Season 2 ep 3 with Batya Willmott, Founder of Fundsource26
Season 2 ep 3 with Batya Willmott, Founder of Fundsource26
Transcript
HOST:
[:to season two of the change, the world podcast. This season, I'm going to be speaking, not
only with nonprofit founders or with other nonprofit leaders, such as fundraising experts,
communications, executives, and board members. We'll be addressing some of the big
issues facing Jewish nonprofits today and brainstorming ways that we can come together to
address them.
Thanks for your.
[:. I'm really excited to be here with
Bocho, Wilma, who was the founder and CEO of fund source 26. . Thank you so much for
being here.
GUEST:
[:Okay. So let's
HOST:
[:46] jump right in. Can you tell me a little bit about your background, how you
got into the space?
What is fun source? Give me the, give me the whole story.
GUEST:
[:background and I h
old an executive MBA from McGill university at a certain point in my
youth, I was feeling very unmotivated and dissatisfied with my career despite its success.
And I decided that I wanted to change fields altogether.
And do something more meaningful. So I
shifted into nonprofit work and I started off
e special events office of a [:then I moved on to be the director of development of a major center for children with
special needs for seven years. An
d in the last five years, I opened up my own consultancy
fund source 26.
So it's been quite a journey. And now as founder and CEO of fund source 26, we help a
five, six, and seven figure [:les
s time chasing money and more time doing good.
HOST:
[:excited to help with something like that.
Is there a story behind the name, fun source?
GUEST:
[:ly. So 26 is the number of Hashim's name. So it's always to
remember that all funds ultimately come from mission. Oh. And
HOST:
[:that you work with. [00:02:30] How do
you work together?
What do you do?
GUEST:
[:work with registered charities that are either registered in the U S or Canada, and that have
been around for a few years, at l
east three years or more. And what we do for them is we do
a number of things. So. We build what's called a funding strategy.
months [:different funding opportunities out there. S
o we look through our 15 different databases to
come up with the optimal opportunities for them from a federal level, state level, local level.
And then we go into corporate foundations.
Private foundations and family foundations. And we come up with a rea
l roadmap for them
this is something that a lot [:nonprofit organizations are missing. I often meet with them and I asked them, so what is
your funding strategy? They probably
HOST:
[:even know what that means.
GUEST:
[:have never applied for grants before, or sometimes they tell me, oh yeah. I applied once to
something because somebody told me about it. Oh,
it didn't work. And that's it. And there
was no. [:So our goal is to help organizations gain sustainable funding. So it's not just about the 12 to
18 months that we're looking at, but the whole go
al is that we're providing with them with
opportunities that they can then go after year after year and hopefully grow those donations
larger and larger every year.
[:he
strategy mapped out for them, then they can take one of two routes. So either if they have
someone in
-
house, who can do the work, if they have, let's say a director of development in
the organization, then we can provide strategy and coaching to that pe
rson to execute the.
have the staff to be able to [:also offer turnkey service implementation. So in that case, we, we offer a to Z
implementation of the entire plan. So we help develop budgets. We
work on program
design, we build relationships with funders and we do all the reporting.
Once the funding has actually been up to. So
HOST:
[:relationship, is that the model th
t you're looking at, whereas [:putting someone almost in the organization for
GUEST:
[:CFO position because there has to be certain backend of the
organization that's already
established.
They have to have good accounting systems and practices in order to implement. That
makes sense. Yeah. But to a certain extent, I would say more like a chief development
officer. Okay. More like that type of relatio
nship. Um, that makes a lot of
[:HOST:
[:organizations that are three years and over.
Do you find something specific about the three year mark that's a transition or that
establishes the organization
GUEST:
[:more established organizations for a number of reas
ons. So, first of all, when we apply for
major funding, there's often a requirement to present financial statement.
An [:asking often for statements two years back. So t
here has to be a track record. And also the
longer an organization has been seated in the community. The more evidence we have to
support our case, right. We have proof and evidence that this organization is serving a lot of
people and doing a lot of good.
we have the data. To back us [:been established versus starting something completely from scratch. And also don't forget,
you know, these types of funding opportunities are competitive. So you
're going up against
organizations that already have a track record.
So I only like to work with organizations where I feel they are going to be successful because
re not successful, you know, [:reputation as well. We want to provide them with opportunities where they can really grow
their impact. Absolutely.
HOST:
[:You mentioned the competition that really brings me right into my next question with the
work
you do. What are the challenges specifically that you find the nonprofits are up
against? And is there anything specific to the times that we're in or are they just greater
challenges in general? And do you have any suggestions on what nonprofits can do ab
out
them?
GUEST:
[:the challenges were so different. Before I could speak that the challenges right now are a lot
to do with mindset, you know, and the mindset of people r
unning the organizations and
having a bit of a scarcity mindset. You know, oftentimes I meet with executive directors and
leaders of nonprofits that just don't think there's enough money to go around.
[:y're not going to give to. Because they
already gave their, you know, or thinking that they can't possibly go back to the same donor
for more money or that they can't pursue grants as, you know, as a viable funding option
because, oh, it's just too complic
ated and it just seems so hit or miss.
he ultimate challenge is, is [:can't get anywhere in life without a plan. So I think that's another challenge that
organizations are facing. They're so b
usy and they're so busy doing good and running their
day to day and their wonderful programs that they get so caught up in that, you know, and
what their mission is and what they're all about that they forget to do, you know, something
very important, whic
h is planned for the future.
HOST:
[:one, it was so unexpected. But once you frame it that way, it actually just makes so much
sense that sometimes our mindset is our own wor
st enemy. And there's so much, it sounds
like in this case, there's really so much opportunity that's being left under the table, just
because the nonprofit maybe thinks that it's not worth trying and looking at it in a new light
that opens up all these op
portunities.
Actually really incredible. I really liked that answer. So let me ask you a question. Do you
work with [:GUEST:
[:f different
organizations from those that focus on health to education, to social services, to
employment.
So it's really like, um, a vast array of organizations. And
HOST:
[:lip
side, greater opportunities because they're community based.
[:GUEST:
[:I think that there's no doubt that we face challenges as Jews and as Orthodox Jews,
especi
ally, or lifestyle and values.
Don't always align with the greater society. And so. There's sometimes and definitely not in
o it doesn't matter how many [:Historically. There's always going to
be those that want to view us as privileged and
undeserving of funding or attention. So that's the.
You know, challenge that I see we face as a community, but on the other hand, I know, and I
don't like to focus too much on the challenge. I like to focus
more on the opportunity and
on. The statistics show that [:60% of Jewish households that earn $50,000 a year.
Donate compared to only 46% of non
-
Jewish households in that income bracket. That's o
ne
statistic. Another is that 76% of American Jews give charity versus 66, 60 3% of Americans
ligions or not religious. So [:And I like to, to think that there's, you know, incredible opportunity
there and focus on that.
HOST:
[:mentioned opportunity. What do you think is going to change? Let's say in the next three to
five years, I feel like we're in a time of
a lot of transition, the kind of post COVID world really
shook up a lot of things. And I'm just curious how you think that will impact the nonprofit.
GUEST:
[:right now we a
re in the time of the highest transfer of wealth. So over the next 30 years,
there's an expected $16 trillion USD that will be transferred to the next generation. So I see
that a lot of organizations or the smart ones are going to focus more and more on le
gacy.
[:HOST:
[:GUEST:
[:that's a way to help one
way, you know, obviously there's many ways, but one way to.
Insurance organization sustainability, because there's no guarantee that, that if you, if an
organization has a major donor that they depend on year after year for a large amount of
[:ney, there is no guarantee that their kid or their kids are going to want to
continue to donate to that organization.
They may have moved to a completely different city. So they're supporting organizations in
their city. Or on the other hand, they may have
completely different values from their
parents. So I think that one thing that's important is to consider legacy giving, to ensure that
an endowment and, you know, [:for the future and not wait fo
r 10, 15, 20 years from now to come up with these problems
where they're short a hundred thousand dollars or $200,000 a year, because that donor is
no longer.
So that's one area. I think another area also that, you know, we're going to start focusing
more
and more on is the donation of cryptocurrency.
HOST:
[:popping up and I find, and I think a [00:14:30] lot of people find it really a hard concept to
grasp, but it's kind of
inevitable that it's going to really kind of become a bigger factor in the
charitable
GUEST:
[:Absolutely. I think it has to be, um, definitely for the younger generation. I think young
people now are, are very much into crypto and into p
urchasing trading NFTs. So we, as, you
e to find ways to be able to [:those donations of assets, just the way many organizations today are able to accept the
donation of stock and other, you know,
other assets, you know, more and more
organizations I think are gonna start looking into how they'll be able to accept, you know,
NFTs and cryptocurrency.
HOST:
[:It's very fascinating. And I wonder how long it's going to take to become
m imagining back in the day, [:payments started. That was probably like super novel. Like, you know, I'm sure there were a
lot or organizations that held on to checks for as long as they possibly could.
And now, if you're not accepting donations online, you basically, you know, you don't even
exist. So exactly. Yes, there will come a time when it's it's that normal, but I per
sonally
cannot admit.
GUEST:
[:HOST:
[:stories.
ething that's really special [::00] to them
that they hold onto. Do you have any favorite stories, maybe a particular success or
interesting experience that you can share with.
GUEST:
[:about four years ag
o and they had never applied to any kind of government funding at all.
They had only been funded exclusively through private donations. And they had heard about
nd they felt like that there [:developed a
funding strategy for them and my team and I executed it. Um, the first year
alone, we were able to bring him over half a million dollars of new funding to this
organization.
And this organization had a budget of about $3 million. And so it was quite a sign
ificant part
f their budget. And now year [:know, continuing to bring in more different opportunities. And now the funding that we
bring in is more than half of their annual budget.
And where this
really came into play significantly was during COVID at the beginning of
COVID. They lost some of their major donors. One of their major donors owned a major
ny. So had gone, gone under, [:able to
contribute at the same level. And they had also some other, you know, losses in
terms of donors relating again to the, the COVID situation.
So this funding really came in and. Replaced that funding from the private donors. And not
only did it replace it, b
ut it brought in new donations and encourage their existing major
donors to give even [:organization was now growing to a whole other level.
And it had now gained, you know, national reco
gnition. I don't imagine
HOST:
[:providing organizations with a funding strategy is really the only way. To kind of crisis proof
in organization because yes, a global pandemic i
s a once in a lifetime thing, but there are
recessions and natural [:And I think that, you know, any organization that's not taking steps to kind of plan for that in
advance is going to find themselves at a serious disadvantage.
GUEST:
[:diversify their funding strategy, like to diversify their revenue sources.
So I don't believe in only having one source of revenue, there should be many different
typ
o it. You know, whether it's [:Government funding having, you know, a legacy plan in place for gifts after debt. Like there
has to be a number of different things, you know, organizing crowdfundin
g campaigns and
events.
Like everything has its place. A lot of times organizations come to me and they're like to,
what should we focus on? And I said, you have to diversify a route. You can focus on a few
different things. As long as you have a strategy
in place. And a plan to implement it.
HOST:
[:marketing is, is really a lot of like similar focuses.
And I think that it's both so important to be working together. So that's,
that's really helpful
information. So if somebody is listening to this and they're intrigued and they want to learn
more, how can they contact
GUEST:
[:www.funsourcetwentysix.com. And if you want t
o contact us slash contact, simple
HOST:
[:Great. Thank you so much for doing this. This was a lot of really helpful [00:20:00]
information. I really appreciate your
GUEST:
[:Thanks
HOST:
[:ning to this episode of, to change the world podcast. If you have
any feedback or comments, or if you are. Profit leader was interested in learning more about
how 14 minds can help you. I'd love to hear from you. You can reach me by
email@sylviaatfourteenm
ines.com for more nonprofit content.
Follow me on LinkedIn or visit 14 mines.com to subscribe to our
GUEST:
[:
