Season 2, episode 1: featuring Jonah Halper from Altruicity.

Thanks for joining.

Guest: [00:00:50] It actually goes pretty far back. Uh, when after high school I did one of those gap years and Israel, I went to a Yeshiva to study and be in Israel and [00:01:00] two things happen. One thing is I met my wife there, which, which was one thing that happened, has changed the trajectory of things. And the other thing was I fell in love.

Tzivia: [00:01:35] Okay, cool. So that led you to where you are today. So what is that? What are you

I thought it was gonna do like some kind of marketing with Jewish nonprofits. That that was gonna be my focus. And I got an internship at a Jewish Federation [00:02:00] doing marketing, and then I got engaged. And I realized I needed a paying job. It's not going to cut it. Internship is not. Yeah, it's not going to cut it.

So I went to a job fair for Jewish federations where Jewish federations. And for those, for those people who were watching from home, who don't know what a Jewish Federation is, a Jewish Federation is a federated organization, which means that they raise money to support. A variety of community Jewish institution.

You get one social. And you're basically supporting all these beneficiary agencies, all these organizations. So most Jewish metropolitan communities and even small communities have a Jewish Federation. There's like 150 or 160 across north [00:03:00] America. And it's a big network. So I went for, I got my, I had my internship in a Jewish Federation and I decided to go to the job fair, where people were federations from.

The country as well as young or new professionals coming into the business could go to this job fair and meet the or different federations there. So I went to this, uh, job fair and I didn't know anything. Like I didn't have any background. I just went through these interviews. Looking for a job. And there were for all these jobs called campaign associates.

I mean, what would you do in this situation? And I had no idea. And, um, one Federation, exact one director of development interviewed me and I went and [00:04:00] rented the room from Baltimore and he was asking me like, what books I read? What are my hobbies? Do I like WWF wrestling? It was, it was, it was just like, we were talking for like half an hour about nothing where I was just grilled by a bunch of other federations about what, what I would do.

And I was like, ah, what do I do now? I got. So when I took that job, I finally had the guts ask my boss, like, what was that all about? Right. Cause you know, I was getting grilled and here you're asking me like you're schmoozing me and me about nonsense. And he said, Jonah, give a nice smile. You carry a good conversation.

A successful annual campaign, how to run an organization in general, what a good organization looks like because I could model it after the places I was at. So my career really started in for close to a decade. I worked in the Jewish Federation system up and down the east coast. [00:05:30] And then in 2010, I basically made the decision to go out on.

And, uh, that decision was primarily made because I loved what I was doing, but I realized that like working as a nonprofit professional and trying to be a primary breadwinner or any breadwinner was a problem. Like I was starting to pick Jay's full tuition and I'm like,

Thank you. Appreciate it. Yeah. So altruism is a fundraising strategy and project management firm. And that focus on project management didn't happen right away. Because when I started my firm, I was turning 30 years old in 2010. I was a little kid. So why hire [00:06:30] a consultant? Who's 30 years old. When you can go hire a consultant who has 30 plus years of experience, a lot more gray hair, a lot more wisdom to share.

Is I only fundraising and stress strategy and project management firm for Jewish nonprofits. And we work with organizations typically with operating budgets between one and $10 million for their annual capital and endowment campaigns.

That's just like a, it's something that I really thought a lot about. So it's interesting that you bring that up, but you found a way to kind of straddle both because you're, you know, open your own business, but you're still using that business to do good. So that's, that's very

The same dinners. Yeah. Tweaks here and there, but effectively you're running the same, the same experience year in, year out. And I was like, this, this is getting like, I would, I would get burned out after a couple of years. I wouldn't be doing anything exciting for me. So doing consulting or doing what does the place where I'm sitting?

Tzivia: [00:08:42] And when you're working for one organization, you're really limited by the leadership there. I mean, you'll hope you're not limited by the leadership, but I think for all intents and purposes that does come up, whereas things are generally done a certain way. And there's a little wiggle room here and there, but, you know, overall there is kind of limitation.

Guest: [00:09:07] on? All our businesses is pretty much word of mouth, which means that when someone calls us, they're saying, Hey, Jonah, um, I know you worked on this other campaign.

So we will help them in a very, in a retained model. Really grow their organization for their annual campaign fundraising and make sure it leads to the growth of the organization so they can do more good do what they do. And that's one type of client. The other type of client will call us and say, Hey John, we run a good annual campaign, but we need to run a second line campaign, which is often a capital campaign.

I need like booster rockets. I need, I need someone on the outside who can come and give us what we need in order that we can handle more because we can't, we're already feeling like we're up to our, our, our, our eyeballs in annual campaign fundraising. We need, we need [00:10:30] that support. So most of our clients come into that.

Which means that we work with 15, 20 retainer clients at a given time, some clients are shorter term, like six months to a year. And some of our clients, we have clients that we've had for five plus years. It just depends on the scope of the work, what work we're doing. And as long as we're relevant, as long as we're able to help them raise more money than what we're tracking them, then hopefully add enough enough of a margin that we stay working with them.

Like if you're a school and you want to grow, you want to run a grandparent's campaign. Right. What does that campaign look like? Is it a branded. Not that society or society where grandparents can feel like they're part of something. What are the benefits for being part of it? What's the ask, what's the call to action.

So you might have. 1520 grandparents who could be giving more than the bare minimum to join the grand society. They should get their own pipeline. Like these are grandparents that we need to cultivate a relationship with and ultimately solicit them for bigger, bigger money. So [00:12:00] we do weekly coaching and pipeline.

For those, that type of work. So with our annual campaign, we're doing both those pieces that the campaign itself and the pipeline, but more recently with bringing on five new coaches, we are providing just that coaching pipeline experience for the clients, instead of doing the whole, the whole ring and roll, they can just do the coach.

If we're engaging them in your given week, it's baked right into your schedule Monday. I need to do these four things on Tuesday. I need to do these five things. Coffee introductions our research on a particular person, whatever it is, it's baked into the schedule, like good habits. And that piece is, is a large part of what we're working on [00:13:00] now with, uh, clients coming in that way.

So I would say it's really like retainer clients and the pipeline. Cool.

Guest: [00:13:09] So project management, isn't something that's unique to non-profit or fundraising. It's basically managing projects, which means that every, every project you're working on.

So a campaign, a fundraising campaign is there's a gazillion things that you would have to do, and you have to make sure that happens. The good ideas of strategy, don't fail because they're not good ideas. They fail because they're not properly implemented. So incorporating project management into the strategy is vital.

We have a variety of tools that we use for project timelines, for the actual pipeline of donors, to make sure that you could see what you need to do when it needs to get done. Who's responsible, there's tremendous transparency and accountability. The process. And because of that, the [00:14:30] people who are involved in it, our clients are involved that they feel incredibly empowered because they're not being micromanaged by their bosses, the bosses gone on and see where we are in the process of where their staff is.

So it's, it's coming out in the, in the campaign results.

So let's say you said you work with clients a million to 10 million, someone who's at a million. What would you say? Like you have to be using these.

You need to be here because there's, those, those are static, right? If you want to be able to run a report that says. Who gave, you know, last year, but not this year from this zip code, you know, you want to be able to run reports that are strategic or, or, you know, who gave a thousand dollars or more this year with a 20% increase.

But for example, tools like slack, Which creates, uh, an opportunity for people to have conversations internally in a channel to go, whether it's based on, um, a project, whether it's based on a client, [00:16:30] whatever it is, you know, getting that stuff off of email, getting the back and forth off email, but rather in kind of a back and forth in an instant message type of chat is much more focused.

Right, right. That's a very common refrain of yeah. Experiences with project management tools. I can tell you definitively that it makes a difference, which tool you're using. The reason why it's not working is because you're not incorporating the good habits that are required to use that tool.

It only works if you want it.

Tzivia: [00:17:31] which one is your favorite? I'm curious.

So I need a project management is it's about flow. It's about

Tzivia: [00:18:18] Awesome. Okay. So let's just gears for a second, because it sounds like you have a lot of experience and worked with many nonprofits. What, what would you say is the greatest challenge is that these nonprofits today, like end of 20, [00:18:30] 21 biggest problem that you're hearing over and over, and once you've identified that what's your.

You are always chasing after new money. Right. And if you're viewing it like a company, right? The [00:19:00] acquisition of any new customer is expensive, right. It takes a lot of work to get someone to become a donor, um, especially, uh, you know, to get them to go up over time. It's a, it's a major investment. However, what a lot of organizations do is they retain the donors at the top.

Wow. That's crazy. And they kinds of content. Yeah, it's very, very high. The hemorrhaging is really, really bad and that's a problem general. Why? Because that, what happens is an organization is now raising more money from less people. That's not a good business model, raising more money from less people.

It's a big problem. So this, this problem exists. Not because like no one cares it's because. There are so many, and this is something that we've been having over the last decade or more anybody with $200 and an internet connection is able to start a nonprofit. So like [00:20:30] the proclamation of, of nonprofits is enormous.

There's so many organizations are all using the same tools and they're either cheaper or free to compete with each other. And there's a tremendous amount of clutter. And. Which means that if you're a nonprofit for you to stand out, you can't just say we're the best nonprofit in cancer. Well, there's like seven or 10 other cancer organizations that do a great work, right?

Maybe two or maybe three products in the category. That was it. Right. But now you have a gazillion options. So the retail world did a couple of things that were very smartly. First of all, they had, they have a [00:21:30] bottom line. Non-profits can say they're successful, even if they are, oh, we're successful and move.

You're not hearing that anymore. What they're trying to do is make an emotional, a human connect. Right. And building a

Guest: [00:22:10] building a brand, they're putting a face on that brand. And so it could be like the old spice guy. It could be the Geico gecko, right. They're making it where you're going to make an emotional connection with that product.

Because if you've got 40,000 different organizations, if you're a cancer organization who wins the, who gets the money, the one who can show the best pie chart and statistics. No. It's the one who has the strongest relationship with the donor. You don't have to be best in class. You have to have the best relationship with the donor.

Like, okay, these are my five, four favorite charities. It's such a bad time right now. I need to help them. I care about them so much. That's what happened, the ones who got the thousand dollars or $50 or a hundred on. [00:23:30] Gone right. They stopped giving to those people, but the ones that were their babies, like their ones, they cared about the most, they continued giving and sometimes even gave more.

So every organization's focus should be, how do I make sure that we are one of those priority charities? So we can develop a relationship where when times are tough or at any point the donor. This is where I'm going to get my money. This is my relationship is there. I love them. They care about I'm going to give to them.

Tzivia: [00:24:06] So practically what's, what's one tip someone can do today to kind of address that.

So obviously the, the, the part that most people will now is to focus on the relationships and the major gift fundraising or any, any particular audience. So you can't get to everybody. So being able to look at say, who are the ones that are going to help you move the needle the most, which are predominantly people who can give you the most.

Especially if they're non donors are very low dark, there are things you could do in, for example, Do quarterly conference calls. If you have people who give $18 or low-end donors treat it still, you could treat them like an investor, let them do a quarterly conference call where you can showcase the organization.

It's a wonderful touch point. It's massive engagement, but it lets them feel like they're part of something. Even if you have 20 people who dial in the first time, I guarantee you, if you do it the second time, third time, and the fourth time, you're going to build [00:25:30] a base of people who are going to dial in for those types of calls, especially if you make them interesting and entertain.

Maybe even getting a celebrity against some other type of, you know, guests guest on there and make that a nice hook for your program. But the idea is you can do things that are engaging on a mass scale. It's just a matter of thinking, like how do I treat my donors? Like real partners, if your donors as an ATM machine, right?

Let me tell you what your money is doing. The lifecycle of a monthly donor, like that is over five. Which is phenomenal. It'd be a great thing. So whether you're a non Jewish charity or a Jewish charity, this type of focus on the lower end on retaining them will not only get you a wider base of support on the low end, but it will [00:26:30] also give you a good funnel to bring some of those people up into major gifts.

Because any story you talked to, anyone who runs a nonprofit for a while, you know, if you ask them how this hundred thousand dollar donor, what was his first. Like, oh my goodness. He gave $150. He came to an event once because someone took him by the arm and said, you should come with me. And that $150 donor, 10 years later is now a hundred thousand dollars.

Tzivia: [00:27:04] just now Jewish or not Jewish in your experience. Do you think that Jewish, nonprofit space things any more specific or deeper challenges than the general population?

Or do you think it's the same? Just with a more specific application?

All right. So I don't care what Jewish non-profit you are. You're not getting 50,000 monthly donors because the market's not big enough for you to get that kind of support. The charity water is appealing to people, not just in north America, around the world, so they can get everybody. But the, the Jewish world you're dealing with a smaller, a small.

You're just talking about a smaller scale to be able to do the same kind of. Okay, cool.

Guest: [00:28:17] You're you're serving a smaller audience too, so you don't need, you know,

That could also be you challenge. You need a lot of money for that. Okay, cool. What do you foresee as like the future of this? Three to five years in the nonprofit world and an adding the caveat of, I don't want to talk about NFTs because I can, I cannot wrap my head around that. And when it becomes a clickable, hopefully I'll figure it out.

But beyond the NFTs, would you foresee anything changing? I think I would imagine, you know, COVID has really kind of shifted things and that will continue to shift. What do you see as.

So for example, a healthy organization needs a strong mission marketing manpower and money, right? Those are the four factors. Peter, Peter Drucker, Peter Drucker. And he wrote that book in the seventies and he's been dead for 15, 20 years. I don't even know how long he's been gone. But the premise is still still sound.

What does it developing relationship with donors? I think that the big pitfall to avoid which we are, I think people are already trying to avoid is to think that. Friends or [00:30:00] connections that we have on social media are considered real friends or connections, or those are super superficial. Like if it's superficial, those are super, super, because it's easy to hide behind your computer and think you're making a real difference in developing.

The impact of the organization or directly into your living room or directly onto your computer screen is incredible. So you like zoom with Corona, the ability for you to do a virtual part, a virtual parlor meeting, where you normally do it in someone's home, you deli one representative from the organization to come and [00:31:00] speak about the charity and whatever the entertainment is at that evening with the wine and cheese and all that kind of good stuff.

Tzivia: [00:31:33] Awesome. That that is really cool. Somebody brought, it was a, you were brought up on LinkedIn, virtual reality, like the, that maybe that will become something a little bit more accessible. Cause like for something like Wells in Africa, that's a super cool.

And I threw out there the idea of virtual reality. I don't like, like similar to you, like NFTs and Bitcoin. I [00:32:00] understand stocks. I understand bonds. I don't understand Bitcoin. I don't understand the digital stuff. I don't understand. It doesn't mean it doesn't exist and it's not,

Tangible in a way, but right now it's just

Tzivia: [00:32:31] I remember when Instagram came out.

I don't get the point. Like why, why am I looking at like, I totally didn't get it. And then a few years later it was like, oh, okay. I get it.

So if I can find a way. To make you really feel my mission and what we're doing as an organization. And I [00:33:00] can bring it right into your face in the goggles and make it an immersive experience. That can be really neat. And when someone experiences that, then it's not a matter of trying to tell them about the mission you're showing me.

Tzivia: [00:33:38] Awesome. So before we sign off, is there like a really cool favorite story of yours that you can share? Because they own, non-profits all about storytelling. So I'd love to hear if there's like something that sticks out in your mind, a client you worked with, or a project.

I started working for the associated Jewish community Federation of Baltimore. And my boss gave me a pledge card for this man. And he said, okay, go solicit him for the campaign. Go give him a call. So I call it. This phone number and I get his wife now in Federation. Sometimes some federations have a separate women's campaign, whether it's women run that women programming.

He's very upset at Federation. He's not going to give you a penny. I'm really sorry, but you really don't want to have a conversation with him. I said, oh, thank you so much. So I hang up the phone. I go back to my boss with the pledge card and I wrote a big fat zero in the spot that says what the pledge is right by [00:35:00] zero.

And I give it to him and my boss will send. What happened? I said, well, I called and I got his wife and the wife said husbands very upset at Federation is not going to give. And therefore the zero. So my boss looks at it, gives the pledge card back to me and says, Jonah, go give him a call again and asked to meet with him so you can find out why he's upset at the federal.

They wouldn't be up. Right. So they, the, this person was upset. So he told me, go make a meeting with him and find out why he's upset. And that, to me, it didn't make a difference what even happened at the end. Cause I don't, I don't really even remember what the end result was of the [00:36:00] solicitation, but just the idea.

That you treat your donor as a partner, not as an ATM machine is an important, important point because it's not just dialing for dollars, but you have board members or people who say, oh, I don't like to fundraise, or I don't like to do solicitations. The reason most of the time that's the case is because they have as a view on their mind.

We can get from point a to point B, right? What am I doing? I'm selling, I'm selling you on this vision of the future and saying why you are needed to together. It's not a S it's not a shell thing. It's not me like, oh, I know you're rich. Can you get money? It's it's about the project. And I think that you have similar interests and similar priorities and similar [00:37:00] values, and that you want to see this happen too.

And if that's the case, Let's do business together. Right? Let's have that. And the reason why I talk about it from a relationship perspective is that the unhealthy relate the idea of me going to you and just asking you for, you know, money is like the superficial thing. If I just don't make it about the money, you'll say like, you're only interested in my, in my wallet.

That's a different conversation. I'm no longer a creep. I'm someone who's, who's connected with you in a

Guest: [00:37:48] Yeah, it's getting, um,

Guest: [00:37:55] eight, your donors, how to attract and engage a new generation of philanthropists, jive plug [00:38:00] where you can, you can find it. Yeah. Yeah. Then I

Guest: [00:38:05] I appreciate that. Um, it's an altruistic, a L T R U I C I T y.com.

And you can see everything there and the company, the website speaking engagements, the, the, the book, the pipeline, everything everything's there.

Guest: [00:38:23] awesome. I appreciate it. I appreciate the time. Thank

[00:38:30] Thanks for listening this episode of the change, the world podcast. If you have any feedback or comments, or if you already nonprofit leader was interested in learning more about how 14 minds can help you. I'd love to hear from you. You can reach me by email@silviaatfourteenminds.com for more nonprofit content.