“What should people look for
in a charity to know that “donations are going
to a good cause?” – Let’s go very utilitarian
here because I got a hard stop. – Go to CharityNavigator.org. – This I love. Go ahead.
CharityNavigator.org. – You can check out a charity,
however overhead is I would go to Charity Navigator and then I
would read Dan Pallotta’s work. – And Dan’s main book?
– Is “Uncharitable.” So there’s two things, you get
the numbers of how a charity spends it’s money– – And you can create more
cynicism by reading the book. – You get a different view
reading the book saying that overhead is not bad and
that we made overhead back. We have overhead
110 people cover it. – Got it. – Then looking at how
much of your money what we push for
is transparency. I’m happy to give to a charity
where $.25 of my dollar might go to a smart team
running good programs. I don’t want 50% of my dollar. I don’t want my
90% of my dollar. – Let me ask you this.
– But I want to know. – Let’s take this tact
since it’s slippery slope. You know me
very, very well. If I said I’m the marketing
genius of a generation but I need the other 17, I need DRock and he’s fancy now he
makes movies. I need $.50 but I’m going to
kill it you think you can wrap your head around that? In theory you could, right? – Dan Pallotta would
and that is one camp that says 50% is fine. – You’re so close to it but that
feels so aggressive but at some level I guess the energy of it
could be, the punch line is if you can feel
that the overhead actually justifies
the mission at hand– – But that’s it. So the transparency is
what we are pushing for. So you might be willing to
write $100,000 check and have 50 grand go.
– Yes. – The problem is some many people
don’t know how money’s handled. – That’s right. – But I may not be or maybe
you and I are both willing. Maybe India you’re
like $.50 is too much. That’s the only thing that
we have been pushing for. I’m not telling people
to adopt the 100% model. It works for us–
– Because you’re able– – the problem I was
trying to solve. – Well members that
have covered your raise. – That’s right. And people gived
for the first time. I hear it all the time this is the first charitable gift
I’ve ever made my life. I just heard it last
week someone on Twitter. Made the first charitable gift
of my life, A, that’s a little sad but that’s the kind of
person I want who doesn’t trust. – I would argue it’s not sad. I think back to that 42%. I was a grown man with a lot of
thoughts and a very decent dude when we sat, forget about Omaha,
downstairs, me, you and Sacca at that pool place and you said
that statement and it was right. – Now you have
schools in your name. And seriously, you’ve been
able to impact the world. – And not only that to be honest
with you, I’ve been able to impact other
things, not just this. Sit on boards and
do other things. It changed the way
that I thought about it. In the same way that it is
my hope and dream that a 28-year-old hustler right now
who’s made a couple bucks doing Snapchat filters ’cause he got
my advice 40 episodes ago to do that says you know what I’m good
at donate $28 right now and give away my 29th birthday.
Or whatever. And by the way I don’t judge,
you do what you want to do. You want to be 90 and
never give a dollar. Everybody does what they do.
– You’re missing out. You can really have, it’s
fun. It’s a blessing to give. We were taught this growing up. You get to live vicariously
through all of the good, your time and
your money is doing. It doesn’t need to
be Charity: Water. – I get it. – It’s a blast. – It’s a blast. – [Voiceover] Melissa asks,
“I do work in Uganda.

First, I want to thank you for
your overnight sensation video. All your stuff is great but the
overnight sensation video when I get discouraged I watch
it and it kicks my ass. Thank you. The nonprofit sector is broken.
Money controls everything. And for the nonprofit sector to
change and there hasn’t been a unique idea, a brilliant idea,
a disruptive idea in so, so long. It needs to change. And one of the examples that I
like to use his coffee kiosks. Here’s a coffee
kiosk at YouTube. At Google they’re
at every 150 feet. They’re common at most startups. Free yogurt, free milk
and free Red Bull and all kinds of free stuff. Here’s our coffee kiosk. I’m CMO of a large
nonprofit upstate New York. It’s not that we don’t care any
less about our employees, it’s there’s no funding. There’s no funding
for even free coffee. So the problem is the top
and how do we change that? How do we get funders to
have a startup mentality? If you look at the startup world
Twitter, Uber, Airbnb these are ideas that might be considered
radical different disruptive but somebody funded them and
they funded free coffee along with it. We are not gonna see change in
the non-profit sector until the funding streams change that
empower us to do the work. How can those of us in the
nonprofit sector that care how can we explain that? How can we affect change? How can this top-down change
come into the nonprofit sector? – Want me to take a
shot at this one? The answer to that is
you got to be blunt. You’ve got to go out
and finds some angels. Some people that you have reason
to believe are interested in your non-for-profit and have
some funds and have some ability may be to have a store, maybe to
have to money or something and you have to get them and you
have to be frank with them and do just what you’re saying. We’re trying to do all the
things we got all these people volunteering but we need
some startup money here. We need some angel to help us
get through this until we can have a larger thing. If you beat around the bush with
people they’ll say well I’ll give you small gift. No, no I really need
your help. Big help. – I got something
to add on this. You mentioned Uber,
Airbnb and Twitter. These are the top
.01% of startups. I know many startups this
startup, my company, started in the conference room of another
company and I guess we stole their free coffee and things of
that nature but the interesting thing is Robin Hood and
many other organizations have a lot of money. They have a lot of money. My biggest problem is there’s
a lot of NGOs that I know that have a lot of money and are
wasting it or not deploying enough of percentage against the
right thing so I think that we need to be a little
bit careful here. There’s thousands of startups
that don’t have free coffee. You’re also talking
about people being incentivized by capitalism. The reason people write checks
to Google and Uber and Airbnb is ’cause they want
to make money back. And I think you need to play
the reverse game in NGO which is much like the narrative of
your life and I’ve always known, since I was a young man
because I always believed I’d be successful. That the things I would capture
my attention though I became very involved in Charity: Water
and very involved in Pencils of Promise and through
Matt Higgins have been involved with you guys and done stuff
here for Vayner for you guys as well with Autism Speaks. – Matt Higgins is on our board. – I’m very aware. I know with all that being said
that the things that get the most of my attention will be
the things that affect me. Now I can finally say it
because very recently my brother announced, my partner in this
company, VaynerMedia, that he’s going to be leaving in a month
’cause he has Crohn’s disease. The pressure of it all is the
one thing he just want to be proactive luckily
everything’s okay. He’s just projecting
and being smart. That is something that’s pulling
my heart the same with my money investing in a company pulls at
my wallet, Crohn’s is going to pull in my heart
because it affects me. You need to go out and find the
things that you’re solving for, who are the 500, 5,000
wealthiest, that’s the truth, people that are affected
by the issue because your conversion rate is
gonna be better. I don’t accept and I love you
and thank you for watching the show but I do not accept this
notion that you have to compare yourself to the five or six
biggest Internet companies in the world where I can take this
camera with Staphon right now and walk down the street and
show you real shitty offices from startups that didn’t get
that funding and are grinding and guess what Google, and I
was at Twitter, I was at Twitter when there was 11
people at that office. It looked like crap. After they won it look nicer. Google tried to sell their
company for a couple hundred thousand dollars to Yahoo. Their office wasn’t
amazing at the time. We need to be careful of how we
contextualize ourselves as well. India.

Please don’t stop producing
it I watch every episode. Question from the New
World Symphony of Miami Beach. Our stability really depends on
having a group of core donors to give continuously year
after year after year. Their generosity is
essential to our sustainability. We know how to do this with the
old-fashioned ways using snail mail and email but how does
one do this with social media? Thanks in advance
for your answer. Bye now. – Now is he
dealing with Vets here? What– – [India] He works for
a symphony orchestra. – Symphony orchestra.
– Oh a symphony orchestra. – Do like the kind of music? – I do but that’s always a
tough one to raise money with. – It’s more a nice to have
versus the kind of heavy stuff that we’ve been talking about in
the beginning or even the Vets. Okay so a couple things– – That’s a big place. There’s a lot of music
down there this should be able to do that. – The interesting part of
this question that I find fascinating, he’s also very
good looking man man, India, which makes a ton of sense.
(India laughs) VaynerMedia my company and
I’ll be curious to hear in your company days back to business
always dictating my non-profit, my family life,
the structure, the thesis. When I started this client
service business the thought of letting a client be too big of a
percentage of my overall revenue I was visceral to. I even turned out some
opportunities because I didn’t want to open Pandora’s box. I would tell you the thing that
scares me there is having any organization that relies on, and
you’ve seen this a lot at the levels you’ve played at, 1 to 3
people being so passionate that they’re driving so much of it
and then something could change. A life event could change where
something else starts and were sitting here in a
real-life example. – I have that problem myself
with our Autism Speaks because Suzanne and I have raised so
much of the money and we have been so much of the
infrastructure that we provided in everything that
pulling back is– – There’s a guilt.
– I can see there’s a gap there. – Yeah and there’s an emotional
guilt there for you, right? – Yeah, we built this and
now these guys have to run it. They’re saying we don’t
have you so, you know. – I think the answer this is
funny to have you on the show, your daughter’s part
of this ecosystem. I think you need
to create content. Whatever is compelling in mail
form that got people to say I want to call and have a coffee
and find out more about this, you need to create the videos
and pictures that can do that in a social media environment but
here’s some good news you can target people of a certain
wealth and demo and location on Facebook that can be very
efficient and is better data than historic snail
mail data and create that. There’s that lovely gal that I
know thinks or two about this. I don’t want you hogging up any
more time because you can chat to your lovely daughter
about this she knows the gig. So let’s move on India.

for Pencils of Promise and
documenting my daily videos on YouTube, what other
jabs could I use so that I’m not just right hooking for donations? – Hey Bren, as a proud board
member of Pencils of Promise, I want to thank you personally
for your adventures. You know, the jab, content
wise, obviously even this little question had a great
content, beautiful views, India was really taken aback. And so, let’s just show
India being taken aback— – Wow. – And so, that was amazing, and so– The jab that I’m looking
for from you, you know, you didn’t take this biking
adventure for kicks and giggles, obviously the charity component is in you, but it’s not the only thing,
people always do things that are selfish to them at some level, so you want to create
video content and document it. Maybe you’re a documentary
thing, you know, you’re using this great thing
you’re doing as a global jab to maybe bring you awareness
to an opportunity in the future. I want you to take a step back
because I think you’re gonna do all the jabbing right,
right put out good content on Instagram, and SnapChat,
and Facebook and different native, you know, The Book,
“Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook” respect the platforms,
and put out good content. The one thing that I think
is missing from a lot of people’s repitouires when
they’re in this world, is the listening, the bionic ears
of what Twitter search is. If I were you, the other jab,
you can do at scale, is to go into Twitter search, and
search people who are talking about Pencils of Promise
and then jumping into their conversation, and
not jumping in and saying cool that you raised money,
like “Oh, I raised $48 for “Pencils of Promise in my school
book fair, fourth grader.” Tweets, right, or the
mom of the fourth grader. You don’t jump in and say
cool, “I’m doing this, “watch this.” That’s too much of right hook. You jab within the listening, oh I like that. You jab within the
listening, and so what you do is you jump in there and
say, “That is phenomenal.” And just by you interacting
with that person, they’re gonna maybe look
in your profile and then they’ll see your latest 3
or 4 Tweets were around this content, and then you’ve
really double jabbed into the funnel of that donation, right, you jabbed within the
listening. You jabbed with the content, that
became the gateway to the donation, or whatever
you’re trying to achieve the awareness, so a shit load more
Twitter searching, I think would be a tremendous opportunity.

– [Voiceover] Sam asks,
“What differences do you see between fundraising and sales? Any? Do all for-profit rules apply
in a non-profit setting?” – Sam, I love this question, because the ironic thing is I think the answer is they do map. I do think that if I ever get into, you know, I sit on some NGO boards, but if I ever get into a chapter of my life where that becomes the driving force, I promise you my execution in that
world will look exactly the same as everything I’m doing here. I do think the rules apply. I actually think there’s a nuance that I want to address which
is that the rules do apply, which means an absolute
respect to the customer. I believe that many people that operate in the NGO world have the audacity to think there’s an
obligation from the wealthy or people they know to actually support, and that they come across arrogant I would say when they’re
going in for the ask, and they’re less tactful. It’s all right hook city in
NGO world, non-profit world, and then when somebody
doesn’t do something they look down on them,
even though the way they approach them was completely unacceptable in my opinion. I do think the rules apply. I think you have to bring a value prop. I think way too many NGOs, non-profits mail it in. They’re not thinking
about that other person’s life, that person that’s
donating life as a whole. They’re just looking for, you know, their tax return, and trying to extract dollars, and life is about value exchange. Even when you’re doing good things, and that is a huge miss
for so many in this space. – [Voiceover] Ross asks, “Hey Gary,

– [Voiceover] James asks, “What are your thoughts on
podcasters and YouTubers “building a business
model around donations?” – James, great question. You know, it’s a trend
we’ve seen for a long time. I saw bloggers do this back in 2003 using PayPal as a tip jar. Right, there was a, you know, this has been a thing that’s
been around for while. I think though, as the
evolution of the Internet is happening, much like the
reasurgence of podcasts, I see this model in a
world of post-Kickstarter, becoming more of a trend. I definitely see it as something
that I won’t do for myself because I’m just using my
content as a global jab, but I could see myself that if
it was the only thing I did, if I was only this, right? If I was only the character that I am when I put on the podcast
and the show, meaning, when I say character, I
want to define that for you. Meaning, this is what I
do for a living, right? I put out my marketing thoughts. Like, I’ve had my career. I don’t wanna be a practitioner anymore, I don’t wanna run this company. And I just wanna write books,
speak, and put out the show, I would probably go
with that kind of model because I need a sense of
and a source of income, and more importantly, you start realizing, and this is a great piece
of advice for all of you, no matter what you do,
sell cheese, put out shows. Whatever you do, and a lot of you do a lot of different things,
real estate, you know. That 5-10% that most
give a crap about you, boy! The VaynerNation, boy! That stuff really matters,
and a lot of times you can rely on them because
they’re getting value. I have been blown away, humbled even, by the amount of people who have commented over the last seven to 10
episodes saying things like, “Man, I’ve come to realize
I’m really into this show.” Or, “This is my best part of my day.” Or, “This is when I get
motivated,” like, you know, it starts becoming valuable. And then I can see the kind of, it’s a hedge against
I’m charging for this. It’s kind of like a guilt move, but it’s also like a support me move. You know I think it’s a
very viable kind of attack. And if you’re considering it, or anybody here is considering it, you know, if you have
enough mass of loyaltists, you can actually make it valuable. You know, if you only have seven people that give a crap about you
and they give you $10 a month, you’ve got 70 bucks a month. Not gonna necessarily crush it that way, but if you’ve got a real big audience and you can get that
5 -10% to really support, there’s some dollars behind it. – Hey, Hunter Walk from Homebrew.