If you're looking to maximize your fundraising efforts, DonorBox's online donation platform is designed to help you reach your fundraising goals with ease. Discover the world of simplified, seamless fundraising at donorbox.org. DonorBox, helping you help others. Welcome back to the Nonprofit Hub Podcast. I'm your host, Megan Spear. Very excited to be joined this week by a new friend of mine. I've got to meet Sal at a conference a couple, maybe a month or so ago, and so I'm excited to have him here and pick back up on that conversation. Sal Sal Pietro is the Chief Community Officer at FundraiseUp, so we're excited to have you on the podcast. Sal, welcome in. Awesome. Thank you, Megan. Go ahead. I know you have been around the Nonprofit space for quite a while outside of FundraiseUp, but also even just working with Nonprofit. So give your audience a little bit of introduction about who you are and what your background is here in the space. So as far as with non-profits, I start off in academia in my early 20s and I'm working at universities. I lived abroad and lived in Italy, so I was working at American institutions. They are the University of California, in Italy, so while not your traditional non-profit, they are non-profits. It's academia. There's a donate button, there's Fundraise, there's a lot of synergies there. It's not quite the same mission, if you will. From there, I moved into startups and the e-commerce tech and inversion optimization and when, things like that, so I was there for a while. And then from there, I went back into the non-profit space where I was the Director of Digital at the Child Mind Institute, ChildMind.org, if you have a kid in school or you're getting some PDFs of how children with mental health, it's usually from this organization, so they do a lot of support to parents, how to work with children and their mental health challenges. And that was, I was there for a couple of years at that organization, had amazing results. It took a lot of the e-commerce and like, for profit world stuff that I was in for about a decade, brought it to the non-profit and said, "Guys, this has to be better. This is the wrong baseline. Let's raise the baseline." And we were measuring ourselves against and had some strides there in some wins. And then from there, we moved over to fundraiser when they were just launching the platform and it was just coming out and prototype stages. I was one of the first customers, so that's my journey to Chief Community Officer of fundraiser. And then now, I'm serving on the board of Asia Wild and still get to be in really low spots. Nice, and the Chief Community Officer, so tell me a little bit about what that looks like. Yeah, interesting role. I've had every role pretty much at fundraiser. I came in as the first employee, which meant change inboxes, your support now, your marketing later, your sales now and do the demo. So I kind of worked through all the different roles, but through all of them, and my most recent prior to Chief Community Officer is Chief Partnerships Officer, which was really driving business and relationships with partners in the space. I was doing a lot of community building the whole time anyway. I'm doing a lot of speaking at conferences. I'm doing the webinars. I'm listening to nonprofits. What sucks for you? What's awesome? What are you trying to get to that you're not able to? And sharing stories and the Chief Community Officer role was an evolution of that. So basically allowing me to do that full time, full focus on listening to the space, learning from the space, giving back and just being part of the industry, not simply a vendor. I love that. So that's a great transition because one of the things you said is in your introduction is how you were bringing some of the for-profit technology and tricks and tips and all of those things into the nonprofit space. And that's a little bit about what we're here to talk about today. A discussion that we had, again, about a month ago, was when it comes to the tech stack, specifically CRM and marketing and fundraising, the benefits of an all-in-one all-encompassing solution versus a single solution piece for each different piece and what are the benefits there. Talk to me a little bit about where the topic would started this debate in your mind. Great. Lead into the topic with that question. What started the debate in my mind? Seeing so many in the nonprofit space that tell a lot of complex functionalities and then not seeing that in other verticals of GDP industry, right? If you have the dropdown of what industry you are, it's, you know, transportation, government, nonprofit, it's one of those 10, 15, 20 of them. And this space has a plethora, if you will, of all-in-one platforms that are really trying to take on things that in other verticals are their own company or product, right? CRM with events, with auctions, with marketing, with new commerce chunk out or the donation form, right? A lot of platforms have all of these in one package, usually for a really good price. Other verticals do not have these sorts of platforms, and that's what sparked the debate in my mind. Why here? Why not everywhere else? And before I'll pause there, I could keep going, but I'm going to wait. No, I think that's good, because part of, I think, the nonprofit industry in general can tend to be a little behind when it comes to tech and when it comes to tech adoption and those kind of things. And so I think the comparison between what's happening in other spaces is actually really interesting for somebody that's, I want to keep the audience in mind, right? So a lot of the folks who are listening to the podcast are folks who work in development and fundraising. So we're going to focus on that kind of area today. We all know because you've been there, I've been there, when that is your role, it can be very overwhelming to keep up on all of the things that you're supposed to be keeping track of, right? And so I guess I'm going to take one side and we can double as advocate this thing out and this is to beat it, but I think the appeal to the single side and solution is it's just one less thing I have to check, right? When we have to, actually we were just having a conversation about how I hate companies who have really weird names for not even weird, but words that are normal words that they choose to spell in weird ways. And so you end up with 17 weirdly named systems that you have to go check to accomplish all the things which can sometimes feel more efficient, but at what cost and is the efficiency worth losing functionality. Good question, good positioning there for that. Okay. So we don't have to fight. I'm not on one side and you're on the other, I'm on both sides, right? Because it's a battle when you graduate from then and with arts, are you graduating? Multifunction platforms all in ones for this space, it's a blessing for this space, right? Why? Because I'm a small nonprofit, I've got a limited team, I don't have a big staff. We're not hyper technical. We don't have a ton of resources to implement a bunch of tech. So it's amazing that you can go and grab a virtuous, a bloomer, a classy, a whatever it might be that has all the stuff that you need to get in a really nonprofit in a box. Many of them offer texting in it as well in the platform. So that's the blessing part, I get one contained cost, I get one platform, one login and I get everything I need to start this mission. The curse part is that any of these platforms will do one of the things as they're for very well. And the other things will be, will leave something to be desired in functional, jack-of-all trays, master of none or master of one, jack of many, right? It could be dropped up different ways. So that is the curse part is that if you're an organization that does events all the time, you might need something more and you need to graduate out of the all-in-one events functionality. And now I need an events platform or auctions or whatever it might be or donation forms. And what we see not been is that nonprofits tend to not do that often. They'll get the all-in-one and they'll stay with it, and you're going to get all-in-one performance out of an all-in-one tool. We were talking about also in the pre-show chat about three-in-one shampoo. Right. I know that in my shower on my side, my wife and Stan, did I have that, she said it's ridiculous, she knows. So how are you washing everything with the same thing that doesn't make sense? The concept though, right, you're a three-in-one for your shampoo or I also use the sport methodology. At some point, you need a real fork or you need a real conditioner and you can't use the one that's in there because you need to get professional. You need to upgrade, you need to graduate out. So that's the part that I think the space structure is knowing when to graduate out. Elevate your fundraising strategy effortlessly with DonorBox, the online fundraising platform that streamlines your operations, amplifies donations, and delivers a user-friendly experience for your supporters. Design captivating donation forms, accept digital wallet payments, seamlessly monitor donations, and automate receipt generation. Joining is a breeze with no setup or monthly fees. From customizable donation forms and four times faster, ultra-swift checkout to seamless in-person giving with DonorBox Live kiosk, DonorBox makes giving simple and fast for your donors. Visit donorbox.org and unlock your full fundraising potential today. I think sometimes, to your point, I agree, I think you said it best, there is a reason that the professional hairdresser, the professional barber are not using this all-in-one solution on your hair when you go in, absolutely. But I think sometimes we, and I speak from experience, having worked in non-profit myself, we get a little stuck in, this is the way we've always done it, wherein trying to move out of that becomes, oh, there's so much data to move in there, so these systems talk to each other. We don't want to mess up how Sally down the hallway does her job every week, right, how we maintain that data. So if somebody, I'm going to ask this question two ways, but we're going to start this way. If somebody is brand new, just got their 501(c)(3), they are getting their organization up and off the ground. Would your recommendation be to start with that simple all-in-one out of the box, let's just get this going? Or are there benefits to starting with the single, like, investing class, single provider platforms from the jump, so that's how you've always done it? I think the preface to that is what are your plan to scale and help them? I don't think many of them just get their 501(c)(3), know that answer, navigate this, let me try this, and let's see if it stays alive for a year or two, right? It will absolutely, off the jump, all-in-one, figure out things, and so on. With the caveat that you choose an all-in-one, that likes to play well with others. See more about that. Go, saying names. Ok, there are some companies in any vertical that have more of a closed ecosystem, closed API, or pre-fire that you use only what is in their product offering, and you can't leave it, and they make it very difficult to use anything that's not their product. There are a lot of brands that are of the new school that I'm particularly proud that the result is a part of, and I'm proud to see that they're out there, and that this mindset is shifting where they are like, "Hey, whatever is right for the non-profit is right for us, that's the right thing to do." And virtuous is of that mindset, I was talking to Eric Tamal, at least at that one of their goals is to be the hub spot of the non-profit space. And I use hub spots specifically because two of the most integrated softwares are Salesforce and HubSpot, and these both compete on every single functionality. But HubSpot marketing tends to be a stronger suit, Salesforce CRM tends to be their stronger suit, pair it together, the results are greater than the song, it's amazing, right? So that's the kind of mindset that the software and the vendors that you choose should be embracing is, yeah, started this all in one, as you use scale, break out the parts you need. For example, a lot of platforms that are on one's have texting built in, but it won't be an enterprise or a high-scale, extra solution, right? I need this text to go out to 1201, no later, no sooner, and the built-in texting solution might be a longer drink, it might take an hour or two to send them out, while the enterprise solution for texting will be about 1,000 people get the same text. So that's the kind of stuff, it's figure out where you're going to scale and then make sure you choose that all in one that's going to let them scale. Okay, so that I think is a phenomenal answer for our friends who are like just starting out, I think that's some really good advice that way, and you have mentioned it previously, there are those orgs who are the legacy been around for a while, and they might be ready to take that step to graduate, right? But they're feeling stuck because, again, whether it's cultural of this is the way we've always done it, whether there's so much data in there, it's going to be crazy if we try and move it, trying to start new things are scary, whatever the rationale is, do you have some thoughts on either when is the right time to make that move so that you don't get stuck or on how to drive change to maybe move on and help people graduate? This is a little rough to hear maybe and to say, but I look at the beneficiary of the mission, and I go, hey, if doing this change increases our impact by 20%, 30%, whatever the percent is, we got to do it, no excuses. I was at a conference, and I had a speaking session, and we were talking about PayPal as a donation payment method, and when you operate on average, about 20% of donors will choose PayPal, and when you out PayPal, you increase revenue by about 10%. Hands down, add PayPal, 10% more revenue. That means of the 20% that choose PayPal, half of them would not donate if you didn't offer that option, okay, 10%, for every million dollars and another $100,000, someone commented, we actively discourage any of our nonprofits from offering PayPal to donors, because reconciliation is a mess, and it takes us extra time and so on and so forth, and which is true, reconciliation is more difficult on PayPal, and my knee drug reaction was, who cares? I said, into the microphone, who cares? Who cares? That is more difficult for you. With the 20 per 100 people that are not getting a meal, care, right, do it for them, and if we tell them, "Oh, sorry, you don't get it," because in finance doesn't want to reconcile another spreadsheet, are we doing our thing that we're here to do, so that's the mackerel of it? I love that, because I feel like so often, those of us who live on the other side, right, the finance, the marketing, the fundraising, the administrative side of a nonprofit can get so bogged down in all of these things that we lose sight of the fact that everything we do supports the mission, and if it's not focused on how we're better serving the end user, then it just doesn't matter. Yeah, I really appreciate that. I'm waiting our impact and putting faces to it, or for every dollar, we can buy two meals. Great. Is this thing that we can do? Can it raise us an extra $100,000? Amazing, 20,000 meals served. That's the lens that can drive us every morning as we wake up. Now when you get into the operational administrative, what are the drivers there? Start from home. Start with just, because you have an all-in-one that does 10 things, you say, "Okay, well, online donations are where we want to scale this year. Go point solution on that one thing. Set yourself up for success as you scale the thing. This year, we want to do five times the events we did last year, great. Keep your donation formed with the all-in-one. Get an event platform. It's going to let you do really kick-ass events and do them well. As far as knowing when it's time, I think everybody that's maybe listening to this nose already, which part of their platform, they're like, "That thing never does what I want," or "You can get the email automation that I want out of this thing." I think that's pretty much, you know, already as far as knowing where you want. If you're hitting plateaus, it's time. That's great. Excellent call out, man. I really appreciate the wisdom on that one. I know what you had mentioned that this has been quite the debate of a topic, maybe more amongst the agency vendor folks, but I'm curious, I think you had mentioned that we're interested to see what the non-profits actually think of this. I'm going to do something a little bit different on the podcast today. If you are listening and you work for a non-profit, whatever platform you found us on, go to the comments because Sel and I would like to actually know. Yeah, I legitimately want to know, we're going to ask on our social channels as well, but definitely in the comments of this particular podcast, come back and let us know, are you an all in one or a stack of single-point solutions and where do you guys fall on that? I'm really curious to hear some audience feedback that way. And if you're afraid to move to point solutions for specific tasks, what is that reason? What's holding you back? Good question. Excellent question. Okay. It's going to be anything. It could be cost, budget, I don't have anybody in IT, I don't know if it integrates, all the one I use doesn't integrate with anything, could be anything, but I think it's important that we know and we address them because again, to the other point, lives are literally impacted when we become more efficient. Yes, absolutely. So there's the questions of the day. We're going to open the comments on here, we'll be asking on our social channels as well, but I'd love to hear from all of you who are listening about what that looks like for you guys. So this has been super insightful. Tell us a little bit about Fundray's Up and what you guys are as a more of a single-point solution that you guys are all about. And also, if somebody wanted to follow up with you to talk more about this or Fundray's Up, how would they find you? Yes. So Fundray's Up. I'll keep it brief. We're one of those point solutions. We get asked all the time. Are you guys going to build this CRM? No. Are you guys going to do events? No. Ticketing? No. Frank Loughton. We're focusing on the one thing. This enables us to do that one thing with an obsessive attention to detail and performance. So we've got all day, every day to focus on one thing, driving online donations, networking version, better financial outcomes, and better donor experiences. So that's what we do. We are the thing that happens when you click the donate button on a non-profit. We work with very large non-profits, Navy and Red Cross, UNICEF, et cetera, but also very small, one or two person shops, and it's the same entry point as far as cost for all of them. Nothing. It's performance-based. Our next on the line with a non-profit, we're only earning if they're getting more efficient, keeps things moving in the right direction for everybody. So that's Fundray's Up. If anybody wants to learn more about it or get in touch with me, find me on LinkedIn. Add me on there. Shoot me a direct message. Email me at Salvator at Fundray's Up.com or just go to Fundray's Up.com. The website, if you don't want to talk to anybody, that's okay, you're allowed to be that person. That's great. Excellent. I love it. Sal, thank you so much for joining us again as well as the Chief Community Officer at Fundray's Up. Really appreciate your wisdom on this whole tech stack all in one versus single point solution. And I'm excited to see what our listeners have to say and what the audience has to say about this as well. Sal, thanks so much for joining me. Thank you, Megan. Talk to you soon. Absolutely. And another episode of Nonprofit Hub Radio Podcast. My name's Megan Speer. Thanks so much for joining us. We'll see you next time. Bye. Bye. Bye. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)
