How to Get Your Board "On Board" with Monthly Giving

If you’ve ever sat at a board meeting thinking “we can't keep doing fundraising like this!” then it might be time to start championing monthly giving – which is one of the most practical shifts a nonprofit can make.

Board strategist Christal M. Cherry and I are getting specific about what staff should bring to the boardroom, how to pilot change without triggering resistance, and how dashboards and donor milestones help boards actually see the impact of recurring giving. That level of predictability can fundamentally shift how your nonprofit plans, invests, and leads with confidence.

P.S. We are in the final countdown to the FREE Monthly Giving Summit. Join me on February 25th-26th to master monthly giving.

Resources & Links

Connect with Christal on LinkedIn, tune in to The Board Shake-Up podcast, and learn more about The Board Pro.

LettrLabs is the proud presenter of Missions to Movements. 

LettrLabs helps nonprofits build lasting donor relationships through real, handwritten mail that’s fully automated - turning moments of intent into meaningful connection. From thank-yous to impact updates, they help you cut through with mail donors actually open, remember, and trust.

Join me and the LettrLabs team on March 30th at 1pm Eastern for a FREE webinar that will showcase even more examples and case studies of how direct mail can work for you.

The Monthly Giving Builder: Generate your comprehensive monthly giving plan and build your program step by step - with a guided companion working alongside you from start to finish. 

Let's Connect!

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Transcript

Setting The Case For Change

SPEAKER_02 0:30

Today's conversation is for anyone who's ever sat at a board meeting thinking, we can't keep doing fundraising like this. My guest is none other than Crystal Cherry. She is a nationally recognized board strategist, former frontline fundraiser of 20 years, and the founder and CEO of the Board Pro. Crystal has spent her career helping nonprofit boards move from confusion to courageous and inclusive and having confident leadership. She has worked with orgs all across the country to help boards really understand their role, not just in governance, but in building sustainable values-aligned revenue. And so today we're talking about one of the most practical shifts a nonprofit can make. And that's really moving from event-heavy fundraising to monthly giving. So in this episode, she's going to break down how boards can really champion monthly giving, what they need to understand, what staff needs to ask for, how to pilot change without triggering panic or resistance. And if you are in the world of navigating event fatigue or board hesitation or just trying to build predictable revenue, this conversation is going to feel like a breath of fresh air.

SPEAKER_00 1:50

I think a lot of times monthly donors are swept under the rug and overlooked because they think that the amounts are typically small amounts, and so they don't see them as the potential of being major donors. And we know that annual donors and small donors are the pipeline for major gifts, right? But these folks have committed, right? They have said on a monthly basis we commit to supporting this organization. We don't need to go in every month and put in our credit card. We're giving you our credit card in advance so that you can just take the money out of my account. And we find that those kind of donors will stick with you even when the corporations say no, even when the foundations say no, even when the federal government shuts down, those individuals who have agreed to give you a monthly donation will continue to give. Even if the amount decreases, they still continue. They're your most loyal donors.

SPEAKER_02 2:35

Okay, I am stoked for this conversation because I think it's so needed. And we are in the final countdown to the monthly giving summit. And if you happen to be someone that your board maybe needs a little nudge on why, she's already laughing at me, at why monthly giving is so important and how to structure that conversation. I am with the one and the only. Crystal, I am so happy that you're here. Welcome to Missions to Movements.

Why Monthly Donors Matter

SPEAKER_00 3:11

Yes, this is a long time coming. I've watched you grow and just kind of flourish over the last couple of years and have admired you for your leadership. And so watching you from afar has just been inspiring for me as a fellow consultant. And I see the work that you're doing, which is so important and so needed. So thank you for what you've done. And I think right back at you.

SPEAKER_02 3:35

We've spoken together at conferences and we get to like come in and out of each other's rooms or like meet around the lunch table or like say hi or like quickly, like between catching flights.

SPEAKER_00 3:45

And that came to your book launch.

Defining Monthly Giving For Boards

SPEAKER_02 3:47

You did. I know, I know. So good. Yeah, so good. I want to dive right in. Sure. So we're just gonna we're gonna put a situation at play here. Okay. And we're just gonna like real life situation this out gameplay, okay? Because I think you rocket this. So let's just say that there is a staff member at a nonprofit that has an agenda item listed for monthly giving. Sure. Okay. How should they explain monthly giving in a way that you think is actually going to land with board members, especially those that might be stuck in either an event first mindset or major donors or is the only thing that matters, or we should only be really focusing on like the planned giving or our one-time, you get where I'm going. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Basically, any other priority. How would you structure or what would be your advice be to this?

Replacing Event Fatigue With Stability

SPEAKER_00 4:54

Yeah, no, I I think the way that the board talks about monthly giving really matters. And it really is an opportunity to give those who really have embraced your mission an opportunity to continue to give consistently in an amount and at a pace that's comfortable for them. And so really sharing that, you know, galas and events are time and labor intensive. You may or may not see a profit after doing all of that hard work. It usually takes a lot of time, and then you have to try to build up so that you at least get your sponsorship goals met, you know, five, six months prior to the event. It's just a lot of work. Whereas monthly giving is something that people should enjoy doing. It should be comfortable for them. And what it does is it really prevents uh panic and allows the nonprofit to breathe, right? Because we know throughout the year, particularly at the beginning of the year when you know liquid funds might be tight, it gives nonprofits an opportunity to continue to do the things it needs in order for it to operate. So, you know, pay staff, invest in better software, all the things that we know it needs, the liquid funds is so important, the unrestricted funds are so important. And so I think just reminding them that this consistent giving year-round from donors who really love your mission, giving at a pace that's comfortable and an amount that's comfortable for them, it just makes sense. Whereas a gala just takes too much time to get it all together.

SPEAKER_02 6:24

I mean, I think that sounds like great advice. Yeah. What have you seen that maybe from the board standpoint, when you've been in these kind of conversations where there's been some struggles? I mean, Chris, I cannot tell you the amount of times I've heard that there's just like friction with the board understanding this being something to really focus on and to pay attention to and to invest some time and energy and funds into. What data do you think boards need in order to make the case for monthly giving?

Data Boards Need To See

Loyalty Story That Changed Minds

SPEAKER_00 6:56

Yeah, no, I think it's really important because I think a lot of times monthly donors are swept under the rug and overlooked because they think that the amounts are typically small amounts, and so they don't see them as the potential of being major donors. And we know that annual donors or small donors are the pipeline for major gifts, right? But these folks have committed, right? They have said on a monthly basis, we commit to supporting this organization. We don't need to go in every month and put in our credit card. We're giving you our credit card in advance so that you could just take the money out of my account. And we find that those kind of donors will stick with you even when the corporations say no, even when the foundations say no, even when the federal government shuts down, those individuals who have agreed to give you a monthly donation will continue to give. Even if the amount decreases, they still continue. They're your most loyal donors. So I was giving you an example of a case of uh a donor that I had found in our database who was given$150 a month for like nine or 10 years. Wow. And he was overlooked because it was$150. Nobody thought, ah, it's$150. But when I went and looked and tracked the amount of the collective giving, it was thousands of dollars, right? And no one had called them, thanked them, acknowledged them. Wow. And so when I called him, it was an elderly couple, right? And he said, you know, we've been giving for years because we really believe in the mission of this organization, and we just put it in our budget, right? It just goes in our budget with our other bills, right? We don't even think about it. When we pay our light bill and our left bill, we know this$150 is dedicated to this organization. I love it. And so when I came and asked them, well, I would love to meet with you and he said, Well, we don't want to fuss. We just wanted to give, we don't want any special attention. And I insisted, I was like, Do you like tea? Let's just have tea. So I went and I went and had tea with them, and they were just as gracious, and they lived in a little house. And as it turned out, I got them to come to the next gala. We put them in the front with the president and so on and so forth, and that turned into a planned gift, right? And so you just never know what your monthly donors, the capacity they have to make even larger donations, because this was an elderly couple. Oh, and this was the other thing. During the the month of November for Thanksgiving, they doubled their gifts. So the 150 in November was 300, right? Because they went amazing. That's the month that they feel most thankful. So you just never know if you don't do the research to find out who these people are. You don't know the capacity that they have to make larger donations. And if they stick with you that long, that means they love you.

Celebrating Milestones And Pipelines

SPEAKER_02 9:20

That's right. They really do. That's right. They're down for the count. They are down and invested in the mission. I love that. Something that I have been talking a lot about is making sure to your point to evaluate not only somebody just being like one year anniversary and like being with your organization, but looking at milestone achievements. So whether that is the length of time that somebody has been a monthly donor, so acknowledging that, like five years, that's a big deal. Or if it's an amount, if somebody over time, like you're saying, has amassed$5,000,$10,000,$20,000, that's a big deal as a compounded monthly giving gift. So if some of those stories could be uncovered and shared at donor meetings, that that would then open the mindset a bit to why it's so important. And I guess how do you translate that impact into like board language? And I'm using like quote unquote fingers here. Because most a lot of board members work for businesses a lot of the time. And I always think it's so funny where subscription revenue is so common and so the norm and so important in the for-profit world. Yeah. But for some reason, like when it's flip-flopped and it's like, oh, we want to focus getting a bunch of people to give us smaller amounts of money. It's like, uh Yeah.

Translate Recurring Giving To Business Terms

Dashboards That Drive Decisions

SPEAKER_00 10:50

I love dashboards. I remember when I was a fundraiser, I think showing impact by showing the numbers is really important. So not only showing the number of monthly donors, but maybe showing monthly donors from year to year, maybe showing those who have increased their gift from$50 to$75, right? Maybe showing those who have been giving five years or more. I mean, I think showing actually showing the numbers and showing them how these dollars are impacting the bottom line, I think is really important. So having a dashboard where you can say these are the monthly donors who are giving between 100 and 500 a month, or between 500 and 1,000 a month. These are the ones who have been giving for five or so years consistently. These are those who have increased their donation from 50 to 75. These are the ones who have lapsed, you know, maybe lapse a year and they've returned. And these are the ones that have lapsed altogether, right? So you can kind of show them by the numbers the impact that these dollars had. And should they go missing, should we stop doing this? How much money would the organization actually lose? But you'll find, particularly for those who have been giving for five or six or seven or ten years, that means they may have had a turnover in the CEO. That means the director of development may have left. All kinds of changes happen in the nonprofit over a five, 10 year period. But this donor stayed with you during all of that transition. So when the CEO left, when the government turned its back on you, when the nonprofit foundation said no, when the corporation went away, this donor was with you all along.

Recurring First Donors And Vision

SPEAKER_02 12:20

That is such a good point. That's a really strong point. And I think that's so true. I always say that a lot of times we try and convince one-time donors to become monthly. Sometimes they will, but sometimes they never will because that's just not the intent of how they were giving. However, I think a recurring first donor, to your point about what you just mentioned, is they believe in your vision. They believe in completing and reaching the vision. I mean, I've been, I think the longest I've been a monthly donor now is coming is about five years. And like I have no, it's for anti-human trafficking efforts for that organization specifically. And I'm like, yeah, I mean, I'm not stopping until this is done. Right. Like I'm there to like reach the goal with you. I don't care who's in charge. Actually, that organization's gone through a whole merger and acquisition. And they're not the same. They got absorbed. I believe in them because of what they were doing. So I love that. What about let's say on the flip side, the board is so down to support monthly giving. They see all of the value, they see all the numbers, they see all the data. How can you help the board determine their role in the growth and the success of a recurring giving program?

Defining The Board’s Role

SPEAKER_00 13:43

First of all, I think they just need to realize it's important and talk about it and make it a priority. Make your staff realize this is something that's important to us. We believe it's something the organization should embrace. Because when it comes from the board, the staff has to embrace it, right? We believe this is the norm for us, that monthly giving is a norm. And then make sure it's implemented into the fundraising plan, right? This is a goal that we want to achieve to have a certain amount of monthly donors by a certain amount, or we want a certain amount of revenue to come from monthly giving. And then they need to model it themselves to make sure that they're giving, even you know, at the level that's comfortable for them. Everybody can't make$500, but even if it's$50 or$100 a month, or we have 100% monthly giving from our board, comes that goes a long way, right? Yes. And then I think you need to celebrate, right? You know, so when you present your dashboard and you're showing that there's an increase in monthly donors or increase in revenue or increase in the number of donors who are giving, celebrate. Praise the fundraising team, praise the CEO for those wins and acknowledge them to let them know this is important. We see you, we see you doing the work that's important to us and that we know is going to help us sustain this mission long time, right? And so I think the board sets the tone for what monthly giving could look like and be like at your organization.

Keeping Momentum Visible

SPEAKER_02 15:00

So good. So good. And just being supportive of the staff that wants to invest in the resources, the tools to be able to grow that program. Love that. What do you think they should do to keep it top of mind? Like the best way to communicate success, like to make it feel sticky. So maybe it is like board reports or dashboards, but so that it shows that this is like a long-term strategy of something we're trying to put together. Have you seen any good examples of that?

Common Mistakes And Better Models

SPEAKER_00 15:27

I think to show that's important. Again, if the staff is doing a good job at it and the board sees the numbers and they see the numbers are going up, I think giving them praise, recognizing them, maybe even making it public to the rest of the staff. Listen, we have increased that we're gonna have pizza in the conference room today, you know, like make it a thing. If you, you know, that might seem really small and minor, but if the board makes it a big deal, it'll become a big deal. And then also recognize I'm a big person who believes in recognition and honoring those who are doing good work. So I think honoring the CEO, honoring the director of development, but also putting that donor, if he or she agrees, out on Front Street, the one who's giving, you know, put them in the newsletter. We want to celebrate, you know, Tim Jones. He's been a donor for 15 years, giving, you know,$50 a month. You know, he is our donor of the quarter or something, right? Like putting it in your newsletter, putting it on social media, letting everyone know that monthly donations are really appreciated by our organization. The board sees it, the staff sees it, and now we're letting you, the world, see how we recognize those who continue to give us and support our mission month to month, year to year, even when everyone else turns their back on us.

SPEAKER_02 17:55

I love that. Yeah, celebrating is huge. You've worked with a lot of boards over the years. And I would, I guess, two sides of the coin to this. Are there some common mistakes you see with boards when it comes to monthly giving? And on the flip side, are there amazing examples of ones that you've seen done really well? And what's been the dynamic or difference between the two?

SPEAKER_00 18:20

I think the common mistake is that boards don't think monthly donors are a big deal because the amounts are typically small. They're usually$50,$75,$100 a month. So they don't see them as major contributors to the mission, right? Well, first of all, can we just go back? Boards often don't see individuals, right? Because they think of, they think of grants and they think of let's get a big grant from Wells Fargo or from the Ford Foundation, or, you know, the only time they might think about individuals when they're talking about events, when they're talking about the gala. And even that, as we mentioned earlier, could be tiring and tiresome and laborious and not as profitable as we hope.

SPEAKER_02 18:58

And not inclusive. Because galas normally are gonna have a much higher ticket price point. And if you really want to include all, and especially if you're trying to get a younger demographic, if you're trying like allowing somebody to donate for, I have I work with a nonprofit where her entry level is$8 a month. Oh, so sweet. And they have hundreds of people who give it that amount because that's what she's that's a meaningful dollar amount. That's where she's starting, and then from there they can increase. It's an attainable, she understands her audience. So, yes, to your point, I think that is so true. Like you have to value the individual because that's what makes things grow. That's like the ripple that you want to see.

Update The Donor Pyramid Mindset

SPEAKER_00 19:43

I think they're showing the old Tommy Donut pyramid, I think still exists, right? Where you know you have your baseline and then you have your annual, and then you have your event, and then you have your major, and then you have your capital and plan giving. That pyramid that's 150 years old, it still matters, right? And so showing them how if we do write at the bottom and treat those individuals who are at the bottom of not because they're at the bottom, but because they're at the bottom of the pyramid, and we continue to love on them and show them appreciation for what they do for us, that monthly donation of$50 10 years from now can turn into something major. The problem is a lot of times our leadership can't see 10 years from now because they're in the moment. I'm the CEO right now, I'm responsible for a goal right now, and so I have to make my goal right now. I can't see with the organization five 10 years, but we really need to invest in this group because this group could be our pipeline for those who go up that pyramid who will make larger donations. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 20:43

To like have a different shift happen for boards, what's your recommendations when staff is when they're looking to bring on boards? So, like the interview process. Oh, geez. How much time for that? Like, what questions would you ask around recurrent giving to gauge if they're gonna be like a good steward of supporting your someone's vision in this?

Recruiting And Onboarding For Fundraising

Steward Monthly Donors Like Majors

SPEAKER_00 21:10

Oh my goodness. This conversation about monthly giving is probably not given at the onboarding stage, but should it be? I think so. I mean, I did a board training this past weekend and I just told them, I just said to them, fundraising is not optional for board work. Like if you can't contribute to fundraising in some sort of way, you really shouldn't serve on a board. And I'm realizing and recognizing that everyone, because I know that there are several ways to contribute to fundraising. Some people are not, you know, they don't want to be responsible for asking, and that's okay. We don't have to have people who are solicitors or who are askers or who you can participate in fundraising in other ways, but it's not optional whether or not you as a board member are gonna participate in fundraising. That is part of your function, one of your major functions is assuring the long-time resources to sustain this organization. And that means you have to be involved in some way. So let's start there. We first want you to make your gift so you understand the importance that you gotta, you know, you gotta have some skin in the game. Yes. And then recognizing that just like you, there are other individuals who will give. Well, you know, and what I do is a roll and scroll exercise with them, and I say, take out your phone, just go to your contacts, and let's look at your contacts and tell me who, if you were to call them right now: a friend, a relative, a colleague, a church member, and just say, Listen, I am working for this great organization. It means a lot to me. Would you make a$50 donation today just because of the relationship that we have? Like, you don't even really even need to know who the organization is. Just because I've done that, right? Like, you know, my girlfriend, she says, you know, she she's doing a walk for cancer. Can you send me curly$50, right? They don't even really know, because of the relationship we have, I'm just asking you to make a$50 donation. And people will, I say, okay, you know, Tim, how many people do you have? Well, there's Larry and there's Curly and there's, you know, people who would just give because I asked them to give. So when you think about it like that, it's about relationships, right? And so we know that if we build relationships with these people who have said yes, they will feel about us the way you two feel about each other, right? And so our job as the fundraisers is to let these people who are monthly donors be cultivated and stewarded like they're million-dollar donors, right? And letting them know your monthly donation does this for us, and we don't have to panic. We have breathing room because you continue to support us. You know, we were able to buy new software when we needed it rather than having to budget it with next year to get it because we had this cash that was coming in every month that allowed us to just buy it because we needed it, as opposed to having it budget it for next year. And that's It's so so important to us, and thank you for your continued support and loyalty to us. I don't think we do that nearly enough. And that's what I tried to explain to board members. This is why this is important, and this is why we have to rec and why you have to be brought in on it so that staff will understand that it's a priority.

From Events To Recurring: A Real Shift

SPEAKER_02 24:03

Yes. Ugh. So good, Crystal. Okay. I want to end on like a very practical note. Sure. Has there been a real example where you've been working with a board and maybe they have been event heavy or major donor heavy, and they've shifted more into having priority in recurring giving? And what exactly were the changes that happened to facilitate that?

Cash Flow, Retention, And Planning Power

SPEAKER_00 24:35

Yeah, I've had some boards and nonprofits who have decided that they were going to scale back events because they realized, first of all, they didn't even have the manpower. When you're relying mostly on volunteers to plan events, that's just not a good sign. If you don't have the manpower to actually plan an event, that puts the event at risk, right? And so risk is something that the board is supposed to be really paying attention to, not putting the organization at risk and making them more vulnerable than they already are, right? To the outside forces that we have no control over, right? And so let's plan our activities around things that we know will have a solid return, as opposed to those things that are kind of murky and we're not 100% sure we're gonna put all this time and effort into it. And so I think that's really important. I have found organizations who have scaled back events. In fact, I'm actually on a board of an organization who used to have a major big gala every year at the Marriott, and we all wore the long dresses and ate the rubbery chicken. And they have decided that for them, focusing on individual giving is most important. I kind of need to get them really focused on monthly giving, but individual giving at least is a start. And scaling down an event so that it's a dinner, and we've had it, some big beautiful church here in Atlanta and Buckhead, I forget which one it was, but it was like their top floor room, which was still very nice. And it wasn't as elegant as a ballroom, but we decorated it. So scaling down to realizing that part of fundraising needs not to go into all this big time, long time planning and everything. And let's focus on something else. And so trying to get the board members to give monthly has been a priority. And I think that they have maybe a half of their board who's doing it. Some board members who are still not giving. We know that's always a problem. But I think particularly as it relates to events, there are some organizations that are recognizing that events may not be everybody's done it, doing it because that's what we've always done, right? And they think the only way to let the world know what they're doing. But I said focus on individuals. And if getting the message is the point, getting the message out is the point of the gale, let's figure out other ways throughout the year to get the message out about who the organization is in front of the people who will make those donations without them having to be in that room with the tie and tails eating the you know the dried potato.

Do Monthly Giving Right With Tools

Small Cuts, Big Impact Messaging

SPEAKER_02 26:49

Yeah, the dried potato is so good. I'm on a board as well. And our president, I had a switch to offer monthly giving or monthly installments were kind of like a membership instead of it always being annual and breaking it up. And he was like, This has been great for our cash flow. And I was like, Yeah, I know. And he's like, There's so many people choosing to give in this way over the annual. And I was like, I thought that might happen, right? And so I think to your point earlier that you had brought up about being able to buy software or whatever it is that you need, and you were talking about at the beginning of the year when we're not feeling as maybe like liquid cash. I think that's normal, and we're in that moment right now, like we are in still the new year, the first two months of the year. And that's usually because at the end of the year, there's still this huge emphasis on one-time gifts. Yep. And it would be so different. I had Steven, local, I don't know if you too CFO, he came on and talked about the massive difference he sees with the boards and with the staff that choose to invest and have like 40% of their giving is monthly. And he's like, how much that changes the discussions about planning and the future because they can. They actually can, because they know because their retention rates are usually like 85, 90, 95% on monthly giving that we can actually have these conversations. They can decide to invest in these things. If 40% of year-end giving was recurring and you knew right on January 1, you were gonna kick off with a solid chunk of that revenue continuing to come in, how different would that feel?

Culture Of Predictability And Abundance

SPEAKER_00 28:42

Yeah. And I think having the software, because I remember having the software that where the donations just can just come out automatically. I remember working for an organization where as a director of development, every month on the 15th, I actually had to go in and manually put in credit cards. No, I promise you. And then of course the credit card would expire, right? And the person didn't know it, and so now I have to call them and let's know the credit card is expired. And sometimes sometimes I can't, and then they can't find a new credit card. I mean, so making sure that if you're gonna do monthly giving, do it right, right? And make it so that it's not cumbersome on your staff. And then if you are going to do it, make this demographic a targeted customer where they are getting their own stewardship and own messaging and own thank yous, because this is an important group that you want to continue to grow. And then that whole having a cast, and you know, what I think about my board members is you know, one more lipstick from Target. Do we need it? No. One more cup of coffee, ten dollar cup of coffee from Starbucks. Do we need it? No. Take that$10, all the frivolous spending that we do. We we make, you know, lipsticks, nail polish, all the stuff. Oh, we do all the time. Four shades of red. I don't need four shades of red lipstick. So take that$10 or$15 that I would spend going to the store and buying a lipstick and putting it in my monthly donation pot so that I can send that money directly to, because of this$15, I don't need another red lipstick, but a kid is gonna eat a meal today, right? And so if you break it down to them like that, I think people could start to really see it. And so saying, you know what, you're right. I don't need four shades of lipstick. I'm gonna use the shade I've been using, and I'm gonna take this$15 and give it to this homeless shelter so they can feed a kid today. And it's so good. People can start to see or feel it. And so make it real.

SPEAKER_02 30:24

Make it real. My whole, my whole mission this year is making predictability is power. Predictability is power. It can take if you have predictability in your funds and can feel like you have some sustainable consistency to revenue, what can that do to organizations who traditionally would feel I don't want to say like less than, but not supported. It gives you confidence, it gives you a different playing field when you're sitting in that place of having solid funds.

SPEAKER_00 31:01

If an organization, like you said, where they prioritize monthly giving, where the board models it and say, we have 100%. We're increasing staff who said, you know, I'm willing to give staff giving. I'm gonna do staff giving. Our volunteers who we're always afraid to ask because, you know, they're serving dinner and they're painting the yard and they're reading to the kids. We're always scared to ask them for money because we think they don't have it, right? Or we don't we don't want to impose. They're already serving dinner. We don't want to ask them, you know, and so someone might say, Well, I don't have 5,000.

Connect With Crystal And Closing

SPEAKER_02 31:29

We have two great sessions at the Monthly Giving Summit about organizations that have asked volunteers to be monthly donors and it's done amazing.

SPEAKER_00 31:36

Yeah, I mean, so you might say as a volunteer, listen, I volunteer because I don't have a lot of money, I don't have$5,000 to give you. Oh my goodness, did you think$5,000 was the threshold for giving? Do you know that you can make a$25 donation a month? Oh, nope,$25 a month. Yeah, I have that. So they will continue to serve dinner and give you the$25 a month. But if you don't ask them to educate them and let them know that that's okay, they won't know. So in a in an environment where this is prioritized as something that is important, if the board models it, the staff models it, the volunteers model, like you said, the extra cash is going to be amazing. Overflow. Abundant. Overflow.

SPEAKER_02 32:13

Overflow and abundance. That's what I'm putting into 2026. Overflow and abundance, Crystal. Let's go. Let's do it. Let's do it. Crystal, thank you so much for being here. How can listeners connect with you? How can they learn more about the work that you're doing?

SPEAKER_00 32:32

Absolutely, I love it. I love it. Well, there's a couple of things, and as you know, I launched my own podcast last year. It's called The Board Shakeup, and you can listen to it on Spotify or all places where podcasts are are listened to. My website is theboardpro.com. And you can always reach me on LinkedIn at Crystal Cherry. So, yeah, there's lots of ways that individuals can get in touch with me.

SPEAKER_02 32:53

Beautiful. Amazing. Thank you, Crystal, so much for being here.

SPEAKER_00 32:57

Thank you, Dana, for having me for the work that you do.

unknown 33:00

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 33:01

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