Welcome everybody to another episode of the nonprofit show. We're really excited to have you here And we're even more excited to have our guest Michelle rub your back Michelle it's been too long since I know you on the nonprofit show. I know I think it was right when COVID was hitting that I I was on yeah, I mean we really Got you on early when we started I've always admired your work I've always loved the things that you've brought to Local community, but you know the national and global side of the nonprofit world So we're really excited to have you here to talk about our Return on relationship and if you joined us in the green room, we were chatting about how things are opening up and Michelle I'm gonna borrow this Calendars are now in conflict again. I'm gonna write that down because I didn't even ever say that until just now You know, it's really it's really true things are ramping up and so how we navigate our relationships even more importantly, so This is gonna be a lot of fun and we are delighted that you're with us. Thank you I can't wait to dig into this again if we haven't met. I'm Julia Patrick CEO of the American nonprofit Academy My trusted sidekick Jarrett Ransom will be back with us tomorrow I want to make sure that we thank all of our presenting sponsors without them We would not be here today with Michelle talking about this Bloomerang American nonprofit Academy your part-time controller be generous Fundraising Academy at National University Staffing boutique nonprofit thought leader and nonprofit nerd These are the folks that stand behind Jarrett and I every day and our team to get this production going It's really an honor that they support us And if you have missed any of our episodes or maybe you have a new issue that you want to explore or do some research We now have close to six hundred and fifty episodes. We have over nine hundred Videos that you can access through Roku YouTube Vimeo and Amazon Fire TV And if you'd like to consume your information via podcast We're there to cue us up where you'd like to get your podcast down those and we'll greet you wherever you may be Okay, Michelle. Rubby your partner synergy philanthropy Huh, I love those two words synergy in philanthropy put it together. What is it that you guys are doing? Well, this is a new business venture for me. I've had my own consulting practice since 2016 and I'm started working with another long-time Arizona professional Alan Knoblock and we for we were working together just at Hawk and found that our Complementary nearly 60 years of experience in Arizona philanthropy was very synergistic very complimentary and our clients were benefiting in in just massive amounts It just was really a great partnership and so we formalized it earlier this year We haven't announced it because there's no marketing for it yet, but we you know, we just when you get us When you hire as you get us, you know, we are not template-based. We don't Just use traditional practices as you know standards We really invest and look into what each client has what resources they have and what can fit them the best and customize our work with them and and really you get both of us which You know without taking up hours of the thing There's a lot of really synergistic and complementary experience. So, you know, we didn't get there alone and neither were all clients So where that's kind of our our plan, you know, I love that I know both of you and that's that's super cool. So congratulations. We're excited about it Oh my gosh, you should be in our in our community should be but let's dig into this a little bit more I'm sure that you and your teams are talking about this ROR we've been so focused on ROI and we've kind of missed out this On this concept. So let's start with ROR. Yeah, this this Julia has been one of my favorite topics for years and I have Used this concept and it is a trademark concept. I wish I had trademarked it Return on relationship. It's our honor. I think he changed it But it was trademarked by a marketing person out of Florida Ted Rubin Who I have since met which I was a little bit starstruck to be honest with you because I've been using this concept for about 15 years and he found me and we got a chance to meet and talk and That was better than any Hollywood star. I've ever talked about but anyways, you know I I have applied return his version of return on relationship Which is very social media and marketing to philanthropy as a refresher kind of perspective on donor engagement and donor relationships It's it's been my practice my experience my success That Relationships this relationship is what prompts donors to come back to your organization to give right in in It's hard with the amount of work That organizations have to not just turn in, you know transaction transaction transaction, but Our world today our technology our our social environment our our just environment has really pushed for that really transactional kind of experience and Um, that's just not doesn't work well for the long term for non-profit So let me give you the definition of what return on relationship is The value that is accrued by a person or brand due to nurturing a relationship The value both perceived and real that will accrue over time through loyalty recommendations and sharing You know, I love that last part about recommendations and sharing and and that spiderweb effect of creating champions on our behalf You know, you've got two key components value and mutual value and meaningful interaction. You know, that's what drives those those That benefit that relationship It's interesting because oddly enough We don't seem to talk about this a lot enough and it seems like It should be such a basic concept But for some reason It's not and it's like a light bulb that goes off. I wonder why that is And you know it it's people talk about it. They think they do it, you know, they yeah, we talk to our donors We're engaged. We're engaged, but it's really about to me that that conscious acknowledgment You know really consciously acknowledging your relationships and and kovat Proved the value of relationships because those that recognized Genuine committed relationships. They knew their donors their donors knew them They had people standing in line. How can we help? Right and they just because they're all there was the trust was there the prior interaction All of that that goes in any relationship Was already there the ones who had been very transactional and didn't really know their donors. Well, I didn't maybe knew a few key donors, but Didn't have automatic communication automatic regular communication and Uh, they were stuck. They really didn't know how to proceed. They didn't know who to call what to do how to talk to the kind of froze So having that just in place where it's it's ongoing genuine communication Understanding that Everybody needs to be brought to the table and you need to meet donors where they are not where you are That's the basis of a relationship, right? And quite honestly this type of work Even though everybody wants to focus on ROI um, yeah, this type of work is a much more effective and efficient use of time of resources of dollars Because it builds long-term sustainability long-term retention So let's talk about that a little bit more because You know, you talk about this we hear about it understanding the impact of donor churn first of all Define donor churn for us quickly. I think we all know what it is, but I think that We don't talk about donor churn and yeah, because it's kind of like the dirty little secret in our sector And you know, probably everybody has a little bit different definition of what they like to consider donor churn for for me It's really just turnover. It's really a poor retention um, it is You lose people. They're always the the organizations are always looking for who's my new donors Who's my new major donors? Give me new donors new donors new donors and my first question to that is wait a minute Have you looked at your database? Have you maximized the relationships with everybody in your database? right because if you haven't Then don't waste the time it costs five times more to go find a new donor than it does to keep a current one happy now You and I have been in this business a long time. I don't know any nonprofit that has five times more uh resources To throw it a problem than they right so I love the way you phrase that michelle. Yeah That's it right that that makes it very real And you know statistically our donor environment is changing I mean the giving us a report the last few years has shown while there's more money out giving The reality is there's fewer donors. So what it takes to replace that one donor Is a lot of work, you know, if you've got five ten So donors are giving maybe there's fewer donors giving more You know, you've got a five ten thousand dollar donor and you lose that one donor Right, that's a ton of work. Whereas if you lose a hundred dollar donor You know a little bit easier to maybe replace that donor so It's very short-sighted this donor turn environment is very short-sighted because they're looking at the bottom line of numbers and dollars And it's also contributing to the turnover in staff, which has been an issue way before covid for nonprofits, right? But it's interesting michelle. I was I was talking with a CEO at a social function on saturday night of a CEO of a nonprofit And we were talking about she said oh, I I see the topic on monday show. I'm really interested in hearing about that And I said, yeah, I said You know, how is your donor churn and what do you think about that and she said I think of donor churn is something that makes me my stomach churn Yeah, and she said, you know, I I have had to reframe my brain To realize that it's okay. You're not going back to the well Yeah, you're you're you're working a relationship and yeah, and I thought wow, you know, that's really true I think that's probably one of those things. It's fear-based. We think oh, we've asked our our cadre of supporters too much. That's why we need to get new donors Yeah, but you know what here's the thing a satisfied donor something you might have maxed out what they give But if they love and they feel valued and they have a good relationship with this organization There that's your pipeline. That's your best source of a pipeline Is the people who know and love you to invite their social personal professional networks in to learn about something that they find valuable That's a lot they can do a lot better job than the the best development professional on earth Yeah, a donor. So if you're maximizing your relationships, it doesn't mean maximizing their Only talking about dollars. You're talking about maximizing their relationships too, right? Yeah Get them engaged. You need board members. You need donors and and you know, the reality is is All of it is needed and all but all of it requires An investment, you know, we is fundraising. We have to earn the right to ask for a gift It doesn't just you know, it doesn't become just because you have money or you pursue money Doesn't mean you automatically should give you have to earn the right, right? I love that you said that, you know, we have a Viewer that's written in and wants to ask you this question Why do you think so many charities fail to continue relationships with former staff? Board members and even the parting even when the parting was amicable Staff may not have been donors while working there, but might become such And many board members gave but need to be reminded to continue Especially with planned gifts it kind of depth that question deptails to what you've been talking about. Well Okay, I'm gonna sound like a consultant because That's okay. We love one of the challenges for any nonprofit organization, especially these days is is having a plan Is taking the time out to put something in place That automates that type of recognition that type of stewardship that type of cultivation And again that short-sightedness of even the board leadership that only your current dollars And numbers count Right. So if you have a plan and it's hard to do during when you're dealing with day to day But it's one of the benefits of of having a consultant where they can get out of the minutiae of the operations At day to day stuff and help build a plan around what types of gaps you might have what types of opportunities you might have And I absolutely agree staff and leadership volunteers Again understanding that maximizing your relationships, but if you have a plan in place like what happens when somebody leaves What happens when a donor leave, you know all these things Can be literally just planned out and put even into a database to automate I agree. I agree and I I appreciate that question because I think it's One of those things that it is short-sighted And again, if we're chasing our tail and always trying to bring in something new that becomes super problematic and more importantly Um, it becomes expensive. I want to navigate now the conversation to donor engagement And I I can't wait to hear what you have to say. I have a sense that we all think of donor engagement in different ways Well, I probably I mean I sometimes say engagement. They're like, what do you mean? You help people get married?  Yeah, yeah And you know people think engagement is very social. Oh, we need to be you know chatty and Being social doesn't mean you can't be strategic Either, you know having the opportunity for conversations is very strategic is very thoughtful. It's very practice based Doesn't mean it can't be it. It doesn't mean it shouldn't be genuine um, you know, my favorite I'm a huge mckenzie scott fan and my favorite quote out of one of her writings was um, how much Or how little money changes hands doesn't make it philanthropy Intention and effort make it philanthropy And that's what engagement is intention and effort What you know, so many are focused on dollars and money. They completely overlook the people And that if you know, again, I could we could sit and talk about example example example of what an engagement means, but really going back to that intention and effort Is about is what engagement is and you know, when it comes to engagement The level of a donor support The amount that they give and the way they give is a direct reflection on your ability to listen To to their wants their needs and their suggestions and that goes back to return on relationship listening understanding the perceived in real value You know, it's it's interesting to hear you say this um because it's such a As I I want to use the word strategic But it's really more of a almost like a thoughtful methodology stepping back and saying k this is really what this means Not just what the action is um, and I'm wondering if you could briefly Talk about the communication side of this because if we're just like, oh my gosh donor engagement That means we have to have the annual gala or we have to have the luncheon or whatever um If we start communicating more and saying because of you that'll be a why method, you know, here's the stat This is what we've achieved more impact communication. What are your thoughts on that? you know I When you talk to your friends and people else, you know, that are not you say, oh, did you see this in the news or Did you you know, did you hear that about that or That's donor engagement too, you know, it doesn't require hours of a luncheon or all that other work It it just requires Knowing them knowing their interests And communicating with them, you know, you seven eight times a year really but that's not an ask every time Right. So if but if you get to know them, it's you know, it's a mindset you talked about it because I teach conscious acknowledgement And I it's a simple it's a quality over quantity shift, right? So forget how donors can give everybody. Oh, how can you give you give through this this this Learn how they want to give Mm-hmm And that's an engagement, right? That's They need to see themselves. You need to help them see themselves is key stakeholders and growing your organization Be clear about their role too, you know, you have a compelling need for them. This is not I don't want to talk about money. I don't want to talk about money. We don't want to talk about a gift We're you know, if you don't say it, they won't know No I love that. Yeah It's genuine. It's real. You know, you need to be thoughtful. You need to understand personal life cycles Not always everybody's taught donor life cycles will personal life cycles are Need to be recognized. Um, you know, when you get a new donor What do you what do you think about that donor? Is it a one-time transaction? You know, what when you acquire a new donor? What what's goes through your mind? it's kind of Again, you know, we can go through we won't go through details of exactly what that all these examples of ways because we don't have time But it's that quality is that conscious acknowledgement quality over quantity shift and again putting plans in place February is their birthday August is their anniversary, you know, you know little communications But if you know it in advance and construction plan around it, it's so efficient and effective And it really Accentuates the long-term value of a donor So I love that you've kind of brought this You've kind of helped us understand some nuance to this and how It really is a strong investment in how the return on relationship is real It's not just a feel-good thing. It's it's an actual movement within our Within the nonprofit sector, but now i'm going to ask you to kind of dig down a little bit and how do we measure this? I mean, is there something that we can say? Yeah, we're going to do this and We're going to actually track Our impact. Yeah It's it's surprising to me how many organizations don't consider retention. And again, that's a number as a personal, you know as individual evaluation goal or a Organizational evaluation goal. They they rarely there. I was in a room of about 25 people talking this And two people raised their hand when I asked them if they knew what their retention rate was And how it compared nationally and you know, it's it's not a measured It's part of like annual, uh, excuse me as personal evaluation metrics So I talk about you can't get rid of the dollars and cents. I mean that's i'm not Promoting that but just forget about how much money you need to make, you know, but you can add to add to it ways to to Allow your your staff your Development staff to pursue relations recognize relationships take A little time. They are not established in the one visit or two visits.   You're 5 10 maybe 15 top. Hey goals met. I got what I need, right? And the other 100 are sitting there going do they even know me? So, you know putting per percentages of a portfolio that need to be contacted um rewarding collaborative asks talk look at Um referrals like we talked about that pipeline. How many individuals came in as a result of relationships with your donors? Yeah, those are measurable.  Yeah I love that because we don't ask that enough No, we don't that's really smart and I would imagine an organization that starts tracking that would then understand Or not even understand, but they'd be emboldened to really navigate towards that r o r Right and they will retain staff better that way because staff need to be invested as much with Need an investment like your donors. They are technically, you know, the same as donors So when your staff are given opportunities to really do their job well and really and and and the metrics Evaluating their performance consider what it takes to really establish a relationship You know almost 200 of the cost of hiring a staff is out the door and Turn over and when you're talking major gift officers, you lose Years of relationship of knowledge of that ingrained opportunity. So it is very costly Very costly very costly. So I always say take a really good look at your budget and make sure you your dollars are allocated to building donor volunteer leadership and staff retention I love that you tagged that in because again A lot of times we look at that as an hr issue and we separate it off from that donor experience and and really adding that into the the r o r I think that's really smart michelle.  It can't be just the development staff It can't be one, you know a ceo It's the board has to go with it the you know the governor all the governance All the process needs to be put in place, but This isn't a high cost, you know, you don't need to add all technology. It's just that shift in in mentality and Recognizing I train every person in an organization Every person in that organization. It has a has a philanthropic responsibility. I don't care what your job title is Right. I love that. I I think it's it's something we don't address enough and it's that from, you know, the Facilities management team all the way to the ceo and obviously onto the board We've got to have them understand that And I think that this is a concept that everybody could get behind with a little bit of group training and to really let that Those folks know That from the moment somebody engages with your organization You can be that champion, you know, or you're Emptying the trash cans or you're serving food in line, whatever Um, it has a it has a value I I have an example of a development a new development officer who built the Culture of philanthropy internally first that was his goal and ended up bringing a A maintenance maintenance person To a grant presentation I love it because that person knew exactly what it took to maintain those facilities And what the needs were and had their hands on it every day And so why does development, you know per staff person? Why should they tell the story when that person has a much Better grip on it And he took him to a grant presentation and they got it, you know, they got it was fantastic I think that is one of the most brilliant examples of this that You know, and that's a little off but it From our conversation, but it's still an example of really Giving everybody the philanthropic wand, right? Everybody And I love that you said giving everybody the philanthropic wand and and I would say michelle Rebi or you've given us on the nonprofit show the philanthropic wand today in your conversation Really cool. You know relationship is it's a it's a word that's so broad And yet, um, it really speaks to the heart of what we do. So thank you for sharing with us Michelle Rebi or partner synergy philanthropy Check out synergy philanthropy. What an exciting time for you and and and I'll I'll say and I'll I'll be grateful for my own community Because I know you're here Where I live and so I appreciate that work and stewardship that you do so beautifully But I I love your message michelle and it's uh It's a really good time for us to hear this Given that we're so inundated with all these things that we feel like we have to get done for the year end But I feel you bringing me back and saying, you know, focus on the relationship You know treadmills are for the gym. We don't need those on in the work environment So pick one or two One or two maybe three if you can key things that you want to Change and and do them well And then go to the next thing don't try and take it all on you can't one or two key changes Then next year do the next one, but julia. I will return the compliment because What you've done for the the nonprofit industry the professionals the organizations the whole sector in allowing Great speakers to come in and share their their knowledge and their expertise is Is invaluable and and I've known you for quite a while was a couple times I've been on your show and I'm just very grateful for the opportunity. I love it You know, I can talk about this stuff all day long. So when I can do it And get it recorded it's even better It is well, thank you very very much and this has been magical and I love starting my day with you I think it's really been great. I can thank you. I just think it's amazing again. I'm julia patrick my trusted sidekick and co-host jerry ranson the nonprofit nerd will be back with us tomorrow Again, we want to thank all of our presenting sponsors who make these conversations Available every day day in day out and we're coming up on year three, which is an amazing thing We want to thank and extend our gratitude to bloom a rang american nonprofit academy your part-time controller be generous fundraising academy at national university Staffing boutique nonprofit thought leader and the nonprofit nerd. Hey, michelle. Thank you so much Thank you, julia. I really appreciate it. It's been lovely and as we like to end every episode we want to remind ourselves our viewers Our guest speakers It's really an important message stay well So you can do well. Thanks so much everybody


In this video, we're gonna define the notion of the span of a set of vectors. So if you have a set of vectors v1, v2 up to vn, we define the span of those vectors to be the set of all possible linear combinations of the vectors v1 up to vp there, vp that should probably be a vn. That's a typo there, sorry. So we take the combination of all the vectors and then we call that the span of the things.  And we call this the subset span by v1, v2 up to vn, right? And this is denoted as span of these things. And this idea of span is gonna be much more important. It's gonna be very important in the future, right? And in which case, we'll talk a lot about the geometric consequences of what we need by span. But for the moment, just accept that the span is the set of linear combinations. So we could ask whether b belongs to the span of some vectors a1, a2 up to an. Now, asking if b is inside the span is the same thing as asking, is b a linear combination of a1, a2 up to an? And as we've seen in previous examples, determining whether b is a linear combination or not comes down to solving this vector equation. So if you're asked, is b in the span of these vectors? Then that means you have to solve this vector equation. Let's look at some examples. So given, we'll work over the real numbers here. So given the vectors a1, which is one, negative two, negative five, and a2, which is two, five, six, is the vector seven, four, negative three in the span of these two vectors? That just means is the equation x1, a1 plus x2, a2, equal b, is this equation consistent? That's really what we're trying to do here. And this equation can be solved with this augmented matrix where the first column is a1, the second column is a2, and the last column is b. Putting your pivot position in the one, one position, to go down, you're gonna have to take row two, plus actually two times row one, and row three plus five times row one. So we're going to get a two, a four, a 14. We're going to get a five, a 10, and a 35. Those will combine together to give us this matrix right here. Then I noticed that in the second column, a second row, excuse me, everything's divisible by nine. So we're gonna divide everything by nine in the second one there. And also this one, everything's divisible by two. It is by two, but I meant by 16. We're still gonna divide everything by 16 in the third row. That brings us down here to this matrix where our pivots in the two, two position. You'll notice that row two and row three are identical with each other. So when I take row three minus row two, you'll get a row of zeros. No contradiction though. Consistency appears to be the case. And I want to point out to you here that we have this row of zeros, but this system has a unique solution. You'll notice that there is a pivot in every single column. And this is a misconception students sometimes have. They think that when you get a row of zeros, that means you have a free variable. Nuh-uh, no sir. You get a free variable if you have a non-pivot column, which we don't actually have that here. The row of zero actually has no effect to it, right? It's like saying, okay, x has to equal three, y has to equal two, and the sky is blue. It doesn't matter. It has nothing to do with what we're trying to consider right now. And sure enough, you can see here when you solve this system, it's in, we're now in row reduced echelon form. We see that when x one equals three and x two equals two, we'll have a solution to the system of equations right here. Therefore, the vector b is a linear combination of a one and a three. It is, in fact, inside the span. And the evidence is here. If you take three times the first vector and two times the second vector, those will add up to be b. And just to verify that, right? The first vector was one, negative two, negative five. The second vector was two, five, six. If you take three times one, that's a three. Two times two is a four. Three plus two, three plus four is seven. Three times negative two is a negative six. Two times five is a 10. 10 minus six is a four. And then lastly, three times negative five is a negative 15. Two times six is a 12. 12 take away 15 is a negative three. We in fact proved it here. We had a unique solution. And so yes, the answer here is yes, b is inside the span of these vectors a one and a two. It just comes down to checking to be inside the span means that you're a linear combination of set vectors and that comes down to solving the associated linear system. Let's do another example of this. Again, we'll work over the real numbers in this situation. We have two vectors a one, which is given as one, negative two, three. A two is given as five, negative, which is, which a two is five, negative 13 and three. And then b is negative three, eight and one. Is b inside the span of these things? Same basic idea here. Let's see, set a one as the first column, a two as the second column, b as the augmented column. Your first pivot will be in the one, one position. So we'll take row two plus two times row one. Row three will be, you'll subtract from the three times row one. So we get two, 10, negative six. We're also gonna get negative three, negative 15 plus nine. The second row will become zero, negative three and two. The third row will become zero, negative 18 and 10. Now in this situation, your pivot will move to the two, two position. I'm okay with the negative three in the pivot position there. We have to get rid of the negative 18 below it, which as 18 is a multiple of three, I'm especially thrilled about that. We'll take our three and then we're gonna subtract from it six times our two. So that's gonna be positive 18 and negative 12. When you row reduce that last one, you're gonna get zero, zero, negative two. Now in this example, you will see that the last row gives us a contradiction. And since we got a contradiction, right, this is saying since like basically zero equals negative two, we're not working on two, we're working over the real numbers. This is a contradiction. So we have inconsistency here. If this linear system is inconsistent, that means that b is not inside the span. Consistency means you're in the span, you are a linear combination. Inconsistency means you're not in the span, you're not a linear combination. And that's all there is to determining whether a vector is a combination of others, whether it's inside the span of others. You can connect this vector equation to a system of linear equations and the solution of said linear equations will help you determine whether you're inside the span or not. That will bring us to the end of section 2.1. Thanks for watching everyone. If you feel like you learned anything, feel free to hit the like button. Feel free to subscribe if you wanna hear more about these videos in the future. Other than that, I will see you next time. Feel free to post questions in the comments below if you have any and I'll see you in section 2.2. Bye everyone.


Section 9 of Harper's Young People, Volume 1, Issue 18, March 2, 1880. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Betty B. Harper's Young People, Volume 1, Issue 18, March 2, 1880. Advertisements. Harper's Young People. Harper's Young People will be issued every Tuesday and may be had at the following rates. Payable in advance, postage free. Single copies, four cents. One subscription, one year, $1.50. Five subscriptions, one year, $7. Subscriptions may begin with any number. When no time is specified, it will be understood that the subscriber desires to commence with the number issued after the receipt of order. Remittances should be made by post office, money order, or draft to avoid risk of loss. Advertising. The extent and character of the circulation of Harper's Young People will render it a first class medium for advertising. 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Illustrated, the three parts complete in one volume, small quarto, half leather, $1.31 or separately in cloth, Part One 53 cents, Part Two 56 cents, Part Three 56 cents. A beautiful and useful work. It presents a general survey of the kingdom of nature in a manner adapted to attract the attention of the child and at the same time to furnish him with accurate and important scientific information. While the work is well suited as a class book for schools, its fresh and simple style cannot fail to render it a great favorite for family reading. The three parts of this book can be had in separate volumes by those who desire it. This will be advisable when the book is to be used in teaching quite young children, especially in schools. Published by Harper & Brothers New York, sent by mail, postage prepaid to any part of the United States on receipt of the price. Children's Picture Books. Square quarto about 800 pages each, beautifully printed on tinted paper, embellished with many illustrations, bound in cloth $1.50 per volume. The Children's Picture Book of Sigacity of Animals with 60 illustrations by Harrison Weir. The Children's Bible Picture Book with 80 illustrations from designs by Stanley, Overbeck, Veit, Schnorr, etc. The Children's Picture Fable Book containing 160 fables with 60 illustrations by Harrison Weir. The Children's Picture Book of Birds with 61 illustrations by W. Harvey. The Children's Picture Book of Quadrupedes and Other Mamellia with 61 illustrations by W. Harvey. Published by Harper & Brothers New York, sent by mail, postage prepaid to any part of the United States on receipt of the price. Books for Young Men. Character. Character by Samuel Smiles. Duodessimo cloth $1. It is in design and execution more like his self-help than any of his other works. Mr. Smiles always writes pleasantly, but he writes best when he is telling anecdotes and using them to enforce a moral that he is too wise to preach about, although he is not afraid to state it plainly. By means of it, self-help at once became a standard book. And character is, in its way, quite as good as self-help. It is a wonderful storehouse of anecdotes and biographical illustrations. Examiner, London. Self-help. Self-help with illustrations of character, conduct, and perseverance by Samuel Smiles. New edition, revised and enlarged, Duodessimo cloth $1. The writings of Samuel Smiles are a valuable aid in the education of boys. His style seems to have been constructed entirely for their tastes. His topics are admirably selected and his mode of communicating excellent lessons of enterprise, truth, and self-reliance might be called insidious and ensnaring if these words did not convey an idea which is only applicable to lessons of an opposite character and tendency taught in the same attractive style. The popularity of this book self-help abroad has made it a powerful instrument of good, and many an English boy as risen from its perusal determined that his life will be molded after that of some of those set before him in this volume. It was written for the youth of another country, but its wealth of instruction has been recognized by its translation into more than one European language. And it is not too much to predict for it a popularity among America boys. New York World. Thrift. Thrift by Samuel Smiles, Duodessimo cloth $1. The mechanic, farmer, apprentice, clerk, merchant, and a large circle of readers outside of these classes will find in the volume a wide range of counsel and advice. Presented in perspicuous language and marked throughout by vigorous good sense, and who, while deriving from it useful lessons for the guidance of their personal affairs, will also be imbibing valuable instruction in an important branch of political economy. We wish it could be placed in the hands of all our youth, especially those who expect to be merchants, artisans, or farmers. Christian Intelligencer, New York. In this useful and sensible work, which should be in the hands of all classes of readers, especially of those whose means are slender, the author does for private economy, what Smith and Ricardo and Bastiat have done for national economy. The one step which separates civilization from savagery, which renders civilization possible, is labor done in excess of immediate necessity. To inculcate this most necessary and most homely of all virtues, we have met with no better teacher than this book, New York World, published by Harper and Brothers New York, sent by mail postage paid to any part of the United States on receipt of the price. Perpetual motion. Tommy was only 10 years of age, but still he was determined to obtain it. At last, one day, he ran into his father's office in ecstasies and shouted, Harrah, Pop, I've got it. Not what, my son, perpetual motion, cried Tommy. I've been watching it for the last half hour, and it works bully. Then, grasping Pop by the hand, come up in the garret and see it. His father went up and sure enough, there was perpetual motion. That is, as long as there was any life left in the dog and that piece of roast beef hung to his tail. The soap box to come, or homemade magic lantern. Would you like to have a magic lantern? Very well, I will tell you how to make it. In the first place, you must procure a burning glass, such as you can get at any toy store for a few cents, or you may perhaps have the glass out of an old telescope.   Now look at figure one and see how the cigar box is placed inside the soap box. Stretch the muslin over the opposite side of the soap box, from which of course you have removed the bottom, and tack it to the edges of the box. Put a lighted candle in the cigar box, as represented in the illustration, and if you hold a drawing or a photograph opposite the glass in the cigar box, it will be reflected on the muslin stretched over the end of the soap box, and you have a magic lantern. One thing more. By looking at figure one, you will see that there are two bars and a crossbar to hold the picture. These can easily be fixed and will save you the trouble of holding the picture in your hand, and will be more steady. By carefully looking at the different drawings, you will soon see how to make one yourself. A brave princess. In one of the sandwich islands in the South Seas is a volcanic mountain with a huge lake of ever-burning fire. This was the reputed abode of the goddess Pele, and her fiery companions, the worship of whom was the central superstition of the islanders. The young princess Capiolani was converted to Christianity through the teaching of the missionaries. Grieving for the ignorance and misery of her people, she resolved to visit the burning mountain of Kilauea, and dare the dreaded Pele to do her worst. There a priestess met her, threatened her with the displeasure of the goddess if she persisted, and prophesied that she and her followers would miserably perish. In defiance of this threat, she and her Christian followers went down to the edge of the burning lake and standing erect she thus spoke. Jehovah is my God. He kindled these fires. I fear not Pele. If I perish by the anger of Pele, then you may fear the power of Pele. But if I trust in Jehovah, and he should save me from the wrath of Pele, then you must fear and serve the Lord Jehovah. Charade. First, I am rocked in the arms of the sea, or tossed on the flowing main, then fold my white wings in some peaceful bay, and imbound to the earth with a chain. Second, there's a fruit with its hue of gold from the land of the tropical sun. I make it a cooling draft to hold to the lips of the thirsty one. Whole, with the tread of many feet, and the changeless roll of the drum, with the deadly volley my foe to greet, mid the flash of steel I come. End of section 9 End of Harper's Young People, Volume 1, Issue 18, March 2, 1880


You are so beautiful to me Joe Cocker. What? Can't you see?  I'm Corbin for this episode on Patreon, exclusive content on there, blocked content Everything on there is up there before it's on YouTube. So if you see a comment from two days ago, it's because they're from Patreon Yep, but today We're doing the Brown Girls Guide to Beauty and the Brown Girls Guide to Gender in the last one Which you didn't see. I did not. So you don't have any idea what's going on. So we're not gonna say anything because it took us by surprise. Yes, we'll say that much. It's poetry Yeah, we knew that. We knew it was poetry, but what we didn't know is And there were some comments by some very ignorant people in the last one I will block you and delete your comments. Just so you know. Yeah, let's go. Yeah, yeah, but we'll talk about that after Oh, wait. Oh, what happened? Oh, no. What did you do? Oh, it's coming. Here we go. It's fine.   They didn't have abs and boss We forget that beauty for men also comes with the cost I have asked for a penny for your thoughts, but I heard being healthy is wealthy and it's both we've lost I'm the color of the strong pregnancy Auntie Sips are non-santi remarking Bipasha would be prettier if she was fair The color of her skin dictates our beauty and that's not the only thing that's unfair when we brown girls devote Against our own deflections every single time an Indian magazine puts a light-skinned girl in a cover calling her brown I asked my mother to get me healthy yellow paste over yellow paste because anything is better than brown Anything is better than dark only light skin with european features are considered odd My friend spaces cover with cream more than his girlfriend's kisses He flinches every time she says she accepts him for his two colors How do I teach him to embrace the color of his skin which he keeps gifting him fairness creams His daily baptism with sunscreen to protect him from sun tans Men lathering themselves to the same behind closed doors because apparently being insecure makes you less of a man When I was asked to be an ideal body type, I was taught they want the curvy cheekbone or the cellulite They want the big butt but they want the thick thighs They want the top small but the waist smaller They want the heart big but the chest bigger And often women of gender reiterate these thoughts, but you see it's internalized. It's what we've been taught So I asked my mom instead of looking for grooms who are fair let's look for grooms who take people fairly Because the color of someone's skin is what we should consider when we look to marry Wurju's belief for penal decisions scale large when he stands on a fairness scale forgets no white say hello to chocolate brown and write my own fairy tale There isn't a single person who is pulled apart by these expectations Brown girls talking getting the right foundation Boys considering weight calculations with all more than our coloration and body types because you and I were all alike With the hope of being able to someday love another let's begin by being our own first lovers Because people aren't made to fit or custom made. It's time. We realize love comes in our shapes and shades It's time. We loved all shapes and shades Longest poem you've ever heard explaining every little thing Right, it's still like I know that this is a thing in India and in other places where it's wanting to be lighter skinned and it's so funny Because in america a lot of like fair skinned girls want to be tan like that's all they want to do And so they get fake tans. They do all they want to have that Golden look they go they go to tanning booths Yeah, they do everything that they can to be tan and since expectation that you're prettier when you're tanner So it's so it's so different It's true. It's it's it's the complete opposite, but it's the exact same And it's so crazy Yeah, and like those other issues they talked about with the the weight and the waist and the boobs and the That was spot on everything she said about that. It's kind of universal Yeah for the body type You want the thing about the no-cellulite you want skinny thighs. It's like For all women around the world. Yeah, then obviously men as well in there that she she threw in there. Yeah She was saying for the abs. Yeah, what she was saying. Yeah, um, but it's nowhere nearly as ingrained in In men as it is for it's just ingrained different. Yeah, it's ingrained between masculine and like for me for I remember when I was growing up because and I think this has been this way for guys mostly, you know for a long time, but like I so looked up to Sylvester Stallone He was the he was the reason I started with weights I wanted and because he and I were were the exact same height And we were very similar physique So there was almost this familial connection with sly. Um, but the great thing about sly was that he never Because I followed him so closely. He's never talked about that as The exterior wasn't what was important. Yeah, it's it's it's it's living like it's being healthy It's it's being holistic and healthy and he asked him He actually wasn't very healthy when he was doing some of the things he did like during rocky three But that's beside the point the the The self-esteem Yeah, I I reached a place where I realized and it was really hard I realized my self-esteem Was too linked to lifting weights. Yeah, and I actually for a time Stopped I still exercised for health But I stopped and I I remember sharing this with some guys that I was friends with and said I have made Muscle building and still owns physique too central to my identity And I remember crying and saying I was scared because I felt like if I didn't have muscles I would be looked at differently. I wouldn't be seen as strong of a man I wouldn't feel like I was a strong of a man and it's still it's still there and like when I'm at the gym I've said this before and it gets me emotional But when I see people that are there that are incredibly out of shape If they only knew how much the people in shape Respect them admire them And you don't want to go over and say that to them because you feel like that's just such a wrong thing to do But you know how hard it is for especially somebody who can't help their body Yeah, maybe they've got something going on with their their hormones or they've got something going on with There some people just genetically are big Yeah, it's I think all shapes and sizes comes across and all and you can't ever be perfect No one's perfect too muscular and this is for girls too Like you're either way too skinny and you need to eat if you have weight on you That's not muscled in your fat and then if you're super muscular, you're like a boy So it's just like you can't ever you're not thin enough You're not big enough. Yeah strong enough your teeth would it and it's so sad because There some people will have their ideas of perfect But for someone else that perfection is oh, no, you're too skinny.  I mean it has to start there. Yeah, but the biggest problems with this are media entertainment Yep in propagating the lies that This is what this is what this is what beauty is subconsciously unconsciously like even the specific people Luckily it's changing Actors and models They won't do photo shoots if it's ever Gonna be photoshopped. They're doing less to make them Yeah, but you gotta be able to see You can't that's a very slim margin. Yeah, because those are the only the people with the power to say Hey, vogue, I'll do your cover, but we're doing a mile Most people will say yeah, no Yeah, and they don't have an option Technically like we could go out for a modeling job and we wouldn't have that power No tell them anything they do whatever they want. We sign a contract and they kind of do what they want, right? And they make us look completely different than we actually are Exactly, so it's only the people at the top who it's it's important for them to take a stand Uh and do the right thing, but it's sad how long it's taking. I had someone message me on instagram about their skin color because of the video we had done about that and And how like she was saying but in the video the kinds of things that has to be dealt with and Family members saying you're too brown.  You'll never marry that kind of guy. You're too brown family members and stuff And I actually do that here too. Oh, they do but I had here's the thing I had to say to them something that was said long time ago Somebody once said Don't judge people by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character And that was Martin Luther King jr. Doing the civil rights moment of the 1960s who He had the balls to say that and he was shot and killed And now we're still having to say that to people, you know, it's still a problem We're stuck. We've come a long way. Yeah, but we got a long way to go And a lot of issues Small steps In the right direction this this girl. She's a fantastic fantastic. I don't know if she does anything else if she's like an actress Or or what she is, but you know, you know what I like best about her I don't know. She's just a poet what I like best about her poetry Aside from the poetic nature where she links from things together powerfully with English language.  That's very true. And she she doesn't do that. She's just expressing it She is just talking passionately. Yes. It needs to change like Martin Luther King would he had no bone to pick with anybody But he was gonna stand with the line your bad your bad your bad You can beat me Yeah, but still people that they think that anybody talking about a problem that they don't see as a problem They think they're just playing the victim. I know which is comments. We got in the last one I'm sure we'll get comments on this one and you'll be blocked. Don't worry. Yeah, I'll do that for you. Yeah But uh, but yeah the So everybody wherever you are around the world, there's people like that They don't they don't want to deal with the issue. So they think you're just complaining Right, and that's part of the problem. Yeah, right those people. They don't want to acknowledge that there's these issues You have to acknowledge it. It's just ignoring it. It's not right ignoring. It's way easier. Right anytime There'll be people there will be people in every country in the world who just because a woman Stands up for herself whatever the case may be not about being a woman. It could be for any reason for anything They will say a more feminist crap. Yep It could be for something that's specifically for men and they will still say that's a feminist thing. Yeah, it doesn't matter Okay, that's the problem. And I don't know how to fix that. Yeah, I don't need it Definitely any sense. I think the gene pool needs some chlorine We need another plague Corbin would say that


This study aims to provide guidance on integrating generative AI and large language models into health care and medical practices, highlighting the distinct mechanisms underpinning these technologies such as reinforcement learning from human feedback, RLFH, and emphasizing the need for an inclusive, collaborative co-design process that engages all stakeholders. The study also examines both opportunities and challenges in global research, including ethical and legal dimensions, and suggests continued innovation in data acquisition, model fine-tuning, prompt strategy development, evaluation, and system implementation is necessary to realize the full potential of these technologies. Organizations should proactively engage with these technologies to improve health care quality, safety, and efficiency while adhering to ethical and legal guidelines for responsible application. This article was authored by Pinyu, Hua Su, Xia Hu, and others. We are article.tv, links in the description below.


Well, I don't know that we have a huge agenda. So should we just get, All right, let's see. So we got on the agenda bots. Yay. I'm actually really liking this whole stale bot thing so far. It's cool. Yeah. It's on the, it's mostly bots and bots, all right. So I don't know. Should we just start, start with bots? Oh, Christopher, you want to give us a little update there? Yeah, I didn't have much to say that I didn't have a fair win there for just a safe time. So yeah, glad to hear the stale bot's working and thanks for merging that PR. So now everything should correctly get marked as stale instead of a, you know, old fix. Yeah. I actually went in and I untagged all the ones that it had tagged as won't fix and I marked them stale, but in actually marking them stale, that counts as an event for not being stale. So it'll take another 30 days, but that's fine. Oh, okay. The other bot that we wanted to do didn't seem like it had a clear hosted one or if it was a hosted one, it was, it didn't include all the things that we needed. So I have a work in progress up for that Envoy Bot repository, which allow you to do like a forward slash a sign and then give a couple of GitHub names and then it'll also verify for members and comments if they are not back to the issue. The weird bug that I found is that running into some weird JavaScript, like async away problems, it's whenever the GitHub user just does not exist at all and it keeps commenting back and just throwing it into a loop. So that's kind of the last bug I need to fix before I'm ready for the PR to be fully reviewed. Cool. Sounds great. If you're super ambitious, there's a lot of changes that I would love to have on the DCO bot. That would be awesome. Yeah, I did look into that part of the issue and I kind of agree with Alistaz's comments that it seems like one of those like specific legal lease things that makes it well, there's just like to modify it unless they are explicitly opting into. Well, sorry. So I didn't actually even mean to do the auto DCO. I just meant to fix the bot so that it like actually has error messages. There's a bunch of cases where it just hangs and doesn't print any messages. And there's some basic stuff that we could do there where instead of just saying, you failed, it could actually link you to a webpage which actually explain what to do. So I think that there's just some basic usability things there that if we did would be pretty awesome. Okay, yes. I think we open up any bot related issues on the Envoy bots repository. Sorry, what's that? Should we open issues for the Envoy bot or any other in the box? We can do that though. Though I suspect that we could just submit PRs directly to ProBot DCO. And they would probably review them. Oh yeah, that's a good point. All right, yeah. I will look into that as soon as I fix Envoy bot. Thank you, that would be really awesome. Is it straightforward to have a button to just, we execute CI in cases where it failed due to not being able to download some dependency from the network? It should be straightforward. It probably just depends on, we might have to invoke some Circle CI API call, but I think it should probably be pretty easy. But yes, that would definitely be awesome. And I'm not sure, at one point, somebody maybe suggested that to take that off, I could close and open the PR, but it seems like it optimizes around that sometimes. Yeah, it does. I think that doesn't work because it just figures out that it's already built that particular shod. The thing that will always work is you can push an empty commit and that will always kick it. The downside of that is that that will rerun all tests, which can take a long time. So, I mean, like most systems, like internally we have bots that do all kinds of things and one of them is just a re-kick test that failed. So like, I don't think that would be hard to implement. It's just someone would have to look at the Circle API and probably figure out which API to call. But what we should do is just go into the open bots issue and just write down any and all ideas and then hopefully we can find someone to eventually work on it. If you just search issues for bots, there's a bots tracking issue. Very nice that we're making some progress on this. Anything else on the bots network service extension update? Dave? So, I'll start with an announcement that I'm in the process of moving to a new opportunity. So, my last day, it's just go is next Tuesday. And so, I'm in the process of doing a bunch of TLI work and so, the work that I've done so far, I'm handing off to Ed Warnacky and my relative is gonna get recruited to work with him. So, that's kind of why things stalled out last week and I didn't get the stuff pushed up that I was going to. In any case, there was, I did see and mention some place of somebody wanting to remove all of the native socket calls and use the OSS Singleton to do that. And so, I was actually thinking that was a great idea as a place to start because I was heading in that direction anyways. Yeah, that's fine. I mean, I don't think anything has changed. It's like someone just needs to go in and just make all the changes basically. Yeah, go do cleanup stuff. So, yeah. Cool. Well, good luck at your next gig. Thanks, man. All right. Small announcement from me. I am gonna be working on a non-Envoy related fire drill at Lyft, probably for the next four to six weeks.  What happens? What's that? Yeah, well, Corbin and I are also in the same area. Yeah. The upside, I can't talk about it right now, but it's actually a pretty entertaining fire drill. So, I did actually volunteer for this, but yes. There's that at least. All right. Anyone else have anything that anyone wants to chat about? I'll just mention that we are looking at downstream circuit breaking. Awesome. We care about a lot and are gonna hopefully solve a non-Envoy. Yeah, I mean, I think everyone cares about it. No one's just implemented it yet. So, it would be really fantastic to get the implemented. I talked about it with Alyssa offline. I think it's pretty straightforward, but if there's any questions and we just wanna agree on the overall design, I would just have whoever's working on it just update that GitHub issue. Yeah. Yeah, we will. Alyssa added also timeout switch. I saw you kind of on that board. Yeah, that one is, that would also be great to do. That one is trivial. So, that would be a good starter issue. So, if there's someone that kind of wants a little ramp up issue, that would be great. Yeah. No, I believe we need to do that in the order of the next couple of weeks. So, we'll give it to whoever can do it soon. Okay, awesome. Yeah, and that will include the data frame timeouts also, right? So, we've got two open issues tracking, one for the year making for our best timeouts and the other for the timing out and their request paths. Yeah. One of them were okay. So, we'll probably do one of them quickly and then leave the other one for a new year. Okay, that's fine. Yeah, I mean, I think probably then the best thing for you to do is just to do what we talked about, which is deprecate the timeout in the buffer filter and move it into connection manager. But we will end up implementing at lift probably in the next like order weeks or one or two months the data frameouts because we're starting to deploy streaming APIs and we basically have to have them. So, they'll get implemented one way or the other. Got it, cool. Nice, great. I'm already, I guess since we have some time just to quickly chat out. How do we feel the load balancing of PRs is going like would the bots be able to sort of do it? Would that play a role? That would be really nice. I don't think it would be hard to implement. I still feel like it's ad hoc in terms of how much work each individual maintainer is doing. Like it hasn't been a huge deal just because I feel like the work is getting done. But it would be nice, I totally agree to maybe automate the actual load balancing. So like one thing that we could look into and this is something that maybe Christopher could actually implement once we have something that's hosted is, yeah, like if we had just some basic data store, like whether it be Dynamo or something else, we could just keep track of like the maintainer rotation and then literally just round robin, one senior maintainer and one non-senior maintainer for every PR that gets opened. Yeah, and I mean the initial assignments might not always make sense and we always exchange them. Yep, yeah. That would be great. I think that sounds fantastic. Does that sound like something, Christopher, that you might be interested in implementing? Yeah, I did notice someone implemented something like that. I could try to implement that node module. I just wanted to get code owners as well so that again for things that are extensions and actually have code owners, it goes in. Yeah, yeah, that would be really nice too because then if we did our own assignments, like I think the GitHub code owners doesn't support auto assignment if you're not a maintainer or something like that, but this would allow us to automatically assign things to code owners that aren't maintainers for extension. And also we could put in hints for the bot or things that we are more familiar with. Yes, exactly. And we could use the code based on the actual node. Yep, yeah, that makes tons of sense. So even for existing maintainers, if we know that we want particular people to review certain sections of the code, we can definitely add people for that. So yeah, I'm a huge plus one on that. That would be super awesome. You brought up the hosting. Maybe Chris and Asher could comment on where the CNCF have a place that we could host this like node bot. Yeah, we have servers that packet or cloud credits, whatever works, whatever it feels easiest for you. Yeah, I think last time we talked about this, we just decided to like pick a cloud provider and I suspect for our needs, probably a free account would most likely be fine, but we can set up by account and then just have CNCF pay for it. Sounds good. Yeah, so probably- Is that documented in like the CNCF doc somewhere? You would just file, we would just have the project do a service desk in Korea and then we would approve it. Yeah, so probably what would be easiest is just to open a new cloud account, whether it be like we can pick, it doesn't matter to me, whether it be Amazon or Google or something else and then make like an on-boy account with on-boy credentials and then we can get you access to the on-boy last pass for the credentials and then we can give Chris and CNCF access to the account and then they could just take over billing. Okay, yeah, that sounds good. I'll try it out locally, make sure that all works and then I'll file the service desk issue. Great, awesome. That's super exciting. Yeah, once we can, the only thing that I think is important is, and like we had talked about this a while ago, is whatever we do, we should just try to make it as seamless as possible. So for example, we should be able to make it so that we have a project, like we can hook up CircleCI to like run some basic tasks and then auto deploy and then we can host it in like a Lambda or something like that. And that would mean that it's pretty much just, people can just make changes and they'll just automatically get deployed. Okay, yeah, I'll wire that through too. Awesome. And I think people's preference is to use Python unless there's a good reason not to. So let's try to do that. Yeah, on that note, so ProBot is written in, well, it was written in Node and I think they just refactored it to use TypeScript. Okay. So everything I have at the moment is in Node, but I don't know if there's extensibility where you can script it to call on other languages. That's fine. I mean, like if there's existing code that we're using, I think it's fine, but like if there's fresh code that's written, I think the preference is to use Python. Okay, yeah, I personally I prefer to try to use the Python too. So I'll look into that as well. Awesome. Okay, great. This is great. Cool. Anyone have anything else? All right. Take it easy everyone. Bye.


Good morning or again afternoon, depending on what time it is that you might be joining us for another episode of the nonprofit show. This week is dedicated to the nonprofit Power Week and we have Bloomerang with us, one of our amazing presenting sponsors, but yet they're very first Power Week. So we were on day four Thursday of this Power Week and we have Diana Oturo with us today with Bloomerang. And she's here to talk to us about non-profit tax receding, but not just tax receding, how it can make your life easier for those of you that are responsible for that. So stay with us, Diana has a lot to cover. And again, this entire week, thank you to our partners at Bloomerang for committing each and every day, Monday through Friday of this week to so many critical topics in our sector. So if you missed any of them, Julie and I were here and we have archived them and you can find them of course on many of our archive platforms, but we do wanna thank all of our sponsors that allow us these opportunities and conversations. So again, huge shout out of gratitude to our friends over at Bloomerang, American Nonprofit Academy, staffing boutique, nonprofit thought leader, fundraising academy at National University, non-profit nerd and your part-time controller. These partners are here and I like to say this, Julia, they're really not here for us, they're here for our viewers and our listeners. I know it's shocking, but our viewers and listeners and their missions. So there's so many critical missions, 1.8 million registered non-profits and these companies are here to help you do more good throughout your community. So again, if you missed any of our episodes or any of this Power Week, you can go back and watch them. You can also go back and share them, but Roku, YouTube, Amazon Fire TV, Vimeo and podcast form, that's a mouthful, but that's where you can find all of the recordings. 700 plus are archived on these platforms. So really excited to have that in perpetuity for our sector. So Julia, I know we've heard numerous times that people will go on to watch episodes and five episodes later, they're still tuned in to the nonprofit show. Well, now I get a total charge over, and because I'm a geek, taking the remote to the smart TV and speaking in, and then the nonprofit show comes up. That to me is like the best. And as Jared always says, we're just months away from the two of us sitting on your sofa with you in hologram format, probably because- I think if you put the right glasses on, it could happen like today, but Diana, you've been so patient and we are so grateful you and I met almost a year ago now at the AFP icon conference in Las Vegas. So Diana Otero joining us, product marketing manager at Bloomerang, welcome. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here today. You know, you are like the unsung heroes behind the scenes with this great brain power that makes life fabulous or miserable depending on if we know these things or when we don't. And so when we were talking about getting you all together for a week and really drilling down on things, they were like, Julia, this might not be a real sexy topic, but we think it's important. And I was like, are you kidding me? This is a great topic because it is, I mean, Jared, you know, it's like we have a lot of questions and it talks about the legal issues and good stewardship. And so let's get into it. And if you can just give us this overall arching idea is what is the role of the tax receipts? It's not just to make us cranky, is it? No, I mean, isn't this everyone's favorite topic? Especially, I mean, that's what everyone's talking about this year, but this is really an important topic, right?  So really the role of the nonprofit or the role of tax receipts is twofold. One, of course for the donor, it gives them a record of their donations so they can take advantage of those tax deductions and they have financial records of their contributions. But oftentimes we forget that there's benefits to the nonprofits for doing this as well. And I think it's a great reminder because it's an opportunity to engage with the donors again, show them that you appreciate them and share what you've done so you can keep that stewardship going. I think that's an important role that's missing. So yes, it's for the donors, but it's also for you for the nonprofits and there's a big role that is not being filled if you're not taking advantage of that or if you're not taking that into consideration. I love this, because it's a mindset. Yeah, it's a mindset and it also really drives home the stewardship, right? Like leaning into relationship, using this opportunity to say, look at the impact you and your household have made throughout this year. So you have brought to the table five tips Diana and I feel like I should go ahead and tell all of our viewers and listeners if you're not driving, at least bring out a pen and paper and let's capture these tips because you really are going to make our life easier. And let's start off with this tip number one. And I just want you to drive it home. Like one of the five, tell us this tip number one. Absolutely, number one is if you're not doing this, make sure you're segmenting. Again, we take the tax receding as an opportunity to engage with your donors again. And this is one of the things you can do ahead of time. Don't wait until you're in the tax receding season to do this throughout the year. You can already start deciding and building what your segments are ahead of time. How are you going to talk to your different segments of donors? What different kinds of donors or donor groups do you have?  So number one is make sure you're segmenting and everything's going to start from there because we're going to see later because you're segmenting, you'll be able to personalize and really turn this very potentially very boring piece of communication into something that can delight your donors and engage your donors even more. So I don't want to catch you in any like, I gotcha, but when you think segmenting and Anne Feldman talked about segmenting this week, Josh Meyer talked about segmenting, what are the segments you're talking about? I'm curious if you can just get super nerdy and just like off the cuff, what are some of the segments? So we can talk about segmenting for hours. But we don't have that long, but yeah. We won't do that. And I mean, each nonprofit is unique, right? So the first question, and I'll give you some samples, but the first question is, what are the donor groups that you ask yourself? What are the donor groups that make up your supporters? So this could be new donors. You want to treat those differently, how segment out your new donors, recurring donors. It's also a great opportunity here that I think is missed is people or as a donor, I myself, you know, I know how much I give monthly, but I might attend an event or someone might do a peer peer campaign or giving Tuesday comes around. I lose sight of my cumulative giving.  It's not just your five, 10, 15 a month or however it is, this is what it amounts to. If you have kind of sponsors or members, how are you treating those differently? Loyalty, you know, if you have donors that have been giving to you for five years, 10 years, 20 years, what are you going to do differently for those segments of donors that you have? Oh, I love it. Okay, Jared, I'm going to go on record and I'm going to say, I'm going to push back out to Bloomerang and for the next segment that they're on, let's just talk about this because already, you know, Diana, you brought up some things that I wouldn't have necessarily thought of. And so I think we need to explore this because that to me unlocks a lot of how this is going to navigate. I mean... Are you saying you want a segment on segmentation? Oh, my goodness. Man, that rocks. I mean, that's exactly it. Okay, so tip number one really is the segmentation and I love that. And here where I am in my community, Arizona, we have tax credit and many states, you know, also have tax credit and I could see that that is part of the segmentation. And so really you're talking about all five of these tips and we're going to move into number two is to plan ahead before, you know, it really is tax receding time. So what is tip number two if tip number one was to segment? Absolutely, that's a great point too. Again, we're kind of starting with the things that we're not even in tax season yet, right? So leading up to it, number two is use a template. I know I might get some pushback from this because some people feel like, oh, isn't that gonna make it less personal?  And when I say template, you know, think about, okay, what do I need in this letter? What am I sending out in this? What are the requirements? Are there, you know, specific requirements to my state if you're in Canada, specific exceptions, things like that, but also thinking back to the role is not just the tax receipts themselves, how can I use this as an engagement piece? Are there other stories that we wanna put in there? So it's kind of templating out, what do I wanna say? And when it comes time to sit down and write it, you can be like, okay, I know I'm gonna want a story to include in there and throughout the year, I can be thinking about, oh, this is a great story that I'm gonna include in the year-end letter once we send it out. So because you've put together that template, you can start thinking about it already and it, you know, you can put it in when it comes time. You were a brilliant mind because I see it often.  And you could just kind of, you know, build onto that. So using that template, I see is really, you know, a benefit. So what are you gonna pull out of your tricks for tip number three? Well, before that too, and you see how this all flows together. So when you create those templates, make sure you're creating those templates for each segment. So again, you can tie in that story to each of the segments and the impact to each of that segments. Now, when we get to number three, this is really your time saving. What can you automate? Most CRMs that are out there, if you're using a CRM, they have some kind of automated system that automatically generates these tax receipts for you. Or even if you don't have a CRM, use a mail merge in Word, use a mail merge in Excel. I was recently helping a nonprofit send out their tax receipts in January. They were just about ready to sit down and manually plug in each person's donation amount. And I was like, hold up, let's take a step back. There's an easier way to do this. Your time is much more valuable than manually updating each and every single thing. Plus it's gonna be more prone to error. And your eyes are gonna get cross-checking that just to make sure everything's right. So if you have the tools available for you, how can you automate? Yeah, and I love that you say this because again, that human error factor is huge. And even if you're at a point where you're not doing this, this needs to be on your technology strategic plan. I mean, this is like a must because I don't know how you can grow. Your point is so well-taken about what else could you be doing with that time? Right, you know, you could be bringing in more money to pay for that CRM licensing fees.  Yeah, absolutely. You know, and I see that all too often as well, Diana, you know, organizations of all different sizes and just because maybe they're an established, mature organization, you know, as we talked about with other previous Bloomerang representatives, good data in, good data out. And so it's the trust that we put into ourselves and into our own system. So I can definitely appreciate that in automation. I know we'll just simplify. Yeah. Yes, absolutely. Micah was just talking yesterday about making sure your data is clean. And once you trust that the data is clean, you know you're gonna save so much time and think of the cost benefit to, you know, if you can pay for, if you can pay to get this automated, I bet you that's still gonna cost less than if you were manually having to do it. That's right. Yeah. And I'm so glad you mentioned Micah, because, you know, as you think of a topic, cleaning your database might not sound sexy to most, but she really has a knack and shared so many amazing tips and techniques. Again, similarly to you to make our life easier. So it's just, it's so important to, you know, really dive into these topics. Okay, let's move from automation. And let me just recap. So tip number one, and this is all under the umbrella support, I should say, of planning ahead. So number one is to segment. Number two is to use a template. Number three is to automate. So what's number four for us? Number four, give yourself a deadline. Okay. Okay. Now I wouldn't have expected that one. Yeah. You know, I mean, deadline for filing taxes, of course, isn't until April, but give, try to give yourself a deadline, send out the letters by January 31st. And I know that seems kind of like a weird tip, but here's why. The more that you think about it, the more stressed you're gonna be, just to give yourself a deadline, get it done, and you'll be done.  Think of it as, it's a very freeing thing. After that time, you're gonna be free, right? It also, you know, it's good benefits for the donors because if they need to get there, or if they want to get to file their taxes earlier, they already have it, you don't have to deal with folks having to ask, don't wait for them to ask, be proactive. So that leaves a good impression to the donors as well. And if it gives you a little more wiggle room in case you need to change something in your process, or mistakes will happen, a mistake happens, you still have time to correct it. So give yourself a deadline, and don't be scared of it. Think of it as, after that date, you'll be all good. Into your point, looking at this as another touch point and another opportunity of stewardship, sometimes we grapple with how do we reach back out with something meaningful, this is it. So I think you can turn it into a positive and a win. And again, it's a mindset shift. I just love that. I think it's so important. I think too, when it comes to the stewardship, and I'm curious Diana, if you're seeing this, you know, a lot of offices have reopened and they're really inviting constituents of all maturity levels, you know, new donors, legacy donors to come back in and see the programs, right? Take a tour of the facilities, come to the arts and cultural kind of event. Can you integrate that piece and perhaps an invitation in the letter? I love that, absolutely. And again, this is, you know, think about going back to the template, like what are those things? You know, what we've set our calendar for, hopefully you've already set your calendar for the year by this time. So you know what's coming up and you know what those next steps and next cultivation points you want to invite the donors to come to. I don't know, that's wonderful. And even to follow along, Jared, even volunteer events where you can be like, we're gonna be doing this or we're gonna be doing that. Why not get that on the radar? Really cool. Okay, wow. So, so far, so really good. New ideas, what is our next big idea? Now, number five, document. You've already done all this great work. You don't wanna go through the same stress again next year or you don't want to put someone else through that same stress. So if you've already found what works for you, document it. I'm a big fan of this, people often forget. A big part of the stress is, I don't know what I'm gonna do. I don't know what I'm gonna write. When are we gonna send this? What are our segments? Document everything. It's gonna save you even more time next year. Okay, how thorough should this documentation be? Are we talking like high level bullet points? Are we talking like, you know, full on sentences of where, when, how? Good point. Great question. People are always intimidated when I tell them to document. Start small, start simple. If bullet points works, start with that. And again, documentation isn't a one-time thing. Document as you go along, right? So it's not such a big task. You know, if something comes up this year that you're like, oh, hey, that's a good idea. We can, we should incorporate that. Go ahead and add that in now. Oh, good one. And so you can build that as you're going along. Yeah. You know, Julia, that makes me think of Micah again. So another shout out to Micah from yesterday. She was phenomenal. And her, one of her tips was if it's going to take less than two minutes, do it now. Yeah, I loved that. That's just like a good piece of advice for life. Absolutely. Yeah, I thought that was smart. In the green room chatter, these points have been so spot on for me. I can see how they work. I can see how they make things efficient. They reduce the stress and the fear. Talk to us about the receipt that we get and we drop off goods that may be our favorite thrift store, things of that nature that we all find ourselves when we're in that process dealing with. What does that look like? That's a very interesting point, right? And it goes to when we go back to our, going back to our templates, right? So different kinds of donations. There's different requirements for each. So typically for cash donations, you have to declare the value. For in-kind donations, it's really the donor's responsibility to declare the value. So as a nonprofit, really what you're wanting to provide is the date that they gave, as well as a description of what the items, the in-kind donations were. And it's really up to the donor to declare that value. So being aware of what those different requirements are is key as well. There's a lot of IRS resources out there. And that's one of those things that when you document, you don't have to itemize all of that, but link to the appropriate documentation. Because, hey, it could change. So make it easy. Yes. So make it easy for the person as well. Link them to the source. So you don't have to update the documentation every time. Yeah. I think it's a really valid point to ask about that in-kind as well. Because in my mind, I'm always thinking cash. Like how are we acknowledging our cash donors but the in-kind donor often is just as equally kind of at that level for many organizations. But I'm really curious, should every single constituent, every single supporter receive a tax receipt? Or is there like an IRS level where you don't have to do it for everyone or should we? That's a great point. So that's where we go back to as well. What's your donor makeup like? Are you going to use this as a stewardship piece, right? Because there's technically requirements. It's $2.50 enough for the IRS. But again, I'm seeing a lot of organizations send this out to everyone, even the $5 donors, because they are using that as an extra cultivation piece. And there's different ways you can do it too. I know sending out mail will cost money as well, but there's also a question on, do you want to send email? Do you want to send letters? And technically from the IRS, it doesn't matter as long as you provide written acknowledgement. So in order to save money, maybe, and this can be part of your segmentation strategy, if it's at this level and up, they get a letter, they get a handwritten note. For these amounts, they get an email. So you can think of it that way as well. Going back to that segmentation, right? Like from our tax receding letters of this segmentation, who might receive that email? Who might receive that, you know, the USPS? And then my brain goes into so many other different areas too, because I'm thinking, well, who should send it? You know, is this the development director? Is this, you know, maybe if they're in a portfolio, the manager kind of like of that relationship? And I'm just sure there's so many different things to think about this and oh my gosh, my brain's spinning. Now, here's another thing for you. We've been talking about tax receding and you know, when we're talking about tax receding, of course we're talking about donations, but that's not the only way that donors give. When you think about your segments, can you do something for your volunteers? Instead of a summary of donations, do you want to send out a summary of volunteer hours? Totally not required, but again, with that thinking of that's kind of the time of year, how can I use this as a stewardship piece? What's the, where's the opportunity here? Wow. You've really shifted my mindset. Because I really have always seen it as it's that thing we have to do. It's not always fun. It sure as heck is not sexy, but really looking at the template. And I love this, right? And that was tip two is to using that template. Is really looking at, okay, within this template, how best do we want to communicate with our audience? And there's so many ways in which we can do that. So I want to recap for those of you watching and listening, right? So for the tax receding overall Diana says and recommends greatly to plan ahead, right? This is not that end of year, now's the time that we have to do it. So all of these five tips is under the guise of planning ahead. So number one is segmentation. And Julia has requested a segment fully on segmentation. Yeah. Hello. Is to use a template. So really, really creating that template. Three is automation. Four is deadline. And I heard you say January 31. So is that your recommended? Okay. So January 31, I'm gonna add that to my coaching. And then number five is the document. Document, document, document the process. Amazing. This has been great. Again, you took something as Jared just witnessed. You know, it lands in the drudgery file or pile. Like, oh, I can't do this. But I loved the whole mindset shift from the get-go. And if you do that, then all these things fall into place. They all relate. They all support one another. It was really magical thinking. So thank you. Diana Otero, Product Marketing Manager from BloomRang. She's coming to us from just, what did you say, half mile away from the new corporate headquarters of BloomRang in Indiana. So we are so delighted that we were able to have you back with us. We're gonna see you again in the not too distant future, right? April, New Orleans. I'm so excited to see you there. Yes, because we met, as I mentioned earlier in the episode at the AFP conference last year. And this year we're coming up again. And so excited to have you there at the conference. And I will be there. And Julia will be there in this box again.  I know, I know that in itself, I might just have to book myself. Hey, everybody, again, I'm Julia Patrick been joined by the nonprofit nerd herself, Jared Ransom. This has been an amazing week. And there's a lot of content. And it all weaves together in such interesting ways that wouldn't be necessarily apparent. So we've talked about learning from nonprofit giving trends. And that's how we started the week riveting, riveting information that was somewhat shocking. But yet Josh Meyer gave us some really good ideas. We talked about the first time donor journey, five tips to getting the second gift. And that's a really interesting thing. Again, tagged on to Josh's information with Ann Meyer, really, really cool. Spring cleaning your donor base. What does that look like? Why should we do it? How do we do it? And then today, of course, we talked about the tax receiving, which was super interesting. Now, tomorrow, we're gonna end the week a little differently. It is our Friday Ask and Answer episode. But we're gonna be talking with one of the Bloomerang experts about if you're going to be getting a new CRM or changing, what are the questions that you should be asking? Whether you're gonna look at it Bloomerang or not is not the issue. It's like, what are the questions that we need to be asking in order to be good decision makers really?  It's gonna be a lot of fun. I'm excited. Sorry, Julia, but I'm taking that one tomorrow. I'm so excited to have that conversation. I've been honored and privileged to work inside of Bloomerang's CRMs for many of my clients and really enjoy the system. So excited to have this conversation tomorrow for our Friday episode. And we wouldn't be able to do any of this, including our Power Week, if it weren't for our amazing presenting sponsors. So again, another shout out of gratitude to our besties at Bloomerang. Thank you, Diana, for joining us today. You were phenomenal. Also, wanna say thank you to American Nonprofit Academy, Staffing Boutique, Nonprofit Thought Leader, Fundraising Academy at National University, Nonprofit Nerd, as well as your part-time controller. These companies are here to elevate your critical mission in, around, throughout your community. So thank you to our amazing presenting sponsors. Amazing. Hey, this has been a lot of fun. Again, I learned something new every day on the show, but the Nonprofit Power Week is really exciting to me because it just pulls all these different thoughts and elements together. And I don't know about you, Jarrett, but it seems like it makes it more manageable when we understand how we can link things together and it eliminates some of that stress that all- Municipal and fun. And fun, yeah, and purposeful. Yes, yes. Diana, thank you. It was a huge pleasure. Thank you so much for having me. This is so fun. Thank you.  And, you know, we gotta treat our rock stars well. And so, Diana, I want you to listen to our sign-off because we say every day to stay well so you can do well. We'll see you back here tomorrow, everyone. Diana, thank you.