Ducks Unlimited Podcast

VO: 00:00

You're tuned in to the Ducks Unlimited Podcast. Conserving wetlands, restoring habitat, and working to fill the skies with waterfowl today, tomorrow, and forever. From field tested hunting insights to the biggest conservation wins across North America, This is your front row seat to wetlands conservation in action. The DU Podcast is proudly sponsored by Bird Dog Whiskey and Cocktails. Whether you're wrapping up a hunt with your best friend or kicking back with your crew, Bird Dog brings award winning flavor to every moment.

VO: 00:31

Enjoy responsibly.

Jimbo Robinson: 00:39

Welcome back to another episode of the Ducks Unlimited Podcast live at DUX twenty twenty six. We are in the mobile duck den, and this has been a vision for a long time. And this is my first recording in here, so it's gonna be awesome.

Zach Fraiser: 00:54

Makes you

Jimbo Robinson: 00:54

feel any better. That is awesome. So why don't you introduce yourself a little bit, kinda what you do, and and we'll get going. Yes.

Zach Fraiser: 01:01

My name is Zach Fraser. We're here with Elev8. DU Roundup is what our our people are gonna hear and recognize with us. What we do is we provide a Ducks Unlimited specifically with a way to to round up and support, with the mission here at DU. Right?

Zach Fraiser: 01:15

We're trying to take you everybody's, you know, shopped at at you know, when you go to Walmart or you go to any of the stores you go to at the point of sale, you're like, hey, man. You know, round up and give the the Walmart Foundation. All these people do great work. But, you know, the contingent of people who love and care for this organization, what we wanna accomplish in conservation, wanna be able to give every time. So what our platform allows us to do through DU Roundup is that every time you swipe your card, it's gonna automatically round it up and give it back to DU.

Zach Fraiser: 01:41

That's awesome. We're here doing this weekend.

Jimbo Robinson: 01:43

Heck yeah. Well, we're gonna dive deep into that here in just a little bit. But when I get to host, I love to do something fun. Right? Talk to me.

Jimbo Robinson: 01:50

It's called the flock shot.

Zach Fraiser: 01:51

Okay.

Jimbo Robinson: 01:51

Spray and pray. Quick questions.

Zach Fraiser: 01:54

Let's shoot. Quick answers. Ready? I'm easy.

VO: 01:56

The flock shot.

Jimbo Robinson: 01:59

Coffee drinker or not? Not. What's your go to energy in the morning?

Zach Fraiser: 02:03

Natural. God given. Let's go. Rise and shine. Correct.

Zach Fraiser: 02:07

Alright. Guess I'm a tea guy, but that's not really a morning drink. That's like a that's like a lunchtime drink. I got it.

Jimbo Robinson: 02:13

Favorite color Gatorade? Yellow. Do you know the flavor?

Zach Fraiser: 02:15

Lemon lime? Let's go. Come on. Two. Come on.

Zach Fraiser: 02:18

Come on. I'm you're giving me the

Jimbo Robinson: 02:19

First car.

Zach Fraiser: 02:20

1500 Ram. Two thousand three fifteen hundred Ram. You want it back? No. We still actually, we sold it to our mechanic.

Zach Fraiser: 02:26

He he bought it from us. It had, like, 300,000 miles on it. It was mine, and it was my middle brothers and my younger brothers.

Jimbo Robinson: 02:31

So a lot of people, a lot of men apparently want their first car back.

Zach Fraiser: 02:34

You know, that one, I can go drive it whenever I want if I take it to the mechanic shop, but I promise you, we're happy it's going.

Jimbo Robinson: 02:39

If the mechanic bought it, there was something wrong with it.

Zach Fraiser: 02:42

Well, that or we bought a second house with it. So he's like, I this is a memento for me. Waterfowl hunter or not?

Jimbo Robinson: 02:49

Yes. Favorite habitat in state?

Zach Fraiser: 02:52

Man, so I'm I'm tricky. I grew up playing oh, I I really learned how to cut my teeth on hunting in Oklahoma. Alright. And so now moving back down to Texas, North Texas specifically, we don't get to do a ton of waterfowl hunting anymore. We pretty much have to go north of the border.

Zach Fraiser: 03:04

It's harder. It's been so warm the past few years. Haven't killed us seen as many birds. So really that kind of that but but especially the Oklahoma and then Arkansas right on the river, you know, big timber and and really wanted to take as many green heads as we can, mallards. I grew up shooting mallards, then always we kind of spent the first part of my duck hunting life chasing wood ducks and, you know, never really you know, we we've just got so many mallards.

Zach Fraiser: 03:27

I love shooting mallards, but that's that's kind of my that's my go to.

Jimbo Robinson: 03:30

Alright. Alright. Alright. First gun.

Zach Fraiser: 03:34

It was a it was a Taurus 1911 that my dad gave me when I turned 16. Okay. And it oh, he didn't give it to me, but he it was a he gave it me. That was my first pistol ever. Then the second one, I bought first one, I bought my own money was a p three twenty sig.

Zach Fraiser: 03:49

Alright. Which No. And then I got a I was given a Remington semiautomatic from my best friend's dad when I first got when I first got into duck hunting, and that's still the only gun that's never jammed on me in my whole life.

Jimbo Robinson: 04:02

Absolutely. Well, man, that was awesome. That's a fun. You passed on the flock shot. Thank you.

Jimbo Robinson: 04:07

So let's dive in. So we're here at DU Expo. Your team's been here all weekend, walking around, getting people to scan the QR code. What what was your first DUX experience like?

Zach Fraiser: 04:19

Man, just walking into the breadth of of what this place is. Right? Obviously, we got a chance to go to convention a few months ago. We've been partnered with DU for a few months, and and the first thing that strikes you when you walk in, we were here thirty minutes early before the doors opened on Friday, and just how many people were so excited to be here. Right?

Zach Fraiser: 04:35

And how much obviously, you know the the the size and the commitment of to the cause of this Ducks Unlimited, but then when you're in it and you're ex and you see how excited people are and you see the lines of people waiting to get into the expo, I think the biggest thing that hit our team was just how committed, you know, both, you know, members are and then also the staff and volunteers are just to what what this organization exists to accomplish. Yep. And and the vendors too, man. Just a lot of really great conversation,

Jimbo Robinson: 05:00

a lot

Zach Fraiser: 05:00

of really cool people, and just the size of this thing is freaking massive.

Jimbo Robinson: 05:03

It's massive. Have y'all done expos like this before? No. Nothing like

Zach Fraiser: 05:06

this. Nothing there's anything like this.

Jimbo Robinson: 05:08

There's not.

Zach Fraiser: 05:09

I'll tell you right now. Don't think there's anything like this. We're at the Dallas Safari Club the week four last, and it it's a big show

Jimbo Robinson: 05:14

Mhmm.

Zach Fraiser: 05:14

Than the Gaylord there in Texas, and but this is unlike anything else I've ever seen.

Jimbo Robinson: 05:19

It is amazing. And I think that, you know, what is people say that the Memphis, this area. Well, first off, a lot of our vendors a lot not a lot of vendors. A lot of our podcast guests this weekend have have brought up one thing, and that's community. Right?

Jimbo Robinson: 05:32

The people and community mean a lot. This the community of vendors we have, and then you bring all these attendees in, this community is a powerful community. And they're they're very passionate about what anything in the outdoors, specifically waterfowl hunting for most of them, but they really come to spend money too. And a lot of our vendors have noted that that people aren't what I call whistling gophers. Right?

Jimbo Robinson: 05:55

Have you ever heard that?

Zach Fraiser: 05:56

No. No? Talk to me. Here we go. Talk to me.

Jimbo Robinson: 05:58

Hey, sir. How much is that gopher? And they say, $200. And they say, walk away. Whistling gophers.

Jimbo Robinson: 06:06

Right. Right? So there's not a lot of whistling gophers here, and it just it it speaks a lot. So I'm really, really excited that DU is very good at putting on events. We do that all across the country and online, and and and and a lot of that has to with our customer service.

Jimbo Robinson: 06:21

And our volunteer staff relationship team that we have at DU is unparalleled, unmatched. There's nobody that can do it like we do. If 33,000 volunteers were run by a president, Rex Schultz, who was here all weekend, we have a volunteer that runs this event and James Cook, and and you can see that passion. But what they're also passionate about is everything else they buy, and that's where y'all come in.

Zach Fraiser: 06:39

Yeah, man. And I'll tell you right now, it's like, it's unbelievable because you you you you go to all these all the vendors, and the relationship is reciprocal. Right? Like, your your vendors are here to sell stuff and move product because that's what they have to do. The world has to go around.

Zach Fraiser: 06:52

Right. But the the vendors, like, are engaging with people. You're having conversations with vendors about like, hey, man. What you know, talk to me about last season for you. What did you you know, what was your experience?

Zach Fraiser: 07:01

Did you go here? Have you hunted here? Have you shot you know, And there's a lot of conversation that's not just, hey. Look at this product. Here's the specs on it.

Zach Fraiser: 07:08

Here's what you need. It's it's it's it's a like you said, the commune communal word and the communal culture that exists here is second to none. Now for like you said, for us, what's been the coolest thing for our for us and our team is as we've gotten to just ingratiate ourselves both in the community, with the staff, corporately, the volunteers at the state level, the chairmans, and and the area reps is how excited people are to find new ways to continue to contribute. And that's been the biggest and coolest thing for us to see as a team is, you know, obviously, this is kind of this new concept. Everybody's out, you know, everybody's rounded up.

Zach Fraiser: 07:40

We've all done that concept before. But the engagement from the team and the and the and the the corporate team, but then also the the just the the whole community of Ducks Unlimited, both vendors and members alike, just wanting to jump in and say, hey. Can we row the boat by giving our spare change? Like, yeah. Come on.

Zach Fraiser: 07:57

How do we do it? And that's been the coolest thing about it.

Jimbo Robinson: 07:59

Well, there's no better time to be in the Roundup world, I would assume, than right now because pennies don't exist anymore. So everybody's getting used to the concept of rounding up. Right?

Zach Fraiser: 08:09

Right. Neither does cash.

Jimbo Robinson: 08:10

And every time I go to a a window, I look at it and you're like, I'm trying to figure out the math on, know, how long it's taken there, and and it's it's funny. It's a crazy world to think that the penny world doesn't exist. Right? So that concept of rounding up is is becoming something that people are speaking of all you know, a lot now. So it's probably a little bit easier, but what what does Elev8 do?

Jimbo Robinson: 08:31

So if I'm an attendee at DUX this year and I'm scanning the QR code, which I I didn't I didn't have the time to. Very sorry. My my bad.

Zach Fraiser: 08:38

We'll do it as as we get done here. We'll do it.

Jimbo Robinson: 08:40

Maybe do it live here in a minute. Check. What what am I rounding up? What am I doing when I scan that QR code?

Zach Fraiser: 08:47

You know, that's a great question. So to walk through your donor experience, right, what's gonna happen is you hit a QR code, you hit a link. There you know, most of the attendees here are gonna get an email, and we follow-up here about, hey. Here's a way that we can engage and contribute using using Elev8 Roundup. And and what's gonna happen is they're gonna hit that QR code, then they're gonna get to create an account and look clink their card on file.

Zach Fraiser: 09:07

So what we're doing is we're taking rounding up away from the point of sale, and it's not specific or doesn't matter where you shop or how you shop, Apple Pay, however you're swiping that card, chip, whatever. And you don't have to click anything. You don't have to touch anything, or the platform's automatically gonna know when that transaction happens, and it's gonna give this you know, if you spend say you leave here, you spend $10.56 at McDonald's. Yep. And then now we're gonna send that to round you up to 11, and the difference in the spare change, we're gonna send it straight to d u.

Zach Fraiser: 09:36

So that now your spare change is gonna go to this organization. So you're gonna click this QR code. You're gonna fill out all this information. And then once you fill that information out, every purchase automatically is

Jimbo Robinson: 09:46

gonna go. Ask my IT team if I can scan this QR code. You're get the watching a lot of Go Ninjio videos lately.

Zach Fraiser: 09:52

Well, so here's the thing.

Jimbo Robinson: 09:53

Right? I already did.

Zach Fraiser: 09:54

Well, I'm glad you say that because it's we're you that's an important part for all of our all the people. Right? We need to be PCI compliant. We need to be we need to be secure. Right?

Zach Fraiser: 10:02

So it's important to know that, you know, the your your card information is not held on our servers. This has happened at the card level. So we have to have a contract with Visa and Mastercard that keeps your data safe. Because if your data is not safe with us, then we don't wanna take it. And so that's why we don't even store it on our servers.

Zach Fraiser: 10:17

We store it on the Visa and Mastercard servers because they they make a lot more money. And they got a lot bigger bank accounts to hold all that security for you. So, you know, our our stuff gets hacked tomorrow. There ain't no cards that you're gonna get linked out anywhere. Your your stuff's safe with us.

Jimbo Robinson: 10:30

That's awesome. So it's everywhere. Everywhere you go, this roundup concept, it's everything they do. Yeah. It's all things.

Jimbo Robinson: 10:38

And I noticed on this one this week. So, Elev8, y'all celebrating fifty years?

Zach Fraiser: 10:42

No. We're not doing fifty years. We're not doing fifty years. All we're doing all we're doing is the $50. So the $50 is when you round up.

Zach Fraiser: 10:49

So on average, per card so this will give you an idea of how important and how impactful Roundup can be. Right? Yep. Is every month on average, when you link a card to Elev8, your spare change ends up being about 20 to $25 a month. And and so that sounds nominal.

Zach Fraiser: 11:03

Right? You hear this idea of change, like, yeah. We'll round up our spare change. This sounds like something you may I mean, whatever. Who cares?

Zach Fraiser: 11:09

The change isn't that important. But when you stack up all these transactions you have, every time you swipe your card, every subscription, every Netflix, every everything, you're gonna you can make real real change. So when you get to that $50, you know how DU does. DU's always giving back to their donors in every way they can, and they're doing that with this cooler. These are new.

Zach Fraiser: 11:26

You can't get this cooler any other way than doing this through Roundup. And so we're gonna try to do these different premiums and do these different engagement tools. The donors yeah. When you give to DU, yeah, man, you're gonna get something back because that's the type of community this place is built.

Jimbo Robinson: 11:37

Man, that's incredible. So what is yeah. Average person you said has $25. Alright. Let's say I got two cards.

Jimbo Robinson: 11:43

Right? I use my credit card for, you know, 99% per of my purchases. Yeah. And then I have a debit card. Can I link both of them to it?

Zach Fraiser: 11:52

You sure can. Why wouldn't you?

Jimbo Robinson: 11:53

Man, you're supposed to make this more complicated, brother.

Zach Fraiser: 11:55

Well, that's the thing. Right? Well and that's and and you know, well

Jimbo Robinson: 11:58

Making it too easy.

Zach Fraiser: 11:59

Well and you know as as hard as it is in life, there's so many things pulling you different directions. Absolutely. And as donors, you're being asked and engaged in a lot of different ways. And this feels like a way that, like, what's the floor? Like, what's the easiest way that because once you sign up for this, it's just gonna go.

Zach Fraiser: 12:14

You don't have to click it. You're gonna get your and guess what? It's all tax deductible. When's the last time you've rounded up at the point of sale and got a tax receipt for that 67¢ you gave away? Check.

Zach Fraiser: 12:24

Never. Never. So now, you I mean, it's it's small, but in the aggregate, you know, 200 you know, $20 times 12, that's $2.40. That's a good day at the office.

Jimbo Robinson: 12:33

Absolutely. My kids, you know, my kids have green light cards, and they've been swiping them like crazy.

Zach Fraiser: 12:37

Awesome, by the A

Jimbo Robinson: 12:38

little hot in my pocket right now as many times they swiped it this weekend. They think that and and my daughter got on yesterday and checked it. She's like, dad, I only got $34 left. And I was like,

Zach Fraiser: 12:48

I wonder how That's

Jimbo Robinson: 12:49

how I feel at the end of every single month, kids. Well, that's called

Zach Fraiser: 12:52

my accountability. Yeah. That's called.

Jimbo Robinson: 12:53

Yeah. So she gets to see it, and there's some place down here called Bag Boutique. They've taken eighteen weeks of their allowance on needles, squishies,

Zach Fraiser: 13:02

and Yeah.

Jimbo Robinson: 13:02

Duck squishies.

Zach Fraiser: 13:03

Can I get an advance on my allowance? How does

Jimbo Robinson: 13:04

that work? Yeah. That doesn't that doesn't work. But what's funny is I set them up for Roundup, and when I first signed up for that Greenlight card, and and it goes into a savings account for them, and every year, they have to use that money to buy a kid a Christmas gift.

Zach Fraiser: 13:16

That's awesome. So it's it's been fun

Jimbo Robinson: 13:17

and and it's funny because last year, my son had $27. Awesome.

Zach Fraiser: 13:21

They don't

Jimbo Robinson: 13:21

use them all the time. But he was like, dad, $27. It was like, yeah. And every time you, you know, you made a purchase and whatever it rounded up. And so it's been it's been fun to watch them be able to to figure it out.

Zach Fraiser: 13:30

And what what what is their what was their experience, you know, as as as they're building this

Jimbo Robinson: 13:34

habit of being and 10. Well, right.

Zach Fraiser: 13:36

I mean but I mean, even as they're building the habit of philanthropic, you know, you know, giving, and it's it's something we talk about as a team frequently because obviously this is the world we live in. Right? This we major in this world. But there is something so, you know, like now so after you have that conversation, they they these seven or 10 year old looks at me like, yeah. $27 at the end of the That's real money.

Jimbo Robinson: 13:55

It

Zach Fraiser: 13:55

is. And and and so, I mean, you'd now you every time they're swiping that card, that's gotta be somewhere in the back of their mind. Like, man, this is kinda cool what we're doing. Absolutely.

Jimbo Robinson: 14:02

I think that philanthropic the word philanthropic in today's world is a tough word. Okay? It's a buzzword. It is. And what's really scary is we are not raising, but there is a generation of people that don't understand what philanthropic giving is.

Jimbo Robinson: 14:18

It's people like us and people like our direct marketing team that are trying to come up with new ideas just to teach people what being philanthropic is. And I think this is a really cool way for people to have to be philanthropic without really knowing they're doing it.

Zach Fraiser: 14:35

And knowing they're doing it and also just being sensitive to the realities of the world we're living in. Right? Like, and and we can talk about we can talk in circles, and and and our team, we'd try our best is a is a group that lives in the in the engine building of of fundraising and capital gathering space. You have to be so intentional about never losing sight of the people whose cards you're you're they're giving you and the people whose money that you're that you're receiving because we're people are you know, inflation's real. Yeah.

Zach Fraiser: 15:01

And and people are squeezed higher than they've been in a long time. And and we and this is the way that we can be sensitive because the one thing that we didn't even get a chance to talk about yet is you can set a maximum on this deal that works like a governor on your car. So if you say, man, look, I really wanna give to DU, but my my max I can give in a month is $15. Yep. Round up to $15, and we're thankful for what you can do.

Zach Fraiser: 15:21

And and then now, well, let's go on to the next month. And that's been the coolest thing is to hear the stories of people who maybe can't give at the capital level or can't even give at the 100 or $200 level, but this is the way that they can contribute and feel involved.

VO: 15:39

Stay tuned to the Ducks Unlimited Podcast sponsored by Bird Dog Whiskey after these messages.

Jimbo Robinson: 15:55

Did y'all have a lot of success this weekend signing people up?

Zach Fraiser: 15:57

You know, we did. You know, with the Internet, it was a little difficult.

Jimbo Robinson: 16:00

I know.

Zach Fraiser: 16:00

So but that's the way that's and here's the deal. What what happens is we just wanna build awareness in for the opportunity that exists. And this this if we know anything about the people that exist inside the walls of this organization, in this membership contingent, they're always gonna show up. When you give them the opportunity, they're gonna show up. And so we just gotta give them the opportunity with some Internet.

Zach Fraiser: 16:17

We're gonna be a okay.

Jimbo Robinson: 16:18

Yep. Yeah. The Internet, it's it's crazy. It's bizarre because we worked on it leading into the show, and and and I'm not on the logistics team or or the actual event. We have amazing team Unbelievable.

Jimbo Robinson: 16:29

That put this show on. And I just I get the fortunate pleasure of kinda hosting and and working in the Duck Den, and and so it's been it was tough, you know, and and we got some great ideas for next year to to improve on that. So I don't know that we can prove on the Internet. We're gonna improve on on capabilities and capacities, but there's some there's some really cool things that we're gonna try to do.

Zach Fraiser: 16:50

You solved the hard part. You brought the cool people together. The Internet, you can you can figure what's Absolutely,

Jimbo Robinson: 16:55

we can. So about how many people, Joe Sonny? You don't have to give me an estimate.

Zach Fraiser: 17:00

You know, I don't even I

Jimbo Robinson: 17:01

What what was it? Did you hit the goal? Did we hit the goal?

Zach Fraiser: 17:03

We are are without without knowing, did we hit our goal? Are we are we where we need to be? Were one away as it happens to be.

Jimbo Robinson: 17:11

I can't get my my card out on this camera here.

Zach Fraiser: 17:14

Yeah. We can. Hey. Can we get a close-up shot of that and I just get it sent to me? That'd be great.

Jimbo Robinson: 17:18

It's so hot right now.

Zach Fraiser: 17:20

The but no. So I I think for us, you know, this is this is one of the things that, you know, when we get our chance to get our team out in these type of places and spaces, we wanna give people the opportunity to engage. But at the end of the day, we want the show to be the show. Right? You know, people are if they're here trying to work with a vendor and they're trying to, you know, buy what they need to buy, we're not gonna be, you know, taking people's you know, if they wanna go shop, let them shop.

Zach Fraiser: 17:43

That's what we're here to do. We don't wanna cannibalize the event, but we would do wanna provide the awareness in in, you know, outlets like this and just being here and creating the relationships. We got 400 scans yesterday. So I mean and here's the deal, 400 scans by 20 a month, that's good math. Absolutely.

Zach Fraiser: 17:59

And so in every every and especially with the contingent of the size of DU, the more we continue to push it out. We're at the very beginning of this thing.

Jimbo Robinson: 18:05

No doubt. And I think what's really cool is that for this generation that we talk about that may not understand philanthropic as well as my generation did, and I'm 41. I'm very old, And I feel it You don't look it though. This whole weekend. I know.

Jimbo Robinson: 18:17

Wait till I try to get up here in a second. Oh, you're

Zach Fraiser: 18:19

sitting on that wallet. That's why.

Jimbo Robinson: 18:21

I know. And my I well, I gotta talk to the team about this. I don't have to get a comfortable, like, a feel Oh, like a back pillow. I know. A back pillow.

Jimbo Robinson: 18:27

There you go. Yeah. To talk to

Zach Fraiser: 18:28

Oh. Oh, there's a dog in there. A few dogs. Oh, they're okay.

Jimbo Robinson: 18:32

Hey. If those puppies need, you know If they need

Zach Fraiser: 18:34

a place to hang

Jimbo Robinson: 18:34

Hang. Yeah. We can we got some spots right We can watch them for a minute.

Zach Fraiser: 18:37

We can.

Jimbo Robinson: 18:38

But what's cool is is I think that with what y'all are doing here, we're gonna be able to to help that generation give philanthropically without really knowing. Right. You know, mean, yes, you are knowing, but at the same time, it's it's a it's you know, one of the things that I have never liked is having change in my pocket. I've got it in the door of my car. Got it in a cup holder in my car.

Jimbo Robinson: 18:59

Until we go eat at El Mezcal, which is about once a week, and then the kids go scrounging for the quarter so they can play the claw machine that we've never won.

Zach Fraiser: 19:06

That's exactly right.

Jimbo Robinson: 19:07

One of these trips is gonna be the trip. That's what they keep telling me.

Zach Fraiser: 19:10

Yeah. Exactly.

Jimbo Robinson: 19:11

But, you know, it's just like with that. Right? Right. Round it up. Hey.

Jimbo Robinson: 19:13

It's easier to keep your bank count, you know, in order if you just got all round numbers.

Zach Fraiser: 19:17

Round numbers. And then that's the thing. Right? And then we do wanna we wanna build that habit as easy as we can. Right?

Zach Fraiser: 19:22

How can we get these how can we get people to give for the first time in a way that's easy to feel and engage? And then let's grow. Let's grow that habit. Let's grow and be intentional about, hey, can we take our spare change and now go to a recurring gift? And the recurring gift maybe as we grow in wealth and grow in time, do a capital gift.

Zach Fraiser: 19:38

Right? And and here's the deal. We're not naive enough to know that not everybody's gonna be graduated to a big time giver. Right? That's not everybody's we're not all we're all very different situation in in financial and in the blessings that we've been, you know, given.

Zach Fraiser: 19:50

However, the stewardship of what we are given is extremely important. This is a great tool to help build that practice.

Jimbo Robinson: 19:55

Well, one the things we haven't talked about really is, I guess, this may have been a a, you know, a plug for this weekend, but, you know, the cooler. Right? It's kind of a a cool thing. When you hit $50 in roundup donations, they're gonna send you a cooler. Yeah.

Zach Fraiser: 20:07

We may have that cooler with us. I'm a see if we can get it in. I don't know. But this is this is why you talk about the team you have at DU. This is the perfect example of how great the team is.

Zach Fraiser: 20:16

Right? This is all you know, this is an idea that that that spawn from, you know, Ben and the direct marketing teams Yep. Office. And our team is just a part of, like, well, let's just present the opportunity. You can see the little flyer here.

Zach Fraiser: 20:26

We're gonna work on seeing if we can find it or not. I I'm getting the finger. Just hold. And so we're gonna but the whole point is we wanna provide things that and this is the this is the cool thing that we got when when we really started talking with the team is like, we wanna provide value back to the donors when they give to us. Right?

Jimbo Robinson: 20:40

So here's the cool.

Zach Fraiser: 20:41

Right? So your your your thing here don't even do it justice. This is a pretty bad boy deal. Yeah. It's it's you're very utilitarian.

Zach Fraiser: 20:47

It's a good it's a cool deal. So and there's not another way that you can get this. Right? And so that's not to say that that's as we're building, we'd keep talking about this habit of giving. Yep.

Zach Fraiser: 20:55

We don't wanna give for this, but this if this help encourages people to give, thank you very much.

Jimbo Robinson: 20:59

Right? Incentives always go long

Zach Fraiser: 21:01

way. Correct.

Jimbo Robinson: 21:02

And, you know, maybe you'll find out a little bit about your spending habits. If if the cooler shows up in two weeks, maybe just slow down a

Zach Fraiser: 21:08

little bit. You know? Yeah. Well, if we can if we can get you and all the green light cards on the same one, you could get you might win today.

Jimbo Robinson: 21:13

Oh. Oh, yeah. I would've well, they need us to me walking out the door.

Zach Fraiser: 21:18

Correct. Right. Right. And so, I mean but I think that's the point too. It's like, you'll you'll you'll be surprised.

Zach Fraiser: 21:24

I mean, we first I remember when we first kinda when we first started to elevate, and we were looking at every card that was on there, I remember it was like Christmas time. Yep. And we had a we had someone do like a $130 a month in a single month in roundup. And it was just like, man, I wanna be in that family for Christmas. Because I mean, they're I mean, and, you know, you think about it like the average round up if you do, you'll say it's 50¢ just by the law of averages.

Zach Fraiser: 21:50

How many times you what is that? The 100 and third? That's a lot of swipes. Yeah. Especially dollars.

Jimbo Robinson: 21:55

Especially if you're in my family you travel for baseball, we have a baseball travel family. Sure. One weekend at a ballpark with a daughter that's seven.

Zach Fraiser: 22:03

Oh, yeah. A lot of a lot of pass

Jimbo Robinson: 22:05

It's amazing how much she can eat at a ballpark.

Zach Fraiser: 22:07

It's a lot of and only at the ballpark. And then when you go to dinner or lunch or you, you know, you pack out the cooler and

Jimbo Robinson: 22:12

it's getting a little nervous about this roundup now. I'm starting to think about it.

Zach Fraiser: 22:15

Well, this is why you need to say, you can set your maximum now.

Jimbo Robinson: 22:17

I think we may even cut this show off early before I got really nervous. I'm just kidding. But it's it's cool though because what's gonna be neat is to watch people become sponsors. Right. Right?

Jimbo Robinson: 22:26

People become that two fifty given level and even more is because, you know, it it's it'll be just keep adding to their cumulative giving. But once somebody becomes a, you know, a sponsor for the EU, they're a lot more bought in. And if they can do it this way, it it'd be really cool.

Zach Fraiser: 22:40

Well, that was really important to when we when we talked about why we wanted to or how we wanted to do this. Right? We we knew how, you know, how important that is, how that that that sponsorship level and being able to tie in to the all other manufacturers and ways that that that this organization allows people to give is that this is a great way, man. If you're sitting on that doorstep right between bronze and and silver, you need to jump up to that $2.50 level. Let's do mean, because like I said, $20 a month.

Zach Fraiser: 23:03

If you get 20, you're there. Yeah. Absolutely. There. Right?

Zach Fraiser: 23:06

And then between that and your membership on a year, there you go.

Jimbo Robinson: 23:08

I'm pretty sure I make more than 40 swipes

Zach Fraiser: 23:10

a month. Oh, dude. That's just

Jimbo Robinson: 23:12

two a day. I know y'all know the average is way better than that.

Zach Fraiser: 23:14

Are you I mean, you you swipe your card two times a day?

Jimbo Robinson: 23:16

Try not to.

Zach Fraiser: 23:18

I mean So, I mean, I'll tell you right now. It'll it'll it'll be really good for you and and really good for your marriage probably too. Because it's a lot of accountability.

Jimbo Robinson: 23:27

Hey, babe. I got this awesome cooler in three weeks. Right. We need to slow. We need

Zach Fraiser: 23:30

to have

Jimbo Robinson: 23:31

a finance meeting in the house.

Zach Fraiser: 23:32

Exactly. Well, no. But it's, yeah,

Jimbo Robinson: 23:33

but it'd be cool because we're already giving. Right? I'm already giving to DU. Sure. Talk to the kids about it.

Jimbo Robinson: 23:38

They'll be fired up. I mean, like, the incentives for them will be huge. Right? Yes. And we've got

Zach Fraiser: 23:43

some cool ones on the way. We've had some really cool conversations with Ben this are doing they're doing a great job

Jimbo Robinson: 23:48

at DU

Zach Fraiser: 23:48

with. They're killing it.

Jimbo Robinson: 23:49

They are. Ben's I got a new workout shirt recently from him, and it's just like the guys, they're always they're they're doing a great That

Zach Fraiser: 23:57

that would be really cool if I could have a cool workout shirt.

Jimbo Robinson: 23:59

Yeah. I I know a guy. Got a guy. The pledge? Yeah.

Jimbo Robinson: 24:03

$35. Easy. Well, man, what's cool is that man, this got me fired up. I was

Zach Fraiser: 24:11

And so now, now let me give you the one more now. So now,

Jimbo Robinson: 24:13

I got something else for me.

Zach Fraiser: 24:14

Oh, yeah. So nothing

Jimbo Robinson: 24:15

Got me in the roundup. Knew a good punch line of this.

Zach Fraiser: 24:18

Let me check this out. So here's the thing. If if you don't wanna wait for your roundup to accrue

Jimbo Robinson: 24:23

Oh, I can just go in there and start adding can

Zach Fraiser: 24:25

give it.

Jimbo Robinson: 24:26

I knew you I knew there was something else to this hook.

Zach Fraiser: 24:28

So it's so, you know, here's the thing. Right? We we are we understand that, you know, things go and we so we call them power up buttons. Right? Because we wanna set that baseline, but then, hey, if we have, you know, like you, you have you have if your kiddos have a light month on the green card, you know, I got a little extra in the pocket, Let's power up, get you that cooler today.

Zach Fraiser: 24:45

Right? That's the easy way to do it. So it the idea is we wanna serve the donor and the and the member of DU in as many ways as makes sense for them and engage them where they're at. And if they wanna just earn their cooler today, let's let them earn their cooler today. If they wanna earn it and whenever they do, then that's great too.

Zach Fraiser: 25:01

So I mean, for us, that's kind of the heartbeat behind our organization. We've got a lot of people who've accomplished a lot. Yeah. There's no they all you know, they all get the cool shirts. You know, the big boy didn't get the cool shirt.

Jimbo Robinson: 25:11

You did? I was wondered. I was wondering. They didn't make it in slim fit. That's what happened.

Jimbo Robinson: 25:14

No idea. I was wondering why your shirt was different than the rest of theirs.

Zach Fraiser: 25:18

It's okay though. Look. So but the whole point is we've we've had our team that's accomplished a lot and it's really cool that we've got people who have spent their whole career in private sector and being at the top of, you know, Fortune 500 and big time business Yep. All come together for something that is so focused on cause oriented growth. It's very rare that you have a a nonprofit organization that is is high octane as DU, and it's the perfect partnership for us.

Zach Fraiser: 25:42

Oh, no doubt. We're so stoked

Jimbo Robinson: 25:43

for it. It's a great partnership. And and, you know, one of the things that I do in my role I I don't do this every day. Podcast is not on my agenda. I did it this weekend.

Jimbo Robinson: 25:53

One of my jobs is to make our our field staff's job easy.

Zach Fraiser: 25:55

Right? Sure.

Jimbo Robinson: 25:56

Trying to streamline everything they do. I was a regional director for thirteen years before I came into the office as managing director of event marketing. But that's what I do every day is when I get there, I'm trying to figure out ways to make their life easier. And with something like this, we're making that philanthropic easy. Sure.

Jimbo Robinson: 26:10

Right? And so it's a it's a great tool to you know, for an avenue for somebody that may be new to the philanthropic like we said. It's just the easy way to give back. Exactly. And that's what we want is we want more people giving to DU.

Jimbo Robinson: 26:23

And and this is gonna be a great partnership. I'm excited to see where the numbers go early on in it, and, I know y'all are making a big splash. And I hope that this weekend kind of open the doors to a lot more people because a lot of these people that come through here are not our everyday event attendees. Right? They come to this event to, you know, explore the community of the waterfowl hunting world or your diehard hunters, but they may not be our everyday attendees.

Jimbo Robinson: 26:47

And so the more that we can get this word out there to DU supporters, the better it be. And what's, you know, what's great is y'all have reached a whole new avenue of people throughout this weekend that we may not have touched at a local DU event or through our direct marketing and direct mail scenes.

Zach Fraiser: 27:03

Well, and the number one thing is, like, you know, no matter how how we get them here, we wanna get them in as members because we wanna grow the the support of base for conservation. Absolutely. That's the end goal. Right? Not everybody on our team is hunters.

Zach Fraiser: 27:15

Not everybody on our team. You know, we've got I'm looking at probably two or three that have probably never even shot a gun.

Jimbo Robinson: 27:20

But Got a guy for

Zach Fraiser: 27:21

that too. Check. And so but the number one thing is the what this organization stands for at its root is important work. Yep. In any way we can get somebody to end the door to start rowing the boat in this direction, that's how that's all we need to do.

Zach Fraiser: 27:35

Well, awesome.

Jimbo Robinson: 27:36

Well, as we begin to wrap up another episode of the Ducks Unlimited Podcast, if they weren't here this weekend or they're not currently a DU member or maybe they are, how can they sign up for this? So they can go

Zach Fraiser: 27:47

to the website. Right? We can go to the website, DU website. They can go find it. Ducks.org.

Zach Fraiser: 27:51

Yes. Exactly. Yeah. I'm sure how many times you give them that plug. That was that was locked and loaded.

Zach Fraiser: 27:55

That awesome.

Jimbo Robinson: 27:56

I almost said duckexpo.com, but

Zach Fraiser: 27:57

I don't wanna go in there.

Jimbo Robinson: 27:58

Gotta get that out.

Zach Fraiser: 27:59

Ducks.org. Yeah. But ducks.org, we're gonna be sending that communications. We're gonna start plugging into events. You're gonna start seeing our team, our crew, our messaging around.

Zach Fraiser: 28:08

And here's the deal, man. The most important thing that we want people to know is that this is DU. Yep. This is it may be our service or our backbone, but this is this is this organization specific tool. It's DU Roundup, man.

Zach Fraiser: 28:21

That's what we want. We're we just wanna provide the environment and the space that that DU can continue to grow. Absolutely.

Jimbo Robinson: 28:27

Well, man, I've enjoyed you having on you on the Ducks Unlimited Podcast. It's been a, a great way to end, the last three days here at the, Ducks Expo. Wanna thank the team for being here and helping us. Thank you for Ben, for, setting this up. And we will catch you on the other side.

Jimbo Robinson: 28:44

Watch out for geese.

VO: 28:47

That's a wrap for today's episode of the Ducks Unlimited Podcast brought to you by Bird Dog Whiskey and Cocktails. From post hunt unwinds to celebrations back at camp, Bird Dog delivers award winning flavor to every moment. Enjoy responsibly. Don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe, and check out ducks.org/dupodcast for more science, and all things waterfowl. Guest opinions are their own and don't necessarily reflect those of Ducks Unlimited.

VO: 29:12

Until next time, stay fired up, stay focused, and stay tuned to the ducks.