 Welcome and thank you to the nonprofit show. We have another amazing episode, number 365, if you can believe this. This has been the longest two weeks of my life. Thank you, Julia Patrick, because we really did start this March of last year with the intention that this would last about this being COVID, about two weeks. And so we were like, let's just show up, be of service. Today we have Rachel Spegner with us and she's going to share more about fundraising success and how you can set up to be as successful as possible. We also want to say thank you to ourselves, I believe, is that next slide. Julia, you've got to get on it, sister. You got to keep up with me. I know, I'm still talking about hair. I think about hair, okay? Julia Patrick, Hair Envy, CEO of the American Nonprofit Academy. I'm Jarrett Ransom, also known as your nonprofit nerd, CEO of the Raven Group. And we start every episode by saying thank you, thank you, thank you to all of our presenting sponsors that you can see on the screen. These companies and these leaders are here to support you. They are in your community. They are supporting everyone nationally through so many amazing services. They support us by allowing us to continue these amazing conversations, just like the one we're having next with Rachel. So let's do show her card here. Rachel Spegner is the founder and CEO of Spegner Solutions. I believe we connected originally on Instagram. So I was kind of going through some of my favorites on Instagram of who's posting some really cool content and seems to really get the nonprofit sector. So Rachel, I think that you are a big get for us. I'm excited to have you on our episode today. And I just want to welcome you and say thanks for joining us. Well, Julia and Jarrett, thank you so much for having me on the nonprofit show today. I'm excited to be here. Just to give the audience a little bit of background about Spegner Solutions, we were started in 2016. I have been in the nonprofit fundraising space for nearly 10 years. And when I started the organization, we focused mostly on grant writing support interim development work. And then over the years, while working with clients as well as working in the nonprofit space, I noticed the need to focus a lot more time on development operations and setting up systems. So that's where we are now at Spegner Solutions. Wow. You and I have very similar paths, I would say. I started in my business in 2009. And since then, I no longer do grant writing, but that was like my main shingle that I hung up was like, I'm going to do grant writing. That's the thing. I've moved from there. So I'm looking forward to learning how you help the development teams specifically to set up for success. You know, Rachel, it's really interesting because you said something that really kind of struck a chord with me. And I would imagine it with a lot of our viewers. And that is workflow and structure. And at the core of that, I'm hearing organization and pro forma and logic and all the things that we oftentimes in the nonprofit sector let go of because it's such an emotional business. Right? Yes. So talk to me about what that development or what those structures do in development. Sure. So having structure on your development team, it really hopes to improve your external fundraising. So if you're an excellent fundraiser, but then internally, you do not have structures in place. It can impact how well you fundraise. So if you're someone, you know, you can go out and get that $100,000 check from a funder, but then you don't know what your process is when that check comes in the door of who's processing it. Have they been acknowledged? Do we have a database where we enter checks into our system? Things like that, you need those in place so that you are setting your department up for success. And it doesn't just stay within the development team. In my experience, being on the development team, I've worked across multiple departments, which is what some other staff members don't have the opportunity to do. So I make sure that the workflow and structure does not just stay within development. You're creating a culture of fundraising across departments so that everyone understands how the program team plays a role in our fundraising, how the finance team plays a role. And so that's very big for me in my day to day as a fundraiser. And then that's what I work with my clients to do for their organization. That is so important. And I love that you preach that concept because too often, I think, Julia, we hear about these silos and how the program team doesn't understand the development team or the development team doesn't even talk to the finance team. How does that even happen? So I love that you really talk about this workflow structure. I'm curious how, and again, you know, don't mean for this to be a curveball, but I'm curious how you can implement these workflows and structures, regardless of the size of your organization. So many of these organizations are like a one-person shop. In particular, well, some of them could be one-person shop for everyone, right? But in particular, that fundraising team, or I don't want to say team staff, because I believe everyone should be a fundraiser or participate in the fundraising activity. But your development team could change from one person to many people. How does that workflow and structure really come into place depending on the size? Sure. So the size of the department doesn't matter when it comes to developing structures. So you can have SOPs for one person, as long as you know what that structure is. Here's how this one person, how you, if you are the one person, will handle all of these responsibilities. And as your organization grows, you have that one document in place. And then as you get more staff, you'll add more layers to that SOP. But at least you have a starting point, especially in the nonprofit sector, where there's a high turnover rate, and you want to avoid losing that institutional knowledge. I always tell clients and potential clients, starting with the SOP is one way to do, especially if you're a smaller staff. Now, if you're a larger staff, if you have a larger staff, of course you want SOPs, but then you also want to think about what systems you currently have in place. If you're using Salesforce, if you have, if going back to the check example, if it crosses multiple teams before it gets to get processing, knowing what route it takes to get in the door in case of undercalls or donor calls and says, I mailed a check. Can you see where it is? And then you have those things in place. So while you're a team of one, you may only have, let's say, three or four SOPs. But if you're a larger team, your SOPs will cover usually all of the individuals on your team, as well as the systems and other databases you have in place so that you're not losing that institutional knowledge and then everyone is entering information and using the information the same way. Yeah. And I just want to clarify for those of you that may not know SOPs, Standard Operating Procedure. Yes, it's so important. And I love, Rachel, that you say you can still have SOPs, Standard Operating Procedures, for one person, as well as multiple people. So I love that. I don't think I've ever heard anyone talk about it that way. And Jarrett, I mean, I see you shaking your head. I feel like we have a lot of, we see this a lot. We're a growing institution that's new will say, well, when we get big or when we reach this threshold, then we'll do X, Y, and Z. And I love what you just ran us through that course of saying, no, start out right so that as you do grow or change, you take new people on, you off board other folks, you still have your process. Right, right. Yeah, that's exactly it. I mean, again, I've worked in the sector almost 10 years and just the rate of turnover and losing staff, you lose that knowledge. So sometimes it's taking 30 minutes or an hour on Fridays and really writing down what your process is for a certain area of your work. And then hopefully at the end, whatever gold timeline you set for yourself, hopefully by the end of that timeline, all of your processes will live in one place. Because if you leave, if people always use that, if you get hit by a Mack truck example, you know, who will know how to do your job? So yes, I think standard operating procedures are very important. You know, I'm curious to know, and we touched on this lightly, we run, if you believe in the concept of, you know, the life cycle of a nonprofit and, you know, growth, all of these things, we do have different phases, undoubtedly, we get picked up by, you know, a new collaborator, we get an infusion of funding, whatever happens happens, but how do we know that we need to be enacting change when maybe we've had this mindset of, oh, when we're bigger, or when we have more people? How do you wrestle with that? Sure, so let's see. I think, you know, when changes need it, number one, listen to your staff. So if you're the leader of a department and they keep coming to you with the same inefficiencies over and over and over again, maybe it's something, we don't have metrics for this, or, you know, someone accidentally deleted the Excel spreadsheet, someone else has to find this data, or someone deleted something from our database, those are times where you need to think about, okay, how can we change this process? I think a lot of times, going back to what you said, we'll do this when we're large, when we start to grow, or we'll do this when we have more time, and you never work on it. And so then staff leave, you're at the same position when new staff come, they leave, and then nothing ever changes. So a good time is to, you know, figure out, sit down with your staff, learn what the inefficiencies are. Again, because development does not, again, because fundraising does not live within one department, ask the other teams that you work with, you know, ask the program team, are there ways that we can improve how our team works with you, is there, you know, if you share a database, what can we enter in there in order for you to pull the data that you need to give it to us? Same questions for finance. And of course, as your organization grows, you want to move off that Excel spreadsheet, look at a database, and figure out better ways to improve your workflows and how your organization is fundraising. Again, you're setting your team up for success, and fundraisers already have a lot on their plate when they're trying to hit their fundraising goals. They shouldn't, depending on the size of your team, you know, the last thing they wanna do is work on an administrative task if they don't have to, and if there could be a process that could be implemented. Rachel, I'm curious if any of these processes have been changed due to this hybrid work model or the forced, you know, quarantine, everyone's, most everyone's working from home. I do know many of our nonprofit sector is very much frontline and still needed to be on site to serve their, you know, their client base. Have you seen some of these SOPs or some of these, like, you know, procedures really changing because of COVID and now having an increased, like, technology base? Yeah, so I have seen more nonprofits implement a database system. Okay. Yeah, just because everyone is working in a hybrid model or have gone permanently remote, as well as changing the gift processing process. So sometimes the flow through these would usually have because everyone's not in the office, you may have to skip some steps and figure out what now is working better for your department. Maybe it's someone going into the office to work on the checks certain times of the week or, you know, the timeline for processing and pick up and drop off at the bank may change. So those are two areas that I've seen some of the biggest changes. I bet, yeah. Well, I would say, you know, Jared, just the movement to digital payments. Yes. You know, changing, I mean, and then of course, from there, look at your accounting staff who's probably making their deposits now digitally. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I mean, it's really been a lot of change in a short period of time. And hopefully all for the better, you know, like hopefully actually some of these systems and some of the change of the systems have been improved. It might have been, you know, by default that we've all had to, you know, consider a different, you know, process or procedure. But hopefully this has shaken our sector up for good. Yeah, exactly. Because a lot of times the processes were set for everyone to be in the office. And then, you know, as of March of last year, you had to figure out a new way how to do things. And because people have worked from home successfully over the last year, you know that it works, which hopefully gives nonprofits the push to start to continue implementing those processes as well as allowing employees to work from home. Yeah, I'm curious. Do you see, I mean, in the year that you've been, you've been doing this work all along, but then you go into this year with COVID and all of these strategies are forced change strategies. How do you've seen that the nonprofit sector by departments, like say, you know, accounting versus development versus programs, that some departments have been more reticent to adapt change? Or what is that theory of change been like? Has it been positive? Have they been like, we've been looking for this? Or has it been like, no, we don't wanna make a change? Yeah, I don't, in my experience, I don't think it's department specific, but more on the individual and how long they have worked in an organization and how long they've been doing things a certain way. I think anytime there's change, individuals, some individuals will be resistant to it, but I think when you implement change and introduce change, you have to show those individuals how this process will help them do their job better or well, not better because people may take offense to that, but be more efficient at that work. You know, maybe you don't have to do it. Maybe there are, maybe you don't have to do the 10 steps. You can do the five steps and you'll get to the same, get to the same results. So like I said, I don't think it's department specific. It's focusing more on individuals and making sure that they understand why this change is needed. Sometimes you have to sell it more to others in order for the change to work. I think sometimes, especially when we've been doing something for so long, it becomes natural. It's like, oh, it's Monday. This is what I do on Monday. It's Wednesday, or the second Wednesday of the month. This is what I do on the second Wednesday of the month. So it really becomes, you know, just such that natural cadence. But I'm curious, Rachel, if you recommend or if you've heard of maybe these processes having an audit or an assessment, I sometimes struggle using that word audit because I know it's really tied to that financial audit for our 990s. But for us to take a look at how we might measure the success, are we still using the most efficient practices? Are there additional, you know, steps? Like you said, if there's 10 steps, we can knock it down to five, sign me up. I'm all over that plan. Right? I was the one that would cut the corner when we had to run laps at soccer. And I'm like, oh, you mean I could get there sooner if I just kind of cut. Anyway, I shouldn't be outing myself about that. I was like, wow. But do you recommend like assessments or audits for these kinds of efficiencies? Sure, I think you can assess where your organization started and where you are now after you've implemented the processes. And I think the assessment will depend on what processes and workflows your organization now has. So maybe beforehand, you did not have a way to track your grant metrics and then now you've implemented this. So at the end of the grant period or maybe at the end of your fiscal year, you can look at your development tracker to say, okay, you know, we've hit all of our milestones for these grants whereas before we were not hitting them. So that's one way you can assess what worked. You know, the number of maybe checks that have been processed in a timely manner, looking at the number of acknowledgement letters. Maybe your organization is behind on getting acknowledgement letters out the door. And now you have a process in place so you can see how many you've actually sent to your donors this year. Another way is to ask your staff what worked, what did not work. When I worked for an organization, we implemented something for a few weeks. It didn't stick around too long but what we did was after every recording process, we would sit down and ask each other what works when we developed this report and what did not work so that we knew what to change. So of course, asking the staff who are doing the work every day is a good way to gauge if these processes have worked and then where you need to make changes for either the new fiscal year or maybe if you're six months in the rest of the fiscal year. That seems like such a basic concept. It does. But I question if it's really happening. It's not. I agree. I was thinking the same thing. I'm like, that's kind of like basic 101 behavior but I don't think it's happening. No, I think we get in the grind. We get in, you know, this needs to happen and you alluded to it earlier, Rachel, that we often will say, we'll get to that when and when never happens because something else is always taking precedence. So it does seem so basic and I feel like maybe that's something we should calendar or it's calendarized a word. Can we make that a word? It should be calendarized. So that it's not calendarized. I don't know if that's right or wrong, but yeah. Someone watching, let us know if that's a correct word. But I wonder if we should put that in our steps of efficiencies. Is that measure of success? Yeah, no, I definitely agree that it should be a step in your measure of success and something that I do before I work with clients, I try to assess where they are with their current processes so that, you know, if they, now I only work with them for a certain period of time after these processes are implemented but the client will see here's where you started. So they at least have a starting point. Another point is that usually employers, they do annual staff surveys. So that could be another time where they add these questions into the staff survey because development usually works across every department. And so that would be a good way to get feedback from other, from staff and other departments. You know, I'm kind of curious listening to you. I mean, you're so calm and you're so logical and I can see where you're like one of those people as a consultant, you don't have your hair on fire that you can be like, okay, we can, you know, do this and all that. I've got to ask, do people only come to you when their hair is on fire, when there is a problem? Because a lot of it's like almost human nature that we're not going to make investments or try and increase our productivity until we determine something's not working. I mean, and it's kind of too late in some ways. Yeah, on the grant writing side, yes. That's usually, you know, someone left an organization abruptly or, you know, they see a month coming up where they have just so many opportunities that they need to get through and they need additional support on the development operation side, not that they're not pulling out their hair. I think with development operations, because so many of us are used to working in the same, working with the same systems, whether they're efficient or not, they don't think about development operations as much. And so you have to have conversations with them, learn where they are, and then point out the inefficiencies to let them know why you need this work. So grant writing, yes, they're always pulling their hair out. Development operations, it's more of telling them why they need this support. Like you've explained all of your issue areas to me, but you know, here's why you need development operations. And then our time is kind of coming to a close, but I got to ask this. When you're looking at development structure and organization, do you need to like back up and tag all those decisions to software first, or do you do process first and then find software to fit that? It depends on where the organization is. Some organizations, to be honest, they're just not ready for software yet. Cause you know, if you're one person handling everything, maybe you don't need a robust software system, the Excel spreadsheet actually works for you or some other smaller system. Or if it's a larger organization, they may need to look at software first and figure out what's working for them, what's not working. One thing about development operations, no one nonprofit is the same. So one nonprofit, their issue may only be with the database. Another nonprofit is they may not have any systems in place at all and they need someone to come in from ground up and really help them develop it. So it really just depends on the organization. I heard someone once say, Rachel, if you've seen one nonprofit, you've seen one nonprofit. Yeah. You know, they're all different and that's the same. If you've seen one nonprofit board, you know one nonprofit board. Like all of them are so unique in their systems and their culture and their culture of philanthropy and the processes. So it's really interesting. So the fact that you said that, you know, is really, it just goes to show nothing can truly be cookie cutter. I do think you can bring in many best practices, right? Like this is best practice, whether it's a financial operation or fundraising, you know, code of ethics and whatnot. But if you've seen one nonprofit, you've seen one nonprofit. Yeah. I love that. And you know, I think it's really true because if we've learned anything, it's that we're all doing such different things with very limited resources. And as we started off the show today, a lot of times our decisions are based with more intent, emotion, you know, the heart aspect of things. And so then we get into the soul-crushing environment that I think a lot of times could be, we could be more successful if we did have procedures and we did have things that took us away from the emotional, you know, kind of situation that oftentimes we find ourselves in. That's kind of interesting. I talk a lot about that, Julia. And I think it's really important to bring up because oftentimes, right, and I'm dating myself, but I'm thinking of MacGyver, where it's like, okay, you have a straw, you have duct tape, which I don't have, this isn't a straw, it's a pen. You have a pen, a paperclip, and you have duct tape. Now go save the world, right? That's typically what we do for a nonprofit. And so if we had additional resources, you know, perhaps we could serve in a different light. And that's typically, you know, the way that we're run, but we're doing a lot of good with a pen, a paperclip, and some duct tape. I love it. I think you're absolutely right. Oh my gosh. Well, you have been really great to talk with. I really enjoyed this. I think that at the core of all this disruption that we've been through, if nothing, we've learned that we have to go back to our systems, trust the system, and maybe recognizing that the system's not working. And that's okay, as long as we're willing to make those investments, mindset, financial, cultural, staffing-wise, whatever, to elicit more structure so that we can be successful in our mission vision and values. So really great to have you on today to talk with you about this. And as you learn more, we want to hear back from you so that we can continue to share these things that we love talking about each and every day. Again, I'm Julia Patrick, CEO of the American Nonprofit Academy. I've been joined by Jared Ransom, my nonprofit nerd. I know we call her the nonprofit nerd. She's my nonprofit nerd. Again, we have amazing presenting sponsors that are with us every day. Jared, a lot of people- For two weeks. They've been with us for two weeks. I get such a bum rap. I feel a little bum rap on this, but- 365 episodes, that's today. That's amazing. Thank you for bringing that up. Hey, a lot of people don't know this, but Jared and I, because we only thought this was a two-week gig, we've had to develop procedures and we've had to develop the process by which we could run a daily show now for more than a year. One of those processes that has occurred has been that Jared has really taken over a lot of the booking. And really quickly, before we sign off today, Jared, you just opened up a few, a very few nonprofit thought leadership spots, right? I did through the end of the year because that's how booked we are. We have so many amazing individuals in our sector like Rachel and we're doing our best to get so many diverse voices and skill sets on to talk about so many different topics. But yes, we do have a couple or a few for the rest of the year, which is bananas to say because 2022 is literally around the corner. I know. That will make me pull my hair out. Yeah, well, I can't afford to lose any more hair. So I just got to talk it through. But I just want to say, if you're interested in that, let us know because again, it's a very limited thing and we've already started booking into the next, I have to just say the next year. Next few weeks. Cute, really cute. Oh my gosh. Well, hey everybody, we've had a great episode. Rachel Spigner, you've been a delight to have on. You've shared some great advice and wisdom. I love your calm demeanor because I think you proved to me that it doesn't always have to be a drama that we can use our brains, be efficient and then really manage the work at hand. And there's a lot of work that we need to do. So as we like to end every episode, we certainly want to remind everyone to stay well so you can do well. We'll see you back here tomorrow, everyone. Thanks so much, ladies. Thanks, Rachel. Thank you.