 Welcome everybody to another episode of the non-profit show. We're really excited. I'm really excited because today I have one of my favorites of all time Jerry I like to call him Heranimo Diaz. Jerry Diaz. I told him he's my soulmate in the Ecosystem that we call the nonprofit sector Jerry I was thinking this morning in the shower where I do my best thinking you and I met I swear it had to be close to 20 years ago Oh, gosh, it's been as they say it's been a minute Well, you are one of the preeminent fundraisers of all time Now independent as a consultant and so plus an incredibly wise human being and so I love Learning from you and and one of the things that we want to talk about today are the summer tasks for fundraisers because We are have sometimes I think we get fooled into having a lull Before the big year-end calendar year-end and the holidays and and the push for giving and so I'm gonna be really interested to Hear how you you can guide us through this period of time Call it reflection. It should not be a lull. We shouldn't be on vacation. So we'll talk about that and Before we do let's go ahead and I'll reintroduce myself if we haven't met I'm Julia Patrick CEO of the American nonprofit Academy Jared Ransom the nonprofit nerd herself has the day off. Hello. It's her birthday. I Know actually it's a birthday, but it's kind of like a birthday today thing So anyway, she'll be back with us. You know, we are here each and every day for more than 800 episodes Thanks to the largesse of our sponsors They include Bloomerang American nonprofit Academy your part-time controller nonprofit thought leader fundraising Academy at National University staffing boutique nonprofit nerd and Nonprofit tech tech check these folks out, you know, you can get to us through our streaming platforms our podcasts But now we have the sexy new app so you can take a quick shot of this QR code that's on the screen and You can be registered to get our push notifications They'll tell you every time a new show has been uploaded and it also has this amazing search function Okay, but the real star of the show is not our new app. It's Jerry Diaz CFRE. Thank you my friend for joining us today Thank you for having me. It's nice. I've been here a few times talking about different topics and Today's topic so relevant, right? The timing is good It is and you know, I think we work so hard with so few resources In the nonprofit sector that when the summer comes like especially the beginning of the summer, there's a sense of like, okay We're in summer school. We're in summer vacation mode. We're in, you know, a Time where we can be quiet, but that's not really the case is it No, I would say that depending on the seasoned thing you focus on different things a little bit I will open up our conversation about self-care Right. So so important, right? So we're we're saying, you know, we're basically saying your fiscal year is, you know January to December but really readjust the time frame, right? You know in your fiscal years wherever that whenever that low is maybe the low isn't for the summer But we're so our premise today is that there is a low in the summer, right in that And but this also gives you an opportunity for reflection on work Personal family your commitment to the community. What does that look like, right? So our our focus on our conversation today is going to kind of be work related, right? So this is really focused for fund development professionals and fund development managers or leaders So we're going to toggle that conversation back and forth This comes from, you know decades of being in the workforce and kind of learning Right. So I always say if you pick up one of two things, it's fantastic Remember the shows are always recorded. There are going to be archives so you can look at them Whenever you want so if you want to if there are some things in here You said I want somebody else to hear this you can just pull that up whenever you want through a fancy app I know fancy schmancy No, it's cool. And I appreciate you saying that because I think there is a cadence of Time and place and seasonality depending on what we do in our sector, you know, what part of the country we're in I mean, it just it has so many Variables, but one of the things that is not a variable and that should be Reviewing your development plan. Talk to us about that because it seems like if we have a plan We have a plan Oh, this is a big one. This is a big one. Okay. So we're going to just dive right into this so when when the organization and the board They kind of approve a budget that never changes The re forecast does change So typically I always like this in the summer months. Um, so you'll basically say You know, we're now six and six six months in six months worth of actual six months worth of projections, right? So you want to be able to kind of go What were the first six months like what were the wins? What were the successes? What were the opportunities? Uh, and then the other uh piece of advice I always give is when you get those actual financials Re broadcast or re forecast what the rest of the time is going to be right, you know, like are you up? Are you down? Are you going to hit the number not hit the numbers? You know and do that realistically, right? Like where is it coming from not be like If we run the tables, we're going to hit our goal, right? Like what is realistic, right? And then be able to communicate that to everybody, right? There should be no surprises Right, you know fundraising is a team sport Even though you may be sitting in that chair making the phone calls or special events or doing all that You have to be able to communicate that so I always re forecast halfway through the year And then the I re forecast nine months into the year because that's kind of when budgeting starts, right? So this is where like where are you going to make that? And the reason I do that is because when you re forecast nine months into the year Then you can do realistic numbers on where you're going to end Because because the board of directors will say if they don't know where you're really going to end Right. Yeah, I'm just saying hey, we didn't hit the number on xxx, but we exceeded it on something now So we're still going to achieve the bottom line goal But here's where that revenue is going to come from and here's how you can play a role in that so First tip re forecast. I love it The other piece that I always say when you review your plan is review the light month and side month That's some years but not last year last year but not some years Like were you successful in getting those donors back? Right, do you need to put some strategy into that if you're if you're going to fall short on some things Review some of those older donors for some reason. Maybe they weren't communicated Maybe they moved who knows, right? And but that also goes for even though live on inside but specifically for individuals you can also do it for third party events You could do it for grants You know Maybe, you know Uh, we always see sometimes with particularly third party events There's some really great third party events of people third party events Is when somebody raises the money on your behalf and sometimes they'll change Nonprofits or it's like, oh, we're going to take a break. Well Revisit that maybe they've taken a break and maybe they're they want to come back, right? And then the other piece to remember always when you're doing front development is it always starts with goals strategies tactics Execution the analysis and you start all over again, right? So there's a breakdown if you're not hitting some of those numbers go back to the basics, right? And I also think Julia. This is also in the middle of the year is also a time to revisit board giving Right, you know, uh, do you have a board giver get do you not? Uh, you know board members are there to help you might remember It's also part of their responsibility to make sure the organization has the resources it needs So this is a responsibility for them. So maybe revisiting that board giver get and just communicating those out I think that some of those are some of the really key pieces just on the review of the plan And you might remember this is always done with other people, right? Depending on the size of the organization, right? If it's one or two or 20 you want to make sure that, you know, everybody's involved in it Everybody and we'll talk about a culture of philanthropy in a little bit But that is I think some of the big takeaways when just reviewing the plan in general Is take a holistic approach And if you're not going to hit those numbers, that's okay, too, right? Yeah, it's what I hear you saying is Let there be no surprises On all fronts like don't be the one that's surprised that you didn't meet a goal or that you exceeded a goal Be the one that's like, yeah, remember we talked about this and and this was what we could anticipate And this is what we're doing to mitigate it or, you know, correct, whatever. I think I really like your approach here, Jerry. I really do. I want to jump over into strategies for achieving goals you you briefly looked at This whole ecosystem That we have how we're navigating it And I love that you had a review piece built in with An adjustment phase like saying to yourself, okay, where are we going to meet? You know our goals where where are we not? But talk to us about Maybe some of these strategies as opposed to a win or a lose Sure. So here are some um strategies One I already mentioned, right? Uh new versus repeat money Right, so we're you're gonna have to find new money. Where is it gonna come from? So having a strategy around money I've worked for some organizations. I worked in an organization once we had what we called an 80-20 rule Right, so we basically said 80 percent of our money was going to repeat 20 percent was not right That was the rule of thumb. So figure out your 80 20, right? So where is the 20 percent going to come from? Where are you going to find that new money? Are you going to get it from existing donors and ask them to increase their giving? Are you going to go out and do a donor acquisition piece? Right, are you going to get introduced to new donors through board members or point of entry events? Right, so having the strategy of where are you going to get your new donors and doubling down on that, right? um The other piece that I always say for strategies is also review your wealth screening right That sometimes people will do it because there is a cost to it To review the wealth screening piece, right? And there are also some third party I know that a lot of CRMs have wealth screening built in but there were some third party wealth screenings That are really effective. So maybe taking a different view, right? And run I would say this is an investment not an expense run everybody through the wealth screening Don't assume that somebody's giving you ten dollars doesn't have the ability to give you more, right? So this is how you rebuild and re-examine your giving portfolios, right? And who should be talking to those people, right? The other strategy I always say in the summer is even though summers sometimes can be slow As for meetings now Is if if because they could say oh, I'm away, but how about if we meet in august or september? But if you wait until august or september, you're not going to get under their calendar calendar until almost it's too late and say Oh my god, but I need to speak to you sooner because I need to know if I can get your commitment for next year I need to know if you have extra money this year I want to give you some updates, you know, maybe you have an updated case for support Maybe there's some exciting news you want to share, right? So get on the calendar now, right? I love that. I think that's like for me. That's one of those like yeah, yeah moments. Good. Good job. Yeah, that's smart The other piece I would say is uh, review your secret budget And people kind of go, what is that? Well You have the budget that you agree to you and your staff or your fundraiser or your department head But you also know what's possible Right, so you go. Here's the number Here's the stretch and here's what we knock it out of the park, right? So as you re-forecast also review your secret budget and this is the I call it a secret budget because this is the budget You don't tell people, right? So review the secret budget, right? I would say that I would also say This also gives you an opportunity to do some vendor research Right, you know, like if you haven't talked to some vendors or maybe the prices are going up or maybe there's some new opportunities Maybe your needs have changed, right? So instead of doing this when you're super busy Right, uh, you have a little bit of downtime. It's a little bit of vendor research, right? Um, and then I also think that one of the strategies is to um research, um outsourcing Right, you don't have to do it all yourself particularly if you're a small or medium shop, right? You I mean you join canva canvass for free and canva gives the nonprofits are full professional suite That they charge for profit companies for I would do that. There's um linked in for nonprofits. It has Some learning stuff. Uh, there's an or there's a website called Upwork Uh, that you can do there's one called fever fiv er are right, so Maybe Look at that and that comes under the umbrella of just research and capacity building overall Right, maybe there are some funders in town that do capacity building and can help pay for the training for you, right? Understanding what that looks like, right? And I think the other opportunity for strategy is get out there network Sometimes we get still caught up in our small little bubble Yes, right meet other non-profit professionals. Let them be your go-to. That is your tribe, right? Maybe join a chamber mixer, right? Maybe get involved with your afp association fundraising chapter Maybe this is the time you want to research become in a CFRE Right, so kind of take a look at that Uh, I think the other strategy that I would mention which is not the strategy I would have said last year You need to do your research on AI artificial intelligence. Yes, this is common like a tidal wave Right, so we do know that AI is already incorporated into grammarly Um, you can go to uh u.com Um, you can go to chat gpt, which is probably the most famous one Or the one that's um, that's best known Um, it is coming it is so research and how is how how can you make that work for you? How does that work for your organization? How does that work for your donors, right? How does that work and and I think all of these strategies is positioning you as the leader Right is that and and so you can say oh, I don't want it done to me Well be on the front end of that conversation Re-forecast do these network opportunities, right? Um, and that really is kind of the other thing that I will mention is the use of consultants Uh, so you and I had a conversation like think last month about this, right? Who are they? How do you find them? How do you work with them? Right? Uh, and if you don't have that expertise The consultants would be great. Um, but I do think that our conversation is right now been on the revenue side You should take a look at your expense budget, right? Do you need to look at anything now? Right, you need to spend those dollars now, right? And then the other thing that I would probably kind of mentioned That is Take a look at your team Right Do you do you have the right training for them? Are they being supported? Are you being supported? Are you getting the right training? Right? And if they say we're going to start individual giving You're like, I don't know how do that. Well, let's get trained on it, right? That's bringing a consultant or bringing somebody else So, you know, I love these pieces and I think they really are um They're sharp They make sense They can um help you achieve your goals And they can head off problems so that you're not You know bummed out at the end of the year or feeling like you're going to lose your job Or feeling like you want to leave your job But put this in the context of short term versus long term. You mean for some of us I mean for the calendar year we're halfway through you know Help us to understand that ecosystem of time because AFP reports and they happen for years Jerry And you and I have talked about this that the average Development director only stays on the job 18 months And that's like a whole nother discussion and we've had it. We continue to have it It's a real scourge within the nonprofit sector. But when we have this churn and burn How can we be short term versus long term? You know sensitive if you will and if you could talk to us about this Concept that would be amazing Oh, thank you, Julia. The short term is basically what do you need now? It's immediate. Are you going to hit the numbers? Are you not going to hit the numbers? Are you hitting other variables? Right? That's like the but mature Organization and and when you are sitting in that chair longer You need to put some strategy around the what does it look like long term? Right. What does that look like long term? So we're going to talk a little bit about that One of the things that I think you should take a look at in the long term is reviewing your overall case for support or supports Is the changes, right? You know and you can have more than one and a case for support is just what is the issue or issues? What are the solutions? And then what are the investment that is a case for support? That obviously there's more behind that But reviewing a case for supports, right? I've been have the numbers change have the impact change I do know that one of the things that funders used to look at was outputs And now they're starting to look at outcomes, right? So one is like how many meals are we like making how many backpacks like that's an output Outcome is like we're lifting people out of poverty We're creating an environment with other collaborative organizations doing coalition work and here's the overall impact, right? That's the stuff that funders are like, oh my god. Here we go. Yeah. How else I'm going to lead this conversation, right? So reviewing the case for support Taking a look at those And then I think the other thing for the long term which sounds simplistic But is reviewing two key policies in fund development One is gift acceptance what you accept to not accept And the other is windfall when you get large unexpected gifts, right? And so if you haven't reviewed some of the well if you don't have them you should But if you haven't looked at them for a while, this is a good way to have that leadership role Let's take a look at some key policies And I can do some research. I can make some recommendations, right? And then I would also kind of recommend on the long term is you as a fund development person You see a lot of people You see a lot of people. So you are part of that system to say We should have a conversation with them. They're leaning in they like what we're they're doing They're getting more and more involved Maybe they're a potential board member Right and based on the board matrix You need somebody has technology or marketing or finance or law Right. So you have a unique lens that you can help with that Right. And I think the other thing that I would recommend on the the long term Is two things one take a look at where your money has come in the last three to five years To see if there were any trends Right. And the second thing that I highly recommend that I don't see a lot of people doing is If your organization expenses increase year over year at five percent Then your then your fundraising goal should increase about eight So so once you forecast you can put those into dollars Once you put those into dollars Then you can look for trends like we're gonna have to do a legacy. We're gonna have to do, you know We're gonna have to step up our game on monthly giving, right? Here's the kicker behind this. So When you do that This puts you in a position to ask for more resources. We're gonna need another full-time person We're gonna take somebody from part-time to full-time. We're gonna bring our contracted piece in house Right. And here is where our world's it's gonna come and then you communicate that out Like we're gonna start we're gonna increase major giving We're going to maybe you're bold enough to say we're gonna get rid of some special events That are and and we're gonna replace it with something else, right? So this is that long-term Strategy the other piece that I would kind of recommend for some people is Job creep versus opportunity. Maybe you've had some staffing changes. Maybe you've taken on more responsibilities Maybe somebody got promoted. You're taking on more and more, right? So there is a frustration on that. However, you could say If I'm taking on more of these responsibilities, I would like xxx Right. So you turn this Um, I'm like, uh to an opportunity well Right to to see that right and I think the other long-term strategy that I hinted at is diversity and fundraising Right, uh, if you're a grant heavy or if your special event heavy, right is what is the long-term strategy to create? diversity and fundraising and the quickest way to do that is to take all the revenue lines Divided by the total and that will give you a quick percentage Quick bush math as I say, right? This will and this but this also creates an opportunity for engagement at the board level, maybe the ceo, maybe other department heads and just say as we grow Right and the other piece here the long-term strategy is you want to look at your strategic plan The strategic plan is nothing more than a roadmap, right? Is there a capital campaign? Is there expansion of services? Is there a new building? Right. So like, okay. What do we need to do now to ensure our long-term financial success? You know, jerry, it's it's like a crime because we only have such a short amount of time left, but I don't want to leave Today with all of your wisdom and and this has been so helpful and it's such a great synthesis of Where we should be where we are how we move these pieces around But all in the context of creating a culture of philanthropy. What does that mean to you? What does that look like? Sure Culture of philanthropy is an attitude and understanding a behavior. We're all in it together Right, but I will do a premise here that you can never achieve a culture of philanthropy without overall good culture Right. So so the organization has to have good culture to begin with and then You start building culture philanthropy. This is where you're all in it together. It's a behavior. It's volunteers and staff It's board members. It's donors Everybody is in to say How do we move the organization forward realizing that we are going to need resources? Right and those researchers could come in time treasure talent testimony Right. So overall there is one other piece that it's also very critical To culture of philanthropy and that's diversity inclusion and equity Right. So I know those are buzzwords right now, but you have to have those in your culture Right. It's like it's like making bread. You have to have all the right pieces Right. All the right ingredients and dei is one of them Right. And the other thing about culture philanthropy is it is Mission-based and not needs-based right So How do we help the overall mission through culture philanthropy? Right. So that is really Kind of and I would probably say the other thing about culture philanthropy. It's about us It's about us When you don't have good culture philanthropy, what you'll hear is not my job Thylos lack of communication Right. Um, and so that is the Other side of that. So if you're looking at kind of the ying and yang, that's what that is You know, I love that because all too often Um, and you can probably speak to this and that literally the seconds we have left But you know so often this discussion is just for development It needs to be across the organization But we put all this pressure on the development team and then that's what I believe that's why we have so much disruption and unhappiness Is because it's too heavy of a load and what we don't bring the entire organization into this Concept and the culture of philanthropy. I think we just um, we all lose out. I mean it's uh It's really an important issue and we don't talk about it enough. It seems like until there's a problem, right? Too late Well, and then sometimes we learn lessons later like why did somebody leave? You know, why did somebody come and leave quickly? Right, and then you look at other people. You're like, how do you have so many great wonderful people? How do you keep them? How this is the conversation where you start speaking to other people? You're going to be like, ah, I need a plan. I need to understand short term Long term. I need to understand the budgeting process. I need to understand my 80-20 rule I need to understand the long budget. I need all of these things, right? And here's what I would say you don't have to have all the answers Right, you just have to know who and where to find them And this is this is the uh, my plug um for this show you talk about so many wonderful things Right, you have an archive. People can be like, oh, the use of a consultant. Let me go to that. Well, what about uh, financial issues? What about gap? What about all of those? So there are lots of resources here Yeah, well my friend, you are a resource to me and our community um, I just admire your work and I love your um ethos and intelligence. It's super cool anytime I get a chance to spend time with you I'm like, I like glom on to you and try and get to where I can because it's just so cool And I really really appreciate um you again, uh, Geronimo Heranimo. I like to say Heranimo Jerry Diaz, CFRE, check out Geronimo Consulting. I'll say it Geronimo, not Heranimo People will be like, how do you spell that? Anyway, Geronimo Consulting Really, I'm one of the great minds and leaders in our sector. It's such a A wonderful thing to call you my friend and to say that I I get to say I know Jerry Diaz I brag all the time. Oh, yeah, I know him. So anyway, check out Jerry. Um, he gets When I can wrangle him on to the show every now and again. It's just a true pleasure Again, I'm Julia Patrick, CEO of the American Nonprofit Academy Jerry ransom birthday girl will be with us. Um, on Friday again We have amazing partners that allow us to have these conversations and they include Blumerang American Nonprofit Academy, your part-time controller Nonprofit Thought Leader, Fundraising Academy at National University, Staffing Boutique, Nonprofit Nerd and Nonprofit Tech Talk These are the folks that join us day in and day out and we are full of gratitude for their support Hey, Jerry, you know my sign-off and I really I really mean it I loved how you started our conversation, which took me a little by surprise, but I loved it and that was Self-care. Let's look internally so we can be our strongest and our best so we can do our best And I believe this mantra of ours is even more prescient today and it goes like this Stay well So you can do well my friend. Thank you so much Thank you for the opportunity. Have a great day, everybody