Good morning everybody we’re back all right I am your boy Tommy D I like to call you myself your boy Tommy D the nonprofit sector connector I’m a little embarrassed right now so my face is as red as my jacket um but that’s just the
Way it is sometimes you just got to keep it moving all right so we had a little technical difficulty we’re ready to go the on air sign is on the on air sign is on who is this guy with a red jacket so every single week on a Friday morning I
Interview nonprofit executive leaders to help them tell their story and amplify their message and this whole day is called storytelling Amplified so I got to talk to my copyright attorney about that and say what exactly happened because that’s a line I use all the time and now we we’re calling the whole day
Storytelling Amplified shout out to our first uh our first presenter Scott Rosen cran I got to tell you gang it was all about AI if you weren’t here for that session make sure you get a copy from the nonprofit resource Hub and plug in and and re-watch that or watch it for
The first time because I was just saying in the in the backstage room here it’s it’s not optional you know I remember being a young guy and saying hey man you know what I hello everybody hello dancing classrooms Long Island um I remember saying you know I’m a a pen and
Paper guy I’m not going to utilize CRM or I’m not going to utilize technology I to say that in my 20s gang in my 40s there’s no options anymore you’ve got to get in the game you got to learn you got to keep evolving got to keep getting
Better at what you’re doing talk about evolving what we’re going to talk to you about today is networking relationship building I just said to my panelists in the backstage room I said I want to talk about taking inventory of your network if you know me you know I’m connected
You know I’m all about bringing people together as the nonprofit sector connector if you don’t know me well I just told you all that so now you know that to me it’s about relationship building it’s critically important and as great I might as I might be Network
Wise if it wasn’t for the relationships and Social Capital you know it’s not it’s not as important so it’s how do you leverage how do you nurture and how do you have these collaborative relationships so I will have each of my panelists introduce themselves but one
Last thing I want to say is I don’t believe in we’re all going after the same dollars I do believe in abundance where there’s opportunity for us to collab connect make relationships and work together and I see a lot of head nodding and I see a lot of great stuff
In the uh in the chat so I do love you all I do love all my nonprofit friends all right so let’s do this so I had the opportunity Kelly an serini who is runs our marketing for the non profit resource Hub and does a great job she
Called me up she said Tommy D you’re going to do a panel on networking and I said well that kind of makes sense and she said who do you want on this panel and these are the three professionals that I said right away and this is one
Of those dreams where you know you ask for all three and all three say yes and that’s how we’re here so thank you Erica mahen and Kylie there’s backstory on how I know you all if we did that we wouldn’t have to we wouldn’t have any time to teach him about networking so
We’re going to get into this discussion right now so I notice some of my guests are on mute so I’m going to ask everybody on mute come off of mute um I will start with the first LinkedIn profile I’m looking at because I want to give a good morning to my friend
Colleague mahen khen the first time I met mahen we were in The Institute for nonprofit practice together and I said I want that person to be my friend and that was a god soundest truth I said she’s super smart she’s educated she’s networked she knows her stuff and I
Don’t and I want to learn from her and that’s networking in a nutshell vice president operations and programs for Grant makers for girls of color uh before that program officer with the novo Foundation before that was staff attorney with rights for girls Meen say hello to everybody tell us about your
Background real quick please good morning hi everyone so good to be here I’m really excited for this discussion with Kylie and era and Tommy D of course my name is mahen I she her pronouns and I am the um and as Tommy D said I’m the vice president programs and operations
At an organization called Grant makers for girls of color which we affectionately called g4gc what we do is basically mobilize resources so we raise money to regant and then we think about other Financial Resources really specifically focused at organizations and movements like social justice movements that are led by and
Center girls and gender expansive youth of color um I’ll be quick but I’ll say that we um you know launched in 2020 we have raised and regranted about 25 million we Fund in all 50 states Guam and Puerto Rico a lot of funding in New
York City um so really excited to be in discussion with these amazing leaders um and to talk about I love to talk about resourcing in ways that are not just about Financial Resources but all the other ways that we can resource each other because money is necessary and we
Need it to run our organizations and there’s so much more we can do when we think Beyond just money um I will turn it back to you Tommy did you to ask the next person to introduce thank you I love that that was great it’s funny when
You get a bunch of leaders in the room because everybody’s like am I running this meeting let me get back to Tommy D like we’re all you know what is that’s what happens when you hang out with leaders who run meetings and run sessions all the time all right I’m
Thinking of a number from one and 10 Erica pick a number 12 between one and 10 oh my goodness skip Kylie pick a number between one and 10 try six oh I was gonna pick three but n threw me for a curve ball here say say six six Kylie
Goes first good it’s always six whenever I ask anybody between one and 10 the number is always six there’s people laughing in the audience because I’ve done that to them before Kylie mcgrain incredible story we met through uh really we met through the New York City imagine Awards I had an opportunity to
Connect with you and interview you yeah I I mean I want to tell some of the story because I love telling your story but founder and executive director from back in 2014 of a moment of magic please tell this story I mean I I’ve told it a
Hundred times you’ve probably told it a thousand please tell them who you are yeah hi everybody I am so excited to be here today um like Tommy I I feel like this morning I don’t know about anybody else I also face technical difficulties Zoom just didn’t believe that I was me
And I had to change my passwords and everything so it’s been quite a morning um but I’m so excited to be here with all of you um networking is so important and it’s so critical to running our businesses and growing and most importantly collaborating and it’s been
Key to being a part of a moment of magic which is a nonprofit organization that started in my college dorm room in the Bronx back in 2014 it was inspired by my experience of my grandparents both being hospitalized long term I watched their experience of going through Medical
Treatments and being away from home and being away from each other and how that really not just affected their health but also their spirit and they were what I like to think of as the real life notebook story they were married for 65 years um and they passed away within two
Weeks of each other and while they were hospitalized trying to find ways that I could make make a difference for them and I couldn’t fix the circumstance they were in but I could try to make it a little bit better so I would basically just become a menace to the hospital
Staff and sneak in their favorite food and decorate the hospital room and when I was a high school senior I would come in to see them before any big event and as a high school senior that’s prom that’s formal that’s graduation so I’d literally come and see them in my big
Prom dress and when they passed away those were the memories that I thought about was walk walking through the hospital in my prom gown and laughing with them about how silly it all was but how they felt so important so um I tried to recreate that by visiting Cohen’s
Children’s Hospital in Long Island dressed like Elsa from Frozen and it became really a big purpose in my life and I saw college students wanting to get involved and an underutilized resource so we decided to kind of mobilize college students across the country and get them involved in local
Pediatric hospitals and now Flash Forward about a decade we work with 30 colleges across the country and almost every Children’s Hospital to bring in college students and provide this type of programming for kids that really need it I love it I I I don’t know this this
Word I see used often activation and I as I was hearing you talk about what goes on on these campuses and I have some understanding of what you’ve done there it’s incredible man you know it’s not you know college is not all those movies you see where people are at the
Fraternity house you know having parties gang there’s people making real impact on these universities and and I mean maybe that sounds ridiculous that I even have to point it out but it’s true and maybe we’ll talk more about that today because I want to understand how the sororities and uh and fraternities get
Involved let’s move over to my friend Erica floresa Erica I you know when we first met we met at the Long Island children’s museum I was there a couple weeks ago at a nonprofit resource Hub event if you haven’t been to the Long Island children’s museum guy gy listen
You got to go they got bubbles they got these big Bubble Wands that you can play with yes I’m like a child I like the play with the Bubbles at at the Long Island children’s museum if you want to network with me why don’t we go do that
Erica you were the development officer there when we first met now you’re executive director of the organization the Long Island children’s museum hundreds of thousands of visitors and I learned recently many of your visitors come from Queens more so from Queens than from suffi County so please introduce yourself take it away thank
You Tommy thank you to my other panelists I’m learning already with you guys I’m like oh we gota we gotta connect um I really appreciate the invitation to be on this because I think networking and connecting is essential to what we do in the nonprofit World um
Uh so as Tommy said I’m at the Long Island children’s museum I became president last June after three years as development director um licm is we serve about over 300,000 people a year that’s through the general visitors to the museum School field trips birthday parties Outreach programs we go out into
The community um and then we have three Key Community Access programs one for children and families with disabilities making the museum available and open to them once a month at our friendly hours for free um we work with the Westbury School District in an intensive stem learning project with all first second
Third graders and all special education students um and then we do a summer program together to kindergarten that’s a special program for new immigrant families where we work with um the children who are about to enter kindergarten and their parents about how does the US school system work um how do
You set your kids up for success in education that’s been going on almost 15 years and we have incredible stories of that program just four weeks really setting kids up and their families to be successful in the in the US school system um we also have uh access programs for military families making
The museum affordable and um for lowincome families on EBT or SNAP benefits they can get two or three doll tickets so lm’s whole philosophy is we’re here for everyone um one of my platforms is that uh raising kids is hard today harder than ever in many ways
And how do we work with each other and each of the other sister organizations or brother organizations in supporting our children and families and parents and teachers um and Tommy the last quick thing on my intro when you said you believe in abundance that is my message
I think there’s enough to go around there enough resources if we’re creative and thoughtful and what do we do best how can LCM be a Gathering Place a place of Joy a place of connection for Children and Families um and how can we partner with others who may provide
Services that we don’t provide but but are necessary in supporting our community um and you did have a reference there just so everyone knows about 50% of our audience comes from Nassau County um almost 20% from Queens um 19% from uh suffet County so they’re pretty close yeah and then we do get
Folks from Brooklyn every single zip code on the island um and we do have some visitors from out of town as well I love it I love that I I mean you know it’s not easy it’s not an automatic to come from abundance everyday gang sometimes you got to remind yourself of
That I I do I would admit sometimes scarcity sneaks in so if you have that too it’s all good give yourself a hug man I’m big on on huged man give yourself a hug if you need some support on that though you just gotta it’s about decision making and it’s about making a
Different decision every day all right so let’s get into into this I one last point I want together to kindergarten that program sounds incredibly awesome I can’t wait to be a part of it this summer I will be bringing Italian ises um gang if you’re here on Long Island my
Dad owns Ralph’s Italian ises in Huntington I will be going there this afternoon to um how do I say take Italian ices that don’t belong to me and then bring them to uh Big Brothers Big Sisters event out in Long Island so connect with me uh Tommy d. NYC on
Instagram and if you don’t know me by now you’ll figure out how to get me all right let’s get into this conversation really because there’s no topic I enjoy more than talking about networking and connecting and it’s funny because I’ll be at an event just recently when we
Were at Eric’s place and I had to tell everybody okay please stop networking because we have to like do something else and like that’s like that’s like Kryptonite to me I’m like I don’t want to do this man but sometimes we got to pull it back and draw it back I want to
Get into you know I want people to walk away with best practices and I think best practices come from hey you should try to do this thing or best practices come from storytelling you know and that’s what we’re doing here today comes from storytelling hey Tommy here’s what
We did at our organization and here’s the outcome and this might and then th those listeners will feel oh maybe I should try to do that or that might might be an area of opportunity and I have to imagine because I saw my panelist dropping their LinkedIn information in the chat that everybody
Would be open to connecting with these other people because it’s kind of what we’re talking about right so if you have questions follow up on the LinkedIn and things like that um I want to start with this anybody can just I’ll kind of see who wants to jump in first I’m not I
Don’t want to call on people just yet but let’s look at it this way um when did you realize when you were either a founder or in development right or you know in your mult roles me where you realize oh man I actually have to
Network now you know I have to go out and meet people because like even me like one out of a hundred times I walk into an event and don’t feel comfortable so I could so it happens to me so I could imagine what it’s like for other people who aren’t necessarily out there
And outgoing and don’t want to do it so was there a point where you realize oh shoot if I want this organization to grow or if I want to me meet the right grantees or I want to meet the right funders I better figure out how to do
This anybody want to start with that me yeah I don’t I mean I think relationships are everything so I I mean I haven’t had a job that I didn’t get because I didn’t have a relationship with someone so I don’t know that and I think that
Is you know I think in the nonprofit ultimately we’re trying to do good in the world and ultimately we’re trying to achieve Justice in the world right and you can’t do that alone so I feel like and and you know Kylie I loved your story because I started doing this work
Like I you know was in high school and college working with young folks that were um incarcerated and running tutoring programs and I was networking with them I was building relationships they were teaching me so many things and then I ended up and you need to get resources and when you’re young you
Don’t have money so you’re like who can I go to to get the resources I need to provide support to the people that I care about so I would say the answer to when is that it’s always been there um I think we can get in later into the
Conversation about what stops US I think particularly when you’re in spaces where you’re the only woman or the only person of color the only woman of color like all of those things add layers to comfortable you feel um but I kind of want to invite us to think about things
Less as networking and more as relationship building because I think networking can feel daunting and it can also feel transactional like it can feel like I’m going to these people because I need something from them and I’ve actually realized that the most beautiful Partnerships are really about building Rel relationships letting them
Breathe and then seeing what beautiful things come out of those relationships absolutely love it I mean I totally agree with you we do call it networking and unfortunately it gets that sort of negative connotation because there’s sales professionals out there or business people who treat this as a
Prospecting activity when it is not a prospecting activity it is a relationship building activity guys don’t get me going on that we’ll be here for an hour just me ranting about that Kye since mahen called you out what do you have to add to that was there a
Point where you realize this or you just naturally I mean you have an incredible personality you’re outgoing was that always just you always had all these friends and connections or what well first thank you I appreciate that um I Am Naturally an introvert um so I think sometimes when we think about networking
It seems very intimidating especially if we’re going into a place where we don’t have natural connections already we don’t know anyone in the room we kind of want to be a Wallflower and stay on the side and when I was walking into a lot
Of the rooms I was 21 22 fresh out of college didn’t have a lot of professional experience but I was asking people to believe in this thing that I believed in and I think what I’ve learned more than anything is that storytelling is really powerful but so
Is authenticity and I think when we lean into that and we show up in spaces as we are and authentically you know and we say to people this is what I do and this is why I think it’s important I think we invite those conversations a little bit
More naturally people know if you’re going to a networking mixer we’re there to meet people we’re there to make connections we all know why we’re there um we’re not there at the end of the day to have someone write us a check but we do want to make these connections to
Hopefully be long lasting but I think really leading with authenticity when we are ourselves we give other people the permission to be themselves too um and I think that’s really powerful so showing up in that way I think is what’s most important oh my God I love it I did I
Pick the WR three friends to come off this this conversation or what Erica from a development perspective which is some of your background obviously development and I’m going to say a bad word here on the show but development is kind of sales um now I’m gonna you know
But it is but um being a sales guy I feel like it’s okay for me to say that you know you you have to meet people there’s not even really an option when you’re talking about that development you know maybe if you’re an ed somewhere
You can stay in the house and nobody has to know who you are but really on the development side that’s not happening so can you speak to a little bit that yeah I mean I can’t I can’t uh second what uh mahen and Kylie also said in this relation it’s relationship building and
I was born into this I my family is very extroverted and I’ve always had an outgoing personality so my experience of walking into a room is I had to learn is really not anyone else or not many other people’s um so I’ve done a lot of mentoring with staff on how to develop
Networking skills particularly introverts or folks who like I don’t know if I belong you know some of those questions and I just say like every time especially if it’s a networking event or an event with with mixed you know groups that work for nonprofits or even corporations one you’re coming in for
Here with the Long Island children’s museum like all a lot of people have a relationship to it and a lot of people if they don’t you can talk about something you know we’re here for families we we have we have a really easy message to send but the other thing
Is be curious about other people if you know a great way pick one person find out where they work and just a simple question how did you get into your field and if you start at the personal level I think like authenticity particularly if you’re not comfortable with a big group
Pick a person pick another person but start learning about them and their career and their organization often then creates the reciprocal where then you you know you might be more comfortable talking about that um I also try to if they’re going to places where if I’m
Going with them I will like hold some of my staff with me and make sure they introduce and kind of um you know sample or you know lead by example but I also try to prep them if they’re going to an event that I can’t go to who might
Be someone that they can find or that they meet that I have a connection with and say hey make that connection and here’s one little line of and that’s it I mean really it’s like they feel like they have to come back and and say they’ve achieved something or done
Something like we’re building a relationship and I I think the sales name I don’t I don’t think it’s a dirty name because what I’m selling is is children and fun and joy and connction Comm and and if you come at it authentically then it’s it’s just talking about a mission you believe in
With people who are interested and if they’re not move to someone else you know if there isn’t an automatic connection or a feeling then you know gently say oh thanks I’m going to get a drink or move on or go to the next person yeah I I know the slip away I’ve
Done it before I mean people must think I go to the bathroom a lot because sometimes they go let excuse me like I got to run to the restroom you know sometimes when when the convers but you know what my favorite move is when when
I see some somebody at an event out of the corner of my eye who’s alone I can’t have it happening I can’t excuse me I if I’m here with the three of you I say excuse me and I’ll walk away and go not physically grab that person I don’t cost
People but I would say hi I’m Tommy de nice to meet you welcome here even if it doesn’t have to be my event right I make in personally I make every event my event because I want to feel like I’m the host and I think that’s what
Ingratiates you to people too I mean when you say hey come on over here come meet my friends be part of this conversation because it is you know Kylie I think you said about you know a wall flower some people might walk in it’s intimidating let’s be honest gang I
Mean I I I love it but I’m a a strange bird I think in a lot of cases not everybody loves doing this thing so you know but you can if it’s about the mission and you know when I do my radio show philanthropy and focus I was
Telling somebody just last week who’ never done a show like this wanted to come on my show soon and I said look I get you’re nervous I’m nervous I’m nervous right now speaking to you three I mean I’m nervous because people are putting information in the chat and and
Things like that I’m nervous because I care but when we take I think we take ourselves out of it and know we’re doing it for the mission and J makes a comment J Crowder um makes a comment in the chat saying development is selling good feelings I think it’s selling the
Mission it’s selling Good Vibes it’s selling you know what I like to say is you know with with props no big deal just changing the world yeah that’s what leaders like you all are doing I don’t just mean the three that are on the screen with me I mean all those that are
In the chat because I saw there’s there’s over a hundred people checking in with us today so really really special um what about this what if you take M I want to ask you this because I thought I wrote this question earlier and as a
Funer I wanted to ask you how you go about building relationships we are crossing out the networking word how are you building relationship not only you know um really I want to know with kind of with grantees and really from your perspective how important is it is it
For you all at Grant makers for girls of color for grantees and perspective grantees to make sure they build a relationship with you because some people on this call are organizations that are looking for funding and I think they should be aware of that you know I don’t that’s not necessarily an
Instinctual thing to figure out how to do all that from you know from a development perspective so I think I have a question in there somewhere yeah I mean I think your question is sort of like how do you build relationships with funders and how important is that um I
Will say like you know I sat inside a Family Foundation before and now I’m in an intermediary space where I have to raise all the money I regant so I get this beautiful opportunity to kind of be similarly positioned to a lot of the organizations we support while also um
While also remembering what it’s like on the other side and having come up in in nonprofits as a young person I’ve only ever worked in nonprofits and so I think um every funer is different is what I will say and I know that’s not
The answer but I you know I spent like I had seven hours of calls with different organizations yesterday and they’re all like where can I get funding what’s happening it’s really rough out here and um and who do I know and unfortunately philanthropy it can often be like a
Black box right like that you’re trying to figure out who you know I think relation we also I’ll just say at g4gc we try to appro approach what we call um our grandmother’s philanthropy and like really engaging this notion of reciprocity that like we give to our grantees they give to us like
Fundamentally we believe that if we’re going to achieve Justice we need to be investing and girls of color and so we are collectively winning when when these things are happening I think about the Long Island’s children museum I’m like if we are investing in a space where young people particularly people
Families who don’t have places to go with their children can have moments of Joy how important is that in terms of like the fabric of our communities so I I think that it is it is really helpful when people know people right like it is part of the reason we are an
Intermediary is because we have relationships that many of our grantees don’t have and we fund everywhere in the country so if you’re looking at you know organizations in Alabama or South Carolina where there isn’t a lot of foundation presence um you know part of our job is to build those relationships
So for me it’s not that important I’ve given money to organizations that I’ve never met the ad I’ve literally sent them an email and said I love your mission I follow you on Instagram I see you doing all this work with girls here’s the money but um but that is
Partially because I know how much work it takes and so we’re trying to lighten the load I think generally speaking when you are fundraising the um the relationship building is really important and the thing that I’ll offer to folks is despite the fact that people choose to be in foundations and philanthropic
Spaces they don’t like to be solicited for money which I personally think is weird because I’m like you took this job to give away money so why are you mad when people ask you for money but um a lot of folks don’t like to be directly solicited right and so it feels weird
And you’re always trying to figure out the angle but to Erica’s point I think it’s about getting to know people and really understanding who they are why they care about what they care about it also cuts down time for you is what I will say because a lot of Foundations
You know there’s only so much you can explain on a website and a lot of them don’t have websites right so if you don’t know what the approach of that particular program officer or that particular Foundation is if you don’t understand where they’re coming from you
Might be barking up the wrong tree you might be looking for money that is not actually intended for you because they actually have a really specific Focus within that thing you know bunders like to say well we care about racial Justice organizations that are doing direct service you know will say well we’re
Working with students of color and we’re engaging them in advocacy and funders are weird and sometimes they’ll be like well we don’t fund direct service we only fund advocacy which I have a whole other issue with but I think that part of it is you know for me if people know
That I really care about young people that have been impacted by systems um by Foster Care Juvenile Justice child welfare B seexual violence um when an organization comes to me and they’re they they know that my background to Erica’s point you know how did you get
Into this work and I’m like girls told me to do this work and I needed to do it then they can lead with that in a way that really helps me understand how their work is connected to whatever it is that we care about I think that’s really true with individual donors too
You have to understand what people’s motivation is because you also want to be in in funding relationships where people actually really believe in what you’re doing and they’re not giving just to get I mean listen take the money where you can get it but it’s always better when you have a donor who’s
Really invested in what you do and that does take the reciprocal relationship building so to answer your question not that important to me I just care that you’re doing the work but um the relationships help and the last thing I’ll say is for us for me because I hope
And this is what our grantees say to us the relationship is not transactional people can also be open about where they’re struggling a lot of our grantees will call me and be like I’m really struggling I had the Staffing issue I don’t know what to do and that’s really
Hard to do with funders and we can strategize around like who can I put you in touch with how can I help you solve this problem um which if you don’t have a relationship you don’t know to trust your funer me it’s really for me it’s very important that I build
Relationships with our grantees where they can come to us when they’re hurting and when it’s hard and not just sell the big successes because if I’m truly invested in your success then I’m going to show up for you when when it’s not easy and that kind of relationship is
Really that is only Built over time and with a lot of intention well you know thank you me that that’s a partnership that’s what it sounds like to me that’s not hey we’ll send you the check and then you can come back and ask for more
Money down the road that’s like you know and as I was hearing you tell that story you know I think about that grante and I’m sure it isn’t just one though that’s happened many many times to you and it’s like there’s fear there’s shame to that
Right like can I really I gota ask them for money how could I tell them that I don’t have my stuff together so to speak right that’s that’s a scary thing to to deal with and the fact that you’ve established a relationship and I use the word partnership there is that that’s
Critical that they’re willing to share and and utilize and leverage your other resources aside from just dollars I think that’s what I was hearing you say too yeah sorry the last thing I’ll say is I don’t think I think it’s specific to the thing right like you have to
Gauge where your time is best spent I just as Erica and Kylie well know like this takes time and it takes a lot of resources and it takes like energy and so part of building the relationship helps you determine which relationships you really want to invest in and which
Ones actually don’t feel like the best use of your time I like that I’m going to go from there let’s take that I wanted to see if Kylie and Erica had something and Kylie I apologize it’s Kylie mcgrain zaro I knew her when she was Kylie mcgrain so I screwed that up
At the beginning of the show so I so Kylie and Erica um from take off some of what mahen said if you like and then also how do you decide and as I said earlier take inventory and gang this is as easy as yes you’re gonna
Use a CRM and maybe you’re gonna use Razor’s Edge and shout out to my friend Christine Desa maybe you’re G to use Bell’s board for your board but you know a Sharpie is really good too and you can write down like here are the people here
Are the categories of people I need to meet so here’s it and who who do I know who can I ask for connection let’s talk about that though how do you analyze and take inventory of who the heck should I meet you know because there’s so many stakeholders for organizations
Kylie um I think for me one of the most important things that we’ve done is kind of looked at the organization strategically and evaluated our gaps right so nonprofit organizations never have enough funding we always want to do more we always want to grow we always
Want to expand our mission or expand our programs and that takes more Capital more Staffing Etc so that’s an easy area to say this is where we have to grow but what does that look like and who are our Target um population that we want to
Connect with but I think what was really helpful for us is like who will get our mission who will understand right away what the experience is like for a child that’s hospitalized and what we’ve really understood is when we go through the Grant application process we were
Getting a lot of feedback that there were things that were common for us to understand or we knew right away because we were so in the weeds that our funders really weren’t understanding so you know for example we work very closely with a position at a hospital called The
Childlife Specialist they basically are a patient advocate for a child a child doesn’t understand what chemo therapy is they don’t know what a port access is they don’t know what radiation is a childlife specialist basically translates what they’re going through and explains it to a child and Advocates
On their behalf that’s an amazing position but that’s an an ideal situation that’s if the hospital has the Staffing for that child to have access that’s if a child has a parent that knows that that’s someone that should be there or they have the funding for that
That’s if the parent has access to a Pediatric Hospital in general and they’re not going to an adult hospital that’s like it has to be this perfect situation so we were trying to explain this to our funders and they didn’t even know that situation existed so if we can
Kind of figure out who will be that funer that already understands that that kind of expedites the process or how do we find the funer and explain it to them in a way that educates them and brings them along in this journey so we kind of
Have to do two things at once and I think as the executive directors or the leaders or the founders we are so passionate and like enthusiastic about our storytelling but we have to create brand ambassadors in our organization and for us with when I look at our
College students you know I work with about, 1300 Millennial and gen Z volunteers across the country I have them rattle off the mission statement at every single meeting they go to because they need to live it eat sleep breathe 100% stand behind that mission seat
And they do and they get it and when they go in front of people they can tell you why we do what we do but why they do it and that’s really important too that that’s incredible and I heard some of what you’re saying was kind of reducing
The friction so kind of like the idea of yeah we’re going to have to educate some people on this however if we can focus on some granters that grantmakers that actually get it that are in this space that speak that that have the language and vernacular that we’re talking about
You so think about that folks ladies and gentlemen who were on the on you know listening in um think about that who are the people who understand just by the nature of what they’re involved in who understand the work you’re doing I think that’s great and the education pie and
Then the fact that you’re grading thousands of leaders around the country I mean that it’s just so incredible and I Know M organization does much of that with the conferences and Leadership and all that and I mean I want to talk me let’s put a pin in the fact I want to
Talk we’re going to go to Erica when we come back to M I want to talk about like you know how you have Advisory Board of the people that the organization serves are very influential in a lot of the way of the organization so that’s networking to me or relationship Building strike
That I feel like Willy Wonka strike that reverse it all right Erica floresca let’s talk even about that like how do you decide like you know you are the Long Island children’s museum that’s a big deal it’s in the name you know I love when the thing is in the name kind
Of like the nonprofit sector connector but I just think as the Long Island children’s museum there’s responsibility there there’s name recognition there and you probably don’t need any more money because you probably got everything you need so you’re probably all set right you got the name recognition right we
You can just like you’re good you’re all set right and shout out to we we know you have a new team member our very good friend can we can we shout her out we sure can she starts next week n white is uh joining us as the new development
Director uh starting next week she’s been at the NASA uh or suffet County Girl Scouts doing great work there I’m excited to have her join the team yeah I was thinking uh no even even with the name recognition and the reach across the island as all nonprofits we’re
Always looking for ways to grow and and deepen the impact so resources are always needed to grow and make sure you’re doing more um so that’s I was even I used to work um before my life before this was in the Performing Arts I worked at jazz at Lincoln Center and it
Had the Lincoln Center name and it’s like oh you have everything you need it’s like right um the bigger the bigger the budget the bigger the problem right but anyway what I actually thought I might offer is a couple of those logistic questions about how do you
Choose who you do like I actually when I go to these any networking session or any conference like this any panel and get you you meet people you get their business cards I literally will write on the business card what was the nature of the conversation or what might be a
Followup and I bring them back and they’re in a spreadsheet and I and they’re categorized so there is a a formal sort of process for for in intaking all of these meetings I have and I’m not sure when I might go back to someone because I do have right now a
Real problem of more people than I can get to but I’ve got a list and then um Kylie what you had said is like where is the need or where is the gap what’s the issue I’m focused on now and I try to be systematic not quite there yet till once
NAIA comes and I can take off the second hat um you know who on this list can help connect me to someone who might help address that Gap um but it is an active thing I mean that because I come by this very naturally my nature I mean
Tom you know the personality when you have that connection personality people are like oh you just do it I’m like no there’s actually a system behind it and there’s a check-in and there’s you know I might meet someone last year at the nonprofit resource Hub Network and I’m
Like oh wait now I need I need a employment lawyer oh I met I met Doug back there let me reach out to him but it’s because I had him on this list and I have you know I make those connections and think where might the link be it may
Not be right now and so then I may I may really like someone the hardest point is if you really like someone but you don’t you haven’t quite found that that match like oh that’s just a cool person but you have them on the list you think
About him you know you send him a note um when when something comes up in a conversation it also triggers something like the little text to somebody hey thinking about you you came up in a conversation that can keep a a relationship alive or active you don’t
Know when you’re going to revisit but those little things are all a part of networking and don’t ever you know it’s like there is a system there is a thought because this is such a valuable part yeah of creating the relationships creating the connections to resources or
Partners um or I really believe you’re putting out good energy and it’s going to have that ripple effect you know like the ambassadors that you’re creating or maybe The Advisory Board um that Tommy mentioned like the more folks you get speaking your language or you know doing
The sales pitch which isn’t really a sales pitch because it’s a belief in something good it really does create a ripple and when we’re in the nonprofit world there’s always more to do but the more we can engage and send those positive Ripples and those connection opportunities it’ll it’ll come back you
Don’t always know how or when and it’s never as soon as you want it to be yeah I think I love that and so somebody we got I’m gonna read a couple things from uh from the chat which we’ll get to in that one second because I got to say a
Few words first of all um I I W mahen Kleen right I said I want to make her my friend that’s what I really want to do and that was like in a room full of like 80 people you know we were in this this cohort and then we had a little baby
Cohort and it was like you know nine of us and we had such great relationships the nine or 10 of us that we’re in our smaller cohort and we don’t talk some of us probably do but we don’t talk on a regular basis but I knew that I could
Reach out and ask me to do this because I I knew she would see the impact of this type of work obviously getting in front of people and educating but we don’t talk regularly mahen right it’s just like but I I think of you you think
Of me you know you still call me Tommy D as soon as he came on but you don’t have to see people every day like Eric says it’s it’s a but it’s about finding some way to nurture those relationships I want to just shout out a couple things
Um you know Dy says I sent handwritten cards with my logo to people I meet when I want to build relationships they really appreciate that special touch right around 1045 every morning I get to feed the dopamine fix because I know the mailman put envelopes inside of my
Mailbox gang we don’t get enough paper mail and if you do that you certainly differentiate yourself so shout out um what is what are we saying here and J says uh Serendipity is real I texted a TGIF meme to a former coworker and she replied hey want to write a grant that
Just came up in this meeting so obviously MJ does Grant work so gang just staying on you know the staying on people’s radar thing before we keep before I keep asking you guys questions I got to send some love out to my friend Eileen menog eile is the executive
Director which has been now for five years which I cannot believe she’s been the executive director book fairies for the last five years but when she took on the role Amy zes Lansky the founder had given her some business cards and some folder file file folders and different
Things like that and that was their database and and I don’t say that out of turn because Amy said it in public and things like that what did Eileen do she said we need one source of Truth we need and they used salesforce.com and salesforce.com I’m not here to promote
Them but they do have a free version for nonprofits as I understand and yes it’s a it’s a shell that needs to be maybe tweaked in different things like that but Eileen has done several meetings for me and also several educational uh type Zoom meetings for leaders of nonprofits
To help them talk about Salesforce and the benefits my question to my panelist is okay one of my panelists just gave me a note so why don’t you I was going to ask you what if anything are you all using so mahen you you you start since
You uh yes Amy zansky Says Eileen is the best connector that I know other than Tommy D well I love you Amy say Lance I love Eileen and uh you guys are all nonprofit sector connectors not just me me what about talk to me about salesforce.com yeah I mean I think you
Know we use Salesforce for a whole host of reasons one on the grant side and one on the um on the fundraising side but um I think you know we were able to take advantage of a nonprofit discount at least to be able to do it um and so we
Built it pretty early on because we needed just a way to keep track of like different touch points that we have you can throw notes in there you can send emails from there so you know I’m not a tech person so technology always feels daunting to me and that it exists for a
Reason and people are using it and so I know there are other tools out there but I think having some whether it’s you know we had 17 spread I I always joke like with all our grants we had like 17 spreadsheets when I came in I was like I
Can’t find the information I need in one place and so having things in one place I think the thing that I will say about any kind of system is you implemented and then you have to like make people use it right like I think and you have
To discipline yourself to use it right so when you go you finish a meeting you go to a conference we come back and you kind of have to like set out that half day where you’re like I’m doing my followup I’m doing I’m entering the
Notes that I need to do or I’m asking someone on my team to do it if that’s that’s their job and that’s what they’re trained to do so I would just say I think um whatever you use um we found it to be really helpful but whatever you
Use um make sure you’re using it because you spent probably resources and time and and you know investing and building it yeah that’s just because you’ve L the thing doesn’t mean you actually you have to change practices you have to change what you do you have to utilize it Eric
Do you use anything specific like in your past or right LCM yeah I was gonna say this is like one of those uh lift up the thing we do have an alltr system it’s a blackb system that runs the museum it’s not great for networking and
Tracking so a lot of that is in a spreadsheet and and one of the things that with naria coming on and the team I have here that I already started building was how can we use the altr system better to not just track the archive of donations because that all
Goes in but actually to track these relationships so we all are learning some functionality and ways to use it even though that system is not built for it um but we’re where we don’t have the any fancy I would love a Salesforce I’ve heard it does everything um but really
We use ultu and and sheets I mean Excel documents they’re still they’re still a helpful resource or Google Sheets yeah no doubt about it I mean listen those are great resources and I will tell you you know um I mentioned our friend alen and you know it wasn’t like everything
Was there with Salesforce when she got it it was you know she did she had hired a consultant to do some different work and and maximize and and customize and things like that so it you know it is a shell that has functionality but definitely needs to to be worked over
Kylie do you all use something like that as well we do we use um we’re utilizing Google Sheets right now we utilize a little bit with appos which is our accounting software um MailChimp is really good too just for our newsletter marketing and we can kind of see what
That touch base looks like but I know we’re a small organization and so far I’m the only full-time staff so I know a lot of this tracking can seem really intimidating and what I would advise especially small nonprofits is don’t underestimate the power of social media people love to follow social media and
That’s a really easy place to share your impact stories in short bite-sized ways um and doing it regularly really makes a difference and makes people feel connected to your organization how many people watched that first video when this organization got started how did I mean this was viral so tell us about
That so the the reason why our organization was able to expand from my college dorm room was because we had a video reached 68 million views um and that literally catapulted us from my college dorm room to a National Organization and it’s it’s really that authentic true heartfelt storytelling
That we’re all capable of um it connects with people it makes a difference and just sharing you know how many lives you impacted in the last month and what that donation did on an Instagram post that makes a really big difference even if you can’t do individualize Outreach
Every single day that makes a difference I I want to make people laugh this will show my a little bit so like people want to communicate in so many different ways right so I like to talk to people on the phone people text message me sometimes I
Talk on slack sometimes people want to communicate on LinkedIn people want to send me a message on Instagram Facebook and I used to think all those things were just to eventually get off that thing to get on a phone call and I really thought that like I always for
Years thought that ultimately was just and I but no people never talk to each other and just communicate through these tools and that’s the only thing I like your thing you like my thing you shared my thing you reposted your thing and then that was like and that is the
Relationship in a lot of cases and maybe we connect and actually have a a dialogue once a year or maybe never like that’s to me I got to be honest I am not a digital native I was born in 78 cusper you know a little bit but I remember
When the little man on AOL was running across the screen you know my gen xers remember um some of you don’t know what I’m talking about like it was like a sound and Tommy remember Erica remember like you know just to I’m on the internet show hang up the phone like
That sort of deal right so um so I remember when we didn’t have it but those digital Natives and people younger and younger people this is all we know this is their life so that is these platforms are not just used to get to the meeting but they actually in a lot
Of cases are the meeting um have you you know Kylie have you found I mean your stuff is so great because the storytelling that you do is so special meaning not that not that other organizations aren’t special but to see princesses in superheroes going helping children that is really video worthy
That’s really good stuff right so where do you Instagram right uh you know where where do you I know you’re on fa you guys have a good presence on Facebook too talk to us about that I think it depends on who is the audience you’re trying to reach the content we post on
Tik Tok is very different than the content we post on LinkedIn you know LinkedIn is where we’re trying to find potential board members or members for committees or you know that’s where we want to provide updates to people who have donated or Grant uh opportunities Tik Tok is where we’re
Trying to find our future volunteers that’s where our college students are that’s where our high school students are so you might not be able to do everything on all of the social media platforms so Focus which where do you see the most need right now and develop
A strategy there and then work your way out yeah where’s your audience gang right that’s the question where you know and you have M we all know we have multiple audiences we have our board members at at times some of our board members older boards they’re not going
To be on Tik Tok not that all of our boards look like that anymore but there’s you know there’s different where where are we going to meet our stakeholders me I know you deal with a lot of young people the organization works with young people I know the um
Talk to me about that Advisory board that I sort of teased about and then if you could speak to social a little bit too since we’re talking about that yeah I’m uh so when we started we were like we can build this thing that’s intended for young people and then pull them in
Or we can do it with them so when we launched a sort of our own entity because we were sort of a learning community before um we started a youth Advisory Board of young people from organizations that we were already funding so it wasn’t like organizations were trying to like pitch their young
People to us we went to them and we said you have young people that would be interested in building this philanthropic institution um that is meant for them and so they were with us for a year and a half it was paid um they looked at our policies our
Communications like we did a lot of dreaming with them like what do you want this institution that is meant to Resource organizations that are supporting you and led by you supposed to be so they looked at you know if you’re getting um International grants there there are a lot of requirements
Around child safeguarding right you have to have a child safeguarding policy the young people helped us write our child safeguarding policy what does it mean for you to be safe and what how do you want people in organizations to respond and then you know I’m a lawyer so I had
To kind of tweak it to make it legal but um that’s an example of some of the ways that we did it um the main thing that they said to us so we also do a participatory a lot of participatory Grant making So Young Folks decide on
Our grants and I’ll be quick because I know we’re running out of time but um the main thing that the young people went to when they were vetting organizations to decide who should get grants was their social media because they were like if they’re serving me
They’re going to find me on social media and they’re not going to find me on Facebook because that’s y’all over there um they’re going to find me on Tik Tok and IG and when they looked at the IG they were looking at like what is the imagery you’re using are you talking to
Me what’s the language that you’re using and so for us when we think about you know we don’t have a Tik Tok yet although it’s it’s in the work um but um but I will say that we we try to be really interactive with our social
Media like when people we do chats and we have IG lives sometimes and things like that that allow people to really feel who you are and then people will DM us and tell us about their work that’s how we’ve been able to find some really beautiful organizations particularly in
States where our staff doesn’t live or we don’t have relationships and so um I just um I think I could not underscore what Kylie was saying especially if you’re working with young people like you have to communicate with them in the ways and the places like go to the
Places they are and they’re on the internets um and so I think it’s really important yeah yeah I I I sorry I just looked away because they’re telling me we are running out of time and there is a question from the um from the the room
But Eric I want you to play the same thing about social media we joked about the AOL man and the whole thing so you know we’re kindred spirits but I mean like we said like I started this session out we you know you can’t just say I’m
An older person and I’m not going to learn this stuff gang no we got to learn it you know I mean my kids are like Dad you’re like always on Instagram and I’m like it’s it’s there’s a lot of dopamine on Instagram yeah well well real briefly
I think um using using social media as a networking tool or storytelling tool um I had actually brought in we had only been doing Facebook and Instagram which was really telling the stories of what’s in the museum to parents and to the parents who are going to bring their
Kids and we just launched LinkedIn year almost two years ago now but when I was here because I’m like there’s a whole world I want to talk about our impact I want everything I want to see you on LinkedIn though like that’s where like like Instagram I’ll put a picture
Up but business man that’s where you know now listen that might not be your constituents you know might not be you know board members board members Big funders right right so don’t don’t sleep on LinkedIn don’t sleep on it please yeah and where there’s a discussion around they education field you know
Like and Museum field that happens a lot on LinkedIn we want to be part of that and I think you have to think about where are you part of the discussion for your field you know who we’re like museums and education um as well as the Community Long Island and you know
There’s it it all overlaps and being conscious of the audience you’re talking to is a it’s the only way to go with social media 100% so there’s a quick question let’s see if we could address this for priia permal Thomas she says thank you for taking questions essenti
Ascension Village we currently have a young authors workshop for teenagers where our organization assists attendees through six sessions in developing editing and Publishing their book on Amazon shout out to you that’s awesome um the Amazon account would be set up by their guardian and money earned would go
To each child’s account towards College we’re having a hard time raising funds to pay for graphic designing of the book covers any ideas on who I should network with well here’s what I want to say and then I’ll let my panelist jump in shout out Spirit of Huntington art center
Let’s get you connected to Spirit of Huntington I’m a board member there they have an artworks program and their artworks program educates individuals with intellectual developmental disabilities on how to do marketing website design social media SEO the whole thing my panel Erica you’re first any IDE no one I was actually I did
Think about the Spirit of Huntington um I’ve heard of haven’t used a a program called Fiverr or there’s some folks out there if you need lowcost graphic design you can send it out and like for five bucks or 25 bucks you you know you don’t know what you’re going to get back but
There are graphic designers who want to help nonprofits and people that you can send stuff out and it comes back and isn’t as cost effective I’m not sure where you’d go for Grants unless it relates to the mission of the organization but there are some lowcost graphic resources that you might try out
Too all right any of my other friends have anything they want to jump in on that offer there yeah I mean I would just say I think I don’t know kind of what the foundations the the types of foundations that are funding your work but you’re at the intersection of Arts
Education and financial literacy actually so I would look at some of the foundations that are resourcing Financial for broadly for funding I think but I would underscore Erica there are not only Fiverr which is a great great resource but also like you know there are companies and com bases that
Do graphic design that have will sometimes do volunteer and pro bono things so sometimes it’s just about putting it out to your network to say who knows graphic designer who wants to volunteer sometime yep before you answer that too Kylie prya get it out LinkedIn put it out on Instagram ask your
Community Kylie what about you have any resources there um one is Catch a Fire it’s kind of similar to Fiverr um but they actually offer volunteer opportunities too so definitely look there um my other one is please please please reach out to your local high school and colleges so many young
Professionals are looking to build portfolios please compensate them if you can but you can do it on smaller budgets and they’re looking to build their resumes and it’s a great resource what a great Point too comp in people you know it’s a few bucks changes somebody’s situation and like there’s that whole
Thing like oh it’s a unpaid internship really does it have to be let’s get people some PID right I don’t that’s a whole another show that’s a whole another day I I’ll rant on it we can’t do that now mahen khim if they want to
Get in touch with you and they want to follow what Grant makers were girls of color how did people pay attention I’ll throw it in the chat but it’s at g4gc grantmakers for girls of color on Facebook and Linkedin um and then I shared my LinkedIn in the chat so you’re welcome to
Perfect thank you Kylie mcgreen zaro how do we keep in touch with you feel yes absolutely so definitely I linked my LinkedIn above um you can follow a moment of magic at a moment of.org and I’m bridging out and doing a little bit of more speaking and Consulting so I’ll
Add my website here as well o new things new things sounds like you got to come on philanthropy and focus and tell that story that’s a whole new story Erica how about you licm how do we keep in touch lm.org our website is a great resource for everything I’m on LinkedIn I’ll get
My my chat in there um and we’re on LinkedIn Facebook and Instagram we have not figured out Tik Tok but that’s also not our Prime audience because those folks don’t have kids yet so when they kids we’ll hit them on Instagram right well that I don’t think anybody’s
Figured out Tik Tok to be honest with you maybe the Tik Tok people uh listen gang this has been incredible how do you keep in touch with me Tommy dnyc on the Instagram I love LinkedIn so Tommy DEA Di M IA I think that’s how you spell it
And then um don’t forget our our agency what I actually do for living Vanguard benefits Vanguard benefits U y.com uh that website was put together by the neurodiverse team at the Spirit of Huntington art center so you know U kind of put up my money where my mouth
Is now we’re going to have as we break here you have a f minute break uh when you go back to the lobby uh and then mastering PR session will’ll start with krie Gillan Goldberg and Jen Oliva make it a great day everybody thank you Erica thank you mahen thank you Kylie I
Appreciate you all take care everybody have a good one bye
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