 Hello and welcome Aloha to another episode of The Nonprofit Show. Thrilled to have all of you back with us today and we are really excited for our guest again, James Golder joining us yet again with Bloomerang. Thrilled to have you here. Today James is going to talk to us about Stewarding Event Attendees. So stay with us because we're going to really dive deep on this conversation as a lot of you are starting to have events again. So Julia Patrick, hello to you, CEO of the American Nonprofit Academy. I'm Jarrett Ransom, Julia's personal nonprofit nerd, but I'm yours too. There's plenty of nerdiness to go around. I'm CEO of the Raven Group and I'm honored to serve alongside as co-host here for the show. We are always honored to have our amazing guest including Bloomerang that has been with us from the very beginning. So thank you so very much again to Bloomerang American Nonprofit Academy, Fundraising Academy at National University. Be generous. You're part-time controller, staffing boutique, nonprofit thought leader, and nonprofit nerd. These companies keep us growing, evolving in these conversations that we have over three years. We've talked about events, but not in the way we're going to talk about it today. So if you miss any of today's episode or you wish to share it with those in your network, make sure that you go ahead and find us. You can find all of our archives as well, 600 plus episodes on Roku, YouTube, Amazon Fire TV, Vimeo, as well as podcasts. So if you're a podcast listener, go ahead and queue us up in the podcast channels wherever you stream your podcast. James, we are thrilled to have you. You have joined us before and so you're backed by popularity, thrilled to open up your brain and get some more information out. So again, you serve as the Partnerships Manager at Bloomerang. Tell us a little bit about that. Sure. Thanks. Thank you again for having me. I'm thrilled to hang out with you all for a little while. My job at Bloomerang is to work with what we call national accounts, so YMCA's, Boys and Girls Clubs, places that have a big national focus, but then maybe smaller regional, local presence, whether it's a chapter and affiliation, whatever they happen to call it. So I work with a whole lot of different organizations to get them on board with Bloomerang and then also to help them just improve their fundraising if I can. So stuff around donor retention, which we talked about last time, and then this time with events, try to step up the knowledge out there a little bit. Yeah. Well, thank you for that. And tell us, how does stewarding event attendees tie into a donor database? What is that connection? Yeah. Yeah, that's a great question. So a lot of times people look at event attendees almost as separate from their regular donors, if you will. And I think that's a mistake, to be really honest. I think that you're spending a fair amount of money on these events and you want to pull in people as much as possible. And you want to introduce them, right, to the wonderful things that your nonprofit is doing, your mission, how you're impacting the community, all of those things that you want to take great pains to show them what you're doing. And then not do anything with them after that? Why? Why? Why? They came, they bought a ticket or someone bought a ticket for them or something, and they were exposed to all the cool things that you're doing. So why not take the opportunity and keep sharing with them, keep that dialogue going. Well, you know, it's an interesting thing because I think a lot of times when we in the nonprofit sector have an event, we think we are cultivating dollars. And you're here to say, no, we're really cultivating new donors. That's the longer term issue, isn't it? It is. I think back to the events that I've attended, where my wife and I have been invited to any number of things in the community. And we say through a friend, you know, someone is on a board or a big supporter or something like that, and they say, hey, would you guys want to come with us? And we've gone and done that. And to be honest, there's been events that the follow-up hasn't been great. And we don't, we haven't really done anything with them after that. It was a one and done. We paid for the tickets. We maybe, maybe bought an auction item or something, maybe. And that's it. We're not super wealthy people or anything like that, but we certainly are capable of recurring donations. You know, even some decent sized one-time gifts. I mean, if you cultivate that relationship with us as evidenced by the other organizations that did follow up, and that we do stay in touch with and continue to support, even though we've never really used their services or never really been personally impacted by them. But we showed up. We liked what we saw. And then they followed up. I mean, that's, you know, that's kind of the name of the game. That should be the goal, I think. I hear this all too often. You know, it's like, we didn't hear from this organization until it's time to invite me again next year. And that's really disappointing. But it also speaks to the donor retention. And you alluded, the previous episode with you, James, was donor retention. And so we've got to do a better job at this. We really do. It's so important. I go back again to the ROI, right? How much money is your organization spending on this event? You've got to get a venue. Take care of food. If there's an alcohol budget, good luck with that. Get all of the prizes and auction items and all that. A lot of those you're not paying for, but you are paying for staff time or someone's time to go and get all of that taken care of. And then think about the next sort of the next level of time management there. Even if you've got volunteers handling all the auction stuff and that's great. Your staff still has to coordinate a lot. There's times and just all kinds of stuff that they're having to keep track of. And what is that preventing them from doing? So what are they not able to do because they're focused on this event? Are they maybe having phone calls slipped through the cracks? Should they be reaching out to major donors and cultivating those relationships? Could they be identifying new potential major donors? So you're spending a lot of time and a lot of money and you have to try to retain these people. You get a nice big bump and your board says, oh, we made X amount of money at this event. That's great. Sure, but you have to factor in the cost as well as the opportunity cost that you lost by devoting so much staff time to that. And that has to be factored into the equation and your board needs to realize that. And honestly, and I can say this as a board member of a small organization, get them involved with some of the follow up and get them to get off the bench a little bit and get in the game. And that will, you'll really start playing a long game at that point, right? And you'll get those attendees who come back and become donors year after year after year. And that should be the goal. I thought that you mentioned the board. Could you speak a little bit because I know a lot of events incorporate a committee, an event committee. How do the committee members play a role in stewarding the event attendees? So I think there's a couple of things that they can do. Clearly, they're going to usually anyway be the ones to go after those auction items and all of that kind of stuff that's invaluable have to have that. And also tell them to keep their eyes on who is registering. So what I mean by that is if you have a corporation, let's say, and they bought a table at a gala. Pay attention to that pay attention to those people who are sitting at the table but then also who's the main driver at that corporation. Who's the one who's extending those invitations out to people. In addition, just look at if you can figure out, look at the other attendees and figure out who's inviting these people, because those are the people that those committee members should be spending some time with and getting to know a little bit. If someone is saying I'm going to take time out of my day to invite my friends, my family, my coworkers to this organization event that's important to me, let's find out more about that. Let's go ahead and chat a little bit and see what's going on. And, and maybe we can uncover some more potential there. Maybe volunteering maybe donations, it could be board membership there could be a lot of avenues that you could go down but you have to start digging a little. I love that you know I'm intrigued by, by the interim that a lot of event folks, they're just like fill the room versus the room with the people that are going to make a difference. And it's a really interesting conversation. I'll man up. I was in one of those conversations yesterday, starting at 330 and it lasted an hour and a half. And it seems really difficult to say no we need more people of capacity, not just check writing but who they know and connectivity and don't just preach to the choir or your sister-in-law who already knows. And I would love to get your feedback on that because as stewarding our guests at events, it seems like we can be just talking to the same people versus understanding this is that new opportunity. It's exactly right and I think that we do fall into that trap sometimes where, like you said Julia we just want to fill the room. So, at, you know, two weeks before we don't have enough tickets sold we need to cut the ticket prices. We need to, you know, throw an ad up on the radio or something. Ah, you know, and, okay, I get it. But also, it's not a bad idea to be a little bit more purposeful on the front end when you're planning this. You know, you have your board members and your, your big supporters to tap into their networks purposefully, like you said Julie I think that's a good word, not just. Yeah, I've got my contact list I can send an email to 50 people or whatever. But really spend a couple of minutes and think through what is it that I'm hoping to accomplish here. Obviously, we're nonprofits we want people who can write big checks. Really that should be at the top I get it. But also think about people who know lots of other people in your community who might be interested in the kind of work that you're doing. Who are the connectors that you can reach out to through your existing supporter network and say hey, this is the work that we're doing we need a little bit of help and we think that you might be able to make some of those connections for us. I think that you can be purposeful, I think on the front end before you really get started selling tickets and getting auction items and all of that. Maybe it's a thinking exercise with your committee where you just say, you know, give us 10 names. Yeah, big checks that's great but also, you know connectors networking people let's let's try to think through this and be very purposeful before we get started. I want to follow up question to that. What are your thoughts are in terms of stewarding these guests. Are you do you want people used to be back in the day that you were having an event. You would try not to invite people who didn't know you or who hadn't been on the tour. What are your thoughts about that given not just the kept past couple years but technology and how we can ultimately steward guests. I think that's that can be a big part of what the event is right is is kind of a tour almost maybe not at the facility, but it can be a tour of what we're doing. And there should be some emotional impact. I mean if if you're helping kids learn how to read if you're putting food on the table for members in the community providing a you know place for animals to get adopted you know any of these things that that nonprofits do each and every day. Tell us about it and and if you can bring in someone who you serve directly and let them tell us about it. Let them tell their story I realized privacy concerns and all that totally so it's not always an option but if it is an option. You know that because those are really powerful and then you're kind of giving that tour at the event, you're making that emotional connection you're showing what the impact can be. That's going to stay with people a little bit longer than if you just, you know, hand them a pamphlet or direct them to your website or something. Now that's needed I've been to so many events that you know I haven't known about the organization before but they have that mission critical moment. Of course I'm crying of course I'm feeling it in my body and I'm thinking I had no idea. This existed in my community and so to capture, I like to say let's capture that magic and like sprinkle it right. That's what I've been through throughout the rest of the year, and I think that follow up communication so that we don't only say, come to the event. And then oh yeah you'll get an invite again next year because we are preaching to the same choir then we've got to be looking at this so James. Let's dig into this post event communication and contact what are some of the great things that you're seeing and I got to ask you another side question. How does Blumerang factor into this because I don't see your company as a company that does this piece. Are you telling me that that you do or kind of paying us the picture about how how we can navigate this because this is heavy lift for a lot of organizations. It is and we do Blumerang does handle some event management and then there are other events where a prospective client will come to us and they'll say hey can you all handle a silent auction for instance and we'll say nope, but we have partners who can and we can direct you towards those people. Yeah, we don't. Not gonna lie to people. I was like, I love that clarity or you're like, no, we don't do that. We're good at what we're good at and that's not it. But we are good at helping our users retain donors. And so what we saw a while back was that organizations were getting better at retaining, you know, regular donors direct mail online donations things like that but really not as much with event donors. So we dug into it a little bit more and Jerry, you and I have talked about this some Blumerang is full of nerds. There's really no other way to put it. And we're all proud of it. So you look so happy. I'm so happy music to my ears. We were very, very data driven as much as a cliche that statement is it's very true and we look at our users data often and try to find trends. And one of the big trends that we found, I guess a couple of years ago now was the impact that phone calls made after someone makes their first donation. So, if we think about what an event, you know, ideally maybe is designed to do it should be to get those first time donors in the door. I should get other people as well, but we should be getting some first timers in the door and then we need to follow up with them to turn them into regular donors after that, and a phone call is the fastest easiest way to do that. It's, we looked at three areas and we saw improvements in all three speed to second gift, the size of the second gift, and whether how likely they were to be retained. So that here's the big one for for the audience here, the size of the second gift doubled with a phone call. Oh no with two phone calls I think it was with two phone calls, doubled. Does that mean back to back like you call you hang up you call again. Yeah, absolutely. Yep, leave two messages in five minutes. That's right. No, the strategy that that that I have always suggested is again pull your board members in there, they'll hate it they'll come kicking and screaming until they actually do it and then they'll be fine. I speak from experience. But pull your board members and have them call and have them kind of set the table a little bit and talk through. You know this is what's coming up in the next couple of months, our development directors probably going to reach out to you and ask if you would like to be further involved. So go ask just to thank you. That's it, and then have someone on the development team follow up a week two weeks three weeks you know what schedules or schedules, figure it out and and have the development team call and then maybe make an ask, but you'd be smart about it and figure out what the connection is find out if you can why they came to the event what appeal to them. What about that emotional impact at the event stayed with them. Right. So emotions fade. But what do they remember from that a couple of weeks later what stands out to them when they think about your mission and how would they like to be involved moving forward. I love your comment so bluntly James because you're speaking as a board member where you said earlier you're like, get off the bench, get in the game. Pick up the phone make those phone calls, and you're right it's so important and to see that second gift increase and to retain that donor because we are now stewarding them right we are cultivating them not their money them as people so it's great advice. If you find out what they're interested in what attracted them and what moved them to donate at the event and what they're remembering. You can tailor your communication to them and you're asked to them for some specific need that you have instead of just saying, hey we need money. It can be hey you're interested in children reading third graders specifically we've got this after school program at the school down the street we really need your help to expand it you know and go so much more impactful moving forward so much more impactful and then capture this in the database right capture the information. That's a big connection of why you know donor databases and why stewarding event attendees. That is the secret sauce the magic it takes some work, but it's so worth the work in the effort. Gotta have an app. I'll just I'll throw a plug out for Bloomer and you gotta gotta have an app for your for your database so that you can take notes on the go. We're all moving around all the time these days so that's a good As a board member. Do you give board members access to the database or do you ask them to send their notes to the development team to then input the notes into the database. Good question. Yeah we had a conversation about that and the development team made it clear that they would hunt us down and do something bad if we didn't give the board members access so we gave the board members access. Wow. Okay, I gotta do I know that like is we don't have a lot of time but that to me is really interesting because my my immediate sense is like, Oh no because that's perilous because they can screw things up. So you've got to have the right system and obviously I'm biased. So, and you have to be careful with it but if you have the right system with the right checks and balances in place you should be okay. So if you can restrict access to certain parts so that board members can't enter in new donations or something like that that's probably a good idea. Don't give them access to the email tool, you know that kind of thing then great then they can look and see notes they can enter in their own notes and be on their way. Okay, love that I don't know Jarrett that to me is like the hair on fire moment because I never worked with an organization that did that everything was you know always funneled through development. So I've done both I have I have been a part of both. There's some pros and cons that I've experienced on both right and so I think for me it really comes down to the access point that James mentioned. And I think trust to you want to make sure that you do a good job training the board. Click this don't ever click that that kind of stuff and you know, most of them. In my experience and everyone is different but most of my board members that I work with were very hesitant at first, both about the phone calls and about the technology. And then it took one phone call for everybody and everybody said Oh, this there's nothing to this. This is a this is a delightful phone call and it's an easy, you know, two minute task entering after I'm done. It's rewarding you hear from the donors and you're like, Wow, that was actually really happy that was a great conversation. Yes, I think so. I don't have a lot of time left but I'm really curious to get your thoughts on post event communications and contact which we you know we've been talking about. It seems to me that we're seeing more and more and maybe it's our community I don't know, but post event like thank you videos, and they're short and sweet. Obviously they've been pre done. Can you give us some thoughts on that that tool. It's a great idea. So there are a lot of them that are available oftentimes for free or pretty inexpensive for nonprofits. Some of them will integrate into different donor databases as well so you can keep a record of that with your donor record. It's fantastic. As Jared mentioned the more data you can have and collect and keep track of the better off you're going to be. And the other nice thing that they do allow you to do you can personalize them. Sometimes some of them are so easy that it. Yeah, you can do a generic one shot to everybody but some of them are so easy that doing 30 seconds. You know, hey James thanks so much for coming to our event I really enjoyed chatting with you. So excited that you gave after the mission statement that we gave can't wait to connect with you in a couple of weeks. We'll see you in the next one doesn't have to be a long script along. In fact, if you think about the YouTube videos that we watch. I hope my boss isn't watching this because I wanted to think I work really hard at everything I do but I give up at, you know, a couple of minutes with a lot of YouTube videos even training videos and all that I kind of get to a point where I realize I'm not paying attention to this anymore and I stop. So, keep it short. That's always always good. Thank you for making James you got to see the trend of what's out there and what not to do so I hope your boss is listening because you're doing great work. I love it. I always think it's magical and I think you're and I would agree you know from day one boomerang's been a very interesting partner of ours because they always shared information that's coming to them from a lot of places not just your own business and so maybe that's because you are based in the center of the country and you get to see these different things coming at us. I don't know but it's really magical that you come on and and give us ideas and share with us different options and because it's we have been forever changed. There's no doubt about that. This last couple of years in the nonprofit sector and so we need all the advice and the input the benchmarking. Thank you, Jared. That comes our way. Yeah, I mean it's been really an amazing conversation for those of you who might have just joined us or have not heard James speak with us before James Golar partnerships manager which we know anybody that's working on partnerships you know they're going to be hearing about all these different things so you're the voice that really has the impact for us in the nonprofit show. I'm at bloomering bloomering.co. Check them out it's a very interesting piece James how many webinars are you all doing. I mean it seems like you're doing a lot of educational webinars. We do through the marketing department one or two a week and then I do some there's a lot going on so I'd say two to three a week on average is probably about right. Okay and those are accessible whether you're a client or not. They are and they're recorded of course so you can access the old ones and check out all that good information. Yep. Awesome awesome. Really good. Well good to know again thank you so much for being with us. If you joined us in the green room chatter. We were definitely conspiring to taking the show on the road to Hawaii. Because James needs some new Hawaiian shirts per his wife. And so we're like we got to we got to do this. You got to help me out. I really appreciate the spirit of helpfulness that you all have exhibited today. We're here to be of service absolutely. I admire it. I love it. Jared tell everybody what's your license plate. Do you have service. It reads the office. Yeah, it really does. Yeah, but blooming does it has great resources out there. I have found just so many tools on the site from those webinars that you spoke of James, and I'm just so glad for this, you know, archive of resources I was talking to one of my clients and my executive team and she says, you know, I have googled in YouTube my way through my job. And so really, you know, looking at where can I find resources. You know, I know that, you know, blooming puts out so many great things that don't a retention. That's a good one to go back James that you shared with Julia and myself here on the nonprofit show because it ties in really quickly to this stewarding your event attendees so thank you for being here. Oh thank you for having me this has been great I'll throw out if I can real quickly one other just little nugget that some people might like. If you're doing a paddle raise in an event, think about doing a recurring donation paddle raise. So, you've got your big big big donors right and then you've got the rest of us and I may not be able to write you a $5,000 check but I might be able to do 100 bucks a month. So if you phrase it that way I'm very well might jump on board with that, especially in the excitement and the emotion and all of that so just a just a tip. I love love love. Okay, that's the rock star idea. Yeah, that's cool. Second hair on fire moment for Julia and fire and you know, James is I'm, as I like to say I don't have a lot to give away so it's really important when we have a to hair on fire day. I feel honored. Or fearful, maybe fearful. Hey everybody, we want to thank our presenting sponsors without them we would not be here. Blumerang American nonprofit Academy, your part time controller be generous fundraising Academy at National University staffing boutique nonprofit thought leader and the nonprofit nerd. These are the folks that are with us day in and day out to make sure we can deliver great guests like we have James today from Blumerang. So, sure. Thank you so much for being with us today. Do you want to say anything about what you're going to be doing next week really quickly before we go off air? We have a week right. Yes, we do. We do. We have a power week with your part time controller. And it's all going to be about the lens of operating our nonprofits through the accounting lens and so often these things don't line up or they're very perilous or they're stressful. And we don't think about it until you have a problem. So we are going to be bringing in folks from all over the country from your part time controller to be talking about different things. The exciting thing is Friday are asking an answer. It's all going to be accounting questions. So not like, you know, do I use form 103 to see or form 103 be it's not like that. But if you have some kind of, you know, questions about the alignment to some of these newer pieces of accounting a modern accounting and nonprofits. Let us know and we'll try and get them in front of the experts. It'll be a lot of fun. Yeah, thank you. It'll be a lot of fun. Hashtag power week, right? That's one of the, that's one of our hashtags. We love nonprofit power week. It's a super cool thing. Hey, we love our viewers and our listeners and our sponsors and our guests. And we'd like to end every episode with this mantra to stay well so you can do well. Thanks everybody. Thanks James.