Hi, I'm here to talk with you about placing images in your course, and note that these are images that are already on the server. Added images in the past before we began with the ecosystem, remember dealing with the sizing of things like images and tables. Well, that's all different and easier now that the templates are pre-formatted. In order to add images, we'll be using the content templates button. There's a whole separate video on content templates, by the way, so check that out. When you're in the edit mode, the content templates button is located right here in the Drupal toolbar, here below my cursor, and it provides a selection of items that can make it easier to build the pages of your course. In addition, and this is really important, these templates include all the correct coding, so you don't even have to think about what's going on behind the scenes. Anything you add with a template will be responsive, accessible, and correctly coded. So let's look at our choices for adding images. I'm going to click on the content templates button and scroll down to the image templates. Here they are. We have image centered, image left, and image right. The important difference among these types is that image centered is the template that we most often use because it's made for images that have captions and credits. Very few images in our courses are simply decorative and require no caption or credit, so this image centered template is the one we use most often. That said, the decorative images do appear in our courses, and when they do, they can be placed at left or right without captioning credit. Here's an example of that right here. This image here has no caption or credit. It's a decorative image, and it can sit right or left instead of center. By the way, remember that these decorative images still require alt tags. They're required to be accessible, so make sure to enter an appropriate alt tag, shortened to the point. One last thing to point out is that in the edit mode, let me go back, take a look at where this appears here, this image, and then when I go to the edit mode, notice that it's all the way to the left. That's just how it works. Be aware of that. All right, let's return. Let's look at a centered image. Here's one right here. You can see that the format's a bit different. We've got the caption and credit below. What I want to do is add another image to this page to show you the process. What I'll do is let's go up here and enter the edit mode, and I'll put my cursor where I'd like another image to appear. Maybe we'll put one right here, so we're right here above the reading assignment. Then I'm going to click the content templates button, and I'll scroll down and choose image centered. You've got a little template on your page, and you just need to choose an image. Right-click on the line that says, where the little icon is, and choose image properties from the box that appears, and then we're going to browse the server using this blue button up here in the corner. In the server, I'm just going to choose an image and place it. Once I click that button, I have access to browse the files on the server. There are lots of ways to organize the files on the server. You may have a folder for each lesson or a folder containing all of the course images, or you may do it some other nice organized way. Here I'm going to choose an image from the images folder. I've got a lesson. Let's find one. Lesson one. Here's a head shot. JPEG. I don't even know what this is. I'm just going to choose it. It's very cool. Okay. I'm going to click on it. Then I can click Insert File next to this green check mark here, and click OK down in the image properties box at the bottom here, and then I'll be automatic return to the edit mode screen where I can enter a caption and a credit. Let me add here that whoever downloaded this image for you should have the credit information stored so that it can be accessed for this purpose. Maybe you have that information yourself, or maybe it's coming from somewhere else. I would say, Instructor, Vera Cole, maybe I took this picture, and I'll add an alt tag here. Save it. Save the page at the bottom. We'll see how Vera's picture shows up. There we go. Caption, credit, centered image, formatted correctly. No worries about sizing. That's it. All right. Thanks for your time. I'll let your learning designer know if you have questions.


Hey friends tonight. We were hanging out at Epcot earlier this morning My friends Jackie and Mark got married here in Epcot's World Showcase at the Italy Pavilion And it was a beautiful ceremony and they are such amazing people So congratulations to both of you and later on tonight We have a private dessert party for Epcot's hermonious kind of as a reception And I figured I'd come out a little bit early and we'd ride some rides and maybe get a drink Any hoos, let's go do this I have to say today's weather is absolutely amazing So amazing, I'm actually wearing pants Well, I was wearing pants because of the wedding But I figured I'd just keep them on because it's such a beautiful day out And it's very rare that I actually wear pants at all I cannot wait to show you guys the fireworks dessert party This isn't something that you can normally book The only reason we're going to be able to experience it tonight is because we were a part of the wedding And it's actually a part of the wedding and they do have some fireworks dining packages Like Rose and Crown and Spice Road table, but nothing on the books right now for a dessert party So this is the only time we're going to be able to show it for Epcot's hermonious I thought about pulling out the My Genie Plus and checking it out But I kind of remembered that it is pointless for me to do that here at Epcot Because all of the rides right now are probably 5 minute waits And the only rides that you would have to try to get is Frozen and Ramy's Ratatouille and you can do the lightning lane with that Also, look at that reflection of Spaceship Earth on my phone Looking fancy For me as a single person, you know what I mean? Like if I wanted to ride Test Track I could just go on a single rider line And I wouldn't have to actually worry about the Genie Plus services The other rides like Spaceship Earth, 5 minute wait Figment, 5 minute wait Soaring might be a little bit difficult, but what? What's the most? 45 minutes? So I think Epcot with Genie Plus service absolutely weighs But I mean, that's just my opinion Oh wow, look at that monorail go Right into the sunset Beautiful, isn't it? I'm thinking maybe I'll head over to Test Track And we'll see what the single rider line is like Like I said, sometimes it's a 20 minute wait Actually all depends on how many odd number guests Are actually riding the ride that day So maybe we'll be able to ride Test Track Then we'll head into World Showcase And then we're going to watch fireworks during a dessert party at Epcot As I was walking over to Test Track I noticed this sign right here said Oh yeah, right there, Remy's Ratatouille Eventual Virtual queue is open So I think I'm going to join a virtual queue And see if it actually works Wow, look at that It's 621 That's insane Holy moly, we just joined the virtual queue That's 621 Pretty amazing So we're going to be able to ride that And not even pay for it That is kind of mind blowing, isn't it? I didn't even think it was a possibility So we're going to be able to ride Remy's Ratatouille a little bit later on And right now Test Track is only a 40 minute standby wait Why would anybody want to get the Genie Plus service today? You know what I mean? Like that's insane Not only is it just 40 minutes But it's also a single rider line So we're just going to hop right in Yeah man, I'm going to go right down the single rider line It also looks like the single rider line is no wait That's pretty impressive I legitimately had a one minute wait To actually ride Test Track in the single rider line You can't beat that And even though I didn't build the car We're going to see if my old one is on there Oh nope, it just created a new one But it looks fancy Really? It does The main seat which you seat belt fastened With hands, arms, and inlets inside the vehicle at all times And please supervise children Sunset! It's beautiful! That was probably the most beautifulest Test Track ride I think I've ever been on The sunset was amazing Whatever you do keep your elbows tucked in You don't want to smash it off One of these hand rails right here And you actually get pretty close to them Look at that That would hurt That is a pretty amazing way to kick off the day And I have to say the sunset was amazing Riding the sunset on Test Track Riding the sunset I wish we could ride the sunset But riding Test Track during the sunset is so amazing Because you can see it just reflecting off Everything up there And it's just beautiful It is so beautiful out I think we're gonna actually head right on into World Showcase Why we still got some light out It's a perfect night for a stroll around World Showcase I can tell you that right now Also another thing I want to do over here in World Showcase Is I want to do a little shopping I want to get my friends Mark and Jackie something Since they got married here at World Showcase I thought it'd be nice to pick them up something From World Showcase Like something from one of the countries Maybe I'll both get them like something joint together I don't know I'll have to think about it But I feel like it'd be very thoughtful you know I have an idea for something I want to get Jackie And I kind of have a faint idea Something I want to get for Mark But we're gonna actually have to go check on it And see if both of them are available But at least we've got a starting point I really hope I'm a good gift buyer For all the people that I have bought gifts for in the past Know that I put in a lot of thought Sometimes maybe I do know how to get a good gift Sometimes I probably strike out on fail But there was a lot of thought behind the fail So hopefully I picked out some good gifts here And if I've bought new gifts in the past And they weren't great I'm sorry Looks like frozen is only a 45 minute wait But that's not the reason I came back here I was trying to think of cool ideas To get something for a bride here at Epcot World Showcase And I thought what about the essence of Norway I feel like that would be something very nice I think that would be a good present Right here it is The essence of Norway And they're actually doing like a special package deal Normally the essence of Norway is I think like almost $100 for this And you can actually get the full bottle of the perfume Then you can get the hand and body cream All in a nice purse And I thought maybe I would get the package deal You know And I have two choices I don't know what to get So this purse actually is the same as this one They kind of go inside out But this one's white with blue So ooh I'm gonna have to make a decision here I hope I get the right one I don't know This is actually getting very difficult Okay I'm feeling pretty good about this Let me know in the comments If you like essence of Norway Or if you actually have the perfume I know a lot of my friends have it And that's why I thought it would be a great gift To give to somebody And it smells very nice I even like the men's version I decided on getting the white handbag Because then it reverses into a nice little navy blue And the total value I think is $119 But like it's like $180 value But if you add up everything So it's actually a really good deal And yeah So we got a handbag A little bit of hand and body cream And then Leila The essence of Norway All right I like I said feel good about this I feel like this is a very nice gift And I feel like people would appreciate it Because you know It's something you want to treat yourself You know what I mean? You'll buy like nice things and stuff like that But you know this is something that Somebody would have to buy to treat themselves So I wanted to give them that luxury You know I like it I think she'll like it a lot too I wanted to see if there was anything here At Good Fortune Gifts And I really don't think there's anything I can get here I thought about maybe one of these puppets I actually remember these when I was growing up They were very popular then And they kind of walk Oh this one's a goat I don't want to touch it so it gets dirty But I'm sure it does all day long I don't know if that would be a good gift though Pretty fancy While I was shopping around Good Fortune Gifts I actually got a little inspiration And I think I know something cool from World Showcase That I can get from Mark So we're going to head on over to the Germany Pavilion But holy moly Look at that sunset I don't want to leave It's so beautiful and captivating Isn't it? Wow Epcot World Showcase is the best for sunsets Plus you get a little bit of that Big beautiful spaceship Earth turning on right now I was actually browsing the stores here Just a couple days ago in the Germany Pavilion And I saw something that was remarkable And I think that would be an amazing gift Inside the Germany Pavilion You can buy a German beer stein With an actual piece of the Berlin Wall on it How crazy is that? It actually comes with a certificate of authenticity Along with it like on the inside See? And you get to own a really cool Beer stein Plus you get to own a piece of the Berlin Wall What do you guys think? Do you think that's a cool unique gift? I mean I would like it I feel like other people might like it too Okay, I decided on getting it I think it's a super rare gift They're very limited edition I think there's only 2,000 of them And it's kind of cool to be able to say Hey, I own a piece of the Berlin Wall Plus I got a beer stein from Germany And like I said I kind of want to get things That are world showcase themed Because they got married here on world showcase So they can look at it, you know what I mean? And the essence of Norway is a very popular thing And it represents Norway And the beer stein represents Germany I don't know I just thought it would be too fancy things Maybe I did good Who knows? We made it over to the Italy Pavilion And I wanted to show you guys How the wedding kind of was set up The chairs were all lined up like right here They had both sides And then the ceremony took place Like right up here in the middle And it was just so beautiful Honestly, Disney weddings are just so magical Add that in So like they were standing up here getting married And that was their view Like that is so amazing, isn't it? What a great wedding Honestly, the ceremony was so beautiful Like I said And they both looked so, so happy And I'm so happy that they invited But I think now we're actually going to head Over to France And check on our Remy's Ratatouille Virtual Queue And then we have to get ready to check in For the dessert party You know what's funny? I don't think I've ever been back here at night Any time I've come so far It's been during the day And I remember seeing this sign All lit up at night In the past before it was open I used to be so excited for it to finally be open And here we are This ride is still new to me It's only like my fourth time riding it since it opened And I love the glasses They sent me down here to come look for Eddie They said go see my friend Eddie Don't know You Eddie? All right, where am I going? Party of one Excellent Oh I love watching the little rats coming into play here Here they come That's us, our chariot awaits Oh, we're taking off The evening, the evening Sweetening rush That is really for you This way A simple omelet? Too simple That's it It's for them, not you What are you doing? I'm dying I need to go see We gotta return these Walt Disney World property Oh, I missed There you go Wow, I have to say Rammies is such a fun ride It's like a perfect family fun ride And the mom scene got me soaked this time Like they, I think they like added more water to that Because I don't remember getting that wet last time I rode the ride But this time it definitely splashed me a little bit harder This is where the dessert parties usually are And there's actually two of them here in the UK And I thought this one was the one we were going to go to But we're actually over on the other side behind the fish and chips Which is going to be an amazing view And I'm so excited for it So we're going to have to go meet up and get ready to get to the party I just met up with the rest of the wedding party And I had to come and exit the park And then they escort us in because a part of this isn't a day ticket So they actually just take us right on into Epcot And right over to the dessert party And I think that's kind of cool Well, this is the coolest thing You gotta follow the lightsaber Look at this Well, this is our spot for the night And look at how cool this is It's all decked out And we'll start going over all the cool offerings Looks like we've got all we care to enjoy Mickey pretzels Which is pretty amazing I mean, that's like so cool, right? And we're gonna take one of those right there No mustard at all I'm not a big mustard fan when it comes to pretzels So we got Mickey pretzels And then I think we got Mickey bars And all the good stuff On top of the Mickey pretzels It looks like we've got Mickey ice cream sandwiches Mickey premium bars Regular ice cream there And some fruit bars So this is like an after hours event But including Mickey pretzels Because you don't get Mickey pretzels during the after hours And then coffee, tea, juices All the good stuff right here This is really actually really fun I went from America to one wall Don't move And last but least the wedding cake We're actually gonna have the wedding cake during the fireworks So we're getting it all cut up And getting ready to relax and enjoy But look at it Oh, it actually looks like a very good cake Now we're all squared away And we have this like reserved area For an hour and a half The park is open till 10 And we got here at 8.30 And we're gonna watch the fireworks And like I said, we got all we care to enjoy Mickey pretzels Mickey premium bars Mickey ice cream sandwiches Regular ice cream Fruit bars The cake The cake is so good And I'm so happy that They waited to actually cut the cake For the fireworks show Or for the fireworks dessert party Because that's like the ultimate dessert Now they do give you champagne But no other alcohol is included So I had to come over here to the Rosencrown Grab myself a beer Which I don't mind doing Because the Rosencrown is right there And regular soft drinks But it's like really nice And like I said, this isn't something you can book either This is all just separate because of the wedding And it's really interesting to see I never knew what it was like actually I always kind of thought it was just a regular dessert party But no, it's definitely something different Like I mentioned before We were escorted in here They actually took us right through the Finger scanners And all the guests don't have a day ticket This is included But you could actually go around and enjoy Epcot If you wanted to I did ask You can even ride rides But I mean, you have this whole area here So you might as well just enjoy it up But in case you did want to enjoy a little Epcot For an hour and a half You can do that Seriously, there's just something so cool About a buffet full of Mickey pretzels I don't know why And just put the lid back on Got to keep those Mickey's nice and soft and toasty Then you take the lid off And then you put it back on Now we get to just sit back and wait for the fireworks I love just sitting here and looking at the fire Great spot to watch the fireworks from And honestly, it was my first time seeing it For Epcot Hormonius And it was beautiful And actually just the whole entire setting was beautiful But now the park is closed So we're gonna have to start making our way out You know, I really believe Epcot has pulled off something I never thought they would be able to do And that's making people actually happy To actually walk out of the park Because you get to look at that big beautiful spaceship berth You know what I mean? Like I literally was just saying we're about to leave And I was like, ooh, I'm so excited I get to see spaceship berth all lit up And there it is Grand and miraculous Seriously, I just get so excited to come out to spaceship berth now I kind of wish I could ride it right now But the park is closed But I don't mind actually standing underneath it And just enjoying the lights for a little bit It is so beautiful This is the best thing that came out of the 50th anniversary Like I really believe that Ooh, it also looks like they're doing a nice celebration Well, a goodbye celebration Look at that A good night kiss That would be a dream for me I want to do that If I retire on Disney, I'd do this every night I think with that, we are done here What amazing day we had today Congratulations to Jackie and Mark I hope you guys liked your gifts And thank you for inviting me to the wedding It was absolutely beautiful The dessert party was so fun And just the overall adventures that we've had All week long I've loved everything So I hope you enjoyed the video I enjoyed making it We'll see you next time Bye Bonus monorail shot


Thank you very much, everybody. We are about to recommence. Also from me, my name is Sarkis Cetia. I work as a postdoc at the Development for Community Designs in ST. And I have the pleasure to introduce to you Niels Christel Andersen. And Niels is the Head of Faculty for Science and Technology. Niels received his PhD from the University in 1990 and continued his academic career first as an assistant professor and then a associate professor and in 2004 he became the fourth professor for the Department of Chemistry. His research is on the development and use of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy which enables visualization of molecules with a degree of detail that you can actually see the individual atoms. He has also had more than 200 publications and has received prestigious research prizes and has also scored substantial research funding. He's also been an active figure in research policy through a number of funds, sports and councils. Most recently the Danish Research Policy Council. Niels grew up on a farm and sure to have understood Andersen's saying about being born in Orchage he became native by the Queen of Denmark in 2009. Fun fact, his two brothers also work for the Orchage University and his twin brother is professor for medicine. Today Niels will give us some updates on the EU actions plan for more women in research and maybe also what we're going to do about these pressing numbers that we just saw previously in the previous talk. So please join me in welcoming Niels Grasthenach Niels. Thank you very much for this very kind introduction, also detailing many aspects. I'll not cover all of it, I would actually be tempted to take a basic lecture in the mass spectroscopy but I think that would not be appropriate here, I think we should address what is the topic of the conference. So first of all I would like to thank the organizers of the Junior Research Association for actually taking the initiative to take this conference on a topic that is extremely important very important that we address this also we not only discuss it but we also try to get some solutions try to get some actions so I think it is extremely important. So thank you very much for taking this initiative and also for inviting me as the sole male speaker today. So that's very good. So the title of my presentation is what is the status on our university's actions. So what I'm talking about is not only what it is at ST but a science technology but also in a more broad sense and the subtitle and I think I'm not sure I invented that myself but let's address it anyway what and why things have not been done. We're trying to do a lot of things but obviously the status could indicate that we should do even more so I think that's probably appropriate. And then I have a hope that is this one connected to something. There it is and that should be where? Yeah? Wow, a table. Yes, so why are we addressing this? That is because it is simply a necessity to actually handle the challenges. If we do not bring in female talent then we will lose on all parameters. We lose on the work environment. We lose on the quality of the science. We lose on education. We lose on innovation. We lose also in having an attractive place to work. All of these things are obviously extremely important so if you look at it from an organization point of view can you afford not to work on better science, better education, better innovation and the parameters we try to measure on. And I think the simple answer to this is no, we have to address this and what we do today is not sufficiently given up to these goals. I think what we should work on is diversity in a broader sense. We should have more female, we should have more international people and we should have more at least this is the same we have to work on a diverse faculty in all branches and there's actually measurements that shows that if you don't do what is easiest that is to work with those you know, those that has the same name I think. I'm in a population of many Milsens so I could select only to work with Milsens but the quality would not be very good. We have to work with people of different gender, different international sex so this is very important. Measures shows this. So the first slide is the easy one. There's no doubt that we should handle this with curiosity. So OSU University has for a long time and that's often if I say it's for a long time then you also request that we have good results because working a long time then you should also be able to show that you have good results. But I have to be honest here and say when I entered as dean in 2013 I was already working on, people were working on trying to establish action plans for OSU University to do this. There was an action plan that took a while to set up. In 2016 we were set up an action plan of OSU University from 2016 to 2020. That is broad. It has a lot of topics what can we do and it was debated a lot what is the action problem and what can we actually do about it. So before we make an action plan obviously we have to understand the problem. That is different from different departments, from different faculties because actually there's some departments we actually don't have a problem. There's actually a completely equal gender population. But there's definitely also departments where it's not the case and if you take the overall average there's far too few females. But what I'm saying with this is the action plans has to be different depending on what is the action issue. If we take in the science and technology if we look into the department of animal science there's a lot of females that actually could have the reverse problem but that should be more amazing. I'm not saying we should do that. I'm saying if you take computer science and mathematics these more tough natural sciences obviously it's a very different picture. So it's very diverse. And that means also that when we put the targets in we put ambitions in that there's a diversity over the university we have to take into account. There is my ministeral focus on this. There's a yearly follow up on the gender balance and following up on the individual targets. There's yearly discussions taking place in all the councils that we have because this is a broad issue and we're trying to take it up in all the fora we have. For two reasons obviously to inform what is going on that is always important you have to do this this is an important issue. But I think also this dialogue actually also pushes us to it's not fun to present too many times not that you don't receive any you don't reach the goals so I think that's also to keep us up to focus. So overall at all universities there's a lot of attention on this and what is the focus obviously if the leadership is not taking its areas then that could be a risk it will not be taking its areas. So that's one of the things. Then we have a lot of focus on the input. We have the composition of the faculties as they are now in the sense that most of the faculty is recruited that's why it's the faculty. So we don't go out to fire people to change the gender balance. So obviously you have to look at the input. The input is recruitment and how you employ people how do you make career tracks, how do you make it attractive to come in and also what we do actually in the recruitment process. So the input is important. Then it's also important that you do some internal actions that is talent development. It's also in particular in the environments where there's a huge difference in gender then obviously you also need to work on culture. You need to work on that it is actually attractive. It's not sufficient that we go out and say you should be employed here as these employment contracts are dual obviously the one we try to employ also have to say yes I actually want to be employed there. So we also have to work on the culture we have to work on making attractive workplace for women. I think actually that is an extremely important point because if you think the environment is not attractive then you don't come, then we can do whatever we do with the recruitment. Then we also look at mobility. I think there's also and I think now unfortunately I didn't hear a kind of presentation but it's also very important that you consider that you don't change it if you do what you always has done and if you don't have open calls if you have only one applicant for each position and things like that then you don't have influence. You don't have something that changes the picture. So that is also very important. So mobility on all aspects is very important. And then removing barriers. It's obviously when we recruit there could be special issues as if you practice here and things like that that is different between genders. So obviously we also have to make sure that we remove barriers where you say instead of just have a career track where you just publish such and such you have to consider the elements that could be periods of your life where before you get attracted to a position you don't have the same ability to deliver on normal parameters but also why you're high. There's differences and we have to compete. So if we address recruitment we have tried to put up some norms for recruitment and that's the reason for bringing this up here is that some of these are important here. Some of them you might say it's counterbalancing. I'm trying to take the overall picture here and obviously the first thing is we need to have many applicants for all positions. It has to be open calls it has to be calls that is not tied down to a specific topic saying we only hire this person that has crowd qualification XYZ it's sort of that means eventually that there's only one applicant. So broad open advertisements that is very important. Search committees if you look into other areas if you look into industry if you look into football if you look into other areas not to compare it with football I'm just saying that it is also very important that we don't only just have an advertisement somewhere it's also important that we are active and that we actually go out and identify the talent that is present out there and you can say now if you are in areas where there's globally few females then obviously more difficult to go out and find them and actually encourage them to apply. So it's not sufficient just to have open calls also need to have recruitment committees and that's something we gradually have established over the first last couple of years at least now actually also in the other factors so we don't see the effect yet. React first if there's too few qualified applicants I think that also is something that current said that in my opinion the qualified applicant in my opinion that's not enough. Members of assessment committee should be external. I think that's also important here because we need to have a diverse assessment committees also the gender issues there is also important but that it has to be external that also means that we put them up with a different balance than we have at present. My tips we are sitting in the appointment committee so we actually look at what is happening we look into long-term space at international topics that's something that debate a lot is that and advances a lot but I think mobility is extremely important here internal candidates cannot be promoted to permanent positions without winning an open competition that means eventually promotion one could say that's two sides of this should we prevent promotion no we should actually have a good faculty so we should have progression but now if all the openings actually are promotions then that's not coming people in so it has to be an open course. So that's some of the things we do on the employment side. Then we look at the statistics how does it look at the university level and I know there was some graphs earlier on but it's not exactly these. Okay I apologize these are in Danish in this let's explain how this is this is PST postdocs then it's assistant professor associate professor professor sips of different kind with special obligation or normal professor sips and this one that's the years obviously we had a plan that goes out to 2020 so I apologize we don't have the numbers for the last ones but that means we have the ambition to follow this also for the coming years. Green means that we have balance then obviously one can discuss is balance how we define I think we define balance as if you have between 40 and 60 percent could go in both directions females then it's balance. You might argue it should be strictly 50-50 so that's what we consider balance that's when it's green when it's red it's below 30 percent so if you look at the graph here just look at the colors don't dig in all the numbers here you'll say where it's green we don't have so much of problem you'll see some progress here but where we have the major progress is in the initial layers of the careers ladder that means at the PhD postdoc associate professor there it seems that there's there's a less of a problem but now if you go down to the end of the careers there you also have to consider here the end of the careers is also many of those is progressed by hirings that was earlier on so there's also a history dimension in this so that it is here it's not the so puzzling because now if you had a policy that was even worse than we have today then you would see that in the ladder categories that's not to accuse it I'm just saying the major problem we have is here that's not the same as we don't have problems here also we can do it better is that okay well I don't know whether it's okay but I'm just saying you understand it you'll receive the facts so good so then if we look at the apartments so this one here was the status that's the population we're talking about this one here is what is happening on the apartments again saying we don't fire to get a better gender balance so it's the input that is important to look at well then you get the same cause it's sort of the same diagram and then you might say well that should obviously be much more green that's the way to change it and it is not we have some yellow red yellow green type of things coming down to the last ones here so there is something happening but it is going slowly we have this one here so it's less red but it's going it's going it's not going extremely fast then you also have to look at how many do we actually influx that's also an issue and where do we influx people and that could explain some of the things it's not an excuse but now if you for example look at the different faculties and we'll have these graphs a little bit later on then obviously we say now if you take big initiatives like you're hiring much more digitization people and much more engineers then obviously don't make it easier to achieve the overall numbers here make them look better because you actually are digging into the more complex areas but this is how the numbers are and obviously what we strive to is to get these numbers more and more green here so that is the action plan I'm showing you numbers that is best this one is very much red it's just different places you can look into hiring committees if you don't have equal gender balance in the hiring committees it could be you have a bias I'm not saying that this is necessarily such that if it was not gender balance that you were in wrong decisions I'm just saying one of the things you could look at there you have an issue actually you start to get actually yellow here at the professional level I think actually that is positive and you should consider in the in these areas here we didn't have so much of a problem because these were green so I think now if one should digest the colors here a little bit I would say this is not the biggest problem the biggest problem is what we're doing here and actually here you see some changes some moves that we actually are at the various departments focused on that we need to have a reasonable gender balance in the committees one problem with these committees here is that if you have a very skew gender balance at the departments could be 10% female and you but a lot of the assessment committees have three members one is a woman then you have the yellow up here so you never become green if you have three members basically smaller than three so it depends from faculty to faculty to department to department how many you have but you're right there's a measure issue I agree what I would like to address is that this is a balance because in all committees everything we do we should have females we should have gender balance in all our committees but the problem there is if you're in areas where there's only 10% females and they should sit in committees then we don't make a very attractive workplace because they're completely come in and most of the time is sitting in committees so it's something we have to do with balance so what I'm saying is that the factors are trying to make this more equal but I'm just saying it can be difficult in different places just a quick question is there now a rule in the assessment committees that must be at least one woman what we do right now is we set the targets and we have the expectation it works and when it doesn't work then obviously as management we have to be tougher and tougher we could also put the request in the search committees we need to have exposed female applicants for all positions that rule you could invoke it could be at some time we need to invoke that rule if we don't move the numbers then it could be we have to do things like that so the strategy and the management plan from various departments and said well that is your solution to this and we actually respect that this is what you put in place and we obviously look at you whether you received the goals so not yet it could be we leave it then as I mentioned last differences between factors I'll show this there's also within the factors there's very much a difference between the departments and even some departments need to more main resources to achieve gender equality that is not the most departments I would say though so there's diversity so if you look at arts the same graphs now get smaller and smaller but now you have learned the color coding what is up and down this is the years this is the career ladder so if you look at arts I think the numbers is not looking so bad they do a good job in having and including instead of competitive culture they are not seen to make more female research apply for funding etc etc so here it doesn't look too bad also I should say they probably also started from a better starting point but still that's not where it's worst they are looking at all the places here also and so they are focused on it if you look at the business social sciences it is also pretty green everywhere and they are also doing a good job and have something that come close to balance but again here it is on the most senior positions to have the biggest problem it's still present and they also have a number of primary accent points what is faculty addressing specifically what is the issues there if you go from the not negative speaking but the more dry areas to the more wet areas we start to see increasing issues not least if you come to the final position so this is for health and they are also trying to address different things and what you see in there all these up for the various factors but everyone tackle in a different way and I think that's actually positive in the sense that they have different challenges at different factors and obviously you need to address these issues by respecting this diversity I think this is very important but here actually looks good and what could be an explanation for this is obviously now what is the competition of those you educate so it starts very early it starts already in the basics school it starts high school so you have sort of a selection process and in health I don't have the number but there's definitely a lot of female students if you have a large number of talent growing up there then obviously you also have more to pick from so that means eventually you will see effects from this also but definitely on the professor level it's completely red not good enough then we don't take this slide so this is how we have the biggest issue that comes from the natural consequence that if you look at also the student attraction to various studies it gets more and more red the more you go to the hardcore science areas that's what we know that means eventually there it's obviously more difficult and you see that all the way to the student level you see it the PhD level you see it in some areas it is more difficult than others so if you blend this in then obviously at science technology you would also expect that's where you have the biggest chances but that's not the same that that is acceptable because actually you would put it the other way it's us that loses most this because when you write that as these pretty many sciences in engineering field science it indicates it indicates that that's only for men most of the degrees there is now probably men but it's something about how you put it you also said that computer science was that was more tough no I didn't say that I think this here is to present to you the numbers it's not to make an advertisement I'm just trying to say you have more historical issues there I agree every page you want but you see that all the way in the education system you see it also earlier on you are completely right you should have the right it starts very early so now there is a lot of focus on the STM education lines the same agenda so it gets more for family success there are certain trends in the different schools of the university and so at the adjunct level especially what you have is huge preparations from year to year so is this new recruitment that you are showing us you have red then you have yellow then you have green you have yellow red again this is a very different trend so I'm wondering perhaps you could expand on why this might be in some years you have and then in the next year you have a completely now obviously color coding here now at the numbers you will say there are fluctuations obviously you have the risk that it goes from 39% to 40% and then you switch in color we follow these fluctuations not such that we change policy from year to year and then one year we are successful because we did something we actually have a lot of continuous focus on improving this so the fluctuations are something we read out when we have higher people this is all the opening that's all the hierarchs I think it's a bit naive to go oh there are a lot of women in biology because when we go to the professor level we don't have so we go from this majority in your undergrad and your PhD and that doesn't necessarily that's not visible and we have a lot of women in biology across the world for a really long time and it's still not reflecting in the professorship so I think it might be a little naive to go oh well we're getting a lot of women down here so in a few years we're going to see it because actually we don't see it here that's not what I'm saying I'm just saying we have the population that we can definitely get from and I think this is important I'm not so naive that I say that this is the same as we solve the problem with the career ladder within the university that's one thing another thing that is important is that we make our positions sufficiently attractive that women actually want to apply for them so that's so I'm not that naive I'm just saying if the pool to take from is bigger then at least well you could say you have no excuse left because so I'm just putting the numbers up I'm not trying to so I think the fair thing is to see the numbers and then take action from the numbers and what I'm saying is that we have an issue here this is not sufficiently good I agree fully with what you said we have actually an even bigger problem if we have a big pool to take from so this one is our numbers and there you can see the MSO is right but we don't last it doesn't hire anyone there so this is an excuse I'm just saying it is on all the latter career steps we have we have a problem this is a serious problem I think we have to make much more effort and make the right image why is it attractive to be here because I think actually there's it's just a matter it's a matter of two times it could be the females that don't want us it could be us that don't have the right processes to attract the females but I think actually back post goes back to us because if the females doesn't think it's a good place to make a career then we don't get them and we should work on this I don't try to be naive I'm only trying to present the numbers can I ask a question to the last the numbers for the post dog and the numbers how long are those positions and who gets those positions post dog positions are not necessarily three years adjunct positions are not necessarily three years so can you say something about that with your numbers who gets sort of the good positions like the three year young position and who is sort of jumping from position to position to position I don't have the specific numbers here but the typical post dog period is something like three years we don't have the normal the way that we what do we call it? that's called there are regulations how we hire people in universities there are strict rules on how long time people can be in various steps so you're not allowed to be post dog for 10 years or something like that you do have to this is to be four years etc so what these numbers how what kind of positions do they reflect are eight months positions everything all all so can you positions or is it just the short ones versus the long ones no I don't have these numbers not at present obviously we can find them but I don't we can find these numbers we know what the contracts are we know who we hire so obviously but I think actually I would I would assume that there's no difference in between the population of post dogs that has more females in the short periods and males in the long I wouldn't guess so but obviously one could look I think actually what one should look at is that the 20 souls here it is moving positively in not permanent positions I think the big barrier is to have we want to move people associate assistant professor here that that covers two things it covers committed assistant professor that is tenure track assistant professor that is those that is on a track and also there is assistant professor that has not promised to be there so I think what the barriers is exactly here how do we get more female passing this barrier that goes from the loose positions to the permanent positions that's where we have it that's where you see the call shift I don't think it's so much inside the various categories of post dogs or PSDs or I think it's this barrier that is the most important but to make the distinction because as you also emphasized if you have one post dog of one year then you have to be prolonged and you have to be prolonged those are the factors that make people leave many of those at ST at least most of these one here is driven by external funding projects and they have a certain duration so when you do this it's not to bring it up to small pieces but it is because of the funding mechanism they're going in they're part of research projects that is typically have a limited research limited periods so there's no intention to have them short by I think it is the body thing that maybe we should possibility to have a longitudinal approach and check what are the chances of successfully reach a permanent position when you are in this university and that is not really reflected here we know I mean we know the general but if you look longitudinally to one person so what are the chances you get a position and how many years does it take for you to get a position longer if you're a woman or not that would be maybe something more serious though I agree on this but I think we talk the same language we have the barrier is how do you pass this one here and that applies to the fully university how do you get more females into the permanent positions that is the basic question so that is what we're working on and the only thing we can do here is that we recruit more females and that is therefore all the action plans on the recruitment this is very very important how is our recruitment processes so that's one side of it that's the only way we can pass this barrier the next one is we need to have a culture that also invites the female to think well actually I want to work here I think maybe it's a little bit too aggressive but only recruitment may be a little bit naive and in the sense that once that you are recruited you need an internal support and let's face it sometimes you have to work against males within your environment that has enormous supports of already existing professors around and that actually you know that's a positive thing actually so when you I think the mentoring at the level of highest positions to actually make sure that the certain persons are not left behind it's also important that you're recruited but once that you are recruited the department really wants you but that was it that was that was the press but that was exactly why I have two sentences the one was recruitment and the other one was the culture thing so I think that was exactly what you were saying I actually said both things because I think both things are important yes now I don't know who someone is following the time I guess because they're not too many questions we'll take one more here because we also have a few slides of what we're doing actually I don't know who is you and we don't focus in how do they change their attitude because it's impossible sometimes when you have a position in some ways even if you're a student in mostly this kind of careers surrounded by men to success because you are shy to express yourself and I came from a very macho society I'm from Mexico and even here I feel more comfortable when I talk with women and also among women instead of men because it's like I feel good and for me nicer to speak between women and even if happens here I think that we have to focus more in that kind of actions rather than the numbers I mean the numbers are important but the culture and for men are more important than women and obviously in the both sides but I think that's exactly why because you sort of said before and I understand that so it's not to defend myself I'll just say before I addressed here engineering and computer science these things the more it goes into that direction more difficult actually the reason there is exactly what you addressed there because there's fewer role models there's fewer that you guys can identify yourself with a career and that makes it so it was not to make any discrimination between fields and women relative to certain fields had nothing with that to do what it has to do with the more you have it equally balanced the easier it is for those potential candidates to identify some they say well I want to make a career like her or him or so I think the role model is very important so let's try to go a little bit on because I have three minutes here so we actually also try to do something so in physics and astronomy and all like this here there's actually a focus on establishing a gender committee that actually has extremely much focus on how do we address these things it could be a matter of words as you also addressed before we have to be very very very careful in our articulation is this a challenge track or is it a talent track there could be things that it is a challenge or talent wordings is important so they are looking very much on this they try to put events up on the full faculty try to put focus on this so there's action points there they also have a diversity committee at computer science addressing these issues so there's really a lot of attention to look into this if you look at engineering and this is all the role model issue they are hiring in candidates there's too few females that are hired in we have search committees we have 300 applicants for the positions that means an enormous pool of applicants but that's not the same as we hire a sufficient amount of females but those that is coming in here is one example from the engineering department that is doing a fantastic job in all respects fundraising trying to establish cross-activity and I think some of these this is just one example some of these dynamics is very important to get in if you look at the basic level they are also working quite a bit this is on the engineering school they actually had an enormous increase in uptake of female students at the engineering programs 46% increase last year admittedly saying from 22 to 30 so the numbers are still low but I think what is important is in all their branding they are sort of trying to illustrate what is engineering it is very important to put up focus on this is actually more diverse so they are doing a fantastic job they are also on the computer science for for girls trying to recruit in that is coming up from the high school mainly female researchers try to explain that computer science is not the same as having a t-shirt on a little bit and too much coke cola what do you call it no cola it is also a matter of identity and trying to explain because we are working against also some attitudes that come from high school and from primary school something I think that is also important that is we have a lot of focus on things that is important and I think females are more clever than the males in some respects they actually work on important problems so I think now we have much more focus on the SDGs the Sustainable Development Goals some of these could also help getting attracted more diverse factors I hope so at least I think trying to make a little bit diverse action in relation to society things we hope could also have in fact you don't think we will see then we obviously also try to get the information from the external side what are they doing in other universities and there is actually many many universities that has exactly the same problems as we have it is not unique things we have an issue but this is actually a global issue so many many places they have these issues and they try to attack them in different ways try to establish different recruitment talents different culture talents, different things so we try to get inspiration from outside also to actually tackle this we are not the only one that is in this boat this is a global issue differs from culture to culture so I think if we look at the challenges that is recruitment the recruitment base is also the job security in academia it could be a few women in leadership positions at universities all places here so what we are trying to do is actually to cover these aspects search committees expand the recruitment base we will try to establish effects job security by career programs could be mentoring programs it could be different departments, different ways and obviously we also focus on recruitment without having this bias that we talk about everywhere we focus on this and now we come to my last minute I think that is over one minute so your ideas in one minute so now we have to be very fast this I have two questions it is not an idea it is an idea too experts in gender studies have demonstrated that we cannot address gender bias separately from other categories like race and on the other side I am from arts and my experience also in Denmark is that open course are not really open course because departments are using different methods like short listing to intervene the process so just a few CVs arrive to the external committee I am wondering if the university is planning to address both issues I think these things are coupled so you could say short lists you could say that is prohibitive somehow but I think you should look at it in a different way at least that is how we look at it because we want to have 300-500 applicants for each call and now if I go to a professor in another university say would you like to for a small fee to evaluate 500 applications then I definitely get a no in many cases so at least if we take so I think actually what we are doing is we are expanding the pool we are trying to get minimal applicants in and then the short list is not the numbers we see I don't know these numbers I think that is not what we do certainly we have no slowness approach at Physics and Astronomy we have used the model from the university to implement this generality so there is such an office at the university level that is part of every level that students master students, PhD and so on all the way to the top these people are helping out with recruitment they have to sit on committees and to make sure that gender bias is addressed at least and to make sure that the short lists have at least a number of women and so on so maybe this would be something that would be implemented at the university level not just the departmental level I think so what I think is happening right now that is an enormous attention at the various departments tackling a problem that is actually very complex so what we do right now is obviously we get the inspiration for what is working here and there and then obviously those the channels that is really working that we should actually make models for the full university so I think it is very very good that in different departments they have different approaches to this and they try to get an experience base out of that that we actually should take care of is scaled to a larger but I think at present different departments all in this process here is taking inspiration from universities that they think is a good role model for how to solve this now you decide on the time here because there are several questions so that's a good question but can we help yourself good because I would like to destroy your program I have a follow up with Dinky so each of the departments some departments actually work really hard and this is like their fitness and astronomy is really good but for instance the ones I am associated with do not have this so my question or my idea for the action plan would be to have some sort of accountability or some sort of because now as far as I understand and I could be wrong what you end up getting at your level is sort of a report on who's been recruited, what the numbers were like etc. but I was just is there a way or maybe that's something to think about is a way to actually have some accountability with the action plan so it's not just a pretty paper I guarantee you there is accountability so actually what we have is action plans where we also have definite targets and we had it up in all these fora here and now if certain departments is not following up to their business then obviously we will have to make action on this so that was also why I said before could it be that we should for search committees always have one female qualified candidate identified before we do some we didn't do these actions yet because we thought first place it is by the ideas and voluntary basis but now if we don't live up to our targets then obviously we have an obligation as managers actually to take action so yes I can guarantee you that we look at them not only look and say this is too bad and this is no actually do something A lot of numbers and their colors I could agree with you that the culture is very important area and it's also a very difficult area because it's such a fluffy phenomenon so what is it really so could you put some words on in your world what is the ideal culture for AU at a broad level in just a few levels let's agree it is artifacts so it is values and then it is taken for granted assumptions so now you want to have it all but I think I think culture is something where you feel that actually there is room for you to pursue your career and your ideas so I think actually I would rather take the measures to try to probe is this really a culture that is inviting for female applicants and I think actually we have the problem that in many places that could be role models it could also be the language it could be the way we have that I think also what you address very much was and that is always dangerous when you stand up like I actually dare to do here even though the numbers are rare it's much more it's very important that we actually present the numbers we dare to do it we also address and take the battles when for example some of you said well now I put certain words on tough areas or whatever you said or something like that so this is all of this so we have to ourselves everywhere have to look at is are we sending the wrong signals culture is much about having something that is really allowing people to be there feel home and actually want to put their life there but what is researchers what is our teachers that is engaged people that can signal out they love to be where they are that's the culture it does go directly into your boxes but I think there's many levels here to look at this I hope you I will end up now I hope at least I gave an honest presentation on how it looks I hope also I convinced you I don't know if that was successful that we actually have very much focused on this this issue that we actually want and need to solve these issues here to get a good university for tomorrow we also have to remember here we are educating people to society that means eventually if we don't have the right culture and the right balance then we also risk that we transmit this to society and that's also an issue so we take it extremely seriously at least I hope I convinced you so thank you very much for your attention


Welcome everybody to another episode of the nonprofit show, you know, Friday is one of my favorite days, not because the weekend is around the corner, it's because we get to join with our friends at Fundraising Academy at National University to do our Friday Ask and Answer. If you've been with us for now, finishing up on three years, 700 episodes, you will know that every Friday we get to bring on a different expert from Fundraising Academy, put them in the hot seat and ask them to respond to the questions that come in to the nonprofit show. Today we're super excited. One of my favorites, LaShonda Williams, who's a trainer from Fundraising Academy based in the great state of Texas in Houston, welcome my friend. Thank you, Julia, and congratulations 700 plus episodes later. I know.  No, no, no, but you're always forever young at heart and I tell people all the time you're never your actual age, you're only as young or as mature as you think you are and you are absolutely young at heart. So forever young, you, you found the fountain of youth. Oh my God, well, that's hilarious. Well, I hope so. Keep drinking that, that special water. Hey, as we move forward with another episode, we want to make sure that we give our gratitude and extend our thanks to our presenting sponsors. They include Blumerang, American nonprofit Academy, your part time controller, be generous, Fundraising Academy at National University, Staffing Boutique, nonprofit thought leader, and the nonprofit nerd. And if you've missed any of our episodes, go ahead and check us out on our archives. You can find us on Roku, YouTube, Amazon Fire TV, and Vimeo, and you can also now stream us on podcast. So wherever you like to queue up your content, we'll be there for you. Plug in those earphones and go with us every day. Okay, are you ready, my friend? I am ready. Let's get started. Okay, now you know, I love, love, love the name with health, because they're always like juicy questions. Okay, so this comes to us from Colorado Springs, Colorado, where, bless our hearts, they've just had a ton of snow in that part of the country.  Okay, how long did it take for you to become confident when making a donor ask? Well, I love my nonprofit and development job. I get sick to my stomach with nerves before an ask. Oh, wow, that is a really great question, and there is no proper answer. So I'll have to be very forthcoming with you. You know, I work in higher ed, and I happen to be working at my alma mater. And so working at my alma mater, I tend to already have a lot of relationships. And so those that I'm engaging with, either I know them directly or we have someone in common. So as a development professional, before you even begin to think about making the ask step one is developing the relationship. And so as you're developing the relationship and get to become more acquainted with your prospective donor, your confidence level should build because you're asking them probing questions to find out what their linkages to your organization, the ability as well as the interest. So with those nerves, I say for me specifically, I've been in the industry full time, six years in my alma mater, and I literally hit the ground running. So within one month, I was asking, however, for literally within one month. And so for others, I say, that you know, think about the scope of the relationship, think about the donor cycle. And for those of you that are familiar with the cost selling cycle, you know, making sure that you've asked all of those critical questions, because confidence comes from knowing your prospective donor. Now in the perfect world, in the perfect world, depending on what level gift you're requesting, because it may be an annual fund level gift, it may be a major gift, those will require different levels of cultivation and engagement. But in general, when you're thinking about a general ask for a smaller shop, I would say the sooner the better. And so I'm thinking no less than a month, I'm sorry, no less than a four month period, because that gives you time to ease them through the donor cycle. Okay, now let me ask you this. Do you find that it's easier to ask somebody that you know, or who went to your school, or have you have some connection, or somebody that you never knew and you started out, you know, in that cost selling cycle from ground one. And I guess I'm asking about this, I think of like personality, and I think about is it harder to ask somebody that you've known for a time, maybe not in this role. So I would, you know, I would say that it depends on the individual. So confidence is a major part of that. And so, you know, I've asked non alumni friends of the institution for financial support. And that is when I allow my passion to truly resonate in storytelling, and why you should support the cause. And the particular person that wrote in, they love their organization, they're committed to the mission. Then the next step is to simply convey that message in a way that the passion resonates.  And as you're talking about the impact of your organization, those butterflies will start to fade away. Because with each ask, obviously, everyone may have some apprehension or some concern. But as you're talking about it, then they become, all of those challenges become alleviated because your entire relationship is manifesting it. And in that moment, as you're telling that story, your confidence will build as you continue to speak with that perspective donor. Now, I know you to be a vibrant, confident, super cool woman. It's easy for you for me to hear this from you.    You are sharing all of the reasons why the individual should support the organization. You're merely summarizing what your individual conversations have already been. And again, you know, the timeframe varies because for principle size gifts, it may take a year or even two. But if we're talking like annual fund level and some major gifts are you're able to cultivate that relationship relatively quickly, because there'll be instances where some donors will come to you ready. And it's a matter of you making sure that you engage them adequately and properly and give them the necessary information to make sure that that deal is sealed. But I say to the to the person with the question, you have the skills. You have the knowledge. You have the passion. Allow it to radiate through in your storytelling. I love it. I love it. Well, let's go on to another question that comes to us from Angela from Los Angeles, California. What is the typical size of a development portfolio and how many personal touches should be made each month? So that's two questions, LaShonda. Explain to us what a development portfolio for those who might not know what that means. So development portfolio is the number of individual prospects that you have that have been pre-qualified, that have demonstrated linkage, ability and interest within your organization. It is a part of phase one of the cost selling cycle, which is that pre-discovery. And so it depends again on the size of your shop. Most of the questions that were being asked are kind of broad questions, but I'd like to give you versions or variations as pertain to the questions. So for a smaller shop, you will have a smaller donor portfolio, because if you're one person singular and you're the director of development doing it all, there's only so many that you can handle. However, in a traditional shop setting, you're looking at anywhere from 100 to 150 for major gifts. And if we're talking principal gifts, then that number will be reduced because again, I mentioned earlier, it may require a little more time to cultivate and engage those relationships. So typical major gift portfolio is around that range. Now, when you're talking about touches, you know, there is the average number of touches and then there is the exception. And there are always exceptions to the rule because every donor is unique and different. So on average, I would say at least six touches because you want to have that initial introduction, the follow up email correspondence. You want to provide them with some newsletters, some content, some collateral related to your organization. And as you're getting to know them, you want to invite them to come to visit the organization. You may engage them in a virtual space. So there's a variety of different touches and each touch will be unique based on your prospective donor. The most important. Time frame, I hate to interrupt, but what's that time frame? So it varies again, depending on the shop. But I would literally, you know, when we're talking about major gifts, it can range anywhere from four months to a year. And the same with principal gifts. Principal gifts tend to take a little longer to cultivate, especially if it's a new relationship. So that's another variable to consider because there are instances where you have a donor that has made a major gift. However, they may have ability to make an even more substantial gift, which you would be cultivating. So it may take a little bit longer to get them to that next level. So again, there's a lot of variables in there. But on average, I would say six touches minimum because you want to make sure that you have not only cultivated the relationship, but you have truly engaged the prospective donor in a very meaningful way. And if you're managing multiple people in a portfolio, there's only so many hours in a given day and so many days a week. Yeah. And, you know, it seems to me and I would love before we move on from Angela, because this is a great question. But it seems to me that a lot of times we hear about portfolios and all this, but we never hear about, like, the management and dare I say, the cleanup. Yes. They just seem to, like, you know, get added on and build on. Can you talk to that a little to us a little bit before we move on? Oh, absolutely. So as you're transitioning prospective donors into becoming donors out, then you will also be securing additional prospects. And so again, it depends on your shop. If you have a prospect researcher in place in some shops I've seen where you're given an updated cold call list on a monthly basis. Yeah, on a monthly basis in larger shops. I'm thinking about one of my former employee employers. And every month there was a different set of prospects available as you're shifting out. So it depends again on the fluidity of your organization, the organization structure, the number of personnel that are front line officers. So there's not a concrete. However, there's like a textbook average response. But again, you have to really think about your organization and set realistic goals and expectations based on resources and those resources being the time, the people and the amount of money that your organization has to invest in those said relationships. Right. Well, I think, you know, when you just listening to you, I mean, this is really an indication of how you need to be strategic and you need to be thinking about this. And I can see two two paths here. You kind of get stuck just trying to keep your head above water or you can really drill down and say, OK, what is it we're going to do to navigate in a very thoughtful, intentional manner to grow our organization and to be more efficient? Exactly. And so with that, you know, it's the end of the year. Now is the time to be thinking about that year Q4. And so looking back was the number of individuals in your profile realistic and manifesting X number of gifts and X dollar amounts? Or is it something that you need to revisit? Because oftentimes we tend to we're very matrix driven, which is great because we want to have those quantifiable. However, the most important part of the entire process and philanthropy is that relationship piece. And that often requires quality time. You know, would you rather rush a prospective donor through the cycle to make an ask at the set dollar amount that you think that they should give? Or would you like to really take your time, dive in? Do all of the work with the pre qualification, you know, thinking about all of their holdings and then making a request for your organization that really is very impactful and they will allow the donor to see the value in all that he or she may bring to the organization. I love that. And I just think what you just said is magical thinking because it's it's just a generally sound way to be processing and thinking about this. Absolutely. I love what you said. Well, let's go on to Janelle from Santa Fe, New Mexico. She writes in, do you have any strategies for setting and keeping goals for the new year? I know this is a wide ranging question, but I want to set myself up for success and not disappointment. That's interesting. I could use some tips. I love it. It just built on and built on the previous question. So I'm loving this. So, you know, Janelle, the reality is now is the time and I'm going to say that consistency. So first and foremost, you know, we are metrics driven in this industry. So what I would say is take a look at your data. Allow your data to be your guide because when you make data based decisions, their sound, their thoughtful, their strategic, they can be intentional. So take a look at your data. What have been your results over the past three years? What has been the trend? How much has been raised? How many donors looking specifically at your retention rate? What is the average gift amount? You know, what are areas that have received significant support? And what are areas that may be priorities that have not received as much support? And that is how you begin to think about creating your strategic plan in essential elements that will provide you with the foundation to move forward to develop your goals. Now, when you're thinking about quantitative value because numbers do matter, looking at your trends, on average, I would say the safe yet stretch approach with goals is looking at the previous year and thinking anywhere from 10 to 15 percent increase based on your pipeline. And your pipeline is important because if you do not have a substantial pipeline, then you may have to modify accordingly. So, you know, setting those goals is important, but having that foundation of the quantitative information, being very strategic and looking at your numbers will help you create that foundation for success. I love that. You know, now I'm a really I'm totally caught up in this whole concept of goal setting and everything. And and I've done this since I was a teenager, you know, all the way through my process for me that has really helped is that and I'm very blessed because I work with three screens. So one screen that I always have up is it's like a task list of the things that I need to do for the day or the week and everything. But I have my goals right now in this like system that we created by month. I mean, obviously they're annual, but then I filter them in so that it's not just at the end of the year. And I'm like, did I achieve my goals? Well, it doesn't work that way. You need to be working on them a little bit, you know, at a time. I also have a porcelain elephant in my office that I look at every day. It's first thing I see when I come into my office and it's to remind me that how do you eat an elephant one bite at a time? Absolutely. Little things that get you propel towards and marching consistently towards your goal. And I think that's really important because I think so often and you've got to hear this as well, LaShonda, people get so frustrated with failure or disappointment. And a lot of times that happens in January because they write goals and then they're like, they don't. It's not enough to set a goal. You've got to set the path to the goal. Like, how are you going to achieve that? You can't just say, I'm going to be a six foot tall, thin blonde by the end of the year. Yeah, I would love that. That's going to require some work. Yeah, and a giant stretching machine in my office. OK, so you got to you got to back up here and say, how do we get to that goal? Exactly. And I think that's for me a big part of it. But yeah, and I love that Janelle wrote, I don't want to set myself up for disappointment. And you're right, you were spot on, Julia, when you said those incremental goals along the way.  And Julia said it best. And that is having those monthly kind of goals. Identify some things that you can do and then make you make the time to celebrate those successes in between. If your annual goal for the next fiscal year is two million dollars at every million at every hundred thousand dollar increment, set yourself up for a celebration because we have to celebrate the small successes because they contribute to the overall arching big picture. And so, yes, absolutely, you know, having the foundation, looking at the numbers, identifying what is realistic, prospect pool and celebrating along the way. You know, I'll add one thing. And this comes to us from I learned this from the nonprofit nerd herself, Jarrett Ransom. And one of the things that she added to my personal equation was good, better, best three tiers.  You know what I'm saying? So that you're like, OK, you have like a goal. And then if you blow by it, you can instead of just given up, you can say, OK, well, how could I be a little bit better in what's best? And that has really changed some of my thinking. And so that is one tip. Again, I learned that from from Jarrett Ransom, the nonprofit nerd. And it it's it's very interesting for me. And maybe it's just my personality, LaShonda, but it's easy to seem like you can work towards that good and then keep going to better and best. Does that make absolutely. It's it. I mean, that is that is absolutely. It constantly thinking about it, evaluating, re-evaluating. And that also allows time in case of you need to pivot just a little bit. Just a little bit, because, you know, we can do our best as, you know, fundraising professionals to plan to the tee. However, there are instances where something will happen that we may not have anticipated, and that is the opportunity for you to pause and to pivot. So yes, giving yourself that latitude is really important as well. Well, if we didn't learn that from COVID, you know, 2020, did it to us. Yeah, baby. OK, Keith, from Cheyenne, Wyoming, just saying the two words Cheyenne, Wyoming gives me a chill because brutal weather, brutal. Right. Oh, OK. Keith, I hope you're warm and toasty. Have you ever heard Keith asks, have you ever heard or worked with a part time fundraiser? We're wondering if this concept would even work. We need to hire a fundraiser. This is a loaded question, isn't it? It is very loaded. It is very complex and it will require a lot of pre-discovery. So, yes, I've had the benefit and the experience of working with a part time fundraiser. So with that, generally speaking, when individuals are preparing for capital campaign, they'll hire part time workers and contract employees. But there are a couple of things that I would love to share with Keith before we even get to that point. You know, first and foremost is really identifying what it is specifically that you'd like that individual to do, what the parameters will be, what the expectations are, what resources you are going to make available and putting together an RFP that is ironclad because you want to make sure you're very clear on that. You'll also need some form of a non-disclosure agreement because you want to make sure that that particular part time professional understands that they're working for your organization. And that organization, the information retrieved is on behalf of the organization. The relationship is owned by the organization. You'll also need the confidentiality agreement. So you want to make sure it's very ironclad. So having all of those fundamentals in place, you know, what are the deliverables and what's the timeframe on those set deliverables for the expectations, what that financial goal is and when those what are the matrix for determining that and then ultimately what the pay period will be. And so when you're thinking about a part time person, I'd start within your network, your AFP chapter, see if anyone else has used a person before because you want to properly vet the individual and make sure that they're truly a fundraising professional. Then in addition to that, after you had an opportunity to complete the vetting process, which is great to identify prospects, but is that individual a good fit for your organization's culture? That's a whole nother conversation. So you want to make sure that that person is a good fit that would be able to benefit your organization, not only from an internal perspective, but outward facing. Does that person possess the personality in addition to the skills that meet your constituency and prospective donors where they are that could yield quantifiable results? So part time fundraisers can be very fun. They can be very helpful, but you also want to make sure that you put in the work to make sure that you're very clear about the expectations and you're protecting donor privacy and the resources that you're making available to the individual, as well as what those deliverables are. You know, it's so interesting hearing you speak on this and helping Keith. The end of this question that Keith writes in, he says, we need to hire a fundraiser. And with what you just said, LaShonda, it almost makes me think that you got to ask the question first. Why? And it's easy to say, well, we need money. OK, right. But but what you said was a process in itself. Exactly. You as an organization have got to really drill down to how this is going to be managed or the expectation of bringing new donors in is never going to be met. Right.  It also creates a heightened sense of urgency. And there are instances that we are being, you know, reactive as opposed to proactive. So I would encourage Keith to, you know, take a second, you know, take a step back and go through the processes of strategically thinking about how that part time fundraiser will benefit the organization. Because keeping in mind with a part time fundraiser, just like with a full time employee, there is going to be training that's required. That individual will have to become, you know, vested within the organization. That individual needs to be very knowledgeable of not only the priorities, the impact, but be able to convey the cause in such a meaningful way that they can be successful, even though they may not be full time. Right. And so, you know, and I'm also thinking at this point, another viable potential option would be, you know, thinking about some of your volunteers of your organization and transitioning them into becoming more involved in the solicitation process, because volunteers are our number one advocate. Volunteers often transition into becoming donors. They're already invested into your organization. They know the organization's mission. They have supported it. And who better they can convey a message to prospective donors than one who has committed their time, which is your most valuable commodity. I love that.  I hadn't thought that I hadn't. My brain hadn't gone there.  And think about that on that whole tool of saying, I'll never forget the time, right? Right. I'll never forget the time I witnessed this or engaged in that. That's mining gold right there. Those those volunteers, they live this. They live it. They know the impact. They have the passion and, you know, when you're talking about volunteers at this point, you still need to make sure you have the confidentiality agreement in place and understanding and defining in what way or what capacity you'll have them to participate in that solicitation process. But, you know, number one top priority in terms of effectiveness and fundraising peer to peer. Yeah. Yeah. And they can also help with, you know, bringing prospective donors in the fold because they have an entire network of friends that the organization may not have any connection with, but they can be that bridge or conduit to increase the number of prospects. So that's definitely a viable option that I would seriously consider. Well, LaShonda Williams, I would say that you are a friend in my network. It has been amazing, as always, to have you on another episode of the nonprofit show. Ask and answer episodes are my favorite. I love watching them when I'm not on them. I love being a part of them when I am. It's just riveting to get somebody else's intelligent observation and commentary and help on these questions that come in. They're super random.  Right. We have a complete variety. Yeah. I appreciate the opportunity to share, you know, with you in dialogue and helping our fundraising industry professionals kind of go through some of the challenges and some of the questions they have. It's absolutely great. Yeah. It's a lot of fun. It really is. And it's a different day every day. And so we are so delighted. LaShonda Williams, trainer with Fundraising Academy extraordinaire based in Houston, Texas. And LaShonda is very interesting because you might have heard her say this, but I want to amplify this a little bit. You know, she comes from the higher ed sector within the nonprofit world. And those to me, LaShonda, those are the kings and queens of fundraising. You know, our higher ed, it's really remarkable. It's truly remarkable what our higher ed sector does. And so it's super cool to have you be with us. And I'm always delighted when I see your name come up on the schedule. The pleasure is all mine. And I can tell you working in higher ed every day has its wonderful benefits. And I tell everyone all the time that the value, the intrinsic value is unquantifiable. And I simply live for commencement day and the day that donors make their first gift. I love it. It's the best. Well, you are a treasure, my friend. I hope you get to enjoy a fabulous holiday. If you joined us in the green room chatter, we were talking about that. And before I go, I want to make sure that we extend our gratitude one more time to our fabulous presenting sponsors, Blumerang, American Nonprofit Academy, your part-time controller, Be Generous, Fundraising Academy at National University, Staffing Boutique, Nonprofit Thought Leader, and Nonprofit Nerd. Hey, my friend, have a fabulous holiday. Happy holidays to you too, Julie. Everyone watching today, and we know that you will have a fantastic new year filled with abundance in all aspects of your life. I love that. I love that's the perfect way to say it. As we end every episode, we'd like to remind ourselves, our viewers, our listeners, our guests to stay well so you can do well. We'll see you back here soon, everyone.


Hey so this is just to say thank you because your generosity has meant that Navara has been able to meet its target of £15,000 so we can move studio in just five days. Because we met our target a whole nine days earlier than we had anticipated we're going to keep crowdfunding a while longer. We're going to try and raise £25,000 in total because that means we can buy equipment which definitely won't break, have better set design and also just put some money into the bits of the organization which could do with a bit of love. So thanks for your help, your support, your patience. Hopefully you'll see it all rewarded in the years to come.


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Hi, sorry, I, uh, okay, you're here, hi, um, sorry, I didn't realize you were coming this early. I forgot about the time change, I think. Hi, I'm ready to do the shows. I'm gonna need a little bit, but we have new dates and everything now, so that's cool. So if you just click on the link down in the description below or you go to, I have to do this.show. My pal's over in Europe and the UK and I'll see you guys real soon. I'll see you guys in May. I've got some fun shows planned, so you can go to all of these shows if you'd like. Again, all the info is down below, so tickets are on sale right now. So, um, get them while they're hot, baby. Also, any tickets that have already been purchased will be honored. You don't have to refund those tickets or, like, re-buy them again. Those tickets will still work. They'll just be transferred to the new date. Also, unfortunately, because of the rescheduling, we did have to cancel the Stockholm date, so I really, really apologize about that. But unfortunately, we just couldn't fit it in to this next rescheduled leg, and that's on me because I was the one that needed to reschedule, so if you're getting mad at anybody, get mad at me. But, uh, yeah, I'm excited. And, uh, I'll see you soon. I'm gonna go back to sleep if that's chill with you though, because it's like five o'clock in the morning, so, uh, go back to sleep.