 Hello and welcome. So glad to have you back here. It's another episode of the nonprofit show, but it's not just another episode. It's a special one. So glad to have Michael Buckley with us today with the kilo group. Hello from the kilo group here for the nonprofit show on the thought leadership episode. So Michael's going to share with you about how you can leverage your board members at your events. And Julia, you had shared this in almost, you know, four years, 750 plus episode. We have not had a dedicated conversation around this, Michael. So we are so honored to have you here and to impart your, your wisdom with us. So hello also to Julia Patrick, CEO of the American nonprofit Academy. She had this wonderful idea to create this platform. She thought it was going to stick around for two weeks. And again, well, well beyond that, but so glad that we have this platform for conversation. And I'm honored to be able to serve alongside you, Julia. I'm Jarrett Ransom, her personal nonprofit nerd. I can be yours too. CEO of the Raven group and honored, honestly, to have this, you know, opportunity. Thank you to our amazing presenting sponsors. Want to give a shout out of gratitude to our besties over at Bloomerang American nonprofit Academy, fundraising Academy at the National University, staffing boutique, your part time controller, nonprofit nerd, again, the nonprofit thought leader. These companies help us help you and they're here for your mission. I like to remind you that their mission, it's really your mission. So they want to help you do more good in, around and throughout your community. So do them a favor, do us a favor, do yourself a favor, check them out. They're great people and great companies. So, hey, if you missed any of our episodes or you want to take this one with Michael to share around to your board members, hint, hint, you can find it on Roku, YouTube, Vimeo, Fire TV. And for those of you that are podcast listeners, give us up wherever you stream your podcast, you can find the nonprofit show there as well. So Michael, so excited to have you here in the green room chatter before we started talking, I had mentioned how it's almost our year anniversary of meeting. You and I connected at the Association of Fundraising Professionals Conference in Las Vegas and it's coming up soon in New Orleans and I understand that I'll see you there. I will be there. I can't wait. Awesome. Well, hey, so excited to have you back. Again, for our viewers and our listeners, Michael Buckley serves as the Managing Partner Fundraising Team Lead at the Killow Group and we have his website address here as well. It's the Killow Group that's spelled K-I-L-L-O-E group.com. Check him out on so many great information. But if you would, Michael, tell us a little bit about yourself and a little bit about your company. Well, thanks and obviously thanks for the opportunity to be here and to connect on a topic that I really love, love talking about. But I'm a career professional fundraiser and I recently can officially say that I've been professionally fundraising longer than I haven't been. So I don't know if that's good or bad. I think that's fantastic. But I started at I started at four. So that that really helps that number. But I spent about 20 years as a professional practitioner and high rad and in the end, wealth or space and then branched into doing some consulting work, which much to to the comment about this show lasting two weeks. I thought the consulting thing would be a little interim thing while I figured out what my next path was. But fortunately, it's just really grown. So part of the team at the Killow Group, a nonprofit consulting firm really helping organizations to grow from good to great. And that involves everything from strategic planning to feasibility studies and capital campaigns and really just getting your fundraising house in order. So we're we are passionate and we're fortunate that we have clients across the country and now even into Canada. So we're really excited about partnering with organizations up there. But I think it all comes back to the basics of fundraising. I think some of what we're going to talk about today really speaks to that. You know, it's so interesting. We put so much pressure on the board to do certain things. You know, one of those first and foremost is that fundraising component. However, that looks looks different for so many different organizations. But one of the things that we are seeing and we were talking about this in the green room chatter. Man, we're all back in the saddle when it comes to the rubber chicken dinner circuit. And you know now that COVID is is you know, moving in a different direction. We're seeing these events come up. Some of them are the exact same as they always were. Some are different, but one of the things that's not different is that we do have our boards and we have our board members not necessarily knowing or being deployed. Maybe that's the right word being deployed and you've come up with a really interesting process or methodology called the quick method. We're going to go through it, but talk to us about what the ecosystem of this and how did you come up with this? So I think most like most good ideas like come out of a place of frustration and seeing, you know, both as a practitioner and that as a consultant seeing board members at special events and them talking about how much fun they're having or how much how much fun we as the staff and consultants must be having. And I think anyone who's planned more than one special event in their life knows they're really not as much fun for the staff as they are for anybody else or for the attendees. So for me, it sort of came out of a place of what job can I actually give board members to get them involved? And I, you know, we'll talk about the details later, but I have a job description. I'm happy to share with anybody who reaches out and we'll get to you guys to share with your viewers as well. That gives very specific expectations about what people should be doing at the special events. And the thing is not all your board members are going to do this. And I think it's really important to point out that that's okay. You know, you've got board members on your board who are really good at finance. You've got board members on your board who are really good at governance. But for those people who are good at connecting and interacting with people at special events, you've got to give them a job and tell them what they're going to do and hold them accountable for that. I love that. So we're going to dive into this quick method and for those of you listening, it's Q U I C C K and you're going to learn more about that here. So Michael take us through the first one we have here qualify. What does that mean? Yeah, so I think there are five things as you said that every board member should do and not necessarily in the order we're going to present them. The reason why it works that way is because it makes a cute little word and and that helps. But I think board members should be responsible for qualifying some people in attendance and and there's a lot of backward that should go into this. We should be talking about who's coming to the event. Why are they there? And this is really the director of development or executive director or some staff person's responsibility to to figure it out. But every board member should be able to qualify should have two qualification questions ready in their arsenal when they connect with people and it doesn't have to be crazy and in depth and and really well thought out and you think about some of the most basic qualification questions of why did you come today? You know, why are you at this event? What do you what do you love about our mission? What's your connection to this mission? So just getting your board members to have two or three qualification questions in the back of their pocket ready to go and to connect with people at the event when they're asked excuse me, I should say connect with specific people at the event. So when they're going around and finding Julia or finding their folks that they're assigned to as you're in a conversation being able to have some two good qualification questions to keep that conversation going. You know, I love that and I bet that when you go through this quick concept, a lot of board members will be like, wow, I never thought of that. And you know, it's not what I love about this, Michael, is it? It's not just for an event. It's how a board member should be. Absolutely. It's it's really organic and it's natural. It's not stressful. Talk to us about your next point on the quick method and that is to inform. What does that look like? So I think that is to your point about, you know, regardless of the special event or not for every board member should be able to inform. I think you want or as part of this method, we want board members to have two or three outcomes based pieces of information about the organization that are true to its mission and that have some quantitative item to it. So a lot of times in animal welfare, we talk about number of adoptions. Did you know last year or organization adopted out 2,000 companion animals? Make it specific so that you can engage in that conversation. I think really, as I said in the opening, so much of this for me at least came out of a point of frustration when board members were saying to me, well, I didn't know what to say. Okay, now you know exactly what to say. And not only is it factual and outcomes based and true to our mission and all those really exciting nerdy things, Jared, that we talk about in the nonprofit space, but they are designed to elicit a conversation so that people don't feel like they're just walking over and saying, did you know we adopted out 2,000 animals and then running away from the conversation? So this is more than just the rephrasing of the elevator speech or our mission line. This is more of a data point. It's a data point. And look, the thing about it, the method that we use is to make sure that it's a data point that resonates with the person who has this job. So if you're the board special event ambassador and you are really passionate about this particular program, make sure that person can speak to that program. It's okay. I think so often board members and even staff get overwhelmed by, well, I don't know everything about the organization. Spoiler alert, nobody knows everything about the organization. So be able to speak to things that you're passionate about, but make sure their outcomes based so you're bringing attendees right at the end of the day. You want attendees to become close to your organization and continue that relationship. What better way to do it than in person with a knowledgeable board member? You know, Michael and and so what if we don't know all the answers? That gives us another opportunity to talk to that person, have a follow-up conversation. That's a win-win to me. Absolutely. And I think too, like I'm not a finance person, but in every time, every experience where somebody has said to me, oh, well, tell me about your, I don't know, again, I know nothing about finance, but tell me something about blank, you know, having to your finances. When you engage your finance committee chair, your board treasurer, even your CFO, they're speaking each other's language and they're already connecting. While me, you know, I don't, I don't know what P&L stands for. Yeah, we don't want to talk about P&L and gaps and all of that. No, no, no, no. I am curious, Michael, would you recommend that we nonprofit leader, you know, talk to the board members in advance of every single event? Or is this like a broad stroke annually? Or should we have a little gathering prior? No, I think it's a specific effort right before a major special event. So don't, you know, don't waste people's time with doing this every, you know, every minor, small event, but this is more for galas or big things that you know, board members are going to come to. And again, it's not for every board member. You'll have some board members who don't want to do this and if they don't want to do it, you don't want them to do it, but give them a job description, give them clear expectations and then give them the tools to actually do it and to perform well. You know, I heard you call them, you know, the special event board ambassador and I could even see, you know, often at these conferences that we'll probably see soon, you know, ribbons that identify them so they do stand out for those board members that are extremely comfortable in serving in that ambassador role. So I just think this is fantastic and yeah, very tangible, you know, it makes it, it makes it easier, I think for the board members to know their responsibility at the event. Okay, so take us to the first seat we have here, which is cultivate of the quick method. What does cultivate mean? So just like qualify, it's just part of the, you know, the the prospect management system we all use, having some qualification questions in your back pocket, but also having some cultivation questions in your back pocket, you know, asking people my favorite cultivation question is if money was no object, what would you want our organization to do having one or two of those in the back of your pocket that you can help bring that conversation because you know, at the end of all this, there is some follow-up. So we're going to ask our board special event ambassadors to report out to you as the development person or the executive director and find out some things. Again, the idea here is to get your your attendees at events to become closer to your organization. Imagine how impactful and frankly awesome it would be if you asked somebody that question and they said, you know, I'd love to build a new building and gee, I have the money to do it. And of course, it's not going to be that simple, but you're getting information, you're gathering information. So having some cultivation questions in the back of your pocket that are specific to your organization and specific to your your own interests that you can ask and actually be intelligently, you know, conversive with, I think is a very important. So we're having folks qualify for having folks in form and also have some folks cultivate. You know, this is great. And again, I am just I'm just drawn to the concept of the parallel that this is what our board member should be doing all the time. Yeah, get away from the bar. Get away from the bar or go to the bar first and then do this, but you can certainly do this in line as well. Okay, take us to connect. That's our next one of this quick method. Again, for those of you listening, Q U I C C K method. So connect is the second C talk talk to us about this one, Michael. So let's identify who at the event we need to connect other people with. So I think when you're in it in a room with three, four, 500 people, there are people that you want to connect. You know, you want a potential board member who may be there or a community leader to meet your board chair, your executive director. So who is that little network that you are responsible for connecting? So every board member should have all these things in their in their back pocket, but also understand if you happen to meet Jared, you really want Jared to meet Julia. So how can you make that happen? Do you know who these people are? Who can help you do that? The other, you know, not to overcomplicate the conversation, but there are, as I said, some board members who just really won't want to go into this much detail, but maybe there are some board members who can just simply connect people, you know, who can play a little bit of a matchmaker during during the event, but think about connect in the way of who do you want to connect at the event and who do you specifically because again, you're going to have a list of people that you're responsible for engaging with. Who do you want that person to be connected with in the room? Love this. I'm curious. You've served on many boards, my friend. How like how easy with this quick method have helped you during, you know, during that time or was this something that was presented to you? You know, it's really interesting. I've been thinking about more about the events that I've chaired and one of the things that I've always been stunned at how revolutionary of a concept this was, was just getting the board members to be early in the pre function space and to stand at the exit and thank the visitors as they were leaving. And so which is horrifyingly basic every single event. This should be a protocol. I mean, it should be natural and to have that, you know, brought forward, you know, I can remember sharing a very, very large event, 1000 guests and said to the board, now this is what I'm going to expect to do. I had two board members that were like, yeah, I won't do that. And I was like, are you kidding me? We're, we're trying to raise a million dollars in a night and by God, you need to be there. I mean, it was just like it's such a disconnect between what needs to go on and I don't know Michael about to your point. Do they just feel like this is a party and the hard work, you know, it doesn't. I mean, I think that is some of it, but I also want to give the benefit of the doubt to some folks and we've all had wonderful phenomenal board members and we've all had not. So I'm going to give the benefit of the doubt to all of them and just think that they truly don't know what to do. And I, and I think about, and this is a funny perhaps analogy, but, you know, when I got married and planned to help plant, well, I didn't really do much work in fairness, but when I was involved in a in a special event to which I was 50% of the attendee, you know, I even remember my now wife saying, OK, after salad, we're going to get up and we're going to thank that table and then we got to do this and we got to do that. It was like I was at my own wedding. It was basically given an itinerary and but and, you know, there's a whole joke to be made in New Orleans over that. But, you know, if you think about it, I didn't know I had never been to a wedding before that I was in and they didn't know that you get up and do all that and then there's a, you know, and and luckily I had, you know, not only my wonderful wife but also a great wedding planner who was, you know, tapping me on the shoulder and telling me where to go. So let's give them the benefit of the doubt that maybe they don't know what they really can do. But it's really important for board members to understand this is part of a bigger play, right? You know, this is not. We're just not doing special events because they're fun because they're not but this is part of a bigger energy and effort to bring people closer to the organization. This is just one of the many steps along the path. But this is an opportunity that like can not be missed. We when you've got people in the room and you're talking about how awesome your relationship is there is the time to engage them not two weeks later via letter. That's right. I love it too. And I could see this going forward. And maybe this is all part of the quick method. I do know that we have, you know, one more to address and then and then a little surprise to share as well. But I could see this and maybe you coach on this Michael where it's like, you know, a document that sent to the board member that has the table of the people you want them to connect. I'm taking it even further. Maybe it's like a little headshot so they know how to visually identify the person. I could just see this as, you know, again, that playbook and how it plays such a critical role in the entire ecosystem of relationship building. Yeah. And let me give you a little tip that I've used which the more I talk about my secret little tip less and less so secret that's going to be but you've got to do you've got to do name tags. Everybody has to have a name tag. They're annoying the run the risk of spelling somebody's name wrong but you have to do them and think about I've always done color-coded stars on the name tag. So if you've got multicolors on your name tag you're you're great you're wonderful but you're not special enough and then think about the same color stars or stickers or something to a connected to a particular board member. So I've got all blue stars and Jared is blue and I'm not Jared and I'm walking around I know as a board member or a staff member that I need to connect Jared with anybody who has four blue stars on their name tag. So there's a little bit of an inside inside baseball trick you can use to connect those people especially at huge major events but this is not you know this is not something board members going to walk in to the special event and Julia to your point probably not on time let alone early and hand them a piece of information this is you know this is there's a lot of prep into this you've got to make the energy and effort and I promise you will pay off. I love that secret tip and you're right it's not so secret with our international audience. Yeah, everyone's buying blue colored starts and putting them on name tags. It's cool. That's right. That's right. Okay, drive us home with the final tip of this method. Again, the quick method and we have think. Yeah, I mean it's I think it's some of the most important part. I mean regardless I mean I always say I think as a board member of the least you can do is say thank you to people but at this event if you've got you know your portfolio and let's use language with like that with our board members and we put portfolios together for our professional fundraisers let's make sure board members understand it's you've got a portfolio of people for this event make sure that these folks are being thanked and not just in a very general how thanks for coming or thanks for your support kind of way but you know as a board member Julia I was recently informed you know I just wanted to say thank you for that gift it does this it is so impactful so on and so forth so make sure it's specific and again the idea here is getting people closer and better connected to the organization you've got to put some strategy and intentionality into that I love this I and I I love that you did kind of not just say be gracious and thank people but to really drill it down and to be intentional about what that think thankfulness is I find and I'm really interested to hear the two of you comment on this I find that a lot of times there's a reticence to be specific about somebody's gift that it seems seems like oh we don't talk about the money or we don't we don't say thank you for your $50,000 gift or thank you for your generous you know endowment piece I mean Jared what do you think about that you know I can't help but thank Julia that it's all about like trusting our data right and having our development fundraising team really say like I know wholeheartedly this is the amount I've seen too many tax receipts go out that have been incorrect that I really feel that it it comes down to the accuracy of our data now if it's a singular gift but it's if it's you know a cumulative kind of of a amount I think that makes it trickier but what are you seeing in that Michael yeah no that that that just calls my PTSD inaccurate gift receipts but no I think yeah don't do cumulative don't guess don't do any of that but I think it is you know we I was actually at an event not too long ago and somebody said to me you know said to us because it was actually my my wife's under graduate alma mater that we became a member their president circle which $1,000 so we're not talking big money here but somebody said to us at the event thank you for joining thank you thank you for your first year or something like that and I thought okay they took the time to figure out who we are what we did you know and they're seeing the future I mean this is not you know these gifts are just be people are not giving you their last gift and then showing up at your special event they want to see what your organization is really all about so don't miss the opportunity to be intentional absolutely make sure it's accurate information at your point I think folks are have been led to believe that you almost have to be a little humble and people don't want acknowledgement maybe people don't want public acknowledgement and I understand that but I think people want you know the to know that the board chair or the chair of the development committee knows that they've made an impactful gift so thank early and often yeah I absolutely agree with you on that and I think that it's also to me Michael symptomatic of all of these things and that's the trajectory of being prepared and having these discussions I love that you have a job description that you you put forth and you can share that with your with your board and really talk this through people might forget they might have never thought of this it might you know help them to spurn on what it is why they're there and how they can perform I think it's brilliant another thing that's super brilliant is that the kilo group has actually a blog post about this very topic on their website you can go to the kilo group dot com K I L L O E group dot com the kilo group dot com and you can read all about this and dare I say I think this is one of those tools that you need to be sharing with your board forwarding it on yes this and today's conversation so much more to it and for those of you that have you know joined us in the very beginning I mentioned the surprise and this is it so you don't have to wait a few hours right it's here this recommended blog this has been such a lovely inspiring and like you know palatable conversation because I feel like it really again brings those tangible tools to the table for our board members to serve in that you know advocacy way so Michael from one nerve to another thank you my friend my pleasure I'll see you in Las Vegas or excuse me New Orleans and if anybody wants to gather it wants to get together and talk and create a detail I certainly would love to do it and so Michael is not just saying for a fun filled weekend he's specifically talking about the AFP icon event which the nonprofit show will actually be there broadcasting so definitely we'll be talking more about that and as the the time moves forward Michael Buckley managing partner fundraising team lead at the kilo group thank you so much I love your energy I love your very practical knowledge and process that is Jared said we can do this we need to be doing this but you remind us how how easy it is we can be doing it hey again I'm Julia Patrick CEO of the American nonprofit Academy been joined today by the nonprofit nerd herself Jared Ransom CEO of the Raven Group again we get to have these amazing conversations because of the generous support from our partners at Blumerang American nonprofit Academy your part-time controller staffing boutique fundraising Academy at National University nonprofit nerd and nonprofit thought leader these are the folks that bring it home for us and with us every day Michael I really really feel like a light bulb went off and more than anything the ability not to be so frustrated to because it's it's for me it's been like why aren't these people getting this but you brought it home in a different way and so thank you for that that would what a tremendous lesson today my pleasure it was great to be here the half hour goes so quickly I could do this all day oh good well we hope you will we hope you'll come back on as well so I will be here yeah thank you for everyone that joined us live or perhaps the recording again this will be available and all of our streaming platforms as we remind everyone every day we invite you ask you encourage you to please stay well so you can do well thanks again Michael we'll see everybody else tomorrow