Latest / We Are For Good Podcast - The Podcast for Nonprofits / 215. 8 Nonprofit Trends that Matter in 2022 - Jonathan McCoy, CFRE and Becky Endicott, CFRE

Transcript

215. 8 Nonprofit Trends that Matter in 2022 - Jonathan McCoy, CFRE and Becky Endicott, CFRE · We Are For Good Podcast - The Podcast for Nonprofits

• 0:01
  Unknown: Hey, I'm John. And I'm Becky.
• 0:03
  Jonathan McCoy: And this is the we are for good podcast.
• 0:06
  Becky Endicott: Nonprofits are faced with more challenges to accomplish their missions and the growing pressure to do more work, raise more and be more for the causes that improve our world.
• 0:15
  Jonathan McCoy: We're here to learn with you from some of the best in the industry, bringing the most innovative ideas, inspirational stories, all to create an impact uprising.
• 0:23
  Becky Endicott: So welcome to the good community. We're nonprofit professionals, philanthropist, world changers and rabid fans who are striving to bring a little more goodness into the world.
• 0:34
  Jonathan McCoy: So let's get started.
• 0:36
  Becky Endicott: Hey, Becky, happy 2022
• 0:39
  Jonathan McCoy: I believe it's 2022. Can we talk about that?
• 0:42
  Jonathan McCoy: It's hard to say 2022.
• 0:43
  Becky Endicott: It is hard to say 2022. I honestly just thought I messed it up. We're about to re record doesn't roll off the tongue. But Hi, guys, New year, new possibilities, busy time for the bold fundraiser to emerge.
• 0:57
  Jonathan McCoy: Yeah, I feel like everything is leading up to this very moment. You know, last year was another year of transition and things changing.
• 1:02
  Jonathan McCoy: And that's going to be the reality. But there's been things that happened last year that really pointed to some beautiful trends emerging that honestly, it feels like things are moving in so much of a better direction than they were for years. And there's a lot of hope that we see on the horizon. There's a lot of people that continually inspire us and have pushed boundaries of what's possible and what's relevant today. And so we wanted to take literally the first few weeks of the year, and it's going to be a few weeks as we unpack this, because there's some trends that really we believe matter for 2022. And we want to share them with you and go deep with how you can start implementing them in your shops.
• 1:41
  Becky Endicott: And you know, us we are going to bring a lot of story to it, we're going to bring statistics, we're going to bring strategy, and then we're going to bring the experts and the case studies so that you can get activated. And these are eight nonprofit trends that we think matter right now. And so we just spent the last year really listening and listening well. And we're constantly watching to see what's bubbling up in the industry who's having tremendous success, who is thriving in this digital world.
• 2:11
  Becky Endicott: And so we've curated these eight topics, we are going to go very deep into them, because we want you to fully understand the mindsets that are behind them, the strategies of how to make them possible, and how to activate it for good
• 2:26
  Jonathan McCoy: can't wait. So okay, let's set some tone for what this conversation is going to look like today. You know, we've identified eight trends that we want to unpack. But today, we're just want to give you the top level surface of that we want to, you know, kind of give you a bird's eye view of what's to come. And I think this is a conversation we want to encourage you to share with your team. And you know, by virtue of being a listener, you are committed to learning and growth. And that's why we love having you part of this community so much. You know, this series is really designed as something that we want you to be able to feel empowered to transfer to your team, to your boards, to your leaders to your direct reports or whatever position that you're in, and just start conversations around it because we're not giving you the exact blueprint, but we are giving you some really clear markers of where the most innovative nonprofits, those that are having the best engagement are really moving. So I hope that it's a jumping off point for really great deep conversation for you. So okay, are we ready? Have we teed it ready? We need I think,
• 3:23
  Becky Endicott: tone set incredibly well. And I think people want to know, what is number one?
• 3:27
  Jonathan McCoy: Yeah, what is number one? Well, it may not be surprised to you, because we could call this everyone matters, but we're not because we're going to keep innovating.
• 3:35
  Jonathan McCoy: We're gonna call it culture matters. And this is something that we unpacked last season, but it's been a thread, clearly really clearly through the pandemic, especially, of just are you really building a culture that is reflective of the values that you want to perpetuate in your mission of the mission that you say you stand for. And that really permeating the way that you practice inside of your organization, the way that you're recruiting people, and the way that you're hiring people and pouring in investing in people. So culture, we believe, is the thing that matters the most, especially in light of the great resignation that's happened, which is Becky's favorite topic, we
• 4:13
  Becky Endicott: like to pick my favorite topic ever.
• 4:16
  Jonathan McCoy: But you know, in a society where people are moving to purpose and moving to where they want to plug in culture is critically important to attracting and retaining the type of people that you want to have on your team that perpetuates the values. And you know, we've had experts that have proven and shown to us that not only is that good for your office to thrive, but it's also going to attract the type of donors that connect with that value system. And so really, by building a culture from the inside out, you're going to do a better job of attracting donors and talent to you. And so it's really the only way to move forward with creating a culture that's magnetic for the values that you want to perpetuate.
• 4:53
  Becky Endicott: And so it's gonna require you to kind of do a really big pause and do some internal self reflection, I look around at your organization, look at your people, how tuned in Are you? How much feedback do your staff have into the processes and the way that your mission is moving and working in this world? How are you tuned into the people how they're feeling? Are they being justly paid. And so we're gonna dive into this, we're gonna bring in an incredible expert. So tune in next week, and we're going to drop another episode, and we're going to go extensively into why culture matters and how you can re examine that. So we're going to move into second one, which is number two, corporate partnerships 2.0. And what this means is, it's time to level up and enrich our partnerships, because we need to sunset this one dimensional sponsorship mentality that we've been clinging to for decades in our sector. And what this means is, we're looking at value alignment, rather than looking for corporations to come in and fill a financial gap. We're looking at all of our corporate partners and saying, Okay, what is important to you? Let's look at their brand. Let's look at their community offerings, let's look at what their product outputs are, how does that align with the mission that we're trying to either solve or the crisis we're trying to eradicate? And it's really about going in and saying, Hey, we are a nonprofit. And we have incredible value and expertise that we can bring to this conversation and to this partnership, we're going to bring the expertise in addition to a community of believers, this incredible mission, incredible experts. But we're going to ask those partners to come in and bring in a financial investment. But it's beyond that, guys. It's also about looking at the corporation, the employee, the employee capital, how can employees pour into our mission, and it creates this sort of family like experience to the partnership. And so all of a sudden, the corporate partnership is no longer just a gala table purchase, you actually have a vibrant partnership that is moving both of your organization and that company forward in a way that serves your joint communities.
• 7:06
  Becky Endicott: I'm so geeked out about the possibility and potential of this,
• 7:09
  Jonathan McCoy: I love it too, because it really allows us as nonprofits to step in with a position of power, not to like Lord our power over a different you know, group, but to just not be only on the receiving end, it's like we have something to offer. And that's what this moment is really bringing to the table is realizing that and stepping fully into that. And so I think that parlays well into number three, which we say is thinking like a business. And this isn't, you know, a super new concept. But it is one that those that innovated those that pivoted, even though I hate that word, they hate it. There's the change the quickest and the pandemic to really adjust how they showed up how they created an impact how they fundraise.
• 7:49
  Jonathan McCoy: Those that were the most nimble, were those that were entrepreneurial in their mindsets. And the way that they did business, even in the way that they set up their revenue structure, that it's not just solely dependent on one big grant each year, they have multiple streams of revenue, they have multiple recurring revenue streams that they know they can count on. It's just the whole premise of you know, three strands of cord cannot be easily broken. It's the same idea of not putting all your eggs in a basket, because lord knows where that baskets gonna go this year, right? So we're really trying to create really sound infrastructures in place. And that's what this this value is all about. We've seen it also the ability to fail, we created
• 8:29
  Becky Endicott: talking about failure, I think this is so crucial to this part of the conversation.
• 8:33
  Jonathan McCoy: Oh, you know, we dedicated an episode a conversation to last season, because we think it's really important like, and this goes back to culture to like, are you creating a culture where it's safe to fail, and not in the stuff that you shouldn't be failing at not celebrating whenever you just aren't following through on something.
• 8:50
  Jonathan McCoy: But true failure, because you took a bold risk, because it made sense. And it was, you know, grounded in what you're trying to accomplish. That's a failure that you can succeed because you're learning and growing through that. And the organizations that are making the biggest leaps are those that are just simply doing that, like it's baked into their DNA. And so I can't wait to unpack more of our findings around that. But really, really interesting conversation.
• 9:46
  Becky Endicott: And we've got some awesome case studies of who has been failing up and failing forward and amazing ways. And we just think that this is your moment, nonprofits to embrace some of these mindsets, even think about germanium, who we just dropped her good guide and Pro, and she's talking about why your operations should be virtual, why you should be doing Cloud based accounting, there's so many things that we could be doing, to think like a business that are going to help us move faster and more efficiently. And it's going to free up our time to do other things, which I really hope innovation is a part of what you're doing. So all of this that we're saying can actually flow really well with the number four because it's about how you need to get a solid mindset for fundraising.
• 10:28
  Becky Endicott: That's number four. And the reality is if you are embracing the knowledge that We don't know everything. And that new ideas and concepts can come and shift our world. And we can be open to embracing again, these innovative qualities, it's going to allow you to scale so much more quickly. Because you're not stuck in this what we call is old thinking. And so we're going to talk about how do you develop yourself? How are you constantly learning? are you pouring into training and education for yourself and for your team, because our sector is changing day by day, I don't think there's ever been a period of time where we have seen such dramatic change in our sector, as we do right now. And so we're really going to be encouraging you to pour a lot into a lot of soft skills, courage, bravery, empathy, you know, mental health, these things that are really important that helped shape us and make us stronger.
• 11:24
  Becky Endicott: So we can go in and charge through these missions. And we're going to dive into that with an awesome expert. We're not going to tell you who it is yet, but they're going to be coming on the podcast to talk about mindsets. And we're going to equip you really, really well to dive into this mindset game.
• 11:38
  Becky Endicott: So stay tuned for that, it's going to be an awesome conversation.
• 11:41
  Jonathan McCoy: You just talked about empathetic leadership and building that mindset in that fullest perfectly into number five, which we believe is storytelling matters. You know, storytelling has always mattered. And it's one of these things that throughout history, that's how we connect with each other. And we believe that it's the basis for building empathy, which leads to action in which leads to more connection for your mission. So clearly, you know, storytelling has to be some of the heartbeats that our organization stands for. But what really, as a trend that we're seeing, and we want this to be a forever trend is really stepping deeply into how we storytelling. And are we really perpetuating the type of storytelling that brings dignity to everybody along the line, to your donor, but also to those that you're trying to serve.
• 12:27
  Jonathan McCoy: Probably most importantly, to those you're trying to serve, is the way that you're talking and sharing and photographing, and all of that in alignment with the values that you're culturally trying to build and trying to attract from outside donors. And so what's great about this is we believe this type of storytelling kind of kills the corporate robot voice, you know, we've moved past this just general big organization voice where it's not human, and stepping fully into authenticity and vulnerable storytelling that allows us to connect and see each other as people, and a reminder that we're people and so putting up some of those guardrails to protect people and to keep people safe along the way, too. So we're really excited to dive into this and lean into some of the hard conversations around this as we try to find the words and the visuals that lift people and that provide connection while still providing dignity for everybody in your mission. Hey, friends, this episode is presented by virtuous and they just happened to be one of our favorite companies. Let me tell you why. You know, we believe everyone matters. And we've witnessed the greatest philanthropic movements happen when you see and activate donors at every level. And here's the thing, virtuous created a fundraising platform to help you do just that. It's much more than a nonprofit CRM. Virtuous is committed to helping charities reimagine generosity through responsive fundraising, which is simply putting the donor at the center of fundraising, growing giving through personalized donor journeys. And by helping you respond to the needs of every individual. We love it because this approach builds trust and loyalty, your personalized engagement. Sound like virtuous may be a fit for your organization, learn more today@virtuous.org or follow the link in our show notes.
• 14:10
  Jonathan McCoy: Hey, friends, after meeting some of the most visionary leaders and world changers in the nonprofit sector today, we realize they all have one thing in common, they invest in themselves and their teams so they can stay relevant to what's working now to succeed and scale their missions. You know us we believe education for all, and that's when we created we're for good pro Pro is reimagining nonprofit professional development, giving you access to incredible live coaching events with some of the best thought leaders like Shanna Palmer and Lynn Wester and more.
• 14:34
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• 14:40
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• 14:45
  Jonathan McCoy: Be the Pro and get started today with a 14 day free trial head over to we're for good pro.com/free Okay, let's get back to this amazing conversation.
• 15:00
  Becky Endicott: I just want to say something about storytelling right now. Because something that you said triggered me, John and I think in such a good way.
• 15:05
  Becky Endicott: Are we making time are you carving time out of your calendar to find ways to storytel because it's going to do a couple things. One, you're automatically going to be cultivating whoever you're talking to, to. You're going to be following the impact of fundraising which is absolutely essential to circling back on what gifts have done. So you're already in stewardship mode and cultivation mode. Three, you are telling the Heartbeat of why your mission is so important.
• 15:35
  Becky Endicott: And when you turn something like that over into whether it's, you know, something in an impact report, or if it's a social post, or maybe you're just texting a video out to somebody, something happens to people when they can actually crystallize, who is the face, who has the name, what actually happened, and all of a sudden, the gift is not become just a gift. And so one other thing we're going to be talking about and storytelling, I promise, I'll get off this. But you know, this is my favorite topic is how are you telling the story of now?
• 16:04
  Becky Endicott: Your donors, your board members, your volunteer, everybody, they could just be social workers on your accounts right now. They want to know how the pandemic has affected your organization, what is it done to funding? Was it done to staff? What is it done to actually what you're going to deliver, we're going to talk about how to unpack that the reality and the authenticity and vulnerability that you're talking about, John has got to be the king of this content, because that is where you're going to get connection. So I'm really excited about storytelling, and storytelling cannot happen in a vacuum, which is why number six is so important. If you are not investing in digital, we think your biggest untapped prospect right now is the global digital community, who is now aligning with your vision and your values and your mission. And so storytelling, again, is such a conduit to leveraging that digital and getting that story out and having it live beyond you, when your story gets put out into the social universe. It has the potential to be shared, it has the potential to be commented on, and it lives so much longer. So if you're not investing in digital right now, we think that that has really got to be something that you need to push for not only in your budget, but it needs to be part of your time,
• 17:27
  Jonathan McCoy: I feel like these are really stacking together nicely. Because if you're thinking like a business, I mean, how much of your investment is coming through your website right now through those channels. And obviously, as you see those uptick, of course, you'd want to invest in optimizing them, of course, you would want to make your website easier for somebody to navigate into checkout, and certainly want to engage more people with the net, that social media allows you to have an ads. So I love that these are really instep, these trends can really take you to the next level as you start to thread things together, which leads us into number seven, which is leaders as thought leaders. So here's the reality, in today's world, each of us has our own obligation has our own opportunity to be a voice into our sphere of influence. I mean, you get to choose, you know, to some degree of how much you want to step into this in a public way. But what we're seeing is that those people, those leaders who come forward and this sometimes leaders at every level of the organization that really view their voice as their currency, those are the ones that are pushing the needle on really what the goal of their mission is. So looking more broadly, I think, cosmic does this really brilliantly of looking really broad to say, what are you really trying to do with your mission, because there's a lot of ways that you can attack that. And one of it is just simply through thought leadership and pushing people challenging people in the way that you're sharing content online, or speaking at the local Rotary Club or wherever that may be. But each of us has an opportunity with our own voice, to be another extension of our mission. And we're seeing that as definitely a trend and a place where a lot of people are plugging in, that want to perpetuate their mission kind of in a different way. This year, Gone is the era of having a silent Executive Director, you know, signing their name, or stamping their name somewhere in the office. But it's really them as a front person, them as a chief storyteller, to be in the community to be online, and to bring people and invite people into that narrative.
• 19:28
  Becky Endicott: The thing that's so exciting to me about thought leadership and leaders as thought leaders is, anyone can be a thought leader. And you don't have to have a certain pedigree, or a certain tenure within the sector, by virtue of your experiences, your lived experience, what you've experienced at the hands of your mission, your connectivity to the community, you have thought leadership. So I mean, I even think about our unicorn Julie, our producer, she has incredible thought leadership because she sits in the background and listens to all of these conversations. She synthesizes this data, everybody can be a leader in the space. And so there's so much potential here.
• 20:08
  Becky Endicott: And if you're somebody who's really geeked out about creating that personal brand and getting it out there, this is going to be the episode for you. Okay, we're in the final eighth trend.
• 20:17
  Becky Endicott: And so our final one is donor behavior is king. What we're talking about here is focusing on behavior and not giving them out. Okay, I feel like I need to go back because this is a mindset shift and I need to repeat this forever. Buddy, we're going to be focusing on donor behavior, not on their giving amounts. And so this is a total mindset shift, I think, from everything that I've been taught as a fundraiser the last two decades. And it's really about playing what we call the long game. And you're actually it's about warming somebody up.
• 20:51
  Becky Endicott: And it's about getting somebody into your cycle of giving, we are not hardwired to look at Agenzia. As someone who is maybe going to be one of our biggest donors ever, however, we're seeing incredible trends with nonprofit organizations who are connecting with very, very young donors who are coming into their first jobs and the process of getting them in the door, giving them an incredible first experience, making them feel seen engaging with them, getting them in a monthly giving cycle, and you start to see that they're starting to get warm, what you're doing right there is building a behavior where that donor is going to be in your world forever, because you're already a part of their monthly budget. They're getting content and connection from you all the time you are a part of their life. And if you can start to look at donor behavior as the motivator to grow your organization long term, the potential to do that in digital community is endless. We are seeing incredible organizations taking this on. And I am just so geeked out because we are bringing in Lynn Westar, who is the queen of donor relations stewardship. She's an amazing good guy that's going to be dropping later this year on donor behavior, and she's going to come in and she's going to school us all about why this is the new trend that we're seeing, not only just in general relations and stewardship, but engagement and cultivation and eventually solicitation. And just
• 22:22
  Jonathan McCoy: like how that ripples out to how we each show up individually to our jobs in our sea to the house, wherever you find yourself in your organization, when you like embrace that mindset. Lynn is just so gifted at showing you the way of how this should change our behaviors. So this is a defining conversation for this year. And I cannot wait to really go deep with everyone on this because it definitely rocked our brains as we did this content with Lynn. So okay, that's a look at the eight trends that we're keeping an eye on this year. And I mean, these are already in motion, you know, the most progressive organizations are already implementing on activating on these, but we want to give you the toolkit to do this too. So over the next few weeks, we're unpacking these we're bringing on special guests, we're going to go deep, we're going to give you some actionable points to put in place. The really the goal of this would be to take this and bring it to your team, because we believe community is everything you know, and we really mean that when we say that. And so by taking this and having these conversations as a jumping off point with your team, we feel like that revolutions can happen within our organizations.
• 23:25
  Becky Endicott: And I just want to give everybody like a mama bear hug right now. It's New Year, I hope you took some time off to recharge. I hope you had some quiet time for yourself to reflect on everything that you did last year. It was a crazy year. I mean, it was totally bananas in many, many different ways. And so I like want to come in here and just hug you and tell you, this is going to be a great year for you. And if you are having any sort of imposter syndrome of my organization is not innovative. They are not embracing to new concepts and new ideas. I think there is a way to do this very, very slowly alien, if you're a one person shop, we are going to find ways to take your hand walk you through this. And we think that it can be absolutely revolutionary, not only for your fundraising because we know that your bean counters are we all care about your budget and meeting your budget and hitting your KPIs. But we think it's also going to fill your heart, we think it's going to put more purpose and impact to your mission for you for your staff.
• 24:25
  Becky Endicott: And that is the long game for us as well is making sure that you are a vibrant person who finds so much purpose in your work and you're making your mission bigger and brighter every single day. So you've got this and we're behind you are so
• 24:40
  Jonathan McCoy: glad you're here. Can't wait to unpack this with you.
• 24:44
  Julie Confer: Hey, friends, thanks so much for being here.
• 24:46
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• 25:16
  Julie Confer: Thanks friends. I'm our producer Julie confer and our theme song is sunray by Remy Boris boom