January 20, 2025 • 52 mins
What if holiday generosity could transform lives beyond the festive season? Leanne Baumel, Chief Development Officer at Casa de Esperanza de los Niños, joins us to share her insights from the frontline of holiday fundraising. We'll unravel the complexities and joys of orchestrating campaigns like "Triple the Hope," which has successfully raised over $550,000, and explore the heartfelt process of bringing Christmas cheer to 350 children. Leanne's stories shed light on the power of donor support in changing lives while also navigating the well-meaning chaos that often accompanies it.
The holiday season brings unique challenges for nonprofits, and Leanne doesn’t shy away from discussing them. With vivid anecdotes, she illustrates how Casa de Esperanza aligns donor intentions with organizational needs, ensuring the dignity and personal touch in family celebrations. We also discuss how setting boundaries and maintaining donor engagement throughout the year is crucial for sustained success. The essence of year-round support, the significance of unrestricted giving, and the importance of strong relationships with corporate donors are pivotal themes that surface throughout our discussion.
Cross-team collaboration and empowering leadership are vital for nonprofits, especially during the bustling holiday months. Leanne shares her journey from a hands-on "doer" to a strategic leader who trusts her team to make impactful decisions. We also touch on creative strategies, such as utilizing Amazon wishlists and engaging corporate partners in unique ways, to streamline operations and maximize donations. Leanne's experience offers a blueprint for nonprofit professionals eager to harness the spirit of the season while ensuring long-term support and growth.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Keith Greer, CFRE (00:04):
Hey, there, hi, and welcome back ambitious
fundraisers.
The holiday season has come andgone, but if you're like most
nonprofit professionals, it'sleft you with plenty to reflect
on.
Between the heartwarming actsof generosity and the occasional
moments that make you shakeyour head in disbelief, the
holidays can bring out everypossible side of donor behavior.
Today, we're looking back atthe holiday season with someone
(00:26):
who's been in the trenches andknows the highs and lows all too
well.
Leanne Baumel, chiefDevelopment Officer at Casa de
Esperanza de los Niños inHouston, texas, is here to help
us unpack what it takes tonavigate this busy season with
grace, strategy and a commitmentto doing right by the people we
serve.
In this episode, we're talkingabout donor faux pas, creative
(00:50):
ways to reframe holiday givingand how to set boundaries
without burning bridges.
Leanne will share herexperiences, including the power
of saying no to what doesn'talign with your values, and how
her team ensures donors stayengaged long after the holiday
lights come down.
Whether you're still processingyour own holiday season or
looking for ideas to carry intothe year ahead, this
(01:13):
conversation will leave youinspired and ready to take on
whatever 2025 throws your way.
So let's talk fundraising.
I'm excited to welcome to theshow Leanne Baumel, cfre.
Leanne is the Chief DevelopmentOfficer at Casa de Esperanza in
Houston, texas, where she leadsa team responsible for the
(01:34):
agency's fundraising, volunteermanagement and community
functions.
Leanne has over 20 years ofexperience in fundraising and
volunteer management, includingover 11 years at Casa de
Esperanza.
As a people-focused leader,leanne strives to cultivate the
next generation of fundraisersto inspire impact in the Houston
area and beyond.
(01:54):
Leanne, welcome to the show.
Leanne Baumel (01:56):
Thank you so much for having me.
I'm excited to be here.
Keith Greer, CFRE (01:59):
I'm excited to have you, and let's dive
right.
In this past holiday season,your team at Casa de Esperanza
de los Niños worked tirelesslyto bring joy and stability to
families in crisis.
How was your holidayfundraising this year and what
were your major successes?
Leanne Baumel (02:14):
Holiday fundraising was wonderful as
always, and crazy as always.
Like so many nonprofits, thebulk of our donations come in
those last few weeks of the year, and that stayed true for us
this year.
We are so fortunate I thinkthis is now the 13th year that
we have had a wonderfulanonymous donor who will match
(02:35):
our year-end campaign two to one.
We call that program Triple theHope.
And while the numbers are stillcoming in, I think combined
with the match it's over$550,000.
And that's almost 20% of ourdonations for the year.
Keith Greer, CFRE (02:51):
That's amazing.
Leanne Baumel (02:53):
So then, on top of the fundraising, we also do
Christmas for 350 kids acrossall of our programs, and so each
child submits a wishlist andgets an entire gigantic bag full
of toys and clothes and othernecessities, and every one of
those items that those kidsreceive is donated to us, and it
(03:13):
is my team who leads the chargein getting all of those
donations secured and processedand then off to the program team
for distribution.
So it's a crazy time of year,but the generosity of the
Houston community really isincredible and it's really
inspiring to see.
Keith Greer, CFRE (03:30):
That's wonderful and for those of our
listeners that speak Spanish,casa de Esperanza de los Ninos
obviously sounds like you'reworking with children, but to
put some context around thisconversation, tell us a little
bit about your organization'sprograms.
Leanne Baumel (03:42):
Yep.
So for those that don't speakSpanish, casa de Esperanza means
House of Hope and our full nameis the House of Hope for
Children, and we are a fostercare and family support agency
that is focused just in theHouston, Texas area.
We do voluntary foster care forchildren birth through six and
then wraparound services fortheir families.
So most of our families thatcome to us it's a lot of parents
(04:06):
who they themselves have agedout of the foster care system or
have any number of challengeswhere they are just unable to
provide a safe place for theirchildren for a time.
And we provide safety andstability and love for those
kids and then work with thosebirth parents to get back up on
their feet so that they canprovide that safe and stable
home for their child.
And when that happens, we willcontinue to work with those
(04:28):
families for as long as needed.
Occasionally we do an adoptionas well and we will provide
support to those families.
And so we are serving kids fromliterally days old up until 18
across all of our programs.
Keith Greer, CFRE (04:42):
Wow, that gives me goosebumps hearing
about the work that you're doing.
I really love that, and what anincredible time of the year and
an important time of the yearthe holidays must be for a lot
of those families that you'reserving, because it's not only a
very emotionally charged timeof the year, but it's also one
that's filled with hope andlooking towards a brighter
future.
So what's a moment from thisyear that really made you stop
(05:05):
and say this is why we do thiswork.
Leanne Baumel (05:07):
There are so many moments.
I think overall, though, it'sjust seeing the magic of the
holidays through the eyes of achild.
So many of the kids in ourprogram.
Again, they come to us veryyoung, but even the older kids
in our program who are four,five, six years old for many of
them it's the first time thatthey have ever had Christmas.
It's the first time they'veseen a tree.
(05:28):
That's the first time they'veseen a light.
It's often the first timethey've received a present.
We've had kids where we have toexplain that a present is
something that is theirs, thatthey get to keep, and it's just
a really special time of yearbecause of that and we tend to
go really big and make sure thatit's special for the kids
across all of our programs.
For me personally, the favoritepart of the holiday season is
(05:49):
seeing the kids who are nolonger in foster care, Because
we serve those families for somany years.
It's often the touch pointwhere my team gets to follow up
with those families who havebeen with us before and
sometimes it's just as simple asseeing a child's name and
saying, wow, how are they 10?
Last time I saw them they weretwo.
(06:09):
Has it been that many years?
But we had a father who came inthis year and his daughter
really had a very toughbeginning.
She came to us as a newborn andreally had some struggles
because of her history and sheis now 17 and has a top GPA.
(06:29):
She's starting to look forcolleges and has all of these
dreams of going to some reallywonderful schools in our area
and I think she will get thereand so moments like that are
really special because that'sshowing the long-term impact and
really seeing that what we domatters not just today with
keeping that child safe, but itreally is changing their lives,
(06:50):
you know, for their entire lives.
Keith Greer, CFRE (06:52):
Oh, absolutely.
That is such a special thing tosee and to get to be a part of.
But let's also be real.
Like the holidays bring out thebest in people, but sometimes
it also brings out we'll justcall it well-meaning chaos.
What are some of the mostunexpected challenges that your
team faced this season?
Leanne Baumel (07:11):
I love the term well-meaning chaos.
I'm going to borrow thatbecause it so describes
everything that goes on duringthe holidays.
I think I want to start bysaying donors really mean well
and most of our donors areabsolutely fantastic and the
majority of them really aredoing things the right way.
(07:34):
But it's a busy time of yearand sometimes our donors just
make it a little crazier for us.
Like I said, we're doingChristmas for 350 kids, plus
running an agency, plus doingour year-end fundraising, and
the bulk of our Christmas ishappening within about eight or
nine days, so all of the giftsare coming in, being sorted in
or being distributed in a veryshort period of time.
(07:58):
Unfortunately, most of thechallenges that we see are not
all that unexpected.
You know, it's things that wesee year after year, despite our
best efforts to mitigate thosechallenges.
But really I would say there'skind of three key things that we
see.
The first is timing.
Most of us are procrastinatorsand I'll put myself into that
(08:20):
category at times and so donorstend to not think of Christmas
until well after Thanksgiving isover.
It's those last couple of weekswhere they want to step in and
do something good.
Our team starts Christmas inJuly.
Keith Greer, CFRE (08:33):
Wow that early.
Leanne Baumel (08:35):
And by August we are collecting wishlists and by
October we have all of our maindonors secured and those
wishlists are out to donors.
And so when somebody comes tous in the middle of December and
says that they want to sponsora child, it's too late.
At that point we can directthem into other ways of giving,
but we're often not able toallow them to donate in the way
(08:57):
that they want to.
The other piece with the timingis that we have deadlines to
ensure that we can get the giftsdistributed to the children,
and donors don't always want todo things on our timeline.
They want to do them on theirtimeline Of course.
Of course right, and so we aretrying our darndest to get all
those gifts out to ourprogramming team, and if
(09:18):
somebody delays by a week oreven a couple of days it makes
it harder for us.
We typically build in extradonations so we have extra toys
around, and sometimes by thetime a donor will show up with
their gifts.
We've actually alreadydistributed gifts to the
children and we'll use thosetoys for something else.
(09:40):
The other thing that we see thatkind of goes along with that is
matching our needs with whatthe donor wants to do.
We hear a lot in fundraisingabout donor intent and we find
people love babies and they lovetoddlers.
Everyone wants to sponsor ababy, donors who want to sponsor
(10:08):
a teenager or to do things thataren't as exciting, like donate
diapers or Clorox wipes ortoilet paper just the things
that we need on an ongoing basis, and donors often want to do
things their way.
So one thing we see a lot of isdonors want to wrap the
presents, and if a donor wrapsthe presents, we will, as soon
as they walk out the door,unwrap everything that they
worked so hard to wrap.
And we do that for a couple ofreasons.
(10:30):
One is so that we can see thegift and make sure that it is
what it's supposed to be.
But also we want to give ourfamilies that opportunity to
wrap the gifts themselves.
For a lot of our families, forour birth parents, they've never
been able to wrap a gift fortheir child.
We would, you know.
We want to give them the giftand then some wrapping paper if
they need it and let them beable to have that experience so
(10:51):
that the gift really is comingfrom them as the parent.
The final thing that we see alot of and this is probably my
soapbox that I will get on youknow, our mission is to keep
these kids and our families safeand secure and they have all
dealt with trauma and we don'twant to do anything that will
(11:16):
kind of re -trigger that trauma.
And for our kids that can oftenmeet.
You know, an event with Santamight be very overwhelming.
If there are a lot of strangersaround, that's something that
could be very overwhelming andwe strive really hard to make
sure that our clients, andespecially the kids, are really
treated with dignity and respectand that their needs come first
(11:39):
.
And again, the donors are oftenreally well-meaning but we
can't always accommodate what itis a donor might want to do, if
they want to come in and do abig Christmas party with the
kids, for example.
There is also a perception and alot of agencies see this.
So for us it's.
You know our kids are fosterchildren.
(12:00):
It might be, you know, if thereis an agency working with
unhoused.
You know, that there's anunhoused population or there's
children who are in a hospital,who are sick, and a lot of
people think that, oh well, thefoster child should just be
grateful for whatever toy it isthat they get or for whatever it
is that they get.
And we have had donors who havecome in with broken crayons,
(12:21):
with toys, you know, withheadless Barbies.
Oh, my gosh.
Every once in a while we'veliterally gotten a backpack that
had trash in it.
We really strongly feel thatevery child, every person,
deserves that dignity andrespect, and just because a
child is in foster care doesn'tmean that they deserve broken
crayons, absolutely.
And so that kind of goes back towhy we unwrap all of the gifts
(12:44):
that come to make sure thateverything, everything is the
way that it should be.
You know, we a number of yearsago actually across everything,
not just that the holidayprogram made a decision that
everything that came into ouragency needs to be new, because
people have a different idea asto what gently used means Right,
and we as a staff just don'thave time to be able to sort
(13:06):
through all of that.
But again, it goes back to thefact that these kids are here
because of no fault of their ownand often their birth parents,
quite frankly, are in ourprogram through no fault of
their own that they are part ofthe system as well, and we want
everybody to have a good holidayseason and to be treated the
(13:28):
way that we ourselves would wantto be treated.
And if you have any questionsabout whether or not you should
donate a gently used item, Iwould say if you think it's
something that is not in goodenough shape for you to give to
your own child, it's probablynot okay to give it to ours.
Keith Greer, CFRE (13:44):
That's such a great point.
And the donors?
They often have their hearts inthe right place, but they don't
always understand how theiractions might cross a line.
So how do you kindly but firmlyset boundaries when someone
shows up with those brokencrayons, a headless Barbie, or
expects to maybe meet the kidsin your care at the holiday
party?
Leanne Baumel (14:03):
It can be really uncomfortable to tell a donor no
.
Keith Greer, CFRE (14:07):
Yeah.
Leanne Baumel (14:09):
And I think we as the nonprofit community are
often so worried about upsettinga donor.
We are very donor-centric andwe as an entire industry need to
understand that it's okay forus to say no to some of these
(14:29):
things that come in.
We at Casa have really workedhard to get to a place where we
as an agency are okay with that.
It's taken several years andit's taken really buy-in from
leadership for them to say thatyou know, it's okay if we tell a
donor no, because then thatempowers everybody on the front
(14:52):
lines to be able to make some ofthose decisions.
You know, we start by trying toset some of those boundaries
with donors well before theyever show up at our door.
If you go to our website andyou start looking at what our
needs are, we have ourfrequently asked questions
section and a lot of it is canyou take used toys, can you take
books, can you take blankets,all of the things and it clearly
(15:16):
says these are things that weare not able to take.
Our office manager at the frontdesk has a manual and in there
it lists all the things that wecan and cannot take, and anybody
who is sitting at the frontdesk in her absence has access
to that list and I think,probably more importantly, they
know that they can call me orsomebody on my team, and we're
always happy to be the one totell the donor no, if that's
(15:38):
what needs to be said.
But one of the things that wehave found helps is we maintain
a list of other agencies, oftenpartners of ours, that can take
those items, and so if somebodycalls and says I want to donate
stuffed animals, we can say well, you know what?
That's something that we can'ttake, but here's another agency
that can, and so the donorappreciates that, because they
(16:01):
feel like they're not being toldjust no, you know, go away.
Appreciates that because theyfeel like they're not being told
just no, go away.
We're helping to redirect themin a way to be able to make
their intent the way they wantit to be.
It just may not be with us whenit comes to donors who are
wanting to visit our facility.
So I guess, just for somecontext.
So we are different from a lotof foster care agencies in that
(16:22):
we actually have our ownneighborhood.
It is a gated community builton land that was donated to us,
and most of the children who arein foster care live on our
property.
It is less than 100 yards fromthe office, but so it's a very
visible, tangible place wherepeople can see our program in
(16:42):
action.
There are a number of homesthat are there and they are
primarily staffed by AmeriCorpsmembers.
So these are young adults whocome from all over the country
for a service year.
They move into our neighborhoodand they are providing care to
the kids for the time that theyare here.
So we do like to bring donors tothe neighborhood.
It's honestly one of the bestthings that we can do is to
bring a donor into ourneighborhood, because then they
(17:04):
can really see the program andbe able to understand it a lot
better.
But there are times that wecan't do that and there are
times where we may not be ableto go into a specific home, and
it can be as simple as it's naptime, and anybody who is a
parent or an aunt or uncle orhas been around young children
knows that nap time is goldenand you don't mess with nap time
(17:26):
.
Right, it could also be.
You know, if the kids have theflu, we're certainly not going
to bring a donor knowingly intothat house.
Sometimes it's just a bad daywhere you know and kids are
struggling and it is not worthit for us to be able to make it
harder on them and harder onthat home to bring a donor into
that.
We also try to really rememberthat these are people's homes,
(17:49):
right, it's not.
I previously worked for anafterschool program and that's a
totally different type ofprogram.
You know, the kids are therefor a short time.
We're working in an agency'sbuilding, but that's.
We're literally going intosomebody's home and we're asking
them to host us for the timethat we are there doing a tour.
(18:09):
Sometimes we can do that andsometimes we can't, and one of
the advantages that we do haveis that we can often bring them
into the neighborhood, even ifwe can't bring them into a
specific house, and at least beable to show kind of the outside
.
They can see the playground, wecan talk a little bit about
what goes on in the houses.
We might visit a house that isempty in the moment, but we can
try to find a way to show thedonor the program without
(18:32):
necessarily kind of invading thespace of our children and our
caregivers.
We do have signs and placeswhere we can do photos.
You know, if somebody needsthat Instagram photo, there are
places that they can do itwithout having our children or
our caregivers in the mix.
So a lot of the settingboundaries is just trying to
find other ways to be able toshow our donors or give them the
(18:53):
opportunity to donate, but justin a way that works a little
bit better for us.
But I would say overall, havinga strong policy in place and
making sure everybody at theagency knows that helps make
that a little bit better for us.
But I would say overall, havinga strong policy in place and
making sure everybody at theagency knows that helps make
that a little bit easier.
Keith Greer, CFRE (19:05):
And so we hear a lot about holiday giving
rushes right and people showingup at the last minute to make
those gifts.
But nonprofits like yours needsupport every single month of
the year.
So what's been your mosteffective strategy for helping
donors understand the importanceof year-round giving?
Leanne Baumel (19:22):
Yeah, 100%.
We are in operation 365 days ayear and that need never goes
away, both with unrestrictedcash donations and then our
in-kind items as well, the basicneeds.
We often say whatever it isthat you need in your house, we
need multiplied out times 10just to make our agency be able
(19:45):
to run on a daily basis.
We have limited storage space,so even if somebody were to show
up in December and say here's ayear supply of diaper wipes, we
probably wouldn't be able toaccept that because we just
don't have the storage space forthat.
So being able to space thingsout year round is really
critical to us.
Storage space for that so beingable to space things out year
round is really critical to us.
What we have found is that theholiday giving is often our
(20:06):
launching pad for year roundsupport.
Oh really Most of our donors forour Christmas programs giving
the gifts to the kids are comingfrom corporate programs.
We do have some individuals,but most are corporate groups
and it is a really easy entrypoint into engagement with them
(20:27):
year round.
And, like all things infundraising, it comes back to
the stewardship of that donorand building the relationship
with them.
Not just that last week ofDecember, from a cash financial
contribution at year-end, all ofour donors are getting thanked
for our year-end campaign.
(20:48):
Even as all of this is going onin the background, we're
following up with our new donors.
Our board was really supportiveof that this year in helping us
do that.
But we really do try to focuson those in-kind donors.
Once the holiday rush is over,we typically invite all of them
out to lunch.
In February, march, when it's alittle bit quieter, we'll have
(21:11):
lunch on the playground, so thekids are there in a little bit
more of a casual setting.
It's a time where they can bringtheir whole team because often
it's a team that is puttingtogether these holiday drives
and it's a chance for them tolearn about our programs, where
we're not trying to squeeze itinto it to five minutes as a
drop off before the next groupcomes, and it's a really great
(21:33):
chance for us in that moment totalk to them about other ways
that their company can getinvolved.
And we have found some of ourtop corporate partners right now
started out as Christmas donors, doing things small scales, one
of our really most engagedcorporate partner.
(21:53):
I think they started throughChristmas or they may have come
and done a volunteer activitybefore that as well.
They're one of our largestfinancial supporters, individual
or corporate.
They participate in our gala,they volunteer regularly, they
support our back to schoolprogram, they support our food
pantry, they run a golftournament.
That's a third party event forus.
(22:14):
Their vice president serves onour board and it started out
just from that one Christmasdonation and us being able to
grow it from there.
Keith Greer, CFRE (22:22):
Yeah, and so earlier you were talking about
how your organization has comeup with policies and procedures
for redirecting gifts that yourorganization might not be able
to accept but have been usefulelsewhere, and sometimes staying
true to your mission meansturning down a donation or a
request that just does not align.
Can you share a time when youhad to say no and how it ended
(22:45):
up being the right decision foryour organization?
Leanne Baumel (22:47):
Yeah, we had a couple of those this season.
Really, I would say everyholiday season we have a couple
of these.
Again, let me say it's hard tobe able to say no sometimes to
these opportunities, especiallybecause you don't always know
where they may lead to.
But sometimes those just toughconversations just have to be
had.
In mid-December we wereapproached by the representative
(23:10):
for a professional athlete, andit was somebody that we had not
had a relationship withpreviously, but he wanted to do
an event with the childrenbefore Christmas.
It literally gave us about aweek and a half before Christmas
and you know, again, wetypically don't do big events
(23:33):
during the holidays becausethere's so much going on.
We have a couple of partnersthat we work with, but you know,
we kind of gave this one thebenefit of the doubt and said
well, you know what, if you wantto come do an event and be able
to do something with the kids,here are two days and times that
we would be able to accommodateyou before the end of the year.
And they gave us a little bitof pushback on that.
But she went to go talk to thisathlete and about a week went
(23:57):
by with no contact and then shereached back out and said well,
what time on this day can wecome to be able to deliver
everything?
Well, that was not a day or atime that we had given her and
it was actually the Sundaybefore Christmas.
By this point my team is off andmost of us were out of town at
(24:19):
that point.
I was not going to ask anybodyfrom the program team to meet
with this athlete that we reallywere not familiar with and we
said I'm sorry, but we can'thave you deliver that day.
You are welcome to come inJanuary.
This is when we reopen.
We have not heard back fromthis donor as of this point,
although of course, january isstill young and we'll do some
(24:40):
follow-up on that.
But we knew, and just from acapacity standpoint and the
timing of it, that was somethingthat was not going to work for
us and it was something that wasnot going to work for our
program team or for our kids.
We also turned down theopportunity this year to be the
beneficiary of a third-partyevent.
Again, they contacted us fairlylate in the year for this, but
they were going to require asignificant amount of staff
(25:03):
involvement with the event andalso they were really wanting
significant involvement from ourboard of directors and we knew,
going into our busiest time ofyear that we didn't have the
capacity for that and that forus it would be better to spend
our time working with the donorsthat we knew that we had and
closing those year end gifts,and so we politely declined and
(25:24):
I think we're working with thisgroup to be able to do something
later in the year.
But for us we just weren't ableto accommodate.
Keith Greer, CFRE (25:31):
I always find those organizations that reach
out saying, well, like we'd liketo give you money if you commit
to a ton of volunteer hours fora whole bunch of people, and so
there's a lot of unlearningthat kind of needs to happen
around how people think thatthey're helping what's worked
for your team when it comes togently re-educating donors who
genuinely want to do good butmight not realize that their
(25:53):
approach needs tweaking.
Leanne Baumel (25:55):
I think the two keys are repetition, repetition,
repetition and then to alsostart with the low-hanging fruit
.
A lot of these changes aren'tgoing to happen overnight.
It may take years for therereally to be a cultural shift in
that and I would say for us,not taking used items is
something that has taken yearsto really make that shift.
(26:16):
But start with the low-hangingfruit.
And, just as an example, wereceive well over a thousand
gift cards during the holidayseason.
So these are gift cards thatare being used for gifts for
some of the teens.
They get used for our programs,kind of any number of ways.
But accounting, as they should,insists that every single gift
(26:38):
card gets logged with the amountbecause it's cash in and cash
out.
And if a donor doesn't mark theamount on the gift card, it's
very, very time consuming for mystaff to go through every one
of those gift cards and be ableto find out the amount.
And there are certain stores,such as Amazon, that you can't
do online.
(26:58):
You actually have to call andtalk to a real person to be able
to find out the amount on thegift card.
We have a donor who's beendoing a gift card drive for us
for a number of years.
That's what they do.
It's just gift cards.
And a couple of years ago theyused to come in and it would
literally be a basket justfilled with gift cards and not a
single one of them would bemarked and it would take
(27:19):
somebody like the better part ofa day to go through them.
And a couple of years ago wesaid to the organizer hey, it
would be a lot easier on us ifwe knew how much the gift cards
were.
Do you think it would bepossible for your employees to
mark the amount on the giftcards before they turn them into
you?
She was horrified.
She had never thought aboutthat being an issue and she was
(27:42):
so upset that she was causing usadditional work.
And so now, when the basket ofgift cards comes in, not only
are they all marked this yearshe even had a spreadsheet for
us that listed every gift card,the amount, everything that we
could ever need to know but wewere able to log those gift
cards in in about 15, 20 minutes, versus it taking half a day.
And so that was a really easylow-hanging fruit where it was
(28:02):
just a very simple ask forsomebody we had a relationship
with.
Again, it goes back torelationships.
You can have thoseconversations, but it made it so
much easier.
I think it's also reallyimportant for donors to
understand the why behind someof the rules.
You know, when we say, well, weneed to have donations in by
(28:25):
December 12th is well, we needto have them in by December 12th
because most of our kids don'tlive on site.
We need time to be able to getthem to their families, or it's
not, you know, hey, no, we can'tgo visit the neighborhood.
It's?
We can't visit the neighborhoodbecause right now it's nap time
and all of the kids aresleeping and we don't want to
disturb that.
So if a donor understands thewhy behind it, then often
(28:46):
they're much more understandingand they're willing to work with
you on it.
The other thing quite frankly,we have gotten much better at
keeping notes on our Christmasdonors, and that's both the
donors that we call the one anddone you know where they come in
and they have everything achild could ever want, and it's
just, you know it's ready to goout the door immediately but
(29:07):
also the donors thatconsistently give us challenges.
We have one corporate partnerthat we've worked with for a
number of years and every yearthey push deadlines a little bit
.
This year they pushed them alot.
They pushed deadlines a littlebit.
This year they pushed them alot.
They rescheduled three or fourtimes and wound up coming
literally hours before ouroffice closed for the holiday
season.
(29:27):
And next year we have it in ournotes that we probably won't
offer them the opportunity to dogifts for the kids, for them,
something that is less timesensitive right, and we need
diapers in January too butsomething where it's not as
critical.
That we have something in bydeadline is going to be a better
(29:47):
fit for them and it's going togive them the chance at being
successful in what they do andit's going to cause a lot less
stress on our team as well.
Keith Greer, CFRE (29:55):
I love what you were talking about here with
changing the culture of theorganization, and it takes a
long period of time, right?
And so you talked about therepetition, repetition,
repetition and starting withthose low-hanging fruits.
And I think so many people, somany fundraisers, when they come
into a nonprofit organization,they look around them and they
see all the opportunity forimproving it, because they're
(30:17):
coming in with those fresh eyesversus the people who've been
there for forever right, butthey get burnt out and
overwhelmed, trying to change itall overnight, and then, 18
months later, when things aren'tthe magical world that they
envisioned on day one, theydecide to get up and leave.
How long did it take you tostart seeing those changes
(30:38):
within your organization so thatyou could get to this better
place that you're at now?
I mean you've been there 11years.
At what point do you startseeing those changes?
Leanne Baumel (30:48):
Yeah, some of it is immediate.
When I came in and my role atthe time was actually to be in
charge of the Christmas programwe didn't ask our donors to
label the gifts as for whichchild Right that they were for
and if it's a single individualdonor coming in with the gifts
(31:09):
for one child.
You know that's pretty easy tofigure out.
But we have some corporatedonors that do gifts for 50, 60
or more children and I guesswhat would happen before is they
would just take all the gifts.
They would, you know, take themout of the bags and then they
would fill wish lists from alist based off of this.
And I said, can we just havethe donors label the gifts?
And I was told, oh, they wouldnever do that.
(31:30):
And I was like, but you know,we're going to try.
We're just we're just going totry and we'll see what happens.
By and large, almost everydonor that year labeled the
gifts with the child's code andit made things so much easier,
right?
So sometimes you just have to.
You have to ask, but for somethings it is.
It's taken a lot longer.
You know, 11 years in, we stillstruggle sometimes with those
(31:52):
headless Barbies, you knowpeople bringing in things that
that clearly they shouldn't.
But we've had slow but steadyprogress and I would say every
year Christmas gets better.
And I would say every yearChristmas gets better, and some
years it's that we really needto focus on the headless Barbies
(32:15):
and some years it's that wereally need to focus on how we
do our tours to be able to makeit easier on the neighborhood.
But we're able to improvethings a little bit every year.
The advantage that we have toois that my guess is that of our
holiday donors, of our corporategroups, probably 90% of them
were here 11 years ago.
So we have some that have leftand we have some new ones that
(32:36):
have come in, but a lot of theseare some really long-term
relationships where it's made iteasy to really have some good
conversations with the donors tobe able to better express our
needs.
Keith Greer, CFRE (32:48):
So what I hear you saying is that it's
about progress over perfection,because all of us know
perfection does not exist.
Leanne Baumel (32:56):
Correct.
Keith Greer, CFRE (32:57):
And.
Leanne Baumel (32:57):
I would say, for us, this is the one time of year
you know, you hear, you don'twant good or perfect to get in
the way of good enough.
Good or perfect to get in theway of good enough, um, that for
us, often good enough is, isjust fine.
You know that if, at the end ofthe day, 350 kids have the
gifts that they need, um, youknow we're, we know it's,
(33:17):
there's gonna be bumps everyyear.
Some expected some, not um, butwe'll get through it and and
we'll improve it for next year.
Um, what we do for every eventand this is, you know, like our
gala, but we do it for Christmastoo we always debrief.
We have a whiteboard in ourarea where we'll, you know, just
start putting you know for thisyear, christmas, you know, what
(33:38):
do we keep, what do we change?
And just we start, you know,dumping all of those things on
there.
We take a picture of it, andnext, of those things on there,
we take a picture of it and nextyear we'll pull that out and
say, all right, this is what wenow can remember worked really
well, this is what didn't workso well and what we need to work
on, and so we have that recordas well.
Keith Greer, CFRE (33:55):
And so getting all of these toys and
all of these gifts in kind, it'sa lot of work, and so we've all
heard the phrase just give usthe cash.
But it's not always that simpleright.
So how does Casa de Esperanzanavigate the balance between
getting those cash gifts and thein-kind donations to meet your
family's needs?
Leanne Baumel (34:13):
Wouldn't it be great if everyone just gave us
unrestricted gifts?
Keith Greer, CFRE (34:17):
It'd be so nice, and millions at a time too
.
Leanne Baumel (34:21):
And we're still waiting for Mackenzie Scott to
show up at our agency doors.
Keith Greer, CFRE (34:25):
Oh, me too.
Leanne Baumel (34:26):
That would be wonderful.
It is a balancing act for us.
We are an agency of people whoare caring for people and we
have very few expenses otherthan the expenses of our staff
and then what it takes tomaintain our homes.
And while some of that can bedone in kind, a lot of it just
(34:49):
can't, and we need thoseunrestricted dollars.
We need donors who are willingto pay for a caregiver's salary
so that our kids can be caredfor.
The in-kind donations, thoughyear-round, do help us stretch
our dollars a lot better.
Every diaper that is donated isone less diaper we have to go
out and purchase ourselves.
(35:11):
We get a lot of donationsthrough the year of things like
diapers, wipes, clorox wipes,dish soap, canned goods and
whatever it is that you need inyour house.
Just bring it to us.
We maintain an Amazon wishlistso donors can always know what
our most pressing needs are.
We keep it updated with all thethings on top.
(35:31):
But again, what we found is asfrustrating sometimes as the
in-kind donations are.
So often those relationshipsthat start with an in-kind
donation are what lead to thedollars down the road.
We have a corporate partner andone of our top corporate
partners, and they're anengineering firm and they every
(35:54):
year do a canned good sculpturecontest.
And when I say canned goodsculptures, they literally
computer model these figurines.
This year they Minions andCinderella's Castle, and you
know, it's really quiteimpressive.
And they then donate all of thecanned goods to us, which is
(36:15):
really wonderful.
It, quite frankly, fills ourpantry for months.
Well, last year, I think,anything that was red was they
use like diced tomatoes.
And this year our program teamsaid to me they're like we don't
need that many diced tomatoesor tomato sauce, like do you
think that they could do ChefBoyardee like ravioli instead?
(36:36):
Oh you know what they absolutelycould.
It's a longtime partner.
It literally took 30 seconds inan email to say, hey, can you
cut the tomatoes and do ChefBoyardee in an email to say, hey
, can you cut the tomatoes anddo Chef Boyardee.
And what that allows, though,is it makes what they're giving
us as an in-kind donation morevaluable, because our families
need easy to heat, pre-preppedmeals, because they often don't
(36:57):
have kitchens to be able to cookhomemade tomato sauce in right
with the diced tomatoes.
So it's being able to find theneeds as to where those in-kind
things are and what we reallyneed, and being okay to actually
communicate what those needsare to the donor so that they're
not giving us tomatoes if wedon't actually need tomatoes.
(37:20):
Another really wonderful donorwe have is a corporate partner
of ours.
Her team collects money just onthe team every month, and she
literally emails us once a monthand says all right, tomorrow is
the day we go to Sam's what doyou need?
And we give her the list.
She shows up the next day,nothing more, nothing less than
(37:40):
what we have told her that it isthat we need in the moment.
You know our needs change.
One month we may need diaperwipes and the next month it may
be that we need.
In the moment, you know, ourneeds change One month we may
need diaper wipes and the nextmonth it may be that we need
Clorox wipes.
But it's great because we knowthat every month she is going to
go to Sam's for us and we canplan actually our spending,
knowing that okay, well, youknow, in a week or so we're
going to, we can tell her thatthis is what we need so we can
(38:01):
go buy something else.
What's also really wonderful isthat, because her team is so
involved with us locally, thatallows us to tap into $50,000 a
year from their corporatefoundation that we receive every
year that then we can use forother things.
But it's that relationship thatcame from the SAMS delivery
(38:25):
that is then allowing us toaccess those funds, and we have
a number of donors like that.
We received a surprise $25,000donation this fall from somebody
who's been doing Christmas foryears, and the company asked the
employees who they wanted togive the gift to, and we were
the ones who were nominated.
(38:45):
And so it is often a balancingact of trying to navigate the
in-kind donations versus thecash donations, but if you can
build the relationship with thein-kind.
It's like volunteers If you canbuild a relationship with
somebody who wants to engage asa volunteer, then often the
money follows, and we find thatwith our Christmas as well as
(39:05):
our year-round in-kind donations.
Keith Greer, CFRE (39:06):
Yeah, I love that and the money follows, and
we find that with our Christmasas well as our year-round
in-kind donations yeah, I lovethat, and the holiday season,
specifically, can be a reallyhigh-pressure time of the year,
right?
Not just for your nonprofit,but for any of them.
So how do you ensure your teamboth your staff and your
volunteers because you alsomanage the volunteers stay on
the same page when it comes toenforcing boundaries and keeping
(39:26):
the focus on your mission?
Leanne Baumel (39:29):
I think it all boils down to the culture that
we have worked really hard tocreate at CASA, especially over
the last couple of years.
We are a small agency.
Without the caregiving staff,our entire staff is about 25
people and that's everythingfrom development to our
caseworkers to the leadershipteam, and we have really been
(39:53):
able to break down the silosover the last couple of years
and it is a truly collaborativeculture across all of the teams,
and so that in itself makesthings so much easier when it
gets really chaotic for theholidays.
It really just boils down tocommunication and to empower the
(40:13):
staff also to be able to makedecisions that they, quite
frankly, are really qualified tobe able to make.
Our office manager has gottenreally good at telling donors no
, we can't accept that.
If she has a question, you knowany doubt at all, she will call
me or somebody on my team tosee if that's something that we
(40:34):
can accept, you know.
At the same time, she knows,you know and anybody on the
staff knows, that we're going towork with them to be able to
have conversations with a donoror volunteer.
If they don't want to have thatconversation, we're happy to be
the bad guys.
But I think it's also aboutinvolving the people who the
boundaries impact in thedecisions about what those
(40:56):
boundaries are right.
So when we get a last minuterequest for a tour, often my
conversation to the neighborhoodis hey, can I bring somebody by
in five minutes?
If I can't, we'll just.
My conversation to theneighborhood is hey, can I bring
somebody by in five minutes?
If I can't, we'll just bringthem to the neighborhood and
we'll stay outside and that'sokay.
And so they know that they cansay, yes, this house is fine to
(41:17):
take on guests in five minutes.
And they know that it's okay tosay we just cannot handle that
right now.
Please don't come near any ofour homes and we'll just find an
alternate way to be able toshow the donor our program.
The same thing with donations.
I start a lot of conversationsto the program team with I'm
pretty sure you're going to sayno, but we were just offered a
green piano.
That happened a couple of weeksago.
(41:38):
Before I tell them no, I justwant to confirm with you that
that's not something we need andthey'll laugh and say, no,
that's not something that weneed and we'll go from there.
But it's empowering them tohave a say about the boundaries
that I'm setting with the donors, because it does me no good to
accept something if the programcan't use it.
And then we're just trying tofigure out what to do with a
(41:59):
grand piano or 10 cases of dicedtomatoes or whatever it is that
we have During the holidayseason too.
What has really helped this year?
So we're on a hybrid workschedule in the office and most
people are remote one to twodays a week, but for the two
weeks really leading up toChristmas it was all hands on
(42:21):
deck.
Nobody worked remote, nobodycould take PTO unless it was an
emergency.
We communicated this inFebruary, so everybody had
plenty of time to plan theirdoctor's appointments.
For the amount of diapers andwipes we thought was coming,
people are there to help unloadthe truck and get it put away.
If there were questions about adonation.
(42:53):
We were all just there, kind ofin the same room often.
What was also really great aboutthat is you know, we don't
always get to work with peoplein different teams and we were
literally all just doing thesame thing together.
It was great team building.
It was a great chance for myteam to get to know some of the
program team members a littlebit better and vice versa, and
(43:14):
just be able to haveconversations, you know, outside
of kind of our normal day today that we have.
It's also really key, I think,when it comes to setting
boundaries and I said thisearlier leadership is so
important and during the reallybusy holiday season one, you
know, our leadership justempowers us to make the
decisions that we know are right.
(43:36):
There may be times where wekind of run the sniff test
through our CEO, but very rarelydoes she disagree with anything
that we're saying, andeverybody from the top down was
involved in the process.
Our CEO wasn't always the one inthere sorting gifts with us,
but because my team was actuallyvery short staffed, we were
down some people.
During the holiday season Ioften sent very cryptic messages
(44:00):
to my CEO and just saidsomething like we haven't heard
from Keith, please call him, andshe would know what that meant
and she would follow up with adonor and kind of follow up on a
pledge or a year end ask ormake that thank you.
She's a former developmentdirector and so she knows how to
use our database and I didn'thave to give her a lot of
information.
She could just take it and runwith it.
(44:21):
But then that took the pressureoff of me and my team to be
able to do a lot of other things.
We had board members.
We had a small team of boardmembers who did most of our
thanking for the donors thatcame in for our year-end
campaign.
So a couple of times a week wewould just shoot them a list of
names and emails and they wouldjust take care of doing those
thank you calls for us, and weliterally had two board members
(44:44):
who were there sitting on thefloor with us, you know, sorting
gifts and we're there.
One was there almost the entireday, just in the thick of it.
And so when leadership isinvolved, I think it makes it
easier on everybody because theyknow that they're not doing it
alone.
It's again, it's just theculture of everybody is pitching
in and we're just going to makeit happen.
(45:04):
And it's again, it's just theculture of everybody is pitching
in and we're just going to makeit happen.
Keith Greer, CFRE (45:07):
There's a word that you said a few times
there that I think is reallyimportant, especially as a
people-focused leader, andthat's empowerment.
Right and being able to empoweryour staff to make decisions,
and I think so many leaders,whether they're the CEO or
they're leading a team ofdevelopment officers there's a
fear, and they're scared to seewhat their staff is going to do
(45:29):
if they empower them, and sothey become micromanagers of the
process and their teams becomeparalyzed to do anything without
a specific direction.
How did you get comfortablewith empowering your team?
Leanne Baumel (45:41):
Yeah, it's a process.
What I struggled with, I think,the most in leadership.
So I've been at CASA for almost12 years now and I've been in
this role for three and a halfyears and at that point I had to
shift from being a doer to theleader of the team, where other
(46:02):
people were the doers.
It was hard for me to let go ofsome of those things, and it
wasn't because I didn'tnecessarily trust my team to do
it, but I was just so used todoing it and it was hard for me,
at the end of the day, to nothave, like a product that I
could show for my work.
You know, I didn't make phonecalls or I didn't crank out a
(46:25):
social media post or write anappeal, and it took some time,
and really just me working onmyself, to realize that if my
team is doing those things, thenthat's the product.
Right, that's what I've doneand it's okay for me to invest
my time in them and let them dothe do the doing.
(46:46):
You know I think my leadershipstyle has always been you know,
I've hired you to do a job.
I am not going to do it for you.
You know, if I trust you to dothis job, like at some point you
just have to do it on your own.
I'm probably too trustingsometimes with that, but we have
a great team and a great staffand we really work.
You know, look for people whofit in or just want to jump in
(47:07):
and do what needs to get done,and I think that makes it easier
because there's nobody on myteam who won't just jump in
first.
We actually had a grant managerwho started her first day of
work was our busiest donationday of the year this year and we
literally said, you know, hello, welcome, we'll talk to you
(47:30):
about grants in a couple ofweeks.
Like here's a bag and yeah,she's been in social services
for a long time and she's likeokay, I got it, you know, done,
and that's just.
That's just kind of who we areas a team, who we are as an
agency.
Keith Greer, CFRE (47:42):
I love that, and so, as you're reflecting on
this holiday season, what's onelesson that stood out to you
about working with donors,managing their expectations or
keeping your organization'svalues really front and center?
Leanne Baumel (47:55):
This is so much of a lesson.
It's just kind of the remindersthat we need.
I'm going to give you twothings and not just one.
The first is that, to remember,more donors will surprise you
in good ways than will surpriseyou in bad ways.
And it's easy to focus on thechallenges and the frustrations
and that you know I can'tbelieve that somebody just did
(48:16):
this, but the reality is thatmost people are going to
surprise you with the goodthings and you need to be able
to celebrate those.
Absolutely we have a local lawfirm that we've been involved
with for a while.
They like to buy things.
We can call them and say, hey,we need cribs, and they'll buy
cribs for us and ship them.
But they reached out inmid-December when things are
(48:39):
crazy.
But they said for two thingsOne, we want to make a cash
donation to you how do we dothat?
But then also is there animmediate need that you have
that we can fill and our housesin the neighborhood?
We had put on some Christmaswishlists.
They wanted family size airfryers, some blenders, new
(48:59):
diaper pails and those itemshadn't come in and we said here
are a couple of things that weneed.
I'm not kidding when I saidfive hours later those items
were delivered from Target.
Keith Greer, CFRE (49:10):
Oh, that's wonderful.
Leanne Baumel (49:11):
Three of everything.
You know exactly what it wasthat we wanted and I think what
was really wonderful about thatwas, you know, I was one of our
busiest days of the year.
It just quietly came right.
Our office manager called andshe's like Target delivered some
stuff for you.
You know, come and get it.
It wasn't about the socialmedia post, it wasn't about them
, it was just here's a need thatwe have and they're going to
(49:35):
fill it, and I think it made theneighborhood stay to be able to
have these.
So, you know, things like thatare really wonderful surprise.
The other thing is that while weall want the really big cash
gifts right, we want the, youknow, we want Mackenzie Scott to
(49:56):
show up Sometimes it's thesmall gifts that actually have
the most meaning and we need tohonor those gifts as well.
This was actually a year or twoago, but we have a donor.
He's an older gentleman.
He's been sending us $5 a monthfor I believe, 25 years at this
point, every single monthwithout fail, and at Christmas
he sent us $7.
For him that was probablyreally a stretch, right, and
(50:18):
it's easy to look at it and belike, oh, it's $2.
But for him that was clearlylike a thought about like extra
help that he could get, and thatwas something that we
celebrated and made sure that hegot an extra thank you from our
CEO and really honored that,because for him those extra $2
(50:41):
probably meant as much as a$100,000 gift might mean to
somebody else.
Keith Greer, CFRE (50:45):
Absolutely, and I love that because that's
almost a 50% increase in adonation for him and for
somebody that's on a fixedincome.
They're really watching everydollar every single week, and so
to be able to find an extra $2when they're that tight just
goes to show the kinds ofrelationships that you're
(51:06):
building and how important theyare not only to your program
participants and your client,but to your donors as well.
So I really love that.
But if you could wave a magicwand and you could make every
donor understand just one thingabout supporting nonprofits
during the holidays, what wouldit be?
Leanne Baumel (51:26):
Unrestricted cash gifts.
Keith Greer, CFRE (51:29):
Yes.
Leanne Baumel (51:31):
But seriously, I think for donors to realize that
most nonprofits areprofessionally run by people who
really know what the needs ofthe clients and the organization
are and we know what we needbest.
And that could come from adonor in a gift of an
(51:53):
unrestricted cash donation.
But for those that want to givean in-kind gift, just ask us
what we need, because we aregoing to be so happy to tell you
what it is that will be mosthelpful to us.
But trust us to know what weneed.
Keith Greer, CFRE (52:07):
Well, Leanne, I am so happy to have you here
on the podcast and this was justsuch a great recap of the
holiday season and kind oflooking forward for the year
ahead, and I really appreciateyou taking the time to share
your insights and your successesand also to talk about some of
these really importantleadership pieces for managing
(52:27):
teams and donors and volunteers,not just during the holidays
but all year long.
So thank you for being here.
Leanne Baumel (52:34):
Thank you so much , Keith.
This has really been an honor.
Hey, there, hi, and welcome back ambitious
fundraisers.
The holiday season has come andgone, but if you're like most
nonprofit professionals, it'sleft you with plenty to reflect
on.
Between the heartwarming actsof generosity and the occasional
moments that make you shakeyour head in disbelief, the
holidays can bring out everypossible side of donor behavior.
Today, we're looking back atthe holiday season with someone
(00:26):
who's been in the trenches andknows the highs and lows all too
well.
Leanne Baumel, chiefDevelopment Officer at Casa de
Esperanza de los Niños inHouston, texas, is here to help
us unpack what it takes tonavigate this busy season with
grace, strategy and a commitmentto doing right by the people we
serve.
In this episode, we're talkingabout donor faux pas, creative
(00:50):
ways to reframe holiday givingand how to set boundaries
without burning bridges.
Leanne will share herexperiences, including the power
of saying no to what doesn'talign with your values, and how
her team ensures donors stayengaged long after the holiday
lights come down.
Whether you're still processingyour own holiday season or
looking for ideas to carry intothe year ahead, this
(01:13):
conversation will leave youinspired and ready to take on
whatever 2025 throws your way.
So let's talk fundraising.
I'm excited to welcome to theshow Leanne Baumel, cfre.
Leanne is the Chief DevelopmentOfficer at Casa de Esperanza in
Houston, texas, where she leadsa team responsible for the
(01:34):
agency's fundraising, volunteermanagement and community
functions.
Leanne has over 20 years ofexperience in fundraising and
volunteer management, includingover 11 years at Casa de
Esperanza.
As a people-focused leader,leanne strives to cultivate the
next generation of fundraisersto inspire impact in the Houston
area and beyond.
(01:54):
Leanne, welcome to the show.
Leanne Baumel (01:56):
Thank you so much for having me.
I'm excited to be here.
Keith Greer, CFRE (01:59):
I'm excited to have you, and let's dive
right.
In this past holiday season,your team at Casa de Esperanza
de los Niños worked tirelesslyto bring joy and stability to
families in crisis.
How was your holidayfundraising this year and what
were your major successes?
Leanne Baumel (02:14):
Holiday fundraising was wonderful as
always, and crazy as always.
Like so many nonprofits, thebulk of our donations come in
those last few weeks of the year, and that stayed true for us
this year.
We are so fortunate I thinkthis is now the 13th year that
we have had a wonderfulanonymous donor who will match
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our year-end campaign two to one.
We call that program Triple theHope.
And while the numbers are stillcoming in, I think combined
with the match it's over$550,000.
And that's almost 20% of ourdonations for the year.
Keith Greer, CFRE (02:51):
That's amazing.
Leanne Baumel (02:53):
So then, on top of the fundraising, we also do
Christmas for 350 kids acrossall of our programs, and so each
child submits a wishlist andgets an entire gigantic bag full
of toys and clothes and othernecessities, and every one of
those items that those kidsreceive is donated to us, and it
(03:13):
is my team who leads the chargein getting all of those
donations secured and processedand then off to the program team
for distribution.
So it's a crazy time of year,but the generosity of the
Houston community really isincredible and it's really
inspiring to see.
Keith Greer, CFRE (03:30):
That's wonderful and for those of our
listeners that speak Spanish,casa de Esperanza de los Ninos
obviously sounds like you'reworking with children, but to
put some context around thisconversation, tell us a little
bit about your organization'sprograms.
Leanne Baumel (03:42):
Yep.
So for those that don't speakSpanish, casa de Esperanza means
House of Hope and our full nameis the House of Hope for
Children, and we are a fostercare and family support agency
that is focused just in theHouston, Texas area.
We do voluntary foster care forchildren birth through six and
then wraparound services fortheir families.
So most of our families thatcome to us it's a lot of parents
(04:06):
who they themselves have agedout of the foster care system or
have any number of challengeswhere they are just unable to
provide a safe place for theirchildren for a time.
And we provide safety andstability and love for those
kids and then work with thosebirth parents to get back up on
their feet so that they canprovide that safe and stable
home for their child.
And when that happens, we willcontinue to work with those
(04:28):
families for as long as needed.
Occasionally we do an adoptionas well and we will provide
support to those families.
And so we are serving kids fromliterally days old up until 18
across all of our programs.
Keith Greer, CFRE (04:42):
Wow, that gives me goosebumps hearing
about the work that you're doing.
I really love that, and what anincredible time of the year and
an important time of the yearthe holidays must be for a lot
of those families that you'reserving, because it's not only a
very emotionally charged timeof the year, but it's also one
that's filled with hope andlooking towards a brighter
future.
So what's a moment from thisyear that really made you stop
(05:05):
and say this is why we do thiswork.
Leanne Baumel (05:07):
There are so many moments.
I think overall, though, it'sjust seeing the magic of the
holidays through the eyes of achild.
So many of the kids in ourprogram.
Again, they come to us veryyoung, but even the older kids
in our program who are four,five, six years old for many of
them it's the first time thatthey have ever had Christmas.
It's the first time they'veseen a tree.
(05:28):
That's the first time they'veseen a light.
It's often the first timethey've received a present.
We've had kids where we have toexplain that a present is
something that is theirs, thatthey get to keep, and it's just
a really special time of yearbecause of that and we tend to
go really big and make sure thatit's special for the kids
across all of our programs.
For me personally, the favoritepart of the holiday season is
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seeing the kids who are nolonger in foster care, Because
we serve those families for somany years.
It's often the touch pointwhere my team gets to follow up
with those families who havebeen with us before and
sometimes it's just as simple asseeing a child's name and
saying, wow, how are they 10?
Last time I saw them they weretwo.
(06:09):
Has it been that many years?
But we had a father who came inthis year and his daughter
really had a very toughbeginning.
She came to us as a newborn andreally had some struggles
because of her history and sheis now 17 and has a top GPA.
(06:29):
She's starting to look forcolleges and has all of these
dreams of going to some reallywonderful schools in our area
and I think she will get thereand so moments like that are
really special because that'sshowing the long-term impact and
really seeing that what we domatters not just today with
keeping that child safe, but itreally is changing their lives,
(06:50):
you know, for their entire lives.
Keith Greer, CFRE (06:52):
Oh, absolutely.
That is such a special thing tosee and to get to be a part of.
But let's also be real.
Like the holidays bring out thebest in people, but sometimes
it also brings out we'll justcall it well-meaning chaos.
What are some of the mostunexpected challenges that your
team faced this season?
Leanne Baumel (07:11):
I love the term well-meaning chaos.
I'm going to borrow thatbecause it so describes
everything that goes on duringthe holidays.
I think I want to start bysaying donors really mean well
and most of our donors areabsolutely fantastic and the
majority of them really aredoing things the right way.
(07:34):
But it's a busy time of yearand sometimes our donors just
make it a little crazier for us.
Like I said, we're doingChristmas for 350 kids, plus
running an agency, plus doingour year-end fundraising, and
the bulk of our Christmas ishappening within about eight or
nine days, so all of the giftsare coming in, being sorted in
or being distributed in a veryshort period of time.
(07:58):
Unfortunately, most of thechallenges that we see are not
all that unexpected.
You know, it's things that wesee year after year, despite our
best efforts to mitigate thosechallenges.
But really I would say there'skind of three key things that we
see.
The first is timing.
Most of us are procrastinatorsand I'll put myself into that
(08:20):
category at times and so donorstend to not think of Christmas
until well after Thanksgiving isover.
It's those last couple of weekswhere they want to step in and
do something good.
Our team starts Christmas inJuly.
Keith Greer, CFRE (08:33):
Wow that early.
Leanne Baumel (08:35):
And by August we are collecting wishlists and by
October we have all of our maindonors secured and those
wishlists are out to donors.
And so when somebody comes tous in the middle of December and
says that they want to sponsora child, it's too late.
At that point we can directthem into other ways of giving,
but we're often not able toallow them to donate in the way
(08:57):
that they want to.
The other piece with the timingis that we have deadlines to
ensure that we can get the giftsdistributed to the children,
and donors don't always want todo things on our timeline.
They want to do them on theirtimeline Of course.
Of course right, and so we aretrying our darndest to get all
those gifts out to ourprogramming team, and if
(09:18):
somebody delays by a week oreven a couple of days it makes
it harder for us.
We typically build in extradonations so we have extra toys
around, and sometimes by thetime a donor will show up with
their gifts.
We've actually alreadydistributed gifts to the
children and we'll use thosetoys for something else.
(09:40):
The other thing that we see thatkind of goes along with that is
matching our needs with whatthe donor wants to do.
We hear a lot in fundraisingabout donor intent and we find
people love babies and they lovetoddlers.
Everyone wants to sponsor ababy, donors who want to sponsor
(10:08):
a teenager or to do things thataren't as exciting, like donate
diapers or Clorox wipes ortoilet paper just the things
that we need on an ongoing basis, and donors often want to do
things their way.
So one thing we see a lot of isdonors want to wrap the
presents, and if a donor wrapsthe presents, we will, as soon
as they walk out the door,unwrap everything that they
worked so hard to wrap.
And we do that for a couple ofreasons.
(10:30):
One is so that we can see thegift and make sure that it is
what it's supposed to be.
But also we want to give ourfamilies that opportunity to
wrap the gifts themselves.
For a lot of our families, forour birth parents, they've never
been able to wrap a gift fortheir child.
We would, you know.
We want to give them the giftand then some wrapping paper if
they need it and let them beable to have that experience so
(10:51):
that the gift really is comingfrom them as the parent.
The final thing that we see alot of and this is probably my
soapbox that I will get on youknow, our mission is to keep
these kids and our families safeand secure and they have all
dealt with trauma and we don'twant to do anything that will
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kind of re -trigger that trauma.
And for our kids that can oftenmeet.
You know, an event with Santamight be very overwhelming.
If there are a lot of strangersaround, that's something that
could be very overwhelming andwe strive really hard to make
sure that our clients, andespecially the kids, are really
treated with dignity and respectand that their needs come first
(11:39):
.
And again, the donors are oftenreally well-meaning but we
can't always accommodate what itis a donor might want to do, if
they want to come in and do abig Christmas party with the
kids, for example.
There is also a perception and alot of agencies see this.
So for us it's.
You know our kids are fosterchildren.
(12:00):
It might be, you know, if thereis an agency working with
unhoused.
You know, that there's anunhoused population or there's
children who are in a hospital,who are sick, and a lot of
people think that, oh well, thefoster child should just be
grateful for whatever toy it isthat they get or for whatever it
is that they get.
And we have had donors who havecome in with broken crayons,
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with toys, you know, withheadless Barbies.
Oh, my gosh.
Every once in a while we'veliterally gotten a backpack that
had trash in it.
We really strongly feel thatevery child, every person,
deserves that dignity andrespect, and just because a
child is in foster care doesn'tmean that they deserve broken
crayons, absolutely.
And so that kind of goes back towhy we unwrap all of the gifts
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that come to make sure thateverything, everything is the
way that it should be.
You know, we a number of yearsago actually across everything,
not just that the holidayprogram made a decision that
everything that came into ouragency needs to be new, because
people have a different idea asto what gently used means Right,
and we as a staff just don'thave time to be able to sort
(13:06):
through all of that.
But again, it goes back to thefact that these kids are here
because of no fault of their ownand often their birth parents,
quite frankly, are in ourprogram through no fault of
their own that they are part ofthe system as well, and we want
everybody to have a good holidayseason and to be treated the
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way that we ourselves would wantto be treated.
And if you have any questionsabout whether or not you should
donate a gently used item, Iwould say if you think it's
something that is not in goodenough shape for you to give to
your own child, it's probablynot okay to give it to ours.
Keith Greer, CFRE (13:44):
That's such a great point.
And the donors?
They often have their hearts inthe right place, but they don't
always understand how theiractions might cross a line.
So how do you kindly but firmlyset boundaries when someone
shows up with those brokencrayons, a headless Barbie, or
expects to maybe meet the kidsin your care at the holiday
party?
Leanne Baumel (14:03):
It can be really uncomfortable to tell a donor no
.
Keith Greer, CFRE (14:07):
Yeah.
Leanne Baumel (14:09):
And I think we as the nonprofit community are
often so worried about upsettinga donor.
We are very donor-centric andwe as an entire industry need to
understand that it's okay forus to say no to some of these
(14:29):
things that come in.
We at Casa have really workedhard to get to a place where we
as an agency are okay with that.
It's taken several years andit's taken really buy-in from
leadership for them to say thatyou know, it's okay if we tell a
donor no, because then thatempowers everybody on the front
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lines to be able to make some ofthose decisions.
You know, we start by trying toset some of those boundaries
with donors well before theyever show up at our door.
If you go to our website andyou start looking at what our
needs are, we have ourfrequently asked questions
section and a lot of it is canyou take used toys, can you take
books, can you take blankets,all of the things and it clearly
(15:16):
says these are things that weare not able to take.
Our office manager at the frontdesk has a manual and in there
it lists all the things that wecan and cannot take, and anybody
who is sitting at the frontdesk in her absence has access
to that list and I think,probably more importantly, they
know that they can call me orsomebody on my team, and we're
always happy to be the one totell the donor no, if that's
(15:38):
what needs to be said.
But one of the things that wehave found helps is we maintain
a list of other agencies, oftenpartners of ours, that can take
those items, and so if somebodycalls and says I want to donate
stuffed animals, we can say well, you know what?
That's something that we can'ttake, but here's another agency
that can, and so the donorappreciates that, because they
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feel like they're not being toldjust no, you know, go away.
Appreciates that because theyfeel like they're not being told
just no, go away.
We're helping to redirect themin a way to be able to make
their intent the way they wantit to be.
It just may not be with us whenit comes to donors who are
wanting to visit our facility.
So I guess, just for somecontext.
So we are different from a lotof foster care agencies in that
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we actually have our ownneighborhood.
It is a gated community builton land that was donated to us,
and most of the children who arein foster care live on our
property.
It is less than 100 yards fromthe office, but so it's a very
visible, tangible place wherepeople can see our program in
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action.
There are a number of homesthat are there and they are
primarily staffed by AmeriCorpsmembers.
So these are young adults whocome from all over the country
for a service year.
They move into our neighborhoodand they are providing care to
the kids for the time that theyare here.
So we do like to bring donors tothe neighborhood.
It's honestly one of the bestthings that we can do is to
bring a donor into ourneighborhood, because then they
(17:04):
can really see the program andbe able to understand it a lot
better.
But there are times that wecan't do that and there are
times where we may not be ableto go into a specific home, and
it can be as simple as it's naptime, and anybody who is a
parent or an aunt or uncle orhas been around young children
knows that nap time is goldenand you don't mess with nap time
(17:26):
.
Right, it could also be.
You know, if the kids have theflu, we're certainly not going
to bring a donor knowingly intothat house.
Sometimes it's just a bad daywhere you know and kids are
struggling and it is not worthit for us to be able to make it
harder on them and harder onthat home to bring a donor into
that.
We also try to really rememberthat these are people's homes,
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right, it's not.
I previously worked for anafterschool program and that's a
totally different type ofprogram.
You know, the kids are therefor a short time.
We're working in an agency'sbuilding, but that's.
We're literally going intosomebody's home and we're asking
them to host us for the timethat we are there doing a tour.
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Sometimes we can do that andsometimes we can't, and one of
the advantages that we do haveis that we can often bring them
into the neighborhood, even ifwe can't bring them into a
specific house, and at least beable to show kind of the outside
.
They can see the playground, wecan talk a little bit about
what goes on in the houses.
We might visit a house that isempty in the moment, but we can
try to find a way to show thedonor the program without
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necessarily kind of invading thespace of our children and our
caregivers.
We do have signs and placeswhere we can do photos.
You know, if somebody needsthat Instagram photo, there are
places that they can do itwithout having our children or
our caregivers in the mix.
So a lot of the settingboundaries is just trying to
find other ways to be able toshow our donors or give them the
(18:53):
opportunity to donate, but justin a way that works a little
bit better for us.
But I would say overall, havinga strong policy in place and
making sure everybody at theagency knows that helps make
that a little bit better for us.
But I would say overall, havinga strong policy in place and
making sure everybody at theagency knows that helps make
that a little bit easier.
Keith Greer, CFRE (19:05):
And so we hear a lot about holiday giving
rushes right and people showingup at the last minute to make
those gifts.
But nonprofits like yours needsupport every single month of
the year.
So what's been your mosteffective strategy for helping
donors understand the importanceof year-round giving?
Leanne Baumel (19:22):
Yeah, 100%.
We are in operation 365 days ayear and that need never goes
away, both with unrestrictedcash donations and then our
in-kind items as well, the basicneeds.
We often say whatever it isthat you need in your house, we
need multiplied out times 10just to make our agency be able
(19:45):
to run on a daily basis.
We have limited storage space,so even if somebody were to show
up in December and say here's ayear supply of diaper wipes, we
probably wouldn't be able toaccept that because we just
don't have the storage space forthat.
So being able to space thingsout year round is really
critical to us.
Storage space for that so beingable to space things out year
round is really critical to us.
What we have found is that theholiday giving is often our
(20:06):
launching pad for year roundsupport.
Oh really Most of our donors forour Christmas programs giving
the gifts to the kids are comingfrom corporate programs.
We do have some individuals,but most are corporate groups
and it is a really easy entrypoint into engagement with them
(20:27):
year round.
And, like all things infundraising, it comes back to
the stewardship of that donorand building the relationship
with them.
Not just that last week ofDecember, from a cash financial
contribution at year-end, all ofour donors are getting thanked
for our year-end campaign.
(20:48):
Even as all of this is going onin the background, we're
following up with our new donors.
Our board was really supportiveof that this year in helping us
do that.
But we really do try to focuson those in-kind donors.
Once the holiday rush is over,we typically invite all of them
out to lunch.
In February, march, when it's alittle bit quieter, we'll have
(21:11):
lunch on the playground, so thekids are there in a little bit
more of a casual setting.
It's a time where they can bringtheir whole team because often
it's a team that is puttingtogether these holiday drives
and it's a chance for them tolearn about our programs, where
we're not trying to squeeze itinto it to five minutes as a
drop off before the next groupcomes, and it's a really great
(21:33):
chance for us in that moment totalk to them about other ways
that their company can getinvolved.
And we have found some of ourtop corporate partners right now
started out as Christmas donors, doing things small scales, one
of our really most engagedcorporate partner.
(21:53):
I think they started throughChristmas or they may have come
and done a volunteer activitybefore that as well.
They're one of our largestfinancial supporters, individual
or corporate.
They participate in our gala,they volunteer regularly, they
support our back to schoolprogram, they support our food
pantry, they run a golftournament.
That's a third party event forus.
(22:14):
Their vice president serves onour board and it started out
just from that one Christmasdonation and us being able to
grow it from there.
Keith Greer, CFRE (22:22):
Yeah, and so earlier you were talking about
how your organization has comeup with policies and procedures
for redirecting gifts that yourorganization might not be able
to accept but have been usefulelsewhere, and sometimes staying
true to your mission meansturning down a donation or a
request that just does not align.
Can you share a time when youhad to say no and how it ended
(22:45):
up being the right decision foryour organization?
Leanne Baumel (22:47):
Yeah, we had a couple of those this season.
Really, I would say everyholiday season we have a couple
of these.
Again, let me say it's hard tobe able to say no sometimes to
these opportunities, especiallybecause you don't always know
where they may lead to.
But sometimes those just toughconversations just have to be
had.
In mid-December we wereapproached by the representative
(23:10):
for a professional athlete, andit was somebody that we had not
had a relationship withpreviously, but he wanted to do
an event with the childrenbefore Christmas.
It literally gave us about aweek and a half before Christmas
and you know, again, wetypically don't do big events
(23:33):
during the holidays becausethere's so much going on.
We have a couple of partnersthat we work with, but you know,
we kind of gave this one thebenefit of the doubt and said
well, you know what, if you wantto come do an event and be able
to do something with the kids,here are two days and times that
we would be able to accommodateyou before the end of the year.
And they gave us a little bitof pushback on that.
But she went to go talk to thisathlete and about a week went
(23:57):
by with no contact and then shereached back out and said well,
what time on this day can wecome to be able to deliver
everything?
Well, that was not a day or atime that we had given her and
it was actually the Sundaybefore Christmas.
By this point my team is off andmost of us were out of town at
(24:19):
that point.
I was not going to ask anybodyfrom the program team to meet
with this athlete that we reallywere not familiar with and we
said I'm sorry, but we can'thave you deliver that day.
You are welcome to come inJanuary.
This is when we reopen.
We have not heard back fromthis donor as of this point,
although of course, january isstill young and we'll do some
(24:40):
follow-up on that.
But we knew, and just from acapacity standpoint and the
timing of it, that was somethingthat was not going to work for
us and it was something that wasnot going to work for our
program team or for our kids.
We also turned down theopportunity this year to be the
beneficiary of a third-partyevent.
Again, they contacted us fairlylate in the year for this, but
they were going to require asignificant amount of staff
(25:03):
involvement with the event andalso they were really wanting
significant involvement from ourboard of directors and we knew,
going into our busiest time ofyear that we didn't have the
capacity for that and that forus it would be better to spend
our time working with the donorsthat we knew that we had and
closing those year end gifts,and so we politely declined and
(25:24):
I think we're working with thisgroup to be able to do something
later in the year.
But for us we just weren't ableto accommodate.
Keith Greer, CFRE (25:31):
I always find those organizations that reach
out saying, well, like we'd liketo give you money if you commit
to a ton of volunteer hours fora whole bunch of people, and so
there's a lot of unlearningthat kind of needs to happen
around how people think thatthey're helping what's worked
for your team when it comes togently re-educating donors who
genuinely want to do good butmight not realize that their
(25:53):
approach needs tweaking.
Leanne Baumel (25:55):
I think the two keys are repetition, repetition,
repetition and then to alsostart with the low-hanging fruit
.
A lot of these changes aren'tgoing to happen overnight.
It may take years for therereally to be a cultural shift in
that and I would say for us,not taking used items is
something that has taken yearsto really make that shift.
(26:16):
But start with the low-hangingfruit.
And, just as an example, wereceive well over a thousand
gift cards during the holidayseason.
So these are gift cards thatare being used for gifts for
some of the teens.
They get used for our programs,kind of any number of ways.
But accounting, as they should,insists that every single gift
(26:38):
card gets logged with the amountbecause it's cash in and cash
out.
And if a donor doesn't mark theamount on the gift card, it's
very, very time consuming for mystaff to go through every one
of those gift cards and be ableto find out the amount.
And there are certain stores,such as Amazon, that you can't
do online.
(26:58):
You actually have to call andtalk to a real person to be able
to find out the amount on thegift card.
We have a donor who's beendoing a gift card drive for us
for a number of years.
That's what they do.
It's just gift cards.
And a couple of years ago theyused to come in and it would
literally be a basket justfilled with gift cards and not a
single one of them would bemarked and it would take
(27:19):
somebody like the better part ofa day to go through them.
And a couple of years ago wesaid to the organizer hey, it
would be a lot easier on us ifwe knew how much the gift cards
were.
Do you think it would bepossible for your employees to
mark the amount on the giftcards before they turn them into
you?
She was horrified.
She had never thought aboutthat being an issue and she was
(27:42):
so upset that she was causing usadditional work.
And so now, when the basket ofgift cards comes in, not only
are they all marked this yearshe even had a spreadsheet for
us that listed every gift card,the amount, everything that we
could ever need to know but wewere able to log those gift
cards in in about 15, 20 minutes, versus it taking half a day.
And so that was a really easylow-hanging fruit where it was
(28:02):
just a very simple ask forsomebody we had a relationship
with.
Again, it goes back torelationships.
You can have thoseconversations, but it made it so
much easier.
I think it's also reallyimportant for donors to
understand the why behind someof the rules.
You know, when we say, well, weneed to have donations in by
(28:25):
December 12th is well, we needto have them in by December 12th
because most of our kids don'tlive on site.
We need time to be able to getthem to their families, or it's
not, you know, hey, no, we can'tgo visit the neighborhood.
It's?
We can't visit the neighborhoodbecause right now it's nap time
and all of the kids aresleeping and we don't want to
disturb that.
So if a donor understands thewhy behind it, then often
(28:46):
they're much more understandingand they're willing to work with
you on it.
The other thing quite frankly,we have gotten much better at
keeping notes on our Christmasdonors, and that's both the
donors that we call the one anddone you know where they come in
and they have everything achild could ever want, and it's
just, you know it's ready to goout the door immediately but
(29:07):
also the donors thatconsistently give us challenges.
We have one corporate partnerthat we've worked with for a
number of years and every yearthey push deadlines a little bit
.
This year they pushed them alot.
They pushed deadlines a littlebit.
This year they pushed them alot.
They rescheduled three or fourtimes and wound up coming
literally hours before ouroffice closed for the holiday
season.
(29:27):
And next year we have it in ournotes that we probably won't
offer them the opportunity to dogifts for the kids, for them,
something that is less timesensitive right, and we need
diapers in January too butsomething where it's not as
critical.
That we have something in bydeadline is going to be a better
(29:47):
fit for them and it's going togive them the chance at being
successful in what they do andit's going to cause a lot less
stress on our team as well.
Keith Greer, CFRE (29:55):
I love what you were talking about here with
changing the culture of theorganization, and it takes a
long period of time, right?
And so you talked about therepetition, repetition,
repetition and starting withthose low-hanging fruits.
And I think so many people, somany fundraisers, when they come
into a nonprofit organization,they look around them and they
see all the opportunity forimproving it, because they're
(30:17):
coming in with those fresh eyesversus the people who've been
there for forever right, butthey get burnt out and
overwhelmed, trying to change itall overnight, and then, 18
months later, when things aren'tthe magical world that they
envisioned on day one, theydecide to get up and leave.
How long did it take you tostart seeing those changes
(30:38):
within your organization so thatyou could get to this better
place that you're at now?
I mean you've been there 11years.
At what point do you startseeing those changes?
Leanne Baumel (30:48):
Yeah, some of it is immediate.
When I came in and my role atthe time was actually to be in
charge of the Christmas programwe didn't ask our donors to
label the gifts as for whichchild Right that they were for
and if it's a single individualdonor coming in with the gifts
(31:09):
for one child.
You know that's pretty easy tofigure out.
But we have some corporatedonors that do gifts for 50, 60
or more children and I guesswhat would happen before is they
would just take all the gifts.
They would, you know, take themout of the bags and then they
would fill wish lists from alist based off of this.
And I said, can we just havethe donors label the gifts?
And I was told, oh, they wouldnever do that.
(31:30):
And I was like, but you know,we're going to try.
We're just we're just going totry and we'll see what happens.
By and large, almost everydonor that year labeled the
gifts with the child's code andit made things so much easier,
right?
So sometimes you just have to.
You have to ask, but for somethings it is.
It's taken a lot longer.
You know, 11 years in, we stillstruggle sometimes with those
(31:52):
headless Barbies, you knowpeople bringing in things that
that clearly they shouldn't.
But we've had slow but steadyprogress and I would say every
year Christmas gets better.
And I would say every yearChristmas gets better, and some
years it's that we really needto focus on the headless Barbies
(32:15):
and some years it's that wereally need to focus on how we
do our tours to be able to makeit easier on the neighborhood.
But we're able to improvethings a little bit every year.
The advantage that we have toois that my guess is that of our
holiday donors, of our corporategroups, probably 90% of them
were here 11 years ago.
So we have some that have leftand we have some new ones that
(32:36):
have come in, but a lot of theseare some really long-term
relationships where it's made iteasy to really have some good
conversations with the donors tobe able to better express our
needs.
Keith Greer, CFRE (32:48):
So what I hear you saying is that it's
about progress over perfection,because all of us know
perfection does not exist.
Leanne Baumel (32:56):
Correct.
Keith Greer, CFRE (32:57):
And.
Leanne Baumel (32:57):
I would say, for us, this is the one time of year
you know, you hear, you don'twant good or perfect to get in
the way of good enough.
Good or perfect to get in theway of good enough, um, that for
us, often good enough is, isjust fine.
You know that if, at the end ofthe day, 350 kids have the
gifts that they need, um, youknow we're, we know it's,
(33:17):
there's gonna be bumps everyyear.
Some expected some, not um, butwe'll get through it and and
we'll improve it for next year.
Um, what we do for every eventand this is, you know, like our
gala, but we do it for Christmastoo we always debrief.
We have a whiteboard in ourarea where we'll, you know, just
start putting you know for thisyear, christmas, you know, what
(33:38):
do we keep, what do we change?
And just we start, you know,dumping all of those things on
there.
We take a picture of it, andnext, of those things on there,
we take a picture of it and nextyear we'll pull that out and
say, all right, this is what wenow can remember worked really
well, this is what didn't workso well and what we need to work
on, and so we have that recordas well.
Keith Greer, CFRE (33:55):
And so getting all of these toys and
all of these gifts in kind, it'sa lot of work, and so we've all
heard the phrase just give usthe cash.
But it's not always that simpleright.
So how does Casa de Esperanzanavigate the balance between
getting those cash gifts and thein-kind donations to meet your
family's needs?
Leanne Baumel (34:13):
Wouldn't it be great if everyone just gave us
unrestricted gifts?
Keith Greer, CFRE (34:17):
It'd be so nice, and millions at a time too
.
Leanne Baumel (34:21):
And we're still waiting for Mackenzie Scott to
show up at our agency doors.
Keith Greer, CFRE (34:25):
Oh, me too.
Leanne Baumel (34:26):
That would be wonderful.
It is a balancing act for us.
We are an agency of people whoare caring for people and we
have very few expenses otherthan the expenses of our staff
and then what it takes tomaintain our homes.
And while some of that can bedone in kind, a lot of it just
(34:49):
can't, and we need thoseunrestricted dollars.
We need donors who are willingto pay for a caregiver's salary
so that our kids can be caredfor.
The in-kind donations, thoughyear-round, do help us stretch
our dollars a lot better.
Every diaper that is donated isone less diaper we have to go
out and purchase ourselves.
(35:11):
We get a lot of donationsthrough the year of things like
diapers, wipes, clorox wipes,dish soap, canned goods and
whatever it is that you need inyour house.
Just bring it to us.
We maintain an Amazon wishlistso donors can always know what
our most pressing needs are.
We keep it updated with all thethings on top.
(35:31):
But again, what we found is asfrustrating sometimes as the
in-kind donations are.
So often those relationshipsthat start with an in-kind
donation are what lead to thedollars down the road.
We have a corporate partner andone of our top corporate
partners, and they're anengineering firm and they every
(35:54):
year do a canned good sculpturecontest.
And when I say canned goodsculptures, they literally
computer model these figurines.
This year they Minions andCinderella's Castle, and you
know, it's really quiteimpressive.
And they then donate all of thecanned goods to us, which is
(36:15):
really wonderful.
It, quite frankly, fills ourpantry for months.
Well, last year, I think,anything that was red was they
use like diced tomatoes.
And this year our program teamsaid to me they're like we don't
need that many diced tomatoesor tomato sauce, like do you
think that they could do ChefBoyardee like ravioli instead?
(36:36):
Oh you know what they absolutelycould.
It's a longtime partner.
It literally took 30 seconds inan email to say, hey, can you
cut the tomatoes and do ChefBoyardee in an email to say, hey
, can you cut the tomatoes anddo Chef Boyardee.
And what that allows, though,is it makes what they're giving
us as an in-kind donation morevaluable, because our families
need easy to heat, pre-preppedmeals, because they often don't
(36:57):
have kitchens to be able to cookhomemade tomato sauce in right
with the diced tomatoes.
So it's being able to find theneeds as to where those in-kind
things are and what we reallyneed, and being okay to actually
communicate what those needsare to the donor so that they're
not giving us tomatoes if wedon't actually need tomatoes.
(37:20):
Another really wonderful donorwe have is a corporate partner
of ours.
Her team collects money just onthe team every month, and she
literally emails us once a monthand says all right, tomorrow is
the day we go to Sam's what doyou need?
And we give her the list.
She shows up the next day,nothing more, nothing less than
(37:40):
what we have told her that it isthat we need in the moment.
You know our needs change.
One month we may need diaperwipes and the next month it may
be that we need.
In the moment, you know, ourneeds change One month we may
need diaper wipes and the nextmonth it may be that we need
Clorox wipes.
But it's great because we knowthat every month she is going to
go to Sam's for us and we canplan actually our spending,
knowing that okay, well, youknow, in a week or so we're
going to, we can tell her thatthis is what we need so we can
(38:01):
go buy something else.
What's also really wonderful isthat, because her team is so
involved with us locally, thatallows us to tap into $50,000 a
year from their corporatefoundation that we receive every
year that then we can use forother things.
But it's that relationship thatcame from the SAMS delivery
(38:25):
that is then allowing us toaccess those funds, and we have
a number of donors like that.
We received a surprise $25,000donation this fall from somebody
who's been doing Christmas foryears, and the company asked the
employees who they wanted togive the gift to, and we were
the ones who were nominated.
(38:45):
And so it is often a balancingact of trying to navigate the
in-kind donations versus thecash donations, but if you can
build the relationship with thein-kind.
It's like volunteers If you canbuild a relationship with
somebody who wants to engage asa volunteer, then often the
money follows, and we find thatwith our Christmas as well as
(39:05):
our year-round in-kind donations.
Keith Greer, CFRE (39:06):
Yeah, I love that and the money follows, and
we find that with our Christmasas well as our year-round
in-kind donations yeah, I lovethat, and the holiday season,
specifically, can be a reallyhigh-pressure time of the year,
right?
Not just for your nonprofit,but for any of them.
So how do you ensure your teamboth your staff and your
volunteers because you alsomanage the volunteers stay on
the same page when it comes toenforcing boundaries and keeping
(39:26):
the focus on your mission?
Leanne Baumel (39:29):
I think it all boils down to the culture that
we have worked really hard tocreate at CASA, especially over
the last couple of years.
We are a small agency.
Without the caregiving staff,our entire staff is about 25
people and that's everythingfrom development to our
caseworkers to the leadershipteam, and we have really been
(39:53):
able to break down the silosover the last couple of years
and it is a truly collaborativeculture across all of the teams,
and so that in itself makesthings so much easier when it
gets really chaotic for theholidays.
It really just boils down tocommunication and to empower the
(40:13):
staff also to be able to makedecisions that they, quite
frankly, are really qualified tobe able to make.
Our office manager has gottenreally good at telling donors no
, we can't accept that.
If she has a question, you knowany doubt at all, she will call
me or somebody on my team tosee if that's something that we
(40:34):
can accept, you know.
At the same time, she knows,you know and anybody on the
staff knows, that we're going towork with them to be able to
have conversations with a donoror volunteer.
If they don't want to have thatconversation, we're happy to be
the bad guys.
But I think it's also aboutinvolving the people who the
boundaries impact in thedecisions about what those
(40:56):
boundaries are right.
So when we get a last minuterequest for a tour, often my
conversation to the neighborhoodis hey, can I bring somebody by
in five minutes?
If I can't, we'll just.
My conversation to theneighborhood is hey, can I bring
somebody by in five minutes?
If I can't, we'll just bringthem to the neighborhood and
we'll stay outside and that'sokay.
And so they know that they cansay, yes, this house is fine to
(41:17):
take on guests in five minutes.
And they know that it's okay tosay we just cannot handle that
right now.
Please don't come near any ofour homes and we'll just find an
alternate way to be able toshow the donor our program.
The same thing with donations.
I start a lot of conversationsto the program team with I'm
pretty sure you're going to sayno, but we were just offered a
green piano.
That happened a couple of weeksago.
(41:38):
Before I tell them no, I justwant to confirm with you that
that's not something we need andthey'll laugh and say, no,
that's not something that weneed and we'll go from there.
But it's empowering them tohave a say about the boundaries
that I'm setting with the donors, because it does me no good to
accept something if the programcan't use it.
And then we're just trying tofigure out what to do with a
(41:59):
grand piano or 10 cases of dicedtomatoes or whatever it is that
we have During the holidayseason too.
What has really helped this year?
So we're on a hybrid workschedule in the office and most
people are remote one to twodays a week, but for the two
weeks really leading up toChristmas it was all hands on
(42:21):
deck.
Nobody worked remote, nobodycould take PTO unless it was an
emergency.
We communicated this inFebruary, so everybody had
plenty of time to plan theirdoctor's appointments.
For the amount of diapers andwipes we thought was coming,
people are there to help unloadthe truck and get it put away.
If there were questions about adonation.
(42:53):
We were all just there, kind ofin the same room often.
What was also really great aboutthat is you know, we don't
always get to work with peoplein different teams and we were
literally all just doing thesame thing together.
It was great team building.
It was a great chance for myteam to get to know some of the
program team members a littlebit better and vice versa, and
(43:14):
just be able to haveconversations, you know, outside
of kind of our normal day today that we have.
It's also really key, I think,when it comes to setting
boundaries and I said thisearlier leadership is so
important and during the reallybusy holiday season one, you
know, our leadership justempowers us to make the
decisions that we know are right.
(43:36):
There may be times where wekind of run the sniff test
through our CEO, but very rarelydoes she disagree with anything
that we're saying, andeverybody from the top down was
involved in the process.
Our CEO wasn't always the one inthere sorting gifts with us,
but because my team was actuallyvery short staffed, we were
down some people.
During the holiday season Ioften sent very cryptic messages
(44:00):
to my CEO and just saidsomething like we haven't heard
from Keith, please call him, andshe would know what that meant
and she would follow up with adonor and kind of follow up on a
pledge or a year end ask ormake that thank you.
She's a former developmentdirector and so she knows how to
use our database and I didn'thave to give her a lot of
information.
She could just take it and runwith it.
(44:21):
But then that took the pressureoff of me and my team to be
able to do a lot of other things.
We had board members.
We had a small team of boardmembers who did most of our
thanking for the donors thatcame in for our year-end
campaign.
So a couple of times a week wewould just shoot them a list of
names and emails and they wouldjust take care of doing those
thank you calls for us, and weliterally had two board members
(44:44):
who were there sitting on thefloor with us, you know, sorting
gifts and we're there.
One was there almost the entireday, just in the thick of it.
And so when leadership isinvolved, I think it makes it
easier on everybody because theyknow that they're not doing it
alone.
It's again, it's just theculture of everybody is pitching
in and we're just going to makeit happen.
(45:04):
And it's again, it's just theculture of everybody is pitching
in and we're just going to makeit happen.
Keith Greer, CFRE (45:07):
There's a word that you said a few times
there that I think is reallyimportant, especially as a
people-focused leader, andthat's empowerment.
Right and being able to empoweryour staff to make decisions,
and I think so many leaders,whether they're the CEO or
they're leading a team ofdevelopment officers there's a
fear, and they're scared to seewhat their staff is going to do
(45:29):
if they empower them, and sothey become micromanagers of the
process and their teams becomeparalyzed to do anything without
a specific direction.
How did you get comfortablewith empowering your team?
Leanne Baumel (45:41):
Yeah, it's a process.
What I struggled with, I think,the most in leadership.
So I've been at CASA for almost12 years now and I've been in
this role for three and a halfyears and at that point I had to
shift from being a doer to theleader of the team, where other
(46:02):
people were the doers.
It was hard for me to let go ofsome of those things, and it
wasn't because I didn'tnecessarily trust my team to do
it, but I was just so used todoing it and it was hard for me,
at the end of the day, to nothave, like a product that I
could show for my work.
You know, I didn't make phonecalls or I didn't crank out a
(46:25):
social media post or write anappeal, and it took some time,
and really just me working onmyself, to realize that if my
team is doing those things, thenthat's the product.
Right, that's what I've doneand it's okay for me to invest
my time in them and let them dothe do the doing.
(46:46):
You know I think my leadershipstyle has always been you know,
I've hired you to do a job.
I am not going to do it for you.
You know, if I trust you to dothis job, like at some point you
just have to do it on your own.
I'm probably too trustingsometimes with that, but we have
a great team and a great staffand we really work.
You know, look for people whofit in or just want to jump in
(47:07):
and do what needs to get done,and I think that makes it easier
because there's nobody on myteam who won't just jump in
first.
We actually had a grant managerwho started her first day of
work was our busiest donationday of the year this year and we
literally said, you know, hello, welcome, we'll talk to you
(47:30):
about grants in a couple ofweeks.
Like here's a bag and yeah,she's been in social services
for a long time and she's likeokay, I got it, you know, done,
and that's just.
That's just kind of who we areas a team, who we are as an
agency.
Keith Greer, CFRE (47:42):
I love that, and so, as you're reflecting on
this holiday season, what's onelesson that stood out to you
about working with donors,managing their expectations or
keeping your organization'svalues really front and center?
Leanne Baumel (47:55):
This is so much of a lesson.
It's just kind of the remindersthat we need.
I'm going to give you twothings and not just one.
The first is that, to remember,more donors will surprise you
in good ways than will surpriseyou in bad ways.
And it's easy to focus on thechallenges and the frustrations
and that you know I can'tbelieve that somebody just did
(48:16):
this, but the reality is thatmost people are going to
surprise you with the goodthings and you need to be able
to celebrate those.
Absolutely we have a local lawfirm that we've been involved
with for a while.
They like to buy things.
We can call them and say, hey,we need cribs, and they'll buy
cribs for us and ship them.
But they reached out inmid-December when things are
(48:39):
crazy.
But they said for two thingsOne, we want to make a cash
donation to you how do we dothat?
But then also is there animmediate need that you have
that we can fill and our housesin the neighborhood?
We had put on some Christmaswishlists.
They wanted family size airfryers, some blenders, new
(48:59):
diaper pails and those itemshadn't come in and we said here
are a couple of things that weneed.
I'm not kidding when I saidfive hours later those items
were delivered from Target.
Keith Greer, CFRE (49:10):
Oh, that's wonderful.
Leanne Baumel (49:11):
Three of everything.
You know exactly what it wasthat we wanted and I think what
was really wonderful about thatwas, you know, I was one of our
busiest days of the year.
It just quietly came right.
Our office manager called andshe's like Target delivered some
stuff for you.
You know, come and get it.
It wasn't about the socialmedia post, it wasn't about them
, it was just here's a need thatwe have and they're going to
(49:35):
fill it, and I think it made theneighborhood stay to be able to
have these.
So, you know, things like thatare really wonderful surprise.
The other thing is that while weall want the really big cash
gifts right, we want the, youknow, we want Mackenzie Scott to
(49:56):
show up Sometimes it's thesmall gifts that actually have
the most meaning and we need tohonor those gifts as well.
This was actually a year or twoago, but we have a donor.
He's an older gentleman.
He's been sending us $5 a monthfor I believe, 25 years at this
point, every single monthwithout fail, and at Christmas
he sent us $7.
For him that was probablyreally a stretch, right, and
(50:18):
it's easy to look at it and belike, oh, it's $2.
But for him that was clearlylike a thought about like extra
help that he could get, and thatwas something that we
celebrated and made sure that hegot an extra thank you from our
CEO and really honored that,because for him those extra $2
(50:41):
probably meant as much as a$100,000 gift might mean to
somebody else.
Keith Greer, CFRE (50:45):
Absolutely, and I love that because that's
almost a 50% increase in adonation for him and for
somebody that's on a fixedincome.
They're really watching everydollar every single week, and so
to be able to find an extra $2when they're that tight just
goes to show the kinds ofrelationships that you're
(51:06):
building and how important theyare not only to your program
participants and your client,but to your donors as well.
So I really love that.
But if you could wave a magicwand and you could make every
donor understand just one thingabout supporting nonprofits
during the holidays, what wouldit be?
Leanne Baumel (51:26):
Unrestricted cash gifts.
Keith Greer, CFRE (51:29):
Yes.
Leanne Baumel (51:31):
But seriously, I think for donors to realize that
most nonprofits areprofessionally run by people who
really know what the needs ofthe clients and the organization
are and we know what we needbest.
And that could come from adonor in a gift of an
(51:53):
unrestricted cash donation.
But for those that want to givean in-kind gift, just ask us
what we need, because we aregoing to be so happy to tell you
what it is that will be mosthelpful to us.
But trust us to know what weneed.
Keith Greer, CFRE (52:07):
Well, Leanne, I am so happy to have you here
on the podcast and this was justsuch a great recap of the
holiday season and kind oflooking forward for the year
ahead, and I really appreciateyou taking the time to share
your insights and your successesand also to talk about some of
these really importantleadership pieces for managing
(52:27):
teams and donors and volunteers,not just during the holidays
but all year long.
So thank you for being here.
Leanne Baumel (52:34):
Thank you so much , Keith.
This has really been an honor.
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