Hi, everyone. Welcome to the Give Education Getting Started webinar. We are going to wait just one or two more minutes as there are people still joining, but we're really excited today, so in a couple minutes we'll get started with everything and we want to thank you for joining. And we are going to go ahead and get started. I want to welcome you all to the Give Education Training webinar. My name is Dawn and I'll be leading you through today's presentation. I do have a few housekeeping items to note before jumping in. First, I wanted to let you all know that the webinar will be recorded and posted in the toolkit on the Give Education site under the Resources tab. And then you can use the GoToWebinar chat module to send across questions as they arise and we'll get to those after the webinar today. So I want to introduce, we actually have two additional presenters on the line. Carrie and Josh are here. They're both working with Alumni Nations to really make sure that this Giving Day is awesome for you all. So hello, Carrie and Josh. Well, hello. Thank you so much, Dawn. It's nice to be here and we're very excited to roll out a fantastic program. I just wanted to formally take a minute to introduce myself. I am with Alumni Nations and I am helping organize and orchestrate and be a resource to any of the educational institutions that have any questions or need anything. So I wanted to make sure that you all knew that I was here. We're looking forward to a fantastic Giving Day across the country. And if there's anything that you need, you can always email me at givegive-educationatalumnihanation.com and my email address is currently listed there on the screen so you can see it. But I hope that, and Dawn will show us here in just a few minutes, the toolkits that we've assembled for you on the site are quite comprehensive and I'm hopeful that if there's any questions that you have that the toolkits will be able to assist you with that. But I am always here honestly any time, any day, and you can also contact me via telephone at<PHONE_NUMBER>. They wanted to take a minute as well to introduce Josh who is currently with the Central High Foundation and Josh has had a number of experiences working with Giving Day programs for his educational organization. And I wanted him to share just a little bit about how these Giving Days have been beneficial to his organization and perhaps some of the best practices that he has seen. Josh, can I turn this over to you? And can you tell us just a little bit about your experience with a Giving Day and what it looks like and how beneficial it's been for you? Yeah, absolutely. I hope everybody's doing well. I'm glad we have quite a few attendees on the call today. So this is exciting. As Carrie mentioned, my name is Josh Bucey and I am the Creative Director and Database Administrator for the Omaha Central High School Foundation. And I was trying to think, I believe this is our seventh consecutive Giving Day participation of some kind and we've had a lot of success with it in the past. In the past and now with my co-worker Ali, we kind of create campaigns that are focusing on preparation leading up to the actual day of giving, the day of giving itself, and then kind of wrapping up after the day of giving is over. And so kind of talking about just touching on a few things, we've had a lot of success with our Giving Days in the past. Here at the Foundation, I believe that we've kind of conditioned our donors and alumni to become familiar with our day of giving. They kind of think, you know, springtime, it's kind of in their mind now to kind of keep an eye out for it in the mail when we send a postcard out. So I mean, when we first started though, of course, there was an education piece to kind of get people to understand kind of what the Giving Day was, why we were even doing it in the first place. But I feel like at this point now, we have quite a few of our donors who are very familiar with the concept of it and look forward to it every year, to be entirely honest. And we've been pretty successful, as I mentioned. We kind of use certain tools and things to leverage people's excitement about giving and participating in this Giving Day. So first off, I think our Giving Day is all about our small donors who may only give 10 or 20 dollars. It's a very accessible starting point for a lot of people to jump in and participate. And so they feel like they are able to participate. Secondly, we try to seek out a large donor who is willing to match donations on our Giving Day. And because we do this, people feel like their donations are literally going twice as far as like we like to say, you're doubling your impact because your donation is being matched. This Giving Day is usually online. And so it allows people not only across the United States, but even around the world to participate if they want to. And so for those people, we're in Omaha, Nebraska. And so for those people who no longer live in Omaha, maybe can't attend in-person events, but still love the school, this is an opportunity for them to participate and stay engaged. And finally, I think because we know our constituent base so well, we've kind of built marketing strategies around that that we think are engaging to our alumni. So we try to use a lot of pictures of students and quotes from students from our teacher grants and other things that people who are directly impacted by your donation dollars, people love that kind of stuff. And so Giving Day is a really great opportunity to showcase why donating to your organization is so important and why it matters. And while it may seem kind of daunting or stressful to get started, I think the most important thing is to just kind of to do it. Because we felt like, you know, that first year, we've maybe had decent participation, but every year after, you're kind of building on what you've done in the past. And as Carrie mentioned, there's some fantastic toolkits available to you for this Give Education Day that will really help get you started. And so I think this is just a tremendous opportunity. And I'm also available if you have any questions, or if you want to bounce ideas off of me. Like I said, I believe this is our seventh year doing this. So we kind of have a strategy down of what we like to try to do. But things continue to evolve. But for us, Giving Day has become a pretty important part of our fundraising campaign for the entire fiscal year. So that's a little bit about me and excited to be here. Wonderful. And Josh, thank you so much. And really quick, Josh, can you tell us like, we I know we have some exciting news to announce with regard to the participation prizes that we have landed for our participants who choose to participate and give Education Day. How do prizes help you engage your donors? Do you find that the donors are more excited when they have the opportunity to know that their money could be boosted or that their organization could win a prize? Do they add value? I think so. Yeah. I think any kind of incentive to get people when they think that their dollar is going further than just their simple donation, I think that inspires or gets people excited to get involved. Yeah, we've done in the past some of the Giving Days that we've been a part of have had participation prizes, whether it's an hourly prize of some kind or whoever is the highest achieving organization for a time period, you know, we'll get a prize. There's just little tools or incentives to try to get people to participate. And absolutely, I think people want to know it's a competition for some people, like they like that competitive side of things. But overall, yeah, absolutely, people like that kind of stuff. Great, makes it sort of fun. Don, thanks for the time to allow me to bring Josh and the Central High School Foundation in on this call. I think that it really helps organizations, given that this is the first national give education across the country type of event. I think it I really wanted the opportunity to share with the other organizations a couple of success stories and why this is important to put all you can into it and have some fun and engage your donors. Yeah, of course, of course, you know, and Mighty Cause is just we're really excited to partner with you all for this inaugural event. And we're, you know, obviously looking forward to providing technical support to everyone as they gear up for the big day. So, you know, I also wanted to add in, you know, if anyone does have technical questions or need anything, as you're getting ready, you know, our support team, the Mighty Cause support team is here to help as well. Our email is support at mightycause.com. I will have a there's a full support slide at the end of the stack. That way, you know, you don't feel like you have to write everything down now. But I do want to just give a little bit of background on Mighty Cause in case those on the webinar are not familiar with us. Mighty Cause is a we're a fully functioning organization fundraising suite that a lot of organizations use all year round to raise money for their causes. We've been around since about 2006. And we're actually one of the first platforms to host giving days. So, you know, we've been doing this event for a long time. And again, we're really excited to host give education and partner with alumni nations this year. So, with that, let me jump into the agenda. We are going to be going over some of the basics for the give education giving day. We're going to walk through getting started by registering and customizing your organization page on the platform. And then at the end, we'll do a Q&A session. So, you know, if you do have a question while I'm presenting, just type it into the questions box of your go to webinar panel and we'll definitely make time for it at the end. Okay, so give education basics. So give education is hosted by alumni nations and it's going to take place on March 24. It's a 24 hour giving day that runs from midnight to midnight central time. Early giving starts on March 1. And registration is required for this giving day and any 501c3 organization or school with an NCES code are welcome to participate. For organizations that are not already an alumni nations client, there's a $49 registration fee to complete registration this year. So what is a giving day? Josh sort of touched on it. But a giving day is basically a 24 hour online fundraising marathon that really aims to bring people together to support a specific community, a cause, or a space like education. The giving day hosts, in this case alumni nations, they organize the event and rally organizations to raise funds for their causes. Organizations participating in a giving day really utilize the resources and tools provided by the host to reach out to their supporters, communities to solicit donations, secure fundraisers and really grow their networks. So a giving day is just, it's a really unique campaign that provides participants that opportunity to capitalize on the sense of urgency. You get 24 hours to raise the most money for your cause. Giving days are just a really exciting way for you to engage sponsors, community partners, peer to peer fundraisers to spread the word about your organization and your mission. And again, we'll touch on it throughout the webinar, just raising money for your cause. The limited time frame, it just really creates that sense of urgency that donors tend to respond to. And then the prize is available, like Josh and Kerry mentioned, just give you those fresh messaging opportunities to help incentivize your donors as well. So what does my school or organization need to do? So to participate in Give Education, you'll want to register your organization if you haven't already done so. Once you're registered, you can customize your profile on the Give Education site and really start planning for your campaign. You can invite people involved with your organization to participate as peer to peer fundraisers. And then once Early Giving has started on March 1st, you can really start promoting your campaign. And of course, you'll want to push the donation ask on the actual Giving Day, which is March 24th. So getting started. So first things first, if you haven't already done so, you're going to need to register your organization for the Give Education Giving Day. Registration is free if you're an existing Alumni Nations client and to register, all you need to do is go to give-education.com and click register. On the registration page, you can search for your organization or school and create an account if you've never used Mighty Cos before. And then once you take that step, a short registration form will appear. You can fill it out, click submit and you'll receive the payment prompt to complete your registration. And then within 24 hours, you'll receive an email with some next steps to really help your organization plan for success.  And then, of course, any questions at all during the registration process, please don't hesitate to email our support team at support at mightycos.com. So once you filled out and submitted your registration form, you can click on the user icon in the upper right on the Give-Education site. And this will give you access to your organization account on Mighty Cos for Give Education Day. Your organization account is going to be the hub of your activity for Give Education. So I really recommend taking some time to get to know your account dashboard that appears on the left-hand side of your account. So when you log in, you'll automatically land in your overview section, which is where you'll find a to-do list, which outlines some really great next steps that you can take to customize your organization account on the site. You'll also find metrics there, which will really come in handy once you start raising funds. And then under the Fund Raising section on your dashboard, that's where you can go to customize your organization profile by toggling on the edit mode. And that includes your page metrics, like adding a goal for the giving day, which enables a progress bar on your page. Within that fundraising section, you'll also find the checkout flow, which we're going to talk about in a few slides, as well as matching grants, which Josh touched on it. But if you were able to find a larger donor to provide a larger matching grant during the Give Education Giving Day, then that just really propels your organization forward in terms of dollars raised and motivating your supporters. So we have built-in matching grant tools that I'll touch on later. But that tool is located within the fundraising section on your dashboard. And then below that section is the reports, where you'll be able to preview and export different donation reports. And then lastly, you can manage your organization settings, like URL customization and admin control from the settings section on your dashboard account as well. So jumping into your overall profile for Give Education, your profile is the face of your organization for the giving day. So you're going to want to make sure it looks good and represents you well. And just so you know, your profile link is that link that you'll share with your supporters to ask them to donate to your Give Education page. So to share your page, just copy and paste that URL into an email or a social post or wherever you're advertising the campaign. And then as you're going through your to-do list, you're going to want to customize your profile to match your organization or school's kind of brand, your colors, imaging, etc. You can change your theme color to match your logo. You can upload media to your gallery to add some like visual interest on your page. And your story or description is really going to be the centerpiece of your profile, where donors are coming. In your story, you can put your mission statement. You can add photos and videos. You can embed videos. YouTuber Vimeo is what we accept. So people will be able to go to your profile and watch if you have a little promotional video that you've already put together. They can watch it right there. So this story spot is really where you can go in depth about your work, about your school, any like student case studies, things like that. Just really make a strong appeal to donors. Tell them why your organization needs their support and show the impact of your work. So I spend time customizing your profile because really the more work you put into it, your donors are going to see like if you care, then they'll care. So it's really good idea to just take a little bit of time here and there as you kind of ramp up for give education and add in your story, add in those videos just so that when donors do come to your organization profile on give education day, they can see the kind of work you've put into it. They can see exactly what their money is going to and feel compelled to make a donation. The first thing that you'll want to do when editing your profile is upload your organization's logo. You can use the pencil icon to open up that section for editing. Logos need to have a one-to-one aspect ratio to fit and the logos on Mighty Cause are the same aspect ratio as many social media sites. So if you use your logo as part of your Facebook or Twitter profiles, you can use that same logo here as well. You'll want to make sure your logo doesn't clash with your background image. And then of course the next thing you'll want to do is upload a background image. You can see that the background image here is the hive drive and then the pollen is their logo. Your background image is going to look best if it's mostly text-free and it's a strong image that's representative of your organization. Landscape-oriented images work best. We do offer a generic gallery of images to choose from. So if you don't have an image of your own or you're working on getting one, then you can use the gallery of images that we have in the meantime. You can also change the theme color to match your organization's branding. So the theme color allows you to pick a consistent color that shows throughout the experience. Your organization provides supporters that colors all of your buttons and just really kind of tightens up the whole page look. It's really easy to set. You just click that palette icon on the background image and it'll open up that section for editing. So you can pick a color from the color box provided or if you have some sort of hex code or something to get exact color, you can put that in as well for your theme. So the about section of your page is really your chance to explain what your organization is all about. The text editor is right in that section. It's all on-page editing. So all you have to do is just click into that section and start writing. You can add media to your story to kind of jazz things up. Just really utilize that in-line text editor to add links. You can add headers, bullet points, all sorts of stuff to just really make it visually interesting for people coming to your organization's profile. And I mentioned videos before. If you do have a promotional video, this is a great place to add that in. Those videos will get embedded in your story. So people coming to your profile can just view them right within that section. I don't have to go anywhere at all. You can also add bullet in a numbered list. So this about section is really where you can go in-depth about your work and again make that strong appeal to donors. Tell them why your organization or school needs their support and show the impact of your work. One really cool piece too about this section is you do have the ability to add a custom tab. So if you do have extra info that you want to share that doesn't necessarily make sense to put in your story, you can create a custom tab on your profile to add that information while keeping everything organized and easy to find. So you can add anything to your custom tab. Information about upcoming events, frequently asked questions, information about your staff, acknowledgments, resources, et cetera, et cetera. Whatever you can think of, it's a free form section. So you can add whatever you want. And you can create up to three tabs. So you can label those however you want, fill in whatever content you want, and just really make your profile as interesting and comprehensive as possible so that donors come see the work you put into it, can get the information they need to feel compelled to make that donation. The media gallery on your organization's profile is where you're going to be able to add additional images that you have of your organization. This spot is a really great way to visually show donors what your organization does and where funds are going. One really cool thing is that you can connect your school or organization's Facebook or Instagram account. So this doing that will import the pictures that you already have on those accounts. So it not only provides additional content, but it also lets people come into your page know that you have those social accounts so they can easily follow or like you. And then you can also optimize your social share settings within the settings section. Basically what that means is you can standardize the social template. So whenever someone shares your campaign for good education, you can set a standard logo, blurb, even hashtags that populate whenever a supporter or donor spreads the word about you. So it kind of gives you a little extra control over that. Check out flow. So the next item that you'll want to customize is your organization's checkout flow. So this is located within your fundraiser section on the dashboard. The checkout flow is what your donors experience when they actually make a donation toward your organization. The first part to customize is going to be your checkout steps. This is probably one of the more important features to focus on when you're setting up your organization's profile page. The checkout flow section gives you a lot of control over the donation process for your organization during the Give Education Giving Day. It's going to allow you to opt into collecting the information that you want from donors, like addresses and phone numbers. You can also set up some custom suggested donation amounts, and you can add descriptions to kind of, you know, tie those amounts to items or services that your organization provides, which just strengthens your appeal to donate. And then the checkout steps within your checkout flow also allows you to preview the whole checkout process without actually making a test donation. So you can see what that final process looks like and use that to edit yourself if needed. The post checkout section within your checkout flow is where you're going to go to set up your thank you page and customize your donation receipt, both of which use that same text editor as that story section on your profile. So you can add text, links, a video or image. You can also add a custom button that tells donors, you know, where you'd like them to go next. So, you know, one idea would be, for example, you know, asking them to sign up for your email list or checking out your school's website if you have anything current going on. You can also customize your organization's donation receipt within this post checkout section. This customization that you set appears above the tax deductible donation receipt that gets sent out automatically after a donor completes their donation on the site. So there's a lot you can do in that checkout flow tool to optimize your campaign and customize that checkout process for your donor. So I highly recommend taking the time to set this up. So you can access reports on donations and disbursements in the report section of your dashboard. Clicking on that section is going to give you a submenu where you can choose from your all donations report. There's a report on recurring donations, as well as a donor retention report. You can find the disbursements report here as well. So a lot of finance departments obviously get in on that. The disbursements and donations reports are going to give you a lot of donor data so that you can reconcile your books after the giving day is over. Your donation report is going to be available to you in real time. It's going to include information like a donor name, email, any designations or dedication options that you've decided to collect through your checkout process, the gross and that amount of their donation, etc. You'll also be able to tell what page they donated to as well as lots of other information. Basically the information you set up to collect during that checkout flow process is also going to show in your donation report. So for example, if you turned on the option to collect phone numbers or addresses from donors, when you set up your checkout flow, those answers are going to show in your donation report. And then the disbursement section of your report center also allows you to see the batch disbursement history. You can click on a disbursement listing to open up more information about that disbursement, like exactly which donations were included in that report, as well as a summary of the total amount, total associated fees, net amount included in that disbursement. All donations on the site are processed by the Mighty Cost Foundation, which is a donor advice fund. Your organization can sign up for electronic fund transfer, which is the recommended method since it allows fund disbursement twice monthly. We can also send disbursements via check if that's what you'd prefer. Those get sent out once a month, and there is a $5 administrative fee associated with check disbursements. So it's highly recommend that you sign up for EFT since it's free and you get your money faster. So the fundraising section on your dashboard is where you'll find that matching grants tool that I mentioned earlier. So as I'm sure many of you know, and as Josh mentioned, having a matching grant from a donor or a corporate sponsor can really go a long way in driving donations. So I want to just make sure everyone's aware of the tool that Mighty Cost has specifically for matching grants. A matching grant using this tool is something your organization secures and sets up on your own. This tool allows you to display a matching grant that you've worked to secure on your organization profile. So the matching grants tool is a really versatile tool, and you have a lot of options for how you structure your match. So while a lot of matches are one-to-one, you know, where if someone gives that amount, that exact amount is matched. With our tool, you can also do two-to-one, three-to-one matches. You can match a percentage of each donation. Our matching grant tool does all the math for you. So all you have to do is kind of choose how you want to structure your match, and then the tool will take it from there. You can also apply a match when a certain number of donations have been received. So, you know, for instance, if, you know, there's let's say there's a prize available for the most individual donations during an hour, you know, you could say to your supporters, if you get 100 donations within the hour, then you get an additional $1,000 for your organization. So, you know, however you set your matching grant up, this tool really helps you drive donation volume and traffic to your organization for Give Education Day. And then the matching grant tool also allows you to post multiple grants at the same time and also in sequence.  So, you know, while that might sound like a lot, the tool itself is pretty user-friendly, and you have a lot of flexibility in how you structure your match. So, I would highly suggest just checking out the matching grant tool just to see your possibilities, start brainstorming, coming up with ways to, you know, secure your match to really make the most of it. And then, of course, you know, if you get overwhelmed by the possibilities or you've never done a matching grant before, just setting it up as a one-to-one match is definitely the simplest and easiest thing to do, and it still, you know, ticks the boxes with incentivizing your donors and, you know, getting additional funds for your cause. So, the last section on your dashboard is the settings. If you click Settings, it opens a submenu where you can update your organization settings, customizing your organization's link for Give Education. You can manage your electronic fund transfer. You can update your legal information if needed, customize your social sharing. So, the settings section is, you know, just comprehensive for all of the just administrative things that you can do, and this is also where you can add or remove admins from your account as well. So, every account comes with a few donation widgets that allow you to collect donations for Give Education Day right through your organization or school's regular website. So, your tech person can embed that widget through a secure iframe on your website, and it's going to collect donations that get counted towards your campaign for Give Education. The widgets will reflect the custom checkout flow that you've set up as well, so you know exactly what your donors are experiencing, whether they donate through your Give Education site or through a widget on your regular website. So, these widgets are definitely optional, but it's just another way that, you know, you can collect funds for Give Education Day the way that you want, and, you know, just kind of helps advertise that campaign well too. So, moving on from the dashboard in your Mighty Cards account, I want to make sure that I mentioned again just those really great tools that you can use as you get ready for Give Education Giving Day, and that's going to be your organization toolkit. So, the toolkit's located on the homepage, so if you go to give-education.com, click Resources, and then the toolkit will be right there in the dropdown that appears. The toolkit has lots and lots of tips and tricks. It's got FAQs, walkthroughs. It also has templates that you can use for email and social media to, you know, help get you inspired and figure out how to promote your campaign. There's, you know, a checklist for timelines. We really tried to make it as comprehensive as possible so that when you go there, you know exactly how to get started, the steps you should take to get started, and that way, you know, you're not struggling as you kind of get. If this is your first Giving Day, it's not super hard for you to get it off the ground, or if you've done Giving Days before, there's a lot of more in-depth information in there, in the toolkit as well. Just really great social media guide to kind of give you additional resources if you have done it before. The toolkit is also where you'll be able to find today's training recording, so definitely check out the toolkit if you haven't already and refer back to it as much as you want as you're planning your campaign. It's there. It's ready for you to utilize. We've put a lot of time and energy and effort into it, and, you know, we hope that it just kind of gives you an idea for how the Giving Tale will go and then what you can do to prepare for it. So as we wrap this up, I want to make sure that all the support contact information is here for you to reference. You know, we're all a really great resource before and during the Giving Day for anything campaign related.  You know, if you have general questions, you can email give-educationatalumniations.com. Any technical questions, you can email the Mighty Cost Team support at mightycost.com. And the Mighty Cost Team is available Monday through Friday 9 to 5 for phone and email. And you can reach through email or our phone number is listed there as well for anyone who would prefer a call. And then before we get into questions, I just want to plug our next webinar. It's going to be Wednesday, March 3rd at noon central. We're going to be discussing strategy regarding the tools within your Give Education account as well as email and social media tips and tricks to really help make the most of the opportunity that Alumni Nations is giving you. So you can sign up now for the next webinar. Just go to give-education.com and it's the registration links within the toolkit. So just click on Resources, go to Toolkit, and then you'll be able to see the spot where you can sign up to attend the next webinar. And of course, I, you know, for those of you on the webinar today who have not yet signed up to participate, I highly recommend doing it as soon as possible, just because, you know, you'll be able to make the most out of your time in preparing if you sign up soon. So let's... Don, this is Terry. Can I jump in there for a quick second on your notes? It's perfect. Yeah. I just wanted the opportunity. Don is right. You know, if you haven't signed up and, you know, claimed your registration on the Give-Education website yet, please do so. We have... We're very excited to announce today and this literally is just hot off the presses as of a few hours ago. We were able to secure a $6,000 grant to help participation for you, the participants who sign up for Give Education. How we will be distributing that is yet to come, but there are participating prize money available or there is participating prize money available for you if you do sign up and you might be able to win something through that.  I think you'll set your organization up for great success. So very exciting news and we'll be sending more information out about that shortly. Awesome. Thanks, Carrie. It doesn't look like we have any questions, but I just want, you know, to throw out there again that these giving days are just a really, really great opportunity for marketing for your organization, engagement, support or engagement for your organization.  We know everyone's pressed for time, especially in the current environment that we're in. And so, you know, we would love for you to participate in the Give Education Giving Day so that you can really make the most of this marketing and engagement opportunity. And then, like Carrie said, with the prizes too, it's just a really great opportunity just to, you know, provide new messaging, especially if you've never participated in a Giving Day before. Your supporters are going to be excited about it and interested, especially with that sense of urgency that I talked about earlier. So, you know, if you haven't already registered, please go ahead and do so now. You'll get all of the information from us. Next steps, you'll have plenty of time to kind of set up your campaign, strategize around it. And then, like we mentioned earlier, you can chat with anyone to be able to kind of brainstorm, you know, kind of kick ideas off of us, things like that, just to help make your day a success and make sure that you are getting the most out of your, you know, return on investment of your time. So, this Give Education Day is just a really awesome opportunity, especially, again, in the current environment, it's just really hard on teachers and students and families in general. And so, being able to kind of support your, you know, your organization or your school through this process, it's all online. And it's just a really awesome opportunity from Alumni Nation. So, again, I highly recommend signing up. And then, of course, if you have any questions or need anything, we're here to help. Carrie, I don't know if you have anything else that you want to add. Let's see. I certainly don't. I think that's it. We look forward to seeing everybody get signed up and register and making this a very successful year for you. And then, hopefully seeing you return in the years to come. And I just wanted to say thanks again to Josh. And if you have any questions about how Josh ran his program or what have you, I am certain that I can get in touch with him. Just don't hesitate to send me an email and we can help you out in any way that we can to make this a successful Giving Day for you. It looks like we did have one question come in. So, I will address that since we do have some time. So, this person says, I'm concerned about the timeline, especially to secure a matching gift. Great question. So, obviously, the matching grants are totally optional. They're a great way for you to enhance your Giving Day, but they're definitely not required. And lots of organizations have had successful Giving Days without having a matching grant. So, if this is your first time participating and just thinking about securing a matching grant with the timeline available is just too much, then definitely put it on the docket for next year, but don't worry about it for this year. Focus on emails, creating messaging strategies, which again, all of that, there's templates and everything in the toolkit. So, you can just plug and play. We try to make it really, really easy. But, yeah, if you do have the ability to secure a matching grant, that's awesome, but maybe that's something that you focus on next year so that you're not feeling overwhelmed this year. And just focus on getting the word out to your donors, letting them know when early giving starts, all of that good stuff. And, Don, if I could piggyback on that, you know, oftentimes, I think things like this can seem daunting, but if you think about some of the Giving Campaigns, or even, you know, the day after Thanksgiving or Black Friday or Monday, Cyber Monday, and the Giving Tuesday, I think is what it is, on Facebook, so many people will just say, hey, I'm raising funds for this, and donors are just happy to even throw $10 at their organization. And so, if you can almost take that type of marketing approach, as it's your first year, it's a grassroots marketing approach. You know, if you gain $500, $10,000, you know, either way, just getting it out that way would be important. And I think that that shouldn't, you know, many years, and I would ask Josh, but I suspect that the Central High Foundation's first year, they might not have had matching gifts. But if you get some movement this year, the next year, or the next year, you can go to your corporate partners and say, hey, this past year, we've raised X dollars. We want a matching gift. Can you help us, partner, for Giving Day in 2022? And you have even that much more of a foundation to go ask for those matching gifts in year two, three, four, and five. Exactly. And we will be discussing more on the next webinar, you know, tips to secure a matching gift and, you know, different email and social, you know, strategies that you can take to make it easier on your team. So again, I highly recommend attending the second webinar too, so you can kind of get that additional information and decide if it's something that you, you know, want to pursue this year. Let's see. We did get one other question as well, which, Carrie, you can probably answer this one. What press slash promotion will there be from alumni nations? Or is it just my organization pushing slash promoting the day? Fantastic. Great question. The success for your organization's donations are going to become from the push that you are doing. Alumni nations does not, if you are a member of alumni nations, we obviously can help you with your lists. That's what we do, and we can help you with that. But it's really about the promotion that you provide for yourself, for your organization. We are here to support you in any way. Those are the only questions that came in. Of course, if anyone does have any other questions or thinks of anything later, please don't hesitate to reach out. I will put our, let me go back to the support. Our support information is right there again, so if you think of something later or want just advice, let us know. Give dash education at alumni nations.com or if you've already signed up and have a technical question with your organization account, you can email support at mightycause.com. But again, thank you so much everyone for attending. And we will post, I'll post the recording in the toolkit later today, probably by end of day, at the latest. So you can review this at any time. And yeah, if anyone has any other questions, let us know. But we really appreciate your time today. And we're really excited and hope that you sign up for Give Education. And yeah, everyone have a wonderful day.


Welcome to the non-profit show. We are so glad you found your way back here. But if this is your first time, we're glad that you're here. Also thrilled to have with us in virtual studio, Lashonda Williams. She's a trainer with Fundraising Academy at National University. She's joining us for two days. So this is day one to talk about ethics and non-profit fundraising. Lashonda is not new to us, but this conversation with Lashonda is going to bring some new topics. So stay with us because Julie and I are here. Julia Patrick, she serves as the CEO of the American Non-profit Academy. And I'm Jared Ransom, your non-profit nerd and CEO of the Raven Group. Together, we have been so honored to have the ongoing support from our presenting sponsors that allow us these conversations like a two-day drill down with Lashonda. So thank you to our sponsors that includes Bloomerang American Non-profit Academy, Fundraising Academy at National University, again, thanks to Lashonda for joining us today. Also, thank you to non-profit thought leader, your part-time controller, staffing boutique, non-profit nerd, as well as non-profit tech talk. Again, these companies, they're not only here with us, but they're here with you because they are really on your team to help you do more good to fulfill your mission. And they have helped us to produce nearly a thousand episodes. Can you believe that? So you can still find us on broadcast and podcast and then you can still scan this QR code right in front of you, download that app, and later today, you'll get a notification that our conversation right here, right now with Lashonda has been uploaded. So I want to say welcome back to you, Lashonda. I always love when we have a Fundraising Academy representative on because I know for sure we're going to nerd out. So welcome back. You're happy to be here. Thank you for having me. This is like the perfect time as we're culminating this wonderful 2023 and preparing to ramp up for 2024. Absolutely. I love that you put that into perspective because it seems like it's every day is a whirlwind, right? And we're just moving along, moving along, trying to do everything that we can until we get our chain yanked, so to speak. And we have to talk about ethics. And unfortunately, we don't talk about it until we have to talk about it as opposed to building it into the ecosystem of how we behave and how we approach our profession. And so we really wanted to talk to you about this. It's also, I'm embarrassed to hold up my cause selling book because it's got all these sticky notes on it. But we love sticky notes. That means are you? I do, I do. It's actually, it's in my office. But let's talk about ethics and let's frame it up with what are ethics and then go from there as to in fundraising, what does that mean? Yeah. So LaShonda, tell us what you think about ethics and how we should define it. So ethics is thinking about everything from a global perspective. And when I say global, the most important part of ethics is making sure that you're being honest, you're being upright, you're being forthcoming, you're being responsible, you're being transparent in the way that you're engaging your donors because we want to ensure that as we are representatives of our various nonprofit organizations that those individuals who entrust us with their funds can trust that we will do the right thing with their said funds and we direct the funds according to how they would like them to be directed. But more importantly, having a higher level of accountability for ourselves as fundraising professionals as we're facilitating the relationship. You know, when you think about the cost selling cycle you've got the pre-approach and you've got your discovery but during that process, the information that you are collecting on behalf of the organization and you're getting to know the perspective donor better making sure that you're maintaining that relationship with integrity, that you're asking questions that are essential to the relationship that you're forming on behalf of the organization making sure that how you record that information is in compliance and that it is regulated and not only regulated from an ethical standpoint but ensuring that the way that you document the information is truly reflective of the relationship and how you would like the donor to be perceived and how the donor should be perceived should they be reading those said documents. So you want to make sure that you are being very forthcoming and not necessarily exaggerating opportunities nor are we recording information that is non-essential for a donor's record because again, as a fundraising professional you're held to a higher standard of not only confidentiality but with transparency as far as reporting is concerned and as a professional in the industry you'll have access to information about individuals that is very sensitive. So with that, we have to make sure that we handle that sensitive information in a way to maintain safeguards and to protect donors confidential information as well. Yeah, such good insight LaShonda thanks for starting us off with that. You know, yesterday Julia mentioned to you we had a phenomenal conversation about ethical storytelling using consent and then because we produced over 900 episodes at some point and I cannot remember the guest Julia they shared with us about ethical photography. So ethics are showing up, right? In so many ways. And what I love that you said LaShonda it really for me drives home ethics is not one person's job or responsibility it's all of our jobs and it's all of our responsibilities regardless of your title, right? Like it is across the board inside and out, upside and down, like everything. So you're gonna share with us some ethics basis and I'm really curious to dive deep in this. Again, for those of you watching and listening this is day one of a two-day drill down. So let's get deeper, right? In this conversation LaShonda, ethic base number one, what is this universal code? What are you referring to here? So when we're talking about the universal code of ethics we're talking about ensuring that all of our interaction is limited to things that are trustworthy. When I say limited to we wanna make sure we stay within that scope as we're building a culture of higher ethical standards. We want to ensure that we're fostering a sense of respect within that culture. We also wanna make sure that we're being responsible and as you mentioned earlier it's everyone's responsibility and being everyone's responsibility that means that we need to have standard operational procedures in place as to how we are to conduct ourselves as individuals and how we want to conduct ourselves and be perceived as an organization. In addition to that, we also want to make sure that we are fostering a caring environment because that's really important in the space in which we're currently residing in self care is becoming very paramount as we are navigating balance. As COVID has taught us the importance of balance and how we can continue to safeguard our health as well as maintain high levels of performance and keeping in mind that we want to be ethical in that because with responsibility there also comes some heightened sense of ethical response and how you behave and navigate those opportunities. And then last but not least I think they all culminate and they create a space that from an ethical perspective and creating a universal code that creates citizenship among not just those within the organization's infrastructure but also creates citizenship for those prospective donors and donors that become a part of the organization as they support the various causes. You know, I'm fascinated because so often when we talk about fundraising it's like specific to that group over there down the hall and to the left, right? And what I hear you saying is that this really pulls in across everybody within our organizational structure. It's not just our fundraising folks. Even though we're talking about ethics and fundraising it really, it circles back around. It should be fostered throughout the organization's infrastructure ranging from the person who answers the phone or welcomes our greeters into the organization throughout because at some point each and every one of us within the organization the nonprofit organization will have access to engaging with prospective donors, current donors, recipient of said services and at some levels will have access to sensitive information. So ethics and maintaining that accountability and trust is everyone's responsibility. You know, there are many instances that organizations have non-disclosure, confidentiality agreements that they put in place to ensure that everyone understands the importance of respecting the privacy of those who are our donors as well as those that are recipients of services. Yeah, interesting. You know, the one thing that you just mentioned on the universal code and maybe it was that or the previous just, you know, outlying ethics.  Talk to us about truthfulness because that hit home to me too because I think of, you know, nothing more, nothing less as we kind of take notes on our donors and we capture the information as we would good professionals because we know the work we're doing now is going to, you know, show up a decade from now. So we're really paving the way for our future, you know, professionals. How does truthfulness take a place in this space? So truthfulness is really important because truth is the foundation for any relationship. And as development professionals and the relationship manager on behalf of the organization, we have to make sure that we're very truthful with our current donors as well as prospective donors. And that means being very transparent in what the possibilities are and what the limitations are. There are instances where we may encounter prospective donors who may want to fund something for your organization. However, it's not in alignment with the mission of the organization. So we have to redirect and we have to guide conversation and we have to be forthcoming with what it is that we are actually able to deliver. And most importantly, what our limitations are but how we can work collectively with funders to ensure optimal outcomes and to increase impact on behalf of the organization. So being very transparent with that is very essential as we're thinking about ethical standards. It's paramount. That's at the top of the list. Yeah. And Julia, I love this image you picked. Truth is a verb, right? LaShonda, what does that mean to you? So truth is ever, it's ever changing. It's a verb, it's moving. It is an action. And when you think about action and I'm gonna go a little scientific, it's constantly moving. It's constantly evolving. So there's not a stopping point for the truth. Truth is fluid. And you can't necessarily pick and choose because as you are managing the relationship on behalf of the organization, it's important that you keep open communication and you know with communication that also involves motion, which is a verb. And so you want to make sure that those verbs are meshing very well together and keep an ongoing open conversation that is transparent and is truthful because in essence, it goes back to building trust which is very important if you not only want to secure the relationship but to sustain the relationship. Such insight. It's really, it's a great way to frame this up. And I think especially as we are hearing more and more that the nomenclature around trust philanthropy and trusting the donor trusting or the funder trusting organization enough to be good stewards of the money as opposed to holding on with tight reins and saying that money has to be spent this way and that way. So I love that you bring this up because it kind of puts us into a different lens of how we behave and how we can look at ethics. Let's talk about number three of this ethics base and it's personal accountability. What does that look like to you? And why should we be talking about that in relationship to this whole ecosystem? So personal accountability is also essential because as fundraising professionals, many of us are members of AFP, Association of Fundraising Professionals and we have a code of ethics in which we are required to adhere to. And when engaging with donors, they want to be assured that you understand what your roles and responsibilities are but not only that we're personally accountable not only for maintaining high ethical standards but also making sure that we have systems in place to protect the donor like the donor bill of rights which is very important because we want to create that synergy of the trust, the citizenship, the fluidity we talked about, the verb of truthfulness and all of it works together in concert. And so with personal accountability that also may mean that if in the instance that there are instances of conflicts of interest being very much so a cognitive of that and being very forthcoming in the event that someone's putting you in a position in which it is creating conflict of interest or perhaps compromising yourself and or the organization. Personal accountability also encompasses making sure that as development professionals that we're also treating donors according to the way they should properly be treated which I referenced earlier as we were thinking about the donor bill of rights and recording the information that's only essential making sure how we handle the access to the information as an infrastructure. Are we allowing open records for everyone in the building or are we making sure we have safeguards in place to ensure that only individuals that need to access specific attributes of a donor's profile have that access and are we making sure that we're protecting their privacy because as individuals, your perspective donor will share with you whether or not they'd like to be acknowledged upon the gift and if they want recognition and or if they'd like to receive solicitation methods solicitation methods if they'd like to receive emails, correspondence, phone calls or none at all. So we are accountable as we are navigating and managing the relationship to ensure that we are honoring those donors requests. LaShonda, I have to ask and this is a compliment you and I and Julia, probably many of our viewers and watchers we've been in this field quite some time. We've seen ethics go right and we've seen ethics go wrong, right? Can you help us for our viewers and listeners that are like, oh, this is so sticky. I wish that our organization or whomever, right? Like had some different practices when it came to ethics. So I guess my question really is for many of our viewers and listeners that are still navigating the best ethics base to put into place, how would one go about really championing this for their cause because this is so sticky? So I would say we take the same approach that we would with a prospective donor, linkage, ability, interests, but looking at it from a perspective of an organization holistically and how it would impact the culture. It is to our organization's best interests that we were implementing ethical standards and practices and have policies in place. We have the ability to do that by creating, standard operational procedures, infrastructure to protect privacy, incorporating specific things that are important as it relates to acknowledgement, stewardship and all of the things encompass within the donor cost selling cycle. And then most importantly is to ensure that it's being implemented. And so as you champion that, identifying those key influences within the organization as we would when we're identifying individuals to be champions for our campaigns. And so those key individuals that you have the best relationships with and be very truthful because we started this conversation talking about trust and transparency, express some concerns and you're speaking about it from a preventive measure. We want to ensure that we maintain the integrity and the reputation of our organization. I'm a little bit concerned about some of these things that I may have seen. Can I speak with you in depth about some ideas that I have? What are your thoughts? We cannot make our organizations better if we sit in silence and if we work in silos. So it behooves us to not only implement the ethical practices and standards as we engage with our donors and prospective donors but as we work together as colleagues and empowering each other and making sure that our organization has the essential mechanisms in place to function effectively and also to be able to maximize impact opportunity. Right. Such great advice. Thank you. I know that was a curveball question, but you know, and just when we think we're getting ethics right, something might show up that makes you tilt your head. We've got a series of questions that would love to go through with you here and it's the five question ethics checklist. Number one, is it legal? That is such a good question. I love that it's number one. It's like- Yeah, and it is number one, you know, and we're talking about the cost selling cycle. These are clear questions that we have in the book that Julia just referenced. Isn't it legal? Yeah, show that again, Julia. You know, you've got your sticky note on the legal one. Absolutely. That is like question number one as we're thinking about ethics. And so to find out if it's legal, you know, understanding what your state laws and regulations are, it's very important that it's fundraising professionals. And I keep using the word professionals because if we want to be considered professionals, we need to know what the standard requirements are, how it relates as it relates to IRAs, how we take up DAFs, how we're collecting funds, how we're receding funds. And then, you know, we talk about ethics. Quick Pro Quo is something that often comes into play that you will encounter at some point in your career in understanding what that is and how the implications may impact your organization and being ethically sound enough to recognize it when you hear it coming from across the table from a prospective donor or a donor. Exactly. You know, I think this is really important, especially as there's a confluence of value and donation and in kind and people donating assets and saying, you know, we always say the velvet painting of Elvis, you know, and that a donor will say, well, I'm gonna donate this to you and it's worth $7 million and you're like, not really, it's worth $25 at the park and swap, right? But there's things of value and all of that that's going through. But number two on your checklist is, is it ethical? And so it's really going back to the very beginning of our conversation to kind of frame this up, isn't it? It definitely is. And when you're thinking about, when you're asking yourself that question, is it ethical? You want to really dive in deep and think about from the legal standpoint and you also wanna think about it from a professional standpoint, referencing the AFP ethics rules, referencing the donor bill of rights, making sure that you're in compliance with IRS policies and regulations on how we're documenting gifts, making sure that we're receding things properly. And then also you wanna make sure that you're asking yourself, is this something that I would want to be attributed to me and if I'm comfortable with that? And whenever in doubt, my rule of thumb is always to ask, whenever in doubt, always ask because you don't want to be in a difficult situation in which you're jeopardizing your professional reputation nor the organization's reputation. Yeah, I love that too. And I always find myself, if I'm questioning it, it's important for me to speak it out loud with another professional colleague to say, hey, can you help me think through this, right? Like, what am I seeing? What am I not seeing? What are you seeing differently? And just having that person, I think, is really important. Number three you have here, and I'm being mindful of our time. I know we still got a few to go through, but we have tomorrow is what I want someone to act this way with me. That's a big one. That is the perfect one because it kind of reminds you of John Kenyon is what would you do, right? So we want some more days with you in that manner. And so putting yourself in someone else's shoes for lack of better terms creates an opportunity and a heightened sense of responsibility, obligation and accountability because we want to make sure that best case scenario that you are treating everyone as great as you would like to be treated. And so with that in mind, how would I explain my actions to someone else? If it is something that you do not feel great about or would not feel great about or be embarrassed by, then that means that there is a problem. And so we want to be very mindful of the decisions that we make because again, everything that we do whether we are center stage at work and we are in our professional role, but the things that we do offline, social media has taken flight and we have to be mindful too as we think about personal accountability that we have to be mindful of the types of things that we post because although it may be your personal page, if you say something or put something out there that could be potentially offensive to someone, then it could cause a problem for you professionally and it also could impact the organization. So we just really want to be mindful of those things. Yeah, great point. And when you say social media has taken flight, you are so right, you know, and even personal accounts show up in that professional space just as you mentioned. What's question number four? So of the five question ethics checklist, number four says, how would I explain my actions to someone else? And that is very clear. That's a clear, clear question. And if you are able to explain your actions that they are reflective of reasonable actions, then you're in a great space. But if it is questionable, then that means that you have crossed over those ethical boundaries and that means that there's a problem. But most importantly, if there is a problem in places, as it relates to ethics, is thinking about how is it, can you resolve that particular problem or challenge? But as Jared and Julie, we both led on earlier, it's really important to operate in the premise of being proactive as opposed to being reactive. And then you finish it up and this has been kind of a constant thread in a very quiet but meaningful way throughout this conversation is number five, how will it make me feel about myself and how we build our own reputation, we monitor our own reputation and we stand behind it or we make a correction? Really an interesting thing. You don't often see this question tagged in to ethics, but it really should be there. It should be there because it circles back to personal accountability. Yeah. And so when you're thinking about personal accountability and how it can impact the organization and those that you are engaging with and entrusted to engage with, it's really important that we maintain, again, that highest level of ethical standards and how it makes you feel about myself. I'm not feeling great, like you said earlier, Jared. I have to ask somebody the question and I know that I perhaps may have crossed the line just a little bit. And so what we have to do as professionals in maintaining our accountability is dial it back and also seek assistance in resolving any potential conflicts and or ethical challenges or dilemmas that we see ourselves in. But most importantly, we need to be able to have a co-op, a community of practice in which we can reach out to in the instance that we actually encounter things in real time. And you mentioned earlier, Jared, how there are a variety of different scenarios that happen. I'm excited because one of the things that we have with the fundraising academy is tons of free trainings and with that training, with our last ethics webinar with Adriana, she talks about some specific scenarios and gives clear examples of potential ethical challenges and conflicts of interest in which individuals can kind of take a moment to look back and reflect and identify ways to approach them from a different perspective. Right, which is so important. It's so important. I'm glad you mentioned the portal, the online portal. That's critical. And then I also wanna make a tease because LaShonda in May of this year, the second annual Cultivate Conference will be taking place. So currently, I believe, Fundraising Academy and National University is seeking call for presenters. And soon, I believe the registration will be open. And so it's a day and a half or two days rather this year and I know I will see you there, LaShonda. It's always a great time to be there. Fundraising Academy puts on some phenomenal educational opportunities whether it's online or in person. I should say IRL. I'm sorry, Julia. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. We'll be talking about that more and more and you can get more information at fundraising-academy.org. LaShonda Williams, you know, this is a really a big treat for us. We're gonna have you here for a second day where we drill down even more into this concept and the practice of ethics. As always, your training brings out the best in all of us and I love how you're out there marching all of us along to become more professional and then to get the rest of the sector to understand that this is a profession and an incredibly valued one, right? So we just love having you with us and I always learn something new and I think you always challenge me in a different way and so what is better than that? Again, you can join us tomorrow and we'll have another full day with LaShonda as we do drill down day number two. Again, I'm Julia Patrick, CEO of the American Nonprofit Academy. I've been joined today by the nonprofit nerd herself, Jared R. Ransom, CEO of the Raven Group. That's right, sister, push up those glasses. We can all do that in unison, right? Let's all just beat her. Hey, we're pushing up our glasses along with Blumerang, American Nonprofit Academy, your part-time controller, nonprofit thought leader, fundraising academy at National University, staffing boutique, nonprofit nerd and nonprofit tech talk. Again, these folks have been with us most of them from day one. We're gonna be adding some new sponsors in 2024, which will be fun, but it's really important to recognize these folks that have been with us on this arduous but really fulfilling journey. So we thank them profusely. Hey, okay, LaShonda, get some good rest because tomorrow you're back on my friend and we're gonna drill down on ethics and get even more out of this because it's really, really important work. So thank you. Thank you and you'll have a great day see you tomorrow. Thank you, ladies. Hey, as we end every episode, we want to remind everyone, including ourselves and our viewers and our wonderful guest, LaShonda Williams, to stay well so you can do well. We'll see you back here tomorrow.


Hello and welcome to another episode of the Private Property Homeshopper's Show. My name is Chad Rivera and today we have got something massive for you. An 8 bedroom, 8 bathroom, 18 million rent home in the centre of River Club. Again, one of Sanson's most affluent areas right next to River Club Golf Course. Exactly where apparently our president plays. So follow me as I take you through this stunning contemporary mansion. Let's explore the rooms and let's see what else this place has to offer. Come along.