 I wanna welcome all of you for joining us for another episode of The Nonprofit Show. We start every episode extending our sincerest, our deepest gratitude and appreciation to all of these amazing presenting sponsors that you see in front of you on the screen. Many of these companies have been with us since the beginning of the pandemic. So almost 365 days ago, which is my heart just, I'm so, yes, thank you. I'm so happy for that. These companies are not only here for us and the episodes, they're here for you. They stand alongside you, they stand behind you. They are here in your corner to lift you up and lean in to support you and your mission. So check them out, like them, follow them, give them some love and just, you know, shout from the rooftop because I like to do that as well. I think all of them are doing such great work to support your great work that you're doing. What a welcome as I do every morning, Julia Patrick, CEO of the American Nonprofit Academy, so glad that almost 365 days ago, she had this kooky idea to say, let's do this two week show. And here we are, 240 plus episodes later. This is the longest two weeks of my life, but I am honored to serve as your co-host Julia. I'm Jarrett Ransom, CEO of the Raven Group, also known as the nonprofit nerd. And today we have, I wanna say like drumroll, I did that yesterday with our guest, Tony Beal. Eric Zarco joins us today and Eric is from North Texas. I just learned that that's what I wanna say. Dallas Fort Worth Nonprofit Resource Group, welcome Eric. Thank you for having me. And you nailed the pronunciation of my last name and North Texas, you've got all of these points working for you. I love it. I love it. Well, some days are better than others. Let me tell you. All right. I'll hear you. Hey Eric, we're really interested to talk to you about this organization that you co-founded and let's get right into it. What does the DFW Nonprofit Resource Group do? Well, that is still a journey that as I explained the story, you'll embrace that it's a journey that we don't know where it's going right now. Yeah. So I'll rewind. It was about three years ago and at that time, we still do. We serve about 40 of the North Texas nonprofits for their outsourced technical support. And collectively in North Texas, we have about 200 clients and what they all have in common is they blame us if there's not enough parking. They blame us if the commodes don't work and the coffee machine doesn't work. Yeah. But whenever we tilt the lens on the nonprofit space, they're the first ones to ask. Hey, do you know somebody that can redo our asphalt? Do you know a commercial plumber? Do you know a cleanup? And we've been in the market for 19 years. So we have at the time, a really good book of business and this is a world with decks if you will. I'm gonna take myself. Yeah. And it hit me that this world with decks that we had wasn't mission-friendly and those that are know what I'm talking about. So the founder of the company and I were talking, he goes, why are we talking? Go out and do a roadshow and start visiting all the C-sweets of our nonprofits and ask them. And I couldn't even get through what the vision looked like because I really didn't know what the vision looked like and they were handing me business cards of their mission-friendly partners. Fast forward, three years in North Texas, we have about 90 people that fit that bill in the North Texas group, the DFW group and we have another dozen in Kansas. So at first it was to provide more value to our nonprofit clients. So the next time they called us, hey, you know we had somebody. And the first milestone in that journey was we were meeting at whoever had brick and mortar once a month. And it was my turn to host. We were pumped up, we're in our new place. Now I get hit with a frying pan that our furniture's not put together, the artwork's not up. I start to panic thinking I was gonna inconvenience somebody to pick up the slot and one of our nonprofit clients calls me up. So I'm completely different. She doesn't know about the group. She senses I'm not my normal self and my friends, they call me Zarko. So I say, hey Zarko, what's going on? What kind of highlander? Don't worry about it Jen, don't worry about it Jen. She goes, no really. So I share and she goes, duh, I have three conference rooms. We're like three miles away. Just change the address and I'll accommodate you. Okay, thank you. Just thinking one friend helping somebody else. We go have the meeting. She tracks me down in the parking lot. She grabs me. This is whenever it was acceptable pre COVID. She grabs me, she hugs me and she looks me in the soul and she goes, never have your group meeting within the group. All of us nonprofits struggle with getting different ears and different mission-minded people in the community to know what we really do. That was such a value to me to host because you gave me the platform that I could explain all our different programs because people driving past us think that we only do food and we don't do professional coaching and mentorship and I'm like, okay, dim and dawn. So fast forward, here we are March 2021 and the group is booked through the third quarter of 2022 with a different nonprofit that's gonna host us. So let me ask you this then. I'm really intrigued by this notion of community collaboration. I mean, and you talk about, you didn't really know what this journey would take. Were the folks showing up understanding and learning and understanding that this was a community collaboration? Because it seems like it revealed itself to you all. It was amazing. I'd like to say that the right people were on the bus at the right time. Yeah. There's so many people that and I carry it but they say, you're the chair, you're the founder but all I do is sometimes I drive with us but we rotate drive with us. What is unique about the community aspect is we found that different nonprofits didn't even know what each other did. Absolutely. And we are for the most part an outsider looking at that as insanity. Like why don't you know them and vice versa. Right. And then now there has been great collaboration at the perfect time whenever COVID and Care Act and whatever else is out there with the federal relief funds that these nonprofits knew each other and they had a running head start to help the community. And whenever people started to kind of share that back to me and that was because of a group. I got emotional, I never would have thought that. I want to question this and I warned you, we're very curious people, right? So this is just shooting from the hip but I too often hear from either individuals within an organization or another organization saying, oh, we can't talk to them or, you know, our board doesn't want us to talk to them, our founder. And that to me is ego, right? Maybe it's fear as well. But it sounds like your organization, the resource group there and the North Texas area has really got this figured out. So like what is the crystal ball for getting out of our own way to see these opportunities? That's a loaded question. Well, it looks like you've got a Nerf gun back there loaded too. And I want to know what resource that provides. So from my perspective, if we want to change things, sometimes we need an outside coach and an outside perspective. And another example of that is within my group, this group, we have three different nonprofits that provided business service. Yeah. And I've known them for a dozen years. And I would say this is insane that the other nonprofits in the community don't know that they could buy or get their services from them. One of them employs a special challenge and they do documentry. It made no sense to me that the nonprofit across the street is paying somebody else to do the documentry. So this group, it seems like each time that they get up and they do their run, Rob, and hi, we do document shredding, you kind of hear this, hang on for a second. Hey, Bob, cancel our contract. Hey, we're going to send you a contract. And so that's just, it happens. And it just, I think, took an outside person to go, I didn't grow up in a nonprofit space. I grew up in collaboration and from a technology perspective, we are better together. And the timing couldn't have been any better as our whole country was crippled by the pandemic and to see this share of resources who has closed, who has gatoried, who has this, who has that. And the group was a conduit. I never would have thought that starting the group three years ago. Right, if we were in church, I would have just stood up and said, hallelujah. I think that's so important that we see these opportunities. I love that, hey, Bob, we got, you know, like let's cancel ours, because that's often how it happens. And so I feel that when we are able to get out of our own ways, just as you said, then that's when the magic happens. That's when we're able to really support our community and come together for the greater good. You know, Eric, as you've been witnessing this, and I find it fascinating that it almost starts with the premises that you don't know what you don't know and that we're woefully untethered. You know, we don't know what everybody else is doing. So back it up a little bit. And what do you think makes a stronger relationship or a stronger partnership so that we can be working more together? There was a time, I'm gonna to date myself, that I've been in a technology space for 30 years and I was part of the original corporate sales group that sold cellular telephones. And my competition back then was the pay phone. It was crazy. During that era of my life, I had a couple of leaders that are rubbed the wrong way. But then there was also a few that meant to me and the story that I share is there are some people that get paid to think in the box. There are some people that get paid to think out of the box. The biggest compliment that I did not know that was a compliment 25 years ago, that Eric, you have in the box. So going back to a strong partnership, it depends on the person. You know, if their persona is in the box, they're gonna have a hard time. If their persona is outside the box, a little bit better at the time. If they have no box and you just work on intuition and what feels good and being a steward of the community, magic happens. I also call that the innovative disruptor, which I like to bring the caveat into this, but it's not always negative, right? Like disrupting, it's not always negative. It tends to have a negative connotation. I'm not sure why, but I do think and I mean, even Taco Bell did this great branding, your marketing, right? Think outside the bun. So when we can all think outside the box and maybe not even know that the box exists, that also brings opportunity for just greatness in your community. So kudos to all of that. It's really cool. Hey, I wanna have you revisit or dive in a little deeper on something that you mentioned, that you've got this really interesting hosting concept and that you have booked your group's meetings at these different nonprofits. Repeat what you said. You're booked at these different, if you will, venues or nonprofit sites through when? The third quarter of 2022. Of 22? Yeah, it's amazing. It's whenever the pandemic had our two sons really never go back to spring break, they said, Dad, could we build you a website for the group? And I'm like, I don't know what to put on the website. And then we started to think and I'm like, okay, I got this and I got that, but the most impactful part of the website is be a host. And then people drop me messages all the time. What does it take to be a host? And what's interesting about that is I have a post meeting with all nonprofits. And some of the more impactful feedback was part of a member of the group represents a very large bank that they have a division that only loans and men's money from nonprofits. They were the last host in 2019. They shifted their banking to this bank. The pandemic hit and they were the first nonprofit that they knew of, they got the PPP funding. So they could provide salaries and provide everything. Whenever I heard that, I was like, that just touched. And then I get feedback that they found new board members and new volunteers, new fundraising channels. So the word's getting around time. Indeed, in North Texas is very large, but it's also very small and the word's getting wider. You almost caught yourself there, or you could catch yourself. What a great resource and so many success stories out of that. I mentioned 240 plus episodes when I was thinking our wonderful sponsors when we began this, Eric. And sadly, we had a conversation with an alliance of a state in the Southwest stating that roughly 20%, maybe more Julia, nonprofits reported during probably Q3 of last year that they would not endure the changes and the challenges of the pandemic. So to hear that this is going so wonderfully and successfully, I think it's great for your community. It's great for the individuals. And I love that this hosting opportunity really provides that platform for the collaboration. It provides that platform for others to speak, just like your woman, I think it was with the food. And she's like, everyone thinks that we just serve food. And now we have this great opportunity to tell more of the story. So, what's up? It's part and parcel to that. For folks that might be looking at this and saying, wow, we could do this in our community. Could you give us some insight as to like when you meet, how long you meet, what time, what week of the day, I mean, or is it flexible? How does it work? We used to be flexible, we grew so much. And then the word got around that we agreed that we just had to have that one day a month, stand firm and that one day a month is the first Tuesday at two o'clock. We need for an hour. And we try to get through our Ron Robbins or our Chitty Chats, we try to get through that within 20 minutes, pass the baton to the host and it's up to them on how they want to showcase the mission. Wow, so you're doing it in mid-afternoon. Yep, yep. And you're finding that that's a good time and that people are participating and... That I have never been asked that before but recent conversations, I'm painting the picture of what the various members might look like. So we have professionals that have a service like us that we work with many nonprofits. Then you have people that have no service that will ever provide nonprofits, but they have resources. They might have access to this and that and this. And then there's this population of the group that they have neither. And they don't have a platinum checking account and they don't have all the time in their hands but they want to make a difference. So I think to your point of like mid-afternoon that kind of fits this demographic because they can't do it at night because they got three young kids. They might have to work two jobs or whatever the dynamics are. That's it's working. And it was something that's working. And maybe some of the success, I'm going to go out on a limb to say that now that you've set up, this is when it happens. This is the date, this is the time, this is the platform, the logistics, right? It's now, if this month doesn't work or next month or maybe even several in a row, I now know that this is when I need to find time to be available. And so I can then plug in or, you know, attend when my schedule does allow or I can make accommodations to attend. But great question, Julia, because I think finding the time for connection, for collaboration, for what works best, we all know that we cannot please everyone in all of the ways in which they wish to be pleased. And finding the best date and time. I mean, we had the struggle even with, you know, when do we do this show? And then with time change and how do we accommodate everyone's schedule? So I don't know, I would venture to guess. I wonder if that is an attribute of the success. I, there's one thing I can predict is in both respective cities, large cities that make up North Texas, there are certain times of the month that area fundraising professionals get together and they have their little think tank sessions within hours of that lunch being done. That's whenever the forms start to explode on the website. Oh, I'm sure, I'm sure. Well, I've got to, you know, we don't have much time left. And I've got to ask this question. How do you see yourself accommodating all of these nonprofits that are going to want to host and want to pull the resource, the nonprofit resource group onto their site? As of now, I think we're on a good pace with once a month. But as I'm looking at some trends, it could be twice a month. Yeah. And that's not like, I'm a professional here and then I run this group through my passion. Sure, sure. But I have to balance it myself and I've committed to the group that I'm gonna hold the integrity of the group first and foremost. And right now it's a good thing. Working well. It's really cool. I love that you're, I love your story. I love the process with which, you know, you have understood collaboration and partnership and communication. I think it's really powerful. I've got to say that during this show, we've had several people come on and ask, how do I get in touch with Eric Zarco because I run a nonprofit. So we're putting up, Eric's like, oh man. So we're putting up Eric's information here in North Texas. Check him out. You can go to their website, dfwnonprofitsresourcegroup.com. Really a cool idea that I think so many communities could adopt around this country. And I agree with you. You said something in the very beginning. We hear this all the time from nonprofit leaders. The community, they don't know what we do. They think we do one thing, but we actually do many, many more things. And so the opportunity that you're presenting to your community and to those other nonprofits, brilliant, absolutely brilliant. And to kind of springboard off that, those same nonprofit leaders, all they want to do is surround themselves with mission-friendly partners. And in this group provides that too. Yeah, makes it a win-win. It's really exciting. Well, you have really energized me today. Again, here's Eric's information. Check him out and see if maybe that might work for your community. On behalf of Jarrett Ransom, I'm Julia Patrick. We've really enjoyed having you here today. But more importantly, we've enjoyed having you with us for nearly a year now. Hard to believe. But who's counting? Yeah, but who's counting? You are, because you're the only one that's got half a brain in this team. I swear to God, I really thought this was gonna be a two-week gig. That's how I wrote to Jarrett Ransom into this, who I did not really know that well. And I said, hey, sister, we can chit-chat for a little bit. And now it's been a year. So tomorrow is gonna be really an interesting show. We are going to talk about what it is that we learned and we want our viewers to join in on that. So come on onto the show and let us know what you've learned. You can reach us out through social media any way that works for you. Because we really wanna share that journey. It's certainly been a journey. And I think that the lessons that so many of us have learned will serve as a complete shift change for many, many decades to come and how our sector works. And so we're really excited to have that conversation. And so join us again tomorrow, 9.30 Pacific time where we will look at that. If you were with us yesterday, we launched a new series that was absolutely, I had to go to bed early last night, Jarrett, because I was like so overwhelmed with all of the things. So overstatuated with information. I was, I was just like, okay, I told my family, I'm like, I gotta calm my body down and I gotta go to bed. We kicked off a new series. We've never done anything like this. It's going to be twice a month. And it is brought to us in collaboration with the fundraising academy. And it's a very, very precise process to go about fundraising. It's natural, it's logical. It is relationship-based, relationship-based. And I think, Jarrett, and you're the fundraising expert, but I think it's highly sustainable. Absolutely, yep. Really excited. I love that Tony said relationship, relationship, relationship. That's what I say all the time. And yes, I think it's great. Check it out. Check it out. It's the series will have its own path on our Roku channel. You can certainly find it on our website and we'll be, you'll be hearing more and more about it. But this series is gonna run through basically until June. And so what's exciting about it is that your team can watch it together. You can jump in, you can jump off. If you had to go into the marketplace and buy this education, it's expensive. But the fundraising academy is coming on to the show and kind of doing an abbreviated version, but still super impactful. And yesterday we talked about the Madden approach to prospecting. And as Jarrett said, it would be very maddening if you didn't have this approach, loved it. I'd learned so much. So I just wanna let everybody know that we're doing that. Again, our presenting sponsors, we would not be here if it weren't for you. And so we want to definitely express our gratitude. And again, most of these sponsors, they have been with us from the beginning. 365 days. I'm like, what the heck? Didn't they get the memo? So I mean, we're really again, incredibly, incredibly grateful that they would be on this journey with us. And they support the nonprofit sector day in and day out. As always to our guest, Eric Zarko, thank you so much for being with us today. My pleasure. It was great. It was great. It was a phenomenal information. And you still didn't answer about that Nerf gun, but I'm gonna email you. Every four. I love it. Well, you know, we end every show with the sentiment that we mean from our hearts and we need to really listen to this, I think daily. And that is stay well, so you can do well. We're so appreciative for your time and we'll see you back here tomorrow.