 All right. Well, like I said, this is a much smaller group than this morning, so I'm going to share a slideshow and try to Run through this Jonathan has already heard me speak once today, but Basically, I want to divide this presentation into two parts so a little bit more about me I've been in the Non-profit leadership field for a little bit more than 15 years and I've been doing fundraising for about 20 It's always a changing game and you know when I was working with Faye and Christina primarily the fundraisers at the ERC We were talking about just the Challenge of trying to do a such a large, you know kind of presentation like this Because all of our countries are going to be different our constituents are going to be different our needs are different And just even the legal structures of how we're all incorporated are going to be different However, what I hope to give you today is the start Of a conversation. I hope to you know provide a lot of questions that get you thinking and Start really, you know diving into what does it mean to really have a well-run organization? I know in the ERC world we call everything camps I have done consulting before for non-profit organizations And so I'm going to oftentimes refer to organizations or nonprofits But that could mean anything from camps to like in the US LLCs It could mean any sort of incorporation based on where you are Because these things are fairly universal At least the stuff that we're covering today and hopefully after this conversation Like Aaron said we can pair different camps up and I know Faye Christina and myself are going to be looking at this spreadsheet that Aaron has shared that we Want you all to fill out so that we can figure out the best way to support each of the different groups of camps and the challenges you're facing So this is just a start. It's meant to provide a very top-level overview of organizational capacity building And in brief organizational capacity building is an investment in the effectiveness and future sustainability of a non-profit Or camp or NGO, whatever you want to call it, but it's really about Like you said Alyssa like how do you make sure that you're here for your succumb? How do you make it more sustainable? How do you make something that is here to last and in part one? Which oftentimes everybody wants to focus on fundraising fundraising fundraising, but when I do consulting I often say let's look behind the scenes first Let's see what structures you have in place. Let's see You know how you're Really operating because all of that if you have it done well will lead to successful fundraising. So I'm going to spend the first little 20 or 25 years 20 or 25 minutes talking about some variations for what you need to think about with behind the scenes and again this couldn't applicable to Startups and it can be applicable to well-established organizations because we've been doing this for over 15 years and all these things I'm about to talk about are still Consistent conversations with our within our organization about how we can improve them. So the first thing I want to Share about is the board development When we started mainsprings, I'm the founder and so when I started I had four board members and they were fantastic individuals good supporters, they believed in me primarily Not necessarily our mission, which I'll get to in a minute, but they believed in me. They wanted to support me and You know, we started very very small But since those individuals believed in me they were oftentimes a yes board They were just like, okay Well, what what do we need to do? Do we just need to sign off here? And there wasn't a lot of board ownership and it's important to remember that within any organization or NGO The board of directors is the owner of that entity, you know, they are the ones ultimately responsible It's not myself at least in the US context and many other countries as well It's not the executive director CEO or staff that owns that organization It's the board of directors and so having a really strong board is you know paramount to a successful organization and also the caveat to that is all boards of directors of nonprofit organizations are volunteers so you know many times you get what you pay for and So it's really important to kind of Keep that paradox in mind about They are the owners of the organization, but they're also volunteers and so we need to have them heavily involved But we also need to you know, make sure that We're respecting their time and the commitment that they're making to Helping to run this organization So when we started like I said, we had four board members We grew over the next ten years up to eleven grew down to nine members and then You know about three years ago. We started focusing on Really developing a stronger more national board So it main springs is registered both in the US as a nonprofit organization and in Tanzania as an NGO non-governmental organization and so we really wanted to focus on the US board and how we can make it more diverse Especially geographically. We're still working on the other types of diversity that you could have of racial diversity ethnicity But we've we have geography and professions covered But we really just took a look at what is the makeup of our current board? What do we want it to look like? How many board members are there? And Do we have the bylaws that really guide our board? So and we'll go into bylaws in a minute But to give you all just a little bit of a history of how we transformed You know, like I said, we had this very small board that wasn't really a working board. It wasn't functioning that well Fantastic people fantastic supporters. Some of them are still on Our board today and they've transitioned quite well into our new board structure but we said, you know, we really want to grow this board and Want to have a national board all across the US But the type of people since they are volunteers the type of people we want involved Probably will not travel for a board meeting once a quarter for a smaller nonprofit And so what we created was an idea that we will have three virtual board meetings Just one hour long per year with the requirement that all board members attend in person a two-day board retreat once a year on Top of that we said, you know, we've never really had a great functioning committee except for our finance committee because we've always been devoted to making sure that we You know keep our finances above board very transparent So we had a great finance committee, but not much else is being done So we said on top of that once a year Requirement for all board members to attend in person wherever the board retreat is We want every board member to be on at least one committee and That committee will carry the work of the board throughout the year and then report back in our quarterly just quick board updates So that's really kind of how we've developed as an organization, but You know working and I was telling Aaron right before this call like I have helped coordinate board development workshops that are Literally two and three days long so we could spend a long time on this I spent long ground at this morning and we're going to shorten it for the sake of conversation But it's very important to really focus on your board focus on the health of your board They ultimately are going to be the ones if you have a great functioning board to help you get more funding help you get more connections help you get just Better contacts and knowledge about what you're doing It's very important and we are going to create next week a full Google Drive that'll be on the ERC Google Drive folder with Supporting documents, so we have things like our board contract that will share Basically all of the different stuff that we're going to talk about today We will have examples of and I give you all full permission to copy paste steel use use them However, you wish so I will you know share some of that information so that you all can read through our actual documents But one thing I highly recommend is if you are at a place where you're working on growing your board And I know some organizations just have kind of the founders and just a couple board members And so need to just grow it bigger, but if you're out of place where you can grow your board to say six eight ten members It's a very very good idea to have somebody and try to find somebody who would be a good board development person So currently we've reached a point as an organization where we have a board development committee And actually have a committee that for the first I'd say 12 years or so of Us and that was always my responsibility finding new board members now We have a committee really steers that and helps me identify new board members on on our behalf Another really important Thing that will be asked of by certain foundations and we'll get to grant writing a little bit later But it's also a very good Guiding principle for your organization is having very clear bylaws So I've outlined a few things here. These are not exhaustive and again I will share our bylaws so you all can copy paste and use them however you wish but a Few things that I think are the most important especially when it involves a board Are very clearly defined officers at the very least you need a chair Vice chair or chair elect, which is what we have secretary and treasurer It's also very important to define how big your board can be When we first started I think it was 10 or 15 members that were allowed by our bylaws and when we decided to expand our board We actually upped them to 25 so we had plenty of room to grow and so it's important to Define board size and also define terms and term limits so terms are as You can imagine with the president how long a person serves in that office so our board terms are typically are our three years and our Officer terms which are separate from board member terms are two years apiece the good thing about Doing shorter officer terms is in the beginning. We had very devoted people like I said who were Passionate about our mission willing to support me We had sometimes a board chair serving as board chair for six seven eight years and And that is a big ask for most people When you can clearly define your officer term limits your board term limits your board terms That is a much easier asked to then go out and say hey, will you be my next board chair? All you have to commit to is two years then you can go back to being a Regular board member if you want and that's an incredibly important thing to think about of just really having that that consistent Flow and turnover and it also I've noticed over the past few years really helps to give you new ideas new energy And just even even if the same people are on the board, you're switching out the leadership, which is incredibly important We as an organization decided since we are smaller not to do term limits So term limits are basically like here in the US a president can only serve two terms Some nonprofit boards have that same Same rule whether it's two terms three terms four terms But with us we decided that if we have a really good board member who is active We want them to stay on board and we don't want them to leave however, we want to have You know board terms clearly behind so that if somebody either themselves wants to come off or You want them to come off? There's just a natural time where you can have that conversation and it makes it a much easier Transition and just a willy-nilly We really don't want you on this board anymore versus hey your term is up And I realized like you've been super busy these past few years. We've grown in this way. Maybe it's time you You know step off the board and support us in other ways So that just really helps to kind of ease the the transitioning to boards The other thing that I always stress with nonprofits is really make sure your board understands their reach Make sure they understand their boundaries make sure they understand that they are not involved in day-to-day operations or staff management or Any any programmatic, you know, day-to-day decisions They are very strategic high-level thinkers and should be focused on fundraising strategy and helping you get to your goals and defining those goals So very quickly. This is our mainsprings current board structure. So we have a board chair Chair elect secretary and treasurer. So again, all of those people are officers for two years during a three-year board stent and Then all of the other board members fall into one of the standing committees So we have a finance committee that is pretty obvious board development. We have three different fundraising committees in California Oklahoma and New York We have a programs committee, which is really responsible for helping with our monitoring and evaluation and trying to help Show the success of our programs and then we have a sustainability committee Helping to monitor the sustainability of our organization and try to put business plans in place behind some of our Income generating programs that we have which I will get into at the very end so that is our our board structure and Do also have the capability to add committees when COVID hit we created communications committees so that You know anything that we were sending out around COVID was sensitive and you know Responsive to the various communities that we interact with And we've had also a strategic planning committees that every three years three or four years We do a new strategic plan and so we have a steering committee that really helps to steer that strategic plan so another I Guess this is a small group. So any questions on board development before I move on. Okay. Yeah, yeah So just a question about like once you've established a good board Then like for the ongoing like on boarding of board members. Is that does that become a decision of the board or Is it someone in particular? Yeah That's that's a great question. So We primarily use our board development committee to make the selections but per US law The board does have to officially prove and we have to have it in our minutes to add a new board member So sometimes that's done just by an evote via email Because we can we can do that of saying hey, this is the person that the board development committee is recommending Do you all approve? We get enough yeses and then myself and either our board chair or the head of the board development committee, whatever is easiest Do an onboarding process with that new board. Yeah, and it's it's also important is You know, we stayed stagnant as an organization very stagnant for a while with our board We'd have one person, you know come in every three years one or two or two leave every two three years But now we've really become much more focused on the need to both roll in people and roll out people from the board and The roll out is often very very difficult and not often considered enough because you know, you need a Really good functioning board and there's certain people that were great when we were a smaller organization but maybe can't really get their heads around who we are now and And so we've had to have what I had feared would be difficult conversations, but actually for the most part All those individuals that we've asked to step off the board and there's only been a few But you know, they've taken it well because it's the end of the term it was a defined term and Just we yeah have a conversation about why that change is necessary So Oftentimes in the development world, and this is what I talked a little bit about this Saying no can seem like a very scary thing whether you're saying no to money. No to a willing board member No to anything just because we need the money we need support We need as many people involved in our missions as possible But if it's not somebody who's gonna really help you move forward Then it probably is not for your in your best interest to keep them on So Randy Alyssa, did you have another question? Oh, no, it's okay I mean, I guess it's maybe I will ask it just because both my parents have been involved in not-for-profits in different areas rotary and like committee schools and So I've sort of had the Yeah, the exposure to observe some things that can happen within boards, which quite scary for me one example is when basically one of the boards kind of formed two different parties and Were of a similar size group and and so it became quite a battle So my question really is like do you think that having the larger board of like you've expanded to 25? Do you think that Decreases the chance of that kind of thing happening or is there a number of have you had experience of something? like that happening We have not had experience of that happening I have I have heard about that when talking with some other nonprofits and I've also heard of The biggest nightmare you can possibly imagine and I've heard of it at least a dozen times is When a foundation Says we want one of our staff members or we mandate one of our staff members to be on your board of directors That often means they have their own Their own mission their own prerogatives everything in mind because that's what they are hired to do So in those cases those people are not real board members They are just representatives of the foundation to look over your shoulder and often oftentimes cause um Yeah, a lot of drama we'll say so I've I've helped some organizations through that drama and I've seen and heard about kind of the splits but You know primarily for us the reason we grew the board so we are allowed seven or five We currently have 17 board members and are adding two more this year um and I think A I will tell you up front. It's a lot to manage You're dealing with a lot of people a lot of requests and I constantly remind myself when I get text messages Late at night or early morning or emails like These are your bosses. These are your biggest supporters. These are your biggest advocates You have to put up with it and you know having eight or nine versus 17 to 20 that's you know A lot more to to handle handle and manage however It allows you to accomplish a lot more and we wanted it really so that we could grow geographically here in the us from a fundraising standpoint And at the same time have a lot more expertise because we do work in health care and education and restoration and female empowerment So we identified a lot of different professional gaps that we had And wanted to fill those so that we could have representatives for each parts of our mission Thank you. Thank you chris. I'll go on some questions boards. I think this is about fundraising. So let you go on. Thank you We can talk about boards all day long, but maybe another time Um And I will share my email at the end so you all can reach out to me but So branding is also a very critical point So once you have a board or even if you don't you yourself can focus on branding But I would Highly encourage you to involve as many people in the process as possible And some of you may have this under wraps and this may be redundant But at the very least from a branding standpoint you want to You know have your vision have that lofty dream of where am I going if my organization is successful What does the world around my organization look like? And that's really your vision from from there once you define that um You have to define your mission, which is how are you going to get there? You know, what's what are the steps in kind of an inadvertent way to to help you get to your vision? And it's also in my opinion good to really establish core values Um, all of these things are very important if you know, you're a small non-profit small camp and you only have a couple people and you both Know how to talk about your mission and what you want to do You know without thinking then this may not be as important, but as you grow You know as you have like us 17 board members We have over 100 staff members in Tanzania You know, it's really important Early on to make sure that everybody on your team whether that's a volunteer or camper or board member staff member Uh beneficiary of your work whoever it is understands who you are what you stand for and what you stand against as well Um, because that's that's really kind of important once you have that. Um, it's important to Create a consistent brand look You know have a logo have a website But also things like what are the colors you use? What are the exact? Colors you use what fonts do you use and make sure that everybody within your organization Is aware of of those types of branding things so that your look can be consistent Oftentimes when you think about branding you think of The nike swishes or adidas or amazon logos or whatever these big companies brands are um, but it's just as important than not in the non-profit world for Your supporters when they see an email Come into their inbox to recognize immediately. Oh, that's from mainsprings That's their look. That's their color. That's you know, that's their vibe and so spending a bit of time focusing on that we with our um Our own organization used to be called jbfc the janitor bachelor foundation for children. It was named after my grandmother who originally took me to tanzania and It was not until 2017 that we actually rebranded and one of our new board members at the time had an advertising agency That did rebranding for big companies. And so we asked him to Take this on and we said we want a new name jbfc is too hard to remember our website sucks yada yada yada, so he really helped walk through um everything from interviews of board members staff and past volunteers And really worked with our staff on creating a new look a new vision new website which Funny enough this year. We're going through again not a full rebrand, but a full update of websites and all that fun stuff. So As I said in the beginning all of the stuff whether you're just getting started or whether you're established All stuff you have to constantly kind of come back to and have conversations about just make sure you're up to speed So that's our brand promise Margarita She's curious to know if each person going back to your Board section if each person on the board has special work to do and I think you mentioned this That yes, they do Because you're looking for each person to participate in a committee At least one committee. So that would be sort of their special Work and then they might give other ad hoc input That is correct Yeah, so everybody at the very basic level has to at least join the board retreat and board call And be on a committee that makes sense for where they come from Um, whether that's you know profession or stuff like that. So Um, and beyond that we do ask every board member to give financially to our organization But we do not have a giving minimum We say even if you can only give one us dollar All we want to be able to say because there are certain foundations that want to know does your board support you And we just want to be able to say yes annually 100 of our board members support this organization And that's that's foundations. I've seen in in europe and america primarily, but I would imagine that's foundations around the world that want to make sure your board is is involved So we do have a financial requirement even if it is one dollar All right Defining roles So, you know really working on your staff and again, I know there's camps of various sizes But some people are one-man camps and some people are multi person multi staff camps But regardless of your size, it's really important to define the roles within your organization within your camp It just helps to alleviate headaches and it also makes sure That you all are not dropping any balls. So it's perfectly fine for somebody to wear all of these hats But if you do have more than you know, one person, I would highly recommend Um having very clearly written job descriptions or at least expectations for each other Um, it's especially true if you're a close group of friends because we've seen time and time again where organizations are started with an incredible passion and purpose and very close friends and Then the finger pointing starts when things aren't going well and you know With clearly defined roles that really helps to circumvent those types of issues Um, but regardless whether you're friends, whether you're just co-workers um Really as I've outlined here make sure that you have somebody covering these different pieces of your operation And that it's it's well understood. Who is doing what? Another important thing and this will be I will share our full succession plan in the g drive Early the next week, but it's important for all organizations for the sustainability to consider succession planning You know, we talk about our former board chair who helped create our succession plan with mainsprings and it was You know 13 years in the making before we ever had one So if you don't have one do not worry Um, but she said, you know, I always like to talk about the beer truck incident And I was like, what do you mean? She's like, well, what if one day you get hit by a beer truck and you're no longer here and so we really focused on creating a strategy that helps in a document that helps to guide our board if I win the lottery and decide to you know sail the oceans blue or Um, whether something happens Um organizations, especially small ones like all of ours You know really need to Think about the long long term success of those organizations and making sure that it's not tied to just one person And if it is tied to just one person Which is the case for us because we don't really have a clear number two as far as who would take over for ceo Um yet that's something we're still working on But does your board know what they're going to be looking for and do Do they know how to make operations happen in the meantime so that your organization doesn't flounder and the incredible work that you all are doing Can continue So having a guiding document that all of your board members at least the committee your board knows Um, how to operate the organization and your absence. That's incredibly important Um Another often overlooked thing of behind the scenes is staff development We have a heavy focus on staff development providing educational opportunities fund parties um different You know trips and professional development opportunities. So We do it both to increase the knowledge of our staff in various areas But also to really improve their motivation because ultimately we want to keep a staff If we like somebody we want to keep them around but we know in the nonprofit sector that can be Somewhat tricky because you know, I know all of us are in this work to make millions millions of dollars, but sadly it doesn't come true um So it's important to find other ways to motivate your staff while also Um really focusing on their own professional development and showing them that you care About about their development Big thing is behind the scenes Um Thing that many people don't see but when you do get into foundation support and grant writing this becomes a very big thing um Many nonprofits that I've consulted with So focus more on an approach of this is how much money we have what can we do with it? And I always encourage people to go from that, you know mindset to You know, are you living month by month quarter by quarter annually further? But shifting from that this is what we have let's see what we can do with it to this is what we want to do as an organization and This is how much it's going to cost and being very realistic about your ideal budget and Then from there and we'll go into a bit of this will tie back into the fundraising a bit later But ideally, you know, what are your operations if your ideal organization for the next one two or three years? Um, what what does that look like? I encourage people to separate capital needs from operational needs So the capital are the one-time investments that you want to You know put into your your camp to make it better whether that's a building A vehicle a tractor with whatever it may be Versus the operating are the the program fees all the different day to day operations that you are required to um cover so I always encourage people to think at least At least to budget year by year Um, but preferably if you can give yourself a one or two to three year budget And try to think about a multi-year budget that just really helps you with your fundraising because fundraising is A long game. It is not a quick You know, here's $10,000 because you need $10,000. It typically requires a lot of legwork before that So the more you can budget ahead and know your ideal number know your Ear ask the better off you're going to be because also with that kind of Initial thinking I've seen many organizations when I ask what do you need? flounder with that question and By all means if you ever get the chance to answer the question. What do you need? Definitely make sure you have a solid answer that you can back up with a budget immediately because that will impress people um The other thing with budgeting is to consider how your board is involved Here in the us by law our board has to approve the budget So they're heavily involved in the budgeting process But regardless I still encourage every nonprofit board to be involved in the budgeting process because it They can help you set the goals make sure they're realistic ones, but then also Should be the ones to help you get there. Yes, it's going to take a lot of staff time But the board should be heavily involved in Making sure you get there Just to let you know the time mark you requested And margarita has a question that I think I can answer and you can feel feel feel free to fill that in in the chat later Okay Sounds good So then two quick things on the board is it's okay also to especially we've had to do this since COVID because there's so much unknown about The economy around the world about what programs we're going to be able to operate safely So we've had a best case scenario budget and a worst case scenario budget of this is ideally what we'd like to do If things are safe if we have the money if you know all the things come into Come into play and this is our minimum operating budget. This is what we need to do And then the other thing is always no matter what try to and we did not do a good job The first 10 years is an organization But try to focus on a reserve fund or a savings fund Early on so that you can start saving for a rainy day because They will come as we've seen with COVID and many other things Very quickly and you all can see this in the slideshow later, but um make sure that you are Accounting for the money that you're spending appropriately Both per laws of your country, but also for just good stewardship for your donors Um strategic planning is another thing that um as you continue to move on that's something that is really typically kind of a three-year Um guide for both your board and staff say what are the high level things that you want to improve on And put very specific measurable Um actions for each of those years with that strategic plan And I will share a past one on the g-drive with you all so you can see what that looks like But I highly encourage you all to focus on strategic planning And I also Always encourage people to think about a communications plan And this is specifically for your supporters But think about it in a yearly kind of a calendar year of plan out your entire year How are you going to communicate with all of your supporters? And how are you going to communicate with your large supporters? And how are you going to communicate with your beneficiaries? But having a strong communication plan is very important knowing when you're going to send out emails knowing when you're going to send out newsletters When you're going to do fundraisers All of that stuff is is very important and I'll share once again all of this on the g-drive And finally for part one trying to wrap up quickly But also the ERC is doing a great job with helping us with monitoring and evaluation all of us So that's something because it's incredibly important to You know be able to quantify The success of your mission and what you're doing And be able to use that to tell a really impactful and compelling story It's also important especially here in the u.s. But many other Countries around the world to consider liability and how you can protect your assets Your staff members your beneficiaries and your board members from possible litigation and you know Somebody it's has their leg broken by a tractor by accident In some cases that could sink in organizations So that's something really to always keep in the back of your mind as a leader of an organization's liability And then also just make sure you stay true to yourself Any questions on part one All right jumping into part two So all of this is kind of the fundraising Anytime i'm working with our own organization or others I always like to start at a deep in a deep dive of where your money comes from now Because this is this is honestly what you know This is the for sure stuff of you can say I know I get x y and z from these places Some things to consider are Is your are your donations or support for your organization or camp institutional support? Or are they private donors individuals or family foundations? Um, and in my opinion and us as an organization really started with private donors only in the past few years Have we gotten into more institutional supporters and foundations? Because private donors you work on building a relationship with and it's important to build a relationship with foundations as well, but it's much easier to Befriend and talk to and have some leniency from private individuals and smaller donors And it is you know a foundation who has their own mandates and reporting requirements and Just various constrictions that you're going to have to follow and if you're not set up to follow those You could harm that relationship for the long term Versus you know working out some of the things that we talked about in part one And focusing more on private donors early on But that's just my two cents some people Prefer more of a balance and some people prefer just a few institutional supporters support them as well And I know several organizations that do very well with that Um, also when looking at where your money comes from look at where it comes from What is your average donation? Are you dealing with large donors? What we classify a large donor as is five thousand us dollars Or more or are you dealing with smaller donors? And that will really help to inform the strategy that you want to have and help you target, you know, do I need To just invest in the relationships that I have with my current large supporters and help to grow that Do I need to cast a wider net and try to find, you know, a lot more $20 per year donors and both strategies have proven to be effective for different nonprofits It's just a matter of, you know, starting at where your money comes from now and building off of what you already have six with The other thing that is Very important to think about is your donor retention And this is something that's typically tracked You know annually after you've been in operation for a few years But the average retention rate for donors Of nonprofits in the u.s. Is anywhere from 40 to 45 percent If you can improve upon that You know, you're going to have much more success. It's much easier to keep a donor Than it is to find a new one So what donor retention really is is um If you have let's say in 2019 100 donors that donated to your organization If you only have a 40 retention rate only 40 of those donors are going to donate a second year So finding ways and we'll talk about different ways to retain donors Is incredibly important. Just again, I will reiterate that New donors are hard to find Current donors are easier to motivate and keep Yeah, keep on board So once you know where your money comes from I always like to start with a fundraising plan um, I typically just do it in excel and List okay, these are our loyal supporters This is the regular donors that I know how much I'm going to get from or at least a range of what I will get from them And map that out and have excel add that up for me And say, okay, here's the foundations. I know about here's the supporters And then I compare that to our annual budget And say, okay, where is our gap and how are we going to make up for that? um Typically we've made up for that as a nonprofit with in-person fundraising events whether they're ticketed or free with suggested donations You know, we've typically been able to fill our gap from our regular Loyal supporters and those those can range and gifts anywhere from five dollars to several thousand dollars But we just know that they're going to be consistent and the rest of it we I'm sorry cat um The rest of it we've typically made up for in in-person fundraisers, but obviously the last year and a half we've had to um Yeah, be more creative because we haven't been able to gather in person. Thanks to COVID-19 um So here's just some other things Is it possible for you to meet people in person? I always, you know encourage first and foremost in-person meetings If that's not possible, um, you know, how can you Really create a network and and network with people? um Just to start sharing your mission um Board Are an incredible way as I said early on they should be heavily involved the Funding process the creation of a fundraising plan and they should um Be Yeah actively involved in helping you find new contacts new leads if they have ends at foundations Which we'll talk about in a little bit. They should be helping to make introductions and Also when it's it's feasible in different countries. They should be helping to host cocktail parties or luncheons or You know doing whatever they can to help you meet your fundraising goals Any questions so far? I'm trying to go somewhat quickly through this so that we can have more individualized questions and and brainstorming um So very quickly and again you can read through this but I always say Find any and all ways to accept donations Make it as easy as possible. Um, we've had people donate stocks here in the u.s and in europe Um, you know, we accept cash check credit card stocks wire transfers social media donations The more ways that you can accept donations and make it easy for people to give you their money the better And also depending on the country Um, make sure that you're registered in a way so that your donors in that country can get the biggest tax credit possible Because that's in many cases a big incentive for giving And once you get donations, this is where a lot of nonprofits Um, fall short Aaron was there something? okay, um, this is where a lot of nonprofits I've seen fall short is really tracking donations and following up with donations So making sure, you know, when we started we just used an excel sheet and we had the date of donation Who it was from their address and the amount Um, and made sure that we also had a note of when they were followed up with Now we use an actual database a donor database that helps to track all of this information helps to send out automatic emails If they donate online, it's gotten much easier in that sense, but it does cost a bit more money um but It's very important just to make sure that however you can do it your tracking donations, you know, exactly when somebody gave How much they gave what it was for and also the typical rule of thumb that at least we have is there's a 48 hour response rule Of if somebody donates somebody within our organization needs to respond Whether that's an automatic response if it's online or via mail if they've sent in a check But within two business days, we want to make sure that we have acknowledged that person and thank them for the donation and sent them a receipt Um, so it's incredibly important to be timely and and thankful And also when tracking your donations, that's a really good way to get to know your donors Um, I say fundraising is a lot like adult babysitting because you get you need to get to know and know how to take care of all of your supporters and You know, we are to the point now where we've developed um a system where we we try to track as many people's Uh kids names dogs names What they're interested in what makes them give what got them involved in the organization When did they go to Tanzania if they did go to Tanzania and the more Information like that you can have because as you grow That's going to be hard to remember. You know, if you have 10 to 20 donors right now That's pretty easy to keep track of and I used to keep track of a lot of that in my mind but Being able to really put all of that down and grow that you're not going to be able to do that forever and it also allows other staff members to You know jump in and be able to help as well So really tracking as much information you can about donors and what they give to is is great The other thing so I've mentioned the 48 hour rule that we have of if we receive a check or donation within two business days We try to you know, make sure they get an acknowledgement But we also count the number of touches we have for each of our supporters per year So the standard rule that I have heard and follow is to have at least seven touches for each one of your supporters Throughout a calendar year So they can be anything from personal emails or phone call or zoom call They can be a handwritten note You know, if you send an official don't donation acknowledgement and then send a handwritten note afterwards that counts as a touch Newsletters count as a touch, but they probably shouldn't count for more than three or four And actually if you have a really well written donation ask That's That's also a great touch because it's a personalized ask We also do little things like personal Messages and videos from our kids or staff in Tanzania if somebody's supported a special project Or sometimes we'll put a plaque on a building if they've built it So those types of donor gifts and special acknowledgements For the larger supporters are also important And you know, we always like to think about our supporters and kind of two main groups of the majority of our fantastic supporters and then the The top level kind of large larger supporters and those people typically do have more than seven touches because you really want to Focus on the relationship with them So another thing that touches do not count for Social media posts. So it doesn't matter how much your supporter loves your social media page I would encourage you not to consider that a touch just because that has become so Um, run of the mill every day, you know, just Normal non-profit stuff these days that that shouldn't count as a touch But if you can see them call them thank them acknowledge them any of that counts as a touch and make sure In your communication plan that we talked about earlier. This is addressed for all of your supporters And while I said social media doesn't necessarily count as a touch. It is a fantastic tool for helping to get Um supporters more familiar with your mission keep up to date with what's going on It's much more real time. It also is a great way to grow You know the number of people who know about your work so You know try to identify the types of supporters that you have what social media platforms they follow Historically, we had only facebook And have recently jumped to instagram because we're we're quite behind that ball. I'm not a great social media person but You know, we've switched so now we have both facebook and instagram and doing facebook less and less Because we've just seen a lot more following following on instagram But it's important to be consistent Especially on instagram. We've learned it's important to post at least twice a day Three times is even better It's also great to know that you can schedule your post so that You can literally sit down one time a week and schedule your post for both facebook and instagram all at the same time just to Be broadcast out throughout the week whenever you Choose it to go out And I also and we spent a little bit of time talking about this this morning You want to make sure that your posts are Relatable to your audience, you know, you need to make sure you know your audience And the more positive stories fun faces Um just feel good stories. You can put out there the better um, I always say that people like to Jump on a floating ship not a sinking one And so the more that you can be positive about your mission and the opportunities that you're providing for the environment or for People in your community or whatever the case may be that is um Much more effective and gets much a much better response than the gloom and doom that we see All over the the news these days, you know, I think In the late 90s early 2000s at least here in the u.s. There was a lot of very sad nonprofit commercials the sarah mcgloughlin Just rip your heart out because they want to try to make you give because you feel guilty um, I think with all of the News coverage and media coverage that we have and how negative our world has become especially recently people are much more likely to Follow and want to follow the positive fun stories So even though we're all dealing with very serious issues and we all have our stresses and major issues that are going on keeping it positive is the way to go um and then Finally a great way is try to engage your audience on social media Um Ask for favorite memories if somebody has been to a camp ask them to post pictures have fun polls have different quizzes The more you can do like that to engage people That'll just increase the number of views that people have for your page and ultimately increase the number of people Yeah, following you And again, all of this is really important to tie into a calendar So know when you're going to reach out and to who? And it's very important to not always be asking for money Especially so I've talked about the touches my general rule of thumb is I like to talk to people at least two to three times Before I ask them for money again And if they bring up on you know the first time hey, what do you need? Then we can have that conversation, but I make sure it's not me who's brought it up um, because you want to again think about fundraising as A relationship, you know, you're entering into a relationship of sorts with your supporters And so the more you can build that the longer It's going to last the better retention you're going to have and the more you'll get out of people honestly Because they're going to just feel more connected to you Um, some other fundraising ideas and again all of this every topic that we're discussing could be a full day Seminar and talk so I know I'm going quickly Um, but we as an organization have had galas luncheons Um, you've mentioned rotary club. I put that in here. That's a great place to start because rotary club is very generous philanthropically and They're located all around the world and can partner with different rotary clubs to do quite massive things and they have a great matching program Um, also, I've mentioned make sure your board is involved have board events and have them have cocktail parties or smaller dinners or whatever the case may be And never underestimate the power of just a one-on-one lunch or breakfast or coffee Or just even a phone call So all those are are great ways to have in-person events I think I mentioned we've had both ticketed events and we've had Free events with suggested donations In the events that we've had the free events. We've typically had somebody host it so that we as an organization are not out the money If we do have a ticketed event, then that's where we will Create a budget make sure that we you know cover the costs to that fundraiser with the ticket cost and other sponsorship cost And finally we also Just last year and this year jumped into the virtual fundraiser You know realm because of coven 19 I will say it is not my favorite thing to do but one Benefit that was actually very nice as we were able to connect with people from around the world Because we have supporters in europe and the us Some and you know different parts of the world And so it was actually a really great way this past april to be able to have a 45 minute program that was pre-recorded It was definitely a clear ask for donations And if you look on our youtube channel, which i'll share later you can see our virtual fundraising event And john lu was actually featured and he was one of our guests. So that was great to have him Um And only a couple more slides and we can open it up, but here's just a few Grant writing techniques again. I am being redundant, but whether you're dealing with a foundation or a person Relationship is key If you can get a foot in the door, whether it's an introduction or just even a phone call To talk about the possibility of you know a relationship with that foundation That'll get you much further than just a cold cold call application Always make sure when you're writing grants and I know erin mentioned that fan christina are willing to help With this process. So I don't need to go into too much detail, but always write with a reader in mind Make sure you give yourself plenty of time Make sure you double check your numbers and budget and you know them by heart because they're typically our follow-up calls And they will ask you the numbers and I have been caught up on a few times of I don't know. I'll have to get back to you So make sure you know your numbers and you know exactly what you're asking for And the other thing that I talked about this morning As I highly recommend with new foundations if you're going after grants Starting with a smaller ask typically when you look up foundations, they will give you a range of gifts that they give And you can look at what they give to and you can look at what Types of things they support But in my experience and this is not always the case but most of the times The organizations that are getting the most money from those foundations are organizations that have been in their portfolio for some time So when asking for the first time from a foundation Always try to start on the lower side. Um, it's often oftentimes called a get-to-know-you grant And we talked to jonathan who's on the call a little earlier about this, but it's You know just a chance for you to build a relationship with that foundation It's a chance for them to get to know you and you to get to know them Because different foundations like different forms of communication They like different forms of reports. They have different requirements per their bylaws So getting to know them at a smaller donation level is a much You know less risky way of going about something And helps you also in the long term to build On that relationship and ultimately hopefully get more And just show them that you Are successful in what you say you're going to do and starting with a smaller project is easier than tackling a much bigger project And it's better to be successful in a foundation's eyes On a small level than it is to fail on a much larger level And then also make sure always with your grant writing include administrative cost Focus on your strengths you know, we have a Work with several different smaller organizations in east africa and so many times they want to focus on their needs their needs their needs Every foundation knows that nonprofits need money. They know exactly why you are calling them why you're initiating this relationship You don't need to tell them that you need money What you need to show them and tell them about is why you're unique why you're worth investing in What is so special about you that sets you apart from the other Gazillion people who are asking them for the same amount of money And so many people get in the weeds of oh, we just need x y and z to do this Focus on your story focus on your strengths and that will carry you much further and then finally Be very consistent, especially when it comes to foundations with communication and reporting Like I said in the beginning, they are much less forgiving than individual supporters are so that's something always to keep in mind In my last slide Which may or may not be relevant to this group. I'm not quite sure but in tanzania We try to be as Sustainable as possible. So we kind of blur the lines between a nonprofit and business in certain circumstances And I think that's true for a lot of camps because You know, we're producing food. We're providing educational experiences possibly charging for camps So wanted just to give a few Ways that we do that pictured here is our on campus restaurant and lodge which we Have a farm table menu from our permaculture farms We serve the Larger community and the tourist community because we're very close to the serengeti national park And then we also have a bunch of volunteers that come So we get income in country through this on campus restaurant and lodge We also charge we on normal years pre-covid have about 150 Volunteers a year that we charge a volunteer fee To come and visit so we actually make money off of our volunteer program and that's incredibly important And I think Alyssa you mentioned You just kind of covered your cost I always encourage people like hosting campers hosting volunteers Is a lot of work It's a whole lot of work and it also takes a lot more time and a lot more money than you think it ever will Um, so trying to make sure that you're not You know running a deficit just because your volunteer program or your camper program is incredibly important because You know that will take away from the operations of everything else you're doing We also charge a modest school fee for some of the day students who can't afford it We sell excess produce from and livestock from our farm and I think that's about all we do as far as sustainability So Um, I just wanted to quickly mention that we do as an organization Try to be a little bit business minded in certain certain areas that we focus on Margarita also wants to know what is the material you have in the roof on the pictures for your buildings here? Oh, that's a cane bamboo It grows like weeds So it's a yeah, it's a Spreading bamboo that yeah, just takes over everything so we actually use it for a lot of building materials because it looks nice and It's free And finally and we'll open it up for questions, but just make sure to be persistent in fundraising It's not an easy game You're going to get far more nose than you are yeses In the grant world the typical rule of thumb is that you'll get one Successful grant for every 10 applications you submit So don't be hard on yourself make sure not to give up and just keep You know pushing forward seeing what works best analyzing when that does work Well, and yeah move it forward. All right. Well once again, I talked a lot But since there's only a few camps on here, I guess we can open it up for more Questions and conversation or brainstorming Thank you so much chris um, there's so much in that presentation that I think Um, is just the bread and butter of what starts to happen when you're running an organization um, and some of it happens all at the same time and some of it comes as you grow and as you learn um, and Yeah, sometimes it can feel a little overwhelming. I'm kind of like what have I gotten myself into But I think when you See the work that each of the camps is doing around the world The value in in those activities is Is is just Absolutely shining through and so the more camps And the the teams within a particular camp project build Their fluency Because I think of fundraising as kind of a type of language that you learn As you build your fluency in fundraising It becomes easier and you're able to communicate That value and the importance of of the work to a larger audience, which I think is really powerful for the ecological Needs of our time and also for the people who are involved in those projects So thanks so much for sharing Your points here. We have a couple of minutes Yes, and I'd like to invite Camps to talk a little bit about maybe Where they are in their Fundraising steps are kind of what's coming up for you So my suggestion in fundraising I find it to be always a personal journey It's something that you determine your style the way that you interact The types of fundraising activities you want to take on where if you're comfortable Places where you want to move into more of a Sort of looking for A little outside of your comfort zone and really push yourself And also to find ways to build that network around you so that it's not just your fundraising, but it becomes A web of interactions that are close to the work that you're doing and some that are further away So i'm curious If the camps might want to share a little bit about Where is that comfort zone for you right now and and where are the areas that you want to expand in the future? And also while you're thinking about this question Um, i'm going to put a link to a feedback survey if you want to multitask While we're talking and fill that survey out. That would be really helpful for us as well And also while you're thinking um a couple things i forgot um when Doing fundraisers and your fundraising plan um, it's important with absolutely everything you do to have um a dollar amount Goal associated with each event or each activity or annual fund one thing i fail to mention is our biggest time of fundraising is the end of the year um because you know close to two-thirds of People like at least in the u.s. Like to donate in the last six weeks of the year And so we have a very targeted approach at the end of the year But it's very important regardless to have a goal for everything you do And also make sure there's a specific ask to the donors whether that's be a letter Or whether that's in person and you're speaking at an event make sure there is a specific ask associated with a goal that you have in mind back to erin's question Hi, i'm happy to speak. Um yeah, i um so We're we're still in the very early stages of developing a fundraising Strategy and plan and really early stages of a lot of things Um, I mean so far we've been supported with private donor um for some of our you know startup costs and For a loan for the the the land that we're on um one thing that i'm really curious about is um Uh particularly with having you here chris and you speaking that your um Organization has lots of different sort of objectives. So you're supporting women you're doing region ag etc etc etc And I feel like we're very similar like we came in with a very holistic um sort of vision or mission around you know what it's going to take to To become more in line with what the earth needs, you know and all of the beings on the earth So it's so holistic and so broad and I guess we're now honing in a little bit more But we still have many different like we're doing you know, um Yeah regenerative Agroecology and then we've got um an interest in supporting women and also indigenous Objectives and health and whatnot. So i'm just wondering like if you could speak to how do you navigate that when it's so broad Like in terms of finding an audience in fundraising Well, I would tie that back to your vision and mission um Because the the broader like our mission Is to alleviate extreme poverty and alleviate extreme rural poverty in tanzania east africa So it's a very lofty goal and then we go into a little bit more about how we do that Um through those those four different areas that we work in But you know our driving mission and everything that we do needs to point back to that one driving force Of there is so much extreme poverty in rural tanzania that that is what we're trying to tackle And we have identified these four areas as the four main ways To help us address the the holistic needs of the communities that we serve Right, so I would definitely start the vision and mission and make that broad if you're being holistic make it broad enough To where you don't have that mission creeper, but specific enough that it still speaks about who you are Like it shouldn't it shouldn't be make the world a better place because that's yeah, we all want that Um for sure, but it needs to be you know again measurable and targeted Thanks chris Any other questions thoughts And again, we hope to keep this as an ongoing conversation between all of the different camps We had a large group this morning and um have had some people fail at the survey So I encourage you to do so because I'll be working with fey and christina to uh, yeah figure out how we can Move the needs of the different camps forward even more and more Chris, I think it's really interesting that you have this perspective From doing some of the practices as well a lot of um our partners the The primary importance of the work that they are doing and they're committed to is outside um, so how do you balance that with All of these administrative needs and and the the fundraising time Do you dedicate a specific amount of time to it? Um, do you just do what feels right? um For your for yourself. How has that evolved? Yeah, so I actually have a permaculture farm here in oklahoma where we are based in the us So I lived in tansania full time for 10 years and moved back five and a half years ago To really focus on all the stuff that we're talking about from organizational development and fundraising and expansion um, so It was an adjustment because I was on the ground in day-to-day operations to strictly oversight at the beginning But this past year during covid decided to move out of the city and start a permaculture farm so Yeah, it's it's a challenge I mean it was a challenge when I was in tansania because you want to be out doing things you want to be out seeing people Hands on the ground Same thing for me now with my own farm But it's incredibly important to constantly remind yourself because I will tell you none of the stuff that we've talked about is necessarily fun If we compare it to planting trees and hosting campers and You know doing earthworks or whatever it is your camp does Everything that we have just discussed over the past hour and a half is not going to be more fun than that However, it's important to constantly remind yourself that that is what makes that is the vehicle that drives the rest of everything that you do And what makes everything possible So I just have to constantly remind myself even if I don't want to do this board call or even if I don't want to do this report It's for the greater purpose And yes, that does mean a lot in Specific times for for that which sometimes I do well and sometimes I don't Sometimes I just want to go out and yeah play Well, and certainly, you know that out. I think that that outdoor time really motivates the purpose of doing the fundraising and the And the relationship building So I think we have maybe time for one last comment and I also wanted to mention or reinforce the fact that One of the ways that I think we can be helpful here as ecosystem restoration camps Is that we can provide some of that capacity Even though we're far away If you want somebody to look over A week's worth of social media posts before you put them up We've got staff members that can take a look at that for you. We can't run your whole social media program Or your whole fundraising program, but we can try to you know, build out a couple of additional Allies even though we're far away To help you Move some of those pieces forward. So I hope that that offer is clear from from this conversation as well Should we do one more question anybody have anything or should otherwise we'll let chris have the final word and And we'll send you the information By email with all of the slides and any other documents Any final question? One please. Hi, I'm Vince working with Alisa The question I have for both of you, I guess is in terms of your fundraising Chris especially do you find that there's particular groups? Whether it's like corporations or particular types of funding organizations that Are more beneficial to speak with and has that changed since you were sort of a start up to where you are now Um, it has definitely changed from start up to now Um, because there and we talked with Jonathan who's on the call this morning about the difference between the get to know You grants that I talked about and seed grants A lot of people are very interested in helping fledgling organizations get off the ground But that's typically a two maybe three year commitment and there those types of foundations are really focused on that startup phase We went the private donation route in our startup phase And so started very small and humbly but Just continued to yeah slowly grow from there and I would say the landscape is always changing Um You know this past year and a half we've gotten more into some european foundations and supporters And that's a whole new ballgame for us And america people are shifting their priorities constantly not not just even because of covet but even before that You know, I feel like every time we have a presidential election. I have to kind of slightly adjust our our tactic With whatever happens So all of the things that we've discussed today need to Be on your radar all the time and you need to be constantly monitoring them and if you are able to build those really good relationships with foundations and supporters and Just friends and family then you can kind of monitor those trends just based on your conversations. I found You can kind of see what what people are more interested in you can see what foundations are giving to Um here in the u.s. We have a very hard time because we work in east africa of convincing corporations To give us any support. So i've i've just totally stopped even asking corporations for support and just go after foundations or individuals okay Whereas in europe There are much many more incentives for some european corporations and even european governments Um because we've gotten a couple of grants from different european governments to support You know work in sub-saharan africa So it really depends on your location and what the incentives are in each country and what the restrictions are Here in america corporations selfish, they only want to give to americans So Okay, thank you Erin did you have anything to add to that? Uh, no, I think that that makes perfect sense. So thank you so much chris for this presentation I do want to wrap up so that we stay um mindful of people's schedules Um, and I really appreciate that you were all able to join for the full call um margarita if you want to um catch up on anything that we missed we and um from from your side or things that you want to share about your camp i'm happy um as always to have a chat with you and um similarly, um we'll be in conversation um And you guys have chris's email here. Um, he has kindly offered to follow up with uh emails or another phone call if you want to get into A more detailed conversation on any of these pieces. So thank you all so much for joining Yes Well, and thank you for hosting erin. It was great to see you all and talk to you all Please be in touch Thanks guys Thanks erin. Thank you chris. Bye everyone margarita jennathan