Jason Silvert: Hello, everybody. Thanks for tuning in to another episode of the Your Grey Matters podcast. I’m Jason here with my dad, Neil. Hello.

Neil Silvert: Hi, everybody. Welcome back.

Jason Silvert: So we’ve got a unique episode for you today. It’s just Neil and I talking about fundraising. That’s gonna be the topic of the day, the importance of fundraising.

But before we get to that, we did want to mention it’s Seniors Day. Shout out Seniors Day, June 1st, as of when we’re recording this, is Seniors Day. So, really, really interesting. It’s something that should matter to you if you’re elderly or in need. Intend to be one day. So

Neil Silvert: and in fact it goes on for the whole month.

It was actually an act in the Ontario legislature to actually appoint June as senior’s. Month,

Jason Silvert: right month. I said day, but senior’s month. So it’s okay. A month,

Neil Silvert: a day, a day’s, a part of a month as far.

Jason Silvert: Oh, that’s awesome. So you also wanted to talk about the patch from last week’s episode.

Neil Silvert: Yeah. Hey, everybody.

Serious note. If you have or have not seen last week’s podcast, episode 50, Wellness in the Form of a Patch, go and watch it. Even if you’ve seen it before, go and watch it. I’m now wearing one. This patch is miraculous. What do we do at Your Grey Matters? We find miracles and solutions that you’re probably not aware of.

that are making a difference. We want you to be aware of them. This patch is dynamite. Watch the podcast for your own health.

Jason Silvert: Absolutely. We’ll have a link to that podcast at the end of this video. So stay tuned till the end. But fundraising we’re going to talk about today. I know you’ve been doing fundraising, still do fundraising, have always done fundraising to a certain extent.

What about fundraising Attracted you, how did you get into it? So

Neil Silvert: before anybody gets scared, we’re not going to ask for any money today. Although you can always donate to our show. But the truth of the matter is, folks, Jason is right. I’ve been a fundraiser professionally since the early 80s. I took a course to do it.

Prior to that, all through my teens, even as a young kid. I was volunteering. I love volunteering. I love volunteering. The best thing about working as a paid professional, I chose fundraising, is simply that you get to work with thousands of volunteers. And that is cool, as well as making a difference. And what I’d like to talk about today, Jason, you can ask me anything, is how do you make a difference by becoming a fundraiser, either paid or as a volunteer?

It could even be a side gig.

Jason Silvert: Wow, a side gig. Yeah, that’s, that’s interesting. Yep. I’d like to come back to that, but I remember that I did some fundraising as a kid as well. There was always, I think of the volunteer kind, I don’t think I was paid for it, but there was always some program or, or opportunity or walkathon that I could raise money for.

So, yeah, I have fond memories of that for sure. So you mentioned. How does that work?

Neil Silvert: Well, just to make everybody comfortable with fundraising, let’s be clear and I’ll come to the side gig, Jason. You’ve been fundraising from the moment you became aware of yourself. Because you started thinking about, at some point, I know my grandkids about the age of four, started thinking about having their own money.

So the minute you start thinking about having your own money, you’re talking about being a fundraiser. Absolutely. One way or the other. Through work. As a volunteer, learning principles, like going out and mowing someone’s lawn and getting paid for it as a kid. You’ve always been a fundraiser. This podcast is more about why it can be so joyful.

Why it can really make a difference. And yes, as a side gig, we’ll sort of cut to the end. There’s a lot of seniors, and there’s, I call them elders, and there’s a lot of people who like to be elders, who are out looking for work, and they don’t know what to do. Most companies right now are looking for volunteer fundraisers, and Jason, we can talk about why and what you get out of that, and we should today, please.

But afare paying to have people make phone calls. Raise dollars, sometimes it’s an entry position, might be minimum wage, sometimes it’s commission, but once you learn that, folks, Fundraisers can make six figures a year, too. So it depends where you want to go, but the side gig is because so many people are looking for work.

Or if they have work or looking for extra work, or in my case of being semi retired, many people are retired, they’d like to do something, but they’d also like to have some extra coin, so you can find part time fundraising jobs as a side gig, and it makes a difference.

Jason Silvert: Well, yeah, makes a difference. It helps you make some coin.

It helps you help other people and get some experience.

Neil Silvert: Yes, and the experience. Is what is so incredible in fundraising about a year ago. I’m not sure when in our 1st season. Welcome to season 2.

Jason Silvert: Yes.

Neil Silvert: The truth of the matter is we did a thing on volunteering. There’s a picture of Linda and I with Henry Winkler, the phones and, and some other people.

And the point of that was when you go into volunteering. Or you get paid professionally as a fundraiser, guess what? You never know who you’re going to meet. The networking alone is amazing. Amazing.

Jason Silvert: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. That makes a lot of sense. So that’s another added element. Sometimes you can run into great people.

What else can you get out of it? What did you get out of it?

Neil Silvert: So, so let me, let me tell you. When I went into fundraising, I was nervous about it, and I think many of us are uncomfortable, and they’re nervous, and I’m not a salesperson, I don’t know what to do. Sometimes it’s just I don’t know what to do, and therefore you’re not comfortable with it.

Or you actually think that it’s a bad thing to ask people for money. You’re not asking for yourself. You’re asking for something that you are committed to. And I’d like to give you an example. This is part of the answer to your question, Jason. When I first got into fundraising, I was involved in a rescue operation.

We were raising money to move some desperately endangered people, hundreds of thousands of people out of one dangerous country into another one and settling them and saving them. Oh, and we did the work and we rescued a lot of people. This was 40 years ago. And, you know, we did my job. I got paid and we saved people and that was a great feeling, but I never really knew the end result until just before COVID.

I was in Kitchener, Ontario. We were looking at buying a car. We met a lovely young salesman and he was such a nice kid. We never did buy the car, but I invited him out for a coffee. We’re sitting having coffee and I told him the story that I just told you. That I was part of a rescue operation. He got up.

He came around the table, this 20 year old kid put his arms around me and gave me a kiss. Oh, and he said, my grandparents were rescued in that operation. I was born many years later in our new country. And because of what you did, it’s probably why I am alive. Ladies and gentlemen, the best part of fundraising is you may never see the results.

Thank you very much. But you’re never going to do anything wrong by helping your favorite cause raise the money to do what they have to do. Cancer research, social welfare, it doesn’t matter. The personal fulfillment is right there when you do it. But in the future, when you see bigger results and you go back and you go, I was a part of that.

There is no greater feeling.

Jason Silvert: Yeah. No greater feeling. Talk about meeting anyone. How about that experience, right? Something you would never expect. And I didn’t even buy the

Neil Silvert: car from him and he still gave me a kiss.

Jason Silvert: There you go.

Neil Silvert: But, but that young man claims that he’s alive. I don’t know if I was directly involved in his family’s rescue, but it was part of great operation, you know, skills development.

Listen, I don’t care if you’re an elder or you’re planning on being one someday. We’re always looking to improve our skills. Fundraising is a business. You hear the word campaign. Yeah, that’s what they call them. Fundraising campaigns. You know what, everybody, another word for campaign is war. You’re trained to be in a war to raise money because there’s a lot of competition.

Jason Silvert: And it’s probably tougher now than ever.

Neil Silvert: Oh, yeah, but if you are skilled in fundraising and fundraising campaigns, people are going to come looking for you. Volunteer full time professional side gig. It’s great skills development. I became a speaker on stage, probably because of fundraising, even though I didn’t want to be on stage.

Now, I don’t want to get off of it.

Jason Silvert: So you also said not that. This person who, who you helped and, and got a kiss from isn’t enough, but have you met any cool people, any celebrities, anyone I might’ve heard of? You know, we,

Neil Silvert: we, I say we, cause Linda volunteers and also I’m including all of my colleagues professionally and as volunteers.

We continue to meet amazing people. Allow me to tell you a couple of stories and ladies and gentlemen, when you’re a volunteer or a professional in fundraising or volunteering. You never know who you’re going to meet. The networking is amazing. Let me give you a couple of funny stories. When Prime Minister Mulroney was the Prime Minister.

I wrote to him. I was chairing as a professional. I was staffing. I had a chairman. I’ll talk about him. We were raising money in the city of Winnipeg. So I wrote a letter to Prime Minister Mulroney asking him if he would please come to Winnipeg and be his speaker. I got a handwritten note from Mila, his wife.

And it went like this. I’ll never forget. Hi, Neil! I never met her, the Prime Minister. Hi, Neil! Thanks for the cool invitation. Brian’s busy that night. Let’s talk about another date. And on and on and on. And I’m still trying to find that letter because I can’t find it. On his letterhead. But, my chairman that year was the late, great Izzy Osper.

For those of you who don’t know, and I’m mentioning names, I don’t mind. Izzy Osprey started Global TV. He was one of Canada’s great political and business leaders. Without a long story, I will tell you that it was Izzy Osprey and my growing relationship with him, which was amazing, that I would be able to do that.

And all the volunteers that worked with him, we all learned from his business document, his genius, his connections, and he was actually the man who convinced me to become an entrepreneur many years before I did. And so you never, no. Just a couple years ago we were at a charitable function where we were involved as volunteers and we raised some money for this function.

Our guest speaker was Henry Winkler.

Jason Silvert: Henry the awesome, and

Neil Silvert: I’ll tell you that. Cool. We’ve met Andrea Martin. We’ve talked to all kinds of politicians. We’ve hung out with some of the great medical minds. in this world. Ladies and gentlemen, you don’t know who you’re going to meet, but it never is bad, and it’s just because you’re giving your time, or if you’re doing it professionally, you’re giving your time, and you’re worth being paid for your time.

Jason Silvert: Absolutely. Absolutely. And you’re not just meeting celebrities, of course. You must meet all kinds of people that probably provide some networking opportunities.

Neil Silvert: Yes, and that’s the point. I’ve worked with some great boards. And if any of my board members on the charity I’m with now or past are watching this, I mean you.

Everyday, incredibly wonderful everyday people. Who give their time as volunteers or as professionals to get a campaign finished, to get the money needed so that the volunteer organization can get it done. But their lifelong relationships, people I met in 1983 when I first started as a paid professional, are still best friends of mine to this day all over the country.

It’s an amazing thing.

Jason Silvert: That’s, that’s really remarkable. Yeah, it’s starting, the evidence is starting to pile up that fundraising may be something worth doing. And of course it’s worth doing, you know, we’ve talked about some of the experience that you can gain, some of the people that you can meet, but you can also improve your own life.

You can make a difference in other people’s lives. You know, so you must get a great sense of, you know, of joy or happiness or contentment once you’ve done a good job fundraising or you’ve met your targets.

Neil Silvert: Well here let’s, let’s tell the truth. Nobody volunteers unless they’re getting something out of it.

Jason Silvert: Right.

Neil Silvert: There’s a million other places people can be.

Jason Silvert: Yeah.

Neil Silvert: And professionally you want the paycheck and you want to believe in the cause but you also have to have joy in your life and hopefully you are too. But I can tell you that there is an enhanced well being. Being joyful there. There’s studies that prove it.

When you’re happy, your health is better, and if you get a kick outta being a volunteer or a paid professional fundra for fundraising or any other job in, in volunteering charitable work, I can tell you it’s good for you. And let’s go back to those people I met even in the early eighties. Most of us remain close friends to this day.

We’ve worked in other charities, business deals, outside of fundraising. Let’s be clear, networking. I make money with a lot of my volunteer friends. You don’t know where it’s going to go, but you are going to be better for it. I’m afraid to fundraise. I was afraid to drive until I learned. But you learn.

Fundraising, you get to learn how to fundraise by some of the best fundraisers in the world. Some of them are multi millionaires who want to share that experience too.

Jason Silvert: Yeah, wow, that’s, that’s wonderful. So you get great experience, you make a difference in your life, you make a difference in other people’s lives, probably get some experience at some point, I’d imagine like anything, once you’ve done it a few times, you can take on a higher priority, or, or more.

powerful roles, or at least roles with more leadership opportunities.

Neil Silvert: Sure. I, I started as a scared kid in the charity that I’m involved in now. Not kid, younger man. I didn’t really want to get involved, but our best friends, Linda’s, my best friends were being honored. That was back in 2009. We got involved in their fundraising dinner for great causes 2 or 3 years later, I ended up as the volunteer president and that was a very different role and a very important role.

That that has been beneficial in every single way to this day and and. I, I can’t think of anything better because it’s like a closed circle of great stuff for you. As the volunteer, the paid professional. And the thousands of people’s lives. Who you touch, I just want to say one other thing, Jason, if I can, the one kind of fundraising I never did till recently is political fundraising.

I’m helping a specific member of parliament raise money both as a volunteer. And someone else wants to hire me for that. I’m not sure what to do with that. But the reason I bring it up is because my interest right now, I have no discussion here about which party or which method or politics, I believe.

What I care about is I want to have an impact on my country in my way. And mine is to help somebody fundraise. Of course, I go to the people whose party I believe in. But the true and what they stand for, it doesn’t matter, folks, besides voting. which you must do. The truth of the matter is you can start now and get out there.

It doesn’t have to be fundraising and work for the party that you believe in, because all of the other stuff that we just talked about, all the positives and the valuables of it, is the same when you have political contacts.

Jason Silvert: Absolutely. Well, I guess my only remaining question is if somebody does decide they want to get into fundraising, certainly, but even maybe just volunteering, what’s the next step they should take or the first step they should take?

Neil Silvert: The first step you should take is think of a charity that you really care about. Perhaps it’s a charity or a cause, could be a political cause, something that you care about. Call them up. Call them up or email them and say, I am a totally unknowledgeable but very willing volunteer, unless, of course, you have knowledge and you have experience.

Get a hold of that which you care about. If you want to do it professionally, what you can do is call up your favorite charity or political party and say, I would like to take a job as a fundraiser. I’m willing to learn. Do you have any? But actually, if you go online to any of the employment places and you actually put in Professional fundraising, put in your area, your geographical area.

Jason Silvert: Yeah,

Neil Silvert: they’re usually part time and full time jobs that will come up and you can apply. And even if you don’t get the job. Let me tell you something, it’s worth applying. The other thing I’d like to invite people to do, Jason, if it’s okay is write to us, yourgreymatterspod at gmail. com. I’m happy to help anybody.

Jason Silvert: Absolutely. That’s awesome. Yeah, yeah. Any final thoughts?

Neil Silvert: Yeah, if it feels good, do it. And don’t let anybody, meaning yourself, tell you that you can’t do it. You’ve been fundraising from the moment that you wanted some money yourself. But the truth is, it’s just a skill, but it’s a valuable skill because if you can raise money for one campaign, You can raise it for any, and you can turn that into a well paid position, if that’s what you’re looking for.

Jason Silvert: Very good. So something to consider. Something else to consider is hitting that like button right below this video and leaving a comment. That would be very helpful for us. Share it with a friend. And we will see you back here next week with another episode of the Your Grey Matters podcast.

Neil Silvert: Thanks for coming on today, everybody.

Jason, thanks for a great interview.

Jason Silvert: Yeah, it was fun. Go volunteer somewhere. Go fundraise.

Neil Silvert: Absolutely. You too.