 And so I'm so, so excited to move forward on today's show. Again, I'm Julia Patrick, you have the American Nonprofit Academy. I've been joined today by the non-profit nerd herself, Jared Ransom. We wanna thank our sponsors as always without you, we would not be here and you're gonna be seeing some new logos. And so we're super excited about that. Today is another episode of our master class and this is really exciting. We kind of wanted to tag this into Mother's Day that's coming up to the end of the school year, to the beginning of a lot of philanthropic activities across this country, so that we can talk about how we engage children in philanthropy. Although I'm a mother, gasp, clutch your pearls of now an adult woman. This was- An amazing adult woman. She is amazing. But, you know, this wasn't a conversation that we really had across parenting as it is now. And so Jared Ransom as the non-profit nerd herself, also the mother of a 10 year old- Let me get these things on. Get those glasses on, because we really wanna plumb the depths of what this means. Yeah. So that our non-profits can start to look at adapting some of these pieces into their own organizations. Well, it is a huge passion of mine. I'm thrilled to share this, excited that it's right alongside with our Mother's Day timeframe. I was recently on a podcast and I talked about the rise in women philanthropy is now because the amount of money and the amount of wealth that women are either acquiring from inheritance or acquiring on their own, right? Is really phenomenal. I think phenomenal. So there's a podcast I did on that. I was a guest on someone else's, but really engaging children in philanthropy is so much of a passion of mine. Do you have a 10 year old, right? He hasn't always been 10, but I have been demonstrating and that's one of the things I'm going to share is how do we model this as a parent or any kind of role model in the life of these kids? We could be a grandparent. We could be an aunt. We could be a neighbor. I mean, there's all these ways to really demonstrate this and how we play a role in engaging children in philanthropy. So I want you to watch and listen to this episode with that point of view and the point of view of being a nonprofit, being an organization that is looking to create opportunities that allow the ability for families to really have multi-generational type of events that are conducive to creating a space that will and can engage children in these philanthropic arenas. Yeah, good job. Okay, so first and foremost, you advise us to make giving a topic of conversation. And so if you're coming to this from the vantage point of a family member and you're trying to do this internally, I'd love for you to chat about that, obviously. But what if you're an organization? We tend to think, oh, we have to go after the wealthiest people and that's kind of where those conversations start and stop. Talk to us about this. Yeah, so I have seen a lot of great organizations really create opportunities for children and I'm sure we've all seen this where, let's say Johnny for his 10th birthday, he collects art supplies instead of ask for presents, right? And I just, I do wanna acknowledge that is hard sometimes for children, right? I even had a hard time bringing that into conversation with my own son to say, but wouldn't it be cool instead of me giving you gifts and all of your friends coming with gifts, they're bringing gifts for someone else and he wasn't as keen on it as I had hoped he would be. But I think that's one area and demonstration that we have seen. And I think there's a great way for us to do that both as an agency and as a role model to our children. So that's the simplest because it takes all kinds, right? We talk in the nonprofit world about time, talent and treasure. So maybe there's an in-kind donation that you could engage these younger children. And it could be as simple as collecting art supplies or our sports equipment or bike helmets. Like it could be all kinds of different things. Wow, I love, love, love that. And I think that's like a super genius way to do so many things. So I'm really appreciative that you started this off. Now, the next thing you talk about is actually looking at your children and this is like on the internal side versus agency side, connecting kids to current interests. So what does that look like from both perspectives, the family and the agency? Yeah, and I'm gonna be honest, it's a little hard for me to be wearing both hats. Yeah, I know. I do focus on one, just kind of steer me next to the other conversation, Julia, and I know you can do that. So I will demonstrate or really share from my own point of view how I've done this as a parent to my child. So really connecting a kid or a child to their current interests of what that might be. We are huge. We, my son and I are huge outdoors enthusiasts. We love to go to parks. We love to check off national parks and get our stamps in the passport book. So a way in which I have connected, my own child's current interest is when we are traveling and when we are visiting these parks, oftentimes the gift shop will have some kind of a philanthropic purchase. If you purchase the stuffed animal, right? It supports the habitat of this animal in the wild. So we go home with a stuffed animal, which I get it. We don't need any more of them, but the point is it's connecting the current interest of outdoors, of animals, of being a nature enthusiast and how we can play a role, even a small role, right? Of bettering a habitat for future. So that's a great opportunity. Yeah, that's smart. You know, similarly, I saw Arzoo here in the Phoenix community during COVID, they did a drive-through. I forget exactly, cruise the zoo, I think is what it was called. Yes. And they did a similar opportunity. So we literally got in our cars and we drove around the zoo and they then had stuffed animals, right? That were maybe endangered species. And so think of a way that you as an organization might be able to relate something, a product, a story, really to a younger demographic. Another really cool thing I saw back to the outdoor enthusiast, we were on a hike and it wasn't the easiest hike, but the docents, right? Like it was really cool. They created these placards that told a story as you incline. So as you continue to incline this mountain, you get a little bit of the story and then you have to go further to get the next one. So it wasn't a tangible item that we took home, but it did entice us into we have to go further to learn more and how they integrated the opportunity to engage a younger demographic. Oh my God, that is like super genius. It worked for me too. Oh, cause I... And they changed the story. So it wasn't always the same story. I don't know how often they changed the story, but that could be something that, you know, it is seemingly easy to do. And maybe you have six stories and you change them out, you know, throughout the year. Exactly. Oh my gosh, I love that. I think that's super genius. Now you talk about this, and this is interesting to me, modeling, volunteerism. Not just when I think about this, it's not just like, okay, look kids, I'm sending in this big check. You're saying like, boots on the ground. Boots on the ground, you were so right. So the definition of philanthropy is not a certain dollar amount, right? It is merely the act of giving. And so if you've given anything, including your time, you are a philanthropist, right? So thank you. And that's for all of you. And so really I think it's key to also model volunteerism, use the word philanthropy. It's a big word, right? Like I even have a hard time saying it, but if we continue or when we continue to use the verbiage with our children, it becomes just natural conversation. So over time, and I will again be honest, right? So we span all of us span times in our life where maybe we don't have enough time, but we can give a check or maybe we don't have enough money, but we can give time, right? So how might you find a nice balance for your family unit to really model this volunteerism? It could be cleaning up a park, right? It could be cleaning up an animal shelter in a kennel. It could literally be like loving on some cute little kittens at the shelter. So it doesn't, it could be serving food at a soup kitchen. There's all these opportunities. It could be packing hygiene boxes for individuals experiencing homelessness. Some of these you can actually do at home, right? So when you can model volunteerism, I welcome and challenge you to do so. And I think it's really advantageous that we try on a variety of services, right? Like experience a variety of services in your community, even international, right? There's so many ways in which you can do that. When you go shopping and they say, would you like to round up your, you know, your amount? The remainder will go towards X, Y and Z charity. If your child is there, well, regardless, but if your child is there, you set as an opportunity to engage a conversation and ask them. Ask them, turn it into a math question too. How much would this be? How much would this be? We have an opportunity to give $1, $3, $5, you choose. Right, right. I think that's super cool. And I think that that's what I keep hearing you say and I really appreciate this is that it's a very subtle, but fully engaged kind of process. And when I think about all the things that you've shared, you know, during this year of the nonprofit show, you know, a lot of times you'll use that phrase, rinse and repeat, you know, it's not one big thing. It's a continual cadence. I think, yes. That's so important. Because I do think we see a lot of volunteerism seasonally, right? And this is giving fourth quarter for most organizations. That's when, you know, congregations are pushing a philanthropic activity, you know, families are pushing a philanthropic activity, but I really want to challenge you to find other opportunities throughout the year. Interesting, I love that. Okay, now another thing that you talked about, which is really, I think, something that we're starting to hear more and more about from our guests is attending multi-generational donor events. And we've had a lot of guests that have come on and said, if you're going to do a black tie gala, you better also plan something that's family, multi-gen. I think it's very interesting. It is interesting. And again, I'm going to speak like directly from the heart. I am a single mom. The last thing I want to do on the days when I have my son is hire a babysitter, a nanny, or a friend to come in and care for him. I want to attend events and take my child with me. Again, I know we can't go to all the events. There are some that are just not conducive, but if you do have a black tie gala, I highly recommend that you also have an opportunity to engage multi-generation supporters, right? It could be a walk. When I was working in Charleston, South Carolina, we did a beautiful oyster roast out on the water. I mean, it was, you know, you couldn't have picked a better venue for this. There's dolphins, you know, in the background. There's oysters on this big table. We're drinking craft beer out of mason jars. And we partnered with the local aquarium, right? Why? Because we had children at this event. It was a little bit of entertainment for the children, right, to keep them actively engaged. And so that was just an opportunity. So it was a two-fold benefit. I will say one fold that the, you know, one organization received the money, but two fold by way of education. So everyone at the event, whether they had children there or not, also got to engage with reptiles, with other animals that the aquarium brought. And it was really cool. Yeah, I think that's genius. And I think that, you know, we're gonna have this, we've been talking about the millennials and the impact of millennials now in this childbearing years. This is only, demand is only gonna go up for things that include that next generation. I mean, it's here. I have another great example. And I'm looking at our time and I'm like, you know, I think I have time to share this example. There was a, like a boxing in my local community, there was a boxing, I don't know what it's called, like a display, right? So we had someone from city council learn to box and then he competed against someone that was like a true boxer from this boxing gym, okay? And it was a charitable event. They absolutely had paddle raises, right? But we sat around the ring. It was really cool. I made sure to get the front row seat. I had my son on my lap. He was much younger than 10 at that point. And the, but the gym really is for after school opportunities to at-risk children. So they use their vehicle of programming was boxing, right? And so they use this opportunity to really share, you know, what their gym does, how they impact at-risk youth. And I went in and I told my son, this is a fundraising opportunity. We will have an invitation to give if we are so called to give. Here's our budget that I'm comfortable with. I gave him a dollar amount. And when they ask us, they will ask the audience. And this was like, brand new to him. When they ask the audience and you feel drawn to raise our paddle within this limit, right? I didn't go, here's my credit card, son. No more allowance for you ever. But I gave him a budget. So again, this is financial literacy coming into play as well. And so when they started doing the paddle raise and I was like, whenever you feel it and it was so cool to see him like, you know, do his paddle. And I was like, you see that kid right there? And he's like, yeah. And I said, you just supported that kid for two weeks at camp. And he was like, just amazed, amazed. And so to demonstrate that, and he understood that it wasn't he was going to camp or that we were signing him up for boxing, right? He knew that we were supporting another child that maybe didn't have the means to, you know, to either continue or whatnot. So those are a couple of different opportunities that you might, you know, you might be able to swing for your organization. I love it. You know, part of that you mentioned the budget or the allowance. And I find this is a really interesting thing for you to share with us is establishing a giving allowance. Yeah. What does that look like? Oh my gosh. Well, it's looked a couple of different ways. I've done my best to bribe him and a lot of things, right? Whether it's cleaning up, cleaning up around the house. And then it's like, okay, you know, thirds, X amount of spending money, X amount of savings money, X amount is charity money. And so I remember when he was probably six and it was again, my heart, you know, just got so huge. And it was a moment of pride for me. He took a shoebox and he cut holes into the shoebox, right? And he named it. Spending money, play money, right? Saving money, charity. And I'm like, done. My parenting role is accomplished. That's awesome. Every time he earned allowance, he then knew he had to put something in each one of those three slots. So again, back to establishing a giving allowance. Even now, the older he gets, right? He wants to earn money. And I say, well, what will you be putting this money towards? Just to, again, like reiterate the fact that this doesn't mean we're going to buy tons of Pokemon cards. This doesn't mean we're yet, which yes, Pokemon cards are back in, who knew? We're not putting it all in your PlayStation 4 or 5 game, right? Like we are also going to make a social impact. I mean, he gets to choose that. And so for me, I do thirds, but again, it's a, you know, it's a conversation to talk about budgeting and financial literacy. And I think too, as an organization, so putting on my organization hat, if you were to say, you know, five packs of crayons and maybe that's, I don't know, depending on when you get it, maybe you can get up for 50 cents, right? What would that also do? How would that support the agency or the community by way of money, right? So what does that look like? And if you as an organization can help demonstrate that even at a small, you know, increment small philanthropic investment, that will help you engage your future philanthropist. You know, I think about like giving circles and giving societies. And, you know, we have this whole concept of the grandma gift. I mean, the spending power of grandparents to their grandchildren is so huge. I wonder if it might be something interesting to explore is like a children's giving society whereby, you know, grandparents or families or whatever, but I would suspect it would be the grandparents that would be buying these or making these commitments where they make a certain commitment annually on behalf of their grandchildren because we keep seeing more and more grandparents saying, you know, I want to, I miss my opportunity with my children, but I can get at the grandkids. And I don't know if that's just always a multi-gen issue, but this whole piece of how we connect the grandparents to grandchildren onto our organizations, it seems to me like it's just an untapped resource, you know. Well, you know, that's interesting. And I remember hearing that, you know, early in my career about, you know, you could sponsor a cow in another country. This cow will feed the village, you know, it'll provide milk, all these things. And so instead of or in lieu of, you know, gifts for certain occasions or seasonal holidays, that gift may be made in your name. I recently bought a donkey, right? Like, I'm not gonna have that donkey here, but the donkey will go towards a sanctuary. And I let my son name the donkey, you know. So little things like that. I know I certainly don't need more things in our house. I don't need more stuffed animals and bats. I mean, would love to donate to these initiatives, but I don't need something to bring back with me. So, you know, what else is out there for us to use this as an educational opportunity and continue to plant those seeds of philanthropy? All right, we have a viewer that's written in, Beth. We created volunteer roles specifically for kids, middle school and high school aged at our annual signature event for both children of adult event volunteers and for other kids. Some even got student service learning credit from their schools. Love it. Yes, I think that's great. Yeah, I think that's really smart. Then can I think, you know, again, to be mindful of the age of the child, not for your specific scenario, but I was, you know, a din leader for my son's Boy Scouts. And so, you know, we would do an event and I would see after a while, they petered out with their, you know, interest. They started doing whatever else, you know, they do ninja fights and things like that. It's like, okay, maybe just a 45 minute section or 45 minute session, rather, of a philanthropic event or volunteerism engagement is more conducive and just really pair that with the age. I think that's really important. I think that's extremely wise. And I would think too, you know, it's going to take some of our organizations, some, as I would like to say, creative stretch to come up with how you can design an event or volunteer engagement piece that is conducive for children. Yes, I have one more story I'll tell. So we were packing hygiene kits for individuals experiencing homelessness. I had a soccer team come in, it was a girls team and they were young adults. So they were, I don't know, 12 to 15, I think, right? And we were packing family kits. So we were putting in toothbrushes, shampoos, luthas, right? Well, it dawned on her that we put in a children's toothbrush. And she said, why are we putting in a children's toothbrush? Is that because there's homeless kids? Wow. And yes, and I said, yes, yeah, I know. Yes, there are. And I told the, you know, again, so as you're leading these groups, be mindful of the age, be mindful of how you can share and how much you can share. And again, very developmentally appropriate. But I went to the person in charge with the team and I said, this question came up. Would you like to answer it? Would you like for me to answer it? How would you like to address this with your group? And that was fascinating to see the connection and the click because clearly this amazing, beautiful, brilliant child did not realize that everyone didn't mirror her life. And for her to experience that, and I mean, I saw it head to toe. She's like, does that mean? And I'm like, who does? You know, and what an incredible thing because that just, you might have helped create an advocate, you know, for the rest of her life. You know, I mean, that's just incredibly powerful. And I agree with you. And I love having this conversation, Jarrett, because not only is this the next wave of our donor base and we've been talking about this, this massive amount of wealth that's being transferred to these next generations. And if we are not cultivating this as a society and as, you know, our agencies, we're obviously missing out. And so incredibly important. And it doesn't take much, right? It doesn't take much. Yeah, yeah, I think it's really interesting. I also encourage any of you that are watching, we're gonna be continuing to have these types of discussions because we do see the changing demographic of our donors. I mean, it's in play right now. And so organizations that are trying and doing new things, let us know and we'll share them with our viewers because this is such a call, you know, the same thing is not working. And from the pandemic on, we've seen that. And so the opportunity for trying something new like this, Jarrett, is there. And I remember, you know, 20 years ago when I started my career, a little over 20, you know, and the big thing was our constituency is aging out, right? Meaning we are losing physically, losing our donors. And we don't have a new constituency base coming in. And so we talked then in that era about bringing in like a young board of directors, a young, you know, some kind of advocacy group. That is great, right? And I want you to do that. But I also want you to think like future down the age chain because there are so many opportunities. Engage with your National Charity League. Engage with some of these, you know, organizations. There's one for boys and their moms. And I cannot think of it because my son's not quite at that age. But there is an equivalent National Charity League for young boys and their mothers. So engage in these opportunities in your community. Again, they're national, right? So there are opportunities for each and every one of you to really tap into a younger opportunity of engagement. Yeah, absolutely. Well, this has been amazing. Hard to believe that we are out of time. And I want to thank everyone for joining us. Again, I'm Julia Patrick, CEO of the American Nonprofit Academy. Been joined by my nonprofit nerd, your nonprofit nerd, the nonprofit nerd, Jarrett Ransom, CEO of the Raven Group. Amazing information. Again, we want to thank all of our sponsors. And I see some new logos here. Exciting stuff. What does that mean? Fun-raising TV. Look at that. Fun-raising Events TV. It's so new, I said the wrong name. That's okay. Well, that is great. Yeah, we're really excited. We're going to be launching a second show in the first part of June. We're really excited. This is going to be a show that runs on Tuesdays and Thursdays. And of course, we can access it live or through our archives. And it's going to be dedicated specifically to fundraising events. Our co-host is going to be Jason Champion, who I've often called Jason Ramsey. We're not married and there's no relation. Oh my God, just in spirit. You're like spirit soul. Oh, yes, we are close colleagues, absolutely. So anyway, we'll be hearing more and more about that. We're very excited. Something that we've been working on for quite a while. And so I hope you'll be able to join us. Wow, a great, great way to kick off the week. Thank you, Sharon Ransom. Thank you for letting me nerd out over something that is so like such a passion of mine. Mother's Day is coming up. And again, as we talk about the rise in women philanthropy is now, I think we need to match that with how we show up for our family and not just our own family, but the community at large to model volunteerism and philanthropic activities to our young ones. I appreciate you raving that banner. And I think that it's exciting as we lead into the summer. This is a great time for nonprofits to experiment with things that involve kids that bind this concept of what we are doing across our communities, whether it be animal welfare to culture. I mean, there's so many things that we do that make our communities great. And it's even more important now than ever to get kids involved. So thank you, Jared, for bringing this up. Again, another great episode. I'm just so excited and energized to start my week with this topic in mind. Thank you for this masterclass. It's been amazing. As we like to end every show, we want to remind all of our viewers to stay well so you can do well.