The Build Good Fundraising Podcast (BuildGood.com)

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Monthly donors...we all want more of them! Today we're going to hear how Greenpeace Canada uses a simple email strategy to grow monthly giving. And the good news is: you can do this, too!

Greenpeace Canada focuses on using open and honest emails as a core strategy to ask people who have signed petitions to consider becoming a monthly donor. And in just two years, they've grown monthly giving by over 330%, which is amazing.

To tell us how they did it, we're talking to Miriam Wilson, who leads digital fundraising and donor engagement at Greenpeace Canada. 

This is a really practical conversation, and I hope you leave encouraged by the fact that there is a low cost strategy to grow your monthly giving that nonprofits of any size can implement at any time.

Today we’ll cover:

[2:40] - How email conversions compare to other channels    

[7:55] - Greenpeace's schedule for asking for monthly donors via email    

[13:44} - Greenpeace's asking of prospects and first time givers    

[18:21] - Crafting an effective monthly giving offer    

[24:07] - Greenpeace’s 5 segments for email: strategy and segmentation    

[39:31] - Miriam's encouragement for nonprofit fundraisers and leaders    

Get connected:
You can find out more about Miriam and Greenpeace on her LinkedIn profile. Please consider subscribing to, rating, or sharing the BuildGood Podcast on your preferred platform. You can do that by clicking here. 

To learn more about how BuildGood can help you raise more money from individual donors, and take advantage of our free resources, visit buildgood.com.

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Is your nonprofit profitable? Do you plan to run a surplus every year? When you cost out projects for funders or donors, do you include a profit margin?

If that sounds like something you would like to do, but struggle to do, today's episode is for you. Because we’re not talking about generating more revenue—we’re talking about how to keep more of your revenue, using Profit First.

Simply put, Profit First is an easy method of distributing your income into different bank accounts that are designated for different purposes.

Mike Michalowicz, founder of Profit First and author of a book by the same name, joins us on the podcast today to walk through how you can implement Profit First at your nonprofit. So you can invest for the future growth of your organization.

LINKS 

• Get Mike's book Profit First at https://profitfirstbook.com/
• Sign up for our FREE video mini-course on creating effective fundraising messages at https://www.5minutefundraisingfix.com/

ABOUT BUILDGOOD

Your fundraising team is maxed out. 

If you ask them to create appeals and newsletters that reliably bring in more donations… how will they have time to steward donors and build meaningful relationships?

Our done-for-you fundraising services help you avoid ignoring—and disappointing—donors. So you can raise more money, and do more good.

If you want your direct mail, newsletters, emails and landing pages created by a team of fundraising experts for less than the price of an employee, schedule a call at buildgood.com.

Send us a text

Would you like to acquire,  keep and upgrade new donors online? And do it all using marketing automation? 

It's possible—by building a digital fundraising factory. And it's not as complicated as you might think.

Today on the show, we're talking to Dutch fundraising expert Ewald Verhoog on how to build a digital revenue engine from the ground up. 

Ewald is the author of "The almost definitive book about DIGITAL FUNDRAISING', the step by step method to double your individual income."

The book details a blueprint on how to grow your fundraising by 1% per week—which means you can double revenue every 72 weeks. And on today's podcast, Ewald walks us through the framework. 

You can get the book for free (plus shipping) right here: https://www.fundraising.love/homepage16287651338191631997541708

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➡️ Join our FREE training on how to create compelling fundraising messaging that leads donors to action and raises more money, from more people, more often—simply by changing the words you use: https://www.5minutefundraisingfix.com/register 

🔔Follow the Build Good Fundraising Podcast on your favourite podcast app—and never miss a new episode: https://buildgood.com/category/podcast/ 

❤️ And if you haven't yet, subscribed to our Youtube channel for more fundraising videos and actionable strategies that will help you grow your revenue and : 

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Interested in  working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit?

BuildGood is a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. Let our team of experts create your fundraising appeals, emails and newsletters for you, and reclaim the time to do the thing only YOU can do: build genuine, human, personal relationships with your donors. 

You’ll add proven expertise to your team. You’ll benefit from tested and proven strategies that will make you more money. And you’ll have peace of mind that you’re putting your best foot forward with your fundraising. 

➡️ For more information, go here: www.buildgood.com 

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Have you ever run a phonathon? 

They're a tried-and-true way of engaging donors and raising money, especially for higher education institutions.

However, running a successful phonathon in-house is no easy task.

That's why on this weeks' show, we're talking to an OG phonathon strategist, Clinton Crow from LEAD Philanthropy. 

Clinton signed up to make phone calls at Alma Matter College when he was a student—and was named the school’s top student caller four years in a row. 

He’s never stopped calling since, and today he’s helped hundreds of organizations run their own phonathons, including PBS stations and museums.

You can find out more about Clinton and LEAD Philanthropy right here: https://www.leadphilanthropy.com/

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➡️ Join our FREE training on how to create compelling fundraising messaging that leads donors to action and raises more money, from more people, more often—simply by changing the words you use: https://www.5minutefundraisingfix.com/register 

🔔Follow the Build Good Fundraising Podcast on your favourite podcast app—and never miss a new episode: https://buildgood.com/category/podcast/ 

❤️ And if you haven't yet, subscribe to our Youtube channel for more fundraising videos and actionable strategies that will help you grow your revenue and impact: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUAcZhCGk8PZeDfJtt3TRvA 

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Interested in  working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit?

BuildGood is a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. Let our team of experts create your fundraising appeals, emails and newsletters for you, and reclaim the time to do the thing only YOU can do: build genuine, human, personal relationships with your donors. 

You’ll add proven expertise to your team. You’ll benefit from tested and proven strategies that will make you more money. And you’ll have peace of mind that you’re putting your best foot forward with your fundraising. 

➡️ For more information, go here: www.buildgood.com 

Send us a text

How important is your organization's brand when it comes to the success of your fundraising? How about your culture? 

Today’s guests have a strong point of view: they’re out to prove that how a nonprofit brand operates on the inside is more important than how it looks on the outside. 

Mark Miller and Ted Vaughn have led nearly 100 rebrands for purpose-driven organizations with their team at Historic Agency. 

Now they’ve written a book called "Culture Built My Brand: The Secret to Winning More Customers Through Company Culture."

And on today’s podcast, Mark and Ted join us to talk about how your internal culture—how your employees  communicate and behave—defines your brand, and influences the success of your fundraising,  more than your logo  or website.

LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

• Get the book Culture Built My Brand 
• Historic Agency

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➡️ Join our FREE training on how to create compelling fundraising messaging that leads donors to action and raises more money, from more people, more often—simply by changing the words you use: https://www.5minutefundraisingfix.com/register 

🔔Follow the Build Good Fundraising Podcast on your favourite podcast app—and never miss a new episode: https://buildgood.com/category/podcast/ 

❤️ And if you haven't yet, subscribe to our Youtube channel for more fundraising videos and actionable strategies that will help you grow your revenue and impact: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUAcZhCGk8PZeDfJtt3TRvA 

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Interested in  working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit?

BuildGood is a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. Let our team of experts create your fundraising appeals, emails and newsletters for you, and reclaim the time to do the thing only YOU can do: build genuine, human, personal relationships with your donors. 

You’ll add proven expertise to your team. You’ll benefit from tested and proven strategies that will make you more money. And you’ll have peace of mind that you’re putting your best foot forward with your fundraising. 

➡️ For more information, go here: www.buildgood.com 

Send us a text

Have you heard of philanthropic psychology….or phil psych for short? 

It’s the science behind fundraising that first and foremost cares about stewarding the love that is at the core of philanthropy. 

So instead of being focused on growing revenue from your donors, it’s focused on growing your donors' human capacity to love others—as well as themselves. 

And when you help people grow their love for others and themselves, well...the money follows. And you end up raising a lot more.

Today on the podcast, we get into how to thank your donors using the principles of phil psych with Professor Jen Shang—the world’s first PhD in Philanthropy, and the world’s only philanthropic psychologist.

Jen goes through 5 different levels of thanking your donors. As you listen to this, see if you can rank yourself and find out what level you’re at.

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➡️ Join our FREE training on how to create compelling fundraising messages that lead donors to action and raise more money, from more people, more often—simply by changing the words you use: https://www.5minutefundraisingfix.com/register 

🔔Follow the Build Good Fundraising Podcast on your favourite podcast app—and never miss a new episode: https://buildgood.com/category/podcast/ 

❤️ And if you haven't yet, subscribe to our Youtube channel for more fundraising videos and actionable strategies that will help you grow your revenue and impact.

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Interested in  working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit?

BuildGood helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. Let our team of experts create your fundraising appeals, emails and newsletters for you, and reclaim the time to do the thing only YOU can do: build genuine, human, personal relationships with your donors. 

You’ll add proven expertise to your team. You’ll benefit from tested and proven strategies that will make you more money. And you’ll have peace of mind that you’re putting your best foot forward with your fundraising. 

➡️ For more information, go here: www.buildgood.com 

Send us a text

Have you ever walked into a meeting with a prospective funder feeling nervous? 

Maybe you weren't sure how to lead the conversation. Maybe you felt a power imbalance. Or maybe you felt like you were there to beg for money, rather than being there as an equal partner or peer.

If you've been there, today's episode is for you.

Meet Mallory Erickson.

Her mission is to help people like you fundraise more from the right donors WITHOUT hounding people for money. Without feeling like you’re begging. Without feeling like you’re pitching. Without feeling weird and awkward about having the money conversation.

In today's chat, Mallory walks through an powerful 5-question framework you can use at your next meeting with a prospective funder. 

Connect with Mallory and learn all about her Power Partners Formula right here.

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➡️ Join our FREE training on how to create compelling fundraising messages that lead donors to action and raise more money, from more people, more often—simply by changing the words you use: https://www.5minutefundraisingfix.com/register 

🔔Follow the Build Good Fundraising Podcast on your favourite podcast app—and never miss a new episode: https://buildgood.com/category/podcast/ 

❤️ And if you haven't yet, subscribe to our Youtube channel for more fundraising videos and actionable strategies that will help you grow your revenue and impact.

---- 

Interested in  working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit?

BuildGood helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. Let our team of experts create your fundraising appeals, emails and newsletters for you, and reclaim the time to do the thing only YOU can do: build genuine, human, personal relationships with your donors. 

You’ll add proven expertise to your team. You’ll benefit from tested and proven strategies that will make you more money. And you’ll have peace of mind that you’re putting your best foot forward with your fundraising. 

➡️ For more information, go here: www.buildgood.com 

Send us a text

If you’re a regular listener of this podcast, you know intuitively that the donor experience is more important than just getting the gift. 

Because a great experience leads to greater commitment, and loyalty and satisfaction…and yes, money in the long term. 

But before you can improve the donor experience—and increase supporter satisfaction—you need to know how to measure it in the first place.  

And we’re not talking about an annual donor survey. 

Today’s guest is going to share the methodology his team developed to measure psychological need satisfaction after every single interaction a donor has with your organization. 

We're talking to Kevin Schulman, the founder of DonorVoice, and DV Canvass. He’s also the managing editor of The Agitator Blog. 

Him and his team are focused on using behavioural science to improve fundraising outcomes.

And on today's show, we get into: 

• how to setup an ongoing business process to measure donor satisfaction
• how to use those scores to improve the donor experience
• the effectiveness of "nudging" in fundraising
• why the Net Promoter Score has no value for fundraising teams
• why the decision to give and the decision of how much to give are two separate—but related—decisions 

Connect with Kevin right here.

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➡️ Join our FREE training on how to create compelling fundraising messages that lead donors to action and raise more money, from more people, more often—simply by changing the words you use: https://www.5minutefundraisingfix.com/register 

🔔Follow the Build Good Fundraising Podcast on your favourite podcast app—and never miss a new episode: https://buildgood.com/category/podcast/ 

❤️ And if you haven't yet, subscribe to our Youtube channel for more fundraising videos and actionable strategies that will help you grow your revenue and impact.

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Interested in  working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit?

BuildGood helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. Let our team of experts create your fundraising appeals, emails and newsletters for you, and reclaim the time to do the thing only YOU can do: build genuine, human, personal relationships with your donors. 

You’ll add proven expertise to your team. You’ll benefit from tested and proven strategies that will make you more money. And you’ll have peace of mind that you’re putting your best foot forward with your fundraising. 

➡️ For more information, go here: www.buildgood.com 

Send us a text

What does a person get when they make a gift to charity? 

Most of the time, they’re not buying a product or service. They’re buying a story about the kind of person they are.

And what they get in return is the way you treat them…and communicate with them…and update them.  

So, isn’t it our duty to put a lot of thought and care into our donor communications? 

Don’t we owe it to our community of supporters—and the people we serve—to draw people closer to the work and treat them like they’re an important part of the team?

Today’s guest just released a book to help fundraisers create sharp and surprising donor communications that do a much better job of raising money and retaining supporters. 

John Lepp is a direct response, marketing and graphic design expert with 25 years of experience working with charities around the world to help them tell better stories and to inspire donors to give, both online and offline.

His new book is called Creative Deviations.

It’s an anecdotal and thoughtful full-colour how-to guide to help you become more creative. It’s part graphic design, part design thinking, part storytelling, part strategic thinking and part love note to you amazing humans who work so hard for your causes, your donors, your mission and your desire to contribute and make positive change in our world.

You can buy the book right here.

I learn something new every time I talk to John, so I think you’re going to love this episode.

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➡️ Join our FREE training on how to create compelling fundraising messages that lead donors to action and raise more money, from more people, more often—simply by changing the words you use: https://www.5minutefundraisingfix.com/register 

🔔 Follow the Build Good Fundraising Podcast on your favourite podcast app—and never miss a new episode: https://buildgood.com/category/podcast/ 

❤️ And if you haven't yet, subscribe to our Youtube channel for more fundraising videos and actionable strategies that will help you grow your revenue and impact.

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Interested in  working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit?

BuildGood helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. Let our team of experts create your fundraising appeals, emails and newsletters for you, and reclaim the time to do the thing only YOU can do: build genuine, human, personal relationships with your donors. 

You’ll add proven expertise to your team. You’ll benefit from tested and proven strategies that will make you more money. And you’ll have peace of mind that you’re putting your best foot forward with your fundraising. 

➡️ For more information, go here: www.buildgood.com 

Send us a text

For many of us who grew up with the internet, email marketing seems like a fairly established medium. 

But compared to most other forms of marketing and fundraising, email is still a relatively new format. 

And it continues to change.

So for today’s episode, we sat down with a fellow Canadian fundraising agency founder to look back at the last decade of sending emails for charities.

Ben Johnson founded Frontier Marketing in 2010 when, before "remote work" existed, he moved his family from Vancouver to Victoria and left his job at Union Gospel Mission behind. 

He’s been sending email campaigns since Obama's first year in office. He continues to advocate for good strategy and efficient fundraising as the lead strategist of Frontier Marketing.

Connect with Ben on LinkedIn.

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➡️ Join our FREE training on how to create compelling fundraising messages that lead donors to action and raise more money, from more people, more often—simply by changing the words you use: https://www.5minutefundraisingfix.com/register 

🔔 Follow the Build Good Fundraising Podcast on your favourite podcast app—and never miss a new episode: https://buildgood.com/category/podcast/ 

❤️ And if you haven't yet, subscribe to our Youtube channel for more fundraising videos and actionable strategies that will help you grow your revenue and impact.

---- 

Interested in  working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit?

BuildGood helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. Let our team of experts create your fundraising appeals, emails and newsletters for you, and reclaim the time to do the thing only YOU can do: build genuine, human, personal relationships with your donors. 

You’ll add proven expertise to your team. You’ll benefit from tested and proven strategies that will make you more money. And you’ll have peace of mind that you’re putting your best foot forward with your fundraising. 

➡️ For more information, go here: www.buildgood.com 

Send us a text

There’s no way around it: our world is a mess.

Giving has levelled off after a season of overwhelming generosity. We’re facing record inflation. The housing market is unpredictable. The stock market is a mess. Supply chains are broken. 

Society seems to be more polarized than ever before. And the ongoing war in Ukraine is ever-present in the public consciousness. 

Regardless of how serious you may think things are, make no mistake: most people are paying more at the cash register when they’re buying food and fueling up the family van. 

And chances are, most of your donors are feeling a little bit of insecurity—and a little bit of lack of control over what’s happening in the world.

So what does that mean for your fundraising?

On today's show, we're sharing part of a conversation Mike had with Dan Sonners on the Dynamic Nonprofits podcast about how to fundraise when the world's a mess.

We look at the big picture, then go into some practical steps you can take today to make sure your organization is prepared for the worst.

Make sure to check out the Dynamic Nonprofits podcast, and follow Dan Sonners on LinkedIn.

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➡️ Join our FREE training on how to create compelling fundraising messages that lead donors to action and raise more money, from more people, more often—simply by changing the words you use: https://www.5minutefundraisingfix.com/register 

🔔 Follow the Build Good Fundraising Podcast on your favourite podcast app—and never miss a new episode: https://buildgood.com/category/podcast/ 

❤️ And if you haven't yet, subscribe to our Youtube channel for more fundraising videos and actionable strategies that will help you grow your revenue and impact.

---- 

Interested in  working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit?

BuildGood helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. Let our team of experts create your fundraising appeals, emails and newsletters for you, and reclaim the time to do the thing only YOU can do: build genuine, human, personal relationships with your donors. 

You’ll add proven expertise to your team. You’ll benefit from tested and proven strategies that will make you more money. And you’ll have peace of mind that you’re putting your best foot forward with your fundraising. 

➡️ For more information, go here: www.buildgood.com 

Send us a text

You’ve often heard us talk on this podcast about getting closer to your donors and leading them toward making their best gift for your organization—a gift that is meaningful to them and increases their own sense of wellbeing.

But how do you move beyond fundraising communications to building personal, 1:1 relationships?

On today’s show, we’re talking to Michael Dixon from Responsive Fundraising about a framework that will help you think about how to deepen the relationship with your donors beyond just fundraising communications. 

The framework is called The 3 Lanes, where each lane represents its own way of fundraising, and likely has a different meaning for your donors. 

So as you listen to our chat, see if you can categorize your own fundraising activities and strategies and see which lane they fall into. 

• Responsive Fundraising website 
• Michael Dixon on LinkedIn

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➡️ Join our FREE training on how to create compelling fundraising messages that lead donors to action and raise more money, from more people, more often—simply by changing the words you use: https://www.5minutefundraisingfix.com/register 

🔔 Follow the Build Good Fundraising Podcast on your favourite podcast app—and never miss a new episode: https://buildgood.com/category/podcast/ 

❤️ And if you haven't yet, subscribe to our Youtube channel for more fundraising videos and actionable strategies that will help you grow your revenue and impact.

---- 

Interested in  working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit?

BuildGood helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. Let our team of experts create your fundraising appeals, emails and newsletters for you, and reclaim the time to do the thing only YOU can do: build genuine, human, personal relationships with your donors. 

You’ll add proven expertise to your team. You’ll benefit from tested and proven strategies that will make you more money. And you’ll have peace of mind that you’re putting your best foot forward with your fundraising. 

➡️ For more information, go here: www.buildgood.com 

Send us a text

Do you shy away from building custom online experiences and automations because you think you need to hire a developer or know how to code?

The good news is there are more and more completely no-code solutions available to nonprofits to actually build custom workflows and improve the donor experience. 

You don’t need to be a developer in order to build something that will improve your efficiency and make the giving experience more enjoyable for your donors.

In fact, today you'll hear from a frontline fundraiser who’s been experimenting with no-code and sharing his complete setup and systems. 

Daniel Lombardi is the VP of Donor Success & Revenue for Grand River Hospital Foundation. 

He has over 10 years experience in the nonprofit sector, and currently focuses on using technology to improve traditional fundraising methods and processes.

On today’s episode, Dan will share how he built custom no-code workflows for

• Thank you emails
• Bulk emailing donors
• Tax Receipts

Listen closely for a very helpful tip from Dan on how they manage to send 1:1, personal emails to thousands of donors at a time. 

• Follow Daniel Lombardi on LinkedIn
• No Code Nonprofit newsletter

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➡️  Join our FREE training on how to create compelling fundraising messages that lead donors to action and raise more money, from more people, more often—simply by changing the words you use: https://www.5minutefundraisingfix.com/register 

🔔  Follow the Build Good Fundraising Podcast on your favourite podcast app—and never miss a new episode: https://buildgood.com/category/podcast/ 

❤️  And if you haven't yet, subscribe to our Youtube channel for more fundraising videos and actionable strategies that will help you grow your revenue and impact.

---- 

Interested in  working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit?

BuildGood helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. Let our team of experts create your fundraising appeals, emails and newsletters for you, and reclaim the time to do the thing only YOU can do: build genuine, human, personal relationships with your donors. 

You’ll add proven expertise to your team. You’ll benefit from tested and proven strategies that will make you more money. And you’ll have peace of mind that you’re putting your best foot forward with your fundraising. 

➡️ For more information, go here: www.buildgood.com 

Send us a text

Here’s a common pain point for many nonprofit CEOs and fundraising leaders: we’re spending too much time on the operations of the shop, and not enough time connecting with donors.

There is a way to reclaim some of that time.

But it’s not sexy.

It’s not glamorous.

It’s kind of a pain to implement at first.

It’s for sure never a priority.

But it will—in the long term—make your life and your work so much more effective.

And that’s standardizing our operations with a series of SOPs, trainings, FAQs, templates and systems.

Think of it as building an operating system for your fundraising operations.

In today's episode, we are running a chat Louis Diez and myself had on the Donor Growth podcast.

Here’s what each element of the operating system looks like:

1) SOPs are standardized operating procedures. They show you what to do. Usually a step by step instruction, or a checklist. Most nonprofits probably have a basic 30-50 SOPs they could create today that are the core of their revenue ops.

2)  Trainings show you how to think. They are usually a slide decks, videos, PDFs, courses or even books.

3) An FAQ knowledge base helps you avoid wasting time and answering the same questions over and over. A good FAQ base empowers your team to find answers quickly without getting bottle-necked by the leader.

4) Templates show you how to work. A good template library is a giant shortcut so you don’t start from scratch every time.

5) A project management system houses everything in one spot. Usually some sort of took like Airtable, Asana, ClickUp, Monday or even Google Sheets.

Combined, this operating system will become the brain of your operations. 🧠

To quote Louis Diez from the Donor Participation Project: "Lack of systems-thinking is what holds most nonprofit back from growing sustainably."

In the latest Donor Growth podcast, we walk through each of these 5 elements of the nonprofit operating system in detail.

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➡️  Join our FREE training on how to create compelling fundraising messages that lead donors to action and raise more money, from more people, more often—simply by changing the words you use: https://www.5minutefundraisingfix.com/register 

🔔  Follow the Build Good Fundraising Podcast on your favourite podcast app—and never miss a new episode: https://buildgood.com/category/podcast/ 

❤️  And if you haven't yet, subscribe to our Youtube channel for more fundraising videos and actionable strategies that will help you grow your revenue and impact.

---- 

Interested in  working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit?

BuildGood helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. Let our team of experts create your fundraising appeals, emails and newsletters for you, and reclaim the time to do the thing only YOU can do: build genuine, human, personal relationships with your donors. 

You’ll add proven expertise to your team. You’ll benefit from tested and proven strategies that will make you more money. And you’ll have peace of mind that you’re putting your best foot forward with your fundraising. 

➡️ For more information, go here: www.buildgood.com 

Send us a text

Today we're taking a look back at the best practical advice on monthly giving our guests have shared on the podcast. 

From what it takes to build a flagship monthly giving product, to tactical advice on upgrading monthly gifts, to how to resource a strong monthly giving program—we're revisiting "can't miss" content that'll help you build your monthly giving program.

Featuring conversations with Vik Harrison (charity: water), Harvey McKinnon and Erica Erica Waasdorp.

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➡️  Join our FREE training on how to create compelling fundraising messages that lead donors to action and raise more money, from more people, more often—simply by changing the words you use: https://www.5minutefundraisingfix.com/register 

🔔  Follow the Build Good Fundraising Podcast on your favourite podcast app—and never miss a new episode: https://buildgood.com/category/podcast/ 

❤️  And if you haven't yet, subscribe to our Youtube channel for more fundraising videos and actionable strategies that will help you grow your revenue and impact.

---- 

Interested in  working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit?

BuildGood helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. Let our team of experts create your fundraising appeals, emails and newsletters for you, and reclaim the time to do the thing only YOU can do: build genuine, human, personal relationships with your donors. 

You’ll add proven expertise to your team. You’ll benefit from tested and proven strategies that will make you more money. And you’ll have peace of mind that you’re putting your best foot forward with your fundraising. 

➡️ For more information, go here: www.buildgood.com 

Send us a text

On today's podcast, we're revising the best advice and proven practices on how to get more gifts in wills.

For many of your donors, the gift they leave in their will might the largest gift they ever make to your charity. Not only that, but research has shown that donors who choose to leave a gift in their will, often times also end up increasing their giving while they're still alive. 

So in today's rewind, we're going back to some key insights our guests have shared on this podcast when it comes to legacy giving, including: 

• the difference a little legacy checkbox in a direct mail reply device can make
• why talking to donors about gifts in wills isn't about death, but about life 
• how printing little legacy nudges on stickers might be the best money you spend

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➡️  Join our FREE training on how to create compelling fundraising messages that lead donors to action and raise more money, from more people, more often—simply by changing the words you use: https://www.5minutefundraisingfix.com/register 

🔔  Follow the Build Good Fundraising Podcast on your favourite podcast app—and never miss a new episode: https://buildgood.com/category/podcast/ 

❤️  And if you haven't yet, subscribe to our Youtube channel for more fundraising videos and actionable strategies that will help you grow your revenue and impact.

---- 

Interested in  working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit?

BuildGood helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. Let our team of experts create your fundraising appeals, emails and newsletters for you, and reclaim the time to do the thing only YOU can do: build genuine, human, personal relationships with your donors. 

You’ll add proven expertise to your team. You’ll benefit from tested and proven strategies that will make you more money. And you’ll have peace of mind that you’re putting your best foot forward with your fundraising. 

➡️ For more information, go here: www.buildgood.com 

Send us a text

Welcome to the first ever BG Live—a live recording of the podcast on Zoom that anyone can join.

To make sure you're invited to future BG Lives, make sure to sign up for our email newsletter at www.buildgood.com.

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You probably know charity: water to be an admired innovator in the fundraising world. 

They do things so wonderfully different. 

And they've set the gold standard for digital fundraising and online engagement. 

But in order to keep growing and reaching new audiences, the organization is testing out different mediums and channels. 

In this week's BG Live, Megan Toscano from charity: water gets into how the organization is diversifying their media strategy to broaden reach and achieve scale in the years ahead. 

In our chat, Megan talks about: 

• their online donor acquisition strategy 
• how they've tested direct mail
• their efforts using direct response TV ads
• how they go about organic social vs. paid ads
• how they're thinking about sustainable growth and reaching new donors

 --

 ➡️ Join our FREE training on how to create compelling fundraising messages that lead donors to action and raise more money, from more people, more often—simply by changing the words you use: https://www.5minutefundraisingfix.com...

🔔 Follow the Build Good Fundraising Podcast on your favourite podcast app—and never miss a new episode: https://buildgood.com/category/podcast/ 

❤️ And if you haven't yet, subscribe to our Youtube channel for more fundraising videos and actionable strategies that will help you grow your revenue and impact.

---- 

Interested in working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit? 

BuildGood helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. Let our team of experts create your fundraising appeals, emails and newsletters for you, and reclaim the time to do the thing only YOU can do: build genuine, human, personal relationships with your donors. 

You’ll add proven expertise to your team. You’ll benefit from tested and proven strategies that will make you more money. And you’ll have peace of mind that you’re putting your best foot forward with your fundraising. 

➡️ For more information, go here: www.buildgood.com 

Send us a text

Is it time we ditch the marketing funnel and replace it with a flywheel?

Today we’re introducing the concept of the Fundraising Flywheel—a 5-step framework to help donors become an important part of the team and improve your fundraising. 

The flywheel is simply our way of codifying the fundamentals of fundraising done well:

1. Listen
2. Engage
3. Ask
4. Celebrate 
5. Report 

A flywheel is like a big, heavy wheel that helps things keep moving.

It's like a toy top that you spin.

Once you get it spinning, it keeps going for a little while, even after you stop turning it.

The Fundraising Flywheel works the same way. It’s a bit of work to get it spinning.

But once you master the 5 parts of the flywheel, your fundraising flywheel will start to gain momentum reliably. With a lot less effort on your part.

Your revenue will grow—and so will your career.

—

➡️ Join our FREE training on how to create compelling fundraising messaging that leads donors to action and raises more money, from more people, more often—simply by changing the words you use: https://www.5minutefundraisingfix.com/register

🤔 What else would you like to know about improving your fundraising and becoming an effective nonprofit marketer? Connect with Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeduerksen/

🔔 Follow the Build Good Fundraising Podcast on your favourite podcast app—and never miss a new episode: https://buildgood.com/category/podcast/

❤️ And if you haven't yet, subscribe to our Youtube channel for more fundraising videos and actionable strategies that will help you grow your revenue and impact: https://www.youtube.com/@buildgood?sub_confirmation=1 

Thanks for listening! 

---- 

#Fundraising #Nonprofit #Philanthropy #Marketing 

Interested in  working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit?

BuildGood is a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. Let our team of experts create your fundraising appeals, emails and newsletters for you, and reclaim the time to do the thing only YOU can do: build genuine, human, personal relationships with your donors. 

You’ll add proven expertise to your team. You’ll benefit from tested and proven strategies that will make you more money. And you’ll have peace of mind that you’re putting your best foot forward with your fundraising. 

➡️ For more information, go here: www.buildgood.com

Send us a text

How do you achieve predictable fundraising success? 

Well, nobody can predict how much money you’re going to raise. But if you follow the 5 steps of the fundraising flywheel consistently—over time— your revenue will grow. 

And so will your career as a leader and fundraiser! 

So today we’ll walk through each of the 5 parts of the fundraising flywheel in detail. 

They are:

1. Listen
2. Engage
3. Ask
4. Celebrate 
5. Report 

Master these 5 steps, and you will raise more money—consistently. 

Because you’ll have made donors an important part of your team, invited them to co-create the future with you, and created an emotional connection that leads to open hearts…and open wallets. 

—

➡️ Join our FREE training on how to create compelling fundraising messaging that leads donors to action and raises more money, from more people, more often—simply by changing the words you use: https://www.5minutefundraisingfix.com/register 

🤔 What else would you like to know about improving your fundraising and becoming an effective nonprofit marketer? Connect with Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeduerksen/ 

🔔 Follow the Build Good Fundraising Podcast on your favourite podcast app—and never miss a new episode: https://buildgood.com/category/podcast/ 

❤️ And if you haven't yet, subscribe to our Youtube channel for more fundraising videos and actionable strategies that will help you grow your revenue and impact: https://www.youtube.com/@buildgood?sub_confirmation=1 

Thanks for listening! 

---- 

#Fundraising #Nonprofit #Philanthropy #Marketing 

Interested in  working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit?

BuildGood is a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. Let our team of experts create your fundraising appeals, emails and newsletters for you, and reclaim the time to do the thing only YOU can do: build genuine, human, personal relationships with your donors. 

You’ll add proven expertise to your team. You’ll benefit from tested and proven strategies that will make you more money. And you’ll have peace of mind that you’re putting your best foot forward with your fundraising. 

➡️For more information, go here: www.buildgood.com

Send us a text

The offer is one of the most foundational—yet most misunderstood—tools in fundraising.

Get it wrong, and your fundraising can flop. Get it right, and watch the response rate go up.

So what is an offer anyway?

It’s the thing you're asking donors to help make happen.

The outcome.

The ultra-specific and tangible difference their gift can make.

And that doesn't just apply to direct response fundraising.

Major donor visits? There's usually an offer at some point.

Events? Just a vehicle to deliver an offer.

Grants? A fancy way of presenting an offer (usually with a lot of jargon). 

So on today’s podcast, we’re talking to Steven Screen about how to craft effective fundraisings offers that open hearts and wallets. 

He’s the co-founder of Better Fundraising and has been fundraising for 25 years. In the first half of his career, he focused on direct mail, TV, and radio for national nonprofits. For the second half, he's been bringing best practices from the larger organizations to small- to medium-sized charities. 

In our chat, you’ll learn: 

• Why offers matter more than you might think
• The building blocks of a great offer
• How to overcome common objections from leadership
• How to raise undesignated funds while still using a clear and specific offer

—

➡️ Join our FREE training on how to create compelling fundraising messaging that leads donors to action and raises more money, from more people, more often—simply by changing the words you use: https://www.5minutefundraisingfix.com/register 

🤔 What else would you like to know about improving your fundraising and becoming an effective nonprofit marketer? Connect with Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeduerksen/ 

🔔 Follow the Build Good Fundraising Podcast on your favourite podcast app—and never miss a new episode: https://buildgood.com/category/podcast/ 

❤️ And if you haven't yet, subscribe to our Youtube channel for more fundraising videos and actionable strategies that will help you grow your revenue and impact: https://www.youtube.com/@buildgood?sub_confirmation=1 

Thanks for listening! 

---- 

#Fundraising #Nonprofit #Philanthropy #Marketing 

Interested in  working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit?

BuildGood is a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. Let our team of experts create your fundraising appeals, emails and newsletters for you, and reclaim the time to do the thing only YOU can do: build genuine, human, personal relationships with your donors. 

You’ll add proven expertise to your team. You’ll benefit from tested and proven strategies that will make you more money. And you’ll have peace of mind that you’re putting your best foot forward with your fundraising. 

➡️For more information, go here: www.buildgood.com

Send us a text

How often have you heard that you should “listen to your donors” and nodded along in agreement? 

But how often have you actually sat down to implement a system to continually listen to donors in a structured way and gain new insights? 

Make no mistake: getting to know your donors is a strategy with high returns.

For-profit companies are investing in audience research like never before. They're getting insights from the very same people who will buy their product or service.

And you can do the same with your donors.

I know it might sound complicated and expensive...but it doesn't have to be.

You'd be surprised how easy it is to start listening to your donors, speak their language, and meet them where they are.

And in fact, the smaller your donor file, the easier it is.

The truth is, the most valuable data you can look at isn't some nonprofit sector report on where philanthropy is going. Or how donors are feeling about the economy. Or what's happening with online giving.

The most valuable data you can use to improve your fundraising is right in front of you. It's your donors.

So how can you know your audience to grow your audience? 

On today’s episode, we’re talking to Emily Taylor from teenyBIG about some easy ways to start listening to your donors. 

Using qualitative research and evaluation methods, she helps nonprofits better understand a donor segment before engaging with them or learn about the strengths and opportunities of their organization through the eyes of its community.

In our chat, you’ll learn: 

• The difference between quantitative and qualitative data
• The questions to ask yourself before asking donors
• How to start listening to donors
• How to evaluate donor feedback and analyze it

You can also download a FREE resource on how to reduce bias in your surveys and donor listening right here.

—

➡️ Join our FREE training on how to create compelling fundraising messaging that leads donors to action and raises more money, from more people, more often—simply by changing the words you use: https://www.5minutefundraisingfix.com/register 

🤔 What else would you like to know about improving your fundraising and becoming an effective nonprofit marketer? Connect with Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeduerksen/ 

🔔 Follow the Build Good Fundraising Podcast on your favourite podcast app—and never miss a new episode: https://buildgood.com/category/podcast/ 

❤️ And if you haven't yet, subscribe to our Youtube channel for more fundraising videos and actionable strategies that will help you grow your revenue and impact: https://www.youtube.com/@buildgood?sub_confirmation=1 

Thanks for listening! 

---- 

Interested in  working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit?

BuildGood is a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. Let our team of experts create your fundraising appeals, emails and newsletters for you, and reclaim the time to do the thing only YOU can do: build genuine, human, personal relationships with your donors. 

You’ll add proven expertise to your team. You’ll benefit from tested and proven strategies that will make you more money. And you’ll have peace of mind that you’re putting your best foot forward with your fundraising. 

➡️For more information, go here:

Send us a text

Helping your donors feel like they belong might be your ultimate fundraising achievement.

Why? 

Years of stress, amplified by the pandemic, has created a “belonging crisis.” Record levels of mental health issues are putting an entire generation at risk. Many of us are more connected than ever before—and at the same time, lonelier than ever before. 

So what if your nonprofit created the kind of emotional connection that would not only make your fundraising a lot more effective—but could also help to enhance your donors’ sense of self-esteem, self-identity, and pride? 

What if you built the kind of lasting, emotional ties with donors that would make them an important part of the team?

Today on the podcast, we’re talking with futurist and business consultant Mark Schaefer on how to create a true community of donors. Mark just released his new book, Belonging to The Brand, which is one of my favorite reads in recent memory.  

In our chat, we get into: 

• The difference between building an audience and building a community 
• The loneliest generation 
• How legacy giving is tied to belonging and community

—

➡️ Join our FREE training on how to create compelling fundraising messaging that leads donors to action and raises more money, from more people, more often—simply by changing the words you use: https://www.5minutefundraisingfix.com/register 

🤔 What else would you like to know about improving your fundraising and becoming an effective nonprofit marketer? Connect with Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeduerksen/ 

🔔 Follow the Build Good Fundraising Podcast on your favourite podcast app—and never miss a new episode: https://buildgood.com/category/podcast/ 

❤️ And if you haven't yet, subscribe to our Youtube channel for more fundraising videos and actionable strategies that will help you grow your revenue and impact: https://www.youtube.com/@buildgood?sub_confirmation=1 

Thanks for listening! 

---- 

#Fundraising #Nonprofit #Philanthropy #Marketing 

Interested in  working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit?

BuildGood is a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. Let our team of experts create your fundraising appeals, emails and newsletters for you, and reclaim the time to do the thing only YOU can do: build genuine, human, personal relationships with your donors. 

You’ll add proven expertise to your team. You’ll benefit from tested and proven strategies that will make you more money. And you’ll have peace of mind that you’re putting your best foot forward with your fundraising. 

➡️For more information, go here: www.buildgood.com

Send us a text

Have you ever surveyed your donors? 

We talk a lot about listening to donors through conversations. Surveys can be a great tool to compliment donor conversations, because they’re interviews at scale.

They’re a great way to: 

• Engage
• Course-correct (are we going in the right direction?)
• Collect information
• Make donors feel valued and seen
• Identify donors for further cultivation and solicitation

But how do you get started designing a survey? 

And what meaningful and practical steps can you take with the information you get back? 

On this week’s podcast, we chat with Louis Diez about how to get started with donor surveys. 

Louis advises nonprofits in annual fund development, digital fundraising, and engagement strategies.

He currently serves as the VP, Community of Almabase and is the founder of the Donor Participation Project. 

Previously, he was Executive Director of Annual Giving at Muhlenberg College, Director of the Annual Fund and Development Business Operations at the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Associate Director of Development at Johns Hopkins SAIS. 

In these roles, he led teams that created growth in number of donors and dollars raised through a model he calls the Sustainable Revenue Engine.

In our chat, we get into: 

• How to choose and define the purpose of a donor survey 
• How to design questions that connect with the donor’s identity and values
• How to design questions that connect the donor with the different ways you’re making an impact
• How to design questions about philanthropic plans and habits
• How to strategically follow-up with donors who raised their hand

—

➡️ Join our FREE training on how to create compelling fundraising messaging that leads donors to action and raises more money, from more people, more often—simply by changing the words you use: https://www.5minutefundraisingfix.com/register 

🤔 What else would you like to know about improving your fundraising and becoming an effective nonprofit marketer? Connect with Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeduerksen/ 

🔔 Follow the Build Good Fundraising Podcast on your favourite podcast app—and never miss a new episode: https://buildgood.com/category/podcast/ 

❤️ And if you haven't yet, subscribe to our Youtube channel for more fundraising videos and actionable strategies that will help you grow your revenue and impact: https://www.youtube.com/@buildgood?sub_confirmation=1 

Thanks for listening! 

Send us a text

In a new segment of the pod we’re calling How I Built Good, we interview nonprofit founders, entrepreneurs and leaders on how they’re building good in the world. 

Starting with Becky Straw. 

She never set out to become a founder. 

But when she was let go from her job at fast-growing water charity, she bought a wireless printer the next day to start building The Adventure Project.

With a passionate co-founder and a crew of volunteers by her side, Becky raised the first $40,000 with a clever marketing campaign.

Today, the organization provides people in 6 countries with the tools and skills to become profitable entrepreneurs—and fund their ventures to create solutions to poverty in their own communities.

The people they help learn a specialized trade and receive the mentorship and education to thrive. So they can earn an income, and wake up each day filled with purpose and pride.

In our chat with Becky, she gets into: 

• how she started the org with $0 and a wireless printer
• how the org is finding a sustainable business model without having to only rely on campaign after campaign 
• a life-changing moment on a rural, bumpy, washed out road in Liberia that still motivates her today
• the philosophy behind treating the $10 donor like the $1,000 donor

You can find out more about The Adventure Project right here

—

➡️ Join our FREE training on how to create compelling fundraising messaging that leads donors to action and raises more money, from more people, more often—simply by changing the words you use: https://www.5minutefundraisingfix.com/register 

🤔 What else would you like to know about improving your fundraising and becoming an effective nonprofit marketer? Connect with Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeduerksen/ 

🔔 Follow the Build Good Fundraising Podcast on your favourite podcast app—and never miss a new episode: https://buildgood.com/category/podcast/ 

❤️ And if you haven't yet, subscribe to our Youtube channel for more fundraising videos and actionable strategies that will help you grow your revenue and impact: https://www.youtube.com/@buildgood?sub_confirmation=1 

Thanks for listening! 

---- 

#Fundraising #Nonprofit #Philanthropy #Marketing 

Interested in  working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit?

BuildGood is a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. Let our team of experts create your fundraising appeals, emails and newsletters for you, and reclaim the time to do the thing only YOU can do: build genuine, human, personal relationships with your donors. 

You’ll add proven expertise to your team. You’ll benefit from tested and proven strategies that will make you more money. And you’ll have peace of mind that you’re putting your best foot forward with your fundraising. 

➡️For more information, go here: www.buildgood.com

Send us a text

Humans are wired for stories, yet storytelling can be challenging. 

That’s why on this week’s BuildGood Live, we’re talking to master storyteller—and founder of LemonSkies—Olga Moshinsky Woltman about how to harness the power of stories.

She’s worked with some of the most inspiring and transformative causes, including American Heart Association, the ALS Association, American Diabetes Association, and Special Olympics.

In our chat, we’ll discuss what makes stories impactful, how to help and connect donors to the stories we tell, and how to activate your staff to help you gather story leads. 

We’ll also get into how great storytelling can even help you retain your staff—and energize your culture and team morale. 

Find out more by visiting LemonSkies or following Olga on LinkedIn.

—

➡️ Join our FREE training on how to create compelling fundraising messaging that leads donors to action and raises more money, from more people, more often—simply by changing the words you use: https://www.5minutefundraisingfix.com/register 

🤔 What else would you like to know about improving your fundraising and becoming an effective nonprofit marketer? Connect with Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeduerksen/ 

🔔 Follow the Build Good Fundraising Podcast on your favourite podcast app—and never miss a new episode: https://buildgood.com/category/podcast/ 

❤️ And if you haven't yet, subscribe to our Youtube channel for more fundraising videos and actionable strategies that will help you grow your revenue and impact: https://www.youtube.com/@buildgood?sub_confirmation=1 

Thanks for listening! 

---- 

#Fundraising #Nonprofit #Philanthropy #Marketing 

Interested in  working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit?

BuildGood is a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. Let our team of experts create your fundraising appeals, emails and newsletters for you, and reclaim the time to do the thing only YOU can do: build genuine, human, personal relationships with your donors. 

You’ll add proven expertise to your team. You’ll benefit from tested and proven strategies that will make you more money. And you’ll have peace of mind that you’re putting your best foot forward with your fundraising. 

➡️For more information, go here: www.buildgood.com

Send us a text

Send us a text

As passionate fundraisers, we’re all pretty good at thinking about how to talk to donors.
 
But sometimes, we're not the best listeners.
 
On this week’s BG Live, we’re joined by Just McCord from RKD about a brand new donor study that listened to donors across a variety of causes.
 
Turns out, donors need us to listen more.

In our chat, we’ll talk about:
 
1. What donors say makes for strong relationships.
2. What donors say they want from their favourite causes.
3. Two key emotions that stand out above the rest in the research.
4. How donor expectations have changed.
5. How relationships affect both what—and where—donors give.
 
And we’ll also get into how to transition your fundraising practice to listen first.
Justin is the SVP Marketing & Communications at RKD, where he oversees the brand and leads the firm's research efforts.

And he’s a nerd for soccer, professional wrestling and dad jokes.

—

➡️ Join our FREE training on how to create compelling fundraising messaging that leads donors to action and raises more money, from more people, more often—simply by changing the words you use: https://www.5minutefundraisingfix.com/register

🤔 What else would you like to know about improving your fundraising and becoming an effective nonprofit marketer? Connect with Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeduerksen/

🔔 Follow the Build Good Fundraising Podcast on your favourite podcast app—and never miss a new episode: https://buildgood.com/category/podcast/

❤️ And if you haven't yet, subscribe to our Youtube channel for more fundraising videos and actionable strategies that will help you grow your revenue and impact: https://www.youtube.com/@buildgood?sub_confirmation=1

Thanks for listening!

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#Fundraising #Nonprofit #Philanthropy #Marketing
Interested in  working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit?
BuildGood is a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. Let our team of experts create your fundraising appeals, emails and newsletters for you, and reclaim the time to do the thing only YOU can do: build genuine, human, personal relationships with your donors. You’ll add proven expertise to your team. You’ll benefit from tested and proven strategies that will make you more money. And you’ll have peace of mind that you’re putting your best foot forward with your fundraising. ➡️For more information, go here: www.buildgood.com

Send us a text

How do you evaluate your email campaigns?  

If you’re a nonprofit—especially one that doesn’t raise tens of millions every year—you may have a hard time finding benchmarks from organizations like yours. 

Most of the data on benchmarks and proven practices comes from either very large organizations or from for-profit companies. 

Until now. 

On this week’s BuildGood Live, we’re talking to Tim Sarrantonio from Neon ONE about the new Nonprofit Email Report. 

Tim and his team analyzed key email performance metrics from 1,495 nonprofit

organizations of all sizes and missions. 

They evaluated 37,472 email campaigns (that’s 157,048,634 individual emails) that were sent during 2022, then broke down important benchmarks by list size. 

In our chat, we’ll get into: 

• The 5 common traits of highly effective emails
• The anatomy of an email that raises more money 
• Words to include (and avoid) in subject lines
• Benchmarks for open rates, unsubscribe rates and fundraising performance

Whether you’re a large nonprofit with thousands of email subscribers or a smaller org with an audience in the hundreds, you’re bound to learn how to up your email game a little bit. 

Download The Nonprofit Email Report here

—

➡️ Join our FREE training on how to create compelling fundraising messaging that leads donors to action and raises more money, from more people, more often—simply by changing the words you use: https://www.5minutefundraisingfix.com/register 

🤔 What else would you like to know about improving your fundraising and becoming an effective nonprofit marketer? Connect with Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeduerksen/ 

🔔 Follow the Build Good Fundraising Podcast on your favourite podcast app—and never miss a new episode: https://buildgood.com/category/podcast/ 

❤️ And if you haven't yet, subscribe to our Youtube channel for more fundraising videos and actionable strategies that will help you grow your revenue and impact: https://www.youtube.com/@buildgood?sub_confirmation=1 

Thanks for listening! 

---- 

#Fundraising #Nonprofit #Philanthropy #Marketing 

Interested in  working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit?

BuildGood is a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. Let our team of experts create your fundraising appeals, emails and newsletters for you, and reclaim the time to do the thing only YOU can do: build genuine, human, personal relationships with your donors. 

You’ll add proven expertise to your team. You’ll benefit from tested and proven strategies that will make you more money. And you’ll have peace of mind that you’re putting your best foot forward with your fundraising. 

➡️For more information, go here: www.buildgood.com

Send us a text

Email remains one of the most effective digital fundraising channels—but how do you know you’re doing it right? 

How do you balance asking for money, showing gratitude, reporting back on impact and surveying your donors? 

How much email is too much…or too little? 

On this week’s BG Live, we’re helping you audit your email marketing strategy—and give you some surefire ways to increase donor engagement.

We’re talking with Katelyn Baughan, the owner of KB Digital – a nonprofit email marketing agency. 

Katelyn has helped some of the most well-known nonprofits with their email marketing strategies and execution, and while she has experience with all marketing verticals, she has a true passion for using email to make a difference.

—

➡️ Join our FREE training on how to create compelling fundraising messaging that leads donors to action and raises more money, from more people, more often—simply by changing the words you use: https://www.5minutefundraisingfix.com/register 

🤔 What else would you like to know about improving your fundraising and becoming an effective nonprofit marketer? Connect with Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeduerksen/ 

🔔 Follow the Build Good Fundraising Podcast on your favourite podcast app—and never miss a new episode: https://buildgood.com/category/podcast/ 

❤️ And if you haven't yet, subscribe to our Youtube channel for more fundraising videos and actionable strategies that will help you grow your revenue and impact: https://www.youtube.com/@buildgood?sub_confirmation=1 

Thanks for listening! 

---- 

#Fundraising #Nonprofit #Philanthropy #Marketing 

Interested in  working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit?

BuildGood is a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. Let our team of experts create your fundraising appeals, emails and newsletters for you, and reclaim the time to do the thing only YOU can do: build genuine, human, personal relationships with your donors. 

You’ll add proven expertise to your team. You’ll benefit from tested and proven strategies that will make you more money. And you’ll have peace of mind that you’re putting your best foot forward with your fundraising. 

➡️For more information, go here: www.buildgood.com

Send us a text

If you’ve ever tried running Facebook and Instagram ads to attract new donors, you may have realized it isn’t all that easy.

Truth is, an effective paid ads strategy for nonprofits trying to attract new donors is a lot different than running ads for for-profits that are selling products. Yet most of the information you’ll find on running online ads is geared toward for-profits.

On today’s BG Live, we’re getting into how you can start to acquire new donors with Meta ads—without wasting a ton of money.

Ben Stewart from Louder gets into how you can use lookalike audiences for Facebook & Instagram Ads to help you attract new leads, new event attendees and new donors. It’s an easy place to start, because it allows you to use what you know about your current donors to help you find your future supporters.

Ben is on a mission to help nonprofit organizations apply digital marketing best practices so they can raise more funds and do more good. With experience in live event production, vocational ministry, and digital marketing, he helps purposeful brands improve their messaging, marketing, and websites so they can increase their impact on the world.

—

➡️ Join our FREE training on how to create compelling fundraising messaging that leads donors to action and raises more money, from more people, more often—simply by changing the words you use: https://www.5minutefundraisingfix.com/register 

🤔 What else would you like to know about improving your fundraising and becoming an effective nonprofit marketer? Connect with Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeduerksen/ 

🔔 Follow the Build Good Fundraising Podcast on your favourite podcast app—and never miss a new episode: https://buildgood.com/category/podcast/ 

❤️ And if you haven't yet, subscribe to our Youtube channel for more fundraising videos and actionable strategies that will help you grow your revenue and impact: https://www.youtube.com/@buildgood?sub_confirmation=1 

Thanks for listening! 

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#Fundraising #Nonprofit #Philanthropy #Marketing 

Interested in  working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit?

BuildGood is a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. Let our team of experts create your fundraising appeals, emails and newsletters for you, and reclaim the time to do the thing only YOU can do: build genuine, human, personal relationships with your donors. 

You’ll add proven expertise to your team. You’ll benefit from tested and proven strategies that will make you more money. And you’ll have peace of mind that you’re putting your best foot forward with your fundraising. 

➡️For more information, go here: www.buildgood.com

Send us a text

You’ve likely heard that the donor should be the hero in your fundraising messaging. 

The phrase had a noble intent. 

It was meant to encourage us to shift our perspective away from meeting revenue targets, and toward finding alignment with our ideal donors’ goals and values. 

But over time, it became misunderstood. Misconstrued. And misapplied.

The “donor as hero” metaphor turned into “the donor is always right”—causing some organizations to do real harm. 

So is it time to think about a better way to express the way we approach our fundraising?

In this freewheeling chat, we get into:

1. The storytelling triad
2. The phases of fundraising that led to donor-centric fundraising 
3. What do people mean when they say the donor is the hero 
4. Why can that philosophy—if misunderstood and misapplied—become harmful 
5. The difference between donor-led and donor-centric fundraising
6. What’s a better way of thinking about “donor as hero” 

—

➡️ Join our FREE training on how to create compelling fundraising messaging that leads donors to action and raises more money, from more people, more often—simply by changing the words you use: https://www.5minutefundraisingfix.com/register 

🤔 What else would you like to know about improving your fundraising and becoming an effective nonprofit marketer? Connect with Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeduerksen/ 

🔔 Follow the Build Good Fundraising Podcast on your favourite podcast app—and never miss a new episode: https://buildgood.com/category/podcast/ 

❤️ And if you haven't yet, subscribe to our Youtube channel for more fundraising videos and actionable strategies that will help you grow your revenue and impact: https://www.youtube.com/@buildgood?sub_confirmation=1 

Thanks for listening! 

---- 

#Fundraising #Nonprofit #Philanthropy #Marketing 

Interested in  working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit?

BuildGood is a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. Let our team of experts create your fundraising appeals, emails and newsletters for you, and reclaim the time to do the thing only YOU can do: build genuine, human, personal relationships with your donors. 

You’ll add proven expertise to your team. You’ll benefit from tested and proven strategies that will make you more money. And you’ll have peace of mind that you’re putting your best foot forward with your fundraising. 

➡️For more information, go here: www.buildgood.com

Send us a text

Can the way you lead internally make your fundraising more effective? 

On today’s podcast, we chat with Evan Wildstein about 10 core behaviours of servant leaders—and how they might just improve the way you fundraise.

Behaviours like listening, empathy, healing, building community, and much more. We’ll also get into some super practical ways to activate servant-leadership in your own shop to boost philanthropy.

For 20 years, Evan has been a nonprofiteer, raising funds and developing inspiring programs for organizations like The Juilliard School, Rice University, and Asia Society. 

He recently published his first book, The Nonprofiteer's Fundraising Field Guide. It’s a realistic and inspiring roadmap for anyone who wants to engage with donors, grow revenue and improve philanthropy. It has 30 practical applications you can implement today. And it’s also full of heart-felt stories from nonprofit leaders.

Get the book here or connect with Evan on LinkedIn.

—

➡️ Join our FREE training on how to create compelling fundraising messaging that leads donors to action and raises more money, from more people, more often—simply by changing the words you use: https://www.5minutefundraisingfix.com/register 

🤔 What else would you like to know about improving your fundraising and becoming an effective nonprofit marketer? Connect with Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeduerksen/ 

🔔 Follow the Build Good Fundraising Podcast on your favourite podcast app—and never miss a new episode: https://buildgood.com/category/podcast/ 

❤️ And if you haven't yet, subscribe to our Youtube channel for more fundraising videos and actionable strategies that will help you grow your revenue and impact: https://www.youtube.com/@buildgood?sub_confirmation=1 

Thanks for listening! 

---- 

#Fundraising #Nonprofit #Philanthropy #Marketing 

Interested in  working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit?

BuildGood is a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. Let our team of experts create your fundraising appeals, emails and newsletters for you, and reclaim the time to do the thing only YOU can do: build genuine, human, personal relationships with your donors. 

You’ll add proven expertise to your team. You’ll benefit from tested and proven strategies that will make you more money. And you’ll have peace of mind that you’re putting your best foot forward with your fundraising. 

➡️For more information, go here: www.buildgood.com

Send us a text

We live in the golden age of digital fundraising—the most efficient ecosystem in which to test, learn and refine. 

Digital has immense power to drive strategies that scale and connect deeply with our donors. AND it plays nicely with so many other channels, including direct mail.

Yet most organizations use it backwards.

Instead of leading with digital, they’re bolting on digital strategies on the back end of other efforts, hoping to get a boost.

So how can we learn to lead with digital?

On today’s podcast, we chat with Erik Rubadeau. He’s the CEO of Yeeboo Digital, a data driven, full service online fundraising and technology agency. 


His expertise on digitally led fundraising and tech innovation and adoption has helped hundreds of nonprofits launch new initiatives and grow their revenue.

In our chat, we’ll get into: 

• What “leading with digital” means?
• How to use digital to test new ideas with little risk or investment.
• How to make the switch from digital as a “bolt on” to digital-first fundraising.
• Some core tools and strategies nonprofits of all sizes can use to lead with digital.

—

➡️ Join our FREE training on how to create compelling fundraising messaging that leads donors to action and raises more money, from more people, more often—simply by changing the words you use: https://www.5minutefundraisingfix.com/register 

🤔 What else would you like to know about improving your fundraising and becoming an effective nonprofit marketer? Connect with Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeduerksen/ 

🔔 Follow the Build Good Fundraising Podcast on your favourite podcast app—and never miss a new episode: https://buildgood.com/category/podcast/ 

❤️ And if you haven't yet, subscribe to our Youtube channel for more fundraising videos and actionable strategies that will help you grow your revenue and impact: https://www.youtube.com/@buildgood?sub_confirmation=1 

Thanks for listening! 

Send us a text

More people would give to your organization, if they could only find you.

We know ads, emails, and organic social are great ways to reach new potential donors. 

But some of the scrappiest, most creative nonprofits use SEO to attract new supporters to grow their cause. 

How? 

On this week’s BuildGood Live, we’re revealing the playbook you can use to optimize your nonprofit’s online content so you can start attracting new donors. 

Cameron Bartlett has helped hundreds of charities like yours fundraise way more, by creating journeys that guide donors from your first interaction to becoming lifelong advocates that grow your cause for you. 

He’s led award-winning digital marketing campaigns for orgs like New Story, IJM, Compassion, World Vision and Cure. 

And he is currently building the food tech nonprofit Future Food.

In our chat, we’ll get into: 

• Why is SEO important for your nonprofit
• How does SEO for nonprofits even work
• How you can begin optimizing your online content so more people find you
• How you can identify relevant keywords for your charity 
• How long does it take to see results from your nonprofit’s SEO efforts
• What tools can a nonprofit use for SEO
• How can you track and measure your progress on your SEO efforts

—

➡️ Join our FREE training on how to create compelling fundraising messaging that leads donors to action and raises more money, from more people, more often—simply by changing the words you use: https://www.5minutefundraisingfix.com/register 

🤔 What else would you like to know about improving your fundraising and becoming an effective nonprofit marketer? Connect with Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeduerksen/ 

🔔 Follow the Build Good Fundraising Podcast on your favourite podcast app—and never miss a new episode: https://buildgood.com/category/podcast/ 

❤️ And if you haven't yet, subscribe to our Youtube channel for more fundraising videos and actionable strategies that will help you grow your revenue and impact: https://www.youtube.com/@buildgood?sub_confirmation=1 

Thanks for listening! 

---- 

#Fundraising #Nonprofit #Philanthropy #Marketing 

Interested in  working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit?

BuildGood is a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. Let our team of experts create your fundraising appeals, emails and newsletters for you, and reclaim the time to do the thing only YOU can do: build genuine, human, personal relationships with your donors. 

You’ll add proven expertise to your team. You’ll benefit from tested and proven strategies that will make you more money. And you’ll have peace of mind that you’re putting your best foot forward with your fundraising. 

➡️For more information, go here: www.buildgood.com

Send us a text

What if you could create content for your ads, emails and social media that reached more people than organizations that have 10X your budget? 

In our part 2 with Cameron Bartlett, we’ll into the formulas he’s used to reach over 125,000,000 people for social good. 

And the best part? These frameworks work to build an engaged following, whether you have a team of 20—or it's just you. 

Cameron has helped hundreds of charities like yours fundraise way more, by creating journeys that guide donors from your first interaction to becoming lifelong advocates that grow your cause for you. 

He’s led award-winning digital marketing campaigns for orgs like New Story, IJM, Compassion, World Vision and Cure. 

And he is currently building the food tech nonprofit Future Food.

—

➡️ Join our FREE training on how to create compelling fundraising messaging that leads donors to action and raises more money, from more people, more often—simply by changing the words you use: https://www.5minutefundraisingfix.com/register 

🤔 What else would you like to know about improving your fundraising and becoming an effective nonprofit marketer? Connect with Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeduerksen/ 

🔔 Follow the Build Good Fundraising Podcast on your favourite podcast app—and never miss a new episode: https://buildgood.com/category/podcast/ 

❤️ And if you haven't yet, subscribe to our Youtube channel for more fundraising videos and actionable strategies that will help you grow your revenue and impact: https://www.youtube.com/@buildgood?sub_confirmation=1 

Thanks for listening! 

---- 

#Fundraising #Nonprofit #Philanthropy #Marketing 

Interested in  working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit?

BuildGood is a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. Let our team of experts create your fundraising appeals, emails and newsletters for you, and reclaim the time to do the thing only YOU can do: build genuine, human, personal relationships with your donors. 

You’ll add proven expertise to your team. You’ll benefit from tested and proven strategies that will make you more money. And you’ll have peace of mind that you’re putting your best foot forward with your fundraising. 

➡️For more information, go here: www.buildgood.com

Send us a text

Today’s show is a special episode—a bit of a global journey of fundraising and discovery with one of Canada’s well known fundraisers.  

Fresh off a trip to Europe—including stops in Romania, Slovakia and Holland—Michael Johnston joins us to have a chat about what the social impact sector outside of North America looks like. And what we can learn from it. 

Michael was trained as a NATO analyst but ended up a direct mail fundraiser in 1987. Many books and clients later, he now works in over 30 countries through his agency HJC New Media.

In our chat, we touch on F2F fundraising, mid-level giving, monthly giving and legacy giving through the lens of other countries and cultures. 

—

➡️ Join our FREE training on how to create compelling fundraising messaging that leads donors to action and raises more money, from more people, more often—simply by changing the words you use: https://www.5minutefundraisingfix.com/register 

🤔 What else would you like to know about improving your fundraising and becoming an effective nonprofit marketer? Connect with Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeduerksen/ 

🔔 Follow the Build Good Fundraising Podcast on your favourite podcast app—and never miss a new episode: https://buildgood.com/category/podcast/ 

❤️ And if you haven't yet, subscribe to our Youtube channel for more fundraising videos and actionable strategies that will help you grow your revenue and impact: https://www.youtube.com/@buildgood?sub_confirmation=1 

Thanks for listening! 

---- 

#Fundraising #Nonprofit #Philanthropy #Marketing 

Interested in  working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit?

BuildGood is a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. Let our team of experts create your fundraising appeals, emails and newsletters for you, and reclaim the time to do the thing only YOU can do: build genuine, human, personal relationships with your donors. 

You’ll add proven expertise to your team. You’ll benefit from tested and proven strategies that will make you more money. And you’ll have peace of mind that you’re putting your best foot forward with your fundraising. 

➡️For more information, go here: www.buildgood.com

Send us a text

Do you feel like you have a focused fundraising strategy? 

Or does it feel like you’re being asked to do something else every few months?

Have you—or your leadership—been so derailed by that shiny, new opportunity (looking at you, TikTok) that you lose sight of what's important?

A strategic plan might help—if you approach it the right way.

Now, let’s be honest, you might already have a plan in place. 

It might be sitting on a shelf. Gathering dust. It might just be a long list of lofty goals you want to achieve. It might not even have a strategy at all! 

That’s why how you approach creating a plan is just as important as creating it in the first place. 

So in today’s chat, we get into the power of strategic planning and how it can be a tool to keep your team and your leadership focused on raising more revenue and cultivating your donors.

We’re talking with Kim Bersin, founder of Donor Speak Consulting.  She works with organizations around the globe and has helped raise millions across charitable sectors.

—

➡️ Join our FREE training on how to create compelling fundraising messaging that leads donors to action and raises more money, from more people, more often—simply by changing the words you use: https://www.5minutefundraisingfix.com/register 

🤔 What else would you like to know about improving your fundraising and becoming an effective nonprofit marketer? Connect with Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeduerksen/ 

🔔 Follow the Build Good Fundraising Podcast on your favourite podcast app—and never miss a new episode: https://buildgood.com/category/podcast/ 

❤️ And if you haven't yet, subscribe to our Youtube channel for more fundraising videos and actionable strategies that will help you grow your revenue and impact: https://www.youtube.com/@buildgood?sub_confirmation=1 

Thanks for listening! 

---- 

#Fundraising #Nonprofit #Philanthropy #Marketing 

Interested in  working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit?

BuildGood is a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. Let our team of experts create your fundraising appeals, emails and newsletters for you, and reclaim the time to do the thing only YOU can do: build genuine, human, personal relationships with your donors. 

You’ll add proven expertise to your team. You’ll benefit from tested and proven strategies that will make you more money. And you’ll have peace of mind that you’re putting your best foot forward with your fundraising. 

➡️For more information, go here: www.buildgood.com

Send us a text

In today’s episode, we dive into the 5 key elements of crafting a winning and simple fundraising plan using the pre-loaded year methodology.

It’s the same method we teach in the Fundraising Academy—and the same method we use with clients in our agency work.

A lot of organizations struggle to create simple and actionable plans they can execute on. That’s because for most small-to-mid sized nonprofits, complicated plans are…well, too complex to actually want to take action on.

But without a plan, nonprofits risk falling short on their financial goals. And they become overwhelmed by the tyranny of the urgent. 

Enter the pre-loaded year methodology—an innovative approach that simplifies the fundraising planning process by creating a One Page Fundraising plan. 

The kind of plan you can pin to the wall next to your computer screen. The kind of plan that isn’t overwhelming. 

In this episode, we explore the step-by-step guide to implementing this strategy, ensuring that your organization not only meets but exceeds its fundraising objectives.

BONUS: We walk you through a short exercise called The New Year Reset. Download your copy of the New Year Reset right here.

—

Download the New Year Reset worksheet to help you guide you fundraising planning: https://buildgood.ck.page/newyearreset

➡️ Join our FREE training on how to create compelling fundraising messaging that leads donors to action and raises more money, from more people, more often—simply by changing the words you use: https://www.5minutefundraisingfix.com/register 

🤔 What else would you like to know about improving your fundraising and becoming an effective nonprofit marketer? Connect with Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeduerksen/ 

🔔 Follow the Build Good Fundraising Podcast on your favourite podcast app—and never miss a new episode: https://buildgood.com/category/podcast/ 

❤️ And if you haven't yet, subscribe to our Youtube channel for more fundraising videos and actionable strategies that will help you grow your revenue and impact: https://www.youtube.com/@buildgood?sub_confirmation=1 

Thanks for listening! 

---- 

#Fundraising #Nonprofit #Philanthropy #Marketing 

Interested in  working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit?

BuildGood is a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. Let our team of experts create your fundraising appeals, emails and newsletters for you, and reclaim the time to do the thing only YOU can do: build genuine, human, personal relationships with your donors. 

You’ll add proven expertise to your team. You’ll benefit from tested and proven strategies that will make you more money. And you’ll have peace of mind that you’re putting your best foot forward with your fundraising. 

➡️For more information, go here: www.buildgood.com

Send us a text

Many nonprofits want to see 10-20% growth (or more!) year over year—and are tasking their fundraising team to make it happen without a clear-eyed view of what it takes. 

It’s not that sustained growth is unrealistic, but it becomes harder to raise more money year after year without investing resources (read: money and time!) in the right things to support that growth.

On today’s podcast, we’re going to do a bit of easy math together to see if you’re prepared to meet your growth goals. 

Don’t worry—we’ll walk you through it, step by step! If you want to follow along, you may want to grab: 

• Your income/expense statement from your last fiscal year
• Your overall donor retention rate 
• This worksheet you can download here 

By the end of the episode, you’ll have a good idea of just what it will take to meet your growth goals for 2024—and if your goals are realistic in the first place. 

Download: Growth Goal Worksheet 

—

➡️ Join our FREE training on how to create compelling fundraising messaging that leads donors to action and raises more money, from more people, more often—simply by changing the words you use: https://www.5minutefundraisingfix.com/register 

🤔 What else would you like to know about improving your fundraising and becoming an effective nonprofit marketer? Connect with Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeduerksen/ 

🔔 Follow the Build Good Fundraising Podcast on your favourite podcast app—and never miss a new episode: https://buildgood.com/category/podcast/ 

❤️ And if you haven't yet, subscribe to our Youtube channel for more fundraising videos and actionable strategies that will help you grow your revenue and impact: https://www.youtube.com/@buildgood?sub_confirmation=1 

Thanks for listening! 

---- 

#Fundraising #Nonprofit #Philanthropy #Marketing 

Interested in  working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit?

BuildGood is a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. Let our team of experts create your fundraising appeals, emails and newsletters for you, and reclaim the time to do the thing only YOU can do: build genuine, human, personal relationships with your donors. 

You’ll add proven expertise to your team. You’ll benefit from tested and proven strategies that will make you more money. And you’ll have peace of mind that you’re putting your best foot forward with your fundraising. 

➡️For more information, go here: www.buildgood.com

Send us a text

You need to retain donors if you want to grow sustainably—but you also need to find new donors. 

It seems simple enough, but we all want to skip to the “growing revenue” part without investing in both acquisition and retention. It doesn’t work. I’ve tried. You need to work on both, consistently and reliably. 

If you’re a listener of this show, you already know that listening to donors, engaging them, asking, celebrating and reporting is the best way to keep more of your donors connected, and giving. 

But how do you acquire those donors in the first place? 

On today’s podcast, we get into the core 4 ways you can use to find new donors. They are 

1. cold outreach
2. warm outreach
3. content and media
4. advertising

None of them are a magic solution that will grow your donor file. Each of them takes work, time, focus, and yes—money. And all of them work together to make your organization known, and to help you earn the trust of prospective donors. 

—

➡️ Join our FREE training on how to create compelling fundraising messaging that leads donors to action and raises more money, from more people, more often—simply by changing the words you use: https://www.5minutefundraisingfix.com/register 

🤔 What else would you like to know about improving your fundraising and becoming an effective nonprofit marketer? Connect with Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeduerksen/ 

🔔 Follow the Build Good Fundraising Podcast on your favourite podcast app—and never miss a new episode: https://buildgood.com/category/podcast/ 

❤️ And if you haven't yet, subscribe to our Youtube channel for more fundraising videos and actionable strategies that will help you grow your revenue and impact: https://www.youtube.com/@buildgood?sub_confirmation=1 

Thanks for listening! 

---- 

#Fundraising #Nonprofit #Philanthropy #Marketing 

Interested in  working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit?

BuildGood is a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. Let our team of experts create your fundraising appeals, emails and newsletters for you, and reclaim the time to do the thing only YOU can do: build genuine, human, personal relationships with your donors. 

You’ll add proven expertise to your team. You’ll benefit from tested and proven strategies that will make you more money. And you’ll have peace of mind that you’re putting your best foot forward with your fundraising. 

➡️For more information, go here: www.buildgood.com

Send us a text

So you want to find new donors online?

Then this is a foundational podcast episode for you to listen to.

We’re beginning our series on online new donor acquisition with a master of digital fundraising: Jeff Giddens from NextAfter.

In our chat, we get into: 

• Why sending prospective donors to a donation page might not be effective if you want to actually get a first gift from someone 
• Why trying to understand donors is a better strategy than trying to get them to understand your cause 
• How to think about your new donor acquisition strategy using content offers
• How to find, create and develop content offers prospective donors might actually want to download 
• How to build an effective acquisition funnel 
• How to drive traffic to your funnel using paid ads
• The key metrics you should keep an eye on to begin testing and optimizing your acquisition funnel

Along the way, we also get into how direct mail—and even door to door fundraising!—can influence the way you think about new donor acquisition online.

—

➡️ Join our FREE training on how to create compelling fundraising messaging that leads donors to action and raises more money, from more people, more often—simply by changing the words you use: https://www.5minutefundraisingfix.com/register 

🤔 What else would you like to know about improving your fundraising and becoming an effective nonprofit marketer? Connect with Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeduerksen/ 

🔔 Follow the Build Good Fundraising Podcast on your favourite podcast app—and never miss a new episode: https://buildgood.com/category/podcast/ 

❤️ And if you haven't yet, subscribe to our Youtube channel for more fundraising videos and actionable strategies that will help you grow your revenue and impact: https://www.youtube.com/@buildgood?sub_confirmation=1 

Thanks for listening! 

---- 

#Fundraising #Nonprofit #Philanthropy #Marketing 

Interested in  working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit?

BuildGood is a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. Let our team of experts create your fundraising appeals, emails and newsletters for you, and reclaim the time to do the thing only YOU can do: build genuine, human, personal relationships with your donors. 

You’ll add proven expertise to your team. You’ll benefit from tested and proven strategies that will make you more money. And you’ll have peace of mind that you’re putting your best foot forward with your fundraising. 

➡️For more information, go here: www.buildgood.com

Send us a text

Have you ever used paid Facebook and Instagram ads to support your fundraising? 

Ads can supercharge your donor acquisition strategy, but they can also be a little scary if you’re just starting out—and if you’re new to digital marketing.

To continue our series on new donor acquisition, we’re chatting with Dana Snyder from Positive Equation, host of the Missions To Movements podcast and Creator of the Monthly Giving Mastermind. 

Her mission is to equip nonprofits with the knowledge of how to use social media ads to attract potential supporters to their cause and create sustainable giving models by building monthly giving programs for everyone to become a philanthropist.

In our chat, we get into:

• Myths vs. Facts when it comes to paid ads
• How to think about the lifetime value of a donor acquire through ads
• The right way to set up a lead generation campaign using Facebook Ads Manager
• A step-by-step breakdown of how to automate email list growth using an ad strategy

If you’ve never run ads before, or if you’re a seasoned pro, you’ll find useful and valuable advice here.

—

➡️ Join our FREE training on how to create compelling fundraising messaging that leads donors to action and raises more money, from more people, more often—simply by changing the words you use: https://www.5minutefundraisingfix.com/register 

🤔 What else would you like to know about improving your fundraising and becoming an effective nonprofit marketer? Connect with Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeduerksen/ 

🔔 Follow the Build Good Fundraising Podcast on your favourite podcast app—and never miss a new episode: https://buildgood.com/category/podcast/ 

❤️ And if you haven't yet, subscribe to our Youtube channel for more fundraising videos and actionable strategies that will help you grow your revenue and impact: https://www.youtube.com/@buildgood?sub_confirmation=1 

Thanks for listening! 

---- 

#Fundraising #Nonprofit #Philanthropy #Marketing 

Interested in  working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit?

BuildGood is a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. Let our team of experts create your fundraising appeals, emails and newsletters for you, and reclaim the time to do the thing only YOU can do: build genuine, human, personal relationships with your donors. 

You’ll add proven expertise to your team. You’ll benefit from tested and proven strategies that will make you more money. And you’ll have peace of mind that you’re putting your best foot forward with your fundraising. 

➡️For more information, go here: www.buildgood.com

Send us a text

We’re continuing our series on new donor acquisition—and today we’re getting into the basics of how you can use the Google Ad Grant to attract potential donors through digital content offers.

The truth is, most nonprofits aren’t taking full advantage of the Google Ad Grant because they don’t know it works, or because they don’t have a clear strategy on how to use it. 

In today’s chat, Chris Barlow gets into everything you need to know to get started with the grant—and he also shares a simple strategy to attract new donors using digital content.  

We get into the 3 key steps for a digital donor growth campaign:

1. Creating a valuable resource for a community that aligns with your mission
2. Getting the resource into donors’ hands using the Google Ad Grant
3. Converting these new relationships into lasting support

Chris is the founder and Customer Happiness Director at Beeeline, a consultancy that specializes in helping nonprofits grow their mission and donor base through digital marketing.

—

➡️ Join our FREE training on how to create compelling fundraising messaging that leads donors to action and raises more money, from more people, more often—simply by changing the words you use: https://www.5minutefundraisingfix.com/register 

🤔 What else would you like to know about improving your fundraising and becoming an effective nonprofit marketer? Connect with Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeduerksen/ 

🔔 Follow the Build Good Fundraising Podcast on your favourite podcast app—and never miss a new episode: https://buildgood.com/category/podcast/ 

❤️ And if you haven't yet, subscribe to our Youtube channel for more fundraising videos and actionable strategies that will help you grow your revenue and impact: https://www.youtube.com/@buildgood?sub_confirmation=1 

Thanks for listening! 

---- 

#Fundraising #Nonprofit #Philanthropy #Marketing 

Interested in  working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit?

BuildGood is a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. Let our team of experts create your fundraising appeals, emails and newsletters for you, and reclaim the time to do the thing only YOU can do: build genuine, human, personal relationships with your donors. 

You’ll add proven expertise to your team. You’ll benefit from tested and proven strategies that will make you more money. And you’ll have peace of mind that you’re putting your best foot forward with your fundraising. 

➡️For more information, go here: www.buildgood.com

Send us a text

In our ongoing series on new donor acquisition, we’re talking to one of Canada’s most sought after advertising specialists about how to use Google ads to boost your fundraising. 

Kevin Harwood manages more than $10m in ad spend for nonprofits across North America, and is at the forefront of what is working…and isn’t. 

On today’s show, we get into: 

• How to think about online advertising (hint: it’s not about an immediate return on your investment) 
• What options your nonprofit has when it comes to Google ads (search, display, video)
• How to choose which advertising format makes the most sense for you
• What you can do with a small budget

Kevin runs his own consultancy where he works with some of the biggest nonprofit brands to create advertising that builds trust and long-term donor value.

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➡️ Join our FREE training on how to create compelling fundraising messaging that leads donors to action and raises more money, from more people, more often—simply by changing the words you use: https://www.5minutefundraisingfix.com/register 

🤔 What else would you like to know about improving your fundraising and becoming an effective nonprofit marketer? Connect with Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeduerksen/ 

🔔 Follow the Build Good Fundraising Podcast on your favourite podcast app—and never miss a new episode: https://buildgood.com/category/podcast/ 

❤️ And if you haven't yet, subscribe to our Youtube channel for more fundraising videos and actionable strategies that will help you grow your revenue and impact: https://www.youtube.com/@buildgood?sub_confirmation=1 

Thanks for listening! 

---- 

#Fundraising #Nonprofit #Philanthropy #Marketing 

Interested in  working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit?

BuildGood is a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. Let our team of experts create your fundraising appeals, emails and newsletters for you, and reclaim the time to do the thing only YOU can do: build genuine, human, personal relationships with your donors. 

You’ll add proven expertise to your team. You’ll benefit from tested and proven strategies that will make you more money. And you’ll have peace of mind that you’re putting your best foot forward with your fundraising. 

➡️For more information, go here: www.buildgood.com

Send us a text

Social media isn’t working for most nonprofits.

If you’re watching your engagement drop while spending hours on content creation, you're likely about ready to give up on social media for good.

And no one would blame you.

That’s why we’re continuing our series on new donor acquisition by talking about these challenges head-on.

We’re talking to Brynne Krispin from Cause Fokus about how to tap into the power of empathy to actually find supporters online through social media.

In our chat, we get into: 

• The challenges of using social media for fundraising
• Realistic (and unrealistic) expectations from organic content
• Incorporating empathy into your fundraising campaigns

Brynne is a social media strategist for nonprofits and purpose-driven executives. Working with NGOs, thought leaders, and policymakers in DC for the last decade, she specializes in getting people to care about complex issues that might otherwise get ignored. 

Her team at Cause Fokus uses empathy-based marketing to turn passive audiences into loyal advocates

—

➡️ Join our FREE training on how to create compelling fundraising messaging that leads donors to action and raises more money, from more people, more often—simply by changing the words you use: https://www.5minutefundraisingfix.com/register 

🤔 What else would you like to know about improving your fundraising and becoming an effective nonprofit marketer? Connect with Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeduerksen/ 

🔔 Follow the Build Good Fundraising Podcast on your favourite podcast app—and never miss a new episode: https://buildgood.com/category/podcast/ 

❤️ And if you haven't yet, subscribe to our Youtube channel for more fundraising videos and actionable strategies that will help you grow your revenue and impact: https://www.youtube.com/@buildgood?sub_confirmation=1 

Thanks for listening! 

---- 

#Fundraising #Nonprofit #Philanthropy #Marketing 

Interested in  working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit?

BuildGood is a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. Let our team of experts create your fundraising appeals, emails and newsletters for you, and reclaim the time to do the thing only YOU can do: build genuine, human, personal relationships with your donors. 

You’ll add proven expertise to your team. You’ll benefit from tested and proven strategies that will make you more money. And you’ll have peace of mind that you’re putting your best foot forward with your fundraising. 

➡️For more information, go here: www.buildgood.com

Send us a text

“Always be testing”. That’s popular fundraising advice. 

After all, the only way to get new insights to grow your fundraising is to try new stuff, test, iterate and optimize.  

But how do you decide what to test? How do you set up a proper A/B test?  And how do you make sure you learn something meaningful from it? 

That’s what we get into in today's chat with Ronen Tal, the Director of Integrated Marketing and Fundraising at Nature Conservancy of Canada. He stewards a donor file of 40,000 donors contributing more than $10m in revenue each year. And he’s always testing new approaches to grow generosity. 

In our chat we get into:

• How to decide what to test 
• Why you need a testing hypothesis—and how to create one 
• The difference between trying new stuff and A/B testing
• How to run successful A/B tests
• How to interpret results to find actual insights 

To learn more about Ronen and his work, you can connect with him on LinkedIn.


—

➡️ Join our FREE training on how to build a fundraising flywheel that can 2x your revenue—without hiring more fundraisers or changing your tech and tools https://flywheel.buildgood.com 

🤔 What else would you like to know about improving your fundraising and becoming an effective nonprofit marketer? Connect with Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeduerksen/ 

🔔 Follow the Build Good Fundraising Podcast on your favourite podcast app—and never miss a new episode: https://buildgood.com/category/podcast/ 

❤️ And if you haven't yet, subscribe to our Youtube channel for more fundraising videos and actionable strategies that will help you grow your revenue and impact: https://www.youtube.com/@buildgood?sub_confirmation=1 

Thanks for listening! 

---- 

#Fundraising #Nonprofit #Philanthropy #Marketing 

Interested in  working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit?

BuildGood is a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. Let our team of experts create your fundraising appeals, emails and newsletters for you, and reclaim the time to do the thing only YOU can do: build genuine, human, personal relationships with your donors. 

You’ll add proven expertise to your team. You’ll benefit from tested and proven strategies that will make you more money. And you’ll have peace of mind that you’re putting your best foot forward with your fundraising. 

➡️For more information, go here: www.buildgood.com

Send us a text

If you’re tired of riding the revenue rollercoaster—where your nonprofit’s cash flow is always dependent on a few key fundraising campaigns during the year— your big opportunity is building a strong monthly giving program

Growing recurring giving not only smoothes out your cash flow year round, it also increases the lifetime giving of your donors. And it’s a direct pipeline to mid-level, major and legacy gifts.

But building a strong monthly giving program requires some thought and care. 

You can’t just build it and expect people to come.

That’s why we’re talking to Dave Raley from Imago Consulting on the podcast today. He’s been building monthly giving programs for almost two decades. And he’s writing the book on it. 

On today’s chat, Dave goes through 8 crucial steps to building a monthly giving program that will actually become a valuable asset for your organization.

In our chat, we get into:

• The 3 kinds of monthly giving programs
• The problem most nonprofits face when designing a monthly giving program
• Everything you need to take into consideration before launching a program
• How to name your program
• How to structure the offer and value proposition 
• How to recruit donors to join the monthly giving program 

To learn more about Dave and his work, you can connect with him on LinkedIn. 

—

➡️ Join our FREE training on how to build a fundraising flywheel that can 2x your revenue—without hiring more fundraisers or changing your tech and tools https://flywheel.buildgood.com 

🤔 What else would you like to know about improving your fundraising and becoming an effective nonprofit marketer? Connect with Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeduerksen/ 

🔔 Follow the Build Good Fundraising Podcast on your favourite podcast app—and never miss a new episode: https://buildgood.com/category/podcast/ 

❤️ And if you haven't yet, subscribe to our Youtube channel for more fundraising videos and actionable strategies that will help you grow your revenue and impact: https://www.youtube.com/@buildgood?sub_confirmation=1 

Thanks for listening! 

---- 

#Fundraising #Nonprofit #Philanthropy #Marketing 

Interested in  working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit?

BuildGood is a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. Let our team of experts create your fundraising appeals, emails and newsletters for you, and reclaim the time to do the thing only YOU can do: build genuine, human, personal relationships with your donors. 

You’ll add proven expertise to your team. You’ll benefit from tested and proven strategies that will make you more money. And you’ll have peace of mind that you’re putting your best foot forward with your fundraising. 

➡️For more information, go here: www.buildgood.com

Send us a text

Today, BuildGood’s resident fundraising copywriter delivers a masterclass in how to craft fundraising copy that leads people toward greater generosity. 

Hannah Vermeer gets into simple, easy and effective ways you can change the words you use in your fundraising—and changing the words you use is free. It costs you nothing.  

Whether it’s making your donor feel like they have an important and meaningful role to play, or crafting copy that’s easy to read and emotionally resonant, you’ll walk away with actionable insights to improve your copy immediately.

If you want to create compelling, heartfelt, and effective fundraising copy, this episode is for you.

—

➡️ Join our FREE training on how to build a fundraising flywheel that can 2x your revenue—without hiring more fundraisers or changing your tech and tools https://flywheel.buildgood.com 

🤔 What else would you like to know about improving your fundraising and becoming an effective nonprofit marketer? Connect with Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeduerksen/ 

🔔 Follow the Build Good Fundraising Podcast on your favourite podcast app—and never miss a new episode: https://buildgood.com/category/podcast/ 

❤️ And if you haven't yet, subscribe to our Youtube channel for more fundraising videos and actionable strategies that will help you grow your revenue and impact: https://www.youtube.com/@buildgood?sub_confirmation=1 

Thanks for listening! 

---- 

#Fundraising #Nonprofit #Philanthropy #Marketing 

Interested in  working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit?

BuildGood is a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. Let our team of experts create your fundraising appeals, emails and newsletters for you, and reclaim the time to do the thing only YOU can do: build genuine, human, personal relationships with your donors. 

You’ll add proven expertise to your team. You’ll benefit from tested and proven strategies that will make you more money. And you’ll have peace of mind that you’re putting your best foot forward with your fundraising. 

➡️For more information, go here: www.buildgood.com

Send us a text

Today we’re launching the Build Good Summit, and introducing the first speaker—Nathan Hill from NextAfter.

Nathan and the NextAfter team recently analyzed how the fundraising of 211 nonprofits impacts donor retention.

And in today’s chat, he’s sharing 3 key things you can do to retain more donors—backed by research and actual donor data.

If you want to get fresh ideas to grow your revenue—and get together with other fundraisers who are doing interesting and innovative things to draw donors closer in to the mission—join ust at the Build Good Summit on May 22-23, 2025 in Toronto.

You’ll hear from fundraising innovators who’ll focus on practical examples to grow your fundraising—stuff that’s actually working right now to help some of the most innovative nonprofits grow.

You can get your tickets now at www.buildgoodsummit.com 

—

➡️ Join our FREE training on how to build a fundraising flywheel that can 2x your revenue—without hiring more fundraisers or changing your tech and tools https://flywheel.buildgood.com 

🤔 What else would you like to know about improving your fundraising and becoming an effective nonprofit marketer? Connect with Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeduerksen/ 

🔔 Follow the Build Good Fundraising Podcast on your favourite podcast app—and never miss a new episode: https://buildgood.com/category/podcast/ 

❤️ And if you haven't yet, subscribe to our Youtube channel for more fundraising videos and actionable strategies that will help you grow your revenue and impact: https://www.youtube.com/@buildgood?sub_confirmation=1 

Thanks for listening! 

---- 

#Fundraising #Nonprofit #Philanthropy #Marketing 

Interested in  working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit?

BuildGood is a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. Let our team of experts create your fundraising appeals, emails and newsletters for you, and reclaim the time to do the thing only YOU can do: build genuine, human, personal relationships with your donors. 

You’ll add proven expertise to your team. You’ll benefit from tested and proven strategies that will make you more money. And you’ll have peace of mind that you’re putting your best foot forward with your fundraising. 

➡️For more information, go here: www.buildgood.com

Send us a text

Today we're celebrating our 100th episode! Come sit down for a fireside chat (complete with Diet Coke) to share the honest story of how this podcast started, where it's headed, and what that means for BuildGood—and for you.

Mike gets real about why the original podcast strategy was completely wrong—and why that might’ve been the best thing that could’ve happened. 

In today’s chat you’ll also hear how BuildGood has grown from a solo consultant to a team of 15 passionate fundraisers. Plus, you’ll learn some of the exciting results we’re seeing with clients—including one digital campaign that's generating returns that seem almost too good to be true.

If you’ve loved the podcast so far you’ll love this peek behind the curtain at what's coming next—including some changes that listeners have been asking for.

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➡️ Join our FREE training on how to build a fundraising flywheel that can 2x your revenue—without hiring more fundraisers or changing your tech and tools https://flywheel.buildgood.com 

🤔 What else would you like to know about improving your fundraising and becoming an effective nonprofit marketer? Connect with Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeduerksen/ 

🔔 Follow the Build Good Fundraising Podcast on your favourite podcast app—and never miss a new episode: https://buildgood.com/category/podcast/ 

❤️ And if you haven't yet, subscribe to our Youtube channel for more fundraising videos and actionable strategies that will help you grow your revenue and impact: https://www.youtube.com/@buildgood?sub_confirmation=1 

Thanks for listening! 

---- 

#Fundraising #Nonprofit #Philanthropy #Marketing 

Interested in  working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit?

BuildGood is a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. Let our team of experts create your fundraising appeals, emails and newsletters for you, and reclaim the time to do the thing only YOU can do: build genuine, human, personal relationships with your donors. 

Send us a text

After longing for the kind of event we wanted to attend, we decided to create it ourselves.

Today, Hannah and Mike walk through why we’re launching The Build Good Summit, an in-person fundraising summit in downtown Toronto happening May 22-23, 2025. 

The lack of world-class fundraising conferences in Canada has left fundraisers with two choices: spend thousands of dollars to attend conferences elsewhere, or miss out altogether.

We’re putting an end to that.

When you attend the BuildGood Summit, you’re joining our mission to bring Canada’s most ambitious nonprofits together, for good. By coming together and sharing methods that are working on our home turf—along with those working internationally—we'll all walk away with practical tips we can implement right now.

In today’s show we talk about how we’re crafting the experience, how we use the flywheel approach ourselves to plan the conference, and how we chose the speakers.

And if you stick around to the end of the podcast—listeners of the podcast get a special discount code to join us at the Summit. 

Don’t miss your chance to secure one of the 350 available seats. 

Claim your spot now at www.buildgoodsummit.com 

—

➡️ Join our FREE training on how to build a fundraising flywheel that can 2x your revenue—without hiring more fundraisers or changing your tech and tools https://flywheel.buildgood.com 

🤔 What else would you like to know about improving your fundraising and becoming an effective nonprofit marketer? Connect with Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeduerksen/ 

🔔 Follow the Build Good Fundraising Podcast on your favourite podcast app—and never miss a new episode: https://buildgood.com/category/podcast/ 

❤️ And if you haven't yet, subscribe to our Youtube channel for more fundraising videos and actionable strategies that will help you grow your revenue and impact: https://www.youtube.com/@buildgood?sub_confirmation=1 

Thanks for listening! 

---- 

#Fundraising #Nonprofit #Philanthropy #Marketing 

Interested in  working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit?

BuildGood is a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. Let our team of experts create your fundraising appeals, emails and newsletters for you, and reclaim the time to do the thing only YOU can do: build genuine, human, personal relationships with your donors. 

You’ll add proven expertise to your team. You’ll benefit from tested and proven strategies that will make you more money. And you’ll have peace of mind that you’re putting your best foot forward with your fundraising. 

➡️For more information, go here: www.buildgood.com

Send us a text

The way we’ve been doing fundraising events might be all wrong. 

We often focus so much on what happens at the event that we miss the bigger picture: what happens before and after matters just as much—if not more. In this episode, we explore how to use the fundraising flywheel to make your events work harder for you and leave less money (and momentum) on the table.

We get into:

• Why your event shouldn’t be a one-night stand (for your fundraising strategy).
• How to think about your event as a living, breathing version of your mission.
• A practical framework to make your next event more successful—from pre-event planning to post-event follow-up.
• How to activate your donors and sponsors before the event ever happens.
• What a great “Ask” sounds like during and after your event.

And as a bonus, you’ll also get to listen to an exclusive coaching call within The Fundraising Academy with Lauren Isbell from Nevus Outreach. 

—

➡️ Join our FREE training on how to build a fundraising flywheel that can 2x your revenue—without hiring more fundraisers or changing your tech and tools https://flywheel.buildgood.com 

🤔 What else would you like to know about improving your fundraising and becoming an effective nonprofit marketer? Connect with Mike Duerksen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeduerksen/ 

🔔 Follow the Build Good Fundraising Podcast on your favourite podcast app—and never miss a new episode: https://buildgood.com/category/podcast/ 

❤️ And if you haven't yet, subscribe to our Youtube channel for more fundraising videos and actionable strategies that will help you grow your revenue and impact: https://www.youtube.com/@buildgood?sub_confirmation=1 

Thanks for listening! 

---- 

#Fundraising #Nonprofit #Philanthropy #Marketing 

Interested in  working with a fundraising agency to grow your nonprofit?

BuildGood is a fundraising agency that helps nonprofits raise more money from individual donors. Let our team of experts create your fundraising appeals, emails and newsletters for you, and reclaim the time to do the thing only YOU can do: build genuine, human, personal relationships with your donors. 

You’ll add proven expertise to your team. You’ll benefit from tested and proven strategies that will make you more money. And you’ll have peace of mind that you’re putting your best foot forward with your fundraising. 

➡️For more information, go here: www.buildgood.com

Send us a text

Are you having a hard time finding and retaining a good Director of Development?

If that sounds like you, you're not alone.

Studies show the average tenure for a Director of Development is between 16-18 months — among the highest in any profession. And while it's true for organizations of all sizes, it's especially true in smaller organizations where more than 50% of Development Directors say they anticipate leaving their jobs in 2 years or less.

Today on the podcast, we talk with John Janzen, Director of Development at Inner City Youth Alive in Winnipeg, Canada. John is a first-time DoD who's just finishing his first year on the job.

We're going to hear from John on what he's learned in his first year, how he has learned to tell his organization's story, and what every prospective small-shop DoD should know about going into the job.

Make sure to stick around, because the end of our conversation John plays a song from a musical he wrote to engage the community in issues of poverty.

LINKS

• Inner City Youth Alive 

Send us a text

If you've worked in fundraising for some time, you'll know that direct mail still enjoys some of the best response rates of any communications channel. 

But because we're living in a digital world, it's easy to think of direct mail as outdated with nothing new to offer.  

You and I hear that all the time.

If you still rely on the mailbox to connect with your donors and to grow your revenue, you know that's not the case. You know it's still where most donations come in. You know it leads to higher donor retention. You know it's useful in acquiring large gift donors.

And you also know that digital tools actually make direct mail work better now than ever before.

Today we're talking to Dan Sonners about 4 different ways you can boost your direct mail response by adding digital channels to your fundraising campaigns. 

Dan is the Director of Non-Profit Marketing at Conrad Direct, a family owned direct marketing firm which has specialized in the nonprofit sector for over 35 years. As a list broker he’s written direct mail and digital media plans which have helped nonprofits acquire nearly a million donors for organizations in wide range of markets and sizes. 

He also hosts and Dynamic Nonprofits podcast, which is dedicated to advocating for an unsiloed approach to fundraising and spurring innovation in the nonprofit sector. 

LINKS 

• Connect with Dan on LinkedIn 
• Listen to the Dynamic Nonprofits with Dan Podcast
• Email Dan 

Send us a text

Today on the show, we’re talking about a massive opportunity for your nonprofit to add revenue to your bottom line for years to come. 

We’re talking about the largest gift your donor may ever give to your organization. We’re talking about legacy marketing. 

Did you know charitable bequests are now worth literally hundreds of billions of dollars in Canada? So if you’re not already giving your donors a chance to leave behind a gift for generations to come that honours their values and beliefs…today is the day to start. 

And if you already have a legacy marketing program in place, you’re likely looking for effective ways to improve your messaging and strategy.

Well today’s guest is going to show you 3 common mistakes nonprofits make when asking donors to leave a gift in their will…and 3 easy solutions you can implement today.

We’re talking to David Kravinchuk, seasoned fundraiser and the also the founder and convener of the Western Canada Fundraising Conference. 

You’re going to learn from David:

• Why you shouldn’t educate your donor on how to leave a gift in their will
• Why you may need to ignore some of your brand standards to effectively communicate with your donors 
• And why you shouldn’t mention most planned gift options 

And as a gift for you, David is going to share one of the biggest blunders of his career…and help you avoid making the same mistake.

LINKS 

• Attend the Day of Good
• Attends the Western Canada Fundraising Conference 

Send us a text

What do you think when you hear the words strategic planning?

If you're like most nonprofit leaders today, you know strategy is important. You know a good strategy has the power to completely transform your organization's fundraising and development performance. 

It can energize your staff, volunteers and donors. It can give you the clarify and focus needed to take on the world's most pressing problems. 

And for small and mid-sized organizations who are working under all kinds of constraints, a good strategy helps you decide where to allocate all of your time and energy and money and staff to make the most difference. 

But I know what you might be thinking...because unfortunately for many of us, our experience with strategic planning is often just a big binder full of good intentions that ends up sitting on a shelf collecting dust. And that seems like a waste of time and money.

Today's guest is on a mission to change that. And he's going to walk us through an easy framework anyone can use to create a clear and compelling strategy for their organization. 

We're talking to Chris Bosch, former head of strategy for World Vision Canada where he led a major process involving staff at all levels and external stakeholders to re-imagine the future of the $450m NGO. 

Chris now runs Chisel Consulting, a company that helps organizations get clear about their own mission and purpose so they know what to focus on.

Send us a text

You’ve likely heard that combining your fundraising with data analytics is the most efficient way to grow your revenue and engage the right donors at the right time.

It’s true: donors speak to us through data.

Data is simply a measure of our donor’s actions. And most of the time those actions speak louder than words. So we need to listen carefully to what our donors are saying.

But…maybe you’re not sure where to start? Maybe you don’t know what metrics you should measure? And what do they mean anyway…and how can they help you?  

Well today on the show, you are going to learn 5 key metrics you should be measuring that will help you raise more money from more donors more effectively. 

We’re talking to Sam Laprade, a seasoned fundraiser who has raised money for important charities such as the Ottawa Hospital Foundation, the Ottawa Human Society and the Ottawa Mission. 

She’s a fundraising consultant and director at Gryphon Fundraising where she helps organizations make sense of their donor data and improve database analytics. 

You’re going to learn…

1.    What donor data analytics you should measure – and how to measure them

2.    How you can interpret those results 

3.    And practical ways of using those results to make a difference in your fundraising  

Send us a text

If it hasn't already, COVID-19 will impact your cause and your fundraising. Maybe you’re wondering if you’re about to face the biggest revenue crash of your career.

And that's a real possibility.

As panic and fear about the virus spread across the globe, many nonprofit organizations are about to make some choices that could seriously wreck their fundraising for years to come.

The decisions nonprofit leaders will make out of fear might erode the value of their donor file and jeopardize their ability to sustain their mission in the future.

So to make sure you’re not one of them, I called up Sean Triner of Moceanic for a quick chat about how your nonprofit can not only survive, but also thrive, during this uncertain time. 

Sean is a lifetime professional fundraiser who has lived and fundraised through recessions and times of crisis. He’s the co-founder of the Pareto Fundraising businesses in Australia, Hong Kong and New Zealand.

These days he runs Moceanic, an online training company focused on best practices for fundraisers like you.

In our conversation you’re going to learn:

• Why you shouldn’t cancel your fundraising right now – and in fact, should increase your fundraising budget.
• How you can approach your major donors who might be looking at their losses in the stock market and evaluating their charitable giving.
• What you can do to replace the fundraising events and face to face meetings you rely on to bring in revenue.

We’ll also get into some common questions we’ve seen from fundraisers online, and Sean shares a letter from a CEO you can learn from if you have to create a campaign for urgently needed funds.

And just a note: since this is a last-minute podcast we’re not using our usual recording setup today – so the audio quality isn’t as good as it usually is. 

Send us a text

If you put yourself in your donors' shoes for a minute, you'll know they are likely sitting at home. Like you, they are watching the COVID-19 pandemic spread across the globe. And they might wonder what it all means for them and their loved ones. 

So you might be tempted to leave them alone. Give them some space. Let them cope. 

But what if your donors are longing to hear from you? And what if it's your duty of care to reach out to them right now with care and compassion? And what if they want to help make the world a tad bit better? 

Chances are your donors have many questions right now. And they are waiting for you to have the courage to be vulnerable with them. 

On today's podcast, we walk through five things your donors need to hear from you right now: 

• They need to know you care
• They need to know your beneficiaries are ok
• They need to know you have a plan
• They need to know they are still needed
• And they need to know they will be part of the solution

I know things are scary right now. But you were made for these times. And now, more than ever,  people are looking to you to lead them through these uncertain times.

I want you to know and remember when this is all over, your donors will remember the kind of person you were long after they remember what sort of decisions you made about staffing, finances, programs, etc. 

So go easy on yourself. Rise to the challenge. And start reaching out to your donors with as much humanity and vulnerability as you can muster today.

Send us a text

If you’re like many nonprofit leaders, you’ve spent the last two weeks going back to the drawing board on what your fundraising and communications will look like now that everything is different. 

And make no mistake: everything is different.  

And that means all the careful planning and strategies, all the campaign rollouts and scheduled posts, and all the thank you letters and mailouts need to be reviewed and rebuilt to take into the account the impact of the Coronavirus. 

And I want to make sure that, though this podcast, we can support you in that. 

So for the next few weeks, we’re switching our focus to helping you fundraise and communicate in a crisis. 

I know many of you are in a tough position right now. But you’re not alone.

And today’s guest will show you how leaders and marketers and fundraisers like you have lived and worked through emergencies before. 

History is full of fundraisers who have inspired and motivated people to come together to overcome terrible problems. And the gifts they raised generated the funds that were crucial to keeping the most vulnerable in society protected. 

Today's guest — Mark Phillips — will help you learn from some of them today.

Mark is founder of Bluefrog Fundraising in the UK, a fundraising agency focused on meeting donor needs. 

Mark keeps an online archive of the history of fundraising — it’s a pinterest board full of ads and campaigns from the world’s most successful charities like The Red Cross, Save the Children, Oxfam, and the YMCA.

Recently Mark pulled up three ads from different crises throughout history that we’re going to walk through today. Make sure to check them out on Mark's blog here: https://queerideas.co.uk/2020/03/crisis-fundraising-what-you-can-learn-from-the-past.html

Each of these three ads has something to teach us today about how to fundraise in a crisis. And I think you’ll come always with at least three ideas that will make your fundraising stronger today.

LINKS 

• Mark's blog on all things fundraising
• Mark's online archive of old charity ads
• Bluefrog Fundraising

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Are you having a hard time staying positive and balanced and sane during these crazy times?

The coronavirus pandemic brings a rare combination of a scary health emergency, human isolation and an economic crisis at all once. 

And I worry about you.

I am not worried if you're going to survive this crisis, or if your nonprofit will survive the storm. I am worried about what the crisis is doing to you, and the toll it’s taking on you as a leader and parent and friend and spouse and all the other roles you play. 

I know a lot of people are relying on you. 

Maybe your boss or your board is relying on you to bring in the funds, to produce a lot more work or communications pieces, to call every donor, or to produce a new campaign in a hurry…and so much more.

There's a lot on your shoulders.

And the only way we are going to get through this is by acknowledging how hard it is and taking care of ourselves. 

So today on the show I’m talking to Amanda Rocheleau, a registered social worker and certified compassion-fatigue therapist. 

Amanda works specifically with people who are in the business of helping others, so she understands how quickly burnout and anxiety and work-life balance issues can creep up and completely derail us.

Amanda is going to walk through 5 things you can do to manage your anxiety, reduce your stress and take better care of your mental health, including:

• How you can manage the stress of juggling so many things at once. 
• How you can balance your news intake with things that give you hope.
• How you can be realistic about your own limitations and communicate them to your team and family. 
• How you can create healthy habits even when your routine is all out of whack. 

Plus, we’ll get into how leaders can best support the mental health of their teams who are working remotely, and how those of us who are talking to donors all day can deal with feeling drained at the end of the day. 

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One of the things the coronavirus crisis made clear is the importance of good leadership. 

Specifically, the importance of leaders who communicate openly and honestly and with enough vulnerability to admit what they don’t know.

We sometimes think of leadership as only being important at the board and CEO level, but if you’re listening to this show and you work in the nonprofit and social impact sector, chances are people are relying on you. 

They’re relying on you to be a good teammate, a good friend, a good boss, a good fundraiser. Maybe your family and your kids are relying on you to lead them through this crazy time.

The truth is, we all have a responsibility to lead right now. 

So today on the show we're talking to Jamie McIntosh, the executive director of partner relations at Compassion Canada — an international development NGO that helps children living in poverty across the world.

Jamie has held senior leadership positions in organizations like World Vision, International Justice Mission and Mercy Ships. 

His work has taken him the world over, and he has experienced what it’s like for organizations and leaders to endure an extended crisis. 

Jamie is going to share with us three principles that can help all of us lead in a time of uncertainty, including:

1.    Why being present is more important than having it all figured out.

2.    How admitting our own fears as leaders might the best most fearless thing we can do right now.

3.    And how finding a little bit of perspective can make the difference between making it as a leader or breaking down.

One of the things I appreciate most about Jamie is his hopeful and redemptive perspective on life, and I think you’ll be encouraged listening to this interview.  

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What is the secret of organizations raising record levels of money during the coronavirus pandemic?

Many of the nonprofits thriving right now have one thing in common: donor-centric fundraising and stewardship.

While it seems counter-intuitive, in hard times many donors actually increase their giving. They want to be part of the solution and help.

But the key is, they only give to organizations they care about — and organizations that care about them. Organizations that share their values. That have done a good job at thanking them, making them feel valued and connecting them to the cause.

Donors move mountains for charities that value them, celebrate their generosity, use their gift effectively and report back to them on the difference they've made.

So if your nonprofit was already focused on donor-centric fundraising, you have a huge advantage right now. And if you weren't, the good news is you can start today.

If you want proven tactics that keep donors coming back again and again, this podcast is for you. Julie Cooper will share how to thank donors so they feel connected to your cause...and want to keep giving — even after the pandemic is over.

NOTES

• Learn more about Julie and get the FREE resources mentioned in the podcast by visiting her website

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If you've ever struggled to find the right words to say when confronted with a tough question from a donor, team member or journalist, this episode is for you.

On today's show we hear from Brad Phillips, the CEO of Throughline Group, a public speaking and media training company. Brad has trained thousands of media spokespersons and public speakers including a presidential candidate, members of Congress, Olympic athletes, top CEOs, directors of nonprofit organizations and heads of government agencies. 

In this episode you’ll get a crash course in fielding challenging questions and answering them with authenticity.  Brad will help you understand how tough or even antagonistic questions can create opportunities for you to share your values with the world and build trust in times of crisis. 

If you’re looking for the skills to represent your organization well, even in the hardest circumstances, you'll learn a lot from our conversation with Brad.

You’ll learn:

•  [7:48] - Why authenticity is the only currency that matters right now
• [9:49] - The consequences of not communicating in a way that shows genuine care
• [12:23] - Being put on the spot can be uncomfortable and can expose our insecurities which leads to defensiveness. How can we counteract fear that causes us to be defensive?
• [16:00] - Authenticity in the age of COVID; how Andrew Cuomo has handled the media during the crisis
• [19:45] - Three practical ways we can prepare for hard conversations: Purpose, Process and Commitment.
• [24:30] - What is “bridging”? and why it may be the most indispensable tool you have right now
• [30:15] - How to apply the bridging technique with a practical example
• [36:09] - How we communicate can be more important than the exact words we use.
• [37:43] - What to do when you wish you had answered a question differently

You can find more information about Brad and the Throughline Group at https://www.throughlinegroup.com/  

or on Twitter:

@MrMediaTraining, @throughliners
 
Join in our mission to help others build good in the world by rating and sharing this podcast on all major platforms. You can do that by clicking here. 

https://www.buildgood.org/

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Finding and stewarding donors is the foundation of any successful nonprofit. But during uncertain times, it's easy to shrink back and set donor acquisition aside, leaving yourself vulnerable in the future
 
In this episode we hear from Tim Kersten, the CEO of the RKD Group, a fundraising and marketing agency with over 280 nonprofit clients across North America. Tim has 43 years of experience consulting with nonprofits to meet their fundraising goals. He is passionate about empowering and enabling individuals to have their voice heard in their society so they can make a difference, improve lives and correct injustice.

2020 has been wildly unpredictable, and it can be tempting to walk away from donor acquisition while the pandemic is ongoing and the future of the economy is unknown.

Tim shares why now is not the time to take your focus off this area. You'll learn why nonprofits should stay in the market and how nonprofits should go about new donor acquisition with all the changes going on around us.

You'll learn:

• [7:51] - The state of nonprofits and the astonishing increase in giving, even with a tumultuous 2020.
  
  
• [13:24] - Why are those who stay in the donor market thriving?
  
  
• [16:01] - The importance of having a strong digital strategy.
  
  
• [17:18] - How to prepare for a possible recession.
  
  
• [22:16] - How to move forward with donor acquisition, even during the COVID-19 pandemic
  
  
• [27:39] - What are the long term ramifications of ignoring donor acquisition?
  
  
• [30:58] - How to balance donor retention with donor acquisition.
  
  
• [35:53] - Given how 2020 has gone so far, what are some tactical changes we should make to donor acquisition?
  
  
•  [39:05] - Face to face donor acquisition is highly effective but COVID-19 has changed our ability to do this. What are some other ways we can reach potential donors? 

 You can find more information about Tim and the RKD Group at https://rkdgroup.com/, or on twitter @RKDgroup.

Join in our mission to help others build good in the world by rating and sharing this podcast on all major platforms. You can do that by clicking here.

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COVID-19 is testing the systems and processes of nonprofits like never before. And many organizations are finding that their lack of data practices and data quality are hampering their fundraising efforts.

Strong, direct relationships with donors are crucial to withstanding times of uncertainty and crisis. And fundraising success is always a result of strong systems that manage data well, allowing you to maintain a close relationship with your donors.

So what can you do to improve the way you manage donor data to help you build deeper connections with donors?

On today's episode, we hear from T. Clay Buck, founder of Tactical Fundraising Solutions. Clay is a Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE) who was recently named among the top 20 charity influencers online. He has been a member of the advisory board for Rogare, and co-authored the United States Critical Fundraising Report. 

He is a frequent speaker and trainer, and teaches Fundraising and Nonprofit Management  at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas.

You'll learn why focusing on data quality should be one of your highest priorities right now, and how to create processes and systems to manage your data most effectively.

Plus, you'll learn who person is in your organization who can have the greatest impact on your fundraising - and it’s not who you think!

You can find more information about Clay and Tactical Fundraising Solutions at Tcbfundraising.com. You can also connect with Clay on twitter (@tclaybuck), Linkedin, or by email at clay@tcbfundraising.com.

Today we’ll cover:

• [5:27] - What lessons should smart fundraisers be learning and paying attention to in our current cultural climate?
• [13:58] - Why we shouldn’t underestimate the power of smaller dollar donors 
• [16:26] - What are the current trends around data and system management?
• [22:16] - What is ‘data quality’ and why does it matter? 
• [27:55] - What are some basic systems and processes that every organization should have? 
• [31:14] - The importance of having a designated person who oversees and cares for donor data
• [32:56] - How can we make sure our systems are showing us the right information to connect with and care for our donors? 
• [37:26] - The importance of valuing those who are charged with data entry at your organization

Join in our mission to help others build good in the world by rating and sharing this podcast on all major platforms. You can do that by clicking here.

Check out our free resource on improving your donor communications at https://www.5minutefundraisingfix.com/

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You didn't see COVID coming. Nobody did. But now that the initial shock to the system is over, it's time to get back to business. 

While others might wait for "normal" to return, it's time for you to embrace "the now" by creating a concrete, simple, and clear strategy that will help you survive the next 12 months — and come out of the pandemic positioned for growth. 

On today's podcast, we talk about 5 mini plans your nonprofit should create right now to guide your fundraising so you can achieve predictable income during a recession, and avoid volatility from future downturns and crises.

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If you’re like most nonprofits, this year has been a wake up call that you need to step up your game when it comes to communicating clearly, effectively and authentically with your donors. 

Maybe you were getting by before, but when the system was put under stress, you didn't have the resources or the team or the tools or the strategy to move quickly – and confidently. 

Today on the show, we’re talking to Sarah Durham, author of the Nonprofit Communications Engine – a leader’s guide to managing mission-driven marketing and communications. 

Sarah is the founder and CEO of Big Duck, an agency that helps nonprofits increase their visibility and communicate more effectively. She's also the owner of Advomatic, a company that builds websites for nonprofits. 

In our chat, Sarah gets into what it takes to build a successful communications team, how to create a communications strategy that will help you achieve your goals, and what tools every communications department needs to successfully advance the mission of the organization. 

We also get into what makes for a successful communicator – and you might be surprised that it has less to do with raw talent, and more to do with being willing to serve.  

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The last five months have shown us how volatile revenue streams can be. Almost overnight, nonprofit leaders had to figure out how to become less dependent on event revenue, grants from foundations and government grants.

The best way to protect your organization from future volatility is to build a more resilient fundraising engine — one that focuses on leading individual donors already in your donor base to giving their best gift every year.

On today's episode, we’ll hear from Sherry Quam Taylor. Sherry is a nonprofit fundraising coach who helps organizations of all sizes secure larger individual donations from those already in their existing donor base. She started her own business working with executive directors, development directors, and board members to help them create a funding model so all their hard work would yield the maximum return possible. 

Fundraising and donor development takes discipline but can have massive rewards when we focus our energy in the right direction. 

Your existing donor file has gold hidden within it. And with the right tools, you’ll be able to mine and uncover all this untapped opportunity. 

Sherry will equip you to do this and help you identify donors who can, and want to, give more while taking your relationships with donors from transactional to deep, personal and genuine. 

Sherry demonstrates how to have conversations with your donors to inspire and motivate them towards greater passion for your organization's goals and deeper generosity to fulfill those goals. 

Today we’ll cover:

•  [6:57] - Leading your donors to give their best gift possible
• [10:35] - Strategies and tips to learn what your donor’s best gift is.
• [13:50] - How to find the untapped opportunities amongst your current donor file
• [20:50] - The importance of discipline and rhythms in cultivating your donors best gift
• [25:09] - How to customize and tailor your communication to all your different donors
• [28:08] - Identifying where, how and why donor money is being left on the table
• [32:10] - How to encourage and engage with your mid-level donors
• [35:05] - What a ‘gift chart’ is and why you should be using one
• [37:05] - How to move from a transactional relationship to a deeper, personal relationship with your donors
• [39:53] - Encouragement for fundraisers who feel like now is not the time to pursue donors

Sherry would love to connect with you. You can find her at her website, Her linkedin, and on twitter

Join in our mission to help others build good in the world by rating and sharing this podcast on all major platforms. You can do that by clicking here. 

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2020 has been a strange year, but one of the positives has been a strong movement towards equity and inclusion in the workplace.

For too long, systemic oppression has held back our under-represented colleagues. The good news is many leaders are working through this issue in their own organizations, while also pushing the nonprofit sector to take a leading role when it comes to increasing equity and inclusion.

In this episode of the Build Good Podcast, we’ll hear from one of them — Tycely Williams. Tycely is the chief development officer at America’s Promise, the largest alliance of its kind in the US devoted to helping the younger generation thrive and succeed. 

For 23 years she has held senior leadership positions with the YWCA USA, the American Red Cross, and the YMCA. Throughout the course of her career she has inspired individuals and institutions to donate over $92 million to charitable causes. 

Tycely shares with us how our beliefs about equity, race, and inclusion must influence our behaviour. She wants to inspire and help your organization to have a plan that increases equity and inclusion so you can create a more just work place. Her practical, actionable advice will put you in the perfect position to achieve this by helping shape your systems, processes and policies.

Today we’ll cover:

• [9:49] - Doing philanthropy through the lens of ‘Noble benefit’
• [16:36] - What we mean, practically speaking, when we talk about increasing equity
• [20:07] - Recognizing implicit bias within yourself and your organization
• [22:56] - An example of what implicit bias looks like
• [25:21] - Change in society starts first within yourself and your organization
• [32:54] - Where a leader should start when wanting to have conversations with their staff about equity
• [40:09] - How to become a diverse team without sacrificing talent
• [46:23] - Developing a track for minority employees to be able to fill any position in the organization
• [51:33] - How to discern where and with who your organization should invest time and money

Tycely would love to connect with you. You can find her on Twitter, Linkedin or learn more about her work at America's Promise

Join in our mission to help others build good in the world by rating and sharing this podcast on all major platforms. You can do that by clicking here 

Get FREE access to the Five Minute Fundraising Fix here: fiveminutefundrasingfix.com

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Over the last few months it’s become clear to many nonprofits that monthly donors are the heroes we need, but don’t deserve. 

During COVID, most revenue streams have been shaky and unpredictable. But what seems to have remained very stable is monthly giving. And that has caused a renewed interest in acquiring, retaining and upgrading monthly donors.

The problem is, most monthly giving programs are notoriously bad. You sign up, the charity charges your credit card once a month...and that’s it. 

And most monthly giving programs grow really slowly. They idle in the background, with very little thought or care put into them.

But done right, monthly giving has the potential to completely change the future and scale of your mission. 

And to help you build a stronger monthly giving program, today on the podcast we’re talking to Viktoria Harrison – co-founder of charity: water. 

Viktoria was part of the team at charity: water that built The Spring over the last few years, a monthly giving program that will raise $17 million dollars this years from more than 50,000 donors all around the world.

Along the way, she has learned what works when building a monthly giving program — and what doesn’t. And now she has developed a program called The Monthly Giving Launch Guide to help organizations maximize their donor potential.

In our chat, Viktoria walks through 5 reasons monthly giving programs fail, and why it’s worth investing every penny to get it right.

Today we’ll cover:

• [3:47] - Why Viktoria went all in on developing a premier monthly giving program
• [11:00] - How to make sure your monthly giving program is a flagship program, not just an afterthought
• [16:45] - The most important components of a strong monthly giving program
• [20:48] - The importance of creating inspiring content for your donors
• [24:04] - How to follow up with your donors in the most encouraging, honouring way
• [28:22] - The keys to keeping things personal with your donors when your organization is scaling up
• [31:14] - Working hard to make sure your donors understand what their money is going towards and the impact it is having
• [36:10] - Ideas on how to make sure your donors feel like a valued part of your community and not simply like a means to an ends
• [41:29] - The right frequency for thanking your donors

Viktoria would love to connect with you. You can find her on Instagram, or learn more about her work at The Branded Startup.

Enrolment for the Monthly Giving Launch Guide is open now.

Join in our mission to help others build good in the world by rating and sharing this podcast on all major platforms. You can do that by clicking here. 

https://www.buildgood.org/

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We live in the golden age of fundraising. 

With so much software, technology and tools at our disposal, it's never been easier to capture the attention of donors, reach new audiences and generate revenue.

And yet, fundraising performance as a whole remains largely stagnant. 

Can relying too much on technology actually hinder our ability to make meaningful and personal connections with donors? 

On today's episode, we'll hear from Steven Shattuck on how you can have the best of both worlds: strong relationships with your donors that rely on personal touches and helpful digital tools to improve your systems and processes. 

Steven is the chief engagement officer at Bloomerang, a donor management software that focuses on donor retention. He is a prolific writer and speaker who curates Bloomerang’s educational and research content.

His latest book, "Robots Make Bad Fundraisers: How Nonprofits Can the Maintain Heart in the Digital Age" was released earlier this year, with the goal of making digital fundraising more human. 

Today we’ll cover

• [4:45] - Why Steven, an exec at a tech company, wrote a book warning us to not rely too much on technology
• [8:02] - The reasons giving has remained stagnant even though technology has us in the golden age of fundraising
• [11:01] - What donors want, what they respond well to, and how technology can meet these donors needs
• [13:45] - What human-centered philanthropy looks like in practice
• [19:44] - How nonprofits should use donor data to create more human moments, interactions and connections with donors
• [25:53] - The role of mass emails in your fundraising efforts
• [30:18] - How you can make a mass email more personal
• [34:11] - How to make a giving page attractive and user-friendly
  [40:36] - What to include on your post-donation page

Steven would love to connect with you. You can find him on Twitter, LinkedIn, and learn more about his work at Bloomerang 

Join in our mission to help others build good in the world by rating and sharing this podcast on all major platforms. You can do that by clicking here 

Get FREE access to the 5 Minute Fundraising Fix by going to fiveminutefundrasingfix.com

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We are witnessing the greatest transfer of wealth in human history. Is your nonprofit benefiting from it?

If you don't have a strong planned giving program integrated into everything you do, chances are you're leaving money on the table. You're not serving your donors well. And you're vulnerable to economic downturns and unexpected changes in revenue.

But it doesn't have to be that way. 

You can diversify your revenue streams and build a reliable pipeline of strategically planned gifts supported by fantastic donor stewardship — starting today. Make no mistake: planned giving isn't just "someday" revenue. 

More than just gifts in wills, planned gifts are revenue that can have an immediate impact on your organization.

To show you how, we chat with Paul Nazareth on today's podcast. 

Paul is the VP of Education and Development at the Canadian Association of Gift Planners. He's a prolific speaker and writer on philanthropy who is often asked to be on national radio and TV to speak about creating a personal legacy through charity.

You'll hear why planned giving isn’t working for most organizations, and how to fix it. And you'll get helpful, easy tips your organization can implement today to improve your strategic and planned giving programs.

Today we’ll cover:

• [5:18] - What we mean when we use the term ‘planned giving’
• [7:29] - Why planned gifts are the biggest gifts your donors will make, but remain the least focused-on aspect of fundraising
• [9:58] - How you can communicate the importance of planned giving to your board and others who have not traditionally focused on it
  [11:28] - The effect COVID-19 has had on wills and planned giving
• [17:51] - How to help a younger audience understand that legacy giving starts in their lifetime, not just when they pass away
• [20:39] - How soon an organization can expect reliable income from a planned giving program
• [23:02] - Practical tips on how to get started in procuring new planned giving donations
• [26:07] - Practical tips for those who have already been involved with planned giving but want to take it to the next level
• [29:31] - How to steward donors who have committed to giving a legacy gift
• [33:21] - Integrating planned giving into your budget

Paul would love to connect with you. You can find him on Twitter and Linkedin. Learn more about his work at Willpower.ca and find all the links mentioned in this episode at Cagp-acpdp.org.

Join in our mission to help others build good in the world by rating and sharing this podcast on all major platforms. You can do that by clicking here.

https://www.buildgood.org/

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Multi-channel fundraising — the concept that we should cultivate donors across as many channels as we can — gets talked about a lot.

And for good reason. The data shows that multi-channel giving is the best way to grow and maintain revenue.

But high-quality multi-channel communication is hard to do. So what exactly are nonprofits doing in their marketing to truly be multi-channel — and do it well?

To help you figure out what works, and what other organizations are doing, today we’re talking to Brady Josephson about new research on the sate of multi-channel donor communications.

Brady is the vice president of innovation and optimization at NextAfter — a research lab and consultancy.

Earlier this year, Brady and his team spent four months tracking and analyzing the giving experience of multi-channel fundraising from more than 100 different nonprofits. They gave individual gifts to each organization, and gathered all their insights into a new study they’ve just released. 

Today, Brady will share some of the most important takeaways from his research, and give you tips to help you in your own efforts so you can maximize your multi-channel fundraising potential.

Today you'll learn:

• [5:23] - Why Brady and his team focused on multi-channel fundraising even though the nonprofit world talks about it relentlessly
• [11:52] - The key data points they tracked during their research
• [16:50] - What the research revealed about how nonprofits actually approach multi-channel fundraising
• [18:40] - How caring for smaller-level donors impacts your overall fundraising goals
• [22:56] - The importance of stewarding offline donors well
• [26:53] - How nonprofits subconsciously end up treating online donors better than offline donors
• [30:35] - The glaring lack of phone follow ups from nonprofits
• [32:37] - How a phone call touch point impacts a donor's giving
• [37:54] - Practical ways nonprofits can improve their multi-channel communication
• [40:34] - The impact that social ads make on fundraising

Brady would love to connect with you. You can find him on Twitter and Linkedin. Learn more about his work at NextAfter and check out the research talked about on this episode at multichannelnonprofit.com.

This episode brought to you by fiveminutefundrasingfix.com and BuildGood. 

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Every day the human brain makes tens of thousands of decisions — most of them quickly and effectively, but not always rationally. And that can have a big impact on your fundraising.

Today, we’ll learn from Dana K. Segal how donors make decisions, and how the science behind behavioural economics can be applied to improve your fundraising.

Dana is a senior partner consultant at the Management Centre. Her consultancy portfolio includes NGOs across the UK, Europe and Africa. She has delivered decision-science training for clients that include Oxford University, RNLI, and MSF International. 

On today's podcast, Dana shares five heuristics — or tools — the brain uses to simplify its decision-making process. Along the way, you'll learn how you can use these tools in your own organization’s donor communications to raise more money,

Applying these principles can lead your donors toward greater generosity, so make sure you have a notepad and pen as you listen to this episode.

Today we’ll cover:

• [6:07] - What decision science and behavioural economics is
• [10:44] - How decision science serves ours donors
• [11:44] - The ethics of decision science
• [15:10] - What we know about how people make choices
• [17:04] - What is a heuristic and how do they drive decision making? 
• [18:36] - Heuristic #1 - Perceived effort
• [25:06] - Heuristic #2 - Social proof
• [32:02] - Heuristic #3 - Defaults
• [34:20] - Can this backfire on your organization?
• [38:07] - Heuristic #4 - Loss aversion
• [43:04] - Heuristic #5 - Messenger

Dana would love to connect with you. You can find her on Twitter and learn more about her work  in decision science and behavioural economics here.

Join in our mission to help others build good in the world by rating and sharing this podcast on all major platforms. You can do that by clicking here.

https://www.buildgood.org/

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If you are serious about growing your fundraising and building  meaningful and lasting relationships with your donors, then you have to start by understanding who your donors are — truly are. 

What motivates them? What values are important to them? How do they see themselves in the world? 

Discovering your donors' identity — and then creating donor journeys and communications based on those identities — is a strategy with high returns. It can strengthen the connection your donors have with your cause, and lead to an increase in commitment, engagement and giving.

To help you get started, we are talking with Dr. Kiki Koutmeridou a behavioural scientist at DonorVoice. 

Kiki holds a Masters in Neuroscience and a PHD in Cognitive Psychology. As the nonprofit sector's first practising behavioural scientist, Kiki works closely with charities on applying behavioural insights to their direct marketing communications.

In today’s chat, we are going to focus on understanding identity to improve your giving and retention. 

Today we’ll cover:

• [4:55] - Understanding what donor identity is and is not
• [7:35] - Why donor identity is relevant in fundraising
• [9:26] - Dr. Koutmeridou explains identity presence and identity importance
• [12:30] - How to use donor identity to drive giving and increase retention 
• [14:40] - Discovering your donor’s identities
• [17:40] - Targeting new donors 
• [22:10] - Acknowledging who the donor really is
• [26:00] - The Fundraising 5 
• [30:05] - How smaller nonprofits can utilize these concepts
• [34:45] - Dr. Koutmeridou’s encouragement for nonprofit leaders

Dr. Koutmeridou would love to connect with you. You can find her on agitator.net, where you can ask her a question or sign up for her new course.

Please consider subscribing to, rating, or sharing the podcast on your preferred platform. You can do that by clicking here 

To take advantage of our free resources and get your 5-minute fundraising fix, visit:

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A lot of direct response fundraising advice focuses on creating effective strategies, messages and donor journeys — but we rarely talk about the design of our fundraising.

In fact, many organizations outsource the design of their fundraising to graphic designers who know a lot about how to make things look pretty, but know nothing about fundraising or how donors make decisions.

The truth is, good fundraising design is less about how something looks, and more about how something works.

To help us design fundraising materials and assets that get results, we’re talking with John Lepp from Agents of Good. 

John is a direct response marketing and design expert with over 20 years of experience working with charities across Canada and around the world. 

In our chat, we focus on how you can use design to best present and support your fundraising messages for maximum effect.

Today we’ll cover:

• [6:22] The objective of design in fundraising
• [9:43] What does a great outer envelope look like?
• [13:01] The best direct mail pack Mike has ever received
• [14:01] How donors read your letters
• [16:55] What to do and what to avoid in a letter
• [24:27] Giving donors an opportunity to share
• [28:07] What’s more important: your brand guide or personal connection?
• [32:56] What a good reply form needs
• [37:30] Always add another piece to your mail
• [40:43] John’s encouragement for nonprofit leaders

John would love to connect with you. You can find him on Twitter or on the Agents of Good website.

Please consider subscribing to, rating, or sharing the podcast on your preferred platform. You can do that by clicking here. 

To take advantage of our free resources and get your 5-minute fundraising fix, visit:

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On a special Christmas edition of the podcast, we are getting a behind the scenes look at how an independent artist raises funds to support their mission. 

Today we’re talking with Steve Bell. Steve is a singer-songwriter, author, and speaker. He has been sharing his music and message for almost 30 years across Canada, the US and beyond. 

Steve has a two-sided business model. He tours and sells music — but he also raises funds and relies on philanthropy. Over the years, Steve has built a broad base of donors by giving people a chance to support his mission in a meaningful way.

This is one of the more insightful fundraising chats I’ve had in a long time. We get into the philosophy and mindset of fundraising: giving someone an opportunity to be a part of, and sharing in, the work we do.

Today we’ll cover:

• [3:25] - Getting to know Steve as an artist, author, and mission-driven fundraiser
• [9:16] - How Steve maintains an active relationship with his audience
• [11:46] - How to grow a donor base while doing what you care about
• [18:43] - The currency of music
• [16:55] - Steve’s explains his pre-COVID marketing strategies and revenue streams
• [25:20] - Mike and Steve talk about advent; Steve performs, “The Magnificat”
• [31:20] - What Steve has done to adjust to fundraising during COVID-19
• [37:50] - What losing live events has meant for Steve’s business
• [37:30] - There is so shortcut to great fundraising  
• [45:30] - Steve performs the title track of his new album, “Wouldn’t You Love to Know”
• [49:34] - Steve’s parting thoughts for nonprofit leaders

Resources mentioned:

A Spirituality of Fundraising by Henri Nouwen

“A Hunkered Down Christmas” by Steve Bell

7-book series “Pilgrim Year” by Steve Bell

Steve Bell’s newest release “Wouldn’t You Love to Know”

Get connected:

Steve would love to connect with you. You can find information about him at his website: stevebell.com

 Please consider subscribing to, rating, or sharing the podcast on your preferred platform. You can do that by clicking here. 

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In the last podcast of the year, we take a look at 3 things nonprofit leaders should do more of in the New Year to grow the value of their donor file.

They don’t require you to completely change the way you do things. In most cases, they simply require you to prioritize your time and resources in a slightly different way. 

You might be weary and worn out from this year. Some of you lived through layoffs and budget cuts. 

You lived through having to keep the doors of your nonprofit open to help those who rely on you — all while struggling to raise funds in a way you’ve never had to before. 

But take heart. You've made it. 

So allow yourself a moment to feel proud about what you’ve achieved. And allow yourself a moment to just breathe and rest up a bit.

Then start making a plan on how you can implement these 3 things in 2021 to raise more money, from more donors, more often. 

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Do you have a fundraising plan for 2021? Do you have a roadmap for how you will fund your mission during the next 12 months — and beyond?

The simple act of developing a fundraising and development plan will already make you more likely to succeed, according to a new study co-authored by today's guest.

But beyond just having plan, there are 4 main factors that influence just how successful your fundraising will be.

Today we're talking to Barbara O’Reilly, president of Windmill Hill Consulting. She recently teamed up with the Institute for Sustainable Philanthropy to study the difference a fundraising plan can make.

During the study, Barbara noticed common traits every successful nonprofit has in common. We are lucky to have her with us to learn the 4 factors that influence fundraising success.

Today we’ll cover:

[4:06] - Did the study find that having a plan leads to better fundraising outcomes?
[5:53] - What a fundraising plan is
[10:54] - Factor #1 - a fundraising culture. What does it mean to have a fundraising culture?
[15:30] - How to get the whole organization to adopt a philanthropic mindset
[20:15] - Factor #2 - data-informed planning
[23:20] - Using data to adjust your fundraising plan
[26:16] - Factor #3 - Commitment to the plan
[28:38] - Can you take advantage of unforeseen opportunities and stay committed to your plan?
[35:28] - Factor #4 - Senior Leadership and Board Involvement
[37:40] - 2 non-negotiable requirements for board members
[44:15] - Barbara’s encouragement for nonprofit leaders

Barbara would love to connect with you. You can find information about her at her website:
whillconsulting.com.  You can also access the study here: https://www.whillconsulting.com/development-planning-research-report

For your chance to win a $50 Amazon gift card, take less than 3 minutes to fill out the survey to make this podcast even better: https://www.buildgood.org/survey 

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Email fundraising is one of the easiest ways you can build a deep and lasting relationship with your donors. And it remains one of the most cost-effective tools you can use to increase donor loyalty and revenue.

But most organizations struggle to acquire email addresses from donors or potential donors. And many don't have a clear strategy on how to turn leads into donors. 

One of the simplest ways to increase new donor engagement is to create an automated email welcome series that runs in the background.

And today on the podcast, John J. Walsh is going to show us how he and his team have created two very successful email welcome series we can all learn from.

John is the email marketing manager at a large Christian organization, where he's in charge of sending out millions of emails every single month.

Listen along today as we hear how John tests, tweaks and optimizes his email campaigns with confidence.

Today we’ll cover:

• [3:16] - What it looks like to looks like to be the Email Marketing Manager at a large organization
• [5:01] - How John’s organization acquires new email addresses
• [8:00] - John’s 5-email Welcome series: Email #1
• [11:55] - What the rest of their welcome series looks like
• [16:10] - How they craft their first offer
• [20:20] - The conversion rates on their first ask
• [22:56] - What happens to the people who don’t give after the series is over
• [26:02] - John talks about the New Donor email series
• [32:00] - Moving donors from first time givers to monthly donors
• [37:23] - Why an email series is such a powerful tool for your nonprofit
• [38:39] - John’s encouragement for nonprofit leaders, fundraisers and marketers

Resources mentioned:

• Ask Method by Ryan Levesque

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Building a successful nonprofit is about relationships.

The people we hire on our team, and the volunteers we work with, are not cogs in a wheel. They are human beings who bring their humanity to work: their dreams,  passions, insecurities, fears, and concerns.

If we want to build a fundraising engine to sustain our mission, we need to start by building a healthy team, including a healthy us. We need to understand ourselves, and those around us.

Because building better relationships with our team has a direct impact on the bottom line.

One tool we can use to understand ourselves and our team is the Enneagram — a personality framework that helps us understand how different people cope with the world, and how they manage their own fears.

On today's show, Marc Pitman is going to walk us through each of the nine types of the
Enneagram. Mark also gets into how understanding the Enneagram can actually help you
become a stronger, more empathetic leader. And yes, raise more money.

Mark is a renowned author, an international leadership and fundraising coach. As founder of the Concord Leadership Group, he just released a book called The Surprising Gift of Doubt - How To Use Uncertainty To Become The Exceptional Leader You're Meant To Be.

Today we’ll cover:

• [3:47] - What the Enneagram is and how it is different from other personality assessments
• [6:40] - Why the Enneagram matters for your organization
• [10:45] - Enneagram Type 1 - The Reformer
• [14:15] - Enneagram Type 2 - The Caregiver or The Pleaser
• [18:00] - Enneagram Type 3 - The Achiever
• [22:02] - Enneagram Type 4 - The Artist or Individualist
• [25:56] - Enneagram Type 5 - The investigator
• [32:51] - Enneagram Type 6 - The Loyalist
• [38:05] - Enneagram Type 7 - The Enthusiast
• [46:18] - Enneagram Type 8 - The Challenger
• [52:02] - Enneagram Type 9 - The Peacemaker
• [56:20] - Marc’s encouragement for nonprofit leaders, fundraisers and marketers

Marc would love to connect with you. You can find him on social media or by visiting the
Concord Leadership Group’s website, as well as fundraisingcoach.com or The Nonprofit
Academy.

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Today's guest was fundamental in shifting my thinking about fundraising after I read his book, Emotionraising, a few years ago. 

The book used evidence and research from neuroscience, behavioural economics, marketing and fundraising to understand how people go from simply being aware of a cause to actually taking action by donating or volunteering.

It validated much of what smart fundraisers had been saying for a long time: We need to embrace the emotional part of the brain. We need to embrace the fact that human beings are highly emotional creatures — including in their giving. 

The author of that book, and today’s guest, is Francesco Ambrogetti.

Francesco is a senior leader in fundraising and marketing at UNICEF. He has over 20 years of international fundraising experience with UNICEF and with other UN bodies in Geneva, Bangkok, and Panama. He has advised organizations like The World Bank, WWF, Doctors Without Borders, and The Red Cross.

His new book — Hooked on a Feeling: How Passion and Devotion For Good Causes Become Memory and Identity — is all about keeping that emotional flame alive after someone makes their first and second donation to your cause. 

It’s about cultivating loyalty and commitment — and helping first-time givers become ongoing supporters.  

Today we’ll cover:

• [4:12] - What role our emotions play in life and decision-making 
• [8:10] - The 6 emotions that drive our decision making
• [15:00] - If we take advantage of people when we try to create an emotional experience
• [18:57] - How avoiding emotions betrays our donors
• [21:00] - If first-time donors remember the organizations they’ve given to 
• [23:15] - Mike's experience with an organization after a mystery shopping donation
• [26:30] - How emotions become a part of someone’s memory and identity
• [32:56] - A surprising thing that creates customer loyalty 
• [34:28] - What you can do to implement these concepts in your organization 
• [41:21] - Francesco’s encouragement for nonprofit leaders, fundraisers, and marketers

You can connect with Francesco on Linkedin. You can also learn more about what he’s doing by finding his new book, Hooked on a Feeling, and his video series The Good Suspended.

Please consider subscribing to, rating, or sharing The Build Good Podcast on your preferred platform. You can do that by clicking here. 

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Do you know how many of the people that visit the donation page on your website actually end up making a gift? 

If you're like most nonprofits, the answer may shock you. The industry average conversion rate on donation pages is as low 4%. That means we are failing 96% of potential donors who visit our donation page.

It also means we're losing valuable donors who might otherwise be willing to give to our cause, but for some reason are driven away or don't take action. 

Today's guest is on a mission to change that. Tim Kachuriak is the founder and chief innovation and optimization officer at NextAfter — a fundraising research lab and consulting firm that works with nonprofits and NGOs to help them grow their digital fundraising.

In our chat, Tim walk through what an ideal donation page looks like top to bottom — based on extensive research, testing, and optimizing with some of the biggest nonprofits out there. 

So pull up your donation page and take notes, because Tim is going to share tested tactics to reduce friction for your donors and increase conversions from people who come to your donation page. 

Chances are, your donation page can use some improvement. And if you don't optimize it, you are leaving money on the table. 

Today we’ll cover:

[3:32] - Good Friction vs. Bad Friction
[5:30] - The #1 mistake made on most donation pages
[8:37] - What you should see at the top of your donation page
[13:18] - How to craft the copy before the giving form
[18:27] - How video performs vs. copy on these pages
[20:25] - Making the giving form conversational
[25:40] - How to effectively offer a monthly donation 
[28:45] - What information we should be asking for from the donor
[31:00] - Communicating trustworthiness during the payment process
[39:02] - Should you include a verification page? 
[41:17] - Tim’s encouragement for nonprofit leaders, fundraisers and marketers  

Get connected:

If you’re looking for more information and resources to optimize your fundraising efforts, you can find them at nextafter.com. You can also find their free donation page template here.

Please consider subscribing to, rating, or sharing the Build Good Podcast on your preferred platform. You can do that by clicking here. 

To take advantage of our free resources and get your 5-minute fundraising fix, visit:

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We  all struggle with productivity.

There are so many distractions and interruptions that kill our productivity — emails, Slack messages, calendar notifications, text and social media alerts. And it seems like the more successful our nonprofit and career becomes, the harder it is to get things done. 

Today on the podcast, we're talking to Rachel Bearbower who thinks about productivity a lot.

Rachel works specifically with small-shop CEOs and fundraisers. These are people who wear multiple hats at all times, whose work is not always focused, and who get pulled in a thousand different directions every day. 

Maybe you can relate.

Rachel is the founder of Small Shops Strategies, where she helps fundraisers deal with the overwhelm by creating repeatable systems and processes. Today, Rachel is going to share 7 productivity hacks that can help all of us become more productive at work, feel less anxiety, get more done and have more peace of mind. 

Today we’ll cover:

[4:35] - Why Rachel prefers working with small shops  
[7:48] - Productivity Hack #1 - Turn off all notifications
[13:30] - Productivity Hack #2 - Start your day with a clean workspace 
[16:00] - Productivity Hack #3 - Brain Dump all your To-Do’s
[17:50] - Productivity Hack #4 Determine the order you want to get things done
[24:10] - Productivity Hack #5 - Do the hardest thing first    
[25:42] - Productivity Hack #6 - Set a timer               
[28:30] - Productivity Hack #7 - Create clear goals and write them down    
[33:00] - The Power of Consistency     
[37:04] - Rachel's encouragement for nonprofit leaders, fundraisers and marketers 

Get connected:
Rachel would love to connect with you on Instagram. You can also find more information about her membership program, Productive Executive Director, at smallshopstrategies.com/beproductive

Please consider subscribing to, rating, or sharing The Build Good Podcast on your preferred platform. You can do that by clicking here. 

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What compels donors to say yes?

That’s the question most nonprofit fundraisers and marketers are trying to find answers for. Because understanding how people make decisions is a key part in making our fundraising more effective.

We've talked about how behavioural economics can help your fundraising on this podcast before, but many of you said this was a topic you wanted to know more about. So, today's guest is Nate Andorsky, the CEO of Creative Science — a digital agency that applies behavioural economics and technology to help mission-driven organizations grow their impact in the world.

Nate uses donor psychology and big data to get a better understanding of how donors behave. He wrote Decoding the Why, which has a wealth of nonprofit examples of his research.

Today, Nate is going to walk us through five essential theories you can apply in your fundraising today. Listen along to hear five tested and proven principles that come out of the field of behavioural economics and have the power to compel more people to say yes.
 

Today we’ll cover:

[4:43] - The difference between system 1 and system 2 thinking
[7:35] - Shortcut #1: The Affect Heuristic
[9:23] - What a sludge is                    
[9:57] - How to present data without taking away its emotional power         
[14:07] - Shortcut #2: The Ambiguity Aversion          
[18:44] - Shortcut #3: The Certainty Effect    
[23:28] - Shortcut #4: The Closeness Effect  
[33:24] - Being careful with stereotypes         
[36:10] - Shortcut #5: Framing           
[41:34] - Nate’s encouragement for nonprofit marketers, leaders, and fundraisers              

Get connected:

Nate would love to connect with you. You can find him on Linkedin or email him at nate@creativescience.co. You can find out more about the work he does at creativescience.co and get his book Decoding the Why on Amazon.

Please consider subscribing to, rating, or sharing the BuildGood Podcast on your preferred platform. You can do that by clicking here. 

To take advantage of our free resources and get your 5-minute fundraising fix, visit: fiveminutefundraisingfix.com

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How would you like to have over 25% of your revenue come in automatically, on repeat, month after month, in a stable and predictable manner?

Today's guest is going to show you how to do it.

Harvey McKinnon is the master of monthly giving. He's helped thousands of organizations raise billions of dollars in monthly gifts by starting and growing lucrative monthly giving programs.

His latest book, How to Create Lifelong Donors Through Monthly Giving, teaches nonprofits how to build a low cost revenue stream you can count on year in and year out. 

On today's show, Harvey is going to walk through how you can grow a lucrative monthly giving program or improve the existing program you have in place. 

Today we’ll cover:

[3:54] - The benefits of a monthly giving program    
[8:43] - How to tell if an organization is ready for a monthly donor program    
[10:28] - How to find the right offer and ask amount    
[16:49] - Asking for donations with direct mail    
[21:26] - Is the phone an effective way to convert monthly donors    
[27:32] - Specialized email campaigns for monthly giving    
[32:00] - Strategies for upgrades      
[34:20] - Should you include your monthly donors in your ongoing direct mail campaigns     
[37:56] - The common problems monthly giving programs face    
[41:36] - Harvey's encouragement for nonprofit leaders

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One of the biggest challenges in growing a nonprofit is donor acquisition and donor retention. 

Acquiring new donors  is hard work. And it can be expensive in the short term, especially if you consider that the first-time gift most donors make won't cover the cost of acquisition. 

What that means for your fundraising is that you have to have a donor retention strategy in place—because donors grow more valuable every year they're with you.

Today on the podcast, Claire Axelrad is going to walk us through seven action tips you can easily implement to improve your donor retention. 

Most of these tactics are evergreen, and you'll find that most of them are really simple. It's just that not many nonprofits are using them. Some take more of a commitment, but the return on investment makes it well worth the effort and the initiative.

Claire has over three decades of frontline fundraising experience, helping organizations raise millions in support. She writes an award-winning blog called Clairification, and she also runs the Clairification School online. 

Today we’ll cover:

[3:14] - Action Tip #1: Including a handwritten note with your direct mail appeal.    
[9:23] - Action Tip #2: Add a handwritten signature to your thank you cards    
[13:06] - Action Tip #3: Add a Handwritten note to your Thank You letter    
[17:36] - Action Tip #4: Enclose tribute giving envelopes in your newsletters    
[24:33] - Action Tip #5: Include tribute gift envelope in Thank You letters  
[29:17] - Action Tip #6: Include an invitation to a free event in the Thank You letter    
[34:34] - What nonprofits can do if they don't have facilities they can invite donors to    
[36:34] - Action Tip #7: Send at least one dedicated monthly giving appeal    
{39:07] - Your best prospects to become monthly donors    
[43:58] - Claire's encouragement for nonprofit leaders    

Get connected:

Claire would love to connect with you. You can find her at clairification.com or on twitter @charityclarity

Please consider subscribing to, rating, or sharing The Build Good Podcast on your preferred platform. You can do that by clicking here. 

To take advantage of our free resources and get your 5-minute fundraising fix, visit: fiveminutefundraisingfix.com

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For many donors, the largest gift they will ever make to charity is the one they leave in their will. Carrying on their legacy and keeping alive the values that were important to your donors in their lifetime is a tremendous responsibility. 

It's also a tremendous opportunity for you to increase your organization's impact in the world. 

Most donors only include charities in their will that have done a great job of communicating shared values, stewarding them, and building the kinds of relationships that are mutually uplifting and significant.

That's why the state of your legacy giving program is also a great indicator of the overall health of your fundraising operations—because valuable donor relationships don't happen overnight.

If you are ready to launch, build, or improve your legacy giving program, today's show is for you.

We are talking to Hala Al-Madi from Amnesty International. Hala has been the Legacy Giving Marketing Officer at Amnesty International in Ottawa Canada since 2013. She has helped lead the program's growth from $600,000 to just over 1.4 million, and she's also grown the number of expectancies by 75%. And over the last few years, she's doubled the number of self identifying prospects. 

Hala introduced a range of marketing approaches to achieve this growth, including trickle email marketing, direct mail marketing, sharing testimonials of supporters, launching donor surveys, and creating high-touch supporter outreach points.

Today on the podcast, Hala is going to share how Amnesty grew their program specifically by doing things that charities of all sizes and budgets can do.

Today we’ll cover:

[5:40] - Unpacking the Legacy Giving mindset    

[10:17] - Donor stories, donor response, and donor love    

[16:43] - How to market your legacy program    

[23:20] - Using communications from other departments    

[24:41] - Using donor surveys          

[31:50] - Responding to the donor you survey    

[34:36] - Legacy giving during a pandemic    

[37:51] - Stewarding legacy donors     

[39:44] - Hala's encouragement for nonprofit leaders, fundraisers, and marketers    

Please consider subscribing to, rating, or sharing the BuildGood Podcast on your preferred platform. You can do that by clicking here. 

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You already know that growing your monthly giving program, mid-level donor program, and legacy giving program are among the most lucrative fundraising activities your nonprofit can pursue. 

And chances are, you're already working on building all of them—but you're wondering if could be doing better. So if you already have a monthly giving program in place, today's show is going to be especially valuable for you.  

We're talking to Erica Waasdorp, author of Monthly Giving: The Sleeping Giant and a brand new book called Monthly Giving Made Easy.  

Erica is fellow direct response fundraising nerd, and in today's podcast she is going to share 5 tactics to level-up your existing monthly giving program.

Today we’ll cover:

[4:05] - Monthly Donor Monday        

[5:47] - #1 Putting someone in charge of the program    

[12:36] - #2 Growing your monthly donor file    

[23:55] - #3 Cultivation and stewardship    

[33:15] - #4 Create a Donor Retention Day        

[38:10] - #5 Asking monthly donors to upgrade

[46:02] - Erica's encouragement for nonprofits leaders and fundraisers

Get connected:

Erica would love to connect with you. You can find her book Monthly Giving Made Easy and follow her blog at her website: adirectsolution.com

Please consider subscribing to, rating, or sharing the BuildGood Podcast on your preferred platform. You can do that by clicking here. 

To take advantage of our free resources and get your 5-minute fundraising fix, visit: fiveminutefundraisingfix.com

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You've heard it on this podcast. You've heard it at conferences, in books, and from consultants and other fundraisers: You should be using your data to make better decisions about your fundraising. 

And you've likely tracked the data like retention rates, average gift, and lifetime value. But now you're looking at some numbers asking, “What do they mean and what are the next steps?”

Well, we've got some answers for you on today's podcast. 

Our guest this week is both a mathematician and a fundraiser. Kirk Schmidt is the outgoing director of operations for STARS, a helicopter EMS nonprofit in Canada, where he oversees the fundraising and revenue team. 

Kirk is going to go over some of the key metrics you're likely already measuring and then go further into how you can use those metrics in a more meaningful way. This is a very valuable episode if you're just getting started with data or if you've been measuring some of these numbers for a while. 

Today we’ll cover:

[4:12] - Getting in the right mindset    

[7:42] - Understanding retention rates    

[9:34] - 3 Important retention rates    

[12:20] - Understanding second gift conversion rate    

[21:06] - Understanding reactivation rate and who is considered as lapsed    

[28:50] - Understanding donor lifetime value    

[35:54] - Avoiding lifetime value pitfalls    

[40:35] - Understanding average gift numbers    

[44:02] - Kirk's encouragement for nonprofit leaders and fundraisers    

Get connected:

Kirk would love to connect with you. You can find him on Linkedin where he’s always sharing new things he’s learning about understanding data and nonprofit organizations.

Please consider subscribing to, rating, or sharing the BuildGood Podcast on your preferred platform. You can do that by clicking here. 

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Acquiring new donors is hard—and expensive. It's also necessary. 

But are you missing out on your best source of donor acquisition? It's lapsed donors. 

It’s easy to forget about them, but that would be a tragic thing to do. Because you’ll be ignoring people who have proven that they care about the issue your nonprofit is trying to solve in the world. And because you'll be leaving money on the table. 

If you've never tried to re-activate donors who haven't given to you in a long time—or if your past efforts to win back lapsed donors have failed—it might be time to rethink your strategy. 

On today's podcast, we'll share The Win Back Formula—a simple 3-step framework that will give you your best shot at winning back lapsed donors.

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Have you ever wished you could read your donors’ minds?  

Today's podcast is going to give you a three-step framework you can use to gain some insight into your donors' preference and giving behaviour. We're talking to Cherian Koshy, Director of Development for the De Moines Performing Arts. 

Cherian is the world's only certified mind genomics advisor in the nonprofit sector. 

He spends a lot of time trying to figure out how donors think, how they make decisions, and how to use tools and research to actually lead our donors toward greater generosity.

The approach he's going to share with you today has been used by some of the world's largest brands to create products that people actually want to buy. You can start using some of these principles too —even if you don't have a huge marketing and fundraising budget. 

Today we’ll cover:

[2:34] - The problem with getting donor feedback

[6:20] - Getting specific about what you want your donor to do

[12:08] - Planning the steps to your key behaviour

[18:34] - Listing barriers and biases that may get in the way

[30:02] - Knowing when to test and how to validate your work 

[37:21]- Getting into preference analysis

[43:20] - Cherian’s encouragement for nonprofit leaders and fundraisers

Get connected:

Cherian would love to connect with you. If you want to learn more, you can find him on Linkedin and Twitter, as well as, cheriankoshy.org

Please consider subscribing to, rating, or sharing the BuildGood Podcast on your preferred platform. You can do that by clicking here. 

To take advantage of our free resources and get your 5-minute fundraising fix, visit: fiveminutefundraisingfix.com

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Did you know monthly donors are six times more likely to become legacy donors?

They are the most committed and loyal to your organization. They're in the habit of giving to you every single month. And many have been with you for years.

Yet, most nonprofits don't really consider monthly donors in their legacy marketing.

That's why today's guest is going to show you a powerful way to create long term revenue for your organization by focusing on both monthly giving and legacy marketing together. 

Ligia Peña is an international legacy consultant with over 20 years of experience, working for large organizations like Greenpeace and small to mid-sized shops.

So grab a notepad, pen and a cup of coffee...because Ligia brings so much value in this episode. 

Today we’ll cover:

[03:57] - Common Legacy Giving Myths that need to be debunked    

[13:05] - Examples of surprising and meaningful legacy gifts    

[17:04] - If asking monthly donors for legacy gifts will hurt your monthly giving program    

[23:07] - How to identify which monthly donors we should be reaching out to for legacy gifts    

[31:48] - Understanding your donors when you don't have the right information

[39:44] - How to start talking to your monthly donors about legacy gifts    

[43:01] - Expectations and evaluating your legacy giving program    

[50:50] - Ligia's encouragement for nonprofit leaders and fundraisers   

Get connected:

Ligia would love to connect with you. You can find out more about her and get access to free resources at globetrottingfundraiser.com/

Please consider subscribing to, rating, or sharing the BuildGood Podcast on your preferred platform. You can do that by clicking here.

To take advantage of our free resources and get your 5-minute fundraising fix, visit: fiveminutefundraisingfix.com

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If you are struggling to use social media—particularly Facebook—to drive revenue and contribute to your fundraising, today's episode is for you.

We are talking to Julia Campbell, the author of Storytelling in the Digital Age: A Guide for Nonprofits. 

Julia runs a digital marketing consulting business, where she helps nonprofits stop spinning their wheels on social media and start getting real results.

You'll learn how to give donors and supporters what they want. You'll hear why you shouldn't use social media as a megaphone to just promote your agenda. And you'll find out why you should be running Facebook ads all year round.

Today we’ll cover:

[02:11] - The Catch 22 of Digital Marketing    

[08:07] - The business case for why social media matters in 2021    

[12:19] - The number 1 thing nonprofits get wrong about social media    

[20:00] - The power of targeted social ads    

[23:02] - Why you should run ads all year long    

[30:23] - Asking followers to start fundraisers for you    

[37:14] - Julia's encouragement for nonprofit leaders and fundraisers    

Get connected:
Julia would love to connect with you. You can find her on her podcast, Nonprofit Nation, and at jcsocialmarketing.com

Please consider subscribing to, rating, or sharing the BuildGood Podcast on your preferred platform. You can do that by clicking here. 

To take advantage of our free resources and get your 5-minute fundraising fix, visit: fiveminutefundraisingfix.com

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On this podcast, we often focus on improving the craft of fundraising. But we rarely talk about the mindset is takes to be a fundraiser—and be proud of it.

The truth is, most of us likely started out as reluctant fundraisers. We  "fell into" the job, and learned to love it along the way. And while there is plenty of training out there to learn best practice fundraising, there is little support to help fundraisers change their thought patterns and beliefs around fundraising.

Enter today's guest, Cindy Wagman. She's the founder of The Good Partnership and author of Raise It: the reluctant fundraiser's guide to raising money without selling your soul. 

If you've ever felt like you're selling your soul when you're fundraising; if you've ever felt fear, panic or even guilt when asking donors for money, then this conversation with Cindy will be like healing balm for your soul.

Today we’ll cover:

[03:26] - What is a Small Nonprofit?    

[06:18] - False beliefs about fundraising    

[13:27] - Helping your program staff adopt the right mindset

[16:54] - How practice changes the story around fundraising    

[24:57] - The false belief that a donor will give when they are ready to give not when we ask    

[27:53] - Giving the donor the freedom to make a choice    

[31:04] - Why it might be arrogant not to ask for money    

[36:49] - How to overcome fear of rejection    

[41:07] - Scarcity Mindset           

[42:19] - Cindy's encouragement for nonprofit leaders and fundraisers

Get connected:

Cindy would love to connect with you. Our listeners can get her book for 10% off at www.raiseitbook.com using the code BUILD. You can also find her at thegoodpartnership.com

Please consider subscribing to, rating, or sharing the BuildGood Podcast on your preferred platform. You can do that by clicking here. 

To take advantage of our free resources and get your 5-minute fundraising fix, visit: fiveminutefundraisingfix.com

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Gift catalogues can be a great way to meaningfully engage your donors in the work you do—and they can raise a lot of money. But how do you create one? 

How do you optimize it? How do you develop the offers and the price points? How do you choose which gifts to feature more heavily than others? How do you put it all together? 

There's an art and a science to it all, and today we get into it all with Brian Tucker from True Sense.  Brian led the development of the World Vision gift catalogue in 2006, and he saw it grow over 300% in a five-year period. 

Since then he's helped lots of other organizations create effective and successful multichannel gift catalogue programs. 

On today's podcast, Brian gets into all the tactics and the strategies that go into creating a winning catalogue. 

Today we’ll cover:

[03:01] - Why Nonprofits should consider having a gift catalogue    

[07:27] - Print Catalogues and Year End Giving    

[10:08] - How large the commitment to a catalogue is    

[14:40] - Why you shouldn't treat your gift catalogues like a direct mail campaign    

[21:39] - How to conduct a detailed product analysis    

[29:54] - Bundling gifts and add-ons    

[35:38] - Optimizing your digital catalogue    

[43:15] - Fulfillment of a thank you card    

[45:44] - Brian's encouragement for nonprofit leaders, marketers, and fundraisers    

Please consider subscribing to, rating, or sharing the Build Good Fundraising Podcast on your preferred platform. You can do that by clicking here. 

To take advantage of our free resources and get your 5-minute fundraising fix, visit: fiveminutefundraisingfix.com

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LinkedIn is a powerful tool for staying up to date on career opportunities, but it can also make you more valuable as a fundraiser and nonprofit leader by building your personal brand. 

If you're on LinkedIn and you're not very active, you don't know what to post, or you're not sure it's even worth your time, this episode is for you.

Today, we are talking to Anthony Jones about how to create a personal brand on LinkedIn. Anthony is the outgoing Director of Digital Media and Marketing for Ducks Unlimited. For the last 19 years, he has led the organization's digital growth and online fundraising team—haivng raised over $40 million in online donations since 2010. 

Anthony is also a prominent face on LinkedIn. He's built a large following and his new company provides consulting and coaching services to help nonprofit leaders transform their profile pages into powerful brands for themselves and their organizations. 

Today we’ll cover:

[03:45] - Isn't LinkedIn just an online resume?    

[07:41] - Why everyone needs to consider their personal brand    

[14:15] - Step 1: Optimizing your profile    

[18:27] - Step: 2 How and why you should make posts    

[23:08] - Finding your 4 pillars of posting    

[27:30] - Step 3: Engaging with other users

[30:41] - How to find content you can engage    

[31:48] - Step 4: Making new connections and expanding your network    

[35:32] - Should you concentrate your energy on your business’ page or your own?    

[36:54] - How to encourage your team to build their brands on LinkedIn    

[40:53] - Anthony's encouragement for nonprofit leaders, marketers, and fundraisers

Get connected:

Anthony would love to connect with you. You can find him on LinkedIn, sign up for his online course at buildyourbrandonlinkedin.com, or reach out to him about consulting at JohnAnthonyJones.com 

Please consider subscribing to, rating, or sharing the BuildGood Podcast on your preferred platform. You can do that by clicking here. 

To take advantage of our free resources and get your 5-minute fundraising fix, visit: fiveminutefundraisingfix.com

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Good fundraisers know that stories work better than statistics, that characters work better than calculations and that whoever tells the best story wins. 

Still, we sometimes neglect the donor's personal story...the story they are writing with their life. And if we start to understand that story, and those characters, it might lead to transformation gifts. 

But how do you advance your donor's hero story? What messages will resonate? 

Today, we are talking to Dr. Russell James, about how to do that. 

Dr. James is a Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in Charitable Financial Planning at Texas Tech University. In our chat, he gets into his research and insight on how a donor’s story affects their giving. You will leave our conversation with clarity on how to best serve donors through their story and encourage donor generosity.

Today we’ll cover:

[03:41] - Why Dr. James wants to study the brain as it does estate planning and charitable giving    

[06:26] - Enhanced Identity: The value fundraising brings the donor    

[12:04] - Identity, Challenge, Victory, and the donor’s story

[18:17] - Why the donor's hero story should be the dominant story of fundraising    

[23:08] - Not all types of gifts tap into the hero story in the same way 

[29:50] - Delivering the victory to your donor    

[37:50]- The gift is not the victory in your donor's hero story    

[39:22] - Understanding the value of different assets from the donor's perspective    

[46:11] - Russell's encouragement for nonprofit leaders and fundraisers    

Get connected:

Dr. Russell would love to connect with you. You can find him on LinkedIn, where he would love to provide all his research and resources for free. 

Please consider subscribing to, rating, or sharing the BuildGood Podcast on your preferred platform. You can do that by clicking here. 

To take advantage of our free resources and get your 5-minute fundraising fix, visit: fiveminutefundraisingfix.com

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Few nonprofits are using the phone to talk to their donors and raise funds. It might seem old school. It takes time, and it can feel awkward to call somebody up on the phone and ask for their support. 

But phone fundraising can be a very effective tool to not only raise funds, but also deepen your connection with your donors. And get to know them for who they are.

Today is a masterclass on how to structure a call and how to write a phone script that you can use to guide a donor toward making a gift. To help us do that, we're welcoming back to the podcast T. Clay Buck from TCB fundraising. 

Clay is a fundraiser’s fundraiser, who has written hundreds of effective phone scripts and has deep expertise in using the phone to connect with donors.

Today we’ll cover:

[03:03] - The business case for using the phone as a fundraising channel     

[12:40] - Introducing yourself and your organization to the donor    

[16:56] - Building relationships over the phone    

[23:39] - Making the case for support    

[28:27] - Being transparent and respecting donors' time    

[30:00] - Handling objections from the donor    

[36:05] - How to end the call after a refusal    

[37:55] - Ending the call with a pledge    

[45:12] - Adopting the attitude that you and the donor are working together    

[48:05] - Clay's encouragement for nonprofits leaders and fundraisers    

Get connected:

Clay would love to connect with you. You can find him at tcbfundraising.com or LinkedIn.

Please consider subscribing to, rating, or sharing the BuildGood Podcast on your preferred platform. You can do that by clicking here. 

To take advantage of our free resources and get your 5-minute fundraising fix, visit: fiveminutefundraisingfix.com