Make a dolla holla workshop notes

Mazda T. Miles, CMM,

Perfection Events Inc.

15 yrs in events mgmt

events->what is the goal, objective of the event… produce measureable result

Take our time to do what we need to do to connect with the people we need to connect with

What do you need the people who attend.. to know, do, and feel

What qualifies her to talk about this:

1- Been too church all her life; churches know how to raise money thru fundraisers

2- On too many volunteer boards, built on donations..

3- Business… been in corporate for awhile, has managed budgets for many different events

4- Entrepreneur – built own business... lost job and was forced to find a path

Started business, budgeted investment, networking to find help; collaborators

Plans to show HOW to come up with compelling and unique events

-Strategic planning meeting for events

BUILDING the NETWORK

Nonprofits aren’t as diligent as businesses about networking

Nonprofits don’t realize: need to sell

What we do so close to our hearts, think everyon should be as passionate as us about our cause

It’s up to us to communicate th value of what we do

So that they will want to be involved

Definition of networking:

1- Lines connectin up down left right and all around

2- Connecting interactively

network – build holistically

EVERYONE can help us

How do we feel about people who call us just when they need us

Don’t just call on people when we need them – more constant contact

- company used to “drip” (well developed strategy

Stay in touch after we get what we need - users

Don’t think people “higher” than us – change mentality about what people will and will not do for us

Change approach

Build loyalty – don’t want people to simply contact us when it’s time to give us what we need

Investment we can make outside of what we can immediately benefit

Networking exercise

Networking is about sharing

Discuss two of biggest challenges you’re facing with regard to individual donors, fundraising, special events

Selling self

Clique within org

Network too large

Societal consciousness cause

Startup fundraising

Expanding business: revenue and territory

Understanding full value of fundraising, donors and events

Committing to sticking to persistence :-à set up processes and minimum daily behavior needed to reach goals

Motivating (INSPIRING) WE not just ME

Participation: getting people to attend events, participate in org’s activities : engagement

Raising funds: getting $

Expanding beyond current bubble

How to execute a good event: what’s gonna get people thru the door (wanna attend? To the goal)

Sales

Didn’t know nonprofit work involved SALES

Selling self, selling business

Convincing people of value to invest time or money in business

Understand WHO people buy from

People buy from: who they KNOW LIKE TRUST

Loyalty/engagement

Consistency is important

Experience

Conversion: converting the network to sales: people who will give time, money, resources

Invested in sales training

Retention: how do they STAY knowing, liking, trusting

Make it personal

When you want to engage someone, do you know what drives them, what is important to them, why they are giving to you

Use tools available to get information PUSHED to you (auto alerts, notification)

Referral

Learn how to ask for referral: are ther people that you know that could benefit from what your org does

Do you know anyone else who would be interested… who could benefit from what I do

Referral: automatic credibility… if some one refers you to them, then the person who’s been referred to you will automatically KNOW LIKE TRUST

People buy to solve pain more often than to resolve pleasure

(those are the two reasons people BUY)

buy = engage

same chemical released from our brain when we give up money as actual physical pain

(cash is more of that chemical then check then debit/credit card)

Buyers Buy Emotionally, and Justify it Intellectually

Engage people emotions

Tell the story of the business and why you are doing it and candid accounts from those served and how it has changed peoples’ lives

All this becomes a base as you specifically put together a fund raiser or Event

Do these people know like trust me?

Am I solving some sort of pain for them? Meeting a need

Am I making it pleasurable? Meeting a want

Make people listen to your idea and give feedback

Claude Edney

2675935483

digicorpproductions@yahoo.com

companyvoice.com

think of donors as buyers

for buyers, you have something to prove: why buy my product

for donors, we tend to think we shouldn’t need to prove to them/convince them to buy(donate)

What is the need for the buyer?

What pain can I solve?

What dot he people (demographic) of my network need?

What ar they pained by? The network

How can I provide pleasure?

Shark tank-like event

Q: how to get those people who would be on that panel?

Another pre-event to inform people and engage them about the business

Getting bigger donors – sponsors… by partnering with bigger orgs, government agencies

Gala for those being served

Intimate dinner for those who can support

Expo to educate people about this cause and provide exposure

Being able to say what th contribution is for (quanitified)

After: show what contribution was for and the measured results

Sale - goal

after

Presentation/proposal – make pitch about what my biz will provide

after

discovery meeting – find out way we might be able to work together –

after

conversation – talk to prospects

after

prospecting – find out people who could use service

----------------------------------------------

MINIMUM DAILY BEHAVIOR

Start with, say, 100 prsopects

Might land conversation with 20

Might get discovery mtg with 5

Might get to present/propose to 2

To get one sale

If you have to gets say 1 sale in say a month, and have 20 working days in a month – need  to contact 100/20 prospects per working day

Basically: greate goals and timeline then do basic math to assess minimum activity needed each day to reach goal within a given time frame

Visioning --à execution

Steps in between

If you aim for nothing, you’ll hit it every time

Ensure strategy aligns with desired outcomes

Dreams, or goals of a (socially) conscious, passionately creative soul

Tomorrow we (or, some of us, here in the U.S.) observe the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the late famed martyr and champion for equality and justice during what has come to be known as the Civil Rights movement of 1960s America. Among other things, he is famous for his "I Have a Dream" speech, and around this time every year you will have many people examining how far our country has (or hasn't) progressed towards the realization of his dream. Or, folks will describe and discuss their own dreams for social progress. So here I will do the latter, and get somewhat personal as well. I think.

For the past 4 years I have run a moderately successful small business, a tutoring agency: Apple Tutors U.S.A. I created it because, ever since I was a moody, arrogant, intellectual teenager, I had an interest in education. Back then, my main career aspiration was to be a teacher. Now, I've always felt like a person with far above-average intelligence, a creative, analytical problem solver who is also thoughtful, compassionate, and patient. I could think of no better way to contribute to my world than to devote my life to educating the next generation. I did volunteer tutoring throughout high-school. I tried to continue doing that work during college but the high schools in the area didn't like my appearance. After college I eventually worked in after school programming for a non-profit, and also spent a few years working as a substitute teacher in Chicago's public schools (southside). But after my second year of that gauntlet, I decided that I should probably have some other career, and then maybe return to the classroom as a sort of retirement. I landed in the field of web application development, and I now work as a tech lead at a small software firm outside of Philadelphia. But I started my tutoring agency at the same time that I started by career as a programmer.

I had been doing some tutoring on the side after college, and also during art school a couple years after that. I have always felt that working with students (of various ages) one-on-one was very rewarding, and I could see how important the supplemental assistance was for many students. I realized I could make a bigger impact (and generate more revenue) if I recruited tutors and had them working for me, so I did just that. With my agency, I have had the greatest success when I establish a partnership with a school. The school provides space, and refers its students to us. At the first school, parents paid us directly for after-school assistance which we offered at the school during after school hours. For the past 3 years I have had a contract with a school that pays my agency from Title I funds.

My dream is to continually expand my agency's impact and evolve the service we offer. With the current relationship, most of the tutors are students themselves: a few undergrads, but mostly graduate students, who work earn some supplemental income while helping elementary and high school students  in academic problem areas.

Of late, I have felt the need to define the mission of Apple Tutors U.S.A., and to define my vision for the venture. Apple Tutors aims to provide personalized educational assistance in order to help students build a strong foundation in basic skills and perform to their highest academic potential; to supplement the instruction that students receive in the classroom in order to help them more effectively apply what they have learned. Apple Tutors U.S.A. also strives to build community by creating an opportunity for young, struggling, growing scholars to form relationships with older achievers, in the hopes that this exposure and the academic growth created by these relationships will encourage struggling students to achieve. Apple Tutors also seeks to provide quality, focuses (one-on-one or small group) academic assistance to students and households who can't afford to pay the rates normally charged by private tutoring services, by developing relationships with funded organizations and academic institutions.

So, although the agency started off by providing its services to parents who paid its competitive rates out of pocket, for the past three years it has served students whose parents paid nothing, as we have partnered with a private school who, as I mentioned earlier, has been able to pay for the service with Title I funds.  Part of my vision for the agency is to develop more such partnerships, and to even apply for such funds as well, as I seek to fulfill the agency's mission.

Currently I have been more interested in evolving our service offerings, and in particular I have been trying to determine how best to integrate technology. I have researched supplemental education software; I am currently working towards using Khan Academy's math and science lessons for our sessions on all levels. This is a step, but, I believe, it will just be the beginning. Perhaps we it is time to thoroughly explore offering online tutoring.

Changing course, I want to talk more about the dreams keeping me up at night. My agency is just part of what how I imagine myself contributing. I have other business ideas, but no time or capital or formal business plans. I need to develop these things, but I must still sustain myself. Sometimes I think that I should quit my job. Other days, I think that perhaps I should ask them to invest in my own venture(s), just as someone once invested in theirs. And sometimes I think I should just find a different job, as I am starting to feel like my creative potential cannot be realized in my current role and position. I feel that I could and should be ding something much more interesting. Some sort of creative director in a socially conscious community development organization, or something of the sort. I know that I'd like to be doing something more interesting, something that ignites my passion and is also challenging, something that really engages my creative analytical senses, but also allows me to use the broad education which I've invested in. I feel stifled...like I'm about to be stuck. But I know that it is within my power, and my responsibility alone, to do something about all this. I'm searching. In pursuit of my dreams. Whatever they may be!