So, today's webinar is entitled, Sustaining Your Program through Development, Development 101 Tools and Tips for Funding Your Projects. It was made possible with grant funds awarded by the Office of Victims of Crime for the same program TTA project. So I have a few housekeeping items to review before I start. I will start with a brief disclaimer, the opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed are those of the contributors and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. IFN is an accredited provider of continuing nursing education by the ANCC, so CE will be awarded at the end of this presentation upon completing the evaluation. The evaluation will be sent via email. The planners, presenters, and content reviewers of this presentation disclose no confidence of interest. I do encourage you to use the chat feature, I know some of you have already used it, and hi everyone, I hope you all enjoyed their holiday season, we're in January, and I don't know if you're where I'm from, but it is freezing and it is cold, so I do hope it's warm where you all are at. And since we're talking about where we're from, please go ahead and introduce yourself in the chat and talk about what program you're from, whether it's campus-based, hospital-based, or community-based. We are using the Zoom format, so participants are muted, however, we don't want to discourage you from engaging, so if you do have something to say, feel free to use the raise your hand feature and we can unmute you, and then of course, please use the chat. If you have any technical issues, we do have Amy Valentine here with us with IAFN, and please message her using the chat function if you have any technical issues with your webinar Zoom functions. Now that I've said all of that, I want to introduce you all to our presenter, Mevita Burris, she has over 25 years of experience in fund development, leadership, and fundraising. I'm going to let her introduce herself and tell you all about herself some more. Before we do that, I know you all may be wondering, like, how does all this relate to us being a nurse? We all may be clinical experts, but I can assure you sometimes we do need some assistance with that business side of things, and sustaining our, and using funds to sustain our program, our clinical programs. Specifically, how do we maintain funding to support the needs of our program? You're going to get inside tips from Mevita, who's a development expert, and you can decide what fits your program or what fits the situation that you are experiencing best. Regardless of whether you're a hospital program, campus, community-based program, whether you have a relationship with your development team, you can't connect with them, or you don't have anyone there to assist you at all, I can guarantee you that you're going to take something away from this presentation. So now I'm going to stop talking and hand it over to Mevita. Hi, my name is Mevita Burris, and as Chantel mentioned, I have over 25 years in a space of fund development, whether that has been for education, for religion, religious entities. I have worked in arts and culture, I have worked for colleges, and I currently work in human services for a sexual assault and human trafficking organization. So with all of that experience, I have basically seen a plethora of things that we will be talking about today. I am a mother of three, and I am a grandmother of five. I started the fund development work not as my goal, not as the thing that I went to school for, but it became a part of a space where I see myself helping our communities to grow, to thrive, and helping others, and sharing my love and my philanthropic ambitions with others and for others. I looked at the slide and it kind of scared me a bit because that's, I don't know, I have marketing on there, but marketing goes hand in hand with this as our topic for today. So our agenda is our welcome and intro, understanding development, what is it, making the right connections within your organization, creating your plan, telling your story, grants, proposals, and cases, what are those, and tips and tools for success. So as I alluded to, I am a senior development of director for an agency here in Michigan, and one of our goals is to ensure that we are sharing with our communities and with everyone the work that we're doing, and then also bringing about awareness, but attracting the right partners, retaining those partners, and having conversations that broaden our scope, but also help us to do this work and build capacity. So in the scope of what we're going to be talking about, we're going to talk about what development is, why it's important, and how you can implement some of these skills in the work that you're doing. So directing the funding, what is development? So development is where we find support, financial support for the missions and the work that we are doing. If our organization's mission is to feed, we are looking for partners who have a pillar within their corporations, within their foundations, within their architectural structure that says we want to help with basic needs, with feeding, with homelessness, and those are the places where we would attract donors and individuals who have compassion about those subjects. When we think of giving, John D. Rockefeller, of course, we've all heard of Rockefeller, he says it's not a duty, but it's a privilege. It is a feeling that we all get when we are giving to others. We get a dose of dopamine, right? We get excited, we've done something, we've done our part in our communities, we've shared with others, and that builds upon who we are, it is part of our character makeup, and when you give, you don't give to receive, you give because of your love of people. So when we think about one of the richest families in America, they thought of it as a privilege to give, not as a duty. So development. So it is our fundraising process. It is what we do as individuals. We seek out corporations and entities and organizations and government entities who will give to our mission. Our mission is forensic nursing, it is supporting our departments, our organizations, or even our colleges with funding so that we can do the research, the work, so that we are able to provide medical support and medications, and in non-profits such as the one I work for, we're able to help support individuals on their path to healing, and this is why fundraising is important. It also allows organizations to exercise their privilege of supporting the community, and most organizations have a philanthropic arm or fund or foundation that they have created so that they're able to give back to the community and do their part in this work. So my primary role is to engage with these entities, set specific goals, talk about it, have a timeframe of when we're going to accomplish those goals, and then either me as the one person or the team that I work with, we go out and we talk to individuals about what we're doing, we talk to corporations, and we write those OVC government grants. So we make sure that we're able to explain who we are, tell a story, tell a positive story, give some context about need, and then we're able to move forward. So in this, everybody in this organization is part of fund development. And when we say fund development, we are not talking about a direct ask, we are talking about the work that you do that gives me the power as the individual developer to go out and talk about our work. So what is philanthropy? Philanthropy is actually the love of humanity. It is the love that we have for others, and we are philanthropic every, if you're a person who attends a place of worship, you give every Sunday towards the goal of that work and that organization or that religious institution goes out in the community and helps others. Or if you think about it in colleges, we have alumni associations, we host events, we go out, we do volunteerism, we do charity work. At our institutions, such as hospitals, or even in a corporate setting, we do the volunteerism, we do in kind, we do all of these things. And it's just because we love the people that are in community, in neighborhoods, in the work that we do. So if we're talking about individuals who are survivors of sexual assault or sexual violence, we want to see them thrive. We want to see them do well. And our love for them comes through that work. Our love for eradicating this issue is also part of this work. So when we think of individuals, and we think about humanitarian causes, we're looking to alleviate human suffering in any way, shape, or form. And these terms can be confusing sometimes, because when we think, oh, I love people, and we think about fundraising or development and philanthropy, the real definition of philanthropy is the love of humanity. And that is our goal, to help alleviate the human suffering through our love for others. So fundraising is actually a shared mission. We share this work. I, again, as the individual developer or fundraiser, I go out on behalf of my organization, and I tell a story about the work that we're doing internally. Here in my current place of business, I work for an organization called Avalon Healing Center in the city of Detroit. We are Wayne County-based. I tell the story of why we exist, why we're here, and the work that we do to help survivors of sexual assault and human trafficking. I build up a case. I talk about what we are doing in terms of our medical suite, our follow-up care, providing medications, and how we do all of this work for free, how we connect with people, how we do outreach ministry to those who are living on the street, and it becomes a part of the story that I tell. But what I want to tell people and what I always share with people is I am not directly, I am not a direct service provider, but the work that you do as direct service providers allow me to tell those stories. So I tap into you and I talk to you and I glean from you. So in a small nonprofit, it could be just one person doing this work. If you work in a college or maybe in a hospital setting or in a administration setting, you might have a team of five or six people and everybody's telling different stories about this work under the umbrella of the medical development team. So it just depends on how you're set up and how your setup is for your organization. Some nonprofits have two or three people on their team, some have one. But in the course of this, I'm gonna show you how it all plays out and how you can start getting support and making those philanthropic connections for yourselves. If you're a nurse and you're in a department, how do I connect? What do I do? Who do I talk to? And what's gonna be best for me? So we want to make connections, correct? So again, in my organization, we have a team of two. Well, I wanna say three, let me say three. In a nonprofit, typically your executive director, president is the chief fundraiser. They are the face of the organization and they are the individual who does the bulk of the talking for the organization. So you'll see them on television, you will see them at events. And my role as the senior development director is to ensure that my executive director has talking points. She has things that she can go out and talk to people about. In college settings, when I worked for a organization called Walsh College here in Troy, Michigan, we had a team and we were broken up under major gifts, development officers, development associates, and then we had some staff who supported. So in that space, we all had our lane. So if I was working with the alumni, which that was my role, my conversations and my talking points were directly geared towards that portion of the organization. In larger teams or health teams, and I'm going to click my link and I pray that my link works. Please work, thank you. I should have tested this. But if you can click it, yes. Thank you, look at the magic. Maybe, maybe not magic. We will get, if we can put the link in the chat. If you look at Henry Ford Health System, Henry Ford Health System has a umbrella in their office. And each one of the individuals in this office has their role. So there is someone dedicated to medicine. There is someone dedicated to education. There's someone dedicated to each area in the hospital. So there's a pediatrics, there's a community outreach, and each one of those individuals, those are the people that you would go to as a nurse or as a department to make your request. When you're in a college or education setting, I suggest that you get with that development department, and you're gonna talk to them about what your needs are and how they align with the overall budget of the institution. So every organization is budget-based. You have a budget, you know what you want to raise for the year, you know what you want to expense. Typically that is done in about October of the previous funding year. So in October of 2023, we're creating our budgets, we're making those budgets, and we're saying what's important. However, there is always discretionary money. There may be money from the president's discretionary fund. There may be other ways that you can get your needs addressed through conversation, but you gotta make the connections. You're going to have to have those conversations. So when you look at the institutions or the teams and you say, okay, I want to talk to... Once you get it up, I want to talk to Joe M. Pellizzeri about X. You know that you can make a connection directly to Joe through your organization, set up a time to meet and have that conversation about your program. If you're in a college setting, there is, again, who do I go to, who am I directed to? In a nonprofit organization such as mine, I have to do a little more digging and research. So I might be interested in talking to the local hospital, and then I may not have a direct connection to Joe. So my job is to then seek out ways to connect with Joe. And of course, his information is on the website. And I set up a meeting, but I am preparing myself so that I'm able to talk about what I need to talk about and be in line with what Joe needs. Also, I always tell people to attend organizational events because that's where you bump into people, right? That's where those connections and those resources are made. So I kind of go to everything, right? I want to say it in a similarly joking way that I will go to an opening of an envelope because I make connections at every event that I'm in. I'll give you guys a little idea. I recently attended an event, had no clue as to what the event was, but my friend invited me for Providence Hospital here in South Hill, Michigan. And Providence is building a new wing of their NICU. They want to build a new building. And at that event, there were development officers, and those development officers were floating around the room and building connections with us. So they had a shared mission with their board members to talk to everyone in the room and make the connections that are going to bring in those philanthropic dollars. So they sat at our tables and they walked through the room with us, and they talked about their needs. So they talked about what it is that they wanted to do, but they were in the room. And I'm going to borrow that from Hamilton. You got to be in the room where it happens. So attend things, and I know you're nurses, you're busy, but you can either designate someone from your department sometimes to say, hey, you know, I know you're tired. I know lots of things are going on, but if you have space or capacity. And honestly, guys, it takes about 15, 20 minutes to get in the room, scope out who you're looking for, make that connection, have you a coffee, and you're out the door. But it's important to get your face in those spaces. So if your organization is hosting a breakfast, meet the new chairman or the board or something of that nature, go to those events. Those become your advocates. So with this event at Southfield Providence, they had a shared mission, they talked about the mission, they had the stories, they had individuals who they had served come back and talk. And they raised over $150,000 in this one event with about 100 prospects because their shared mission, their love, and they had the right people connected and invited to the event. So we're gonna talk about now how to receive, you know, more information on making those connections. So how do you do it? What do you do? You create a simple plan. It's hard to talk about yourself. It's hard to brag on yourself, right? But as an organization, and this is my organization, I recently had a meeting with Blue Cross Blue Shield. And I was like, how do I talk to Blue Cross Blue Shield about all the work that we're doing in a easy to read, you know, quick diagram? So we created a one-pager and it looks much nicer in real time. But we created something that was very simple. We talked about the highlights of who we are and anybody can share this. We talked about who we are. We talked about the need every 68 seconds. And we talked about that with them. We talked about our services and why we provide these services. And then we share with them other known funding, funding that we've received and funding that we know that we have heard in the community that people have received. So this kind of simple one-sheeter helps you tell your story to others. And this is something that you can leave with your major gift officers, or I'm gonna go back just a little bit. You can leave them with development directors. You can leave them with those associates. You can leave them at team meetings. You can give them to your volunteers and board to tell your story. And when you're out, if you are a nonprofit and you're out tabling, or if your organization is tabling for your department, this is something that you can use to tell your story. So what do we do? We talk about validating our needs, right? This is how you can help us. We told them where the current funding was coming from. We told them how we have accomplished these things over the course of the year. And then we gave them some stats. And most times in an organization, you say, who's responsible for this? I'm a nurse. This is in my key role, but I know that we need support. So we use the RACI method because it's a couple of us doing this work. So is my ED responsible for making the connection? Is she accountable for giving me the information? Is she just consulted if I'm going out to a meeting and I'm meeting with a new client or a donor, or just do I inform her of what's happening? No problem, Jill. Come back and watch the video later on. So we use a RACI method with our team so that we're not overlapping and that we are connecting with one another. So in a nonprofit, this is a good way to know who you create your chart, who is responsible for making the ask to Henry for help. Who's gonna be accountable for putting together the packet? Who are we gonna consult as we're talking through what's important and what those needs and gaps are? And then when that packet is done, who do we inform that we have already submitted the packet and that we're waiting on outcomes? And typically they kind of overlap and they're with, you know, it could be Kim is responsible for giving me the information to the contact. I'm accountable for putting together our development packet or our plan. Trinae, who is on our team, she's consulted in case she's going out in the community and she knows we've already made an ask to Henry for it. And then we inform the staff that we have at sometimes at our staff meetings. We let them know what grants and what opportunities we are pursuing so that they're also well-informed. Navita, we have a question. So is it okay if we- Yes, yes, yes, yes. Okay, Janice, I unmuted you if you wanted to go ahead and ask your question. Wait, Janice, you're muted again. There you go. I didn't have a question. I don't know if I accidentally asked you about something. I didn't know I was trying to ask a question. I'm sorry. That's okay. Well, good, good. Thank you for joining us and good being here. Thank you, thank you. But we are open to questions. I don't want people to feel like they can't ask questions because development can be daunting, right? It can be a little intimidating. I gotta go ask people for money or we gotta write a grant or we gotta, you know, and it takes time to learn how to do it and how to do it appropriately and well. Because sometimes in a space, it's hard to ask people for money and we know that, right? Which is why we take the time to learn the skill, to talk to people. In our world, I am a part of an association. It's called the Association of Fundraising Professionals. We challenge each other and we role play and we take opportunity to sharpen our saw. So if you have these people on your team and you're feeding them and you're helping to give them information, you know, say, hey, run that back to me and let me see what that looks like. So I get that all of this can be very intimidating, but trust me, people want to give. I was on a call today with Bank of America and they were talking about all of the pillars that they have and all of the things that they, efforts they want to give towards and how we can connect with them. And one of their major things, and this is the secret sauce, is access. They want to know what they don't know. So if you have, again, Bank of America in your neighborhoods or local to you, I would reach out to their community relations individuals because they are looking for projects. So that's another tip. So you create a plan. And this is the major part of anybody, whether you're an individual nurse looking to get support for your department or you're a major hospital looking to attract donors to your organization. You have to have a plan. And I use the KISS method, keep it really simple. When I create a fund development plan, I talk about where we, who we are, the overview of our current funding in individuals, corporate, and we'll walk into those. I talk about the project, the current income, the projected income. We'll look at our tactics to raise those numbers. So if we say we want to raise giving by 10%, what are we going to do to do that? One of the things that people try to do is write a bunch of grants and try to figure out needs. When you have a plan, you know what the needs are, you know your costs, you've done your due diligence, and then it's easier to write when you know what you're writing about. So I say, keep it simple. Know your budget, that's number one. And if you're in a hospital setting, there is a line item budget for your department. You can reach out to that development person or your chief, how you're structured, that chief person in charge, your chair, your chief, your highest person in your department, and say, hey, just simply, I would love to know where we are in the budget. And they should be able to share that. And then again, you're sharing with them. I've identified some things, and I think we have a way, because I have a plan of how to attract more people to our forensic program. So again, this fund development plan, and I'll send Chantel and the team here all of these documents so that you all will get them later. But you create a fund development plan. And Amy, see if this one will work. Okay, so put that in the link, I will send that link as well, but there is a plan that I use. And again, it walks you through, Chantel? I can pull it up, I'll just have to share the other screen. Okay. That's perfect. That's perfect. Okay, there you go. So when I create a fund development plan, I talk about where we are, and where we're going to get this money from all the sources. And we can go down. I create a giving matrix. So what is our board contributing? What are we going to do from fundraising? And when we say fundraising, that could be individuals, major gifts, what appeals, what in a nonprofit organization, we write letters, and we talk about the great work we're doing. And I'm going to show you, we get these little things in the mail, pull it back just a little, and it has a mailer, so I can mail back money. We do, we write grants, we do in-kind contributions. So if someone wants to donate something to the organization, say, for example, here at Avalon, we always have a need for clothing. That is a contribution to the organization, it is in-kind, no money is exchanged. However, that individual will get a tax letter from us. And then third-party events. There may be organizations or Facebook or birthdays where people want to support. All of this is part of your giving matrix. And you look at your last year's revenue, your current year, where you want to be, and then what your projections are, how much of that is restricted only to the program, and how much is unrestricted. Unrestricted dollars are beautiful, they're general operation, you can do what you will with those. Next, go down a little bit. So this is how I break it out. Board solicitation. So I say our board members are instrumental, you have to have 100% board giving. This is what we've raised, and these are ancillary numbers I just type things in. Who's responsible? What are the direct costs? What is our stewardship plan? What are we going to do? And that is how we build our plan. So you can keep scrolling down. Individual gifts. This is how that breaks out. Our goal is 10% increase. How are we going to get there, Mavita? We're going to do more appeals, we're going to do more events, and we're going to touch more people. And keep going. Appeals, writing letters, making connections, sending those out, having a schedule for those. And how are we going to get to those? And again, this is your plan. So you put in those thoughts from your space. Go all the way down, and we keep going. Special events, creating a calendar, grants. Keep going. And you all will get a copy of this, but you can fill it in the way you feel it's comfortable for you. Keep going. Corporate gifts, major gifts. Now I'm going to stop for one moment at major gifts. So this goal that I created is $250,000, but it also breaks it down. Is it easier for me to touch 10 people or 25 people at $25,000, 15 people at $10,000 each and 50, and that will get me to my goal. When you have major donors, you set the amount that is a major gift. If you're a small nonprofit just starting up, you're just starting your forensic program, your major gift could be $1,000. If you are like our organization, your major gift may be $10,000. So if you get a major gift, it's $10,000. Then you have to steward those individuals and you have to tell them what you don't give their money. You could also provide with them opportunities for naming. So if you have a room or, you know, this is John Smith's room and you put up your placard and, you know, hey, would you do this year over year for the next five years? That helps you build credibility and longevity with them. In the major gift space, you also may want to touch base with them about their plan giving and we'll talk about that a little bit down the road. Keep going down for me. And then possible and projected income, where are we going to go? And go down a little bit more. And then we add in marketing. How are we going to get here? We're going to market. We're going to talk about human trafficking. We're going to talk about SAM and do appeal. We're going to have something in November. We're going to have something in January. We're going to talk about Black History Month, but we stay active in social programs, social media, social platforms, as well as when individuals come, mailing postcards, mailing thank you letters, doing all the things that are touchy feely for our constituents, donors, and even our clients. So our clients get a newsletter and we tell them what we're doing. We do not ask them for dollars. We ask them for advocacy, awareness, and sharing. If you had a great experience, please share your experience with others and that attracts donors from their circles who say, hey, you really helped my sister, my friend, my cousin, and they have become supporters of our agency. So let's go back. All right, yep, there we go. Thank you. We are cooking with grease. So, what are some of the areas of engagement. So when you're talking to individuals and in your organizations you are serving individuals, but you do not make ask of your survivors. That is a personal thought of myself, I mean every house is different you, you are more than welcome to do what you think you is best for your organization, but I would I would caution against asking our survivors to support. I asked our survivors to share their experience. And would they be a champion of our work, if we have served you appropriately. Would you share this, would you share our information, not that you've used our services, but that you have had a great experience or you know about us, or if you know someone in need of us. That is the share that I need from them. But we have had individuals whose family members are now part of our major gift campaign, or they receive our appeals, and that is through opting in to this work. We get calls we get individuals hey wanted to do something you know your blessing. And this is what we want to do. We also have individuals who connect through to us through social platforms through our tabling events through our just general everyday outreach through today and I going out in the community and they have become individual donors. Our individual donor population is a sustainability population. These are individuals that you can ask to do recurring gifts monthly gifts. I am a fan of a monthly gift because it helps you month, every month versus waiting for someone to write a check at the end of the year, and they could potentially forget. Most times when people do a recurring gift program. Ours is survivor strong when they do that they said it they forget it. And every month we get a set amount from that individual and at the end of the year we provide them with an acknowledgement letter with their entire contribution that they can use for tax donation purposes. Next we have major guests, individuals give major gifts, and in this space most individuals in a major gift platform, our prime candidates for your what we call plan giving, or your bequest. These are individuals that you can talk to about being a part of their state. When they, when they transition, and they often will consider that because if they have a love or strong love for the work that you're doing. They will support in a hospital. Next we have a plan giving development person. And if you look at the example from Henry Ford I believe Joe impeller dairy which whom I know, I believe Joe is their plan giving representative, you talk to them and you say hey I know a family of a person who is great for this for our department. And here's the connection I would like to make. I would love to be involved in that conversation, although I will not be making the ask. I would love to keep you connected to people that love our forensic program. If you're working with corporate entities you will have a program officer or a community relations representative, who you will talk to about your grant your grant work. I asked I tell everyone, please look at, you know what grants are available in your community, what grants that you, you can apply for and be intentional because grant writing is time consuming. You want to be intentional that there's an alignment. There are some people who are fans of apply for everything and see what's there. I am very intentional because time is of the essence, and I want to use that wisely. So make sure you fit, but then also in most grant programs, there's someone you can call to talk to before you do the application. You talk to the program support officer or the program team officer. And again, most of foundations they want a letter of intent. What are you going to do with the money that you're asking for you create that concept paper, you tell them why it's important, what the needs are and then you submit. And then in your government space. Those applications tend to be a little more budget related and so you have to break out how you're going to use the money that the government or the state is providing with you. And that sometimes is worth the effort of hiring or working with a professional grant writer, and then your endowments and plan giving, which are kind of higher level. We have seen a trend in our profession, where most people, unless you have 2 million or more, they're steering away from endowments and doing more of investments, but I will talk to your team and your tax professionals about which opportunity is going to be best for you. So individuals. So today, again, as I was looking at a webinar, they were talking about individuals and how individuals in this space in this current season are really focusing on intentional giving and programs that matter and that are really serving the community. So as you're talking to people, again, telling that story, you want to make sure you're talking about your work in terms of impact and how you are changing the direction or lives of individuals who have been impacted by sexual violence, or, you know, human trafficking or domestic violence, you want to make sure that you are being impactful, intentional, but not exploitive. So we want to tell stories that are uplifting and talk about how we are supporting. We want to talk to their family members or supporters who care, right? We want to talk to people who really have a targeted goal of helping. We want to write appeals that are, you know, I always say dynamic, but that are impactful, that tell why we exist. And again, I showed you one from the Science Center. It talks about the beauty of science and why it's important and why STEM is important. And that is the thing that compels you to give, right? People love a visual. So giving visual aids always helps. When you're talking in a smaller nonprofit, these are tools that we use every day. The hospital settings, and I have gotten things, my granddaughter is very impactful for me, was a preemie. She was born at 1.5 pounds. So I always give to Henry Ford's NICU because for me, that's a life-saving institution, and I want to see them thrive. So NICU is kind of part of my life. But, you know, you want to stay connected to them. So they send us impact reports, and they send things to the house, and they invite us. The hospital invites us back every year, you know, on her birthday to come and, you know, talk with the team. And the team might have changed, but we always get an opportunity to go back and take a photo and have some lunch. And they do like a NICU day for all of their preemies, and they continue to do that. And that's a great way to build relationships and connections with individuals who could be donors because they care. They care about the mission of your organization. And right now is one of the greatest times where people are working and striving to build better communities, and this is a way for you to get in. If you're in a college setting, students of your program, so students of the forensic nursing program or the nursing program may be your primary target audience. Hey, you know, I know you just graduated, I know you've got your certification, and I would love to talk to you about the work that we're doing and how your support impacts. Now, don't get me wrong, been a student, understand the impact of my dollars being limited. But most times, if you make that range of giving and how it supports, so just say, for example, Mavida, you know, I know you just graduated, and I used to do this at Walsh. I know you just graduated, but for $5 a month, you're able to help the next student with their important scholarship program. And I talk about, you know, I was an MBA student, and I talk about the impact of being a business major and how the MBA helps the students and what the cost impacts were and how they, you know, as a current graduate can help someone reach their next goal and give the highlights. And that was a, and then Tchotchke, I would give them, you know, something, a bumper sticker or something. For $5 a month, you know, we'll send you our latest Tchotchke and that type of thing. It could be a pair of socks, it could be whatever, but we would get them engrafted, and then as they graduated or once they graduated, we always gave them a token. Hey, thank you, you know, and don't forget, and we would stick that letter right in there. For only $5 a month, you could help your next, you know, the next class. And that was a really great program. We also looked at those who had been out of school for a little bit of time, and this again is for college, you know, a tip for colleges. The students who have graduated and they might have been out of school maybe five or six years or more could be towards their career goal. We would reach out to them and do a $10 a month, which is like $120 per year, a $10 a month gift. And then we would invite them to a breakfast or a tea and talk about what their gift is doing to impact their lives. And we would invite current students to sit at each table and talk to them. It was low cost. We did it at the college. You know, we would cater in or have someone bring, you know, bagels and donuts and things like that, have it right there. And that was one. And then we created from that a mentoring program, which jumped off. And then we created a mid-level giving program of $250 per year or more. And they were invited and got special event tickets to things so that we could keep them growing with us with their dollars. So create campaigns, specific campaigns. Corporate gifts are usually grants and sponsorships. Grants are gifts that have programmatic impact and they could be unrestricted. So you could use them however you want or they could be tied to a specific, you know, maybe used to follow up clinic. They're tied specifically to the follow up clinic. Sponsorships is a grant, but it is used to help further the mission through an event or a specific type of program. Say you're having a luncheon for your clients. They will underwrite it and it is considered a sponsorship. Foundations. Foundations are usually charitable trusts formed by a family. So Rockefeller, there's a Rockefeller, John D. Rockefeller Foundation. And that is money that is gained through his wealth that he has put into trust and that he gives or the administrators or trustees give out year over year. So here in our area, there are several. We have private ones, which are families or like DTE here. They have a private foundation and it's a corporate foundation, invitation only. Family foundations tend to be invitation only. You have to have a conversation with the program officers. But the public foundations like the Community Foundation of Southeastern Michigan here in Michigan, and you may have something similar in your area. They are public. So you can go onto their website, look for grant opportunities and apply openly. So and these may be national. Kellogg's, WGG Kellogg. They are a national foundation. Kresge, the Knight Foundation. These are national foundations that you could apply for different grant opportunities based on where they're giving at that time. Kresge will have their human services grant coming up real soon. I just reached out and I'm looking forward to that. And you're the United Way. United Way always has grant opportunities and they are very much right now interested in racial equity. So if you're doing a forensic program, you want to talk about the disparities of the racial makeup and how medicine and race intersect, they have dollars available. Government support. These are our government entities. You can go to grants.gov, find resources, find what is out there. And these are a heavy lift. And I'm going to say that especially if you're a small shop. It might be worth the investment to hire someone to help you navigate those waters. And you can find, there's a National Association of Grant Writers. You may be able to find a grant writer in your area who can help you navigate that, especially if this isn't your forte, or it's not a space where you actually, you know, excel. Writing is great, but when you're writing, and you have to tell a government story versus a personal impactful story. It is a very different lift. So even here, as much as I can write the grant, we do have some support who help us navigate the OVC and the VOCA grants, so that we're well versed in how to do it and they're specialists, and they help us to do that. But it takes time. Here's the truth. These type of grants, they take your time, your energy, and sometimes you are not funded because competition is fierce. But here's where the beauty comes in. We get to tell our stories. So, telling a compelling story, you know, when you're doing forensic nursing, as I said before, is not exploitation. You are telling your why. What is the need? How do you approach the work? What are the outcomes and what are the highlights and what are the things that your department is doing, and your organization, your school? What are they doing and how have people benefited from your work? And it's beautiful because if you sit down and trust me on this, guys, put on a tape recorder and talk about your why. Why do you do it? I listen to that, and I honestly hate my own voice, but I listen to my why. Why am I here and what is my goal for being a part of this team? So when I do that, I'm able to talk about stories. I do interviews with staff. When I invite our donors, our prospects, or even our corporate partners in, I walk them around and I tell the staff, what is your why? Or I ask them, tell them your why. And everybody has a different reason for being here. So when I'm talking with our medical team and they're in need of medical equipment or medications for our survivors and our clients, they tell a very different story from someone who needs support in our outreach. So I take those stories and I write those up and I create one-pagers so that I'm able to actually tell the stories that are needful in those moments. But I also internalize them and recite them so that I'm able to tell them clearly. And you have to know your audience. If you're talking to doctors, my ED is a PA. So when I'm talking to her, I have to talk a little medically and I have to talk about the impacts and, you know, what are the disparities and how they're impacting. And, you know, when I'm talking to my mother, I'm telling her that, you know, there are individuals who are going through these situations and here's how the situation plays out. They are assaulted. They come to us. We provide care. We provide advocacy. We have the people who will walk with them through the entire process on their journey. I talk about healing. My mother is very much into healing. I talk about healing. I talk about how we have therapy modalities. We do sound bath. We do yoga. We do art therapy. We do basic counseling. We do behavioral counseling. We do some medical support. We do some counseling. We talk about how we can help survivors. We talk about how we can help survivors. We have a psychiatrist on board. So I give her the warm and fuzzy about how we're concluding this survivor. When I'm talking to a corporate entity, I talk about the impacts in community. How we are changing the face of community through this work and how we keep survivors safe and what we're doing and how we're outreaching and how we're growing and expanding and what our capacity building looks like. In a development office, talking to and making those connections with those development officers is ammunition. You are giving them the tools to help you get what you need. If you are a nurse and you have a program and you need medicine, of course you're going to talk to the development team officer and say, hey, our need is medicine. It costs $3,000 per person. We're serving 700 people. And here's what we know the medicine does. And then you say, how can I help you tell this story? When you're in an office and a team and you have a development team, again, you meet with them. You talk to them. You tell them the story. You tell them your whys. Why I work here. Why I do what I do. Why I stay up at night. And you give them that ammunition to move forward. When you're telling a story, you want it to be compelling. I'm sorry. You want it to be compelling. Oh, this is the same one. Okay. Yes. So it's a tool. So here's my example of talking to a donor. And I say to the donor, one of my greatest experiences here at Avalon is when I got to meet a young lady by the name of Charlotte. And she came to this organization because or she came to us because she had an acute medical need. She was in trauma and she was able to receive from us a sane exam. We gave her medicine. We gave her follow-up care. We provided her with clothing. And that is the core of what we do. And I'm so pleased that we exist to help individuals like Charlotte, you know, when there's something like this happens. And we're hearing more and more of this every day. So I'm now, you know, appealing to their humanity. And our goal is to eradicate this because these things should not be. And in our society, we work to work together and not against each other. But with all the things that we're able to do, you know, it's just never enough. So I began to look at, you know, what else could we do for Charlotte? And I asked Charlotte, in addition to all the things that we have done today, what do you need from us? And she started talking. I don't have a car. And it's hard for me to get around. And some days I don't want to leave my home. And our team started collaborating and thinking about how we could get transportation. And we have a partnership with Lyft. So Lyft is one of our partners, and they're helping Charlotte get from her appointments, and she's now able to get counseling and come to some of the programming here at Avalon. But then that further made me investigate, and we saw that her basic needs weren't being met. So we collaborated with the housing program here, and we were able to find Charlotte a stable, safe place to stay. Then going, you know, this is post-assault, we found out that her locks weren't working correctly. So we made sure that we were able to get funding from donors like you to go and send a locksmith to make sure her apartment was secure. We were able to create a plan that addressed many of her needs. And it's because of the donors, individuals like you who care about this work, that we're able to accomplish so much. Now we have been able to support Charlotte on her healing journey, and Charlotte is now an advocate who volunteers with us. And for me, that is a great story to tell, because we took someone from a space of trauma to a space of healing. And I'm so pleased to be a part of that. And it is because of you. It's not because of just the work that we're doing here at Avalon, but it's because you care about others. And that's the kind of story you can tell. And when you're talking to your development people, and we hear these stories, we're like, woo, we're able to write this up. Let me start writing. And I'm able to take those stories from our team and create a fundraising plan, right? A fundraising case. So again, writing for individuals, writing for a family foundation, writing for a government grant entity, all gonna be different. So you have to know who you're writing to. And it's always hard because you don't know, okay, what should I say or what should I do? And there are great examples. And again, in any state you're living in, there is an association for fundraising professionals. You can reach out to them, say to them, hey, I need some help crafting a story, or I need some help with a case statement. And they'll lead you, and even on their website, sometimes on websites like here in Detroit, we may have those tools or links to those opportunities. And we also always offer webinars and things of that nature. So you can get more information about how to do these things and nine times out of 10, you can connect with another fundraiser because we're really nice people. But you can write that story and then you can ask questions. So when you're writing a grant application and it feels overwhelming, contact your program officer or someone in a development office or on a team or another nonprofit and say, hey, I'm struggling a little bit, tell me what you think about this. And you can give them the basic overview. You don't have to go into the weeds and this is what I'm thinking, but this is the concept I'd like to present. And nine times out of 10, most people will help you. And again, my information will be at the end of the slide, end of the deck. You'll be able to reach out to me and I will provide as much support as I can to help guide you along the way. So we also have a link here for a case for support. And for us here, we do a case for support and I hope this works. I don't know what the links are having problems. It feels like it wants to do it, but it does not. So here's a case for support that we presented to Amazon. And we talked about our organization and what our organization is doing with the partner. And if you scroll down, there's our executive summary. It's just the overview of what they're going to read. Keep going. You talk about your organization, your mission and your vision and what you have done. Keep going. You talk about the need in your community. And this is, again, keep it simple. Keep going. You give them the stats. You can keep scrolling. You can do your request. We are requesting $75,000 to support this. And then you tell them what their grant or their dollars will do in which areas. They're not asking for a budget. They're not asking for anything. This is just you telling your case. This case statement can be used. These elements can be plopped into your grant. And this can also be used for your letter of intent. You can take elements out of this when you are presenting a letter of intent to a foundation who is just asking, what do you do and why is it important? Keep going. So in this one, we talked about our holistic services, our focus areas there. Keep going. We do counseling. We do clinical. We do massage. Yes, guys, we give massages at work. Horticulture, sound. And we partner with other organizations as well. We do advocacy and case management. And you guys will get a copy of all of this. And then this is our, we have a, we're working on an institute for training to train others in this space. And keep going down, down, down, down. Keep going. Keep going. We talk about being survivor-led. And here's our project, right? And this is where we ask or give a dollar amount for all the things we said we were gonna do up above. And you go down and then you tell them next steps. Contact Movida and we will move forward. Now, we say contact Movida. Movida contacts them. So I give them about two weeks after they get the case. If I haven't heard from them, then I contact them. And I say, hi, just wanted to make sure you got my case. And if you had any questions, I would love to answer any questions about this project and how you can be more involved with the project and what you think about the work that we're doing. And I get their feedback and I write all of that down so that I know in my next conversation what they were attracted to and what they would love to see more or learn more about. So I always make a note of that. And we can go back to our slides because we are getting close to my time. So I take time to write, but I interview the staff because things may change, right? There may be something new that your team is doing or something that they want to do, capacity building. I would love to have time to do X, Y, Z. That's where you can ask for additional dollars to support that project initiative. And most organizations, most corporations, most businesses, most banks, they're looking for something new. Then you can get help. And I always say, it's not a bad thing to have a conversation, a consultation with a grant writer. You as the nurse may have the vision. How do I make that vision come to life? A grant writer or even a copywriter can help you do that. And then sometimes I know what to do. I know how to write. I know what to say, but how do I get connected? Sometimes hiring a short-term fund development consultant or a professional, they can help you get these items and get things on track. And I will say for me, I am not good at graphic design. So I always implore a communications person or a graphics design person on my team because they create my flyers or my brochures or any of the things that we need to present to the public. Anything that's public facing, I have a lot of things around here. We have them help design. Even with this PowerPoint, I had someone help me design. There, so narratives. In that case for support, you're pulling out narratives. They're just a summary. It's a small snippet of your work, the need, what you want. When you're creating a proposal such as the case for support, you're using all of those narratives together. If a grant calls for children's initiatives, focus on children's initiatives and those outcomes from that proposal. That will help you stay focused and stay on point for the need that you're gonna be asked for. That case for support, that's an entryway into that conversation. Here's all the things we do. What is it that appeals to you? And we call it case for support or case for investment. They are interchangeable and it provides context because a lot of times in an organization, if you're not talking to the president of the foundation, you're talking to someone underneath, this is a document that they can provide that provides clarity. And then here's some links and hopefully we can get all of these working. I'm sorry, guys. We can get all of these working, but these are some resources. AFP Global, I mentioned them. I included some sample fund development plans that you can copy and steal. Case for support, the RACI, it explains what RACI is and how to use it. And there's some matrix there. There's a foundation center where you can look up grants. You sign up for this, it's free. You sign up and you can look for different grants, grant.gov, grants.gov. Those are all of the government grants. Grant Hub, that is a tool that you can use to track your grants. US.gov, grants all across the United States. And then Michigan.gov. Michigan, the state of Michigan also has their own government granting site. You can go on there and see what is available. So your city, state, site, even the city of Detroit has some grant opportunities. So we look through all of those and we research those and we go through those. And then we talk about those. So that is the cross collaboration. If you work in a nonprofit and say you have, I'll give you an example for us. We work with some community partners and we will partner on grants. So it may be a city of Detroit grant. And there are two other agencies who are providing the same type of work as Avalon. We will partner with them and we will co-collaborate on a grant. And we have discussed in our internal process conversation who's doing what and at what cost. And then one will serve as the fiduciary entity and pay others through the memorandum of understanding. You're gonna get $25,000 out of this $100,000 grant to provide behavioral services. This entity, you're gonna get 33,000 for this. You're providing services to children. And then the major organization, we're gonna get XYZ to serve as administrator as well as to make sure that all of this work is done. We will do the reporting. We will take care of all of that. So that's a great way to collaborate with other organizations if you're a nonprofit. And it shows organizations that you are applying to that you have community partnerships and community relations. That is a plus. They love that. If you're in a college setting, you can cross departmental collaborate. So if you have a pediatric forensic exam program, something that you want to get funded over here and you know PEDS over maybe in the cancer support area has a need for something similar or near to what you're doing, you can have a conversation with them and say, hey, what if we talk to the development team about a collaboration and figure out how we can work together so that I can get the things that I need for my department and you're getting the same things you need for your department and that they see that we're working together and that we are communicating on needs for our children. That is a great way to cross collaborate. Or if it's a women's initiative, there are sometimes organizations that are just women focused. Okay, let's talk about how we're serving women. You're serving women in this space. I'm serving women in this space. Okay, let's talk about how we both can do this together. And then sometimes in schools, you can cross collaborate with schools, junior colleges. I know that dollars are scarce sometimes. So if we're talking about feeder programs, like, hey, we have a SANE nursing program. We wanna make sure that we are getting great candidates. We wanna create a scholarship program. We wanna make sure that we're training the right people. We wanna attract people. We wanna have some marketing and we wanna market to the junior colleges or the community colleges in our area. And you talk with them and you guys talk about how you can work together to create a proposal that you're gonna submit to a major organization or a major corporation or a family foundation saying that we work together and that we are going to pull out the best, the brightest and the greatest from this pool or these pools of learning institutions. And we will serve as the reporter of how many people we've attracted. So that would put the onus on you, of course, to make sure that you are keeping records and keeping good records. But most of the organizations that are funding you want to see that. They want to see that you are working with others. They want to see that there is an ability for you all to get along together and that you're serving the community. One of the things that I continue to share in every presentation that I do is that collaboration is greater than competition. When you can work together and you are serving a population that is vulnerable or marginalized or that really needs your support, when you work together and you collaborate, you are eliminating so many barriers and you're learning from one another how you can best provide those wraparound services, right? I can't, Avalon can't be everything to everybody, but if we can work with other entities and have great referral partners that we trust, it just makes us all do a better job at serving the population. Same in college settings, same in the institutional settings. Working together is the better way to get this work done. And getting information from other entities and learning more about what they're doing only strengthens your ability to do your work well. And you're learning, who doesn't wanna learn something new and different? One of my overarching final thoughts is when you are doing the work of development, don't think of yourself as a person that is begging. You are serving the community by funding your organization or providing or receiving funds for your organization to further the work to eradicate sexual assault and violence in our communities. So when you are out, think of it as you are providing a service, a privilege to others to give to your organization so that you can support and serve others. I am open right now for questions. If you have any questions, I will gladly take those. And I look forward to hearing from you all. I do have my information here and you can reach out to me and I will put my office email in the chat. Any questions, any thoughts? Mavida, I had a question. So we have so many different organizations that either have a development department or do not. But let's say I work for this larger organization where the development department is way up here and I'm nowhere near able to reach them. How do I market my department or my clinic to them so that it can help me raise funds? How can they help me raise funds for my organization? The best way, Chantal, is to ask. And without stepping on toes or going over, depending on the hierarchy of your organization. But again, if you are your organization, you have a director or a lead, have that conversation with them and say, hey, Mavida, I would love to have a conversation with, I'm gonna use Joe again, with Joe in the development department. I wanted to talk to you because here's what I'm proposing. I'm at this clinic level, I'm doing this work, but I see this need and I know, because I'm doing a little research on my own, I know that there are dollars available at DTE for basic needs. Would it be possible for you and I to sit down with Joe and share what we need in our area? And I know it's a shot in the dark, go in with, I know this is a long shot, but I think this would be great for the organization because now, see, we're telling stories. I think this would be great for the organization because at the end of the day, Joe will get what he gets out of it, he will meet quotas and goals, but we'll get our needs fulfilled and survivors will get served. And think about it, if we can serve 100 more survivors, we're doing a great job, right? So let me show you through my case, through my writing, what it is that we can accomplish if we get this $50,000, right? If you have an idea, say, for example, you're in a clinic and you say, we wanna do mental health Mondays or whatever, and you just need marketing dollars for a campaign. Hey, I need some funding for marketing. It might not be particularly Joe, you're gonna get Joe involved, but Joe, how do we tap into marketing so we can get some awareness pieces? Still gives Joe a boost, still gives your boss a boost, and still gets you what you need. So it's that connection making. You have to make those connections. And again, Chantel, you know me, I'm out in the world. Advocate for, if they're having a breakfast and everybody's invited. Yes, I just went to bed at five o'clock. Yes, it starts at eight, I'm gonna try to make it. Or we're gonna send somebody to this to advocate on our behalf because people give to people they know. Doctors, they see you, they know you, they're going to start talking to you. Hey, what's going on? Hey, what, you know. So you have to kind of be seen. And I know, and, you know, cause again, my ED is a PA, she's a physician's assistant. And it can be overwhelming cause I'm at work. You know, I'm trying to do the work. And she's an ER PA. I'm trying to work, I'm not really trying to. But I have been encouraging her to show up at those things. Give them 15, 20 minutes. Work the room, have your coffee. So when they see you in the hallway or they see you in another something, hey, I remember you from the breakfast. Also have your hit list. Who is it that you wanna know? Right? So when us as developers, when we go out into the world, they just had here in Michigan, the Detroit Policy Conference. We looked at everybody who was gonna be there. And we said, we wanna meet this person, this person, this person, this person. And we made sure that we did. Now they know us. Now we have meetings. And we will be making requests for support. Thank you. And thank you. Look, did that help? Did that answer? Did that help? It did answer my question. You know, we have programs from all over. You know, nurses, work in large organizations, work in community-based nonprofits. And so really, I just wanna thank you for being here and sharing your knowledge with us. And I know for us clinicians, it may have felt like a lot, but truly just take the pieces that mean the most to you in this moment and come back and rule on it later. But at least now you understand what goes on on that side of things, and it can better inform you when you are trying to reach out to your development team or even your executive director or whomever that may be that you need to support you. Now you have a little more tips and tricks and understanding on how to articulate the needs of your program. And so I just really, truly appreciate you for being here, Mavida. And again, Chantel, I open it up. My email is here. My professional email is here, m3burrisconsulting.atgmail.com. They can email me or they can email me at Avalon. I am very much an open book. This isn't two secrets. I want people to be successful. And again, I have a passion for survivors. So whatever I can do to help guide you, please don't hesitate to reach out because I know so many different entities are represented here. Your question may be very specific. Thank you. Thank you for that. And again, all the links from today, I'll make sure to send that out to participants and look forward for the evaluation that will be sent to you all in order to get your CEs for today, you must complete that evaluation. So thank you so much. Again, we have someone in the chat saying, thank you, this is wonderful. It truly, truly was. So thank you so much. Everyone, enjoy yourselves. Again, if you're here in Michigan, I hope you are warm. If you're in like somewhere, I don't know, the Bahamas or something, I'm jealous. But you all take care and have a great day. All right, have a beautiful day. Thanks.

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