Janine Bolon: Hi and welcome again to this episode of the 3-minute money tip. I am Janine Bolon and with me today is the one and the only Sabrina Walker-Hernandez. She and I have known each other for a couple of years. We happen to stumble across each other in 2020, like many of us as we were all over Zoom together and we kept running into each other and so we were finally like, “We need to get together.” and this is why I’ve brought her onto the show today. She has over twenty-five years of experience in nonprofit management, fundraising, and leadership. She grew her operation revenue from 3/4 of a million dollars to 2.5 million and completed a 12 million dollar capital campaign. She is certified in nonprofit management by the Harvard Business School. And therefore, here is a woman who not only has experience on how to build up wealth so that a non-profit can not only hit its capital needs but also can expand its programs. And for you, whether it’s your personal finances or your business finances it’s always helpful to be able to learn something from people who know how to raise capital. So Sabrina, thank you so much for being on the show today.
Sabrina Walker-Hernandez: Thank you for having me. I’m very excited to be here and talk about nonprofits and how they can raise money, especially those startup nonprofits. And I wouldn’t even say just startup it’s just how you be innovative as you go along because raising my budget from 750,000 to 2.5 million was a challenge.
But for those startups out there, the first thing I would say is, you’re not grant-ready. Everybody always talks about, “Get a non-profit and then I’ll get some grants.” When you’re talking about grants or being grant-ready, most people think they’re going to get these large grants, the $25,000 and above. But you got to get grant ready, you got to have your night 990s, you got to have your audits. And there are some financial documents that you have in place. But what you are ready for in the realm of grants, are those retail grants like you’re ready for the Walmart Grants or the Ross Grant, the Cracker Barrel or Target. I suggest that you start searching for those types of grants first because they don’t require a lot of paperwork. Like your operating budget, which usually most startups don’t have, and a couple of other things.
And then if you’re a non-profit trying to grow, start again with your board of directors. Every board member should be giving at a certain level. Now you get to establish that level, personally, for me, my board was $500 per board member that gives you some startup funding there. For some boards, I met with some clients who are $10,000, some are $50. So you have to decide what it is that you are comfortable at as a board and that could be part of the startup funding. And then I say, get out there on that speaker circuit. And that speaker circuit is like the Rotary Club, The Lions Club, the Kuleana’s Club, The Optimus Club. Get out there on that speaker circuit and once you present to these types of clubs, they usually have some funding that’s attached to it.
And then you can also do a special event, now I’m not a big special event girl, let me just tell you why. Special events usually take a lot of time, talent and if you start factoring in how much talents like your board time and your staff time your return of investment start to dwindle a little bit unless you’re really good at getting in-kind donations. What I mean by that is getting your food donated. Getting` the venue donated. Getting the alcohol donated. If you’re really good at that, then the event should be just perfectly fine for you, but if not, it can be draining. So I tell organizations all the time, no more than 2 signature special events in a year. So if you’re doing special events, and you’re like, “I’m going from here to here, I’m going to do one here, here, here.” You’re just draining yourself and your draining your money. So I hope what I said helped you.
Janine: I totally think it did. As I said, this is the 3-minute money tip and she ran through them really quick. But the number 1 is if you are not grant ready, you want to get money from your board of directors. Hey, who heard that the board of directors can sometimes offer up to $10,000 apiece depending upon your – I’ve never heard of that before. And number 3, make sure that if you’re going to do events, make sure you get as much donated to you as possible because actually, they are money drain unless you’re really shrewd about how you’re able to get the resources that you want for your membership. Did we get that right for you Sabrina? Is that about what you said?
Sabrina: That is about what I said with one little piece, do the network where you go out to your lions, and Kuleana’s and Rotary Club. That’s an old-hanging fruit right there for your nonprofit.
Janine: That’s right. Make sure you get on the speaker circuit.
And oh, in case you didn’t know this, yes, your lovely host here, Janine Bolon wrote a book called “Author podcasting.” Guess what? This happens to work for business owners and nonprofits as well. How to get on the speaking circuit by podcasting. And if you need some help with that, definitely look me up. But otherwise, we’re going to say goodbye to Sabrina. Thank you so much, Sabrina Walker-Hernandez. If you have any questions when it comes to how to raise money with nonprofits, she is the woman that can save at least 5 to 7 years off your learning curve. I highly recommend that you reach out to her. Have a great day. This is the 3-minute money tip with Janine Bolon. See you next Friday.
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