 Good morning, good day, good evening, wherever you might be joining us from, whatever time zone. We're delighted to have you for another episode of the nonprofit show. We're really excited today because we have one of our favorites back on, Jack, Alotto, Ignacio, Nacho. And he is also the birthday boy. Yes, that's right. It is today is my birthday. Awesome. Well, we got you. I don't know if you can see the screen. I can. A special birthday crown that you get to wear. And so we are so excited to have you back on. I was telling my team, I was like, oh my God, I haven't spent any time with you. So I'm really excited to be able to do this. Yeah. Thank you. I'm getting ready to take a trip to Arizona just to have lunch with you. Well, yeah, do it. Do it while the weather's good, man. Nice. Good time. Well, hey, everybody. We are here because we have amazing partners like Jack Alotto from Fundraising Academy at National University. But our sponsors also include Blumerang, American Nonprofit Academy, Your Part-Time Controller, Nonprofit Thought Leader, Staffing Boutique, Nonprofit Nerd, and Nonprofit Tech Talk. These are the folks that really come with us day in and day out. We have surpassed our 900th episode. We're marching towards 1,000 shows, which will happen around the first of the year. And you can find those all on, as I like to call them, our sexy new app. You can get us through streaming broadcasts and certainly podcasts. Wherever you consume your content, we're going to be with you and we're going to be there to help support your organization. Okay, Jack, we have so many questions. And I love this question. I held it back because I wanted you to answer it. And I might float it to some other of your members of your team. But this is fascinating. And I did take their name off because I didn't want it to be identifiable. But it comes to us from Los Angeles. And the question is, I have a new donor added to my portfolio that I just met with. Honestly, I'm not sure if we're a good fit. The vibe is not there. Should I try to get another development officer to take them into their portfolio? Really good question. It's a great question. And you know, it gives me the opportunity to talk about one of the most beautiful and elegant tools that we have at the fundraising academy. And maybe this bad vibe is the result of having different social styles. Everybody has a different social style. Maybe the donor or the prospect has an analytical social style where they just want facts, figures. They want you to progress in a logical order towards talking to them about your cause. And maybe your style is more of a applicable person. You are more touchy-feely. You want to get to know the person better, but they just want the facts and figures. So before you push that person on, or that prospect to another development professional, try to figure out their social style, and then try to figure out your social style. That's what you could do that free of charge by going to mylearningportal.org at the fundraising academy and watching our webinars on social style. One of the best webinars, and I looked at it this morning that we have there, is on being flexible with your social style. Flexing, being able to determine your donors, our prospect's social style, and flexing to communicate with them. Here's the thing about social styles. It's all about communication. If your donor just wants the facts, then that's the way you're going to communicate with them. So this, before you ask another person to do it, be versatile with it with your social style. Figure out theirs, figure out yours, and then try to communicate with them in their social style the way they want to be communicated with. You know, I didn't think that that's at all what you were going to say, so I love that. I also think, and tell me what your sense of this is, Jack, because I feel like this is not going to be the only time this happens for Name With Health. And so maybe it is really important to do what you're saying. Take that step back. Be a little bit more reflective about what those social styles are, because ultimately you could do the pass-off, and it might not work for somebody else, right? That's right, yeah. Oh, that could happen. You know, early in my career, I remember my supervisor, who I learned so much from her, she and I were touring through a facility that where I was working, and I could tell that she was not getting along with the donor. They just were not communicating. And I remember after the meeting, she turned to me, my boss turned to me and said, from now on, you're going to deal with their not. So maybe it was just a communication clash. And now we have some tools, especially in our cost-selling cycle, where you could get some tools to help you deal with that. Yeah, I love that. And I think, too, you know, Jack, with so many people having been working from home or in smaller groups, we're probably all a bit rusty on this social aspect. So maybe this is just a great thing to be investing in in terms of, you know, time and energy and looking at your own mind and saying, where do I fit and how can I work through this? Because, you know, as we start to, you know, convene more in person, I can see there's going to be some social duress. Yep. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Really interesting. Okay, good. Well, I hope that helps the name with health. Let's go to, pardon me, Sean from Henderson, Nevada. Now, this is another one that I thought of you when this question came in. Sean writes, I'm setting my goals for 2024. How critical is it from my career and income to have the CFRE accreditation? I am not sure if this is worth my personal and financial investment. Please advise. So why did I think of you when I saw this question? Yeah, so well, because, you know, I am a big proponent of CFRE. I had five study groups this past year. And we did one thing, Julia, that I am so proud of. We had a study group specifically for marginalized communities of color. Wow. Yeah. And we had 40 people in that. And here's the thing about it. Typically I'm the instructor. I didn't instruct. I found six fabulous people of color to lead a study group of people of color. Next year, in fact, I just got confirmation. We're going to do two additional study groups other than the ones that we normally do. One is going to be for Muslim professional developments, development professionals. And the second one is going to be for Latinx communities. We're trying to grow our community and definitely have more diversity and access, which is really important to me. But here's the thing about CFRE. So when you achieve the CFRE, you demonstrate that you have a certain degree of fundraising knowledge, which is really important. And I looked at CFRE as an ethical assurance that you are going to follow ethical practices, not only to your donors, but also to the leadership. I looked yesterday at a previous webinar I did, and it was based on the responses of current CFREs to three important things. Here's what the CFREs say. 89% of current CFREs say they have enhanced professional opportunities. That's key. That's a reason to do it. In fact, I talked to someone yesterday who was in a study group, he achieved a CFRE, lives in Ohio. He said that the offers for jobs are coming in. That's what that 89% says. 92% of CFREs said that since they've gotten that certificate, they have more confidence in their ability to do it. One of the most incredible things that happened to me this year was a woman sent me an email, and she said in that email, I have achieved the CFRE, and I want to tell you, Jack, I've gotten rid of a lot of my imposter syndrome as a result, which I thought was awesome. Women, people of color have this imposter syndrome. Some men as well, and she was able to get rid of some of that. The third statistic I will tell you about, 93% of CFREs say they would highly recommend it to their colleagues, the people that they work with in their institution that they should also see deep as CFRE. I think those three statistics fell at all. Jack, can you really quickly, before we move on, and I realize you're not an employee of the organization and all that, but what's a realistic cost and time investment? How long is this journey going to take? I know a lot of people who've taken that test many, many times and have not been able to pass it. Yeah, and my whole big thing is I believe in the power of yet. They just haven't passed it yet, but they could pass it. As far as money, I mean, I recommend three books, and you can get all of those used. I think one of the key books is to get the CFRE study guide. It's the only book they publish. It's about 45 bucks, 50 bucks. You get these used. I think it takes 80 hours of study. In your home state, I talked to a guy last year who had been in the prison system in Arizona and he got out of the prison system and he decided he was going to dedicate his life to working with the prison system around faith-based initiatives. He got his CFRE, and I talked to him on the phone and I said, how long do you think it took? And he said it took him 80 hours of study, and I think that's the key. He knew how much time it would take. The cost to certify and take the test, it's probably about 1,000. I'm going to guess at that. Don't involve me too, but you could go to their website and check out what they say there. And of course, anyone could reach out to me. I'm happy to chat about it. I'm one of their ambassadors. Yeah. Well, you're an evangelist for sure, and I know that it's really an important thing. We have a viewer that just wrote in, I spent about five months studying. Three of those were very in-depth. So thank you for jumping in on that, because again, I think you're not just learning for a test. You're learning for your career and your profession, and so pulling this all together. So that's a great thing. And that viewer, I congratulate him or her. Wow, what commitment, determination. Isn't that a beautiful thing in that viewer? Determination, focus, and a goal-setting to achieve something. I love it. They're going to be successful in their life, whoever that is. That's cool. Thank you. That's great. I'm glad that you said that. And I think that's really powerful and a good opportunity. I think on the nonprofit show, we're all about elevating our sector, making us more professional, earning more money, getting more respect, organizing ourselves so that we can be more competitive in the for-profit and for the nonprofit sector, too. So I'm all about, however, we can navigate ourselves towards better things, right? And you do that five days a week, Julie. You and Jared, I have to applaud you. And I'm going to say to my friends at the fundraising academy, they do it all the time, too. Yeah. And it becomes a mindset. And I think that's what the CFRE thing really helps you achieve, too, with that. Okay. Well, let's go to our next question. I knew you would be like the perfect person to ask that, Jack. But Roland and Stephanie from Tampa, Florida, right in, we're thinking about setting up a board training or onboarding for new board members. Would it be a good idea to do this with a few other nonprofits in our area? Or should this debt be done only with our own nonprofit? We're trying to be efficient and cheap. I love that. I don't call it cheap. I call it cost-effective. Here's the thing about this. I think that joint board trainings are effective to a point. And let's think about some of the topics that would work for an organization that's a ballet company and an organization that's a social service organization. So here's to the point where it would be good to get them together. Well, first of all, they'll form a cohort. They'll be some bonding. All of the legal stuff will be the same for the state of Arizona or California. All of the federal stuff will be the same. The role of the board as stewards of mission will be the same. The role of the board as stewards of finances, policy, creation, all of those things will be the same. They would say separate them and do specific trainings on your programs. The programs of a ballet company, they should train their board members specifically on that. A homeless shelter on homelessness, the statistics, the need, et cetera. So one size in that way doesn't fit all. Board tenure, gift acceptance policies, they may be different. The ballet company may accept plan gifts. The social service agency may not. So it wouldn't be a good thing to put them together. But on lots of things, legal things, state, federal laws, et cetera, the IRS, and in Canada, the taxing authority of Canada, all of those things would be important. Yeah. I like your approach where you maybe do a general onboarding for folks in the nonprofit sector and then doing that next piece which would be a breakout for those individual groups because undoubtedly they're going to be internal issues that are different. But yeah, I mean, I think that when we do our board trainings, one, I'm always astonished by how much board members don't know in terms of just the basic compliance issues and how there's a fiduciary issue here and a responsibility. So maybe to kind of pull that aside and make that more community focused, if you will, that it's not just the ballet or the zoo or the temple or the church, right? It's like literally something that is a standardized issue. And then moving aside to what that individual organization does, I think it's really, really a good idea. Yeah. Yeah, I like that approach. I think that's smart. Well, I hope Roland and Stephanie and that this helps. And I do follow Jack's word, don't be cheap, be cost effective. That always sounds better. All right. Let's go on to Anna from New Orleans. Pardon me. What do you think about starting up a junior or young professionals board? We're kicking around the idea and it seems like it'll take a lot of work on our staff's part. Any ideas on how to make this more successful if we do it? Yeah. So I think the first question that has to be answered is what are your goals? Yeah. What do you want to do? A lot of organizations say, hey, you know, we need more young professionals involved in our organization. Fine, I get that. Every organization that's, you know, prospecting bringing in younger people is really important. But when you set up a junior board, so to speak, you have to have, and it will take a lot of work. Some organizations say, hey, we're going to set up this junior board. They recruit to get people and then they have no idea what they're going to do. It just sits right. And they just sit there. That's the thing that, so aside from having goals, I think that you have to plan what are the benefits to the members? What membership benefits are you going to give to this junior board? What are the benefits? And what are you going to ask them to do? Right? Right? So I mean, answer those questions first. And then if you have, you know, a really said goal, then I would say go. Yeah. And, you know, since today is my birthday and I'm getting older, I wish I could go backwards. But I want to be careful about ageism. You know, we don't want to look like we're ages because we think they're going to bring something different than those 50 and 60 year olds on the board now. So be careful with that too, guys. I know, you know, I just, I've been in Maui for the week and I was working with the credit union executive society, which is kind of like the professional governing body of credit unions, which are nonprofits. And I was brought over to work with them and their members on attracting, cultivating, retaining next-gen talent. And it was so interesting because the average board member in that world is pushing 80 years old. And so they were like looking at me as a 61 year old thinking that I was next-gen. And I was like, yeah, no. And it was so fascinating to work with them and kind of help them to understand who's coming up, how they work, and why it's different. I'm a big, a proponent of young professional boards. I don't think they should be called junior boards. I think they should be young professional boards. I also think that you can underwrite this. I think there are so many large organizations who look to the value of board service as a training piece and marketing piece. I don't know why you couldn't do this, but yeah, you're going to have to, you're going to have to have somebody from your team navigate this and manage it because it's not going to, this is the whole thing. It's a platform for training. Right? Yeah. Julia, how about if you're on the original board and your staff comes and you say, hey, guess what, we're going to form this new junior board of young professionals. How is that going to make your other board members feel? Oh, a new and improved board is coming to save the organization. Old and tired, it's got to go. So I would be careful of those kinds of things. Yeah, I think it's true. And I also think that it's a, it's a way, I loved how what you started and that is, you know, advising Anna to say, what are your goals? Like, why are you even trying to do this? Is this just like a buzz worthy thing that you're going to explore? Or do you see something specific that you can, you know, put into place and manage it and measure it and then determine if it's working. And there are other ways to involve young people. I knew a ballet company that used to do ice cream social for younger professionals after work or go into their workplace and do, you know, like ice cream giveaway or something like that to get them involved in the nonprofit. And those things were very effective. Yeah, smart. Yeah, I think that's really, really cool. Well, let's do, we only really have time for one more question. And so let's get that dealt with. Judy from Portland, Oregon writes in, we have professional dollars to spend in Q one of 2024. And I think we should have someone come in and talk about fundraising to our whole team, including programming. I'm getting some resistance to this idea. This is a fascinating question. Help me sell this to our leadership. We all need to know how to fundraise. Yeah. Very interesting. I love this question. And I love this person from Portland, Oregon, Oregon because what she's trying to do is create a culture of philanthropy where everyone in the organization, program staff, board, other staff, everyone understands the importance of fundraising. And so kudos to her. A first. And then secondly, I think that we have to understand that money fuels mission. It's what keeps our organization advancing that mission and doing that. So yes, I urge her to go to that, the leadership and talk about a culture of philanthropy and how that culture of philanthropy will bring in more financial resources to the organization and how that will really advance their mission even further than where they are now. Yeah. I agree. And you know, I love that you phrased it that way because after listening to you, I realize there's a bigger issue with this organization. If they're not even thinking that, that they don't celebrate or perpetuate or even steward a culture of philanthropy, this is kind of like a pretty big picture. It's not just for those people in that room over there, right? Right. It's everybody. And I think that's an important thing. So yeah, Judy, good luck with that. I mean, it's, it's, wow, it's, it's bigger than just an event in Q1 of next year. And you know, Julia, I don't know in your career, but in my career, some of the biggest gifts I ever received were because program staff understood the culture of philanthropy and they talked to donors. Physicians would talk to transformational donors about the importance of the work they would do or social workers, whatever. So yeah, get them on board. Yeah, I absolutely think that I've never been a professional fundraiser, but I've certainly been a fundraiser throughout my community as two, two additional generations back and now my child moving forward as a, as an additional generation. And when you can communicate the passion and the need and the commitment to why we all need to be a part of this, that's magical. And so you can't just, I think, and it's not sustainable if you're just like, write me a check and then I'll write you one next time you ask me. I mean, it's got to be deeper than that. I mean, that's what Fundraising Academy has really enlightened me about is that, that whole concept of, you know, relationships and relationship management and, and why and how we do things. So yeah, it's very profound. And I agree with you. I don't think that it's just something that is for the development team. Right. You know, it's not. It's, it's, um, you're going to be hog tying yourself if it's just the development team. Right. Yeah. And, and, and fails at Fundraising fails happen when it's just the development team. Yeah. You know, it's too much. Yeah. It's too much. It's a team sport. Right. It's a team sport. Well, but happy birthday to Jack Ignacio Nacho. A lot of thank you so much. I love you. And I'm so happy to see you today. It's beyond belief. I'm over the moon. Well, me too. Me too. It's been a lot of fun. I always love your wisdom and your joy that you serve with and how you educate us. And so I hope you get to have a fabulous birthday. You should have some nachos. I will. With that birthday. I'm just saying with birthday cake, because, you know, Nacho a lotto has to have nachos for his birthday. I'm just absolutely. Thank you so much. I'm just saying, hey, you know, check out fundraising dash academy dot org. And really they have such amazing programming, free programming, thoughtful programming, team building programming. They, they're adding to their content all the time. So this is not stale stuff. This is stuff that's really navigating a changing society, a changing workforce and a changing nonprofit sector. And so really amazing information that will help any organization, whether you're in the fundraising part of your organization or not. I mean, just in general, the nonprofit sector, I think there's a magical things going on there. Jack, we're going to be announcing pretty soon about your fundraising academy next big event coming in the spring. Cultivate, which is going to be fun. Yeah. And so we'll be talking about that as well. And I will be there this year. Cool. Yeah. It's on my calendar. And somebody wrote in happy birthday, Jack. We love and appreciate you. Thank you. That's awesome. That's really cool. Hey, everybody. We have speaking of awesome. We have awesome supporters here at the nonprofit show. They include Lumerang American nonprofit academy, your part-time controller, nonprofit thought leader, fundraising academy at National University, where Jack comes to us from, staffing boutique, nonprofit nerd and nonprofit tech talk. These are the folks that are with us day in and day out on special birthdays like today for Jack Alotto and every day. So we have a lot of cool things coming up going towards the end of the year and in the new year. We're booking out. We're already almost booked out with guests through the first of the year into February. And we have some really interesting guests and every day, Jack, as you know, it's a different day and something fun to learn. So as we like to end every episode of the nonprofit show, especially on a birthday date like today, with Jack Alotto, we want to send this message along to everyone and it is to stay well so you can do well. We'll see you back here next week. Thank you, everybody. Thank you, Jack.