“There's a weird dynamic between sponsors and attendees. And so, instead, we've really tried to find sponsors who bring value to the attendees and actually give them something they're going to learn and give them something they use.” – Simon Scriver, Nikki Bell

Nikki Bell and Simon Scriver are the co-founders of Fundraising Everywhere, an online training and support community for fundraisers. Through their hard work and dedication, Nikki and Simon were able to provide their staff with pay rises and other benefits, and introduce new methods to make their events and conferences more accessible.

Highlights:

• How Nikki Bell and Simon Scriver started Fundraising Everywhere and their journey to success

• The ROI of making values-based decisions and how they incorporate values into day-to-day operations 

• Growing an affordable and accessible online community 

• Bridging the digital gap for nonprofits through their own virtual event platform: Everywhere+ 

• Generating leads with different business models and strategies

Connect with Nikki Bell and Simon Scriver :

Website: https://www.fundraisingeverywhere.com/

Fundraising Everywhere (Twitter): https://twitter.com/FundEverywhere

Nikki Bell (Linkedin): https://uk.linkedin.com/in/nikki-bell

Simon Scriver (Linkedin): https://ie.linkedin.com/in/simonscriver

Find Us Online:  https://www.confessionswithjessandcindy.com/

Connect with Cindy:

Cindy Wagman Coaching https://cindywagman.com/

The Good Partnership https://www.thegoodpartnership.com/

Connect with Jess: 

Out In the Boons: https://www.outintheboons.me/

Transcript:

[00:00:00] Cindy: Welcome to the Confessions Podcast. I'm Cindy Wagman.

[00:00:03] Jess: And I'm Jess Campbell. We're two former in-house-nonprofit pros turned coaches and consultants to purpose-driven organizations.

[00:00:11] Cindy: After years of building up our separate six-figure businesses from scratch, we've thrown a lot of spaghetti at the wall and have lived to see what sticks.

[00:00:20] Jess: We're on a mission to help other nonprofit coaches and consultants looking to start or scale sell their own businesses past the six-figure mark by pulling back the curtain.

[00:00:30] Cindy: Whether you're still working inside a nonprofit and thinking of one day going out on your own or you've been running your consulting business for years, you understand that working with nonprofits is just different. We're giving you access to the business leaders who serve nonprofits as their clients. You know, the people who truly get it.

[00:00:52] Jess: No more gatekeeping. No more secrets. This podcast is going to give you an inside look at what running a successful nonprofit coaching and consulting business looks like. Basically, we're asking people how much money they make, how they get paid, and what has and hasn't worked in their businesses.

[00:01:11] Cindy: We'll listen in as these leaders share their insights, their numbers, and the good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes to building a nonprofit coaching or consulting business. We're going to empower you to make the power moves that give you the income and freedom you set out to create from day one.

[00:01:28] Jess: You ready? Let's go.

[00:01:31] Cindy: Hey, Jess.

[00:01:37] Jess: Hi. We're back.

Cindy and Jess: We're back. [singing]

[00:01:37] Cindy: Okay, I can't even sing because I don't know the song which is the running theme of this podcast, I know. But today, we are going to talk about the Confessions song. It comes up in the conversation, but more importantly, we are having an amazing conversation with Simon and Nikki from Fundraising Everywhere, who... I think their business model is so cool. And I would say they're, I mean--

[00:02:07] Jess: They're so cool.

[00:02:07] Cindy: They're so cool and they're killing it overseas and growing in North America and they're just leading with their values in such a unique and powerful way.

[00:02:19] Jess:Yeah, I love speaking to both Nikki and Simon because I think sometimes when you're a consultant, especially at the beginning and you're balancing being equitable with also, frankly, just getting paid it can feel like a rub and Nikki and Simon really walked us through both their decision making process, their bounce off of each other and then also about how to run a business that doesn't include sacrifice? I mean, maybe that's not even the right word because they don't see it as sacrifice. They see it as just what's the right thing to do, even if that might mean less revenue, because they always see those planting seeds or putting flowers out to come back to them tenfold.

[00:03:13] Cindy: Yeah, I mean, they clearly think through every decision that they make and how it aligns with their values and things that we don't always think about, you know, still have that lens. So with that, it's a pleasure to introduce our conversation with Nikki Bell and Simon Scriver from Fundraising Everywhere.

[00:03:36] Cindy: Nikki, Simon, welcome to the podcast.

[00:03:38] Nikki: Hello, how are you?

[00:03:40] Simon: Hello.

[00:03:40] Cindy: Hello. Welcome. So for those of... let's dive in with who are you and what do you do? Because I'm so excited to talk about your business, I think you've made a really interesting shift in how you serve the sector. So give us a little background. Nikki, you want to start?

[00:04:02] Nikki: Okay, cool. So my background, I've worked with charities now for about 12, 13 years. So I actually started in house at a local smaller organization and then worked for large nationals, amazing jobs or a lot like other kinds of class fundraisers started in face to face and did like the telephone door knocking thing. Moved into community and spent a bit of time after the in-house jobs, working as a consultant for a couple of years and then it was during the time of consultancy and that I bumped into Simon and was asking him for some public speaking skills which I'm sure he'll cover in his intro about his background there and and why that was. And then through working together and being on the conference circuit in the sector, we realized that there was huge barriers in the professional development space and people accessing the tools and confidence that they needed to do their job well and to be safe and supported. And that's where Fundraising Everywhere came from. And for anyone that isn't familiar with Fundraising Everywhere, we are an online training and support community for fundraisers everywhere. And we exist to make the sector a better place for fundraisers. And we do that through conferences, and webinars, and authenticity and just human connection and bringing people together in an online accessible platform.

[00:05:34] Simon: Yeah. And I'm Simon Scriver. So before Nikki, I started as an on street fundraiser. I think you might call them canvases or chuggers, some people call them. So that was... next year, that'll be 20 years ago, which seems really like the numbers don't seem to add up. But yeah, nearly 20 years ago. And I worked in fundraising agencies and I worked in-house in a charity and then I was a freelance consultant. And then as Nikki said, we bumped into each other and we felt like something was missing, something wasn't working. And you know, some of the resources that we wanted in our growth as fundraisers, as especially as junior fundraisers that were never there, we wanted to deliver. So we wanted to put that out. And so we looked at ways to do that and that was the birth, the birth of Fundraising Everywhere.

[00:06:32] Nikki: You missed out the part where you won the public speaking champion.

[00:06:36] Simon: Well, I don't, I don't like saying that because my anxiety levels over COVID have just destroyed me. So now if I tell people I'm a good public speaker, they're like, "Well, no, you're not." But yeah, so I used to run a lot or I still do. I run a lot of training and speaking at a lot of conferences. And yes, I did represent the UK and Ireland at the world Public Speaking Championship and I got disqualified because I went over time and yeah. So I do have a love for public speaking but I also have a massive fear of it and I think that's kind of come into Fundraising Everywhere as well. You know, there's a lot of people out there who have so much knowledge and so much experience, but they're afraid to share it. And so a big part of our Fundraising Everywhere journey has been trying to help people step up who maybe have never stepped up before and I mean that's one of my favorite things we do is we give people their first speaking gig. And yes, that's been really important part for me.

[00:07:33] Cindy: I have so many questions, so I'm going to give you a choice. This is a choose your own adventure scenario. You have a tech platform, essentially, so we could talk about that. But you're also very value driven. So you get to pick which direction we head in first, building the platform or running a business that puts your values first. Where do you want to start? Perfect.

[00:08:01] Nikki: Values first. Thank you.

[00:08:03] Cindy: So you have made very intentional decisions around how you place your values into your business decisions like Simon, you were just talking about making sure people have opportunities to speak who would typically not participate in other spaces. I know you pay your speakers and you have lots of other ways that you continue to live your values. Can you talk a little bit about what some of those decisions have been and which ones were easy and were there some hard ones?

[00:08:41] Simon: Yeah, I mean I I think you touched on a big part of it was was in that we pay speakers, I think you know that's that kind of sums up a lot of what we do because we you know not just around speakers but paying and compensating for their time fairly, people who are around us and people who help us achieve what we help. So you know, we try to pay our staff fairly and we try and pay our staff well even during this kind of cost of living crisis, we've just given them all a pay raise. Everyone except Nikki and I got a pay raise.

[00:09:15] Simon: So things like that. Really trying to look after our staff with flexible hours in the way that they all have very different needs and are very different people. And so we try and just make it very equitable. We do a lot of work in our recruitment and in terms of getting access to people and Nikki is much better positioned to talk to that because really I have to defer to Nikki with this like the work Nikki has done with the company in terms of keeping us on the right track has been amazing. You know obviously Nick and I have a lot of shared values which is why we went into business together.

[00:09:51] Simon: But the work, you know there's a lot of work behind it and then there's a lot of research behind it and what you assume is good is not necessarily good. So there's been some really interesting things that have been brought in that we're new to me. You know things like when we recruit staff, we give them the interview questions in advance and that was a really interesting move that we did in terms of just making it easier and opening up these positions for people who maybe otherwise wouldn't have been able to achieve that. And some of the perks we've given staff and some of the ways we've worked with partners and stuff, it's always just been conscious of like, "Is this the right thing to do?" But it's been a lot of work and Nikki has just been, I mean, yeah, I have to say thank you to Nikki because Nikki is kind of led on it really.

[00:10:37] Nikki: Thank you. And for a lot of the kind of sector facing stuff as well because it's important like Simon said, you know for the we have to live it and feel it as a team for it to be able to be pushed outwards. And in terms of things that we've done for the sector. So we started off our very first event, you know pain speakers and then when the company started because initially, it wasn't meant to be a company, it was just supposed to be like once a year event that we did as consultants. And then once we hosted that first event, pre-pandemic in September 2019, we actually know this more that we need to do here. So we just went all in with it as Fundraising Everywhere the company. And then as soon as we... I think it was May 2020, so really soon after we upped that pay for speakers. So it's like €250 per hour now and they don't have to ask, everyone gets it.

[00:11:26] Nikki: And we are the only organization as well from day one that's had very clear EDI goals and we measured those consistently and published them. So we've actually just put a review out on that and we've all achieved which I'm really excited about, but there's still more to do to make sure that we continue that work and also make sure that we're reaching the right people in terms of our attendees. And so that's the stuff like the date, but then the I guess like the key moment for me in realizing what we do and why it's important and and how good it feels was in 2020, there was news in the UK about how COVID was impacting charity organizations and how you know like 1/3 of charities were going to close in 9/10 of those organizations. We're going to be ones that were led by or exist for people of colour. And me, and Simon had a chat about like, "What could we do?" And we were like, "All right, we'll give access to our stuff for free."

[00:12:24] Nikki: But when we were chatting about it, we're like, "Well, the stuff that we have doesn't help them because that's completely different position and situation that we're that they're in." So we came up with the idea of a fundraising conference for specifically for people of colour and the situations that they were facing both in society and the sector. But obviously, we were like, "We can't lead this, we need to hire somebody with experience in this paid obviously," and we brought Martha, our job in who's meant... I'm sure you've heard of her already. If you haven't already got on the podcast I definitely get along because she'll be great. And she just took it to mid levels like it was huge like reach Lord's people obviously did Lord's to bring income in which then got donated back out to charities.

[00:13:04] Nikki: But the key moment for us around our values and how that helped us then, we then gave that event to Martha and GMB Consultant which is a Black woman consultancy. And we're just like look like for why it exists. It has to be owned by you because you can do more for this obviously, you know you can do it consistently it can't just be like a once a year thing. And and you know, they have like they've just completely took it and flown so but we don't like, you know, it's we weren't like straight on and like I don't know we've done this like it's just constantly like every day like how do we make decisions based on what's right for people and the sector like we barely do you know I mean? We'll get into the numbers stuff later but we barely like look at the budgets and the income and stuff. We're like, "We'll just do it," and then like a few times a year we'll we'll like look at it and--

[00:13:54] Simon: Well, speak for yourself. I'm--

[00:13:56] Nikki: Well, I do!

[00:13:54] Simon: I don't feel like I'm dreaming about stressing out here everyday.

[00:14:00] Nikki: I know. Bless you and thank you for taking that on. But yeah, it's just, I think as we've been on the other side, we've been a fundraiser, we've been a consultant and obviously, and you swear on this podcast. Okay. So obviously, we've had the shit stuff that's happened to us and we've been treated like shit. Yeah. So we always want good to go out to other people and whether it's small things like paying invoices, today they come into big things like that. It's just what would you do to make humans feel good? And that's pretty much what drives our decisions.

[00:14:38] Jess: I love you. We just met and I've said this on the podcast before like nothing makes my blood boil more than people of privilege. Like we're 4 white people talking on this show right here that are so superficial like they say one thing, do another like people who walk the walk in my eyes are, I mean, I'm just really like thank you, and I've already learned four ideas from you. Yet I'm sitting here thinking, you all are running a business and so, number one, how do you afford to do this? You also just mentioned that you all haven't given yourself a raise, which you know, that comes from a place of privilege, right? So I'm wondering, number one, my first question is number one, how do you afford to make these decisions? And number two, what has been the ROI or what has been some of the positive results that have led or resulted from this type of action or leadership or anything like that?

[00:15:49] Nikki: To the latter question, the more good stuff that we put out, we know that good stuff comes back. We know that if we do things equitably and fairly, and just do it in a human way that people are going to want to join us as a community. And whether that's, you know, a speaker coming and sharing their knowledge through the platform, which then obviously results in people joining events and paying for a ticket. That's what happens there. Or whether it's a partner wanting to sponsor and we have a partner policy, we don't just partner with anybody. They have to be on the same vibe. There's also we have said no to people because they have come in and we wanted to do this and that and we're like, "No, that's not what we're about."

[00:16:30] Nikki: And so, this year, no... 2022, last year we did invest in how we communicated with the sector, so we brought in ahead of growth marketing and a community manager to look after our community and that was a big thing for us because once we did that and we were able to share more stories, talk to people in the right places in the right way and then look after them when they were in, that obviously has has built the income from from the business over the last couple of years.

[00:17:00] Nikki: And in terms of how we get paid, we get paid a wage from the company. So this is one company that we have. We have Fundraising Everywhere, which is the one that we're talking about, but we also have the platform that we run the events on, which is a separate one. So they kind of help us in different ways in different places.

[00:17:20] Simon: On that point of privilege, I think, obviously, we are coming from a place of privilege to... I mean, especially myself in terms of white male with with a decent background. You know, Nikki, well, I won't speak for Nikki but Nikki working class and lots of issues... but no, not really. But you know, we both recognize that there is a place of privilege but it's in terms of how you afford to do it. It's not about us running this unpaid or making complete sacrifices. It's about that everyone can make, you know, I suppose these little sacrifices to make a more equitable world. And we're looking for a truly equitable world. The top 50% of people have to reduce what they have. You know, that's just maths. And so everyone kind of has to do that.

[00:18:11] Simon: But at the same time, there's ways to do and I think like with our partners, we take extra time to talk to our partners about why they're paying, what they're paying because, obviously, we need them to fund some of it. And when you explain, that we wanna pay all of our speakers or that we wanna do this, they can get behind it. But everyone has to make that little sacrifice. And then that all adds up to make it runnable. But I think, yes, there's a level of privilege there. But I think so much of what we're doing is stuff that we truly believe every business can do and every conference organizer can do and every person out there can do.

[00:18:49] Simon: We hear a lot of excuses about why they can't do it, especially around things like paying speakers, we always get pushed back on that and people telling us we shouldn't be paying speakers and things like that. And that that usually comes from more of a place of privilege like the privileged don't want to make these changes because it jeopardizes their privilege. Whereas for us it's kind of like, "Okay, we know we have to take a bit of a hit on this and we it might cost us in the short run," but otherwise why are we doing this you know what's the point because that we could be only way more in the private sector and so there's lots of ways we could be doing this, but just trying to keep ourselves in check the whole time it's worked.

[00:19:31] Nikki: And you know, I mean, despite the growth that we've had over the past few years, there are sticky moments as well as usual experience as business owners and freelancers. So to make sure that the people that we work with and our team are all looked after like there have been months where me and Simon haven't got paid. Do you know, because for me, it's the future of the company is more important that they keep it there. So it's not to say that it's all been like rosy and smooth like they have obviously been sticky moments.

[00:20:01] Nikki: But I think, when you're doing just to bring it back to that point I was saying before like when you're doing good, the good will come back. So I've learned to have grit there and know that it's all going to be alright in three, four, five months.

[00:20:15] Simon: And we haven't done everything right. We've made a lot, we've made mistakes and maybe not done things the best way they could, but we've always tried to be really open and transparent about it. And with a couple of our... say partners that we've been maybe unsure of, we've put it to our community and we put it to our members and asked them what they would like to see happen and try to take that on board. So I mean, I think there's a big divide in the world today where it's like people see the options as doing nothing good or doing everything perfectly and flawlessly. But actually, the truth is we're all kind of somewhere in the middle and I think what we're trying to do is not be afraid to make mistakes, but actually, not make them twice, maybe. You know, kind of learn from what people are doing. People push back to us or people say to us, ask a lot of questions. I ask a lot of stupid questions and that usually kind of is quite enlightening. And just yeah, just being really, really aware that we don't know everything at all. And so, so we just, we're learning this with everyone else around us.

[00:21:24] Jess: Okay, Nikki and Simon, we are back for another round of rapid fire questions. You up for playing?

[00:21:31] Nikki and Simon: Yeah.

[00:21:32] Jess: Okay, amazing. Who is a nonprofit speaker who you think more people need to know about?

[00:21:42] Simon: Oh, we got so many speakers, who's caught you?

[00:21:45] Nikki: I would feel really bad, if I said someone and they're not someone else.

[00:21:50] Simon: Really?

[00:21:52] Nikki: Sorry. Great start, isn't it? Like rapid fire?

[00:21:55] Simon: You know? Who do you know who we should rave about is Josh. A friend of Fundraising Everywhere. Josh Lee and he does a lot of speaking and and you know, I'm going to say that people should pay attention to him because he's such a smarty pants. He's so entertaining, he's so fun with his talks. He talks at our events sometimes and if you haven't heard of Josh Lee, he's a bit of a digital marketing guru in the nonprofit sector based out of... well, he's actually based out of Germany but he's an Australian guy. So he was the first one to come to my mind but I generally think about Josh 24/7.

[00:22:30] Nikki: That's true. So when you were talking about mint personality and vibrancy and stuff, I don't know if you said that about Josh but that's what I think about. But Jeff Boachie who we've recently had on some of our events. He was working for shelter and is now gone down the consultant route and he's on this mission to take everything that he's learned as a digital consultant and working with big charities and like giving it to the smalls. So I really like that. And I know that he's do a lot with the small, so yeah.

[00:23:08] Jess: Love it. Okay, next question. What is the best vent experience you've experienced?

[00:23:18] Simon: Do you know what? I think you are and Cindy, were you were at the Donor Love Rendezvous in Toronto? Were you at that the first one?

[00:23:28] Jess: No.

[00:23:29] Simon: It was a really lovely... I mean, I love any conference in Canada, is especially fun because Canadians are just so lovely. But that was one organized by the likes of Rory Green and John Lepp and Jen Love. And excuse me if I forget who I've forgotten, but I remember that there was a guy there in his pajamas and it was a really bright, beautiful venue and they had like 'punching' at the break and things like that and it was just really... And you know, all the event experiences that have stood out for me are the ones where it's really homely and friendly and it's a bit laid back and things like that. We went to one in... was it Bratislava? And it was just so friendly and so lovely. And so, yeah, I think anything where it just feels like it's just a gathering of people as opposed to a big hotel talking at you kind of thing. Yeah.

[00:24:24] Nikki: I'm quite introverted, so it takes me 10 minutes to think of an answer, so maybe rapid fire isn't my strong point. But since Simon was talking, I've had time to think and from a virtual event perspective, we hosted an event on our platform and from an organization called Women for Women. And it was absolutely mend. The hosts were just so energetic and human and really, you could tell that they got on and they were just really bringing that vibe across to people at home. But they had like a lush program of talks that they had like, you know, just people at home, talking about why the organization mattered to them. And then they had the views, they had activists and then they had a break with a sound bath and it was just... oh, it was lovely. Really, really good. Like a really great way of showing how events don't have to be like this polished and perfect production. It's just about connection and people. So I really like that one. So shout out to the Women for Women team.

[00:25:20] Jess: I love their team. That's a good example and organization. Okay, last question, if you each could call in a dream sponsor, who would it be?

[00:25:33] Simon: Sponsor like a company or a company? So I mean, I got to be thinking from the angle of getting free stuff and it's hard. It's actually hard now because any company you mentioned that could sponsor is almost certainly unethical and there's some like... because the one I want to say, the first one that comes to my lips... I'm like, "This is the nicest company in the world," but then I'm starting to remember all this terrible stuff people are saying. But I want Disney. I want Disney to sponsor. And I mean, one of our dreams when we set up the company, we said we know we've made it when we do a staff away trip to Disney and I think that's a great way of cutting costs is getting a Disney sponsor who will fly us, the team out there to maybe host the event from there. So I'm going to say Disney, I'm not interested in all the pushback about all the terrible, terrible stuff going on behind the scenes.

[00:26:28] Nikki: [overlap] to Simon and turn to Everywhere.com.

[00:26:31] Simon: This is rapid fire, you cannot expect me to look through all the layers of ethics. That's the first one that came to mind.

[00:26:36] Nikki: We would do due diligence.

[00:26:36] Cindy: Fun fact, maybe not Disney, but Abigail Disney, who is I think the daughter of Walt Disney, is a huge activist and very, very interesting in terms of what she's done with that legacy. So...

[00:26:51] Simon: I'm trying to untangle some of the, I mean weird beliefs of the historic Disney. So yeah, but already that I can see my answer is a bit problematic. But...

[00:27:02] Cindy: It's okay, we won't cancel it.

[00:27:03] Jess: We'll talk offline, but I know someone who should speak at one of your conferences. He's been a speaker at one of mine, and he heads up the Roy and Patricia Disney Foundation, and he's this amazing African-American photographer like putting all of his money into South LA like Sean Escoffery.

[00:27:31] Nikki: You've just manifested that, Simon, you spoke at an existence.

[00:27:31] Simon: We've got it.

[00:27:32] Jess:How about you, Nikki?

[00:27:33] Nikki: Well, my first thought was Ben and Jerry's because I thought if we could send everybody who attends our event like an ice cream like why wouldn't you sign up, however that would be. And also like--

[00:27:43] Cindy: I would be at every single event.

[00:27:44] Nikki: Well, we do plant a tree for every attendee that comes to our event. So you know, you can plant trees, you have ice cream, the choices. I'll send you ice cream, Cindy. And they do a lot. They say that they're an activist company that's funded by selling ice cream. So I like that vibe, but I was also thinking something like Joe Patagonia, because they're owned by the planet now. And I was like, I'd love to do something with them where we could take virtual conferences, out, away from the desk. Because one of the things that mean Simon talked about quite a lot is you don't have to be at your desk with a virtual conference, you can speak from anywhere. You can take it anywhere. You can be outdoors. And I'm like, I'm quite an outdoorsy person. I love all the mountain stuff. I'm training to be a mountain leader. So if I could do something to combine the mountains with virtual events, that might be amazing. And so...

[00:28:30] Simon: Yeah, I mean...

[00:28:31] Cindy: How to go to Patagonia?

[00:28:33] Cindy: Patagonia, listen.

[00:28:34] Simon: It's on our road map to really encourage people to watch these events in different places, in different groups and even while they're walking and things like that and shout out to people like Paul Nazareth who's done his net walking for years. And I could totally see a group of people hiking up a mountain, all listening to the same streaming event as a conference and then every once in a while, as they have their break they're discussing the session that was on before. So I think there's a lot of scope there to bag Patagonia and Disney.

[00:29:08] Jess: Here we go. Say it and it will be. Thank you both so much for playing.

[00:29:12] Nikki: Thank you.

[00:29:12] Simon: Thank you.

[00:29:19] Cindy: So many great insights there and I want to talk a little bit about because I want to talk about the business model. We've talked a little bit around it, but you have these virtual... I don't even know if you want to call them conferences or summits or sessions. You have the membership experience. Yeah. And you have the sponsors, you have members and by having members, you have community. So tell us a little bit about how the business gets paid and let's start with that.

[00:29:59] Simon: Yeah. So our income comes from primarily you've touched on the three sources of income which is ticket sales, membership and sponsorship, you know sponsors and partners. And so, the three of those are reasonably balanced, I would say, that actually each one probably represents about 1/3 of our income. Obviously, it's changing quite a lot because we're only a few years old. And things like membership grows... What's the word where it just kind of keeps growing because obviously, it's a monthly or an annual thing and so you're kind of building on that. Whereas ticket sales, every day you have to sell more tickets.

[00:30:38] Simon: So something like membership is growing, bar income comes from about split equally between those. So ticket sales, it's just people attending our one off events or our conferences. We run a lot of free events as well but we've got like the premium conferences and events that people pay for the membership, people pay a monthly fee or an annual fee and it's actually way cheaper than buying tickets and then you get access to everything. And that's been a real focus for us because obviously, it's recurring income. We know it's coming in next month and like regular givers and for nonprofits it's the bread and butter. So we put a lot of work in terms of moving our ticket purchases into that funnel to try and convert them to members. And then our partners, we've touched on that like our sponsors just really trying to work with the right sponsors who share our values and not seeing it as like.

[00:31:31] Simon: I feel like when we talk to conferences or when we go to conferences, it's almost like they try and trick attendees into talking to sponsors or something, you know? There's a weird dynamic between sponsors and attendees. And so instead, we've really tried to find sponsors who bring value to the attendees and actually give them something they're going to learn and give them something they use. And that seems to work much better in terms of conversions and keeping attendees happy, but also keeping our sponsors and partners happy. Yeah.

[00:32:00] Jess: It's really helpful, especially someone that's just getting to know your business. And I run some of my business is similar, in style. I have two virtual conferences. One is for the nonprofit fundraising community, the other is for nonprofit consultant and coaching communities. And one of the things that I learned when I surveyed my nonprofit consultant community is that the number one pain point that a majority of folks have is lead gen. And you all have a very one to many business model. And I'm curious with the ongoing nature of your events and growing your membership, where and how are you generating leads on an ongoing consistent basis?

[00:32:45] Nikki: I mean, we have a county lodge mailing list already of around 10,000 people and that tends to be the main driver of a lot of the events that we have going on. And we have a fantastic head of growth marketing who I want to name check Alex Seguidas who makes all the magic happen and she does a lot of work in outreach into the sector either through social media and whether it's you know podcasts like this for people and find out more about what we do and hopefully, want take part in it.

[00:33:16] Nikki: We also work with Affiliates, so other people in the sector who have a big community and big lists as well. And they will promote the conferences into their own community if obviously, it matches with their niche because we have different topics of different conferences and we pay them like for the people that they refer on to us. And as Simon mentioned, like a big focus for us is to make sure that we have people in as members, not only because it's good for recurrent income, but it's good for building community and we've brought in Mandi Hine, she's our community manager and she does a lot around like social listening in the sector, both online, in articles, in her networks as well with her volunteering that she does. And she just reaches out to people and was like can I have a cup of tea?

[00:34:02] Nikki: So there's a definite split there of like your depth stuff of like, "Hey, let's get to know each other, what's your problems and how can we solve it?" And then obviously, you have the social stuff. We did try paid social twice, didn't work, but we tried, we tried it twice. Of course, it's all about where can we go, where maybe people feel a little bit not valued and they're already thinking like, "Hang on a second, I deserve better." And then we want to kind of be there and be like, "Yeah, you do," this is where you can get it. So those are the methods that we have at the moment.

[00:34:39] Simon: Yeah, there's a huge range of different things because we have our partners and our sponsors kind of bring in leads through their own contacts, our speakers bring in leads, our speakers encourage people to register for events. We have things like, I mean, you can do this with any product. But one of the great things with virtual products is we can give away as many free tickets in theory as we want. So we use that a lot to get people on our list. But this started even before the company. You know, when both myself and Nikki were consultants, we both had mailing lists. And I mean I can't speak for Nikki, but I started building my mailing list when I was in my previous job, when I was working in a charity. I knew eventually, I'd be a consultant. So there was a lot of blog posts, speaking at conferences and building that list.

[00:35:27] Simon: And so, I mean, it was amazing. When we did our first conference, it was actually quite easy to secure sponsors and to secure speakers who wanted to work with us and even to start selling tickets because we already had these lists behind us. And so, we've just kind of grown on that. You know, the beginning is hard when you're building a list. And so I think you do have to start even before you're selling anything, you have to start building that list and we had done that and it paid off at the beginning. And now it's just, yeah, we're able to invest back in it through the ways Nikki said. And just keep getting ourselves out there. Keep running free things that brings in legion, keep speaking at conferences, keep doing amazing podcasts like this. You know, anything we can do to kind of get people across to pay attention to us.

[00:36:15] Nikki: And what was it that I was going to say? I've kept forgetting it and then I came back and then it's gone away, again... never mind.

[00:36:23] Cindy: I've gotten to the point where I have to have a pencil and paper next to me and write down all the ideas.

[00:36:29] Nikki: I know. It was something very... oh, oh, that was what I was going to say. Yes. Because obviously, we kind of came in with the values thing. Like we have to start with this conversation. And this year, we've definitely seen an uptick in people promoting us without, you know, people that we don't know befriend because when we started, because we were on the conference circuit already, we had this kind of group of people and stuff. But now, we're actually seeing people that we've never met before. Being like a hundred and everywhere is meant like you should get involved and that feels really nice. But I know that's not accidental. It's because of the work that the speakers put in to give it a show that Alex puts in and Mandi puts in. So it's really exciting to see that pay off.

[00:37:07] Simon: That word of mouth, I mean, we can't stress how important that's been for us. You know, the first conference, people sharing how great it was on social media, that really helped. Actually, us asking people to promote it, as cringey as that feels sometimes, it really works, trying to get some key influencers to share it. And yeah, I mean, I think word of mouth, especially at the beginning, was so important for us. And just by trying to do things right and trying to be human about it and trying to be a little different about it, it caught people's eyes to the point that they would actually tell someone or invite someone. And so, yeah, it's great now seeing people that we don't know at all recommend us or point people towards us, that's been amazing.

[00:37:48] Nikki: We should highlight as well that we don't use Zoom teams, we have our own virtual events platform that we host our own events on. So for us, from day one, the reason why we built that platform was because experience was really important and that actually is our overarching word of 2023. It's experience where we can give every single person that interacts with us in whatever way an amazing experience, whether it's a speaker, as an attendee, as a partner, good stuff will come. And so that's my word for the year and the team's word for the year. They don't know it yet. I haven't presented it yet, we'll find out about it on this podcast. But it's experience. So even when people come to an event, the reason why they're sharing it isn't just because you know they've seen this content that's made them feel amazing like the whole platform and everything is great as well. So everything about it is just like share worthy.

[00:38:34] Simon: Did you, did you notice I was pretending that I knew the word was experience because I was like, "Oh, this must be something. I've just forgotten this one." But yeah, I mean, last year, I remember. I don't know if you remember this Nikki, but we had a good few speakers who came out of speaking of a conference and they were like going on to social media saying I've had just such a great experience as a speaker. Like recording---

[00:38:55] Nikki: Requested. Yeah, unprompted, it was nice.

[00:38:56] Simon: A few people did and they said they had a great experience. They got paid, it felt different for them and that was great promo and it's not that we were trying to get them to do that. But again, if you're just like, you know it's such an old cliche around customer service, but if you kind of treat these people right, they will go and tell people.

[00:39:17] Cindy: Also, one day, we'll have Rickesh on this podcast when he's ready.I know, the best. I want to talk a little bit about the platform... understanding that this experience and I would say overall like you're disruptors, right, you see a problem and you're like, "Let's fix it." Sorry if that term made you uncomfortable like, "Are we though?" You're disruptors in the sector, own it? I would love to hear because I don't think either of you have a background in tech yet you saw this gap in terms of there was no platform that would give you the experience you wanted to create for your audience. So you built it. How the hell did that happen? And tell us about what that was like.

[00:40:09] Nikki: This is all Simon, full credit to him, so I'll let him take this one.

[00:40:14] Simon: Thank you. Yeah. I mean, I don't know how much credit I have because there's obviously lots of problems all the time or they used to be anyway before we started bringing in people who actually knew what they were doing. But yeah, I mean, at the beginning it was like I'm a bit of a nerd and even as a kid with my dad, I was kind of big into computers and learning basic programming and stuff like that. So but really, just like cursory knowledge. I know a little bit about a lot of things, but I wouldn't say I'm an expert on anything.

[00:40:47] Simon: So for that first conference, yeah, I mean one of the things for Nikki and I was like you know things like Zoom and stuff, it looks so pants and just a lot of the options out there were just so bland and so not the vibe we wanted to give. And there's so much extra stuff around and we were like, "No, we just want people to focus on this and the only other thing we want people to do is get in touch with us for the next step." And so we were like, "Okay, I think we can actually build something like this." And I mean one of the great things about today, these days, is the Internet is just... I know Cindy you're like this and I assume Jess if you hang out with Cindy, you're probably the same that you can go online and you can find a tutorial of how to self publish a book and you can do it all for yourself from there or you can go online and you can find out how do I you know create an animation and you can... you know, it's all there. And the stuff that you can't don't have the time to do yourself where you don't can't be bothered to learn yourself. There's so many people around you who are willing to help for not that expensive to get these things done.

[00:41:52] Simon: So that first platform we built that kind of MVP to do the first conference, I basically built that from scratch and I ran a bunch of tests and tried things and there's a really terrible story. I don't know if you remember this Nikki, and I'm not sure I've ever said this publicly, but there was one time I was like trying out the live streams and I was just in bed with no clothes on and I didn't realize that was actually streaming live to YouTube.

[00:42:17] Nikki: Oh my God, we almost got canceled before we first got aired. They've taken that video down off YouTube. Is that gone now?

[00:42:25] Simon: It's our highest viewed video.

[00:42:28] Nikki: Of course.

[00:42:30] Simon: So obviously, there's mistakes made but we learned a lot from that. And then after that first conference because we came away with a bit of budget and we came away with a commitment that we were going to really put time and effort into this. Then we brought in professionals and they essentially rebuilt the platform based on what we had learned from that MVP. You know, we saw what worked, we saw what didn't work and we scoped it from that. But we're continually evolving from that.

[00:42:59] Simon: And I mean that's the hardest thing is there's so much we'd love to do and we'd love to throw lots of money into this, but we're just not there yet where we can. We have lots of great... We have ideas for the next few years of what we'd like to do with this platform and it's just about, "Okay, when we can secure this funding we'll do it." But at the moment, it's just we respond to what the audience says and what attendees like and don't like. And our whole thing is about again, how do we make this an experience, which is our word for 2023. How do we make this an experience where you're not... you don't just feel like you're watching another webinar that is like a buzz in the chat box where people are getting inside, where there's a bit of messing around, there's a bit of fun, there's a bit of you know, there's a bit of emotion in it and and yeah, so that's been it.

[00:43:43] Simon: So it's not that we had any super tech skills, we just were able to teach ourselves enough to do it and then we knew when we hit our limit and we started bringing in people who could do it better than us. Did I miss anything, Nikki?

[00:43:58] Nikki: I just thought when we did that, people were like this platform meant can I use it. So we actually launched that as a separate business as well. And you know since then, we've had hundreds of charities that have come and put their own stamp on it, which has been so lovely to see. And I guess that for us helped another issue in the sector which was this online connection and that engagement and that interaction and that humanism was really important for charities, but they lacked the same kind of time and resources. So we help them now and it's fully serviced so they get our team as well like behind the scenes, helping and managing everything and it's just been so lovely to see them have the same experience that we're talking about now with Fundraising Everywhere, with their supporters, like with their staff and it's just been so lovely. There've been so many tears from hosts, like proud crying, from us and proud crying to our clients and stuff. It's just been such a lovely few years of growth and just seeing where those possibilities and those boundaries are and like we haven't met them yet. And like that's really exciting that there's still a way to go. Just getting started.

[00:45:03] Jess: That's so rad. And it leads me to my next question, which is, as we come towards this and I say with quotes, post pandemic, because I don't know, I don't know what phase we're in right now. Cindy literally is just recovering. But I'm wondering as we move into the next 18, 24 months, what are some of the things you're looking forward to or maybe willing to experiment with, especially knowing that online fatigue is a real thing and problem solving for that, which is tricky in itself can also be more expensive. So I'm just kind of curious about your thoughts for where are things going.

[00:45:53] Nikki: Well just to steal one of Simon's thoughts like people aren't like board of virtual events, the board of ship virtual events and which they will not find on our platform and we actually not just us but there was a report released recently and I can get the source of while Simon has his book input, but we've actually seen attendance to webinars and live events increase. So yes we did see a dip in early 2022 as you know people were trying to work out what's happening and things like that, but we've actually seen an increase to attendees now. Events last year 2022, we had 4000 or over 4000 attendees to four Fundraising Everywhere which is obviously more than than the year prior. And as the quality of what we do increases like we're seeing more and more people come back.

[00:46:44] Nikki: Speaking from a Fundraising Everywhere perspective, that will only continue because the squeeze on budgets for training, for teams as goes goes down, obviously, when the cost of living crisis hit like there was a freeze completely and obviously, we've priced stuff so that people can pay for from their own. But also, from a holistic view of the sector and what's important, virtual events is a key solution to a whole lot of issues that faces us around sustainability, around accessibility, around inclusion, around ROI and saving costs like virtual events solves all of those problems because people can take part from wherever they are in their own home. I'm in my pajamas right now. I mentioned that to Cindy before we started recording like, "This is amazing. I couldn't do that in an in-person event." I could, but it's not really professional, but also like people are just more relaxed and they're able to absorb more information like when they're comfortable in their own surroundings. And that's like a key requirement if you go into something for professional development.

[00:47:41] Nikki: And also from the Everywhere plus side, the platform side. And we did see, last year, we had the same amount of people hosting events, but their duration of the events went down. So that has been a key thing around how long are people willing to take part in these things. So that's a key thing but they're attendee numbers didn't and in the instances where we hosted events that were hybrid. The online event actually had more attendees than the in- person one. And that was towards the end of the year. But obviously, at the beginning of 2022, it was still a bit up in the air but we did see that started to even out with the trends by the end of the year. Simon, do you want to pitch in on that and I'll get my source because it's important to give those when you give stats?

[00:48:22] Simon: Yeah. Well, the thing I was going to say is, is you've got to remember that we started pre-pandemic and pre-cost of living crisis and the reasons we started, they haven't gone away, you know. And I remember, I'm not gonna name the conference but we came up with the idea at a conference because me and Nikki were looking at this like people have paid thousands to be at this. They've flown in and created God knows what amount of emissions, including ourselves. You know, there were buckets of buffet food that was just being taken away to be binned. There was more than 99% of the fundraisers and nonprofit staff out there can't afford or don't have time to get to these events. So that hasn't changed pre- pandemic during pandemic after pandemic. That stuff is all there and I get into a few arguments online once in a while where people are like, "Nah, virtual events, they're not going to happen, they're dead. I would much rather be in- person and I'll always go to the in-person." And there's such a statement of privilege. This idea that you can just go to these things or you can speak at these events for free and pay your own expenses and things like that.

[00:49:35] Simon: And yes some of us can and might continue to do that. But you know, in Dublin, I struggle to get to a lot of the conferences I want to get to because I have to fly and so I don't go to them. I have a kid and half the time, I'm a single father so I can't get to those things. And these are the same problems that people are facing all the time and and are no surprise to anyone except the people of privilege who were saying, "You know, well, virtual events, who would go to that? They're not the same." And they're not the same. And Nikki and I are very firm about this that we're not trying to replace in-person events. I love an in-person event, and when I can get to 1, I'll go to one. And there's lots of benefits to it, but there's lots of benefits to a virtual event. And they sit lovely alongside each other as part of your professional development, as part of your networking throughout the year.

[00:50:24] Jess: I love that. How about that source?

[00:50:28] Nikki: Notified. It's a company called Notified, so they are an events platform in themselves. So I had a little look there and so that's where those stats were from around the increase in attendance.

[00:50:40] Simon: Very responsible –

[00:50:40] Jess: I love that.

[00:50:40] Nikki: We have our own report coming out soon. Sorry, what was that?

[00:50:42] : Oh, cool.

[00:50:43] Simon: I was just saying very responsible source quoting. It's great to see on the Internet.

[00:50:47] Cindy: This is a professional podcast. I have to.

[00:50:51] Nikki: Not one of ours.

[00:50:52] Simon: Yeah. This isn't one of them.

[00:50:53] Jess: Pure professional over here, which leads me to my last question, which on this podcast we do always encourage our guests to share a confession with us about the nonprofit sector, your experience being a consultant, what is your confession, Nikki and Simon?

[00:51:16] Nikki: I've been to the Usher song all day and boom in my head. "These are my confessions." You know it's still my head.

[00:51:53] Jess: Cindy. Even in the UK, they know that song. I don't know what--

[00:51:27] Cindy: I don't know where I was that year, but I missed... I know Usher, I know everything else. And this will haunt me for as long as we have this podcast because it's everyone's song.

[00:51:38] Nikki: Oh, okay. That's your outro for this one then when you edit it in later. I guess it's not a confession, but like I think it's important for people to understand from... not speaking on Simon's behalf but mine. Like you might see the updates that we put out on social media. You might see obviously the impact that we've made and the growth that we've had. But I guess it's not a confession. It's not something I'm ashamed of, not now, but like I do still struggle a lot with the anxiety and the imposter syndrome. Worrying like what other people think. And even in at the end of last year, when we were going through a rough moment with the business, I had a rough moment, personally with myself and actually cried at my desk. And I think it's really important that people realize that we are human in this, too, and obviously, we're trying our best. But when we feel like we're not getting it right, it does impact us in ourselves.

[00:52:36] Nikki: And this, for me, building Fundraising Everywhere, seeing the difference it makes to people and hearing that and getting that feedback as being a massive growth thing for me as a human, as a leader and a business owner. And that, for me, is being one of the good things to come out of it. And when I started my charity career 13 years ago, to know I would was wasn't in this space at all like had a lot of insecurities around my abilities, which obviously probably pushed out to people, my own team. And for now, some of that still lingers but I am getting better... not the pushing out into the team but the self-doubt and stuff.

[00:53:15] Nikki: It does still linger. So I guess, for me, my confession is that sometimes when it seems like I've got my shit together, I haven't. Sometimes I'm just winging it and hoping for the best and coming from a good place and hopefully like Simon says, we'll always get that right and in times that we get it wrong. My promise is to always put my hand up and admit that, and try, and work to be a better person.

[00:53:44] Nikki: Is that a good company, is that alright?

[00:53:44] Jess: Yeah, that's amazing. [crosstalk]

[00:53:50] Cindy: Simon gets to follow that and keep it clean.

[00:53:53] Simon: So I killed two people and.... Yeah. No. I would like to double down on Nikki. I mean, I think it's probably not a surprise. I say all the time when I'm doing talks and when I'm on social media and stuff, but it's like nobody knows what they're doing in the world. And I think, I would be very, very forthcoming and admitting that there's so much things, so many things. I don't know that what I'm doing that I'm stumbling my way through life a lot. You know I'm trying to make really smart decisions and talk to people. But, you know people who present themselves as being the experts, they're usually... they might, they have knowledge and they have expertise but they make just as many mistakes as anyone. And so, usually, the difference that holds people back from success or from getting out there is that kind of self-doubt or that feeling that waiting for yourself to be ready and waiting for yourself to be 100% qualified for that next step.

[00:54:48] Simon: And the truth is like no one is that and no one will ever be that. And so I think, yeah, it's not much of a confession but I think that my confession is a lot of the time, I don't know what you're doing.

[00:54:59] Jess: I love that and you'll have to both of you send me your mailing address, because for Christmas, I bought myself this mug from this creator called 'We Fun Wow. And it's one of those kinds of retro mugs, like the really thick ones at diners. And it says, "I have absolutely no fucking idea what I'm doing" because it's true like none of us know. We're just all kind of winging it and everything else is illusion. Nikki, Simon, thank you both so much for being here. For our listeners who want to be in touch, to follow along, to join one of your virtual events or any of your experiences, what's the best way for them to do that?

[00:55:47] Simon: Yeah. So if you go to fundraisingeverywhere.com, fundraisingeverywhere.com, you'll see all of our events coming up. We'd love you to register for one. We have some free events. We have some paid events. Well, you'll definitely find something that suits you. So do come to any event of fundraisingeveryone.com. Join our mailing list, or feel free to drop us an email through the website. And I mean, I think, I won't speak for Nikki, but we're generally always happy to hear from people and chat to people. And yeah.

[00:56:16] Nikki: So people listening to this podcast, if you use the code of 'confessions' you can have a free one on us. I'm just going to set that up now for you because we didn't mention it, but all of everything that we've done since 2019, all the webinars, events and everything that you can just go and watch them now, we have a massive like on demand library. So get stuck in, have a little look and see what you like.

[00:56:38] Simon: Use that code: confessions and get--

[00:56:42] Jess: Thank you.

[00:56:42] Cindy: Thank you so much to both of you. And for your generosity and sharing all the details and openness--

[00:56:54] Jess: Leadership.

[00:56:55] Cindy: Yes, in between your values and sharing your vulnerabilities vary #relatable. But yeah, no, we really appreciate it. Thank you both. We'll see you soon.

[00:57:10] Nikki: Thank you and we will see you soon.

[00:57:12] Cindy: Yes.

[00:57:16] Cindy: Thank you again for listening to the Confessions Podcast for nonprofit coaches and consultants. If you enjoyed today's episode, which I sure hope you did, you can show your support in one of three ways.

[00:57:26] Jess: Number one, post the screenshot of this episode to your Instagram stories or LinkedIn profile and tag Cindy enough so we can repost you.

[00:57:34] Cindy: Number two, share this podcast with a fellow nonprofit culture consultant.

[00:57:39] Jess: And number three, leave a positive review on Apple Podcasts so that we can continue to grow and reach new listeners.

[00:57:46] Cindy: And of course, make sure you subscribe so you can get the latest and greatest interviews as they drop every Thursday.

[00:57:52] Jess: And to our fellow non-profit coaching and consulting friends, remember we're an open book and here to answer your burning biz questions.

[00:58:00] Cindy: See you next time.