 Welcome to the nonprofit show. We are so glad that you're here. And I'm even more excited to have our guest today, Kevin Spikerman join us. Now, Kevin's been on before he joined me live when we were broadcasting in Nashville for the One Cause Conference. But today he joins us for a dedicated episode as Director of Business Development at Charity Buzz. Kevin's been in the industry for quite some time. He's gonna share with us what that time looks like and a little bit about Charity Buzz. But Kevin's here to talk to us about fundraising outside the typical gala. So lots of good insight from Kevin to share with all of us today. So make sure that you pay attention, either watch us as you double duty, do some other multitasking. But Julia Patrick and I are here today so grateful. Yesterday was our 900th, today is our 901. Kevin was keeping tabs and he even knew that. So thank you so very much. Julia Patrick is the CEO of the American Nonprofit Academy and I'm Jarrett Ransom, your nonprofit nerd and CEO of the Raven Group. We are so very honored day in and day out to have the ongoing support and trust from these amazing partners. So tons of gratitude to our friends which include Bloomerang, American Nonprofit Academy, Fundraising Academy at National University, Nonprofit Thought Leader, your part-time controller, staffing boutique, non-profit nerd as well as non-profit tech talk. Many of these, if not all of them have truly been with us on this journey from the very beginning. Helped us to produce the episodes that we just mentioned and you can find them on these platforms. So go ahead and pull out your smartphone and you can scan the QR code right in front of you. And thank you, Vanna White, also known as Julia Patrick. You can scan that QR code but you can also find us on broadcast platforms as well as podcast platforms. So pretty much anywhere you have an Alexa or Siri or any smart person inside your technology just pull up the nonprofit show, ask them to pull up the nonprofit show and voila, there we are. So in fact, just a few hours after today's conversation, this episode will be broadcasted into these platforms. So you can find Kevin's conversation after this live recording right here and now. So let's pull up Kevin's information because Kevin Spikerman again, so glad to have you with us. Tell us a little bit about yourself. Yeah, again, thank you, Jared and Julie for having me. Really excited to be on and just enjoy the energy and what you guys bring. So I'm excited to be here. So yeah, a little bit, I'll give you the quick cliff notes version. I've been in the fundraising space for almost 17 years now. So I actually right out of college joined a company called the Gavel Group. And so we produced auctions. So I was on the team there for about a year. And so we produced 50 gallons a year. So your charity could hire us. We do the solicitation, cashiering, set up, takedown. I remember driving the van up to Monterey with all the auction items in the back to set everything up. So yeah, so that was my initiation into fundraising was at the Gavel Group. And so I learned a lot there but then moved over to Windsfire. And so I was at Windsfire for 15 and a half years, was on the fundraising team for 11 years and then the director for five years. And then most recently, so last year I joined the team over at Charity Buzz. And so I've partnered with Charity Buzz for years. So Ben Irwin, our CEO, he and I, we go way back. And so yeah, moved over to Charity Buzz. Just it was something that, yeah, wanted to kind of be a part of something that was kind of outside of the auction space. The Charity Gala space, the live auction space, something that was kind of more helping fundraising any time of the year type mentality. And so yeah, love the fundraising space and love being a part of it. But I can't believe I'm coming up on 20 years in the industry. It's like, I think I'm still 18. So I don't know how that happened. Yeah, you don't look like it. And so that's even more shocking. But talk to us about, before we get into this, talk to us about what the Charity Buzz platform and what your work actually is. Yeah, yeah. So what Charity Buzz is, we call ourselves an impact marketplace, right? So we have a marketplace where Charity's can post items any time of the year. And we have a network of 250,000 registered bidders that are always on our site, actively looking. Our marketing team is marketing all the items on our site to these bidders. So we really look at it as like an impact marketplace is probably the best way to describe it because it's an online auction, but it's strictly for charities. We have standards. So you know, someone's like, you're kind of like eBay. I'm like, yeah, but with standards, right? Like, we have certain things that, you know, they have to have a value of $1,000 or more. There's kind of an elevated shopping experience. But if a charity came to us and said, hey, I got this round of golf at this private country club and our gal is not for another 11 months, but we want to sell it, we could put on the Charity Buzz site. We could put one item up, we'll run it for two weeks, we'll close the auctions and you guys the money. So that's kind of that fundraising anytime of year mentality. And Kevin, what I love so much too, and I think you alluded to it even here in this conversation is, you know, you're helping organizations reach other donors, other supporters that maybe aren't in their database. And that to me is a huge opportunity. Yeah. Well, I think there's two things. Auction items are only as valuable as the people bidding on them. I mean, we could put, I mean, it really is true. You could put an item in a room that, you know, is worth a million dollars, but if somebody can only spend 10,000, that's what you're going to get. You know, so, you know, being able to, with Charity Buzz, our network of bidders, right? I think our average medium net worth is over $3 million, so these people have a lot of money. But yeah, whoever that winning bidder is, is also now the donor of that charity. So if they bid and they won that golf trip, that organization gets their name, they can reach out to Bob Smith from Detroit, Michigan, thank him for the donation and foster that relationship. Right. Well, you have to check out the website, everybody, because the concerts and sporting venues are really first class, super interesting, very current and really an amazing assortment. And I think so, it's a really unique way to go about it. But one of the things that we want to do is we want to tap into your wisdom and you talk to us about tapping into our network of connections. So when we're thinking about building opportunity for ourselves, what does this look like to you, Kevin? Yeah, so I think in my world currently, what that looks like is really uncovering someone's board and what their board's connections are. So a lot of my time is actually spent where an organization sends me a list. Here's 12 of my board members. Here's also the honorees for our event coming up. What should I ask them for? Because you can just say, hey, guys, we need auction items and we need items for our event, but you got to give them something very specific. So a lot of my time is actually spent researching, looking at these boards and then going back to the organization and saying, this person, you should ask them for these four things based on their business connections, who they're connected with within the world. So it really just kind of taking the time. I was doing this for an organization last week and sent them some things back. And she was like, I didn't know that board member was a Tony Award winner. She was like, I mean, even to her point, she was like, I'm embarrassed. I should have known this, right? But again, I went back and said you should ask them for something with this related to this because he's a Tony Award winner. And she's like, thank you. Like now I know what to ask him. So I think that's really what it is kind of like leveraging your network. Cause I think a lot of board members, it's either give or get, right? You're on the board. So you either need to give so much or you have to get so much, right? But if they're going to get so much, you need to give them some direction. Like what should they go get? And what should they be focusing on? I love that specificity. That's a big word that you're providing. And I always say fundraising has become the F word to so many people in particular board members that they're fearful of fundraising. They don't wanna necessarily open up their Rolodex but to have you, Kevin, really say, here's what this individual's value is, their connections, who they can help to open doors, provide these experiences into a world that not all of us have access to. There's so much value there. Yeah. And a lot of times too, asking these board members for their time, right? Instead of saying, give us this, like if you have a board member who's a member at a private country club, right? Hey, would you give us, would you host three people and take them out? Right? Like, great. I mean, if that was me, I'll go golf with somebody. Sure. Like, yeah. So would you give us four or five hours of your time and do this for us? So you're not just asking for items. You may be asking for time. If they're a CEO or if they're executive at a company, would you have lunch with somebody or do a one day internship with somebody? So there's just ways that you can kind of think outside of just, you know, give us stuff. Like you need to be very specific on the asks. You know, Warren Buffett, the Oracle of Omaha, I mean, that's one of his things is that he'll donate lunch. And his whole thing is, I can't give you stock advice, but you can ask me anything else. And I think, and those go for a lot of money. And I think it's, you know, people that have the opportunity to get that one-on-one or small group of influence because you're talking about people that have a lot of things, right? And so the interest of an experience, I think, is really, it's valuable. And I think, Jared, you and I, I mean, we're on the Robert Chicken Circuit, you go to these things and you see the same items every event. And so, you know, that's like, oh yeah, I already bid on that one at, you know, an event last week. So I think to keep it fresh is really, really important. One of the things that you talk about, and I'm really interested to kind of draw the parallel here, is to say, have a plan to acquire new donors annually. What does that look like to you? Yeah, well, I think that the two things that keep people up, you know, executive directors up at night is raising more money and acquiring new donors, right? Cause, you know, you have to keep building that well that you're going into to raise this money. So, you know, I think, you know, having a plan each year and even maybe even having a budget that looks like, you know, meeting with people individually, again, having your board bring people to the table that you can connect with. And we'll get into this later, but you know, again, it's all about your mission statement. It's about what you're doing and why you're doing it. But I think, you know, if you need to have, you know, a focus of how am I gonna get new people? Yeah, you know, I mean, you need a lot of people, but you also need two or three heavy hitters, you know? I mean, I had, I was working with the Evil and Gloria Foundation a while back and, you know, one person won an auction item at the event and they told me that they took them out for lunch the next day. They fostered that relationship and a year later he was on their board, right? And he came to the event with a friend. So he was just, he was there as a guest, you know? He was a plus one. So I think, you know, if you're in an auction setting and people are raising their hands over a certain threshold, write down their bidder number and all those people just bid over $1,500. So I wanna take all of them out to lunch and explain to them what we do and how we do it. So, you know, cause half those people in the room are there with friends. Yeah. I love that. Najir, have you ever seen organizations that actually do that, that target their guests? I haven't either. And it would be great. I will say that I was recently at an event and a colleague of mine, which, you know, near and dear, here in our community, he brought plus two, right? And then he told me off to the side, he says, just amongst us girls, you need to get to know these people, right? Because they have capacity. And I was like, just amongst us girls, thank you so very much. But he understands stewardship, right? And I don't know that everyone does. And so to see this in action, what you're saying, Kevin, huge opportunity. And you're right. I don't see that as often as we probably should because people do use these events as an opportunity as they're created for to bring people into the organization. That's often the entry point. That's often, you know, the first time knowing the mission. Yeah. But I think a lot of times, I think of gals and at these events, right? It's all about how much did we raise tonight? Right. And it's about that. And that is important, right? But I think you need to have a team that's focused on how are we gonna use this momentum and the people that were here to continue the mission, but also get new people that were here more engaged. Right. Now I see that missed often, right? And I say this all the time, getting to the event takes a lot of work. But once the event is over, that to me is where the true work begins. Yeah, I agree. Yeah, I 100% agree. I mean, yes, the event's over. You guys should, you know, high five each other for a day. And then get back to work. Back to it. Right, because that really, that springboard's to the next year. I mean, like there is no off season when it comes to fundraising. Cause it's, again, it's about raising money for your mission, which is why you exist to fulfill that. So. Great. I love this. And I think that that to me is like the big message. I mean, Jared and I seem to preach that a lot. And that is, you know, the event is one thing, but really the hard work starts after, and for so many organizations, they frankly trash themselves and their volunteers, just to get that event done. And then there's no, you know, room at the end for them to have any interest or to even see that the true value is that post work. And so I appreciate you bringing that up. And I love that idea of identifying those bidders. Whether they won or not. I have a question before we move on. Kevin, how have you seen the pandemic and the distributed workforce and the distributed mission, you know, really attract new donors? Because I can only imagine that that net has been casted, you know, far and wide. We've seen it here for the last four years. How are you seeing that take shape when it comes to acquiring new donors? Because to me, it's not so much right here in our local community. You know, the sky is the limit. Yeah, no, I definitely agree. And I think coming out of the pandemic, I think, you know, getting back to kind of quote unquote normal, you know, for the last maybe year and a half or so, whatever this new normal is. Yeah. Yeah, but I really think, you know, social media has really made fundraising go beyond just your database of bidder or your database of supporters, people that are in the room that night. You know, we have a software side that does sweepstakes. And so, you know, we do sweepstakes for organizations. And so they're broadcasting it to the world. I mean, they have people buying tickets and chances from here to there. We had a dinner with the cast of the office just last week. And I think the winner was from, I can't remember where she was from, but yeah, she had nothing to do with the organization. But now she loves the organization because she had dinner with Steve Carell and the cast. And what was even funnier is that after the event, he actually took her and her friend, Steve Carell and his wife, took them back to the hotel because they didn't have a ride. So she literally sent us a video in the back of Steve Carell's car. Like this is the craziest thing ever, right? But she's always going to associate that experience with the organization that provided her that experience. So, you know, and again, she's, you know, was probably 24, 25 years old, right? So I think social media is also getting the supporters to be younger and younger. That's right. Yeah. That was a good question. Because I agree with you. I think we have to look at these things and to understand what's going on around us. And I guess this leads us to our next point. And that is because there are so many shiny things, Kevin. How do we keep our focus on our mission at every point? I mean, we're learning new things. We're doing, working with new vendors. We're trying to be different from the nonprofit down the street. How does this all work? Yeah. Well, I think, you know, I think it's my daughter who's 10. She's going to a new school this year that just started. And so the first thing they did is everybody had to memorize the mission statement. So like she can, she can recite the mission statement like word for word, you ask her, you know, and I think having your staff at the organization, like first requirement is you need to know word for word what our mission statement is, right? And always tying it back to that. You don't need to be the brightest, the shiniest, the loudest, right? But I think the organizations that have the impact of why they do what they do, I think that's going to go further than just being the loudest out there, saying, hey, give me money, give me money. It's like, no, hey, we're here. We want to partner with you in order to fulfill this mission statement that I just recited word for word. So I think, yeah, I think it really goes back to making sure that everybody is in tune with why do we exist? And I think knowing that, but it's contagious when you see that. It is. I was part of an organization on the board and we changed the mission statement. It was an old organization and it was time for a refresh because things had changed. And I remember the CEO took $200 of $10 bills, which was like a stack, you know? And went through the campus and said to all the employees, can you recite the new mission statement? And for those who could, you know, well, here you go. And I was like, wow, you would have thought she was passing out $100 bills and she wasn't. But it was that point. It's everybody has to know what that line is. And that's, I think, a clarion call to making it simple, right? I mean, if you have, you know, a novel that somebody has to remember, it doesn't happen. But if you have, you know, something sensible, I think that's really, really an important thing. Yeah, I think you're right about that. Jared, I jumped in over you. Sorry about that. No, I think that's fantastic. But, you know, looking at the mission, I'm curious, Kevin, if you've seen less mission creep over the last four years or if you're still seeing it and maybe you weren't seeing it, right? My assumption is I know I've seen it, right? And even probably more so in the last four years because people were just grabbing at something to sustain themselves. Where are you seeing mission creep right now? And I'm just curious if, I know it's a curve ball, but I'm curious if you're seeing that. No, I think it's strong. I think organizations are getting back to their missions and why they exist, right? But I think, you know, in the day to day, I mean, fundraising is hard, right? I mean, you're basically a salesperson, right? I mean, you're asking for money. Like, so I think in the day to day of that process, I think having that be the reminder of why am I pushing through? Why am I doing all this work? Why is the gala done yesterday? And I'm now making phone calls to, you know, people that I want to have lunch with over the next week and a half, you know, like, it goes back to this is why I do it. So I think it's also the fuel that keeps your team keeps your team going because every organization that exists has a wonderful reason to exist, you know? So I think, you know, having you and your team remember this is why we do this. It's contagious. Yeah, and we talk about this often. There's 1.8 million nonprofits registered in the US, right? And so as collaborative as we probably all want to be, we are competing for those dollars. And as you just said, Kevin, you know, fundraising is hard. It can be hard. And there is, you know, opportunities for us to make meaningful connections with individuals that believe in our mission. And I do believe, you know, keeping that mission front and center, making sure that that is our focus is so critical. And then to honor someone, if, you know, they're not so much in alignment with the mission, you know, to honor their philanthropic giving, to honor what they do for the community, regardless of their mission alignment. And that to me has been probably the biggest lesson along my career is, you know, to really honor the person that might not believe in your mission as much as they believe in another mission. Yeah, yeah. And I think that's a great point, Jared, is, you know, not everybody's going to be your donor and that's okay, right? You know, I think having relationships with people that are outside of, you know, people that are your donors, I think that's great. You know, and I think, you know, the fact that they give to somewhere else or they don't support you. Yeah, the respect that they still are in the community, you know, supporting other organizations is great. And I think it'll come full circle at some point. You know, because I think also your tone and how you deal with people is also why people give, you know, I'm going to give to this organization because I like this person. Like I like that they asked me about my kids. I asked, I like that, you know, they took me out for coffee just to chitchat. So yeah, that's a great point. And not to mention the power of their network, right? Oh yeah. They might be willing to say, you know, who's really interested in the arts, let me introduce you to my neighbor, right? Or let me introduce you to someone from the country club or someone, you know, your book club, whatever it might be. So I think there's, you know, we started talking about network of connections earlier in today's conversation, but really coming back to full circle to that, there's so many networks that we can tap into. Yeah, yeah. And I think, yeah, it came full circle on that, yeah, that network because that person's connected that person and now they, you know, help you out with this or that. You know, but I think it also comes down to just always being in a position where you're in a position to make the ask. You know, you're never going to be able to make the ask or build that relationship if you're just not in the right position. So always position yourself. You know, it's kind of like in sports. You have to be in a position to take the shot, like if you're not in a position to take the shot, you're never going to take the shot. So, you know, always be in a position to do that. We love sports analogies here. We do. We do. Yes. Jared's going to start talking in Spanish here in a second. I might. Man, and this is a big day in our community because we have an opportunity to move to the next level in baseball, so I'm just saying. But yeah, it's an important thing. And I like that you said that, Kevin, because it kind of brings this back around to, you know, how this is a comprehensive thing and it's not just a one night deal. To your point, and when we started this conversation, you know, so many folks, and I think a lot of times it's board driven. They think, okay, we're going to have one night. We're going to get it all taken care of. And then we don't have to, you know, fight the wolves at the door because we're going to have, you know, the coffers are going to be full. And that's just not the way it works. And so I appreciate you helping us navigate that. Yeah, well, I think it also comes down to like your donors are going to spend money every year, right? Like at your gala, they're going to make their donations, but like they're spending money, you know, so like what's hot, what's new? Like the master's in April, right? So okay, people are thinking about golf. So maybe we ask our board members around that time if they could get us some donations to some private country clubs. And let's just sell those with whatever software you're using, right? One cause, greater giving, handbid, gift smart, charity buzz, right? Post them up during that time. And then the Olympus are coming up next year. So maybe we get a couple of high-end sports things that we can just kind of do in correlation with that. So I think it's also getting in tune with like, what is society excited about? Like what's new? Yeah, we've got the World Series coming up. You know, I mean, that's maybe super exciting for Julia here if they can keep advancing, right? But yeah, but think, you know, we got, you know, Valentine's Day in February. So, you know, maybe we get a bunch of, you know, restaurants in the local community to give us a dinner, but maybe it's a dinner with the chef or the owner, right? So it kind of getting in tune with society and what's important and what people are gonna be spending the money on and have them get that through your organization. Yeah. You've got my brain spinning for sure. You know, so many opportunities. And again, that it's not just a one night thing. We can do this at any time. We can tap into current events. We can tap into, like you said, like what's happening in the local community that people would really like to be a part of. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, because you're letting other, you're letting the greater social structure basically market for you. Right. Exactly. I mean, if like the Taylor Swift concerts, I mean, we've got so many tickets that were on the charity bus site that organizations were able to secure. I think if their gala wasn't for another three or four months and the concert was in two months. So, you know, they threw it up on our site and they were able to, you know, raise $7,000, $10,000 outside the gala. Yeah. That's awesome. And now she's supporting the NFL. I mean, we could go out for hours about that, but that's like a whole nother thing. And you know, the NFL is a charity. It's a registered 501. Yes, it is. Yep. So that's another conversation for another day. But anyway, hey, Kevin Spikerman, Director of Business Development for Charity Buzz. It's been a lot of fun chatting with you. I'm so delighted that you were able to make that connection for the first time with Jarrett at the One Cause event where we broadcast live for two days in Nashville. That's again, an example of how relationships work and how you build that network. And so it really a lot of fun to chat with you. Check out Charity Buzz. It's fascinating. I was on it a couple of days ago and I could not believe the assortment of products and how they were really high end, really fun, incredibly different, something for everybody. It wasn't the same old, same old and it seemed to really kind of capture the imagination of how to be philanthropic and at the same time have an experience. So CharityBuzz.com is where you wanna go for that. Wow, Jarrett, I'm ready to go to a concert. I know I'm ready to look on CharityBuzz and see what's available. But I feel like we would be remiss to not make a final comment about how these platforms, CharityBuzz, others can really help to diversify your donor base. And so Kevin, what you just shared about dinner with the office and I heard you say that donor was 24 years old. I mean, that is a young donor that has access to wealth and for us to not overlook the multi-generational opportunity that this platform provides because you might not have that opportunity in your own database, but this platforms gives you that access to so many others beyond your database. Yeah, I think it also comes down to again, look at your board and spend some time kind of researching who they are and what their connections are. And if I can help you with that, whether you work with CharityBuzz or not, like I'm here to help further people's missions throughout what they're doing. So I'd be more than happy to sit down with somebody and spend some time just uncovering some rabbit trails of things they could potentially ask for. I love that. That's lovely and we appreciate that. I'm gonna keep that in the back of my mind. The whole thing about the Tony award-winning board member, I think that's just the classic example. And so you really sparked my imagination on that. Hey again, everybody, I'm Julia Patrick, CEO of the American Nonprofit Academy. Been joined today by the nonprofit nerd herself. I like to call her my nonprofit nerd, but she can be your nonprofit nerd as well. Jared Ransom, CEO of the Raven Group. Again, we have amazing partners with us that are with us day in and day out. Bloomerang, 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 this day in and day out that allow us to have these really interesting conversations like we had today with Kevin. And not Kevin, our executive producer, who we always bash in the green room. I'm just saying, right, Jared? Absolutely, but you know, it's all fun because 901 episode, that's quite a bit. So always glad to be here. Kevin, thank you for saying yes to a dedicated episode. Loved having you on in Nashville. Loved having you on to learn more about this information. So thank you. Thank you both, appreciate it. It's been a lot of fun. Hey, everybody, as we like to say each and every day at the end of the nonprofit show, we want to remind ourselves, our viewers, our listeners, our guests to stay well. So you can do well. We'll see you back here tomorrow, everyone.