Nonprofit Nation with Julia Campbell

What The Best Fundraisers Do Differently with Sabrina Walker Hernandez

September 01, 2021 Julia Campbell Season 1 Episode 4
Nonprofit Nation with Julia Campbell
What The Best Fundraisers Do Differently with Sabrina Walker Hernandez
Show Notes Transcript
My guest this week is Sabrina Walker Hernandez, fundraiser extraordinaire and total pro when it comes to “doing fundraising differently” and thinking outside of the box.

Sabrina is President & CEO of Supporting World Hope. She is a certified consultant, coach, and facilitator. Sabrina has set fundraising records taking a Boys & Girls Club in Texas from $750k to $2.5M, leading a $12 million dollar capital campaign, and she has a Certificate of Nonprofit Management from Harvard Business School.

Sabrina spills all the tea on her journey to record-breaking fundraiser, and how she did it in the 3rd poorest county in the United States. 

Here are some of the topics we discussed: 

  • How she raised a record-breaking amount of money despite there being no history of individual giving at the organization  
  • Her apology to all Development Directors (love this) 
  • How to flip the script and focus less on raising money and more on building relationships
  • What the best fundraisers do and how they do things differently
  • How to convince your Board to fundraise
Connect with Sabrina:
https://supportingworldhope.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sabrinawalkerhernandez/
https://www.facebook.com/supportingworldhope
https://www.instagram.com/the_nonprofitexpert/

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About Julia Campbell, the host of the Nonprofit Nation podcast:

Named as a top thought leader by Forbes and BizTech Magazine, Julia Campbell (she/hers) is an author, coach, and speaker on a mission to make the digital world a better place. 

She wrote her book, Storytelling in the Digital Age: A Guide for Nonprofits, as a roadmap for social change agents who want to build movements using engaging digital storytelling techniques. Her second book, How to Build and Mobilize a Social Media Community for Your Nonprofit, was published in 2020 as a call-to-arms for mission-driven organizations to use the power of social media to build movements. Julia’s online courses, webinars, and talks have helped hundreds of nonprofits make the shift to digital thinking and raise more money online. 

Clients include GoFundMe Charity, Meals on Wheels America, the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and the Boys & Girls Clubs of America.  

Take my free masterclass: 3 Must-Have Elements of Social Media Content that Converts

Julia Campbell:

Hello, Julia Campbell here with a very time sensitive preroll. I have opened the doors to my brand new course for nonprofits the digital fundraising formula. It's a step by step blueprint to launching wildly successful online fundraising campaigns and a formula that you can use over and over again. And the doors are only open until September 20. class starts September 20. So go to digital fundraising formula.com Digital fundraising formula.com. And take a look, sign up register, and I really hope to see you on the inside. Alright, let's get to the episode. Hello, and welcome to nonprofit nation. I'm your host, Julia Campbell. And I'm going to sit down with nonprofit industry experts, fundraisers, marketers, and everyone in between to get real and discuss what it takes to build that movement that you've been dreaming of. I created the nonprofit nation podcast to share practical wisdom and strategies to help you confidently find your voice. definitively grow your audience and effectively build your movement. If you're a nonprofit newbie, or an experienced professional, who's looking to get more visibility, reach more people and create even more impact, then you're in the right place. Let's get started. Hi, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the nonprofit nation podcast. I'm your host, Julia Campbell. I'm here today with my brand new friend, Sabrina Walker Hernandez. She's the president and CEO of supporting world hope. And Sabrina as a certified consultant coach and facilitator who has set fundraising records, taking a Boys and Girls Club in Texas, from $750,000 to 2.5 million leaving a $12 million capital campaign. And she is a certificate of nonprofit management from Harvard Business School. And she woke up very early this morning, on our behalf just to be here with us today. So thank you, Sabrina.

Sabrina Walker Hernandez:

You're welcome. I would only do it for you. As I said, I have followed you and thank you are brilliant when it comes to social media. So thank you. That is so sweet.

Julia Campbell:

I did not I did not pay her to say that. No, she did so much. I think I and we were talking about this before I first heard your name. When I saw sipping tea with Sabrina and I saw that Rachel mujer, who's actually also going to be on the podcast, I saw that you were doing a session together. And I just thought this is fabulous. I love the name sipping tea. I love the I love the idea of just kind of dishing and talking to other fundraisers about fundraising. It's something that I do all the time. So I wanted to I want to hear your story, we usually begin with your story, how you got involved with the work you're doing today?

Sabrina Walker Hernandez:

Well, it's interesting how I got involved with the work that we do today. I do today a nonprofit world. So I went to school. And I guess you if you go all the way back to the beginning, it should not be shocking, because one, my mother is a missionary in the church. And I remember growing up, and we did a lot of community service projects. So I should not be shocked that I landed in this role. And actually, all my siblings in some way or another landed in this type of role. But what happened with me is I just knew that I was very argumentative as a child. So my mom used to say, you could be a good lawyer,

Julia Campbell:

too. And my dad was a lawyer and

Sabrina Walker Hernandez:

yeah, yeah. So I thought in my head since you know, I was young, I was going to be a lawyer. So when I went to college, I majored in pre law, and I was going to be pre Law and Policy and I was going to be a lawyer. And then my senior year, I did an internship with the nonprofit called embassy Resource Center for housing. And I'm mediated between landlord and tenant. And I worked with a lot of attorneys. And I figured, yeah, I don't want to be an attorney. And I'll say this. I know your dad was an attorney, but I won't.

Julia Campbell:

I'm not in love with attorneys trusting Okay, pay my bills for a while. But

Sabrina Walker Hernandez:

yeah, I will say this, there is no right and wrong and the law, you know, when you're an attorney, there's only the law. And so that just didn't kind of sit well with me. Hmm, yeah, very, very true. So I was like, you know, I that's not what I want to do. But what I did fall in love with is I fell in love with the nonprofit world and so amazing Lee graduated, got my graduate degree in Public Administration, worked for the county for a while, and actually monitored all the nonprofits in the county for CDBG for the Community Development Block Grant. So I had like 30 agencies under me. So I really got to see the ins and outs of not the nonprofit, the back end, you know, the unsexy part, the audits, the 908

Julia Campbell:

is that

Sabrina Walker Hernandez:

the site visits and all of that, but still was in love with the nonprofit world. So when an opportunity came up, I immediately went into Boys and Girls Clubs, which if you don't know anything about Boys and Girls Club is a wonderful mission. And I was there for 20 years, like 20, whole years with Boys and Girls Club. But I started out and I think it's the best way to start out. I started out in direct services, I worked with first time juvenile offenders in a teen court program under the Boys and Girls Club. And then I did operations for five years, which for those operations, people out there, I feel for them, because they're stuck in the middle is what I call it, the middle minutes of management, they have the see on the top, and then they have the staff on the bottom, and it's constantly bumping bumping. And then for the 15 years, I served as a CEO of that organization. So that's kind of how I got here.

Julia Campbell:

Do you find that's a? No, I mean, that's not like a typical story. But that trajectory is pretty common, where people come from direct services, and then they are a program officer, and then they are either development director, and then they're an executive director.

Sabrina Walker Hernandez:

Yeah, I think I think that that that's actually I think it makes you a better fundraiser, when you understand what's happening. at the program level, you remember the challenges, because sometimes, you know, as a CEO, or fundraiser, you can be disconnected from the program. But when you were there, and you remember, you know, is trying to spin Golden's a straw, you know, all of that, it comes back to you. And so you can use that to your advantage. Exactly. Now,

Julia Campbell:

that's a really good point, because I have never been in programs. I mean, I served in the US Peace Corps, and I was there for two and a half years, and I was designing programs there. And I've been an intern and volunteer and all sorts of things and nonprofit. But when I started my real paid career, it was immediately in development and grant writing. And I tell this story, pretty often you might have heard it, but when I had my first development, Director job, I worked at a shelter. And my office was physically like in the other part of town, like not where the programs happened, not where the executive director was not where support groups happened, I felt very isolated, right?

Sabrina Walker Hernandez:

This is challenging, because what you're selling for lack of a better is the mission. And if you are close to the mission, for me, it was just easier. So when we built our building, when we did a capital campaign, I had an option of putting my office in the building with the kids or not. And I just chose to put it in the building with the kids, because it's something about hearing those kids when they come in after school and the whole atmosphere of the building changes. And it's the mission coming to life. And that inspired me every day. That was one of the reasons why I just love the field on the mission. I think anytime a fundraiser can put the mission in front of a donor or remind themselves why they're doing something, it just makes it a little bit easier, because we all know is very stressful. Very, very stressful. Well, it

Julia Campbell:

looks like you've had a lot of success. Your LinkedIn bio also caught my eye, because it's actually one of the best LinkedIn headlines I've read. We talk enough about our accomplishments, and you put it right out there. You wrote, I raised $14 million in the third poorest county in the US.

Sabrina Walker Hernandez:

Now you've got to tell us that story. So yeah, you know, it's interesting, from the beginning, what I went into the organization, like I said, I moved from programs to operations and into SEO. Prior to that, the executive that had been there have been there for 30 years. So she was she was wonderful, wonderful person. Her name is Mary Flores. I always like to speak her name because she was a great mentor to me. But one of the things that when she retired, I had a plan, I had a goal, you know, and so that goal was to initially the goal was to get the budget to a million dollars. And so starting out with $750,000, one of the things that I first did was okay, where's the $750,000 coming from? One, how long has it been coming from these sources are these sources you know, I can depend on, you know, I don't have to worry about and then when I did That I mapped that out. I was like, Oh, this is very doable. All I have to do is find this much. And so that's kind of how we went about it. And then we came to a crossroads. And when I say we, it's the board because it takes a great board of directors to help you. It is not one person. I didn't have a development person at the time. So it was myself and the board. So at that point, we just kind of sat down and we said, okay, where are the gaps? Where can we do something different, be a little creative? And so we really looked at social enterprise. We had a consultant come in and we actually created a rental company. I call them moon jumps where I am some people call them inflatables.

Julia Campbell:

Oh yeah. bouncy houses. Yeah, the bouncy house.

Sabrina Walker Hernandez:

We call a moon john. I was like, yeah, let me clarify that we call the moon jumps here in South Texas. Golf and bouncy houses

Julia Campbell:

here in Boston. I bought

Sabrina Walker Hernandez:

bouncy houses. So we had those already bounce houses. Yeah, bounce houses. Yeah, we had them. We had the facility. We had the chairs, the roundtables. We had a board member that owns a u haul company, they gave us a u haul. We wrapped it least you know, we started a rental company that runs a company bought in a, you know, maybe about $25,000 a year. And then we looked into we got very creative, we looked into bingo revenue, because we're in Texas, and everybody plays Bingo.

Julia Campbell:

Yes. I when I lived in Virginia, we had a lot of bingo revenue as well.

Sabrina Walker Hernandez:

Yeah. So we looked into bingo revenue, and did that. And we just really explored different avenues. And then when I grew up, as what I say, on behalf of all development directors out there, including yourself, I'm going to apologize to my first development director.

Julia Campbell:

Thank you. Yes,

Sabrina Walker Hernandez:

her name was Monica vineya. And she was fabulous. I was not let me just say, and I will say I was not because this is one of the lessons that I learned. And if anybody can take something from this, when you were the CEO, and you're doing it all on your own for a very long time, it is very hard to let go. And you can cripple your development person, because you're not letting go. And I didn't fully understand the role of the development director at the time when I got to development director. I just knew all the big bigger organizations and a development director, so I've got to get my stuff.

Julia Campbell:

You know, we don't know what who it is or what they do. But we need one,

Sabrina Walker Hernandez:

we need one. So it was like, so yeah, it was me, not her, I will gladly admit that. But you know, and looking at that, we were able to really focus on individual giving. And I think individus individual giving made a huge difference in our trajectory. Because individually, once you get individuals involved, we had zero. And when I say zero individual money coming in, wow, zero. And so we were able to build up our individual giving base, you know, leveraging the capital campaign, and then rolling those over into endowed gifts and launching the annual campaign and things like that. So now, we are looking at, we get about 80. In our community, I think it's very good. We get about 80 to $120,000 a year and annual gifts. That's great. Yeah. So I think that's good. And and, and, you know, again, that's when I retired. That's where we're at. And I'm hoping the person that's there now takes it to the next level. Yeah, that's kind of what's our journey.

Julia Campbell:

That's interesting. With my executive director, I had the opposite experience. When I came in as development director. I was brand new brand new hire, they'd never had a development director. And I believe what they wanted to do was just sort of never talked to me again and put me in an office and I would just raise, like $500,000 out of thin air. So I kind of have the exact opposite. I wasn't micromanaged. I wasn't really managed. I was given anything. I had to really figure it out on my own. But that leads me actually that brings up a really great point, you might have some advice. I have a lot of listeners and a lot of clients and students that are that are executive directors. So what is your advice to them? How can they let go if they are that micromanager or if they're hiring a new person, and they have been doing it themselves for so long?

Sabrina Walker Hernandez:

Right? I just wish someone would have set me aside and or I should have educated myself a little bit more. And just ask, you know, what does a development director actually do? But when you when you do ask that question, you get multiple answers. I did find that out. I'm even trying to bring myself back up to speed, you get multiple, multiple answers, but just doing a little research, now I understand more the role of the development director in how I should have used them. So I guess, look at the different roles and then figure out how it fits with your organization. I think with the organization that I was running at the time, my development directors should have been more of a, I would say, a coordinator, supporting the board and myself in fundraising, coming up with the scripts and helping with learning about our major donors and informing us about our major donors. I did try to, you know how we do it in the nonprofit world. So I did try to say, can you do development and grant writing?

Julia Campbell:

and social? volunteer management? Yes,

Sabrina Walker Hernandez:

yeah, you can't do that. You can't do that. That's tip one, right? Don't you can't, you can't, it's just an unrealistic expectation. If they're there for development, let that be their focus, make the donor experience the best experience possible that they can give, because what I have learned over time, is the donor experience matters. Making the donor feel like a hero really matters. And that fundraising is only 5% of the ask. And 60% is cultivation and 15% is recognition and stewardship. So if you can get your development person to really focus on helping you cultivate donors, and then doing that recognition and stewardship, and that, thank you, then that's where their focus could be, because that's going to get you reoccurring gifts. And that's the whole goal. You want a great experience so they can give again and again and again. And ultimately, you know, plan gifts is what you want, really. So yeah, that's what I learned.

Julia Campbell:

I love that. Well, tell me about what you do now in your business. So you you retired from the Boys and Girls Club, and now you help people become amazing fundraisers?

Sabrina Walker Hernandez:

Yeah, about that? Yes. So I retired in 2018. I was gonna retire anyway, but I had some health issues that kind of said, okay, you really want to retire. So in 2018, I got diagnosed with two cancers. I got diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma, and with multiple myeloma, and both of those are blood cancers, and they're actually stress related cancers. So in one of my chemo moments, you know, usually that third or fourth chemo is not fun. You the first one you do you think, oh, I've got this, you know, here's,

Julia Campbell:

I don't know. Okay. I've seen Apple go through it. Yeah,

Sabrina Walker Hernandez:

yeah. I don't want you to know, that's the whole point of why I started a company too. But the fourth one is not fun. And I remember my husband telling me, you know, you have to retire, you can't keep doing this. And I was like, Okay, okay, you know, and so, but then as soon as I said it, I said, Yeah, on loop in my head, I love what I do. I love what I do, just kept playing on loop in my head. And so I decided I was going to launch this company called supporting world hope. And I launched this company, believe it or not, from a hospital bed at MD Anderson, I had to spend 30 days in there anyway, for stem cell transplant. Wow, I was like, Okay, how are we going to use this time. And so I did the business plan, did the marketing plan and do all of that. Because the reason why I did it is really, truly because I don't want others nonprofit professionals to experience the stress that I did in this journey. And it can be very stressful. You're wearing multiple hats. You're responsible for the organization. I mean, I know you have a board of directors, but we all have to remember that the board of directors are volunteers, right? They have other obligations. They have family, they have church, you do too, but you are the CEO, Executive Director of the organization, drive the bus, you drive the bus, right? And so as the person who is driving the bus, it is very stressful, even when things are going good, you know if things were going good in our organization, but as one of my friends says, Yeah, you get there, but it's hard staying there, you know, you get to that 2.5 million, but you got to stay there and it's it's a it's a grind to stay there. And so that's why I created my company supporting world hope. I want to support small nonprofit boards and staff and help them understand that it's all about building relationships. And if they build those relationships, it will convert into more donations. A lot of times, nonprofits would get on On that special event, hamster wheel, oh, yeah, and jump from one event to the next event to the next event, and they don't understand all that time that they're putting into it. And staff hours and board hours and volunteer hours is not a great return on investment. But again, if you spend 60%, and cultivation and 15%, and thinking, you're going to grow your organization budget, and it's about building those relationships, so that's really why I started my company, I have a lot of free resources, I have a VIP library with all types of sample documents. I also do like live q&a coaching. In my group, I do a webinar once a month, that really is free that really, you know, I say the quality, so good, you will find the Florida. So I have no problem with that. And then I also do the sipping tea segment. So I do a lot of those things like that, because I just want to support the nonprofit professional. It's on thinked. Industry some very much. So

Julia Campbell:

I'm interrupting this episode to share an absolutely free training that I created that's getting nonprofits of all sizes, big results. sure you've been spending hours on social media, but what can you actually show for it? With all this posting and instagramming and tick talking? Does it really translate into action? In my free training, I'll show you exactly how to take people from passive fans to passionate supporters. And I'll give you specific steps to create social media content that actually converts head on over to nonprofits, that convert.com. Again, that's nonprofits that convert calm and start building a thriving social media community, for your nonprofit right now, without a big team, lots of tech overwhelm or getting stuck on the question, What do I do next? Let me show you how it's done. I can't wait to see what you create. I feel like a lot of what we do as consultants is therapy, we need to be trained as therapists, because our clients, you know, it's sort of like you said, you were very well equipped, I think mentally and emotionally to become an executive director. But a lot of what I see a lot of small nonprofits is the program officer becomes the manager and they don't want to do the managing, they don't want to manage people, they don't want to do payroll, I don't blame them, I wouldn't want to do it either. That's why I did not want to become an executive director. But I think there's that that skill set. And that leadership piece that is so important, especially for fundraising, I love what you say in terms of building relationships. This is a huge piece of what I teach my students about social media is that it's not just purely transactional. It's not just like a money spigot you can turn on. I mean, it's really about building a vibrant community of passionate supporters. That would miss you if you were gone. Right. So so true. That's what I think. And also fundraising I feel is about building a shared identity with the donor. So when I think about causes I give to I would put a bumper sticker on my car, you know, I would put a sign in my yard, I'd wear a T shirt, because it's part of who I am. And it's part of how I express what I stand for. So what do you think the best fundraisers do differently?

Sabrina Walker Hernandez:

I think the best one raises, what they do differently is they make it about the donor. And you have to make it about the donor. I think a lot of times nonprofits or those that are new to the fundraising realm, they make it about the organization. And that's, that's okay, but we share a lot of times and I did this too, and I'm not speaking in a way that saying, Oh, poor thing you didn't know what to do. I did it too. I would always say oh, we serve this many kids. Oh, you know, this is this is how many meals we serve to the kids. And this is what you know what we do, and I always kind of lead with that. And then as you know better you do better, right? That's what they say. So you educate yourself. And that's one of the things that I want to piggyback on professional development and investing in yourself especially if you're new especially if you are a program person that's moved up to executive position, you have to invest in yourself, right the organization needs to invest in you. So if your organization and your board has not set aside any dollars for professional development, that is the conversation that you need to have because one of My biggest challenges was people, people, people, when you talked about managing people, I was I will always have to do this job if it wasn't for the people. Right? Right. Let's go it was it was hard. So you need, you need to get training around how to deal with difficult people, you need to you need to have a coach, I always say, have a coach, someone that you would like you said, a therapist that you can talk to, you can get advisories and therapist, a therapist, because you you need that that's what's going to make you a better CE o or Executive Director, you have to set aside the organization needs to set aside dollars for that professional development, because it doesn't happen overnight. And if you're stuck in your silo, what generally happens as a CEO, and what my experience was, and I don't think it people's experiences are any different. Every day is different in the nonprofit world, you go in with your list, and you think you're going to get this done today. And you want, yep, something blows up, you're putting out fires, here, you're putting out fires there, you never get to your list, you know, so you get stuck in your silo. And if you don't get out of your silo, you don't know how to make this better, right. And so when I talked about training and getting out, it's also for your mental health, to go out to a conference and talk to other executives in the same boat that you're in. Even when they have a$10 million budget. You hear them talking and complaining about the same the same things that you are you go, oh, okay, it gives you a different perspective, right? And you get out there and you see how other organizations do it. You see other events or other ways they're developing relationships. There's no point to reinvent the wheel. We are a powerful industry. As a nonprofit, there's, there's millions of us, we just need to connect more, talk more share on this journey and stop trying to do it on your own in your silo in your community. You've got to get out you've got children.

Julia Campbell:

I love it. I think what really stymies a lot of nonprofits is we have this view that we're competing with every other nonprofit in the world, and there's enough money to go around. Right. So

Sabrina Walker Hernandez:

there is enough money to go around. And I will say this, just to kind of go back to another question that you that you asked about the 2.5 million, like, how did you get there? The only way that I got there, after you hit a certain wall is collaboration. That's the only way you're going to get there. As far as like the larger grants, like the federal or the state grants. The only way I was able, I you know, I thought I was bad. Honey, I could apply for these grants and be my own fiscal agent. I don't need anybody else. That was my

Julia Campbell:

first right. Oh, federal grants are also such a nightmare to Yeah, they're they're horrible. But sometimes the money is so you like, Oh, yeah, you need that money.

Sabrina Walker Hernandez:

Yeah, you need that money. So you know, I wouldn't I was applying on my own just as a single organization and go on getting them? Well, you know, they like collaboration, you got to get in the sandbox and play well with others. So form your good coalition of collaborative organizations that you work with, and start applying together in a collaboration. And that was the only way we opened up the door. I first my first collaborative grant, I did not write it. Let me say that when I got a chance to hire me a grant writer, I did that right away, because it's not my glory.

Julia Campbell:

Your zone of genius. No, it's not my zone. I like that. It's not my zone. And I didn't come up with that. It's in a book called The big leap, which is

Sabrina Walker Hernandez:

that book, I gotta go to that book because it's not my zone of genius. So not that I didn't write grants to vary in idea, but they were like the 25,000 and under. But as a matter of fact, how I got a grant writer was I partnered with another neighboring agency, and we hired a grant writer together, they came on my staff because I had better benefits, and then that nonprofit reimbursed me half of the expense. But I say that that grant writer wrote our first collaborative grant and we got$832,000 from the state. Wow. So it can be well worth it money well worth it, get in the sandbox and play with others don't see each other as competitors. Because together we can do so much more than we can apart. It is okay like like Julia said, there is enough money to go around more than enough money to go around and imagine if you're in a job geographical area, and it's a bunch of nonprofits and no and you don't have a telephone in your community. What is wrong with y'all getting together approaching the network and doing a telethon. Why am I

Julia Campbell:

giving day?

Sabrina Walker Hernandez:

Yeah, what's a Giving Day? Why y'all throwing sand in each other's eyes? Instead of working together? Yeah, that's all I have to say about that. That's my soapbox. I love that.

Julia Campbell:

Oh, I love that. I have one last question. I've a couple questions. One is can you give us just sort of a to wrap it up? But I'm sure we could talk for hours about this particular topic, give us some tips on how we can convince our board to fundraise. I just know. That's a question I get all the time. I'm sure you do, too. And I'm sure it's a it's an hour long discussion. But what are some of your top tips as a former Ed, who I know I'm sure have struggled with it?

Sabrina Walker Hernandez:

Yes. So this is what I tell CEOs when they start talking about fundraising. So first, I say expand what your thoughts are on fundraising. Because a lot of CEOs and a lot of people in general think that fundraising is about asking for money. And for me, that's only 5% of the fundraising process. If you notice, I've been talking about fundraising as cultivation and stewardship. And now as asking, and so for me, the fundraising process is about 20%. is identifying and qualifying donors, you know, do they have the capacity to give? Do they have an affinity for the organization, that, for me, is a role that the board can be very active in, and that's called a door opener. And so my biggest fundraiser on my board never asked for money, they were door opener. And when I talk about they raised a lot of money, I'm talking about half million plus without asking for any money. I'll share that if we have time at the end. So then the next part is 60%. Is cultivation, no, asking donors out to lunch during those discovery questions, meeting with them, having them come in on a tour of the facility, giving them opportunities to see the mission in action, whatever that is, whether it's a volunteer day, engaging them in surveys, asking them their opinions, all those kind of things that 60% of the fundraising process. And then 5% is asking for money. And often times, board members, they feel nervous about asking for money, right? And I'm okay with that. And you have to be okay with that as a CEO as well. Because what happens when you go on those donor meetings, is you take that board member with you, because that board member is there to lend credibility to the process. They are the community person is not getting paid. They believe in the mission. And they're lending their credibility. So you have that donor face to face meeting. And as the CEO, you uttered the word, will you consider a gift of $1,000 to our organization? by percent? That's it. 5% of the fundraising process is asking for money. And then finally, the last 15% is stewardship. How will you say thank you to people? And so your board member can play roles. And each of those phases is not just fundraising. But when we hear board and nonprofit people immediately go to that 5%. That's the smallest piece of the pie. The smallest piece I know.

Julia Campbell:

That's the one we're all scared of. So it's

Sabrina Walker Hernandez:

the one we're the one we don't know anybody rich. I've heard that so many times. I don't like begging for money. I don't like asking strangers or friends for money. I'm like, well, who's lift? Right? That's always the question. So when that happens, like with the board member that I had, and I speak her name, because she's fabulous. Her name is Emily Smith. And imagine Millie Millie was works at a bank. She recently retired. We're both in retirement mode. She works at a bank. She works in BSA, which is the fraud department. So you know her personality, very introvert. You could see a person like that. Yeah, not wanting to ask them when I'm not gonna ask her money. So we had a conversation and I was like, Okay, what are you willing to do? She's like, I'll introduce you to anybody. You want me to introduce you to any of my contacts. She introduced me to the bank owner, President, but the bank owner. The bank owner then allowed the bank president to be the co chair of our capital campaign, which led to a $12 million capital campaign. And not only that, we got the first grant We did for the capital campaign, once we got into like the foundation phase was with the maybe foundation and we got denied. And that was one of the first times I cried in the job because I was, I don't know, how are we gonna do this? Because we needed that foundation in order to open up the doors for the other foundations. Yeah. And so the bank president, he said, well, let's just fly up there and talk to them. And I was like, Okay, I'll start booking flights. And I'll start doing that. And he looked at me, he says, The bank has a plane. And I was like,

Julia Campbell:

wow,

Sabrina Walker Hernandez:

I don't use the role with people who have playing

Julia Campbell:

Exactly. That's not really where my brain goes, right?

Sabrina Walker Hernandez:

Go. So I wind up in this plane, we go up to the maybe Foundation, it was very interesting. Because let me say this, it was very interesting, because I'm surrounded by all of these older white man, and I'm the only little black girl there and I made them laugh, you know, her great personality, and I love working with different people. You know, we walked out of there with a $250,000 check. Yes, yes. And I credit that to Millie. I have been possible without her. And on top of that, many years, the bank has appointed two members to our board of directors. And each of those members are responsible, their get is $5,000 a year. So all of that is credited to Millie as she never asked for a dime.

Julia Campbell:

I think it just goes to show you just really need to sit down with each board member and figure out what they can bring to the table because you never know,

Sabrina Walker Hernandez:

because you never know what they can bring to the table and don't disregard board members and people because of that 5%. And a lot of times we write people off because of that 5%. But again, we got 80% and identification and qualifying and cultivating before we even got to the 5% of the ass and

Julia Campbell:

that's fundraising. That's amazing. I love a good formula. I love a good percentage. I think it really helps people wrap their brain around it. And it makes it easier to understand. But this has been so fantastic. Sabrina, I know everyone's going to want to connect with you. Where can they find you online?

Sabrina Walker Hernandez:

Yeah, so I'm going to direct everybody to my website. And it's www dot supporting world hope.com. Once you're there, you can connect with me all over social media, you know, getting tagged my webinars and all of that. So that's the easiest way to do. And that's the one thing I learned do one call to action. So supporting.com is my call to action,

Julia Campbell:

supporting world hope, calm. She's got a great board, recruitment guide, and many other resources on the site. So Sabrina, thanks so much for taking the time to be here today sharing your enthusiasm and energy even though it's early in the morning. Thank you and your wisdom. I really appreciate it. Thank you. Well, hey there, I wanted to say thank you for tuning in to my show, and for listening all the way to the end. If you really enjoyed today's conversation, make sure to subscribe to the show in your favorite podcast app. And you'll get new episodes downloaded as soon as they come out. I would love if you left me a rating or review because this tells other people that my podcast is worth listening to. And then me and my guests can reach even more earbuds and create even more impact. So that's pretty much it. I'll be back soon with a brand new episode. But until then, you can find me on Instagram at Julia Campbell seven, seven. keep changing the world. Nonprofit unicorn