Transcript

Money · A Time to Sharpen

0:09
Is there anything worse than a dual blade?
0:12
Well, yeah, lots of things, I guess.
0:14
Poverty, War 6-7. Seriously though, a dual blade
0:24
is bad. It's unusable.
0:26
In fact, it's downright dangerous.
0:29
Knives need sharpening. From Whetstone Boys Ranch in
0:32
Mountain View, MO comes a Time to Sharpen, a bi weekly podcast
0:37
that examines how we can all be better versions of ourselves.
0:41
Better counselors, better teachers, better parents, better
0:45
people. No one likes to talk about
0:51
money. The very word is a little
0:54
cringy. We prefer to talk about wealth
0:57
or finances or the budget. These are more palatable.
1:01
The same thing applies to the term fundraising.
1:04
People tend to tune out a little bit when it comes up in
1:07
conversation. Most of us already have causes
1:09
that we give to, and speaking for myself, very little leftover
1:13
to give more. Sure, I could be more generous,
1:17
I could cut back on subscriptions and eating out and
1:20
a few other things that aren't necessary, but at the end of the
1:22
day, you can't get blood out of a turnip.
1:25
That's how I feel at least, So it's not something that I
1:28
particularly like to do. Makes me uncomfortable, but it's
1:33
part of my job. I don't have a choice.
1:36
Of course you have a choice. Also, you can stop listening,
1:39
and I wouldn't blame you if you did.
1:41
I wouldn't know any different. However, if you do decide to
1:44
keep listening, I can promise you that there is more to this
1:47
episode than just Brandon and I talking about how we're trying
1:50
to raise another $900,000 to pay for Whetstone's expansion.
1:54
There is a lot more to this topic than meets the eye, so
1:58
please join us this week on A Time to Sharpen as we talk about
2:02
money. I'm talking about the
2:06
underprivileged children's drive.
2:09
Oh, they collected for that at school, Paul.
2:11
I know they did. Oh, I know they did.
2:14
And when they called your name, you gave the large generous
2:17
amount of three cents did. I give them too much, Paul.
2:21
Too much. I could ask them to give back
2:24
two cents. Didn't you ever give anybody
2:27
anything just for the pleasure of it?
2:29
You know something you didn't want anything in return for.
2:32
Sure. Just yesterday I gave my friend
2:34
Jimmy something. Now that's fine.
2:36
What'd you get? A sock in the head.
2:41
I I meant charity. I didn't charge him nothing.
2:45
I meant something for the joy of giving.
2:47
I enjoyed it. Oh, you'll know what a good
2:51
little fella he is, and just because he doesn't give enough
2:54
to a collection, you're ready to forget all that.
2:57
It's all right, you're saving to buy your little girlfriend
3:00
Charlotte a toy. That's all right.
3:02
This time I expect. I'm going to buy her a coat.
3:06
After all, it's your savings and whatever you you're going to buy
3:12
her a what? A coat, the one she's got's kind
3:15
of wore out. It is.
3:17
Huh. Mm.
3:17
Hmm. When I asked her how come she
3:20
didn't get a new one, she said 'cause her ma didn't have enough
3:24
money. Welcome back to A Time to
3:26
Sharpen. I'm Axel Limata and today I am.
3:30
Here. Wait, wait a minute.
3:32
You're not Axel Limata. Oh yeah, I'm Axel Limata.
3:35
OK. Check that.
3:37
Hi, I'm Brandon Maxwell. Hey, Brandon.
3:40
And I'm here just trying to throw you guys off to see if you
3:43
guys recogn did the voice recognition.
3:45
Yeah. So yes, this is.
3:47
Got to keep people guessing, you never know what you're what to
3:51
expect when you tune into. Oh man, a time to sharpen.
3:54
Yeah, you just never know. Yeah, but here we are.
3:58
Here we are here again, laying down, Laying down the the pod
4:02
#6767. Oh, come on.
4:06
I I'm not making it up. I'm not making it up.
4:09
It's number 6/7. All right, good.
4:12
So we'll just leave it at. That get that out of the way.
4:15
So what are we talking about today?
4:17
Today we are talking about fundraising, everyone's favorite
4:22
topic. I mean, it's, it's
4:25
scintillating, yeah. You know, all the insurance and
4:29
outs and the complexities of raising money.
4:32
Yeah. And we just lost half of our
4:34
audience, probably. They're like, there they go.
4:36
Click, don't want to hear about money.
4:39
Yeah, it's like when you show up on Sunday morning and and you
4:42
know, you, you get, you get that right out of the gate with the
4:45
sermon. Like, oh man, it's that time of
4:47
year again, right? And yeah, it, it is, it is that
4:51
time of year again. It's the it's December, it's end
4:55
of the year donation. Time it is.
4:57
And but obviously we're going to make it more interesting than
5:01
that. We're just it's not going to be
5:02
like an annual Business Report. We're going to try to make it
5:05
more share. With the shareholders and let's
5:08
bore everyone to death. So talk about some some
5:11
philosophical issues relating to fundraising.
5:15
And we're just going to kind of make the need known because if
5:18
you follow this podcast and there are more and more of you,
5:21
we had some pretty big increases this year.
5:24
Spotify did the little wrapped session.
5:27
You got that on your you have Spotify.
5:28
Yeah, at the end of the year they have it's pretty popular
5:31
function called Wrapped where you get to see your listening
5:34
tendencies and your your top podcast, your your most
5:38
favorite, your favorite song, that kind.
5:39
Of stuff, I'd have to go back and look at that.
5:41
Maybe I didn't. You got to click on it.
5:43
There's a little button up at the top.
5:44
This is wrapped and it it's pretty cool, has cool graphics
5:47
and everything. And so, yeah, we had some some
5:50
pretty good increases in terms of new listeners, the length of
5:53
the listen, you know, in terms of how many minutes, Yeah, all
5:57
that, all that stuff. So, yeah, keep keep spreading
6:00
the word. Thank you for listening and keep
6:03
listening to this podcast because it's going to be
6:04
interesting. Talk about fundraising.
6:07
So first thing I want to say right out of the gate, the the
6:10
secrets. Well, there's a secret to
6:12
fundraising. There's.
6:13
A secret to. Fundraising.
6:14
Yep. And we'll, we'll just lead with
6:15
that instead of, you know. OK.
6:18
Building up to it at the very end and keeping everyone hanging
6:21
around like it's some big cliffhanger.
6:23
The secret to fundraising is that there is no secret to
6:28
fundraising. There you go.
6:31
There it is. There's no, there's no secret.
6:34
You just. Some would disagree with that.
6:36
Yeah, well, that's the thing that these days everyone is an
6:39
expert, right? Everyone has access to ChatGPT.
6:42
Everyone can use the Internet. Yeah, everyone can create a
6:46
platform out of nothing and pretend to be an expert or a an
6:51
influencer. And everybody create always has
6:53
these little catch phrases or these cliffhangers.
6:56
Yeah, they want to a clickbait. I'm sick of it.
6:58
I'm sick of it. There are no secrets.
7:00
I I am too. It's just, it's just hard work
7:04
and it's like. How can I trick you to click on
7:07
this so you can? You know, so I can get clicks
7:09
and likes and whatever. Yeah, yeah.
7:12
And I guess it's, it's a little hypocritical of me because we
7:15
have a podcast. And so we're kind of in that
7:18
influencer kind of world. If, if people were to kind of
7:21
categorize us, we're, we're, we have a podcast.
7:23
We we claim to have advice to give parents and teachers and
7:27
counsellors and we have kind of framed our podcast in that way.
7:31
But I hope that we're communicating the idea that,
7:35
that we are just humble vessels. And, and we've said it on
7:40
multiple occasions, if, if we knew what we were doing, we
7:43
wouldn't, we wouldn't be doing this.
7:45
And so, and we don't mean to, to say that in, in such a way that
7:49
it makes people distrust us or be afraid to, you know, donate
7:53
because we'll mishandle the money or, or be afraid to send
7:56
your son here because we're incompetent.
7:58
We don't, we don't mean that. We just mean that there's a
8:01
necessary degree of humility in any line of work that that you
8:04
have to have to to be successful.
8:08
You know, even in even in professional sports, you see
8:10
that like those are the the cockiest guys in the world, but
8:14
they talk a lot about humility. And I don't think it's just
8:17
posturing. It's in order to get better at
8:19
something, in order to be really good at something, you have to
8:22
take information from other sources and third parties and
8:26
and grow and learn. And yes, you have to have
8:29
confidence when it's game time and think that you can beat the
8:31
other guy. But in that preparation stage,
8:34
and in in all other parts of your life, you should have that
8:38
requisite humility. Yeah, I mean that was the whole
8:42
like Jim Collins book good to great all that research he did
8:45
of like the top, the best, the greatest companies, the most
8:49
successful companies, you know, did years of research and
8:53
looking at the leaders and what characteristics and traits did
8:57
they exude in the number one of all the great, great companies
9:02
that he were like labeled the elite companies, the leaders
9:05
were humble, all of them. And that was like the greatest
9:08
trade that he felt got them there.
9:11
So, so yeah, that's definitely understanding that the only
9:17
reason we're still here is because God has continued to
9:22
open doors and, and answer prayers and we just keep showing
9:26
up and try to keep letting the need be known, which is a lot of
9:30
what fundraising is, sharing those stories and what God's
9:33
doing out here and have that humble posture.
9:38
And I know at the end of the day, it's it's all about him and
9:41
not us. Yeah.
9:43
And I guess you know that we have learned one thing.
9:47
And I, I feel confident in saying this, that that God
9:51
provides and we'll keep doing this as long as he provides.
9:57
And when he stops providing, we'll do something else.
10:01
And do you agree with that statement that that seems pretty
10:04
accurate, right? Yeah.
10:06
I mean, we've been saying that for years.
10:07
Yeah. Axel, I mean, to, to be honest,
10:10
that not being funny is like, that's really like we.
10:13
I don't feel like any of us feel like it's our life work that
10:17
we're doing here. I mean, we've been doing it for
10:19
a while. And I mean, it may end up being
10:22
our life's work just from the conventional term, but we try to
10:27
hold loosely to it, understanding that this thing is
10:30
God's thing. He called us to this vision and
10:34
we have just tried to do the best we can with the resources
10:38
we have. We've failed forward as, to use
10:41
a pithy phrase, but but that's just the reality of it.
10:47
And it hasn't looked the way we thought it would look.
10:50
And God has shown up at times when we didn't think he would
10:55
show up, and he hasn't shown up at times when he thought he
10:57
would because it's his timing is not our timing.
11:00
And so again, just being that humble in that humble place is I
11:08
think a place where God's people need to be in order for him to
11:12
to really show up. Yeah.
11:16
Now, having said that, we are obviously planning to be here
11:20
for a while. We're we're making lots of
11:24
advances and expansions here on the ranch.
11:27
We've talked some already about the new house, the forge.
11:30
We've talked about the endowment fund, the RV park.
11:34
We wouldn't be doing these things if we didn't think we
11:36
were going to be around for decades.
11:39
You know, I don't know about centuries, but I I feel
11:43
confident the. Sun may burn out before.
11:46
That's all I know is that when the sun burns out, we're all.
11:49
We're all going to die. Carrie And so, so I don't want,
11:54
this is about fundraising. So we want people to feel
11:57
confident that, yeah, their money is going to have an impact
12:01
and going to be, you know, create a legacy of sorts.
12:05
If you want to use that word. I think that word gets thrown
12:08
around sometimes and, and there's some some hubris
12:11
sometimes associated with the connotation of that word.
12:15
Like look at look what I've done.
12:17
Look at the what my money can, can do, can be.
12:22
But at the same time, like, why not take something that's
12:26
temporary and invested in something that is eternal?
12:30
Like that's what we're talking about here.
12:32
At the end of the day, like what is the highest calling we as
12:36
Christians have is to turn people away from Satan and a
12:41
life of condemnation and to a life of, of hope and an eternal,
12:47
you know, bliss and happiness and joy.
12:49
Yeah, I appreciate. What you're doing, I appreciate
12:51
what Scott said this morning in our meeting and our our staff
12:55
meeting on Wednesday morning and just it's kind of a charge,
12:59
encouragement to the staff, but it's tough work in ministry and
13:04
our ministry with teenage boys. I mean, you just have
13:07
disrespectful teenage boys and it just sometimes gets very
13:12
wearisome when you're born. Sometimes they throw eggs all
13:15
over the living room. Sometimes they do that.
13:17
That may or may not have happened.
13:19
Apparent reason. At Whetstone at some point you
13:21
just. Scratch your head and you're
13:22
like, why did you do that? Like I haven't, I can't
13:26
understand. I can't fathom.
13:27
But and they just act like they don't care.
13:29
So at times you deal with that and you get get weary.
13:33
But I just appreciate it. Scott this morning of just
13:37
trying to refocus the staff and encourage and just say, hey, is
13:42
there any bigger greater job than trying to lead young men to
13:46
Christ? And so that's the whole reason
13:51
any of us are here. Sometimes we need to be re
13:55
centered and refocused on that. But that's true.
13:58
It's like, so that's kind of everything that we do with the
14:02
growth, the new house, any new program, that's the thread that
14:07
runs through everything. At least we try to keep that
14:10
running through everything. Is that hey, how is this going
14:13
to better our program to be a better example and eventually
14:16
show Christ love to these boys and give them what they need?
14:21
Yeah, but giving teenage boys what they need takes some money.
14:28
Takes quite a bit of money, actually.
14:30
Like our operating budget is at $1,000,000 now, right?
14:34
Oh. Yeah, it's over.
14:35
Yeah, it's probably 1/5. Yeah, 15.
14:39
So that's, that's a tall task, you know, and it's now a part of
14:46
your, your and, and my job to let people know what the need
14:51
is. And so we're doing a little more
14:54
traveling. We're obviously doing this
14:56
podcast. We are trying to coordinate our
15:00
efforts to expand our our presence in places like
15:07
Charlotte and Kansas City and Saint Louis, Houston and Dallas
15:11
and Saint Louis and Phoenix, Denver.
15:14
So now that we have 160 families that we've worked with and you
15:20
know, couple 1003, how many people have made a donation to
15:26
Whetstone at this point? What would you say?
15:28
It's probably yeah, around the seventeen, 1800.
15:33
Yeah, different couple thousand different households,
15:36
individuals who've made, who've made donations of some sort,
15:39
some big, some small. So that's, you know, we got 3 /
15:42
3000 followers on Facebook, Instagram's inching along.
15:48
But for some reason we don't, it's harder to, I don't know.
15:53
But like my daughter when she posts something immediately gets
15:55
300 likes. I mean, it's, it's like a
15:58
generational thing, I think. And we're we're a little part of
16:01
the older generation. It's all funny.
16:05
A funny, was it TV show or a movie recently where these
16:09
younger people were talking about Facebook and they were
16:12
describing it to someone who hadn't had never used it before.
16:17
And they're like Facebook. It's like an encyclopedia of old
16:20
people. It's like sounds like a
16:23
Bartgazi. It was ATV show.
16:27
It was like, this is where we go to find out where all the old
16:30
people are and what they're doing.
16:31
But all of a sudden, you know, Facebook isn't isn't hip, you
16:34
know, it's these other things. But that way for a while.
16:37
Point is that we have a rather large reach and a lot of people
16:40
who are supporting what we do and we got to get out and
16:44
reconnect with those people. And, you know, while there's
16:47
some things about fundraising that that we don't like, asking
16:50
for money is never a lot of fun, regardless of how you frame it.
16:55
You try and say, oh, I'm, I'm trying to give people an
16:57
opportunity. It still is awkward and weird
17:00
and, and hard to know when to do it.
17:03
And honestly, some people get briskly, you know, and it can
17:08
affect your relationship with a person.
17:10
We've had that happen to us and it's just weird.
17:15
And so, but one of the blessings is just getting to get out and
17:19
just hang out with people and talk to them and, and play golf
17:23
and eat BBQ. I was just out in Charlotte this
17:25
past weekend meeting with Jason niece and this Jeremy's
17:29
brother-in-law and, and met some new people and my brother-in-law
17:32
and friends from college who were, have been donors from the
17:36
very beginning and former residents and things like that.
17:39
And so that's a real blessing. And I'm, I'm glad to be able to
17:41
do that. I know you've, you've expressed
17:45
to me some similar kind of feelings.
17:46
That's kind of your gift. I would say you're a really good
17:49
face to face kind of guy. Yeah, I mean, that's something
17:53
that is I, you know, I do love meeting new people and hearing
17:58
their stories and where they came from.
18:00
And I think that is, you know, early on with the roots of
18:05
Whetstone, you kind of think about, well, this fundraising
18:08
thing is we may need to do it to get it kicked off, but we really
18:13
want to try to get it to where we're not having to fundraise
18:16
and. And yeah, it would be nice to
18:18
not have as much pressure fundraising at this point, but
18:21
it's definitely, I feel like God has just given me a different
18:25
view of maybe the expectation specifically in my role and kind
18:30
of the light being shined on different situations where I see
18:35
God working more through this position or through just
18:38
fundraising in general. And there's so much more to it
18:41
than again, just asking people for money because they're, you
18:46
know, people say fundraising is friend raising.
18:48
And I mean, that's true. You're developing relationships.
18:51
There's a little buzzword or a little buzz phrase, right?
18:55
But it is about relationships just like it is with the boys
18:58
and why we keep the ratios low. Like you have to develop a level
19:01
of trust. And in order to do that, you got
19:05
to get knee to knee with people and spend time and get face to
19:08
face and through conversation and coffee and BBQ like you
19:12
said. And so, and there's also an
19:15
element of, I think people are encouraged when they see
19:19
ministry in action and they see somebody maybe doing things a
19:24
different way. I've had experiences where it's
19:28
just really people get so myopic with their business and they're
19:31
just very driven people. And it's just like, wait, you
19:34
guys work with teenage boys that like live there and you guys
19:40
have been doing it for how long? And there's so I've had that
19:44
interaction where it's just like it kind of hits people between
19:46
the eyes sometimes of like what's.
19:48
Different. That.
19:50
It hits different. All right, we'll have to keep
19:54
the phrase phrases down to a minute.
19:56
We're going to lose our audience.
20:00
But that is something that. I think it's an encouragement to
20:04
people that I've been convicted of is just being able to get out
20:07
and share stories and just share how God is working on campus,
20:13
encourages people, and you don't know what God's going to do with
20:16
that. And so it's helped me to just
20:19
not, you know, sometimes you just get that feeling of like,
20:22
oh, here comes Brandon, here comes Axel.
20:25
Like, what are they going to hit me up for guilt trip?
20:28
You know, and you, you feel kind of like a beggar and you know,
20:31
it's just kind of have some of those uncomfortable feelings at
20:36
times approaching people. But that's helped me just to
20:41
know that you know what, again, it's I don't know what God is
20:44
doing here. And I try to approach each of
20:46
those meetings like, God, I don't know what you're doing
20:49
here. Open a door.
20:52
If you want the door to be open, convict them to get plugged into
20:56
the work here that that you have going and Take Me Out of it.
21:00
You know, use me and my talents, I guess the way that that you
21:05
want me to be used. But again, it's just trying to
21:08
keep that humble approach and just not being afraid to go out
21:12
there and let people know that here's what God's doing, here's
21:18
how you can help if you want to get involved.
21:22
Yeah, we've never been very keen on the the hard sell or putting
21:27
people in awkward positions. We do, you know, and we have
21:31
learned that it is important to be direct at times, but I would
21:36
say more often than not, people appreciate that then like
21:41
springing it on them, you know, or, you know, feeling like
21:44
you're leveraging the relationship.
21:46
It's something where you just try and just be open about it
21:49
and, and try not to be weird. But I, I'm, I certainly have not
21:54
mastered it. I mean, there are times I know
21:56
when I, I, I should be more direct times when I'm like, man,
22:02
I should have like phrased that differently.
22:03
Or you can really get inside your own head a whole lot, I
22:07
think when it comes to fundraising and second guess
22:10
yourself. And, and I, I do think some
22:13
people are like blessed with the ability to do it.
22:16
It just comes naturally to it. There are some like freaks out
22:20
there that enjoy it. I've, I've met these people.
22:24
They, they, they talk excitedly about, yeah, about this type of
22:27
thing. And if you are one of those
22:29
freaks, then give us a call. We would love to hire you.
22:31
We'd love to bring you on here. But I don't use freak in a
22:34
negative sense that in that way, like that's a really great
22:37
ability and a talent. But yeah, the face to face thing
22:40
is really important. By the way, while we're on face
22:43
to face, we're actually recording this on video.
22:45
Brandon C Wave. We're not.
22:47
We're not. We're trying to move in more in
22:50
this direction. Progressing.
22:52
Yeah, we'll see. We'll see how this goes.
22:53
Maybe we'll post it on YouTube. Maybe people will be turned off
22:56
by it and be like, those are what those guys look like.
22:59
I know I am like that. Sometimes when I listen to
23:02
podcasts I'm like, I would have preferred not to know what that
23:04
person look like. Can't Unsee.
23:06
That yeah, can't see it, but just to describe it for you, we
23:10
are in my old office when I was a headmaster.
23:14
Gabe continues to kind of work out of it and it has some
23:18
records in the background and some some brick a Brack Knick
23:23
knacks and things like that. Wait, your office has brick a
23:26
Brack? Get out of town.
23:28
It could be a little bit neater, but you know, it's stimulating.
23:33
I like to think of it that way. I got a Frank, Frank Sinatra,
23:38
Bing Crosby got a the album, the Sting, the score, Scott Joplin
23:43
with the recently deceased Robert Redford and Sammy Davis.
23:47
RIP Sammy Davis, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters.
23:50
So a little bit of culture, a little bit of reference to what
23:52
we do here at the ranch. Well, you know, we I got a
23:57
little ahead of myself at the very beginning.
24:00
I wanted to talk about something that like a controversial topic
24:04
I've run into in fundraising. I don't know if you knew about
24:07
this, but like the spelling of fundraising.
24:11
How do you How do you spell fundraising?
24:13
Fundraising. Yeah, spell it.
24:16
OK, FUNDRAISING. OK, those are the letters, but
24:23
is it? Is it one word?
24:26
Is it 2 words? And if it's two words, is it
24:29
hyphenated or is it compound? Well, I always see it as I see
24:34
it mostly as one word is written as one word.
24:40
But let's not do a 5 to 7 minute you.
24:46
Don't want to do a deep dive on this, Brandon?
24:48
Come on. No, come on.
24:49
I'm going to try to spare the audience from the English
24:51
teacher. I'm, I'm somewhat joking about
24:55
this, but like from the earliest days when we started this whole
24:57
process, I'm just like on the fence because it's a little bit
25:01
all over the place. When you like it, look into it.
25:03
I guess I would say in general, you're right.
25:05
It is most often one word. I just don't like how it looks
25:09
like visually. One word.
25:10
I want it, I like the hyphen. And technically speaking, it,
25:14
it, it works in all three ways. Like grammatically, you can do
25:18
it all of those ways. It can be like a noun, adjective
25:22
and fundraising, or it can be. What's your preference?
25:24
What would you like when you see it on the page?
25:26
My preference is is hyphenated. Just hyphenated.
25:28
Yeah, all all one word smashed together is very like UN
25:33
unpleasing to me. It's a compound word.
25:35
Yeah. Don't like it, don't like it,
25:37
don't like it. Anyways, we'll have to.
25:38
We'll have to let that, let that one go.
25:41
So. Agree.
25:42
Do you disagree? So let's move into something a
25:44
little less controversial and that is our status as a five O 1
25:48
Scene 3 nonprofit status. Why don't you talk a little bit
25:51
about that in the history of the ranch and what that means to to
25:55
people who want to give to Whetstone?
25:58
Yeah, we officially got our nonprofit status 5O1C3 as the
26:03
IRS designation code, whatever you want to call it, but it that
26:08
that was back in 2006. So essentially that allows
26:14
people to donate and get tax deduction, you know, makes you
26:19
an official charity in the eyes of the government.
26:23
And so, and on our standpoint as a organization, you don't have
26:28
to pay property tax, sales tax and different things like that
26:32
that are there's some benefits there, but ultimately it is
26:37
nobody. There's no single owner of a
26:40
nonprofit, essentially the board of directors, which you have to
26:46
have and have bylaws and governed by a board of
26:49
directors. And so that is essentially who
26:53
you would say owns the nonprofit.
26:55
They're the the decision makers from as far as the assets go.
26:59
If Whetstone had to dissolve and you know, Whetstone was no more
27:04
and we had to get rid of this property and any assets, the
27:07
board would be that would that money would not go to
27:11
individuals, employees, it would just be dissolved.
27:15
And then the board would say, hey, these these they have to go
27:19
to a similar charity is what the bylaws say.
27:23
Yeah. So that's kind of just some,
27:25
some boring backdrop of like A5O1C3 and, and why we decided
27:30
to be set it up as a nonprofit was just to be able to mainly
27:34
open the doors to our family members and friends and people
27:39
that believed in what we're doing and they could donate and
27:42
be able to help us out. And they also get a little tax
27:46
write off right with it as well. Yeah.
27:49
And there's grants and other things for non profits.
27:52
It opens the door for for grant money and things like that.
27:55
Yeah, it's huge. I mean, it's been a a blessing
27:58
that you guys were able to, to get that, you know, designation
28:04
early on and did you know all the paperwork and, and all that
28:08
and submitted it. And so just wanted people to
28:12
know that we've mentioned it before, I'm sure.
28:14
But as we come up on the end of the year and people are thinking
28:18
about taxes and thinking about ways to take advantage of, of
28:22
giving to get the most, you know, bang for the buck.
28:26
You, you would get that if you give to Whetstone Boys Ranch.
28:29
Yeah. On a more philosophical note,
28:32
like the term not-for-profit, right, nonprofit is, it's
28:39
interesting kind of unpack that because we have many times over
28:44
the course of the of these 20 years, thought about ways that
28:48
we can monetize and ways that we can have, you know, little
28:54
cottage industries or side hustles or ways that we can
28:59
engage the boys in, in profit making ventures.
29:03
As in like, you know, more money is coming out of that thing than
29:07
is going into that particular thing, right?
29:09
Not necessarily whetstone, but in terms of like beef or coffee
29:14
or we have other ideas we're floating around now, which we're
29:17
going to maybe get into more in the coming, coming years that
29:21
we're excited about. And, and we think it's good that
29:23
we think about that and that we're good stewards with the
29:25
resources that God has given us. But at the end of the day, we
29:28
always have kind of come back to the idea that we are not, we are
29:33
in the business of sharpening the character of young men.
29:35
And if something allows us to do that better than we're doing it
29:39
now, then we're going to pursue it.
29:41
If it takes away from our ability to do that, then we're
29:44
going to drop it. We're not going to get the
29:45
horse, you know, the cart. Yeah, the cart before the horse.
29:49
And we've had a lot of, you know, many times over the years
29:52
to just be humble about that and, and, and realize, you know,
29:57
this job is, is very taxing. And the, the, the boys that
30:00
we're working with are, are unpredictable.
30:03
And we can't rely upon them to, to perform certain tasks that
30:08
are necessary to sustain a business on a regular in the
30:11
normal kind of a way. Yeah.
30:13
We're not dealing with cogs in a machine.
30:15
This isn't an industrial process.
30:17
It's a, it's an art more than it is a science.
30:20
So we're always open to new ideas.
30:23
In fact, we're exploring a lot of those right now, as I
30:24
mentioned. Yeah, but you know, we are
30:29
reliant upon donations because of our not-for-profit status.
30:34
It doesn't mean we'll always be that way.
30:36
Hopefully someday we are self-sustaining and we don't
30:38
have to rely on donations and we can put 100% of those donations
30:42
into scholarships and endowments to help families that can't
30:46
afford to pay the full tuition. But yeah, I don't know you got
30:51
anything else to say about that. Well, I would like to, I mean,
30:57
going back to the not-for-profit thing again, people maybe have a
31:02
misnomer that like the the books have to balance to 0 at the end
31:07
of the year. You know, it can't show any
31:10
profit and it's not that's not it at all.
31:12
It's a not-for-profit can make as much profit as it wants or
31:17
needs to or is is able to do. It's just that those profits get
31:22
distributed back into the program.
31:26
And again, that money is governed by a board of
31:29
directors. It doesn't go to executive
31:32
director or C-Suite individuals for, you know, their own, you
31:37
know, share and like maybe some of them hold a 50% share of the
31:42
business. And so there's 50% dividends
31:44
that, you know, based on the profits.
31:45
It's, it's just a different structure.
31:47
So that money would just need to go back into the property or or
31:51
the program to make it a more robust program.
31:55
So that's kind of the difference.
31:58
But as far as I think a lot of people, I don't know if you want
32:05
to get into just some of the just with the, the tax
32:10
incentives and also being able to, there's just a lot of
32:14
benefits that people can have that they may not know about.
32:17
As far as because Whetstone's really kind of getting into
32:20
that. The longevity.
32:22
We've been here for 15 years. And again, for your job and my
32:27
job, we're really kind of focusing on some legacy gifts or
32:31
some estate planning and people that, you know, write, maybe
32:36
they don't have kids to, you know, give their estates to as
32:43
far as just the transfer of that wealth.
32:46
And so those are good opportunities to really share
32:51
with people what what God is doing out here and to be able
32:54
to, and those are larger gifts that really helps build the
32:57
sustainability. And there's other creative ways
33:00
that people with heavy tax burdens, you know, business
33:03
owners, maybe they sold the business or they just have
33:06
appreciated assets, you know, the a stock, some NVIDIA stock
33:11
that, you know, they have big gains on and I have capital
33:15
gains. There's creative ways and we
33:17
have a couple of tax experts that that they're really
33:22
passionate about being able to relieve those tax burdens and
33:26
money go to a much greater cause than the government, you know,
33:31
And so there's just, there's a lot of creative ways out there
33:34
that works both ways. It helps the nonprofit and it
33:38
helps the donor be able to relieve their tax burdens and
33:43
have more of a say of where those dollars.
33:45
Go, Yeah, yeah. And we don't need to go into the
33:47
details of what those things are necessarily and this, you know,
33:51
you want to, but that we are sending something out the end of
33:54
this year. It's a little magazine that we
33:56
put together to follow up on the 30 by 30 campaign and and the
34:02
the new building, the new staff that we've hired.
34:04
And at the end of that, there's a page that's dedicated to
34:07
explaining some of those more legacy oriented or long term
34:13
larger gifts that you can think about planning, state planning,
34:17
things like that. You're also meeting with some
34:20
some people in Kansas City coming up to to explore some of
34:23
those options and putting together potentially A seminar
34:27
that people can attend with with experts that can answer some of
34:32
those questions. Yeah, like I said, there's we
34:34
have two people now that are, you know they've been doing it
34:37
for 30 years plus and they're that really is their passion now
34:42
is to really help charities out by high net worth individuals
34:51
diverting funds based on their tax burdens.
34:54
And there's just a lot of creative ways that you can
35:00
remove those tax burdens. And we have.
35:02
So if you're, if you're in that situation or you just want a
35:05
conversation, it's not like we're saying like you need to
35:07
change who your accountant is. It's not that at all.
35:10
It's just these people know programs and ways to do that,
35:14
that they would work with your tax professional and any of your
35:17
financial people as an added person to, to evaluate those
35:23
things. Yeah, we're hoping to be a
35:24
resource to people that is, you know, I mean, if you're out
35:30
there earning a wage, earning a living, raising a family, you
35:34
know, it creeps up on you and you're like, OK, well, what am I
35:37
going to, how am I going to plan for the future?
35:40
You know, eventually I'm going to be bringing in this amount of
35:43
money and it's going to be taxed at this rate.
35:45
And, you know, some of that stuff you set up when you were
35:48
younger and you're like, how did I set that all up with the IRA
35:51
and the Roth and the traditional?
35:52
And what is that going to look like when I start drawing this
35:55
income? And how can I make sure that it
35:57
doesn't just get, you know, chipped away at with a higher
36:01
income bracket and, and all that stuff?
36:04
So that's a lot to think about and work through.
36:07
And we're not all tax experts and ChatGPT can't solve all of
36:10
our problems. So to talk to a person that that
36:13
we trust, that we recommend, I think is a real service to, to
36:17
people. And it could be a win, win, win
36:19
situation that we're helping kind of evolves, You know,
36:23
especially like you said, we've been around for a while, like a
36:26
a gift to Whetstone is, is a gift that is going to make a
36:29
difference, we hope for decades to come, right.
36:31
And I think hopefully we built that trust among our donors and
36:35
maybe a big piece of our fundraising kind of strategy
36:38
moving forward. Yeah.
36:40
So. Yeah, this this podcast and
36:44
there's other things as far as building trust and specifically,
36:48
you know, there's value with our families.
36:52
You know, we know families that are looking to send their boys
36:55
here, listen to this families that have their son here
36:58
currently and past families. It's we want to create value for
37:04
them. And I think it's also just being
37:09
able to have a platform to share stories of.
37:13
So again, the work that God is doing here, all that stuff, it
37:16
all kind of works together. You provide value for your
37:19
families, you have a good product, you try to do the best
37:21
you can for the families that's going to generate stories that
37:26
are God's stories, right? And so those are the stories
37:30
that move the needle, that move hearts and are convicting.
37:37
And so it all kind of works. Yeah, I'm glad you said that.
37:39
Like a gift is a contribution towards changing someone's story
37:46
for the better, right? It's not.
37:49
Yeah, we have bills to pay and people have to make a a salary
37:54
to survive. And they're perfunctory kind of
37:57
things that have to be taken care of.
37:59
Perfunctory. Perfunctory.
38:00
Yeah, like that word. Just like menial, just
38:05
day-to-day kind of stuff. Perfunctory is in minutiae is
38:09
kind of the. Same.
38:10
Yeah, but it contributes to a function, but it's on the like
38:13
the the periphery or it's on the side, but it's it's still
38:16
essential, it's still in. Peripheral function perfunctory.
38:20
I don't know that that's the root, but it's just another word
38:23
that popped into my head when I was trying to describe
38:25
perfunctory. But it might be the PER the
38:28
Latin root in terms of like the outside perspective per things
38:33
like Periscope, things like that.
38:34
Yeah. So, yeah.
38:38
So where was I going with that when I got all lost with?
38:41
Sorry, I through functory on that.
38:44
Well, I just we're talking about.
38:45
Where the donation goes, yeah, it goes towards someone's story
38:48
to, to changing someone's life for the better.
38:51
And we're trying to do that with our marketing and with our
38:53
Facebook is and is let people know that you're, this is a part
38:57
of your, you're a part of the story here at Whetstone.
39:00
And we want people to, to get involved and to just feel the
39:04
the blessing that it is to, to be a part of that, to be a part
39:07
of something bigger than what we are as individuals and what we
39:11
can accomplish together. So let's end just with just a
39:17
reminder of, of other ways that people can give too.
39:19
We've talked quite a bit about money, but there are other ways
39:23
that you can donate that aren't like fundraising per SE, but
39:28
they are donations that are important to to sustaining what
39:32
we do. Yeah, there's.
39:35
It's just Family Feud style, like survey says Ding Ding Ding.
39:39
What's the top way that people can donate the Whitstone 10
39:44
points? Well, again, going onto the
39:48
website and going to our donation page is, is the first
39:53
one. And then there's a drop down
39:55
menu that has a few different specific areas like endowment
39:59
fund, the 30 by 30 scholarship fund, those are on there.
40:05
So, but there's also, well, I mean, if you're looking at end
40:11
of the year, I mean end of the year gifts that are, I mean you
40:14
can donate stock, you know that you are appreciated.
40:18
Assets you can donate real estate, I mean, again, we're
40:21
getting in on we'll get into the weeds of all that, but crypto
40:25
different we can you can donate your your Bitcoin and any other
40:28
alt coins even though they've been in the tank but anyways,
40:37
yeah and then there's volunteer opportunities.
40:39
We have four or five different churches and groups that come
40:42
here annually and we're always looking for folks like that to
40:48
get plugged into. We have 12 RV spots out there.
40:53
So if you're passing through and you've got an RV or if you want
40:56
to just come and camp and hang out and we'll give you a tour.
41:01
There's we're, we're hoping to, you know, Speaking of some
41:03
general revenue generation, we're hoping those will create
41:07
some revenue as well as bring some other volunteers to plug
41:10
into the work here. And I mean, that was the reason
41:12
why we we built those. And so again, giving people an
41:17
outlet to serve I think is important.
41:20
People want to plug into good, meaningful work and trying to
41:26
give them an opportunity to do that is what we feel like our
41:30
job is. Yeah, Yeah.
41:32
I would add to that like in non monetary ways, just like
41:36
networking, like your ability to connect us with people who may
41:42
become donors, who or who may become employees or who may know
41:46
families who need our services. Like that's huge.
41:51
Like never underestimate like your, your connections and your
41:55
your network of people. You know, your knowledge, your
41:59
resources that you have. Those are those are huge.
42:05
You know, encouragement is always nice.
42:07
Little little likes, little shares on social media, you
42:12
know, handwritten notes that you know, get posted on our
42:15
refrigerator. Those are always nice.
42:18
You know, if, if you're listening to this in your former
42:21
resident or a former family, we all love to hear about where
42:25
you're at. Give us an update.
42:26
You know what's going on. You know, how can we help?
42:30
These are all ways that they give us a real boost of energy
42:33
when when we get a glimpse into, you know, how God has has
42:39
impacted your life through what happened here at Whetstone or
42:42
feedback about how we can do better.
42:44
You know, that's that's good too.
42:46
Going back to what we talked about at the very beginning in
42:47
terms of humility and, you know, always being willing to learn.
42:53
Yeah, I think just getting one of the things we're working on
42:55
is just getting, we're trying to get into, you know, hundreds of
42:58
churches across the country is the goal.
43:00
And that was one of the things that kind of came out of just
43:05
some of the Barnabas group presentation that we did that to
43:11
people that were specifically involved with church planning
43:14
and connected to a lot of churches.
43:16
And just, and we wanted to do that, but we're trying to work
43:19
with how efficiently can we get into hundreds of churches across
43:23
the country because churches have families that have teenage
43:27
boys that they have a need for the services we provide.
43:31
They have college groups that are, you know, where people are
43:36
looking to dive into a ministry for an internship situation or
43:41
maybe there's a gap year program that a kid.
43:45
So there's just opportunity for staffing and recruiting out of
43:48
churches. And then obviously there's just
43:52
the financial opportunity for a church to get plugged into or
43:58
there's a group of men that come and serve.
44:01
So there's really like four or five things that churches could
44:04
be involved with Whetstone on a different level depending on
44:09
where that church is AT. And so if you have a church that
44:14
you could introduce us to, then we would love to come and and
44:17
present and let you know what's going on here.
44:20
Yeah. Give us give us an excuse to get
44:22
out, go on a trip and visit some new people.
44:25
And and there's some churches in Hawaii.
44:27
That like there's got to be, yeah, if you're listening to
44:29
this and you're in Hawaii, give us a call, like text us or
44:33
message us or something like that.
44:34
Yeah, that would be, that would be fantastic.
44:38
We actually have not, I don't think ever had anyone from
44:41
Hawaii. We have had Alaska, but we have
44:43
a little map in our dining room that has these little little
44:47
arrows or these little like things where with families we've
44:50
served are from. Yeah.
44:51
Well, of course, you know, the boys have have messed with it.
44:54
We didn't put it behind plexiglass, which is our
44:56
mistake. We should have known better,
44:57
right? You know, the rookie mistake.
45:00
So the, you know, at some point some of the boys have have
45:03
rearranged a few of those little arrows and you know, 90% of them
45:07
are right. But there's one right currently
45:09
right now in Hawaii on Hawaii that's just been placed there
45:12
just because someone was being goofy or maybe it was staff
45:14
member that that would be funny. But I, I or.
45:16
Maybe they're clairvoyant. Maybe, maybe we're getting
45:19
somebody. From Someday, Someday.
45:21
We've had like 30 different, different states.
45:24
Oh yeah, yeah. I like to say, like we have had
45:27
families literally from Boston to Pebble Beach because we have.
45:31
I mean, that's about as far as you can get, yeah. 2 cool
45:35
places. Yeah, very cool places.
45:38
You ever been to Pebble Beach? I have Monterey Carbo.
45:42
No, no, that is I've been to Pepperdine, which is, that's not
45:47
too far. What's the town there?
45:50
Pepperdine, Malibu. Malibu.
45:52
Malibu Been to Malibu so. Pretty cool place to, yeah, go
45:57
to school, I guess. Not as cool as Montana, right?
46:00
Yeah. By the way, Brandon is always,
46:03
you know, looking for an opportunity to golf.
46:05
He's a pretty good golfer. I'm pretty good too, myself.
46:08
Yeah. I mean, we're pretty good golf
46:09
team, right? Yeah.
46:10
So that's always a good way to meet people and kind of talk
46:13
about stuff like this, so. We would love to sack.
46:17
Had a good round of golf with John Besh.
46:20
Out, yeah. In Phoenix, it dumped on us when
46:22
we were out there. The.
46:23
One time it rained in about two months.
46:25
It should have been perfect weather.
46:26
It was the perfect time of year. Yeah.
46:28
And it's decided to get rain and windy and cold.
46:31
It was frozzing. It was not a fun day for John.
46:34
It was a little bit more palatable for us because it's
46:37
like we're in Missouri, we're used to the rain and we're just
46:40
like, oh, of course, another day of rain.
46:43
But John's like he never golfs in rain.
46:47
He was a. Trooper.
46:49
But yeah, he did it, man. He's a pretty good golfer too.
46:53
It's good to. It's always the thing about golf
46:56
I always love. It's kind of like when you're
47:00
meeting new people. Golf is like you getting to see
47:03
a new Golf swing. It's always interesting how
47:07
people are able to either figure out their body mechanics, gym
47:12
furicate. Yeah, because it's like, where
47:15
did people learn this particular golf swing?
47:18
And sometimes it's like, because your body just can't get in
47:21
certain positions and you got to compensate.
47:23
But excuse me, if you're athletic, then you try to figure
47:27
it out. You know, it's just like, I
47:29
can't do this thing, but I'm going to figure out how to
47:31
square that club face and get the ball to go where I needed to
47:33
go. And so everybody's golf games
47:36
got a little different tweak to it, and I enjoy kind of seeing
47:39
that. That's a good observation.
47:42
Yeah. So anyway, all right, Well,
47:44
thanks Brandon for making the time to do this.
47:46
As always, we try to do this bi weekly.
47:48
Bi weekly podcast. Which does not mean twice a week
47:51
means twice a month, every other week, every two weeks.
47:56
And appreciate Thomas Brown for helping out with this.
48:01
I wonder what Thomas Brown's golf swing looks like.
48:06
I'd like to see that. Think we could get him out there
48:09
a round? Of golf?
48:10
That's a question. I'm going to say no, I'm going
48:13
to say he's he has swung a Golf Club at some point, but I'm
48:17
going to say I don't think he's ever could.
48:19
Have been at A9. Holes of golf could.
48:21
Have been swinging a Golf Club at a cat.
48:23
Possibly. Or no, he probably wouldn't do
48:25
that. I know he's seen golf movies.
48:28
Oh yeah, Caddyshack or some bagger pants or.
48:33
I don't know. He's played some volleyball,
48:35
he's played some volleyball in his day, so he may have
48:37
surprised. Us a lot less commitment to play
48:40
a little bit of volleyball than is to go out and play nine holes
48:42
golf that's. True, he does drive golf cart.
48:44
Though that's true all over the place.
48:49
All over the place. That's a that's a Yeah.
48:52
All right. Well, we'll leave it at that.
48:55
So thank you all for listening. And we'll catch you next time on
48:58
a time to sharpen. See you.
49:08
Whetstone Boys Ranch is a therapeutic boarding school
49:10
located in the scenic Ozarks of southern Missouri.
49:14
It was founded in 2011 to serve families from around the country
49:18
who are struggling with challenging behaviors from their
49:20
12 to 16 year old sons. Our mission is to sharpen the
49:24
character of young men. Please visit whetstoneboysranch
49:28
com if you want to learn more about our program or about how
49:32
to contact us for help. Thanks for listening and we hope
49:35
to catch you next time on A time to sharpen.