Philanthropy Podcast: A Resource for Nonprofit Leaders and Fundraising & Advancement Professionals

Today, our episode of The Philanthropy Podcast is a solo episode where I'll share some analysis on the Giving USA 2017 Report. Every year The Giving Institute, in conjunction with the Indiana University's Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, produce a report on trends in giving in the United States. I'll share my insights from the parts of the report I've seen and a seminar I attended which reviewed this data.

If you have questions about data contained in Giving USA 2017, please feel welcome to share them in the new Philanthropy Podcast Linkedin Group, on our Facebook page, or on twitter where I'm @PhilanthropyPod. Also, if you enjoyed this show, please consider becoming a patron by supporting the show for as little as $1 per month to receive one of the ten remaining (as of 2017/06/26) mp3 files featuring 70 high impact questions recorded without commentary to aid in your preparation and execution of visits with benefactors and prospects. You can become a patron by visiting www.thephilanthropypodcast.com/awesome

Thank you and enjoy the show!

 

 

Today's episode of The Philanthropy Podcast provides seventy high impact questions to cover each phase of the giving cycle: identification, qualification, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship. With 70 questions you will better know your benefactors, what their values are in life, what they hope to accomplish in their philanthropy, and how your organization's needs align with their hopes.

Also, we launch our Patreon page with a limited time giveaway of an mp3 version of these questions without commentary to allow for you to prepare on the way to your future donor visits. Whether you're flying, driving, taking a taxi or a bus, or walking, you'll be able to listen to these questions and be better prepared to have a meaningful conversation with your benefactor that helps them make a more meaningful gift that has a greater impact on your organization. That and a chance to contribute your high impact questions and receive a thank you on episode 13's show!

Today's links:

Become a patron and receive your limited time bonus gift on Patreon!

Find me on Twitter, Facebook, or Linkedin

Today, our episode of The Philanthropy Podcast is a solo episode where I'll be exploring high impact questions as a tool in a questioning strategy. The ability to ask the right questions and guide someone's exploration of their philanthropic goals and intentions is a great skill to develop in major gift work, corporate relationships, planned giving, alumni relations, or any other fundraising role where it's important that you connect with people. So I'll share a few high impact questions, but also we'll explore why and how you want to use them and some lessons I've learned from finding guests for the show.   Some high impact questions translate well across all non-profits and I'll share a few of those in the episode but before going through a much larger list in our next episode, I wanted to start by explaining why using high impact questions is important and what we're hoping to learn when we use them.   As you enjoy the show, remember you can connect with me on Twitter where I'm @PhilanthropyPod and use the hashtag #philanthropypodcast or on Facebook at The Philanthropy Podcast Facebook Page. 

Today, our guest on The Philanthropy Podcast is Aly Hall, Director of Development at The Foundation for Endodontics. Aly helps us dive into a great discussion on Peer to Peer fundraising, goal setting, providing training and mentoring for volunteers and board members, and more.    Our discussion with Aly provides information about the advantages and disadvantages of a peer to peer fundraising model, the challenges of acknowledging and thanking volunteers who are spread out across the country, how to train volunteers in a way that isn't overwhelming and sets them up for success, and more. Aly provides a book recommendation for new board members: The Ultimate Board Member's Book by Kay Sprinkel Grace.   As you enjoy the show, remember you can connect with me on Twitter where I'm @PhilanthropyPod and use the hashtag #philanthropypodcast (click to tweet) or on Facebook at The Philanthropy Podcast Facebook Page. If you are willing, please visit The Philanthropy Podcast Feedback Page to provide your recommendations or what you've enjoyed or not enjoyed from the show to help guide my review and reflection episode next week. Thank you for listening to today's show. Be sure to join us next week when I'll share what I've learned from our first ten episodes, how I plan to improve the show in the future, and some fundraising insights I've learned from the interviews I've conducted and from having to reflect on my own practice for each interview.   Take care and have a great week! Sean   Today's Links:   Foundation for Endodontics   American Association for Endodontists    

Today, on The Philanthropy Podcast Patrick Van Der Tuin, Executive Director of St. Louis Bicycle Works shares his insights on running a nonprofit and how having a retail operation shapes organizational funding. Patrick discusses the pros and cons of having a retail side of the house, staffing issues that arise, board oversight, benchmarking, volunteer recruitment, and how Bicycle Works is able to generate unrestricted revenue from their retail effort. I think this is a great dive into a nonprofit model that makes a lot of sense for many nonprofits but might not be utilized as widely as it could be. 

Our discussion with Patrick also shows how Bicycle Works and the other BWorks efforts help St. Louis' youth learn valuable skills and take ownership in the mission of a nonprofit. Patrick also touches on the importance of self-care when you're a nonprofit executive director and gives his advice for nonprofits thinking of dipping their toes into this space and those looking to dive into the deep end of launching a retail operation.

As you enjoy the show, remember you can connect with me on Twitter where I'm @PhilanthropyPod and use the hashtag #philanthropypodcast (click to tweet) or on Facebook at The Philanthropy Podcast Facebook Page. 

Thank you for listening to today's show. Be sure to join us next week when I'll interview Aly Hall of The American Association of Endodontists Foundation about peer to peer fundraising in what is one of the most informative interviews I think we've had to date.

Take care and have a great week!

Sean

Today's Links:

St. Louis BWorks

St. Louis Public Library

Today, our guest on The Philanthropy Podcast is Pete Cullen Conway, Director of Major Gifts at Misericordia in Chicago. Pete shares with us some great major gift advice including how he utilizes introduction letters to open doors with benefactors, how he handles first visits, when and how to close the file on reaching out to a donor, and how he uses twitter to get supporters to start rowing the boat in the same direction.  Our discussion with Pete reveals a lot about how Misericordia, an organization with some of the most diverse ways of reaching out to the community, utilizes relationships to explore these avenues. Pete's ideas are great for putting into practice right away and also for simply keeping in mind as we go about our work. Pete shares a sentiment that I believe many of us share "I'm in the development office, but I work for the families" (Click to Tweet) and much more...   Pete shares a number of great ideas and we have some great discussions about making sure that you never let someone's age stop you from connecting with digital communications (Click to tweet), how to use Twitter to ensure that your benefactors are rowing along with us in the boat (click to tweet), and how to get your benefactors involved in advocating for your communications now that they're part of the team (click to tweet).   As you enjoy the show, remember you can connect with me on Twitter where I'm @PhilanthropyPod and use the hashtag #philanthropypodcast (click to tweet) or on Facebook at The Philanthropy Podcast Facebook Page. If you share the show and tag us with #philanthropypodcast on Facebook or Twitter, sometime in the next two shows I'll try to give you or your organization a shout-out on air.   Thank you for listening to today's show. Be sure to join us next week when I'll interview Patrick Van Der Tuin of St. Louis Bike Works about how nonprofits can think outside of the box about funding as we explore @StlBicycleWorks and their amazing youth bicycle program which has now grown into Bworks to include computers and authorship as well!   Take care and have a great week!   Sean   Today's Links:   Misericordia Archdiocese of Chicago   Mercy Home for Boys and Girls   Christian Appalachian Project

Have you wondered where the right place is to begin your digital marketing efforts? Do you feel overwhelmed when trying to maintain a presence online? Have you ever felt like your digital marketing could be more engaging and more personal? Then today's show with Kara Buffardi of Craveity Marketing will provide some advice you can put to use right away.   Our discussion with Kara offers some great advice on what you need to do before launching your social media and email efforts, how to create content that tells the story of your organization and the people who make its mission come to life, and how to be sure you're putting content out on each medium that is appropriate and reaches your audience in the way you want to engage with them. If you'd like to download Kara's free guide, click here: Say Goodbye to Social Media Burnout    Instead of a loyal listeners' hashtag today, I'm asking for your recommendation on the best professional development conferences you've ever attended. Please tweet using #philanthropypodcast to share your recommendations or visit The Philanthropy Podcast Facebook Page to share with our Facebook users.   There's not too many links to share from today's episode, but honestly, I do recommend trying to discover if there are any Meetups in your area. I love Meetup.com, attend meetups often, and recommend starting one if you don't see what you'd like. Feel welcome to send me a message and I'll share how to get 50% off the cost of creating a Meetup.

Today, our guest on The Philanthropy Podcast is Kelly Klein, Director of Corporate and Foundation Relations at the Greater Chicago Food Depository.  Kelly shares with us some of the questions she asks to determine how to be a good partner with corporations and foundations, what the GCFD can offer to further engage partners with their missions, and much more. 

Our discussion with Kelly really reveals a lot of great concrete things an organization can do to be a better partner with funding organizations and other nonprofits with whom we collaborate. Kelly's way of viewing their partnership is also important to note as you'll hear her refer to the idea of being peers. This mentality is one that I think will serve nonprofits well and one that challenges us to be sure we're up to a high standard before we claim that status.

As you enjoy the show, remember you can connect with me on Twitter where I'm @PhilanthropyPod and use the hashtag #philanthropypodcast or the loyal listener hashtag that is provided at the end of the show.

If you've been listening to the show for a few episodes now and have a feeling for how it's shaping up, you might have someone you think would make a great guest. In the next few months, I'll be in northern Indiana, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Anaheim, Milwaukee, Reno, if you know anyone in those cities, please feel welcome to nominate them through the link on the website. I also feature guests through recorded Skype interviews, so if there's someone outside those cities, please feel welcome to nominate them as well.

Finally, thank you to everyone who are leaving reviews and sharing the show. We're at over 100 listeners per episode in the first two weeks and growing. I appreciate you recommending this to anyone in the field and I take some time to thank early supporters at the end of today's show. Next week we'll have Kara Buffardi of Craveity Marketing to give us a crash course on social media, email marketing, and touch on website design.

Take care and have a great week!

Sean

I'm excited to share with you an interview with John Chandler Vice President of Development at the St. Ignatius College Prep in Chicago which you can find at www.ignatius.org. This is part of a set of interviews which will cover not only perspectives on work in philanthropy, but specifically the question of where do you find joy in your work and joy in making an ask. 

 

John is truly an icon at St. Ignatius with over 42 years experience at the school and he has grown their development office into one that consistently exceeds $10 million dollars in fundraising annually. John has been an incredible mentor for me from my first day working with him at St. Ignatius to this day. In fact, we became so close that he was one of the groomsmen in my wedding. He's now one of the closest friends my wife and I have in the city and he's still helping me out at every opportunity as you'll hear in this interview.

 

John touches on a number of topics, but I think the thread to listen for is the idea of a man who has found his vocation as he'll put in his own words. John goes into ideas around retention of employees, the joy of gifting, educating board members, and you'll also hear him express an idea about involving people beyond alumni and families which I think has been vital to his success. Finally, John is a man of incredible faith and listening to how his beliefs motivate him is a good reminder to all of us to find a cause in line with our own beliefs.

 

As you enjoy the show, remember you can connect with me on twitter where my username is @PhilanthropyPod and where I monitor the hashtag #philanthropypodcast

In this episode we have an interview with Katy (Hall) Orenchuk, Vice President of Development at the Newberry Library, Chicago's independent research library. This is the first of a set of interviews which will cover not only perspectives on work in philanthropy, but specifically the question of where do you find joy in your work and joy in making an ask.

Katy shares amazing ideas including how to market yourself when looking for new job opportunities, how to grow into a skill set which might not come to you naturally, how taking good notes is a matter of being respectful to donors, the importance of a good work/life balance, and how to graciously receive a no and not let that deter you from your work.

Remember, you can easily share thoughts, questions, and comments about this show using #philanthropypodcast on Twitter. You can also follow me @PhilanthropyPod

If you prefer Facebook, join the conversation by liking The Philanthropy Podcast

Finally, you can also use the Loyal Listener hashtag mentioned somewhere near the end of the show so I can respond to your questions and comments first.

Links to organizations mentioned in this episode:

National Marionette Theater Prague - It definitely looks more legitimate than I remember, but tripadvisor points out the theater for the marionette (not puppet) show is in an attic, so I'm definitely not off base.

Youtube - Don Giovanni performed by marionettes - In case you can't imagine what I described. It's real.

Houston Grand Opera

The Kennedy Center

Lilly Family School of Philanthropy

Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Lyric Opera of Chicago