 Thanks so much to all of our presenting sponsors that you see in front of you on the screen at these organizations I'm gonna say it because I really love saying this Julia. They like us. They like Julia They like me, but they love you like they love the work you're doing They love the missions that you're you're driving forward and the causes that you're serving in your community So they're not really here for the episodes. They're here for each and every one of you throughout our nation So check them out amazing presenting sponsors. Um, if you want to become a sponsor We'd love to talk to you about what that looks like as well Speaking of community from our chitty chat chat with our guest rich deeds like Our sponsors are a big part of our community as well. So I just want to Plug that in there. Thanks to Julia Patrick CEO of the American nonprofit academy I'm Jarrett Ransom also known as the nonprofit nerd CEO of the Raven group and I'm really excited for all of our guests this week. We continue to I think Julia like This week is better than last and You know But today I really want us to hone in take a look at the screen because we have rich Deets joining us And rich is the director of peer-to-peer solutions at one cause Um rich welcome first of all, but I want I want to make note and acknowledge that you called yourself the grandfather of peer-to-peer Well, maybe it is an old man an old man of of peer-to-peer. I'm grandfather age when it comes to peer-to-peer. Yeah Great. Well, we're glad to have you thrilled that one cause You know loose in the reins not not that that's the culture loose in the reins to have you on today And uh, just thrilled to learn more and as I always say nerd out about, you know, the topic I love it. I love it. I'm super excited. I love talking about peer-to-peer. It's my favorite topic in the world I've been doing it since early 2000s 2003. That's why I call myself the old man Of a peer-to-peer not many people have been doing it that long And I'm a huge fan of it and want to dig in and talk more about it Well, we're really thrilled to have you here because peer-to-peer is such a interesting part of the culture of fundraising and philanthropy it has so many nuances and I think we'll We'll pick your brain today because a lot of those nuances have changed even more because of the pandemic And so I think the best place is if you could start us out with defining peer-to-peer. We think we know it Let's hear from the the og I'm gonna steal that. I'm gonna totally steal that Yeah, so peer-to-peer. I love to talk about peer-to-peer and defining it as a great first step because I will tell you really clearly when I say peer-to-peer. I don't mean run walk ride I mean, yes a run walk or a ride is the traditional sort of peer-to-peer I'll tell you it's my least favorite type of peer-to-peer fundraising And I'll tell you why because it's difficult to organize and pull off a walk a run or a ride It's a lot of effort. It's a lot of cost It's a lot of stuff and so peer-to-peer fundraising is so much more than that So my definition of peer-to-peer fundraising is just allowing your supporters to fundraise on your behalf So it is taking hundreds of Employees that you don't have to pay for they're free workers that out there Asking their friends and family for money bringing it back to your organization And and doing that. I think that is the key. It's just letting them ask for money And this happened way before we even had technology. So we've been doing peer-to-peer fundraising since caveman days I mean if you talk to someone and you tell them about someone An organization that you like and you tell them to go check them out That's technically peer-to-peer fundraising. What we've done now is we've created tools software tools that allow you to do it A lot easier And that's where it gets really exciting and at the end we're going to talk about what is my favorite Type of peer-to-peer fundraising and I'll just tease it up. It's called DIY do it yourself So we'll talk about that later at the end. So stay tuned to the end Nice blog and we'll get deeper into that Wow, jerry. I mean your position here As co-host is getting a I don't know. No, it's not because I saw the hat. He has ready and available That's true I don't wear Dodger blue somebody said, oh, I love your Dodger blue. I'm like, oh that just went into the good will back Well, so this is great and I love the The banter that we're having but I want to say and really again like peer-to-peer I believe rich is something that we all need like truth be told. We all need more money Every single organization every single nonprofit could do more with more resources And with that comes that peer-to-peer and we could all benefit from having more Ambassadors advocates cheerleaders right like in our community. So why wouldn't we engage in this? Yeah, I you know, I think the biggest thing is fear people are afraid it's going to be too much work Or it's not going to work or you know, think things of that nature And so, you know, my advice always when I'm dealing with nonprofits and technology is just start small Try some smaller campaigns or DIY like we're going to talk about in a little bit here And just get out there and start doing it. Um, and I think, you know, one of the best ways I mean just thinking about it is it's recruiting those ambassadors for that campaign So I think the next slide that you just pulled up is is the perfect segue there Is you have folks out there that want to help you do this now and you're just giving them the opportunity to do it We just worked with an organization that's a perfect example. Um, cause grew of animal shelter Launched the DIY peer-to-peer campaign on our platform and the reason they did it is because they said during the pandemic They had hundreds of volunteers that were just sitting at home They couldn't come in and volunteer at the shelter anymore. They couldn't do anything So they started this online campaign saying you want to help us come here sign up You can help us fundraise and they had hundreds of people come and sign up and the money just started rolling in I mean people want to help and you're just giving them that opportunity to help Amazing, you know, do you feel like sometimes there's um, a sense that this interferes with a development director's team Um versus somebody that's a little bit more grassroots Um, I was working with somebody just in the last couple of weeks and they were like the development team Once us to send a list of everybody we're going to invite to our peer-to-peer to see if there's any You know poaching that was their word poaching, but I'm wondering, you know, when you're recruiting ambassadors and everybody's all excited and gun hoe Is that something to be worried about stepping in others toes? That's that's an interesting question I have had that come up a couple of times where people are worried, you know, where you know Where are they going to be coming from them the whole poaching thing, you know, and you know I've had organizations look at this in different ways One is peer-to-peer could be a great way to fill your top of funnel and find out who your future major Givers will be right, you know, I mean, it's a great way to bring people in but what I think is even more important is So one cause did a study about two years ago called the social fundraiser study And in that study fundraisers told us they were two times as likely to be recruited by a friend or family member than by the organization themselves To come and join that campaign Because it's it's just more trustworthy if the red cross reaches out to me and says we want you to come do something I'm like, whatever it's the red cross if my mom says I want you to come and join me at this campaign with red cross I kind of have to do it I jokingly call it blackmail fundraising right because I kind of have to do it now because she told me to right And so use those those fundraisers those supporters those volunteers to find their friends and family that are like-minded To also come in that's going to feed your donor database. That's not going to poach from it It's actually going to grow it and make it a lot larger. It's the social influence, right? It really is that social influence Um, I love that and and I wish more people saw it that way because It's the truth if we go to a restaurant, right? And we love it We're going to tell someone or better yet. We're going to take someone With us the next time that we meet them for lunch or dinner. So why wouldn't we do this for our organizations? Um, I love this too often rich. I hear from clients or just anyone right and I call it the f word fundraising Like people don't want to fundraise. They're scared. They're intimidated. But let me tell you people give Because they're asked Right. So back to peer-to-peer people. I believe will participate because they're asked So that to me is like the basics 100 percent people want to give and people are giving I talked to so many organizations that oh well for kovat We're not going to fundraise this year because you know people got enough on their plate And I'm like no like they're I guarantee you if if you don't ask them someone else is going to and they're Going to donate to them because we saw giving some organizations raised more virtually than they did at their in-person Events because it made it so much easier and they could do it from home And they were reaching audiences. They never reached before because they did it virtually I I think it's just a huge opportunity So let's talk about that because I agree with you and Jared and I with you know, we've done now Almost 300 shows we have seen on a daily basis Those organizations that come and chat with us during an on-profit show They've leaned in who've done things virtually They it seems to me Jared, wouldn't you agree that actually they've been surprised? You know, they kind of went surprised Yeah, like like thinking this isn't going to work. Yeah, but it happens. Yeah Yeah, the whole virtual world I think it's yeah I think we were talking a little bit I think before the cameras started rolling here about you know Maybe maybe COVID was kind of a kick in the rear that some people needed to think outside the box So so one cause is really known for event fundraising, right? And so when all the live events went down, you know, we had to pivot as a company out here to here Could always be virtual has always been had a virtual component But we had to think about that virtual component for all fundraising and especially event-type fundraising So we've helped over 9 000 events go virtual, you know over this time And we found some really amazing things that I think are going to change fundraising in the future Just like you were talking about Jared before we started here, which is basically Virtual I don't think it's ever going to go away because of this because what we found is even people that were doing live events Like the gala, but we've seen it in peer-to-peer as well is by making it virtual they tap new audiences So if someone was a huge fan of your organization and they moved to new jersey two years ago They couldn't come to your live event anymore. But now it's virtual. I could watch it online I could become a fundraiser. I I could donate or bid on the auction items I could do everything I want from my home I can now participate and and support you when I'm not even there And then we had all the people that don't feel comfortable going out So even as events come back live donors are telling us I don't know if I feel comfortable going to a large event, but if I can do it virtually I will so why would you not open up that new revenue stream and and think of that that sort of virtual world Yeah, may I also make a plug for yesterday's masterclass I did on engaging children in philanthropy because this virtual space also allows multi generational audiences And therefore you as an agency you are now Cultivating and stewarding your future givers your future donors your future volunteers So to embrace this virtual event right like don't say oh, I'm so glad we're getting back to events now We'll never do virtual again Like I think that also will miss the mark rich and that we really need to make sure that we incorporate Maybe with our IRL as Julia says in real life that we also continue some former fashion Of this virtual space because there's so many benefits Well, there's so much more fun things you can do virtually as well It's like a live event so to one I always say you'll never get me to go to a gala I am not a gala guy like I I don't like getting dressed I'm wearing shorts right now. Like I don't like getting dressed up like there's just no way But if you had a if you have a barbecue event with live music, I'm all over that you do a virtual sort of thing I'm all over that so virtual lets us do so much more engaged different audiences You know, you can do things like we did a lot of fitness tracking with peer-to-peer Over the last year instead of having that 5k we can actually track your fitness virtually So you connect your your your fitbit to Strava and then we can track that on the back end So we had people walk a walk a marathon or run a marathon over the course of three weeks Instead of doing it on on that event day virtual allows us to do to do that sort of thing So you can do all kind we had people doing zoom happy hours And then that that that that was their fund rate. You had to pay $20 to come attend Do you know what I mean? And you can allow participants to create those those events themselves So there's just there's so many more creative what uses that you can do with With with virtual I one more example. I have to tell you this one was hilarious is Within the one cause peer-to-peer platform people can do challenges So they can create a challenge and have people donate and we had a woman that Hated pickles and she said if she could raise $250 she would eat a pickle Film it and upload it to youtube for her friends and family to see and so people came and donated to her page She had to record eat the pickle and so you can get really like that doesn't happen at a gala Like I love that gala. Do you know how much she raised for that? I I have no idea she was trying to raise 250 is is all I saw so I don't know how much she raised but I wonder so the youtube culture is huge, right? I have a 10 year old son and I talked a lot about him yesterday and the children in philanthropy He watches all of these crazy things about if I get X amount of subscribers I'll I'll make this concoction, right? Um and and and video it but drew Barrymore on her show. She's doing the same thing It's it's crazy on her midday like kind of and now I'm home and so I might turn it on while I'm eating Yeah, same thing. So even as simple as like eating a pickle becomes a peer-to-peer fundraising campaign 100 I love it. Yeah, I love it. So, you know, you've been talking about this um in terms of how normally we would have Done a peer-to-peer piece and and one of the things that I'd love for you to talk about Is that marketing piece and it sounds to me like You know, one of the blessings of the virtual world is that we can get these people to engage with us You know your pickle fundraiser that wasn't all her family. I'm sure and friends I'm sure that at some point that leaked out And could you talk to us about that because how comfortable should these ambassadors or people involved in this be? with marketing Yeah, so that's one of those big things. So it's one of the challenges with with peer-to-peer that I've found doing this for a long time So as professional fundraisers, we know how hard it is to ask people for money If you've never done it before it's downright petrifying, right? And so we want to give them the tools the resources and that that comfort level with with asking people for money So we allow them to do it in different ways. So something like the pickle challenge, right? That gives them a I'm not just asking my friends and family. Hey, give me 50 bucks, right? Because that's uncomfortable But hey, I'm doing this funny thing if you want to donate then I'll do it. That's an easier ask So that gets really creative, right? And then we want to give them the tools and the ways that they feel comfortable doing it And so, you know, you want a bit of text messaging you want them to be able to share it on on social media You want them? I mean email I'm going to go to blow your minds here, but email still works like, you know Everyone gets down on email, you know Email open rates on stuff email still works like people can still send out emails and people respond to my emails every day It's amazing, right? So there's still that and then like we were talking before the call started really um direct mail Direct mail is not dead and one of the best ways to engage millennials now can be with direct mail It's one of those funny things. I I've talked to millennials about this And I think one of the reasons is is they don't get a ton of mail, right? So suddenly they get something in the mail and they're excited. They scream I've got mail never realized why that's funny because they never had an aol account like I did but You know, but that takes me back to the to the old man days as well It's a unique different way to engage and so thinking about all those channels And what we found within our platform we give people all those channels to communicate with And then they can use whatever they want to do and we see success in all of all of those all of those channels for sure Wow You know, I think that also helps to You know, we we keep talking about this but the ability to share the message and and cultivate new supporters This comes back to the agency or the organization In such a way that they probably could never do themselves 100% 100% and it's you know, people trust their friends and family members and And co-workers much more than they trust some random organization, especially when it comes something like text messaging So within our platform, we allow the fundraiser We don't send a text message from one cause to their friends and family because they don't know that phone number They don't know who we are we have the the we forward it to the fundraiser then the for the fundraiser For is it from their phone? So their friends and family recognize the phone number recognize the name I don't know about you but I get so much text spam now, especially during the election and and post election Like I'm not going to click on a link in some random text Then you know that I get and so giving them those those ways to communicate in that real one-to-one Way is what peer-to-peer is all about I love that I'm really embracing those multi channels because that's when we really see The roi return on investment, but you're leveraging your roi, which is your return on relationship. So it's really all you know Sympatico. I love that. Yeah Are we at the point where you're going to tell us your favorite peer-to-peer? I was I was I'm so excited. I'm sorry. I mean my pulse is quickening now The closest closer we get to this. All right. So yeah, we get we can jump in my favorite is diy So it's okay. Do yourself fundraising Um, it's yeah, let's get aside. There we go. DIY DIY do it yourself fundraising. Some people can call it fundraise your way It's becoming the hottest method of fundraising and what I love about it. Is it the easiest campaign to launch I firmly believe that every nonprofit in the world should have a diy peer-to-peer campaign on their site And all this means is giving your supporters a way to come and sign up Get a fundraising page and fundraise in any way that they want to so we've seen facebook has been exploding with birthday fundraisers, right? Yes, so I'm not the hugest fan because Facebook's great. They make it really easy. They don't charge the nonprofit any fees or anything like that But they don't give the nonprofit that donor data For me for That donor data is worth a hundred times more than the check that i'm going to get That's right, right? So we wanted to get them on our case. So that's all diy fundraising is is it's like a birthday campaign But it could be so much more so it could be donate your birthday It could be a memorial tribute. It could be a third party fundraising event I want to do a socially distanced backyard barbecue I'm going to charge 20 for people to come and that money is going to go directly to the nonprofit of My choice. It's just giving them the tools in order to do that Super easy to set up. You don't have to have a walk. You don't have to have an expensive venue and food and Rubber chicken and all of that sort of stuff. It's very cheap and and and easy to launch That is so great. Wow comes to one of the topics we're talking about, you know Is this taking away from the development officer? Is it poaching? Like kind of what does that look like? I'm assuming when it comes to your platform and hate to say it but probably others, right? There's an opportunity for the development officer to provide the narrative to provide the impact to provide Elements that are brand aware like conscious, right? So you're not telling another story You're still in line with the story of the agency And now he she or they have created this diy package That is rinse and repeat. Am I am I understanding that? Definitely 100% is the organization to do really well on this are helping coaching their fundraisers to be better fundraisers So giving them samples social media posts sample emails that that they can send out click of a button Really easy. They can of course edit it put their own spin But make it really really easy to do so they still control that messaging and stuff out there But then they put the power in in the hands of others and like I said, it's great for feeding that top of the funnel Building that that that donor database for any more people in and some of those people could be cultivated into major donors So the major donor people should be excited about that like show me who these people are Let me cultivate that relationship. I'm going to find some diamonds That's exactly what I'm thinking. So when I am visually, you know, seeing the page I'm seeing these campaigns from the diyers. I'm seeing that these individuals are just Kicking but when it comes to raising money, right, why wouldn't I engage in conversation with this individual? Why wouldn't I want to ask, you know, Them to get involved in some other level that really to me makes talks about like pulse increasing That really excites me because what a great opportunity to embrace another champion Right to your cause We don't have much time left, but I've got to drill down So I'm wondering so we we go to one cause we can see or we go to our organizations They they've got their diy page just set up So that means that 24 7 you're gonna have different people doing different things and it's a it's a stop And it's a hard stop date and time No, what I love about diy is it runs 365 days a year. This is something you have Going so most nonprofits get approached by people saying, hey, I want to fundraise for you You know, I want to do a big sale. I want to go run this marathon like and I want to fundraise for you And they're like, okay, so I've got to set up a page and I've got to like build this donation form And I do this once the campaign is set up you just say, oh, that's great. Go to this URL go to our website Click this link you can set up your own page people are just doing it all the time And then all you do is you market it in your newsletter. You mentioned that you have it So every month if it's november you want to remind me that you have a diy so I can come and donate my My birthday, which is in november. So you guys can send me gifts. So so that'd be great So like you want to just constantly be reminding him and it's up all year round People are always coming and signing up. There doesn't have to be a big event You just keep talking about it and it's yeah evergreen. I was going to ask that question. So you are right on point So how do we market it? Um one question, which you just shared, you know newsletter is a great place to do that But secondarily rich, how do we? Tell demonstrate the impact of these diy campaigns, right? So I am picturing, you know, I would love that when we say You know, hey, don't forget every you know, everybody has a birthday select your birthday month Riches is november and he's raising for x, y and z But we could also say what october raised. Is that Is that something you would recommend? Yeah, no, I love I love that. I also love to so I love to talk about, you know Within the campaign you can have a thermometer up there You can show how much you've raised so far this year, which gets really exciting But you can also highlight your top fundraisers. So in the newsletter I recommend saying oh and you know here here's jen and jen did, you know, two two barbecues in her backyard She donated her birthday She's helped raise $10,000 for the organization and the key and you guys know this is and this is what that means That now means we can serve 500 more kids in the after school program all because of jen Thank you jen jen feels amazing jen's gonna go tell all her friends and family I was just highlighted in the newsletter come and check this out, right and then more people are gonna come and sign up This is oh Go ahead. Okay inspire the friendly friendly. Well, I was going to ask a question that it's a little bit personal But this is twice. You've mentioned barbecue. What is the barbecue like in minnesota? No, we're near texas. So I will say there there are two things I miss from texas torches tacos and and barbecue Are the two biggest things I miss from texas and texas folks on the call know exactly what i'm talking about I love it So you're I I'm just fascinated with this concept and and when we talk about this competition I love that these pages are up And that then you can be tagging back To these individuals. It's not just internally. You're not talking about the competition internally you're actually talking about that through the ambassadors and Coming to mind. I'm thinking about board members It seems to me that organizations Should people I'll get hate mail for this but should instantly Put their board members and get each one of their board members a page 100 I love board fundraising campaigns. One can eat a pickle the other can shave their heads somebody else I don't know Yeah, no, I I think that's great. I've been getting that Competition going especially with board members. It could be major donors We're seeing a lot of corporations So you can have a company that comes and wants their employees to compete. What a great way to engage your your sponsors And the other thing I really want to say on this friendly competition is for me a big pain point Coming up in peer to peer and doing this is all the competition was always based on fundraising How much money have you brought in and that felt Not as genuine to me and so within our platform We've actually built some other ways that people can compete so people can compete on a social media Leaderboard who who shares the most on social media? They can compete on a recruiting leaderboard who recruits the most people to come and join the event and also become fundraisers Because if you get people doing those things you're going to raise more money So it doesn't always have to be about money as you mentioned earlier That that engages those younger supporters those younger supporters are way better on social media and have a way better You know friends and family that they could recruit and bring in then maybe your large Donors and so a great way to build that out. Yep. Yeah It kind of reminds me of superlatives, right? You can't just have one superlative You have to have like, you know, maybe the largest gift that came in or the most amount of gifts that came in or the the amount of shares on social media like shared not stocks, but I'm really looking at that. I love that and I love that one cause has really identified the benefit of that Um, Julia pull it back up. I want to share Everyone knows how to get in touch with rich how to check out one cause How to play in their space and their platform on peer-to-peer fundraising? So this was so great and uh, just so thrilled that you would come and nerd out with us. Thank you Always happy to join always happy to join and talk fundraising. It's my favorite thing to do Well, it's fascinating and I love this. I think that um, you know peer-to-peer As as an evolution is where we need to be In so many ways and in so many formats and I love that you all have been able to Be at the right place at the right time and be creative with this the impacts of this pandemics I mean, it's really powerful. So good job one cause we're just thrilled that you would come and spend Time with us again. I'm julia patrick. I've been joined by the nonprofit nerder self-jerk ransom CEO of the raven group Again, we want to thank our sponsors without you We would not be having these amazing conversations and we love rich even though he is a dodger We'll give him that but I learned a lot. I'm really really intrigued to even talk about this more I'm 30 minutes. Just isn't enough time because this is just such Um, I think in so many ways rich. It's a basic concept But we all need to be putting this into our vocabulary And our process and so really important. Hey, we just announced yesterday that we're launching a new show called fund raising events tv Those are my fireworks by the way. Yeah, thank you. I love it flower sequence money and food This says it all but this is going to be a new show that we're partnering with jason champion Who many of our viewers have seen before on our show? And um, it's going to be on tuesdays and thursdays. It'll be a live show And uh, you'll be hearing more about it. So we just wanted to bring that up because it's really an exciting opportunity for us When does it work? I know Maybe if you play your cards right jaret, we'll get you to be one of our guests. Maybe maybe i'll see if i'm available Well rich and I are going to be eating barbecue. I have to feel it because you won me over with that Well, you should have the peer-to-peer barbecue eat-off There we go. I'm saying bake off or Whatever you do, you don't bake it. Oh, yes barbecue off As simple as that. Well, hey, this has been great rich again. Thank you. Thank you for your time and thank you to one cause for You know really investing in this process. I think it's super exciting and We're really interested in hearing more and and learning more about it Jared another great show Tomorrow action packed the rest of the week We got lots cooking but as we like to end every show we want to remind everyone To stay well so you can do well