 Thank you for joining us. We are so glad to have you here for another amazing Ask and Answer episode of the non-profit show. And as I just shared in the green room chatter, today is Friday. And I also know when Tony's here that he will join me in the celebration of a Friday. So we do have Tony Bell here. Yeah, cheers. Yeah, cheers to that. Senior Director, Relationship Center at National University. Always so glad to have you, Tony. And always glad to have a representative from Fundraising Academy within National University. I love having conversations with representatives over at Fundraising Academy. The team is amazing. The experience is like just stellar. So I really appreciate it. As we move forward, of course, we wanna send out gratitude to our amazing presenting sponsors. So much gratitude. So I'll start it out by giving a shout out to our besties over at Bloomerang, American Nonprofit Academy. Again, Fundraising Academy at National University. Thanks to Tony being here today. Non-profit thought leader, your part-time controller, staffing boutique, non-profit nerd and non-profit tech talk. Please do us a favor, yourself a favor, but our sponsors a favor, check them out. They're amazing. And I also like to remind all of you, their mission is your mission. They're here to help you do more good. So please do check them out. And hey, we've produced almost 800 episodes. We, I feel like we have already, we might have already, but you can find all of our episodes on streaming for a broadcast platform, podcast for audio platform and the latest and greatest. And Tony, I kinda wanna put you on the spot, my friend, but have you downloaded the app yet for the non-profit show? I haven't and I will. Yeah, I know it's so good. So just a few hours after today's episode, once you download the podcast, or sorry, the app, it will tell you that notification of, hey, the latest episode of the show has been uploaded. So make sure you check that out. I love getting those notifications. Of course you do. Well, hey, Tony, before we jump into you and the conversation for today, which of course is to ask and answer questions, I was hoping you could tell us a little bit about the conference that's coming up, Cultivate 2023 in June. We tell us about this. Yeah, they're really excited too. And first I have to give a shout out and kudos to the fundraising academy team at National University for all of the hard work that they put in to making this a really exceptional experience, not only for emerging leaders, but for board members, for executive level individuals, for anyone that's passionate around the nonprofit sector and even more specifically around relationship driven fundraising. Cultivate is definitely the place to go. So when I was promoting Cultivate the other day on LinkedIn, I said before you can plant it, water it, nurture it and watch it grow, you have to cultivate the ground in which you want to harvest. And so that's really what Cultivate focuses on is really the foundation of building great relationships and being successful in your role as a professional fundraiser. So we'll have, it's a one day conference, a lot of exceptional speakers and educational tracks, a lot of good convening, it's in-person. So we're super excited to bring a fully in-person experience for folks. And we have a dynamic keynote speaker in Ken Miller. So folks can use the QR code here and get connected to the website and see all of the tracks. It's an affordable $99. So it's affordable for a really exceptional full day of learning and community. I am so looking forward to it. I will be there. I'm also bringing- I can't wait to see you. I will be there too. The nonprofit show there. So we'll be broadcasting live. So for those of you watching, do scan the QR code on this. It'll take you straight to the registration page. So much good happening. And who doesn't wanna be in San Diego in June? So join us, come join us. Absolutely, please join us. Well, thank you, Tony. And again, for all of your service in the sector. And we're gonna jump right in. It looks like Chicago is our first question from Joan today. You know how this works, but I'm gonna ask the question or read the comment. We'll just dive into our expertise. So again, from Joan is this statement and then question. I have a board who feels free to call me on the weekends and times where I am off of work. While I'm always present for my nonprofit, I'm also trying to find more balance and time to recover. Ooh, I can feel that. How do I communicate this with the board without sounding like a slacker? Well, one thing I would recommend for Joan from Chicago, Jared, is to follow you on LinkedIn because you do such an exceptional job of really showing folks how to do this and really showing individuals the importance and the value of balance. But the first thing that I thought about when I read that is the culture of the organization and really looking at how do we lift the culture of the organization so that not just the senior level or executive director feels like they have work-life balance but that we're providing that and making sure that we're providing and creating that culture for everyone within the organization. So I think about that. And that's not a quick fix, right? That's a lot of really intentional, tough conversations in order to make that kind of culture shift. But I think that, aside from following you on LinkedIn, there's plenty of data. And I say that just because I know and I've seen it, can I reference one in particular right now? I can't, but you probably can. But there's plenty of data that would support why it's really important, especially for someone at that executive director level or senior leadership level to find that balance and to understand the best ways and the most successful ways to define and communicate boundaries. You know, I really appreciate the cultural component that you brought to this, Tony. One of the things I've noticed, and you know, one of the service lines I offer is that interim succession placement. So interim CEO, interim, you know, CDO. But one thing I have noticed is a lot of the board members tend to send emails, nights, early mornings and weekends. And my belief, right, around that or the story that I've created is they're often working their own standard hours. And then their volunteer opportunities and availability tend to open up on the nights, the early weekends and our early mornings and then the weekends. So you're right, like how do we display and create a good cultural balance for this? But it's also demonstrating, as you said, right, to the rest of the team, the rest of the staff. And the other thing I know to be true, so many nonprofit leaders are really burnt out and compassion fatigue because we've all been on go mode, right, for the last three, four years in crisis. And really working through that. So I think more than ever, it's a great opportunity to really establish some maybe communication expectations. And I've started to see that also, Tony, on email signature blocks, right? Like I'll see something that says, here's my working hours or if you get a message from me outside of your working hours, please, you know, please return this at your convenience. Sure, yeah, and in giving the recipient that grace, right? And deeper understanding. The other thing that I would say to Joan, because there was that comment about concern around being perceived as a slacker. And what I would say to Joan is that, you know, you are already, I'm going to assume you are already highly respected and regarded and that's why you're serving in this role. And really think about all that you bring to the organization to kind of prevent yourself from being your own worst enemy in this particular conversation. So don't think of yourself as a slacker just because you have recognized the need to create boundaries and you've recognized the need for balance. That's not the definition of a slacker. Yeah, I appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you for adding so much great insight there. So Joan, we hope we have helped you would always love to hear back. So okay, let's move over to St. Louis. So Alan writes in, this may seem like an odd question, but when does a nonprofit adjust their mission statement? Is this a legal issue or more of a marketing issue? We have a new board member who is in advertising and public relations who came up with a snappier phrasing of our work. Oh, I love this question, Tony, take it away. Well, everybody loves something that's snappy, right? So I don't blame them, I say, oh, it's snappy, let's take a look at it. So when I was doing consulting work, I kind of would not kind of, I recommended that organizations always look at their mission statement every three to five years. Again, just to remind themselves of how does it truly connect to the work that they're doing is it's still really representative of the programs and services that they're providing to the community. And we've seen a lot of organizations as we talk about coming out of the pandemic and this kind of new landscape, many organizations made tremendous shifts around the services that they were providing, they expanded the services that they were providing, reduced it, I mean, whatever that might have been. And so for a lot of them, it is important that they revisit the mission so that the mission is, again, totally representative of the work and the contributions that they're making to the communities that they serve. And so it's a little bit PR, I mean, let's be real about that. I mean, you want a mission statement that's going to instill something in someone that's gonna create a vision that's going to encourage them to take action a lot of times. So yeah, revisit it every three to five years. I'm not a CPA, an accountant or an attorney, but I know in my experience that when I've worked with organizations that we did modify the mission statement, we made that modification in the annual filing of their corporate documents. So whatever state you're registered in, typically every year you have to file your annual report and you would make the modification, you can make the modification of your mission statement during that process. Great information, absolutely. I love that. I love the recommendation every three to five years. The other thing I've seen, Tony, is language lexicon changes, right? So what was appropriate to say in the 70s, the 80s, the 90s might not be appropriate to use even down to the base word, right? And so sometimes you need to change the wording in your mission and still, maybe you're still getting to the same essence of that mission, but using a different word choice. So all of that is fantastic. Snappier is good, but we wanna make sure that we convey really that essence of the mission. So Alan, I hope you embrace this. Wish you the best of luck. Lean into this board member who's advertising PR, see what he, she, or they can provide and support you in this. So, okay, good luck. Don't forget to file it, right? Right, exactly. File the change. Okay, well, you know our friend Julia loves name withheld. She loves the name withheld, yes, she does. So I know she's smiling on us right now from San Antonio. This question is, do you have any thoughts on advancing staff salaries? We have a valuable member of our team who is having a rough time and could use some help. While I want to have compassion, I am concerned that this is a problem for future issues that could arise. Now, this is interesting, Tony. What is your thoughts on this question? Yeah, so when I see this question, two different things come to mind, right? It's when we think about advancing staff salaries, initially it was the conversation around pay equity and what are we doing to ensure that within the workplace? The other interpretation was, we've got this team member that is in this scenario right now and so we are considering advancing their salary, paying them maybe outside of what would be the normal pay schedule in order to help them overcome this particular moment in time. And I love that someone would even entertain that. A leader that has that level of compassion or empathy, first I would want to celebrate that they would even entertain that. The other thing that I would say is, when we talk about equity and inclusion, that if you're going to offer this, then it needs to be something that is an employee benefit for everyone. So you would really need to consider how you could support this employee, but then you would need to memorialize this benefit and it would need to be something that you would be willing to offer everyone. So if you're going down that road, there probably is an HR specialist that you should connect with, there may HR benefits specialist, maybe even your legal advisor around some of this, but then consider a cap, you wouldn't want to leave it open-ended. So you might want to say that you would be willing to advance a percentage of the salary or you might say we will advance $2,000 and that's kind of our benchmark for that or our cap for that. So a lot to consider there, but I think the first thing to really consider is, can we do this for everyone? Yeah, I'm with you on that and to memorialize a new process, a new system. The other thing is you were sharing this, Tony, that came to my mind is let's also look at the reimbursements. Is this employee and overall employees, are they asked to use their own money when it comes to certain items that maybe they're purchasing that are work-related, be it lunch, be it office supplies, be it mileage and gas and how quickly are we providing reimbursement? So to me, I really see this as an overall financial assessment, right? And then I wholeheartedly believe in the equitable. So if we're doing this for one person, we should and need to consider it for all of our staff. I've also heard from our good friends at your part-time controller, right? You can also look at weekly pay. You can look at daily pay. Like there's new options that are available. That's well beyond my skill set. I don't mean- Mine too, but I'm so glad you brought that up. Yeah, I don't pretend to play a CPA, not even on the nonprofit show. Me either. But yeah, I think there's some opportunities. And then the one I did wanna mention was the other interpretation of advancing staff salaries across the board, right? And a competitive workplace workforce, how are we compensating our staff to retain our staff? And it might be time, you know, if you're having experience with this one employee struggling financially, you know, there could be an opportunity to say, hey, are we paying an equitable pay amount at this time? Has it shifted? Has it, you know, is this something that we need to consider? But then again, you can also look at maybe shifting your payroll from, you know, bi-weekly to weekly to maybe even daily. So there's some options there, but- And those were great options to bring up, Jared. Absolutely. Yeah, so I say reach out to our friends over at YBTC. They might have a little bit more, they might have a little bit more insight, but we do wish you well. Yeah, we do wish you well. Ooh, double- Julia would go crazy over this one. We've doubled down, name withheld, city withheld. Okay, our board, well, obviously this is why it's name and city withheld. Our board is trying to get the chair to resign. He is not engaged and he's not showing up for our board meetings. We have dealt with this before and I could use some advice so that we take the emotion out and move towards moving the board whole and productive. We also don't want to panic our other board members or our larger funders. So what advice would you share, Tony, to this name withheld, city withheld, board withheld, agency and mission withheld organization that has a board chair that is really not serving to the fullest capacity? Yeah, so this question alone gave me anxiety just because it's challenging, especially for any board member. I'd say all the time that board members or reminding folks all the time, board members are volunteers, but they're volunteers with the highest level of accountability to the organization, but they're still volunteers, right? So just we need to be mindful of that. I think initially about a lot of housekeeping stuff when I think of this question. And so I think about things like what is, how is the removal of a board member defined in your bylaws? But your bylaws should be very clear about how we transition a board member off of the board for any number of reasons and all of those reasons should be defined in your bylaws as well. The other thing that I think about in terms of housekeeping are job descriptions and documented roles and responsibilities for your chair, for your co-chair, for your secretary, your treasurer, your board member at large. All of these roles should have a documented and memorialized job description so that in these scenarios where someone is underperforming, you have something to refer to. So you can have a really robust and intentional conversation around the expectations as documented in this job description versus the performance of the individual. So it becomes very clear where at whatever level the board member is not meeting the requirements or expectations as defined in the job description. Yeah, well put. And we often refer back to those bylaws and so that really is the holy grail, if you will. And if it's not outlining this, great opportunity to admit your bylaws, right? And the other thing is really, Tony, what I see is the board chair should really be the one to set the tone of engagement and model their leadership and model that leadership to the board and to their peers. And we really wanna have that strong at the top. The other thing I wanna add to this very quickly is assume the best intent from everyone. Absolutely. And so when they are voted in as board chair, treasurers in any position, right? Let's make the assumption that the best intent was in place and every day the best intent is in place. So it might be time to have a pretty good conversation with this board member. Are you okay? Have things changed in your life? Have priorities shifted, right? And maybe in this case, it comes from the vice chair or another executive position of the board, but maybe not the CEO or executive director. So I think just a really good heart-to-heart conversation would be a great place to start, remind them of what is documented in the bylaws, if it is and go back to that. So it is, yeah, go ahead. Yeah, no, I'm sorry. And that's not, I wouldn't pull out a copy of the bylaws in the first conversation, right? So the first conversation, you know, we're leading with empathy, right? And we're seeking understanding and we're seeking resolution like you're saying, right? You know, considering the best in people and the best intention. So I'm glad you brought all that up. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for that. So it's sticky, but we wish you the best. Okay, Joseph and Milwaukee, I like this one here. I've been looking for some board service and I'm not sure how to go about it. I have my eye on a cultural group in our community, but could you use some strategy in getting involved? While I have not served on a board before, I have a lot of skills and passion for work. Share with us about this, Tony. What have you given for advice? Yeah, so typically, I mean, it depends on kind of the state of the organization. Some organizations, they're like, we need board members and we need them bad. So they're willing to have those conversations and on board folks based on their resume and their skill sets and where the board has a gap in talent and resources. Aside from that, I always recommend that you volunteer for an organization first. A lot of organizations will have some type of succession plan in place for their board and typically that succession planning starts at volunteerism. So they'll look at individuals that are high performing volunteers that have demonstrated their level of commitment to the organization, demonstrated the skills and the added value that they can bring. And so you recognize those individuals and then you start kind of bringing them through whatever that leadership track looks like to get them that seat on the board. Great information. I love that. I've led several board retreats lately, Tony and that has certainly come up, is how do we get new board members? How do we get more engaged board members? How do we build our board so that we have more of them, right? And it does tend to come up to say, hey, let's really engage with the volunteers, let's build our committees and let's see who really shines and also demonstrates additional interest in joining the board. The other thing I will share Joseph with you is, I have reached out to organizations before to the executive director or the CEO as well as the board chair, if I can find that information, let them know of my interest. I have a really big interest in your mission. I would love to be of service. Curious if you have any board positions open, committee positions, volunteer opportunities. So I think also Joseph, like being intentional with your outreach, I love LinkedIn, but also you can find a lot on the website. I would recommend attending the events, introducing yourself, right? Like really making it known who you are and your interests that you bring. So commendable, we need board members, right? I wrote a post a long time ago. I cannot remember the date or the stats, Tony, but it was that there's 1.8 million nonprofits registered in the US. And the reality is every nonprofit is governed by a board. And let's say on average, there's seven board members, which you and I know that there's often very many, more than that, right? So let's do the math, right? Seven times 1.8 million. I don't know the math of that right now, but Joseph, what I'm saying is we need you, right? We is a place for you. And perhaps this organization isn't looking at the moment. It could be six months, a year, two years down the road, but there's still an opportunity for you to become engaged in your community. So kudos, kudos, kudos. Yeah, so, all right, my friend. Well, that wraps up our ask and answered. I know we had, I think four, maybe five questions today. It goes by so fast. It goes by quickly, but you know what also is going to come quickly and go quickly is cultivate. So cultivate 2023, Thursday, June the 1st in San Diego, Tony will be there, I will be there. All of the fundraising academy representatives will be there. I think we're even getting Mouhi back from his international travel for this. I think you're absolutely correct. So there will be a Mouhi sighting at the, I know, absolutely. I'm looking forward to that and so many others. So again, please scan the QR. If you are looking at this screen, we encourage you to do that. Also a little hint, if you find my page on LinkedIn, I am a speaker and I shared my friends in a speaker code so you can get an even bigger discount, but it is extremely affordable. So hopefully, and I'm going to advocate that your organizations pay for this. Of course. Through that personal development. So check that out. We would so love to see you there. And Tony, it is always lovely to see you. It's always just, it's always such a highlight. I look forward to this so much. So thank you so much again for the opportunity to join you and share what's on my mind as it relates to these awesome questions that come in from viewers. Well, you bring so much insight. So thank you. And for those of you watching and listening, a reminder, Tony Bell here today, he serves as the senior director of the Relationship Center at National University. So thrilled to have you and your years of sage advice. Just so very grateful. So again, also grateful to Fundraising Academy, National University being one of our presenting sponsors. So a shout out of gratitude to also to Bloomerang American Nonprofit Academy, your part-time controller, non-profit thought leader, Fundraising Academy at National University, staffing boutique, non-profit nerd and non-profit tech talk. These are the companies day in, day out that join us and join you day in and day out to help you do more good in, around and throughout your community. So Tony, always a pleasure. Happy Friday. Happy Friday. It's a good one. For all of you that joined us today, again, thank you. Enjoy your weekend. For those of you that are celebrating Mother's Day, Happy Mother's Day, and we hope we'll see you back on Monday. As we end every episode, we want to remind you, all of you, ourselves included, to please stay well so you can do well. Thanks, Tony.