EP 16: Community Engagement Strategies for Schools

Jeff: Welcome to the Elevate Your Event Podcast, where we talk about how to plan and execute an unforgettable event that will dazzle your guests and generate more income for your organization. From fundraising and securing trendy auction items to event production and logistics, get the best tips and advice from seasoned fundraising and event professionals who have been in your shoes.

Jeff: Hey, I'm Jeff Porter, CEO of Handbid, and I'm going to introduce you to a panel I was recently on where we discussed how to better engage your school community. I had an amazing group of panelists on there, a variety of folks from volunteer management all the way over to people that do golf tournaments. It's a very lively discussion, and I hope you enjoy the interview.

Colleen: Hello, everyone, and welcome to our panel. My name is Colleen Carroll, and I'm a content publishing coordinator at Nexus Marketing and your moderator for today's session. Today's panel topic is Engaged in Education: Community Engagement Strategies for Schools. I'm really looking forward to this conversation. Jumping in with our introductions, I'd first like to introduce Brandy Strand, Nonprofit Partnerships Account Executive at Point. Brandy has almost two decades of experience in volunteer management, board governance, human resources, fundraising, advocacy, communication, and evaluations. Most recently, Brandy served as the Director of Community Relationships at the Utah Nonprofits Association, where she managed the statewide membership program partnering with local businesses and nonprofits. In this role, Brandy also served on numerous committees, bringing the voice and needs of nonprofits to the table whenever possible and wherever decisions were made. She is a first-generation college graduate and is very proud of that, is married to her best friend, and has a turtle named Alice and a dog named Vader, who she takes into the backwoods of the Utah wilderness as much as possible. Glad you could be here, Brandy.

Brandy: Thank you so much. I'm super excited to be here.

Colleen: We're glad to have you. Also joining us today is Stephanie DeVern, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Readathon. Stephanie has worked in the education and fundraising industry for over 15 years. She has a heavy focus on strategy, process, and standing up new emerging teams. Stephanie has spent many years focusing on and cultivating national partnerships in both the for-profit and nonprofit sectors. Stephanie has a passion for reading, educational equity, and ensuring that all students have access and choice to reading material. Glad to have you, Stephanie.

Stephanie: Thank you, and I look forward to sharing and hearing from everybody out there.

Colleen: Absolutely. Also joining us today is Logan Foote, Sales and Education Manager at Golf Status. Logan has been around the game of golf nearly his entire life. He first picked up a club at the age of four, and despite thousands of attempts, he's never had a hole in one. He earned a bachelor's degree in business administration at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, and has pursued a career in sales. Logan came to Golf Status in 2017, where he channels his passion for golf to help nonprofits raise money through the game. As Sales and Education Manager, Logan oversees a team that works with thousands of nonprofit clients to maximize their golf fundraisers with the Golf Status platform and shares his golf fundraising expertise through Golf Status's free educational webinars. He lives and golfs in Lincoln, Nebraska with his wife and three sons. Glad you could be here, Logan.

Logan: Thanks, Colleen. Happy to be here with everyone.

Colleen: Finally, here with us today is Jeff Porter, founder and CEO at Handbid. Jeff is no stranger to fundraising events, having participated in them for over 25 years. He ran his first fundraiser in 2005 and has managed over 50 auction events and fundraisers for his own charities, not to mention hundreds more with Handbid. Jeff has been involved in technical product and software development since 1996 and has built and managed mobile app solutions since 2008. When it became clear that he and his wife, Carrie Porter, needed a better solution for their fundraisers, developing a mobile bidding app was a no-brainer. Jeff and his wife Carrie developed and launched Handbid in 2011. The rest is what they call history. Glad to have you, Jeff.

Jeff: Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here.

Colleen: All right. We are going to jump in and get started. Stephanie, I'm going to have you start us off with our first question. How has school engagement and related strategies changed over the past few years? And what lessons do we take from these past few years?

Stephanie: Great question. Really, I think over the past few years, the pandemic obviously changed the whole landscape. We went from really being in person to now having to not only navigate a virtual environment, but one where families were having the onus of a large lift of the educational part with their children. And so it really changed how we communicate. It changed what the landscape looks like. We've gone into a much more virtual, digital age. Communication is that way. And in addition, over and above having a pandemic that changed that landscape, we have school safety issues that are really changing who can come and go from a school, what types of activities can be hosted. And then for all of us from all over the country, we have weather. So all of these play into that changing landscape. I really think we've had to learn how to be really nimble as both educators and then also as companies that support those educators and those volunteers and come up with different ways that we can engage people in this ever-changing landscape.

Colleen: Absolutely. Thank you so much, Stephanie. Brandy, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this as well. How has school engagement changed over the past few years?

Brandy: Well, I think Stephanie really kicked it off well there. The past few years have really changed not only how we live in our world, but how those who we engage with live in our world. I'm very much focused on volunteerism and engaging with our communities, bringing them into our schools and into our education systems. I think the biggest change that's happening right now is that we have to rethink how we're engaging. The ways that we were doing it before, while they worked then, we've had a massive shift in how everybody looks at their world, how everybody looks at their time, what we choose to engage in. So I think it's really exciting right now because we can take a step back and rethink volunteering within the school and truly bringing our families and our community members in ways that mean something to them, that bring their passions and the importance that they find in the world into our school communities. It's a difficult shift right now, but I don't think it's impossible. We just have to be okay with the fact that things are changing.

Colleen: Definitely. Thank you so much, Brandy. Logan, anything you want to add to this conversation of how the past few years have changed school engagement?

Logan: Yeah, those are all really great points. From our seat over here at Golf Status, we've seen a lot of educational school groups embrace a golf event or start exploring that as a possibility to use as a way to engage their communities, spread awareness about what they're supporting, whether they're raising money or just looking to engage their communities and network with people who are supporting them. We work with a lot of alumni associations, universities, booster clubs, and PTOs. So it's been a really exciting time for us to see more people come and talk to us about the possibility of a golf event. We saw a lot of that especially when the pandemic first hit, like Stephanie mentioned, as still a safe way to gather everyone since it's obviously predominantly outside. So that's been exciting for us to have those groups come our way and talk them through what executing a golf fundraiser could look like for them. And also, really embracing more technology to do so, so they can do it as effectively as possible.

Colleen: Thanks, Logan. Jeff, anything you want to add in terms of what you've seen with the last five years and how it's impacted our world?

Jeff: Yeah, for sure. And Logan, I think your plan is absolutely working because during the pandemic, I couldn't get a tee time anywhere. So I think everybody was on the golf course. Congratulations for that. But we started Handbid back in 2011. We launched a platform that leveraged mobile apps, knowing that over time that was going to be a way to really connect with people. So if you want to engage with people, I think the first thing is being able to connect with them. And doing it on their terms. I think the pandemic started to get more of the nonprofit community comfortable with trying to communicate with people on their terms. And really what that means today is the key is reaching them where they are, and they're out and about. They're on their phones. People are spending three to eight hours a day on their mobile device, depending on the type of person they are. So if you want to engage with somebody, you're going to have to find them there. And the funny thing is, most people, especially when we were doing fundraising for years, didn't really realize how people use their devices, even though everybody kind of uses them the same way. Ninety percent of people's time on their device is in apps. It is not surfing the web. And so figuring out through whatever collection of apps, technology you can leverage or partner with, how to use those to connect with people -- that's where they are. They're in their Facebook app. They're in their Instagram app. They're in whatever fundraising app they have. I'm sure Brandy would agree -- they're probably in the Point app if they're a volunteer. So in all of those cases, the key is being able to reach them. And if you're comfortable with that, what you're going to find is greater engagement. If you feel like you're going to go back to traditional means, whether that be email or some sort of web-based engagement, I think you're going to find it's going to be a bigger struggle moving forward.

Colleen: Thank you so much, Jeff. Very quickly to our live audience, if you want to jump into this conversation, first of all, we would love to hear from you in the chat. We did also have a poll go live where we ask you how different your school's engagement strategies are today in comparison to five years ago. So if you want to give us an idea of where you're coming from, please feel free to fill out that poll. All right, we're going to jump to our next question. Brandy, I'm going to have you start us off. For schools looking to evaluate their current engagement practices and to identify gaps or spaces for improvement, what do you recommend? Anything you particularly suggest that they look for?

Brandy: I love this question because I think it builds directly off of what we were just talking about. The world has changed. So we have our traditional volunteer opportunities. Are they being filled? Or are you trying to track down that super volunteer? Are you bringing in new voices? Are you hearing from the community that you're serving? Not from the same people who've always been volunteering because they care deeply about your school, but are you branching out? That is where I would start. Where are your priorities right now? Is it to fill every volunteer spot that you currently have, or is it time to maybe take a step back and say, are we really serving the needs of the community that our school serves? And that's a difficult space to be. I just want to acknowledge that. Change is complicated. And much to what Jeff was saying before, a lot of us are on our phone. And you're right, Jeff, I am in the Point app looking to volunteer. And I hope other people are volunteering as well. I think it's really important to understand who you're serving, the why behind that service, and then bringing them into that conversation. Jobs have changed. We do have some more work from home. We've got some hybrid setups, but people are still working Monday through Friday, nine to five. Are your volunteer opportunities where parents can come and engage with your school between twelve and one? Is that realistic for your families to take that time off to come and provide that service? Now, it's a needed service. I'm not saying that what we're asking for isn't needed, but can it be reworked? Can you rethink how that service is delivered? If you're looking for help with your parent-teacher association, maybe it's asking them if they could do something at home. Maybe they can put together some welcome packets for the next meeting, and that can be their contribution. Even the smallest engagement brings people into your community, brings people into the school so they can say, "Well, yeah, I may not have been able to help with that bake sale. But I did put together 50 welcome packets for all the new families coming into the school. And I did that after work and I had my kids help me." The ways that we've been doing things may not continue to work that way. And that's where I would just encourage everyone to take a step back. Are you still having people sign in on a paper form when they walk in the door to volunteer? Can that be on their phone where they just say, "Yeah, I'll be there Thursday from two to five to help out with the after school program"? And then we don't ask them to do anything additional other than show up and serve. We live and breathe the world of engagement and volunteerism and community involvement. That's not necessarily the case for the people we're asking to serve. So I would encourage us to take a step back and really think about our communities and the people that we want to have come into the community and have them help us and serve together. That's what I'd recommend as a starting point. Understand your community, please.

Colleen: I think that's a really important recommendation. Thank you so much, Brandy. Jeff, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this same question. If our schools are looking to evaluate their current engagement practices and identify gaps, what should they be looking for?

Jeff: Yeah, I would say, as you're looking around at how you're connecting to the community, if you're not doing social media, if you're not using SMS, if you're not trying to connect with them through mobile apps, then it can help to step back for a second and consider how to start doing those things. Because that is where you're going to get a connection with people and engagement from that. If you're running a fundraiser for your school and you're putting out paper bid sheets, not only are you not making nearly as much money, you are not driving engagement. You're not reaching anybody who's not there. You're not maximizing the amount of time that you can expose your fundraiser to people. You're forcing them to be in a certain time and place for a certain period of time. It's really difficult. And in a lot of cases, when we talk to folks, they look at that and say, "Hey, we're trying to save money here or there." But I think at the expense of that, outside of not generating as much revenue, you're just not connecting with as many people.

Colleen: Definitely. Thank you so much, Jeff. Logan, over to you. Thoughts on how we can evaluate our current community engagement practices?

Logan: Yeah, piggybacking off what Jeff and Brandy said -- having a way to collect that information and utilize technology to do so makes a big difference. So you can fully evaluate, with a golf event, who's participating, who's sponsoring, who's attending. You can evaluate whether you're getting people to come back year after year or if people are dropping off. If you don't have that technology at your disposal, you're never going to fully understand or be able to maximize that support from your community. And you want to be able to continuously engage them. I tell our clients all the time, being able to collect all their information so you can continuously provide outreach to them about even beyond a golf event -- what other events are coming up or engagement opportunities in the future. You want to get those folks into your CRM and be able to market to them continuously and bring them back year over year for whatever events you're running. So if you don't have that technology to fully understand who is supporting you and who's continuing to do so and to try to build out that donor base -- or in Brandy's case, those volunteers that you want to keep coming back -- you're missing a huge piece of the puzzle. So definitely utilize all of the best technology at your disposal. And we have a lot of events as well that will send out follow-up surveys after the fact. What did we do well? What could we be doing better? To continuously engage them and make them a part of the process of really building out how you best engage folks. Definitely lean on technology to not only engage them, but to collect their information so you can continue to facilitate conversations and participation with them.

Colleen: Great. Thank you so much, Logan. Stephanie, I think you know what question's coming your way. How can we effectively evaluate our community engagement today?

Stephanie: Yeah, it's a great question. And again, to echo everybody's sentiments about using technology and having new ways to communicate. With Readathon, we have kind of a unique situation where our direct customer and person that we're engaging is the school. So we're coming up with new ways to communicate and engage the principal, librarian, PTO, PTA, or when we work with a lot of nonprofits on community events. How do we continue to engage using text, collecting data, and making sure that we understand our customer through surveys, through calls, follow-up calls, things like that, to continually evolve that? We have the added layer that we need to support schools and being able to engage the school community and those families. And again, with the changing landscape and having technology and different means of communication -- the pandemic with COVID actually gave, and I think Logan kind of spoke to this, it gave our type of fundraiser a unique boost because people were still able to participate. They still needed the funds. They still needed that engagement. And we were able to offer not only the engagement, but the support of having it needle in an educational way. So the school is getting the win with the fundraising and families are able to participate as their own volunteer, so to speak, by reading with their child, by engaging and really having it be a very equitable and holistic approach to it. But the communication itself -- we had to go out and we're constantly asking, "If we communicate through a social channel, will that help your families? Will that help you as a school?" And so coming up with new channels, having additional types of technology that they can share out to continue to engage and pivot and evolve.

Colleen: Great. Thank you so much, Stephanie. Very quickly, I want to check back in on that poll. We asked you how different your strategies are today than five years ago. And we're across the board. We have 40% in "pretty much the same," 20% in "vastly different," another 20% in "mostly different," and then 20% in "fairly similar." So we're all in different places, which is great. We did have another poll go live asking more specifically what you're looking for today to give us a better idea of where to bring this conversation. So please feel free to fill that out if you would like. This is just my gentle reminder to submit those questions -- otherwise I will be selfish and ask all my own questions, but I am good at sharing if there are other questions from the group. All right, Logan, I'm going to have you start us off with our next question. I think everyone involved with schools on all sides is very, very busy. What is one small change schools could make to their current practices today that could potentially have a really big impact on their community?

Logan: Yeah, I'm going to keep hammering the technology point for obviously the reasons we just discussed, being able to collect as much information as possible so you can continue to steward those folks forward. But also technology takes a lot of the tedious, time-consuming tasks off your plate. And then with golf, I always saw organizers -- when it comes to the day of the event, you can actually focus on getting that face-to-face time with supporters, with your community. So you can actually engage with them in direct conversation about who they are, why they're supporting, how you can further engage with them. And with golf, you get that unique four to six hours out there. So you can actually take the time to focus on having those meaningful conversations instead of spending the day of the event focusing on all the tedious tasks, making sure everyone's paid, "Did these people show up?" -- it removes all of that from your plate. And you can actually focus on the point of the golf event, which is obviously raising as much money as possible, but also taking the time to have those meaningful conversations with everyone there. So tech does so much for you as an organizer, as a leader in your community for your school or whatever it is that you are supporting. So you can have those good face-to-face conversations and start to build those relationships that will hopefully last for years to come.

Colleen: Absolutely. Thank you so much, Logan. Stephanie, over to you. Thoughts on small changes that have the potential to make a big impact.

Stephanie: Yeah. So to Logan's point, lean on that technology. But I think in today's climate, it's really about being very specific in how you communicate and what you communicate. So it's not just about blasting out a thousand emails to your families about what's needed. It's being specific. Why is this important to them and how does this impact them? And is there a benefit to them? Having a value prop and an emotional connection within that. And then very much trying to get people involved in non-traditional ways. Where we used to send an email out saying, "We're looking for volunteers to be on this field trip and do this and do this," offer it up more openly. What are your skills? What is your strength that you bring that we can leverage and use within our community? It helps the school also, or the nonprofit, understand -- maybe there's something they didn't know before that they need. You don't know what you don't know. So really leveraging that, but being very specific in your communications and not just communicating for the sake of communicating.

Colleen: Great. Thank you, Stephanie. Jeff, over to you. Thoughts on small changes with big impacts.

Jeff: It's funny. You're probably expecting me to say you guys should use mobile devices. But what's interesting is that for a lot of people, they probably are like, "No way, Jeff, that is not a small change." I think whether you define a change as small or large probably depends on where you're coming from and what you feel comfortable with. I would say my biggest piece of advice -- and again, it may or may not feel small or large -- would be to maybe have a bit of a mindset change. Maybe adopt more of a growth mindset, be willing to take some risks, try some things that maybe you wouldn't normally try to see how they have an impact. Give yourself an opportunity to stumble a little bit and see where that takes you. And I think what you might find is you're going to surprise yourself.

Colleen: Great. Thank you so much, Jeff. All right, Brandy, anything to add in terms of small changes with big impacts?

Brandy: Okay, I just love what Jeff said about failure. I think a lot of us get scared about failing, and really, you can build some of the best relationships through failures. We need to be okay with failing. We learn so much through failure. And if we just have an idea and we never give it a try, then it's just an idea and it's just something that floats out there. The thing that I was going to say about a small change that's maybe a little bit easier to swallow -- kind of going back to what I was saying before about knowing the community you're serving -- is a simple thing: know where your parents work. Knowing where they work can tell you a lot about what's going on in their world. Just know where they work. Once you know where they work, then you can find out if maybe they have group volunteer opportunities at their workplace, if they have any volunteer grant programs that you can get involved in. But just start by knowing where your families and your community members work, and then have that conversation start from there. I think that's a really simple change. Maybe build it into some tech that you have, or maybe it's just by having a conversation at first. You don't have to eat the whole elephant all in one bite. Maybe it's just time to know where your families and your community members work.

Colleen: Really helpful advice. Thank you so much, Brandy. So with that poll I mentioned earlier, we asked, "What are you looking for today?" And so far, 100% of people have said "big, innovative ideas we can jump into implementing right away," which is a really exciting answer. And it fits very well with our next question. Jeff, I'm going to have you start us off. For schools that are looking to think big and get innovative with their engagement, what do you suggest and what do they need to consider?

Jeff: A couple things. Obviously, I think leveraging partnerships and vendor relationships tends to make a big difference. And it's not really a shameless plug. I just think that there's so much that you have to figure out and learn and implement that sometimes it's just easier to have somebody who's done it before who can help you through it. And it doesn't even have to be about -- it could be about how to run a better golf tournament. Golf Status isn't just going to sell you software, right? They're going to show you also how to run a better golf tournament. Brandy's going to show you how to do a better job of engaging your volunteers, not just sell you an app. We spend more time showing you how to run a better fundraising event than we do just selling you fundraising software. So I think in a lot of cases, when you're just saying, "Hey, I just want to go out there and buy some application off the shelf," what you really want to step back and say is, "I probably, in addition to just needing something off the shelf, I probably need somebody to show me how to best leverage that." And I think if you did that, those companies are also going to show you how to think probably bigger than you're originally comfortable with. We've seen a lot. I don't know, it was Farmers or Progressive -- one of those insurance companies that's like, "We know a thing or two because we've seen a thing or two." It makes us more comfortable being able to share with you ways that you can really make what we would consider to be moderate -- you might consider to be significant -- changes that are going to have a massive impact. And so what we've learned over the years is we know how to engage your audience. You can tell us that your bidders are special, or your parents are special, your donors are special. No offense, they probably aren't any different than everybody else's that we've already engaged with. So for us, we'll sit down and say, "Yes, we understand your guests are older. But my guess is 100% of the people walking into your fundraising event have a smartphone in their pocket, including the 75-year-old that you say refuses to use technology." So, yeah -- let us show you how to show them how to get comfortable with what you're doing, without you having to fear that they're going to backlash on you. That's what partnerships with a lot of us here on this panel will be able to help you with.

Colleen: Great. Thank you so much, Jeff. Brandy, over to you. Thoughts on the big and innovative ideas and anything that our schools need to consider before implementing.

Brandy: I actually love what Jeff was saying about tech and how to take it on. The one thing I would say is that tech can be your friend. It can also be a way to build a relationship with maybe less tech-savvy individuals. Find a solution that can help you with various levels of comfort -- maybe not all, because that's a lot to ask of one platform, but maybe you know you have your tech-savvy and you have your less tech-savvy. Find a platform that can help you with both so that you're still having one integrated solution for you and your staff and your internal team, but your volunteers and your community members can still find their space in that tech. And I think what you'll find, going back to what Jeff was saying before, is that your less tech-savvy folks are going to start to see that they're not seeing the full picture. They're only getting what they get from you when they call you over the phone. And all of a sudden they're hearing from other people, "Wait, that was in the app. That was sent through email, but I'm not in that." "Oh, well, let's see if we can get you involved in it." Also use tech as that relationship-building opportunity as well. You don't have to force it on them. But I do recommend finding a way that you can still honor and respect your primary audience's contributions and the ways that they get involved.

Colleen: Thank you so much, Brandy. Stephanie, over to you. Thoughts on the big and the innovative and what we need to consider.

Stephanie: Well, I think on big and innovative -- it's really about thinking outside the box and knowing, I keep going back to knowing your audience, and really hearing what their pain points are. Like Brandy and Jeff both said, you're solving for everybody in the best way you can. And one example that came to mind when Brandy said "know where your families work" -- so one of the big questions that came up at Readathon was, "Well, we know where our families work, but we don't know how to reach them. We don't know how to involve them because we have so many local businesses that we could reach out to." So we quickly pivoted and developed what we call Readathon Ads. Our intent was to help the administrator of the Readathon be able to get some more dollars in by having a local business sponsor. And what we found is, by solving for that pain point, there was actually this whole additional benefit where the family that sponsored not only felt really vested and really supportive of the community, but it actually brought the community to them. And so it really built on the engagement. So now you've got this very supportive network that you've created by solving for one pain point and thinking outside the box. And people are evolving that and doing different things. How do we get other members of our community outside of our families that are normally directly involved -- and we're always doing the ask, be it volunteering, be it donations, be it involvement -- they're able to ask the community at large and come up with an entirely new pool of individuals to lean on instead of just that small microcosm that they were before.

Colleen: Thanks, Stephanie. All right, Logan, anything to add when we're talking about big and innovative ideas?

Logan: Yeah, I love Jeff's point about reaching out to partners and vendors because, much like we are, and I'm sure everyone else on this panel is, we're not just looking to set you up with a software platform. We're actually looking to partner with you to make sure it's as successful for you as possible. We're going to help you along the way. We have a whole library of resources that will help you on multiple fronts to make sure you're as successful as possible. And that's why we also partner with other vendors as well, like Jeff. So when someone comes to us and says, "Well, I'm looking at starting an auction or running an auction. I want it to be better." We're like, "Oh, here's Jeff's info. He can help you there as well." So we're not looking to just sell you something. We're looking to set you up for success because we want you to be a client of ours, but continue doing these things that you're leveraging technology for and be as successful as possible. That's one of our biggest goals. We want you to work with us, but we're going to be a partner in this with you. And kind of going back to those worried about the older demographic that supports them -- I've had so many of our clients come back to me worried about this as well, but then they say, "I could not believe how many people adapted to utilizing our technology, even my older folks. I was so surprised by that." So don't be too overly worried about that. I think it just comes with that shift in mindset. Like Jeff said, everyone's got a smartphone in their pocket. It's just a matter of getting them to change their mindset as well. And we've been pleasantly surprised -- or our clients have been pleasantly surprised -- how successful that has been for them. So that just goes back to the point of don't worry about failing. You learn a lot of things through failure. Don't be afraid to try new things, especially if they're going to make you more effective in your role. Give them a try, see how they work. You'll likely be pleasantly surprised how effective they can be for you.

Colleen: Great. Thank you so much, Logan. All right. I have one final question before I'm officially pushing us over to audience questions. Again, I have some from registration and I've seen a few come in, but you can continue to send them in and we'll get through as many as we possibly can. Logan, I'm going to stick with you for this last question. It can feel like best practices are always changing and like there's always something new and shiny out there to grab your attention. Any recommendations for how to stay up to date with all that's happening in the industry without getting overwhelmed?

Logan: Yeah, absolutely. It kind of goes back to the point I was just making. We obviously work with thousands of golf events, and we are extremely eager to share best practices that some of our clients are utilizing and that are working for them with all of our other clients, for them to give something new a try. There are so many cool, unique things you can do with a golf event to make it more exciting, more engaging. And I always tell our clients, focus on the experience the day of, because that's what's going to keep people coming back to support you, event after event. So really focus on the experience that these folks are having at your event and just continue to lean on us, because we'll tell you what we're seeing from our other events that are having a bunch of success. We'll put that together for you, share that with you. We'll likely build a bunch of resources or case studies around it as well. So just lean on us. Like I said, we're here to be a partner with you so that you're having as much success as possible. We love sharing those success stories.

Colleen: Wonderful. Thank you, Logan. Stephanie, over to you. Any advice for avoiding getting overwhelmed, but also staying up to date?

Stephanie: I kind of pair off of what Logan is saying -- yes, focus and enjoy the experience. But really lean on the partner that you choose. Whatever type of fundraiser, volunteer, or engagement event you choose, lean on them to do that heavy lift for you. That's their job. They're supposed to be researching and knowing all of this so that you don't have to. But if you do want to, then look to your peers. We do a lot at Readathon where we'll say, "Here's a similar school, similar number of students, similar demographic look of the school. And this is the success they've had. Let's partner you up so that you can lean on them and they can lean on you and do that peer-to-peer." That's much more validation -- that will validate any experience much more than me sitting here in an office telling you how great it is. So let others that are within your circle be able to speak to that and give ideas. We love doing sharing. To Logan's point, we have a whole bunch of best practices that you can do -- as little as you want and as much as you want. It might fall somewhere in between, but use what others have done and then create your own plan that feels good to you based on that.

Colleen: Thank you, Stephanie. Brandy, over to you. Any thoughts on staying up to date without getting overwhelmed?

Brandy: Okay, I'm going to take this from a little different perspective. As women in nonprofits and women who lead schools, we have a tendency -- and I'm speaking very much in generalities, so you can judge as you see fit. I respect and value all perspectives. From my perspective, we feel like we have to know it all. We feel like we have to have all the answers. We've got to have the plan set. We've got to know what all the budget's going to look like. And we have to have that all before we ever present an idea. Because then, if we don't have it all, we're going to be disqualified. We're not seen as being a master of the realm. I'm going to encourage you to take a step back -- you don't have to know it all. Maybe you know you just need a better registration process. Maybe you know you just need to communicate in a way that your community will engage. You don't have to know it all. Think of the problem that you're trying to address and then pull on the resources around you. Pull on the kids in your school. They're going to know so much about tech. It's amazing. That might be overwhelming because they know so much about tech, but just realize you're not in this alone and you don't have to know it all. Just know what problem it is that you're trying to address right now. You don't have to think about three, six months down the road. We're doing a lot -- respect and honor that in yourself as well. Just fix that one problem for now. Pull on those experts. Just like Logan, Stephanie, Jeff -- we're all saying we really do want to be your partners in this. We're not just providing a sweet new app. We're providing an app that's supported by experience and by best practices that we've now failed and learned through, and we want to help and provide that information. So that's what I would recommend.

Colleen: Fantastic. Thank you so much, Brandy. All right, Jeff, over to you. Any thoughts on staying up to date with the ever-changing landscape?

Jeff: Yeah, well, I think everybody who's on this particular webinar is obviously on the right track there. They're coming here to learn and they're trying to stay up to date. So congratulations to you folks. These are the types of things that make a difference -- reaching out to your partners like we've been saying and leaning on us to not just keep track of trends or changes as it relates to technology, but also even just changes in regulation. We probably spend as much time advising people on data privacy laws. And we have to stay up to date on that, because we are taking some of your data or your constituents' data and we're storing it or using it or processing it, whether it be credit card security, accessibility, all of these things. Now the big thing with SMS is 10DLC and 10-digit line marketing. We know what's going on in those areas. Just lean on us to be able to go out there and figure those things out for you. It is overwhelming. And if you're trying to figure out how to do your day job and then on the side figure out, "Well, how do I legally market to all of my parents via SMS without getting in trouble with the carriers?" -- that's what your SMS marketing company is worried about, not you. So just reinforcing what everybody else is saying on the panel. That is why we're here -- to help you figure those things out.

Colleen: Fantastic. All right, moving over officially to our audience questions. We had a question in the chat that I think many of us have already addressed, whether in the chat or out loud, but I want to open it up in case anyone has final additional thoughts. Lynette submitted: "How do you integrate technology and non-technology options into the same event? We always have people, typically older, who just refuse to embrace it, and these are typically some of our donors with the deepest pockets." Again, I know a lot of us have touched on this already, so it's fine for us to keep moving, but I did want to open up -- anyone have anything they want to add to this question?

Stephanie: Be number one, aware. We want to be aware of our audience. And offering -- I think Jeff and Brandy kind of touched on this before -- those varied solutions for those different audiences. My mom is 76 and is probably the most tech-savvy person ever. I have another family member who is not tech-savvy and spends half her life handing me her phone. And so I think it helps to have different options. I'll use our company as a base -- we have that digital offering. They can process a transaction online, through text, in a myriad of different ways. But if they really want to hand cash to somebody, you can still do that and send it to school and have the school process it through and add that into the student's account. So kind of doing workaround solutions. And then also offering them ways to communicate, like a step-by-step: "Here is what's going to happen. You're going to get a text. This is what you do." Empowering those people that may not be so comfortable with technology to start using it, because the more we introduce people to it and the more comfortable they become, the more seamless it's going to be, and we don't have to solve for that friction anymore.

Jeff: Yeah, I would say it helps to be strong. If you're convicted that this is the right direction for your school or your charity organization, then it helps to communicate that through not just your words, but also your attitude at an event. Yes, you're going to have people that complain. My mother-in-law stood up before we launched Handbid at the Easter dinner table and told me I was going to ruin our charity by doing this. So I've been there. I've heard it. And all I would say is that you just have to invite them to try. And if you have that type of attitude, I have seen so many people walk into an event and they're like, "I'm not using technology. This is the worst idea ever." And then it's, "Let me show you how this is going to work. Let me show you how easy this is. And if it's still a struggle for you, here's what we're going to do for you." A few years ago -- it was probably five or six years ago -- we did an event out in North Carolina, a brand new client of ours. And he walks up and he goes, "My biggest donor just showed up. He's in his 70s. He's not tech-savvy. He has a flip phone. What are we going to do?" I said, "I got this." So sure enough, this guy didn't just have a flip phone. I think he had one of the ones where he had to pull the antenna up and hit send after he typed in the number. I was like, "Oh boy, okay, this will be interesting." So it was a college town, and we have tablets and things so we can bid on behalf of people if they don't want to use technology at an event. But what we did with this guy in particular, because he was such an important donor to them, is we paired him up with a college student. I said to this girl, "You're going to log in as this guy. Let me show you." So we logged her into the Handbid app as this guy and said, "You're his bidding assistant. You just follow him around wherever he goes, you just bid for him, and when he gets outbid you just tell him." That worked great. He spent 15 or 20 thousand dollars in this auction. I will tell you, today that guy has an iPhone and does all of the bidding himself. So it's just one of those things where you sometimes have to ease people into it. If you get to the point where you feel like you're compromising, then what ends up happening is that you're going to ride that fence for a long time. And I hate to say that your donors will smell a weakness, but they'll smell a little bit of a weakness and say, "They're willing to accommodate me. And so I'm going to be unwilling to change because I don't have to." And I think what you're going to find in a lot of cases is you can ease that path, but you just need to get up there.

Colleen: Great. Thank you, Jeff. We had a question from registration that Brandy, I'm going to have you start us off with. They were looking for tips to engage and excite the community, in particular parents, to volunteer and participate. They've had some trouble getting people engaged again kind of after the pandemic.

Brandy: I would first start with asking your families when they are available to volunteer. I think it's really important that we understand their time constraints. If you're going to ask them, and if you know that your families have young children, you may also want to consider childcare, because where else will those children go? If they're in a single-parent home and you want to engage them, they still need to care for their families. Some other things -- and you're going to hear me talk so much about understanding your community -- because we can ask for all this help. But if the capacity isn't there, if the understanding isn't there, if just the ease of getting involved isn't there, then they're not going to. So do you serve primarily single-parent families? Will they need childcare? Are you going to be doing after school hours, late at night? Will there be dinner for the family that's coming? Or do they also need to account for feeding their family during that volunteering time? We really want to consider asking your families those questions. When are you available to volunteer? What are you interested in? Going back to what Stephanie was saying before -- what are your skills and expertise that you want to share with the community? Maybe you're asking them to come and do something that they're completely uncomfortable with and we haven't had a chance to hear, "What are you excited to do?" Really pulling on those skills and expertise. A survey may be good, conversations may be good -- it comes down to understanding your community. The other thing I would also encourage people to consider when communicating with your families is that if you have a community that is primarily from outside of the U.S., understanding where they communicate is really important. You may not catch them on email. You may not catch them on Facebook. But you could catch them on WhatsApp. A lot of foreign communities are on WhatsApp. And if you're not communicating there and that's the community you're serving, you're missing out on that conversation. You're going to just be able to tell. I'm very passionate about meeting our communities where they're at. Because the other thing I would recommend is to identify your community leaders that you can pull on and talk to. Maybe it's not sending out a massive survey and having all these conversations, because that's a lot and I respect and value that. Maybe there is a community leader from a faith within your community, or maybe there's that one parent that knows all the other parents -- we know that parent, we see them coming down the hallway. Ask for their help. Ask for them to get involved. Because it's by getting community leaders involved, where parents are already going to that person, to get all that feedback. They're a trusted source. Partner with those trusted sources. And I think you'll see a lot more involvement as you honor and recognize where your community is coming from and where they're at.

Colleen: Absolutely. Unbelievably, we are almost at the end of our hour. It flew by. So I do have one final question that I'm going to ask each of our panelists so we hear from you all one last time. I'm going to admit it's a kind of big and broad question, but it's one of my favorites to ask, so I hope you will humor me. Logan, I'll have you start us off. What do you see as the future of community engagement for schools, and how can schools get ahead today?

Logan: Yeah, I'm going to kind of repeat a lot of the things that we've discussed here. From our end, like I said at the beginning, we've seen a lot of people jumping in to the golf fundraising space as an effective vehicle to engage their community, raise funds, all that good stuff. Really going out and finding those tools that will make it a lot easier for you. And again, don't be afraid to jump into something new. Don't be afraid to fail. There are so many great not only tools, but partners out there that can help you be as successful as you can be, and this will allow you to not only engage your community, but probably grow the donor base you have and bring more people into the fold, expose your organization or your school's mission to more and more people. So don't be afraid to go out and find those partners. There are so many people that are the subject matter experts in their field who know all the things that you need to know and can work with you to make you as successful as possible. Just get out there and look for them. They're out there. And then just continue to engage with your community. I love what Brandy said about meeting people where they're at. That's so key and will help you really better understand the people you're trying to reach. You'll be so much more successful for doing that. Look for those partners. They're out there and they'll help you along the way.

Colleen: Definitely. Thank you, Logan. Stephanie, over to you. Thoughts on the future and how we can get ahead today?

Stephanie: Well, I loved how Brandy said "meet your community where they are" and then using the technology and tools, to Logan's point. I think so many people have had for so many years this mentality of, "I do it because that's how it's always been done." And I think to meet our future community, we have to think outside the box. We have to think about doing things because it meets our families' and our community's needs versus "this is how I've always done it." So I think we'll be connecting -- schools will connect in a different way. I know specifically for us, it's about having families be able to be involved and engaged and directly impact their student. And that's been a very big perceptive change. It was always "fundraising is about getting money for the school." And now fundraising is about engaging families and also furthering a child's education, and really trying to be holistic in that approach. I worked with a company -- to Brandy's point -- they wanted to have a fundraiser. They were dealing with a lot of families where they were reunifying them from different circumstances. So they engaged one volunteer to bring the volunteer opportunity out to those families, engaged in a reading time with those families. So the families were not only engaging with their students -- these parents that hadn't traditionally participated -- they were teaching their children how to read and how to engage in reading and creating that habit. And a local business sponsored them for the dollars that they would have raised. What a great out-of-the-box, holistic way to be involved. And there were so many added benefits to it. So I think that's really about coming to your community and seeing those individual needs versus being very siloed and just cookie-cutter.

Colleen: Definitely. Thank you, Stephanie. Brandy, over to you. Thoughts on the future and how we can get ahead today.

Brandy: Well, I'm just going to keep saying the same thing I've said a few times now. Understand your community. Don't do it to them. Do it with them. Whatever it is that you think is needed, ask. It may not be needed. There may be a completely other need that could be filled by the school and the community. But you're not seeing that because that's not your lived experience. And it's okay to live in that space and recognize that your lived experience will be different than those you're serving, potentially, and to be able to take that step back and say, "I think we need this, but I'm hearing over here, we have got to figure out this busing schedule or the lunch distribution or summer lunch program," whatever it is. I think it's important, and we're going to be pushed and challenged more -- or at least I hope we will as a society -- to remove our own perceptions of how things should be done and really listen to our communities and partner with them in the process. Don't do it to them. Do it with them. That would be my recommendation.

Colleen: Great. All right, Jeff, anything to add? Thoughts on the future and how we can get ahead today.

Jeff: Yeah, so I'm going to build on what Brandy just said about really starting to understand your community. We've talked a lot about mobile technology. We've talked about ways that you can connect and engage with them. But what we really haven't talked about is where does all that information ultimately land? It's important to start building up a knowledge base or a donor base database of interactions and information about the people you're trying to connect with. And it's really hard to do that when you're hopping from platform to platform every year to save maybe five dollars. It really helps to commit to a platform and let the partner invest in you. What you start to see happening is that there's a lot of churn and turnover especially with schools, in terms of who's making a lot of these decisions. And so they're just going to go with what they're comfortable with or what's possibly cheaper. And what you're ultimately doing is creating so much disruption in the history of what you've connected with. We would have a client who maybe they were with us for six, seven, eight years. There's seven, eight years of donor and fundraising information in that system, and it's probably true for volunteer management systems and everything else. And then someone new comes in and they say, "Well, this other platform is $50 cheaper. We're going to move to that." You lose all of that. And so I'm really strongly encouraging people -- it's worth thinking about how to take all that information over a period of time and leverage it to drive engagement in the future, which means creating some stability in terms of who you partner with.

Colleen: Definitely. Thank you, Jeff. All right, I just have a few closing thoughts. A huge thank you to our panelists. Really appreciate you taking time out of your day. I know if we were at an in-person event, there would be a round of applause. So know that I'm sending that to you emotionally through the screen today. I do also want to give a big thank you to our audience, whether you are here live or you are watching the recording. Really appreciate your time. Hope that you learned something that you can take with you to support the already amazing work that you are doing. I also hope you will join us for future NXUnite panels. We have a packed spring of panels ahead of us with a range of topics between managing financials as a nonprofit, fundraising strategies to add to your roster, gratitude events, and more. So keep your eye out, as well as we have school-specific panels. If you're just looking for those school-specific topics, keep your eye out because we have those regularly as well. The NXUnite LinkedIn, NXUnite website, and even you can find me on LinkedIn are the best places to keep up with all of that information. Very quickly, I'm going to say that if you do intend to sign up for future NXUnite panels, I strongly suggest that you make a free NXUnite account. My reason for suggesting this is that you're going to start earning what's called Cause Coins when you attend events, and when you amass enough of those, you're going to get some discounts on industry software and some free consultations with some of our friends in the industry. So if you're already going to be taking a few hours out of your day to attend panels, I just want you to get that extra benefit. All right, that is it for me. Again, a huge thank you to our panelists and our audience, and I hope you'll have a nice rest of your day. Bye, everyone.