 Welcome to the non-profit show. We are so glad you're here. And today and tomorrow is a very special episode because we are doing non-profit drill down, two part series with one of my favorites, Muhi Kwaja, who has joined us today. He's trainer at Fundraising Academy. He's here to talk to us today and tomorrow all about the powerful end of year fundraising. So he's bringing to us a full day of conversation on today's episode, as well as tomorrow. And mind you, that's still 30 minutes today, 30 minutes tomorrow, only I'm gonna say 60 minutes. And I know this topic, Muhi, could go on for hours. So I'm excited to hear really that cream of the crop of what you've brought to the conversation. But before we ask you to spill the tea and all of the good information, we want to remind all of our viewers who we are, if we have not had the pleasure of meeting you yet. Julia Patrick is here with me today. She is CEO of the American Nonprofit Academy. So grateful to you, Julia, because this month we will reach a monumental milestone of our 900th episode. And I am so honored to serve alongside you day in and day out. I'm Jarrett Ransom, your non-profit nerd. That's Julia Patrick's personal non-profit nerd, but also all of yours, because there's plenty of nerdiness to go around. CEO of the Raven Group. And I have really enjoyed these conversations. They are high level, thought leader conversations. We started March of 2020, little bit of a labor of love, but thanks to our amazing partners presenting sponsors, they've allowed us to attract some really top talent. So thank you to our friends over at Bloomerang, American Nonprofit Academy, fundraising academy at National University, where of course, Muhi joins us from for today as well as tomorrow. Also thank you to non-profit thought leader, your part-time controller, staffing boutique, non-profit nerd, as well as non-profit tech talk. These are the companies that allow us these unscripted and sometimes filter opportunities if you're watching and you're seeing some of the special filters that our guest is adding today to really add to his seriousness. But again, grateful to have our presenting partners with us. Again, I mentioned 900 plus episodes and here's where you can find them. So for those of you listening, you can download the app. So go to your app store and just call out the non-profit show, voila, we pull up. You can also scan that QR code if you're watching. We can also be found on streaming broadcast platforms as well as podcast platforms. So I like to say wherever you do your binge watches or binge listening, you can join us there for the non-profit show as well. Okay, Muihi, you have been so patient which I know is a huge character trait of yours. Muihi Kwaja joins us, MPA CFRM. He joins us as a trainer from Fundraising Academy but he's also a co-founder of the American Muslim Community Foundation. Welcome back. Thank you so much. What an honor and pleasure it is to be here with you. Thinking about those filters, I should just be in like the bunny rabbit or the robot or whatever one just to spice it up a little, you know? Absolutely. Oh my God. Well, okay, I don't even know how to follow that up. Because we were, if you joined us for the green room chatter, we were saying, you know, like when I work with Muihi, he's very studious, he's very thoughtful, very measured, very serious. And Jared's like, what? He's a hoot. Jared has like a whole different vibe. And I'm like, wow, really? Because, you know, I think it's funny because we don't always work all three of us together. So that's kind of a fun thing. Muihi, before we move too much further, can you talk to us? And I know we're gonna do a much more in-depth episode but can you share with us the American Muslim Community Foundation and that journey and kind of what that looks like? Because I think when we know that, it gives us a different light about some of the things that you talk about. Yeah, I would love to. Thank you for the opportunity. And American Muslim Community Foundation was started back in 2016. I'm a co-founder there and have been a volunteer, contractor, part-time, full-time employee. So everything under the sun other than a board member. And I wanted it that way just so that there could be more autonomy and also less founder syndrome involved with the organization. I wanted there to be discussion and dialogue in the organization and not just my singular voice. We've had other co-founders be advisors, board members, but there's always been a good representation between the staff and the board and getting things done. But as many of you, some of you have probably started your own nonprofit. You've been with a nonprofit. I've been a one-person development team. I've been a chief development officer for a team of four. I've been interim director of development. You name it, I've done it. And it has been awesome being able to take these best practices that fundraising academy teaches. And even before I joined fundraising academy as a trainer was doing all of these things since 2009. I got into this at the University of Michigan in the development summer internship program. So as a student was integrated into the philanthropy of the university and how they fundraised with the Office of University Development, 500 staff to raise billions of dollars each year. And then I worked at small nonprofits. And then with AMCF, that genesis has kind of been all of my experience poured into this entity that helps families distribute their charitable giving through donor advice funds, helps nonprofits set up endowments, and we manage over $2.4 million of assets under management. So still a relatively small community foundation, but where I think our impact has been is rewriting the script of what donor advice funds do and how community foundations operate. So we have given out more than $10 million since 2017 where we're not trying to collectively hoard the wealth of the community, we're trying to distribute it. So, you know, big testament to the organization, the staff members, the leaders, the partners that we are able to work with to distribute there is Zakat and Sabaqa, which is their religious tithing. So we can dive more into that another day, but I know we have a lot to focus on, but what I am gonna be sharing today are all the things that I'm doing at AMCF myself for our year-end fundraising, so. It's so interesting and I can't wait to really dive into this at another point in time, because, you know, as we think of a lot of the community foundations is literally being, you know, at the corner of Maine and Union Strait type of thing. And with you, you're really a national organization working with, you know, a niche community. And so I can't wait to talk about that, but I appreciate you kind of linking us in so that we could understand how you come to this and what you think about. So really briefly, one of the things that we work with you on and you help us understand, along with the other trainers from Fundraising Academy, is this cause selling cycle? And so help me understand, is this going away or is this part of the year-end? Like, how does this ecosystem fit into what we're gonna be talking about? Of course, you know, whether it's a capital campaign, annual campaign, major gifts, stewardship and events, like you can implement the cause selling cycle wherever you need to deepen relationships with your donors. So I would say that it's still relevant for year-end fundraising. Okay. And it depends on where you are in the life cycle of your relationship with your donor, where you are in their engagement with your organization. And that's why prospecting is really simply put, like finding the donor's name. Like if you have a portfolio, you should be prospecting that portfolio through and through. You should be trying to find out more about them. And that's where the pre-approach comes in. You are gathering the information that you need to make an informed decision on how to engage this donor in your portfolio with the gift that you are going to ask them for. But even before you do that, you need to introduce yourself. That's the approach. Then you need to figure out what the donor's passions are. That's the need discovery. And once you are able to collect all of that information, you're ready to ask for a meeting to present your mission to the donor and prospect. And you get to tell the story of your mission. You get to share why you are working at this nonprofit and why you're so passionate. And that's part of the presentation. Then naturally they may have some questions for you and that's handling the objections. That may be overcoming the potential roadblocks to get the donor to feel more comfortable to commit. And once you've handled all of their objections, you're ready to make the ask. And a lot of times people jump to the ask without doing any of these other steps and that's where they stumble. And they miss out on the opportunity to deepen the relationship. And the best way to deepen the relationship is after you receive the gift is to properly steward your donors. You get to follow up with the results of how their gift made an impact. So that's the eight step cause selling cycle in two minutes or less. That's impressive, my friend. That's impressive. Mui, I have a question, especially as we're talking of end of year, Q4 90 days might sound silly, but should we only be focused on phase two and phase three and just kind of hold off phase one until Q1, right, like January of next year? Because what you said made me believe we're still working all three phases, all eight steps. Can you talk to me a little bit about that? That's a good question. That's a really good question. I haven't really thought of that, but what I would say is make it work for your organization and where you are. You can't successfully get to the ask without doing the other steps before it, in my opinion, but if you're at limited capacity and you can only do so much research, so much prospecting, you have to start somewhere and I definitely wouldn't start at step seven of eight. So if you can't do steps one and two, at least start at step three, but do what you can to find out the most about your donors before reaching out to them is what I would say. You know, that's really great. I know too, we all know this. We're in event season, right? The end of the year is typically when we do have some new individuals joining us. Maybe they've been brought to us by a board member, by another partner, so I think organically we are having part of the phase one and even early phase two naturally occur. And then I also can't help to think if we don't continue phase one and early phase two, next year is gonna start off pretty dry, you know? Like we have to keep working with these individuals. So I appreciate you really bringing that to the forefront. I want to know, we always say data is sexy, but talk to us about how we can look at the data and make determinations first. What does that look like and what data are we really looking to pull? Yeah, definitely. You know, hopefully your CRM is equipped with the ability to pull a donor report list, showcase who's given this year to date, who's given last year, who's given the year before that and let the data inform who you're going to approach and we'll get into a little bit more about the different types of reports you should be pulling, but your data, what is in your CRM in their profile, what's listed, that's gonna be your best friend to make an informed decision. So if I see somebody and I'm helping a capital campaign client right now, go through this very exercise of where do these donors fall in the gift range chart? There have been some donors giving since the 2000, 100 bucks a month. There have been some donors who have been, haven't been giving since 2018 and we don't know why, right? So all of these things are going to inform where you place your donors, but what's your year end goal? Let's start there. Maybe it's $150,000, maybe it's $1.5 million, anywhere in between or below. And you have to think through, okay, what lead gift do we need to secure this year end campaign and drive momentum to inspire other people to give? Maybe you use that lead gift as a match. Maybe you're having those conversations with those potential lead donors first, saying we're gonna be heading into the year end campaign, we're going live on Giving Tuesday, you have another six weeks before then to figure out who you're gonna talk to, what amount you're gonna ask them, can they do it as a match, and then promote that through the year end Giving. So these are just a few ways in which you can see historically through your data when have those donors given? Has it been typically at the year end and approaching those donors by people who made gifts in October, November, December, and making sure that you reach out to them this year end campaign? Have people already given in 2023, but maybe historically they've given you $1,000 but they've only given you $250 this year so far. Do you approach them again to get them to that $1,000 mark or more? So these are the types of things that I would be looking at for sure. You know, it's interesting, because I love what you're saying because I think what happens is a lot of times we're like, okay, we just have to work harder. We have to work longer. We have to be more frenetic. And as opposed to stepping back and saying, okay, let's be a little bit more intentional and look at what the actual environment is holding and what can we learn from that? So I really appreciate you kind of giving us that framework. This is... I have a question before we move forward. I wanna know, Muhi, from the data that you're pulling, how much of it do you share or do you share with your board members? Yeah, this is a great question. So I received that file from the treasurer on the staff and I let them know like for the Capital Campaign Committee, I want to be sharing this data. And there could be arguments made that it should be anonymized somehow or maybe cumulative amounts should be put into ranges so it's not specific. But again, go based on the capacity that your organization has. If all board members, all Capital Campaign members have signed NDAs, I think it's okay to share the information, but there could be political things. There could be just other things involved there that you don't know in the history of the organization that may come up if people see this information where one board member may feel slighted that they've been giving far more than somebody else and vice versa. But again, it's based on people's capacity. They're making this a top three donation in the year for themselves. And with Capital Campaigns is definitely much different than an annual campaign, but it all applies. So really depends on the dynamic of the board, the history of the organization, who's involved, who's seeing it. I've heard it both sides of the equation. So. Yeah, I have to. And I appreciate you answering that. I feel like on a lot of social channels and forums I'm a part of, I see that question often. My board of directors are asking to see a list and they wanna see the total amount for every single donor. Really what is that looking at? But Julia, I paused you for moving forward because I know we wanna talk about the actual reports and we're going to name two specific reports, Muhee, that you suggest we pull. They are two of my favorites. I remember learning these early in my career and I'm like, what the heck? I don't speak this language, but CRM reports of saibut and alivebutt. What the heck do they stand for, Muhee? And why should we pull them? Definitely. You've clearly spelled it out here. So some years, but not this year means that your donor has given previously, but they have not given this year or maybe even the year before. So it allows you to look at your historical giving. I'd say however far back your CRM can go, but at least three years, five years. So it allows you to have that historical aspect. It allows you to try to win back some donors. Retention is one of the sexiest things that I can think of when it comes to a metric and a KPI for your staff. See how many donors they can retain. Get them back into the giving, into their portfolio. It just gives me such satisfaction when I win back a donor. I don't know, hopefully you feel the same way. And then last year, but not this year is literally somebody who gave in 2022 but hasn't given yet in 2023. And these two reports should be looked at quarterly at a minimum, especially for if you're doing like a spring campaign, a year-end campaign. These are reports that you should be religiously looking at. So, Muhy, it's so interesting because if you think about Lybunt and Cybunt and you factor in COVID, I know that so many donors were like, hey, we have to pause our giving to cultural institutions and put them into human services. Are you thinking of that nature? How do we look at this and be thoughtful about the context, right? Because if we've been doing this all along or even we do this next year, it's gonna be different, right? So how can you advise us on that? Yeah, definitely. And everybody's experience through COVID was different. Some families had investments and did really well. Other families were struggling financially and month to month were struggling. So looking at it from a cautious perspective, if people had stopped giving in 2020 and 2021, have they resumed giving in 2022, 2023, or have they been left on the wayside forgotten? I know some organizations I've been at, they don't even try to focus on retention as the strategy, which is appalling to me. It's such a missed opportunity. And if they're like, they haven't been given and we asked them and sent them the letter, but there are other ways to engage them and try to revisit the conversation. And not to give up so easily. So again, I would say every donor is going to be unique and that's why it's so important to do the need discovery, to see why have they stopped giving and build that relationship over trust and report so that you can have those conversations. So I think that, yes, there have definitely been challenges through COVID, but it's not a reason to stop engaging your donors. Okay, question about the amount of communication, right? And I know tomorrow we have drill down part two and we will probably touch on some of this even more, but I'm curious because I've heard a little bit of everything where now is the time to ramp up our communications to the point of weekly emails. I hear also, it's also time to just stick with your monthly, pick up the phone more, engage them in coffee meetings, events, things like that. What are you coaching when it comes to this standpoint on how much should we really be sending right now? Yeah, one of my other favorite things to do is unsubscribe from emails. If I get something way too often, the nonprofit show will stay on my email list. I'm not gonna unsubscribe from you guys, but that makes sense because you guys are a daily podcast, you're getting that out there. For other nonprofits, I think that monthly is enough. Okay, really? Okay. If there's a special announcement and you have a targeted list, you're doing an event in a certain state, yes, bi-weekly, by all means, at the most. Like think of AMCF, we have nonprofits, we have donor-advised funds. So we do segment in those areas and we do presentations. We're doing a stock market update for Q1 to Q3 and we're opening this up to all of the nonprofits, all of the donor-advised funds and the general public. So we emailed it once in September, we emailed it again in October, the event is next week. We've posted it through other mediums, social media, text blast, we've done it in other ways to get multiple touch points, but I'm very specific on no more than two emails a month overall, one is a generic, everybody gets it. The second email is specific to the constituency. That's my philosophy. I will do a text message blast about once a month as well and switch up the cadence. So that's what I personally feel works best and doesn't overly burden the donor, but I'll often get people saying, oh yeah, I saw your message and things like that. So they are opening it, they are seeing it. You can look at all the metrics of how effective it is, what the click rate is, all of that. So I would hate for somebody to unsubscribe because I've emailed them once a week when I know that I could keep them as a lifetime donor. Especially at this end of year, absolutely. I mean, this is a critical time. Well, for those of you watching and listening, today has been fantastic. It has flown by as all conversations really has typically do with you, Muhy, but I'm thrilled because tomorrow is day two. Today as a recap, we really are talking about plan for your year ahead, going into reviewing your database, what is the data telling you so you can make those informed decisions and then to pull two specific reports, which I love Muhy and I heard you, my friend, this should be pulled, not just these two reports at the end of the year quarterly. So every single quarter. So tomorrow, day two, we're gonna talk about stewardship, outreach plans, and again, more on campaign communications. So, Julia, I'm always amazed when we have a fundraising academy trainer. You and I both have been in the sector quite some time, but I'm still learning new material and I just adore that. I agree and I think that it's a more intelligent approach to how we work with philanthropy in our country, as opposed to just guilting people in it or the, I gave to your charity, so now it's time for you to give to my charity kind of mentality, which I think has been a lot of what's been going on. Yeah, exactly. So the back-scratching lives, but so this, I always enjoy this because I think it's just a much more transparent, effective, and sustainable approach, all these things. So, Moohi, this has been amazing. Again, join us tomorrow with Moohi Kwaja as we navigate the second day. And as Jared started off today in the nonprofit show, we could do hours of this. So for us to come down to two 30-minute segments, we've worked hard to do this and that's why we call them drill downs. We don't do them very often because it's really an intense opportunity. Again, I'm Julia Patrick, CEO of the American Nonprofit Academy, been joined by the nonprofit nerd herself, Jared Ransom, CEO of the Raven Group. And that's right, Moohi just pushed up his glasses as we all should be doing. Hey, again, we're here because we have amazing support from our presenting sponsors and they include Bloomerang, American Nonprofit Academy, your part-time controller, nonprofit thought leader, fundraising academy at National University where Moohi joins us from, staffing boutique, nonprofit nerd, and nonprofit tech talk. These are the folks that join us day in and day out. As Jared mentioned, I'm just in a short amount of time, we will be hitting our 900th episode. And so you'll need to stay tuned for that because we have some fun things planned for that milestone. It'll be a lot of fun. Okay, Moohi, you've got the creative juices and the intellectual matter moving around on my brain. Tomorrow, we're gonna go into day two. So be prepared for even more questions, my friend. Can't wait. All right. Hey everybody, as we like to sign off each and every episode of the nonprofit show, we want to remind you ourselves, our guests, especially Moohi because he's gotta be back here tomorrow to stay well, so you can do well. Thanks everybody, and we'll see you back here tomorrow.