 I will kick us off. Welcome. Thank you for joining us. If you joined us in the Green Room Chatter, I already wished you a happy Friday Eve, but if you worked here for that, happy Friday Eve. So glad that each and every one of you are here to join us for another episode dedicated to Nonprofit Power Week with Fundraising Academy and the Cause-Selling Education. We are thrilled to have Linice Andrade joining us today. Linice is a trainer with Fundraising Academy and Linice is here to talk to us about mastering nonprofit major gifts. Again, this is day four of this dedicated week, but Linice is going to share with us insider tips, tricks, and techniques for how you might steward these major gifts. So stay with us. We want to, of course, thank the Fundraising Academy for this dedication of the week dedicated to this topic. And of course, if you have not taken a look at our presenting sponsors, we do recommend that you do that. Each and every one of these companies exist for you and your mission, your community, and your greater goods. So please do check out our sponsors. And again, we're just so grateful to have their continued support. Julia Patrick is here. If you haven't met her yet, she is the CEO of the American Nonprofit Academy. I'm Jarrett Ransom, your nonprofit nerd, CEO of the Raven Group. And again, the purpose for today's episode with Linice Andrade. Welcome and thanks for joining us. Thank you for having me. I'm really looking forward to this conversation. Wow, Linice, we have fangirled over Fundraising Academy since the moment we met or we were connected to them. We've learned so much. We've really had some fascinating conversations now, more than a year. There's always a surprise, no pressure. But I mean, Jarrett and I are really intrigued by this whole cause selling approach. And we've been talking this week about major gifts in relationship to cause selling and really navigating the relationships that you build with your donors. It's been something that has really been, I think, transformative for a lot of our viewers. And today we have you on the hot seat for stewardship. So I can't wait to hear what you have to say about this aspect of us managing successful relationships really, I think. So we started the week with the major gift, the traditional cycle, identification, cultivation, solicitation, now we're under stewardship. And this is something that I'm really intrigued, intrigued to have you talk to us about because I don't think stewardship means the same thing for everyone. So when we talk about stewardship, tell me what you think this is or how do you see it to begin with? I think for me, what I've shared with anybody who knows me in this field, stewardship is actually my favorite part. I love getting to know donors and I love the process of cultivating the relationship and finding out what they're most passionate about and getting to really know where their passions align with my organization's priorities. But the stewardship part, it feels so, it's hard because I think to me it's easy and it's rewarding, but we don't make the time for it, right? And I think that's really the key when you, with the Fundraising Academy, the chapter in the book we use on stewardship spends the first half talking about the importance of donor retention and how we lose half of our donors statistically within the first couple of years of their first gift. And part of that, the main reason for that is that we're not creating engaging relationships with our donors. And to your point, it is different for every person as well as every organization. And I would say that my main point today for stewardship and fundraising in general is just be genuine, be real, be yourself. And like in every other staff of the cycle, do it in a way that feels natural and real for you. I think a rule I made for myself over the years that I only work for organizations where I'm genuinely passionate about the cause. And I think that has served me because donors can tell the difference between a genuine passion and belief rather than someone who's trying to pitch you or just doing a checklist of, oh, I need to send a thank you card. I need to have the tea and do the tour. And I would say, I think that's just a good practice. I would say if you're selling tools at a big box store, you better believe in those tools. Absolutely. Or else you're not going to be the best salesperson. I mean, Jarrett, don't you think that that's kind of a truism? Oh, absolutely. I couldn't agree more, Lenece. I think that's, it's so true. And it comes across, as you said, in a very genuine way. And I think getting to know your donors with a name like Jarrett as a female, when I still repeat mister, clearly they have not gotten to know me. Exactly. Exactly. And you know, when I think of stewardship and I know in the cause selling cycle, it's that final piece. But in some ways, it's a word that should be attached to the beginning piece. Absolutely. I mean, so many of the things that you just said, I can tack back to the very first start of the cause selling phases and the cycles. And I don't know why I didn't put that together. Maybe it's the vocabulary that you use, but I was like, wow, that's so much like the start of this relationship and this process. But talk to us about this follow-up concept and you actually use the word plan. And so I think we're intrigued by that. Yes, like anything else, you have to have a plan. So I think this is a perfect time of the year for us to be having this conversation, right? It's January. We all just wrapped up our year-end appeals. We hopefully have done all the math and have all the data in front of us. And so I am spending this month looking through the list of all the people who donated to us in November and December and sorting through a force by amount. But then also noting people who are new, people who may have come back after a couple of years, people whose gifts have increased notably and making sure that I reach out to those people as well. And I think that's one thing in terms of your plan, we do, I mean, obviously write major gifts. We're looking at, we think in our head, a dollar a month. This is our major gifts bracket. But I think looking at people who are also, long-time donors, first-time donors, notably increased donors is something to pay attention to because they're not typically reached out to as much as major donors are. And especially anytime I join a new organization, I always look at longevity, people who have been donating even in small amounts for 10 plus years, because those are people who are primed for potential planned giving. And those people also need to be engaged regardless of the current amount of their annual gifts. Lenece, I was able to serve for an organization as a major gift owner and I was in Santa Fe, New Mexico and I invited this couple for coffee because they in fact were long-time donors. And you know, it was a nominal amount each and every month. And so what I did is I printed up all of their giving history. And when I sat down with them for coffee and I just said, I wanna let you know your gift and the amount of X amount over the last 25 years. And they were floored. They had no idea that their cumulative impact, dollar impact was that amount. And that meant so, I mean, they just beamed. They truly beamed. So I love that you were shining light on these long-time donors because those are the donors that are so dedicated to the mission. Absolutely. Now, let me ask a question as a two of you because Garrett, I love that you express that because we don't hear that enough, the cumulative amount. Do you think that, I know we've had this conversation in and out a little bit that the major gift, we tend to look at this as per year per cycle, per period. But Jared, do you think that that couple was then encouraged to move up or just to stay the same? What ultimately happened on that relationship? So I mean, really for me, again, you know, and Lenece, I'm sure you coach and maybe you can share additionally, you know, I just really needed to understand the donor. I need to understand what their capacity to give or to increase might look like. Understanding they're on, you know, a fixed budget. That's where they are in their life. And so really just, you know, they were doing all that they could do at that time. And it was my job to let them know that what they were doing was so impactful, regardless of an increased amount. So I ultimately did not ask them to increase, but I did of course share, you know, just a variety of impacts and how they have been a part of the overarching mission and the impact in which they've contributed to. So Lenece, in terms of that stewardship, is this something that is, you know, almost like a two-level thing. You're looking at a cumulative, like to Jared's point, a long-term relationship, or are you really, should you really be focused in on those that year, that now, that period of time that you're tracking? Yes, and both. Yes, both. That's okay. That's okay. Yeah, I mean. And especially right now, right? So typically, you know, in pulling lists, you know, looking at retention, looking at year over year, I usually would pull three years, but given the past three years, I've been pulling five, to be honest. Okay. Because we really can't gauge everything by the last two years. Some people went completely, you know, cold and couldn't give or wouldn't give or went to more direct services organizations. And if that's not your field, you might not have gotten a gift from them last year. Other people gave exponentially because they were concerned about your venue closing or museum not being open and they just really wanted to support. So giving the last few years, it's probably not been typical one way or another. And so for me, what it really is, again, comes back to a plan and understanding that every donor is going to have to have a different plan. And for me, I'm a scheduler. So I need to figure out, you know, using whatever system you can, ideally your CRM to just to have specific plans for some of those long-term givers, as Jared mentioned, you are in a fixed income, you know, reaching out to them a couple of times a year is probably fine. For some of the donors that you think have potential to grow, maybe, you know, once a month or every other month is more to grow to, has potential to grow that relationship. So really, and then again, also the way in which you engage is important. I learned something early. Yeah. Let's talk about that because- Oh, perfect segue. The communication piece of this, that bamboozles a lot of people, a lot of donors talk to us about that because I'm hearing plan, but I'm hearing almost like communication plan. Right? Exactly, exactly. It's both. So we, I've only been with my current organization a year and one thing that I have changed in the past year is making sure that we are sharing more of our mission and our results in our monthly e-newsletters. And so it's not just about coming to the venue or, you know, coming to an event. It's also, here's our mission. Here's the work we're doing. Here's what your ticket or membership or donation supports and sharing those stories. So that's just general communications across the board, right? Is that in social media? But personally, I learned something early on when I worked for the zoo was to match the type of communication that your donor gives you. So if you send a letter and then they call you, then that person probably is a phone person. If you make, if you send a card with, you know, thank you note with your business card and then they email you, they're probably an email person. I'm now getting to texting with donors, which I never thought I'd do before. And, but if there's a couple I'm working with right now where the wife, the husband leads the business and the wife leads the giving. And so I'm texting with her about when we can set up an appointment for them and the family to come for a visit. So really meeting your donors where they're at is really going to serve you personally. And people, they'll tell you, you just have to listen. You know, if you have a conversation and they say, oh, can you email me that? That means certain things are going to be emailed but that doesn't, but that also means they also like the phone. So just being open to whatever form of communication that they lead with and go from there. It seems so, so basic, but it's really, it's just pay attention to the cues, right? It's that active listening, which goes back to the beginning of the cycle, the active listening to pay attention to the cues in which the donor provides, because they actually are giving you a lot of information. Exactly, exactly. And we overthink it, you know. Of course, because, you know, everything has to be a little bit more complex. Well, and we're planners and organizers by nature, right, the people who come into this business are doers. And so I think sometimes it's hard for us to just react and to your point listen and do the thing. No, I have a question when we look at stewardship and I'm considering in this question, Leneesh, you know, if it's a donor portfolio and you know, an organization is managing the portfolio and within the portfolio, there is a variety of avatars. So, you know, you've got different ages, you've got different communication styles, you've got different geographic locations and I'm hearing you, you're texting, I'm sure you're zooming, I'm sure you're, you know, writing cards and having phone calls. How are you able to manage and what would you say to many that are watching to manage your donor portfolio in all of the communication elements that are worth considering? Yeah, that's a hard one. I think for me, what has really helped and what I, you know, we've actually done whole sessions of what the fundraising had to be about is this time management. And I think especially with these people who are working from home, somewhere in the office and just keeping track of all of it and keeping your head on straight can be very difficult. So I schedule time every week. This is my stewardship hour. This is, you know, I do, and part of time management, which is what we taught in the class was also knowing your own personal energies. So when am I better on the phone? I am not a morning person. I need two or three cups of coffee before I can be verbal. So I should not be doing thank you calls at nine o'clock in the morning. I get really focused in the afternoon. I've found that I'm really good at writing in the afternoons. So if I have to write like longer copy for like our website or social media piece or impact reports or proposals, I'll do those in the afternoon. And thank you, Kurtz. I like doing at the start of the week, I can, because I feel like it sets in like a good tone. You get to see, you know, this is why I'm doing this. Look at all these people who donated this week. Look at all of this support and love that we are getting from our donors and to give that back feels good, right? And so it's a good way to start off your Monday. Yeah. Linise, when you are communicating to your major gift donors, are you finding that you are communicating different messages to them? I mean, you know, Jared mentioned, use the word avatar and we really have been trying to really explore that and really build up that concept. Are you finding that you actually have something remarkably different than your rest of your communications or is it just like, how does it differ, I guess, is what I'm asking? Absolutely, I've been doing this for almost 20 years now and I've worked with multiple organizations and every organization, regardless of your cause has different reasons why people are engaged with them, right? So I've worked in a lot of arts and culture organizations and conservation organizations here in town in San Diego. And there are people who see those spaces as tourism. Investing in them is investing in our community. There are some people who have fond memories bringing their children there. So it's very personal and connected to, we want other people, families and children to have this space for years to come. Some people are really passionate about, for conservation organizations about the planet and the world. And so sharing stories about not just what we're doing but how that issue is affecting the world globally and not just in San Diego. That's a different story than someone who's a newly a grandma and now wants their granddaughter to run in the same garden that her daughter did. So each of those stories is different and I do also want to make a key point. I didn't want to forget, this is why your assets are so important. Your photography, your images that you have available for use, really make sure that you have someone on your team or someone you hire who can get, curate a catalog of images, because we're building that out right now with my organization and I rely on that so heavily because the happy kid photos is gonna be very different to concern about global warming and the climate change. So really, you need to have all of it. Yeah, I love that you brought that up because we don't focus enough on the asset inventory piece of this and telling the stories and there's so many ways to go about it but generally I find in the nonprofit sector is that we're not even addressing this until we have a major project due. And it can be anything from an e-blast to your annual report or even a program that you're gonna use. I'm working on our annual report right now and that's why I realized that we need all the photos. Yeah, it's really an interesting thing and don't get me started but this really should be part of your budget. It should be an actual piece of your marketing communications that you manage and steward because without it, you can't steward your relationship with your donors as effectively. I mean, it's really an important thing and we completely missed that. You know, we don't have a lot of time left but I think that Jared and I really are interested in this concept of stewardship that Fundraising Academy really promotes and we've heard this a lot from your team. The mission should be in focus and not the money. And that's a heavy lift for a lot of us when in development, the wolves are at the door and we got to get these bills paid and how are we gonna do it? How do we do that, Lenece? One of the things I value about my job most is that my job is to inspire people to give. And the thing is that generally speaking, the people we're already connected with are givers. It's just figuring out how to inspire them to give more and the more will happen when we inspire them to the right part of our organization that speaks to them personally. So they may really love your organization in general but if you can show impact, you can show results in something that speaks to them personally, that's where the money grows. But the key is again, that's why stewardship is so important. You need to get to know them personally, you need to understand their why and then prove to them that your organization is growing that part of their work. And by doing that, you're inspiring them, you're getting them excited. That's why I said it's important to be genuine, to really care about what your cause is. And then also to that point is also get to know your organization, everyone. I make a point when I started any new organization, I went to once with every single department head and then when I was at the zoo, I got to know the keepers. When I was at an art center, I got to know the performing art staff and the tech guys and the crew. You have to know every level of the work that's been done and sharing those personal stories, even in a phone call, even an email, even on a Zoom in this world that we're living in now is your behind the scenes tour. And that's what gets people excited. And they feel like they're getting a sneak peek into something that nobody else knows and telling that story gets me excited. And then I think that that translates into to inspire them to give more. And that's what I've seen over the years that I've been doing this, it does work. It's so beautiful that to, you know, our job is to inspire people to give, to make a donation. And as I think about this, you know, stewardship is not the act of acquisition. It is, you know, of new acquisition, I should say, but it is about retention. And as you said, we are more or less preaching to the choir because the people that are giving to us, they're already giving to us, right? Like they already believe in our mission in some way, shape or form. And so it's our job to steward their gift and their feeling of that gift to give again, to give higher, to inspire someone else to give. You know, every time we go to a really good restaurant or we see a really good movie, we tend to tell someone about that. And that is the thing I think when it comes to our mission. Yeah, I like that, Jared. And I think that it, I think, I don't think we've had anyone really address it this way from that vantage point and that- Oh, beautiful. Yeah. It is beautiful. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's a good thing. I appreciate you sharing that, Lenece, because I think it's something that we do. We get so caught up in our goals, in our data, in our, oh my God, you know, we have to get, we only have three more days in the month and we're not where we need to be. And in the stress of this, and I think that one of the elephants in the room is this horrific turnover that we have in our industry. And AFP is, you know, measures this very, very strictly. And we're down to 16 months, average tenure of somebody in a development position, 16 months. And I remember when they, when I first heard 18 months, I was horrified. Now we're down to 16 months. And so when we talk about stewardship, that makes it pretty cumbersome because, you know, the person that navigated this major gift to begin with, chances are they've moved on to some other place. And think about it, right? Think about from your donor's perspective of having to meet a new person every 16 to two, you know, months to two years. You know, if they're longtime donors, they're on their fifth fundraiser. That has to be concerning for them as well. Right, right, yeah, yeah. Really, it's a fascinating concept. Wow, Linise, you have been a joy to delve into. And we have a question that came in, why are people only staying 16 months? And that is something that we explore a lot on the nonprofit show. We talk about this association of fundraising professionals, AFP and CFRE. We talked about these organizations a lot. And this is a huge part of the success and non-success, I guess you might say, of our sector in the nonprofit world. So yeah, it's a huge thing to discuss. And it really boils down to how people are perceived at work, where they find success and those relationships that they build. So really, really an important thing. Wow, Linise, this has been a lot of fun. You have been part of a really important week for us here on the nonprofit show. Nonprofit Power Week only comes a few times a year. And so part of this whole week, we've talked about what a major gift is. We've talked about the cause selling cycle in relationship to major gifts. We've talked about prospecting with Jackalotto. That was a lot of fun, really interesting. Now, major gift stewardship with you. Tomorrow we have the head honcho on, as we like to call him, Tony Bell. He's gonna wrap up the week with Jared. And the two of them are gonna be doing our Friday Ask and Answer episode, which will be a lot of fun. So... Nelson, you know, it's fry yay. Fry yay. Well, you know... Tony's great. It definitely will be fry yay with Tony. That's right. Oh, it'll be great. We've received several questions that have come in throughout this week, also by way of email. So thank you to all of our viewers throughout the entire week, dedicated to Fundraising Academy. If you submitted a question in one way, shape, or form, including a carrier pigeon, we will be answering those tomorrow. So please do join us again tomorrow. This has been such a fantastic opportunity, Linise. I know that we could keep talking with you for hours. And I just wanna appreciate all that you've done in our sector. And thank you so much for being of service in our community. Thank you. This has been a great way to start my day. Well, you know, I wanna get... I just advanced a little bit too quickly here. I want everyone to see your name again. You have been amazing. I love, love, love what you had to say. And I'm just thrilled that you're part of the Fundraising Academy team. It's really impressive. We've not met before. So to all of our viewers, Linise is a new face for us. And so we hope to get you back on to talk about even more opportunities. Again, I'm Julia Patrick. I've been joined today by the non-profit nerd herself. I like to call her my non-profit nerd, but she's really your non-profit nerd, the non-profit nerd. Garrett Ransom, CEO of the Raven Group. Again, thank you to all of our presenting sponsors. Without you, we would not be here. And so we are really, really appreciative of your support for these discussions that we have. You know, we're the nation's only daily broadcast. We are on every day. We started at the beginning of the pandemic and we continue to go strong and grow strong with all of their support. So we definitely wanna thank that, all of our supporters. Hey, Jared, tomorrow's gonna be a lot of fun. Hi, Yen. Hi, Yen. We're gonna be in my office watching the two of you. And so I can't wait to see what goes on. But until then, we wanna end our episode as we do every day. And that's with our mantra. Stay well, so you can do well. We'll see you back here tomorrow, everyone.