 Welcome and good morning to another episode of the non-profit show. We're really excited to have you here We are going to do a little different of a show today because we were expecting Meredith Teranian to join us and she stuck on an airplane Somewhere in the eastern seaboard and wasn't able to jump in so we will do the solo And if she gets off the tarmac and she can get to someplace where she can join us She will and if not, we will have her back on again So Meredith we wish you well and travels as we were talking in the green room chatter Not an easy thing to be traveling these days Hey before we get going I want to make sure that we give our gratitude and our shout out of thanks To all of our partners that work with us day in and day out They include Blumerang American non-profit Academy your part-time controller non-profit thought leader fundraising Academy at National University Stepping boutique non-profit nerd and non-profit tech talk These are the folks that join us day in and day out as I said and really Are here to support the nonprofit sector and make things, you know more achievable more clear and more effective and so Without our sponsors, we wouldn't have the none the nearly 900 episodes of the nonprofit show Again, if you want to go back to any of our archives, they're quite robust more than three years of Daily shows again almost 900 episodes You can download our app. You can find us on streaming or you can engage with us on our podcast Pretty much wherever you like to consume your information We'll be with you. So go ahead and check out the non-profit show Okay, this is an interesting question because it comes from an entire committee I love it and that committee is in Detroit, Michigan And they write in we are interviewing candidates for CEO and I've noticed on resumes That a lot of CEOs don't have long tenure in their previous positions of leadership Is this a new thing or should be we be worried about this? Really interesting interesting interesting conversation to be had about this Because when we think about how CEOs and really anybody in the employment track of a C-suite or executive Really, it was kind of frowned upon if they didn't demonstrate long periods of time with their organizations And we are seeing now that the tide is kind of shifted and a lot of prevailing thoughts Kind of follow along the train of thought that if somebody stayed with an organization too long Maybe they're not going to be as flexible Maybe they're not going to be as well-rounded Maybe they're not going to be as integrated into the community or no other sectors of the community and so it's one of those things that for You know an age group that you might have within your board if your board is older or I should say that that search committee They might have that thought and then if you have a younger group They might be like, yeah, no, we want to see a CEO who's done some different things now. I got to say You know, yeah, if you've got a CEO or a candidate, I should say CEO candidate Who hasn't really done much You might want to ask about that. Why did they maintain that tenure? What do you think they missed by by leading other organizations? And at the same time just the opposite if so if a candidate's only been with you know On a on a repeated cycle of two to three years What has happened? Why have they only done that? It might be interesting to ask your candidates What tenure means to them and what are they looking for and why did they change positions? I think that's a good question I think it's a fair question and it might reveal a lot of things, you know that would help you make your decision a P I think a really interesting stat before we move on You know the average development director and this comes from AFP not from Julia Patrick AFP says 18 months is the average tenure of a development officer in the nonprofit sector Excuse me development director, but truly probably officer as well Shockingly short most people in the HR world will tell you that it takes a new employee whether they're the janitor or the CEO About 16 to 18 months to really learn their job. That's the culture. That's everybody's name That's how to dress. That's where to park the seasons of a business, right? So when we look at this, it's really Cataclysmic for for a lot of organizations and for the sector if we're churning and burning through our people too fast So board committee and pardon me from Detroit. I hope this helps. You know, we had Staffing boutique on earlier in the week and they and they spoke about the questions that you should ask Candidates and it was all levels not just the CEO level and so this might be something to take a look at We had Dana Skirlock on she was fascinating Not only did she say these are the questions that you might want to ask But this is what you should listen for and these are what the answers might indicate So you might want to go back into the archive and check that out Okay Pardon me for those of you view that might have just joined us Our co-hosts from fundraising Academy is stuck on an airplane and wasn't able to join us. So we're flying solo today So I'm so glad you're with us and let's see what Jenelle from Dallas, Texas writes in Jenelle writes as a fundraiser should I invest in more fun? professional development dollars and Fundraising or programming. I have a limited amount of time and money that my nonprofit is willing to invest in this Frankly, I see that I need both Really an interesting question Jenelle, you know, if you don't know about the programming and what that means and how it works That makes it a lot harder for you and in any cause selling capacity, right? You can have passion for your nonprofit You can have great intention and integrity for your nonprofit But if you don't really know what the work is how it gets done and why it needs to get done That's gonna make things tough So you might want to do a combination Programming is there and it should be available to you and to go to your programming team and say hey look Can I shadow you? Can I ask you these questions? Can you help train me up on what it is you do? That's generally going to be free and it's going to be available and it might even be something that Is team-building that allows your programming staff to feel appreciated and to communicate What it is they do and what it is they really need and want From there from the support of the community. I think sometimes we don't ask programming that We just go about saying Okay, we need more money. We need more money But we don't really understand what developments doing what they need and why they need it So I think that's a holistic approach and I advocate having at least Once a year opportunities for your board and for your city suite to gather and really learn about the ecosystem of The topic so for example October is national domestic violence Awareness month if you have somebody come in and talk about what domestic violence looks like how it behaves What is the current theory on managing it and in rescuing people or navigating them away from the those situations? It's riveting because it's changed a lot and how we look at domestic violence is different today than it was 10 Certainly 20 30 40 50 years ago So that's a programming issue in terms of development Janelle if you Need more help and cause selling and how you navigate that That's something you're going to have to probably seek outside your organization Our friends at fundraising Academy American nonprofit Academy certainly the nonprofit show we're always talking about these things We always have folks on so there are a lot of ways to go about this whether you do it Digitally you go in person somewhere you take more courses and maybe you're engaged in the CFRE process You know that is a always going to help you It's always going to help you so I don't know if I helped answer this question I think you can do both so You're gonna have to probably spend money on the professional development, but don't let the programming part Go by the wayside look Internally look in within your organization and get that leadership and get that advice so that you can't move forward on that So now I hope that helps Okay, now you know how I feel about this name withheld state withheld These are good things. I always love these questions because they tend to be a little bit more dicey and So kind of fun. Okay. Let's dig into it. I want to start building relationships with potential donors Outside of our community. I'm getting some resistance to this Can you help me get some talking points for my CEO so that they trust me in my approach? I think we are missing some tremendous support from rural parts of our western state really interesting question I Like this question a lot because I actually hear it and I think in the western United States We have such wide swaths a geography That sometimes these these are hard asks because you have to travel several hours And we were just talking with Kevin in the green room chatter our executive producer talking about California and How long it takes to travel from one part to another and so this is very much the case across the western United States and even in the Midwest so Yeah, looking outside your your typical geographic area of your community you may in terms of like the municipality I Think is a wise thing. I think at the VAT We are now with a digital age We have donors all over the place, right? And maybe somebody's left physically the community, but their heart is still with the community You don't want to lose That connectivity or maybe somebody lives in a different place. They're retired. They're working in a different location There's a many many reasons why Americans are moving in different parts of the country But that doesn't mean they have forsaken their community or maybe their philanthropic passions. So Definitely definitely look into this and I would tell your CEO look at the demographics You know, what's the population count of your community versus your region versus your state? Where might you find? Donors that are interested in your programming and interested in participating financially Maybe they can't show up I'm thinking of arts organizations or organizations and cultural in the cultural landscape that sell tickets Yeah, you might not sell tickets to these folks, but let's take a play out of the the Ecosystem of College sports, you know, there are a lot of college Organizations universities that sell ticket subscriptions for their football programs or the basketball programs To donors that will never travel to those games because they have they live in a different part of the country But they still support those programs and then they turn those tickets back over to be resold or donated so Don't hogtie yourself another Western phrase. I can't believe I just said that Don't hogtie yourself to your geography Look at this in a much bigger way and look at this as an opportunity to maybe create some new opportunities And then last but not least, you know Don't think in an insular manner because you might find an Organization in this regional sense that you can partner with That you can you know share programming with or you can deliver programming Might not be full-time, but maybe you go to this rural community a couple days a month. There's something like that I mean, I think there's a lot of opportunities To look at this and it's it's a bigger world When we think about the digital connectivity that we can have so name withheld state withheld I feel your pain This is a discussion that happens in the Western United States Go forth and let us know how it turns out because it's kind of an interesting thing. Hey, you know Meredith Will be back with us in another time. She's in one of the great minds of Fundraising Academy and it's really been fun to get to know her and to learn from her Meredith hails in Florida from Florida. And so she brings to us You know that that sensitivity and that knowledge of what is happening In that region of our country and so as we look forward to the future a We hope she gets off the airplane that she stuck on and be we look forward to having her back on with us shortly again, we have Amazing presenting sponsors and they include Bloomerang American nonprofit Academy your part-time controller non-profit thought leader Fundraising Academy at National University Staffing boutique nonprofit nerd and nonprofit tech talk. These are the folks again Join us they join us each day and really make a difference Another thing that's making a difference is next week. We will celebrate our nine 100th episode of the nonprofit show. Yes, that blows my mind It has even given me white hair, but I'm here to tell you join us because it's gonna be really fun we're gonna talk about the trajectory of change that we've seen since we started the nonprofit show four years ago What are some of the lessons we've learned where we think the future is going to be and it will be an opportunity to kind of pull Jurt and I together in a way that lets us look at these amazing 900 episodes So I hope you join us for that because that will be on Tuesday and it'll be a lot of fun It really really will Well, we have been delighted that you've been joining us today Again, our co-host Meredith at the last minute got stuck on a plane and couldn't join us But she will be back with us again I'm Julia Patrick CEO of the American nonprofit Academy and as I like to end every episode I want to leave you with this message and that is To stay well So you can do well. We'll see you back here again next week everyone. Thanks so much