 to have back with us to start a Monday and a fabulous Monday. We have Adrienne Jamison with us representing Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Central Arizona, and we are going to talk today about launching a new fundraising initiative, what that might look like, and in particularly now that we are in the recovery phase or time of the pandemic. So we'll hear more from Adrienne here shortly. We start every episode extending our sincerest gratitude and our deepest appreciation to all of our presenting sponsors. You see right in front of you on the screen, go out and find them online. They're very active on social media, LinkedIn, and give them a thumbs up, some love, just some really genuine follow. These are amazing organizations that are here to support your amazing work. And Julia, I'm so grateful that you did let me in today. For those of you, I had a little bit of a problem signing in and I thought, uh-oh, is this my sign? But I'm so glad to be here with you, Julia. Julia, of course, is the CEO of the American Nonprofit Academy. I'm Jarrett Anselm, also known as the Nonprofit Nerd CEO of the Raven Group. Now, we shared a little bit about our guest and who she is and why she's here, and she is a familiar face. She came and joined us earlier. She actually serves as the president of the YNPN, which stands for Young Nonprofit Professional Network of the Phoenix Area. So Adrienne is on. I asked her to come on to talk to us with her hats of director development with Big Brothers, Big Sisters, Central Arizona, to talk to us about fundraising initiatives as it comes around launching a new campaign. And then you've got something else that you're going to share with us that I'm excited to learn. So welcome back. Thank you so much. I'm really excited to be here. Conversation with you two is always amazing. And I know that people watching always have a great feedback as well. So maybe we'll learn a few things too. Oh my gosh, we're thrilled to have you on. So I'm going to ask you to go back into history. When was the last time that your organization launched a major campaign? Yeah. So this is this is an interesting question. So I have been with Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Central Arizona for two years. And so I would say that this is my first new program with them. You know, it's a 65 year old organization with a very established fundraising, you know, campaign with lots of diverse things going on. And so it took me about a year to learn what all those components were. And then in the second year, we had a little thing called COVID. And so I was learning everything new. Everything was different. We couldn't take anything for granted. So as we come into this rebuilt, hopefully next year, this is this is going to be something that's both new for me and for the organization. So we're really excited to launch something that's considered new to all of us. Did you hit the as we like to say hit the pause button on anything that you were going to be debuting or launching or what did that look like? Because you're active. Well, I hate to say pause because that would imply some sort of intention that we didn't want to move forward. And that was just not the case. Okay. What we saw last year is that we couldn't take anything for granted. So everything that we had planned on doing and we know have been successful for us in the past, we couldn't necessarily count on that to do it again. But we found these amazing sources of revenue and support from other places that we just haven't, you know, had partnerships with before. So nothing was intentionally put on hold. It was just kind of what can we do now and today to keep moving forward. So then talk about some of those impacts. I mean, I think that this has been the big fear. And Jared and I for more than 300 episodes have heard so many different stories. But Jared, don't you think that it always depended on what that organization's mindset was? Always. I think it was the mindset as well as the leadership, right? Like who who are the leaders as well as the board, the leadership of the board as well. So yes, talk talk to us about this, Adrienne. And if you would hate to put you, you know, throw this curveball, but would you be willing to share with us the operating budget for your organization so that we can just put into perspective kind of like what are these dollars that we're talking about? So we have a $2.6 million budget and about 500,000 of that comes from a separate partnership that we have with savers stores. So that looks a little bit different. And that was impacted significantly by COVID because their stores weren't open. And so that has always been a very reliable consistent source of income for us that we really, again, you know, we just couldn't couldn't necessarily count on. I'm happy to say that now they're back on track and exceeding where we have been in previous years. But last year, things were were a little shifty. And I would say the other area where we really struggled just like everyone else's events. The Brothers Speak Sisters has a beautiful events calendar that spreads out across the year for major events that touch on different audiences. And we were lucky enough to have our annual Gallant in February right before perfect timing. We're not having events anymore. And so we were pleased very well, just just by the fortune of the calendar. But several of our other events had to be moved to a virtual platform. And we just found we weren't making as much money as we normally would. Our expenses were generally lower. But yeah, it's just it's just at the same having people in person. Well, so many of your events are community driven, whereby, you know, they're they're almost I would use the word a drive concept where you have community members that go to a certain location for a period of time. Or you know, it's it's raw, raw. You've always been brilliant at getting strong media coverage and media partnerships to lose all that had to be devastating. It was. And we really had to rethink what an event looks like and how do we be successful, how we recreate that sense of community when we're not in the same same room. So one of the things we did was normally in the fall, we host a casino night, which is super fun. It's hosted by our young professionals group. It's a little more casual than some of our other events. So how do you create that like playfulness and energy when none of us could be in person? And so we decided to do a virtual game night and hosted trivia and people could do, you know, they had their teams still so they could invite their friends to participate a few people's very limited house parties with people who were already in their pod. You know, we sent the goody boxes to those people and we utilize peer to peer fundraising. So our attendees to game night could either donate our fundraise to their ticket price and we found that was a great way both to continue raising money and to engage new people in our community. Love that. I think that's fabulous. And to talk about engagement, you feel like you did get new folks involved or was it that you're just more preaching to the choir and not letting go of that stewardship? We definitely got new people involved and also continued to steward those people who have been with us for years and years. We did a round of phone calls to our donors last year to anyone who had given in the last two years just to check in and see how they were doing and it was a great relationship building tool. We got to talk to people and I feel like it really broke down some of those professionalism barriers that we often encounter with their donors and people have their dogs, their kids, their whatever in the background, the mailman and reminds you that we're all just people and we are all just trying to get through this day of this pandemic and it just humanizes the whole process and I felt that that was a really important thing for our donors and our relationships with them. How long did that take you and when did you do that? I want to say we started in July of last year so it was very much dead heat of the summer ever who's tired and I would say it took took us a probably two or three weeks to complete with two or three people making those phone calls and again it was one of those places where we couldn't take in any of our previous assumptions. You have these established relationships with your donors, you know what they do for work but I would call someone to see how they were doing and their small business had closed or they were in an area of work that was you know considered essential and were doing really well or people had their kids at home and it just totally changed their dynamic of what they are able to offer the organization and so we really wanted to shift the conversation like we're not here to ask you for anything we're here to see how we can support you because you've been an amazing supporter of us all along. You've been calling that the return on relationship right because we preach so much ROI ROI ROI and really I think COVID made an opportunity that I hope we continue and will carry on for you know forever is truly that genuine connectivity and connection to the person right so really having that one-on-one or just really you know authentic engagement like asking how are you and we have seen just like you Adrian some of the best nonprofit leaders seeing such a great ironically ROI because they focused on that return on relationship and really went at it the same way there was no ask there was no solicitation it was a genuine check-in and I'm curious if you actually learned a lot more about your supporters during that time than maybe before. Oh absolutely you know we you look for in fundraising people come to you or you seek them out and there's certain things that don't know we we serve children so everyone who comes to us loves children but what does that what does that mean for you why is it because you were teachers because you have your own kids is it because you had an amazing mentor growing up those are the conversations that you get to have when you take a time to make a phone call versus when you do your donor surveys you know during donor surveys are a great way to reach people you find out you know at a very high level why do they choose to give are they happy with their experience with you but when you're really looking to build those relationships the the phone call says oh I hear your dog barking in the background what kind of dog do you have you know and then you find out that they also love animals and so that they volunteer at the humane society and their kids love to do that with them you know it's a whole chain of conversation that happens much more naturally and you get beyond that initial why do you give you know right right um you know now we want to talk to you and have you explain to us about the launch of this new campaign and I'm going to ask you to explain what the 5050 is but then I'd love for you to kind of share with us how maybe you are conversations with your donors and COVID impacted what this would look like because I can't imagine it was just something that you know out of the box you're going to do it the same way you would know for this is something that's totally new to big brothers big sisters and a large part to the Phoenix community um the Arizona Humane Society already does a very successful 5050 raffle as some of our local sports teams um but this is something we uh you know you get this one goes all the time and you want to try new platform and new service and most of them say no but this is something that we were kind of interested in because like many organizations we saw the impact on COVID on our donors and on our revenue streams and we were really looking for some way to develop consistent reliable revenue that would be pandemic proof or whatever the next pandemic is we want to find something different um you want to continue to diversify that fund that uh pie of revenue and build it up as much as you can so we have partnered with a company to start running a large scale 5050 raffle campaign and it is something we had to look at as an investment for our organization and so we're going to be doing significant marketing around it a lot of donor education with our current constituents and also looking to bring in a lot of new people since this is something we haven't offered to our community before we think this will be a great way to reach new people who have an interest in collaborating with us um in this fun engaging casual way without having to commit to an event or being in person anywhere wow okay well let's back up um you're excited i'm like no no i'm super super excited about this so first off um is this a technology-based kind of partnership yes so this is going to be a digital all online 5050 raffle campaign that will run every quarter for at least the next year wow every quarter bought this first quarter of at least ten thousand dollars now okay tell me a little bit is that coming from the organization is there um a major you know donor that said hey i'll i'll pony up for this like how did you have this up yes so our partner our platform called Ascend is reaching out to us they are working to build their name in the community and they are looking for organizations um we kind of fit the mold for what they were looking for as far as size and scope and reach um and so they were willing to help us take the leap on this first one so that it was low risk for us um with the idea that we would move forward being great partners for hopefully all of time so that's what we're all shooting for that is fantastic okay so um let's talk about the interface is this something that is going to be predominantly um a mobile device or do you think people will go on your website by the way is fabulous i know you guys have redone that we're the last couple years but is it going to be something that people navigate through push notifications or how how is the we are actually setting up a dedicated domain for this specific campaign we have the domain name ever az5050.com it doesn't get easier than that how was that available i know you can get there from your mobile device we'll link to it from our website but we're also going to be doing a lot of digital advertising to try and grow who we're already talking to um and our goal of course is this is a fundraising campaign but what we do for their big sisters is we match adult volunteers with with children in our community who can benefit from mentorship um so the more people were able to reach with this digital advertising the more people we can educate about that mission and hopefully get to join us as volunteers as well yes i'm thinking knowing you adrian and i've seen some of your inner workings and your phenomenal spreadsheets that i know you and your team footage that this is one piece of as i would call it like an entry point when it comes to fundraising academy and a tony bell would also speak to this you know it's really that donor cycle and so someone participating in the 5050 maybe they are you know a current supporter or a new supporter i'm sure you and your team and maybe you could talk to us about what you've done to um you know create initiatives and engagement opportunities once they participate in this 5050 because as you said it's quarterly how are you intending to engage and can you know back to that r o r return on relationship with this audience exactly so we are really looking at those people who will be participating in two buckets those people who are already a part of our constituency and those people where this is new a new thing for them big brothers big sisters and so we are going to be so it's an easier thing for people to say yes to than like an event so yes the raffle we want you to say yes to why this raffle is impacting big brothers big sisters so that you can start learning about where this money goes and then maybe you'll choose to come to one of those events or maybe you'll choose to support us through your tax credit whatever that is whatever you choose to give that's the journey we want you to take and saying yes to raffle price where you might win $10,000 it's an easy thing to ask a piece absolutely so you really see this as a is a pretty strong POE or point of entry for your organization yes that is our hope so we are launching our first campaign next Monday so maybe i'll have a better you know so i could tell you what we're hoping and what we think it's going to happen and a month from now we'll have a much better idea of what it looks like for sure but the company we're working with has has done this in several places very successfully so we feel really good about our numbers and the return on investment and what it's going to look like as first bringing new people into our organization so when does it if it starts on Monday when does it end yes so it will end on July 15th so it will run a month each quarter and we've really slated it each quarter so it's not interfering with one of those other major campaigns one of our events tax credit or giving season we want to make sure we're not taking from anywhere we're where we are already being successful and you should know we are focused on using this as a news source of revenue okay so just so i understand it's it's a month long campaign per quarter it's not every month not every month okay so you'll have four in the first year in the first year okay so you have to come back on you know how it goes we're all excited now yeah now this company that you're working with did they store the um rules and regulations through the department of gaming yes so Arizona and I think this is one of the reasons that they were interested in us as far as gaming regulations is a little bit more relaxed than other states across the country this company also works in Canada so they're familiar with those rules there as well so we do have a very formal set of rules you need to be in the state of Arizona when you purchase your tickets they have this amazing technology that can verify that you know you need to be 18 years or older and of course anyone in our organization who works at big brothers big sisters is not eligible to win so we don't have to worry about that so um we are very fortunate and that's one of the things we found this year is that we really need to lean into our partners who are experts um throughout COVID when we're looking at how do we transform our event what do we do to be you know virtually how do we make sure we're participating in best practices we're leaning on our partners to be those areas to be those experts where we can't be experts in everything so I'm really excited about this partnership and to have their expertise and support along the way because this is this is my first 50 50 um so learning alongside everyone else too this is going to be fantastic and I'm so glad to hear and I would be curious Adrienne if you're willing to share kind of how the conversation went internally to help you make this decision because as you know the word of 2020 is pivot and I feel like we continue now to see opportunities I've always said the non-profit sector unfortunately has typically been risk adverse right and I myself I'm a risk taker I'm an entrepreneur high risk high reward um and so I'm curious if you'd be willing to share a little bit about the the internal like do we do this how do we make this decision to move this forward to try something new yeah of course because you never want to feel like a risk you are taking is jeopardizing your mission absolutely and we are serving our youth and we have a lot of safe ways to do that um but we did find during COVID that we did things like our events annual giving areas that we would normally rely on they can fluctuate based on what our community is is going through at the time um and so timing was this this kind of came to us at a time where we were looking to find something new and different for us and so that conversation was was easier than it might be in a year where we're doing really well why would we take on anything new um and I will say that our leadership is is very supportive our executive director our executive team and the board they're very willing to try new things and say does this work does it not work um and one of the great things about 50 50 is that you only pay out what comes in right I mean there is the marketing investment so I don't mean to underplay that at all that's a huge investment for our organization um but we're seeing added value there as it's bringing new people into the organization either for the 50 50 or from a volunteer standpoint um but in the long term you're looking at you you pay out what what is received in and so that's how we're looking at as a risk that we have the capacity to take right now have you already determined your subsequent uh dates we have so our next one will start in September and close out before we start our annuals Paul Carwash we would never want to compete with Paul's Carwash anyway I was wondering about that yeah and then our third one will be in January and our last one will be similar a little earlier than this um in 2022 very cool I'm so interested in this um for so many reasons I love that you've embraced the technology aspect of it I love that you see this as a way to cultivate people in a different way new people I love that it can help strengthen the interaction of current donors in a different way because I'm assuming and talk to us about this for a moment what are the levels I mean is it like you can buy one ticket you can buy three for a price buy you know do you have different layers yes we have three different tiers and we were really took um our partners expertise like they they're the wrath of people you know so I could have made up some ticket tiers but they know what works um so I think we have one 10 and then like a 200 ticket dollar tier and the price difference just completely draws you to that 200 um ticket tier because it's it's virtual you know we it's not a physical ticket that we're you know there's no cost to a ticket for us as an organization um and so we want to incentivize people to really be participating at the highest level that they're comfortable with um and so we've we've really looked to our partners as the experts there and they have figured out the formulas that that has shown to work and what are those prices I knew you would ask me and so we are doing oh 10 tickets for $10 40 tickets for 20 or for $40 you get 200 tickets oh my god of course you're gonna buy 200 tickets that's right very low um entry yes yes we want to make sure this is something that's accessible interesting okay so what do you have goals for um the number of people that you want to be selling tickets and goals for uh the dollars raised or are you just gonna kind of let it go and see how it goes we would love to get our first pot up to at least $50,000 okay our partner believes is very doable for our first campaign um based on what we're investing in marketing and what they've seen um in the Arizona community people participating in these types of things before we think that's a very you know achievable goal and we're looking at them as our experts it would be a total gassy game on my end I love this opportunity it's innovative it's creative it's it's new I mean I've heard of 50 50 raffles and you had mentioned Adrian especially when it comes to major sports teams and I don't know the phoenix sons they're doing pretty good this year so so I heard and probably all of you nationally heard that as well but but yeah looking at um you know this opportunity that really is a low dollar investment to attract new supporters and this is even though you have to purchase in Arizona um this still also warrants the opportunity for out-of-staters to be involved as long as it's purchased within the state of Arizona exactly and you know I keep thinking about best case scenario what if one of our volunteers or one of our donors won that money like what an amazing thing to be able to give to your community so often we are on the receiving end of these types of gifts like that would be best case scenario for me is if one of these amazing people in our community also won this amazing prize beautiful I love that I am just I am so excited that first of all that you are brave enough to come on and talk to us about this because this is you know a big risk and so I really appreciate that but I can't wait we're getting on the horn after this show and we're going to pick at the date for when you come back on to share with us how it went yeah how it went and maybe we'll invite the tech company that you partnered with to come on that episode because this is really an amazing opportunity for for so many of us to see what the newness of this recovery is going to be and and how it's pushing us and stretching us and so just to remind our viewers for our Arizona viewers and we don't always have a lot of Arizona viewers because we broadcast around the world but we will be able to jump on the 15th. Yes yes please do and it's easy to remember az555d.com. How you got that made oh my gosh I know we're very excited you might be able to like sell that ultimately and make something about this is an investment as well yeah oh my gosh smart smart well Adrian we just have loved our time with you as we have before here's Adrian's information I'm the director of development for big brothers big sisters essential Arizona and a wonderful wonderful organization check out their website it's just beautiful the the national organization has gone through a rebranding but your website is brilliantly brilliantly done and I just I'm so it's so impressed so I wanted to give you a big shout out of that I'm Julia Patrick I've been joined by Jared Ransom so all last week I had to say Jared we'll be back with it back now she's back and rested ready to go thank you to our presenting sponsors of course without you we would not be here having these amazing discussions that we get to do you're so privileged to be able to do that with your support want to give a shout out to fundraising events tv our newest programs specifically dedicated to fundraising events we always say from ballrooms to barns from golf to gallows we've got you covered so check out fundraising events dot tv share it great way to kick off a weekend your return I know I'm exhausted I forgot how like I'm draining a 30 minute episode is but thank you Adrienne for joining us I couldn't have thought of a better way to start the week I really am joking because I feel so relaxed and refreshed you know self-care is one of the things we talk about on these episodes and I am just again honored and privileged Julia that I could have the opportunity to do just that this last week so I'm glad to be back and I hope that you'll all join us again tomorrow we have another amazing episode a fantastic lineup this week and so until then stay well so you can do well see you tomorrow