 Welcome to another episode of the non-profit show. This is our Ask and Answer Friday episode. So huge shout out to Fundraising Academy at National University that provides this opportunity each and every week to answer your questions. So the viewers, all of you across the globe in fact, send these in and we do our best to answer them. So really glad to have Muhy joining me today. Muhy Kwaja, MPA, CFRE, CFRM Trainer, Fundraising Academy and also the co-founder of the American Muslim Community Foundation. I always love nerding out with you my friend and excited to see you at Cultivate in person June 1. So really looking forward to that. I'm Jarrett Ransom, you're a non-profit nerd, CEO of the Raven Group. And Muhy shared with me that he is joining us today. You know, he's our globe traveler. So he's always around the world visiting really cool places and you're joining us from where? Bali Indonesia. Yeah, perfect. So excited to have you joining us. Also excited to have the ongoing support from our amazing presenting sponsors. So a huge shout out of gratitude to our friends over at Bloomerang, American Non-profit Academy, your part-time controller, non-profit thought leader, again, Fundraising Academy at National University where our guest Muhy joins us today. Staffing boutique as well as non-profit nerd. These companies are here for you and your mission. I like to remind you that their mission is in fact your mission. So reach out to them, check them out. They're here to support you and to do more good in your community. And hey, March is actually four years for the non-profit show. So believe it or not, we are coming up on quite a stretch and you can find many of our episodes, all of our episodes in fact, on Roku, YouTube, Amazon, Fire TV, Vimeo. And for those podcast listeners, I know you're a podcast listener, Muhy, I am as well. You can queue us up wherever you stream your podcast. So just tell the little person in your phone to queue up the non-profit show on many of these entertainment platforms and we will arrive. So Muhy, you know the drill, my friend, but I'm so glad to have you here. Before we jump into this question with Ian, I'm gonna ask you and put you on the spot to share a little bit about yourself and your role with Fundraising Academy. Yeah, definitely. You know, as a trainer at Fundraising Academy, I get to be a special guest with you on the show. One of my favorite things to do. I also lead webinars on a monthly basis with Fundraising Academy. We have other trainers that do different topics. So you can check out our webinar series. There's one going on this month. And we're often guests and partner with other organizations to lead their content. We also have a cohort that is taking place where people learn best practices of fundraising with Fundraising Academy. And we teach, we train, we facilitate and reinforce what you already know as a fantastic fundraiser to give you the tools and resources to do your job more effectively. So that's what we do at Fundraising Academy. Thank you for that. There's tons of information. There's an amazing portal. So definitely check out Fundraising Academy. And we dropped it kind of subtly, but there is a conference coming up and we'll talk more about that. But June 1, in fact, Ian, we hope to see you there in San Diego. So let's start off with Ian's question, Muhe. And they write in, where should we find compliance topics for our nonprofits? We are a super small startup and want to keep our organization legal and compliant where required. Now, we talked about this before we went live, Muhe, and you've got a vast array of resources. So hit me with them. Yeah, definitely. For California specifically, the Attorney General's office makes it pretty user-friendly to stay in compliance with a lot of information online. And they've often done a good job of sending reminders and snail mail and email to make sure you don't miss things. But one of the best resources for California that I would say is Cal Nonprofit and they have a compliance section on their site. So Ian, go to Cal Nonprofit, they'll help you out. Fantastic. I love this question, Ian, because it tells me that you're really looking at dotting your eyes, crossing your T's. There's a lot of compliance. Anytime Muhe that I hear someone come to me and they're like, I want to start a non-profit. My first question is, why? Not to deter them, but to say like there's a lot that goes into this. And so I love that Ian does recognize, albeit a small startup, there's still compliance that you need to make sure you're following. So great resources there. I'll throw out a couple others. I love board source. It's got some really good information. We hear often, Julie and I do, from many of our viewers and our guests that they have Googled their way through their fundraising role, right? And so I can only imagine, Ian, that I'm sure you've gone there to the Google interwebs as well to see what's there. So if you pull up non-profit and compliance, you'll find a slew of information, but you're right, Muhe, what you had shared specifically to California, you wanna make sure that you're looking at California's compliance and all of the required documents there. But Ian, if you operate outside of California, you also might wanna look at those other states because they could differ maybe just so slightly, but really good resources there. So best of luck and we hope to see you at Cultivate. All right, Muhe, let's go over to, it looks like New Haven, Connecticut. So we're going from one side to the other. This question is from a name withheld. Can a non-profit refuse to serve specific people? We have neighbors who are coming to our meal service, but we don't think that they are needy. This is an odd situation and it is creating some stress with our volunteers and our staff. This is a tricky one, Muhe. It is really tricky. A few things come to mind and how do you 100% know that somebody isn't needy themselves is the first, trying to come from a place of less judgment. But if you think they're taking advantage of your services, if you think that they are being disruptive, if you think that they are not benefiting or you're detracting from you doing your mission, then in those situations, I would say yes, try to have a conversation with them, see where and why they're attending and maybe you do a survey or you do some sort of query. So it's not specifically targeting them, but everybody there, share why you're here. What are you trying not to point them out or make it more awkward? But I would say as long as they're not being disruptive, maybe it's helping you with your mission metrics. I don't know. Yeah, it is a tricky one. I love, have a conversation. I hope that this is something you're doing, name withheld with hopefully everyone that comes to your service, ask them what brings you here. What I've learned in my career is really if someone is coming for a meal or if they're coming for some kind of a basic need, chances are they're in need of other ancillary services, right? And so, maybe it's medical care, maybe it's transportation. So I do think that conversation that you mentioned, Muhi, will go a long way. Again, don't single them out, but I do think having conversations with many of the people, if not all of them, that come to your meal service and learn what brings them here, right? What brings them back? Because clearly they're coming back and maybe they just enjoy it. Maybe they feel safe, but having that conversation, I think will provide a lot of answers to you, your volunteers as well as your staff. And the survey is a great, great one too. So really good information here. This is a tricky one. I know we all feel it and we need to handle it with care and compassion, but I always love coming from a place of yes and really understanding the core. So good luck to you, I wish we knew your name, but hey, if this goes well, let us know and we would love to hear some feedback. So another name withheld, this must be our lucky day, New York, New York. And this is about finance. So our accountant has been with us for more than four years. I have confidence in her work, but I do not know if her work is on the up and up. As the executive director, I feel this is a leadership responsibility, but I don't want to break our trust at work. This is a lot in a question. So, Mui, take it away, my friend. Yeah, you know, if I was an executive director and I had people reporting to me, I know that I would want to make sure that I hire people that are sharp, that I have confidence in, that I can rely on, and I know that I'm not gonna be an expert in everything, but what I do know is that I'm the type of person that's a continuous learner. So if I feel like I'm not strong in a subject, I will attend a webinar or see what the basics are or what are the common things that other finance people are turning into their EDs and have the support system and network where I can ask peers. And, you know, I'm glad that they feel comfortable bringing this question to us, but I would also maybe check to see what other organizations in a similar capacity as yours are receiving from their accountant. So what type of reporting do they need? And, you know, if you have confidence in them, that's awesome, but to maybe double check on if they're on the up and up, like are they always delivering on time, ahead of schedule? Do you feel like they are lagging in any way? What things do you need and are they providing that to you? And if it's a good fit in that regard, then hopefully you have that confidence in your team and rely on them to provide you the accounting information that you need on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly basis. Yeah, I think that's great. And I love the continuous learning, right? So like, where are there gaps in knowledge for myself? How can I, you know, improve my education on this to maybe ask different questions of the accountant? I think that's a good one too. I can't help but thank Muhee when it comes to the board's role and the executive director, right? So I do notice, name withheld, that it says accountant. So maybe, you know, my, I'm assuming this is someone who's not on payroll, they're, you know, contracted out. It's not a director of finance or, I don't know, maybe it's, I'm seeing it as someone outside of the team. But when you have a treasurer on your board, right, and you have term limits, often these treasurers will ask different questions. And often you have finance committee meetings or something of the sort. So I'm curious, name withheld, if your accountant is privy to those conversations or kind of an executive summary of that and how, you know, they might be able to support you in that role. I love that you're seeing this as that leadership responsibility. I love having, you know, just regular check-ins and that's really become a thing as opposed to like exit interviews, stay interviews. So again, just constantly having your finger on the pulse for all of your direct reports, I think is really important. And I don't see that as breaking your trust. I really see it as leaning in and learning more of how you can support and work in a symbiotic way. So, but I do love the education, like pour yourself into that, you know, do a little bit more learning on your own and see how you might be able to progress in those conversations. So get stuff, I hope that helps. All right, now we're coming over to my state in Arizona, Flagstaff, which is north of me. So Jeffrey writes in, we are a new nonprofit and I'm wondering if there are banks or any financial institutions that specifically work with nonprofits. It seems that this should exist, but I can't really find anything that indicates that it would be a good fit for us. Really good question, Muhi. Jeffrey, you know, a lot of nonprofits that I've known in the past are currently like to partner with credit unions and then others go the traditional route of your mainstream banks for the access to ATMs all around or, you know, looking to partner with institutions that don't provide monthly fees. So you can avoid that. But another thing that's very popular these days and all the rage are online banks. So banking with somebody that doesn't do brick and mortar and still having access to a debit card and other benefits that banks provide you. Now, when it comes to banks specific to nonprofits, I haven't heard of any directly, but maybe there are some that do more community partnerships or give back to the community. And, you know, I would for certain think that you can probably find more information online with which banks are more inclined to support nonprofits. So there's a whole host of things that, you know, maybe it is better to have a local branch but also maybe a credit union or a diversify. And for different services like a brokerage account you partner with a different institution. So just some thought. I was going to ask me a follow up question to that and you kind of answered it, you know, is to diversify. Do you recommend that organizations I guess of any size have multiple, you know, bank accounts? I've been with an organization and they do have multiple, but yet they're, you know they're seeing some of those like monthly cost and the charges and it's like, would it be best to just consolidate to one? So I'm curious what you've seen. Yeah, I think, you know, in American Muslim Community Foundation's case, we have a few different brokerage accounts. And then when it comes to financial institution for our banking, we have one. So for, you know, we want to be able to accept dot gifts from our donor advice from families and clients. And a lot of the times they may be banking at fidelity or Chase or Schwab. And if you partner with those financial institutions you get same day trades as opposed to taking three to five days and with the market fluctuating if you go up or down in that time. So, you know, it depends on what type of service you're trying to provide and what benefits there are to having multiple. So the counting can get a little more wonky, but yeah, I think it depends on what you need as the organization really. Yeah, no, thank you for that. And Jeffrey, I would also add, you know to Muhi's response about that community partnership. So there's many organizations, financial bank institutions that will give back. They have a community, you know, giving arm. And so I would look in your community to see, you know who are the players and the partners that are also elevating and supporting those around you and how you might benefit there. In addition, I want to bring up your board, right? Like is your board also local? Are they across the nation? Think about the convenience factor as well as Muhi mentioned, the ATM machines, you know, the different locations. When you're adding and removing people as signers on the account, you might want to keep that in, you know, just in thought because that is often an in-person. In fact, I think it's always an in-person event where you have to be added as a signer. So if you're other board members or staff, whomever needs to be added, just keep that in mind. But I think there's always win-win solutions out there and yeah, credit unions. I think that's where a lot of organizations that I'm aware of as well go, Muhi. So, hey, it's been fun. It's flown by. We always, it always happens so quickly, at least for me. It's like, where did that time go? But having a conversation with you, nerding out. Again, this is Muhi Kwaja joining us, MPA, CFRE, CFRM. And if you're curious what all of those letters stand for he has shared that in previous episodes. And it's just so wonderful always to have you here. Muhi also serves as a trainer for Fundraising Academy. Thanks to them and our friends over at Fundraising Academy National University. They are our supporters of the Friday ask and answer, but I always call them Friday. So yeah, it's a lot of fun. And then again, Muhi serves also as the co-founder of the American Muslim Community Foundation. So thank you so much for being of service in all of these ways. Pleasure to be here. Thank you so much for the opportunity. Absolutely. And when I get another shout out to our amazing supporters, shout out to our friends over at Bloomerang, Fundraising Academy, National University, Staffing Boutique, Nonprofit Nerd, your part-time controller, American Nonprofit Academy as well as the non-profit thought leader. Today is Friday and I know that I've had a long week. I know many of us have had a long week. I'm looking forward to a little bit of rest and recharge. I hope that everyone is able to get some of that this weekend. Monday's another new week with a lot of guests for the lineup for the non-profit show. Muhi, thank you again. And safe travels, my friend. Enjoy the journey, the entire journey. So glad to have you here. And for those of you that joined us, thank you. We like to remind you to please stay well so you can do well. Enjoy your weekend and we'll see you back here on Monday. Thanks, Muhi.