Live Q&A - June 2023 - NonProfit Bootcamp

Live Q&A – June 2023

Unknown Speaker 0:02
Well, hey everybody, welcome to our monthly AMA, your for your well knowledge and join it. Sandy, how are you? I’m good. How are you sitting in the dark a little bit because my mouse decided to die so I have to charge it. And I don’t have enough USB ports is not always a thing on your computer, you don’t have enough USB ports. Only if you decided to like have this monster USB port thing that you attach, which I’ve got two of them now. Well Oh, maybe I need to get another one. I have one. So my light connects to my USB port. And I don’t have enough. So anyway, I’m a little bit in the dark. So I apologize for my lighting. But that’s my morning.

Unknown Speaker 0:44
I like that. Well, I know know what to get you for birthday. Thanks. USB born. It’s very personal. So

Unknown Speaker 0:52
you know, well. I’m also on a Mac and Mac there. Anyway, that’s a whole nother conversation. But I’m doing great. I love it. Well, all right. So welcome, everybody. Well, a couple people hopping on to Daryl, as is with us today. So this is an Ask Us Anything About anything stored have questions. So we’ll do a little mini training up here. And kind of how I’m going to start it is kind of a state of the state of fundraising, as I’ve seen it as far as nonprofits go.

Unknown Speaker 1:19
Here recently,

Unknown Speaker 1:22
we’ve done a couple of trainings on this and a couple of keynotes, here in the in flyover country Midwest, and they’ve been very interesting. So we’re drawing a lot of conclusions based on what we’re seeing in the field. So I thought I’d start with a couple of

Unknown Speaker 1:38
pieces of nuggets of information that we are seeing what to do about it. And then answer your questions as as people have it. So a couple things, donors, there’s less and less of them all the time, if you’re a nonprofit organization, if you’re a chamber, and you’re seeing membership as like, where are these people? Where are they going? The number of donors is declining across the nation, been doing that for about a decade and a half. And it’s been really noticeable over the last year. Ironically,

Unknown Speaker 2:09
people who still have money are giving, and they’re giving more, but there’s fewer and fewer of them. So there is this giant gap in the number of people who are are giving is lower, but they’re giving more money. Now, that’s problematic on two fronts. Number one, the amount of people that you have in the hopper is where you find all of your new bigger donors, because you want to cultivate them, you want to build donor relationships with them. So the less you have here, the fewer you have as an opportunity to build those better relationships. Also, a problem is that those few donors who are giving more, you’ve been tend to rely on them a little more frequently. And if they go away, if they pass away, they move on if they go to another organization. Now what so we’re a little tied heavily tied to larger donors, there are fewer of them to go and recruit from and that’s becoming an issue. Now. The good news is that special events are back. Everybody wants to go to special events. So if you are in the mood, to your organization is in the mood to do fundraising events, or fundraising events, and you want to gather new people to your cause, throwing an event is a really good thing because people want to go to them, and they are spending a ton of money at them too. So what we’re seeing across the board is events are through the roof, which means that you get an opportunity to invite a whole lot of people who might not know what you do to an event, sell them on the amazing impact that you’re doing. And voila, second thing, or can I interrupt you here for just a second.

Unknown Speaker 3:43
Because I’ve just the fundraiser event, like I just want to say like they don’t have to be huge events, we have a client who’s doing like they have a donor who’s really big into pickleball. And so they literally like the donor just rents out the pickleball space. They just invite all their friends to come and just they do like a kind of ad hoc pickleball tournament. And then the client has the opportunity just to have their stuff there to engage and talk with people. So it’s like a totally frictionless way to like, get in front of new people have a ton of fun, and then get people to know more about your organization who doesn’t love to go play pickleball it’s brilliant. And I think the the creative ways that organizations are going to have to come up with doing something different, which is actually something that we have been hearing from a lot. It’s really hard to distinguish between who’s doing what in the community because there are so many nonprofits and their voices are there’s a lot of noise in the space. So one of the things that we have been seeing and hearing is well how on earth do we get eyeballs and ears on our mission? How do we figure it out? Well, let’s be creative. It’s you know, stop being the same and say, well, this person did a black tie Gala, so we should do a black tie Gala. Well, it’s indistinguishable from everybody else. pickleball tournament that you get to run

Unknown Speaker 5:00
He’s friends with brilliant because it’s totally different. Nobody’s doing that kind of thing. So being clever enough to attract people, but clear enough with your message is something that you should really consider and sort of spend some time on as you are proceeding with a lot of your fundraising and fundraising tactics. So that’s really good.

Unknown Speaker 5:21
So events are back, fundraising and fundraising, like people want to attend them. So that’s good news. Curious

Unknown Speaker 5:30
sort of point on the giving days, so regional giving days that we’ve been seeing down,

Unknown Speaker 5:36
down in numbers down in participants. And I think that has a lot to do with the economy, people have less and less money to spend on giving days that they’re not tied to. And I think a lot of the organizations are really trying to attach themselves to corporate giving. And that corporate giving a suggestion like, Hey, we’re all going to participate. Well, that’s kind of forced giving. And force giving is not something that people like to do, which means they’d like to organically learn about their organizations. So giving days are down. And I think it’s not the end of the world. But we may have seen the peak amount of money you’re going to raise at giving days in your area. And that is okay, because now you have a benchmark in which you need to just sort of mentally get yourself through. And then actually, I’m going to interrupt you again, because I have a clarifying question for ya. Do you think that giving days are down because people when the economy is the way that it is and uncertain, people are wanting to give to organizations that they have a personal connection to as opposed to like most giving days, or at the end of the year, I know, North Dakota is a little bit different, as opposed to it being like, hey, I have X amount of dollars to giveaway this year that I haven’t given away. So I’m just going to kind of spread the wealth in my local area, like do you think that might be part of the difference there. But it’s funny you said, because that’s the next point I wanted to make.

Unknown Speaker 7:00
But people are still giving, but they’re giving to fewer and fewer organizations. And so instead of like stopping giving as a whole, they’re just contracting the amount of groups that they’re giving to. So everybody has multiple organizations that they give to right they give to a church and a school and a couple of nonprofits, maybe a baseball team or random kid who’s buying pizzas in your neighborhood, whatever the case may be, right, you give to a lot of groups, the number of those groups that people are giving to or shrinking, which means you as a nonprofit organization need to get ahead of the game. And be very clear to your audience that you care that you know about them that you associate their gift with impact, you have to have conversations with them in between your asks. Otherwise, they’re going to find a another organization that they feel more tuned to. And then that’s where they’re going to go and spend their money. Exactly, because they don’t like your organization, they just feel less connected to it. So the key to having that donor attrition rate stop, is to meet make sure that you are out and having conversations with individuals to make sure that you are one of their favorites, so that you don’t have anybody, right.

Unknown Speaker 8:15
So those are kind of the things that we have, we’ve seen so boots on the ground. Last and final thing, I think our older donors are very concerned, economically, they’re doing the thing that we shouldn’t do, which is look at our 401k. And they’re looking at it, and they shouldn’t have, they’re going, Oh, I don’t like any of those things. And so they might still be giving, but they will audibly say, Hmm, I’m not really sure where this is going to go and what this is going to do. And I might not feel as comfortable saying Yes, right away, it may take a little bit of a longer period of time to attract and secure gifts from your older donors as they’re sort of trying to figure out what economically they’re going to a situation they’re going to be in down the road. So it’s not that they’re not going to give they’re just slowing down the immediacy by which they give and that is okay. As long as you have a long game at your nonprofit. So that should be a good, so let’s donors, but they’re fewer donors are giving them more money. That’s dangerous, because you’re not recruiting out for that next generation of donors, which is, which is a no no. And if your bigger donors go away, what happens, there’s still plenty of money out there, you just need to kind of get it and then through events is probably a really good way to do that. Because people want to show up your older donors expressing a little bit of concern, but that’s not really a big deal, as long as you are in front of them talking about the impact in which their gifts are making in between your asks. And so the words that they’re pulling away are not yours.

Unknown Speaker 9:44
But again, they’re still giving, which is really nice. And then again, be different and unique in the way that you approach, fundraising and fundraising. So you don’t look like everybody else because it’s very difficult to gain ground in a very busy nonprofit space. And so something like a pickleball tournament or doing

Unknown Speaker 10:00
Do something interesting like a breakfast instead of a black tie event, those things make you stand out in a crowd that don’t necessarily make clever the number one priority, but you’re very clear on trying to get in front of the people that you want.

Unknown Speaker 10:16
10 minute synopsis I think that’s nice. Oh, I have so many thoughts. Yeah, um, and so many questions, because I love what you’re saying. But really, what I think the meat of it is, is when we get into these times of

Unknown Speaker 10:32
perceived crisis, we go into massive reactive mode, and start grasping at straws and trying to solicit and get anything we possibly can, which kind of burns some of the bridges for long term strategy. And that now is the time to fight those urges and really build on the foundation of what it is that we’re trying to do. I love that you mentioned older generations, they’re closer to needing their 401k. Like now’s the perfect time to start filling your pipeline. With older Gen V. Folks, they’re more inclined to give, they’re less concerned about money because they’re younger and invincible, right, and you’re not going to get your big gifts. But that’s a great place to start to fill that pipeline.

Unknown Speaker 11:19
And then the other thing that jumped out at me with donor retention is

Unknown Speaker 11:26
you don’t have a strong email marketing strategy. It’s, it could be a game changer for you with retention.

Unknown Speaker 11:34
And there’s a whole there’s stuff in the boot camp that you can take a look at for that, or we can do a whole session and training on that.

Unknown Speaker 11:42
But the last thing that I want to say is like even when it comes to standing out with your donors, and I would love for you to talk about this, Patrick, it doesn’t have to be big things like little things, just like picking up the phone or sending just a handwritten card not to ask for anything. But just to check in and see how you’re doing is something that most organizations aren’t doing. And that stuff cost you almost nothing. Right? Well, and again, I realized that a lot of nonprofits might not have the luxury of having the ability to send out 100 thank you notes a week to massive amounts of people just from being in the community and community leaders, I understand that the privilege of a lot of nonprofits might not have, but you can do a couple, you can pick up the phone. And again, think about how many emails you miss, ignore, go to spam, don’t make it through not interested, just kind of they forget about it, that you have in your own inbox. Well, that’s how every donor feels, and every potential supporter feels is that you’re not top of mind. And this is sort of the thing that’s kind of

Unknown Speaker 12:46
it’s harrowing to think about, but it’s but it’s great to remember is that no one cares about your organization as much as you do. Your donors, don’t your board members don’t care about your organization as much as you do. They go to the meetings, and they probably read the minutes about 15 minutes before they actually have to show up. If that. It’s not because they don’t care. They’ve just got so many other things going on. So you have to constantly get in front of them and say you could probably speak to this too, is that it might be unique ways of getting a hold of them. But it’s consistency that matters. Because how many times does it take you to remember something, my wife will tell me 49 times one thing, and I will still forget it. And then I will have Leah, who is my chaos Wrangler. And they’re telling me another dozen times, and I might remember what I need to do. Because I got a jumbled brain that is an undiagnosed ADHD brain that I need to wrangle in. Your donors are the same way because they got kids and work and jobs and travel and things that are interesting that don’t necessarily have a tie to you. So it’s super important that you show up on a fairly regular basis to talk with them consistently about what you’re doing, even though you’re not making an ask for money. And that’s going to be the difference maker is just how many impact stories in good feels. Can you do that they associate Oh, I love talking about and hearing about this group, rather than I’m constantly getting badgered to be asked for stuff. Well, and I have a great example about this in the consultants space, because this is true no matter what just just happened this week. I collaborate with a lot of other consultants because I’m not an expert in all things. And so a lot of us share resources and we pass clients around and you know, because we want to make sure that they’re getting the best at the best. Well, I had one of my consultant friends call me all upset. Because she was like, you know, this nonprofit that I have, that I had, she had pitched a project to over a year ago

Unknown Speaker 14:43
now just posted something on social media saying that they are suddenly trying to do a GoFundMe because they’re desperate and they really need this particular type of support, which is what she does.

Unknown Speaker 14:54
And, you know, could could the community come together to help them get this particular kind of support?

Unknown Speaker 15:00
She called me upset because another friend of ours as a consultant, this is kind of a convoluted story. But another friend of ours is a consultant for them. And she’s like, why did that friend not refer them to me before?

Unknown Speaker 15:13
Before they went public with this need, because now they’re going to get hit up by all these people that are probably going to take them as well. And she was very upset. And I said, Listen, you haven’t followed up or had a conversation with them or done anything with them since then. They’ve probably had that conversation with you a year ago, I thought that was awesome. But then forgot all forgot that you existed? You know, like they don’t You don’t we hear things that we need to hear when we need to hear them. And so that’s why your marketing messaging and everything you’re putting out there, like you said, is all about being top of mind, because you never know when the person is going to be like, oh, yeah, today’s the day that I’m ready to make a donation. So they see your social media posts. They’re like, Oh, yeah, I love that organization not ready yet. Then they get a couple of emails, and they’re like, oh, yeah, you know, oh, yeah, I want to make sure I get to that organization at some point this year, but they’re not quite ready yet. Then they get a phone call from you just calling to check in thanking you for your gift last year, like, Oh, that was really awesome, not ready to give you then they get another email and they see another social media post. And then finally, because they’ve been seeing your messaging over and over and over again, in a variety of online and offline channels, and you’ve been providing value you’ve been not just asking all the time, when they’re ready to give the gift, you will be the person they give it to, instead of somebody else. Yep, yeah. And again, it’s that consistency, in just touch points that really matter the most. And I think that’s really where a lot of nonprofits, I wouldn’t say fail, they just again, you as a nonprofit leader, and you as somebody who’s in the space, have, again, 10,000 different things to do every day. And so to carve out the time to just move the needle forward with people that you think would be really good fits, so that you’re not chasing people who are not, who don’t have the affinity for your organization, and you’re using your own list and your former donors and your current donors to build rapport with the community. And that’s really where the best biggest bang for your buck is, is spending time with people who love you the most asking them for help to expand. I think 90% of your outreach should be that but I will challenge you. Maybe if we do 10 calls a week, let’s just say have one of them be a completely random person from your Absolutely. There’s lurkers that are out there. So don’t have that be the majority. But I would say add one, or two lurkers or two people that you can pull out and have a conversation with because you never, you never know you don’t know what their circumstances have changed. You never know that you might just call up that person. And they have been through some like major issues and or had some heartbreak or whatever you just calling just check in to say hi, like, could be the thing that just makes their day.

Unknown Speaker 17:55
You never know. So pick one.

Unknown Speaker 17:57
And have the recipe exactly what Patrick said. I love it. That sounds awesome. Um, excellent. Darrell, questions. We’ve, we’ve got answers. I know he’s got questions.

Unknown Speaker 18:09
How can we be of service to you my friend?

Unknown Speaker 18:12
Well, let me start a few things so I can introduce myself. Whoa, hold on a minute. I love it. I’ve got a screen hooked up to my laptop, so you aren’t gonna see me? That’s okay. I can I can sense I sent her face. Yes.

Unknown Speaker 18:29
Here we go.

Unknown Speaker 18:31
That’d be better. It’s just the three of us. Yeah, just three you have private session today. Okay, well, if anything, because I’ve got about 10 more minutes, and I’m gonna have to leave but I got your email I’m from.

Unknown Speaker 18:45
I’m a board member on for a historical theater.

Unknown Speaker 18:50
In Coffeyville, Kansas.

Unknown Speaker 18:54
small rural community.

Unknown Speaker 18:56
We

Unknown Speaker 18:58
I’m a retired teacher. And I always said I became a teacher because I didn’t want to raise money and sell shit.

Unknown Speaker 19:05
Look at you now. This morning, right?

Unknown Speaker 19:10
Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 19:12
Anyway,

Unknown Speaker 19:14
I’ve enjoyed what I’ve heard so far. We’re in a capital campaign. And that’s been part of our problem. We have some

Unknown Speaker 19:23
higher level donors, a lot of small level donors. We did start a few years ago using a database called little green light here.

Unknown Speaker 19:33
I seem to be the only one on our board that is keeping track on that.

Unknown Speaker 19:39
Part of it is we have 14 board members few of us are retired generation and they have lives and children to raise. So it is fundraising is not something that I’m excited about in anybody else’s either. We have had success. We did divide our project into

Unknown Speaker 20:01
The restoration of this whole, it’s a 1928. Theater

Unknown Speaker 20:05
idle for 25 years. So we have broken the project down into four projects on a fun build use plan. So we raised the money and we secured the shell. Perfect. We’ve raised the money for the front of the house, and it should be done. The work should be done by late July. Perfect. We’re starting the campaign to raise for the stage area. So into some backstage things, have a goal for that. And then the big one is the auditorium, which will be

Unknown Speaker 20:49
a construction price as soon as what they will be a couple million dollars that right

Unknown Speaker 20:55
there that in cars Ville America is difficult to raise. And I’m here because I’m a chamber member went to

Unknown Speaker 21:05
the meeting for this group a month ago. Sure. And there were probably about 20 of us in the room. So I don’t know where the rest of everybody is. But that’s fine. Yeah, it’s crazy. It’s summer number not retired. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 21:24
Anyway, I don’t know if I have any questions. I’ve gotten some good ideas here. It’s it really is about time.

Unknown Speaker 21:32
And ability. I do like what you said about all our donors versus that older Gen Z group. Because I’m reaching the age where I’m going to have to withdraw from my 401 Ks. And that allows me to donate to causes such as the middle theater. Younger generations. Yeah, when I was working and teaching, donating to community was not to the extent that it can be now.

Unknown Speaker 22:03
So I don’t know what questions I have other than

Unknown Speaker 22:08
they did. Well, let me back up. I do like what you said too, about the small event. So people, particularly after COVID, being trumped up wanting to do events. Yep, we do have.

Unknown Speaker 22:20
We’re going to once we opened the front of the house, our first event about a month after the construction, Dan, we’re planning it is going to be a donor party, good to recognize them. That’ll be the first event and it will be larger donors or significant donors. And then the next day will be all donors or interested parties, or kind of a walk through

Unknown Speaker 22:42
in small community, big theater sign downtown. So people know we’re there. But part of it is there was an early effort when we first became a foundation to do some things, it was a larger plan, and is the belief that it won’t ever happen.

Unknown Speaker 23:01
So that’s the thing here, okay.

Unknown Speaker 23:06
We realize that a one screen historic movie theater is not going to be self sustainable. It is. So we’ve got a plan for all the things we can do to make this a community center. Right. Can I do can I ask you a question? Is it a theater stage for like plays and things and a theater and movie theater? Or is it just a movie theater? That was originally vaudeville? Okay. So it does the stage but there’s not at the moment dressing rooms? Sure. We can do some theater things. There’s matter of fact, when it first went into the hands Foundation, they did some community events there. But basically the actors put on their costumes at home and makeup and came and did their thing. Right.

Unknown Speaker 23:52
I want to have TED talks there. I want to

Unknown Speaker 23:56
there’s a ballroom of a ballroom on the second floor. Yeah, you’re all you might want to check out the bonus workshop from

Unknown Speaker 24:06
from April that Patrick and Rebecca undimmed did, because it’s all talking about how to like how to really bring people alongside you at various phases of a big project in a smaller community.

Unknown Speaker 24:23
And so there might be a lot of good ideas there too, just as far as how to structure or how to think about who you talk to who you connect with. Patrick and Rebecca did that conversation. It was a great conversation. So you might find some insight. So that’s in your dashboard as well. I would definitely check that one out. April 27.

Unknown Speaker 24:43
To get buy in for your big projects, because they talk a lot about what you just said, which is people couldn’t see the vision as we got started. So like now, I love that you’re phasing it out. So now that you’re phasing it out, like how do you continue to like, come back to people that didn’t come in at the beginning like

Unknown Speaker 25:00
Yeah, so that’d be a great conversation for you to watch. Yeah, I think the other thing, Darrell, too, and I got two little points here is, if, if you’re looking two things, one, if you’re phased out, you’re kind of on that retirement edge and you know, sort of doing it, there’s a really good opportunity for you to reach out to that next generation of business owners within Coffeyville itself, not the business owners currently, but the next generation, the ones who are going to take over the businesses when those owners retire, or they move on. And then you as somebody who’s been in the community a while could almost mentor them on what philanthropy means. And you could set the stage pun intended for gifts that you could have going down the line. So that’s number one. Number two, and I’m gonna leave you with as this because I gotta run to because I had a keynote that bumped up 30 minutes, and I gotta go find him crazy. But think about this, and I’ll follow up with you have an email as well, as I wrote down, it would be very funny.

Unknown Speaker 25:59
And if you’re going to have your donor event after that front of the house is done, and you bring them into the thing is to engage whomever does the community theater or the community theater programs or the high school theater programs, and have them write and act, a one act play or a very small one act play about the need for a theater, and you could do it in comedy of like, why there isn’t space. And so they’re getting changed on stage behind while they’re trying to do a serious acting scene, right? Or they’re coming on and there’s no space to do X, Y, and Z are they’re falling through the old haggard floorboards or however you want to do it. Like the Peter Pan is now like the Peter paint, what’s it called? Yeah, wrong. Yes. That or it’s like the producers like you could actually have something along the lines of that, again, as a former theater kid, I am obsessed about this, actually. But you could have them and engage them in a way that creates a performance that talks about the need for a place to have a performance that doesn’t look like hell in a handbasket. And that they give them the opportunity to kind of go on to bigger and better things only from here for Coffeyville. And you could have this almost, you know, waiting for Guffman. Like producers like one actor in a small play that they could actually write, to showcase the artists, number one, to show what the possibilities would be in the community number two, and to show off the the vision of what you want that theater to do in lieu of TED talks, and a couple of other things net vaudeville sort of moment.

Unknown Speaker 27:35
Or two, I’m trying to get it all down.

Unknown Speaker 27:40
It’s good to hop off, and I feel like a jerk for doing that. But Sam is going to take care of you. And I’m going to send you a note here this afternoon. And you and I can talk a little bit of follow up. But you’re you’re in a good moment because you’ve already got phase one and phase two practically done. And that proves that people want to see that theater rented, renovated and now it’s just finding an alignment for everybody else. Okay, you’re awesome. Thank you, sir. Guys. I love talking about theater saga.

Unknown Speaker 28:08
You’re the best. Thanks. Thanks for Thanks for amping me up for the next thing I got to do. This is great. Well, good luck to you. We’ll talk later. Talk soon. All right. Thank you.

Unknown Speaker 28:18
Semi very quickly. Yeah. Several things that he said that. Know the idea of the next generation of business owners. Yeah, good one.

Unknown Speaker 28:30
I don’t know how much do you live in rural America. I was born and raised in rural America. I’m in southwest Minneapolis. But I was born and raised in West Iowa. We’re in an industrial town that is half the size. It was when I grew up here. I’m actually from here.

Unknown Speaker 28:47
Due to the oil bust a lot of oil industry. We do have a refinery. We have a John Deere plant there, those kinds of things. We had Amazon for the 10 years where they got the tax abatements And they left.

Unknown Speaker 28:59
Okay.

Unknown Speaker 29:02
Are, for the most part, our industrial owners with a few exceptions. The people that manage his time is running companies don’t live here. Sure.

Unknown Speaker 29:13
Please don’t live here. That’s the frustration we’re having.

Unknown Speaker 29:18
Well, hang on, let me challenge you a little bit. So it doesn’t have to be

Unknown Speaker 29:23
business owners passing their business on to their kids. That’s a great way to do it. Because you know, they’re local, whatever. But I think when we think about multigenerational giving,

Unknown Speaker 29:34
and we talk about like you put all this effort into some of your larger donors, how can you continue to make them the hero and still continue to then say, Okay, well, this is a cause you feel very strongly about, like, could they introduce you to their kids or to their grandkids? And like, is there a way that you can create an event that encourages them to bring them back in? Because you are it’s basically like a warm lead, right. So if if it’s something

Unknown Speaker 30:00
And the people that you know that are really championing the cause? How can you create a conversation so that they can introduce you to their other family members? Or make it part of a family experience? So that the younger generations will naturally want to continue on with the cause? How can you be nurturing them alongside this project, so that you have another group of people that you can continue to talk to about what it is that you’re doing, because it’s a very emotional

Unknown Speaker 30:27
project.

Unknown Speaker 30:28
I will tell you, the board member they got me involved on this about six years ago as an ex student, who is one of the individuals just like you’re talking to one of our bigger donors, is her family company, her dad or Uncle Ron brothers taking it over as she’s working there now and raising three kids.

Unknown Speaker 30:48
But since she’s 30, something, and is very involved, it’s we have some of those, but as we looked for, one of our fundraisers is from here, but lives actually in Tulsa.

Unknown Speaker 31:03
We have this big refinery out there that he needs, he needs to get back to the city and they have been some assistance is just

Unknown Speaker 31:13
as we’ve talked to them, they’ve made all the fundraising local, but it’s local, for a whole region. So there’s some challenges there, we’ll figure those out. I think

Unknown Speaker 31:24
it all comes down to asking the right questions and just learning. And so also, like, just kind of keep in mind and take really good notes. As you have conversations with people, things will start to come out. So it’s not always about, it’s more about learning their motivations for wanting to be community members, not necessarily asking them about how much they can give or what their capacity to give is like that. So asking better questions will also help you get to some of those roundabout peripheral things. Because the thing about small towns is people will give to small towns, even if they don’t live there, because they have that emotional connection. So just kind of keep that in the back of your mind. Have that growth mindset and just ask a ton of questions and learn as much as you can about people and that will help open those doors. Okay, I will tell you, some of our major donors are indeed several of them are people who are giving back to their hometown or elsewhere. I mean, that’s we are reaching out to that market. Our two wheel fundraisers on our organization, one list has retired and listen Phoenix half the year and here after year. The other one I mentioned earlier, actually this an hour and a half from here in Tulsa. So we even have board members that will zoom into meetings and may show up when they can but I believe expanded beyond just those visit live here. Anyway, I appreciate listening to you and the help. Yeah, absolutely.

Unknown Speaker 32:46
Good luck with your party. Keep us posted. I will do you have a good day. Thank you. You too. Thank you

Live Q&A - June 2023

Unknown Speaker 0:02
Well, hey everybody, welcome to our monthly AMA, your for your well knowledge and join it. Sandy, how are you? I'm good. How are you sitting in the dark a little bit because my mouse decided to die so I have to charge it. And I don't have enough USB ports is not always a thing on your computer, you don't have enough USB ports. Only if you decided to like have this monster USB port thing that you attach, which I've got two of them now. Well Oh, maybe I need to get another one. I have one. So my light connects to my USB port. And I don't have enough. So anyway, I'm a little bit in the dark. So I apologize for my lighting. But that's my morning.

Unknown Speaker 0:44
I like that. Well, I know know what to get you for birthday. Thanks. USB born. It's very personal. So

Unknown Speaker 0:52
you know, well. I'm also on a Mac and Mac there. Anyway, that's a whole nother conversation. But I'm doing great. I love it. Well, all right. So welcome, everybody. Well, a couple people hopping on to Daryl, as is with us today. So this is an Ask Us Anything About anything stored have questions. So we'll do a little mini training up here. And kind of how I'm going to start it is kind of a state of the state of fundraising, as I've seen it as far as nonprofits go.

Unknown Speaker 1:19
Here recently,

Unknown Speaker 1:22
we've done a couple of trainings on this and a couple of keynotes, here in the in flyover country Midwest, and they've been very interesting. So we're drawing a lot of conclusions based on what we're seeing in the field. So I thought I'd start with a couple of

Unknown Speaker 1:38
pieces of nuggets of information that we are seeing what to do about it. And then answer your questions as as people have it. So a couple things, donors, there's less and less of them all the time, if you're a nonprofit organization, if you're a chamber, and you're seeing membership as like, where are these people? Where are they going? The number of donors is declining across the nation, been doing that for about a decade and a half. And it's been really noticeable over the last year. Ironically,

Unknown Speaker 2:09
people who still have money are giving, and they're giving more, but there's fewer and fewer of them. So there is this giant gap in the number of people who are are giving is lower, but they're giving more money. Now, that's problematic on two fronts. Number one, the amount of people that you have in the hopper is where you find all of your new bigger donors, because you want to cultivate them, you want to build donor relationships with them. So the less you have here, the fewer you have as an opportunity to build those better relationships. Also, a problem is that those few donors who are giving more, you've been tend to rely on them a little more frequently. And if they go away, if they pass away, they move on if they go to another organization. Now what so we're a little tied heavily tied to larger donors, there are fewer of them to go and recruit from and that's becoming an issue. Now. The good news is that special events are back. Everybody wants to go to special events. So if you are in the mood, to your organization is in the mood to do fundraising events, or fundraising events, and you want to gather new people to your cause, throwing an event is a really good thing because people want to go to them, and they are spending a ton of money at them too. So what we're seeing across the board is events are through the roof, which means that you get an opportunity to invite a whole lot of people who might not know what you do to an event, sell them on the amazing impact that you're doing. And voila, second thing, or can I interrupt you here for just a second.

Unknown Speaker 3:43
Because I've just the fundraiser event, like I just want to say like they don't have to be huge events, we have a client who's doing like they have a donor who's really big into pickleball. And so they literally like the donor just rents out the pickleball space. They just invite all their friends to come and just they do like a kind of ad hoc pickleball tournament. And then the client has the opportunity just to have their stuff there to engage and talk with people. So it's like a totally frictionless way to like, get in front of new people have a ton of fun, and then get people to know more about your organization who doesn't love to go play pickleball it's brilliant. And I think the the creative ways that organizations are going to have to come up with doing something different, which is actually something that we have been hearing from a lot. It's really hard to distinguish between who's doing what in the community because there are so many nonprofits and their voices are there's a lot of noise in the space. So one of the things that we have been seeing and hearing is well how on earth do we get eyeballs and ears on our mission? How do we figure it out? Well, let's be creative. It's you know, stop being the same and say, well, this person did a black tie Gala, so we should do a black tie Gala. Well, it's indistinguishable from everybody else. pickleball tournament that you get to run

Unknown Speaker 5:00
He's friends with brilliant because it's totally different. Nobody's doing that kind of thing. So being clever enough to attract people, but clear enough with your message is something that you should really consider and sort of spend some time on as you are proceeding with a lot of your fundraising and fundraising tactics. So that's really good.

Unknown Speaker 5:21
So events are back, fundraising and fundraising, like people want to attend them. So that's good news. Curious

Unknown Speaker 5:30
sort of point on the giving days, so regional giving days that we've been seeing down,

Unknown Speaker 5:36
down in numbers down in participants. And I think that has a lot to do with the economy, people have less and less money to spend on giving days that they're not tied to. And I think a lot of the organizations are really trying to attach themselves to corporate giving. And that corporate giving a suggestion like, Hey, we're all going to participate. Well, that's kind of forced giving. And force giving is not something that people like to do, which means they'd like to organically learn about their organizations. So giving days are down. And I think it's not the end of the world. But we may have seen the peak amount of money you're going to raise at giving days in your area. And that is okay, because now you have a benchmark in which you need to just sort of mentally get yourself through. And then actually, I'm going to interrupt you again, because I have a clarifying question for ya. Do you think that giving days are down because people when the economy is the way that it is and uncertain, people are wanting to give to organizations that they have a personal connection to as opposed to like most giving days, or at the end of the year, I know, North Dakota is a little bit different, as opposed to it being like, hey, I have X amount of dollars to giveaway this year that I haven't given away. So I'm just going to kind of spread the wealth in my local area, like do you think that might be part of the difference there. But it's funny you said, because that's the next point I wanted to make.

Unknown Speaker 7:00
But people are still giving, but they're giving to fewer and fewer organizations. And so instead of like stopping giving as a whole, they're just contracting the amount of groups that they're giving to. So everybody has multiple organizations that they give to right they give to a church and a school and a couple of nonprofits, maybe a baseball team or random kid who's buying pizzas in your neighborhood, whatever the case may be, right, you give to a lot of groups, the number of those groups that people are giving to or shrinking, which means you as a nonprofit organization need to get ahead of the game. And be very clear to your audience that you care that you know about them that you associate their gift with impact, you have to have conversations with them in between your asks. Otherwise, they're going to find a another organization that they feel more tuned to. And then that's where they're going to go and spend their money. Exactly, because they don't like your organization, they just feel less connected to it. So the key to having that donor attrition rate stop, is to meet make sure that you are out and having conversations with individuals to make sure that you are one of their favorites, so that you don't have anybody, right.

Unknown Speaker 8:15
So those are kind of the things that we have, we've seen so boots on the ground. Last and final thing, I think our older donors are very concerned, economically, they're doing the thing that we shouldn't do, which is look at our 401k. And they're looking at it, and they shouldn't have, they're going, Oh, I don't like any of those things. And so they might still be giving, but they will audibly say, Hmm, I'm not really sure where this is going to go and what this is going to do. And I might not feel as comfortable saying Yes, right away, it may take a little bit of a longer period of time to attract and secure gifts from your older donors as they're sort of trying to figure out what economically they're going to a situation they're going to be in down the road. So it's not that they're not going to give they're just slowing down the immediacy by which they give and that is okay. As long as you have a long game at your nonprofit. So that should be a good, so let's donors, but they're fewer donors are giving them more money. That's dangerous, because you're not recruiting out for that next generation of donors, which is, which is a no no. And if your bigger donors go away, what happens, there's still plenty of money out there, you just need to kind of get it and then through events is probably a really good way to do that. Because people want to show up your older donors expressing a little bit of concern, but that's not really a big deal, as long as you are in front of them talking about the impact in which their gifts are making in between your asks. And so the words that they're pulling away are not yours.

Unknown Speaker 9:44
But again, they're still giving, which is really nice. And then again, be different and unique in the way that you approach, fundraising and fundraising. So you don't look like everybody else because it's very difficult to gain ground in a very busy nonprofit space. And so something like a pickleball tournament or doing

Unknown Speaker 10:00
Do something interesting like a breakfast instead of a black tie event, those things make you stand out in a crowd that don't necessarily make clever the number one priority, but you're very clear on trying to get in front of the people that you want.

Unknown Speaker 10:16
10 minute synopsis I think that's nice. Oh, I have so many thoughts. Yeah, um, and so many questions, because I love what you're saying. But really, what I think the meat of it is, is when we get into these times of

Unknown Speaker 10:32
perceived crisis, we go into massive reactive mode, and start grasping at straws and trying to solicit and get anything we possibly can, which kind of burns some of the bridges for long term strategy. And that now is the time to fight those urges and really build on the foundation of what it is that we're trying to do. I love that you mentioned older generations, they're closer to needing their 401k. Like now's the perfect time to start filling your pipeline. With older Gen V. Folks, they're more inclined to give, they're less concerned about money because they're younger and invincible, right, and you're not going to get your big gifts. But that's a great place to start to fill that pipeline.

Unknown Speaker 11:19
And then the other thing that jumped out at me with donor retention is

Unknown Speaker 11:26
you don't have a strong email marketing strategy. It's, it could be a game changer for you with retention.

Unknown Speaker 11:34
And there's a whole there's stuff in the boot camp that you can take a look at for that, or we can do a whole session and training on that.

Unknown Speaker 11:42
But the last thing that I want to say is like even when it comes to standing out with your donors, and I would love for you to talk about this, Patrick, it doesn't have to be big things like little things, just like picking up the phone or sending just a handwritten card not to ask for anything. But just to check in and see how you're doing is something that most organizations aren't doing. And that stuff cost you almost nothing. Right? Well, and again, I realized that a lot of nonprofits might not have the luxury of having the ability to send out 100 thank you notes a week to massive amounts of people just from being in the community and community leaders, I understand that the privilege of a lot of nonprofits might not have, but you can do a couple, you can pick up the phone. And again, think about how many emails you miss, ignore, go to spam, don't make it through not interested, just kind of they forget about it, that you have in your own inbox. Well, that's how every donor feels, and every potential supporter feels is that you're not top of mind. And this is sort of the thing that's kind of

Unknown Speaker 12:46
it's harrowing to think about, but it's but it's great to remember is that no one cares about your organization as much as you do. Your donors, don't your board members don't care about your organization as much as you do. They go to the meetings, and they probably read the minutes about 15 minutes before they actually have to show up. If that. It's not because they don't care. They've just got so many other things going on. So you have to constantly get in front of them and say you could probably speak to this too, is that it might be unique ways of getting a hold of them. But it's consistency that matters. Because how many times does it take you to remember something, my wife will tell me 49 times one thing, and I will still forget it. And then I will have Leah, who is my chaos Wrangler. And they're telling me another dozen times, and I might remember what I need to do. Because I got a jumbled brain that is an undiagnosed ADHD brain that I need to wrangle in. Your donors are the same way because they got kids and work and jobs and travel and things that are interesting that don't necessarily have a tie to you. So it's super important that you show up on a fairly regular basis to talk with them consistently about what you're doing, even though you're not making an ask for money. And that's going to be the difference maker is just how many impact stories in good feels. Can you do that they associate Oh, I love talking about and hearing about this group, rather than I'm constantly getting badgered to be asked for stuff. Well, and I have a great example about this in the consultants space, because this is true no matter what just just happened this week. I collaborate with a lot of other consultants because I'm not an expert in all things. And so a lot of us share resources and we pass clients around and you know, because we want to make sure that they're getting the best at the best. Well, I had one of my consultant friends call me all upset. Because she was like, you know, this nonprofit that I have, that I had, she had pitched a project to over a year ago

Unknown Speaker 14:43
now just posted something on social media saying that they are suddenly trying to do a GoFundMe because they're desperate and they really need this particular type of support, which is what she does.

Unknown Speaker 14:54
And, you know, could could the community come together to help them get this particular kind of support?

Unknown Speaker 15:00
She called me upset because another friend of ours as a consultant, this is kind of a convoluted story. But another friend of ours is a consultant for them. And she's like, why did that friend not refer them to me before?

Unknown Speaker 15:13
Before they went public with this need, because now they're going to get hit up by all these people that are probably going to take them as well. And she was very upset. And I said, Listen, you haven't followed up or had a conversation with them or done anything with them since then. They've probably had that conversation with you a year ago, I thought that was awesome. But then forgot all forgot that you existed? You know, like they don't You don't we hear things that we need to hear when we need to hear them. And so that's why your marketing messaging and everything you're putting out there, like you said, is all about being top of mind, because you never know when the person is going to be like, oh, yeah, today's the day that I'm ready to make a donation. So they see your social media posts. They're like, Oh, yeah, I love that organization not ready yet. Then they get a couple of emails, and they're like, oh, yeah, you know, oh, yeah, I want to make sure I get to that organization at some point this year, but they're not quite ready yet. Then they get a phone call from you just calling to check in thanking you for your gift last year, like, Oh, that was really awesome, not ready to give you then they get another email and they see another social media post. And then finally, because they've been seeing your messaging over and over and over again, in a variety of online and offline channels, and you've been providing value you've been not just asking all the time, when they're ready to give the gift, you will be the person they give it to, instead of somebody else. Yep, yeah. And again, it's that consistency, in just touch points that really matter the most. And I think that's really where a lot of nonprofits, I wouldn't say fail, they just again, you as a nonprofit leader, and you as somebody who's in the space, have, again, 10,000 different things to do every day. And so to carve out the time to just move the needle forward with people that you think would be really good fits, so that you're not chasing people who are not, who don't have the affinity for your organization, and you're using your own list and your former donors and your current donors to build rapport with the community. And that's really where the best biggest bang for your buck is, is spending time with people who love you the most asking them for help to expand. I think 90% of your outreach should be that but I will challenge you. Maybe if we do 10 calls a week, let's just say have one of them be a completely random person from your Absolutely. There's lurkers that are out there. So don't have that be the majority. But I would say add one, or two lurkers or two people that you can pull out and have a conversation with because you never, you never know you don't know what their circumstances have changed. You never know that you might just call up that person. And they have been through some like major issues and or had some heartbreak or whatever you just calling just check in to say hi, like, could be the thing that just makes their day.

Unknown Speaker 17:55
You never know. So pick one.

Unknown Speaker 17:57
And have the recipe exactly what Patrick said. I love it. That sounds awesome. Um, excellent. Darrell, questions. We've, we've got answers. I know he's got questions.

Unknown Speaker 18:09
How can we be of service to you my friend?

Unknown Speaker 18:12
Well, let me start a few things so I can introduce myself. Whoa, hold on a minute. I love it. I've got a screen hooked up to my laptop, so you aren't gonna see me? That's okay. I can I can sense I sent her face. Yes.

Unknown Speaker 18:29
Here we go.

Unknown Speaker 18:31
That'd be better. It's just the three of us. Yeah, just three you have private session today. Okay, well, if anything, because I've got about 10 more minutes, and I'm gonna have to leave but I got your email I'm from.

Unknown Speaker 18:45
I'm a board member on for a historical theater.

Unknown Speaker 18:50
In Coffeyville, Kansas.

Unknown Speaker 18:54
small rural community.

Unknown Speaker 18:56
We

Unknown Speaker 18:58
I'm a retired teacher. And I always said I became a teacher because I didn't want to raise money and sell shit.

Unknown Speaker 19:05
Look at you now. This morning, right?

Unknown Speaker 19:10
Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 19:12
Anyway,

Unknown Speaker 19:14
I've enjoyed what I've heard so far. We're in a capital campaign. And that's been part of our problem. We have some

Unknown Speaker 19:23
higher level donors, a lot of small level donors. We did start a few years ago using a database called little green light here.

Unknown Speaker 19:33
I seem to be the only one on our board that is keeping track on that.

Unknown Speaker 19:39
Part of it is we have 14 board members few of us are retired generation and they have lives and children to raise. So it is fundraising is not something that I'm excited about in anybody else's either. We have had success. We did divide our project into

Unknown Speaker 20:01
The restoration of this whole, it's a 1928. Theater

Unknown Speaker 20:05
idle for 25 years. So we have broken the project down into four projects on a fun build use plan. So we raised the money and we secured the shell. Perfect. We've raised the money for the front of the house, and it should be done. The work should be done by late July. Perfect. We're starting the campaign to raise for the stage area. So into some backstage things, have a goal for that. And then the big one is the auditorium, which will be

Unknown Speaker 20:49
a construction price as soon as what they will be a couple million dollars that right

Unknown Speaker 20:55
there that in cars Ville America is difficult to raise. And I'm here because I'm a chamber member went to

Unknown Speaker 21:05
the meeting for this group a month ago. Sure. And there were probably about 20 of us in the room. So I don't know where the rest of everybody is. But that's fine. Yeah, it's crazy. It's summer number not retired. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 21:24
Anyway, I don't know if I have any questions. I've gotten some good ideas here. It's it really is about time.

Unknown Speaker 21:32
And ability. I do like what you said about all our donors versus that older Gen Z group. Because I'm reaching the age where I'm going to have to withdraw from my 401 Ks. And that allows me to donate to causes such as the middle theater. Younger generations. Yeah, when I was working and teaching, donating to community was not to the extent that it can be now.

Unknown Speaker 22:03
So I don't know what questions I have other than

Unknown Speaker 22:08
they did. Well, let me back up. I do like what you said too, about the small event. So people, particularly after COVID, being trumped up wanting to do events. Yep, we do have.

Unknown Speaker 22:20
We're going to once we opened the front of the house, our first event about a month after the construction, Dan, we're planning it is going to be a donor party, good to recognize them. That'll be the first event and it will be larger donors or significant donors. And then the next day will be all donors or interested parties, or kind of a walk through

Unknown Speaker 22:42
in small community, big theater sign downtown. So people know we're there. But part of it is there was an early effort when we first became a foundation to do some things, it was a larger plan, and is the belief that it won't ever happen.

Unknown Speaker 23:01
So that's the thing here, okay.

Unknown Speaker 23:06
We realize that a one screen historic movie theater is not going to be self sustainable. It is. So we've got a plan for all the things we can do to make this a community center. Right. Can I do can I ask you a question? Is it a theater stage for like plays and things and a theater and movie theater? Or is it just a movie theater? That was originally vaudeville? Okay. So it does the stage but there's not at the moment dressing rooms? Sure. We can do some theater things. There's matter of fact, when it first went into the hands Foundation, they did some community events there. But basically the actors put on their costumes at home and makeup and came and did their thing. Right.

Unknown Speaker 23:52
I want to have TED talks there. I want to

Unknown Speaker 23:56
there's a ballroom of a ballroom on the second floor. Yeah, you're all you might want to check out the bonus workshop from

Unknown Speaker 24:06
from April that Patrick and Rebecca undimmed did, because it's all talking about how to like how to really bring people alongside you at various phases of a big project in a smaller community.

Unknown Speaker 24:23
And so there might be a lot of good ideas there too, just as far as how to structure or how to think about who you talk to who you connect with. Patrick and Rebecca did that conversation. It was a great conversation. So you might find some insight. So that's in your dashboard as well. I would definitely check that one out. April 27.

Unknown Speaker 24:43
To get buy in for your big projects, because they talk a lot about what you just said, which is people couldn't see the vision as we got started. So like now, I love that you're phasing it out. So now that you're phasing it out, like how do you continue to like, come back to people that didn't come in at the beginning like

Unknown Speaker 25:00
Yeah, so that'd be a great conversation for you to watch. Yeah, I think the other thing, Darrell, too, and I got two little points here is, if, if you're looking two things, one, if you're phased out, you're kind of on that retirement edge and you know, sort of doing it, there's a really good opportunity for you to reach out to that next generation of business owners within Coffeyville itself, not the business owners currently, but the next generation, the ones who are going to take over the businesses when those owners retire, or they move on. And then you as somebody who's been in the community a while could almost mentor them on what philanthropy means. And you could set the stage pun intended for gifts that you could have going down the line. So that's number one. Number two, and I'm gonna leave you with as this because I gotta run to because I had a keynote that bumped up 30 minutes, and I gotta go find him crazy. But think about this, and I'll follow up with you have an email as well, as I wrote down, it would be very funny.

Unknown Speaker 25:59
And if you're going to have your donor event after that front of the house is done, and you bring them into the thing is to engage whomever does the community theater or the community theater programs or the high school theater programs, and have them write and act, a one act play or a very small one act play about the need for a theater, and you could do it in comedy of like, why there isn't space. And so they're getting changed on stage behind while they're trying to do a serious acting scene, right? Or they're coming on and there's no space to do X, Y, and Z are they're falling through the old haggard floorboards or however you want to do it. Like the Peter Pan is now like the Peter paint, what's it called? Yeah, wrong. Yes. That or it's like the producers like you could actually have something along the lines of that, again, as a former theater kid, I am obsessed about this, actually. But you could have them and engage them in a way that creates a performance that talks about the need for a place to have a performance that doesn't look like hell in a handbasket. And that they give them the opportunity to kind of go on to bigger and better things only from here for Coffeyville. And you could have this almost, you know, waiting for Guffman. Like producers like one actor in a small play that they could actually write, to showcase the artists, number one, to show what the possibilities would be in the community number two, and to show off the the vision of what you want that theater to do in lieu of TED talks, and a couple of other things net vaudeville sort of moment.

Unknown Speaker 27:35
Or two, I'm trying to get it all down.

Unknown Speaker 27:40
It's good to hop off, and I feel like a jerk for doing that. But Sam is going to take care of you. And I'm going to send you a note here this afternoon. And you and I can talk a little bit of follow up. But you're you're in a good moment because you've already got phase one and phase two practically done. And that proves that people want to see that theater rented, renovated and now it's just finding an alignment for everybody else. Okay, you're awesome. Thank you, sir. Guys. I love talking about theater saga.

Unknown Speaker 28:08
You're the best. Thanks. Thanks for Thanks for amping me up for the next thing I got to do. This is great. Well, good luck to you. We'll talk later. Talk soon. All right. Thank you.

Unknown Speaker 28:18
Semi very quickly. Yeah. Several things that he said that. Know the idea of the next generation of business owners. Yeah, good one.

Unknown Speaker 28:30
I don't know how much do you live in rural America. I was born and raised in rural America. I'm in southwest Minneapolis. But I was born and raised in West Iowa. We're in an industrial town that is half the size. It was when I grew up here. I'm actually from here.

Unknown Speaker 28:59
Okay.

Unknown Speaker 29:02
Are, for the most part, our industrial owners with a few exceptions. The people that manage his time is running companies don't live here. Sure.

Unknown Speaker 29:13
Please don't live here. That's the frustration we're having.

Unknown Speaker 29:18
Well, hang on, let me challenge you a little bit. So it doesn't have to be

Unknown Speaker 29:23
business owners passing their business on to their kids. That's a great way to do it. Because you know, they're local, whatever. But I think when we think about multigenerational giving,

Unknown Speaker 29:34
and we talk about like you put all this effort into some of your larger donors, how can you continue to make them the hero and still continue to then say, Okay, well, this is a cause you feel very strongly about, like, could they introduce you to their kids or to their grandkids? And like, is there a way that you can create an event that encourages them to bring them back in? Because you are it's basically like a warm lead, right. So if if it's something

Unknown Speaker 30:27
project.

Unknown Speaker 30:28
I will tell you, the board member they got me involved on this about six years ago as an ex student, who is one of the individuals just like you're talking to one of our bigger donors, is her family company, her dad or Uncle Ron brothers taking it over as she's working there now and raising three kids.

Unknown Speaker 30:48
But since she's 30, something, and is very involved, it's we have some of those, but as we looked for, one of our fundraisers is from here, but lives actually in Tulsa.

Unknown Speaker 31:03
We have this big refinery out there that he needs, he needs to get back to the city and they have been some assistance is just

Unknown Speaker 31:13
as we've talked to them, they've made all the fundraising local, but it's local, for a whole region. So there's some challenges there, we'll figure those out. I think

Unknown Speaker 31:24
it all comes down to asking the right questions and just learning. And so also, like, just kind of keep in mind and take really good notes. As you have conversations with people, things will start to come out. So it's not always about, it's more about learning their motivations for wanting to be community members, not necessarily asking them about how much they can give or what their capacity to give is like that. So asking better questions will also help you get to some of those roundabout peripheral things. Because the thing about small towns is people will give to small towns, even if they don't live there, because they have that emotional connection. So just kind of keep that in the back of your mind. Have that growth mindset and just ask a ton of questions and learn as much as you can about people and that will help open those doors. Okay, I will tell you, some of our major donors are indeed several of them are people who are giving back to their hometown or elsewhere. I mean, that's we are reaching out to that market. Our two wheel fundraisers on our organization, one list has retired and listen Phoenix half the year and here after year. The other one I mentioned earlier, actually this an hour and a half from here in Tulsa. So we even have board members that will zoom into meetings and may show up when they can but I believe expanded beyond just those visit live here. Anyway, I appreciate listening to you and the help. Yeah, absolutely.

Unknown Speaker 32:46
Good luck with your party. Keep us posted. I will do you have a good day. Thank you. You too. Thank you