 Thank you so much for joining us. I'm the co-leader for the TechSoup Connect Florida chapter and also have the privilege of being the executive director of CARE, which stands for Children, Athletes and Artists Evolved in Recreational Events. I know it's a mouthful and so that's why we lovingly go by CARE. Dispill it a little bit differently. So we do youth development in Central Florida and we certainly would love to connect with you as well. And we're part of this wonderful vast network, this village called TechSoup. And if you've never heard of TechSoup or you're not a member, I'll tell you a little bit about how to get on becoming a member, but TechSoup is a global. You are all here this morning to hear from one of the most incredible individuals when it comes to providing information for nonprofits. She is the founder of Multiplying Talents in Grant Writing School and she has over 20 years of non-profit experience. Aretha Simons is her name and she's a Navy veteran. So we enjoy that. She has been a member of the service and she gets out of the service, turning around and serving her community. So we are thrilled about that. She definitely does a great deal of work when it comes to grants. She was a grant writer at the local level as well as the federal level and she's even a webinar producer right here on TechSoup where she connects approximately 1,000 nonprofits each week with resources to help their organizations use technology and advance their mission. So Aretha actually holds an associate in culinary arts from Johnson and Wales University. Now, if that doesn't make you hungry at this time of the morning, I don't know what it does. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Management from the University of Phoenix as well as a Master of Education from Nova Southeastern. So if you joined us this morning looking for someone who has the knowledge and experience in order to assist your organization on the path of growth, then you are definitely in the right place. So without further ado, let's go ahead and let's welcome Ms. Rupa Simons as she talks about the five costly mistakes that nonprofits make. Wow, Danita, thank you so much for that great introduction. I feel like she'd be walking on the stage and she'd be a lot of annoying thing. Ooh, and I was looking, I was like, what was she talking about? But that wonderful introduction. And thank you, Ty, for being here. I know you've been doing a lot of things right now but we want to get right into this that five costly mistakes nonprofits make and how to avoid them. I don't like to be the one talking the whole time. So I want this to be interactive. So I want you to do me one little favor. Type in the chatroom, so pay attention, type in a chatroom of one, if you already have your 501c3 and how many years you've been in existence. So it would be, yes, five years. Or if you don't have your 501c3 type in, I don't have my 501c3. So do me a favor, I'm just gauging which direction I should go in. Oh my God, Chris, 20 years. I love it, oh my God. Tim, 32 years, Laquita, seven years. So look what we got in here, 38. We got over 50 years here, 31 years. Oh my God, this is so great. And you still signed up for this course, the five cost of the mistakes non-profits make. Probably because you've made some over, and probably because you wanna find out, look, I don't wanna make any more mistakes. So I wanna do, have a little contest, right? So we got over 50 years of experience here. So I'm gonna do a little contest here. Type in the chatroom, what common mistakes that you think non-profits make. And if you put in there, and leave two of the ones that I have listed, I'm gonna cash out you $10 for every one that you put in there. So go ahead and type in the chatroom some cost of the mistakes that maybe you've made or some other non-profits that have made. Again, I wanna wait for you because I don't know if you still have all my ideas not documenting properly. Very good, very good. Keep going, let's see, let's see, let's see. Just go in, you should have to think about this too long because you probably, look, we got over 50 years of experience here. You probably made some of those things. Not communicating with enough donors. Whoa, enough with the donors. Okay, not communicating enough with the donors. That is a good one. Trying to avoid a cost of mistake with internet service. Somebody must be a TechSoup fan right here. They're talking about internet service. I love it, I love it, I love it. So we're missing a couple people. Type in the chatroom some common mistakes that you think non-profits have made or maybe you have made. Again, if you get the ones that I had written down, I'm gonna cash out for you $10. So come on, let's play. Only three people have commented and there are more than three people in here, insufficient security online. That is a good one. That is a good one, Judy. Not staying updated to suit the community. Whoa, that is a good one. Oh, I love it, to suit the community. I like that. I'm gonna play with that a little bit when we get to some of those parts. Okay, so let's not proper register. Chris, very good, very good. Ding, ding, ding. I think we have some winners in here, but we're gonna get moving. We're gonna go ahead and get moving. So line number one, costly mistakes that I see non-profits make is their budgets. Now, we got a lot of people here with experience and I hope you are doing this. I hope you are creating a budget every year. There's several types of budgets that you and your board members should be working on every year and that is number one, your annual budget. I know a lot of people hate numbers. They hate to think about numbers, but you need your budget for your grants. You need your budget for your grant reports. You need your budget for your communications with your board members. They need to know how much money do we need to raise this year, okay? So your project budget. Now, I know our project budget. Sometimes non-profits, if the those you've been in existence for a long time because I had a non-profit and I totally understand, you just move by passion and you just move and do what you need to do. But a lot of times you're not thinking about that grocery list, right? Where you go to the grocery store, you don't just go to the grocery store. Look, I'm just gonna go down on each aisle and pick out everything. You have a list of things you need and you get exactly what you need. Not every now and then you might pick up something yellow as a loaf of bread or something like that because you're like, oh, I'm running low on this. It's the same thing with your non-profit. You're gonna write down everything that you need for your project and your programs. Now, for those of you who are new to this non-profit world, this is gonna be some of the things you need to write down. Your annual budget is your total budget, which includes your projects, your programs, your administrative budget, your volunteer budget. Oh, somebody said volunteer budget. Wouldn't you be about volunteer budget? Yes, you need to budget for volunteers because guess what? You've got to do some kind of certificate or some kind of appreciation for them. Once a year, I hope you're doing that. That costs money. If you live in Florida like I do, you have to provide water for your volunteers. I'm not water for the faucet. You gotta buy those water bottles. That costs money. There's so many things that we do to show appreciation to our volunteers and it costs money. We don't think about it. We just go. We just do it. But everything costs money. Again, I want you to start thinking of your nonprofit and creating a list of things that cost money. Every day, think of something you've done that you know what, I didn't consider that for my nonprofit because guess what? If you don't budget, it is a costly mistake. Why? Because funders saying when they ask you for your grant proposal and you don't have the right budget, your budget doesn't make sense with what you wanna do, then guess what? That cost you the grant. Have I right? For those of you who've been in this sector, give me some feedback on that. That is definitely, yes, and somebody to put inappropriately using funds. Ooh, that's a good one. Spending recklessly. That's what happens when you don't budget. You spend recklessly. That is so good, Chris, because again, using that analogy, going to the grocery store, imagine me going to, let me say Target, going to Target and going down every aisle and picking up everything that I like and that I think that I want or need, but not really making it line up with the mission of what I need to accomplish for my nonprofit. Am I making sense? Put it in the chat room and I'm making sense. Type in yes, if I'm making sense to you all. Thank you, Laquita. Thank you, Laquita. So that is definitely a costly mistake, not budgeting or having your budget or even considering your budget, revamping your budget. If you have a budget for those you've been existing, or we have a budget or we do a good every year, at least twice a year, you should be looking at the budget because you maybe need to add things or your mission or your program change. You need to remove things. So think about all that. So my next costly mistake, you're not going to like this. You are not going to like this at all, but it is strategic planning. Remember when you wanted to start a business there? I said, you have a business plan, you have a business plan and nobody likes business plans. Now we're talking about strategic plans and strategic plans are not like business plan, but they have some elements of a business plan. How many of you have a strategic plan? Type O1 in the chat room. If you have a strategic plan, I hope you are looking at it every year. I love that, Judy, that you do have strategic plans. For those of you who don't look at it as a chore, don't look at all the lawyers you're talking about, it doesn't have to be a 10 page. Remember those business plans were like 25 pages. It could be as simple as three to five pages, but some of the things that you need to have on your strategic plan, and don't do this alone, please, please, bring your board members in, bring your advisors and board in, bring those people who are thinkers that are part of your organization that are decision makers because you need to have mission clarity. Like why are you operating? That's basically what that means. Sometimes your mission changes, and it's okay to change your mission statement. I know we have that mission statement, and this is what people know it's fine, but sometimes things change. Somebody had put in the chat room about keeping up with the changes in your community. So if you change things in your community, your mission may change. So make sure that you are updating your strategic plan to have that mission clarity. Basically, why does your nonprofit exist? And then the community engagement. I love that somebody had put that, that how do you raise community engagements to meet the mission of your organization? And how do you earn the support of your community? That should be in your strategic plan. Judy says a strategic plan is simply a action plan. That's exactly what it is. And in that action plan, you're gonna put down how you engage with your community. And the next marketing or PR, I know we market, we think our website is our only marketing sometimes. We have to spend money, a little bit of money on social media. Every now and then, you've got paid somebody to create an ad for you, something that looks good, something that looks up to date. But social media, your marketing, how do you communicate your mission to a wider audience? That's basically what marketing at PR means. Just like when we got the final on C3, it was not a magnet for grants. It didn't just come in when you start getting that five, when you got that five on C3. No, you had to put the work out. You had to tell people what you're doing. I get excited, y'all. So I get excited about this. I've been in this sector for 23 years while I was in the Navy. I started my own nonprofit. And I had to go through some of the same growing pains that you went through. And part of that was financial sustainability. Sustaining your nonprofit is really key. So what do I need my financial sustainability? Basically, how do you sustain your operations? How does money come in? Basically, that's it. If I could say the simple terms, show, where's the beef? Where's the money? Where's the money? How is it coming in? So think about that. And then the last thing that should be in your strategic plan is infrastructure and processes. So basically, how does your organization infrastructure, the inside, align with your strategic goal? Do you have a list of people who will do certain things? Do you have it written down exactly what they're going to do? When is the assignment supposed to be completed? That's what I need my processes. So each team member should be assigned different things. If you don't have a strategic plan, trust me, it's going to cost you in the long run, because a lot of people say, in the end, well, what was your plan? I didn't have that written down. We were just passionate. We just wanted to keep people off the street. We just want to keep people in homes. And you would just do with the work. Those people on here who've been in existence for 25 years, 30 years, seven years, even liquid a seven year, you can give somebody advice on some of this. So let me go to my third costly mistake. And by the way, there are some people who came on later. So everybody who I talked to earlier was already a 501c3, but I had assumed that we would have people who are not 501c3. For those of you who came on late, do you already have your 501c3? Type a yes or no in the chat room, because this only applies to you. Lots of times we have people on our webinars who say, I'm not an assistant guest. I'm just here to learn. So if you do not have your 501c3, in 2001, what the IRS did, they started revoking. You start hearing the word revocation, revoking 501c3. So a lot of people will go and get their EIN. When you get your EIN, you are in business. When you, you don't even have to incorporate, because what you're saying is, hey IRS, I'm in business and not. There's a social security number for my business. Basically, it's your EIN, employee identification number. I said social security number because I think of your business as a living being and everybody that is alive has a social security number. That's how we identify people. So if you don't have your 501c3 and you don't apply for within 27 months of incorporating or getting your EIN, what's gonna happen is, when you apply for the 501c3, they're gonna approve you. Yay, you've been approved. But then they're gonna say, wait a minute, you did not do your 501c3, excuse me, you're 990, three years in a row. So then they're gonna revoke, that means they're gonna take your 501c3 back for you. And trust me, that is a constant mistake because number one, you're gonna have to pay again. Number two, your donors, what if you have a grant that's pending? And they said, no, I saw, because the grantors are smart now, they're looking at the IRS website to see your 501c3 has been revoked. Oh yeah, I see it all the time, which leads me to the next cost of this state is your 990. I hope you are doing your 990s. A lot of people are saying, oh, we're not making any money. I heard we don't have to do it. When I started doing 501c3s in 1999, you did not have to do a 990. But eventually they started making everyone do a 990. So our mistake number four is 990. Now, your 990 is very important. And I wanna say for those of you who are doing the 990 ePost card, go ahead and level up and do the 990 eC. 990 eC and ePost card are not the same thing. When they first started doing it, it was the easy, but now it is the ePost card. That's where you say, yes, I'm still existence, no, my address hasn't changed. And then that's it. That's all of that's a part of that 990 ePost card. But if you do the 990 eC, funders are now looking. Even if it's just your board members or you have volunteers who are donating your volunteer hours are calculated as income on your 990s. So that is important to do the 990 ePost card or 990 eC. Now, my friend, drumroll, we're going to mistake number five. First of all, before you go, do that. Anybody have any questions? Okay, so we had one person that did not have the five wants to thank you for being honest. And I just want to remind you that if you've already incorporated or if you've already gotten your EIN, please make sure that it has not been 27 months, which is basically almost three years. So make sure you do that. Okay, so drumroll, the fifth one, the fifth costly mistake that nonprofits are making, that is not collaborating. Look, in 2023 and beyond, I know we're 2022, but if you're not doing this now in 2022, make sure you are doing this in 2023. Not collaborating is such a big costly mistake for nonprofits. You cannot do this alone. Now, look at this picture. Look at all these people, they're on a bus. And if you've ever been on this kind of bike or even if you've seen somebody on this kind of bike or maybe a two-person bike, if one person don't do the job, they might fall down. And sometimes you'll see one person doing most of the peddling, the other person's who's feet out, but they're still going in the same direction. So everybody is going forward. And that's what collaboration is. Somebody who is looking at this and saying we want to help you move forward. Sometimes it's one person who's doing most of the work. Sometimes it's a lot of people who are coming together, but in no matter what, you're working together so you don't fail. If you look at the person at the front, that's the person with the vision. They can, that's you. That's the person with the 2020 vision who can see the road ahead, who knows where they're going. They have a clear mission statement. They have a strategic plan. And that second person, it could be a board member who's saying, look, I'm behind you. We're moving forward. That's the arrow we're moving forward. I got some ideas. There's that cloud. I got some ideas that we can work on. But if you look at that third person, that could be your marketing PR person. I see your hand liquid out. I'll get you in a moment. That could be your marketing PR person, but that person is getting the word out. How solid are your volunteers? How solid are your board members? Are they helping you get the word out about your organization? Or are they staff? This is the time where you don't make that comes to the mistake because these are the people that you need. All these people on this bicycle, you need all these collaborators. And you look at that fourth person. That fourth person could be, again, a non-volunteer or somebody who's doing the PR who's sending out emails. Speaking of your emails, how's your email marketing going? So that's something we're gonna talk about in just a moment. And then that last person, that looks like technology to me. Not using technology can cost you mistakes. And that's maybe why some of you come to TechSoup. And this is not just a plug or TechSoup, but it is a plug or TechSoup because I believe it's saving money. And this is a place you come to to save 40 to 80% off and then sometimes free on products. So make sure that you are taking advantage of it. Go ahead and do some price comparison. If it's not cheaper, then buy it somewhere else. But you want to do something that is saving you money. So now I just want to do a quick review of what we just went over. And I'm going to look back at my screen to see who I got to give this $10 to. So the five areas, not knowing how to budget or write a budget, not creating a strategic plan, not applying for the 501C3 within 27 months of incorporating or either getting your EIN, failing to file your 993 years of the role or paying your annual fees. I didn't say that. And somebody said that in the chat room. And then number five is not collaborating. So I want to stop right here and answer your questions and let this be about you. Judy said, will you repeat why the EZ instead of the 993N? So you could do, oh, great question, Judy. It could be the EZ or the N. It depends on what category you're in financially. So I said not to eat postcard. Don't do it eat postcard. Unless it is your first year, I would say your first or second year. But if you've been in existence for three years or more, go ahead and move up to the EZ or the N or your private foundation, do the PF. But my point was don't do the E postcard. So you guys can certainly unmute yourself to ask questions. I'm going to, why you go ahead and unmute yourself. Laquina, you had your hand raised. If you want to just have to ask questions, I can walk back up to the screen to see who got my $10. Yes, ma'am, I was going to read what was in the chat, but you get it. Also, I want to ask if someone loses their 501C3 after the three years, can they, what is this, can they go ahead and re-certify? Oh, yeah, absolutely. They reapply using the 1023EZ. It asks you questions where you revoked. And it's going to ask you two questions. Now, I say the EZ depends on what type of nonprofit it is because if they're a church or a larger organization, they're going to go ahead and use the 1023, the long form. But the EZ asks you two questions. It says, have you been revoked? And there's some codes in there. One of the codes is the procedure numbers. I don't know them by heart right now. Procedure number, 1107 or whatever, but one refers to being revoked for not following your 993 years of the road and one refers to being revoked. And you know what, I'm going to look that up now. But basically there's two reasons. Oh, I know why. Thank you. It's coming back to me. So one is asking you, do you want your 501c3 retroactive? Because if you say, yes, I want to keep all my history, then they're going to ask you to do the 990 going backwards. But the other question asks you, do you want the 501c3 approved based on the time that we received it today? So if you say yes, then you're going to lose your history that you had before and you're going to get a new 501c3 with a new date on it. So those are some of the things to think about. But that was a great question. Let's see. Anybody else have a question? Okay. It refers to the annual fee. Does it include annual corporation fee paid by the state? Yes, absolutely. Your annual fee are in Florida. This is the cost of the state. If you do not pay your annual fee, Florida is $87 for actually $67, $87 initially, but it's $67 to pay your annual fee, $67 or $62, don't quote me on that. But if you don't pay your annual fee and you miss the deadline, it's $400 versus $60-something. That is a cost of the state if there isn't one. So make sure you pay that. Also in Florida, we have state solicitation fees that you have to pay. And if you don't pay that, they could find you $1,000. So those are cost of the state, so I see nonprofits make a lot. So make sure that you do that. Any other questions? Okay. What if you lose the 501c3 and you certify and lock the wrong code? Can you redo it with a new code? You mean the NTCC code? Okay. You can call the IRS. They'll probably have you write a letter and tell them what you're doing. But a lot of times you may have the wrong code, but you may have a description of what you're doing and they usually make it match. But if you feel like it's the wrong code, then you certainly notify them and they'll give you instructions. That's a great question. Okay. It looks like those were, I looked through as well and I didn't see any other questions, but I do just want to reiterate that you have someone on the line with over 20 years of experience in nonprofits and helping nonprofits to grow, helping them to achieve success. If you don't utilize this as an opportunity to get some answers to questions, I don't know. I will share with you one thing in reference to Rita. Maybe this might assist some others as well. So as a nonprofit leader, you are committed to a community and by being committed to your community and growing your organization, there's oftentimes people who are going to ask you about why you exist. Why are you even doing the work that you're doing? And if you're not able to relate to someone, connect with them in a way that makes them want to hear more about it, then you may lose an opportunity for funding. I know that Ms. Rita talks a great deal about telling your story. Why are there, what is the importance of it all? And I'm wondering, do we all have that part of our nonprofits down pat because in and of itself, by not being able to communicate your vision, your ideology, your functioning, your what you offer, all those things in a concise way, perhaps too, that might be a costly mistake because someone just couldn't connect so they don't want to participate or give or volunteer or be a board member. Ms. Rita, you've spent a lot of time helping people in communicating their stories and such. Perhaps you might offer a word of advice or two in that area. Yeah, actually I would like to hear from the people who've been in existence. And Judy and Chris, you both got some of my answers. So put in the chat room, your cash app, if you have cash app, if you don't have cash app, put Zell. So I'm going to start with Chris. You want to share a costly mistake that you think a nonprofit makes or that maybe you have me. And then also Tim, is Tim still here? Nope, I think we may have lost Tim. So Tim, what are, is this Breast? I don't know how to pronounce your last name. Presita, B-R-I-S-E-I-D-A. Would you like to unmute yourself and share maybe costumers that you think a nonprofit has made? I know you put on there not documenting properly. Yes, can you hear me? Yes. I've been having some internet problems. So excuse me if I keep popping in and out. So I started working with a nonprofit here in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. And what I've noticed is that things lack, even though the agency has been here for 31 years, they do lack documenting everything as far as the services we have. And they just have to go back and document everything. So it's been a hassle trying to, because I'm a millennial and they're older. And so they're stuck in their ways. And I'm having to just come in and be like, can you just email that? But we're forwarded, can you just write it down? So we have it as evident and finished trouble. Well, that's good. That's good. I hope some of you people who've been in existence for a while are picking up what she's putting down because millennials do think differently. And the cat goes into what Chris just typed in here and he didn't come up with you, but he put wrong leadership and people just quit instead of doing the right thing. So I think there needs to be some conversations between millennials and the other people. Chris, I think it was Chris and Judy, please put in the chat room your email or your cash app so I can go ahead and cash app you. We're gonna get ready to close this down. Yes, I'm gonna take a screenshot of it because we're not gonna stay on here. If y'all don't have anything to say, we're not gonna stay on here. People have other things to do. I'm gonna take a screenshot of this so I don't lose it. Okay, no backup plan. One person runs everything and when they leave, you're up the creek. That's what Chris said. That is so true. I think everybody has dealt with that. Probably when you first started your nonprofit, you might be all alone. Judy says board member commitments, big one, big one, big one. Going back what Chris said, when they leave, you're all alone. Oh, I love it. Thank you, Chris. I don't know about Venmo. I've never Venmoed anybody, but I'll work on it. Is this the same? I've never Venmoed. So what about Zell? How do you Venmo, guys? Somebody tell me. It's just like Kasia. You have to download the... Give me a different way. Give me a different way. You got a website, put your website in there or something. You got PayPal? You don't need. Zell or PayPal are two. Okay, well put your website or how can I... So I PayPal you at that name. PayPal even better. All right, I love this. I'm gonna wait till Chris put this in. I'm gonna thank you guys for being here. Look, we need people on our team. So please email Danita. They need to put your email in the chat. We need... Aretha, I have one last... You went back on mute. I'm sorry. I almost forgot about it. If an organization got closed down because they didn't do the paperwork, I know you said we could refail, but what if they had a letter in their files about having shareholders? Directors and shareholders. Non-profit, that's not have shareholder. That's what I thought. I just wanna make sure. Okay. Only non-profit or for private. I thank you. Thank you for that question. Okay. All right. So, Judy, what do we need people for? We need people to do presentations like this. We want you to share your expertise, your experience. We would love for you to do presentations. We would love for you to share our events with your members, people in your non-profit speed in the chat room, be a chat monitor. So, we need people for different things. Aretha, thank you so much for answering that question, and please allow me to just say one thing about being a non-profit. We're a very small non-profit. However, it was our initial intent to form an entity, a business entity, where none of the interested parties would have to use their own personal funding and accounts and vacant and things like that to operate and to take care of the mission that we set out to take care of. And the mission was basically family historian, and the mission was to educate the generations, preserve the cemetery and restore families and friends. So, with that, we didn't really go out to grants, or anything like that, but as more people in the families are interested in our mission, then we may be able to move forward and become bigger than we have been. So, thank you so much for answering my questions and allowing me to say this. A non-profit is just simply a way of operating outside of your personal space. Awesome, thank you for sharing. Thank you for sharing. Still consider writing a budget, because I know you said you're trying to, yeah, you still need a budget. Yes, we do have a budget and we have an action plan for each year and what we plan to do. We make sure that it's funded before we, which is a part of the planning process. I love it, I love it. That's awesome. Thank you for sharing. So, I think some of the cash act in here, you probably missed the instructions, but those, Judy and Chris, I'll be in touch with you. That's it for me. Thank you so much and thank you for being here. Make sure you sign up for our next webinar. Let's get clarity about charity. Let's get some clarity about charity. So, it's gonna be good. The one and only, Danita will be presenting. Danita, I'm gonna turn this over to you. I'm gonna take a bite of part of. Thank you. Oh my goodness. Thank you so much, Ms. Aretha. You did such a fantabulous job. I'm telling you, everybody, I'm sure, walked away with a nugget or two that they are able to utilize and that's really why we are all here is so that we can do the things that'll streamline, save us money and better our community when we're at it. So, that's wonderful. Again, I hope that everyone was able to take something away and certainly tune in next month. Make sure you visit us online. We put the events link in the chat. Also, you can go to TechSoup.org and follow it through in order to get to the Florida chapter events and make sure you join us for that on July 18th. Lastly, my name again is Danita Pinjanta. It's been a joy being your host today. This has been another TechSoup Connect. And on behalf of your Florida chapter, we wish you so much success in your organizations and hope that you all have a very blessed day.