 I'm really glad to have all of you back with us today for another episode of The Nonprofit Show. And if you are watching this, you will see Julia's beautiful photo, which means she is in the hot seat today, sharing with us about spring cleaning and what that means for your marketing and your communications. So Julia, I'm excited to have you here. Turn the table, you're in the hot seat. I get to ask you all these questions. So I'm excited, I'm excited for that. But before we do, of course, we wanna make sure that all of you listening and viewing know our faces and our voices. Julia Patrick is here, CEO of the American Nonprofit Academy. I'm Jarrett Ransom, back from Cabo, recharged and refreshed the nonprofit nerd CEO of the Raven Group. Both Julia and I are so honored to have the continued support and investment from our presenting sponsors. Thank you so very much for being part of these episodes and our community at large. So let's give a shout out to Bloomerang, American Nonprofit Academy, Fundraising Academy, Nonprofit Nerd, Your Part-Time Controller, the Nonprofit Atlas, Nonprofit Thought Leader, as well as Staffing Boutique. Thank you, thank you, thank you, because you have kept these shows growing. You can find all of them on Roku, YouTube, Fire TV, as well as Vimeo. And if you're a podcaster like I am, I actually start every morning listening to a podcast. You can queue up the nonprofit show on any of your streaming channels and listen to our episodes, any of our 500 plus, plus, plus episodes that we've recorded since March of 2020. So thank you for being with us today. And Julia, welcome. Hey, thank you. You know, it's fun to do this. I mean, you and I get to meet with people from all over this planet, talking to talk about the things that we're so passionate about, the nonprofit sector. And goodness gracious, Jared, you and I have had amazing conversations with so many different people. But you and I have our own work that we've done, that we continue to do, and it doesn't always come out. I was in the media for more than 30 years, owning print publications. And so I learned a lot about what my clients were doing well, what my clients were not doing well and the whole media landscape. And so we thought today, we'd come to the table with a discussion about spring cleaning and getting things ready for all things media. And so are you ready? Hey, I'm ready. Yeah, I'm ready because this is a topic that is, I believe, so relevant in so many areas, the spring cleaning. I mean, personally, I just went through my office and I got rid of a lot of things that have been piling up. But this goes into our workplace as well. And so this conversation, Julia, you're gonna talk to us about marketing communications and how this really helps to prepare us for the end of the year, is that right? You know, that's the thing, Jared. It seems like we're using this phrase spring cleaning and it is a spring cleaning, but the reality is and the secret is we're actually doing this for Q3 and Q4 because those times of the year are hairs on fire and we cannot stop, take a deep breath and do this work. But we can do it now and we should do it now so that when things are hopping in a poppin', we can crank it up and get the best media attention that is possible. And so this is a really important thing. I think it's really important too, if those of you joined us in the green room chatter, you heard a little bit about the great resignation and how I helped hire someone that's newly in the nonprofit sector, but we're all, Julia, we're all still navigating the workforce and what that looks like. And so several of the clients I was working with last year, Q3, Q4 lost their entire development team. And so I'm assuming that these practices now help to prepare us for any unforeseen changes that are still coming down the pike. And there's so many changes that continue. And so preparing for Q3 and Q4 now in the beginning of April is good timing. You know, it really is. And I think that we've all been through enough of the spin cycle to know that nothing is the same and we can't always plan for what we think is gonna happen. The true success is how we react and how we respond to whack-a-do-things coming up because they will come up. And we always talk about in media planning and prep that you do this work for the bad times, not the good times, right? And so what does that look like? You have a catastrophic event at your organization. You have something in your community. You have a spike of use or need within whatever it is service you're providing. These are the times when you cannot hold yourself up in their office and do this type of work. And so now's the time to get it done so that you can be prepared for those things that are gonna come up. And they will come up. So the first thing you wanna do, Jared, is you wanna scrub your media list and clean up those contacts. You know, part of the great resignation, we're seeing that in media. Media like left and right, people saying, I can't take the bad news anymore. I can't take the division. I can't take the toll that is taking on me personally and my family, not an easy job to be in the swirl of that behavior and negativity day in and day out. So you've had a lot of media professionals that have just turned over their media badges and said, not gonna do it. Now, what's a really interesting little background fact is that a lot of these folks that used to be anchors or reporters or producers, editors, they're going into the nonprofit sector to become PIOs, where they are the information officer or to do other media stuff. So you're gonna see that lead over into our sector. It's just kinda cool. Yes, and I have seen that here in our local community, which has been interesting to watch that. I feel like my favorite news channel, they like left and right, they just kept leaving. And I thought, the station is not gonna be the same without these personalities, you know? But to see how they still serve in the community is fantastic. Quick question on this, Julia. Who is the actual person that is doing this work? Is this like a team effort? Is this the board is involved? Clearly if we have like a marketing communications person, that person is very in charge of this, but who plays a role in the scrubbing? So it's a great question, Jared. And it kinda puts it into the context of how big is your marketing communications department? If you don't have a team that can take this on, this is an amazing job or opportunity for a volunteer or maybe even an intern from a local college or university that is studying marketing and communications. As part of this cleanup list, you wanna make sure that you're getting these reporters, producers and anchors, social media feeds and their Twitter handles because that's a lot of how breaking news is being handled. So it's not as simple as their phone number or their email, that's not gonna really cut it. You wanna know what their Twitter accounts are and even their Facebook. And then you wanna be able to have those corresponding social media outlets so they can get back to you quickly. And you wanna make sure that you're promptly responding to those as well. There's nothing wrong with sending out an email to a Twitter, to a tweet saying, we are scrubbing our media list. Is this information still accurate? Nothing wrong with that. Yeah, and I love the intern. I mean, for me personally, I was a communication major, my undergrad and this would have been a really fun project. When I went through my communications program, it was well before the internet is what it is today. And so that we can easily access this information, like you said, through social media, through the internet. This was a great project and you're right, it's ever changing. So to keep this up to date is really important. Now, another thing that you talked to us about often, Julia, is how we should quarterly be updating our FAQ pages, making sure that our statistics and our data is up to date. And that is one of your tips here when it comes to spring cleaning and that preparation of Q3 and Q4. What does this look like when we polish up our data points? So it's a really great piece, a document. One page, two pages max, and it should be just bullet points when you were started, what your service area is. And it could be as we have an ex-dollar budget, we have, we serve this many people, we have so many hours of service, we had so many volunteers, even to the next level, these are the things that we need or we're looking for, right? We're looking for mentors or we're looking for coaches, whatever it is that you need to help you fulfill your mission, vision and values. These are the data points that you want a reporter using and telling your story and getting it accurate and getting it right. These are also the data points that your folks in the grants section should be using your fundraising and development. Your board members should know these points. We're talking about a dozen to maybe 20 points depending on what it is you're doing and how old and what the reach of your organization is. This is a one-sheeter, it should be created, checked, spun around through the organization to make sure that everything's accurate and then PDFed so that it is accessible and it is distributable when you need it. It should always be given to a reporter if they come on your campus or if you call them or respond to them. It needs to go in any of your communications. So question on this, because when we started the episode, you had shared about how so many of us are just tired of the toil of the media in nonprofits and I know we've talked about this numerous times before. We want to share the silver lining the because of you, B-O-Y, because of you. However, we also want to share that there's still a great need, is that correct? So how do we balance the doomsday versus the silver lining so that we can still share the message with the greater community that you have helped us do this because of you, we have achieved X, Y and Z and X, Y and Z is still needed. So can you help us balance that on this one sheet? You know, I think that this is the thing is why are you important, right? I had a riveting conversation with a very high level organizational leader in the human services field about three weeks ago and this leader said something fascinating to me. She said, you know, back in the day when we started 80 years ago, we were a benevolent organization that did work of our faith and it was important. It was nice, it was nice. But you know what? He went away, who would really know? She said, 80 years now later, if we're not in our community, people die and they die on the streets of our city. And I was like, just chilled. And I thought it was really an interesting thing is like framing that conversation. Why does the community need you? That's a big question, it's a heavy lift and go back to the who, what, where, why, how, when we all learned in third grade when we were writing reports, right? This is that one sheet kind of piece. You want to be able to frame it up as to what it is you're doing, what's your impact and why it's important. And I do believe in the silver lining, but the reality in the media right now, we use this horrible phrase and I've used it on the show before and I don't like using it, but there is a phrase that's used if it bleeds, it leads, you know? If it bleeds, it leads, meaning if you have a bad story, chances are it's gonna rise to the top. And so it's not pleasant, but that's one of the realities. And a lot of times we don't know these things going on in our community because we don't go to those parts of town. We don't see those people. You know, they're invisible. That's powerful though that they said if we do not exist, people die on our streets. And I can see this one sheet as this is why we exist in our community, bullet points that say, you know, without our existence, X amount of individuals will literally, you know, pass away on the streets. So having that bullet point short and sweet, because I've also learned from one of our favorite guests, Julia, Rick DeBrule, that if we don't provide the story, the story will be made up and provided without our input. So it's really important to have this one sheet handy. And that's why we do it, Jared. It's not a one and done. I mean, you need to refine it, especially after this last three years. Especially. Well, that's a great one. What about, you know, you also say a lot about how we really need to have good photos. And we need to provide these photos to the media. And that's something that we can do a better job at, I'm sure. So talk us through how we might sort out old B-roll. And let's just start with, what is B-roll? What is B-roll? So B-roll is, if you think about it, it's second best. A is best, B second best. And B-roll is oftentimes used in the sense of video. And you might think of it, we use the word evergreen, meaning when you see these images, people are not in bathing suits or parkas. They are in clothing that could be any season, right? So that it's called evergreen. It doesn't speak to a specific time of year unless it's called for. So for example, if you live in a cold climate and you're gearing up for a brutal winter and you're gonna do a coat drive, then yes, people in coats or without coats braving the elements, that would make sense, right? But for the most, for most of us, we want to have images that are going to tell our story 12 months a year. We also wanna make sure that we're sensitive to any HIPAA legislation, working with minors under the age of 21, children under the age of 18. Meaning we do not show their faces. We might have an image of a playground, but we're only seeing the backs of those children's head, right? I mean, so we're being thoughtful about this. We're really taking a look at what we have. Some of our campuses have changed. We might have updates, we might have new buildings. We might have different colors on our campuses, who knows? But those updated images should be relevant to what our services are. So for example, if we now have a new afterschool program, what would that programming look like, right? These are the types of things. Used to be when the media would come, they would come with a photographer and that does not exist anymore. A lot of our news stations are actually sending out reporters and they have to set up their own camera and mics. So imagine if you have this collateral, if you will, for you ready to go, that it's gonna get used. And it goes back to the first point. Who's telling our story? Are we controlling it or are we letting somebody else control it? What about, do we need to ask for photo releases and how do we do that? Secondarily, if we haven't, and we're going through some of these photos, is now a good time to go back, if possible, to these people and say, we captured this great photo. We wanna make sure that we have your certificate of release on here. How do we do that? There's a couple of ways of doing that. And yes, absolutely. If you can identify somebody, you need to make sure that you do have the appropriate release. It's a one-page kind of document. And again, it should be in a PDF so it could be circulated around and get back to you quickly. The other part of this is a lot of times you will see in the fine print of any types of services agreement where somebody is using your services, they give up the right to being photographed, having their likeness used or images of them participating in your programming. And so you need to take a look at that of what that says. In some cases, I've seen organizations where they actually have a sign that says something to that in their lobby, knowing that if you're coming into their campus, and this is a lot, this happens a lot in public events, like cultural events, things of that nature, where it's like, if you're gonna be attending one of our concerts, please be advised that we might have recording devices used or media images taken in your suspending your rights for that. So I saw that at the happiest place on earth once. Oh, really? Disney, absolutely. And this was years ago. It was my son for one of his birthdays. And I remember walking into the theme park and that sign, it was re-prominently displayed. And I thought, this is brilliant, right? And it probably was also when I purchased the tickets and didn't even notice it. But then they had another sign that stated that. And I think that's a great option. I remember talking to someone this week that they were having a fundraising event. This goes back a long way. And they were saying how they don't really have a donor database. And I said, well, do you have emails? Do you have phone numbers? Do you have mailing addresses? No, great. Capture them at this weekend's event, right? Capture all of this. And do not forget a photo release. And you can literally just have it on the registration form. Check it, uncheck it, whatever you want to do for that. But having these releases is really, really important because asking for forgiveness is really not a good way to go anymore. No, and especially if you're dealing with children or minors, right? This is a big issue. And then think about it. If you have any connectivity to a HIPAA issue, that's even more frightening. And that is perilous to the structure of the organization. HIPAA fines are daily. They are expensive and they can bring down an organization. So you don't want to mess with that. You know, another piece of this spring cleaning that is, I think, really, really important, Jared, is understanding, and it kind of goes along with your facts and figures, are what some of those storylines are. And I think a lot of times we think, oh, I know that organization. I've donated. I've attended their events. But do you really? And think of all the programming that's changed because of the pandemics. It's going to continue to change. If you are an organization that really understands your community, you're going to change. You're going to evolve. You're going to identify new solutions, new problems. So understanding what some of those storylines are is so important. Yes. You know, I was talking to a really large organization and they stated to me, you know, most people think of us as a soup kitchen and we're actually way more beyond a soup kitchen. Did you know that we also provide X, Y, and Z? And I said, sadly and embarrassingly, no. I did not know. And that was, you know, that stuck with me. A very prominent, you know, story for me because you're right. So many organizations have done what most of us in 2020 did. We pivoted. And many of those programs have stuck. We've continued them or we've even elaborated upon them. And so looking at these new storylines, new story pitches, you know, what's changed? What is remaining? Julia, you remember one of our favorite questions in 2020? And I know, I do know we're in 2022 now. So for those of you listening, you're like, how old is this episode? Remember us asking our guest, what will you continue to do because you've had such phenomenal success? Right. Right, you know, and Jared, that's a really, I think that's a cool thing. I also think it's important to know that there's a lot of competition for a media package. So for example, one thing that's really interesting to know, just to put it in perspective, a story that you might get, and we call them packages on the news, is no more than 120 seconds long. 90 seconds is generally the length of a broadcast story. So one of the things that you wanna do is to realize what are some of these stories that have been used? What are some of the stories that have been told? And if you're doing the work of the angels, but there might be other organizations in your community that are also doing that work, the story's been told. It may not be your story, but the story has been told. So you've gotta look at some new stories. You've gotta look at other ways of sharing just to your point, Jared. What are things that the community might not know about your work? It's not easy to do. One of the things that you said earlier, and you did a caveat, you're like, I don't really like to say this, but if it bleeds, it leads. I remember in my mass communication degree, one of our professors would say, the story isn't that the dog bit the man. The story is that the man bit the dog. And so we're looking at, okay, what makes your story different or how might you tell it differently in this new way and phase of providing services? Maybe your impact has increased significantly because you're continuing to provide this virtual space of programming. That really, I think, enhances and elevates, don't you, Julia? I think it does, and I think it shows that what we were saying earlier that you're responsive to your community. There's not a community on this planet that has not been transformed by the health pandemic. And if you add the social pandemics and economic pandemics and environmental pandemics, those are whole other layers of stories. And so absolutely, understanding what it is you're doing, what you need, what you're providing, I think is a great story. Those are the stories that media are looking for. Yeah, we've all been shaken throughout the last couple of years. And I know I have a one sheet to figure out this week. So thankfully, let's see, it's Tuesday, is that correct? Because I still have vacation brain. So I think that's a good goal. If we can all work on our one sheet, really get our data points or statistics up to date. And as you said, circulate it within your team so that you can make sure that the data points, all the statistics are accurate. I think that's phenomenal. Julia, you have got such a phenomenal brain. You say this about me. It's my turn to say it about you. It's genuine. For those of you that might, I've joined us a little bit later, Julia shared that she has decades of experience in the media world. And so really she is an expert in this area. So thank you so very much, Julia Patrick, for sharing your expertise with us and what that might look like. As we finish out, I'm curious if you could answer this live question. What are the key items on that sheet? Maybe I missed it. So Julia, if you want to do a quick recap and of course share where we can find this. So absolutely it is who you serve, what you serve, it might be origination story, how many years you've been, when you were founded, all of that. Your service area. So for example, if you are specific to a county, state, region, city, whatever, the type of population, I like to always say what your budget is, how many volunteers you might have. If you're like say, working in the food bank space, how many pounds of food you've collected and distributed, some of these things. Think about if you were giving a tour, what would you share? What would you want to share? What would be those highlights? Absolutely. And if you need some help, you can email me a finished product and I'll take a look at it. I can't even believe I'm saying that, but absolutely, JCP at AmericanNonprofitAcademy.com and I would be more than happy to review that for you. Take advantage of that, that is phenomenal. And for those of you that want to go back and listen, all of these episodes are recorded so you can go back and hear it again. Thank you to our sponsors that allow these episodes to continue like the one we've had here today. So a huge shout out to Bloomerang, AmericanNonprofitAcademy, your part-time controller, non-profit nerd, fundraising academy, the non-profit atlas, non-profit thought leader as well as staffing boutique. Check out these companies, they exist for you, your mission to help you do more good in around throughout your community. So please do check out our sponsors. Many of them have been with us from the very beginning. We are so extremely grateful. Absolutely. Wow, Jared, thank you for letting me be a part of this today. You know, this is one of the passions that I have for the sector and I see organizations that do this well and they get the attention, they get the dollars, they get the buy-in, they get the support of their communities from politicals to donor levels. And so it really is an important thing to be considering and to be doing it now. So you're armed and ready to go as Q3 and Q4 come about and really tax us on all the other things that we have to do. That's right, yes. Well, thank you, Julia. Thanks to all of you that have listened today or watched. If you missed any of this, of course you can stream us on podcasts. We're also on Roku, Fire TV, Vimeo, Amazon, so many other places. We're still working on that hologram, but maybe we will have that ready in Q3. So please join us back tomorrow. Thank you for joining us today. And until then, stay well so you can do well. Thank you, Julia.