FIRESIDE CHAT: How to Choose the Right Technology for Your Nonprofit

Celia:  Awesome. Hi, everyone, and welcome. I'm also just going to really quickly enable live transcripts. There we go. Great. 

So hi, everyone, welcome. This is a Fireside Chat on choosing technology for your nonprofit. So, this is being recorded and will be shared with you all afterwards. So, just keep your eyes peeled for a follow-up email in case you want to review anything from today, later on or share it with a colleague or a friend. We did collect questions from all of you when you registered. So, we're going to sort of start there. 

But if questions come up throughout, feel free to throw them in the chat using three hashtags before your question. That way, I can be sure that I see it. Hopefully, we'll have some good discussion in the chat as well. So, put those three hashtags in front of your question so I see it. But sort of jumping in here, I am Celia. In case it's your first time here, you are on a webinar that is part of our free regular webinar series where we collaborate with community partners to provide education for grant professionals and nonprofits. Our goal here, and always, is to tackle a problem and share different ways that we can think about and solve that problem. 

So now, I want to introduce our panelists here today. So first up is Keesha Gibson. So Ms. Gibson is founder and owner of Gibson Consulting. And she has more than 25 years of executive management and nonprofit experience. She's raised and managed millions of dollars in funds for organizations across the country. And now Keesha and her team are focused on providing out-of-the-box thinking and strategic help to encourage business owners and nonprofits to remain steadfast in their visions of success. 

Next up is Leila Adnani. She is the founder of PS Creative and Philanthropy United. And she began her fundraising career in politics, actually, in Washington, DC in 201. But pivoted into optimizing nonprofit funding in 2018. She now works with clientele nationwide, helping them to raise more money more effectively using tech events and digital strategy. 

And last but not least is Julia Babbitt Williams. She has been in the nonprofit world for over 20 years, holding positions like manager of education, operations educator, program coordinator, and executive director. Now, she is in charge of all things grant as the manager of Grants and Advancement for the Eastern Shore and Land Conservancy. 

So, thank you all so much for joining us. Panelists, we're really excited to have your perspective today. As we get kicked off here, I'm just really going to quickly orient everyone so we sort of know where we're going today.

So before we get started on our panel discussion, I'm just quickly going to talk about technology as a whole, right? I'm sure if you're coming here today, you do see the benefit. But I find it sometimes it's good to just anchor all of us that we're all on the same page since we're coming from really different backgrounds. Then we'll jump into the questions that you all submitted, and any questions that we can get to that you dropped in the chat about your technology questions. And we'll try to get to as many of those as we can. And then at the end, we will quickly look at the Instrumentl platform, and just show you some of how that works. And you'll definitely want to stick with us because if you stick with us to the end, we are giving away two really awesome freebies. The first is a free copy of our seven steps to prioritizing grant opportunities. And in the next few days, if you stick with us till the end, in the next few days, we'll summarize some of these key tips from today's panel. And we'll send that out to you as well so that you have that on record. 

So, let's get started here. So, why are we talking about technology? I just kind of want to anchor us. So before we start talking about technology, I want to back up really quickly and talk about this PPT concept, right? I don't know if any of you are familiar with this, if you've heard of it, drop it in the chat. I want to hear about it. But essentially, this is a framework. It started in the late 60s. It was popularized in the 90s. But it looks at the business in terms of three parts, right? People, process, and technology. And it talks about how they work together. 

So essentially, we've got people and they do the work. Right? I'm sure if you are here today, you can agree on this and probably think of multiple things we're doing today and next week that prove this. Right? And second is processes. And that's really what's driving the efficiency of an organization. Because of processes, we have this framework for accomplishing things. We can plan out our time. We can collaborate more effectively, right? 

And then the final piece is technology. And that's really what's automating and organizing all of this, right? And together, these things create this three-legged stool. And it's really all about balance. And that's what we're going for in terms of thinking about this sort of holistic solution, right, if we want balance. So, what's important to know here is that if one area changes, right, then it all needs to change, right? So think about tippy stools when you go to a restaurant and you're on that one chair that's tipping and it's uncomfortable. If we've got one area that's stronger than the others, then you get that kind of imbalance, right? 

And because it affects everything, everything has to adapt, right? So if you're expanding your team or if your team has condensed, right, or has gotten smaller, we need to be updating our sort of processes and technology to reflect that. 

Can you all still see? There we go. So, if we don't have people, what happens? Nobody writes the grants. Nobody meets reporting requirements. Who's holding us accountable, right? If we don't have processes, we might not know who's doing what. We may not know which opportunities to pursue and which ones not to pursue. And then finally, if we don't have technology, how are we doing things like avoiding staff burnout? How are we not putting too much on our staff? And how are we making sure that we're bolstering collaboration and ultimately achieving more with the same size team? Right? 

So really quickly, before we hop into it and as I move over to our awesome panelists, I have a quick poll for you. And I would love to just kind of get some feedback from everybody in here on where you think your organization is currently the strongest in terms of this PPT framework? Is it people? Is it process? Is it technology? So, drop that in the poll. 

And as we do that, I am going to go ahead and just stop our share so that we can kind of focus here on our speakers. Cool. So, thanks, everyone who's finishing up the poll. We will sort of go ahead and get started here. So, I want to start really quickly with just a high level. 

In terms of technology that we're looking for, I want to know what are some of the key capabilities that you're looking for within your organization or with your clients when you're evaluating technology? Let's start with Julia. What do you think?

Julia:  So the key technologies that we depend on were -- so we are starting a new process for grants. Over the last year, I'd say, we've developed it. So, we're looking for technology across the board. When I first started pulling this process together, I luckily found Instrumentl at the very beginning. So, that's really what I know being new to grants and finding Instrumentl at the very beginning. That's what I know. And I'll tell you, it's been -- not to plug it too much, but it's been a great help for us, technology wise, because I came from a non-process where one hand did not know what the other was doing. And so we had this one just as an example, one program, one department applying for the same grant, another department was and neither of them knew they were applying for the same grant. So, trouble. Trouble and paradox here. 

So, it was quickly identified that this was a need to have, a process that was seamless. And so, we're getting there. But anyway, so Instrumentl has helped not only with researching but with grant tracking. Now, we do have a CRM we work with for our donors. And then we are starting to work with the grants in there as well. We use Razor's Edge for that. And for accounting, we were using QuickBooks. But we've just switched over to Intacct because we now have a virtual CFO. And that's what they suggest. It has a little bit higher level of tracking in it, and it just seems to work better for us. So, that's kind of what we're doing right now.

Celia:  That's great. I'm going to throw this to you, Keesha, what are some of the key capabilities that you look for, I think, within technology with your clients? And maybe just thinking about, what makes something a good fit potentially for a nonprofit?

Keesha:  Yes. So, our clients are both nonprofit and for profit. But nonprofits are businesses too. And so, what we what we look for, not only for just return on investment. But that being a way to leverage time, processes that are streamline. I, too, use Instrumentl. Or I've been using Instrumentl now for, I want to say, three, four years now. And it's a tool that helps us with our clients as well because we have smaller nonprofits that may not be able to -- they don't have the people. They don't have the -- mostly volunteer based or they seek volunteers to help them write the grants and don't know where to start. So, we always recommend Instrumentl because it is a tool that helps streamline processes and it saves time. I tell folks, “Your return on investment, yes, it may be pricey, it may have a cost. But if it saves you time, especially when you don't have the capacity to full capacity, it's a good fit.” And so, I do recommend Instrumentl. 

We also use other CRMs. We have a CRM where we help manage our clients and their work. We do refer clients to certain platforms and technologies that we actually use ourselves. So like for donor management, we use Donor Perfect, for prospecting and research, and Instrumentl, CRM is -- the back end is Dubsado where we manage our clients. And our clients have access to the resources that we use, and everything that we have inside of the inside of the system.

Celia:  That's great. So, I'm hearing things about saving time and sort of having that collaborative piece, right? So, people can understand sort of, to Julia's earlier point, making sure that you're not duplicating work. Leila, do you have anything to add there, maybe specifically around that piece of ROI, time justifying that cost?

Leila:  I think the biggest thing that a lot of nonprofits get hung up on is that if you're a small nonprofit, your needs for technology are very different than if you are a large multi-state organization. So, there's different tiers of tech available to you that come at a different price point. It's also a lot easier to use on that lower, easier scale versus when you continue to scale up and you're dealing with companies like Salesforce Blackbaud, Razor's Edge even. That can be really daunting for the smaller organizations. 

But there are great solutions that are at lower price points that you can easily get your team on to. And so, it's important that even though the big names that a lot of people hear often, there's still a huge suite of other easier to use and lower cost options. As a small organization, don't jump into Salesforce, don't jump into Blackbaud. Those are huge commitments. And if you don't have somebody who is trained as an expert in both of those software's, you're going to not be able to get that return out of that investment.

Celia:  Yeah. I think that's a really interesting point. We actually had a question that came in from someone today. And they were wondering about, if we're thinking about the lifecycle of a nonprofit, or a bit of a small for-profit business, thinking about what might be important on day one when you have sort of a small budget versus maybe what's important into the future when you've started growing your organization? 

Leila, I wonder if you've sort of thought about, to your point, what does that evolution potentially look like? And maybe what am I looking for on day one versus what am I looking for into the future?

Leila:  I think the smartest thing that day one nonprofits can do is to dedicate a part of that tiny budget that you have to utilize the tech. Do not do this with spreadsheets. Do not do this with QuickBooks. You actually need to be optimizing your donation pages. And that's not Donorbox, which is like a free software and a lot of first, like new nonprofits use. You can use the Fundrise app, which is a huge enterprise level tool that -- I mean UNICEF uses. It's incredible technology and it's free. They charge you based on how successful you are. And you do need someone, similar to Keesha and I, to be able to administer that. They do require that you've got somebody on the outside who is there to kind of support you until you hit a certain amount of fundraising. But there are tools out there that they do want to get those smaller guys in the door because they know that your capacity to grow is absolutely there. So if you have any type of budget, please, think about technology. 

If you're doing a lot of fundraising events, event technology is critical. The days of doing your auction on paper, I mean, that's got to go. If you're still doing it, there's so many softwares that literally you only pay per event. So if you only have two events per year, you're not locked into a $2,000 plus commitment as you continue to grow. So, there is truly something out there for everybody - don't sleep on technology. New organizations that we've been working with, we tell them, immediately, sign up for instrumental. Because how are you going to get that money to continue to invest in technology and grow your nonprofit and your impact? Grants, things like that. Why waste time and make it harder for everyone on your team, especially as you're adding in new people? If you've already got the tech in place, it's going to maximize the time spent in terms of onboarding and scaling. And we've seen organizations go from making $100,000 a year to making 5 million per year. And that was just with putting the right technological pieces at play, same team, new tech.

Celia:  Yeah. Leila, I know, there's a question in the chat about if you could drop the name of that pay as you go event tech. I think people would appreciate it. And I think you touched on a great point around, are we thinking about grants as a way to maybe pay for some of this technology? And I would love to throw that, maybe to you Keesha, or even to you, Julia. Is that something that you see very often? 

I know that sometimes grants for general operating expenses can be kind of hard to come by. What would you sort of suggest, maybe, Keesha, to your clients, around looking at grants or looking at funding as a way to get those efficiencies and tools put in place for the organization to scale?

Keesha:  Even with general operating grants, just overall, any grant, always work technology into your capacity. You always have to show the funder. And I think a lot of times folks leave it out. Because when they hit general operating, they're looking for salaries to pay folks to do the work. But it's best to work those numbers into your budget for the technology that you want to use and break it down into the different programs. Your organization has five programs, make sure you break down the use of technology into each of those programs. And making sure that even looking into the future showing the donor, “Hey, this is what we're using now. And this is how this technology is going to help us grow and leverage their support.” 

One of my clients, we do a capacity building program. And one of the things like in your budgets, you have to -- in your narratives, explain the need for technology and the need to leverage the funding that you get from all sources. And let the funders know, otherwise. They won't know what to need. They won't know the story behind your program, and understand the value that you're bringing to the community. And more value that you bring to the community if you have the right technology in place and what the real value of that is. So, if it's going to cost you an additional $5,000 a year to bring somebody on, implement a new platform to show them how that will work if that 5000 can help you grow an additional 100,000 for the year. 

Make sure you translate that and explain that to the donors. And I think it's a piece that a lot of groups leave out because the focus on capacities is basically on the people and not so much the platforms and the need for technology. So, I think it has to be worked on even more. So nowadays, yeah.

Celia:  Yeah. That makes a ton of sense. Julia, do you have any thoughts on that? I know you're doing a lot of grant management over there.

Julia:  Yeah, I knew I learned something today. So, we don't actually put the technology in there. But that's a great tip and I will do that. Well, I'm actually working on a capacity building grant now that I'll absolutely add that too. But, yeah. I mean, it's great. And Instrumentl is great. How they break down the grants and how you look for them, and knowing which ones support capacity building or going to your old grand tours to ask for that. But that's a great tip. Keesha, thank you.

Celia:  Yeah, that’s awesome.  Cool. This is great. 

So sort of thinking about -- before we kind of talked about maybe implementing, I'm curious what your thoughts are on sort of getting the most out of potentially what you already have, right? I think a lot of the time -- and I've worked with a lot of technologies in small organizations that I think a lot of the time, it's so hard to find the bandwidth to just get set up, right? It's like, “Great, we've got this new technology. Who's got time to figure this out?” 

And so I wonder, what are your thoughts or maybe tips, best practices, things you've done in the past that have really helped kind of make the most out of technology that maybe you're already paying for and just make sure that you're not -- is that customer service? Is it having proper implemented -- choosing technology that has real implementation that comes along with it? Is it hiring someone who's just working on that? Do you have any thoughts on that? And I wonder, Julia, because I know that you sort of setup Instrumentl in some of the other technologies. Maybe you could speak to that point.

Julia:  Yeah. So, Instrumentl has been great for that. Because as I came in as a newbie, the grants also newbie to Instrumentl, it was a little overwhelming. And I think the thing that drew me to Instrumentl is how user friendly it is. I mean, it's very easy to work through and to see what you need to do, the presentation is great. And it digs down very easily to make sense in how you use it. So again, very user friendly. And that was really helpful to me. 

And then the other thing is that you guys have so many -- like this, free opportunities to learn, free webinars of all different subjects and dig down into what you guys do. And that's been really helpful for me, lots of blog posts about different things about grants that don't necessarily even have to do with Instrumentl. So, I think that has been the biggest help for me is using you guys almost as a consultant in building this grants process that we're doing. And it just keeps getting better and better. 

And like I mentioned before, before we started on here is that I send in suggestions all the time. Because as I'm going along, I'm like, “Oh, it'll be great if you guys did this,” and, boom, I put the suggestion in. And, of course, I'm not the only one. But you listened and those things show up, like the calendar view. That's a big -- a great new thing I've been hoping for for a few months now. 

Celia:  That's awesome. 

Julia:  Year now. Yeah. So just looking for that user-friendly technology that you can really dig into. But it is overwhelming. It is overwhelming. 

Celia:  Yeah, it's definitely overwhelming. It's easy to say, “You need technology.” But then kind of putting that into the process becomes difficult. One of the things we really recommend to people is blocking time on the calendar to check in on this. 

So, we've set up a new technology. We've got it running. Maybe that's monthly, maybe it's quarterly where you take a half a day or an afternoon on a Friday when things are sort of nearing the end of the week, and you just kind of look at, “Is this working? Why isn't this working? Are people using it the way we want them to be using it? What are the reasons that maybe they're not? What's getting in the way?” And just kind of take stock of that and then allow it to sort of put some action items in place, maybe that's a team meeting where you need to train people on it. Maybe it's bringing in customer success or getting your -- using Instrumentl again as an example. We do these regular customer demos where our customer success people sort of walk everybody through how to use it. Maybe it's asking your team to block some time and do that. Right? So, I think there are some sort of tips around that. 

I want to talk really quickly about knowing when to use tech versus when to maybe not automate that, right? And I kind of want to throw that to you, Leila, because we had a specific question that just came in the chat around someone whose donor list is tiny and all contact is still done by hand. But they'd really love to move their marketing and their contacts technology. But they're just not sure sort of how to do that or how much should be done by hand versus maybe how much they should automate. And I wonder what you think about that.

Leila:  So, of course, it depends on what your budget is. We love the tool Virtuous. It's a great CRM software. It gives you such incredible donor insights. And you can do all of your email communications through that. It gives you insights into social media and other people within your donors’ networks that would be primed to donate to you. So really, really cool smart software. But there is a price tag attached to it. 

So I would say, get the demos for what your needs are in terms of that technology so that you know if it's going to cost me, let's say, $2,000 for the year to be able to afford this software that it's going to then help me automate a lot of my processes. Well, then that's kind of one of those benchmarks of, I know as an organization, we need to be able to hit this so that we can implement this. And then you are literally able to, A, do less with more staff. Virtuous, for example, which is one of our favorites, favorites, favorites. They have the ability where you can do handwritten cards and send gifts all through the platform. So, you still can have that really nice personal touch point. They integrate with direct mail campaigns. So once you’re a larger organization and you've got the budget for direct mail, you can do everything all within one platform. It's also great for being able to manage who gave for X, Y, and Z events if you do have that live event component to your organization. 

So Virtuous, I can send you all the links for that as well. Great organization. And the next part is they've got incredible customer success teams, all this software is similar to Instrumentl. If you're overwhelmed and you don't really know where to start, they have so many training videos. And I suggest utilizing technology like Clickup, or Monday.com, Asana, all those kinds of things to say, “Hey, we've got to dedicate the time to really getting the most out of whatever investments we make.” 

And finally, last thought, you still want to do a lot of things still like with that high touch point where you are writing handwritten cards and you are calling your donors. Do not stop doing all of that stuff. And for the larger organizations on this call, a lot of the time you forget to continue doing that stuff because there's so much on your plate. So, there's something to be said for that handwritten card, that birthday call. You name it. So, continue keeping that up. It's how you start growing.

Celia:  That's awesome. Keesha, I want to throw you a question about thinking about the budget and thinking about sort of justifying these kinds of expenses. You had mentioned, sort of including it in your capacity building grants. But I know you work with so many businesses. Do you talk much with folks about, how are you sort of presenting this to your board or to your upper management in terms of being an asset for the business and not just being sort of a drain on resources? And do you have any thoughts on sort of best ways to kind of present that or key points to include?

Keesha:  One of the things that I suggest when you're presenting to the board to approve the budget is to also make sure you have tech, like I said, technologies that help you save time and energy. But you also want to make it easy for your team to do their job. And if it's a technology that can help your team do their job better and more efficiently and quickly, it's the easiest pitch. 

I come from a time where when I started doing this work, it was in the 90s, right? So, we had to reach out to the donor, get their annual report, find out their deadline dates, write a letter of intent, wait for a response with a letter of intent and fill out the application and then wait for a response, paper checks, copies. And now everything is digital and virtual now and really quick. You submit it online where you had -- you could submit a five-page proposal, now you've scaled down to 250 words, right? 

So, yeah, it comes from a different time. So if you could pitch that, it's saving time and energy. Yes, it costs, but we also want to make sure that the team is comfortable in doing the job or the person that you're going to bring into the position of grant writer, grants manager, whatever the role is, making sure that their job is done efficiently. And it's something that they could also work into the job description, making sure that team members are familiar with the CRM, DonorBase, some kind of technology so it'd be easier for them to pick up and navigate. 

Celia:  Yeah.  So, I think what I'm hearing from you, and I think this is a really key point, too, and something we talked about when we're talking about the PPT framework is that it's really important to sort of support your staff, right? I know that high turnover is something we talk about a lot, people getting burnt out and leaving. So thinking about using tech as a way to kind of safeguard against that and sort of give your team what they need so that they can really focus on being relevant and creative, and sort of do the things that require that kind of human touch, right? And leave the rest of it up to processes and sort of --

Keesha:  And even if you're working with volunteers, right? So we're working with volunteers, we can’t pay them. We give stipends. So now you're saying you have a volunteer, they're not getting paid a stipend, and they have to learn the process or technology that no one has time to manage. That's the worst place to be in and that results in high turnover as well. People coming in and not being comfortable and then not knowing where it's going. Yeah. 

Whereas it could be a learning tool as well as offer as a technology that they can learn if they're a volunteer. Hey, the benefit is this. You get to learn this technology. You could do grant research better and more efficiently. And even if they do leave, they come away having learned something as an intern or volunteer. They come away learning something and having those --

Celia:  Yeah. That's a really great point. Switching gears a little because I saw a really great question just pop up in the chat around sort of grant management. And I know there's a lot of grant related professionals on here today because that is a lot of our audience here. I want to talk quickly about the sort of full piece of grants, right? 

So, we talk a lot about prospecting. I think everyone's got their kind of favorite resources when it comes to finding opportunities. I would love to talk really quickly about how we manage that? Either through the actual writing process, but maybe more importantly, on the post award side? How are we managing that? Are we keeping up with reporting requirements? 

Julia, I see you nodding a lot. So, I'm going to throw this one to you.

Julia:  No, absolutely. I was hoping you did. Because when I did come on Instrumentl, I know it's mostly for searching for grants. But I really jumped in to use it for tracking grants because we were lacking that and we needed something automated. I mean, we went from spreadsheets that were saved in so many different forms in so many different places. I'd love to never see a spreadsheet, static spreadsheet again. So, that was a game changer to be able to move from that to being able to track in real time and have it just be right there. And you can filter and see what you're researching, what you've been awarded and then having the tasks there. I'm talking about Instrumentl for those of you who are on it yet. But they offer a task that you can assign. So for your reporting, you can know when you're reporting to do. Once you're awarded the grant, you put it all in there, and it goes to whoever's in charge of reporting. If my team, one person, I can send it to them. I'm a collaborator. It gets sent to both of us a couple of weeks ahead of time. So, we have that upfront notice. So, that's really helpful. 

And then having something -- one of the suggestions that I had sent in is to have something with a status that said “closed” so that you know, “Okay, I've done everything. And I can put that aside. I don't have to worry about that one grant.” Because once you're awarded, it's kind of open-ended at that point  where you are with those grants. If it's a multiyear grant or if it's a one year grant, if your reporting is quarterly, or if it's once a year, just being able to track that is important and to have that automated is key. I mean, to have it on a spreadsheet.

Celia:  Yeah. And I think there was some talk in the chat about some other tools, Asana, Monday.com. Those are fantastic tools. I love Asana. Personally, it really helps me stay organized. And I think that setting something like that up, I think what I'll say is that everyone has a different budget, right? And I think we do hear often that people are maybe just getting started, or they're sort of in early days and they're sort of just trying to establish enough resources to be able to really employ a piece of technology that might actually really meet all their needs. And so, and that means I'm going to cobble some things together using a few different pieces. 

And I don't think there's anything wrong with that. And I think there's some amazing tools out there to help you with it. But thinking about letting those tools help you set up a process, which then can be scaled into maybe a more specific technology, right? So, I think about Asana, for example, and it's great, you can put a lot of stuff in there. One of my favorite things about Instrumentl is that you can do the same stuff you can do in Asana. But it's also pulling the information and the foundation and the opportunity real time all the time. So you're not having to update it, right? It's like if I go into that task and the deadline has changed, it's right there for me and I can see that. 

I'm curious, does anybody here, Leila, Keesha, Julia, have any experience with other project management tools or have any thoughts on some of the options that are out there? And maybe what you like and don't like? Yeah, Leila.

Leila:  I will hop in. So for a really cost-effective project management tool, we've used a lot of these things on the for profit side. And I think a lot of the things that nonprofits don't do is run their business for profit, which if you start to adopt a little bit more of that for profit mentality, you start to get a lot higher efficiency and effectiveness throughout processes. I'm sure Keesha can agree with me on that one. 

But if you're looking for a great place to get started Clickup.com We love Clickup. We also think it works really well with adding that into Instrumentl of being able to then assign people on your team the different deliverables that need to be hit. If it is a multiyear grant, making sure that you are doing all the necessary reporting, and that kind of thing. So, I think that it works really well in conjunction. 

And because it's so cost effective, there's no reason not to. It's really quite intuitive too. So if you've never looked into it, I highly recommend it. And perhaps to you guys with Instrumentl, thank God you have such a great backend for us to be able to do as much as we can besides just finding and applying.

Celia:  Yeah.  Thank you. Yeah, I'm glad to. Yeah, I think that's all really, really good points. 

I want to do a kind of a little bit of a lightning round here. And if anybody has any follow-up questions, anything we've talked about, now is a great time to throw it in the chat. Because we're going to do a quick little lightning round here on technology tools that we like. There were in the submitted questions people asked multiple things about what's the best for this? What's the best for this? So, I think it makes sense. We're just going to kind of do a little bit of a lightning round. I'll give you a topic. And you all just throw out anything that you like to use kind of on that topic. Right? 

So, I'm going to start with CRM. And maybe, Leila, you want to go first on CRM?

Leila:  Yes. I love Virtuous. Virtuous did incredible. Little bit higher price tag, huge functionality. If you need something a little bit cheaper, check out Kindful.

Celia:  Kindful. Awesome. Julia or Keesha, anything on the CRM that you like?

Julia:  Yeah, go ahead.

Keesha:  Yeah. I use Dubsado for business backend for client management. Yeah. 

Celia:  What was that one, Keesha? 

Keesha:  Dubsado. 

Celia:  Dubsado, okay. Great. Julia, how about you?

Julia:  We use Razor's Edge. We just switched over to it from Salsa. We were using Salsa before and now we're using Razor's Edge. And so far, so good.

Celia:  Yeah, that's awesome. Okay. The next one up here is going to be grant prospecting and research.

Leila:  That’s easy.

Julia:  Instrumentl.

Celia:  Instrumentl, okay.

Leila:  And then the other part is there's really no other software in this space. So, grants are such an integral part of fundraising. And it's fantastic that finally something exists to be able to fill that void. Before it was spending hours on Google searching, hoping, praying and wishing, and then sometimes getting a result. And now, the processes are streamlined. Thanks to Instrumentl.

Celia:  Awesome. I'm glad that -- yeah. Okay. 

And, Leila, would you drop the names of those CRMs that you mentioned below? 

Leila:  Yes.

Celia:  I think you said Virtuous and then Keesha mentioned Dubsado, and I think there was one more that you had mentioned. 

Cool. File management. Any questions, any sort of thoughts on how to best manage files?

Keesha:  File management.

Leila:  We personally use Dropbox. I know people love Google Drive, but Dropbox combined with Clickup has been a game changer. They integrate together. So, it makes it really easy to be able to share files from organization to organization. If you are multistate and if you are small, it's pretty affordable as well.

Celia:  Cool.

Julia:  We use Microsoft SharePoint. And so far, it's working for us. But I'm interested in looking into other options.

Celia:  Yeah. We use a lot of Google. I've used Box.com in the past. I think it depends on how confidential you want to keep your files. I've used Box.com. And really highly regulated like SEC compliance kind of scenarios because you can really tighten up the security there. So if you're doing anything around finance or moving personal information around, I would say, look at some of those options as well. And think about security, because I think that's going to be an important piece here. 

Next up is project management. I think we talked about Asana. We talked about Monday.com. I think someone had mentioned in the chat AirTable, which has a lot of functions. Anything else that you all like from a project management tool?

Julia:  Instrumentl.

Celia:  Instrumentl, yeah. Okay. Yeah. How did I leave that one out? Oh no.

Julia:  Well, I was going to say that I'm not familiar with a lot of these ones that you guys are mentioning. And so for me, I like to have everything in one place. So, I don't have to go to different services for different parts of grants. So, I love that Instrumentl covers all of it. I mean, they're expanding, like I said, all the time to include more.A one stop shop. That's what I'm into 

Celia:  Yeah.

Keesha:  Boardable is pretty good too, now that I think about it.

Celia:  What was it?

Keesha:  Boardable.

Celia:  Boardable.

Keesha:  Boardable. Mm-hmm. It helps you manage your board. You could be on board. You can have all your board files, everything you need for board management. It's pretty cool. 

Celia:  Cool. I'm just going to drop that in the chat as well. Boardable. Great. I don't think -- yeah, I think I spelled that right. I don't know. You google it. Google will tell you whether or not I spelled it right. That's great. 

Let's see. Grant manage -- or post award grants, which we talked about a little bit. Instrumentl does let you do that, right? With our kind of calendar and tracking, you can check that out. Anything else on the post award grant side that you all like?

Keesha:  I have a client that uses Submittable. But I don't know how it works post award, because they actually make grants. 

Celia:  Yeah. 

Keesha:  But I think as far as managing it, managing grants, that might be an option. 

Celia: Okay. That’s great. Yeah, I think the piece that I really want to kind of maybe drive home here, and I think that most people have kind of figured it out is that technology can be very helpful. I think it can also -- it's sort of a double edged sword, right, where it can also then go from being helpful to just being overwhelming and too much work. 

And in my experience, I've been using different types of technology for different types of roles for a while. And I think that what's really important is thinking about the integrity of your data, right? How are we storing things? Are we moving information from place to place? Is there an opportunity that we're duplicating that or that things are going to be mismatched? Right? And I think that it's really important to sort of try to bring that stuff under one umbrella as best you can.

A key piece here that I think is important is thinking about integrations, right? So, how can our systems potentially integrate with each other? Do those integrations already exist? So Instrumentl, for example, we just launched a Salesforce integration so that we do integrate with Salesforce. And we're always working on kind of the next integration. So if you're an Instrumentl user on here and you have a preference on integration, make sure you're telling our product team about it. 

Do any of you use Zapier? Can we talk about Zapier quickly? Is anyone familiar with Zapier? Leila? No?

Leila:  Familiar?  Yes. But we do not work with them. No. 

Celia:  Okay. I have used Zapier a lot. It can get a little complicated because it's definitely very technical. But it's an amazing tool because it really draws those lines between different software's in a way that may not already exist. So for anyone who's not familiar with Zapier, this is a sort of third-party technology. It's got plugins with almost a lot of different platforms that are out there and can kind of move information back and forth, whether that's between your CRM and Google, between forms that are being dropped, or filled out and spreadsheets, or something like that. All that information is there. Or even to your Slack channel, anything like that is kind of integratable. 

So, does anybody have any other questions? Drop them in the chat now if you have other questions. I am going to kind of, while people are sort of dropping questions in the chat, I'm just going to really quickly do a little tiny demo on what you can see with Instrumentl and kind of highlight some of these key points that we talked about. And then if you stick with me to the end, I'm going to drop a link for a freebie, which is both the tips we get from today and also our sort of seven tips for better prospecting. 

So, one second. Let me just get this going here. Okay. So what we're looking at, really quickly -- I'll pull this up. So the first thing to know, I think, about Instrumentl is that this is a prospecting tool. So we do have only active opportunities here, which means we're not moving back and forth, right, between an opportunity that we found and then having to go figure out if it's active or not active or worse, like write a whole proposal just to figure out. But it's not an open opportunity. 

So, it's here. It is active and we have 12,000 opportunities on the site. Right now, we add about 100 a week. So, that number is always kind of going up. But what you'll see quickly here is that we've got on the left hand side of these matches. And these are unique matches. So when I set up my account, I tell Instrumentl a little bit about my project, where I'm working, what I'm working on, what I'm raising for. And that is really kind of an important piece. And then it's almost like a virtual assistant in your pocket, right? 

So, it's going to go in and it's going to do all this research for you. It's going to update regularly kind of what is -- I'm going to just blow this up a little so you can see it a little bit better. But it's going to regularly update you as well. So, you get an email once a week with more opportunities. And so, you're really just kind of not having to do all this extra work. You'll also see -- and this is something we just released that we do have application cycles now. So if you've got an LOI and a proposal, you'll be able to see both of those things together. I'm just trying to see if I can find one here where that's also got an LOI date. I'll find one in a minute. 

But we have these cycles now so that we can choose. And I can say, “Okay, maybe I'm not going to meet this October 15 cycle. But I might need this cycle, this January 15 cycle,” which is really nice. And I think it's the only one out there, really, that's doing this right now. 

Beyond that, we've got fields of work. Really quickly, I can see all of this information from the 990s. It's all visualized for me. I can figure out how much I should be asking from this organization based on what the median is. And one of my favorite areas, and something that I talk about a lot is the importance of multi year data when you're looking at and sort of thinking about funders. So, it's nice to see a point. You might get a little bit of information about someone based on a single year 990. But being able to see a trendline tells you a much bigger story about who this organization is. 

So, for example, here, we are in the sort of new grantees section, I can see that this organization is giving almost 40% of their grants to grantees. What that means is that this is a relatively noncompetitive grant. We say anything 30% and above is a no go, is a go as a new grantee. Anything under that is going to be more competitive. It also shows me a lot of information on geography so I can see where this is focused. It’s relevant to me. 

Beyond that, once I find opportunities and I save it, I can kind of organize all of it here. Our new calendar view is fantastic because it shows all of this to you on a calendar. You can click in here. I can set tasks and assign those to my team members. So, this means that all of this is in one place. 

And going back to the idea of wanting to streamline, we want to kind of keep everything together as much as we can. And like I mentioned before, because of this layout, I can see my tasks. I can upload maybe a template or a pest application in here so my team has all that information from working with volunteers. It's really easy to provide them with all the information they might need. And then this will always stay up to date. 

So if a date changes, if eligibility changes and focus changes within that organization, this is staying up to date. I love Asana. But it's not going to be able to kind of pull the same kind of information in here for you. 

We also have the ability to download these reports. These are fantastic because we can download a report and then we can show it to our board. And our board will then sort of know what we're working on. Right? And so, we can take this into a meeting and just sort of say, here's what's here's what's going on. Here's where we stand with everything. And it's all really right there for you. 

So, that's my kind of really quick demo on Instrumentl. I just want to make sure we have any -- yeah, we have a question about how we source grants. So, our content team is sort of out there scraping everything. We do find local foundations. I would say go in there and make sure you're putting in your locality. The more specific you get in terms of your location when you set up your project, the better off you'll be. I see you nodding, Julia. Do you have anything to add on that?

Julia:  No, just agreeing with you. I mean, setting up the grants is great. You're able to really dig in and hone down on what you need there. And I meant to mention the reports before because I use those a lot. And that's really helpful to be able to filter on what you need and share them with people. So, I appreciate that. 

Celia:  Cool.

All right. I'm going to share my screen as we wrap up here. If you have any last questions for our panelists, now is the time to drop those in the chat. But as we're sort of wrapping up here, I just want everyone to know that there is -- I'm dropping a link in the chat right now. If you want to sign up and check out some of these features yourself, see if it'll work for your organization, we are offering a 14-day free trial today. And with that, you'll actually get our standard plan. So, it used to be called Our Plus Plan. Now, it's called Our Standard Plan. So, you'll be able to see all of the new features that we just launched, which are listed here. Except not the Salesforce, that's for pro and up. But you'll be able to see these other features as well as everything else that Instrumentl offers. 

And that's totally free. No credit card. No commitment. Nothing. Just get in there and play with it, see if it's interesting to you, take from it what you want in terms of your process. I think you'll find there's a lot of process that goes on inside Instrumentl. And so, sometimes, just getting in there poking around might give you some ideas for your own tools that you're using as well. So, check that out. 

I'm just going to get through. These are some of those new. 

All right. The other thing to do here is to sign up for a freebie. So I just dropped a link for that, too. So what's going to happen, you're going to go into that link. Immediately, we will send you this ultimate guide to prioritizing prospects and seven easy steps. And then once I have a chance to rewatch all of this and pull the tips out, I will be creating a great PDF for you that summarizes what we just talked about. And some key tips from people who are out there doing this. So, make sure you sign up for that as well. And we'll make sure that you get that. 

Last things, if you learn something new today, we would love to see you again in a workshop. We have such a great community of folks who are interactive on these workshops, who kind of give their feedback. And so, it's really nice to kind of have you all. So, please, come to something else we're doing soon. 

If you're just starting out, we have a fantastic workshop happening next week on Templates. Matt Hugg is going to walk us through kind of everything you need from a super high level to make sure that you're ready to start applying for grants. Then we're going to go kind of broad. So the week after that, we're talking with Chad Barger about what's changing in fundraising. Right? So, what should nonprofits be thinking about going into this last quarter of the year and then into next year? 

And then we'll talk a little bit about assessing clients for readiness and funder stewardship, which I know is always a hot topic. So, make sure you join us for all of that. I'm just going to drop a little link to the events there. So, yeah, if there's a couple things to take away from this, sign up for your free trial, get in there, poke around, see what you can take from it. Maybe you love it and you want to keep using it, great. Maybe you learn something and you take it into your own process, and you move over to Instrumentl when you're ready to do so. That's also fantastic. 

Come to more of our events and make sure you sign up for that freebie. And you get all of these tips kind of with you. So, that's it. 

If you want to follow up with me, here's all my information. I want to thank our panelists so much. Your insight was really valuable. I got a lot out of it. I hope that everyone else got a lot out of it. If you did, drop what you got out of it in the chat. I want to hear some of your key takeaways from today. So if you're interested, well, what did you take from it? If there's one thing you're going to go and tell your boss about after this, I want to hear about it in the chat. So, thank you all so much. Anything else from anybody? Anything that my panelists want to add before we hop off here?

Keesha:  I just want to thank you, Celia, for inviting me. It's such a pleasure. I enjoy working with Instrumentl. And I look forward to doing more of these with you. But it's a great topic. And hoping everyone comes away with the resources that they need to grow the organization.

Celia:  Awesome. Thanks, Keesha.

Julia: Yeah, I’d just like to say thank you as well, Celia, for inviting me on. I learned a lot today as well as hopefully helping others in the grants world. But one thing I would say is definitely sign up for the trial. And when you sign up for it, block time for those two weeks so that that trial doesn't go by, because I made that mistake two weeks later and realized, “Oh, no, I didn't dig in enough.” So, get the two weeks. It's free. Block your time so you can really dig into that because it's easy to let that go. But thank you.

Celia: That's a great tip, Julia. Thank you for having that. 

Julia:  It was hard to learn. 

Celia:  Yeah. Awesome. It looks like some people are going to share information with their executive director. That's fantastic. Right? 

All right. I think we're good. I think that's it. We're right on the ticker. So, good timing everyone. Thank you all so much for joining us. If you know anybody else who's interested in one of our workshops, let me know. We do this and all kinds of other trainings all the time. And we're always happy to do them specifically for an audience. If you're a consultant, you want to do it for your clients or a membership organization. You want to do it for your members. Hit me up and we will set it up. 

All right, everyone, have a great rest of your Friday and a fantastic weekend. And I will see you all next week to talk about Templates, which will be fun. 

Thanks, everyone. Bye. 

Julia:  Thank you.

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