Fundraising Voices from RNL (Ruffalo Noel Levitz)

Kevin Collins, Associate Vice President and Assistant Athletics Director for athletics development at the University of Iowa is part of a fundraising family. And he's been engaging donors for decades across a wide range of institutions. We talked with Kevin about the incredible generosity of athletics donors, even when they can't see competitions or be at events in the same way during the pandemic.

College athletics has faced a lot of challenges in this pandemic, and it’s great to hear from Kevin how donors have stepped up to support the teams, coaches and students they love. As Kevin describes, Patience, persistence, and giving people the flexibility to innovate in this challenging time are a big part of why the Iowa team is having success. It turns out we can engage donors, even when we can’t be next to them physically. Thanks to Kevin, and the two other members of the Collins family that we’ve featured, for the great insights.

Check out the Hawkeyes and the great ways they engaging athletes and donors

On this episode, Shaun Keister, Vice Chancellor for Development and Alumni Relations at the University of California, Davis talks to us just a few days before their annual giving day. We discuss maintaining relationship with donors amidst the COVID-19 crisis, how donors are responding, and what we've learned from previous financial crises.

Bringing your supporters to a level of true investment is absolutely keep to meeting your goals of philanthropic support. Sherry Quam Taylor knows this and works with fundraisers every day to help them better engage donors to step up to a level of leadership investment.

Check out Sherry at: https://www.quamtaylor.com/

Engaging mega-donors is key to any campaign, and to the long-term future of your organization. Russ Hodge, CEO and Founder of the Hodge Group says focusing on the right prospects, listening to their passions, and connecting with their key influencers is important. It can unlock something he calls "hyper philanthropy." Here's our conversation about engaging principal givers, even in this challenging time.

Find more about the Hodge group at: https://hodge-group.com/

Annual giving is the lifeblood of most fundraising programs, and we’re interested in keeping a pulse on current trends and fundraiser challenges. We’ve published the second version of our Advancement Leaders Speak series, where over 250 annual giving leaders told us about where they’re focusing their energy to connect with donors. Included this year is a special focus on both parents and leadership givers, two important groups. I got on the line with annual giving career veteran Shad Hanselman to go through the survey results and hear from him about the future of annual giving.

You can download the full report here.

Engaging parents and leadership donors will also be a top priority for most institutions in the coming years. These two groups, which might actually be the same people in many cases, require a different approach from your overall alumni and supporter base. Again, personalization, and engaging donors with a live feedback look will be key.

2020 was a challenging year for all of us. But there were also opportunities brought about from the shifts we all made in the pandemic, and Pamela Barden recently wrote: it's time to stop complaining and get back to serving donors. In this podcast, we explore what fundraisers can be doing proactively to provide great donor service, even when we can't be next to each other.

Read Pamela's article in NonProfit Pro.

Check out Pamela's web site.

This Fundraising Voices podcast features RNL’s Josh Robertson who covers the importance of using personalization to communicate with your donors. Josh and Brian discuss:

• Why personalization is important for engaging the 21st century donor.
• How artificial intelligence (AI) and new, easy to use platforms can transform your communications.
• How to get started with turnkey solutions like RNL QuadWrangle and harness the power of this technology immediately.

Find out more about RNL QuadWrangle here

Our guest: Josh Robertson, Senior Vice President

Joshua Robertson joined Ruffalo Noel Levitz in 1997 as a student fundraiser at The University of Georgia and has since risen to become the chief architect of our donor and student engagement solutions. Josh works daily with hundreds of institutions to transform their donor engagement with new and emerging technology and data-driven strategy. He has worked with more than 60 institutions in managing their multichannel, on-site phonathon programs, including Stanford, New York University, UT Austin, UGA, Pepperdine University and the University of Sydney. 

Martin Leifeld is a career fundraiser, speaker and author that has raised over $500M in his career. He's the author of Five Minutes for Fundraising, a great book that features leaders from across the fundraiser world.

I talked with Martin about how fundraisers navigate the path of personal growth, and what he thinks is in store for the future of our profession.

Check out all of Martin's great content at martinleifeld.com

Getting great content in front of your donors, things that are interesting and invoke a passion for giving, is a sure fire way to build your base of support. Robert McGuire of McGuire Editorial knows this well. He’s spent years helping top non-profits and higher education institutions put together great content strategies. Increasingly, we’re hearing that the communications you provide that are outside of the ask are crucial to engaging and retaining donors. I got Robert on the line to explain what content marketing means for fundraisers, and have him provide some tips on how to accelerate your content.

Marketing, communications, multichannel, omnichannel, whatever you decide to call it—it’s for sure that you’ll want be providing great content to your donors if you want to keep them engaged. In a digital world, where you can track and respond to what donors are viewing, clicking on and clicking through, you can even tailor content to specific donor interests. You’ve heard us call it a personal journey here at RNL, and content is a crucial part of that journey.

You can check out some great content strategy resources from Robert at mcguireeditorial.com.

Getting those messages delivered is another big part of your content strategy. At Ruffalo Noel Levitz, we have a ton of experience crafting these multichannel plans. If you’d like to accelerate your content and message delivery strategy, give us a call. We’re ready to help. And thanks for listening to the podcast.

RNL's Autumn Horton and Brian Cass unveil the new way we're talking about and thinking about students who can now make contact via expanded, integrated methods like P2P texting, personalized video, and are doing much more than annual giving outreach. It's time to retire the term "student caller" and take our donor engagement to the next level!

Find our more about about RNL Digital Engagement Centers

Engaging students in philanthropy is a key part of your fundraising development plan -- learning about the impact of donors, engaging students to give before they graduate, and asking students to help in the stewardship effort all can make a difference.

Chris McBride from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and Howard Heevner from UC Santa Cruz, faculty members at the CASE 2019 Engaging Students in Philanthropy Symposium talk about the power of student philanthropy programs.

Find out more about the Symposium here:

https://www.case.org/engaging-students-philanthropy-symposium

We’ve just released part two of our major research series Advancement Leaders Speak here at Ruffalo Noel Levitz. This time, we surveyed and spoke with 270 major and planned giving officers to find out how they do their jobs and how they feel about productivity.

You can download the study at RuffaloNL.com—we included questions about average prospect pool sizes, number of visits with donors, key frustrations and challenges for gift officers, as well as what they think would make their jobs easier.

I got on the line with Caryn Stein, Vice President here at RNL, to go through the results and talk a bit about what we are hearing from gift officers about their important work with donors.

Download the Report here

Productivity—it’s not always the first topic that major and planned giving programs jump on. For a profession primarily focused on personal relationships with donors, we’re not really drawn to metrics and deep data on our solicitation effectiveness. But given the increase pressure all charitable organizations are facing, and definitely for higher education, putting the right tools in place so your major and planned giving team can have success is crucial. And as Caryn and I mention, focusing on the right contact to the right donors at the right time is a key donor-centric practice that will keep your top supporters happy and increase their joy in giving. You can download the full study at RuffaloNL.com. We’d also love to hear from you about your major and planned giving program. Drop us a line, and we’ll talk about how you can improve your team’s productivity and book more gifts, immediately.

Creating great donor event experiences can go a long way toward inspiring philanthropy. Bob Westfall at Westfall Gold has helped inspire over $1B in gift commitments with their unique event strategy. Truly inspiring donors with the opportunity to make a transformative impact, giving them time to reflect, including great experiences, and surrounding donors with a community of like-minded givers is key. Bob breaks it down in this conversation.

Find out more about Westfall Gold.

We’ve launched something big here at RNL. The RNL Digital Engagement Center combines advanced predictive analytics with calling, texting, personalized video and integrated email to create the first ever omnichannel solution that continues to leverage your engagement ambassadors to connect personally with donors. We've done this successfully for decades with student ambassadors. And now this outreach can be made and managed remotely, to keep our relationships growing without interruption. I RNL's Renee Vaillancourt, Autumn Horton and Shad Hanselman to talk about the Digital Engagement Center revolution and what it means for Advancement.

Find out more about the RNL Digital Engagement Center

Communicating with supporters about social change initiatives takes planning, investment, and careful use of resources. Vanessa Wakeman, futurist, acclaimed speaker and CEO of the Wakeman Agency knows this. She's helping amplify the voices of mission-driven causes and the people that lead them every day.

We talked with Vanessa about how to organize a communication plan, some of the short and long term strategies needed amidst the health crisis, and success she's had with virtual events.

The Wakeman Agency

The basic job description of a fundraiser is to reah out to donors, listen to them, and provide opportunities. To see if there might be a chance that the donors want to make a difference for your organization, institution, school or charity. Well, increasingly, those conversations will happen with numerous members of the donor's family or even 's financial planners. Arlene Cogen used to be a financial planner, someone who was really focused on amassing money for her clients.

Then, she left financial planning and became a fundraiser. She began to really talk to fundraisers about how to engage financial planners and found that fundraisers don't need to be afraid, and financial planners can engage with their clients about how to increase philanthropy and find joy in giving. I got on the line with Arlene to talk a little bit about her book and the way she suggests people should engage donors, their families and their financial planners in the 21st century.

Read Arlene's book, Give to Live

And find out how she helps organizations truly inspires donors:

https://www.arlenecogen.com/

Looking into your database of supporters and searching for those people who are ready and able to make a major or planned gift is crucial to any organization's success. But how do you find the right people and ask them in the right way at the right time?

Well, Greg Warner at MarketSmart has some ideas. In fact, he's built a name for himself by directly challenging our assumptions and the generally dated tactics we use to engage donors. I got him on the line to talk a little bit about how we can find new ways to engage major and planned giving donors.

Check out MarketSmart at imarketsmart.com

Making sure that you're approaching the best, most ready and most able prospects for major and planned giving is absolutely crucial to meeting your fundraising goals. If you're doing the same old thing, your gift officers probably aren't having a high level of success. It might be time to look at things differently.

We agree with Greg that it's time to look at things differently. If you'd like to take your major and planned giving program to the next level, give us a call here at Ruffalo Noel Levitz. We've pioneered new technologies using your data and 21st century engagement tools to help you better engage the best major and planned giving prospects. We're ready to help.

We’ve just released our seventh chapter in the RNL Advancement Leaders Speak series, where we ask you, the fundraisers about your challenges, successes and best practices. This release is focuses on annual giving multichannel strategy – or how we contact annual giving donors through all the various fundraising channels. The report revealed some interesting things about how annual giving is judged and evaluated by institutions, how fundraisers are timing appeals, and what we feel are the best ways to capture, retain and upgrade donors. You can download the full survey at ruffalonl.com. I got on the like with Shad Hanselman, RNL’s annual giving guru, to talk about the survey and what it means for fundraising strategy.

Download the full study at RuffaloNL.com

Looking at the results of this survey of 300 fundraisers, it does look like there are some opportunities to optimize our multi-channel outreach to donors. As Shad mentioned, making your appeals work together like a symphony will really help engage donors. This takes technology, and careful analysis of your results, two things that fundraisers wanted to be utilizing more.

Have you harnessed the power of artificial intelligence to personalize your communications to donors and supporters, based on what you can see they actually care about? Not too many fundraising shops have, and this is a huge miss.

Our RNL QuadWrangle experts, Solomon Grey and Peter Caron, join this episode to talk about the power of AI-driven communications, along with the special features of QuadMail, integrations with RNL Crowdfunding and Giving Days, and virtual events with giving.

Heard about remote engagement, P2P Texting, artificial intelligence, and visual caller ID and wondering how they work? Interested in the latest in crowdfunding, giving days? We've got something great for you.

Coming up on Sept. 17-18, we're hosting the RNL Advancement Innovation Summit, free and online. Part of the event is something we call Key Innovation Downloads - 6 sessions that get right into how these new technologies amplify donor engagement and help you maximize fundraising results.

On this episode, four RNL innovators drop an quick overview of what's happening with these technologies, and preview their Download sessions.

Register for the Summit today - space is limited and we're filling up!

One of the consistent things that I hear from institutions that I work with is that they're really interested in doing a better job engaging younger donors. We call them millennials. We're lucky enough at RNL to have two millennials of our own. Peter Christian and Quinn McGourty-Holland, who are just rock stars. They spend their days talking with RNL partners about new solutions and how best to surprise and delight what could be the most generous generation in history. We're going to watch something fun today, and it's the designated millennials podcast, as part of Fundraising Voices, here at RNL. For the first episode, I got on the line with Quinn and Peter to talk a little bit about how they think we could do a good job engaging their own generation, a group of alumni that is often giving at about one half the rate of the overall alumni population.

Key insights:

- Make giving easy, fun and social

- Use engaging technologies like crowdfunding, giving days and social media to change the game with young donors

- Authenticity is key, and let the donors become part of the conversation

- Millennial donor engagement is probably the best way to engage everyone!

Pressure in higher education advancement offices is high right now. In part from the economy and how tough it is for many donors. And in part because the double whammy of economic issues and real enrollment concerns amidst this crisis are causing institutions to evaluate budgets. Motivating your team, especially when you can’t be with them physically during a difficult time is a key challenge. RNL’s Meg Weber has been through tough economic times before in her career and has successfully led teams through them. I got on the line with Meg to talk about how to be a good campus partner, maintain the morale of your team, and do what’s necessary to emerge from a crisis like this with strong donor engagement.

Student philanthropy programs are an important part of the advancement efforts. We know from research that almost 90 percent of colleges and universities do some type of student philanthropy program, whether it’s a philanthropy day, a student phonathon, a student organization, or even involving students in thanking donors.

The Engaging Students in Philanthropy Symposium, offered by CASE as part of the Student Advancement conference coming up in just a few months, is a great place to find out about the best practices in starting and improving a student philanthropy program. I’m proud to be on the faculty once again this year. I got the great group of symposium faculty on the line to talk about what we’ll be covering this year, and what’s hot in student philanthropy work right now.

Register for the Symposium here!

Engaging your student body in philanthropy is a key best practice to grow future givers and provide a great experience for all your donors. Join us at the symposium to find out about how to start or expand your program, interact with other passionate student philanthropy missionaries. You can find out more at case.org. We’ll see you there.

Crowdfunding has become very popular over the past few years. Following success in the commercial world, funding new products, artistic endeavors and other projects, we’ve seen hundreds of charities create crowdfunding campaigns and full portals with multiple campaigns to attract donors to specific needs.

Higher education, with a wealth of student, faculty and athletics opportunities, has really benefited from this optimized, online and socially integrated technology.

We’ve just released a comprehensive index of results from over 4,000 campaigns Ruffalo Noel Levitz charitable crowdfunding powered by the Scalefunder platform. And the results show that crowdfunding has really made a difference with our partners—over 22 million dollars actually. You can download the 2017 RNL crowdfunding index at RuffaloNL.com/crowdfundingsuccess.

Today on the podcast, I talk with Josh Robertson about what we discovered as we looked a these great campaigns.

If you are looking to attract new donors, particularly younger donors, and give your long time supporters something exciting with active feedback they can support, crowdfunding is a great tool. We’ve seen millions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of donors engaged through RNL crowdfunding. You can offer campaigns that support new initiatives, student and faculty needs, and even market your traditional annual giving program through crowdfunding.

We’d love to help you get started or accelerate your existing crowdfunding program. Drop us a line and we’ll help you take your donor engagement to the next level.

Fundraising is a challenging and rewarding profession. And it seems like some people are just born to it, that engaging donors and amplifying philanthropy just come naturally. That’s the case with Emily Collins here at RNL. She’s part of a fundraising family – and I got her on the line to talk about why she joined the field, how she mentors young people to look at this career, and how things are going with student engagement ambassadors in today’s remote environment.

Find out more about the remote-ready RNL Digital Engagement Center, which keeps your donors engaged across integrated calling, texting, and personal video. And it can keep your student ambassadors working and driving to your fundraising goals.

Donors want to make an impact. And when we think about transformative interventions, cleft palate and cleft lip surgery has incredible impact – literally changing lives of the recipients. Operation Smile has been around almost 40 years, providing this life-changing care.

We got on the line with Joanne Bowers, Lauren Lemmons, and Amber Leonti from Operation Smile, and the team shares how they have transformed donor engagement, kept engaged during the pandemic, and even made the decision to accept cryptocurrency donations.

Find out more about Operation Smile

Student philanthropy continues to be a hot topic in higher education. Just about every institution hosts some form of student philanthropic engagement. The goal is to engage students in causes that they are passionate about, help students thank current donors, and if we do it right, help students understand the importance of giving back as future alumni.

Josh Harraman and Felicity Meu are experts with years of experience with successful student philanthropy programs. I’m proud to serve as faculty with them in the upcoming Engaging Students in Philanthropy Symposium, put together by CASE this coming August. I got Josh and Felicity on the line to talk about the state of student philanthropy, what we’re talking about this year, and what the future holds for this crucial higher education effort.

Josh and Felicity offer great insights on how to engage students in philanthropy. We’re talking about a lifetime relationship with your alma mater here, and increasingly, institutions are working to start that deep philanthropic relationship before students graduate. Engaging students with the causes they care about, and inviting them to thank current donors can go a long way to making that happen.

Join us at the 2017 Engaging Students in Philanthropy Symposium, August 3-5, as part of the CASE Conference for Student Advancement in Columbus. It’s the biggest event of the year for student philanthropy programs.

And if you are hearing this podcast after the symposium, head over to CASE.org to find resources on accelerating your student philanthropy program, including the CASE ASAP network, the premier network for student philanthropy.

Check out the Symposium program and registration at:

http://www.case.org/CSA17/ESPS17_Home.html

Recurring giving is a big topic these days, particularly among our higher education partners. Everyone's watching the massive increase in subscription services, and particularly how young alumni or donors use them. Also, we're just really excited about the idea of people buying into consistent, regular giving. But most of us haven't really figured out how to give for monthly gifts real well, how to thank recurring donors, or even in some cases how to receive the gifts correctly.

It's a tremendous opportunity to build a base of committed, regular donors who have bought into your cause. So when NextAfter, the great fundraising research outfit, published their recent recurrent giving study where they actually made gifts to a couple hundred charities and saw how recurrent giving was marketed, we gobbled it up. The same day it came out, I called Brady Josephson and got him on the line to talk about how to optimize the donor experience, to tell us what they heard in the study, and how he thinks in his words we can unlock the most generous generation in history. Here's our chat.

Check out the full report at:

https://recurringgiving.com/

And Brady's NextAfter podcast at:

https://www.nextafter.com/podcast/

Like many of you I'm lucky enough to have more than one alma mater. One of those is Illinois State University where I'm actually still currently a student finishing up my doctoral degree.

I came to Illinois State University kind of in the middle of my career and the institution really blew me away. ISU has an incredibly deep commitment to the success of students. When you look at the key statistics on Illinois State University they blow away the competition in terms of retention, student success, student satisfaction.

And one of the reasons for that, is that throughout their entire history they've just been totally focused on education. They were a Teachers College until in the 70s they transformed into the modern comprehensive university. Along with that came a shift in fundraising strategy, and the institution started raising more. Now, they're in the midst of a transformational campaign and like all campaigns there's more than one effort involved.

Modern campaigns now also will often include a big push in annual giving. I've had an opportunity to talk with Jillian Nelson at Illinois State University about the efforts of ISU to grow alumni giving, the number of alumni who give in any given year, and by nature of that, of course, alumni participation.

I got Jillian on the line to talk a little bit about ISU's efforts to transform donor engagement, the new things they're trying, what they've had success with, and what they think is next to engage this great group of alumni.

Philanthropy is more than money. It's more than values. It's all the other ideas and time of the things that they bring, and this is becoming more and more critical as we look at the younger generations. We spend a lot of our time in the fundraising world thinking about how we can better connect to donors, how we can make the ask better, how we can engage donors, how we can increase their passion for giving. But we're probably not spending enough time thinking about how we work, how we can work more effectively, and how we behave as leaders.

Well, Larry Johnson knows this and he's written a book called The Eight Principles, and has a really great training program and opportunities for fundraisers to really think about how they're developing as leaders. He's actually somebody who knew Stephen Covey himself and I got on the line with them to talk about The Eight Principles and how we can be better leaders in the nonprofit world.

Here's link to Larry's great book on Amazon.

And here's the 8 Principles web site.

Running your giving program strategically definitely means thinking out to start of the year, how you're going to approach donors, ask them for gifts and thank them, but it also means putting in place the infrastructure to deal with the unexpected. Missy Kennedy at UNC Wilmington is an expert at this. She's had a lot of success over the past few years engaging the entire campus community and dealing with unexpected needs and challenges that philanthropy could definitely have an impact on. I got Missy on the line to talk about her annual giving program and what she thinks is next for the agile, strategic annual giving program.

Check out UNCW at https://giving.uncw.edu/

We've just released our annual report on annual giving trends, from a survey fundraisers this year. I got on the line with Shad Hanselman, RNL's annual giving guru, to talk about the results, including what fundraisers say about:

- Usage of channels, like direct mail, phone, email, crowdfunding, giving days and online giving.

- Where fundraisers wish they were spending more time.

- What fundraisers think is best for donor acquisition, retention, and upgrade of donors.

- What's being done for young alumni engagement.

- What's next for the future of annual giving.

Download the full report here

Religious centers at our universities have been part of the student life experience for decades. What happens when the pandemic means that we can’t be next to students in the same way? Well, enterprising faith leaders come up with new ways to stay connected to their students, and to donors. Andrew Robinson, owner and president of Petrus Development, works with great faith leaders every day, and he got on the line with Matt Bond, director of development at the St. John Catholic Student Center at Oklahoma State University to talk about how they are adapting during the pandemic, and to provide advice for faith-based fundraising in 2021.

Check out Petrus Development

Check out the St. John Catholic Center at Oklahoma State University

Keeping the data on our donors, our supporters and the people that we serve secure is absolutely crucial for the success of any organization. There's really nothing that strikes fear in the heart of fundraisers or leaders at nonprofits worse than the idea of a data breach. Paul Ruffalo, who has decades of experience working in this area knows this, and I got on the line to talk with him about what's changing in the world of data security, and what he thinks organizations should be doing best to protect their data, which is one of the key pieces of treasure that donors and other supporters leave us.

RNL's Eric Billings and Kristin Demarco Carroll offer advice on #GivingTuesday now and COVID-19 funds in general. Included are discussions of AI-driven communications, setting up crowdfunding-based funds, and supporting efforts like emergency relief funds and medical research.

RNL is waiving fees for new clients through June 30 for our crowdfunding platform powered by ScaleFunder. Get in touch today to get your campaign up and running for this important day.

As we navigate uncertain times, a big question has arisen for many higher education fundraisers: What do we do with our spring or summer giving day? About half of higher education giving days are held between February and June, and they've really taken off in popularity. Many institutions rely on them for end of the year excitement, and to meet their important donor and dollar goals. In a recent RNL poll, most respondents told us that they have altered their giving day strategy due to the COVID-19 crisis.

But that doesn't mean it's time to cancel your giving day. A number of recent giving day successes have shown that it is possible to host an engaging, exciting, and even record setting giving day even in this economy and amidst the crisis. RNL's Chad Warren and I sat down (virtually) with Lola Mauer, Associate Vice President of Strategy and two time alumnae of Ball State University on their record breaking “One Ball State Day” on April 7, which eclipsed over $511,000 from nearly 5,400 donors from all 50 states.

Give a listen to our Fundraising Voices podcast to hear Lola tell us about the day, and the team's strategy going into the event.

Crypto donations have become a hot topic in philanthropy. The incredible growth in crypto token popularity and value, along some significant incentive give in order to manage taxes means we’re all going to see more crypto donors in the coming years.

And the cool thing is, these donors often work together. That’s what happened when a diverse group of donors participated in the largest charitable crowdfunding campaign ever, Constitution Dao, and raised over $40 million to bid on one of the 13 original copies of the constitution. Their representative was Endaoment, and I’m excited to welcome Robbie Heeger, President and CEO to the podcast to talk about the effort, and to get some insights into how we can embrace this growing group of entrepreneurial, social and action-focused crypto donors.

Find our more about Endaoment

Diversity, equity, inclusion and social justice are important priorities for charitable organizations. Tanya Rumble and Mariya Yurukova are passionate about the topics of diversifying our fundraising teams, and our donor base. They come at the issue from different backgrounds, and with a wealth of experience in the non-profit world. They’ve been writing and presenting on the issue significantly in the past year, and I got on a call to welcome Mariya back to the podcast, meet Tanya, and hear their great insights on key steps to take for social justice as fundraisers.

Here is a link to their article in AFP Advancing Philanthropy - Swept Under The Rug: The Issue of Diversity in Our Sector 

And also, Ring the alarm: It's 2021 and the nonprofit sector does not have a plan for engaging with diverse donors

And this great series on supporting BIPOC colleagues in the non-profit sector:

Part 1: https://lnkd.in/gBEaxiR
Part 2: https://lnkd.in/grdi6gg
Part 3: https://lnkd.in/g9A3Q5p
Part 4: https://lnkd.in/gAKvSef
Part 5: https://lnkd.in/gwQNhaJ

Alright podcast listeners, here’s a tip. If you want to get invited to be on Fundraising voices, be sure to put something like the “neuroscience of education” in your email to me. That’s what my new friends at FuelEd, who have used their experience as researchers and therapist to help educators transform their relationships with students, did. They got my attention.

I got on the line with Megan Marcus and Kelley Munger on the FuelEd team to talk about relationship-driven education, the science behind emotional intelligence, and what it means for us as we engage students and donors.

Check out FuelEd online

Check out the book, The Social Neuroscience of Education

It’s a remarkable time for healthcare philanthropy. Every day, our healthcare heroes are on the front lines of the COVID -19 pandemic. And donors of all sizes are stepping up to support them. This virus impacts entire communities, and philanthropy is part of what is going to get us through this. We wanted to hear what it’s like to be in the middle of this every day, so RNL consultant Greta Daniels and I got on the line with Allie Quick,  Chief Philanthropy Officer at the Allegheny Health Network and Beth Heiter, Director of Development at the Office of Medical Annual Giving for Johns Hopkins University Medical.

Creating a positive environment for our fundraising teams is crucial to our success. How inclusive we are, how we behave as leaders, and how we value and support members of our teams makes a big difference.

Maryann Kerr, a fundraiser with a ton of experience, has just released a groundbreaking new book, Tarnished, on this topic. It combines research, the experiences of fundraisers, and Maryann’s own story to ask key questions about how we can do better in how we treat members of our teams and networks. I got on the line with Maryann to preview the book, and get her take on how we can 'untarnish' fundraising in the future.

You can order Tarnished here.

Jim Harris, Assistant Director of Annual Giving at Ohio University joins the podcast with RNL's Theresa Jubert to talk about the power of crowdfunding to engage donors. Jim brings a wealth of experience and insights as a marketing and communications expert.

Ohio U set records for alumni engagement last year, and one part of that was the creation of Bobcats Give, launching with 16 initial campaigns.

Check out Bobcats Give at Ohio University, powered by RNL ScaleFunder.

Katrina VanHuss at Turnkey is transforming peer to peer philanthropic engagement. In this conversation, we talk about the psychology of peer to peer donors, technology and strategy that can maximize peer engagement, and what we think is next for peer to peer fundraising.

Check out TurnKey at: https://www.turnkeyp2p.com/

Mazarine Treyz is a coach, speaker and best selling author of “The Wild Woman’s Guide to Fundraising”, serving people in over 70 different countries. Besides writing over 1,000 articles at wildwomanfundraising.com and offering classes, conferences and training, she's a regular speaker at big conferences and events.

She's the author of "Get the Job: Your Fundraising Empowerment Blog."Get the Job! Your Fundraising Career Empowerment Guide"

In our chat, we cover topics like the world for women in fundraising, career strategy, developing leadership skills, and getting the resources you need to be successful.

Check out Mazarine's blog and resources at Wild Woman Fundraising

Matching gifts can increase an annual giving total in the range of 10% and also can really help boost major gifts. But it’s a challenging time right now. I was wondering, are companies pulling back on this support during the challenges of this health crisis and economic slowdown? Teddy Callow at HEPData reports that corporate social responsibility through matching gifts are an important part of the philanthropic response to the crisis and numerous companies have increased their matches.

This Fundraising Voices podcast features provocative fundraising expert Jason Lewiss, CFRE, author of The War for Fundraising Talent. Jason and host Brian Gawor discuss:

• Challenging the assumptions we have about what it takes to be a successful fundraiser.
• What’s happening in small and large shops to recruit and retain top fundraising talent.
• What you can do as a fundraiser to become better, and advance your career.
• What’s next for 21st fundraisers looking to engage new and diverse donor populations.

Get the War for Fundraising Talent book here.

And check out Jason at Responsive Fundraising.

Our guest: Jason Lewis, CFRE, Founder of Responsive Fundraising

Jason Lewis is willing to question deeply engrained beliefs and assumptions about how effective fundraising really works.  Whether writing or speaking, Jason challenges the prevailing wisdom about effective fundraising practices, hiring decisions, and donor behavior. In the last two decades, Jason has raised millions of dollars for a variety of non-profit organizations throughout the United States. He has been certified and re-certified as a Certified Fundraising Executive and recognized as a member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals’ Master Trainers. Jason earned his MS in Nonprofit Management at Eastern University in 2010 and in 2014 graduated from the College of Executive Coaching. Jason also hosts the Fundraising Talent podcast where he features the voices of top fundraising professionals.

How do we get more people interested in fundraising as a profession? It’s a key question we’re trying to answer, as we struggle to fill positions, engage donors, and take advantage of the tremendous interpersonal talents of a rising millennial generation. I came across a book that is quite different than anything we’re used to reading about fundraisers.

What happens when you go from rocker to fundraiser, and go all in on philanthropy? Mitch linker, author of No One Dreams of Being a Fundraiser: My Unexpected Journey from Music to Major Gifts can tell us. I got Mitch on the line to talk about his book, his journey, and how we can get more unlikely candidates interested in our profession.

You can find the book on Amazon.

Getting over the fear of asking by just doing it, finding coaches, and staying with an organization long enough to learn about the donors are all great steps on your path to becoming a better fundraiser. Mitch’s passion and insights for our profession are incredible, even if he came to the job in a bit of a non-traditional way.

Well, come to think of it, who does dream of being a fundraiser? Probably no one. But for those of us who stick with it, and as Mitch says, go all in, find out that our jobs are a dream. We get to work with great people, see transformational giving, and the impact of our work on the people our charities serve. So I say, dream on fundraisers, and if you see someone you think might be great, take them in and give them a shot. It’s time for us to look in different places for the next generation of fundraisers.

Chris Collins, Vice President for Development at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, talks about engaging donors during the COVID pandemic, the impact of generous gifts to fuel vaccine research, and what's special about working to support a higher education and healthcare partnership.

If you're running a non-profit or a fundraising program, you're a juggler. Keeping all the balls in the air is tough, and only tougher in times of crisis. Sarah Olivieri at PivotGround knows this, and she's created a system that helps leaders find confidence, clarity and create the same in supporters. Check out our conversation to hear more.

Sarah Olivieri is a nonprofit business strategist, #1 International Best Selling author, and former Executive Director. She has been featured on over 50 podcasts and is the creator of the Impact Method™ - a framework that helps nonprofits simplify their operations, build aligned teams, and make a bigger impact without getting overwhelmed or burning out.

Check out PivotGround to hear more about the Impact Method.

Fundraisers and alumni relations professionals are increasingly working together. As we’ve said before, it’s about treating alumni as more than walking ATMs--and truly investing in the value of a lifetime experience with our supporters.

Gary Toyn, senior researcher at Access Development, and one of the creators of the VAESE survey of alumni relations professionals, joins the podcasts to break down the trends, challenges and opportunities for alumni engagement in 2021.

Check out some of Gary’s blogs

Get the results of the latest VAESE survey

Sara Wald from North Dakota State University and Eric Gentry from Northern Kentucky University join RNL's Chad Warren to talk about the incredible support for student emergency funds amidst the COVID-19 (coronavirus) crisis.

We talk about:

- Establishing a fund
- How to market a fund and seek support
- How to get a fund up quickly using platforms like RNL Crowdfunding powered by ScaleFunder
- How funds bring a campus and donors together to meet immediate needs.

NDSU's Student Emergency Fund

NKU's Student Emergency Fund

We're offering free access to RNL Crowdfunding through June 30 and we've seen over $3 million in donations since the crisis began. Contact us today to get on board and use this powerful tool to engage your donors, who want to help.

Crowdfunding is a great way to capture new donors. This socially-connected and optimized online giving platform is now in use by over half of higher education institutions for fundraising in one form or another. We’ve released our 2018 Crowdfunding Index, which reviews over 5,000 charitable crowdfunding campaigns on the RNL ScaleFunder platform, with combined giving of $73 Million. I got on the line with RNL crowdfunding expert Mary Grace Baldo to review the data, and talk about key trends and what’s next for this great way to engage donors.

Download the full Index here

Crowdfunding now has wide adoption, and we’re seeing some great things as institutions further include crowdfunding into their overall giving strategy. The technology has come a long way, and can integrate directly into your current gift processing and stewardship plans. And when you look at the stats for first-year crowdfunding programs, the ROI can be really great.

You’re going to want a partner who understands how to implement the technology across all your channels, so your crowdfunding program becomes an integrated part of how you talk with donors for annual giving, special projects, and even major gift campaigns. We were the early adopters of charitable crowdfunding here at RNL, and we have years of experience to help you be successful. Give us call and get a demo of what RNL crowdfunding, powered by ScaleFunder, can do for you.

As fundraising leaders, we have an important commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion in how we channel philanthropy. The national focus on social justice has caused many of us to think critically about where the money comes from, where it's going, and how our actions as leaders build an environment for inclusion with both donors and the recipients of charity.

This conversation with Christina Hall of California State University, Long Beach, and Farzana Nayani. an acclaimed DEI consultant and educator began when Christina sent me a chat message during our recent Advancement Innovation Summit. In the podcast, we unpack the "why" of DEI efforts in advancement, how you actually get started, and the important role that uncomfortable conversations have in moving us forward.

Check out Farzana at her site: farzananayni.com

Investing in your students, while they are still on campus, is crucial to your advancement mission. Research tells us that philanthropy is a learned behavior, and your students also have a lot to offer in engaging donors directly and authentically.

Jessica Elmore is Associate Director of Diversity Programs for the Kansas State University Alumni Association. She’s passionate about engaging a diverse group of students to help further the University, and that’s why she’s also chairing the CASE Diversity and Student Advancement Seminar, online, October 15-20.

RNL is excited to sponsor this special event. Hear Jessica break down the power of an inclusive student advancement program and what you'll hear more of at the Seminar.

Register today for the CASE Diversity and Student Advancement Seminar.

Strong use of data is the cornerstone of any great fundraising program. The best programs take this to the next level, moving from descriptive to predictive – actually guiding gift officers and annual giving appeals to the donors who seem the most ready. Making this transition can be daunting. So today, we’ll talk with one of the authors of a new book, Data Science for Fundraising, building data-driven solutions using R. Ashutosh Nandeshwar is a fundraising data veteran, and a thought leader in this important emerging field. The book is part introduction to new data techniques and an in depth hands on manual to get started. Whether you’re the geek who will be manipulating the data or just interested in how this new way of thinking can transform your fundraising, he’s a great source of insight.

You can find the book here:

www.nandeshwar.info/ds4fundraising

Ashutosh's website:

www.nandeshwar.info

In our recent surveys of over 3,000 fundraisers, fully three quarters told us that they don’t feel like they are using data in the best way possible. This extends to annual giving, major and planned giving, as we try to harness our massive databases to provide better, more personalized appeals.

As Ashutosh and I discussed, this isn’t just the best way to fundraise—it’s better for donors, and uses their time and attention efficiently and with the highest impact. If you’re ready to roll up your sleeves and get into the data, Ashutosh and Roger’s book is a great tool.

Data-driven fundraising is a big focus here at RNL, and we’ve launched new products which do what we’ve discussed in this podcast –taking fundraising into the 21st century. If you’re ready to provide a more personal experience to donors and transform your fundraising, drop us a line. We’re ready to help.

I’m excited to bring back on today’s episode Brady Josephson, managing director of the NextAfter institute. He spends his days conducting experiments, tests and looking deep into the data of donor response to see how we can do a better job communicating with and spurring action from our supporters. We cover what he's seeing as organizations reach out during the COVID-19 pandemic. Thinking critically about all aspects of your appeals is crucial – and testing and experimenting is a big part of challenging the norm and doing a better job with how we convert donors to action is really important right now. We unpack the fundamentals of how any organization can do that right away.

Check out NextAfter and their library of experiments.

Over 30 years ago, Al Ruffalo wanted to help colleges and universities, and he gave it a try. What came of his efforts, and the efforts of the people who were part of those initial experiments, was the modern college and university phone outreach program, which has raised billions of dollars.

It's also been a lifeline of real, honest to goodness conversations between students and alumni for the past three decades. This work is obviously changing, and the company that Al and company built has changed, now encompassing a whole suite of tech-enabled data driven programs that serve both fundraising and enrollment goals.

But the mission to make a personal connection and to make every college and university part of the family hasn't changed as the company transformed into the modern Ruffalo Noel Levitz. I got my friend Al on the line to talk about his journey and what he thinks is next for higher education donor and student engagement.

We have the winners of the 2018 March (Alumni Giving) Madness tournament!

This tournament is our fun way to determine the top alumni giving institutions for higher education fundraising. We took the institutions in this year's men's and women's NCAA Basketball Tournaments, analyzed their alumni giving statistics, and determined the two top institutions for alumni giving.

In this podcast, we break down the results, methodology and talk about how to amplify alumni giving for your institution.

Every year, the Nonprofit Research Collaborative puts out two big surveys to track trends in giving. Organized around 15 different fundraising methods, it’s one of the most comprehensive surveys around. The Winter 2018  Nonprofit Fundraising study report is just out, and shows that most charities are doing better through the end of the calendar year. I got on the line with Melissa Brown from the Non Profit Research Collaborative and Aggie Sweeney from Giving USA to go over the results and talk about what they think is next for nonprofit fundraising.

Download the latest report here

The Nonprofit Research Collaborative and Giving USA are great resources to track trends in fundraising. Melissa and Aggie had great insights about how wealth demographics and donor engagement are changing our work. Head on over to npresearch.org to download the most recent research. And stay tuned in June for the always important Giving USA annual report.

Tracking trends is a key part of fundraising strategy. And we’re doing this every day at RNL. If you’d like to apply the latest trends to your fundraising strategy, drop us a line. We’re ready to help.

Find out more:

npresearch.org

GivingUSA.org

Making sure your books are clean, and that you can account for how gift resources were driven to your cause is a key part of engaging donors. We talk with with Tosha Anderson, founder of the Charity CFO, about what good non-profit and charitable accounting looks like, how it's more than just numbers, and how we can best serve supporters who want transparency and accountability.

The Charity CFO

It’s one thing to talk about access to education, and it’s another thing to live it, to make transformative change for a diverse and global population of students. Tanya Ramos, CEO of of Pencils of Promise, is doing just that. I got her on the line to talk about the mission of Pencils of Promise, how they’ve supported the building of over 500 schools worldwide, and how we can lead as philanthropic innovators in this challenging time. Here’s our conversation.

Tanya offers some great advice – focusing on relationships, getting current with the newest tech, and demonstrating impact-- maybe even hands on. All will increase the response and loyalty of donors. And Tanya shares how providing clear goals and milestones to new advancement leaders that you bring on board is a key way to recruit top, diverse talent, and to keep it. The challenging times we’re facing have impacted education across the globe, and It’s great to hear what Pencils of Promise is accomplishing.

Find out more about Pencils of Promise

Read Tanya’s great job posting

Making a strategic plan for your donor outreach that encompasses all levels of donors is really important. With resources tightening, that strategy has high stakes now more than ever. Our RNL consultants have been working on a daily basis with partners facing these challenges. One of them is Jay Finney, who has been doing this for decades across a wide range of charities. Jay grew up around philanthropy, and for decades now has helped organizations craft donor outreach strategy. I got on the line with Jay to talk about crafting a strategic engagement strategy, how to look at ROI, and the best ways to move forward with a tight or uncertain budget.

There's no doubt that applying for and getting grants is a key priority for your organization. Shavonn Richardson at Think and Ink Grant Consulting has made it her mission to help nonprofits, especially those who are serving diverse communities, to maximize their grant success. I got on the line with Shavonn to talk about the environment for grant seeking in 2021, how to get it right and succeed, and how these resources impact our crucial goals of equity, inclusion and social justice.

Check out Think and Ink Grant Consulting online.

Our boards, who give us advice, guidance and often, big gifts, are an important area of support in our advancement efforts. But we're not doing great with diversity on our boards. Just 22% of board members nationwide coming from underrepresented backgrounds. We have work to do. GHJ and the GHJ Foundation have been hard at work on this issue, and we got on the line with Donella Wilson and Derrick Coleman from GHK to talk about key strategies to build an inclusive and engaged board.

Find out more about the GHJ Foundation

Meet Derrick Coleman

Meet Donella Wilson

Planned giving is crucial to securing the long-term future of your organization. But to many fundraisers, it's mysterious, scary and something they shy away from. Lori Kranczer from Everyday Planned Giving unpacks why fundraisers shouldn't be afraid of planned giving, and how to work gift planning into just about every conversation. We also talk about shifts fundraisers are making during COVID to address planned giving.

Find our more about Everyday Planned Giving at everydayplannedgiving.com

What would you do if you were lucky enough to come into a bit of money? Buy an expensive car? A big house? Or would you do something more people are considering -- start a family foundation and try to make a difference in the world? Well, that's what Suzanne Skees and the Skees Family Foundation have done. But they're doing it differently. With over 40 family members involved (some younger than 8 years old) and unrestricted grants to charities across the globe, they have something different and special. Suzanne's just released My Job #2, a book that spotlights the stories of people whose lives are changing all over the world, and I got her on the line to talk about the Foundation, how the family works together, and the power of storytelling.

You can get your copy of My Job (both editions) at: myjobstories.org.

And find out more about the Skees Family Foundation, including their blog at: skees.org

In a world where we compete with spammers, scammers, and all kinds of causes contacting our supporters, it's become harder to get donors to pick up the phone. Great new solutions, including advanced whitelisting of numbers and visual caller ID can really help. You now have the ability for your organization's logo and even a call to action display on many mobile devices when the call comes in. And combining this calling with other channels like text, personalized video and integrated email really increases ROI. Shad Hanselman provides an overview of these solutions, and their impact.

Join RNL's Josh Robertson, Dayna Carpenter, Chris Bingley, Shad Hanselman and Greta Daniels as we talk about what the health crisis means for donor engagement, as well as our immediate and future strategy.

Find more resources at:

https://www.ruffalonl.com/category/fundraising/

And join our COVID-19 Higher Education LinkedIn group.

And if you would like to utilize the RNL ScaleFunder platform at no cost through June to put up mobile-optimized campaigns for your supporters, let us know here.

We recorded this podcast panel discussion the afternoon of Monday, March 16, just following the declaration of the national health emergency.

Having a good relationship between your marketing department, and your advancement division is absolutely crucial. Michael Stoner, co-founder, and president of mStoner Incorporated knows this, and he's completed some research recently showing how this relationship can really propel the results of an advancement division’s ability to engage donors. I got on the line with Michael to talk a little bit about his history in higher education marketing and what he sees next for the integration of communications to donors.

Check out this article on Michael's research here at Inside Higher Education

Find out more about mStoner at: https://www.mstoner.com/

For a long time now, annual giving programs have utilized matching gift programs from corporate sponsors as a great way to increase their fundraising totals. You can, generally speaking, increase your results by about 10% just by engaging corporate partners who have matching gift programs available to your alumni and other supporters. I got on the phone with Teddy Callow at HEPData, one of the premier providers of matching gift data and resources to talk about how you can best engage donors in corporations so that you're the one who gets chosen for this important philanthropic opportunity.

Find out more great info from HEPData at: HEPData.com

And Contact Us at RNL for HEP-integrated services like those that support you phonathon and student philanthropy centers through CAMPUSCALL integration.

Marc A. Pitman, CSP®, The Fundraising Coach, joins the podcast to talk about how we've all adapted this year, the power of investing in your personal development, and key things fundraisers need to do as we transform donor engagement going forward.

Marc says: It's about finding your unique style. His new book, "The Surprising Gift of Doubt," challenges the ways we look at fundraising. Marc says, the questions you're asking may be as important as the answers. We're pulled in many directions as fundraisers, and our doubts tell us things about how we can best engage donors.

Find our more about Marc at FundraisingCoach.com

Telling your organization's story - and your personal story, is key to connecting with supporters. Who could be better to help us do that then a former standup comedian turned professional storytelling consultant for major non-profits? Carlos Maestas, Founder & Chief Storysmith @ Key Ideas, and author of Mommy Lied to God joins the podcast to talk about how you can best tell your authentic story to engage greater support.

How do you reach the right donor at the right time with the right message? Advanced, predictive and prescriptive analytics can help you do that. Harnessing the data you have, with data available out there in the world can help you maximize your ROI, and provide a better donor experience. Don't worry if it sounds confusing - RNL's Josh Robertson breaks it down and shares what RNL Advanced Analytics can do for your results.

In the face of tragedy, we all want to do something. That's the case for Susie Harder, a speech pathologist whose community was changed forever by the California wildfires. So, after she donated, she started on something new - to both help kids with the healing process and to raise more funds to support them. The result is the Junior Authors program, where kids make a book, voting on each component. This is a great example of the shift to what we're calling "participatory philanthropy," where people do along with their giving. Susie describes this new way to contribute, and why it's been successful.

You can find out more about the Junior Authors program and see examples at their web site.

Industry estimates tell us that the average American receives at least 500 marketing messages a day, and 100 of them are digital. Modern charitable outreach contends with a lot of noise. And it’s hard to break through.

Chris Knudson at Wartburg College knows this, and he’s doing a great job connecting with supporters in an authentic way. He’s also done something great and stepped up as the chair of next year’s CASE VI conference. I connected with him at this year’s conference in Kansas City and we talked about marketing, brand strategy, and also why he volunteers for CASE. Check out this live episode recorded right at the conference with audience questions.

Wartburg College

CASE VI

CASE Conferences and Training

Wartburg College

Making sure that your major and planned giving fundraisers are productive is a key part of raising transformational gifts for your organization. In the second year of our major and planned giving productivity survey, we explore these issues, find out what major and gift officers think about predictive analytics, wealth ratings, and how they're able to qualify donors at scale. I got on the line with Josh Robertson to talk about the results of our second survey on major and planned giving productivity.

You can download the full report here.

So, if you're trying to have success in your major and planned giving program, who you're talking to is only part of the issue. The systems you use to help your gift officers really connect, to listen, and to engage donors are crucial in reaching your aspirational fundraising goals. If you'd like to take your major and planned giving program to the next level, drop us a line here at RNL. We're ready to help.

Working with major donors to ignite their passion to give is the #1 to transform your organization. Richard Perry and Jeff Schreifels know this, and talk in this episode about what's changing with major giving, and how to provide gift officers the tools to connect with the best major and planned giving donors.

Check out Veritus Group at veritusgroup.com

Video rules in today’s communication landscape. Whether it’s powerful video for a campaign launch, educational video to help boost awareness of what you’re doing, or even personal videos we can now make and deliver quickly to supporters, fundraisers and non profits need a strong video strategy.

We’re in a world where Tik Tok and YouTube are the primary social currency, and if you’re not investing in video, you’re way behind the curve. I got on the line with Doug Scott at Tectonic, a company that works with great non-profits to produce powerful videos, to get his take on how this medium is changing, and the key things non-profit leaders need to do maximize their impact through video.

Check out Tectonic at Tectonic.video

There is no denying that higher education campaigns have been transformative. These comprehensive efforts help us build buildings, fund scholarships and even boost current use support. And they are growing. It’s more and more common for us to see campaign totals exceeding 1 billion. Almost every institution is either in or thinking about a campaign.

So we wanted to know what fundraisers feel about the future of campaigns in higher education. We surveyed almost 600 fundraisers and got their opinions about what is working and they key challenges to campaign success. I got on the line with RNL expert Caryn Stein to break down the results of this latest edition in our Advancement Leaders Speak series.

Download the full report here

We know from the survey that you are either in a campaign or working on starting one soon. A few things we learned from this survey: fundraisers do expect campaigns to increase their advancement budgets. But they are under big pressure for big totals, and unless we can think a bit differently, those resources may not be enough. It’s time to reinvent fundraising, and how you organize your campaign, using the best tools and data-driven technology, will make all the difference. That’s what we’re focused on here at RNL, so if you’re ready to take you campaign to the next level give us a call. We’re ready to help.

Can we raise money in this challenging time? Well, many of our bigger donors have more cash right now, quite a few have seen investments balloon, and the need is very great.

Gail Perry spends her time helping fundraisers and non-profit leaders. And she thinks we should look at it differently.

It's not about a better "pitch." Sometimes, we just need to get out of our own way, maximize our use of emotional intelligence, the right metrics, and focus on the joy of giving for donors.

We unpack what's going on right now in the midst of a pandemic, the best ways that fundraisers can engage donors, and how philanthropy is thriving at a time we need it the most.

Find our more about Gail Perry's Fired Up Fundraising at GailPerry.com

We have a lot of work to do in diversifying our teams, and truly supporting professionals from diverse backgrounds. Nneka Allen, Co-editor and Author of Collecting Courage: Joy, Pain, Freedom, Love and Birgit Smith Burton from Georgia Tech joined the podcast to discuss this important topic. They’ve assembled the experiences of diverse professionals, in their own voices, in this incredible book. They share some takeaways, and talk about how we can do better to embrace diversity, equity, inclusion and social justice in our advancement work.

Find out more about Collecting Courage and get a copy

The African American Development Officers (AADO) Network

We're changing things up a little bit here on the podcast. On this episode we hear from Emma Gawor and Sofia Bermejo, two daughters of RNL parents who had their college lives totally changed as their campuses responded to COVID-19. They're highly connected to their friends, they communicate at light speed, and they have a lot of insights on how this pandemic is impacting their education. They've been uprooted from their friends, but they're still doing homework, exams, group projects and now juggling life in social distancing. They're using everything from Zoom to Club Penguin to stay connected. They will be different students and different alumni after this. Hear what they have to say about college life in the health crisis.

The Crowdfunding and Giving Day Index presents insights and results from 6,116 charitable crowdfunding projects totaling more than $105 million in giving.

Charitable crowdfunding has become the premier peer-to-peer online giving opportunity.

The report includes key results and benchmarks such as:

• The types of campaigns institutions run, their average results by type, and the average duration
• Metrics for first-year results for campuses running their first crowdfunding campaigns
• The most popular terms used in naming crowdfunding campaigns
• The impact of custom giving pages for evergreen giving
• 8 best practices based on these results

Eric Billings and Brian Gawor from RNL review the results and talk about key practices for success with charitable crowdfunding.

Download the full report here

And request a demo of RNL ScaleFunder today, and let the RNL experts show you how these key tactics can amplify your success!

How do you provide service to your donors or alumni at 3:00 AM in the morning? Or get them answers to their questions about giving, reunions, projects or even planned giving in real time? An AI chatbot may your answer. On this episode, our "designated millennials" Peter Christian and Quinn McGourty-Holland teach Brian Gawor how to make a chatbot work, including followup campaigns through Facebook Messenger integration.

If you want a demo of the chatbot, get in touch with us today at ContactUs@RuffaloNL.com

RNL's AJ Pennington offers insights from two decades of experience in talent management. AJ offers advice on how to assemble and submit a good application, key tips for the application process, and what it's like to work at RNL.

Check out the latest job postings at RNL

Greg Warner at MarketSmart is known for challenging the norm. In this conversation, we talk about the best ways to find major and planned giving donors. Spoiler alert: it's not moves management, or relentlessly sending gift officers at them. We talk about the value of engagement, crafting a great donor experience, and how data is changing the way we work with donors.

Check out MarketSmart at imarketsmart.com

That thing we used to call phonathon has changed. It’s now about engagement, and the place where that happens is the engagement center. Every day, hundreds of locations across the US and Canada (with a lot of remote activity too), fuels the philanthropic outreach for great institutions. And the people driving the engagement are our engagement center managers, who organize texting, video, calling and other outreach with student engagement ambassadors.

We got four of these rockstar fundraising engineers on the line to talk about what it’s like to run a modern engagement center, and tech-enabled engagement program. Here’s the conversation with David Fullenwiley, Lucy Heady, Savannah Lammers, and Joe Arra who are right on the front lines.

A job where you get to be part of a couple of teams, motivate young people, use data, new technology, and all for a good cause? We always have ECM positions available, across the country.

So, if you or someone you know is up for this sort of challenge, check it out. It could be the next step in a great career with challenge and purpose. Head over to RuffaloNL.com and check out these and other great positions, and maybe join the team. We’ll be watching for your application.

Americans are generous, but who wants to give of their time and who wants to give money? What are the similarities of those that give one or both? What are the differences? And how can nonprofit organizations engage them?

Newport One, along with some other top industry experts, surveyed over 2,000 donors prior to the pandemic, and gained some insights into how and why people help others through giving.

I got on the line with Craig DePole, president of Newport One, to unpack the survey and what it uncovers for key personas in our giving base.

Download the survey here.

Emotion—it’s a key part of fundraising, and definitely impacts the response we receive from donors. We don’t talk about emotion in fundraising enough, really. We’re usually more concerned with what segment we’re calling or mailing or what we need to tell donors. We don’t often think about how donors feel when we reach out to them.

Francesco Ambrogetti has a long career as an international fundraiser, and his groundbreaking book Emotionraising: How to astonish, disturb, seduce and convince the brain to support good causes, really gets at this issue.

He’s combined the best concepts in emotive response, including research in neuroscience and psychology, to provide some great examples and tips for fundraisers. I got Francesco on the line to lay out a few of the concepts and tell us what he thinks them mean for the future of fundraising.

Emotionraising, and the concepts introduced by Francesco Ambrogetti in this provocative and insightful book, could just be what your fundraising campaign needs. The science of emotional response is important to your success. As fundraisers, we shouldn’t be afraid to investigate and embrace this new research and try it out on our appeals.

You can find Emotionraising at Amazon.

Community Colleges are a key social, economic and educational engine in our communities. Jody Donaldson knows this and that's why she's dedicated to advancing Kirkwood Community College. I sat down with Jody live at this year's CASE VI conference to talk about community college donor engagement, her advice for working with a community of supporters, and how these special institutions help our communities.

Find out more about the Kirkwood Foundation's work here.

Shira and Jay Ruderman from the Ruderman Family Foundation join the podcast to talk about their efforts to advance a more inclusive society. The Ruderman Family Foundation has dedicated the past two decades to enhancing awareness of, and providing programming and services in, the field of disability inclusion. And they are growing to support more needs. Jay and Shira connected to talk about how the make funding decisions, how you can best engage a foundation, what happens when a foundation speaks up on key issues, and what they see coming for the future of philanthropy.

The Ruderman Family Foundation

Jay’s Podcast: All Inclusive with Jay Ruderman

Your high end donor prospects invest in experiences. This is true both in how they give to charities and how they spend their leisure time. Adam Capes knows this and he's pioneered a new way to engage high end donors with luxury experiences that also make a difference.

Check out Getaway2Give here.

In the 21st century your top donors are much more willing to invest in experiences than stuff. What Adam's figured out is that having a memorable experience as part of a donation is really crucial to engaging a longterm interest of your donors. This donor experience is crucial to everything that we do here at Ruffalo Noel Levitz. If you're ready to take your donor experience to the next level, get in touch with us. We're ready to help.

Alumni participation: It's a key statistic that we all know is very important. It helps drive rankings and it's also evidence to suggest that we're really getting through to donors.

Participation something that we all think about, but we're not really great in talking about. That's because it's been declining over the last 30 years at American higher education. Overall, generally speaking, alumni are just less likely to give to their alma maters.

Dan Frezza at William & Mary is looking at things a little differently. He's accepted a challenge to grow alumni participation over the next few years and break this trend. I got on the line with Dan to talk about alumni participation, what the strategy at William & Mary involves and how he's going to change things and how they plan to engage more alumni to give every year.

Over three quarters of higher education institutions use the phone in some way to reach out to donors each year. At the biggest programs, this amounts to a student caller phonathon, which contacts thousands of alumni, parents and friends.

These phonathons or telefunds can generate millions in support, not to mention great conversations which build the relationship with a donor.

We’ve just released the RNL Phonathon index, looking at 93 phonathon programs from 2014 to 2017, with over $300M in pledges.

We uncover some of the key trends and best practices in phonathon programs and make suggestions about how to take your phonathon to the next level. You can download the full index at RuffaloNL.com today. I got on the line with podcast pal Josh Robertson, a fellow phonathon veteran, to break down the results and talk about what’s next for this key donor contact channel.

Chances are, if you’re doing the same thing you’ve been doing with your phonathon for years, you’re probably not getting what you could out of the channel. This channel deserves the best you can offer in terms of strategy and technology.  As the only truly scalable personal conversation channel in higher education fundraising, phonathons can have a lot of value. But only if you do them smartly, in a data-driven and focused manner. As Josh mentions, it depends on your goals, but you can craft a solid 21st century phone strategy, as these 93 institutions show.

So, if you want to take your phonathon to the next level, drop us a line here at RNL. We have a team of experts ready to help.

Digital Engagement – it’s important for any fundraiser, especially those of us who want to engage younger donors. Whether it’s targeted digital advertising, social media, or great new methods like crowdfunding and online giving days, we have a great menu of options. But we hear from fundraisers that they haven’t always been able to really optimize their digital outreach. So we wanted to know more...

We are about to release part four of our series Advancement Leaders Speak, and this edition is the results of a survey and conversations with advancement professionals about how they are doing digital outreach, and how they feel they connecting to young alumni and young donors.

I got on the line with Caryn Stein, one of our top digital experts, to go through the results.

You can download the full report here.

It’s great to hear that ¾ of fundraisers feel that digital communications are effective. But with only one fifth of fundraisers using these communications as part of a defined young alumni campaign, it’s not surprising that we’ve seen giving participation really lag with Millennials. As Caryn suggests, the solution is to get more personal, and harness the power of digital.

The right message to the right donor at the right time, that’s what we’re shooting for. And if we can get our multichannel game in gear, we can really transform fundraising.

We’d love to tell you about how we’re having success with RNL partners doing just that. If you’re ready to transform your digital donor outreach, give us a call. We’re ready to talk.

Janice Cunning at FundraisingLeadership.org talks with us about investing in yourself as a leader, including with coaching, to help build and retain high performing teams, navigate challenge, and transform your organization.

Find our more about Janice and Fundraising Leadership here.

Giving Days – Campaigns that focus a groundswell of donations to a specific day, have really made a splash in the fundraising world. Using online portals that track donations as they come in, as well as offering challenges, match donations and real excitement for donors, giving days have been a game changer.

We’ve just published a new study on how giving days can transform your fundraising. The RNL Giving Day Index looks at over $32 million in giving to answer key questions about average donations, campaign totals and donor counts, as well as the impact of volunteer ambassadors. You can download the full study at RuffaloNL.com right now to see how your giving day stacks up.

I got on the line with my podcast pal Josh Robertson to unpack the results and talk about what they mean for your giving day success.

As Josh explains, giving days are one of the best opportunities to get donors excited and to build a sense of urgency around giving. Outside of calendar or fiscal year end, they’re really the only other option to answer the key question “why give now.” And giving days do this simply, with the answer – because everyone else is doing it.

In order to have a successful giving day, you need the right technology and a provider who knows how these complex campaigns work. With RNL Giving Days, powered by the ScaleFunder platform, we’ve integrated the best technology to make donors feel comfortable giving to YOUR institution, and make it easy. It’s important to integrate giving from all channels in your platform. We’ve also implemented key donor engagement tools like heat maps, challenges, matches, and leader boards to make it fun. Contact us today to see how RNL Giving Days can help take your special event to the next level.

One of the world’s top giving expert, Dr. Russell James from Texas Tech University joins MarketSmart’s Greg Warner to give a rundown on how some of the key research on donor decisions impacts our work as fundraisers.

A key goal in our donor engagement is tell the donor’s story, or better yet: let the donors tell their own story. Research shows that this is a key component in increasing giving, and it provides greater joy and a better donor experience.

Dr. James has a new book series out that explores these concepts. You can find out more at:

https://imarketsmart.com/donorstory