Transforming Fundraising: Embracing New Strategies for Greater Impact
In today’s fast-changing world, nonprofits need to evolve their fundraising strategies to keep pace with new opportunities and challenges. While traditional methods like grant writing and building relationships with donors remain important, embracing innovative approaches can make a big difference. Let’s explore how blending tried-and-true techniques with modern tools can help organizations boost their impact.
Traditional fundraising practices—such as writing detailed grant proposals and nurturing donor relationships—have long been the foundation of successful fundraising. These approaches involve crafting compelling stories, understanding what motivates funders, and showing appreciation for their support. They are still crucial for raising funds, but new methods are adding exciting possibilities. For example, artificial intelligence (AI) can now assist with grant writing by automating research on potential funders, generating drafts, and refining proposals to better align with funder priorities. Social media and crowdfunding platforms allow organizations to reach a wider audience and engage with supporters in new ways. Additionally, virtual events have become popular, providing an accessible way to host fundraisers and connect with people from all over.
To maximize their impact, nonprofits should continually explore and adapt to emerging trends. Staying open to new ideas and technologies can help organizations find fresh ways to engage with supporters, diversify their funding sources, and ultimately achieve their goals. By balancing innovation with traditional practices, nonprofits can navigate today’s evolving landscape and make a lasting difference in their communities.
Our guests speakers are:
Notes
Casey Phillips: I want to welcome everybody to the space and Marci had asked, like, how are you doing? And I'm doing great. Because honestly, I've really enjoyed the Olympics. It's not casual. It's not something that I've ever gotten this far into, but my goddess wife is hardcore, starts like, getting excited about it months in advance. And I have enjoyed it so much. And last night, To be honest, it was just absolutely incredible. It's just you're so happy and I love Alexis, of course. So she loves everyone. It's not just about the USA. She's happy for everyone that wins medals. And that's made me just like really also just celebrate the fact that, how hard these people work and at such a young age to find fulfillment and have that moment it's just so pure. And it's just so beautiful, and I think that it translates into all of our work whenever we talk about this work, it's a marathon this work is a marathon, every single day, every year, and I think all of us who throw everything into the work, the human rights work that we all do on this call, can appreciate it when someone wins with every bit of their heart and their being. And so I'm in a great mood because of the Olympics. And I want to make sure and introduce over to Tia Fields. Tia, how you feeling today? Our co facilitator on the call.
Tia Fields: Man, I'm feeling great. The weather is pretty outside and I share the same sentiments. It has been a joy to watch the Olympics and see just all the countries come together in a collaborative way. But I am side eyeing some of the the plays that. France has made in terms of just some of the politics that they got going on. But other than that happy Friday.
Casey: That sounds like a good topic for next Friday for the first five minutes. So please bring that to the table. We can unpack that a little bit more. Yes, it has been. It has been. There's a lot of things happening. It's hard to even like really pinpoint where to put your attention right now, whether it's around the presidential race, whether it's around local issues. We have, There's a lot of transition going in the world right now. And if anything, the nonprofit sector learned with COVID agility is the key to survival. And when it comes to survival, I'm not talking about just organizational survival. I'm talking about the survival of the human beings that we all serve every single day. And I said The agility that is necessary in nonprofit world also applies to the development work and I'll be the first one and today's topic is really close to my heart because my primary, one of my primary duties as the executive director in this organization, the way that the Walls are structured is raising funds and it's not casual. It's very much like a daily pressing thing. And I will admit when I first started doing this work, I had a tremendous amount of resistance to it. And I was very, I was a begrudged fundraiser. Because I didn't like to have these transactional relationships with people. And then it took many years of working with people who were very skilled, academically trained and experientially trained to really help me change my mindset around development work. And one of those people is actually on the call with us today. So today's nonprofit, this is really, this is focused around the nine drivers of poverty because If there's not funds to do the work doesn't get done. And I'll say that again, if you deprioritize fundraising in your organization the work will not get done. You have got to secure funding. Now, how you do it is up to your organization, the ethos and the culture of your board of your leadership team. And we have two bad ass consultants today, folks that work with clients in a wide spectrum. There is no one size fits all, but there are best practices and they are about to drop knowledge. Get your pen and papers out, get ready to learn. And even if you are a seasoned fundraiser as a, trust me, you are going to glean something from this conversation. And then we will transition halfway through to get away from the I and the me. In your organization and think about the we, from a collective standpoint, and Katie Pritchett from the One Rouge Leadership Council will be assisting me with that conversation. So without further ado, Ms. Marci Bradley. Thank you for joining us today. Would you like to introduce yourself to this?
Marci Bradley: Yeah. Good morning, everybody. It's nice to meet y'all. It's really exciting to have a full circle moment to be on the one Rouge community call because I actually started working with the Walls Project back in 2020. The Walls Project was actually my very first nonprofit consulting client and got to work with Casey and the team. And Metromorphosis to really develop the idea around what the concept of One Rouge was going to be and the impact that it was going to have on the community. And so it's just really awesome to be here and to see all the amazing things that this group has been able to accomplish over the last couple of years. So thank you all for all the work that you do on a day to day. And then just continuing to gather in this space on a weekly basis. So just a little bit about me. Yes, I am a nonprofit fundraising consultant. I'm based here in Baton Rouge, but we serve clients through my company, Marci Bradley Consulting all over the country. But prior to consulting, I actually was in all of your shoes. So I worked in house for almost a decade fundraising for organizations. Boys and girls club was one of them here locally. Pennington Biomedical Research Center. And so I was a director of development doing frontline fundraising, wearing the 13 different hats, trying to raise money for my organization, doing everything from grant writing to events and working with my board. So I get it. I've been in your shoes. I understand the limited time and capacity that you all have and how, you're constantly just trying to figure out how can I better serve our mission and reach out to our community. And so when covid happened, and I had the opportunity to pivot into consulting full time. That was where my heart really was to continue to serve. And so working with executive directors like Casey or small fundraising teams to really help them streamline their fundraising effort. And continue to build on that capacity was something that I felt really passionate about. And so Marci Bradley Consulting is really all about helping fundraisers build their confidence, but also being able to increase their capacity. And we do that in a variety of ways. Whether it's doing trainings with your team and your board, But we also do something a little unique compared to other consulting firms. We actually provide fractional fundraising support so if your teams are ever in need of additional capacity, whether it's grant writing or annual campaign support we can do things of that nature as well so I'll leave it at that for now Casey. I could ramble on forever about all my other things I've been involved in, but I'm just super excited to be here. And I'm very invested in the fundraising space here in our community. And so I'm excited for our conversation today.
Casey: Right on Marci. Thank you. Yeah we have a lot to unpack and it's not rambling when you're giving pro bono consulting. So everyone again, keep your pens out. Today is a pro bono day, but that's going to be as far as it goes is today. Dr. Sonia Daniels your reputation precedes you on this call. Thank you for being here with us and your 5 minutes begins.
Dr. Sonia Daniels: Thank you, Casey. Good morning, y'all and happy Friday. I'm just super excited to be here on this call today. As Casey mentioned, my name is Dr. Sonia Daniels. I'm the founder and president at S. Daniels Consulting. We're locally owned and operated strategy consulting firm will be 7 years old in November, which is such a phenomenal space to be in. But how our work got started very similar to Marci before becoming a consultant, I worked with a lot of different nonprofits here in Baton Rouge. Anywhere from Big Buddy, Metromorphosis, which funny enough to listen to Marci story, Metro was my 1st client. As a consultant, so it's another full circle moment. I've also worked with Knock Knock Children's Museum as an employee with their inaugural staff. Hey, Christina, so I've worked with quite a few nonprofits here in Baton Rouge also dabbled a little bit in government administration with the Department of Corrections and then some of our other governmental agencies and then also worked in tech for good, which led me to become a consultant. So throughout all of those experiences generally saw the same issues and challenges in public sector organizations, typically around operations or just the business model of those entities. And so because I was able to see a lot of those gaps I thought that consulting would be a great fit for me. And so that's what led me here to this journey. So in the past almost seven years, we've worked with a number of organizations in Baton Rouge and across the country. And we've also worked with other entities outside of nonprofits. So even corporations who have social impact initiatives, we've helped them strategize around how to engage in those community initiatives. And with that, a lot of the work that we do now. Is actually centered more so around capacity building as opposed to fundraising. But in our early days, we worked with a lot of organizations to help them write grants, help them monitor those grants as well. But we always found gaps in capacity when organizations get funding. That is great. But if they don't know what to do with it and how to manage it. That becomes problematic. And so we want to make sure we are helping organizations build a foundation to actually get funding and keep the funding. So that is the space that we live in as consultants. Just excited to be here today and to share some wisdom and insights that we've been seeing in the sector. Thank you again, Casey.
Casey: Awesome Sonia, I appreciate you. Speaking, we're going to get to capacity and it'll probably be pretty quick and I would like to also just have an open invitation to Tristi and Ebony and Tammy I see is on here as well. Anyone who works on the foundation side just consider it just a free pass, come off mute, raise your hand if you'd like to speak, because I feel like you all have some really a very unique perspective in this continuum. Okay so Marci and Sonia, we'll start with you, Marci. You get a new client. Let's say that there's, any of the humans that run the organizations here, you get a new client, you sit down with them talk through kind of the beginning of the process for you. And then Sonia, you can build on there.
Marci: So it looks very different for each client. Obviously we, given the nature of our work, especially. When we are doing fractional work with our clients, we have to take a very hands on approach and we typically do a very in depth assessment to begin our work together. And so usually when I'm starting to work with a new non profit client, they're coming to me because they don't have a set fundraising strategy in place. And so we do a very in depth Assessment with their team, really looking at the data from the last 3 to 5 years of their fundraising efforts. We're talking with their leadership, their board, other constituents over a several week period to really get a sense of the in and out of their organization and how we can maybe improve some of the systems that they have, or lack of since systems rather in their organizations. So we can better make recommendations of what fundraising strategies are actually going to be best suited for their organization moving forward because not every. Fundraising strategy is best suited for organizations given where they're at and, if they're really young, they might not be grant ready, or they might not be major gift ready, et cetera. So we really try to get a sense of that 1st, before we start working on any sort of like fundraising plan or road map with them to continue that. Hands on implementation work together, and that really even starts from the very onset of our initial call with them. Casey knows from our work together, asking lots of questions. We're really trying to get a sense of who the organization is and what your goals are. And, we. Offer like a very thorough intake questionnaire to really get a sense of that as well.
Casey: Yeah. Thank you, Marci. Sonia?
Sonia: Yeah. So very similar to Marci. We follow a similar procedure or we call it internally our customer journey, our client journey, but pretty similar to Marci. But what our I'll share is because our core offering as a firm in this season is strategic planning. When people come to us, it's usually because their 1st thought is, okay, we're ready for funding. And so we do a discovery period like Marci mentioned, which, which generally comprises of a questionnaire that leads us into a discovery call. And so we use that information to understand. What the client deems as their greatest needs, but we are often listening, but between the lines of what's not being said, because generally what we find is when clients come to us, what they think they need versus what we see. They need are essentially 2 different things. And so we don't go into those conversations making assumptions. We go into those conversations fully open to listen to what they are suggesting their needs are. And then when we hear that, we also assess as well and then provide them with an overview in the form of a proposal to then talk about, hey, this is what you suggest that you need. But this is what we have to offer now. Generally, what tends to happen and similar again to what Marci mentioned when folks come to us, although they think they're ready for funding, there are some gaps that still exist there that we have to support them. Again, and building that capacity to be ready to explore funding to be able to understand what they're actually getting themselves into. I'll say this as a person who formerly managed large grants and small grants, there's a lot that's expected of organizations when they do receive that funding. And so we like to also help close knowledge gaps as well. Because we want our clients to be successful, like right out the door. We don't want them to start experiencing challenges that, could impact their ability to manage the funding they do have are the ability to bring in new funding. So we just like to make sure we close a lot of those gaps first, before we even start to explore actually bringing money into the organization.
Casey: Yeah, that's a good point.
Marci: So on that as well it's a lot about setting expectations because we don't want to see clients not be successful. And I'll reference Casey again because we work together. Casey knows from our work together, I would say, Hey, I don't think this is a good fit right now for X, Y, Z reason. Like I think we need to pause for a moment and re really evaluate like what is our capacity internally and what is this funder even really asking of us to know, are, can we even deliver? This programmatically or otherwise, because, as you all know, on this call, sometimes an opportunity can appear really great at face value. But then when you read the fine lines of what's really involved, especially on the back end with reporting and such, it might not be an opportunity that you're ready for yet. It doesn't mean ever. It's just that maybe not right now kind of scenario. So it's a good opportunity to level set and say, okay what else is out there? That's maybe better suited for us.
Casey: Yeah, you're right. That, that did occur. And in the spirit of this, by the way, Marci knows that. Just in general, I'm totally cool with being open, but today we're gonna be like super open about some of the work with the walls and stuff like that. Sonia I'd like to transition into capacity and something else that you said. Then Marci, you can come back with the truth with your truth in working with us to maybe help everybody else on this call. Sonia, you said that sometimes organizations think they need one thing, but what they really need is something different. How do you deliver that news to an alpha or someone who thinks that this is the way it needs to go? And that's a running joke. I'm actually not an alpha, but as I said, but nonetheless, how do you couch that right and guide through that process and then let that kind of go into the capacity conversation? Because there's a lot of leaders on here who are running organizations that have a million dollar or more budget. And so they may already think I know how to fundraise. So let's also talk about the mid tier, right? And how to stabilize that mid tier or maybe even elevate it. So that's a little bit of fodder for you and Marci to go in those three directions. Please take it away.
Sonia: For sure. That's such a good question, Casey. What's so interesting about being a consultant is I tell people all the time. And now, and I'll say this, we're in a space now as a firm that like relationship building and building rapport is essential from day one because it was very interesting about organizations bringing consultants in to support whatever it is that they need support with. Sometimes there's a sense of uneasiness because I, kind of a parallel to the same concept of, like, when you invite someone over and then you go in this frenzy to clean up. So you're like, you don't want people to see the dirty dishes. You don't want them to see the laundry that's undone. And so it's the same similar concept when people bring in consultants. They don't want us to see the messy part of the organization. But that is what we're here for. We want to be able to help organizations work through those messy parts without any feeling of like judgment or we don't go off and have conversations with other consultants and say, oh, I worked with this organization and it was super messy. We're about problem solving. And so we want to see those messy parts. And so as a firm, like when we engage in those initial discovery calls, we start to build that report and say, Hey, we're here to help you. We're not here to judge you. And so I think starting from there. Is really super helpful to get people to open up and be a bit more free to talk about the messy parts of the work are the messy parts of the organization that they're not always willing to share with people. I think that's super important as a consultant just in general, to be able to build that camaraderie with people, but when we talk about just the realities around grants are just fundraising, but I'll talk specifically about grant funding. I saw that there was a question in the chat that came up about what are the different types of grants? And then what are the expectations that come from that? And I think it's just really important for organizations to understand that positioning yourself to be a recipient of funding, especially when we talk about large federal grants that are like multi year, multi million dollar grants, those have a lot of requirements that come with that funding. And it's a lot of monitoring that has to happen. There's a lot of reporting that has to happen. There are people from those agencies who come and sometimes do desk reviews are monitoring reviews, and they want to read through all of your paperwork and all of your documents. I think it's just really important to understand the foundation that needs to be built when we talk about wanting to bring in large amounts of dollars. It's really, it falls into the it's a song lyric. I was about to say a quote, but there's a song lyric that says more money, more problems. And honestly, when we talk about grant funding. There's a reality that comes with the knowledge that when you bring in a lot of money, there's a lot more that comes with that. But I think that was my initial thought. I don't know if I necessarily answered the question in the way that it was asked, but I'll pass it over to Marci. And then if there's something else I need to add, I'll do that for sure.
Casey: Yeah, that was great. I said, Yeah, you're hitting it spot on. And yeah, no money, more problems. But as we always say at our organization, those are good problems to have. Miss Marci, what do you think?
Marci: Yes. Something that I want everyone to take to heart is that we're no longer in a place where we can do business as usual. And so we have to approach our work with a growth mindset. So we really need to lean into, okay, just because we've done something the same way for years prior, doesn't mean that's the way we need to continue our work. And so to go back to Casey's point of, Approaching say if I was In a call with him directly and, we're trying to talk about we need to approach this a little bit differently. This isn't a not right now opportunity. It's for me one of my favorite questions to ask is tell me more. Help me better understand why this is the way you've been going about this work for so long and maybe why you haven't tried X, Y, Z. And normally what happens, it's a I don't know why. It's a, oh, I haven't really thought about that. Or my board's not showing up in the way that I need them to, execute, this and this way, but what's important and going back to our original point of setting expectations and, to what Sonia said about we're here to help you troubleshoot. It's an opportunity for y'all to really gain clarity around what are your values and your vision for your organization? And how do you want to show up in this space? And what is it going to actually take for you to get there and raise the money that you need to continue doing all the work that you're trying to do in your community? And so I think part of that really comes to the internal culture that you're creating with your teams and your boards around philanthropy and how you're constantly evolving that into your conversations. And Casey knows I have a lot of opinions about boards in particular. And I feel like it's very important to make sure that fundraising is top of mind for everyone on your team. Everyone, whether they're the board member, the director of development, or they're the janitor of your organization, everyone plays a very essential part in the philanthropy ecosystem of your organization. And so it's like, how can we make sure that everyone really understands their roles and how they all play together. And are we providing a space and opportunities for them to grow within that and continue to serve the organization in the very best way.
Tia: Speaking of board engagement, what are some best strategies when you have like hesitancy or reluctancy from the board members?
Marci: So normally, lack of board engagement comes down to three essential areas. I've seen this whether I was working in house or now with my consulting clients. And normally, it's due to lack of understanding of their roles and responsibilities. It's a lack of they're not being align to an opportunity that's best suited for their time and their talents that they can bring to the table there. So they're not being engaged in a really meaningful way. And then three is they're not being provided the right trainings and tools to actually be successful. It's really not that complicated. What it really comes down to is making sure from the onset that even when you're, like, talking about recruiting a board member that your organization, first of all, really understands well, what's the need of this board member in the first place? It might be that you lack a particular skill set. Within your leadership team, it's a really great opportunity for you to recruit someone who can bring that value to the table. But it's also important that you're having 1 on 1 conversations with that individual about what is their individual capacity of what they can offer to the organization. But are you actually offering them meaningful opportunities that align with the things that they're interested in? And so an example of that is, everyone knows. Okay. We need help with fundraising. What does that actually mean? Like a board member doesn't really understand that when they hear that they think of someone like all of you who's out and about going and asking for money. That might not be something that they're comfortable with doing and that's okay. And Casey has heard me say this before, but I actually, in a lot of cases prefer that a board member not even do that. They're better suited to help make connections and cast that wider net within the community to get you in front of new potential partners for your organization. So how can you leverage their networks or how can you leverage them in another way? Maybe there's someone who's not as comfortable getting out and about in front of people in the community, but they would love to show gratitude to your supporters. So engaging them in stewardship. In some way, whether it's calls or notes or, otherwise. And so really leaning into what are a variety of ways that you can offer them that will be meaningful to them. And then are you providing them with training and tools for them to be successful? And it could be as simple as if you're asking them to help with stewardship activities, Maybe they need a couple of talking points. Maybe they need a script for an email or a phone call and so they get more comfortable with doing those activities and it becomes second nature to them because again, we have to remember that these are folks who are volunteering their time. This is not what they do on a day to day basis, like all of you. So it's not going to be on their minds in the same way and be as comfortable to them.
Casey: Thank you, Marci. That's awesome. Sonia?
Sonia: Yes, there was a point I wanted to backtrack on. Marci mentioned just the way we do things there. There needs to be an adjustment and a change to that. Of course, with this month being black philanthropy month, there have been a lot of conversations about just the new face of philanthropy and what that looks like. And so just listening in on a lot of different webinars hosted by different foundations and other philanthropic agencies and firms. I think it is important to understand the way that we've been engaging in philanthropy and fundraising here locally. We have to make sure that we're also keeping up with the national changes that are happening and happening in the philanthropic landscape. Even now, as with my firm, we're working with a lot of foundations directly with the foundations being our clients, because they are starting to see that there's a greater need for nonprofits. And so foundations are starting to provide capacity building programs themselves to be able to make sure that any money that they have. To give to nonprofits and nonprofits are prepped and ready for that. And so there, there has been a status quo in the nonprofit sector for a long time. And I think that we're at a point now in 2024 and beyond that the way we've been doing things are just not the way that the sector is starting to reshape itself and emerge in the future. And so I think it's important for us locally to really start understanding what those changes look like so that we're not missing out on opportunities from foundations. Even I know what we hopped on the call. We were initially talking about Mackenzie Scott and her method of giving, which is fairly new. When we look at the history of philanthropy and fundraising, even recently, I think last week, I read an article by Melinda Gates. And so she was starting to talk about the way that she is wanting to give her funds. And it's just interesting to see these open calls for funding where there's no expectations of reporting and measuring outcomes and impacts, but also, too, I'm wondering in the long run, what does that look like for organizations who are just receiving, millions of dollars in one, in one check, or, our one funding opportunity, and how do they manage that as well? I think that there's some changes happening, but I'm also curious about how do we keep up with all of those changes in a way? That makes sense for organizations. What does the enforcement look like when an organization gets a check for 5 Million dollars, and they're not required to report on it. So it's a lot of different things are happening. And so I think it's just important. We keep up with just the way that the sector is changing overall.
Tia: Yeah, there's a question in the chat. Sherreta is asking, can you name some of those shifts that are going on, Dr. Sonia?
Sonia: Yeah of course, I mentioned the shift with the way that money is being given to organizations. So I briefly mentioned McKenzie Scott and her open calls for funding. And again those don't come with many requirements. And so I think that other philanthropists and funders are starting to follow that trend as well. But I think a big part of that is, Those funding opportunities are essentially being given to organizations who are more visible. So I think there's also a conversation around visibility as well. And how do organizations make themselves visible for those type of opportunities? And then I think also another trend or theme that's starting to be more a conversation that's happening with a lot of people in this industry or in this field is that the face of. Of philanthropists are changing as well. So the people that we used to deem to be like, traditional philanthropists that is different now with millennials and Gen Z starting to rise to be philanthropists in this day. And so what that means is that the way that they engage in giving is going to look completely different from the traditional standards of fundraising and philanthropy. Be prior to the pandemic, and then where we are now as a society. So those are things that I'm starting to see. But even for me, as a consultant, I have to keep up with a lot of the trends as well, because then it forces us to engage in capacity building in a different way than maybe how we would have done it 5 years ago. Even in my firm, we've had to develop a framework for. Building capacity for organizations, especially organizations that are founded and led by people of color are organizations that work directly with undersourced communities because those needs are vastly different from maybe larger organizations who have, bigger budgets and they just work as a different type of organism. So it's just, it's forced us to shift the way we do our work as well outside of fundraising and grant making. So just wanted to share that.
Casey: Thank you for that, Sonia. Marci and Sonia, please stay off mute and just jump in. One of, this call was innovative because I was about to go down the wormhole of capacity, and I realized that's going to absorb the next 30 minutes because the word capacity is a very loaded word. And it's really ironic, right? That, you. We recognize that you have to build capacity in your organization, but you're constantly kneecapped at 20%. And, like our organization and, Marci is sharing openly about us, about the relationship, the the work with the Walls. And one of the things that I would consistently say to Marci, I'm like, Look, that best practice is great. I agree. It would be fantastic. But it's like we don't have the capacity in house to do that. I understand the need to have that capacity, but when you're consistently kneecapped at 20 percent of your admin cost, something's got to give. And over the last couple of years, I don't know if anybody's noticed it, and it's not really, it's about to be remedied. But we had to make a decision between marketing and back office. Period. That's it because marketing dollars are never allowed in anything, any grant that you get. And unless this magical unrestricted funding, unicorn walks through your door. Like it takes a while to get to that point. So the capacity thing's a real thing and I do want to get back to it, but. Innovative fundraising. It's a different day. We're all talking about philanthropy shifting. We're talking about the present and the future. Marci and Sonia, what are innovative things that people are doing besides writing grants? Organizing fun runs, doing the galas, doing the letter writing campaigns. We all have gotten the packets. We know that those are things to do. What are some innovative fundraising tips for the people on this call?
Marci: I think one of the things that y'all are already doing by showing up in this space, Is collaborating with one another. That is something that I see coming up more and more, especially if you're looking at putting together a proposal to a new funder, even grant proposals now some of them are even asking for it. They'd rather see multiple organizations working together on an initiative, especially I saw there was a question in the chat earlier about what is something that a grassroots organization could be doing? That's a great example of that. You could partner with a more seasoned organization who's already a little more well established and structured in some of their systems. To work on an initiative together, and you might not have to, burden some of the back in administrative work that is required of you. And so that is something that I've seen come up a lot. The other thing, Sonia made a point earlier about philanthropists are looking differently. I think we need to remember that the old way is viewing a donor's value based on a dollar amount. But now things are shifting to where it's, they're bringing value and whatever they can really bring to the table. And so being very open minded and having those conversations with partners about how they'd like to be involved, whether it's from a monetary standpoint or otherwise, because I think that people, donors, especially Are really looking to make an impact more than just for a moment. They're looking to make a long term sustainable impact by partnering with your organizations. And so if you can articulate that vision to them and are really engaging, but also straightforward way where they can really see, okay. By getting involved with them now, maybe in this smaller way, we can build something even greater and have greater impact. That's really important. And so that's not maybe a straightforward of a response, Casey, as you were maybe looking for, as far as innovative, new things that are coming up, but that's just something from a very, I'm all about being very tactical and keeping it simple that's something that like, as you're looking and maybe how you can execute something that you're trying to do, or that you're already working on you can, you Y'all all have community partners, and if you don't have someone look at someone that's on the call today and think about how you can maybe partner up with them. I think is, a little bit maybe easier of an opportunity to pursue initially. The other thing that I know is really hot. That everybody's talking about is just like the use of AI and all of our work and automation in general. I'm a believer that like, if you can streamline and automate the work that y'all are doing, I'm all about it. I think it's great. But we also have to remember that there is a human element to it, too. You can't totally replace the humanness behind, some of the work that y'all are doing, especially when we're talking about fundraising, because it is at the end of day, all about building relationships, but certainly from a back office side of things, marketing, for example, if y'all aren't already automating some of your emails, I'll use the example of. If you don't have a new donor welcome series for your organization, so when someone makes their first gift or they sign up for your newsletter for the first time, there are really great prompts out there where you could easily, within a few minutes, have a customized Email series for your organization, welcoming that person into your community, educating them about the work that you do and offering them ways to get more involved. That's not. Hey, can you give us. This gift, right? That needs to come later after you're really building a relationship with these people. And so that is a great way you can use, chat GPT, for example, and automate this email series and plug it into your CRM or your email software like MailChimp that you use. And some of that legwork is already just taken care of. Off your plate, so things like that. I highly recommend leaning into that more just to streamline some of the, like, when we're talking about capacity, these are things that were traditionally done manually by someone on your team in the moment as they happened. Let's think about how we can make it as easy as possible and take some of this back end burden off the people on our teams so we can focus on things that require a lot more of our energy.
Casey: Thank you, Marci and Sonia. We're coming right to you. And Marci, I just want to make sure and lift up because there's 2 things that are about to come in the conversation because I see Ebony on camera. And I love that because I just got excited because I know she's going to jump in. We're going to talk about your idea. Marci about a grassroots organization partnering with a more established entity. And that collaborative sense, and then also the difference between programming versus systems change. Both those things are coming right up. So everybody just give that space. But Marci, thanks for the saving everybody a G today on getting all those free tips. You're awesome. Thank you for being here. Yeah. Double thank you to you, Sonia. Over to you. What you got?
Sonia: Yeah to answer your question, Casey, I think what's been very interesting in the space that I hold as a consultant, especially as someone who previously worked in the nonprofit sector, and then transition into the for profit sector as a business owner, what's been very interesting is to help people make the connection that there are A lot of parallels between the way businesses run and the way that nonprofits run. And I think a lot of times when we talk about getting stuck in what's been previously done is that I think there's a belief that nonprofits have to only function a certain way. And I know when we talk specifically about fundraising, the ideas usually, oh, we have to either bring in donations or we have to figure out how to bring in grants. To keep the organization afloat, but in the work that we do with our clients, we're actually helping them explore other ways of bringing in money that would seem very nontraditional to nonprofits. For example selling products and other sources of things that essentially could be sold for revenue, because when we're talking about fundraising, we're essentially talking about what is the method to bring revenue into an organization. And so for us, when we work with our clients. We're actually helping them explore other opportunities to bring consistent revenue into the organization that does not necessarily have to be from a donation or from a grant source. So 1 of the things I have seen a local nonprofit do, which I thought was super innovative. Was that they created really impressive, like apparel, and they sell that as a method of essentially a stream of revenue for the organization. But I've even started to see other organizations explore selling digital products are, like, developing technology tools that they can use to make money off of. And so I think in the nonprofit sector, I think that it's helpful to think of ways how organizations can start to function in the same way that like for profit businesses do when they think about, revenue streams for their organization. I even think about, and I know again when we talk about capacity for nonprofits, the thought is that because we, because the organizations have small teams that it's hard to think about the future of what can be done or thinking about like new opportunities for the organization. But I think sometimes the trope about like limited capacity often create creates roadblocks for innovation and organizations. And so I think we have to figure out a space of like, how do we innovate given our limited capacity, right? I feel because nonprofits are so close to the community, nonprofits really serve as like pillars of like information. Nonprofits have a lot of information at their hands that I think sometimes again, we may not know how to use that information to our advantage. But I think that information and those insights and that data that's being captured by simply running a program, our service can be used to then take that knowledge and maybe incorporated in some type of product that can be sold for revenue. Or maybe develop some type of app or digital platform or technology that can then be used and maybe at some point sold for for profit for the organization. I know organizations engage in crowdfunding as a way to just have consistent revenue coming in. So I think there are different opportunities, but I think sometimes there's always that roadblock of we're just not big enough to do more work. And I want to help people start to shift that mindset that sometimes it doesn't take a lot of people to be innovative. It just takes stepping outside of what we normally do to start doing something different. So that's my hope for the sector and for organizations, but I know it's going to take a little bit more work to get there.
Casey: You two are impressive humans. I dig what you say and Ebony put it into the Ebony put it into the chat and it's something that we have been pounding the desk on fee for service folks. You got to create your own revenue streams. And there's a lot of intellectual property inside of all of our nonprofits that need, they can be monetized. And look, I've never apologized for the last 13 years that I run our nonprofit, like a for profit because it's a business and it's just a tax based nation. And the mission is always at the center of it. It's always at the people are always at the front of it, but. Sometimes people get it twisted that they think that you need to not worry.
You don't care about money in order to run a non profit. And those are exactly the non profits that are no longer here. So during the shift Katie and I welcome our co leader Sherreta to jump in and to this point, cause we're really going to talk about the leadership council of One Rouge and, We're hoping that this moment opens everyone's minds up a little bit further about beyond just surface level collaboration, right? In coalition in the work. So Katie is the operations director at the Baton Rouge Health District. She's also an amazing community member, mom. And a friend of the One Rouge coalition and has been there literally since the first day. Katie has been here since the very beginning of One Rouge and through everything. She's continued to stay engaged. Thank you to you. Also Adonica was sharing the space here. She is also on the leadership council and been there since day one and Dean Andrews. Same. So Katie, maybe. Talk about what the One Rouge Leadership Council and bring this conversation more to this collective social impact mindset.
Katie Pritchett: Yeah, sure. So as a One Rouge Leadership Council, our job is really to think not at the coalition specific level, but above that. What are we doing as an organization or as a collaborative body to advance the nine drivers of poverty? And so one of the areas that we're thinking about that is capitalizing our future. And so we've created a survey. For our member organizations to fill out related to funding. So one, we want to figure out like, what is funding currently look like for our members? What are, where do they hope that funding could come from? And then what is One Rouge's role in raising those funds? So we've talked a lot today about the fact that. We can't operate the same way we've always operated as nonprofits. We have a very generous philanthropic community in Baton Rouge. We're very blessed with the amount of donors and foundations that we have. But if we're going to be thinking bigger and differently and taking some of these outcomes. To scale. We have to think differently about how we fund that. And one of those ways is through collaborative funding opportunities. And so how do the partners at cafe or the partners around the mobility group come together differently to think about collaborative, large scale funding opportunities where everyone shares in the work, everyone shares in the outcomes, but then everyone shares in the funding as well. So having One Rouge submit that joint application, we've seen, and I would say it's in the last maybe 12 to 18 months, we have some local organizations that have been super successful and getting some larger scale federal grants. And that's all done through collaborative partnerships with organizations that might not be traditional partners, but thinking differently about who has what resources. To leverage the dollar for dollar match, or the 80 20 split for a federal grant who has the back office capacity to manage the financial requirements for federal grants. A lot of these grants are over a 3 year period, and we're talking about multi million dollar grants. Right? And so 1 single organization. In this community and on these calls cannot necessarily compete for that nationally. But if multiple of us come together under one application, then we can absolutely leverage our expertise, our programming and our funding to be nationally competitive and get those dollars down into our community. And so our applicant, our survey is really about thinking about how do we, which organizations are interested in that. What funders are currently supporting our work so that we know where the gaps are and who we can reach out to and then just thinking a little bit more strategically about how do we align ourselves so that we are submitting larger opportunities for funding.
Casey: Yes, all that. For sure. Katie, thank you for that. Sherreta I know I know that Katie had it, but is there anything, Sherreta, that you would like to add at all on that?
Sherreta Harrison: No, I think Katie covered everything just this notion of collaborative funding. I think it's important, regardless of the work that you do, and even if, That collaboration is not necessarily as a part of the one route coalitions, right? Just really being thoughtful about who your partners could be not just who they have been but being thoughtful about who your partners could be and really thinking about this as resource development, not just for now, but for the future. I think it's really important. I know I said, no, I don't have anything to add and then I talked, but there you go.
Casey: There you go. And there you have it. Thank you, Sherreta. And, I think I'm overstating the obvious, but when we're talking about equity and access equity and access, which many is at the center of a lot of our organizations and at our hearts as well, Sherreta just said something really important. And folks. Who you partner with does matter, right? And they said, and if you're always partnering with the same groups over and over, to be honest, you're contributing to the oppression of the community sometimes that you're actually wanting to serve. And I know that comes across is a little stingy, right? But the role, that philanthropy, I don't know if you'll remember, you'll probably do, Dr. Francois Booker that came on, she was from Dallas and she came and spoke to us on a similar topic. She wrote a book that outlined basically how philanthropy in the church is ultimately the greatest oppressor of people of color in America. And she has a woman of color from Shreveport. And in Dallas, her perspective of deep faith, right? And work in the lifetime and philanthropy really talks about this uneven disbursement. So there are a lot of shifts that are occurring, but part of that shift is who you intentionally partner with and specifically who you pour into. So that's something to think about. I can truly say from the wall's perspective COVID completely changed everything not only in the world, in our community, but for our organization. And it is not to discount any of the direct programming that any of us are doing. That is important work. We will continue to work with young people at Capitol High School in Scotlandville. It's an after school program. It's important and it matters. And they ain't no doubt about it. We're going to, SK is on the line. Baton Rouge is going to continue to grow food. It's going to teach people how to grow food. And we're going to keep painting murals because they beautify communities. However, once COVID hit the weight of the world was so much in front of us, the critical needs, and all of the work that's adjacent to the work that we do, instead of creating programs for every single need in the community, which is, In no kind of way, shape, or form a smart business strategy or actually serve people. We took a step back and lean back and realize that as an organization, we actually had an obligation, not a get to, a have to not just do programmatic work, but to start working on systematic work. And I can tell you that systematic work is a long slog and is really difficult to get funded. And it is really hard to communicate and get people to wrap their minds around it, but it is essential. So I see Ebony on the screen. Hello, Ebony. I was actually thinking about you and Tristi this morning. I'm so glad that you're here. Would you like from your perspective, maybe talk about this because you said you could talk all day. So please do.
Ebony Starks: I actually made notes. I try to be quiet. I do, but there's so many wonderful things being shared. And I've had the privilege of being on both the fundraising side as an executive director and a director of development. And now I'm the full director. And I'm now on this funding philanthropic side is a young black millennial woman. And so I just want to bring all of that to the table, especially because it is black philanthropy month to say that, philanthropy historically has been an old white rich business. I'm just, I'm going to say, y'all know, I'm going to say what I want to say. And I think that having the perspective of both, seeking funds and support and then being able to, and I'm an elder millennial, Sherreta. I think they say geriatric, but I don't want to go there. Not right now. On this good Friday I think having those perspectives as both having to tell the story of the work that I do through this lens of need, right? Often for communities that look like me and now being on this other side where I'm able to advocate for support often for communities that look like me and that mirror my experience growing up. Which was not of a experience of means in many ways has created this lens. So there's a few things I want to say, and I'm going to try to move quickly. The 1st is about the fee for service work and a lot of times nonprofits don't understand that because they think I cannot have profit. I'm a nonprofit. I'm a 501 c 3. I'm tax exempt. What does that mean? And I think it's important to understand. And Casey, you mentioned that intellectual property, the IP, nonprofits across the country packaging curriculum that often they have developed and is original to them, right? Nonprofits providing to other nonprofits and even for profits to scale solutions, right? And so I think that understanding the work that you're doing, because nonprofits are entrepreneurial and what true original products that you're developing that you can spread through a fee for service model is really important. Because if you strictly think if you're fundraising pie. 100 percent philanthropy, you're going to find yourself in a bind, not only with the current political and social environment, but the economic environment that we're currently in, so I wanted to just get that out of the way for the fee for service piece next through a local lens as a local philanthropist, we provide direct service grants, we provide collaboration and partnership grants, we provide systems change grants. Collaborations and partnerships and systems change are least understood and least applied for tracks. I think that says a little bit about this shift and how we're responding as a locality in the local nonprofit sector. So if you are looking at how you can really form a collective coalition, a collective continuum, you can think about if you, I'm sure everybody here is familiar with a fiscal agent. And Katie, this is a little bit in relation to what you were talking to. If you're a nonprofit that may have less capacity. And you're more emerging. It's okay to say, how can we effectively collaborate and form partnerships where 1 agency serves as a fiscal agent? That doesn't mean that they get. All of the grant funding, that means that they manage it, right? They would have the most back office capacity. And that we're able to bring our collective talents together at scale to make a greater impact. We can share data. We can share outcomes. We can share best practices. That's a true collaborative partnership. That may attract grant funding that. Otherwise, those organizations alone could not attract often. We hear organizations locally say I partner with this team. Organization, meaning I refer to them and they refer to me. They refer people to me. I refer people to them. So that's a referral partner. And that is important. And that is, and we have great relationships that way, but are we sharing outcomes? Are we tracking participant growth? Are we making our programs better because of our relationship? And partnership and the data that we share, are we forming a cohort that is able to share ideas and to scale solutions? I just want to share that the systems change work is our least applied to track and in a state like, Louisiana, a parish and a city like Baton Rouge. That's a problem. And when you talk about national movements and philanthropy, the sector as a whole has shifted from basic needs. These band aid approaches where there's still a need for that, but we've got to balance it with more sustainable and long term systemic. work. We as a community have focused a long time on how do we provide clothes for those in need? How do we feed them and send them on their way? How do we get them their immunizations and do their, I do I tests and things like that. And those are all important. Those cannot go away because the status of need that we have locally. We have to meet basic needs. We have to provide clean school uniforms. We have to provide food. While we're doing direct services like this, we have to think about how is this the entry point? to further work, sustainable systems change. How do we move individuals to sustainability, to opportunity? And that's one of the biggest shifts that I've seen a struggle with locally. It's happening nationally and we're getting left behind. And so how do you balance direct service and basic needs with Being able to really think through the systems that make this work necessary. That means we have to feed people every day that school children don't get free lunch that they are paying for uniform. They don't washing machine. How do we address the bigger issues? Nationally, statewide and locally that are creating the need for these band aid solutions. And so that's I just wanted to give that context Casey, because again, we have to as a community, a high need high poverty, highly segregated community have to understand how we can come together collaboratively, through partnerships, attract resources through non traditional fundraising means, and do real sustainable systems change work that can shift the trajectory of families most in need. So that's it. Great conversation. I'm excited.
Casey: That was amazing. Thank you, Ebony. And Tristi can you come off mute real quick and give your analogy to drive it home with Ebony's talking about your river analogy with the little babies?
Tristi Charpentier: Yes, I can. Sorry guys, I'm on my phone today and using the zoom app on phone is way different than on the computer. So here's the parable. Three women are walking along a river and all of a sudden they see a bunch of babies. The first woman, she, jumps in, starts taking babies out the river, but babies continue to come down the river. And so then the next woman starts teaching them how to swim. She's on the riverbank showing them how to swim. And the babies continue to come. Third woman keeps walking down the riverbank. The other two women are like, Why are you still just walking along the river? There are babies in the river. We need to save them. And the woman goes, Why? I'm going upstream to find out who is throwing the babies in the river and stop them from being thrown in. We have to go upstream. We have to figure out what the root cause is, what is the source, and how can we fix that, so that we're not having to spend all of our time and resources on fixing problems that shouldn't be there to begin with. The other piece that I wanted to add, Casey, because, like Ebony, I was making notes too I just wanted to point out I put a link in the chat earlier for the giving USA data. A lot of the conversation today focused on institutional giving, but really the majority of giving comes from individuals. Foundations give about 20%. Corporations about 6%. And then bequest is about 4%. So you've got 60 percent of giving coming from individuals. If you are not building intentional relationships with individual donors, you are missing out. There are people who have passions all over the place. Your challenge is finding whose passion aligns with your mission. And what's going to happen is that's how you get that unrestricted funding so that you can pay for the marketing so you can pay for some of the other things that the 20 percent restriction on federal grants won't pay for. There is some realization around institutions, particularly smaller foundations around. The fact that the overhead is not actually overhead. It's part of how you deliver your programs. If you don't pay for staff who are providing social services, then how are you providing a program? And so those are some of the things to think about the individual givers. When you create a strong donor engagement relationship management system, they will carry you through the lean times. When Wilson Foundation decides they want to change their strategy and you no longer fit. How are you going to make it through and continue to provide the very vital services that you provide in the community? So those were my thoughts for today. I'm happy to answer any other questions. You all know how to get in touch with us but happy to Provide other thoughts later.
Casey: Thank you, Tristi, and thank you, Ebony. And Ebony and Katie, I see you. I'm coming right back to you. Ebony, you put in the chat about trust, with foundation trust relationships. That's the, there's no other way of doing it than sitting down to one another And in talking and just, I would encourage everybody just remember that when you're speaking openly and building a trust relationship, it's important to be truthful, right? And one of the best ways to build trust with folks like trustee is just say, alright, so look, homie, please don't tell everybody. But here is actually the biggest weaknesses in our organization. Do you have any ideas around how to shore that up? Not just because you want funding, but because you actually want to fix the problem. I'm not going to go into baby throwing in the river mode. But what I'm saying is you got to walk upstream from your problems inside your organization to be able to get to that point. And I would also say on the flip side. For any foundation partners that are on the call going more towards this trust basis, as opposed, to the old school way of doing things, it makes your, not the nonprofit partners knock themselves out to over deliver because they actually, there's a respect level and, it's almost like you don't want to let your mama down. And, as I said, you want to do the best that you can.
Katie: Yeah, I just wanted to say, so I spent the last 12 years working with a funder and as a grantor and all of these conversations we're having today. The 1 thing you have to be, very mindful of is mission creep like While it's super important to fundraise and to make sure you are viable as an organization as a funder it was the most frustrating thing to have organizations come asking for money that had nothing to do with what their strengths are what their mission is what their expertise were like stick to what you know and what you can do best and you can fundraise around that and then For partnerships with other organizations that do other things really well, if that's something that you want to do, but I just wanted to be mindful, it's Tristi mentioned, Wilson Foundation changes their strategy Wilson Foundation isn't supposed to fund everyone right at different points in time. They may fund you. They may not. Your job as an organization is not to change your mission and your programming to fit the whims of all of the funders. Your job is to find those people that align with your work, with your passion, and do the best job you can do and fund it that way. So I just wanted to put that out there.
Casey: Yeah, thanks, Katie. And, another way to avoid mission creep folks is to, it's 1 thing to collaborate for a grant and that transactional kind of partnership between nonprofits. It's another thing to actually, do you shared staff. If there is really, if there's something that Jason to the work that you're doing, that really is necessary, but you don't possess that in house expertise, then you partner with someone and you don't jump right into a 25 year MOU together, you take it one step at a time, but you start building that trust between the two organizations, and then you can even have shared staff where you're working together. The missions are actually together and when you have that kind of track record then funders look at it totally different. This isn't them just saying, Hey, we check all the boxes together and we want to get the grant money. This is actually a deep partnership that's going to benefit the community because they're entrenched one another. And again I point to the relationship that we have with Metromorphosis. We could not do what One Rouge. As the walls without metamorphosis. There's no question whatsoever. We couldn't do what we're doing in the agroforestry, or we would not have been able to get the 6 million USDA grant to come into the city of Baton Rouge without the partnership with One Rouge Green, with EBRPHA, with BREC. It wouldn't have happened, right? But years of trust bridge building between these organizations before you start going towards in that direction. I just wanted to lift that up to continue to expand people's minds at the way that you approach your programming and your systems change. Marci and Sonia, I just wanted to extend my, our thanks to you one more time. I believe everybody on this call got more value out of the last out of the last 60 minutes than maybe in all of our week combined. So I appreciate y'all dropping your expertise. Please make sure and put your contact information in the bottom of the chat again. So people can get in touch with you and then you can charge them. And as I said, and Katie also, I'd like to lift up that Katie and Tia have in the chat the survey to get in. If you are interested in this collective impact funding and collaborative mindset please fill out that survey and thank you all for your time today. Sonia and Marci, I want to give you all a moment for final words before we get to community announcements.
Sonia: I'll jump in here and then I need to hop off, but just wanted to express gratitude again to you, Casey and everyone else on this call. I love these conversations. I can talk about this all day. And so I'm just excited to see that other people are as enthused as I am. If y'all want to connect with me, my contact information is in the chat. It doesn't even have to be on like a client consultant relationship. Like I just love these conversations. So feel free to reach out to me and I hope y'all have a. Wonderful Friday and a great weekend. Y'all take care.
Casey: Thank you, Sonia. Marci.
Marci: Yeah. So Casey, again, thank you so much for having me. As I said, at the beginning of our call, it's so fun to share this space with all of you, especially after being a part of the initial conversations to just see One Rouge come to life. So it's just been wonderful to be here and to learn with all of you too. I've learned a lot myself on the call. If y'all are interested in connecting, like Sonia said, I love chatting with nonprofit folks. So if I can ever be a resource to any of you in any way, whether it's, on a work basis or not, please reach out my contact information is in the chat. I'd love to hear from you. And I look forward to more conversations and, seeing all the progress that's made in our community. So y'all keep up the amazing work that you're doing.
Casey: Awesome. Thank you, Marci. And a personal endorsement working see was there. There are a few people that we've worked with as consultants around fundraising that were incredibly impactful Beverly Brooks Thompson being the first in 2017 and we weren't ready for her in 2017. To be honest we were a little grassroots organization with a 67,000 a year operating budget in 2017. But. She gave us a roadmap that for the last seven years we've been following and I look forward to hitting our goal when we hit our goal and taking her out for dinner. And then the work with Marci Bradley Consulting came at such a pivotal place in our organization. Also in the coming together. With Metromorphosis and I want to lift that up and we're working with Marci has been in Sonia. I look forward with you someday. Thank you all so much for today. We do have some funding opportunities and some capacity building opportunities in the chat. I know Tammy from BRAC dropped a few of those in there. Marlee is this the same Marlee from OCD with your new last name? Is that Marlee Miller now instead of Pitman?
Marlee Miller: Yes, new last name is Miller.
Casey: Forgive me for not knowing that, but welcome to the space, Ms. Miller. I want to make sure everybody knows about the funding opportunities that you've pushed out. Effectively, might I say, because I hear a lot of people talking about it, but I want to make sure that everyone is aware.
Marlee: Yeah, no. Thank you Casey. Two funding opportunities that are currently open at the Office of Community Development. They're all federal funding opportunities, but we have an investment that we're looking to make in a grocery store effort. I think there's still a lot of work to be done on that project, but we're excited, we're gonna have a an opportunity for developers to apply and pitch their projects and make sure that they align with community needs and all of that good stuff. It was a community meeting yesterday, and we'll be probably opening up that notice or that grant opportunity later next month. But definitely more community conversations to be had between now and the date that grant application opens. The other opportunity we have is for the Martin Luther King holiday service projects. We know that this is an incredibly important time to to test drive these types of partnerships and to collaborate on community impact to do some of the smaller scale projects that can create these longer lasting prides and really turn around neighborhoods. It's a really important moment. In our community communities across the country, so we've opened up. We're going to have a community meeting on August 15th to help give people some insight on how to be successful with applying and what projects we're looking for and make sure that you're prepared to manage the federal funding that we're looking to put on the ground, but we're very excited about that. Grants are up to 10,000 dollars. So not just to clean up. We can really start to work on some fairly impactful projects.
Casey: Awesome. Thank you, Marlee. And in the spirit of that Morgan and Helena on our team will be assembling assembling everyone who wants to work on around MLK Fest in Eden Park with the Walls Project later this month we are going to be focusing in on the PBC, the Purpose Built Community that the Wilson Foundation made their 10 year commitment to, and We're committing to as well. And said, so we are rolling through and same place, same this year and really start identifying with the community, the projects they want us to focus on and and start building on the ground there. And then of course, there'll be all kinds of great activities everywhere. Across the city during the holiday, all are welcome. Thank y'all for thank you for those announcements. Hey, everybody else. Open the microphone. Good people. Dr. Bell, I see you smiling over there, sitting in your funny little private zoom text to other people. You got anything you want to share with the class? What'd you got over there?
Flitcher Bell: Oh, not a lot of Casey. Just trying to keep everything going in the reentry world. I am happy that I do have a couple of companies who are now going to start going into the prisons and doing some trainers and things. Just doing what we can to lift, lift up the community and lift things up.
Casey: Cool. Thank you. I appreciate you, Dr. Bell. I see our friends at One Touch Ministry. Did you come off mute? Y'all want to holler and then Marcela?
Steve Mannear: Good morning, everybody. Steve with One Touch Ministry. I just want to remind everybody, we're going to be holding Our 3rd quick card education and support session on Thursday, the 22nd at the main library, starting at 9 in the morning, it's designed for formerly incarcerated persons to learn how to get their card to help them in the application process. And if we get everything lined up properly to pay their application fee for them, we put our flyer in the chat. It's got a QR code where they can register, or they can just call me and do it over the phone.
Casey: Awesome, thank you, Steve. Appreciate you. Cool beans. Cool beans. And everybody, I don't know if you've looked at the chat lately, but Tia has apparently plugged into the entire ecosystem across the city. There is every flyer known to every event known to mankind for the next two weeks dropped into there. So Tia, thank you for accumulating all of that. And those will of course be shared in the meeting notes tomorrow, everybody. Marcela and then Tia, I'm going to turn it over to you to close this out.
Marcela Hernandez: Hi, good morning, everyone. I wanted to invite all of you guys today. We're going to have our one community dialogue from 5 to 7 p. m. via zoom. I am putting the information in the chat. So you don't need this. We are going to have to a special guest today. We're going to have Caitlyn Joshua in. We're gonna have someone from our national partners from We Are All America. We're gonna be having a very meaningful conversation about education, providing resources, talking about advocacy and voting protection. So we just want to invite all of you guys to come and join us gather your voices together and help us to build a better and safer community. So that's it. You guys have a wonderful day.
Casey: Thank you, Marcela. Appreciate you. Anybody else? Any community announcements? Just come off mute. What's up, Manny? What's going on?
Manny Patole: Great conversation today. I put some stuff in the chat about the CUSP network. I know we've talked a lot about fundraising and things like that, but a lot of it has to do with having good information to share and that data. So I wanted to put some information about the the cusp network. As some of you may know, I'll be starting a full time professorship and part of my role is connecting my students to real work in the community around data and applied urban analytics. So I put the, some information up top about the cusp network. It's everything from capstone projects to longitudinal research to Hackathons and things like that. So folks have questions about, how can they work on their data or have issues around cleaning up their stuff? Feel free to reach out.
Casey: Awesome. Thank you, Manny. And also, I want to make sure everybody knows about the 2025 Attic Trash and Treasure Sale fundraising opportunity to submit if y'all are not familiar with it, I'm just going to go ahead and just drop it down into the chat but that's it's a competitive grant cycle, but I want to say it's 25 or 50 G's, I'm not 100 percent sure, whatever that can that comes out to, but it's a really cool concept. And Charlene's amazing to work with. Make sure and put that into the chat and the meeting notes and make sure everybody's aware of that. And just in general, thank you all for spending the Friday today. Hopefully today was impactful for the organizations doing the good work. Hope that you heard some things that made you maybe tilt your head a little bit to the left or to the right and want to learn and be curious and learn a little bit more and maybe change the approach to some of the work. And then again thanks to our speakers for dropping so much knowledge and really do appreciate it. Y'all have a beautiful Friday next week. Tia what's the topic next week that you're going to be taking back over for?
Tia: So next week we'll be having a legislative update as it relates to voter registration. And some crime bills that have passed and I'm going to lean to ask for support for the following week. We are looking to have a conversation on the St. George annexation. So if you or anyone that you know would be interested in tapping into that conversation, please send me an email at Tia@thewallsproject.org. Thank you guys for giving us your time today and we will see you all on next Friday.
Casey: I see all those ladders in the background, Tia. You're always building. All right, bye. Last dad joke of the day. Bye, y'all.
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