 Hello. Thank you for joining me on your Friday, or as I often refer to it, Friday. I'm excited that you have chosen to spend some time with me this morning. You know, each and every day, Julie and I show up with our guest or ourselves, and we provide answers to your questions. So every single Friday, each and every week is dedicated to our Ask and Answer episode. And we, of course, want to thank Fundraising Academy at National University for allowing us this opportunity. Unfortunately, we're having some technical difficulties, so I'm flying solo today, but we, of course, always want to recognize our partner Fundraising Academy for allowing us these opportunities to show up, to be of service, and again to answer those questions. So again, I'm Jarrett Ransom, your nonprofit nerd, CEO of the Raven Group, and, you know, always proud to have this partnership with Fundraising Academy that keeps these conversations alive and well. We also want to give a shout out to all of our presenting sponsors, those of you that are regulars here, you've heard them before, but we can never do them full justice. So I'm going to go ahead and give another verbal shout out to our amazing presenting sponsors, and those start with Bloomerang that has been with us from the very, very beginning. American Nonprofit Academy, Fundraising Academy at National University. Again, Fundraising Academy is the one that comes with us each and every day on, sorry, each and every week on Fridays, of course, to provide these ask and answer episodes. So thank you to Fundraising Academy. We want to welcome our newest sponsor, Be Generous. You heard from Dominic Calms earlier this month, or week, actually, the month is flying by, but this week. So thank you to Be Generous. Also to your part-time controller, staffing boutique, non-profit thought leader, and non-profit nerd. We are so very honored to have the continuous support, investment, and truly trust from our sponsors that allow us this opportunity to show up day in and day out, remain as the only national live broadcast to our sector. So thank you to our amazing sponsors. Hey, if you missed any of our episodes, you know where to find us by now, but go ahead and tune us in. You can find us on Roku, YouTube, Amazon Fire TV, as well as Vimeo. And you've heard me say it before. We're also on podcasts. So for those of you that do listen to podcasts, I know I'm a big podcast listener. You can listen to the non-profit show now wherever you stream your podcast. So go ahead and cue us up. Tell that little person in your phone to cue up the non-profit show, and you can listen to all of our previous episodes. Again, thanks to our amazing presenting sponsors. So I'm going to go through these questions and you're going to get my perspective on these questions. We have four questions that have been sent in. Again, thanks to our viewers and our listeners, all of you that send in your questions and keep us on our toes. So this one comes to us from Billings, Montana, which is the name withheld, which you know, if my favorite co-host Julia Patrick was here today, she thinks that that name withheld is scandalous. So let's find out what's happening in Billings. Question for us here is what do you recommend for fundraisers and donors when they don't seem to be a good fit? We have a donor who would probably be better suited working with a male. We want to change this up and need some practical advice. So that is interesting. And I'm a little activated by this question, how it's stated with working with a male. I have to be honest there. But what I do want to recognize truly is the differences from so many different personalities, right? There's a lot of personalities. We're not all meant to like each other, but hopefully we can find a way to work with one another. But one of the things that I do like to recommend to my clients and those that I work with is, you know, there is no ownership of a donor. And so when I hear someone say, that's my donor, I really like to say, let's take a step back, right? We're really doing what should be doing what's best for the donor. What is best in mind for that donor and as we steward them. So I'm going to take this, you know, regardless of gender, but more on personality and how someone might relate to one another. You might be best suited having that donor in someone else's portfolio. But I don't think that that should limit or restrict anyone from the team working with, talking to, or communicating with this donor. So perhaps there is a better way that maybe this donor will absolutely respond differently and connect at a different level with someone else on your team. And I say go for it. For me, working with a national nonprofit that actually fundraised in the US, but for an international organization, we often work together in our portfolios and we would create relationships, we would sit around, you know, usually once a month and kind of talk about our portfolio management. And we would say, you know, Sally, for instance, someone else on my team, Sally, I really think this person responds quicker to you. I think they respond, you know, uniquely to you. And I think that you're just getting a better response rate overall. How about you work with that donor? Like you take that on as a champion. Again, I don't believe in kind of that donor ownership, because I do believe that we should all be able to communicate with that donor. However, there should be like a primary contact. So I say to this name withheld in Billings, you know, if you feel that this donor would respond better with someone else on your team, have that person work with them by all means, you want to do what's best for the donor and what's best for the organization. So I hope that helps you. Again, I believe totally in that, you know, fluidity within the organization and how the donor might respond to different people on your team. So go ahead and give that a try. Make sure you document everything in your donor database, because that will help you in, you know, the longevity of the relationship. And that's what we're here to work on. So best of luck to you. And I would love to know how it goes. So let us know. Oh, another name withheld. I wonder if this entire episode is scandalous. So someone, a friend of ours from Boulder, Colorado. As a new CEO, I recently started calling some donors and stakeholders to introduce myself. I have been amazed by some responses. When I tell them, I am not fundraising. I had one donor tell me that I was missing an opportunity. Have I made a mistake? First of all, I want to congratulate you for this new CEO opportunity and the role in which you're playing in your community. Congratulations. That's a huge step and I wish you all the best. And I also commend you for asking us this question. I going, I'm going to answer this again, using my own personal experience, 20 plus years in the sector. And one of the things that I would say is I firmly believe that these phone calls are extremely important. And I don't think that you're making a mistake here again, name withheld. I think it's a wonderful opportunity to, you know, connect with this person at a very base level, use this as more of a prospect research kind of opportunity. Get to know them and, you know, especially with the fundraising academy and the cycle in which, you know, the, the cause selling education model. I think this is a great opportunity for you personally as the CEO to experience that model in those three phases with the donor. I don't think you're making a mistake. Truly by not asking for money. But what I would do my personality, of course, and I understand that we're all different is if this donor in particular is telling you. That they, you have made a mistake by not asking. I think I personally would infuse my humor, my personality and say, you know what, maybe I am, I am, you know, missing something here. How would you like to make an investment in our organization? Where do you see yourself playing bigger? How would you like to really be involved at a transformational level? I think, you know, have some fun with that again, all based off of your personality where you feel comfortable. I realize not everyone will feel that comfortable, but I do commend you as a brand new CEO to in this organization to reach out to your constituency base. I think that is very important. Phone calls are very important. I think emails are very important with this. Also infusing your voice, your tone, your, your photo so that your constituency base and community leaders get to recognize you and know who you are. You can do that by way of social media posts. You can do that by way of a blog article. You can do that by way of, you know, a forward if you will in your electronic newsletter, if your organization sends those regularly. So I think there is so many ways in how you as a CEO, a new CEO can truly reach out to your audience. Phone call is a great way. I love always putting voice to voice when, when available and possible. So kudos to you. And again, have fun. So if you have someone say, you know, I think you're missing the mark here by not asking me for money, then use that as an opportunity. If you're comfortable to come back to them and say, you know, you're right. How much money should I be asking for you right now? And just again, if that resonates with you, fantastic. If not, I fully get it and maybe you should hang up and call them right back and ask them for money. A little bit of humor there, but again, I really do think what we do can be a lot of fun. I've had a lot of fun in my career being a professional fundraiser and I really enjoy working with people. And so, however, you know, that works naturally for you. I hope that you find that space. So again, congratulations on your new CEO role. I can't wait to hear how that goes. It's so important for us to have leaders in the community that also embrace fundraising. And that should absolutely be a pillar for all CEOs. I firmly believe for every organization. So kudos. Enjoy your new role. Okay, Shannon and Des Moines, Shannon sends in this question. What is the typical number of board meetings held annually? We have a board member who says we should be meeting quarterly and not monthly. Any suggestions on what is appropriate? Great question, Shannon. I personally have been involved with organizations that have monthly board meetings. I've also been involved with organizations that only have quarterly board meetings. And I've also been involved where they have switched between the two, right? And so maybe they are holding monthly. They want to switch to quarterly. Maybe they are holding quarterly board meetings and they see a need to switch to monthly. And I think that really comes to be with where are you in your nonprofit life cycle? How might you, you know, cover the items for the organization in which you need to cover? Remember, the board is the fiduciary agent of the nonprofit. The board truly are the governing members that absolutely should be shepherding the mission, championing, advocating for that mission, for that cause in the community. And you want to be respectful of their time. And so I love a consensus agenda. So I think it really depends on the maturity of your organization, as well as where you are in your life cycle. So again, I personally think that, you know, there's great good, I'm going to say, in monthly meetings as well as quarterly meetings. But if you're seeing your monthly meetings, you know, going way too long, I don't think you're prepared for a quarterly meeting. If you see your quarterly meetings going into like half day retreats, you don't want to break that up into monthly. And so I think that really looking at the organization, what is top of mind right now? What are some of the challenges, the opportunities that you are addressing? And how might you engage with the board? You know, again, monthly or quarterly. The other thing I want to recognize for you here is committee level work. And so perhaps if you are meeting quarterly, there's committees meeting on a different level of work. So I think that's a very important cadence or rhythm, if you will, that gets a lot of the work done so that you could move into quarterly. So consider how that committee work shows up for you as well. I think that's very worth a conversation for you here. Shannon is to say, okay, if we do go to quarterly, how might we either, you know, ramp up our committee work and how would that show up with us, what are some of the challenges that you're going to have in terms of recruiting and implementing our mission? So great question. Again, I've seen a little bit of both. I don't think that there is a standard for any organization. One thing that I've heard from one of our previous guests over the 600 plus episodes that we've produced here is. If you know one nonprofit. You know one nonprofit. So again, Shannon, that really just speaks to every organization. It's a very different and so I think you just really need to see what works best for you and your organization. I wish you well, and I hope that that that answer works for you. I know it's not so black and white, but hey, I live in the gray and that's what works for me. Okay, we have another question here and this one is very interesting. Name withheld again, three out of four of these questions are named withheld. This one's coming up to us from Omaha, Nebraska. And this is a media question they preface should only our CEO be allowed to speak for the organization on camera. She is not that great. Does not like doing it. And I think we have a better person to do the job. However, does it look bad in the community? If someone other than the CEO speaks for us. Great question name withheld. I am going to come at this with my mass communication background. That's what I did my undergrad in. And I think that public speaking is certainly not for everyone. I know there's a lot of people that are fearful. Clearly I am not clearly Julia is not. There's a lot of individuals in our world thankfully that are very comfortable speaking. I also want to acknowledge and recognize that often the CEO is the voice in the face of the organization. But now if you feel that your CEO is not going to do justice for the organization, if he or she or they actually share with you, I'm really uncomfortable with this. And I'd love for us to find a different spokesperson. I encourage you to do that. So perhaps your CEO could provide written testimonials, written quotes for press releases and media advisories. And perhaps you have someone else, perhaps a board member, perhaps a development director, a chief information officer, someone else in your organization that is media trained. And I do think that media training is very important. I think that your CEO could also learn a lot through additional media training to hopefully make them feel a little bit more confident, a little more poised. I know, and I'm going to put my sister in law on shout out here, but she was recently interviewed for the University of Georgia and I saw her video and I messaged her and I said, great job on this video. You did a fantastic job with the interview. And she wrote back to me and said, thanks, cameras are scary. And I know a lot of people have that same sentiment that cameras are scary. And, and again, many people freeze up so that media training could be a valuable asset to your CEO, as well as to your other C-suite, anyone else that you want to speak on behalf of your organization. Many media relations teams, public relations teams, they offer media training. And so that might be something that you want to consider. And again, come up with what are our talking points? How might we share this, you know, orally with the community? So I think there's plenty of ways to work with your CEO if she's not comfortable and maybe even knows that she's not the best at it. But I would say let's certainly highlight her voice, her expertise, her authority level in written form. So let's use that written form by way of quotes in press releases and articles and interviews. And then perhaps you have someone that is tagged more or less as that chief information officer. Or spokesperson for the organization. I've also seen, and I don't want to forget this. I've also seen clients or participants of programs being the spokesperson. And that's super cool because you're hearing it straight from the client themselves. And that's always really nice to see. Again, you want to provide some coaching, some training around that. But I do think overall working with some media advisory media coaching for your organization is very valuable, very beneficial. If that's not part of your budget, I recommend that you do that. And of course, for your CEO, name withheld, I want to share, you know, there's so many organizations out there that can work with you when it comes to public speaking. Toastmasters is one that certainly comes to mind. And I just think there's so many opportunities to practice what that looks like in speaking so that you become more and more comfortable. But as my sister-in-law would say, cameras are scary. So acknowledge that as well. And I wish you the best. I wish your CEO the best. I know that it can be frightful maybe for someone that doesn't have a mass communication background, theater background like myself. But it's certainly a practice that you can work on. And I think it's worth doing. But anyway, those are our questions for today. I told you today might be a little shorter than normal, but we do want to recognize that we had a bit of technical difficulty today. Of course, we still want to get a shout out to our favorite partner for our Ask and Answer episode. Thank you so very much to Fundraising Academy at National University. Those of you listening, go ahead and check them out. That's fundraising-academy.org. Fantastic organization company doing so much good in and around our community. They are providing training for the community when it comes to fundraisers. A little tip. I'm going to be going through their training here shortly. I'm really eager to learn the cause-selling education model at a deeper level. We've had so many individuals from Fundraising Academy come on. Tony Bell really ignited this partnership with them. We're so very grateful to have this partnership. And so very grateful to bring their model to you. There's so many fantastic nuggets. You've heard us say, Julia and myself, over the course of our episodes, we wish we had the cause-selling education model 20 years ago. It's very valuable. So again, thank you to Fundraising Academy at National University for providing these weekly Friday Ask and Answer episodes. We also want to say thank you to our other presenting sponsors, which do also include Fundraising Academy. So I want to give a shout out to our friends at Bloomerang American Nonprofit Academy, your part-time controller, be generous, Fundraising Academy, staffing boutique, nonprofit thought leader, as well as nonprofit nerd. Hey, today might be the start of a very long weekend for several of you. I hope that you all take some much-needed and deserve time off, get some rest, come back fresh and eager, perhaps on Tuesday, if you do have Monday off. But I want to thank all of you for joining us this week. Come back to us next week. We'll be here each and every day, and another Friday Ask and Answer with Fundraising Academy next week. Until then, as we sign off every single day, we want to remind you and ourselves to please stay well so you can do well. Thanks for all you do. Have a fantastic weekend. We'll see you back here next week.