right? Fundraising Academy has an amazing portal. Here we are at the non-profit show, right? Amazing free content. So I think there's a lot of opportunities that are free that you could go about this from a team setting. I appreciate the team setting because for me, it really levels the playing field when it comes to what we're working towards, right? So we're on the same page, we're working on some similar vernacular and lexicon and how we're moving forward with development initiatives. I used to love when there was a webinar and someone on our team would sign up for the webinar and the three of us would huddle in the office and watch it, right? Like I remember doing that and really leveraging the opportunity that was there. So I think there's so many great opportunities that exist. Some more costly than others but having a professional development budget, I'm a huge advocate for because there's so much out there and at different levels, right? And even though Jamie a seasoned professional, as Muihi said, lifelong learner, how can we do things differently? How can we consider a new tactic and strategy? What's new, right? What's trending? And so I still think there's so much to learn. So yeah, I say spread the wealth. Yeah, and I think your staff are your biggest asset, right? These people who are connected to your donors, anything that you can do to invest in them will hopefully show a return on investment in their connections with your donors. Yeah, absolutely. OK, so here we are, name withheld, city withheld. These are Julia's favorites. We are hiring a new CEO for our nonprofit. A few board members feel it is critical to interview significant donors who our candidates have worked with before. These board members believe that this will help us determine if the new CEO will be able to fundraise and work well with big donors. Have you ever heard of this? Really interesting question, Muihi. Have you heard of this? I really like this idea. You know, I think that there's great opportunity for feedback from your major donors. And we teach that you should be engaging your major donors in capital campaign development and development strategy when you create your pitches. Your closest allies will give you open and honest feedback. So I think this is a very smart move for this organization to include their top donors in this process. And it will hopefully give confidence to the donors as well. If the CEO gets along with them in these meetings and interviews. So I think that there's a really big opportunity. Of course, you don't want a donor to heavily impact or sway a decision or things like that. But if there's a rubric, if there's a process for engagement, all of those things, and it's a standard interview, then I think that's a really smart move. Yeah, an equitable opportunity. You know, I have not heard of this. I'm very intrigued by it. I know here in my community, although we're a big city, it feels like we're a very small nonprofit community. So there's a lot of major players and funders. And oftentimes, like I do feel like that is a big decision, is, OK, if we hire this person, will they make it rain? And of course, we know it doesn't happen overnight. There's a process to that. Maybe a cause selling education model process, but really looking at the relationships. And for me, I would see it more as how is this person perceived in the community? Do they come with great relationships and really good things to say about the experience of working with the person? So I think it's really, you know, I think it's an intriguing question and something to consider. But yeah, I like the rubric, too. Like, how can we also make it to where they're not swaying or nay? So I appreciate that one. Mui, if you're up for it, we have a live question. So I want to get to it. I know because they wanted to know if we had if we had time if we would answer this. So I think you and I can make this happen. OK, this person writes in anonymously. I recently switched into the nonprofit sector after an 18 year career in corporate America. And I'm struggling with immersing myself in the nonprofit culture. What is your number one piece of advice for someone like me who is new to working with nonprofits? Wow, that is a loaded one. I love this. You know, I think there's a lot of translatable skills. And I'm glad that you've made this transition into the nonprofit world. I think that what are those cultural challenges that you're struggling with? So a little more context would be helpful. But I think in terms of advice, you know, I'm sure things like red tape and things taking time. Maybe it's the pace of the culture. Maybe it's a little bit slower than they're used to. So, you know, I think keeping the mindset of productivity, of mission alignment, of focusing on your why. Like why did you take this role, right? And hopefully if you can come back to those things of the purpose around helping this organization achieve its mission, that will help you with the transition, regardless of the challenges. And then really looking at what are those challenges and how can you help solve them? Is it just because the organization's always done things a certain way that you're hitting your head against the wall? Or what are things that can be done more efficiently and that you can maybe bring and introduce some business best practices that you've carried in your career over the last 18 years to help the organization move forward? So, you know, I'd love to hear your thoughts as well, Sheriff. Yeah, I really appreciate what you said, Muhee. What I can share, too, is I appreciate the nonprofit culture for its opportunity to really get to know one another. But what I can say is not every culture of a nonprofit is the same, right? And so there are cultural differences between organizations. Another thing that I'll share with you for me is it really depends on where the organization is in maturity, right? Is it a startup? Is it in growth mode? Has it kind of peaked at maturity? Is it in decline? So really assessing, am I the right person for the life cycle, if you will, of the current state of this organization? And you might not be, right? The other thing for me is I realized I was often in a lot of different admin positions and I didn't feel like they were the right positions for me. And so, you know, I really appreciate being in leadership roles, helping to make some strategic systematic changes. And if you're not in the right fit, not only culturally but position-wise, like if you don't have the ability to do and execute some things that are within your zone of genius, that's really challenging for me so I can empathize in that space. But yeah, I'm so glad you're here. I love the nonprofit sector. I hope and want everyone to also have a really good opportunity and time in it. I know it's not for everyone and I will also echo Muhy the thing that often frustrates me. It's the hurry up and wait game, right? It's like, why does it take so long to make this decision or why is this taking so long, you know, to move forward in this tactic or initiative? So that to me has always been my number one is the time it takes to get something done. But I also realized that I work in, I myself work in a very fast-paced environment for what I expect of myself, but I can't always get the teams to do the same. So I hope that's helpful. I appreciate the live question that we got here today. You never know what's gonna happen, but Muhy and I, I believe, we're always here for a curve ball so thanks for throwing us one. And hey, we would love to see you again. June one, we will be in California together with many other fundraising academy rock stars. I'm really glad to have the opportunity to connect and cultivate this year, 2023, Thursday, July one, join us. There's still tickets. I will be speaking. Muhy, are you speaking? Okay, I'm excited for this. So we're gonna have an excellent lineup, really looking forward to it, but join us. And again, thank you for joining us here today for our Friday, ask an answer. It's also a long weekend, right? I think, no, it's not a long weekend. I've jumped ahead to Memorial Day, but we're not there yet. We're not there yet. Scratch that, forget I said that, but we will be back here on Monday. So Muhy, thank you for those of you watching. Happy to be here. Yeah, Muhy Kwaja. I love all these letters, MPA, CFRE, CFRM. Again, he's trainer at Fundraising Academy within National University and co-founder of the American Muslim Community Foundation.