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- [00:00]
Rhea Wong
Hey, you. It's Rhea Wong. If you're listening to Nonprofit Load On, I'm pretty sure that you'd love my weekly newsletter. Every Tuesday morning, you get updates on the newest podcast episodes, and then interspersed, we have fun special invitations for newsletter subscribers only and fundraising inspo, because I know what it feels like to be in the trenches alone. On top of that, you get cute dog photos. Best of all, it is free. So what are you waiting for? Head over to riawong.com now to sign up Foreign. Welcome to Nonprofit Lowdown. I'm your host, Rhea Wong. Hey, Nonprofit Lowdown listeners, Rhea Wong with you once again with Nonprofit Lowdown. Today I am so excited because my friend and former student Faith Galati, executive director of Breakthrough Sacramento, is on the line with us. And today we're going to be talking about boards. We're going to be talking about $50,000 rum cakes and how Faith has actually more than doubled her organizational budget. So, Faith, welcome to the show.
- [01:06]
Faith Galati
Thank you so much, Rhea. It's my pleasure to be here. And anytime I can share my learning, I'm all about it. We're always better together, aren't we?
- [01:15]
Rhea Wong
Absolutely. Absolutely. So, Faith, before we get into the dirty details of all of the fundraising, because, you know, we like to get into it at Nonprofit Lowdown, but you and I first got to know each other because you were in my accelerator program, now renamed the Big Ask Gift program. And not to blow sunshine up my own butt, but I'm just curious, I'm curious, when we first got to know each other and started working together, what was that like for you?
- [01:41]
Faith Galati
I approached all fundraising with complete fear, terrified that I don't. I can't get it. I need it badly. And I was in the position of. I just felt like a beggar and I needed some direction, and I was directed to you, and that made the difference for me. I was able to look at it differently.
- [02:00]
Rhea Wong
Oh, that's awesome. So you feel like there was a big mind shift that happened for you?
- [02:04]
Faith Galati
That's a. That's an understatement. I was able to take charge of my objectives rather than, again, using fear to. To drive and was very unproductive previously. Whereas I was able to turn everything around and look at. Look at what I had to do from an abundance mindset, actually a term that you used and was absolutely correct.
- [02:30]
Rhea Wong
Yeah. Especially being in California and Sacramento. There's just so much. There's so many resources out there, and it was really just about, to my mind, helping you to believe that you could Go find that.
- [02:41]
Faith Galati
Yeah. It's very easy to find excuses for why you can't get the money, and you're often given excuses for why the money would be difficult to find. It's. As soon as I started fundraising in Sacramento, I was told, there are so many people out grappling for the same money. This is a stingy community. There isn't a lot of resources. You're better off in larger cities. There were a lot of reasons to try to lead me to believe also that the funding wasn't there. You can't rely on what people tell you. Things are like, you can only go out and find out for yourself.
- [03:15]
Rhea Wong
Yeah. And I think for you, what I saw is that once you really started to carve out time to do it, you saw tremendous success.
- [03:24]
Faith Galati
Yeah. Knowing what you're doing is clearly the first step to being able to achieve your goals. And when you first come into. In my case, I was starting up a nonprofit that had been closed, so it had already essentially failed funding itself. We were starting with $0 and 0 space, and we were just figuring it out on the fly. And I think that's how so many nonprofits come to be. And unless you have a knowledge and experience, really somebody who can take you through that process, it's much easier to fear closure rather than focusing on success and how you can achieve that. It seems silly, truly. And I know that's how I felt when I first looked at it was, wow, really? All I have to do is start thinking about, yeah, I can raise some money, but. But it was beyond that. It was coming from the position of this need to match people with passion. Again, another thing that I got from working with you, and once I knew that it's finding others who have the same passion, it made all the difference in the world. Someone who doesn't have my passion says no, and no means next opportunity. Move on. Also, in identifying passions and realizing that I'm trying to find others with a similar passion. Now, instead of just going out and trying to find grantors, I was trying to find grantors who likely had a similar passion or dynamically had a similar passion that they didn't recognize. So, for example, I have two significant grants from finance, pardon me, healthcare foundations. Now, what does healthcare have to do with education? One would seem think, not a lot. But the truth is there's great research out there that indicates that people who achieve a higher education are less likely to suffer from diseases like diabetes, have alcoholism, they have lower divorce rates, they live longer, they involved in domestic violence, certainly Lower rates of homelessness and that drug and alcohol abuse. Who's interested in that? Health care foundations are very interested in that. So when I took some deeper dives into Kaiser Permanente, for example, I found that they actually had a significant initiative in the community for improving people's levels of education and opportunity found. But it wasn't until I opened up my mind to finding and matching those passions. Now, sometimes that passion was really clear. Once I got into Kaiser and saw what that opportunity is and where that match was, it was easy. But there were others where I'd go in and I'd have to share with them. Here's the research. This is what we can do for you. And that really started with making friends and making the first thing, or my first objective with every friend is, what's your goal? Where are you going? And then figuring out where those alignments are. Yeah.
- [06:16]
Rhea Wong
I was reminded of Zig Ziglar. You can get everything you want if you help people get what they want. And I think that's the basis of fundraising. Not to make this about me, but very shortly after you were in my program, you got a tremendous gift. So tell me a little bit more about that.
- [06:32]
Faith Galati
All right. To get a $25,000 grant for me was. That was a big day. Once I completed the program and I changed my direction in the way that I was approaching and finding funding sources, I applied for a sizable grant from Sierra Health Foundation. So my next largest was $550,000. And yeah, hey, that was a game changer. The board was happy. I suddenly had the momentum and could leverage that to find additional funders. It's what opened the door, I'm very happy to say. That was a three year grant. We just signed for another three years with them, or approximately $900,000.
- [07:13]
Rhea Wong
Wow, look at you go.
- [07:15]
Faith Galati
So it is. Once you get the door open, you can start figuring out how you're going to leverage the next one and the next one.
- [07:22]
Rhea Wong
And it sounded. Sounds to me like the biggest takeaway for you was A, giving you the roadmap and the framework, but B, also the confidence that you could do this. Does that sound right to you?
- [07:36]
Faith Galati
Oh, absolutely. It was. Pardon me just one minute. Can you hear that in the background?
- [07:42]
Rhea Wong
No.
- [07:42]
Faith Galati
Oh, thank goodness. Okay.
- [07:44]
Rhea Wong
What is it?
- [07:45]
Faith Galati
I have a puppy downstairs, and my husband is managing that, and I'm hearing her and I'm thinking, oh, dear, I hope you're not picking that up so that you're. No, it's not.
- [07:56]
Rhea Wong
I'm good. I'm good. But you puppies are always welcome. Sorry. Oh. So the strategy, the framework, but also the confidence and the shift, the mind shift that you needed to go and really get those big gifts.
- [08:09]
Faith Galati
When I started looking at it from the perspective of, I'm going to go out and start finding people to. Who share the passion and start going after those and making those friends. With each meeting that I had, I got better and better and I started adding things into my pocket as far as what I was going to bring out in those meetings. I always went in with data, things that would substantiate our effectiveness and our value and then would match it up to their goals and look for opportunities, which gets people excited. But I also knew that you can't just have a meeting and let them go. You've got to have a reason to get together again. And I think about the three cups of tea concept in that book and meeting with you and going through your program. I recognize that it's not the first meeting that's going to close the deal. It's not the second meeting, per se, but possibly and likely the third. But most importantly, make the ask. No one's going to give you money unless you ask for it.
- [09:08]
Rhea Wong
That's right.
- [09:08]
Faith Galati
I think that was something that I was doing repeatedly, was just hoping they would want me instead of me telling them, let's do this, let's do this together. And then it created this nice energy that turned into grants.
- [09:21]
Rhea Wong
Yeah.
- [09:22]
Faith Galati
And I formulated a term that I used every time. How do you see this working for you? Or how do you see this meeting your goals? And I would often say, I see this is an opportunity. Once they articulate just what they. What their goal is and how they see it matching up, we're often running. And I don't let it go at that point.
- [09:44]
Rhea Wong
Oh, beautiful. And it so beautifully illustrates what I believe is the best of fundraising is I'm just matchmaking. I'm just figuring out how to put the pieces together such that we're combining and creating something bigger, as opposed to where I think a lot of people start, which is, oh, I'm just like, extracting or. I hate the term. We're gonna beg or twist some arms. I'm like, ugh, I don't want to do any of that. Thank you for sharing that. Okay, I'm going to start. Go ahead.
- [10:11]
Faith Galati
No, I'm just going to say there's. There's another really important part that I. I got from. From you, and that was how important it is to be genuine. Because you. If you come in with A sense of urgency and a need. You're not connecting. Just to be your genuine self and make sure that you are a listener and then get to know them. If I'm just someone who's coming in and they see that I just have a need, but I don't really have a soul, I'm going to be a next. Move on. But really be genuine with what you share and share a little bit about yourself.
- [10:47]
Rhea Wong
Yeah, but. And also be authentically interested in them and how you can be of service. Because I think we've all been in a situation where. You know what I hate? When I'm in a cocktail party and I'm talking to someone and they keep looking over my shoulder for someone more important to talk to. No one likes that.
- [11:03]
Faith Galati
Yep. And how many times have we been at a cocktail gathering where we're moving around there and trying to figure out who to talk to next? Oh, goodness, I'm standing alone. I gotta find someone. Have something to say. Come in. Aware of where you're at. The worst thing I think that I could do would be to go to a meeting with a potential funder without knowing everything I can find out about them and their goals and who they've supported in the past and why. And so much of that is available these days.
- [11:32]
Rhea Wong
Yeah, yeah. Even with individual donors. Right. You can find quite a bit of information online. Oh, yeah.
- [11:39]
Faith Galati
These days it's easy.
- [11:40]
Rhea Wong
I want to switch tax because, Faith, you and I connected last week and you said something that I don't often hear and I want to dig into it. You said, I love my board and they are all working and all fundraising on my behalf. And I was like, drop the needle. What? Tell me more, Faith, because I think you have figured out the solution to the problem that everybody out here has, which is my board isn't fundraising. They're not responsive. They're not helpful and engaging. They don't want. They'll do anything but fundraise. So tell me a little bit more about the board that you have today, and then we're going to back up and talk about how you got there.
- [12:24]
Faith Galati
I can say, first, I'm fortunate to have a very good board and they are all active and they all have a lane. But how do you get there? How do you build a high performing board? I think everyone who came in as board members were basically what we would call founding board members because Breakthrough had closed and we were reopening. These were people who knew about Breakthrough in the past, but they had to figure out how they could Contribute. Now, they're not experienced running nonprofits, but they're experienced all in their own individual industries. So, like finding relevance from a potential donor. The same thing happens with how do we help a board member find their relevance within the agency? The first thing that they'll do is they'll disqualify themselves as a donor by thinking, I can't give as much as they need, or I don't know enough people or I don't know enough about governance or fundraising or development to. To get involved. And you have to shut that down right away. But you personally are not the one that has to do the developing. I have to say, the most important thing you can do is, is have a good board chair that will help drive that development of the rest of the board, I had a chair at the time who had the fourth thought to say, let me invite someone in to speak to the board about fundraising and what board members can do and how easy it could be. And then I basically provided them with ways to be involved. From championing our Jeffersonian dinners, We set up dinners with our board members and their friends with doing things like. We established three committees. Governance committee, finance committee, and was it development? Finance, Development and governance? Yes, those three committees, then a board member chairs each one of those, and they're responsible for responding back to the board chair and giving updates bimonthly. Now, if I were the one. While I attend those meetings, I don't set the agenda. I'm just there to give them additional information. And when they're running it and they're not relying on you, they become much more productive, in my opinion.
- [14:37]
Rhea Wong
All right, let's pause here, because I think there's so much to unpack. So the first step, it sounds like you recruited them with the understanding of what their role and responsibility on the board was. So tell me a bit more about that.
- [14:52]
Faith Galati
Unfortunately, that's not altogether true. I got what I got. They were there before I was.
- [14:58]
Rhea Wong
I see.
- [14:58]
Faith Galati
Okay. So they hired me. I was working alongside them to refund Breakthrough, and then was hired as the executive director. But each of them didn't necessarily know how they fit in or how they could fit in outside of giving money.
- [15:16]
Rhea Wong
Got it.
- [15:17]
Faith Galati
So with some time, we showed them how they could be more productive individually. But it was key that I tell you that it wasn't me giving them that training, that it was another board member who initiated the training.
- [15:29]
Rhea Wong
I'm listening to you. Faith. And I have had a similar experience where I had this very dynamic board chair who kind of whipped people into shape. I guess what I'm wondering is how do you replicate that? Because I know folks are out here listening. Yeah, great faith. Yeah. If I had a superhero board chair, I would be at the top of a functioning board too. So I'm just curious, is there anything that you did to attract this particular board chair?
- [15:55]
Faith Galati
The board chair at the time knew that this was a need because we sat down and talked about needs and then together we identified that we, together, we together are going to be responsible for building a productive board. So we both took responsibility for that and I helped him figure out what it was that he could do. And he also advised me on how I could support him in that process. So initially, the board chair wasn't somebody who was dynamic and ready to roll. He just knew he needed to do something and we worked together to figure that out. Now he's, he's still on the board, but he is no longer chair. In fact, another board member joined who had even more experience in this area and he was the next to come up at as board chair and he was one we recruited. But he expressed, I'm a retiree, I have this background. I know about breakthrough. I'd like to get involved. And once we got him on board and learned all that he had to offer and helped him find how that fit, he took off.
- [16:58]
Rhea Wong
That's great. So let's talk about this board training because. Excuse me, something in my throat because you make it sound so easy. Like we provided training and all of a sudden they were highly functioning and all doing. So talk to me a little bit about what that process is like because often I have people say our board needs training. But the truth is one, training is not going to change. Excuse me, when training is not going to change a board, I think that.
- [17:22]
Faith Galati
You start with attainable goals and you do that collectively. No one wants a goal given to them. They want to be part of that goal. So we had that discussion. Once they saw the first presentation on how board members can be more effective with fundraising and friend making. Then at the follow up board meeting, they all made goals for collectively what they thought the next steps would be, and they kept that part of their conversation. The first step we did was people began to pick dates for dinners at their homes. And once that started and they could see how much support they got from me on those events, it was much more exciting to them because they didn't know where to start. And I had to tell them, you don't have to be afraid. You bring the people, I'll take Care of it.
- [18:11]
Rhea Wong
So it sounds like you started with these community dinners. Curious about the role of your board chair in terms of a word we don't like, but accountability. Because I know that There are many EDs out here. Like, I asked them to host a dinner, I asked them to bring their friends, I asked them to go on site visits. No one does anything. So my question is, how did you close that loop between articulating what you should be doing as a board member and actually having them do it?
- [18:40]
Faith Galati
It has to be active and by that an active action item. So I literally came into the board with a list of dates and said, sign up and pass the sheet around. And then for fundraising dates, they knew on their calendar, these are the events we're expecting you to attend and we would like you to make sure that you bring a friend. And then once we're a couple months out, sign up sheets, making sure that it's being passed around and that they are following up and putting their names down and then giving a board member the responsibility of following up with board members who haven't signed up, rather than you.
- [19:19]
Rhea Wong
Oh, I love that. So you're asking them to be accountable to their peers, which is super powerful.
- [19:24]
Faith Galati
Yeah, it works.
- [19:25]
Rhea Wong
So as we're talking through this, I'm wondering, faith, was it all sunshine and roses? What were some of the sticky moments? Did you have any board members who really were not stepping up to the plate?
- [19:36]
Faith Galati
Every one of our board members had potential. I think they just didn't know what it was. And I don't want to take credit for getting them in shape. I think that it was really a matter of us creating space, appropriate space where they could all find their lane and how they could contribute. And it didn't mean that I had to sit down with each one of them. With a one on one, it was as easy as making productive board meetings where we said, this is what we need to do. We had this meeting, we know our goal. We all agree the first step is these dinners. Let's get that going. And then it was next is to start inviting friends, new friends for breakthrough. So I created an event and they invited their friends. So when we had the goals, I was able to support the goals and I had a board member or chair who backed the goals up.
- [20:31]
Rhea Wong
It sounds, and I want to talk about the dinners for a second too, because I think that's powerful, but it sounds like what I'm hearing you say is you gave them a specific role and you were very clear and they were very clear about what was expected of them. And it sounds like you really wanted them to be door openers. Not necessarily the solicitors, not necessarily any the closers, if you were, but just door openers. Is that accurate?
- [20:57]
Faith Galati
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I don't even necessarily need them to make the final ask. I'm happy to do that. That's something that. That I'm skilled at this point. Not personally, but I am skilled at it now. And it's frightening for them to make an ask to their friends. Some. They're very close friends. It's a little easier, but to invite friends in. If they're clear on how I approach it and they trust me, then they're actually happy to introduce me to friends. In fact, they're proud of it.
- [21:27]
Rhea Wong
Yeah.
- [21:28]
Faith Galati
And they have a lot to be proud of because they've been. They've played a major part in this nonprofit's success.
- [21:36]
Rhea Wong
That's beautiful faith. And so I want to unpack some of what you said, because I think it really is very powerful is you were clear about what you were asking. You were clear about what they were going to do and what you. They were not going to do. So if. Because I think a lot of times board members feel nervous about introducing their friends because they think, oh, you're gonna make me ask them for money. No, I'm not. I'm asking you to make an introduction. I'll handle everything else. And I think that's powerful. I'm wondering, what do you say to the board member who says, I don't want you to ask my friends because then they're gonna ask me for money.
- [22:10]
Faith Galati
Oh, interesting. I don't know. I don't want you to ask my friends because they'll ask me for money. There is some amount of. That definitely takes place. So many of us support each other's organizations. If I give X amount to one of my friends, I know that I'm going to be expecting them to step up for me as well. I don't think that should be the fear that keeps you from asking. In fact, I think that I ask. I would ask that board member, why is it that this is your passion? Why is it that you were interested in coming here? You knew we were going to ask for money. And if the passion is important, if the match is right and what you're doing is in alignment with what interests them, then they're going to be all too happy to get involved. And if they ask you, it's again, it's going to be a passion match.
- [22:59]
Rhea Wong
Yeah. And the other thing that you said, which I think is so key, and I think I really want everyone out here to hear it, is that they were clear about what you were going to do and they trusted you. And I think some of the time the reason why people hold back on introductions is that they don't know what you're going to do or say to their friends and they don't want to be embarrassed because the last thing they want to do is show up at the next cocktail party. Faith just jumped to a solicitation was very awkward.
- [23:27]
Faith Galati
Yeah.
- [23:27]
Rhea Wong
All of a sudden I look bad, you look bad. They are wondering why you gave their name up. So how did you make clear to the board what your process was so that they trusted you with their friends and family? Because the truth is like our most valuable asset is our reputation.
- [23:42]
Faith Galati
Absolutely. I think that first I sold them on who I am and that I will always be honest, fair, straightforward and always lead with the facts. And that my purpose, as I repeatedly said and thankful thankfully to your you and your training that I focus on passion and matching passion, that I to make certain that I take the time to make sure they understand fully what we do, how we do it, and then show them ways that they can get involved. Before an ask is made, really make sure we test the water. If you ask before someone's ready, it's a lost opportunity. If you never ask, that's even bigger. Right. So we make sure that I make sure that I set the relationship up and ask the questions that allow them to say, yeah, I'm interested. But I have to tell you more often than not, if I have a friend give us coffee and I do a coffee chat, I do lots of coffee chats. At the end of the coffee chat, when I've shared with them an impassioned story about a child that's been. Whose lives have changed. And I talk about our powerful partners now in the community, I find that they come to me and say, I'd like to make a donation. Or they just leave a check, want to be part of it because they believe in it. If I've got a good presentation, I get good results.
- [25:11]
Rhea Wong
Yeah. Because I think ultimately people want to be part of something that is positive in the world, particularly now. And if we open the door and allow folks and invite them into something that could be meaningful and positive in this world, like why wouldn't you want to? And maybe this is not your thing, but I think we all want to be around community that is achieving good things in the world.
- [25:36]
Faith Galati
It reminds me there is something That I do that I think in presentations makes a difference and sets us apart. It's really easy to come in and play the sad story and it's a bummer. But what people tend to want to be part of is something that works. So my presentations always start with, hey, you already know what's going on in the Department of Education. You probably know that only 20% of our under resourced youth are meeting math standards. Slip that in like maybe they already know it. And then I explain, but I've got good news here. We've got something that works and have working and then set out the results. Who doesn't want to be part of something that's successful and is going to have a more long range impact.
- [26:22]
Rhea Wong
Absolutely. And I think when we lead with a positive vision and we lead with hope, we're also hungry for hope right now. We're also hungry for positivity right now. That I think that's real opportunity. Okay, last two questions. I want to talk about the Jeffersonian dinners, which we've now rebranded as community dinners. But it sounds like this is like a real driver for you to bring warm prospects to the table. So tell me about community dinners.
- [26:48]
Faith Galati
Community dinners, they've really morphed for me, where initially I've done several, where we brought people from different agencies and industries into a table for dinner. We serve up the meal and they've been given a question before they arrive. And for us it's typically, who was your favorite teacher and why? And then I follow up with the next question and the next question. And the rule being that they can't speak to the person on their left or right. They can only speak to the whole group. And everyone loves that. The beautiful thing about these dinners is that they get really excited about the topic. And because they all have different backgrounds and experience they're bringing forth, it's educational for everyone. And by the time we get to the end of the dinner, not only are they excited with what they've learned about each other, they want to talk again and they want to keep talking to me about what happens next. It becomes a springboard for future conversations and it also becomes an incredible friend maker because they've gotten to know you very well and they will be adequately impressed with the intention that you put into listening to the community and their perspectives on a problem that you're trying to solve.
- [28:05]
Rhea Wong
Yeah, community dinners are such a powerful tool to open a relationship and open the door. Because I think so. We're all skeptical and we're all busy and we all have a million things to do. And the opportunity to share a meal and share space and share our values and share our stories is so powerful. And that's when 24 to 48 hours afterwards, you follow up as a start of a relationship.
- [28:32]
Faith Galati
And you know what? It was fun dinner.
- [28:35]
Rhea Wong
I know it's a really fun dinner. And what I'm going to do is for folks who are listening to this on the podcast, I'm going to put a link in the show notes to running your own community dinners if you want to try this in your own nonprofit. So check it out. Okay, last question for you, Faith. Tell me about the $50,000 rum cake.
- [28:56]
Faith Galati
All right. Part of making yourself approachable and personable is to have a thing that you do that you love. I happen to like to bake and I bake rum cakes on emphasis on rum. So for my major donors, I send out a message saying, it's rum cake season, pick your date. And they pick their dates. And I go out in my full holiday decorations and I hand deliver a cake. Oftentimes, more often than not, I hand the cake over and they hand me a check. It is just a sweet and simple way to connect. Now I call it a $50,000 rum cake because one of my kind donors gave me $50,000 over a rum cake three times.
- [29:41]
Rhea Wong
Must be a delicious rum cake.
- [29:43]
Faith Galati
It is a darn good rum cake. I don't think it's 50k worth.
- [29:46]
Rhea Wong
But I have to say don't tell yourself short.
- [29:50]
Faith Galati
It is, it is. But the important part was we have this personal relationship. We enjoy talking to each other. They can relate to how personal and intimate a rum cake is. And I have to say, that same donor taught me something incredibly important that I feel is essential to mention. And you have said as much to me as well. You can't go to the take the money and then not come back again until it's time again because they'll feel disrespected and unappreciated and you will be considered and deemed unworthy. When you take funds, you are entering a relationship and it is up to you to develop that relationship just like you would a personal relationship. Make sure that you reach out to them, make goals for how many times you want to contact that donor in that year. And by all means, make sure your reports are done on time and they are clear because being laid on a report means you don't care. To them not being clear, not giving them updates, not including them is a mistake. It's a lost opportunity, really. Is as easy as an email blast every three months that even just has one article that you picked up on the outside that supports your efforts. It's a simple thing to do. We just have to make the commitment to do it.
- [31:10]
Rhea Wong
Yeah. Beautifully said. I always think about. I talk about this a lot. That Danny Meyer, who's a restaurateur here in New York, his motto is, everyone is walking around with an invisible sign around their neck that says, make me feel special. And I think when you deliver your rum cakes personally, and that's a big thing, too, you show up dressed up in your holiday gear, and you hand over a rum cake that says, you matter. I care about you. I was thinking about you, and that makes all the difference. So, Faith, thank you so much for being on with me. This is a lot of fun, and I'm so glad that you're doing so well.
- [31:45]
Faith Galati
Oh, my pleasure. And I can't thank you enough. I do not believe I would be nearly as successful at this point had I not found you and been directed to you to pick up and take off. It made all the difference for us at Breakthrough Sacramento.
- [32:01]
Rhea Wong
Oh, thank you so much. Also, they have an incredible dynamic leader. So there's that, too.
- [32:06]
Faith Galati
Yes, absolutely. We're very fortunate.
- [32:08]
Rhea Wong
Thank you so much, friend. We'll talk to you soon. And, folks, if you want to get in touch with Faith, I will make sure to put her LinkedIn. Is that okay? You're LinkedIn?
- [32:16]
Faith Galati
Yeah, LinkedIn. And send to breakthroughsack.org they can reach me through that website as well. And I'm faith, breakthroughsack.org happy to share my rum cake recipe.
- [32:26]
Rhea Wong
Oh, now you're about to get some emails. Give me that $50,000 rum cake recipe. All right, Faith, thank you so much. Take care, everyone. And until next time, we'll see you soon. Oh, sorry. Go ahead.
- [32:40]
Faith Galati
The beauty of what you do and what you did for Breakthrough was you put steps and words to actions for us where sometimes we intuitively think we know how. Am I going to meet with a funder, find a funder? I can look them up on Google and I can try to make friends. But going through your program, I was able, actually able to identify. This is my step one, my step two, my step three. So I was able to articulate the steps and the actions and was much more clear about my approach. Going on autopilot like I had been prior to working with you was dangerous because I was missing out.
- [33:19]
Rhea Wong
Yeah. Thank you for saying that, because I really do think where I think my program excels is really breaking things down into actionable steps. Because I. I think when I was coming up, I just got advice. I could just listen your way to a gift. I'm like, what do you mean by that? Like, literally, I just need the words to say, and if you don't have that kind of structure, to your point, you're winging it. And that may or may not work.
- [33:44]
Faith Galati
Yeah. I'd like to add that I think everybody needs a mentor. We need someone to bounce these ideas off of or who can say, hey, you know what? I know that doesn't work. And I have benefited from being able to come to your office hours and say, I got a limited budget. Is it really worth my time to have this major event rather than focus on getting the individual grants? And you were able to provide me with research that supported how to make the right decision here. Do you do the event? Do you do the grants? How much time should I be focusing on my individual donors? Compared to grant development and grant support and fundraising, I was wasting way too much time. In major events that were costly with not adequate results, the time got shifted over to hunting for grants and then spending the time to care for those infinitely more productive for us.
- [34:41]
Rhea Wong
Yeah. Thank you for saying that. And the other thing that I always think about, I say this all the time, like, Serena Williams has a coach like, you can be the best in the world, but we all need someone who can see the court, as it were, a little bit differently. And when I speak to people who are fundraising, maybe they're starting out, maybe they're seasoned, but I really think everyone can benefit from a coach, a strategic coach who can help them see the game a little bit differently and how they can improve. So thank you for saying that.
- [35:10]
Faith Galati
And I agree. And there's a lot to be said for having some social equity here. There's a lot that I get from being able to communicate with you and you can make introductions with other people who have worked with you. Another item that I really enjoyed about each session was being able to compare and contrast what we were doing with other people. Running non profits. Invaluable.
- [35:35]
Rhea Wong
Yeah. Yeah. The community piece is, to me, the number one piece of, especially as an E. It's such a lonely job. Like, you are the only one who has to deal with all the things. And so being able to build a community of people who have similar challenges, similar responsibilities is really important.
- [35:52]
Faith Galati
I think regularly how important it is for me to know what the best practices are in every new area that I'm going off into. I don't have the time nor the money nor should I be recreating the wheel. Talk to other people who've done it already. Try to learn from each other and then you pay it forward by teaching another non what you've learned. And that is the beauty of how we can function and do it really well.
- [36:16]
Rhea Wong
Beautiful. Thank you friend. I really appreciate you.
- [36:19]
Faith Galati
Thank you. Thank you for asking. Bye bye.
- [36:21]
Rhea Wong
Take care. Bye. Hey fundraisers. Looking to to nail those big fundraising asks? Check out my Big Ask gift program@riawong.com Bag say goodbye to uncertainty and hello to confidence with my program. Get expert strategies and personalized support to secure those game changing donations. Don't let fear hold you back. Join me and take your fundraising to new heights. We're enrolling now@riawong.com bag that's riawong.com bag. So if you like big asks and you cannot lie, I'll see you in the program.