People like to categorize things. It helps us wrap our minds around this complex world that we live in. When it comes to plants, range managers like to categorize them by life form. Almost anyone can recognize a grass with its linear leaves and fibrous roots. This one is a needle grass. We call wildflowers, like this geranium, forbs. Forbs are basically all the non-woody plants out here that aren't grasses. They tend to have broad leaves and a taproot. Now we come to the woody plants, the shrubs and the trees. What's the difference between a shrub and a tree? Height primarily. But shrubs like this sagebrush also tend to have lots of branches starting really low on the plant without any one main stem or trunk. This aspen tree has a main trunk. It's also much taller and has much deeper roots than the sagebrush we just looked at. Knowing what life forms of plants are in an area gives range managers clues about how deep the soil is, how much moisture the area gets, and what kind of animals might be around. It helps us make sense of the wonderful complexity of the Wyoming landscape. From the University of Wyoming Cooperative Extension Service, I'm Zola Ryan.


over 10, I have written down from the text, trying for instance, like you and me and all the guys in the class, we were also given talents. These are opportunities. Those are God-given gifts that were given to us. Maybe you have more than I got, but I should move what I have best, so that when the king comes back for the audit, I'm ready to give accountability. So I don't want to speak with my entire team here, but that's what I want. So you're just going to be talking about the parable and also the parable of the talents. So basically, you're sharing from that. Okay, that's good, clear. Thank you. And God has saved us so that our responsibility is to save others. Okay, fine. Then, okay, so we're just going through each of your seven titles just to understand what it's about. Okay, so Elisha is Elisha here. Today's class, no, I don't see Elisha. Okay, then Georgia on stewardship, interesting titles, Stewarding Your Rebound. So yeah, I just see it here, Stewarding Your Bounds Back. So let's say because of the pandemic, you lost your zeal or passion for the things of God, you're now in the position to rebound. And with rebounding, you need to manage and maintain it. So talking about ways to manage the bounce back. Okay, interesting. Thank you. Okay, then we have Enoch. So Enoch, I thought I saw Enoch. Yeah, so would you like to share your thoughts on this topic? Yeah, just go ahead. Good morning everybody. Yeah, my topic said wasted grace. And the title is, the title is Wasted Life. Right. I want us to, I want to go through, so the Bible passage there, second quality, chapter six, from one and two. If we go through that, will we see very well that, please, somebody in the, there's Bible there, I'm trying to prepare for work, so I left my bag in the city room. No worries. So that's fine. We just, we're not going in depth. So second quality and six, you said versus one and two, right? Okay. So from that text, you'd like to share about, yeah, so I see this. Okay, so can you just share some insight on the title, Wasted Life. So what exactly is it? Now, waste is a sinful in every realm. Waste is a sinful in every realm. The more precious the commodity being wasted, the more sinful the waste. The waste of energy has become more serious because of the energy shortage. Now any life that is not producing, the reason why it was made is a sinful is waste life. Many of us today, many people today have wasted the grace of God upon their lives because they are not doing what God asked them to do. They are not being in work of God. God, the deposit, there is no life that God has not deposited something in to make the kingdom to grow or to expand the kingdom. But because of the worldly things, because of love of the pleasure, that grace has been wasted. And like I said, if grace of God upon a man's life is wasted, the life of that fellow is wasted. It can be accountable to it. So wish you all know that the grace, God has given us grace and wish you also walk towards that grace. Thank you. Nice. Wonderful. So it's an inspirational, motivational message about turning back from wasting lives. And so I guess it's also about purpose and pursuing a purpose and so on. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Let's see who else is next. So Anita is Aradna saying about persecution. Okay. So Aradna, you can also enter it on the Google sheet, please, about the topic and the title. So I don't know whether I guess persecution is the topic and whatever title that you decide, you can put that in the Google sheet as well, both the topic and the title. Okay. So next we have Zalitoli ministering deliverance, how to cast off demons like Jesus. Okay. So yeah, I mean, it's pretty straightforward. But yeah, just go ahead and share with us, Zalitoli, what exactly you would like to address in your message. Basically, I just want to talk about the biblical approach how to cast out demons, like what I've seen over the years in my studies that, you know, there are so many or wrong traditions, wrong belief regarding casting out demons like, like some, you see some tricks or some superstitious belief. But just based on the word of God, how to cast out demons just like Jesus. Yeah. Okay. So again, I just wanted to remind you about the time factor here.  So you just need to really think about if there's a lot of content, of course, you know, you just need to think about what can I share, what can I not share, and what will be helpful, you know, in 10 minutes, right? So you could just work on that. Great. So Rosalind is about fear and how perfect law casts out fear. Is Rosalind there? Yeah. Rosalind, you would like to say a few words about the direction in which I'm sorry, we're not able to hear you. Question or? Yeah, it's very clear. Yes. Yeah. Please go ahead. Sorry, question. I'll be sharing from first John 418. We all at some given point, we battle with this fear thing. And there is a sudden fear, inbuilt fear. So working on it. And I'll be sharing it from first John 418, how God's love, how we can be dependent on God's love, not, you know, it's not like how much we love God, but the confidence in knowing how much God loves us. That will help us to battle with our fears. It can be inbuilt or it can be sudden fear, like, you know, sudden or anything. And then we can, like David, we can like golly say, like, though I walk through the valleys of death, I will fear not fear. So how to deal with fear, whether it's unrealistic or even, you know, it's reasonable. It's got its reasons. So how to deal with fear. And then this scripture, this text, is from where you'll be sharing. Okay. Understood. Okay. Thank you. Right. Right. So then, Jeffina, you are unique. Okay. The process, his will, good future. Can you just explain that? It's a special purpose. I guess you're talking about God's purpose. So but I just wanted to know what aspect of it. Go ahead, Jeffina. Yes. So there's a verse in Second Timothy, where it talks about in a large hall, there is also gold and silver in Second Timothy chapter 2, verse 20. So sometimes we use the golden vessels and sometimes we use the gold vessels, but everything is used for the master is used. So I just want to explain it on like how we are, no matter where we are, we are here to follow the purpose that God has given for us. And yeah, just about his will and in the end it says, prepare to do any good work. So there is a preparation. There is a process that you need to go through. Okay. Fine. So it's Second Timothy, right? Okay. I think Okay. I saw. Okay. Here it's chapter 2, verse 20. Second Timothy. Right, right. Okay. I'll just change it here. Here it says First Timothy. So I'll just hit on the sheet. Okay. Got that. Okay. So Anita is about being salt and light in the world and the title is the only way to live. So I guess it's about, so Anita here. Yeah. Anita, could you go ahead and share? Yeah. Yes, pastor. It's about how to live a life of being salt and light to this world and how to influence other people around you. Okay. Yeah. Okay. So how to do that? So I guess we'll be also talking about different scenarios like if you're, you know, in this kind of environment, how to do that, or will be a general, irrespective of whatever environment you are in, and these are some things that you can do to influence. Anyway, think about it. Yeah. And work on that. Okay. Wonderful. So, yeah. So the bigger you can actually put in your, you know, enter it in the Google Sheet, that'll be helpful. So we know, and also Aradhana, you know, you can enter it there, please. So you have 10 minutes. Just think about that. And also one more thing that I want to share was that you can also, you know, to help things to be clearer, you can also prepare a PowerPoint presentation as part of the presentation of PowerPoint. I think that will be helpful to be, you know, precise and succinct because it's 10 minutes. But I'll leave it to you. I think the PowerPoint presentation would be great if you can prepare that as well. Okay. That's good. Okay. So let's pick up from where we stopped last session. So we were looking at this whole aspect of constructing a sermon and putting together an outline. And we were looking at different aspects of it. We started by looking at the title. We started, and then we moved on to, you know, the introduction, how it should be, and also then we looked at the proposition, the statement and which is a big idea. And, you know, in a way, what you all share today is really the big idea.  So you can actually work on that. And then we looked at the transition statement and then we looked at, you know, how the sermon can have the main points and the sub points. So I guess, you know, okay, the question, when to present, again, it will be much later. It will be end of the term Rosalind, like it will be in, I guess it will be in November. Yes, we are in September, one more month to go and then it will be in November. Right. So I'll put up the dates. So we know, you know, there are about now 10, 12. So it will be about 10 people presenting every class. Yeah, so we'll, I'll put up the date. Right. Okay. So out of the sermon, we looked at that, we looked at all, yeah, I think this is where we stopped, we were looking at illustrations. Right. So when we're looking at the points or main points, given the 10 minutes, so you choose, you know, how many points should it have? What are those main and these, when you have these main divisions, it helps, right, it helps, you know, it helps to kind of demarcate, okay, that this is one line of thought, this is one point, and we are now moving on to the next point. And it's all leading to the main topic. And it will really help the listener to, to understand, it helped in a logical manner. Right. Sorry, I just see this question. Isaac, how to do PowerPoint presentation? Can I use another method like Google Docs? Well, actually, it's very simple.  That's what I do, even for the marriage and family. It's a PowerPoint, which is saved as a, as a PDF, just like your notes.  So you can, I mean, if you have time, right, from now to November, so you think, you think about it, you can use Google Docs, but I feel that this will be much better. If you are good using Google Docs, also, you can actually convert it into a PDF, that will be better. Right. So whatever works for you. And yeah, so yeah, you don't have to use a PowerPoint. Like I use something which is converted into a PDF. So that's, it's always, you know, it's useful. It's user friendly, actually, when you're sharing the screen. So you can, you can also do the same thing, Isaac. Yeah. Okay. So, so while we, we were looking at illustrations and how illustrations help, you know, help bring that point clearly, how explain the point, what we are stating, the truth that we are explaining, and how illustrations actually help, help clarify those things. Right. And just like how the Lord used parables, it is a wonderful way of communicating a very important spiritual truth. And the Lord, you know, there's so many parables, which you may have been learning in the ministry of the evangelist, pastor, and teacher. Right. And so many parables on so many different topics, about finances, about the kingdom, about, you know, the what we looked at, the lost, and so on. So these really help. Okay. So I think we stopped at, we've been looking at parables, if you're following in the notes, and we looked at some of these points, which are helpful guidelines for illustrations. So don't, some of these don'ts, you know, don't use an illustration just because it is good, and it is your favorite illustration. Right. It will illustrate your point, you know, just because it is a good story, but just because it's maybe a humorous anecdote, don't consider using it unless it actually has a connection to the truth that is being shared. Right. So that was one thing that we, I think that was the last thing that you saw. So continuing on, you know, there are several, yeah, we also saw that some illustrations may not be appropriate to some places, some audiences, so be discriminating, and they're discerning. Yeah, there are several sources of illustrations. Okay. So our own life, testimony, our own, the instances that have happened in our lives, you know, that's, that's a good place. And that'll be very, very authentic in, you know, very real, because that's happened in your life. You can say, okay, this is what happened. And this is something that is happening. And this is how God dealt with me, etc. You could share that. But also, you know, we need to be mindful that this is how God dealt with you for this particular situation. And this may not be, you know, true for the other person, or it may not, you know, God may deal in a totally different way. Right. For the other person. So it'll be, it'll be helpful if you can mention that as well. Okay.  Okay.  And it took me this much of time to come out of it. It took me six months and God restored me. Now, this may not be the same case. There may be other factors involved, you know, in these six years, like maybe, you know, you went back, there was a backsliding involved, there are other factors, which are, you know, there, which may not be the case for the other person. So, so it'll be good, even when we're sharing testimonies, maybe we're sharing testimonies of other people, right?  So you could just, you know, mention that, okay, this is what happened. And the important thing, the truth is that God, the way God intervened. Okay. And, and that's the thing. Well, the actual thing of the time frame and the process, it could vary, because it could vary based on the response, my response to God, it could vary based on different other factors. So, so you could just mention that when we are talking about or mentioning testimonies, right? Our testimony, testimonies of others as well. Well, testimonies are very, very, very exciting to hear the build up person's faith and so on.  The details may not be the same, the process may not be the same, right? It'll be helpful for the listener to know that, to understand that. Okay, do not repeat the same illustration before the same audience. Well, you know, that happens, right? When you're, if you're ministering in the church, and Sunday after Sunday, you're ministering.  Well, I've heard this so many times, why is pastor, you know, mentioning the same thing, why is he bringing up the same thing? And so, it gets people disinterested and does the opposite of what the illustration is supposed to do, right? So, they've heard the story so many times and while it's powerful and while it's true and it's all that, but because of the fact that it has been repeated over and over again, people's attention starts to fall, right? So, do not repeat for the, you know, the illustration. We use something else or don't use illustration at all for that particular thing, right? For that particular point that you want to drive home. Okay, try to collect and write down a file illustrations for a property review. That's a good practice. If it can be, you know, if you can, if you're working on a laptop, you know, just open a folder, maybe on different topics, you want illustrations, you've got illustrations. You share that, you know, you, maybe about your own life, maybe about something that you heard, maybe about some testimony that you heard, you know, you can always keep an inventory of that and file that and it'll be very, very useful. It'll come in very handy. Okay, here, you know, again, AP Gibbs quotes Henry Ward be just sevenfold purpose of illustration. Okay, what are they? They help assist the argument that you're presenting. They help the hearer to remember, definitely. They stimulate the imagination. So when you're sharing a story, you know, people are not just focusing on the words and if you're actually explaining and narrating that incident, people are able to actually visualize. They, they place themselves in that situation. I very vividly remember, where, you know, this always comes back to my mind. This was in class. I think it was in, yeah, standard one, you know, first grade, just out of kindergarten and first grade. And I remember this history teacher. It was an evening, you know, it was the last class before we school ended for that day. And the history teacher, you know, he's actually talking about Hindu mythology. And she was narrating a story from there. And the first time I'm hearing that story. And, and she was so good. She was talking about certain, you know, details of it. And the entire story of that.  So we could be just immersed in that story.  As if it was, you know, it was in virtual reality. You were just there watching everything happen.  Right. So, so a good story, a good illustration, it stimulates the imagination. Right. So they're able to picture, visualize. And so it becomes the truth becomes so real, so part of their lives. Right. The illustration also helps in resting the audience. Right. Maybe you're dealing with some difficult concepts, maybe you're dealing or sharing some, you know, difficult things for the mind to comprehend, for the mind to relate to comprehend, understand, right.  So an illustration helps rest. So here's a story, which is actually drawing and relating to the truth. And you're not just describing the abstract things about the truth anymore, but here's a life, you know, an instance, you're here's a story, here's an instance, here's the testimony, and it helps the mind to rest and to just, you know, absorb the story. And at the end of the story, all these connections are made to the truth are the concepts that you were, you had shared a little earlier. Okay. And they provide for various classes of heroes. That's the best thing. You know, it could be, you know, different classes, different categories in terms of demographic, in terms of, you know, in terms of age, in terms of their upbringing, their backgrounds, whatever, you know, the illustration helps, the appropriate illustration helps. Okay. And, and also, this is a, this is a, the sixth one is a very important one. They help bridge the difficult places. Right. So there are some difficult things that you're sharing. And an illustration helps as a bridge from something to, from a concept to really understanding it. It helps bridge that. So it helps bridge the difficult places and also enforces the truth. Okay. So illustration is very important, very useful. At the same time, if we are using illustration after illustration, after illustration, you know, it takes, it actually steals our time. Okay. So we need to be mindful of that. And because an illustration, you know, it takes time, right? You cannot just state certain things and just move away. An illustration, you know, you can state the truth, you can state the facts, you can make statements of truth. But an illustration is, you're going into some detail, maybe it's about a person's life, maybe about, it's about an instance, incident that happened, you know, like, for example, you know, when I was sharing about, about that Sunday morning experience or Sunday afternoon experience, you know, post-church, going to the place, going to the restaurant or trying to figure out what, now I cannot rush that. I had to take time to talk about, okay, what each one could have been thinking, what each one was feeling and what, you know, what are disappoint, it does take time to talk about it, right? So just imagine for each and every point being made, if there are illustrations, it's going to be, it's going to take some time, okay? And you need to be mindful, if you're going to be just using illustration after illustration, right? And there are certain places where you don't have to, like, you don't have to be under pressure to use an illustration. And because we have learned that, okay, an illustration helps in these places, it rests the mind, it helps bridge, it helps reinforce the truth, and so on. So you, you can choose, okay, maybe this is a, you know, here's a different, yeah, here's a good place to use an illustration, right?  So, yeah, let me just use an illustration. So, and the Holy Spirit will just eliminate that illustration as well, right? And could have people's attention to the truth that is being shared, okay? So, so the main job for us as communicators of the truth is, of course, to communicate the text, the main message, don't be distracted away from it, to just talk about stories and end with stories, right? So, so don't get distracted halfway and go somewhere and don't find your way back, you know, to the outline. Sometimes, please just do that, right? Just go and then, oh, they never come back to the main flow of the message and that's just in somewhere. So, you know, don't do that. Okay, so let's look at the next part of the next aspect of the sermon outline, which is the application. Okay, so application is the process by which the truth of what was proclaimed, the truth that you shared, it becomes relevant in a person's life. Why? Why should it become relevant? So, here's an opportunity for the person to apply the truth. Okay, so this is, here's how I can apply the truth of the gifts of the Spirit. Here's how I can apply the truth of what I heard about what I learned about faith. Here's how I can apply the truth of what I learned about, like some one of you shared and about being salt and light. Okay, the Lord has called me to be salt and light, but here's how I can apply this truth in my own life. Okay, so the application is about putting to use, it's about walking it out, is about working it out in my life. Okay, so it becomes very, very relevant. Like somebody said, okay, I hear, I forget. Okay, I see, I remember. I do, and it stays. I do, and it stays with me forever. So, this is a doing part, not just the hearing part. So, James talks about, James 1 talks about how we should not be a forgetful hearer, but the doer of the work, doer of the Word of God. So, here's an opportunity for the hearer to actually do it. Okay, so let's look at something about application. So, application is to make the text alive in contemporary life. So, the truth is eternal. Now, truth is, you know, you go through different seasons, you know, maybe the truth was of what is being shared here, you know, the life of that time, the culture of that time, and the challenges of that time, there could be some things in common, and it could be very, very different as well. But since truth transcends time and culture, and all that, you know, here we are today in modern time, you know, looking at this eternal truth. So, while we consider the eternal truth, and it makes this whole text of this truth, or this truth come alive, even in my life situation, in today's time, with all this technology, in today's time, with all these new challenges, this truth holds good. And the way I apply it, I get to experience the reality of it. I get to experience the power of putting that truth to practice, right?  Okay, so these are some principles that we are looking at. So, while we are considering stating some applications, or methods of applying the truth, here are some things that to consider, right? So, when I relate the sermon to basic human challenges, okay, these are the challenges of today. You know, we could be talking about, you know, maybe 15, 20 years ago, or maybe 30 years ago, we would not have been talking about social media, right? The way, the format it is in today, or we won't be talking about, you know, when it comes to parenting, we won't be talking about, you know, limiting screen time to children, or making screen time, exposure, you know, to all this digital screen and pictures and movies and everything. Making it non-existent, right? Till they are not, you know, not allowing access to that, till they are of a certain age, right? While it seems like, okay, I can just put that and they'll be fine. You know, they'll be glued to the screen while I do my stuff, but doctors actually say that it is very harmful for them, you know, at that age to be looking at just moving images without processing things, you know, so it's not really good for them. So, they say screen time should be very limited in growing children, right? So, things like that, so technology has changed, but the fact is that, okay, by relating the truth to the problems of today, 30 years back, we would not have related that. But now, you know, we need to relate to what are the challenges, what are the problems of today? So, when we do that, now, that's the way of making that truth relevant so that I can apply it, right? Okay, determine what is normal for today, you know, what is the ground reality, which means that I need to understand what is happening. What is happening in society? What is the problem of, you know, by and large, right? Specifics will differ, but by and large, what is the problem of, you know, a person of this particular age? What are the challenges that they are going through? You know, if it's a senior person, you know, what is it that they are going through? Yes, you know, they've maybe they're in the 70s or 80s or, you know, older and certain things they are, you know, unable to do, right? Maybe the lack of mobility or mobility is reduced, maybe the strength is reduced, maybe, you know, technology around them has changed so much and they're not able to relate to it, right? Making us payment for a certain bill, you know, now, technology requires that you know certain things about email and using your phones to make payment, then maybe, you know, those are some challenges, right? So, it helps for us to know that, right? So, determine what is normal for today's society, know what is happening, or know what is happening in today's society, right? It helps us to bring the truth and enable the person to apply the truth in their lives, right? Okay. Make the application specific or definite because that is when you can take that step, okay? Because if it's unclear, then the step to be taken is also unclear and if it's not clear, I will not take that step, right? If it's left unclear, if it's left indecisive, then how can I apply it? How can I take that step? How can I follow that instruction? But if it is clear, for example, you know, when it comes to prayer, like, we're studying about prayer and then you look at the life of Daniel and you see that, okay, Daniel had a specific time and a specific place when he prayed. Every day he would open the windows, that place, specific place, specific time, switcher talks about that, he would face Jerusalem, he would pray, okay? So, that principle, okay, we can apply it, okay? Specific time, specific place. So, what is your time? Is it 6am in the morning? Is it 1130pm? Do you have a specific place for it, right? Or do you just leave it to wherever, whenever? It's not going to happen. So, do you have a specific place? Can you find a specific place? Can you arrive at a specific place? And can you arrive at a specific time?  So, things like that, if we would give, if we would, you know, as a principle, allow the person to think and say, okay, what are some specifics here, right? Then, the step taken will also be specific and definitive, where the person says, okay, I need to find a specific time and specific place, okay, done. This is what it is.  In that specific time and specific place, I can enter into prayer, I can spend this time in prayer and have a consistent prayer life, right? So, these would be ways by which some principles of application. Okay. Yeah, I think that's all we have time for today. Okay. So, next class, on Thursday, we will look at the time for the application and then we'll look at conclusion and so on. And then we'll move into the presentation part of it, right? Okay. So, we'll stop here. Thank you so much. God bless.


today we're talking about choosing the right CRM for your website, fundraising, and marketing. That's a lot that's going to be covered today. So I hope you got your paper and pen. Even if you don't, we are going to send you the video replay. So my name is Aretha Simons. I'm the webinar producer here. I'm going to go to the next slide and I'm going to show you how you can engage today. As I said, we're going to send you the video replay and the slides so you can get some more insights because I know many of you already said you're not using CRM or you may be using one, but not really using it at all. So I'm sure you're going to get a lot of tips today. If you learned something cool, go ahead and share it on all your social media and tag us at TechSoup. If you need the closed caption, go ahead and tap on the CC button at the bottom of your screen. And we would love to answer your questions at the end of this presentation. So put your questions in the Q&A section. I know a lot of people are going to be putting them in the chat, so we'll grab those out of the chat as well. And finally, before I turn it over to TAT Network, I want to tell you about Quad. I don't know how many of you, a member of Quad, if you are, go ahead and put it in the chat, say, I am, it's me. But with Quad, you can do so much more together. And when we say together, you have a peer-to-peer community, lots of exclusive events, and so much more in Quad. I'm going to put the link in the chat in just a moment. And hopefully I'll be seeing you on the other side of Quad. But I'm going to turn this over to some wonderful team members at TAT Network. Candice, I'm going to lead off with you. You guys have a great webinar. All right. Thanks, Sarita. Thanks everyone for joining us today. I'm Candice Munt. We're going to do some quick introductions because we're going to have a fun panel discussion. It's not just going to be me talking at you today. We're going to chat through some questions as we go. So I'm going to be your host today. I'm one of our senior account managers over here at TAP. And Jason. Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Jason Spangler. I'm our director of business development here at TAP Network. Some of you might have had the luxury to work with me, depending. I work with a lot of TechSoup members to help that are interested in our nonprofit, or nonprofit, in our digital marketing agency to help them identify ways that they could utilize our services to scale their operation. Hi, I'm Janelle. I'm the director of marketing operations here at TAP Network. I have about 10 years of CRM experience across all the different kinds of industries and client types. I oversee our nonprofit services and our education through our partnership with TechSoup. And I also oversee our CRM services and offerings. And as a panelist today, I will be really bringing in the experience of working with more of the mid to large sized nonprofits. Hey, everybody. My name is Zach Payton. I am the HubSpot Solutions Manager. I work with everybody else here at TAP Network. Like it says in my job title, work a lot with HubSpot as a CRM. So implementing this for smaller nonprofits, mid-sized nonprofits is not just implementing it, but helping with the migration process from whether they have a smaller CRM in the past, or no CRM in the past. So I'm kind of working from that beginning to end process with HubSpot as a CRM for nonprofits. All right. Thanks, everyone. And as mentioned, we're all really excited to start working with you today to go over these CRMs. So a quick overview of what we're going to be talking about. I'll do a little introduction of TAP Network just so you know who we are a little more about what we do. We're going to go into what a CRM is, and then we're going to compare a CRM to DMS. I saw a few people are strictly using DMS's in the comments. So we're excited to compare for you all. And then we'll dig into our eight-step system for choosing the right CRM for your organization. We'll talk a little more about our recommended CRM platform and then dig into the next steps. All right. So who is TAP? So we are a full-service digital agency, and we've been working with TechSoup for over eight years now. So over these years, we've provided lots of marketing thought leadership and expertise, not just to TechSoup but also to thousands of their members. And so we're excited to get on board today. And with that, we're a full-service digital marketing agency. So what that means is from branding to logo, web development, CRM implementation, ongoing support such as SEO, your ads, your social media, any strategy around that. We're a full-service digital marketing agency that specializes in these services that are designed specifically to help nonprofits grow. So what is a CRM, a constituent relationship management system? It's a full funnel tool that helps you grow your organization. So it includes a few things. It's the tools, the technologies, processes, and strategies that are going to help your organization manage, improve, and deploy all your interactions. That's regardless of the audience type. It's a single source where you store constituent records and then ultimately use those records to communicate with people and drive engagement further. And ultimately, it's a data-driven technology that can be leveraged to send mass communications, automate recurring processes, and track the success of your current campaigns. Whereas a DMS, it's a donation management system. It centralizes donor-specific interactions. It uses data targeted for targeted communication and relationship building with your existing donors and sponsors. It tracks your online fundraising campaign success and donor contributions and enhances fundraising efforts by optimizing donor engagement and contribution tracking. That's kind of a lot up front. So let's compare the two. So in comparing a CRM to DMS, there's a few key callouts that we want to make to show the differences. So ultimately, since we can see all the different touch points in a CRM, you can start interacting and engaging with your audience before they're ready to convert. So what that means is in a DMS system, you can only focus on the transaction after they've converted. The donation management system is just going to show this person donated, whereas the CRM is going to meet a person where they are in their life cycle and then focus on growing a person and converting them into a donor. So earlier, we kind of touched on CRM supporting a full funnel approach to growing support for your organization, regardless of what you do or what your mission is. This funnel here helps you visualize the four main points of nurture that a CRM has in place that allows you to grow. So first, you want to make the visitor aware of the problem you solve. From there, the visitor should be encouraged to support the cause. Next, they're going to decide that the problem is best solved with your organization. And then finally, the end goal is that they become donor, volunteer, or any other type of supporter that you're looking to achieve. So for example of that, so if we were to take a food pantry, let's take this full funnel approach and apply it to that organization. So the very first thing that they want to do is educate the visitor that's coming on the community that you serve, that the community you serve faces an insecurity in food. From there, the visitor can sign up for a newsletter, see the offerings you have, and then they're going to realize the impact you have, see the value you bring to solving food insecurity in the community. And then ultimately, they're going to donate or convert because they trust you to provide the community with the resources that they need. Whereas a DMS, which is solely transactional based. So the only point of the funnel that the DMS is positioned to support is the bottom. And so we all know that most people need to build trust over time before they're ready to convert. But with a DMS, all you can see is that final step in the funnel. And then manage the people who have converted, which is why we recommend the CRM versus the DMS. And this is just a call out. It's important to note that a platform is not a true CRM unless it encompasses more touch points than just the people that already exist in your system. So a side note being right now, if you search CRM for non-profit, you're actually going to start getting a lot of targeted ads for DMSes that are positioning themselves as CRMs. So a significant flag is that a true CRM should work with all your different touch points, whether it's social media, your emailing campaigns, event management, and not just solely focused on your volunteers and donors. And so now we're going to throw on a couple panel questions here. So Zach, what would you say are the biggest considerations non-profits should keep in mind when deciding between a DMS and a CRM? So like Candace said, just in these previous past slides, a donation management system is specifically designed to handle the financial transaction and track those donations. The CRM, on the other hand, is more broad and focuses on building and maintaining those relationships with your contacts. So to continue off that, DMS will typically at most have a thank you email feature, but that's about it. If your donation system is connected with a proper CRM, you'll be able to have automated emails, marketing campaigns, you can track interactions and their engagement history to tailor communication efforts, enhancing those donor relationships, ultimately turning those contacts into donors or volunteers or supporters of your non-profit. Additionally, a DMS may lack flexibility for customization. A CRM will typically offer more customization options, making it more adaptable to the evolving needs of the organization. So and this can be crucial as your non-profit expands its activities beyond simple, just simple donation processing. Thanks Zach. So now we're going to pop up, Aretha is going to pop up a quick poll on our screen here. I know she asked initially about CRMs that your organizations are using, but we would love you to fill out this poll on what is your organization currently using? Are you using a DMS, a CRM? Are you using both a DMS and a CRM or neither? I'm not sure that poll populated right, Aretha. Again? Yeah. It's a zoom thing. Maybe at some point. Yeah, maybe at some point we can get it to pop up during the presentation or you can just chime in over in the chat section. Sure, thanks. Thank you. Okay, question for you, Jason. What challenges do you see non-profit organizations facing that cause them to consider moving to CRM for the very first time? That's a good question, Candace. I mean, while non-profits grow at varying rates, causing a wide range of challenges, the most common issue I hear from most executive directors is that they've simply outgrown kind of their piece, mule, or patchwork system. And they're really looking for something that can help them effectively scale their operation into the future, kind of that next step. So this is typically a result of multiple factors, but some ones that probably resonate with our audience today are like fragmented data. I mean, non-profits typically, you know, have all this data scattered across multiple spreadsheets, email lists, databases, and that can make it extremely difficult to get a comprehensive view of your donors, your volunteers, and your program participants, which ultimately hinders your communication and your efforts, your engagement efforts. Some other ones are like manual processes, because we all rely on people, because we can get volunteering for free. So we typically create multiple manual processes, and that really creates an inability to scale there. They're not only time consuming, but they're also prone to errors and inconsistencies. And then both of those pieces, if you kind of use them together, they ultimately result in a lack of personalization. And I think that's one of those really big metrics that matters, because then you're not able to really tailor your messaging for your volunteers or specifically for donors, because donors don't want to hear about volunteering. They have money, not time, and vice versa. And your program participants, they're not there to donate, they need your services. So it's vital that you get the proper messaging in front of the proper target audience. And I'd say the last piece really is integration challenges. The whole thing is, yes, you need to create an entire platform that ultimately allows your operation to be successful. And if we're piece building things together, a lot of those things won't get linked. And so it makes it very hard to benchmark not only our success, but also our failures, so that we can learn and adjust. Yeah, definitely. That's great insight. And then Janelle, what challenges do you see nonprofit organizations facing that cause them considering to a new CRM when they already have an existing one in place? Yeah, so what Jason said, it's very similar, kind of like the themes throughout with data has been a biggest issue that we see. But a lot of times when we're working with nonprofits, they have existing CRMs, they're just not meeting their needs for one reason or another. We have really three top three challenges that would lead someone to consider a new CRM. The biggest one is that it's too technical. So if we think about this in terms of barrier of entry, we like to build these systems around like, who is the least technical person on your team who needs to be able to use this and making sure that you build a system that will allow them to enter in that information, right? So if you have a board member who's maybe not so technically, you know, up to speed, but they're the ones leading outreach for large sponsors. How do we set up systems that will allow all that information to automatically update in your CRM without needing to really like train them? A lot of times what we see is that you have someone on your team who has worked with CRMs in the past. They see it as a great solution for your organization. They get you built up on the CRM and then for one reason or another, they leave the organization and with them goes all the knowledge of how this thing works. And then organizations are left with this big expensive system that no one really knows what to do with. So that's really been our biggest kind of hurdle that we're looking to get over. Another big challenge we see is that it's not comprehensive enough or it has a limited ability to integrate with systems. So like to Jason's point, you're not seeing a full view of your data. So it might be working really, really well for donor management or volunteer management, but you're missing kind of everything that happens within that funnel that we showed. And the last thing is that it's not customizable enough. So a lot of these CRMs, they're built to be used out of the box, which means day one, you sign up, you get in there and their systems are already ready to use. And that's great if your nonprofit functions exactly the way that tool is built. But as we see, no two nonprofits are the same. You have unique needs, unique use cases. So having a CRM with the flexibility to build according to your systems will allow you to kind of keep with the same CRM for longer. That's great. Yeah, that's exactly it. And I'm seeing a lot of comments come through as you chat. People agree and we need simplicity. We need to make sure that it's easy for users to use as well. So as we all know, when choosing a CRM, there's so many options to choose from. And we know it's very overwhelming. And so what we wanted to do is actually take a step back and detail out an eight step process for you as an organization to consider when you're when you're choosing which CRM is right for you. And ultimately, when you look at the CRM that you're choosing, you want to consider it as a long term solution, not a short term fix. So you want to make sure you're choosing the right one as you're making a multiple month commitment. And you want to make sure that you get the CRM set up the right way that meets your needs the best that is easy to use works for all your users. And these steps are going to help ensure that you do that. So before I get started, because these eight steps, there's going to be a lot of content there. We actually created a nice eight step downloadable guide that you're going to be able to access after this presentation. And this is going to go over all the steps that we cover, as well as add in additional questions to ask yourself when you're at each point in the process. And the eight steps we're going to cover are going to help guide you through the decision making process. And I'm going to hand it over to Zach here to go over steps that one in two, and then I'll take it over from there. Awesome. Thanks, Candace. So the first step is going to be to conduct an evaluation of your nonprofit's needs. So this can be done by performing a gap analysis. So what a gap analysis is, is it involves the comparison of actual performance with the potential or the desired performance. So for any goals or issues that you need to tackle, you'll want to note the current state, you want to identify the gaps and then outline the desired future state for key aspects related to the situation at hand. So it's really like goal planning. With the first gap in the table here, you can see that there may be potential friction in the donation process on the website, which can lead to abandonment and ultimately those donations not coming through. So a solution to a complex donation process could be to implement a simpler donation process, perhaps a one click donation process connected to something like Apple Pay or PayPal, or other systems like that that can provide more of a seamless experience for your website visitors for your donors. Another example could be you're struggling to maintain these lasting relationships with your donors. If you identify that you have nothing but a simple thank you email going out to your donors, you may want to develop more of a strategy that can include personalized messaging updates on the impact that your nonprofit is having in the community, and then even continuing involvement opportunities for these donors. So that's step one. Step two in the step in the step process is to map your nonprofit's tech stack and data flow. So creating visual visualization of your nonprofit's tech stack and data flow is super valuable to visualize and understand all the different technologies and processes involved that are going to be relevant to your CRM. So like as you can see here in the example, you have the website at the top with all the different branches that represent each source of content or information coming into the website. So for example, the contact us form will connect will collect that initial contact information, which will then lead which can lead to the sending of educational emails, newsletters, and then to triggering workflows based on different segments that you've defined within your audience. It's like we were speaking on before, or like Jason was saying, a donor versus a volunteer versus somebody who's being impacted by your nonprofit, they're not going to want to see all the same information, right? So the CRM will handle that distribution of information. They'll detect who these people are, if it's a potential donor, if you've identified them as a potential volunteer, lead them through the process on your website in the proper method there. So as another example, a donation page on your website. So this can take care of transactions, it can trigger, then trigger a thank you email, which can then communicate essential information to your audience, leading to current and future cash flow opportunities for your nonprofit. And again, all this can be set up and connected to a CRM. All right, thanks Zach. And Jenelle and Jason, I have a panel question for you. What gaps do you most commonly see in nonprofit text stacks? I think a lot of it, I'll go first, Jenelle, if you don't mind. I think a lot of it comes down to integration challenges. And those are kind of, can be the result of lack of long-term planning. I think you should really be intentional with the integrations that you choose and spending a little bit more time to ensure that it's something that can evolve with your team. Maybe not for the, you know, to the end of the like of life, but something that can evolve at least over the next five years with you is far cheaper, even if it does require a little bit more upfront cost because you're not going to have to go back and rebuild the wheel. Many clients look at tools separately instead of as an entire ecosystem or platform. And so I think that's really important to recognize the key integrations you need to be able to accurately track people from that awareness stage, all the way down to people getting involved. Because that is ultimately how you are going to change and make and evolve your mission to be more successful. What are your thoughts? Definitely what Jason is saying.  We're just missing the context of how that's working together to really drive your growth and drive your end goal. So what we end up with is a very like qualitative analysis of what's working instead of quantitative and the data to back it up. So if I'm working with a new nonprofit and I ask how are people finding you? How are they getting engaged?  So if we led with just that, we might spend ad dollars and put all this work into a GivingTuesday end of year giving campaign. But what we're missing is what happened all the months ahead of that. And if you have a CRM and you're able to see the people who gave on GivingTuesday actually joined our email list eight months, 12 months ahead of time, and we nurture them throughout the year so that when it was time to give for the end of year, they already knew who we were, then we know if we put ad dollars behind a GivingTuesday campaign, you're not going to see what you expect to get out of it. So if we have the data in place to know what that whole life cycle looks like, you're going to be able to spend more of your time and resources on the right things. A lot of nonprofits we work with, it's volunteer run or your executive director is wearing 10 different hats and you're not marketing communication people and what you do is you see other nonprofits who are doing things and those seem to be working well. So you feel very overwhelmed of like, oh, I need this, I need to start a TikTok account, I need to have a membership portal, but you really just need to see what is working and what's really those few things that we can do really well to grow and feel a little less overwhelmed knowing that you have the data to support the things that you should be focusing on. That's perfect. Okay, and then if we build on the insights that are gained from mapping your current tech stack and your data flow that we saw in step two, the next crucial phase is going to be identifying the essential features your nonprofit requires in the new CRM. So as you assess these essential features, consider categorizing them into two separate lists. So look at your must haves and your nice to haves. So the must have list should encompass critical functionalities that are non-negotiable for your operations. Additionally, know any essential features in your current system that need to be maintained in the new CRM if you're moving things over. This is going to ensure that you address any current challenges as well as anticipates future needs there. And some examples of need to have and nice to have questions that you can look at. I'm not going to dig into all of these because there's a lot here, but if you look at contact management, questions you can ask yourself are, does the CRM have robust tools for managing donor and supporter information? Does it have customizable fields to capture specific data relevant to your nonprofit? Or if we look at donation tracking, some questions you'll want to consider is, what seamless immigration do we need with fundraising tools, detailed tracking of donations, pledges, recurring contributions, etc. or communication tools? You want to seek a solid email marketing integration for a targeted outreach. And another thing to look for is automated communication workflows for donor engagement so you don't feel like you're constantly in there having to manually update things within your CRM. You know, and to go further, we can get into integration capabilities. User friendly interface, we like to highlight this because that's the thing is we want to make sure that whatever platform you choose is the easiest for the most users across the entirety of your organization. And other elements to consider are reporting and analytics, grants and proposal management, training and support, task and event management, you've got your social media and integration, volunteer management, member management, mobile accessibility, AI and automation. So as you can see, there's a lot of things to consider. And now that you're armed with the full understanding of your organization's requirement, you also have a clear outline of the essential features, you can move forward to step four, and that's to create a list of potential CRMs. This is going to lay the groundwork for a strategic decision making process, ultimately bringing you one step closer to implementing the CRM solution that's going to maximize your impact. And so during this phase, things that we like to call out is that you should delve into user reviews, look into recommendations to gain insights into real world world experiences that other nonprofits have had when using any sort of CRM. It's also important to look at vendor reputations to ensure that the selected CRM, that the providers are aligning with your nonprofit values and commitment to success. So as you see, we have five that are listed here. These are the ones that we have seen nonprofits use most commonly, but as you all know, there's definitely a lot more to choose from. So you just want to make sure that you're doing extensive research when determining which one to go with in the end. During step five, you're going to focus on the accessibility, assessing the usability of the potential CRM solutions for the nonprofit. So there's a few key aspects to consider when determining usability. The first is going to be user friendliness, and I know we've talked on this a couple of times, but it is a significant issue that a lot of nonprofits run into. Right now you're going to evaluate the intuitiveness and the accessibility for staff members with varying levels of technical expertise. And with that too, let's look at the ease of setup. How quickly and seamlessly can the CRM you selected implement your nonprofit operations? A streamlined setup is going to contribute to faster onboarding and obviously the swift realization of the benefits there. You want to make sure that you've evaluated the integration capabilities. So determining how well the CRM can harmonize with your existing technology infrastructure, you want to verify its capability, compatibility with other tools and systems crucial to your daily operations. And then what are the training resources? You want to make sure that you're assessing the availability of training materials, the workshops they provide, or any kind of additional support they have to empower your team in harnessing the CRM's full potential. I know up front at the beginning of the call, there are a lot of people that say we have XYZ CRM, but we're not using it because it's too complicated. It's too time consuming. Those are things that you want to consider when selecting your CRM going forward. And then additionally, what's your access to technical support? This one gets overlooked a lot in the upfront process, but it's important to evaluate what the responsiveness is and the availability of customer support is from the CRM that you're going to select. You want to know that you're going to get timely assistance, as that's obviously going to be critical in addressing any issues or questions that arise during implementation, or even day-to-day use. Step six, determine your platform budget. So this involves taking the financial planning process to evaluate the startup costs, timeline considerations, as well as the ongoing expenses that are involved in maintaining the CRM going forward. So by aligning your budget considerations with the specific financial aspects of implementing and maintaining the CRM, you ensure a clear financial roadmap for your nonprofit's digital transformation. This step's going to facilitate a cost-effective and sustainable approach to leveraging the chosen CRM for maximum impact. And now that you have a budget in mind, you're going to want to identify potential solutions or implementations partners that you can work with. Recognizing the value of partners to guide your nonprofit through the CRM adoption is essential. What you're going to want to do is identify consultants who already understand nonprofit's challenges, they've developed solutions to anticipate these challenges, and these consultants are going to, with the experience in nonprofit organizations, are going to be able to help you with your CRM implementation to assure and ensure it seamlessly aligned with your mission and goals. There's a couple things to consider when identifying a consultant or company that specializes in these different platforms. So what they're going to do is they're going to help you identify which platform is best suited for your individual needs. They've already done some of that upfront research and they can help you tie whatever your needs are to existing CRMs. They're going to bring in-depth knowledge of the selected CRM solutions. This ensures a smoother and more effective implementation overall. Ensuring your long-term success by providing valuable insights into best practices, they'll help you optimize your workflows and offer continued support for as your nonprofit evolves and grows within the CRM. And then ultimately a big call out here is that when you choose a solution's partner to help you implement and work with your CRM, you're avoiding lapses in work or loss of access to key platforms or processes if one single employee leaves the organization or moves to a different department. This also ensures a resource for new employees to be up to speed on technical operations. We help work with those new employees to get them trained. And then step eight, free trials and demos. And the reason we call this out is that these opportunities allow you to test the system based on features, usability, integration capability, interface, and data security before you sign on to using the CRM. So the key call out here is remember, you're not just trying out a CRM. It's not as simple as that what you're doing is assessing a potential long-term partner for your nonprofit. So you want to utilize this period to evaluate whether the partnership aligns with your goal of enhancing donor relationships as well as fostering growth. And by approaching this trial period with a nonprofit perspective, you can ensure that the CRM aligns with your organization's requirements. And this then ultimately sets the stage for a successful and impactful partnership down the line. And then you're working with, if you're working with an implementation partner, they also might be able to offer customized demo portals that match your use case. All right, I have a question for everyone on the panel now. What are your top tips for nonprofits starting this journey? I'll go first here. First tip, I would say, I got two things here. First tip I would say is clearly define your audience and your objectives. So ask yourself, who is your target audience? Are you trying to attract donors? Are you trying to attract volunteers? Are you trying to attract people who are going to be using your nonprofit? And what contact information do you really need to collect from these people to ultimately reach your goals? The second thing I would say is select a CRM that truly fits your nonprofit's needs, not just what's convenient. So like we were speaking on before, there's so many different CRMs out there that are offering sort of an out-of-the-box approach or they say that they're super customizable and easily adaptable. Do the research, select a CRM that truly fits your nonprofit's needs, look at other organizations that are similar to yours, what are they using, and invest in what you need. You don't want to go super overkill, but also don't cheap out.  Definitely. I think, as Candace mentioned, that this should really be thought of as a long-term partnership and not a short-term solution. So while it can be really tempting to go with kind of the out-of-the-box solution, focus on something that will allow you to build systems and not just build tools that you're checking off your list of, I need something to manage my emails. I need something to have my list. That's where you really end up with this cobbled together system of, all of a sudden we have 10 different platforms when we could do this and maybe one or two. And really focus on ones that have the most growth opportunities. You'll see a lot of CRMs out there that have different tiers where you can sign up for, starting with free. Have something that has the tools that you might not need right now, but you could grow into in six months in a year so that you're not needing to go through this selection process every couple years as you continue to grow. There have been none. So it's interesting. I think I'm going to get more broad to this question. I think recognizing when you have a problem that you can solve with people versus one that should be solved with software or automation is key. Because, look, you have a ton of volunteers at your disposal, but there's certain things that will never be done correctly if you don't have a central hub or tool that can create a standardized process to Jenelle's point.  So try to prioritize the ones that would make the biggest impact when it comes to the tool on the tooling side. And then take those first initiatives first and you can, in the short run, throw people at the others and slowly build and grow. So ideally, the solution would have the ability to add on similar to HubSpot, add on different hubs where you can grow into the software or make adjustments so that you are prioritizing your budget. Yeah, I think those are all great tips. So all of that being said, there's a lot of CRMs out there. Ultimately, we do have one that we always recommend. We use it ourselves. As Aretha mentioned, TechSync uses it. We've also built this for over 50 nonprofits. And it, ultimately, it always works well regardless of the size of the organization that you're in. And what we're always trying to find is the balance between the ease of use and then having the data as well as the power to actually act on all that data and reporting that's in there. The CRM that follows into that sweet spot always for us is HubSpot. And what it is, it's an all-in-one communication, fundraising, and customer service platform. And this helps organizations grow better. It provides you with a full suite of tools that can help your nonprofit increase support throughout the entire funnel of the marketing journey. And then with HubSpot, you can manage your entire constituent journey from one place. So what this is going to allow you to do is create and distribute content, you can manage your social media presence, you can automate your donation process, and then ultimately, you can track your performance. And wow, look at all these platforms. We like HubSpot because regardless of what your nonprofit uses, it can integrate with it. It can also ensure that you have one single source of truth. And the reason we like it is that it's the most applicable across all these systems to make sure that you can act on the data that you're collecting across all these platforms seamlessly. And it's going to help you ensure that you grow your organization with ease. So it's an all-in-one solution. It's budget friendly. It's user friendly. It integrates well. The automation ultimately allows you to scale. There's reporting across all systems and it has the right training and support there for you. And the reason it's our most recommended CRM is because it has the tools for all the different teams and functions within nonprofits. And then ultimately, you can customize those tools to work for you best. It's also incredibly easy to use. It allows you to collaborate with teammates. You get context into all the ways someone is interacting with you. It ensures you understand where people are coming from and how they're engaging with your organization. And then another very big perk is that you can set up custom segments according to what you know about a person. So how they've engaged with you in the past. Other demographic information about those people. Behavioral data points that basically what you're getting at is this allows you to deliver the right person, the right message at the right time. And this on to the pricing. Everyone's favorite subject. It varies a lot depending on the platform, the number of users, the amount of data, and the functionality. So we did still want to include a just a little snippet of what HubSpot pricing can look like. But there's important callouts here. One is that it has great variation depending on your users and your data points. But then also what's nice about HubSpot is that they offer a nonprofit discount. So you actually get 40% off for professional level and above HubSpot platforms. And it can always seem like a jump to pay for that professional level. But the tools and support available in Pro actually unlock a lot of hours of weekly admin time with the automation that they have built in at that level. All right, Jason, how much do you think a nonprofit should spend the budget for a CRM platform in there in the ultimate implementation? I hate giving this answer, but I ultimately think it varies greatly based on their core needs. I think Janelle made it made a good point earlier as well, and it was Zach as well, that prioritizing your biggest needs upfront and ensuring that the solution you select meets those is priority number one. Because you have to ensure that you can be successful at the blocking and tackling, for example, before you can focus on doing complex plays. But it really comes down to also hopefully that same choice will have the option to evolve and grow with. Because ultimately, just like when we talk to people about websites, we don't have to completely rebuild the wheel every time. We would love to slowly transition you because it's a lot less, it's a lot more cost effective. And forget the cost, your people don't have to learn a new tool, which we already talked about how tedious it can be to transition, even if just someone leaves that head all the knowledge, let alone try to teach every one of your volunteers a new tool every year or two. It's just asking too much. I agree. And it looks like we have a lot of questions, so I'll hand this over. So any questions, the answer is yes, there's a lot of questions. So let's start digging into those. All right, so I'm going to start going through the Q&A. Lots of great stuff in here. We have one question for small and newer non-profits with limited budgets. Would you recommend starting with CRM templates found in applications like Monday.com, Airtable, Asana and such? I think as you're just getting started out, that doesn't hurt if something has an out of the box template. But just like we're saying, you'll kind of always hit that ceiling eventually. Especially if those templates you can't really take and edit. So something like HubSpot where there CRM is free. It's free for everyone all the time. That's the place where you can keep track of who's who and who's in your system. The things you're paying for is the tools that you can use where you can, as you grow, now we can add on email marketing, can add on landing pages. We can add on automations to start making this kind of run in the background without us having to manage it. So it's good to kind of start on systems like that that give you the opportunity to grow over time. Just to continue off that too, I think that one important thing, whether it be in the non-profit industry or any industry for that matter, is look at what tools similar non-profits are using to yours. So if you're non-profit focused on, if you're a food bank for example, look at what other food banks in different communities are using for their CRM tools. Obviously, with ThruTechSoup, there's the great quad program which you're able to communicate with other non-profits, see what they're using, maybe shoot them a message, see, hey, I know you're similar to my organization. What are you using? Has it been working well for you? Lots of different, I'm sure everybody has great networks out there too that are able to communicate with other non-profits and see what they're using. So there's a lot of questions around specific non-profits, specific CRMs. And as we see here, the reason why we provide this in a framework rather than a list of recommendations is, as someone mentioned, why are there so many CRMs to choose from? It's a competitive space. There are hundreds and hundreds of CRMs. There are hundreds of donation management systems branded as CRMs. So no two systems are really the same. So it's better to give that framework of understanding from all the options that are out there. And as we said, we recommend HubSpot because it has that growth capability and to everyone's point of what support is available. HubSpot is the absolute leader in education for non-profits, for CRM type of tools. They have a very comprehensive academy as everyone on the TAP team is aware. Super, super comprehensive. It's entirely free to everyone all the time where you can go through and you can learn very broad ideas, like how do I do the marketing to how do I specifically set up a donation pipeline or how do I set up landing pages? And they also have some great resources. So they have a whole FAQ where you're able to access, I'm stuck on this or I had this IT question and you can always go to them. They also have for the professional level and above, you can call them at any time, you can chat with them. And if you are looking for like a consultant or someone to help you set that up, TAP network, we do work directly with HubSpot so we can set up and manage and support you going forward. But outside of us, there's a whole catalog of partners that HubSpot has and they focus on all different types of clients they specialize in nonprofits or e-commerce. So you can always find someone to help you along the way. I'm just going through here. Here's a good one. Zach, maybe you can take this. Can you add your own workflows and automate them in HubSpot? Yeah, absolutely. So for, say, for as an example, for managing that relationship with your past donors. So say somebody makes a donation on your website, you can have HubSpot detect that and then say two weeks, you can send them a thank you email a day later and then say a month later, you can send them add them to a workflow, send them a newsletter saying, hey, like this is thanks for the donation in the past, you donated on this day. This is the impact that those dollars have gone towards. So you can kind of automate any any process there, especially with the donor, like managing those relationships with your past donors with past volunteers, you can automate emails, automate marketing campaigns, anything like that. I want to jump in and answer one, Janelle. Linda was asking if, for us to clarify, if we're being paid to specifically market HubSpot and the answer is no. So our team has worked with many other CRMs. I know myself personally, I've worked with various, including Salesforce, Pardot, HubSpot, and we've found HubSpot to be the most advantageous for nonprofits and also because it's easy to learn. I can't tell you how many times I try to get in and learn a new CRM, especially Salesforce, and your use is so set up the way it was designed instead of being more standardized. So it's not like you just jump into Salesforce and learn the same one because it might be set up completely different versus HubSpot. A lot more of it is intentional and standardized, which makes it a lot easier for newbies to learn and kind of people that are experts to jump in and make quick additions or changes for you. So no, we highly support HubSpot and it has not proven us wrong yet. Yeah, another good point on that is we'll never recommend a tool that we haven't used thoroughly and understand the pros and cons of it. We use HubSpot internally, TechSoup uses HubSpot. We've set this up for dozens of nonprofits and really from the starter level to the enterprise level, there's always a solution that will work really well. Obviously, still do your research and all of that, but we found that it's the most versatile and covers the most different use cases that you can have in needing a CRM. Let's see. Particular platforms we would recommend for church organizations. So we have actually set up HubSpot for church organizations. We have two in progress right now. The reason that that works really well is because it's completely customizable. So even if you have to have very specific information around the types of information that's only specific to church. So what kind of interests do you have? Where is someone in their faith-based journey? All of those can be customizable data points that you can collect throughout your system. Zach, maybe you can answer this one, which CRM does the best job of segregation of a geographically dispersed nonprofit. And Candice, we can see your screen. That's Zach's screen, but yeah. For geographic disbursement. Again, I hate to call on HubSpot again, but what HubSpot does so well is segmentation of your contacts. So if you have a target market say in Washington state versus in Florida, you don't want to necessarily be marketing the exact same events or the exact same piece of information to that. To those contacts in Florida versus in Washington state, you can segment. You can have like a marketing campaign strictly for Washington state. Ensure that those Florida contacts aren't receiving that information. Similar with anything else like whether it's country-based, like I said, state-based. Yeah, anything like that is easily segmentable through HubSpot. So a couple good questions here on integration capabilities. So as we share that really scary graphic that had all of those different apps, HubSpot works with a ton of other platforms. So the one that was specifically called out is Eventbrite. It does work natively with Eventbrite, which means this is super easy to set up and you don't need someone who's like technical in getting this set up. HubSpot allows you to directly sign in to your other platforms like Eventbrite so that information will automatically just stream into your CRM. So kind of different than some of the other platforms. So we see like if you're using Salesforce or a constant contact, you might need something like Zapier, which is this like little third party system that carries data from one place and then brings it over to your CRM. Unlike those, HubSpot works natively, so you're not having that potential breakage as you have something kind of carrying back and forth. In terms of integrating with your website, that's a great question. It integrates with all websites. It works really, really well with anyone on WordPress. It's just another plugin that you add and then you'll be able to track and see who visits what pages, what buttons are they clicking on, what forms are they filling out, so really getting a better understanding of how people are using your website. And if you're not on WordPress, then they give you this little tracking code that you can add to all your pages and that'll give you that same information. They also have a CMS built in, so you can build your entire website on HubSpot, but it really just depends on what your use case is. We typically do recommend using WordPress over the HubSpot CMS system. Lots of questions coming in here. I'll try to get through as many as we can. This person, Ron Rose, I use GiveWP. Does it integrate with HubSpot or would HubSpot be a replacement? So that's a great question. It integrates with HubSpot. So we've integrated GiveWP with HubSpot. That's one of our integrations that we recommend, so that if you want to keep track of donor information, those can be brought over so you can have an active list of who donated. You can see how much they donated, when, and then have all that information in HubSpot so that you can send your thank you emails and follow-up information directly from HubSpot. Kayla asks, does HubSpot integrate with MailChimp as well? And that's a great question. While you can integrate it with MailChimp, HubSpot has a really comprehensive and robust emailing tool built in so that you're no longer having to kind of go between the two and you can send emails the same way as you would in MailChimp. It's a drag-and-drop builder. It's really easy to use and that way you can kind of start to eliminate some of those additional platforms that you have. It also integrates with QuickBooks so you can automate certain things like if you receive a donation or pledge to donate, you can automate that information to be sent to QuickBooks so that you can generate the invoice so there's some really, you know, in-depth capabilities that they have with QuickBooks. Jason, do you have anything that you want to call out? I, let's see, we have still 25 left to go through. I've been looking through and you've been answering a lot of the ones I was going to jump into. I do want to just straight-cap blues. You're asking a pretty complex question that's very dependent on what you're trying to integrate so that that question is not really relevant for this discussion just because you keep asking, that's why we're not answering it. Yeah, I would say maybe do some research into that. I've never seen like both of those needed so I would just do some more research and see specifically around what platform you're looking at and just make sure that that's something that is reputable and that it is standard to be collecting that kind of information. Let's see, so Susan asks, is there a platform that is a CMS and a DMS and a grant management system? If not, which grant management system integrates with HubSpot? So that's a great question. We've set up HubSpot to work for grant management. HubSpot has some really great tools built in for sales and donations so you can build a custom pipeline that allows you to track this grant is live. We've submitted our application or waiting approval. We've received this grant so you're able to track those steps and then collaborate with your team internally to kind of see all those things that need to happen throughout the grant management process. And here's a question that I've seen a few of about HubSpot for churches. I know I've talked to many churches just with kind of being the point person on taking a lot of these nonprofit conversations and I have yet to find anyone that's found a really good solution for a church use case. I know you typically, there's another an acronym CHMS which is for church specific CRMs because you have a very different needs based on donations and stuff the way you do and I have not found a great use case. Have you implemented any for any churches that you know of? Yeah, we have two church clients right now that we're working through and it is just a matter of how you plan to use it and a lot of times it is being integrated with a more specific system so with a church you might have a video management system that has all of your recordings of services of all your services so that you can integrate something like HubSpot so that people kind of access to those or set like a membership portal that integrates. So there are definitely use cases for it. I know that there are kind of those out of the box systems that might work very well for churches. I just don't know of any in particular. I see another one DD asking, does it handle ticketing? Do you want to kind of address that one Janelle because I know there's a couple ways we do ticketing. Yeah so ticketing can mean a couple different things I just wanted to get clarification on that one. Is that ticketing for events or for like customer support tickets? Maybe answering the webinar chat? I mean we can use a use case like us so for example if you sign up for some of our retainer based services or subscription services where we can help you with websites and stuff we use HubSpot to manage the ticketing service so it is an on-demand service where you actually put in your requests and we answer it via a ticket. So in that regard yes it's very it does work with ticketing but I have a feeling you're probably leaning more towards events. Then yes there's a couple different ways to do this so if you have something already in existence like Eventbrite or if you have a plugin on your website then you can just integrate that information with HubSpot and you can do this even automated so you can send out an invitation for an event that runs maybe you send three different emails you can automatically take people off that list as they sign up. If they are free events then HubSpot has native forms that you can handle those registrations you can completely customize what you're asking of people and then register them that way. All right and we're just about at time so we will go through kind of how to connect with us if you have more questions. I'm sorry we didn't get through everything today some great questions in here but these links will be shared after the webinar but we have the ebook that we mentioned that breaks this eight step system down. There's also a link here to request a consultation with us so as a partner of TechSoup what you'll find on their website if you go to their services. Website services, digital marketing that is all tap network so if you go to that page and you fill out the form that'll be routed to us and we will get to you at Promise as soon as possible there's a little bit of a queue that forms after big events like this but we will get everyone in response and start following up if you need additional support or you're interested in a CRM like HubSpot we'll be sending out that email that has a link to that as well as the ebook and then the if you're looking at more of our CRM solutions there's going to be a web page that breaks down some of our poor offerings as well. Thank you all for joining us today. Thanks everyone.